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Meals Lately (feat. Sunbasket and CSA Delivery) + Salad Recipe

I have been so horribly behind on posting meals lately, and I’ve gotten a bit of a backlog of things to share. (A new recipe will be at the end of the post!) Of course, starting with my cat.

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For Christmas, my mom got me 2 weeks worth of Sunbasket meals. This particular meal delivery service was appealing because you have a lot of control over which meals you get, and you can do gluten free! That being said, I picked out 2 weeks of meals, supposedly starting next week, and then last week I got an email saying my meals were shipping. What…? I didn’t even get to pick that week’s worth of meals! But I think I still have the other 2 weeks coming? Unclear. That being said, the meals were not exactly something I would have picked out, but worked out pretty well given various dietary constraints.

The first meal we made was by far my favorite. It was vegetable tostadas, filled with roasted butternut squash and seasoned black beans, pickled onion and radish, queso, and a soft boiled egg.

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I chose to have mine as soft tacos vs. tostadas, but my parents’ tortillas didn’t crisp up too much. I also added a touch of spinach. This meal was delicious and cooking was seamless, minus the soft boiled eggs. We followed the directions and time exactly, but the eggs were a little TOO soft when we started to peel them (which was its own nightmare). We ended up microwaving them to firm them up a little bit more. Not pretty, but still delicious!

The next meal we made was chicken tacos. I’m really not a huge fan of cooking raw meat, but this went fairly seamlessly, minus the fact that the marinade blacked a  bit in the pan, causing the house to smell smoky for days (but it tasted good!) These tacos had marinated chicken (tomato paste and spices), roasted red peppers, cabbage, radish, and lime juice, topped with queso. These were good but we agreed they could have used a little salsa. Served with salad on the side! I also left out the super spicy pepper that came with it.

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Our third and final meal for the week was a little bit more of an improvisation. It was supposed to be blackened sole over herbed cauliflower rice, with a citrus pico de gallo. However, my mom has extreme fish phobia, and we’re not allowed to cook fish in the house. I’m actually not a huge fish eater either, although I like it well enough. Instead, we made basically the same dish, but instead of fish, we topped it with a fried egg with smoky seasoning.

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The cauliflower rice was good, as well as the pico (which went better with tortilla chips than an egg…oops).

Not a bad set of meals, given I didn’t pick them out! Overall, I would say it was a fun experience to cook up the meals. I’ve heard the commentary before that Sunbasket doesn’t have as many veggies as one might like, which I sort of agree with. However, it’s super easy to add a side or throw spinach into a taco if you want more! I’m looking forward to next week’s delivery!

Now, otherwise in food.

Breakfast

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Not a ton to share here. I’ve been on a bit of a smoothie kick since getting my new Ninja blender, but this morning I mixed it up and tried Siggi’s 4% blueberry yogurt (I like it—not too sweet!) with chocolate cheerios, sunbutter, and a Bosc pear.

Lunches lately have really just been leftovers from dinners.

Dinner

Hearty Chicken Stew with Butternut Squash and Quinoa. I love this one; it has the fun addition of kalmata olives! On the side is Brazilian cheese bread. It’s made with cheese and tapioca flour, and I found them frozen at a few different grocery stores.

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Breakfast for dinner, plus the last of our previous week’s CSA, Romesco cauliflower! I’ve seen this alien-like cauliflower at the store a couple of times, and was excited to try it out! We simply roasted it up with garlic powder, salt, and pepper. It tastes a little like a cross between cauliflower and broccoli.

In the scramble is garlic, mushrooms, spinach, green onions, shredded carrots (I love this addition to scrambles) and Irish cheddar. Plus some toast with homemade jam.

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Healthy chicken minestrone soup. I wanted a new soup to try, and we were in the mood for something that didn’t include squash, since it seems like everything we’ve made lately has included it! This minestrone is lacking all the meh parts (beans and pasta), and instead is packed with more exciting veggies (I really like cabbage), and topped with parmesan and pesto. Served with more Brazilian cheese bread balls.

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Etc.

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I’ve been going to coffeeshops to do work this week since I’ve been ready to get going before the library is open. I mixed it up and went to Peet’s and CHECK OUT THE QUALITY OF MILK FOAM ON THAT PUPPY. It’s extremely high quality. Peets>>>Starbucks.

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This may not look like much but GUYS. I saw someone post about this on Instagram. Sweet Megan makes cookie dough free of the top 8 allergens, and since it has no eggs, it can be eaten straight from the jar or baked in the oven. After several stolen spoonfuls, I decided to be civilized and bake a cookie in the oven. YUM. I got small jars of chocolate chip and sugar cookie to try, but there are a ton of flavors.

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We decided to have a little happy hour to open up our growler of Reindeer Sweat. This chocolate cherry oatmeal milk stout is SO good. While drinking it, my dad made me cookies as part of a little friendly wager that I won within my family. The cookies of choice were carrot oatmeal, made with carrots from our CSA box! (The recipe is actually from the CSA box too.)

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They came out really well! They tasted healthy, but in a good way!

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And FINALLY, the recipe!

Almost a year ago I went to Sweetgreen in DC (when I was there for the Cherry Blossom Race) and had a delicious salad with beets, goat cheese, and wild rice. I’ve been meaning to recreate it ever since, and FINALLY I did, motivated by regular and golden beets in our CSA box, as well as romaine lettuce.

Beet and Wild Rice Sweetgreen Copycat Salad

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Salad ingredients:

3 grilled or broiled seasoned chicken breasts, sliced

3 large handfuls of romaine, or 3 bowlfuls

3 large beets

3/4 cup crumbled goat cheese

1 cup seasoned, cooked rice blend (I used a brown rice and quinoa microwave rice pouch that’s seasoned with garlic. You could also use wild rice.)

Dressing (from Cooking Light):

3 T balsamic vinegar

2 T olive oil

1 T minced shallots

1 T chopped fresh parsley

1 t Dijon mustard

1/8 t salt

1/4 t black pepper

1 garlic clove

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Peel the beets, and then chop into bite sized pieces. Toss in olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder, and roast for 35 minutes or until tender.

In a small bowl, mix all the dressing ingredients.

When the beets are done, toss all ingredients in a large bowl.

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Enjoy!

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(Served with extra beets on the side to dip in ketchup!)

 

 

Last Day At The Zoo

Hi friends. It’s Friday night and I’m cuddling with Scooby in my bed while listening to the crazy wind outside.

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The weather here is crazy. Get this: yesterday: highs of about 80. No jacket weather. Hot. This morning: similar. About 70 degrees. The rain started and it was warm. One hour later, the temperature dropped 10 degrees. And has been dropping steadily since. Lows for tomorrow are in the 20s. What?? I don’t understand crazy St. Louis weather.

This morning goodbyes continued at Crossfit. The workout today was a great one though. We did 5 sets of 5 deadlifts at 65%, and I used 155 lbs. Then the WOD was a partner “double Jackie,” which equated to 2000m row, 100 thrusters (35#), 60 pull ups split between 2 people. The coach matched us up, and I was paired with another coach. So I knew it was legit. We switched every 250m for the row, every 10 for the thrusters, and every 5 for the pull ups. I knew the pull ups were definitely going to be the hardest for me. I can’t really do more than a set of 5 for lots of reps, and my only rest time between sets was while my partner did her 5. So there was very little rest. The last few sets were tough! I already feel things in my shoulders.

Because it was so warm, I was strangely craving a protein smoothie afterwards. It went along well with my plan of using everything up, so I went with it!

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Frozen banana, cocoa powder, milk, Quest salted caramel protein. Plus some snap pea crisps on the side. I’m a little obsessed and have then any time of day.

This morning I had to say goodbye to this goober:

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He was being especially playful this morning. He started by tossing his rawhide bone around the pool, and then came right up to the glass and interacted with this kids.

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What a goof.

I love the sights and decorations around the zoo.

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I especially love the gumdrops.

Today it was supposed to rain, and I almost made it without getting wet. I just hate wet feet. I brought 2 pairs of extra socks to change throughout the day. My feet got super wet coming back from these guys:

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Here’s Saka and Makini looking like they felt just about how I did about the rain:

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Lunch:

Quest chips for protein and a salad with pear, goat cheese, and Newman’s Lite Balsamic.

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And before I knew it, I was at my last observation. I was FREEZING. The temperatures had dropped quite a bit, and with wet feet I stood no chance. I had dry socks, but those only get you so far with wet shoes…

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After work, I went to Whole Foods for dinner+productivity. I majorly struck out with the hot bar. All the delicious looking things either had wheat or tree nuts, so I ended up with 3 forms of potato. Not the end of the world though. Anything you can douse in ketchup, right? I also had some mango kombucha.

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After eating, I pulled out my laptop and got some work done on my Microbiology class. While doing that, I noticed an add on my table for 4 Hands Stout. I went to 4 Hands on the Brewery Tour and have been loving their Chocolate Milk Stout ever since. Well, the add was for some of their seasonal flavors, Gingerbread Stout and S’mores Stout. What?? As it turns out, this Whole Foods had quite a selection of beer on draft. Right??

So naturally, I had to give it a try. With that discovery, my night of studying got a whole lot more interesting.

I ordered a Gingerbread Stout.

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It was delicious. To be honest, not really sure I got the Gingerbread flavor, but it was great stout. Maybe a little milder than the Chocolate Milk?

I spent an hour or so sipping that and doing homework before picking up a treat to take home and eat in front of Netflix, cozied up with a kitty.

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Honestly, this is all I wanted for this night. A coworker invited me to a speakeasy downtown, which sounded like a ton of fun, but after freezing my butt off all afternoon and with rapidly dropping temperatures and crazy wind, I did not particularly want to venture outside again!

Wish me luck as I brave the cold tomorrow!