Enchilada Sauce To Start the Weekend

Good morning!  It’s a beautiful Saturday and I started off with a light yogurt breakfast with a giant mug of coffee.

Mix ins: frozen banana slices, oats, and crumbled apple-oatmeal cookie

It’s a sunny hot day and I’m actually getting ready to go to the beach (so excited!). Gotta get my last tan in before the summer ends!

Before heading out, let me do a quick recap of last night.

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I thought I would go out right after work yesterday, but it didn’t end up happening.  Instead, I went to Trader Joe’s then went home to eat and rest before meeting up with my friends later in the night.

At Trader Joe’s I picked up an enchilada sauce and was extremely excited to try it out ASAP.

It was an impulse buy, as these random sauces generally are, and I decided to use them to smother up some baked eggs.

Baked Eggs with Enchilada Sauce

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.  Sautee some vegetables and meat of your choice.

Tofurky sausage (okay, this isn’t real meat, but it sure does taste like one!), onions, red bell peppers, escarole, and baby bell mushrooms

3.  Sprinkle some of your favorite spices.  I used red pepper flakes, ground black pepper, and dried basil.

4.  Transfer the contents from the pan to a baking dish.

5.  Using a 1:1 ratio, mix egg beater and any type of milk or cream together.  I used 2 egg whites and 1/3 cup of buttermilk (I may have used too much, but it was extra eggy which I liked).

6.  Pour the egg mixture into the baking dish, over your sauteed veg and meat.

7.  Top off with a bit of parmesan cheese.

And when I say a bit, I mean A LOT

8.  Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes, and when the cheese starts bubbling, take it out and let it cool for 10 minutes.

I know this part is extremely difficult, but you don’t want to burn your mouth!

The baked eggs are yummy on their own, but I had to top it with my newly bought enchilada sauce.

Spreading out some of the salty goodness…

Oh yeah.. you look better up close

The baked eggs were stellar.  I thought the sauce was good but a bit too salty, but I guess I’ll just use less of it next time.  Overall, I thought it was a successful random purchase.  I’m not sure if I would buy it again, but it’s fun to try something new once in a while.  Living on the edge, baby!

And once again, I did not fail to clean my plate.

CLEAN plate club!

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The rest of the night was spent venturing out to a few bars in the neighborhood.  I headed over my friends’ place first to meet up with a few girls.

Julia, Jamie, Alanna, and me.  One of the only photos taken throughout the night.

All of us grew up in the same town and graduated from the same high school back in New Jersey.  Alanna also attended NYU with me.  Julia, who lives in Boston now, was visiting the city for the weekend and it was great to see her again.  My roommate, Talia (not pictured), also came out for the fun.

We chatted it up and chilled on a few Bud Lights before going out for some classy bar hoppin’ around Union Square.

Even cheap beers taste better in a bottle than a can.

Girls’ night out is always fun especially with some good old friends.  I’m a bit tired though from having a late night and not getting enough sleep, but I think I can manage to trudge on through the day to lay out and do nothing!

Alright, off to the beach now!

Friday=Lazy Work Day

I think everyone gets lazy at work on Fridays and decides to lounge around at their office daydreaming about their weekends (..or is that just me?).  I’ve been crazy busy all this week at work but today, I haven’t received more than 2 or 3  phone calls and emails which has been a lovely change.  It feels like my weekend has started already.

Breakfast was overnight apple oats, with the same ol’ toppings.

Toppings: plain yogurt, banana slices, and country pumpkin spice granola

This was actually the first time I cooked my oats WITH the chopped up apples in them and it was DIVINE.  The flavor of the apple infused into the oats, and the sweetness and the tartness of the apple was intensified by the cooking process.  YUM.

The only mistake I made with my breakfast was that when I was half way through it, I realized I forgot to sprinkle it with cinnamon.  I hate forgetting an important ingredient or topping in my meal, and I actually get a little upset over it.   Oh well, at least the second half of my oats was enjoyed in its better state.

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Lunch

Friday usually means I have a no-tupperware lunch!

I have mentioned it before but I usually don’t like to bring my lunch in a container on Fridays.  It’s gets too annoying to have to bring it out to happy hour or dinner that usually marks the start of the weekend right after work.

Anywhooo, I just had a deli turkey sandwich on whole wheat Arnold Sandwich Thins.

Spread with Garlic & Herb Laughing Cow cheese, eggplant hummus, and mustard, and loaded with an onion slice, red bell peppers, and escarole

My sandwich was  complemented with a corn on the cob.

Mmmm, corn on the cob is so sweet and chewy.  I like it plain without butter or salt.  I also think it’s fun to eat!  I’m a neat corn on the cob eater.  I pluck the kernels row by row with my bottom teeth.

Neat and clean

This is what it looks like when I’m finished.

Cold, naked cob

My brother, like me, is also a neat corn on the cob eater, but my parents have no patience and they just bite into it.

How do you eat your corn on the cob?  Neatly nibbling the kernels off from one end to the other like me, or do you just munch into it at random?

Hope everyone’s having a nice Friday so far!

Giant Mango Workout

I walked past my favorite fruit cart today and the mangoes were on sale for 3 for $5.  Mangoes might be my favorite fruit.  Sweet, juicy, and slightly creamy, it’s delicious on it own, and in salads or yogurts.  However, the biggest downfall of mangoes is that they are so expensive!  They are usually $2-3 for just one fruit and the pit pretty much takes up half of the fruit, leaving you not much of the precious pulp.

The last time I bought mangoes was from the same fruit cart but they were $1 each, which was a deal and a half.  However, I couldn’t pass up today’s deal which didn’t seem as good as the last one at first.. until I saw how HUGE the fruits were.  They were twice the size of any other normal mangoes, and carrying the three of them home today was quite a difficult task.  It was a giant mango workout.

Grrrrr! That’s the face I make when I do my weight lifting or should I say mango lifting.. Yeah, I can beat you up.

How big are they?  They look like green ostrich eggs.  I really wanted to eat one of them today but they are still hard and not ripe yet.  A few more days of waiting is necessary until they are soft and juicy and ready for my belly.

I was hungry after my mango workout and made a quick dinner of sauteed vegetable and beans with couscous, and some baked sweet potato fries.

The spread

Topped with some some marinara sauce and a spoonful of parmesan cheese

Love me some ketchup with my fries

You can tell that I burnt the fries a bit.  It was still good though, I finished it.  :)

Dessert was sliced apples dipped in PB2.

I’m gonna go relax before heading to bed with a glass of vino and the new episode of Jersey Shore (this show is SO addicting!).

I love going to bed knowing that the next day is gonna be Friday.

Super Sonic Walker

The sun is finally out! And the humidity is GONE.  I can’t believe this weather.  The high was 70 yesterday and this Sunday it’s supposed to reach 91!

What kinda Jekyll and Hyde craziness is this?!?

It’s all good though, I’m just happy that Summer is coming back again.

A simple breakfast today.

Plain non-fat yogurt, 1/2 mashed banana, 1/2 Golden Delicious apple chopped and microwaved, and mashed sweet potato, topped with country pumpkin spice granola (can’t get enough of this stuff)

Hmm.. maybe that wasn’t so simple now that I’ve just listed at least 5 ingredients.

P.S. That banana looks sorta gross in the pic.  Tasted good though!

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The walk to work today was perfect – warm and breezy.  I know I posted before about my yoga story, and how I should avoid running and other intense use of my leg muscles because of my bunions.  Well, one of my main form of exercise I have been able to do other than yoga is walking.

I love to walk EVERYWHERE.   It’s so easy to do living in the city, where walking is a major part of your everyday activities.  This is true for me especially, as I avoid any type of public transportation if I can get to my destination in an hour or less (unless I’m late or it’s torrential downpouring).

Also, I’m FAST.  When I look up how long it takes me to walk anywhere on Google Maps, I usually subtract 5-10 minutes for myself because I’m a Super Sonic walker.

I look like this!.. Sorta

It doesn’t matter if I’m early or late, I always look like I’m going somewhere where I should have been 10 minutes ago.  There’s nothing more frustrating to me than walking behind a group of people blocking the entire sidewalk chatting it up while on a slow, snail-like stroll (tourists, AHEM!).

I think I got this from my Dad.  He’s also a speedy walker and when my family is going anywhere, the two of us are the ones who are WAY ahead of my Mom and my brother.

It really is a great form of exercise, and I speed walk about 1+ hours everyday just to get somewhere.  I know it’s one of the major reasons I have maintained my healthy weight.

Lunch

My lazy prep lunch: a good ol’ bowl of salad.  If I’m too lazy to make anything the night before, I’ll just throw a bunch of no-cook ingredients together for a fresh salad next day.  Today’s salad was GIGANTUOUS (is that not a word? I’m getting the evil red dotted underline).

An escarole salad with black beans I cooked yesterday, deli turkey slices, shredded mozzarella, carrots, red bell peppers, and corn

I swear the corn is under there somwhere.  I dressed it up with lemon juice, mustard, salt & pepper, and red pepper flakes.

I packed the bowl so much that when I put the lid on to shake it like I usually do,  the salad didn’t even budge!   I had to open it and mix it up with my fork.

Nicely mixed and ready to be consumed

I really like the taste of escarole.  Spinach is a bit boring to me, unless it’s seasoned with spice.  I prefer greens like escarole and arugula that comes with a naturally peppery taste.

I ended my lunch with a Strawberry Oikos.

I prefer my yogurts plain and adding my own fruit, but this was a free sample from the Whole Foods Picnic at Summer Streets last weekend.  It was pretty good, although I prefer the caramel flavor.

Alright, time to get back to the grind!

Banana Split and Black Beans

Another day of this..

The weather forecast is saying it should get better tomorrow so I have my fingers crossed.  You better be right on this, weather.com!

3 gloomy mornings in a row had me craving for a happy bright breakfast.  Happy to me is a banana split

Stuffed with plain yogurt, mashed sweet potatoes, sliced strawberries, country pumpkin spice granola, and cinnamon

Oh, the mixture of all sweet deliciousness crammed between two halves of a creamy ‘naner.  I want to oversize it and lay right in the middle of the yumminess!

Excuse me while I stare at this photo and daydream about my awesome breakfast for a bit…

Okay, I’m done, I swear.

Right before I left my apartment, I threw in some dry black beans that have been soaking in water overnight into my rice cooker.

I love my rice cooker.  I may not have a slow cooker, but a rice cooker can do much of the same stuff that a slow cooker does.  Mine’s even the simplest travel sized version where you can’t control the time or temperature.  It just has one button that you press, which pop up automatically when it’s done and turns off on its own.  I don’t think I have burned anything with it.  I would definitely love a fancier version one day like the one that Emily mentions in her blog, but mine suits me fine for now and it was free from my mom.  Nothing can beat free, especially from your mommy!

Dinner

When I left earlier in the day, this is what my black beans looked like.

1 cup of beans and 2 1/2 cups of water.  You can tell my rice cooker has been used ALOT.

And look at what was waiting for me when I got home from work!

Soft and plump and nicely cooked

I love when my food expands while it retains the same nutritional calories.  It means I can eat a large quantity of it without feeling guilty, which is always a great thing in my book.

Needless to say, I based my dinner on the black beans and made a Black Bean Dip.

Dips are my one of my favorite types of food.  They are  just so addicting and deliciously salty.  When I make my black bean dip, I go a bit crazy with my ingredients and tend to put in anything and everything I can find that sounds good.  Here’s what tonight’s composed of:

• Black beans mashed with a fork
• Onions
• Red bell peppers
• Fresh basil
• Chopped escarole
• 1/2 wedge of Garlic & Herb Laughing Cow cheese
• A squirt of spicy brown mustard
• 1/2 tbsp lite mayo
• Black pepper
• 1/2 tsp chili oil

Have you ever had chili oil before?

You can get it at any Asian grocery store and it adds a delicious spice to your meal.  You really don’t need much – just teaspoon or less, and you will definitely taste it.

WARNING: If you like spicy food, you WILL get addicted to this stuff and put it on EVERYTHING.  Trust me, I’m speaking through experience and I had to hide it from myself so I don’t go on a chili overload.

I enjoyed my dip with some carrots and Joseph’s Lavash Bread, which I cut into chips and put in my George Foreman grill for several minutes.

Getting nice ‘n crispy

Dip it low! Pick it up S-L-O-W…

I balanced out the spicy bean dip with a side of sweet corn on the cob.  Another filling and satisfying dinner.

Hope everyone got through their hump day without too much stress.  Top Chef tonight! Who’s watching?