12 | February | 2010 | healthy laps

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Posted on February 12, 2010 by Jen

Thank goodness it’s Friday! I’m ready for the weekend to begin.

I started my friday with some oats. Due to the special occasion (it being friday and all), I added some fun toppings.

I used Steel Cut Oats today, since I am out of my favorite rolled oats. I loved the steel cut oats. They have a different texture, more like oatbran and I like it.

Steel cut oats are minimally processed. They do not have to go through steaming or rolling, like rolled oats due. For this reason, they also take longer to cook, but it’s worth the wait. A normal pot of steel cut oats can take about 20-30 minutes to cook, but I bought these quick & easy steel cut oats to make on weekdays before work. They only cook for 5-7 minutes and come out great.

One serving is 1/4 cup, which contains 150 calories.

I added a super ripe banana and 1/2 tbsp of chia seeds to my oats while they were cooking. I like whipping in the banana to create banana oats without any chunks.

On top of my oatmeal I put 3 special ingredients:

handful of unsweetened banana chips
1 tbsp Nuttzo
2 tsp Cacao Bliss

The Nuttzo is so crunchy!

With some Birthday Tea, for fun.

Check out the sprinkles!

Lunch

I’ve been working like crazy today, so I didn’t break out my lunch until almost 3! So late for me!!

Luckily, I brought a homemade salad with arugula, peppers, Valdosta pecans and goldenberries.

My second course was Honey Chobani with homemade granola!

Good thing I took pictures this morning, because lunch was gone in no time!

Dinner

Brant made me a pre-Valentine’s day dinner tonight. It was delicious!

Lemon Gnocchi with Spinach and Peas

from Epicurious.com

Ingredients:

1 cup frozen baby peas (not thawed)
1/2 cup heavy cream (he used 1% milk)
1/4 teaspoon dried hot red-pepper flakes
1 garlic clove, smashed
3 cups packed baby spinach
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 pound dried gnocchi
1/4 cup grated parmesan

Directions:

Simmer peas with cream, red-pepper flakes, garlic, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a 12-inch heavy skillet, covered, until tender, about 5 minutes.

Add spinach and cook over medium-low heat, uncovered, stirring, until wilted. Remove from heat and stir in lemon zest and juice.

Meanwhile, cook gnocchi in a pasta pot of boiling salted water (3 tablespoons salt for 6 quarts water) until al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta-cooking water, then drain gnocchi.

Add gnocchi to sauce with cheese and some of reserved cooking water and stir to coat. Thin with additional cooking water if necessary.

Served with some delicious wine given to us by my parents for Christmas 2008! Oopss!

Dinner was delicious. I forget how good gnocchi is. I loved that this wasn’t super creamy (because he didn’t use the cream) and I could taste the lemon zest.

And, Brant brought me a rose and chocolate! Yahoo! What a great guy. 🙂