The heat seems to have returned to DC, but I’ve been pretending it hasn’t. Earlier this week, I was craving hot oatmeal!
I whipped up a batch of my Perfect Microwave Banana Oatmeal (<—click for recipe), and since I wanted to add a lot of toppings I decreased the oats & milk to 1/3 cup instead of 1/2 cup. On top, I put some fresh blueberries, pumpkin seeds, and slivered almonds! Delicious and a great mix of protein, carbs, and healthy fat.
If you think you don’t like oatmeal, try that recipe – the banana makes it really sweet and delicious, and the milk adds creaminess and extra protein for staying power! Excuse the dirty bowl – I refuse to dirty another bowl just so my photos look nicer. Just keepin’ it real over here. 😉
As for lunches and dinners, I’ve been enjoying lots of loaded up salads lately. Earlier this week for lunch, I made a big Mexican-ish salad loaded up with black beans, leftover roasted potatoes, mushrooms, chopped peppers and tomato, and a big spoonful each of avocado and salsa on top as the “dressing.”
I always tell clients to think about having protein, healthy fat, and a healthy carb source at each meal, plus lots of nutrient power from veggies and/or fruit. In this, the healthy fat comes from the avocado, protein comes from the beans, and healthy carbs from the beans & potatoes! I topped it with some cracked pepper and a squeeze of lime juice, too. The only thing missing was cilantro!
Last week, for dinner, Matt got creative and made us another Mexican salad creation – this one involved a bed of baby spinach topped with sautéed onions and peppers and ground chicken cooked in Mexican seasonings. Topped with a little grated Cabot sharp cheddar cheese and some fresh tomato! Plus some broken up hard corn taco pieces on the side to scoop it up with. 🙂
Another dinner earlier this week was my favorite “throw some canned tomatoes, raw chicken, and veggies in a pan” approach. The key is using these Muir Glen canned diced tomatoes with basil & garlic.
Throw it in a pan with some raw chicken and a drizzle of olive oil, then add whatever you want on top! I added some extra fresh herbs – basil, dill, and parsley – from our railing box garden to the mix…
And then threw some fresh string beans on top before putting a lid on the pan and letting it all simmer/steam together until the chicken was cooked through.
I ordered another Relay Foods bounty basket this week and the string beans were part of that. (My full Relay Foods review is here – it’s a cool local CSA + grocery delivery service for DC/VA area peeps. Follow this referral link to get $30 off your first order over $50.)
Also in the bounty basket was some fresh corn, so I boiled it up to enjoy on the side. I have to say – it was the best corn I’ve had all summer! Really sweet.
Dinner is served! It came out delicious.
What great meals have you been enjoying this week?
And now, time to get back down to work! I’ve been knocking all sorts of things off my to-do list this week, including having some meetings with my accountant to make sure my online accounting system/banking/invoices for AnneTheRD and blog stuff are all in order and balanced out. I use QuickBooks Online which is great but also rather confusing at times, so it’s been good to have some help. Now that I’ve gone back and corrected some errors I made originally, I think everything should be easy from here on out! Accounting is definitely not my favorite part of owning my own business, but it’s a necessary evil. 🙂
Have a wonderful day, my friends!
p.s. I thought it would be fun to share some inspirational weight loss or running-related stories from you guys on my fANNEtastic food Facebook page to give us all some motivation to keep up the healthy living this fall. If you’re a blog reader and you have a story you’d like to share, please email me (anne{at}fANNEtasticfood.com) with a brief blurb about your journey to health or fitness, along with a photo, and I’ll share it with my followers! 🙂
