Leftover Queen

This weekend I had had breakfast, lunch and dinner planned out like usual.. but we were entertaining out of town house guests and naturally, BOTH of my breakfast plans had to be re-scheduled. :( I hate missing out on oats in the morning. Boo.

Friday night I painfully agreed to go a Mexican restaurant 20 miles away or so, because Jen (my housemate and co-worker) had said the food was good and comparable to Tucson. High doubts began to fill my brain at this point.

I have an issue that when I don't know you very well, I feel inclined to agree to things. Lie to you for the sake of, well, you. I hate to disappoint and cause unnecessary conflict, so I shrug, simply put a smile on my face and say "well, why not?" or "alright, I guess so." If I am not in agreement or completely and utterly want OUT of the conversation... I simply nod my head, or reply with the effortless "mhmm's", "oh, cool" and the always fun, "that's interesting".

I couldn't NOT go to the restaurant.. when someone invites me out for a most likely paid for dinner, I accept. On a very different spectrum, people who know me well know that I am a control freak. If I truly don't care about letting you down... I probably will decline. (Story of my high school career.)

The restaurant (yeah, back to my point) was typical real, traditional Mexican food. It was good. I had Pollo en Mole, some side salad and a few bites of re-fried beans. Mmm.. The good stuff. The positive news was that it came with a side of homemade flour tortillas! The little planning side of my brain immediately went off and told me *Egg white burritos for breakfast!*. Ahh...do I actually get to benefit from this night of Bekah style spontaneity?? Suddenly on a mission, I politely asked for a to-go box, saved half of my pollo for what would be a salad for tomorrow, stashed the flour tortillas and even poured some of the salsa in the box. Oh, I am thrifty. Three meals out of one.

Mini egg white burritos:
(Inspired by my one of my favorite breakfast spots in SD: The Mission. So tasty!)

• 3 egg whites, whisked
  
• 1 scallion chopped
• 2 mini flour tortillas
• homemade salsa for dipping
• sliced tomatoes, on the side
  

Salad with leftover pollo en mole, romaine, cabbage, red onion, almonds, blueberries tossed in a light vinaigrette of: safflower oil, lime juice, salt, pepper, and cinnamon. Scrumptious!





I did eat oats anyway this weekend. I'll post em tomorrow.. but once again, breakfast wins me over! Oats for dinner last night, and chilled oats for lunch today. That's all for now.. Going to bed, anxiously awaiting my oats for breakfast! BTW- I've been doing Jillian Michaels "Biggest Winner" dvds for the past couple weeks now, and I honestly didn't think anyone could make me sweat like Dave Farmar but sorry Dave, for being only a 30 minute DVD, Jillian basically makes your Utkatasana look like, Savasana. Power yoga still kicks my tush though- literally.

xo, B

Restaurant life

Some of the items I have made in my spare time, while I have a few minutes free during work, seeing as thats alllll I've been doing.

Egg white omelet with spinach and homemade spicy green sauce, yum.

Green salad with corn, tomatoes, red peppers, spiced pecans, mustard vinaigrette and chicken.

Oatmeal with blueberries for breakfast. :)

Spinach and cabbage salad with spinach, vinaigrette, pecans and poached eggs on the side.


Stuffed gordita (masa) with chicken, green sauce, cabbage, queso fresco.

Yogurt with wheat germ, bananas, almonds, blueberries and granola.

Homemade soup with oven roasted tomatoes from the restaurant and tuna on the side.

a few highlights from tucson and july 4th

My last night in TX was the 4th and we had a little BBQ. I grilled chicken, made homemade coleslaw and we also had grilled corn, in the husk. Yummm. And local watermelon that was icy cold.

This is a salad i made while in Tucson with celery, blueberries, romaine, and leftover chicken mole from Little Cafe Poca Cosa.

I made ground turkey lettuce wraps with sauteed peppers and onions.

One of my first lunches, chicken curry in half a pita from Time Market, with carrot date slaw and celery and carrot sticks.

One of my favorite breakfastes, egg white omelets with some sort of sweet thing. I made the healthy muffins from Bethenny Frankel's Naturally Thin book, but subbed pumpkin puree for the apple sauce.. and yuummmy. It was a chocolately pumpkiney muffin/cookie.

Microwaving?!

Who knew I could have so much fun with a microwave?
I guess with the added equipment of a VitaMix commercial blender, panini grill and Cuisinart coffee machine, I'm bound to find something to cook up, but surprisingly the microwave has been my bestie these days.
For breakfast I microwaved my egg whites (4 of them! They did not all fit onto the muffin, so I ate them on the side) and had them on top of a scooped out (Bethenny Frankel tip) whole wheat english muffin. I had sliced tomatoes on the side.

For lunch I had the norm, of egg salad and carrot/celery combo with a pickle. I was able to boil some eggs at the kitchen yesterday to have on hand. Later on I had a snack of one of those 100 calorie mini bags of popcorn, (Kettle corn, flavored. Yum.) and a sliced Fugi apple while I watched "The Closer". Great show.

Tonight I got very inventive and creative and decided to micro the last of the zucchini, squash and broccoli in some chicken broth, and I added oats, chick peas and frozen corn to thicken it a little. I blended it all up and seasoned it with my *secret* blend of spices and flavorings, and it actually turned out SO GOOD! Okay, so the picture looks a little bit like vomit, but I didn't add any cream either, and usually the cream makes it look prettier (but fattier). I did top it with one slice of crumpled bacon though, and that worked perfectly with the soup. I say *secret* because, who knows this soup might go in my future cookbook or something! Hmmm... I will say there was a hint of cinnamon and maple syrup added to the mix, other than that I made it quite spicy.

Last night for dinner I had some salad with romaine, fresh raw corn, tomatoes, almonds, chicken, peach and carrot and a dill cucumber salad on the side. Actually the veggies in the salad all came from Bruce's yard, so that was fun to eat.

we'll have to see what its store for tomorrow! =)

Catching up =)

So Saturday, for breakfast I had yogurt, berries and some pumpkin granola. One of my favorites. We headed to Tyler to see "The Hangover" and I had to have a Kashi TLC bar to hold me over, and by the time we ate lunch it was an early dinner. We had Teppenyaki, it was not very good, but I managed with some edamame, chicken, and sauteed vegetables.

Sunday for breakfast I fixed egg whites on a scooped out whole wheat english muffin. The top half I ate with jelly. It was very good.

For lunch I had tuna salad, with some carrot sticks and pickles. I also had a small smoothie before dinner.

I noticed there was some broccoli, squash and zucchini in the fridge that was on its last stage. I microwaved it in some chicken broth, with a few screws of whole wheat fusilli pasta. I added 1/3 cup Bertoli tomato basil sauce, some dried oregano, basil, granulated garlic, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. I also added chicken. It was so good, that I had it for dinner again Monday night with a little piece of bread to soak up the juices. It was half soup, half stew, half pasta. So yummy.

Monday morning I got to drive in to my favorite coffee place, about 45 minutes away, and got a little groceries too. Before I left I had oatmeal, with cinnamon, honey, water, milk, raisins and almonds. At the coffee place I had a few cups of coffee, and a small fruit salad.

At home I had lunch, which I made a chicken salad with apple, celery, pickle, almonds, raisins, mustard, miracle whip (all we had, I prefer real mayo), yogurt and apple cider vinegar. I also had carrot sticks and a pickle on the side. ;) I had my vegetable, chicken, tomato pasta soup thing again last night for dinner.