Happy Wednesday! Today I’ve got another fun Hawaii-style What I Ate Wednesday guest post from Valerie. I’ll be doing my What I Ate Wednesday posts over on my Instagram stories this week so hop on over there if you want to take a peek at what I’m eating today.
Take it away, Valerie!
Breakfast: I realize this might be a bit much for some people for breakfast, but I love strong flavors. This day, I made a large sweet potato: chopped, roasted (at 350 degrees for 45 minutes) with organic sunflower oil, Trader Joe’s Onion Salt, pepper, a teaspoon of capers, and half a bunch of dill. Once I pulled the potato out of the oven, I mixed in the other half of the bunch of chopped dill and then split the entire thing into two portions (one for breakfast today, one for tomorrow). While the potato was cooking, I soft-boiled two eggs (again, one for today, one for tomorrow). The final touch for this Eastern European-inspired breakfast was a dollop of horseradish. So delicious, plus it happened to be vegetarian and gluten-free. Yum! (Not pictured: two mugs of Earl Grey tea with soy milk.)
LUNCH: One of our go-to, easy, homemade meals in our household is lemony kale pasta (especially since our CSA box almost always includes kale or a similar hearty green). We simply boil pasta (any kind; we use an organic one from Costco that has only flour and water as ingredients) and saute fresh kale in olive oil with fresh lemon juice, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, capers (or sun-dried tomatoes) and a dash of either nutritional yeast or parmesan cheese. Usually we make this for dinner and then have leftovers for lunch. Here I added a few slices of cherry tomatoes (to freshen it up) and avocado (to fill it out with healthy fat).
SNACKS: I’ve been really into this local turmeric honey, lately. It has local organic honey, olena (the Hawaiian word for turmeric), ginger, and black pepper (which increases the olena’s bioavailability). When I find myself with a sweet tooth at a weird time, I take a little spoonful of turmeric honey. Bonus: honey is antibacterial, ginger can help settle your stomach, and turmeric is anti-inflammatory.
EXERCISE: This summer I sprained my shoulder, which was no fun, as it meant no yoga, taekwondo, or jogging (my three preferred methods of healthy movement) for several weeks. However, I started walking to and from work this summer (round trip it’s 5 miles) and I get to pass the beach and walk along this pretty path.
DINNER:
Sometimes we have one of those days where my boyfriend forgets he has an evening event, I have a doctor’s appointment after work, we both have work that’s past due… and on those nights, I’ll grab something for dinner from one of the myriad nearby restaurants. This night was one of those nights. My doctor’s office is in a strip mall where one of my favorite Vietnamese restaurants is, so I picked us up vegetarian spring rolls and a tofu rice plate to share.
DESSERT: I ALWAYS get a post-dinner sweet tooth. Usually I assuage it with some dark chocolate—my favorite sweet—but I’m trying to eat less sugar for a few weeks, since I have some travel coming up and I don’t want to get sick (I’ve noticed that for me, personally, eating sugar makes me more prone to catching something). So, instead, I made some sweet licorice [caffeine-free] tea.
Valerie (E-RYT 200) has been teaching yoga and meditation since she her first training in 2014 at North East Power Yoga in Rhode Island. She later completed stråla yoga training with Tara Stiles and is currently enrolled in Yoga Medicine’s 500-hour advanced yoga teacher training with Tiffany Cruikshank. Also a lifelong reader and writer, Valerie is currently finishing her master’s degree in Library & Information Science at the University of Hawai’i. She works at the University’of Hawai’is Cancer Center and in her free time enjoys hiking, traveling, going to the beach, and eating vegetarian food. You can find her online @ValerieBrett.
What’s the best thing you’ve eaten recently?