I cannot believe that I haven’t had quinoa in over a month.  We used to have quinoa once or twice a week, but I haven’t been craving it lately.  Well, it tasted delicious tonight!

We all know that I love 101cookbooks.com and this recipe was another one that did not disappoint.  I followed the recipe, but subbed almonds for pinenuts and omitted the cheese.  While the quinoa was cooking, I sauteed an onion over medium heat with a little salt and olive oil until tender.  I mixed the onion with the quinoa before mixing in the sauce.

Quinoa and Grilled Zucchini (see recipe here)

My favorite part of the dish was the sauce!  It is so good, I would make this as a salad dressing or as a sauce for rice or just grilled veggies.  It seems very versatile and is so yummy!  Great for the summer.

The sauce is made up of avocado, plain yogurt, cilantro, lime juice, garlic and salt.

Trust me, it is so good!

I started out my day with a 4.5 mile run in the heat and humidity.  I swear, this heat makes me much slower and I get tired so much more easily…I hope it is the heat!

After my run, I drank some juice.

And, had some toast – Fig Fennel & Flax Manna Bread.

Spread with Cinnamon Vanilla Sunflower Seed Butter and enjoyed with a banana and my juice, which was a delicious blend of pineapple, pear and ginger.  Very yummy.

I was starving for lunch, so I dug right into my leftover chopped salad from last night.  The salad was even better today after marinating overnight!

Along with a yogurt and 2 sweet and juicy apricots!

I tried the new Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Larabar for an afternoon snack and it was amazing.  Very peanut buttery with chocolate chips throughout.

Try these new Larabar’s!  You won’t be disappointed…and if you are, send them to me!

I ordered the Bunny Brew, which is a mix of carrots, apples and ginger.  I love the kick of ginger and the apples add a bit of sweetness to the drink.  It is delicious!

At this point, I was happy to have the juice because it go HOT out on my walk back home.

All in all, I covered a little over 3 miles in 45 minutes.  It felt great to stretch my legs after walking around and standing all day and night on Saturday!

Back at my brother’s apartment, we had bagels for breakfast before heading out.  I toasted up 1/2 of a cinnamon raisin bagel and spread it with peanut butter with a yogurt.  I love carbs.

On our drive home, we made a pit stop in South Norwalk (SoNo) for lunch.  It is a really small town right off of the highway, but the downtown is so cute!  It is a small strip of restaurants, coffee shops and boutiques.

We decided on Chocopologie for lunch.  Why?  Because of the name!!

It was so cute inside and everything on the menu sounded amazing from sandwiches to salads to buckwheat crepes to french toast and a lot more.

I started with a Raspberry Smoothie while we waited for our meals.  It was so good, it tasted like a milkshake.  Although, it could have been colder and thicker…

For my lunch, I ordered the Meditteranean Salad.  It was hands down, the best salad I have ever had!  I can’t wait to re-create it at home.

The salad contained arugula, green beans, kidney beans, roasted beets, goat cheese, croutons and a lemon viniagrette.

The salad was served warm!  I loved it.

We made a few more stops on our ride home, so I snacked on an Endure GloBar a few hours later.  This flavor was awesome!  There is something about cranberries that I just love in granola bars.

And, we picked up dinner at Chipotle because the last thing you want to do after a weekend away is cook on a Sunday night!!

A vegetarian burrito bowl with rice, black beans, peppers, onions, corn salsa, hot salsa, lettuce and guacamole.

Delicious!

We didn’t have much on the agenda yesterday, so I took Brant on another ‘walking tour’ of my favorite places to pick up some souvenirs to take home.  It was HOT!!  But, still very enjoyable.

First stop, the Union Square Farmer’s Market!  The fresh produce was calling my name, but I held off for our CSA.  I took some photos, though.

We did grab a container of blackberries to eat on our walk with our bagels and they were delicious!

How cute is this coffee shop on wheels?! 

NYC Love Street Coffee.  Brant picked up some iced coffee.

At this point we were dying of heat, so we hailed a taxi to take us to our next stop – Organic Avenue.  I have been wanting to visit the store, but hadn’t had a chance on my last few trips to the city.  I am glad we had time today!

Organic Avenue sells juices, smoothies, raw foods, supplements, etc.  They also offer juice and raw food cleanses, and even deliver it to your door!

Their juices come in these great glass bottles (which you can return for a refund), but I wanted to take a few home with me, so I picked out some juices to buy – Coconut Mylk, Blueberry Spirulina Smoothie and Veggie Love.  I will let you know how they are once I try them!

We were ready for lunch after this stop, so we walked back to Union Square, stopping at Liquiteria for a Peaches-N-Dream Smoothie on the way.

The smoothie was made up of peaches, strawberries, bananas, apple cider, cinnamon, aloe vera and energy memory.  It tasted great.

We went to Dogmatic for lunch.  It is a fun ‘fancy sausage’ take-out place.  They cook their rolls on a fancy machine that leaves a hole in the middle.  They pour in a sauce of your choice and fill it with a sausage of your choice.

All of their food is free from hormones, antibiotics, preservatives and artificial flavors.  I chose the asparagus with sun-dried tomato & feta sauce with a side salad.

Isn’t this a neat concept?  And, it tasted great too.

After a quick stop at One Lucky Duck for a raw Moonpie and Mallomar to take home, we were on our way to dinner at Otto Pizzeria.

Otto’s was opened by Mario Batali and is apparently modeled to look like an Italian train station.  And, they are a Certified Green Restaurant!

We started with some Antipasti – Poached Figs, Broccoli Rabe, Summer Squash, Green Beans.  They were all great, but I especially liked the green beans and the fig!

For my entree, I ordered the Swiss Chard & Goat Cheese Pizza – so garlicky, but so good!

The pizza was spread thinly with goat cheese and then topped with swiss chard stems and leaves.

It was a delicious meal and I left feeling stuffed and ready to make our way to Citifield for the Dave Matthews Concert!

I could not drag myself out of bed this morning for a workout, so I ended up heading out for a run after work.  It was definitely hot, but there was a cool breeze along the water and it was nice to be outside after a long workday.  I completed a 5 mile run & 1 mile walk in 60 minutes, then lifted a few weights once home.

• Bicep curls
• Tricep kickbacks
• Overhead press
• Chest press
• Tricep Extension
• YTA’s
• Pushups
• (complete 3 times with 1 min rest between each circuit – 12 reps per exercise)

It felt good to fit in some weights after over a week off.

I was dying to use our CSA beets for juice this morning, so in to the juicer went the following: 2 carrots, 2 small beets, 2 small apples, knob of ginger.

This tasted awesome!

Served along with some healthy fats and carbs – 2 homemade Carrot Banana muffins toasted and smeared with 2 tbsp almond butter.

My breakfast completely hit the spot this morning and left me feeling full and satisfied.

In fact, it kept me full until lunch when I broke out some leftovers.

Cabbage & Apple Slaw

I added a base of plain cabbage, then placed the slaw on top.  Served with yogurt and blueberries.

This yogurt was a pretty good replica of Stonyfield’s Chocolate Underground yogurt.

I hate to turn the stove on when the temps are this hot, but I was in the mood for pasta tonight after my workout.

Romanesco & Cauliflower Pasta

I wanted to use the romanesco that we received in our CSA yesterday, so I picked up some pasta on my way home.

Ingredients:

• 12-16 ounces pasta of choice (preferably penne or rigatoni)
• 2 tbsp butter or olive oil
• 1 spring onion bulb & top, chopped
• 4 garlic scrapes, chopped (or 2-3 cloves garlic)
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1 cup low sodium vegetable stock
• 1 small head of romanesco (or broccoli), cut into small florets
• 1/2 large head of cauliflower, cut into small florets
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 4 sprigs rosemary, chopped
• 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup toasted walnuts, chopped
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

I started out by boiling water and cooking my pasta according to the package instructions.  I decided on a tricolor pasta that is colored by beets, spinach and bell peppers – yum!  Nothing artificial in the mix.

While the pasta was cooking, I began to cook my veggies.

Begin by heating butter over medium heat.  Once melted, add onion and garlic.  Cook for about 5-7 minutes, until golden brown.

Increase the heat to medium-high and add the vegetable stock and wine.

Let cook for 1 full minute, then add broccoli, cauliflower, lemon juice, rosemary, crushed red pepper, salt and pepper.

Cover and cook for a full 10 minutes over medium-high heat.

After 10 minutes, add the pasta to a serving bowl.

Toss the pasta with the vegetable mixture, Parmesan cheese and walnuts.

Serve with extra cheese!

From start to finish (including chopping and cooking) this meal took less than 30 minutes to complete.  It is definitely worth it!  The flavors all worked really well together and the romanesco and cauliflower were cooked perfectly.  The red pepper flakes gave it a good amount of kick.  The romanesco was good!  It definitely tasted like broccoli, but with more of a bite like cauliflower.  I hope we get it again!!

The week seems to be flying by so far…maybe because I am excited for the holiday weekend!

I started my morning with a juice to-go.  I needed to use up some fruits and veggies from our CSA last week, so a juice was definitely in order.

• Kale + extra kale ribs
• 2 carrots
• celery
• 1 green apple
• 1/2 lemon
• lime
• knob of ginger

This wasn’t as sweet as I would have liked.  Probably because the apple was tart, but it did the trick and energized me for the day.

I also snacked on 2 pieces of Manna Bread with peanut butter!

For lunch, I mixed up the Honey Balsamic Bean Salad from 101cookbooks (my favorite recipe website!!).

It has a hint of sweetness from the honey, but is balanced out nicely from the balsamic.  I really enjoyed it and would absolutely make this again!

I ate a portion with some cherries.

And, a yogurt for a snack.

Dinner was delicious!  (But, a little spicy!)

I made up some Vegetarian Sloppy Joes (Snobby Joes from Veganomicon).

I replaced the onion with turnips from our CSA and doubled the amount of tomato sauce.  Other than that, I kept everything the same!  I did add a little extra chile powder by mistake which made them super spicy!!  But, if you got past that, they were great.

Served open faced on a whole wheat hamburger bun.

Topped with feta cheese and served with freshly picked sugar snap peas sauteed in a little butter.

They stayed crunchy and were very sweet.  Delicious dinner!

Off to relax…

I started the day with some Overnight Oats as fuel for the day, since I am never sure while out and about what type of food I will want to eat.  I mean, there is always food to eat, but I like healthy, good-for-you-food, and sometimes in a group that is hard to come by!

Overnight oats with 1/3 cup oats, 1 tbsp chia seeds, 2 tbsp unsweetened coconut, 1/2 banana, 1/3 cup banana mango yogurt, 1/3 cup almond milk.  Stir and let sit in the fridge overnight.

Topped with a champagne mango and granola.

Once in Glouchester, we stopped at an adorable tea shop for a treat!

I ordered the veggie juice, which was full of veggies – and delicious!!

After strolling around for awhile, it was lunch time.

We sat on the patio since it was such a gorgeous day.

I ordered the Sweet & Spicy Shrimp Salad, which was awesome!  (But, unpictured)

Then, it was time for our boat ride!

We all purchased Groupons for this ride and we are so glad we did!  It was so much fun to be out on the water with friends on a nice day!  The Captain and Crew of the ship were hilarious and did a great job of keeping everyone happy and well accommodated with snacks and beer.

Such a fun way to spend a low-key Sunday!

I woke up feeling super groggy and with a pounding headache yesterday.  UGH!  I think it was going to bed so much later than normal…and eating dinner so much later.  Nothing a little juice can’t fix!

I swear – fresh squeezed juice helps every time.  It is loaded with antioxidants and helps to give you that boost that you sometimes need in the morning (without drinking coffee!).

In my juice:

• 2 huge carrots
• 3 celery stalks
• 1 apple
• 1-inch piece of ginger
• 1 tsp spirulina stirred in at the end

I chugged my juice and it helped so much.  I felt alive after drinking it!

What is spirulina?

Spirulina is a blue-green algae.  It is 70% complete protein, containing all of the essential amino acids that our bodies need in a perfect balance.  It also contains a high concentration of nutrients and is easily absorbed into the bloodstream, which makes it a great mix-in for smoothies or juices!

After my juice, we sat down to breakfast on the porch!  That is one of my favorite things about spring and summer.  I love eating on the porch!  While everyone else munched on pancakes and bacon that Brant whipped up, I made up a big bowl of Greek yogurt, chia seeds, museli, banana, granola, cacao nibs and a drizzle of honey.

On the side, I had some juicy watermelon.

The perfect summer day breakfast if you ask me (tied with a smoothie, of course!).

We spent the day walking around downtown and stopped for lunch at B. Good where I got a big Hatchback salad with spinach, arugula, almonds, dried apples, dried cherries and balsamic vinaigrette on the side.  I snagged a few of Brant’s ‘baked’ fries as well.

Then, hit up Emack & Bolio’s for some black raspberry ice cream.

Nothing is better than walking around the city on a warm day with ice cream!

Once home, I headed out for a quick run before dinner.  I needed a pick me up since I was feeling super tired.  I ran for 30 minutes…it just felt great to get out there, even though Castle Island was packed with people.

Post-run snack:

Coconut water and a slice of multigrain with almond butter and apples to hold me over until another late dinner of Mexican!!

We hit up Border Cafe in Harvard Square to show our guests the area.  The place was packed!  I ordered a Sangria which I sipped throughout the meal.

For dinner, I chose the Vegetarian Fajitas with no rice and extra black beans.  Check out my spread!

I made up a plate with one cup of the black beans, all of the veggies and the salsa and guacamole.  I skipped the cheese and white tortillas.  I always forget how much I love mexican until I have it again!

After dinner, we hit up an outdoor bar in Harvard Square – Tory Row.

It was a cute place with the doors and windows opening to a patio.  Lots of hightop tables and very minimal decorations.

I ordered the Lillet Spritzer which was a white dessert wine with seltzer water and a squeeze of lemon.  It was very refreshing on a warm night!

Another long day!  Good thing it’s a Monday holiday today.

I started my day with a huge fresh-squeezed juice to take with me on my morning walk with Benny.  Benny’s parents come home tomorrow!  We’ll miss the little guy…but, not all the dog hair everywhere!

In the mix were carrots, celery, apple, orange, kiwi, lime and ginger.

Then, I took the crazy dog for a walk.  Trust me, he was crazy this morning!

After our walk, I snacked on 1/2 a homemade Tropical granola bar, then headed out for a run.

I ran around Castle Island in Southie.  I finished 6.5 miles in 60 minutes and felt great!  I guess that 2 week running hiatus didn’t hurt me too too much.

My post-run snack/2nd part of breakfast included a Strawberry-Banana Chobani (my absolute favorite flavor!) mixed with ground flaxseed and topped with the other 1/2 of my tropical granola bar.

With some Chai Tea.

Time to enjoy this beautiful day!

I woke up this morning and wanted juice!  So, that is what I made.

Carrots, celery, ginger, orange, apple.

This was a perfect amount of sweet and spicy (from the ginger).

I also had a small bowl of cereal with 1/4 cup Kashi puffs, 1/4 cup Uncle Sam’s cereal, 1/4 cup museli and 1/2 cup almond milk.

Juice just doesn’t really fill me up.  So, I needed a little something else.

Mid-morning, I snacked some some dried strawberries and dried kiwi.  Have you guys seen Nuts Online?  They have the best selection of dried fruit…and offer organic unsweetened dried fruit, which is hard to find!  The strawberries are the best.

Then, I got creative for lunch!

Almond Butter Banana Quesadillas

I started with a whole wheat flatbread.  I love the Whole Foods brand because they are delicious and have a small ingredient list.

And spread 1/2 with chunky almond butter.  This was Trader Joe’s Valencia AB with Flaxseeds and salt.

And, a small sliced banana.

With a shake of ground cinnamon.

Then, I folded it over and grilled it on the panini pan until warm and gooey.

This was so good!  Just what I wanted for Friday lunch.

With a cherry Crofter’s jam ‘dipping’ sauce – YUM!

On the side, I had a pineapple Chobani with a kiwi.

I thought that I was going to hit up the gym tonight, so I snacked on some coconut water and a homemade granola bar around 4pm.  But, I ended up just coming home and taking a long walk.  The weather changed from overcast and chilly to sunny and warm…I couldn’t pass it up.

Dinner was back to Bean Chili leftovers.

Tonight, after heating up the chili, I added a little milk in order to get rid of a little spice. I’m not going to lie – this chili has a kick!  The milk worked great to take away a little spice, though.

Topped with a few Mary’s Sticks & Twigs and some mexican shredded cheese.

I love this Chili!  I haven’t gotten sick of it yet.

I’m thinking of some dried fruit, ice cream or chocolate for dessert.

Once I got up, I was psyched to remember that I had juice waiting for me in the fridge from Liquiteria!

Grasshopper: apple, pear, pineapple, wheatgrass & mint.  YUP – this was delicious.  Not too sweet, not too minty, and I could not even taste the wheatgrass.  Why can’t the juices that I make taste this good?!

Along with my juice, I had 2 slices of Millet toast.  One slice with cashew butter and cherry jam, one slice with homemade Maple Cinnamon Almond Butter.  Honestly, this almond butter is the best thing since sliced bread.

Lunch included some leftovers from last night.  I was so happy that the recipe made so many Millet Patties because they are delicious.  And, perfect for leftovers.  They are good hot, cold, on top of a salad, as a burger, however you want to eat them.

I served 2 millet patties over arugula with peppers, cucumber and an pom-orange poppyseed dressing.

This dressing literally took 2-minutes to make: squeeze 1 orange into a small container, add a splash of pomegranate juice, a pinch of salt and pepper, and a shake of poppyseeds.  Shake up!  This will last me for at least 2 days.

Also part of lunch: Wallaby Vanilla Bean yogurt with Kaia Foods Chocolate Granola.

Yum, this might be my favorite flavor yet!  (Although, I got a tip that they have a maple flavor!!  I will be in love once I find it, I just know it!).

My afternoon snack consisted of another New York City goodie – a raw moonpie from One Lucky Duck!  Super delicious.  It was so rich and chocolaty…and huge…but, I couldn’t stop at just half.   Dessert before dinner, right?!

And, dinner was one of my favorites – Ten Minute Asparagus and Brown Rice made by Kate!

Along with a salad from Lauren which was jam packed with goodies – mushrooms, peppers, carrots, onions, radishes, dried edamame (which were delicious!).

Just as delicious as it always is.

Yum!  Thanks, girls for a super dinner!!

What a long, but great day!