Last week at this time it was snowing, icy and there were trees falling down in my neighborhood. Today, it’s 60 degrees, sunny and Finn and I just returned from a beautiful four-mile run. It is very nice to see the sun today after days and days of gray and clouds. Definitely puts a little extra pep in my step! 🙂
Today I have a round up of what I ate last week…the highlight of which is that I did some cooking for dinner and made two of my favorite recipes, along with a delicious gnocchi dish. My incentive to get serious about cooking “real” food came after a frozen pizza for dinner one night followed by cookies and ice cream for dinner the next night. I took myself to the grocery store and committed to cooking the rest of the week.
I’m also going to quickly recap how I moved, as workouts are still markedly different these days from pre-baby.
Here we go!
BREAKFAST
The last piece of my pumpkin apple bread from the freezer (I need to bake another quick bread to have on hand for these breakfast combos!), two scrambled eggs and fruit.
Smoothie bowl. This week I was loving cherries, bananas, raspberries, spinach, peanut butter, a date and almond milk. I also made a big batch of my favorite homemade granola but added hemp seeds, chia seeds, flax seeds and some Wild Friends Gingerbread Peanut Butter to it. YUM!
Two scrambled eggs, full-fat cottage cheese, a mandarin and grapes. Check out this post on Instagram for some good breakfast ideas from fellow readers. Related, does anyone have a good baked oatmeal recipe? I’d like to make some.
Another smoothie bowl and collagen coffee. Stay tuned for a full tutorial to come soon on how I French Press my coffee. It’s sooooo much better than drip or k-cups.
LUNCH
Turkey, avocado, mayo, cheese and apricot preserves on sourdough.
Look who ate a salad for lunch!!! I haven’t been craving them AT ALL but this week they sounded good. This was arugula tossed in a miso dressing and topped with avocado, carrots, grapes, pistachios, hemp seeds and canned salmon.
Another turkey and avocado sandwich, this one on Dave’s Killer Bread Good Seed with pepper jack and cranberry sauce.
One more salad…arugula tossed in miso with avocado, grapes, honey goat cheese, cashews, dried cherries and canned salmon.
DINNER
Personal size barbecue chicken pizza from Whole Foods to which I addd extra barbecue sauce, chicken and cheese. It had been in the freezer for quite a long time and wasn’t exactly at the peak of freshness.
This was seriously my dinner on Monday night. I went to Lululemon’s shop night for employees and ambassadors (I’m an alum ambassador) and didn’t get home until 9:30. I needed to get Finn to bed ASAP and ended up just eating this for dinner because I had baked the skillet cookie before I left for the event.
SO, my stomach didn’t feel great after having cookies and ice cream for dinner. The next night I made a gnocchi skillet that I created as I went. It was sauteed chicken sausage, onions, garlic, mushrooms, canned tomatoes and spinach with ricotta gnocchi.
Plated and topped with parmesan. It was really tasty and I had the leftovers for another dinner.
One night I made a big batch of my favorite braised red cabbage and apples. If you’ve never tried this recipe, you must. It’s such a great vegetable side and nice way to switch it up from your typical veggies like broccoli, green beans, brussels, etc. I also steamed some basmati rice and sauteed a bone-in pork chop in the cast iron skillet.
Finally, I’ve eaten minimal red meat since my pregnancy (have just had an aversion to it ever since) but I was craving my three-ingredient pot roast. Dinner with a baby seriously cannot get simpler than this recipe. You don’t even have to brown the roast before putting it in the oven or crock pot. I served it over the leftover rice with leftover cabbage and have eaten this the last two nights in a row.
Cooking with a baby and cooking for one has definitely been an adjustment and there have been MANY a nights that I’ve turned to very simple things like frozen pizza, grilled cheese, rice bowls, etc but I hope to get back in the cooking game in the new year with a little more regularity.
ETC
Here’s that cookie skillet that I made. Can you believe that I’ve never baked one of these before? It wasn’t my favorite thing ever but it was pretty good.
I couldn’t resist another piece of cheesecake from Villani’s after yoga one evening. This one was strawberry. It’s seriously some of the best cheesecake I’ve ever had.
HOW I MOVED LAST WEEK
Monday: 55 minute walk
Tuesday: 1 hour 10 minute walk
Wednesday: hot yoga
Thursday: 4 mile run + one hour walk
Friday: REST
Saturday: 45 minute walk
Sunday: 4 mile stroller run
That wraps it up for today!
Any baked oatmeal recipes to share?
What are your favorite easy winter/cold weather dinners?
