One Sweaty Sunday

Well, another weekend is coming to a close. As always, the past few days have gone by quickly!

Lately it’s been warmer than usual in San Diego. 90 degrees and hotter is typical for a lot of places in the summer, but it feels pretty toasty here since I’m used to it constantly being my ideal temp – 75! I started off my Sunday sweating outdoors when I took Harley for a long walk to burn off some of her crazy puppy energy. She’s been really feeling the heat and tuckering out quickly, and by the end of our walk around the neighborhood trail, her tongue was out and she was ready to relax in the AC.

When we got home, I wanted to exercise and I did 2 workouts from Jillian Michaels’ 30 Day Shred DVD. Her routines are no joke! About half an hour into it, Adam walked into the house and said, “Wow, you’re really sweating!” Why yes, yes I am. Mission accomplished! 🙂

Post living room workout, Adam and I headed to La Jolla for an afternoon at the beach. We went to a good surfing spot (he surfs, me not so much) I had never been to before, which was in a gorgeous area with elaborate homes and cliffs that people were parasailing near — hence the photo above. It was a nice hike from our car down to the beach, and my glutes definitely got a workout heading back up.

Usually on the beach in San Diego it feels nice and breezy, but today I was feeling hot. It was one of the rare occasions when I took a dip in the Pacific to cool off!

Moving onto food, this evening’s dinner was pasta primavera, a dish I enjoy making when I want to clear out any veggies from my kitchen that are nearing the end of their prime:

When throwing together a pasta primavera meal, you have a lot of choices as to what you feel like including.  Here are the basic guidelines I always follow:

#1 – Pick your veggies. For me tonight, this included broccoli and zucchini that were nearing their end, cherry tomatoes, red bell pepper, and spinach, along with some fresh basil to give it some pizazz. I usually adopt an “everything but the kitchen sink” mentality and include any veggies I have around.

#2 – Pick your pasta. Angel hair, penne, elbows, spaghetti, rigatoni… the possibilities are endless! Tonight I used whole grain farfalle.

#3 – Boil a pot of salted water and cook pasta according to directions. Meanwhile, chop all your veggies into bite sized pieces.

#4- Choose a sautéing liquid. To keep the calorie count low, I used white cooking wine. You can also opt to use any kind of oil or broth. Heat a bit of the liquid up, along with a few cloves of minced garlic (optional).  Saute veggies until softened, adding liquid in every so often once it absorbs.

#5 – Combine veggies and cooked pasta.

#6 – Season with whatever you wish — I added Italian seasoning and mixed up salt and pepper. Add some flavor with either a bit of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and/or butter, and combine well.

#7 – Optional: Sprinkle a bit of grated cheese on top for added flavor.

It makes for an easy breezy, healthy and yummy meal!

I’m off to watch tonight’s episode of True Blood, so I’ll leave you with an awesome quote I recently came across:

(Super Healthy!) Quinoa Lettuce Wraps

Anyone else find this hilarious?

I do have a Pinterest account, but fortunately, I definitely don’t spend more time on it than I do working out!

Onto food…

On Tuesday night I ate dinner at a Japanese restaurant. This must have put me in an Asian food kind of mood, because I found myself thinking about lettuce wraps yesterday. I just so happened to have randomly bought fresh ginger at the farmer’s market (I couldn’t even tell you why…) and had a ton of different veggies around. I also found miso paste in the back of my fridge from when my friend moved almost a year ago and gave me all the food from her kitchen. I checked the expiration date and it was still good, so with that,  I came up with these vitamin-packed lettuce wraps:

Quinoa Lettuce Wraps

• 1/2 red bell pepper
• 1 large carrot, peeled
• 1/4 c dry quinoa (Ancient Harvest)
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/4 large cucumber
• 1 oz gourmet mushrooms
• 1 TSP brown sugar
• 1/2 TBSP red miso paste
• 4 TBSPs water
• Fresh grated ginger (I’d guesstimate 1 TSP)
• 1 TSP roasted sesame seeds
• A few fresh basil leaves, chopped
• Iceberg lettuce leaves (I made 4 wraps)
• Salt & pepper

Cook quinoa according to directions.

Meanwhile, heat 2 TBSPs of water in a skillet over medium heat. Mince garlic, and add it and the ginger to the pan. Finely chop the pepper, carrot, and mushrooms, and add to the skillet. Cook for a few minutes until softened, then remove from heat. (Add additional water if it starts to get dry.)

Next, place remaining water and brown sugar in a saucepan, and dissolve over low heat. Add in miso paste, and stir until it’s combined with the sugar/water mixture. Meanwhile, chop basil leaves and julienne the cucumber.

Once quinoa is done cooking, put on a small plate. Mix the miso sauce with the veggies, and pour on top of quinoa. Add basil, cucumber, and sesame seeds, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Spoon some of the mixture into each lettuce leave to enjoy.

Nutrition facts: 300 calories, 7 g fat, 12 g protein, 59 g carbs

Spaghetti Squash Casserole

Tonight I had a Skype date with 2 of my lovely girlfriends…

We had some technical difficulties, but still, chatting with my college roommates Meaghan and Marla is always great! Meg might look familiar because I posted pictures when she visited me in February. Here’s a photo that exemplifies pretty well the fun times we’ve had together:

Our graduation night

I love my friends.

Moving onto food, tonight’s dinner was a veggie-packed one, and one of my hubby’s favorite meals. In fact, when he came home from his last deployment and I asked what he’d like me to cook the most, he chose my spaghetti squash casserole. I concocted this dish when I first started playing around with cooking spaghetti squash, and I don’t think I’ve made it any other way since because we like it so much!

I found the mini-sized squash pictured at my farmer’s market. This worked out well so I could make a smaller version of my normal casserole, since it’s just little ole’ me eating it.

[Note: there are several ways to cook a spaghetti squash. This is just the way I like to do so.]

Spaghetti Squash Casserole  

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 1 small spaghetti squash
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1/2 large zucchini
• 1 cup tomato sauce or stewed tomatoes (I used some of my classic tomato sauce)
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/4 onion
• 1/2 c shredded mozzarella or Italian cheese
• 2 TBSP grated Pecorino Romano cheese
• Vegetable stock for sauteing (oil or cooking wine will work as well)
• Salt, pepper, & basil to taste

To cook the squash:

Preheat oven to 350. Poke holes into the squash with a knife,  then pop in the microwave on a plate for a few minutes to make it tender.

Cut squash in half lengthwise and place on a baking pan. Bake in the oven until lightly browned, as pictured. I left mine in the oven for 30 minutes.

After the spaghetti squash has been cooking for 15-20 minutes, warm a burner on medium heat.

Chop up the onion, garlic, zucchini and red pepper. Throw it all in a skillet with a few TBSPs of vegetable stock, and cook for around 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

Once the spaghetti squash is cooked, begin to “comb” the strands out with a fork. Put half of the squash strands onto the bottom of a small baking dish. Layer half of the sauteed veggies on top, then add 1/2 cup tomato sauce and 1/4 cup shredded cheese. Repeat the layering, then sprinkle the casserole with grated cheese and season with salt, pepper and basil.

Put dish in the oven until cheese is melted and it starts to brown a bit.

I ate my spaghetti squash with a baby baguette:

Nutrition stats per serving: 220 calories, 10 g fat, 11 g protein, 25 g carbs