Hollandaise

This winter has lacked that whole "wintery feel" with repeated weeks of 50 and 60 degree temps. So what better time to start a yard reconstruction project than on a Saturday night- by the glow of truck headlights- only to finish during the only snowstorm we've seen this year.  Totally normal right?!  The  true feat of the weekend has been the relaxed vibe that settled in, sometime Friday afternoon-while a stylist set free the split ends of my hair!!  One dinner date at Emilio's later, with sangria obviously accompanying the boiled octopus tapas and the stress of the last few weeks drifted away.
Enter Saturday morning. While cruising cooking light online, I came across and ultimately started craving this.  Not having Canadian Bacon didn't discourage my morning masterpiece. Not really feeling the heaviness of traditional Hollandaise sauce, my goal was to create something lighter while keeping the full flavor intact.  Thankful to the many vegan recipes dedicated to egg/butter free Hollandaise Sauce- this blend of ideas was created and savored, mentally stored for my next fancy feeling feast- and 1 less chicken loses it's life! Win-win for everyone, don't you think

Holy Healthy Hollandaise
1/4 cup drained and rinsed Chickpeas
1/4 cup Plain Greek Yogurt
3 Tbsp Lemon Juice
2 Tbsp Nutritional Yeast
Splash Worcestershire
Salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper to taste
1/2 Tsp Turmeric
3 Tbsp Coconut Oil
1/4 cup water

Give it some alone time in the food processor- enough to take the grainy texture from the chickpeas and make it smooth.  Warm in a sauce pan and server over everything... eggs.

Valentine's Day

I dig my blog, obviously or I'd never sit down to write it. I love looking back to see what was happening last year- or even almost 2 years ago. Recently reading last years post of Valentine's Day, made me realize (again) somethings never change. I'm still the same Valentine's Day Scrooge! Not that I don't want to share romantic evenings with my hubby, I just don't want the preset version of when, where, and how. Hallmark standard is buy me things, take me out, do this on February 14th. I'd rather have my version- build me something beautiful, cook with me, do so whenever the mood strikes you. We did spend the 14th in the kitchen. We did create something special, but for no other reason than it's been a hell of a busy past 6 weeks and we wanted to hang out. After spending 6 weeks searching for a replacement vehicle for my "purchased at 21, driven all over God's creation, buttons popping off daily" Jetta, we brought home our newest mountain chasing, beach cruiser. Major life todo for 2012- checked off (stress slowly lowering)! Work life went all cra-zay for a minute there, as it does every mid year- and that too slowly settled. So after a pretty long work meeting on a no different that any other Tuesday night we cooked.

Honey Sriracha Glazed Salmon over Israeli Cous Cous

Over medium high grill, place salmon. In last few minutes of grilling glaze with equal parts honey-sriracha.  Season with salt and pepper.  Top with olive oil lemon sauteed calamari.  Serve over Israeli cous cous with sauteed fennel and spinach- and loads of fresh garlic and onions!

Now pour some wine, light some candles, turn on some music- and pass me the Russel Stovers!

Strawberry Soft Serve

Something I saw the other day stuck with me and I haven't been able to shake it- strawberry ice cream.  Not normally my go to choice, I'm more of a chocolate girl, but I have been CRAVING some strawberries in a major way.  As luck would have it the only sugars passing my lips this week come from fruits and veggies, and soft serve is as easy as a frozen banana. After dinner- a Clean Eating Magazine recipe won again- a lightened up version of taco bowls for me, and enchiladas for my main man, I attacked my TRX with a vengeance.  My arms are jello, and my legs are shaking- but that didn't stop me from whipping up two bowls of homemade strawberry soft serve- by whipping up I mean I had to hit the pulse button a few times, complicated stuff we have going on!  Into the food processor went 2 frozen bananas, and a  handful of frozen strawberries.  It did it's food "processing" for a few minutes, and viola- creamy, cold, strawberry soft serve without any additional sugars added! No extra sugar... no big deal!

something forbidden...

What better way to spice up a Monday evening than to start it off with something a little forbidden, and a wine glass full of water ;) I have a special bag of forbidden rice I keep in my pantry. I save it for special recipes and Monday nights! Right before drifting off to sleep last night I flipped to a picture in my Clean Eating Magazine of Salmon over Forbidden rice salad and made a mental pin! After a long day at work it was nice to already have a plan for dinner. 

Forbidden rice gets its name from a dish saved for Royalty, in Asia, a really long time ago- before Whole Foods made it un-forbidden to all us non-Royals!  Google will tell you all the nutritional stats related to the black grained rice- totally worth a read. It will describe its slightly nutty flavor. Nothing you  read will compare to the mild flavor and fantastic texture of actually eating the rice. Its worth a trip to the Whole Foods, no matter how many hippies hybrids cut you off in the parking lot... I joke... kinda :)

Tonight my forbidden bed... of rice.. was topped with Thai-inspired sauteed salmon and veggies.  Veering off from Clean Eating's recipe I came up with this little beauty. Totally worthy of  weekend dinner, but easy enough to make on a Monday- a rainy, inside recess, kind of Monday at that!

Bring two cups of water to a boil, add 1 cup rice. Cover and lower heat for 25 minutes.

While rice cooks mix the following together in a bowl:

1 diced red pepper

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro- save 2 Tbsp for garnish

1 finely chopped jalapeno- seeds and ribs removed depending on how spicy you like it!

4 thinly sliced green onions- save 1/2 for garnish

2 minced cloves of garlic

You'll also need:

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

2 Tbsp Soy Sauce

2 tsp lime juice

4 Tbsp lite Coconut Milk- I seriously opened a whole can for 4 Tbsp- expect more Asian Food this week Hubby!

1 tsp sesame seeds

splash of vinegar- I used apple cider

Over mediumish heat, add oil to a pan and quick swirl the first 5 ingredients- less than 2 min.  Add lime juice, soy sauce, vinegar, coconut milk, and sesame seeds and heat until just bubbling

Remove mixture from pan.

Allow pan to regain heat and add Salmon.  Cook over medium high heat for 3-4 minutes per side. 

When fish flakes its done-  I like mine medium rare, so a little less time works better for me.

Assemble over your forbidden rice bed, and top with pepper/onion/jalapenos.  Add fresh onion and cilantro on top. 

I ate mine like this, ya know since I've broken up with non fruit sugar for the week, but hubs was super stoked when I drizzled honey sriracha over his.  Equal parts honey and sriracha mixed and drizzled over ANYTHING and you're set! It was perfect for tonights dinner.

**Don't forget to find A Well Spiced Life on Facebook!!! Instant post updates for you and motivation for me... win win situation I think!

it's what's for lunch...

Sunday generally sets the mood for my week. It will either be rushed with half finished projects, or a crossed off to do list that leaves me well placed for the upcoming work week.  This Sunday was productive, a good sign for my upcoming, scheduled to the brim week!  In order to maximize time at home Monday- Friday, lunches have been set up with easy to grab (and no sugar for me...) options that we can take to work.  Hubby and I don't typically eat out at work, except for the occasional lunch date, which means we pack lunches everyday for both of us.  Aside from being so much more affordable, what we pack is pretty healthy!  There's standard always fruits, veggie bags, almonds, greek yogurt, and standard leftovers or salads.  I have been consistently taking a leafy green salad. Sometimes its exciting- like tomorrows with roasted beets, goat cheese, and black olives- other times its pretty standard and leaves me hungry shortly after eating it, probably out of food-boredom. To keep things exciting, and make sure I have time to devote to my TRX and running shoes, our salads are set up and ready to go!  Toppings and add ins are chopped up and ready to be assembled super quick!  Of course leftovers always make an appearance throughout this week- we're starting with some super homemade beef and veggie soup.

 Having dinners planned out helps too- but that isn't super rigid. Some nights I want to cooooooooooook, and some nights I just want to eat, and quickly!  It all depends on what the day has been like.  I make a loose plan, that is super flexible, or randomly browse the epicurious app!  This week should include a veggie lasagna, meatballs (of some variety), soup (I'm thinking chicken and dumplings), salmon- and that is about as far as my planning goes.

With a few less things to worry about this week, maybe there will even be more posts! Could it be, AWSL has regained momentum?!

Hey Sug-ah!

The other day a friend posted on FB (sidenote AWSL has a FB page!!! Welcome to the 21st century lil' blog o' mine!)  a link about SUGAR!!!  This comes coincidentally after a "Paula Deen has diabetes news cast."  I have very passionate feelings about the S word.  My sugar limitations are strictly a personal  eating belief, that even in moderation- you can still have TOO much.  We don't drink sodas, rarely have juice, and stick to desserts made in someones kitchen-mainly around the holidays.  It's pretty easy to weed out the major sugar sources from our home BUT we do love our craft beer, red wines, dark chocolate, and Agave  nectar.  With debates surrounding agave and its likeness to High Fructose Corn Syrup, I feel like I am a hypocrite when I use it in coffee, oatmeal, or to sweeten up a smoothie!   Why have one but not the other?  To shake things up this week I'm taking the classic avoidance approach with the sweet stuff. Coffee will just be blonde, not sweet!  Chocolate will be unapproachable, and red wine will have to just gather some dust in dining room for a bit longer. 
- this mornings smoothie had no extra sweetness added, just the fruit!

This also means no more granola bars for breakfast, greek yogurt without honey, and paying extra attention to anything not homemade. EEEK!

Why this week? Why this challenge?

Why not?!  No sense in putting something off, when motivation is chomping at the bit for a good personal challenge!  I've nixed the major offenders- soft drinks, lil' debbies, juices, daily desserts- but that doesn't mean I can't make my diet even better!

Cheers (tap water in a wine glass of course- you can't buy that kind of class!) to a challenge!

Greetings From...

SUNNY FLORIDA  er, Wintery Weather VA is more like it! We woke up yesterday to a wet, ice covered deck, followed by morning rain.  Though today has been dry, the cool temperatures remain.  Not to worry we are looking at high's in the 60's this week, because that makes a lot of sense!  For some odd reason, I have been on a mid-winter smoothie kick. Last week it was pumpkin laced, today we have "Hi- wish I were on a warm beach, but not in a bikini yet" flavored variety.  Your standard frozen strawberries, banana, and mixed fruit that you need to either use or get rid of blended with 1 cup greek yogurt, 1/2 cup 1% milk, 1/2 cup water, and topped with unsweetened shredded coconut.

Its pretty standard, but if I lean up against the fireplace (after I fight for a spot between these two heat hogs, like hubs demonstrates above), close my eyes really tight, I am suddenly sitting on a beach- with nothing but the sand, ocean, and my strawberry smoothie. Where did your breakfast take you today?