Instead of eating old Larabars for lunch everyday this week (as appealing as THAT sounds), I forced myself to get a little creative and scrounged around for the makings of a pasta salad. I ended up with half a box of orzo, a can of tuna, and clementines. I was trying to recreate this salad my aunt makes that has orzo, chicken, mandarin oranges, celery, and a dressing with mayo, dry mustard, and white pepper. Unfortunately, I did not have chicken, celery, oranges, or mayo. So… pretty much the only thing that links these two dishes is orzo. Think of this Easy Orzo and Tuna Salad as an homage.

I started by cooking the orzo and tossing in the tuna and clementine. Tasty, but it lacked a little crunch, so these guys got chopped and added:

I also added a sad half of an avocado that was losing life in the fridge. It added some creaminess that replaced the missing mayo.

For the vinaigrette, I just winged it since I was missing the key ingredients. Check out the recipe!

I ate a nice bowl for lunch this afternoon:

I wanted to put it over some spring mix, but to my dismay the remains of the bag was past its prime. (We are FAIL on the vegetable front over here.) I still think this is a good way to get a little more filling fiber into this lunch.

The salad is very light. At first I feared it was too light, but I think I am still caught in the doldrums of heavy winter stews and sauces. Each bite is quite refreshing and keeps you guessing: you’ve got a little heft from the tuna, a nice citrus spritz from the clementines, carrot-y crunch, and creamy avocado. The recipe makes a nice batch to last you through the week.

Penguin Tupperware: for use all year round! Let’s hope this sunny weather keeps away any real penguins, though!

So the fact that in the same week I’ve eaten scallops AND tilapia is sort of a big deal.

The Boyfriend cooked dinner tonight (because he is magical). This gave me time to clean my desk, YouTube Tom Petty, and sit around in wool socks.

Score.

He used a Real Simple 20 Minute Meal recipe to make Seared Tilapia with salad, with a few variations: canned mango instead of fresh, no ginger, yellow onion instead of red, and spring mix instead of watercress.  I personally have no photos of the process because I wasn’t there; the following snapshots are from The Boyfriend. Halfway through cooking he grabbed my camera off my desk and said, “I want to be proud of my tilapia.”

Ingredients, minus that box of truffles you see in the background:

Cooking the fish:

The finished product:

The dish was good (actually, my exact words were “This is freakin’ good!” through mouthfuls of fish). I’m terribly wary of anything too “fishy” and, brat that I am, I was sort of craving something hot and soup-like versus a salad on such a blustery evening. But the recipe (and the cute chef) won me over. After a week of eating only leftover Valentine’s Day cupcakes (I jest — or do I?), eating something real was refreshing. Definitely bookmark this recipe and save it for those nights when you’re hungry NOW but you want to do your body one better than frozen pizza.

While dinner was searing, I finished up a book my mother gave me for Christmas:

I quite liked it: the narrative is about eating and working and freaking out about the future, all of which are my personal hobbies. Phoebe details her entrance into the world of fine dining through her time at New York restaurant Per Se. Her style is relaxed and witty, like she’s your best friend, recalling her day at work while you two share wine and late-night take-out. The story focuses on beginnings: the opening of Per Se as well as the opening of Phoebe’s adult life. It’s an amusing portrait of haute-cuisine and the people who eat it. This was an accessible, friendly read, perfect for a recent graduate with no money and a penchant for anything edible. Gosh, my mother knows me well!

I remembered my camera today. Lunch in action:

Greens and mushrooms with leftover tofu and YUMMY peanut sauce as salad dressing. Pretty sure I have to start making this weekly.

Fruit and cottage cheese. Cottage cheese doesn’t photograph well.

PB&J Larabar.

This held me over well through my second job, the ride home, and dinner prep. Tonight was taco night (a Boyfriend favorite). The Boyf and The Roommate had ground chicken in their tacos, but I’m trying to stick with the meatless thing so I did black beans instead. We had salsa, homemade guacamole, tomatoes, cheese, and salad greens, too.

Tacos have a high deliciousness factor, it’s true.

Nothing too complicated, but veggie-ful and hearty. Perfect Thursday night dinner. We’re only a night and a day away from the weekend, folks! I can’t wait for a little break. I’ve added a hot laundry date to my list of fun times. And lots of play time with this monster:

Lunch was thrown together before work:

My review? Delicious! I love most Larabars, but this flavor is near the top. I was really excited when I saw them in Price Chopper this weekend.

After my snack I started work on dinner.

Stir fry! I didn’t mention this earlier, but I’m avoiding meat, too. Normally I don’t eat much meat at all, but lately I’ve been ordering meals with bacon on them or craving chicken on pizza. It’s weird for me and truthfully I prefer a diet light on meat.

The Boyfriend made (unpictured) sweet and sour chicken to go with the stir fry, but I went with marinated tofu.

We ate our dinner with brown rice and this incredibly yummy peanut sauce:

The sauce was a recipe from this book:

I’ve had this book for a few years, back from the time when I was a vegetarian. It’s extremely resourceful and I recommend it for anyone, from a newbie vegetarian to a cheeseburger lover who needs a reference cookbook on grains. I took the recipe for my mushroom barley soup from here.

The players:

Barley

Mushrooms, carrots, onions, and garlic. I let it all simmer together while we ate dinner.

The photo may be a bit unimpressive, but the smell was incredible. I cannot wait to eat this for lunch tomorrow!

So what is the result from my first day of hitting the “refresh” button on my system? In one day I’ve definitely inspired myself to get back on the meal-planning and veggie-eating wagon. The only bump in the road was about seven minutes ago when I was cleaning up the kitchen. I saw cookies The Roommate made this weekend and moved to grab one before remembering my challenge.

Not being one to deprive myself a treat, I searched for ways to calm my sweet tooth and decided to whip up chocolate banana soft serve. If you read food or fitness blogs you may have seen this wandering around the blogosphere. All you need is a frozen banana and a blender/mixer/food processor.

I used my immersion blender with decent results. A food processor is just better, but my kitchen already looked like this and I didn’t feel like lugging the thing out:

   

Delish! Jack and I ate dessert in the kitchen together. His tasty treat was the last licks of the peanut butter jar.

I’m off for an episode of Criminal Minds with The Roommies and then bed!

Not cooking and planning my meals has led to a lot of take-out, many a meal-on-the-go, and dinners that consist of an unusual assortment of foodstuffs from my fridge. Which is my fancy way of saying I’ve been eating a lot of Stewarts’ Cream and Coffee Fudge for dinner.

In addition to eating poorly, I’ve gone out a lot with friends (drinks and bar food galore!) to celebrate birthdays and out-of-town visits and Fridays. I’ve been stressed, I haven’t been sleeping well, and I feel drained of energy all of the time.

So not only do I need to perk up my attitude a little, I need to hit the refresh button on my body. I’ve been reading a little about detoxes and cleanses and all that, and for the most part I think it’s a load of phooey. For a week I followed the statuses of a friend on Facebook who was doing a juice cleanse. Sorry, but the “benefits” of drinking only fruit juice for 7 days do not outweigh the fact that I’d be a HUGE grumposaurus from denying myself solid foods. No Master Cleanse for me.

I wanted to do some sort of literal “detoxification” of all the crap I’d been putting into my body lately, but I was hesitant to call it that. I don’t want to spend a week depriving myself of essential nutrients — that’s just not safe. I’ve decided that, for at least this week, I do need to cut out foods that have no nutritional value. For a week I’m cutting out the following:

• Sugar (yes, this includes my beloved ice cream)
• Bread (yes, this means no bagels)
• Caffeine (yes, this means no 3 o’clock savior in the form of a medium coffee)
• Alcohol (yes, this means coming home after a loooong day and taking the edge off with a nice glass of… herbal tea)

Basically, I’m cutting out my four main food groups. Sigh. A lot of resources recommend cutting out dairy. Like cheese.

Um.

Sorry. I just need to take a moment. The idea of not eating cheese for a week is on par with spending a week holding my breath under water: guaranteed catastrophe.

Frankly, I’m not interested in deprivation; there’s no self-love in that. Cheese is in.

On Sunday night, to help kick-off the eve of Refresh Week, The Boyfriend and I did two things:

1. Ordered a cheese pizza.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, people.

2. Went grocery shopping.

I allowed myself to spend money on items I don’t normally buy because of cost: avocados, a new box of tea, Parmesan (see what I’m saying about cheese?).

Part of my Refresh Week is about getting back in the kitchen. As retro as that sounds, cooking is a good way for me to unwind after a day. I like spending 30-40 minutes preparing dinner for my little family. Plus my two furry boys usually keep me company while I chop, boil, and saute away the day.

I spent my Sunday night planning meals for the week. I’ve got some good recipes to try out, so stay tuned!

But before I get to tonight’s dish, can I go on a cheese tangent? While picking up some extra sharp Cheddar at the store, I saw Price Chopper is having a 2 for $4 sale with Cabot cheeses. And imagine my delight when I saw this tucked away:

I pulled out Old Faithful and that block of cheese was reduced to shreds in the pulse of a finger.

I made minor adjustments to Smitten Kitchen’s recipe:

Homey Macaroni and Cottage Cheese

(Homey? Cottage? See what I did there??)

• 1 c. low-fat cottage cheese
• 1 8 oz. block Cheddar cheese, shredded
• 2 c. 1% milk
• Pinch paprika
• Pinch dry mustard
• Salt and pepper
• 1/2 lb. multi-colored vegetable pasta, uncooked
• 1 cup chopped broccoli

My pasta came from this box:

This dish is so easy to assemble:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and shred cheese.

2. In a food processor, combine the cottage cheese, mustard, paprika, salt and pepper, and blend. Slowly pour in the milk while blending the cottage cheese mixture.

3. In a large bowl combine all but 1/4 c. shredded cheese, cottage cheese and milk mixture, and the pasta.   Once combined, pour into a greased baking dish.

4. Cover the baking dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove, sprinkle the remaining Cheddar over the pasta, cover, and bake again for another 30 minutes.

Ta da!

The only hard part is waiting for this to bake.

Fun.

I hate the cold. It makes me feel hopeless. How do I cure these chilly and depressing feelings? With a hot dinner that sticks to your ribs, of course.

I cooked up a hearty risotto for my rumbling tummy and the roommates (who are currently on break from school and can therefore spend their weekdays sitting on the couch watching South Park while I brave the cold to go to work all day. I only mention this because I am jealous and bitter, not because it has any relevancy to risotto). Risotto is indescribable. I could eat buckets of it every day for the rest of my life. I’ve decided it’s my desert island food.

I started off with a little olive oil and a lot of butter melting together in a pan. Don’t they look happy?

Then I added half a chopped onion and let it soften.

Next one head of chopped radicchio and about a cup of sliced mushrooms made their way into the pan.

These cooked all together until the veggies were soft. A cup and a half of Arborio rice was next.

The original recipe called for 1/2 cup of white wine, but we drank it all didn’t have any so I added a splash of rice wine vinegar for a little zing.

If you read my risotto recipes from before or if you’ve made risotto yourself, you know the drill: add 1-2 ladles of broth to the rice and stir so that it does not stick to the pan.

When the liquid is absorbed, add another ladle. Continue this until the rice is fully cooked, which should not take more than 10-15 minutes.

Add salt, pepper, and a sprinkle (or five) of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Do not expect any leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

For some veggie power, we threw together a couple of salads. Mine had romaine, cucumbers, mushrooms, and olives.

I topped it off with homemade vinaigrette. I didn’t measure the ingredients, but it had juice from one clementine, olive oil, a little dry mustard, pepper, and balsamic vinegar. I keep my dressings in an old agave nectar bottle which makes it easy to pour. Clever, huh?

Want to see this post in simple recipe form? Check out the link for Radicchio Mushroom Risotto on my Recipe page. You can also find tomato basil risotto and pumpkin risotto.

I had so much fun doing this! For the sugar cookie recipe, I added a little almond extract to a standard recipe, and these turned out to be delicious!

We got all of our wrapping done, too.  Phew!

Jack admired the presents and tried to figure out which one belonged to him.

The Boyfriend and I are spending Christmas with our families, so we had a mini Christmas on Tuesday night.  And we took a family holiday photo, of course!

It took a few tries since Jack doesn’t believe in sitting still.

And this evening, while I and several bulky bags were forcing our way into the apartment, chili was my ray of hope.  The evening was slated to be a crummy one spent worrying about my very sick puppy and playing catch-up with my to-do list, but chili made it a little better.

While the chili simmered, my glass of wine and I caught up on some mail that arrived for me today.  My postal treat was from my favorite friends at Applegate Farms:

How excited am I?? Christmas has come early! Remember my excited post from a few weeks ago? Seriously, this OOTS lunchbox should be on your holiday wish list.  It’s durable (no bruised apples), dishwasher safe (for you lucky ones), very cheerful, and much less embarrassing than reusing a Target bag (not that Target is embarrassing, of course!).

As I’ve said before, Applegate Farms has some awesome products so be sure to check them out in the grocery store.  They are natural and organic and all-around good for you.  And wonderfully tasty. Maybe we’ll be seeing more Applegate Farms products on the blog in the near future?

Now on to the recipe of the night! If you had the sort of crum-bum day that I did, you definitely need a dose of this medicine:

Page’s Chili

Heat 1 T olive oil in a skillet.  Add 2 chopped peppers and 2 chopped onions and saute for a few minutes.  If you have garlic cloves, mince and add one or two. I didn’t have any so I used approx. 2 t. garlic powder when I added the spices later.

All those colors make me happy

Add about 1 lb. turkey or beef and cook until brown.

Sid provided necessary supervision.

Once the beef is fully cooked, drain the fat and put beef and vegetables in a large pot.  To the pot add: 6 c. (48 oz.) crushed tomatoes, 2 cans (14 oz. each) kidney beans, 3 bay leaves, 3 T. chili powder, 1/2 T. crushed red pepper, all depending on your taste.  Let simmer on low for about 45 minutes.

It doesn't look pretty, but it sure tastes pretty

This recipe makes a vat of chili large enough to feed you, your roommate, and your hungry boyfriend for several days.  You can pair chili with almost any starch (I enjoy noodles or a baked potato).  Tonight I made cornbread from a Trader Joe’s mix I got on my cross country trip this summer.

The mix calls for 1/2 c. of oil, but I substituted the same amount of applesauce like I normally do with cake mixes.  It tastes exactly the same.

After dinner I packed my lunch for tomorrow:

I couldn’t resist a shot! (In case you’re interested, that’s leftover chili and cornbread, applesauce, Stonyfield soy yogurt to try for the first time, raisins and almonds.)

I’m off to care for this miserable monster named Jack.  Hope he feels better soon!