Yesterday was surprisingly productive! I made Oatmeal Pancakes from Kath Eats for brunch (with what time we got up, there’s no way I can call it breakfast), then we dropped Chloe off at Petco (I’ll post on that later… long story), joined our new gym, ran to Sprouts for some groceries, cooked dinner, worked out at new gym 
, ate dinner, and then made this morning’s breakfast. Oh, and watched Kingpin.
I pulled out Eat, Drink and Be Vegan last night- pretty much our entire dinner came from that cookbook. I’ve been dying to try the Polenta Croutons and just happened to have a tube of polenta sitting in the fridge. They came out… okay. I’m blaming myself for not liking them more; I expected them to be crunchy, but they had more of a chewy texture (more like toasted bread), AND I used the garlic-herb polenta- which didn’t have the best flavor. Next time I’ll use plain polenta and cook the croutons a bit longer. Here’s what they looked like just out of the oven:
I also made the Lemon Lentil Chickpea Soup. Very yummy. I added more lemon juice than the recipe called for, and also sprinkled in some hot sauce (Tabasco Chipotle was all I had on hand, but Cholula would have been better). You know what? I need one of those immersion/stick blender things. My giant food processor is a huge PITA to both drag out and clean. Just sayin.
Finally, I threw together a random salad with red leaf lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, dried snap peas ♥, and the best part of all: little chunks of goat cheese. I never realized how great goat cheese is on salad- it’s soft and kind of spreads around so you get some on each bite.
Here’s my dinner. Sorry it’s not a great shot- my camera kind of crapped out after 3 pics:
I picked up a can of Hansen’s Diet Tangerine Lime Soda (you can see part of the can up there in the corner). It was very refreshing, but halfway through I realized that it tasted exactly like Fresca. Weird.
The dressing is also from EDBV: Basic Balsamic Vinaigrette. It’s really simple (Basic, if you will): balsamic vinegar, maple syrup, olive oil and mustard. Brian really liked it- probably because it’s not my usually tsp of olive oil to gallon of vinegar-type dressing… hehe.
We’re out of bananas, so I couldn’t make my favorite oatmeal. I usually cook 2 servings of it at night and then have breakfast taken care of for the next couple days. Anyway, the latest issue of Eating Clean magazine had a Quinoa Porridge recipe so I decided to give that a shot instead. No picture, but it’s quinoa, milk, chopped apple, blackberries (the recipe called for blueberries), cinnamon and sliced almonds. Not bad- but it’s just not as hearty and creamy as oatmeal. A better summer breakfast, I suppose.
I know this is turning into the longest post EVER and you’ve probably stopped reading by now 
, but guess what’s soaking on my counter right now??? Wheatberries! I’ve been reading so much about these and can’t wait to try them. Absolutely no clue what I’m going to do with them (any ideas?), but exciting nonetheless.
OH, one more thing. My favorite band in the entire world (those of you who know me know why), the Old 97′s, are releasing a new CD tomorrow. I’ve previewed it online and it’s fabulous. You can listen to some, if not all, of the album on their myspace page. Definitely worth checking out, IMHO.
