Kara
Meatless
Monday #5
4-7-14
I can say that this Monday was one of my
most successful Meatless Mondays by far. This time, I had absolutely no tests
and finally had time to prepare and cook my meals. This past weekend I was in
Syracuse so I drove home today and kind of ate breakfast/lunch in a rush. In
the morning I had organic strawberries, a bowl of cereal consisting of granola,
almonds, and raisins with almond milk, and a glass of orange juice. On the
drive back I snacked on a Clementine and some green tea. I wasn’t very hungry
for lunch and only ate a small cup of low-fat cottage cheese with sunflower seeds
and a banana. I ended up working out and afterwards made myself a mini vanilla
protein shake before dinner. My dinner this time was my most complex, yet
tastiest combination of food. I searched for a recipe online that involved the
Israeli Couscous we received at the Lexington Co-op. The recipe was actually
from a vegetarian website and was called “Moroccan Couscous with Chickpeas and
Peppers.” I first diced up sweet potato, zucchini, and red pepper and continued
to sauté them with minced garlic, olive oil and ground pepper. After those were
semi-tender, I added organic chickpeas, soy nuts (recipe called for pine nuts
but wanted to try these instead), ginger, cinnamon, and a little bit of water.
I let all these ingredients simmer in a sauce pan while I cooked the couscous
on the side. When everything was cooked, I served the vegetables and beans over
the couscous and enjoyed! I must say it didn’t take as much time as I had
planned (~30 minutes), and the ingredients were fairly cheap. I thoroughly
enjoyed the couscous and will definitely have to make it again! Everything made
me so full, even without any meat consumption. My dinner was most complex
considering the different foods and spices involved, however, it wasn’t a pain
to make and I still had some left over that I can eat for lunch tomorrow. I
also had left over zucchini and sweet potatoes that I can cook up some other
night this week so it doesn’t go to waste. This didn’t really affect any other
day of the week, but like I said before it gives me more of a refreshed
feeling. My roommates apparently have never heard of couscous and refused to
try it after I tried to convince them several times. Sometimes it’s hard to
have people try new things but that’s the point in experimenting with your
food. Overall, I 100% did better than last week and I can see a complete
difference from week 1 of Meatless Monday until today.
Kara,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you did great this week! Your breakfast combination sounded really good. I have not thought to add raisins to my breakfast before, but I also really enjoyed them in the apple cinnamon yogurt snack Sowmya made for us the other week. Maybe I will buy some and try to incorporate it into more things. I also really like almond milk so I love your choice of adding that. I really like green tea too so that sounded good for your morning as well. It has so many great health benefits and is so tasty. I have never really tried cottage cheese before. I did a long time ago but didn't think I cared for it much, is it good? It sounds like you incorporated more fruits as well. I have been trying to buy more lately. I also found that when I ate more nutritious meals like this I had more energy to go workout too. Your dinner sounded really great. It had so many ingredients but seemed easy to prepare. It's awesome that you found something to cook with your choice from the Co-op. It's good that you tried to get your roommates to open up to new things, but I agree that it can be difficult. My roommate often does not want to try my meals because he isn't as much of a health nut. I love sweet potato and have not thought of putting it in a dish like this before. It sounded like a really well balanced meal. Good job this week!
Sophia
Kara,
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your post I can tell that you are really getting the hang of doing this project. It sounds like you were very successful in many ways. The dinner that you prepared sounds absolutely delicious! It was interesting to me on how you found the recipe I would have never thought to do that. It seems that you found a pretty good site form it as well. Maybe in the upcoming week you can use the site again to find other recipes that sound good to you as well. It was awesome to see that even though you spent some travel time that you still had thought about what you could eat that would be easy and fast to make and also easy to consume. I think that I am going to start eating more cereal in the morning as well. I am thinking about next week going to the bulk section and getting my own granola and other nuts to put in it along with some different fruits. It also sounds that there have been many improvements from week one which is very good to see! Keep up the good work and continue to do what you are doing and the last week will be very easy for you. Good job this week and good luck for the upcoming week!
Bob