WIAW #77: Green Bay Eats

Last weekend my sister and I went to Green Bay to visit my Dad and Stepmom. And we had a fabulous time! My WIAW eats this week are from last Saturday, a fun-filled and tasty day!

Breakfast started with a delicious plate of toast and a sweet nectarine. One piece of toast was Great Harvest’s Oregon herb with unsalted almond butter, and the other piece was a gluten-free bread with the same almond butter and drizzled with honey. This was a delicious and filling breakfast!

Our dog Lincoln was sitting right next to me as I shot my breakfast photos, so I thought I’d share one of him too!

Before I ran some errands I had a handful of grapes for a snack. Red grapes have to be one of my favorite fruits!

I made a stop at Great Harvest and had a sample of their High-Five Fiber bread. I really liked how dense and chewy it was with lots of seeds inside.

So I came away with a loaf, along with some cinnamon vanilla sunflower butter and a cookie!

For lunch I had my leftover Blueberry and Corn Quinoa Salad, recipe to come! I have been loving cold quinoa salads this summer and this one was no exception!

That afternoon my sister and I made a pit stop at the amusement park in Green Bay where we both used to work. We didn’t stop for the rides, but for the twist cones! These were insanely large, but I ate as much as I could before it melted all over me!

An apple for good measure!

Then later that evening my family and I all  took part in the Packer 5k, a 5k run/walk that ends with a loop inside the Packer stadium.

It was so cool! I never thought I’d ever get that close to the actual field. I even touched the turf!

It was such a beautiful night that after we finished the walk we decided to go out to eat. We ate outside and enjoyed the sweet summer night air. I also enjoyed a mojito!

And a veggie pizza for my main dish. Perfection.

Once we got back from our dinner it was pretty late, so we all called it a night! It was a great day and another fun weekend spent outside!

Make sure to stop on by Jenn’s page to see where this WIAW party gets started.

TGIW,

Sydney

Curried Chickpea and Corn Salad

It’s the end of the week! Hope you all had a wonderful work week and have exciting plans for the weekend! I’m heading to Green Bay for some Packers fun, twist ice cream cones and lounging by the pool.

Here is a simple and tasty summer salad recipe if you need to whip something up this weekend. This Curried Chickpea and Corn salad has a bit of heat and is delicious served warm over a bed of greens with a drizzle of balsamic.

Curried Chickpea and Corn Salad

Serves 3

1 can chickpeas

1 cup corn

3/4 cup bell peeper, chopped

1/4 cup onion, chopped

4 oz. white mushrooms, sliced

1 tsp dill weed

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 tsp madras curry powder

Garnish with fresh cilantro

To make this salad, sauté the chickpeas, corn, bell pepper, onion and mushrooms for 10-15 minutes over medium low heat. Stir frequently to prevent sticking.

After about 5 minutes of sautéing, add in the dill weed, turmeric and curry powder and stir to coat.

When veggies are done (soft and tender), remove from heat and plate garnished with fresh cilantro.

Have this salad on its own, over some sautéed spinach or kale, or scooped on top of a freshly baked sweet potato. Enjoy!

What I Ate Wednesday #76

Morning all. And happy Wednesday to you! I’m waking up refreshed and ready to take on the day, and I hope you are too. Last night I got a chakra massage for the first time, and afterwards I could immediately feel the difference in my body. All the tension that I carry in my upper back and shoulders was worked away! If you’re able to treat yourself to a massage every once in awhile I highly recommend it. It’s such a rejuvenating experience and so worth it to take time for yourself to relax and to rid your body of its stress. Anyway…I’m feeling good this morning and I hope you are too. And without further ado, here is my day of eats!

Monday morning I started off with another smoothie. Surprise, surprise. This combo was a delicious pumpkin chai smoothie made with a frozen banana, 1/2 cup of coconut milk, 1/4 cup of pumpkin, 1/4 cup of chai tea concentrate, 3/8 cup of oats, 1 tbsp of chia seeds and 2 tbsp of peanut butter.

At work mid-morning I had a snack of organic cottage cheese and granola. Pretty good combo!

And also another piece of Dakota bread from Great Harvest. I’ve been savoring this loaf for about 2 weeks now!

Lunch was a curried chickpea salad on top of some kale with balsamic. Recipe to come!

And grapes! Love grapes!

I have some zals in my desk at work and ended up munching on some of those throughout the afternoon.

About half of this honey oat bar was consumed as well.

Dinner was this lovely plate of goodness. Half a huge sweet potato with BBQ sauce and mustard, some carrots, snap peas, hummus and pineapple.

I ended my night with a little mint chocolate chip gelato and an episode of Gilmore Girls. Forgot to snap a picture of the gelato, but it was just as amazing as it sounds!

Make sure you stop on by Jenn’s page to see the rest of the WIAW participants!

TGIW,

Sydney

Lately

The past few weeks have been pretty great here in Wisconsin. Hope your summer has been swell as well! I’ve started getting into the swing of things with my new job, I’ve spent a lot of time with family and friends, and I’ve been enjoying the great outdoors as much as possible! Since moving into my new place I’ve loved going for walks around the neighborhood most evenings after work. The scenery is beautiful, and it’s such a relaxing way to wind down my day. One day last week I even saw this hot air balloon on my way home from work. It was so cool to see something like that up close!  Lately on the food front I’ve been making smoothies like there’s no tomorrow; and I’ve had fun mixing it up each time. This was a banana peanut butter oat smoothie with avocado. Yum!

I also had a delicious tempeh sandwich with avocado and stone ground mustard the other day. With some fabulously sweet cantaloupe.  I was up in Northern Wisconsin recently for a long weekend and was able to see many of my extended family members who I don’t see that often. It was a wonderful, outdoorsy weekend filled with catching up, lots of family, food and fun. We stayed in a lodge on a small lake for most of the weekend, such a great place! We went hiking and for a swim at a nearby park. This was the view as we watched the sun set  on a pontoon ride. I absolutely love lake living. Everything is so peaceful, quiet and breathtaking. As I continue to get settled from my big move back to the Midwest, I look forward to doing my best to live as balanced, positive, happy and healthy of a life as possible. And thankfully I think that for me Wisconsin is just the place to do that!

From Wisconsin with love,

Sydney

Coco-Nutty Nectarine Smoothie

A wonderful way to start your day. A refreshing and filling summer smoothie!

This Coco-Nutty Nectarine Smoothie is a subtly sweet and nutty combination to die for.

The texture is thick, pillowy, and doughy. Pure bliss! This may be one of my new favorites!

Coco-Nutty Nectarine Smoothie

Serves 1

1/2 frozen banana

1 nectarine

1 tbsp chia seeds

1/3 cup of old fashioned oats

1 cup of unsweetened coconut milk

To make this smoothie simply place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth! Enjoy!

 

Tahini is the man,

Sydney

What I Ate Wednesday #75

Morning all! Hope you have a wonderful Wednesday and enjoy my featured eats from Monday!

I started off the day with a piece of peanut butter toast on Great Harvest’s Dakota bread. Simply amazing!

I also had a cantaloupe banana smoothie as well. It was pretty tasty, and had more of an icy texture from the frozen cantaloupe than the normal smoothies I make with purely a banana base. I liked trying something a little different this time!

Midmorning at work I had some plain greek yogurt with homemade granola and cherries. I’ve been loving all the summer cherries recently!

Lunch was an amazing salad. A bed of kale topped with pine nut hummus, garbanzos, sweet potato, avocado and a drizzle of honey balsamic vinegar. I haven’t had a big salad in awhile and I’m so glad I did. I’ve missed eating huge salads. I definitely see more to come in my future!

Also had a slice of plain Dakota bread with my salad. This stuff is so good.

Later that afternoon I snacked on a Vanilla Almond Luna bar, I thought it actually tasted pretty good and not too sweet.

Dinner that night was a savory crepe stuffed with greens like kale and chard and some goat cheese. Delicious! Also had some tomatoes and pickled beets on the side.

The mystery content of this snack taxi was a golden delicious apple. I packed it to bring to work but didn’t eat it until dinner.

And finally for dessert that night, along with an old episode of Survivor, was this plain and unsalted rice cake drizzled with honey. After the picture I had another plain cake and some dark chocolate. Wonderful way to end the evening!

Make sure to stop on over to Jenn’s page to see all the WIAW posts!

 

TGIW,

Sydney

Tangy Mustard Cucumber Cannellini Salad

This Tangy Mustard Cucumber Cannellini Salad is what I brought for lunch to work all last week. It’s a tasty, fresh and flavorful dish!

Some days I ate this salad as is straight from a bowl, and other days I ate it atop a bed of greens with sliced avocado. A winner every time!

The tangy BBQ sauce and mustard pair so well together and give this dish a wonderful flavor!

Tangy Mustard Cucumber Cannellini Salad

Serves 4

1 can cannellini beans

1 English cucumber, diced

2 medium bell peppers, diced

1/8 cup of olive oil

1/4 cup of stone ground mustard

1/4 cup of BBQ sauce

1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

To make this salad, start by combining the beans, cucumber and bell peppers into a large mixing bowl.

In a smaller mixing bowl, whisk together the olive oil, mustard, BBQ sauce and apple cider vinegar.

Pour the tangy mustard sauce over the veggies and toss to coat. Place in refrigerator for a few hours to chill. Enjoy!

Crunchy freshness,

Sydney

Classic Strawberry Banana Smoothie

Heyo! It’s Friday! Hope you’ve all had a wonderful week and have some fun plans for the upcoming weekend as well.

If it has finally started to feel like summer where you live too, this smoothie is for you! I love Wisconsin, but it has taken far too long to start feeling like summer this year.

But now that it’s finally warm enough for smoothies, I’m making the most of it! This classic, creamy Strawberry Banana Smoothie is the perfect summer delight! I whipped this up for breakfast the other day and it hit the spot.

Classic Strawberry Banana Smoothie

Serves 1

1 sliced and frozen banana

1 handful of frozen strawberries

1 cup of unsweetened coconut milk

Yep, it’s three ingredients and it is pure perfection! Simply combine all ingredients in a blender/Vitamix/etc. and blend until smooth. Enjoy!

Smoothie living,

Sydney

What I Ate Wednesday #74

It’s that time again! One of my favorite times of the week, when I get to post about a day of my eats and get to check out all the other food bloggers’ tasty recipes as well. This time is a look into what I had this past Monday. What I started off with Monday morning was two pieces of Great Harvest’s Oregon Herb bread, toasted, and spread with peanut butter. Ripe banana on the side. I cannot get over how amazing this bread is, and how hearty and filling it was! Usually I’m snacking at work at about 10:00, but I didn’t even break into my packed snack until about 11:30.

When I was hungry I pulled out my plain greek yogurt topped with chia seeds and fresh raspberries. The raspberries were amazing! Such a tasty snack.

For lunch I had a Tangy Mustard Bean and Pepper salad (on top of a bed of kale). I’ll post the recipe soon! It is essentially just beans, bell peppers and cucumbers, dressed in a mustard sauce. So fresh and perfect for a hot summer day!

I also had some cantaloupe. It was so ripe and sweet when I cut it open that I froze some of it right away. I’m going to try using it in smoothies!

Later that afternoon I also munched on some crackers at work.

It was such a gorgeous day that I had to get out and go for  a nice, long walk once I was home. But before I headed out I had a few slices of cucumber and jicama with hummus.

I cannot tell you how much I’ve loved being back in Wisconsin and being surrounded by such beautiful and peaceful scenery! I love nature! And I love walks.

After getting back from my stroll I had a bit of my Mom’s berry water kefir.

Dinner was homemade pizzas per request of my Brother on his last night home. He made this delicious veggie pizza, yum! Along with this I also had a small arugula side salad with balsamic, and some of my Mom’s homemade ranch dressing.

A handful of cherries were consumed as well!

And while watching an episode of The Office with my fam I had a piece of dark chocolate. Heaven!

Hope you all have a wonderful day and make sure to stop on by Jenn’s page to see where this WIAW party gets started!

TGIW,

Sydney

 

 

Chilled Jicama, Mango and Quinoa Salad with Minty Lime Dressing

I’ve started doing meal prep on the weekends so that I have enough food to pack for lunches throughout the week to bring with me to work. So far it’s worked out great, I get it all done on the weekend and then have more free time in the evenings throughout the week!

It’s also been nice to try some new dishes that keep well for a week, don’t have a strong odor, and are relatively quiet to eat so I don’t disturb my co-workers.

This Chilled Jicama, Mango and Quinoa Salad with Minty Lime Dressing is so fresh and flavorful! Leave this salad chill overnight before serving and the flavors really soak in!

A delicious summer salad!

Chilled Jicama, Mango and Quinoa Salad with Minty Lime Dressing

Serves 3-4

Quinoa salad

1/2 cup quinoa

1/2 a large jicima, chopped

1 mango, peeled and chopped

1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained

1 red bell pepper, chopped

Minty Lime Dressing

1/8 cup of olive oil

2 tbsp lime juice

1/4 cup of fresh mint, chopped

To make this dish, start by cooking the quinoa to package directions.

While the quinoa is cooking, chop all the fruit and veggies.

Once the quinoa is done, combine the quinoa in a large mixing bowl with the jicama, mango, black beans and bell pepper.

In a small mixing bowl whisk together the ingredients for the dressing.

Pour the dressing over the quinoa mixture, stir to coat, and place in refrigerator. Chill for about 2 hours before serving. Enjoy!

Summer salads,

Sydney