Weekend? What Weekend?

We have been so busy this weekend! Friday was beer fest, saturday we did some grocery shopping and went to Costco and then we went to a Lake Monsters game for work because our Honor Guard was presenting the colors.

Now it is Sunday and I have been busy attempting to unpack as well as having to run to the office to get some emergency items done. We got quite a bit done today however there is still more to do boo! I can’t wait to be totally moved in.  I am happy to say however we have gotten back into our active mornings and finally eating at home.

This morning I knew we had a lot to do so I decided to make a yummy and filling breakfast

Ingredients: (makes 4 portions)

• Polenta
  • 1 cup corn grits polenta
  • 1/4 cup Nutritional yeast
  • 1t salt
  • 3 cups of water

• Tex-Mex TVP
  • 1.5 cups vegetable broth
  • 1/2 cup TVP
  • 1/2 large onion, minced
  • 3 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1/4 cup salsa- I used my Salba Mild Salsa sample
  • 1t cumin
  • 1T nutritional yeast
  • 1t paprkia
  • 1/2t garlic salt
  • 1t chili powder
  • 1/2T oil

Directions:

• Polenta
  • Bring the water to a boil and stir in the corn grits polenta, nutritional yeast, and salt.  Turn down to low and continue to stir until the polenta has thickened.
• Tex-Mex TVP
  • Bring the vegetable broth to a boil and stir in the TVP; turn down and simmer for 5- 7 minutes. Saute the onions and garlic in oil over medium-high heat until translucent. Add in the cumin, paprika, chili powder and salt and stir to evenly coat the onions and garlic.  Pour in the TVP; it should be soft and expanded some- there should be a little left over vegetable broth.  Stir the TVP and onion mixture together and add the salsa and nooch.
• Assemble
  • Take 1/4 of the polenta and put it on a plate, top with 1/4 of the TVP mixture and then 1/4 of an avocado.  ENJOY! Other suggestions: add your favorite hot sauce, fresh diced tomatoes, pickled jalapenos or cilantro to add even more flavor to this dish.

After breakfast I tried out my new sneakers and walked a few miles to the Short Stop to redeem my free iced coffee ticket. Then it was off to work for an emergency that had to get taken care of.

After running to work we headed to Bed, Bath & Beyond to pick up some organizational items, the natural food store for a few items and then home to make some lunch- a recipe from Ani Phyo’s Raw Food Essentials– Pad Thai!  Since the only kelp noodles I had were still frozen I made the recipe with zucchini noodles, cabbage and carrot noodles on a bed of baby spinach.

After recharging with this lovely raw meal it was time to get down to work and unpack our place.  We gave ourselves 20 minutes to relax, check e-mails and twitter then it was time to get unpacking.  We did pretty well over 2.5 hours of unpacking the place but unfortunately there is still more to do- we need more furniture so we don’t really have places to put things…like books.

I attempted to  write this post earlier but my blog has been down all afternoon so, what would have been a separate dinner post is going to be wrapped up into this post. Dinner was simple (see below) since it is a million degrees in our apartment and I’m exhausted.  Enjoy!

This simple salad will impress your guests:

Ingredients:

• 1 large tomato, sliced
• 1 large cucumber, sliced
• 1 cup baby spinach
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 shallot, sliced
• 2T olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

First place the balsamic and shallots in a small sauce pan on high heat and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat to medium low  and reduce by half.  Set aside and let cool slightly while you prepare the remaining items.  Create a bed with the spinach for the tomato and cucumber to lay on; alternate the tomato and 2 slices of cucumber until all is used.  Down the center top the cucumbers and tomatoes with the balsamic shallots and then drizzle the remaining sauce over.  Drizzle the olive oil over and sprinkle with salt and pepper.