You may have notice I took the week off last week. I had my final to study for, and Stephanie had some things to attend to as well, so we took that as a sign for a breather.
If you’re wondering I got an A on my final, and an A in my class. Woohoo!
Ok, back to my confession, I will stop stalling now.
See this?
This is my crutch. I don’t smoke, I don’t drink (anymore), I gave up popping my neck per my pesky brain surgeon telling me it’s bad or something, blah blah blah. I figured since he put the vertebrae in my neck back together with screws, I might as well listen.
I gave up drinking pop for about two years. I lost weight, I felt better, and I don’t know why I started up again, but I neeeeed my Pepsi throwback to start the day. I’m drinking one now as a matter of fact. I’m ashamed, and trying to quite, but it is hard. I only have one a day, but I need the sugar and the caffeine. Don’t judge me. We’ve all been guilty.
This week Stephanie and I are eating for energy. This is a step in my giving up the poison. The delicious poison.
I don’t know all the mechanics of this, you will have to head over to 3Squarenutrition.com to see why, I just make the food. I will say, this topic was a bit intimidating. I was working with lentils, fava beans, and oatmeal. Sounds exciting huh? Well I played with them, and I had fun, so get ready.
Let’s start with my favorite dish this week, (I was as shocked at you are) the fava bean dip.
When I went to the Mediterranean market, I was told about a breakfast. I forgot how he told me to do it, so this is my version of what I remember:
Take a can of fava beans, and wash them well, drain them and warm them up.
Dice a large tomato, and 1/4 of an onion, and mix them with the beans off the heat. Add the juice of 1/2 lime and 2tsp garlic powder, and 1 &1/2 tbls of crumbled feta cheese.
Drizzle with olive oil and eat with whole grain crackers. Or a spoon, I won’t tell anyone if you don’t.
This was very easy, delicious, and I’m hoping Stephanie will say its good for you.
Next up, I did a fennel and lentil bake with pickled carrots and cauliflower.
First up, pickle the veggies:
And don’t skip this, it really adds to the dish
Slice a red onion, a couple carrots and 1/3 head of chopped cauliflower in 1& 1/2c red wine vinegar that you have boiled with 1/4 c sugar just to dissolve. Let that hang out in your fridge and you can put this on a lot of things too.
Bring 1 & 1/2 c lentils to a boil in water, then reduce to simmer for 20-25 mins, but check them. Make sure they are soft before you take them off the burner. I made that mistake. Twice.
At the same time, sauté a bulb of fennel, one onion, a clove of garlic, and two stalks of celery, all sliced,
in olive oil. Add two tsp each of ground fennel, ground coriander, and ground cumin.
Drain the lentils and add them in to the party too:
Then place in a medium casserole dish and add 1/2 cup chicken broth, then bake at 350 for 30 mins or until liquid is absorbed.
Serve this with the pickled veggies:
By the way, you want people to eat something boring like lentils? Make a shape out of it. I’m sure you all have cookie cutters laying around, they’re not just for cookies!
Are you ready for dessert? How about a little banana ice cream?
This one is so easy I can’t even call it a recipe:
Take some bananas and freeze them, I don’t know how many, it will depend on how many people you are feeding, but average about one nanner a person. Make sure you peel them before you stick them in the freezer. Put the frozen bananas in a blender with just enough water to make smooth when blending. Then add a few dark chocolate chips in to get crushed up.
Are you ready for breakfast?
I know oats are very controversial in the gluten free circles, but I have found that certain ones I can eat with no problem. Get whichever one you like and make it how you normally make it, but try topping it with a fruit purée.
Take your fruit, fresh, frozen, whatever about a cup, then mix in a tablespoon of blackstrap molasses (I’m going to use this stuff in a lot of recipes, because we all have a bottle in our pantry that we bought for one recipe and then it just sits there) blend this up, if you are using frozen fruit, then you may need to add a little water.
Pour this over your oatmeal
Or mix it in
I hope you try some of these, and enjoy them! If you do, please let me know what you thought of them!
In the mean time, I’ve eaten the rest of my fava bean dip with a spoon. Now go with me to Stephanie’s page to see if I should be ashamed of myself!
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