Early Day Eats
Since I didnt get my coconut milk oatmeal yesterday, I decided to have it today.
Coconut milk is so good in oatmeal. So good!
I also added in more dried fruit goodness: black currants and dates.
Beautiful sunny morning!
Oatmeal with a Morningstar “sausage” and my Larry’s Beans coffee. Love this coffee – and the company.
Coconut Date Currant Oatmeal
Add to a pot:
- 1/3 light coconut milk
- 1/3 water
- 1/3 Quaker rolled oats
- 1/2 tsp chia seed
Cooked stove top till thickened. Stirred in 4 chopped dried dates and a handful of currants at end of cooking to warm through (I don’t add my dried fruit early on because I like the chewy texture of dried fruit, which I think is lost when it’s added early because it soaks up the liquid and plumps up).
Toppings: simply chopped walnuts
Coconut milk in oatmeal is amazing. It totally adds another dimension to the flavor.
Hot black tea with cream and sugar to help me wake up at work.
I had a frozen meal to eat for lunch, but I got the craving for a burrito, chips, and dip. Though I used to eat out the majority of the week days for lunch, lately I’ve been doing really good about eating in. I like to still go out once in awhile – especially when I have the opportunity to take a quick walk break to get food.
While I’ve had a really easy time going meatless for Lent, there are some situations where I miss meat. Today was one of them. I always get chicken of beef burritos. I really wanted to order a meat-burrito, but I went veggie. Today I got rice and beans with guacamole, salsa, and tomatoes.
Surprisingly, I didn’t miss the meat terribly when I was eating my burrito.
I also got some chips and queso. I know the cheese is terrible, but I haven’t been able to curb the urge for hot, gooey cheese. (this is my before shot)
I did fill up on the burrito first, so I didn’t quite finish the chips or queso. (this is my after)
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Impromptu Zumba
I made an impromptu trip to take a zumba class about 40 minutes away. Since the class was so far away, I was a bit late and only got a 45 minute workout in, but it was totally worth it. I was feeling really tired after work, but I felt so energized after class! I love how zumba really livens me up. 🙂
I did some minor stretching and had an Aria protein shake after class.
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Clean Tempeh
Pizza was sounding good after my workout. I get lazier and lazier about cooking the later it gets. It wasn’t till about 8:30pm that I got home. I’ve had a lot of food dates “out” this week, though, and it really helped that I planned what I’d make tonight yesterday. And, I purchased the groceries for tonight’s dinner yesterday. Yay for planning!
I’ve started unpacking more stuff from our basement, including some cooking books. I pulled out my Clean Food cookbook recently since I remembered it has lots of good vegetarian recipes (perfect for a meatless Lent).
I decided to make Clean Food – Spicy Thai Tempeh with Cashews.
I finally got to use the tempeh I’ve had in my fridge for forever. (it was set to expire next week, so that helped me select a recipe)
I chopped the tempeh into large pieces and steamed it.
Once it was done cooking, I let it rest on a plate to cool
Aren’t red onions pretty?
I caramelized the onions before…
Crumbling the cooked tempeh into the pan. The cooked tempeh crumbled very easily. I love the idea of cooking tempeh this way and already have some ideas for more ways to use it in this fashion.
Roasted red pepper and organic cashews – to cook with the tempeh.
Sauce – ready to add to finish.
Spicy Thai Tempeh with Cashews – served with steamed broccoli, drizzled with a bit of melted organic butter.
I LOVED this! The flavors were perfect. I didn’t think it was spicy at all, but it was tasty.
I even got some seconds.
Total winner!
Coconut Milk Hot Chocolate
Since I had an entire can of coconut milk open from this morning, I decided to try out some coconut milk hot chocolate.
Organic sugar and unsweetened cocoa powder.
Mixed up with hot water.
Into my oatmeal pot, which I used to heat my coconut milk stovetop.
So rich, so tasty. I need to work on the recipe before I post it here on TCL though. 😉
Tidbits
Check out MyRecipes.com for 10 Mexican recipes under 300 calories (click). And yes, I did say yesterday that society may be too number-crazy when it comes to diet, but I do think calorie counting can be useful. I used calorie counting, personally, in the past to work on portioning and make sure I ate enough food. Also, I scanned some of the recipes and they look to be based on whole foods AND low calorie! 
I’d love for people to weigh in on my poll and add to the discussion via comments on my question – Do you think our society has gotten too caught up in figures when it comes to their diet? Click here to weigh in.
Have you seen the twitter tag “#everydayiwakeup” – click to view – there are lots of positive ones (if you can look past the normal vulgar, random, and obscure ones, of course). Some are really inspiring.
Reader Question: What’s your favorite type of hot chocolate? Regular? White? Soy milk based?
What a great post! 😀
You know, a GOOD burrito is worth a million bucks! I get these CRAZY cravings for mexican food, especially burritos!
I think I have seen that book before, it looks like a wonderful addition to my kitchen.
Thanks doll!
I think you’d LOVE the book!
Great din! Where’s the burrito from?!
Just a local one-off place in town. 🙂
OMG that coconut oatmeal and hot cocoa look SO good. I love anything coconut!
When I was a coffee drinker, I put coconut milk in it. It is a wonderful non dairy option!
I like hot cocoa but can’t have chocolate anymore so I make it with carob. I bet coconut milk would be awesome with that as well!
I’m so glad you commented on my blog so I could find yours. It’s great! Beautiful pictures too!
and yes, coconut milk in oatmeal is amazing. 🙂
That tempeh dish sounds awesome. I think I’ll make that next – I just got Clean Food a few weeks ago and have really liked most of the stuff I’ve made. I’ve never had tempeh before so this will be a good way to break into it! 🙂
Thank you so much Teri! I love your blog, too! Def try the Clean Food tempeh…I LOVED it! 🙂
Diana, I love your idea for coconut oatmeal! What an interesting, delicious twist to this breakfast staple!
I’ve been hearing/seeing a lot about tempeh on food blogs. What does it taste like and what are its health benefits?
Have a great day! 🙂
Tempeh itself, like tofu, doesn’t have much of a flavor. The texture of the one I have reminded me a bit of rice pilaf because of how it was broken up into little bits.
I’ll research the health benefits for you – that would make for a great blog post!
So I stumbled upon your blog and love it! I have had a coconut that I have been meaning to open up..and now that I saw those oats I will definitely be using it very soon! they look so so good! I never thought of mixing the flavor of coconut with oatmeal but I sure am excited to try it 🙂
Glad you found me! And i hope you like your coconut oats 🙂
WOW love your blog girl!! mm i havent tried coconut milk yet but i bet it is WONDERFUL in oats. that burrito looks soo great too!
i ADORE tempeh-i need to get some more!
Mmm, that oat meal looks really good!
I love your pics! Everything always looks so good! I just saw that book today in b&n and I actually thought of you! I ended up buying 3 new cookbooks (even though I obviously don’t cook much) I just love cookbooks and the idea of cooking. I’m hoping that after Passover I’ll start cooking more! Your cooking and recipes are always inspiring! Also, that was very dedicated of you to go so far out of your way for zumba 🙂
Thanks sweetie! Was Clean Food one of the books you bought? Which ones did you get?
Btw, we do a song in zumba class called Chaiyaa Chaiyaa…made me think of it when I saw your name! lol 🙂
Great idea with the oatmeal.
I am not the hugest fan of tempeh – but I LOVE that burrito 🙂
And great idea using coconut millk in your oats 🙂
Wow – delicious meals!
And what a fancy bowl of oatmeal, haha 😉
Loved it.
Have a great weekend, girl!
Brazilian XOXO´s,
Gabriela
Have a great weekend, too! 🙂
The tempeh dish looks SO good. I don’t know if I like tempeh but this would be a great way to try it. Any chance you can post the recipe?
You inspired me to make my oats with coconut milk this morning. I’ve considered it several times but shied away from the nutritionals. But I decided that 50cal isn’t so bad. It was SO rich! In fact I couldn’t eat the full 1/3cup serving of oats as my stomach felt tender LOL. I will definitely try it again!
Have you ever thrown an egg white in? When I was testing eliminating milk, I started using 1 egg white. They come out really good! But they seem to burn to my stainless steel pan more with the egg in it.
I tried finding the recipe online to link to but I couldn’t. 🙁
Coconut milk IS so rich! That’s why I usually do 1/2 coconut milk and 1/2 water for my liquid measurement.
I’ve never tried egg whites. Does the oatmeal taste egg-y?