The key words here are: SALADS and SMOOTHIES!!!
It’s so darn hot here in Manila that I find myself living solely in the air-conditioned rooms in my house, scurrying as quickly as I can through its “obligatory hot-spots” (i.e., the living room, stairwells, and landings) which are un-airconditioned and usually hotter than outside. If I were guessing, I’d say my stairwell hits 35 C (95 F) by about 11am. It’s uncomfortable, to say the least.
I had my usual green smoothie first thing… you’d think I would get tired of this, but I still look forward to it day after day. I do vary it a bit now and then; for example, today I put frozen mango instead of pineapple, and I added spirulina for protein & antioxidants.
I also had ambitions of eating 2 banana oat cookies (another staple for me), but I only ate one. I felt plenty full after the smoothie and one cookie, and I envisioned running in the heat just a couple hours later… best to just hold off.
So after our cardio endurance class, I cooled off with this jar of pumpkin overnight oats. This is truly the best way to eat oats when it’s warm outside- they’re soft and chewy and cold. I made this with rolled oats, cooked local pumpkin, chia seeds, almond milk, and let it soak overnight. Then right before eating, I topped it with chopped apple, pecans, & pumpkin seeds.
The oats filled me up so much that I thought I wouldn’t be hungry for lunch, but I was!! Mark & I shared this huge salad & pretty much polished it off. It had leftover baked tofu, pumpkin seeds, pecans, & every veggie in my fridge including leftover kale chips, which are surprisingly better than any crouton I’ve ever tasted. I made a dressing out of the tomato jam by adding a splash of soy sauce, some calamasi juice, & a bit of honey. So good. I also had a few rye thin crackers with this.
Yup, huge salad, but not a lot of calories… so mid-afternoon I was hungry again… I made a cherry chocolate smoothie out of chocolate almond milk, organic silken tofu, a tablespoon of flax meal, a few slices of beetroot, & frozen dark cherries. It was the perfect thing and soooo cold!
Dinner started out to be just a couple cans of black-eyed peas that I felt sorry for because they didn’t get eaten at New Year’s. Then somewhere along the line I found motivation and jazzed them up with some sautéed onion & bell pepper, cumin, & tomato paste. I interrupted Theda from her homework to give her a lesson on “how to cook cheaply and nutritiously in college”… because it’s only gonna be 4 more years till she goes and you can never start too soon! I’m not sure she was too impressed…
ANYWAY. We ate the black-eyed peas with rice, salsa, and roasted camote (local sweet potato) chips.
And for dessert, the cutest little cookies I made out of my leftover almond pulp. 3 guesses as to what you think this face looks like…
Happy Wednesday, friends!