Monday night's dinner was inspired by a Pinterest recipe from Mind Body Green , called "Autumn Kale & Quinoa Salad." It looked delicious as soon as I saw it pop up in my Facebook feed, so I went to the recipe to check it out.  Photo cred: Mind Body Green I'm always looking for new and healthy meal ideas, but they also have to be pretty filling, as I'm feeding two marathon-trainers. This one actually fit the bill. It's hard to see, but the salad does have a decent amount of quinoa in it, so it's not lacking the important carbs that give us energy for training. But of course, as with any recipe I see online, I have to make my own modifications.  The first one actually came about because, in the picture above, I thought I saw (and still think I see) salmon in the salad. However, salmon is not listed in the original recipe's ingredients. But it seemed like a good addition anyway, so I added it. I also decided to add some chopped red oni...

Last week I made a meal I'd created before but never written up, so here goes. For some people, lettuce wraps are a great way to cut the carbs from their diet. But for me, because I love those healthy carbs, it's just a way to add more veggies to a meal.  Choosing the lettuce is the biggest obstacle in making lettuce wraps. You want something sturdy, but not too tough and bitter. I've used Romaine before, but it's not as flat a I'd like; it can break easily when you try to wrap it around the stuffing. The butter lettuce worked pretty well, I think. I almost went with lacinato kale, but I think it would have been to tough to digest raw. These wraps have a taco-inspired mix inside, consisting of quinoa, black beans, corn, tomatoes, green peppers, and onions. It's seasoned with chili powder, cumin, salt, and pepper. Because I almost never measure anything, I'm going to guess at the amounts that went into this meal: 2 c. cooked quinoa 1 can bl...

Lately I've been making something new for my lunches. I'm the type of person who doesn't mind eating the same thing for lunch every day, but the previous lunch I'd been making had stretched out over many, many months, so I decided it was time for a change.  I've been spending a lot of time on Pinterest lately, browsing recipes for ideas, and while I didn't find this specific recipe there, I'm sure it was inspired by ingredients I viewed in a wide array of recipes.  I'd previously made a vegan quinoa stir fry , and I loved the roasted hemp seeds I used in that recipe--which happened to be a sample randomly picked up some time ago, so I bought a new bag at the store. I was looking for some crunch in this dish, and in addition to the hemp seeds, I added some raw celery and red and yellow bell peppers. (This week I was out of peppers but used raw carrots instead, and I think I like those even better!). The chickpeas, quinoa, and hemp seeds all hav...

Tonight I made an altered version of a quinoa stir fry that I've made before. I realized after grocery shopping that I'd forgotten to get a protein for the stir fry, but then I remembered I had chickpeas at home. I wasn't entirely sure they would work, but they ended up being a delicious addition! I also found this sample packet of roasted hemp seeds that I'd picked up at a natural food store a while back: More protein, and added crunch! I tossed the whole packet in to a large frying pan, which also contained the following: A little less than 1 lb. pre-chopped, mixed stir-fry vegetables from Whole Foods (I cheated, and I'm glad) 1/2 white onion, chopped 1 large carrot, sliced into rounds 1 can cooked chickpeas 1 c. frozen organic peas 2 c. cooked, whole grain quinoa About 4 strands (whatever you call them) of scallion, chopped Organic sesame seed oil, 2-3 tbsp. Braggs Liquid Aminos, about 1 tbsp. Few shakes each cumin, paprika, turmeric, Mr. ...