Poke Tacos Monkeypod
Tomato Tart - Jose Andres
LuLu Dog treats
Soup Alexis Alvarez Armas
Cafe Cubano
Riva @ Gritti Palace
In spin class at the gym on Monday the instructor challenged each of us to set a goal for the week and when she sees us again next Monday we’ll see who achieved their personal goal. The two things I recognize about this challenge, 1-it gave each of us an opportunity to improve on a chosen goal, 2- it might compel us to return to class next week to boast on our accomplishment!
A few of the chosen goals were; only drink one diet coke a day, drink more water, come to the gym 5 days out of 7, etc… I thought about my goal while the others shouted out theirs. I already drink more than the required 8 glasses per day, I make it to the gym regularly and even teach a class on Fridays, I don’t drink diet soda and rarely drink soda at all. Thinking, thinking, almost my turn….I had recently read an article reminding me that we should eat 5 cups of fruit and veggies every day. This seems easy except that Miss T and her dad are both a tad picky about vegetables. They have their “comfort zone” lists of veggies and in comparison to mine they are quite short. I believe when your list of “likes” is short it’s easy to get bored with eating veggies as you have too little variety. After reading that article I’d thought, “I eat lots of fruit and veggies but, do I eat 5 cups a day?”. I also figured I would simply incorporate more veggies into lunches or snacks, as I am usually on my own at those times. As my turn came I decided to set that as my personal goal for the week. I added, to fit cardio in at least three days out of the next seven. I like my goal and know that it will be a piece of cake to achieve it.
That afternoon I stopped at the grocery and picked up some organic carrots to roast. Carrots are on my husbands list of “likes” so one out of two family members could enjoy them with me. They were bright, colorful and of course, my favorite color, so I had to take a photo of them. There is no “recipe” to accompany this post but I will tell you how I prepared them and maybe you will add more veggies to your plate this next week too.
In my efforts to meet my goal, last night I served green beans with dinner and ate a leafy green salad for lunch. I’ve also had cantaloupe, the best one yet this season, blueberries, bananas, an apple and tomatoes. Now, let me say, apples are not in season but this apple came from Chile where it is apple season and it was a honey crisp, not bad for an apple in May. Bananas don’t grow in Texas but are readily available in our stores. Melons and blueberries do grown in Texas and both are favorites of mine. Adoring hubby told me of a local farm stand on the other side of town he noticed late last week. I plan on making a trip over to see what fresh, local veggies and fruits can be snapped up to help me meet my goal. Now to head out for a brisk walk, that will meet 2 of the 3 days of cardio I planned for. If I were guessing I’ll be adding some cardio to the routine in my class this Friday.
Go on…get out there, take a walk, ride your bike around the block or throw the ball with your kids. And, pile on the veggies and fruits – ’tis the season.
Enjoy!
Roasted Carrots
I scrubbed the carrots and trimmed the tops and ends. Next I sliced them in half, tossed with olive oil, kosher salt and fresh ground pink peppercorns. I placed them on a jelly roll pan and roasted with the convection feature at 325* for about 40 minutes. They were sweet, slightly firm (not mushy!) and tasteeeeee!
Slim Em says
A carrot recipe that my boyfriend and I love involved carrots, sweet potatoes and onions. Basically use as much as you want depending on how big of a batch you want. Since we are college kids we like to make big batches of things! I always use more carrots and onion that sweet potato. Basically I slice everything up and make layers in a bread pan. I had a little salt and pepper to each layer. We cook it at 325 for about 30-40 minutes. It comes out looking awesome! We like to drizzle balsamic vinegar on top. It is so so so yummy!
Colline says
The carrots look good enough to eat as is!
The Orange Bee says
Slim, your idea sounds great – I’ll try that sometime. I bet it looks pretty too! Love balsamic vinegar and I almost put it on the carrots last night but passed. Thanks for sharing & come back soon. Colline, you are so right they were beautiful and oh so good! Thanks for your comment – hope you’ll stop in again.
Rufus' Food and Spirits Guide says
Gorgeous! I love how you keep them simple!
Ryan says
Hey there! Yum, roasted carrots sounds really good right now! Thanks so much, I’m so thrilled and flattered that you want to make one of my desserts. That is so encouraging to me! I think of the ones you mentioned, I would make either the strawberry pound cake or the raspberry cheesecake bars– I really liked both of those and think they would be good for a party. My family really liked both of those too.
Hope you have fun and a great and happy Memorial weekend!!