What I Eat - Day Eighty-Eight

Happy holidays everyone!   I hope there are some good food New Year's resolutions in the works for some of you!   I've got some exercise resolutions I'm formulating for myself :)  

Breakfast - Stuffed Peppers

I tend to err on the side of cooking without a recipe, and this breakfast is the perfect example of how it doesn't always work out perfectly, but it's still ok.   I cut the peppers in half and put them in this ceramic baking dish coated with a very small amount of avocado oil.   I mixed up:

• drained and rinsed black beans from  a can
• finely chopped zucchini and red onions
• sliced Kalamata olives (from a jar)
• Italian seasoning, salt, and freshly ground pepper

I stuffed this mixture into the peppers and baked them at 350 degrees for about an hour.  I served them for brunch and everyone enjoyed them, the only problem was that many of the beans got dry enough to split.   I might be able to solve this problem by baking it covered next time.

Lunch - Greens Bowl

I rarely crave and/or eat fresh greens in the colder months, but every once in a while I get a craving for arugula.  This was one of those days, so I made this greens bowl, which was quite filling and satisfying. 

Ingredients:
arugula (organic)
steamed peas (from frozen)
fried zucchini (in avocado oil)
pine nuts
half of an avocado
balsamic dressing (from last week)  

Dinner - Fried Fish and Steamed Broccoli

I almost always buy frozen fish, I find it is fresher and cheaper.  I used to live in Seattle, and because of this I firmly believe that a fish counter shouldn't actually smell like fish (because it means some of the fish is no longer fresh).   I will also admit that on more than one occasion I have asked the person working behind the fish counter to let me smell the fish before I buy it, and I always get a strange look!  

​For this dish, I thawed some tilapia, dredged it in arrowroot flour, and then fried it in my ceramic frying pan in a little bit of avocado oil.   I steamed an entire (small) head of broccoli, and ate it all in one sitting.  I topped the broccoli with the balsamic dressing that I made last week.   

Dressing

One of the things I never seem to get around to is making my own dressings.   As you've seen in this post, a friend gave me a salad dressing recipe jar, and I've been loving the dressings I've been making with it.  So, I finally got inspired to dig out some other dressing recipes I'd been sitting on for years.   I don't know why I waited so long!   This dressing is infinitely more delicious than the Renee's Poppy Seed Dressing I've been eating regularly for years!

So, here's the recipe for the dressing pictured above.  It only took me about two minutes to make.   

Ingredients:
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1/3 of an onion, roughly chopped
1 cup of olive oil
4 tsp poppy seeds

Instructions:
I threw everything but the poppy seeds into my magic bullet and blended it until it was smooth, and then I added the seeds.