Tropical pasta salad

My dad gave me this bottle of Matouk's hot sauce the other day. See link -> Matouk's Hot Calypso Hot Sauce. We learned about Matouk's sauce from our family that lives in the Carribean. My dad happened to find some in a store here in the U.S., so he had to pick some up. This hot sauce is seriously YUMMMM. It has an awesome amount of spiciness but still has good flavor behind the heat.

I used it to make a pasta salad for lunch today!

This pasta salad is made with pasta that is made from brown rice and quinoa instead of flour, so it's whole grain, gluten-free, and has protein! I dressed the pasta in citrus champagne vinegar, lemon juice, Matouk's hot suace, and olive oil. I added a bunch of things that I could find in my fridge that I thought would go well with the hot sauce - I really wanted the highlight of this simple lunch to be that yummy Matouk's hot sauce. I added shrimp, bell pepper, pineapple, mango, avocado, red onion, green onion, and cilantro.

Turned out pretty yummy! Fresh tasting and totally satisfied today's craving for spicy food.

Today's lunch

Mostly leftovers from a Christmas party this weekend...

- a little bit of leftover tempeh that was marinated in soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and lots of curry powder then grilled
- a GIANT tupperware full of raw veggies (jicama, cucumber, bell peppers, and celery) and a little bit of Trader Joe's Spinach Kale Greek Yogurt Dip
- part-skim mozzarella string cheese

Souplantation Express

LOVE that one of the few Souplantation Express that exist is right by my office! When I don't have time to pack my lunch, it's perfect for staying healthy on a busy day at work because I can place my order online in advance. When it's ready, I just head over there, walk to the front of the line, pay, then bring my lunch back to the office to eat there if it's busy and I need to work through my lunch. It's only $6 which is a pretty good price for buying lunch considering the size of the salad (it's huge) and all the ingredients seem pretty fresh (don't taste like they've been sitting out for a while).

Today I had a salad made up of spinach, spring baby lettuce mix, celery, mushrooms, cucumber, cabbage, bell pepper, black olives, hard boiled eggs (for some protein and fat), edamame (for some protein), pepperoncinis, tofu (for protein), sunflower seeds (for healthy fat), avocado (for healthy fat), red onions, broccoli, red chili flakes, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil. When I'm super hungry or if I know I won't have time to eat a real dinner later that evening (my situation today), I try to make sure I add a good amount of ingredients rich in protein and healthy fats to keep me full longer.

Today was also the first day that I saw they had their Asian ginger broth as one of the options for a soup - I've only seen this in the actual Souplantation restaurants before. It's only 50 calories for a cup of broth and tastes sooooo yummy, so I also grabbed a cup of that to go with my salad. I added tofu, green onions, and red chili flakes to the broth and it was sooo yummy. And I'm not even done with my food, but I'm super full right now! :)

Emergency lunch

I always have ridiculously busy weeknights and a lot of nights I'll get home late without getting a chance to prepare lunch for the next day. And I'll also wake up too late to prepare it. So I try to always leave healthy snacks and emergency lunch supplies in my office desk and fridge to prevent myself from eating out for lunch or even prevent myself from starving all day and end up binge eating a bunch of bad food at night... I usually try to make sure I leave some nuts, Trader Joe's instant miso soup, string cheese, yogurt, spinach, and salad dressing in my desk or fridge at work. My company also started providing healthy snacks for the office - usually fruit and granola bars. I try to always opt for the fruit since the granola bars have a lot of added sugar. I also like to keep a good stash of really yummy teas that I bring in from home (to have in addition to the teas my company provides for the office) because sometimes I'm not really hungry but I just have a craving to taste something yummy in my mouth - tea TOTALLY satisfies that craving for me. Btw, current tea obsession = Chocolate Yerba Mate, rose petal tea, and Celestial Seasonings Honey Vanilla Chamomile mmmmmmmmm.

Anyways.... today was one of those days where I didn't have time to pack a lunch. Luckily, I have all my snacks and emergency lunch supplies in the office!! As I was leaving the house, I looked through my fridge and found a boiled egg to eat as my mid-morning snack and part of some leftover avocado to add to my salad. I also found an almost empty container of fat-free cottage cheese, so I added a spoonful of sugar-free jam to the container so I can have a protein-rich afternoon snack that will satisfy my sweet craving. I grabbed all of these quickly and ran out the door this morning.

Here is what I threw together for lunch!

Salad made of spinach (stored in my fridge at work), avocado (grabbed from home this morning), Trader Joe's hummus salad dressing (stored in my fridge at work), and some red chili flakes (I found one of those little packets of chili flakes you get with pizza that someone in my office had saved). I also had a reduced fat cheddar cheese stick (stored in my fridge at work) and some Trader Joe's instant miso soup (stored in my desk at work)

Lunch: Salmon-Salad Sandwich

Here's a quick, simple lunch I put together early this morning before work:

I made a salmon-salad (like chicken-salad but salmon instead) by mixing canned salmon with a little bit of reduced-fat cream cheese, reduced-fat olive oil mayo, lemon juice, lemon zest, lemon pepper, and a little salt. I made an open-faced salmon-salad sandwich by topping one slice of Trader Joe's European Style Whole Grain Bread (the kind that's super thinly sliced and dense and all whole grains, seeds, and nuts that you can actually see... SUPER nutritious) with arugula, some avocado, and my salmon-salad! Yummy!!

Instagram: @margomangooo

view full image

"Enjoying my lunch outside today and loving the weather! TJ's chili lime chicken burger (patty only) w avocado; arugula w lemon and evoo; TJ's spinach kale Greek yogurt dip w mini heirloom tomatoes and TJ's whole wheat lavash chips; and Yogi seven berry antioxidant herbal iced tea"

Lunch!

Salmon baked with lemon, dill, and capers; roasted brussel sprouts; baby lettuce mix with red wine vinegar and olive oil; and celery with spinach and kale greek yogurt dip

Another lunch!

This was my lunch the day after my last post... Hahaa. Another wrap (exactly the same as the day before), mini heirloom tomatoes with hummus, mixed lettuce greens with blueberries and trader joes light champagne vinaigrette, and grapes. Yum!

Lunch! And products I'm currently obsessed with

This was my lunch the other day! I was STUFFED and it was only 430 calories! It was 19g of fat (only 1 gram of saturated fat from the avocado), 25g of protein, 49g of carbs, 17gs of fiber (NICE!), and only 4g of sugar. I've decided I need to start eating bigger lunches (but still healthy) to hold me over until well after I leave work. This way I can work out right after work without feeling hungry and tired. I still give myself an afternoon snack, but eating a bigger lunch and a smaller dinner definitely makes this easier for me.

I made myself a wrap from FlatOut light flatbread, Bitchin' Sauce, a little bit of turkey breast, avocado, red bell pepper, and some mixed lettuce greens. SO GOOD! I made another one exactly the same for lunch the next day too... haha 

I also made a massaged kale salad. "Massaging" kale with a little acid (citrus or vinegar) and salt breaks up a lot of the toughness in raw kale, making it more enjoyable to eat. I made my kale salad with red bell pepper, cilantro, green onion, sesame seeds, rice vinegar, soy sauce, and sesame oil.

Then I added some snap peas and hummus and some Chip'ins to my little lunchbox and voila! My awesome lunch!! :)

A lot of products I used in this lunch I am currently obsessing over:

Bento Box Lunch Box

I saw this at Fresh & Easy the other day and I HAD to get it. It has little handles (like a lunchbox) that can fold down to flatten out with the box and fit nicely in the fridge or other tight spaces.

It separates in to 2 levels - each with it's own lid. One lid has a little section with attached utensils! The bottom compartment is one big section and the top compartment is divided in to two smaller sections (see very first picture). And everything is microwave and dishwasher safe!

FlatOut Light Flatbread

http://www.flatoutbread.com/

I found these at Sprout's the other day when I was looking for a whole wheat flatbread. I was kind of disappointed by a lot of them because they were higher calorie than I wanted and had more sugar and fat than I wanted... Then I saw just one pack of FlatOut Light Flatbread kind of hidden in the back! Each flatbread is only 90 calories and is made with low fat, whole grains, and no sugar!

Chip'ins Jalapeno Ranch

http://www.popcornindiana.com/product_type/chip%27ins

These are popcorn chips!  They're whole grain and gluten free and because they're air popped, they're fairly low calorie. I'll usually only eat about half the serving size with something else I'm eating. These aren't actually South Beach Diet Safe because corn has a high glycemic index, but if I'm craving some chips these are still decent and better than most other chips! And the Jalapeno Ranch flavor is yummmmmm. I don't normally eat a lot of chips, but my boyfriend LOVES chips... I originally bought these for him and now I love them :P

Bitchin' Sauce

http://bitchinsauce.com/Bitchin_Sauce/Bitchin_Sauce_Home.html

This actually isn't something new I discovered, I've been obsessed with it for a while... but it's definitely "bitchin'!" It's vegan, gluten-free, and (if I remember correctly) raw. It's made from almonds, grapeseed oil, nutritional yeast, garlic, and spices. It's just a creamy, savory sauce that tastes AWESOME! The website lists their servings size as 2 tablespoons, but I never use more than a tablespoon on anything I spread it on - 2 tablespoons seems like way too much for anything - so split all the nutrition info in half for a more realistic servings size. These can only be found in farmer's markets in San Diego right now. It looks like they are working on a method of ordering online, but don't have anything yet. I like the original and chipotle flavors the best. It also comes in a pesto flavor and they have a limited time "heat" flavor right now that I haven't tried yet.

Trader Joe's Grounded Flaxseed with Blueberries

And of course there has to be something from Trader Joe's on here! I first tried this a long time ago when they were sampling it at Trader Joe's when it first came out. I don't know why I never bought it until recently. I've used this stuff on the majority of my breakfasts lately: on top of plain oatmeal, non-fat cottage cheese, or vanilla yogurt (I always buy plain, non-fat yogurt then flavor it myself with vanilla and splenda so there is less calories than buying the pre-flavored yogurts with sugar). It adds a really nutty and a little bit fruity flavor to whatever you top it on. And if you don't mix it in completely, it adds a little bit of crunch too! Like Bitchin' Sauce, the back of this package says the serving size is 2 tbsp, but I think that is way too much and never use more than a tablespoon. So I would half the nutrition info on the back to more like 45 calories per serving.

Workout at work!

I recently got the idea from my coworker to do quick work-time workouts! It's probably one of the best workout decisions I've ever made. I used to rarely ever take my two 15 min breaks the California law is required to give us - only when I was so tired and my brain couldn't function anymore I would step outside for 10 minutes and take a slow walk to clear my head.

My coworker brought up that he takes his 15 minute breaks even if he's not tired and just walks anyways. He sets his alarm for 7 minutes, starts walking, then when his alarm rings, he heads back to the office. If you take both of those breaks, that's already 30 minutes of walking! And even better if you speed walk! If you add in 30 minutes at lunch, that's a WHOLE HOUR! I didn't realize how much it adds up until I heard that! So I started doing it too and I feel awesome :) I'm much more energized, work more efficiently when I get back to the office, plus get a good amount of extra exercise for the day.

A lot of times I don't make it out to walk all three times every day, but I try. Most of the time I'll get only two walks in, but it still adds up!

Today I made the decision to add a few simple strength exercises in to my lunch time walk. So instead of setting my alarm for 15 minute to walk out during lunch, I only set it for 10 minutes then I stop to do some exercises before walking the 10 minutes back. I didn't want to get too crazy because I don't want to show up at work super sweaty, so today I did a 1 minute plank, 30 second side-planks on each side, and 10 push-ups. Then I speed-walked back to my office and ran up the three stories worth of stairs to my office two steps at a time, so that my heart rate was still up when I sat back at my desk. I only spent a little over 20 minutes out there, so I still have time to eat lunch at my desk and write a little post right now :P

I didn't want to do anything too crazy for strength today, but I think tomorrow I will have to add more. It was a little too easy. Maybe I'll repeat everything another time and add some tricep strengthening also - my triceps are WEEEAK.

On my way walking back to the office, I saw a food truck along the street called Epic Eatz. It's supposed to be San Diego Surf style foods. I saw they had halibut ceviche and ahi poki on their menu.... MMMMMM I think I need to try that when they are back next Tuesday.

http://epiceatz.com/

Also, I just ate a really yummy and simple salad that I brought from home! Mache lettuce with micro-basil, mini heirloom tomatoes, half of a part-skim mozzarella string cheese sliced thin, balsamic, olive oil, salt, and pepper. So yummy! That micro-basil really does it, I think.

For a mid-afternoon snack, I brought a plain brown rice cake (one of those crispy puffed rice cake things) with some of Trader Joe's flaxseed almond butter to spread on top

Yummmmm this stuff is AWESOME. http://www.traderjoes.com/fearless-flyer/article.asp?article_id=374

Another quick, yummy salad

This was another quick salad I threw together this morning as I was rushing to leave for work. I honestly just threw in some things that I already had on hand that I thought might work together, but it turned out much better than I expected! I'll have to make this again for lunch sometime :)

Baby mixed lettuce, cooked quinoa, avocado, raw pepitas, nectarine, Trader Joe's light champagne vinaigrette, and a generous sprinkling of black pepper

Quick Dinner

So this kind of goes along with my last post... Meals I prepare when I have no time...

For those of you who know me, you know that I have a 30 minute commute north of my house to work every day . Yes, it is a little bit of a long drive but it's manageable. But I've recently taken up becoming a member-in-training for San Diego Taiko (we have a our mod-year review next week and our final audition will be around November!! Wish me luck!). I have Taiko practices 2-3 times a week 30 min SOUTH of my house... If I drive down there directly from work during rush hour, this can sometimes take me an hour and a half to drive... Luckily practices are a little later and I usually have time to make a quick stop at home (which is right in the middle of the drive) to eat and wait out some traffic. I'll usually have only from 30 minutes to 1 hour at home to eat, change, then leave for practice, leaving me with little time to make something filling and healthy.

I had practice on Monday night so I pretty quickly made an open-faced turkey burger on whole wheat! I happened to have frozen turkey burgers to throw on the grill - perfect because you can throw them on the grill and gave me some nice protein so I could last through my practice and workout. I went for an open-faced sandwich so that's one less slice of bread and less carbs - plus it's always prettier to eat with a knife and fork =P . I spread on a nice, thick layer of garlic kalamata olive spread (from Hani's Mediterranean market and a variation of the garlic chili spread I normally buy), threw on some mixed baby lettuce, and topped with the grilled turkey burger. A satisfying, filling, low-carb, and yummy dinner!

Quick meals

Another morning where I have barely any time to have some breakfast and prepare a lunch for myself before work... Luckily I try to make big batches of plain quinoa to store in the fridge and quickly add to almost any food for some complex carbs with lots of nutrients!

This morning I took some of the quinoa, added a splash of milk an some Splenda and warmed it up in the microwave to make a hot cereal. I topped it with a light drizzle of chocolate syrup and some dried cherries because I was craving something sweet. This held me over until about 1pm for lunch with no snacking!

For lunch I had to put together something really fast before I left for work so I grabbed some mixed lettuce greens, more quinoa, some blueberries, and a bottle of trader joe's light champagne vinaigrette (pretty good option for pre-made salad dressing that's low in calories, fat, and sugar) and made this yummy salad! I also grabbed a mango to slice up at work to eat on the side. Yummm.