Dinners Archives - Page 9 of 36 -

Dinner Out at Mill Valley Kitchen

Post author:Melanie
Post published:July 20, 2013
Post category:Dinners / Gluten-Free / Restaurants
Post comments:8 Comments

Last night Dana and I ate dinner at Mill Valley Kitchen in St.Louis Park. They offer Northern Californian cuisine and use fresh, local, and sustainably sourced ingredients to create their menu. I was looking for a restaurant with a nice atmosphere, with healthy and delicious food that wouldn’t throw my GI system off. Luckily, Mill Valley Kitchen had just what I was looking for.

I started dinner off with their raspberry lemonade from the natural refreshments menu and Dana ordered a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon.

I drank the whole thing and even ate the mint. Is that weird? Does anybody else do that?

For dinner we both ordered the Nantucket Day Boat Scallops…

Gorgeous!

They tasted as good as they looked. Cooked to perfection.

We also got a side of Sesame Carrots….insanely delicious. I WILL be making these at home.

and Brussels Sprouts with Lemon.

It was a lot of food and I was so happy to have had so many leftovers to take home with me for the next day because everything tasted so good! The food was cooked simply and with such fresh and flavorful ingredients. It’s exactly how I like to cook at home! The nutrition facts are listed on their menu and they have clearly marked gluten-free options too. I like that I could leave the restaurant feeling good about what I ate.

I would recommend Mill Valley Kitchen to anyone looking for a healthy and comfortable dining experience.

Since we were all dressed up from dinner, I took the opportunity to get a family photo once we got home. 🙂

The rest of the evening was spent with Moose. We went for a walk and then sat out on the back patio. The weather was absolutely perfect last night. It was the perfect way to end the night.

Happy Saturday!

All About the Food & Yellow Quinoa Recipe

Post author:Melanie
Post published:July 16, 2013
Post category:Dinners / Gluten-Free / Recipes
Post comments:8 Comments

Except for breakfast yesterday, I actually managed to snap photos of a lot of my food so guess what I am going to be sharing with you all today!

My breakfast was my favorite at the moment blueberry smoothie all jam-packed with blueberries, kale, pineapple, and so much more. It tasted awesome per usual.

Lunch was insanely delicious. I pulled together a salad using leftover mixed dark greens with tomatoes and cucumbers from Sunday, leftover yellow quinoa (recipe below!), leftover chicken, zucchini, sunflower seeds, and this homemade Greek dressing. The flavor in this thing was outrageous. I am going to be making this for lunch again today I think.

I spent a little time in the kitchen mixing up some confectionaries (sugar-free). This is a teaser photo. I promise I really am going to share some homemade dark chocolate recipes with you all soon.

I also made dried pineapple in the food dehydrator. These make for the perfect sweet dessert. They taste like gummy candy. So good!

Dinner

I didn’t really have any plans for dinner, but when the time rolled around, I knew I had a fridge packed full of veggies, and they were screaming to be eaten. So I threw together my old go-to dinner: veggie hash with an over-easy egg.

This time I used onions, garlic, mushrooms, broccoli, zucchini, green beans, salt, pepper, and paprika. I was so excited to be able to eat an egg again. I had eliminated them from my diet when I was following the Clean Program and this was my first time eating one in about a month. I missed my eggs!

Mmm seriously such a good dinner. Such a great day of eats in general!

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So remember that yellow quinoa I made for Sunday night’s Mediterranean dinner?

My inspiration for this recipe came from multiple dinners to one of my favorite Mediterranean restaurants where they serve yellow rice underneath mounds of veggies and shawarma. Num. Ca you see it hidden under there? This was a photo of my dinner from the restaurant a while back.

The secret ingredient in my quinoa that makes it yellow is a spice called turmeric. Did you know turmeric has been shown to be a natural anti-inflammatory? I can almost guarantee that nearly every one of us could benefit from a little anti-inflammatory assistance within our bodies. I know I can use the extra help!

Anyway, this quinoa is extremely simple and it was the perfect accompaniment to the Mediterranean inspired meal I made for Sunday night’s dinner which included grilled chicken, kabobs, and a veggie salad.

You could add in onions and green peas to this quinoa recipe to amp up the nutritional value even more. You could also add in veggies AND a lean protein like chicken and you would have yourself a one pot meal.

Yellow Quinoa

This makes one BIG batch of quinoa

Ingredients

2½ cups dry quinoa
5 cups chicken bone broth
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp turmeric
1 heaping tsp cumin
dash of onion powder
salt to taste

Instructions

In a large saucepan or pot, combine quinoa, broth, and garlic and bring to a boil.
Cover pot and reduce to simmer. Simmer for 15 minutes.
At the end of the cooking process, add the remaining seasonings. Season to taste if necessary.
Serve with your favorite kabob combination, on a salad or even on its own!

Happy Day my friends.

Have you ever cooked with turmeric? What are your favorite spices to cook with?

Weekend Snapshots

Post author:Melanie
Post published:July 15, 2013
Post category:Breakfast / Dinners / Family / Gluten-Free / Home Life / Training / Workouts
Post comments:13 Comments

I am coming off of what was one epic weekend. It was an absolute blast having my brother and Ana around all weekend. Our family was able to spend a lot of time together this weekend which of course I just love.

Since it’s Monday and since a good majority of us including myself may be a little tired today, I’m going to keep the rest of this post real simple.

Here are some weekend snapshots!

Thursday night we hosted a small BBQ for our special Colombian guests.

Friday I grabbed lunch with the lovely Katie and Becky at Crave at Mall of America. Love love these girls.

I ordered the salmon salad which came with mixed greens, salmon, mandarin oranges, goat cheese and pistachios (I think). Honestly it wasn’t anything to write home about but it tasted good still. I think I was so absorbed in conversation that I hardly remember eating it. Yikes!

Friday afternoon Dana and I enjoyed a short and hilly bike ride through the neighborhood. I am hoping to do a post this week about my casual approach to training for the duathlon.

Saturday morning started off with banana with almond butter and no-sugar added dried cranberries.

Then we ran a bunch of errands including a trip to the local farmers market where I picked up these beauts for my mom and dad.

And later in the evening we had a Mexican fiesta with the family.

On Sunday Dana and I took our bikes to St. Paul and biked 10 miles bike along the Mississippi. I LOVE this area. It is beautiful.

I finished the weekend off with a homemade Mediterranean dinner complete with kabobs, grilled chicken, mixed green salad, and yellow quinoa (recipe to come for the yellow quinoa).

It was an absolute incredible weekend. I hope yours was too!

Clean Eating Food Menu For Camping

Post author:Melanie
Post published:July 4, 2013
Post category:Breakfast / Dinners / Gluten-Free / holidays / Lunch / Travel / Vacations
Post comments:9 Comments

Happy 4th of July to all of my fellow Americans! I hope your day is full of celebrating with loved ones and BBQ! In case you missed it, yesterday I compiled a list of 10 patriotic recipes that would be perfect for a picnic or BBQ today.

Kitchen Mayhem

Over the past few days I have spent many hours preparing food for our camping weekend. Typical camping food for us is usually kabobs, burgers, chex mix, and s’mores, or something close to that, but this time around we will be eating a little differently. With my hopes to keep up with the clean eating while I am away, I planned out a whole clean menu for us. I don’t even want to know how many total hours I truly spent in the kitchen. All I know is it is a lot more time than what I usually spend when preparing food for a camping trip. I knew it would be a lot of work to plan a “clean” menu, but also knew it would be so worth it! I enlisted the help of some clean eating recipes that I found online to help ease the process. In case you are interested, I thought I would share with you my clean eating food menu for camping.

On the menu for the weekend:

Breakfasts:

Cooked buckwheat with cinnamon, a touch of stevia, almond butter and dried fruit. I am incredibly excited for this. I taste tested it after I made it and it’s awesome! To prepare it, I cooked it per directions after letting it soak for 24 hours to aid in digestion. I then added coconut milk, cinnamon, and stevia. I let it cool and then packaged it in a canning jar to bring along with us. We can either eat it cold, or warm it up at the campsite for breakfasts.

Lunches:

Baked Falafel with salad and homemade (dairy-free) ranch dressing. I used my falafel recipe and also added carrots, red onion, and flaxseed. I baked them at home so that they would be all ready to go when needed. I’m excited to see how they turned out! I used Healthy Blender Recipe’s recipe for the ranch dressing. It’s pretty tangy and should be really good on a salad with the falafel.
Lunch out somewhere
Leftovers

Dinners:

Asian turkey meatballs over sesame spaghetti squash. I mixed and formed the meatballs and then froze them raw. We will cook them once we get to our campsite most likely on the first night so that we can have them for leftovers for lunch the next day. I got the meatball recipe from Queen of Quinoa but also added garlic and coconut aminos. I used a recipe from Family Fresh Cooking as my inspiration for the spaghetti squash but made a couple of tweaks to it as well. I used coconut aminos instead of wheat-free tamari paste and red wine vinegar instead of rice vinegar. Trying sandwiches from a very famous joint by Jimmy John Owner is also a good idea.
Black bean quinoa burgers with roasted veggies. I also formed these patties and froze them uncooked. I used a recipe I found online but am not super happy with them. I taste tested one and they tasted okay but they are pretty crumbly. I like my version better but couldn’t make them this time around because they have tomatoes and eggs in the recipe which are not allowed on the clean program. *Remember this is VERY short term!* For the roasted veggies, I roasted them halfway to start the process and will finish toasting them up at the campsite.
Leftovers or out

Spaghetti squash…

Raw turkey meatballs…

Uncooked black bean quinoa burgers…

Halfway roasted veggies (zucchini, onions, garlic, kohlrabi, and turnips)…

Snacks:

Raw veggies: snap peas, carrots
Raw fruit: watermelon, cherries, apples
Dried fruit: no-sugar added dried cranberries, mango, and pineapple
Mixed Nuts
Brown Rice Cakes
Rice Crackers
Homemade sugar-free dark chocolate (lightly sweetened with stevia)

I made insane amounts of the burgers, meatballs, and falafel which is why I am planning on having leftovers for 1-2 meals. As you can see, I was a busy, busy bee. I even have callouses on my hands to show for it. I can’t wait to go relax and enjoy all of this wonderful food now!

I hope you all have a fabulous holiday weekend! Catch up with you later gators!

Weekend Scenes: St. Anthony Falls, Maca, and Fresh Greens

Post author:Melanie
Post published:July 1, 2013
Post category:Breakfast / Dinners / Gluten-Free / Health / Moose / Recipes
Post comments:2 Comments

Happy July! It’s going to take a little while for me to actually believe it’s July but I’ll get there eventually. Once again, the month of June went by in a flash.

Anyway, how was everyone’s weekend? Mine was downright fabulous. It involved a lot of rest and relaxation. This post jumps around a bit so get ready…

Over the weekend I decided that I will not be following out Option 1 of the Clean Program, but I will be following Option 2 and throwing Option 1 in sometimes. So what the heck does that mean anyway? It means that instead of breakfast and dinner being a smoothie/shake/soup, and lunch being a solid meal, I will now have the option of having solid meals at all three meals just as long as they fit into the foods allowed on the Elimination Diet.

However, for a while I plan on continuing having a smoothie in the morning (that’s easy in the summer), but for the rest of the day, I don’t want to be tied down to the idea of having to have a pureed dinner. This doesn’t mean that I won’t throw one in there time and again to give my digestion an extra little rest, because I will, just not every day.

This fits better with my lifestyle and given that we will be going camping soon, I feel much more comfortable following the elimination diet and Option 2 while we are away versus the two blended meals; that would be extremely difficult. So, I’m still giving my body the detox, just in a more realistic way for me. That’s my plan.

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This weekend I threw together my favorite salmon recipe minus the butter that usually goes with the almonds and capers. To tell you the truth, I didn’t really miss the butter!

This lunch held me over for a loooong time which was a good thing because Dana and I headed to Minneapolis to go for a little walk around the St. Anthony Main area. If ya’ll come to Minnesota you should really put this area on your must-see list. It is incredibly beautiful, and so full of life and fitness. I imagined what it would be like to live over there and have these great paths at my leisure to run/walk/bike and I got a little jealous of some of my friends who lived over there (ONW) :wink:. It would be so motivating to look out the window and see handfuls of people out being active. It would make me want to go lace up the sneaks and get out there too!

I do truly love where I live too. It’s just different! More suburban-y.

I joked that Moose wasn’t a “city” dog because he was sniffing every other inch of the ground while the other dogs walked along very nicely like they’d been there, sniffed that, a dozen times already.

I enjoyed every second of St. Anthony Falls…

Afterwards we drove over to Lake Nokomis to have a picnic. I made a simple lentil dish with onions, garlic, mushrooms, kale, carrots, cumin, turmeric, oregano, salt and pepper. K, it doesn’t sound that simple after typing all of that out, but really, it was simple to make! I crunched up some cashews on top. Delish!

Moose was really enjoying himself while we picnicked–there were lots of young pup chicks to scope out. He was extremely exhausted at this point too.

We learned that he doesn’t enjoy celery…

He really doesn’t like many vegetables we offer (not that we give him people food too often because we really don’t), and that’s probably because of the funny texture. He’s used to his dog food. Mmmm :wink:.

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My newest breakfast smoothie includes a new-to-me ingredient called Maca powder. “Maca is an herbaceous plant native to the high Andean Mountains of Bolivia and Peru.” source

Navitas Naturals Maca Powder

“The maca root was prized throughout the Incan empire for its adaptogenic-like qualities that enable it to nourish and balance the body’s delicate endocrine system, and to help cope with stress. It also energizes naturally, and can aid in helping to balance hormones.” Source

“In the mountainous regions where maca comes from, it is a regular staple in the diet and is often eaten boiled and sliced, similar to potato chips. Other preparations include use as a gruel with milk, and cooked with potatoes, apples, oats, quinoa or fava beans. The roots are also toasted and ground to prepare a maca coffee-like beverage, and fermented cooked and mashed to make a mild homemade beer. Some Peruvians prefer the boiled roots with water, milk, honey and cinnamon. Today, it is possible to find a wide range of products infused with maca, including whiskey, wine, ice cream and cosmetics.

Maca Powder has a pungent and sweet nutty taste with hints of butterscotch flavor. It can be mixed easily into smoothies, shakes and juices for a flavorful and healthy boost, and it can also be added to desserts and baked goods.” Source

I am all about any natural ways I can try to regulate the hormonal system and I’m really enjoying this Maca!

Unfortunately with the Elimination Diet I cannot have bananas because this would be a great addition to a banana smoothie, but since I can’t, I’ve had to come up with other ways to include it in smoothies. Here is my latest concoction:

Superfood Smoothie

kale
frozen blueberries
almond milk
maca powder
100% raw cacao powder
cinnamon
a touch of stevia to taste

I am having so much fun learning about these different superfoods and natural remedies! Come on body, let’s start to normalize!

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On Sunday we headed to a local Farmer’s Market to stock up on fresh herbs that I will be using this week to prepare our camping meals! We are going to be eating like royalty while we camp. I am going to try to include some recipes for you all when I am away. They are all “clean” but anyone can enjoy them!

We bought dill, parsley, cilantro, zucchini, green onion, and asparagus; all Minnesota grown. MMm mmm. So fresh!

I used the asparagus to make an asparagus leek soup for Dana and myself last night (yes, we ate hot soup on an 80 degree day which is why I’m changing my Clean Plan like I told you earlier).

I don’t have the recipe for ya because it isn’t my most favorite soup ever, but the ingredients were: asparagus, leeks, kale, cashews, water, thyme, bay leaves salt, pepper, and coconut milk.

The flavor was actually really good but I just made it too thin.

We took Moose to the dog park and did some yard work and then relaxed for the evening. It was a wonderful weekend. The weather was perfect which made me oh so happy!

I have exciting and fun news to share with you all this week (hopefully tomorrow) about a fitness opportunity to all you local gals! Keep your eyes peeled for it. 😉

How was YOUR weekend?!

Veggie-Packed Green & Clean Soup

Post author:Melanie
Post published:June 27, 2013
Post category:Dinners / Gluten-Free / Recipes
Post comments:11 Comments

I mentioned in yesterday’s post that I made an awesome green, veggie-packed soup that was part of my clean eating program. I was bummed I didn’t write down the recipe because it turned out so great. Well, I went back and looked at the recipe that had originally inspired me, and I was able to pull the recipe together out of memory!

Inspiration from this recipe

So without further ado, I am going to keep this one short and sweet for you. Here is my recipe for Green & Clean Soup!

Green & Clean Soup

Ingredients

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 celery ribs, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 green zucchini, chopped
2 cups green beans, chopped
2 cups broccoli
¼ cup raw almonds, chopped
3 cups chicken broth*
1 cup water
dash of Thyme
sea salt and black pepper
*I ran out of chicken broth so had to use 1 cup of water. You can use 4 cups of chicken broth, or if you want to keep this meal vegan, use vegetable stock.

Instructions

In a medium soup pot, saute the onion. celery, and garlic in the olive oil for about 3 minutes.
Next add in the zucchini, green beans, and broccoli and let saute together for 3-5 more minutes.
Add in almonds, broth, thyme, and salt and pepper, and bring soup to a boil.
Once boiling, cover pot, and reduce to simmer. Let simmer for 20 minutes.
Use a blender to puree batches of the soup until all of the soup is blended.
Serve warm with a drizzle of olive oil on top.

Sweet Potato with Honey Cinnamon Almond Butter & Beautiful Blooms

Post author:Melanie
Post published:June 19, 2013
Post category:Dinners / Gluten-Free / Home Life / Lunch / Moose / Recipes
Post comments:11 Comments

To all you dog-lovers out there. A friend of mine is needing to find a home for Shelby, an intact female 7 1/2-year old AKC German Shepherd Dog.

She has her AKC papers, most recent vet records from early 2013, and microchip information available. She was trained as a puppy by a specialist in military and police dogs 6 years ago. She would NOT be good in a family with kids younger than teens or with cats. Any person with her will need to be comfortable being firm with her – anyone who has had Shepherds understands that that is a breed trait and not necessarily a personality trait. She has been socialized and is generally good with all other dogs – although large dogs are better – as long as introduced properly.

Shelby needs to find a home before June 27th or she will be placed into the humane society. Please email me at beautifullynutty@gmail.com if you are interested!!

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It’s Wednesday, you know it, it’s Wednesday and I’ll show it! I’m feeling a little cooky this Wednesday. I blame it on the sunshine. 😉 I LOVE it!

I’ve been taking the doctor’s advice and sticking to lower intensity workouts for now, mostly in the form of walks outside with Moose. It has been so beautiful outside lately and I enjoy the fact that when I go outside for a walk with Moose I am benefited in three ways:

I get to move my body and feel great
Moose gets to move his body and feel great
I get to soak in some much-needed Vitamin D.

Triple whammy!

Lunch

Part of my lunch yesterday was baked sweet potato slices with honey cinnamon almond butter.

I baked the sweet potato slices in coconut oil the night before, covered them when they were done baking, and put them in the fridge for later. When I was ready to eat the slices, I stuck them in the microwave for a short time and they were good to go.

For the almond butter, I mixed together almond butter, honey, and cinnamon and then tried adding water to thin it out but it actually made the mixture thicken. My original plan was to make a pretty drizzle over the top of the sweet potatoes, but instead I had to plop it into the center. It was really probably thin enough, I should have just left it. Oh well, next time.

What failed in presentation made up for in taste. This combo was spectacular. I have tried sweet potato and peanut butter but I don’t think I have ever had sweet potato with almond butter. I seriously think I prefer the almond butter on it! Who would have thought.

Changing gears…our yard is in full bloom. We have these beautiful pink peonies that I swear only last for a couple of days, so when they bloom, I make it a must to snap a couple of photos because they are absolutely beautiful.

I called in Moose to model in the yard and add an extra point of interest. He ~~put up with me~~ happily obliged and did an excellent job posing for the photos. 😉

Please excuse my poor photography skills. I couldn’t seem to exclude my shadow from most of the photos.

Moose enjoying the fragrant lilacs…

And the blinding sun…

If dogs could talk I don’t think I would want to know what Moose was saying to me in that last photo.

I am truly enjoying nature’s beauty in our backyard (and so is Moose)!

Random side note: I cannot for the life of me remember how to spell German Shepherd. I don’t know how many times I have probably spelled it wrong on the blog, on twitter, etc. Forgive me Moose if your mom embarrassed you.

Dinner

After one failed attempt at an over-easy egg, my second attempt was a partial fail as well. I could not seem to keep the yolk from breaking last night. I settled with my second attempt and served my “over-easy” egg on top of sautéed red bell peppers, onions, and quinoa.

Then topped it with salsa and cilantro!

It was absolutely delicious and very satisfying.

Happy hump day my friends. Do something that makes you happy today.

A Symbol of Hope & Weekend Recap

Post author:Melanie
Post published:June 17, 2013
Post category:Breakfast / Dinners / Gluten-Free / Health / Recipes / Workouts
Post comments:9 Comments

Thank you all for your sweet comments on my last couple of posts. I have been feeling very sentimental lately (more so than usual) and it is so nice to have this blog as an outlet to share my thoughts and feelings. You are all so supportive and it makes the journey so much easier knowing how loved and supported I am. I know I am on the right track.

I have been noticing this cardinal friend of mine hanging out in our backyard quite often. There’s something about cardinals and blue jays that just makes me so happy. They are absolutely beautiful. Plus, the lilac bush to the left of him is in full bloom and is so fragrant and gorgeous! No wonder he likes our backyard.

According to this source, “The male cardinal reminds us passion, warmth and vibrancy is available to us – even in under the cloak of winter’s grey clouds.”

A list of symbolic cardinal meanings:

Hope
Love
Cheer
Pride
Focus
Energy
Renewal

“Those who attract the cardinal as their totem are naturally energetic, love life, and happily help others where/when they can.”

Pretty incredible, right? I’ll take that handsome guy as a positive sign.

This weekend was pretty darn fantastic, albeit it flew by way too fast as they always do.

Lately I have been eating smaller meals frequently throughout the day. I find that this helps my digestive system to feel better because I’m not loading food in all it once and making it overwork sporadically. Eating small meals helps to keep my energy level up too. This works for some people, doesn’t work for others.

I snapped a few food photos throughout the weekend of some of my mini meals. This one couldn’t have been more simple: raw zucchini, red bell peppers, carrots, and quinoa with coconut aminos.

On Friday night, Dana and I had dinner at Whole Foods salad bar. I filled up on tons of veggies, quinoa, chicken, lentils and salads. It was a box full of love if you ask me.

On Saturday, we ran in the Fill Their Plate 10k run. The proceeds go to fight childhood hunger and I was so excited to be participating in a race that had such an incredible cause.

I know I said in Friday’s post that I need to cool it on the intense exercise (no Insanity, and no longer runs), but since I had already registered for this race I had told myself that I was still going to run it, but then after that I would chill out for a while and stick to shorter runs, walks, yoga, swimming, or leisure bike rides.

We are actually getting summer weather here in MN after waiting way too long for it, so our run was actually super sticky and humid, more so than we are used to coming off of our long “Sprinter” (spring/winter). This made the run pretty challenging for us. However, I think I actually may have hit my time goal (an hour or less) that I was hoping for, but definitely not stressing out over. When we ran across the finish line, the timer said 58 minutes and change, but I know we didn’t start right away when the clock started. I’m still waiting for the website to post results, but when they do I will let you know if I reached the time goal!

I was a hot and sweaty and sticky mess after the race. When we got home I made us a pot of coffee and we had a super chill afternoon watching Fools Rush In (first time watching this movie and I really liked it) and sipping on our coffee.

On Saturday evening we celebrated Father’s Day with Dana’s parents. The weather was MN weird…on the drive over it was raining and storming, but then it cleared up and was a perfectly sunny evening. We spent a lot of time sitting outside on the deck soaking up the sun.

We had delicious steak and shrimp kabobs for dinner with a big veggie salad…

And I DID have ice cream cake for dessert. I figure it was just one day. Every other day I am refined white sugar free. I am going to continue to enjoy these moments as they come because such is life and I want to enjoy life (just as long as these moments don’t turn into every day occurrences, then I would have to choose my days wisely). 😉

We are celebrating Father’s Day with my family next weekend. I’m hoping to dig out some throw back dad and daughter photos to share with you then 🙂

Sunday was the usual: coffee, breakfast, and newspaper. I made myself a bowl-o-banana with almond butter, cinnamon and raw organic honey.

One of my afternoon mini meals: an apple with tuna salad. In the tuna salad: white albacore tuna packed in water and drained, celery, dill pickle relish, mustard, and black pepper.

Although this made for a pretty photo, this wasn’t the easiest way to eat the tuna salad. Next time I will slice the apple and serve the tuna alongside the apple so I can just scoop each individual slice. You live you learn.

We enjoyed the company of two of our best friends in the afternoon. I hope we can make an ATL trip happen in the next couple of months!

Dinner was a household fav: grilled salmon.

Dessert: pineapple whip made with frozen pineapple, a little bit of frozen banana, almond milk, and a touch of honey.

We had such a relaxing weekend which was just what the doctor had ordered.

What was the best part(s) of your weekend?!

Gluten-Free Hippie Loaf

Post author:Melanie
Post published:May 31, 2013
Post category:Dinners / Family / Gluten-Free / Recipes
Post comments:4 Comments

Happy Friday to you all! This week flew by for me, how about you? Let’s all do a little happy dance…

source

As I mentioned at the beginning of the week, I didn’t really plan on too many meals for the week. It was a busy week and Dana and I were both gone quite a bit so the only meal I really planned was for a recipe I got from a friend called Hippie Loaf. The recipe is from the Happy Herbivore and it is a vegan meatloaf made with loads of veggies obviously, quinoa, and a little ketchup and soy sauce.

I followed her recipe pretty closely except for I forgot the 3 Tablespoons of brown rice flour (I was going to use almond flour because that is what I had on hand) so I completely omitted it. It turned out great without it!

Here is her recipe!

Happy Herbivore’s Hippie Loaf

1 15-oz can black beans, drained and rinsed (I used cooked black beans from dried)
1 onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 large carrot, shredded
2 celery stalks, shredded
1 cup mushrooms, coarsely chopped
1 cup cooked quinoa
1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
salt and pepper (this was not in the recipe)
~~3 Tbsp brown rice flour~~ (I omitted)
2 Tbsp soy sauce (I used low-sodium)
2 Tbsp ketchup (Ya’ll know my love for ketchup—I used about 2 Tbsp in the loaf, and then slathered it on top of the loaf as well. I used homemade ketchup).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease a standard 8-inch loaf pan and set aside.
Mash black beans in large bowl and combine all ingredients until evenly combined.
Transfer to prepared pan and pat down firmly using hands.
Bake for 45-60 minutes until firm and brown on the outside.
Allow loaf to cool for 5-10 minutes before slicing and serving.

Source: Happy Herbivore

I really didn’t have any idea what to expect before taking my first bite. The loaf smelled fantastic as it baked in the oven, but that doesn’t always mean it’s going to taste great.

Once I took my first bite though I was very impressed. I believe my first words were, “I could be a vegan” because this loaf was stellar. I don’t necessarily want to be a vegan, but I was just saying it probably wouldn’t be the end of the world for me since I don’t love meats or cheese or milk, however I would miss eggs quite a bit. I respect vegans entirely, it’s just not something I am interested in at this point in my life.

The seasonings and ingredients in this loaf were simple and the dish was so flavorful. That’s what I love: simplicity.

It didn’t hold up quite as well as a standard meatloaf when I went to plating it, and this could have been because 1. I didn’t wait long enough for it to cool before cutting and serving it, or 2. I forgot the flour, or 3. A combination of the two factors. But it didn’t matter! I enjoyed it just as well!

There are a couple of tweaks I would like to make to this loaf recipe to better suit my taste buds and to make it “my own”, but all-in-all I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend this recipe to all. I can’t wait to make my own version of Hippie Loaf!

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Switching gears…to catch you up quickly on the rest of my week. On Wednesday I stopped over at mom and dad’s for dinner. Mom coaxed me over for her French Onion Soup. Kidding, like it takes any coaxing to get me over there. 🙂

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, her French Onion Soup is my FAVORITE soup! I’ve ordered this soup at many-a-restaurants in my time, and I have never ever found one that compares to hers. And what’s ironic about that is that my mom uses the simplest recipe for this soup. No wonder I like it! I’m a simple gal.

The soup was everything I hoped for and more and even better, I enjoyed it in the company of my wonderful parents.

I am in a GREAT mood today. I am hopeful that the sun is going to shine for a little while today. My plants need some serious sun, and I could really use a touch of Vitamin D myself! I hope you all have a glorious Friday! Keep on smiling my friends!

Question of the day: What made you smile this week?

Memorial Weekend: Productive Yet Relaxing

Post author:Melanie
Post published:May 28, 2013
Post category:Dinners / Gluten-Free / holidays / Home Life / Lunch / Snacks / Sweet Treats
Post comments:7 Comments

Long time no see! How was everyone’s Memorial Weekend? Mine was very productive but also relaxing. That seems to be a common theme around our house on the weekends. We got so much done around the house and spent the majority of our weekend working outside in the yard.

I want to give HUGE shout-out thank you to the guys who came over on Sunday to help Dana dig the egress window well. THANK YOU times a million! They plowed through that job so fast I couldn’t believe it.

After the window was dug, I helped Dana lay the bricks in for the walls of the well. I felt pretty tough as I carried those bricks around the yard, and my arms are definitely feeling it today! One more trip to Menards for our last batch of brick and the egress window well will be nearly complete. The next step will be putting the windows in, but we’re going to have that done professionally. Then we can start finishing our basement! I’m just waiting for that money tree to start growing in the yard. It all adds up real fast.

Besides getting muddy in the yard this weekend, I also hung out with family, friends, and ate some delicious food. I was hoping to get a bike ride in with Dana but the weather wasn’t really cooperating. The sun hasn’t shown us its beautiful face around here since Thursday if I’m not mistaken. Our poor plants haven’t seen sun since we planted them in the ground on Thursday! We could all use a little Vitamin D around here. Soon enough though. Think positive thoughts, right? Maybe I’ll do a little sun dance later.

Alright, I’m planning on keeping it short today. I don’t have a ton of photos to share to recap the weekend, but I do have a few. So, I’m going to finish off today’s post with the collection of my photos from the weekend. And here we go…

Chipotle loaded with veggies! Proof that you can chose healthy fast food decisions; just go light on the cheese, sour cream, and guac, ditch the tortilla, and go heavy on the veggies and you have yourself an extremely delicious and healthy veggie-packed Chipotle bowl.

Almond banana muffin with almond butter and sliced bananas…

The Egress window well…

Salad: mixed greens, tomato, carrots, peas, avocado, olives, sunflower seeds, and Newman’s Own honey mustard dressing.

One of many trips to Menards…11% off everything right now really adds up when you’re there everyday. Spend money to save money, right?

Cherry Berry…with no skimping on frozen yogurt OR toppings. I meant business.

Homemade MAH bites, fauxtmeal raisin cookie style.

And the Bachelorette…

I had to throw that last one in there because I am super excited that the Bachelorette is back on again. I spent a good 5-miles on the treadmill watching the season premiere last night. It should be a good one! No favorites yet, though.

I have a nummy vegetarian meal planned for tonight that I am anxious to share with you all (inspiration from Denise). This is actually the only meal I planned for the week because I’m thinking there will be leftovers. Do you have any meals planned for the week?

I hope you all had a FANTASTIC weekend.

Did you do anything fun this weekend? Were you productive around the house? Did you relax with family and friends?

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