Good Friday to you everyone!
Ahh Friday…the day I get to fall asleep in my chair watching T.V. at 8pm and not give 2 hoots about it! 🙂
Any-who as my dog is continuing her attempt to rattle my nerves and wakeded (yes I know it’s not a word) me up at 4:45am this morning, I was laying in bed, awake, too tired to get up and work out but with a brain whose power switch had been turned to “on” and couldn’t really fall back asleep.
So what did I do? I thought of food naturally! Namely, healthy lunch options for myself. I did at one time make a list, same as I did for all of the healthy dinners I could think of, the ‘apporvable’ list if you will. On this list are 2 of my favorite salads in the world; fast, easy to assemble and oh so healthy. Follow along my friends, I have 2 beauties for you today! : Healthy Fall Salad and Mediterranean Tuna Salad. You will love these I promise. 😉
First up we have my Healthy Fall Salad. “Uhm it’s Spring Lindsey.” Yes, I know. This doesn’t have to be made in the fall but for some reason the flavors somewhat remind me of fall. If you want to get really fancy you can poach a pear and add slices of that as well but that’s far too much work. I copy and pasted this from a note I posted on Facebook long before I had this blog..ok not so long before maybe a few months.
Healthy Fall Salad (cranberries, feta and toasted pecans)
This takes me about 30 seconds to throw together in the morning. The key is toasting the pecans. This is critical! Toasting nuts gives them an entirely different complex and warm flavor. You can do this either in a toaster oven or in a pan. Sometimes I toast a large batch of nuts in a pan if I know I’m going to be using a lot, and then store them in an air-tight container in the fridge (you should always keep your nuts in the fridge!). Toast them on medium heat until you smell them and they begin to turn toasty brown. They burn quickly so keep an eye on them! There is a toaster oven where I work so I simply break a few up, throw them on a small piece of foil, wrap them up and then unwrap them at lunch and throw them in the toaster oven on the foil on medium. They come out perfectly and everyone thinks I’m making popcorn because they smell so good!
Salad Ingredients:
- About 3 cups of 50/50 blend salad mix (baby spinach and baby greens) or all of either
- 3 tablespoons pecans toasted (with chipotle and brown sugar optional)
- 3 tablespoons reduced fat feta cheese
- 2 tablespoons dried, unsweetened cranberries
- 2 tablespoons diced red onion (optional)
Dressing:
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 2 tablespoons grape seed oil
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- salt & pepper
Assembly:
If making this for lunch, put salad greens in medium container (leave enough room to toss) dried cranberries, feta and onion. Place nuts in foil if they need to be toasted or in a separate container if already toasted (they can get stale if left with moist ingredients). You can toast them with a pinch of chipotle and some brown sugar if you really want to up the wow factor.
in small air tight container, place all ingredients for dressing. Shake vigorously and then again before serving.
Enjoy 🙂
Simple right?!
Next we have my Mediterranean Tuna Salad. This is not like “tunasalad” one word, it’s a salad…with tuna! You could also do it with chicken too but the tuna really just gives it something extra. This salad is a lean protein powerhouse! beans, tuna, reduced fat feta, it’s all good stuff!
Mediterranean Tuna Salad
Salad Ingredients:
- about 3 cups 50/50 blend baby greens (these just happen to be my favorite)
- 1 small can of light tuna (you can used the Italian “Genova” tuna packed in olive oil as well. I know tuna may not make you think “Italian” but that’s what it does for me! Weird, I know.)
- 2 tbs. red onion chopped
- 1/3 -1/2 cup of canned cannalini beans (low sodium and rinsed in cold water!)
- 2-3tbs. reduced fat feta cheese
Dressing:
- 2 tbs. olive oil (you can use the olive oil from the tuna can if you used said tuna!)
- 1 – 1 1/2 tbs. lemon juice
- salt & pepper
(simple stuff here people)
Assembly:
You can either serve this on a plate or if bringing for lunch, put in a medium container (leaving room to toss), everything but the dressing. I usually just assemble my dressing in a small container and then shake vigorously before dressing the salad, then I close the lid and shake the whole thing. Easy peasy rice and cheese (minus the cheese and rice obvi.). Volia! Mangia! (Ok I’ll stop now)
See what I mean??? Ehh? EHH?! Easy stuff! If I’m making one of these for the week I will usually eat about three that week and I have everything ready. Those little cans of tuna with the pull top lids are SO awesome just make sure you drain the water first as not to have a watery salad. I chop red onions and put them in a container, if I’m make the Mediterranean salad I will rinse and drain beans and set them aside, and if I’m making the Fall salad I toast the nuts ahead of time and put them in an airtight container. Everything else is assembly my friends.
Well I hope this resolved you as I now am to eat a little healthier next week for lunch. Small steps people, small steps. 😉
TRAINING AND FOOD JOURNAL BELOW
TRAINING: I’m wavering here. I’m pretty darn sore from yesterday and I’m trying to decide if I should do the elliptical tonight and risk not being in a good spot to run tomorrow, or just sucking it…or maybe doing some yoga. What do you think? I’d walk if only if were nice out!
FOOD JOURNAL:
- BREAKFAST: 1/2 cup homemade granola and 1/2 cup almond milk (I’m in love, I swoon!)
- SNACK: Banana. I didn’t want them to go bad. It would hurt their feelings if I didn’t eat one.
- LUNCH: Falafel with Tatziki Sauce from last night (get this, earlier this week as I was attempting to write out my last minute menu on the white board Matt said “What about falafel?” I started. Ex-squeeze me? Apparently he was craving it. Who knew! So we had it last night)
- DINNER: Roasted chicken with brown rice and roasted asparagus. (I know what you’re thinking, “wasn’t that suppose to be dinner last night?” Well yes and I did make it but Matt wanted falafel so I saved it for tonight instead. A girl I work with had a baby so I made them the same thing and brought it over last night. Good excuse to see the baby ehh? 😉 Apparently they loved it. Gosh I’m so darn nice! (I really wanted to see the baby))
trailtotrain 