Meal plan

This afternoon I spent a few hours making some lunch/dinner options for myself. The H has a short business trip this week, so I made this curried cauliflower soup (spicy!) and a double batch of my beloved kale-quinoa to get me through most of the week without having to think too much about food prep. We had "House Chipotle"** for dinner, one of the little guy's favorites, which means 2) HE ATE SOMETHING and 2) I now have four more 2-cup portions of black beans in my basement freezer.

The dinner parts of our week will look like this:

Sunday - House Chipotle (**seasoned black beans, cilantro-lime rice, and shredded cheese...with diced tomatoes, salsa verde, and soft corn shells for The H and me)

Monday - tortellini in red sauce for the little guy, one of my soup portions for me with a hunk of naan

Tuesday - eggs on toast, fresh fruit, decaf coffee (after running group)

Wednesday - split pea soup with diced lean ham in the slow cooker

Thursday - GF pancakes for my men, one of my kale-quinoa bowls and an ahi tuna steak for me after running and yoga

Friday - GF pizza (excellent pre-long-run fuel!)

I've been enjoying real oatmeal with nuts, a fruit, chia seeds, and pure maple syrup for breakfast, but also bought a bag of spinach and some bananas so I can make a green shake to mix things up once in awhile. Happy eating!

Lesson learned

In my quest to use our freezer stash of beef, tonight's dinner was lasagna. The grocery store didn't have the gluten free DeBoles noodles I've had great luck with before, so I took a chance on another brand--and won't do that again.

Tinkyada brown rice pasta lasagna noodles came out of the box semi-broken, were pain to cook (DeBoles are no-boil), and then proceeded to further fall apart afterward. And I even undercooked them a bit to account for oven time! I had to piece them together like a puzzle in the pan, and ended up short on the top layer because some stuck together. It was not a great end to my annoying stressful day.

However, the little guy *loved* it, which is so rare these days (yes, even if you start your kids eating healthfully, they CAN and likely WILL become picky eaters at some point!), and The H and I enjoyed it as well. We have half the 13x9 left for lunch on Sunday, so overall I suppose it turned out ok. We served this with roasted broccoli, which is always a win in my book.

Not just a day

Remember last month when I was griping about having a "fat day"? Yeah... it's turned into a fat month. Fitting that I'm posting about this on Fat Tuesday, huh? My clothes have been giving me a few FYIs lately, but apparently I've chosen to ignore them...and the scale, whose face doesn't lie no matter how much I beg it to pleasepleaseplease show a smaller number. I've become WAY too lax about having a treat once in awhile. Weekly trips to the cupcake shop at the corner (ahem: locally sourced desserts are still desserts!), a glass of wine or two with dinner several times a week, Bailey's in my coffee after dinner here and there--all these factors ADD UP. And they're taking their toll on my waistline and energy level. Blergh.

At this point I'm only a handful of pounds away from my pre-little-guy weight, which for the record was NOT my healthy weight. In fact, it was about 20 pounds above my healthy, happy, feeling-strong weight.

Yikes.

My runs are slowing down (partly due to snow, but even on the treadmill) and I have no oomph to tackle any new challenges. We've been traveling lately, which means a lot of convenience food and someone else's cooking and, honestly, movie candy in the car. (I KNOW! My name is CLEANeatingmachine, not CRAPPYeatingmachine!)

I'm annoyed at myself for getting to this point and also for not feeling motivated enough to get away from this point...until this past weekend when my sweet little guy innocently and inadvertently stung me with every overweight woman's favorite line, "Do you have a baby in your belly?"  ::choke::

Time to dig out.

If we are what we eat...

then I'm a big bowl of kale-quinoa-chickpeas with steel-cut oats for legs. Seriously, can NOT get enough of those two things. Last night I mixed up a batch of kale-quinoa for lunches, using leftover quinoa, the last of my kale, and the last lemon in the house. I felt very resourceful. Then I thought, "Why not mix up some awesome breakfasts while I'm standing here at the stove?" So I did.

Fifteen minutes later, a quadruple batch of Trader Joe's quick-cooking steel-cut oats was ready to be portioned and refrigerated. To each bowl, I added chopped pecans, ground flax seed, chia seeds, a drizzle of real maple syrup, 12 chocolate chips, a few frozen wild blueberries, and a dollop of natural peanut butter. And then I almost couldn't resist eating a portion for dessert. LOVE that stuff! It's almost like a no-bake oatmeal cookie when it gets reheated, all gooey with peanut butter and a touch of chocolate (minus the guilt of nomming a pile of white sugar and butter).

My morning routine was delightfully streamlined having these two options in the fridge. After my run, I heated up some oatmeal while I packed my lunch, then it was off to shower and work. Great start to my Monday!

Fat day

Today was a "fat day" for me. I know you know what I mean. The mirror and my clothes don't reflect it, but my mid-section felt a little soft and despite my (short, with the dog) run this morning, I felt like I needed to do something about it. So after work I stopped by our favorite local grocery store and loaded up: grapes, bananas, honeybell oranges, blueberries, strawberries, broccoli, baby carrots, peapods, black olives for the little guy's pizza, and some dark chocolate-covered peanuts. Then I came home and put on stretchy pants. :)

Meal plan

Friday - zucchini & Swiss quiche
Saturday - beef tacos
Sunday - chicken & chickpea tikka masala
Monday - GF pasta with meat sauce
Tuesday - eggs and toast post-running group
Wednesday - The H is traveling; I'll defer to the little guy for a change 
Thursday - pancake night!
Friday - probably leftovers (The H won't be home yet)

Super thrilling week, right? Blah. I need to browse some of my old posts to see what we were eating this time last year. What's on your menu this week? Where are you getting inspiration these days?  

Happy new year-and-a-week!

Let's not even pretend that I'm resolving to be one of those bloggers who delivers a post a day with thirty six photos and a printable recipe or three. Some days I think I'd like to be, or at least be able to promise a few posts on a regular basis, but realistically, it's not going to happen. My new job, while never demanding more than 10 on-site hours of my week, is more time consuming than it appeared at first, partly due to the fact that it's not very close to home. My meal planning has fallen severely behind, and while we haven't resorted to fast food every other night with takeout pizza in between, I know I can do better. Here's what's on our plates this week:

Saturday - beef with broccoli. We bought another half-of-a-half of cow this winter. Moo.
Sunday - homemade-ish GF pizza with olives, mushrooms, and local beef pepperoni
Monday - possibly dinner with my parents
Tuesday - quinoa-and-bean stuffed bell peppers
Wednesday -  chicken and artichoke pasta, I think...
Thursday - pancake night for The H and the little guy while I'm at running/yoga
Friday - TBD

This week, if I can find a store selling kale, I plan to buy a bunch or two and make some of my beloved kale-quinoa for my lunches. Leftovers have gone over surprisingly well lately, which leaves space in the fridge for marinating meat and a container of cooked grains (brown rice or quinoa, most likely) to help pull together a quick meal. In my spare time (can I get an LOL?) I intend to browse through old posts to see just what in the world we did with all this beef last time.

Happy new year! Thanks for reading.