Weekend Yums

Nothing like being Captain Obvious, but I love the weekends.

Weekends mean movie nights, family hikes, longer runs, visiting with friends, and spending time outside. 

It also means enjoying some favorite treats that I don't indulge in during the week.

Such as...homemade pizza. I usually make a quick/non-yeasted crust, but I just tried Mama Pea's Tried and True Whole Wheat Pizza Dough, and it was great. I topped it with some tomato sauce, chopped mushrooms, diced red onion, and Daiya mozzarella. If I ask my son what he wants for dinner, he will say "PIZZA!" every time. He loves it as much as I do!

It was ooey, gooey, melty, and delicious, although I think some kalamata olives would have really kicked it up a notch...next time!

Another Saturday evening, we came home late and wanted to eat pronto. I grabbed a package of sourdough wraps, some hummus, and vegetable errata (arugula, tomato, cucumber, carrot) and made some quick sandwiches while frozen fries were baking in the oven. A frosty glass of Colorado Native beer hit the spot! Beer + french fries + ketchup = awesome.

Sometimes, it's fun to indulge your inner college kid and just have snacky food for dinner. I made some OMG Oven-Baked Onion Rings from Appetite for Reduction and some Avocado Chimichurri Bruschetta and went to town!

After having onion rings and bruschetta for dinner, it just makes sense to follow up with some "Not Guilty" Chocolate Chip Cookies. I mean, really. You've got to hit all your food groups!

As much as I love my big salads and smoothies, I also love to have fun foods on occasion.

What are some of your favorite weekend indulgences?

"Tastes Like Bacon" Raw Soup

Yeah, I kid you not. That was my hubby's comment after his first bite of Gena's raw Avocado Soup with Lime. "Hmmm...tastes like bacon!" I had to laugh. I mean, how many men would take a bite of a raw avocado soup and say it tastes like bacon?!?! Only my hubby. That's why I love him :) And, considering that I used to call him "Sizzle-lean" back in our college days because he always smelled like bacon after visiting his parents, I consider this high praise. I mean, the man knows his bacon!

Funnily enough, I did not consider bacon when I took my first bite, but after he said that, I could sorta see where he was coming from. The soup does have a whole lot of avocado (giving it a nice, creamy, fatty base), smoked paprika, salt, and miso going for it. All of these things together can, in tandem, evoke a sense of bacon (I love that, by the way. Sense of bacon. I'm going to trademark that.) I definitely detected it more in the bites that didn't have the mango salsa in them (duh). I actually liked this soup a whole lot more the next day, after the flavors had melded a bit. I often find that raw soups are better the next day. I did a total cheater mango salsa and just used frozen mango (defrosted) and some sliced scallions. Worked like a charm.

Guacamame, I Think I Love You

I know it doesn't have the same ring as "Holy guacamole," but I'm going to say it anyway.

Holy Guacamame.

Tonight I made the Big Fat Taco Salad from Appetite for Reduction. The Big Fat Taco Salad includes two other AFR recipes, Fresh Tomato Salsa Dressing and Guacamame. And Guacamame is where it's at, folks. Now, I love me some avocados. I eat several a week. I love avocado sandwiches, avocados on salads, avocados in raw soups, and avocados on toast. I do not fear the avocado and its "scary" fat content. Avocado is so good for you, and the fat is such healthy fat, that it doesn't phase me one bit. However, as much as I love my avocados, it is really, really easy to eat a whole lot of avocado in one sitting if it is presented as regular, straight-up guacamole. And no matter how healthy avocado is for you, it's not exactly healthy to eat 2-3 avocados in one sitting. Enter the beauty of Guacamame! Isa's recipe combines one avocado with edamame, some tomato, red onion, cilantro, lime juice, a bit of water, and salt. You puree it until it becomes a voluminous bowl of the yummy green stuff. I stared at this bowl and couldn't believe that there was only one avocado in there!! Now, it's hard to tell, but this is a fairly large pyrex bowl!

I was hesitant to try it, because I was like, oh come on, it's going to taste like watered down guacamole. But you know what?? It didn't taste watered down. It tasted delicious. I had to stop myself from scooping up half the bowl with the salsa verde tortilla chips I had just opened!

Here's the assembled salad: shredded romaine lettuce, the Fresh Tomato Salsa Dressing, black beans, cilantro, crushed salsa verde tortilla chips, and the piece de resistance, the Guacamame.

This made a huge salad, and I was delighted. I love taco salad!!

There will be much more Guacamame in my future, I can guarantee you!

Learning the Ropes

Hey there! I had a really busy weekend so I didn't have much time for blogging :) But sometimes it's good to get away from the computer and enjoy real life!!

I'm still a newbie when it comes to blogging, and as such, I'm learning as I go. I'm also making tons of "rookie" mistakes, such as....

...remembering to take pictures of the food prep, but not the finished product. Duh.

Yeah, this was for Thursday night's dinner. Contrary to appearances, we did not eat a bowl of marinade and 3 sliced avocados. We had Avocado Chimichurri Bruschetta from Vegetarian Times magazine. I think I forgot to take a picture because this is one of our favorite things to eat EVER! I can't even count how many times I've shared this recipe with others. Everyone who tries it LOVES it!! Oh well, I'll have to remember to take a pic next time!!

Another rookie mistake: going out to dinner, but forgetting to take pictures of the food. Double duh. I did remember to take one picture of my hubby enjoying our (shared) flight of beer and veggie calzone Friday night at Mews Tavern:

...but I forgot to change the setting on my camera. So the picture would, you know, come out and all. Silly blogger! And I forgot to take pictures of the rest of our food: sweet potato fries, veggie nachos, and (more) beer. Rest assured...it was all delicious!

I did remember to take a picture of the yummy new snack I picked up at Trader Joe's...

I looooooved this! I love seaweed rice crackers, dulse, arame , and wakame, so I was hoping I'd like these, too. And I did. I'll be buying more next time I'm at TJ's because they're only 99 cents - woo!

I also remembered to take a picture of my newest smoothie creation: Chocolate-Dipped Strawberry!

...but in my zeal to drink this baby, I forgot to add the frozen banana. I was like, WOW, this is really tart. Then I saw my bag of frozen bananas on the counter. Tee hee. I added the frozen banana and it was So.Much.Better! LOL This is what happens when you don't sleep through the night for 2 years.

Chocolate-Dipped Strawberry Smoothie
Makes 1 large serving / 2 small servings

1 cup frozen strawberries
1 large frozen banana
1 1/2 cups water
1 heaping tablespoon raw cacao powder
1 heaping tablespoon raw almond butter
5-6 drops liquid chocolate stevia, or to taste
5-6 ice cubes, to taste

Blend on high until smooth!

Saturday was a busy day with our nephew's birthday party during the early afternoon, and yard work/mowing the lawn in the late afternoon. My hubby and I weren't all that hungry at dinner time, so we decided to just get cleaned up and eat after we put our son to bed. Around 8 pm, we settled in to watch the Red Sox-Yankees baseball game and eat some Amy's frozen meals - I had the Brown Rice, Black-Eyed Peas, & Veggies Bowl, and my hubby had the Black Bean Vegetable Enchiladas. We also noshed on some baby carrots, popcorn, and wasabi peas. We'd both run 5 miles Saturday morning and also each spent 1 hour mowing our lawn (we split it - he did the front, I did the back - but we have a HUGE lawn so it takes 2 hours!!), so we were hungry!

Sunday was a nice, lazy day around the house after church in the morning. Since I had time to cook, I decided to make something new, the Peanut-Lime Tempeh Bowl out of Appetite for Reduction. This is a bowl consisting of cooked quinoa, steamed broccoli, steamed zucchini, shredded raw carrots, shredded cucumber, shredded romaine lettuce, cilantro, and Peanut-Lime Dragon Dressing. I preshredded the carrots and cucumber earlier in the day and stuck them in the fridge...which is why I was halfway through eating dinner when I realized I had forgotten them. *Sigh.*

At least our lunch leftovers had the carrots and cucumber. Good thing, because they made it extra yummy!

I think I'm back on track today. After yoga, I remembered to take a picture of my morning juice:

Mmmm, this may have been my best yet! This one contained a head of organic romaine lettuce, carrots, celery, cucumber, zucchini, ginger, and lemon juice. Definitely NOT hard core...this is a juice even a juice newbie would enjoy!

Later I enjoyed a frosty, delicious Carrot-Ginger Smoothie:

Notice no greens in the carrot smoothie...I was completely out of fresh greens :( Happily, I went grocery shopping this morning so I'm "back in the green!"

Tonight's dinner is an oldie but goodie...a raw soup and salad combo that I've been making for a couple of years now. I love to have raw soup and salad for dinner on Mondays...combined with my morning yoga and juice, it just feels like a nice way to start the week fresh. Especially after a weekend full of beer, fries, nachos, and calzones :) But, hey, I'm a big believer in balance - I can enjoy my occasional beer and pub food because I also have my juices, raw soups, and big salads. Everything in moderation!