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off to the big apple

Posted on March 19, 2010 by Jen

Today is the day!  We are headed down to NYC for my half marathon weekend of fun!  The plan for tomorrow is to take it easy, but to spend the entire day outside because it is going to be 70°F.  70 degrees on the first day of spring – I hope this means that we will have an awesome spring.

This morning, I started my day with some homemade coconut butter!  I toasted up 2 pieces of my Cherry, Peach toast and spread a thin layer of the coconut butter and raspberry jam.  This is easily my favorite combination.  So good.

Along with my toast, I had a white grapefruit.  It was great.

And some tea – I was so sleepy this morning!

Lunch time came around quickly today, but I was starving.  We are out of veggies in the house, so I made do with what we had.  A whole wheat mini pita slathered with spinach & artichoke hummus and a large helping of spouts.

On the side, Fage 2% greek yogurt with granola and banana.  And, a POM spritzer – 1/2 pomegranate juice, 1/2 seltzer water.  This bottle was about 1/3 full, so I just filled it up with seltzer.

The afternoon also flew by!  I didn’t even have time for an afternoon snack!  I guess that’s what happens when you take a day off in the middle of the week.  For dinner, we needed something quick since we were heading out.  So, I stopped at Chipotle!

I know, not the best food, but by far one of the best ‘fast food’ places around here.  I did hear a T.V. segment about Chipotle a few weeks ago and found out that the owner really cares about what type of food he is giving his customers!  They use organic foods and try to buy as much as they can from local farmers – I love that!  Plus, they have a decent vegetarian option, which does not happen all that often with fast food.  I wish we had a great veggie place around here!  They also have a great website with all of the nutritional information for their products, and how they cook the products (steamed, in oil, etc.).

Anyways, I got the Vegetarian Salad/Burrito Bowl.  In the bowl, I had them put romaine lettuce, a small scoop of chipotle-lime rice, fajita veggies (peppers & onions), black beans, fresh tomato salsa, corn salsa and guacamole.  They seriously have the best guac!

This was delicious!  I was in need of some colorful veggies for the day!  Check out all the guac they threw on here.

Super delicious, full of good nutrients, veggies and greens.  Just because it’s fast food doesn’t mean it is necessarily bad for you.  You just need to pick and choose the places that you go to, and pick and choose from the products they serve.

I knew that I would eventually want something sweet on our ride tonight and I could picture myself digging into the snack bag I packed for the weekend, so instead I whipped up some Banana Softserve for the road.  Same as the other night, which melty chocolate PB drizzled on top.

See you from NYC!

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Filed under: Eating Laps, Restaurant Reviews | Tagged: , , , , | 1 Comment »

cheesy kale chips

Posted on March 19, 2010 by Jen

We decided to grill last night because the weather was so nice!  I stopped at a local market and picked up some steak tips for Brant, so it was another Sunshine Veggie Patty for me!

I cut a mini whole wheat pita in half and spread Spinach & Artichoke hummus on one side and sprouts on the other.

Then put my ‘burger’ in the middle.  It had a totally different taste than last night – just as delicious, though.

We both had a salad along with our dinners, which contained romaine, cucumber, sprouts, and a pistachio-fig nut mix.

Delicious dinner that totally hit the spot on a gorgeous evening!

After dinner, I was still in the ‘cooking’ mood, so I decided to make some Cheesy Kale Chips that I have seen on other food blogs.  I already had the ingredients that I had picked up earlier this week.  I was really cheap at the store – the recipe called for a red pepper, but they were $4.99 per pepper!  The green were only $1.99, so I went with green.  Therefore, I think that my cheesy kale chips taste the same, but they look more like ‘cool ranch’ instead of ‘nacho cheese’. 🙂

Nacho Cheese Kale Chips

Ingredients:

  • 2 bunches kale, washed and torn into large pieces
  • 1.5 cups raw cashews, soaked (for at least 2 hours, mine soaked for 8)
  • 1 large red (or green) pepper
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice (about 1/2 lemon)
  • 5 tbsp nutritional yeast (find out more info here)
  • 1 tsp salt
  • squirt of agave

Directions:

  1. Wash and chop kale into large bite-size pieces.
  2. Blend all other ingredients in a food processor until smooth.
  3. Stir and massage into kale leaves.
  4. Place on dehydrator sheets and dehydrate for 8-12 hours at 105°F.

You could definitely make these in the oven as well, but keep the temperature low so that they do not brown at all.  This was my first time making kale in the dehydrator and it is amazing how much greener they stay.  Usually in my oven, they brown very quickly and become a darker green.  The nutrients are definitely all still present in my dehydrated kale!

I have seen this recipe on at least 3 blogs: Gone Raw, Greens for Good and Love Veggies and Yoga.  Thanks for passing on this recipe, ladies!

Before heading out yesterday morning, I put my cashews in a bowl to soak.

When I was ready to start making the ‘chips’, I washed and tore up the kale (removing all stems).

Into my food processor went all of the other ingredients (including my green pepper!).

All blended up in a matter of minutes!

Then, I poured the cheesy mix onto the kale and used my hands to massage the leaves and mix everything up.  Kale does not have as much of a bitter taste after you massage the leaves a bit.

And, then the individual leaves were places onto my 4 dehydrator sheets.

And stacked together to start dehydrating.

8 hours of dehydrating at 105°F, they were done!  Check out all the cheesiness stuck on this kale chip.

They were not fitting very well in my glass containers, so I bagged them for easy transport instead, although who knows if they will last long enough to need transport!

They taste delicious!  You will definitely be seeing these on the blog again.

Filed under: Eating Laps, Recipes | Tagged: , , | 7 Comments »