What I Ate Wednesday | Vegetarian | 03/10/21

Welcome to this week’s vegetarian What I Ate Wednesday! As always, these posts are intended to give you a sneak peek into my day to day eating and inspire you to try a new recipe or two! Remember that there is no one size fits all approach to diet, and what works for me isn’t necessarily what works for you. I always encourage you to listen to your body above all else. 🙂 You can find all of my What I Ate Wednesday posts here.

I don’t know what has gotten into me these past few weeks, but I have started waking up an hour earlier and getting a workout in before breakfast. Spring must be in the air. (I’m currently on week nine of P90X and am LOVING it. This is my second time doing the full program; my first time was 10 years ago when I was 16. I’m doing the doubles version of the program with a cardio workout added on 3 days a week this time, so I have definitely had a hearty appetite… even heartier than usual, ha!) So after my cardio workout, this was my breakfast. I always start with some citrus fruit, either grapefruit or orange. It’s just how I was brought up; my mom always gave my brother and I citrus fruit to start our day- and now if I don’t have my orange in the morning, I just feel off. Spoiled, I know.

After my orange, I made a yogurt bowl with full fat organic yogurt (I’m really lucky to be able to buy this organic full fat yogurt that’s locally made and comes in a glass jar that is returned and reused), wild blueberries, ground flax, hemp, and flaxseed oil.

Followed by toast with sunflower seed butter and raw honey, and coffee.

Lunches have looked different for me this past year, as I have been mostly at home attending university classes virtually and working on the blog in my spare time. Previously, when I worked at a health food store, I would usually pack a more typical sandwich + veggies and a couple of snacks kind of lunch because it was quick and easy, but when I’m at home, I tend to just load up a bowl with whatever leftovers I have on hand. This particular bowl looks like a mess, but it was SO good. The details: this Mean Green Detox Salad (left over from the weekend) with a couple of these Black Lentil Walnut Meatballs (which my mom made on Sunday- doesn’t food made by mom just taste better?), sun-dried tomato hummus (just my classic hummus recipe with a couple tablespoons of sun-dried tomatoes blended in), and I added quinoa after I took the picture, too. I had an apple afterwards as well. Sometimes, I’ll have an energy ball or cookie after lunch as well but I was very full after this bowl, so I didn’t feel like I needed it.

Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays are my cooking days right now; usually, I create two new dinner recipes a week and try something new from a blog or cookbook on Friday. (Because I live with my parents right now, they also cook three days and then we share cooking on Saturdays.) But I’ve gotten pretty far ahead on recipe development and I want to get caught up so that I can go back to developing recipes in real time- it feels more natural to me that way. So I’m having a lot of fun trying some new recipes which I wouldn’t always get a chance to make when I’m developing recipes for the blog. I made these Crispy Rice Bowls with Browned Butter Sweet Potatoes and Herby Green Tahini, and they were really tasty.

I always end my day with something sweet; sometimes it’s healthy, sometimes it’s decadent. These Soft and Crinkly Brown Sugar Peanut Butter Cookies fell somewhere in between, and were the perfect companion to this week’s dramatic new episode of The Bachelor. Mine didn’t spread out all that beautifully because my parents’ fancy oven is pretty inconsistent, but they were still delicious. I would highly recommend trying them this week.