Taco Salad

March 21st, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Vegetable Lovin' - (1 Comments)

I made beef chili this morning.  It smelled so good that I decided to throw together an impromptu taco salad for breakfast.

Yes, taco salad for breakfast.  Stop looking at me like that.  You don’t have to eat this for breakfast if non-standard breakfast foods aren’t your thing.  We can still be friends.

Taco Salad

I made chili with grass-fed ground beef, carrots, onions and that leftover jar of Garlic Roasted Garlic sauce in my fridge from Naan pizza night.  Piled this morning on to a bed of mixed greens, some shredded colby jack cheese and avocado with a few tortilla chips on the side.  It’s likely (OK, a certainty) that a few more tortilla chips were snagged from the bag before I put it away.

Have you seen Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead?  It was released in 2011, but I just watched it over the weekend.

Holy Mother of Green Goodness this was an inspiring film!  If you’ve never seen it or haven’t heard about it – Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead is about Joe Cross, an overweight Australian man with an autoimmune disorder.  It’s a documentary about Joe’s 60 Day juice fast which lead to his losing 82 pounds and completely turning around his unhealthy lifestyle.

If the month March is about eating leafy green vegetables every day, and we’re now more than half way through the month – I guess it’s about time I stretch my wings a bit and eat some greens besides the ones I always eat.

Spinach, kale, lettuce. There are other leafy greens you know, lady.

Yeah, I know. Like Swiss chard.

Swiss Chard

Man that is one big and scary looking green leaf.  The leaves were really thick and sort of leathery.  And those blood red veins running through the middle of it? Creepy.

Oh, Kale.

March 14th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Vegetable Lovin' - (Comments Off on Oh, Kale.)

Day 14 of The Greener March Challenge has been a particularly green day – mostly thanks to this almost-past-its-prime kale that I’m trying to work through before I have to surrender it to the compost bucket.

NO, this glass is NOT my compost bucket, thankyouverymuch.

Late Green Breakfast

(I think those tulips are going to take a trip to the compost bucket sooner than my Best By March 12th baby kale is…)

Gimme Green Juice

March 10th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Vegetable Lovin' - (3 Comments)

We’re 10 days into The Greener March Challenge. ARE WE HAVING FUN YET?! Greens today came in the form of green juice that I made and drank 45 minutes before I left for a run.

We’ve had the Breville Juice Fountain Plus for about three and a half years now. I still love this little appliance, even with the addition of the Vitamix to our kitchen appliance family last year.

Breville Juicer

It’s sort of like children I suppose. I don’t love my food processor or juicer any less now that we have a Vitamix. I have room in my heart (and my appliance cupboard) for all of them.

A Greener Birthday

March 8th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Vegetable Lovin' - (10 Comments)

My biggest gal turned 9 years old today. NINE! I guess that means I must have been 16 when she was born because I can’t possibly be a day over 25 myself.

(What?)

Ava’s birthday breakfast request was bagels, and so bagels it was.  After Deep Nutrition, bagels became more of a treat around here – this is why it was a birthday request. Bagels have been missed!

Some greens still managed to elbow their way into the birthday breakfast line up – a spinach and mushroom omelet with half a French Toast bagel (awesome!) and cream cheese.

Spinach and Mushroom Omelet

The Greener March Challenge, Day 4!

Today’s green round up started with an avocado (and spinach) smoothie that was so awesome I was forced to share.

Avocado Green Smoothie

I eventually had to get out a bib and strap him into his seat because this “sharing” of my smoothie was getting out hand.

Sharing My Avocado Smoothie

(We’re going to revisit this smoothie more closely tomorrow because it deserves its very own post.)

Some red leaf and green leaf lettuce was seen on top of a turkey burger in the afternoon, plus the last of the roasted Brussels sprouts from yesterday, topped with a little a garlic powder.

It’s March 1. It’s time to start thinking spring.  It’s time starting thinking green.

In my post about choices leading to habits, I mentioned the role that green smoothies played in my journey to better, more enjoyable running.   Devann left a comment on that post about rounding up some friends to do a 30 day green smoothie challenge and she invited me to join them.

I like it.  Let’s do it.

Simple Saucy Kale

January 25th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Vegetable Lovin' - (10 Comments)

I had a bunch of kale in my fridge that was about to be past its prime, so I decided this was the perfect excuse to try out a new dinner side and (bonus!) make myself a snack at the same time.

With a small baby man on the prowl, I do most of my cooking during the morning and afternoon hours right now – i.e., nap time. I aim to stock the fridge with prepared food so that when dinner time rolls around, all we need to do is heat and eat.

Cauliflower is not one of those vegetables I get really giddy about.

I mean, I like cauliflower and all – but you won’t see me running to the produce section while shouting and hip-hip-hooray-ing with my arms flailing above my head like a wild woman when I see that cauliflower is on sale.

I’m probably more likely to say “oh, cauliflower is on sale this week? that’s cool.”

This recipe makes me slightly more giddy about cauliflower than usual though. Cauliflower Mac and Cheese? I didn’t invent this idea, but I did think “I’d eat that” when the idea was presented to me. My next thought was “I need to make that.”