Recent Lunches, Dinners, and Desserts

My hamstring feels so much better! I may try running outside today OR I may not. I don’t mind not running, but the weather is so nice for this time of year and I already did barre and pilates so far this week. I’m just so proud of myself for realizing that my hamstring hurt during Saturday’s run and that I was smart enough to back off immediately, rest it for a few days from running/walking, and feel like myself again. I just don’t understand why people push themselves into injuries.

Recent Meals

I eat oatmeal every day for breakfast but never take a picture of it. However, I had the baked oatmeal at the Premier Diner on Monday for lunch and did take a picture because it’s such a big beautiful bowl of goodness.

From what I understand, the diner makes one batch of baked oatmeal every morning. When it runs out, they don’t make more until the next day. I was lucky to get a big bowl served with a side of milk that I pour on top to mush everything up — it’s just so good.

In other lunch news, I had this big chopped salad from Town Bagel. I would be lying if I listed the ingredients – I really don’t remember well enough to do so.

I do remember what was in this salad that I made for lunch:

• Romaine
• Tomatoes
• Cucumbers
• Mushrooms
• Onion
• Dr. Praeger’s Veggie Burger
• Chickpeas
• Avocado
• Feta Cheese
• Balsamic Vinaigrette

My new routine after yoga is to come home, shower, and make mashed avocado on Ezekiel toast and/or an egg on toast. There’s mashed avocado under that egg, by the way.

The staff at Mario’s gets really confused if I walk in to order something other than “my usual” which is the whole wheat margarita pizza to go, not heated up.

I decided, on a whim, to order the eggplant pizza for a change. The girl rang it up but the man who usually boxes up my pizza put the whole wheat margarita pizza in the box first. When we told him I did something crazy and got a different slice, he boxed the eggplant pizza but they gave me the margarita pizza to take home (for free) too.

My son ate my free margarita slice so fast as a snack before I could even decide if I wanted a bite or to wrap it up.

I always say how much I enjoy the lentil pasta from Trader Joe’s – I really do! It’s so great to have on hand for a quick and easy, healthy but always tasty dinner.

I cooked mushrooms in a pan with olive oil while cooking the lentil pasta separately. Then I combined everything in the pan with the Trader Joe’s plant-based bolognese sauce. Really is such a good combination!

Apples!

I mentioned last week that I’ve been back to eating an apple almost every night.

This was an organic honey crisp warmed with cinnamon and a little bit of peanut butter.

And this apple was a Granny Smith not warmed, sprinkled with cinnamon, peanut butter, and a few dark chocolate chips.

A little blurry but I’m including it anyway!

And finally, a big box of Godiva.

A Lot of Meals To Share + Cooking Again

Let’s start today’s post with one of my favorite combinations – pizza and salad.

We went to Iavarone for lunch last week which happened as an alternative to The Shed, which was the original plan. The wait at The Shed is insane and they don’t take reservations.

Sweet Green

I had two salads from Sweet Green since we last discussed food. Now that my gift card has run out, I won’t go as often because, as I said last week, I think it’s too pricey. I enjoy the premium toppings and they add up!

Of the two salads I had in last few days, I liked this combo below the best:

• Romaine
• Quinoa
• Beets
• Avocado
• Pickled Carrots
• Curry Cauliflower
• Roasted Brussels Sprouts
• Green Goddess Ranch Dressing

Town Bagel

My son was happy to have lunch with me at Town Bagel the other day. Salads and bagels for both of us — and an iced coffee for him.

I bought a side of vegetable cream cheese and used some on the everything bialy in the above picture and brought the rest home.

The next day, I had the vegetable cream cheese on a toasted English muffin with an egg on top too — who am I to eat a few eggs a week suddenly?!

I like this as a brunch combination lately when I get home from the gym closer to lunchtime. This usually happens when I stay for yoga at Equonox — yoga is on the schedule a bit later in the morning.

Cooking Again?

I’m slowly feeling a little more interested in cooking again now that I’m not working.

Don’t get too excited. I don’t ever cook anything elaborate.

However, I do find that I’m more interested in buying different vegetables and maybe roasting them in different ways to make new meal combinations.

My son is not too thrilled about this. He came home to me roasting vegetables and caught on right away.

Is this what you are going to do now that you don’t work? Smell up the house with roasted vegetables? Actually using the oven – what is going on?

He’s lucky I only roasted cauliflower, sweet potatoes, and mushrooms. I purposely left out the brussels sprouts so he didn’t yell at me….and he yelled at me anyway.

I made this salad below using the roasted vegetables and sweet potatoes plus:

• Romaine
• Tomatoes
• Cucumbers
• Chickpeas
• Onion
• Avocado
• Feta Cheese
• Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

And look, I made wild salmon again for dinner.

On the side, Whole Foods 365 Organic Shoe String Fries and broccoli. I added feta cheese with the broccoli because it sounded like a good idea.

I call cooking the Trader Joe’s lentil pasta, which literally takes like three minutes to cook, cooking.

All ingredients for the below lentil pasta quick dinner are from Trader Joe’s:

• Frozen Cauliflower
• Frozen Broccoli
• Olive Oil
• Plant Based Bolognese Sauce
• Lentil Pasta
• Mozzarella Cheese

The other night I got more elaborate when cooking the lentil pasta for dinner.

I cooked broccoli, shaved brussels sprouts, onion, and cauliflower in a pan with olive oil, oregano, diced tomatoes, and some of Trader Joe’s low sodium roasted red pepper and tomato soup. Then added the lentil pasta once it was cooked.

And that’s it for today! I’m hoping to get a Friday Favorites up post at the end of the week.

In The City + Forty Carrots + Chinese on Christmas

I hope everyone is enjoying this time of year when no one knows exactly what day it is!

I’ve been in the city a few times over the last week. It’s always a fun time of year to be there, and, I would say it felt like pre-pandemic times. Streets and stores were packed!

While walking out of Saks and trying to avoid crowds, I found myself looking at the tree. It’s like an, “oh ha, there’s the tree” moment when this happens.

Recent Meals

I went to Bloomingdale’s in the city twice in the last week.

Last week while in Bloomingdale’s, I was in the mood for a giant yogurt from Forty Carrots.

Forty Carrots puts the toppings in the middle of the cup so you can’t see the gold-dusted chocolate chips.

My Forty Carrots frozen yogurt resembles the Stoney Clover Forty Carrots patch, just without the sprinkles.

My friend from work moved into a new apartment (near Bloomingdales) so we spent some time there with her friends before heading to dinner. This is the same friend who has the NYC Pizza Tour so it was fun to chat with them about their next pizza stops!

I had this vegetable omelet at Second Avenue Deli. They have such great latkes at Second Avenue Deli but I couldn’t eat another one right now. I’ve had so many recently!

Dinner at The Cheesecake Factory is a tradition on Christmas Eve, although the tradition was interrupted by the pandemic. I think last year we did take out.

Look what I ate yet again! My toasted whole wheat English muffin with mashed avocado and egg combination!

I actually made the side salad bigger than planned but I ate everything on the plate. I had this after yoga on Sunday. It really hit the spot.

Chinese food on Christmas: Steamed vegetable dumplings, mixed vegetables in garlic sauce, and brown rice.

There’s history behind why Jewish people eat Chinese food on Christmas – read this article to learn more.

Another fun day in the city on Monday!

I was shopping at Bloomingdales and Saks, with lunch at Bloomingdales. No frozen yogurt this time! I think this was the Forty Carrots Chopped Salad, without chicken.

And finally, I ordered this salad combo from Sweet Green and really liked it. My only complaint is the price — it’s way too expensive if you ask me!

In the salad:

• Romaine
• Tomatoes
• Beets
• Avocado
• Quinoa
• Warm Mushroom Medley
• Spicy Broccoli
• Green Goddess Ranch

A Stop At Whole Foods + Loaded Salads

I’m a day late this week on sharing recent meals but better late than never!

I went to Whole Foods the other afternoon for a few things.

I bought organic Honeycrisp apples, a few bottles of 365 light organic ranch dressing, a bag of shredded brussels sprouts, plus a few things from the frozen section:

Organic White Quinoa – I could make this myself on the stove with dry quinoa but I haven’t been so maybe this will motivate me to eat quinoa more often.

Organic Shoestring Cut Fries – I love these french fries with salads, with a veggie burger, or on the side of roasted veggies with hummus – the bag is cut open because I heated up some fries right away when I got home!

Riced Cauliflower Stuffing – I think I bought a version of this at Trader Joe’s last year.

I made the below salad for lunch with the following ingredients:

• Shredded brussels sprouts cooked with a little olive oil, chopped onion, and everything but the bagel seasoning from Trader Joe’s.
• Chickpeas
• Quinoa
• Tomatoes
• Cucumber
• Romaine
• Avocado

There was no need for dressing on this salad because the brussels sprouts combination had so much flavor. It was really good!

Talk about a loaded salad bowl. Here’s a list of everything in the below salad:

• Romaine
• Roasted Tomatoes
• Roasted Sweet Potatoes
• Dr. Praeger’s Veggie Burger
• Chickpeas
• Cucumber
• Onion
• Feta Cheese
• Hummus

A few days ago while shopping at Trader Joe’s, I bought the Garden Vegetable Hash as something a little different to work with to make dinner.

For this particular dinner, I cooked the garden vegetable hash in a little olive oil and added chickpeas before combining it with roasted sweet potatoes, hummus, and feta cheese. I’m in a major humus and feta cheese phase right now!

• Garden Vegetable Hash
• Chickpeas
• Roasted Sweet Potatoes
• Feta Cheese
• Hummus

To finish up today’s post, here’s my mug of ginger turmeric tea with a Gingerman cookie on the side. I love how cute this is! Tastes good too.

Round Up Of Recent Meals

I don’t know what I’ve been doing but it has definitely not been taking pictures of what I’ve been eating too regularly.

Since I’ve missed a few Wednesday posts recently, I decided to share just a few food photos today to help me get back on track.

Recent Meals

I had this veggie sandwich in the city recently when I needed something to hold me over between an afternoon meeting and our dinner reservation.

I made this salad for lunch and the ingredients are ever so slightly different from my usual weekday salads:

• Romaine
• Tomato
• Cucumber
• Mushrooms
• Roasted Sweet Potatoes
• Roasted Brussels Sprouts
• Chickpeas
• Onion
• Avocado
• Whole Foods 365 Organic Light Ranch Dressing

My Whole Foods 365 crinkle-cut french fries phase is still going strong! I also bought the Whole Foods 365 shoestring french fries as an option too.

Also from Whole Foods, I bought their roasted butternut squash from the prepared foods case. For dinner one night, I added chickpeas, broccoli, and brown rice to the butternut squash.

I couldn’t even finish this plate — butternut squash is very filling to me.

It’s been a while since I shared a picture of a Chopt salad! I picked up salads from Chopt for my friend and me to eat at her store over the weekend.

My bagel and bialy phase from summer is still alive. I had this toasted bialy with vegetable cream cheese and tomato for lunch the other day.

I keep forgetting that I have this box of delicious desserts to show you. I say this every time – Uncle Guiseppe’s has such a great bakery.

What I’m regularly eating that I don’t have pictures of:

Organic Honey Crisp Apples: I dice an apple, sprinkle with cinnamon, and then microwave it for two minutes. Sometimes I add a small dab of peanut butter.

Trader Joe’s organic red lentil pasta. Why did no one tell me how great this pasta is?! I love chickpea pasta but I think the red lentil pasta is now my favorite.

My Running Foods + Cipollini + We Work Beverages

It’s already Wednesday! I hope the rest of the week flies as fast as the first half of the week has flown by! I’m going away next week so I’m antsy to get through this week and start packing for my trip.

In the meantime, let’s talk about recent meals.

I’ve been eating more sweet potatoes and bagels (well, bialy’s mostly) this summer. I’m sure that both are helping me to feel great when running and likely aid in the fact that I’m never fatigued after my runs either. I’m calling them my running foods for this summer, in addition to watermelon and the usual nutrient-dense foods that I eat on repeat.

There may not be much “nutrition” to bagels but I like them, crave them with cream cheese, and enjoy them. So to me, bagels and bialys are part of my healthy diet and lifestyle.

I eat power bowls like the bowl below on repeat lately for dinner during the week. I’ve been using either regular sweet potatoes or Japanese sweet potatoes. Also, the tri-color cauliflower from Trader Joe’s (from the frozen section) is just so good! I don’t know what it is about it, it’s just plain old cauliflower, but I love it!

You must get the citrusy garlic seasoning from Trader Joe’s if you haven’t yet. It’s so good sprinkled on sweet potatoes (and vegetables too) with a little bit of olive oil before roasting them in the oven.

This is what the jar looks like again if you missed it in Trader Joe’s or when I last discussed it.

I’m always making a lot of salads still for lunch, sometimes for dinner.

This salad involved some of my usuals like chickpeas, tomatoes, cucumbers, and avocado but also had the addition of Dr. Praeger’s veggie burger and instead of romaine, I used two other salad blends from Trader Joe’s. Romaine is always the lettuce that is often out of stock at Trader Joe’s.

These are the salad blends I’ve been buying at Trader Joe’s when I can’t get romaine. I also go to Whole Foods if I really want romaine for my salads.

I love that this summer is normal so that I can spend Saturdays at my aunt’s beach house with my cousins. There’s always a great spread for lunch and so much to choose from to load up my plate.

I met my friend for a late afternoon of shopping around Americana with dinner at Cipollini.

We ordered the fried zucchini and I was a little nervous I would get too full/nauseous from the fried aspect but I was fine. I think because it was shoe-string style, I didn’t overeat it.

Instead of my usual margarita pizza order, we tried the veggie pizza. It was definitely good although there’s really nothing like their classic margarita.

And finally, here’s my pretty latte from the last time I worked at a We Work location in the city. I just love the We Work experience, likely for the many different beverage options. Between the coffee varieties and Kombucha on tap, it’s like a game of which we have first!

Recent Meals + Breakfast Change?

Halfway through the week!

Let’s start today’s post with my post-run beach lunch of a bialy with vegetable cream cheese and tomato.

It had been a good two weeks since I last had a salad from Chopt. No spicy-sweet peppers this time! I swapped those out for sweet potatoes. Everything is chopped so small that you can’t even see them in there.

Speaking of sweet potatoes, I’ve been eating the below “power bowl” on repeat lately for dinner.

I roast sweet potatoes with a little bit of olive oil and Trader Joe’s Citrusy Garlic seasoning and then add them to a bowl (well, plate), with rainbow cauliflower, chickpeas, and avocado.

This dinner is so basic yet so good. Not to mention, colorful and nutrient-dense.

Have you tried the Citrusy Garlic seasoning yet? I really like it.

I don’t think I’ve shared my usual whole wheat margarita pizza and salad combo in a while but don’t worry, I’m still eating it at least once a week for dinner.

Can we discuss breakfast for a minute?

I rarely talk about breakfast because I eat the same oatmeal combination for so many years that discussing it seems so pointless. However, lately, I have had moments when I don’t want oatmeal for breakfast every day. I don’t like to feel this way! I’m so used to oatmeal that I don’t want to NOT want it but I can’t help that sometimes I feel as though I want something else. I’ve switched to whole wheat English muffins with peanut butter but then go right back to oatmeal (with different fruit mixed in) and while the feeling has slightly gone away and I’m fine with oatmeal again, I’m still thinking that I may be due for a major breakfast change.

What that change will be, I do not know and I do not like that this is a topic at all! Breakfast is the one meal I don’t think about!

Anyway, I had this bowl from Cava for dinner and it was good. I get all of the toppings except for olives.

I will be in the city today and hoping to have Beatnic for lunch! I miss the delicious vegan options.

Beach Lunches + Salad Bowls + Chickpea Pasta

I love that it’s Wednesday already.

I’ve put together a whole bunch of random meals from the past few days. Somehow I missed a picture of my oreo shake from Shack Shack and any of the pizza I’ve eaten recently. Not sure how that happened!

I had this Chopt salad after a one-hour massage last Friday. I subbed the spicy-sweet peppers in my Chopt app standard order for snap peas which wasn’t the best choice — the peppers really amp up the flavor and I missed that.

I made this easy and delicious dinner so quickly.

While boiling chickpea pasta, I cooked frozen broccoli and colorful carrot coins in a pan with tomato sauce. I added the chickpea pasta once it was done to mix everything together. So good!

We got lucky this year to have really nice Memorial Day weekend weather. It can go either way — either we got summer weather or terrible rain.

Saturday was the only up and down weather day with clouds, rain, and sun scattered throughout the day.

Regardless, I was so happy to have lunch and spend the day at my aunt’s beach house with my cousins. It had been so long since we could do beach weekends all together and I’m just so thrilled that things are basically normal for this summer.

I was at the beach both Sunday and Monday.

I stopped at the bagel store before heading to the beach on Sunday for a bialy with vegetable cream cheese, lettuce, and tomato. It was just PERFECT after my run. I enjoyed it while sitting on the beach.

Another bialy with vegetable cream cheese for me on Monday too. I add lettuce and tomato, as I was telling the bagel store employees because it gives it a bit more depth if I want a bagel with cream cheese as my lunch.

I asked them to go light on the vegetable cream cheese which is evident in this picture but there was still plenty there for it to be delicious.

Loving my lululemon water bottle, by the way.

I made this salad very randomly for dinner one night.

• Romaine
• Roasted tomatoes
• Roasted Brussel sprouts
• Cucumber
• Chickpeas
• Brown rice
• Onion
• Feta cheese
• Avocado
• Vegan dill dressing

One more salad bowl for today! This bowl was from Cava and was fully loaded with all the toppings including feta, lentils, pickles, cucumbers, tomatoes, corn, roasted vegetables, roasted sweet potatoes, and two types of hummus.

Plant Wise + Cream Cheese Cravings + Eggs

 

So many great meals to share today!

I had such a delicious plant-based dinner from Plant Wise the other night.

While I usually gravitate towards the same foods when I go places, the nice girl at Plant Wise suggested the Southern Charm salad and I’m so glad that I listened.

In the Southern Charm Salad (according to Plant Wise menu):

Kale, Cilantro, Brown Rice, Tomato, Red Onion, Carrots, Topped with Bean Chili, Special Sauce (Mix of BBQ/Cashew/Dijon/Sriracha). *Contains Tree Nuts (Cashews)

The picture below is what my lunch salad looks like before I chopped it all up:

• Romaine
• Tomatoes
• Cucumbers
• Onion
• Roasted Brussels Sprouts
• Chickpeas
• Avocado
• Vegan Dill Dressing

I made this salad for dinner when I was really hungry and not in the mood to wait for anything to be prepared.

• Romaine
• Roasted Cauliflower
• Cucumbers
• Tomatoes
• Chickpeas
• Leftover Brown Rice
• Dr. Praeger’s Veggie Burger
• Vegan Dill Dressing

I went to Stew Leonard’s for watermelon and left with watermelon and a slice of margarita pizza.

Stew Leonard’s has great pizza!

My warm-weather running craving tends to be vegetable cream cheese.

After my boardwalk run in Long Beach on Sunday, I stopped at Town Bagel for a salad (which comes with a bagel) and a side of vegetable cream cheese.

Runners understand what I mean when I say that this half bagel with vegetable cream cheese was the greatest tasting food I’ve had in a while. Food just hits different after a good, sweaty run.

I don’t eat eggs often. At all. In fact, I avoid eggs and egg whites because I’ve found a correlation between eating eggs and the severity of my menstrual cramps.

But. I felt like an egg last week and then the other night, I wanted to make an omelet so I could have toast with vegetable cream cheese on the side for dinner. I’m hopeful that eggs once or twice in a month won’t affect me. Fingers crossed.

This was actually more of a scramble than an omelet, actually. I cooked mushrooms, onion, and cauliflower in a pan and then added an egg plus some whites. Avocado on top.

That’s about it for my today! I did an update to my blog and the editor looks totally different. I don’t like change, especially within where I type this blog, so I need to go figure out how to revert back to original WordPress editing!

Healthy Chinese Food + Other Recent Meals

Before we talk about food today, I should mention to you my running shoe situation which is still a situation.

While I will give the Hokas one more chance, something is telling me that they aren’t going to work out for me.

I’m not sure at this point what will work out for me. A part of me is just waiting for the next Brooks Ghost launch in July but the other part of me really needs a pair of running shoes now. July is a few months from now! What’s even funnier is that a few weeks ago, I briefly considered running this weekend’s Long Island Marathon weekend 10K but thankfully I dropped that idea — I don’t even have running shoes I trust right now!

Anyway, I will keep you posted about which shoes are next, should it come to that.

Recent Meals

I have two lunches and four dinners to share today!

I’ve been making a salad for lunch literally every day during the week while I’m working and haven’t deviated from this plan in months.

The ingredients in my salad lately are basically the same:

• Romaine
• Tomatoes
• Cucumbers
• Chickpeas
• Onion
• Roasted Brussels Sprouts
• Avocado
• Vegan Dill Dressing

My lunch weekend salad is made by Chopt.

It had been a long time since I last had Mogu for dinner. Mogu is known for their “healthy Chinese food” and it’s really very good!

I had a vegetable egg roll (which is air fried) and instead of my usual vegetable dumplings, I tried their relatively new Impossible dumplings which are made with Impossible plant-based “beef”.

I also tried Mogu’s brussels sprouts for the first time too. With brown rice, this was a really delicious dinner.

I had some leftovers of the brussels sprouts and brown rice plus two of the mildly spicy dumplings so I reheated it all in a pan the next night for dinner with the addition of cauliflower and a fried egg on top.

It’s really not like me to eat eggs but I had a new carton of organic eggs in the house for my son so I figured why not. Seemed like a good dinner idea.

I had to go to the post office Monday late in the day which naturally meant I would walk into Villa Monte for a slice of whole wheat vegetable pizza to bring home for dinner.

It’s always funny how I go to Trader Joe’s every week and still wonder what I should eat for dinner. I’m so basic that I never buy anything all that different or even desire anything too different.

Sometimes I do vary my beans like in this salad, for example. I used white cannellini beans instead of chickpeas and also varied my potato choice by going with roasted white potatoes instead of sweet potatoes or a traditional baked potato.

White potatoes roast really well when diced up and put in the oven!

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In case you missed the latest Stoney Clover launch, there are some really nice items available in the Pastel Collection.

Let me know what you select!