Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Clean Eating Beans and Rice

Hi ALL!!!  Hope your week is going great so far.  It’s a little grey, rainy and rather chilly here on the east coast.  Feels more like fall instead of August but I’m on vacation and any day that does not involve going there is a good day in my world.  There aren’t any exciting plans for the week, just hanging out at home and taking care of some things I’ve been putting off.   I spent most of Monday laying around in my pj’s, watching tv, surfing the net and looking through cookbooks.  I thought about the fact that the dishes needed to be done, and the floors needed to be cleaned, not to mentions the 54323 loads of laundry to do … I don’t know how 2 people can have so much laundry.  I think my neighbors sneak in when we’re at work and drop theirs off … but I didn’t feel one bit guilty about not doing it.
One of the cookbooks I was browsing was the Eat – Clean Diet for Men.  I  think I have all of the Eat Clean / Tosca Reno books.  I bought this one in hopes there would be hubby approved recipes in it.  They all have a lot of great recipes, training and shopping tips as well as meal plans and grocery lists.  Tosca is Canadian born in Quebec.  At the age of 40 ( I think), she started to change her life / health for the better by eating clean and working out.  In my opinion she has smokin' body, and the fact she’s 52… the saying, you’re never to old comes to mind.
tosca-reno

I’ve tried a few of the Eat Clean recipes and haven’t been disappointed.  One in particular that hubby and I both loved was the Pasta Roll Ups with Turkey and Spinach
PastaRollups_article 
I can’t do a lot of dairy so not one I can eat often but it is a delish and easy recipe.
I decided on this one last night for my supper, too many veggies for hubby so I made a different meal for him, but I’ll get to that in another post.
Black Beans and Rice
Nutritional Information: 1/2 cup serving  110 Cal; 3 g Fat; 3 g Fiber; 3.6 g Protein; 18 g Carbs
Ingredients:
  • 2 cups brown rice, cooked
  • 1 19 oz can black beans
  • 1/2 cup chopped red pepper or pepper of choice
  • 1/2 cup chopped celery
  • 1 cup canned, fresh or thawed frozen corn
  • 1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped (I substituted cilantro.  That’s what I had on hand)
  • 2 Tbsp chives, chopped
  • 2 Tbsp EVOO
  • 2 tsp fresh thyme, minced (I used 1 tsp dried)
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric
  • 1/2 tsp paprika
  • 1/2 tsp sea salt
  • 2/3 cup fresh lime juice (I used the juice of one lime)
  • 1 tsp hot sauce
**The original recipe is served cold.  I sautéed my onions, peppers, celery and corn,. Mixed in the rice and a little low sodium chicken broth, a few canned San Marsano tomatoes and added the beans at the end just to warm them up and served with boneless skinless chicken thighs.
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It was pretty tasty hot and made a good side dish.  The leftovers I nibbled on out of the fridge today were just as good. It would make a good burrito filling too, just add a little cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, spinach…yumm!!!
Enjoy your night!!



New Camera = Wordless Wednesday

My first wordless Wednesday post, Enjoy!!                                              IMG_0019
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Happy Wednesday!!!

Monday, August 8, 2011

Quinoa Tabouleh and Real Estate Woes

When last I checked in I had recently put my house on the market.  Well..... my house is STILL on the market, not a good thing in my world.  There were two offers and both fell through at the last minute.

A common comment from people viewing the house is that they were hoping for more of an open concept.  Ummmm....people it's a 50 year old house, open concept didn't exist then, what did you expect.  Unfortunately for me this house was a rental, my tenants moved out so it's killing me to pay the mortgage while it sits empty.  Needless to say I'm not in my happy place right now.  I'm not sure what I did to PISS OFF the real estate gods but whatever it was I'M SORRY!!!!  Please let my house sell.... SOON!!

Moving on to the food.  Quinoa seems to be a recurring theme on the blog.  Considering I hated it the first time I tried it that's progress.  I'm sure most of you already have the scoop on it but in case you don't here a few tidbits

  • It's a seed not a grain
  • Gluten free
  • High in fiber 
  • Complete protein containing all of the essential amino acids.
One of my favorite foods is Tabouleh I could eat it every day.  It's a refreshing and healthy salad. Sometimes I find it hard to get my hands on the small bulgur and a lot of it that I have purchased has a stale taste to it which I don't like. Also, I'm trying to cut out as much gluten as possible so Quinoa makes a great substitute. 


Tabouleh with Quinoa
** Measurements are only estimates, I've never used a recipe to make it.**

Ingredients
1 cup cooked quinoa cooled ( I use red and white)
Juice of one lemon approx 4 Tbsp or more to taste I like mine lemony
1 large or 2 small green onions finely chopped
2 or 3 large mint leaves finely chopped
2  Tbsp EVOO
3 garlic cloves grated or minced ( I always grate my garlic using a microplane grater)
3 or 4 medium ripe tomatoes seeded and chopped
1 large bunch of parsley finely chopped (I prefer curly but you can use flat leaf too)
Sea Salt and fresh cracked pepper

Combine the lemon juice, EVOO, garlic, salt and pepper in a bowl.  Whisk to combine.  Add remaining ingredients and refrigerate for an  hour or so to let the flavours combine.



You can play with this to make it your own.  More tomatoes, less parsley, more garlic... whatever your tastes are. 

Slather a cracker with some crack hummus aka Sabra roasted garlic, and top with a scoop of this soooo good.

With any luck I'll get a couple of posts in this week.  I'm on vacation and it looks like rain for most of the week here in Halifax, so I'll have time on my hands.  

Have a great day!!