Showing posts with label sweet potato fries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sweet potato fries. Show all posts

Friday, March 26, 2010

Lovely leftover lunch.

Quick re-cap of lunch:



Leftover roasted veggies (onions, tomatoes and zucchini) over some Spring mix salad greens. I'm totally over salad dressing these days! Well, the crappy dieted versions that I used to buy, anyway. In fact, I threw a bunch of them out this afternoon. I hardly ate salad before and I thought it was because I wasn't a "salad person," but really, it was because I bought dressings that I didn't like, just because they were low in calories and/or fat. Now? I'll gladly throw on roasted veggies (including spaghetti squash!) or hummus & feta. The mix of textures and flavors just can't be beat.



Leftover baked sweet potato fries and my new favorite sandwich (slightly melted reduced-fat Cabot cheddar and triple-berry fruit spread on a slice of flax oatbran bread).

Such an awesome lunch. The fries definitely went better with this sandwich than they did with my BBQ veggie burger concoction last night.

Took the afternoon off from work to get some shopping done before more crappy weather moves in. We're hosting a get-together for some friends tomorrow night, so I'm pretty excited. Tons of junk and booze, but it's gonna be a good time. We know some smart, funny, good-natured peeps. Love 'em!

Swam at 24 Hour Fitness this morning! I've only swam sporadically in the past, usually while on family vacations as a kid or the handful of times at old apartment complexes when the pool was actually open, clean and free of obnoxious peeing children.

Totally whopped my ass, but now I'm excited to make it part of my regular fitness routine. I only did laps for 20 minutes (including catch-my-breath breaks), then I sat in the hot tub and the steam room. My god. I've never felt that relaxed AND refreshed after a workout. I'm gonna try to make that combination a regular Friday morning routine because it just put me in such a good mood!

Still need to try the 24SET class (which I may or may not make tomorrow, weather pending...), but I'm happy to say that I've made up my mind and will indeed switch to 24 Hour Fitness once payday hits next week. The kicker in my decision? Finding out that state employees get a discount! So now, my new 24 membership will only cost $4.99 more a month than what I currently pay at Accolade. Happy day!

I'm pretty stoked. I think a change is what I needed at this point in my life. Between a new gym, new workout DVDs and new magazine routines, I'm so much more excited about and appreciative of physical fitness. What's not to love about challenging your body in new ways and seeing what it's capable of? I think being comfortable and sticking to the things I knew for years finally got to me and all I want to do now is try something different just about every day. I've been so much happier since making such changes.

That's all for me this week. Happy weekend everyone!

Thursday, March 25, 2010

It burns! It buuurns!

Tonight's dinner brought on the tears and the sniffles. I love my spice!

I wanted to start off with a salad, so I took some fresh spinach, heated it up in the micorwave for just 30 seconds and topped it with some fat-free feta:



But of course that wasn't enough... So, on went some oven-roasted veggies!



I sliced up half of a small onion (hello tears! My eyes are still recovering, over half an hour later...), some small tomatoes and a small zucchini. Sprinkled on some kosher salt, pepper and some garlic powder. I made enough for two servings, so hooray for a second roasted veggie salad for lunch tomorrow! This combo reminded me of how awesome spinach and onions are.

Next came the heat. Yeah, this guy knows what I'm talkin' about:



This stuff makes my nose run and my upper lip sweat, but who said love is delicate?

I took a veggie burger (Morning Star, I believe?), chopped it up, threw it in a pan and added a couple tablespoons of the BBQ sauce. And when using spice these days, I gotta add in some sweetness too, so I threw in some pineapple tidbits for good measure.



Served with some baked semi-curried sweet potato fries on the side. I sliced up the potato and tossed it with:
  • 2 tsp olive oil
  • kosher salt
  • pepper
  • dash of cinnamon
  • dash of red curry powder
  • dried parsley flakes
I gotta take a moment to pat my own back here; these were the best sweet potato fries I've ever made. The only *tiny* downside was I think this particular mix of spices kinda clashed with the spices in the BBQ sauce. Oh well. Overall, damn good random meal, thanks to my crazy freestylin' skills. And the potato was big enough to yield 2 servings of fries, so my lunch is going to kick so much ass tomorrow, I can't even talk about it right now.

G'night!