Blogger Love (all meals 03/21/09)

Blogger Love (all meals 03/21/09)

March 21, 2009, 6:30 pm
Filed under: Breakfast, Lunch, Meals, Snack

Hey guys! I had a really fun day today full of yummy food, a cooking class, and a hang-out with another local blogger. But before we get to that, I want to talk a bit about yesterday’s eats. I’m not going to do a full post of all the food I ate yesterday since I couldn’t take pictures of most of it and really all of it was my usual non-exciting stuff. However, there was one highlight I wanted to mention- I finally tried the Honest Foods almond trail mix bar!

I usually like to save bars for when I am on the go with no time to cook/stop for a normal meal, and that’s what my day was like yesterday. After a couple of prison visits, I came out starving and was so glad I threw this baby into my purse that morning. I REALLY liked this bar! The flavor and texture (soft rather than crunchy) were both fantastic. My only one complaint is that it is a bit calorie-dense- this particular bar was 210 cals but the various flavors of Honest Foods bars are between 210-240 cals or so. So for a snack, it’s pretty caloric. At least if you eat the whole thing. But for part of your lunch (along with some other goodies like yogurt, veggies, etc) it works out great! Again, a HUGE thanks to Lauren for sending this for me to try!

My morning started out early today, at least for me for a Saturday. I signed up for a cooking class in Boston that started at 10:00 am, so I was up and about by 8:00. I grabbed a quick breakfast of a yogurt and a banana to get my day started:

The cooking class I signed up for today was called “Low fat, low carb, full of flavor” and it was held at the Boston Center for Adult Education. I took the class with the lovely Sue which I am so happy about- it was great having a buddy with me! The teacher was a personal chef, and she said the class was inspired by a client of hers who she cooked for who weighed 425 lbs when she started cooking for him and was down to 210 lbs a year later! He was a huge fan of bold flavors in his food, and she knew that if she didn’t provide him with that he would just go out and get more food that was bad for him after he finished eating whatever she had made for him. I think this illustrates a really simple but super important point- it’s crucial to find foods we LOVE that are also healthy for us, otherwise we’ll never be able to stick with eating them for too long and will just revert back to our old unhealthy ways. I mean, who wants to eat boring, tasteless food? Or food you just don’t enjoy the taste of? That’s why I don’t really believe in forcing yourself to eat food you don’t like. Or why I don’t believe in fad diets or anything extreme in our diets (i.e.- cutting out entire foods groups, etc)- how long could you possibly keep that up? Even if cutting out all carbs helps you lose 10 lbs in a month, you’ll just gain it back as soon as you start eating carbs again. And are you really not going to eat any carbs for the rest of your life? Come on now…I could never live without fruit.

Anyway, the class featured 10 of this client’s favorite recipes and I got to try 8 of them (2 involved shrimp/pork which I don’t eat). Most everything I tried was honestly truly YUMMY in addiiton to being healthy. Now that’s what I’m talking about! The class was divided up into 5 groups, each of which made 2 recipes and in the end we all got to go around and try everything. Um, talk about my perfect lunch- little bites of a whole ton of different flavors and textures. My mouth and mind was very happy. But I’m getting ahead of myself…

Sue and I partnered up, and were assigned to make the Spice-Rubbed Tilapia with Mango and Red Onion Salsa as well as the Coconut Macaroons. Here’s some progress/action pics! Sue chopping stuff for the salsa (how cute is she?):

The finished bowl of deliciousness (man it took a long time to chop everything!):

And of course, Sue + salsa together 🙂

The spice rubbed down tilapia fillets (pre-cooking):

The tilapia on the skillet, cooking:

It turned out really well! But I’ll get to that when we talk about the food tasting. For now, it’s time for the macaroon making 🙂 Our beautiful batter:

Ok, maybe not so visually appealing but it sure tasted good at the end. Here’s me working on putting the batter into little coconut balls:

And the finished product:

And now, for my favorite part- the tasting! I tried little bites of everything I could, and went back for second bites of the things I really liked 🙂

Haddock filets with ginger-soy marinade- yum!

Spicy chicken cakes with horseradish aioli- one of my favorites!

Garlic-stuffed chicken- my least favorite of the dishes I tried. I tossed it after one bite. It wasn’t horrible, but I had to make room for the amazing stuff!

Ginger beef- another favorite for sure.

The tilapia Sue and I made, topped with our mango salsa. This was a total winner.

Korean BBQ chicken- I was not nearly as excited about this as I thought I would be 😦

And then dessert! French vanilla pudding:

And one of out amazing macaroons. I WILL be making these again 🙂

After class Sue and I walked down from BCAE to Newbury street and took a leisurely stroll down to the end of it, chatting along the way. We stopped for a drink (I had an unsweetened iced tea) at Trident, a really nice bookstore/cafe on Newbury Street. I had a wonderful time enjoying the fresh air and good company 🙂 Sue and I have signed up to take another cooking class together next weekend (Vegetarian Indian Cuisine) and I can’t wait for it! Today was so fun!

Around 5 pm I started getting hungry again but wasn’t ready for a full dinner. So I grabbed a Z-bar to hold me over:

Big mistake. Totally spoiled my appetite- it’s 10:30 pm and I’m still not hungry at all! Guess that Z-bar was my dinner… Alright guys, I’m off to hit the sack. Night!

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