If there is one thing that is perpetually on my list of Things to Get Better At, it would be meal planning. I always go to the grocery store and buy the same old, same old ingredients to make the same old, same old meals – not having any specific plan for the week  (Maybe I have one new or specific meal in mind.)  I rarely decide on what I’m going to make until it’s time to get started making dinner.  Sometimes this is fine, other times it feels very boring.

This is the container of spinach I typically buy from Wegmans.

Spinach Container

For $3.99 you get 3.5 (2 cup) servings.  $3.99 divided by 7 cups of spinach works out to be $0.53 cents per cup.  This is in line with the spinach price listed in the 44 Healthy Food Items Under $1.

Spinach and kale are among the dirty dozen – I rarely make an exception when it comes to buying leafy greens, I feel strongly about sticking with organic when it comes to spinach, lettuce, kale and the like.  Conventional greens are said to be highly sprayed, spinach alone is covered with 48 different pesticides and chemicals.  (ACK!)

I eat eggs just about every day.  They are easy to prepare, crazy good for you and there are approximately one gagillion different ways to use them. I completely agree that eggs are one of the healthiest foods on this planet and in my opinion, represent the pinnacle of affordable nutrition.

I try to buy pastured eggs from my local co-op or farmers at the markets because free range chickens produce eggs that are nutritionally superior to conventional eggs.  When I don’t have time to get to the markets or the co-op, I do sometimes buy organic supermarket eggs, but it’s important to say that organic supermarket eggs are not the same as eggs you would get from a local farm or your own backyard.

The Quinoa Bowl

January 9th, 2014 | Posted by Alison Spath in Dinner Time - (2 Comments)

I love this term “quinoa bowl”.  It just sounds so… cozy.  Like we should nestle right in and rest our heads on pillows of soft, fluffy quinoa and take a little nap.

Sweet potato spinach quinoa with cumin

Or just eat it.  That’s fine too.

Over the holidays I tried my hand at Sweet Potato Kale Quinoa Cakes to take to a New Years Eve dinner party, but they were sort of a flop.  They tasted great, but they didn’t hold together very well.  Still, even though the quinoa cakes were a fail, the ingredients were a win and I was left wanting to make it as a dinner side – more specifically, a “quinoa bowl” that I’ve seen around the interwebs and have been excited to steal try.  A quinoa bowl is comfort food with benefits – warm and carby, but some nutritional perks you don’t get with rice or pasta.

Sardine Salad (Be Not Afraid!)

June 3rd, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Lunch - (9 Comments)

There’s been a lot of talk about juicing around here lately.  I think it’s time we veer wildly off the juice beaten path to talk about sardines.  Sardines!  Aren’t you excited?  Well get excited!  Sardines make a fanastic salad!  So fantastic that I’m going to keep increasing the amount of exclamation marks I use when I talk about them throughout this entire post!!  See!!!  Isn’t this getting exciting?!!!!

Sardine Salad with Olive Oil and Lime

No?  I suppose that was getting a little out of hand.  But I am still excited about the sardine salad I made for lunch yesterday, it was surprisingly good!

This smoothie looked really good and chocolate-y, until I added two handfuls of spinach to it. Then it looked a bit closer in color to a pair of combat fatigues than a delicious chocolate drink.

Chocolate Spinach Smoothie

Oh well.  Drink up, soldier!

I gave the juicer a break today and made a green (brown) smoothie instead. Today’s combo was frozen banana, cocoa powder, cottage cheese, milk and spinach. It might not be pretty, but it tasted fine and went down the hatch without hesitation.  I only felt hesitation when I got the camera out.

Crustless Spinach Quiche

March 22nd, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Dinner Time - (3 Comments)

Taco salad for breakfast yesterday, eggs for dinner today.

Crustless Spinach Quiche

Dinner for breakfast, breakfast for dinner.  Someone must have set the clocks ahead 12 hours.

Tonight was a crustless quiche with spinach, mushrooms, red pepper and onions.  Crustless quiche means no grains or refined carbohydrates, it saves you on calories too.  I was pretty strict with my grain intake for a while after reading Deep Nutrition at the end of last year (i.e., eating very little grain) but I am eating more grains from time to time now.

A few days ago my dad (who is also a runner) asked if I was going to run the “Johnny’s Runnin’ of the Green” on Saturday, the annual St. Patrick’s Day race here in Rochester.

I said no, I was too busy with half marathon training – and besides, I’d rather be Eatin’ of the Green.

(I didn’t really say that last part.)

Fast forward to this morning, in the car and less than 2 minutes away from my yoga class, I discovered the road I was about to turn onto was closed – blockaded by cop cars with flashing lights and caution tape. It was then that I noticed all the runners dressed in green costumes, green shirts, hats and sparkly shamrock antennae.

Pizza Night

March 15th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Dinner Time - (5 Comments)

It’s homemade pizza night!

Wait, scratch that.  It’s EASY homemade pizza night.

Nann Pizza Fixing Overview

A couple packages of Naan (Indian flat bread) for some fast, deliciously soft pizza crusts, veggie toppings, tomato sauce, shredded mozzerella cheese, and a glass of Cabernet in the corner up there. (For me, not for the pizza.)

Muir Glen Pasta Sauce

Pasta sauce, pizza sauce. Tomato, tomato. Garlic roasted garlic sauce? That sounds like it belongs on pizza to me.

Diced peppers and mushrooms for a couple of grown up veggie pizzas.

Veggie Prep Sauteed Peppers and Mushrooms

Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld was one of the first books I read when I was beginning to learn more about cooking and nutrition.  (The Family Nutrition Book by Dr. William Sears was another one if you’re just getting started.)

I remember looking at her recipe for brownies with spinach and wondering if you truly couldn’t tell there was vegetables in them.  This was about a year before I discovered green smoothies and did not yet understand the invisibility powers of spinach when prepared the right way.