Finally re-stocked some food staples in my house!
I’ve been missing my go-to breakfast Morningstar “soysages”. I guess the ones I normally eat are actually not “soysages” but I think that’s so much more fun to say. 🙂
Anywho, this time around, I truly do have the “soysages” made with organic soy. I think I actually prefer the regular veggie “sausages” – they seem to be more moist and I think I like their flavor more.
For breakfast, I also had coffee and oatmeal.
Pre-cooking ingredients:
- 1/3 cup rolled oats
- 1/3 cup 2% organic milk
- 1/3 cup water
- pinch flaxseed
- pinch chia seed
- drizzle of agave (prob about 1/2 tsp)
Microwave 2 minutes
Post-cooking ingredients:
- 1/4 cup dried cranberries
- sprinkling almonds
Hubby was kind enough to drop lunch off to me, since we forgot to get our bread yesterday from Great Harvest. He brought me hickory-smoked turkey and muenster cheese on Honey Whole Wheat.
Have I mentioned that I love my Great Harvest bread b/c they grind their own wheat. Yes…it’s pretty bada$$ IMO.
I knew hubby was bringing me lunch so I brought this side of Carolina Slaw I picked up from Earthfare this weekend. I love how simple yet tasty all the Earthfare sides are. They’re reasonably priced and easy to take to work. I especially like how the ingredients seem so nutritious and clean!
I didn’t know he was bringing me this – a mini cinnamon roll. I find these little rolls irresistible whenever I hit up my local GHBC. Yum. Thanks hubby!
I was craving chocolate this afternoon and remembered I had this mini Trader Joe’s Belgian Chocolate Mini Bar in Dark Chocolate in my purse.
The chocolate was great but they only sell this size in an assorted bag and I’m trying to eat only dark chocolate since I like it about the same as milk and it’s more nutritious.
Chipotle (Organic) Chicken Soup
I picked up groceries from Trader Joe’s on the way home. The word “organic” is sneaking more and more onto the products I purchase. 😉
Besides the soup ingredients, I also stocked up on some other great pantry/freezer items. I’m hoping to reap the rewards of expensive shopping trips with cheap dinners later.
The soup cooked up quickly and easily – it was a Rachael Ray 30 minute meal recipe, and you can usually depend on them to be nice and easy that way.
It was a little splatter-y and messy, but definitely easy.
Taste test for the chef.
Starter – arugula salad with baby carrot and sunflower seeds – topped with my fave Drew’s rosemary balsamic dressing.
Did you know sunflower seeds are a great source of vitamin E? Click here to read more about the nutrition of sunflower seeds.
Chipotle (organic) chicken soup with water and white wine.
Topped with some fresh-squeezed lime.
The soup was spicier than I thought it would be, but it was quite good and hubby REALLY loved it.
I based the soup off of this Rachael Ray recipe for Chicken Tortilla Soup with Chipotle and Fire Roasted Tomato, except, I didn’t add the tortilla chips at all (don’t like soggy chips…ew!) and I put my cheese on top instead of topping my soup on the cheese. I also didn’t add the red onion or the cilantro because I didn’t want to spend more money on groceries.
I rebaked my cornbread in the oven while my soup cooked since I found out yesterday that the middle pieces weren’t quite cooked through in the center. Turns out when I thought I set my oven for 375 degrees F (the first time I cooked the cornbread), I actually set it for 350 degrees F. Doh!
I topped my cornbread with more organic butter and a drizzle of local honey. Oh-so-good!
I had seconds on both the soup (about 1/2 the original portion size 2nd time around) and cornbread (same size).
I enjoyed dinner whilst watching So You Think You Can Dance. Wow, everyone looked so FAB! Some of those dresses were HOT. I kind of want to wear one to zumba…haha. Maybe for one of our “costume days” eh?
I decided that our wine, Trader Joe’s Honey Moon Viognier, would be my dessert. I’m slooooowly sipping a mini glass as I blog. Yum yum!
Thanksgiving Challenge Ideas
Are you worried about over-indulging at Thanksgiving this year? Want some tips on how to eat healthy this Thanksgiving? Maybe you should play in my Thanksgiving Food Challenge? I’m giving away a free pair of earrings! Either way, check out the links below…
Ideas to inspire you to eat healthy this Thanksgiving:
- Abcnews.com has an article on Deciding Which Thanksgiving Dishes to Make Healthy
- Fitness Magazine has some great Guilt-Free Pie Recipes
- Nature’s Path has some healthy recipes on their recipe page
- Lorna Sass (who helped Nature’s Path with their recipes) has some great recipes on her blog Pressure Cooking with Lorna Sass (try the Gingered Cranberry-Kumquat Relish)
- Andy Bellatti from Small Bites shares a Vegan Sweet Potato Mash recipe
- Health Magazine and Cooking Light tweeted me a link to this: Lighten Up: Sweet Potato Casserole (video)
- I found this article from Self via twitter: Recipe Roundup Healthy Thanksgiving Side Dishes
How to Reduce Your Food Waste
And lastly, did you know the average American wastes more than half a pound of food each day? GOOD shares a video (click) to help you reduce your waste.
Here’s how I try to reduce my food waste and be green (I wrote these before watching the video 😉 ):
- Share food at restaurants: In most restaurants, portion sizes are often way too big for a normal person to eat. I try to get my hubby or friend or family member to split entrees with me so we don’t have leftovers.
- Cook what you can eat: I often take recipes and cut them down from portions for 4 to portions for 2 so hubby and I have just enough food between us.
- Use your leftovers: Sometimes leftovers are inevitable. I try to eat leftovers for lunch the next day or even dinner the next day. Some leftovers freeze well, like soup, so I save those meals for days I don’t feel like cooking but want home-cooked food. Sometimes, you can morph your leftovers into a new meal, like if you have extra grilled chicken from a pasta dish – you can save some extra chicken and add it to a salad for the next day.
- Compost: Ok, I don’t have a compost, but once we get settled into the house, I will start one. Growing up, my dad always saved the ends of vegetables and outsides of onions, etc to put in our compost pile. Eventually, he turned our “trash” into fertilizer for our garden! Very green, no? You can read more about composts online at sites like wikihow.com
How do you reduce your food waste?
Yum, yum and more yum, everything looks delish! x x
Cornbread with butter and honey…looks TOO good.
I always save all my leftovers, leftovers are the best! A lot of times when I go out to eat with my boyfriend we just order an appetizer and entree to split, which is usually more than enough 🙂
The Carolina Slaw from Earthfare is one of my favorites! 🙂
Whenever I use my stove it's always covered in splatters too! lol