Category Archives: Recipe

How to Be Happier

I’m kind of feeling some frustration in some areas of my life lately.  So what did I do? I went on to Pinterest and found some pretty words of inspiration to make me feel better.  How 2013 of me, right?

And now I can’t figure out how to embed a pin into my post. I swear I’ve done this before.  So, you don’t get the pretty images, I guess, but you can still see some of my favorite quotes that I found about five minutes ago.  I just didn’t know they were my favorites until then.

“She stood in the storm and when the wind did not blow her way, she adjusted the sails.”  - Elizabeth Edwards

“Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.”  - Leo Buscaglia

I promise there’s nothing going on, I’m just being weird.  But I have been thinking about how I need to do more things that make me happy and what those things are.  Maybe re-reading The Happiness Project should be one of them, actually.

• Keeping the house cleaner.  This is a huge, huge struggle for me.  I’m messy by nature and Jason’s worse than I am and even though we actually sprung for a monthly cleaning service, our house is still oftentimes a wreck and it really, really stresses me out.

• Read more.  When I was a kid and teenager, you know, before I spent all my time online, I used to be a pretty big reader.  I really enjoy reading, I just need to do it more.

• Support the local farmers market.  I often complain about the suburb that I live in.  It’s not walkable, it’s not trendy, there’s nothing here, etc.  But last year we got a pretty decent farmers market on Thursday evenings which is exactly the type of thing that I want for my community, so I was thinking that I really needed to show my support.

•  Cook more.  I think I’m pretty good about this, actually.  I would like to get into a better weekend prep routine though, so I don’t find myself scrambling for frozen meals when it comes to taking lunch to work, or find myself starving by the time I get home from dinner.  But I do cook and there was proof on my camera.

Roasted green beans mushrooms

This recipe for Green Beans with Mushrooms, Balsamic and Parmesan was absolutely wonderful.  So simple but yet so tasty.  It serves six and yet I had to refrain myself from eating the entire thing.  A repeat side-dish for sure.

Balsamic tomatoes mozzarella

If it would ever stay warm here, this would be a really good summer salad. I  know that some of you north of me are probably rolling your eyes, but the high is only supposed to be 57 on Saturday.  So, this was basically this Candied Balsamic Tomatoes and Mozzarella dish, only I didn’t use any sugar, so they weren’t candied.  And apparently I’m having a love affair with balsamic vinegar lately.

Quiona stuffed pepper

This was Pizza-Style Tomato Basil Quinoa Stuffed Peppers. While I really like the stuffing (which I was able to make in my rice cooker, score!), I went overboard and used a whole pepper and wished that I had only used half, like the recipe called for.  Or really that I didn’t stuff it at all and just ate the quinoa.  I don’t like whole roasted peppers.

Miso grilled veggies

Here we are getting to the end of the week where I got lazy.  I intended to make these Miso Roasted Veggie Tacos but didn’t have any tortillas, so I just ended up scrapping the rice altogether and making Miso Roasted Veggies.   I had this idea that if it put them on a flatbread, they’d be like a pizza, but it was like roasted veggies on a flatbread.  Still, the veggies were good.  Next time I’ll taco-fy them.  (Omg, taco-fy is a word?  It’s not underlining it!)

Massage kale egg

This was something that I came up with.  I probably saw it somewhere at some point, so if I stole your recipe, you can yell at me.

Massaged Kale Salad with Tomatoes and Fried Egg
Serves 2-3

1 bag chopped kale
1  avocado
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes 
salt to taste
eggs (however many you’d like)

1.  Put the kale in a large bowl and chop up the avocado into small pieces.
2.  With your hands (that hopefully you washed), massage the avocado into the kale for about a minute.
3.  Add nutritional yeast, red pepper and salt and massage for another minute.
4.  Add tomatoes.
5.  Refrigerate overnight.  (I’m not sure if this makes a difference, but I did it and I think maybe it’d make the kale more mild tasting.)
6.  Top with fried egg.  I wanted a runny egg ideally, but my yolk broke in the pan and it cooked.

I did find out that my new boss drinks smoothies with kale in them, so that’s always a good thing and has nothing to do with anything except that I posted a kale recipe.

/random  post

The Bad and the Good

Bad: I didn’t really sleep well last night and I wasn’t feeling my best today at work.

Good:  The reason for that was that I went to a fun concert last night.   A co-worker’s boyfriend’s band was playing at The Earl and Jason and I decided to go see them.

Band

(That’s actually the band that came on afterward.)

Bad: My dinner plans with a friend got cancelled.

Good: I made a nice dinner at home.  It was gross and rainy out and I sort of wanted to lounge around in my sweatpants anyway.  At lunch, I stopped at Trader Joe’s and picked up some salmon.  I was talking to one of my co-workers and she told me that she often makes miso soup when she cooks salmon and what do you know, I actually had the ingredients to make miso soup at home!  I’m kind of shocked, really, because our fridge is pretty empty right now.

Miso soup ingredients

Miso soup

With the soup, I made Spiced Salmon with Mustard Sauce.

Spiced salmon with mustard

Bad: Our roof has a hole in it, possibly from a fallen tree branch.

Good:  Okay, there’s really nothing good about that, aside from the fact that it’s a small hole.  And also, it’s Friday, which is always a good thing.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Chia Seed Pudding

I normally eat eggs for breakfast each morning.  I find them easy to make and filling.  But every now and again, I get sick of eggs and want something different.  Enter chia seed pudding.

Chia seed pudding

Chocolate Peanut Butter Chia Seed Pudding to be exact.

1 cup unsweetened almond milk
2 tbsp chia seeds
1 packet stevia
2 tbsp pb2 (or peanut butter)
1 tbsp cocoa powder

Mix everything together and chill in the fridge overnight.  In the morning, mix it all up again and you have a pudding-like breakfast that’s like a dessert.

Chia seed pudding2

I liked this, but by 11am, I was hungry again and wishing that I’d had eggs.

What do you normally eat for breakfast?  I know there are tons of oatmeal fans out there, but I just don’t love it the way the rest of you do.

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