A Dijon Day

Happy Father's Day! (Well, not anymore...)

I had a quite a day, and I know I'm supposed to be catching up on posts for the pasta few days, but I though today (tonight,) I would actually talk about today. What a concept!

I got up relatively early for a weekend in summer, so i decided to take my mom to yoga for the first time. After going to the wrong place and finally showing up there more than 20 minutes late because (naturally) I got the class time wrong, the nice ladies at the desk decided to take pity on us and let us in anyway.

The class was fantastic. Yoga is great and I really hope to do more in the future! But I read on the website of a local yoga place (I don't think it's the one we actually ended up going to) that I shouldn't eat three hours before the class. So I skipped breakfast.

I survived, but I don't think I'd do that again. So after class, I went to Father's Day lunch with my dad, where we went (by his choice) to a bar-type restaurant called Saddle Ranch.

You can't read the menu, can you?

"Smart Drinks" is legible, but I think that's about it.

Since I did miss breakfast, I did start wolfing my salad down before I snapped a pic. I ordered the Thai Peanut Crunch, and I must've given the poor server a headache with my special ordering. I didn't take notes on the subject, but I think I ordered it without noodles, different noodles, won ton strips, sesame seeds, and with the dressing on the side. Can I also have a side of Dijon mustard? Whew. That sounded long even to me. (Take another look at the pic. That whole bowl was practically filled to the brim with salad. It was HUGE.)

I love ordering salads dry and then dipping my me salad goodies into Dijon. As you can see, I cleaned this bottle out. I wanted my 12.99 worth. (Yeah I know, paying thirteen bucks is probably too much to pay for a huge bowl of lettuce and salad related items. Oh well, it is a holiday.)

Look at all the dressing the gave me on the side! When you think about it, it would probably take that much to coat a salad like that. So I guess I don't need to feel so bad about cleaning out that jar of Dijon, should I?

There were also peanuts, edamame, carrots, and cucumber in there. Yum! (But I was soooo full.)

I tried to get my dad to go on that bull (to no avail. Maybe next year?)

Check out these guitar dudes that hang around the tables playing for customers for tips.

I think this sign is pretty funny.

So after that, I went to go see a movie at The Grove with my mom, and we took a detour to Sur Le Table, that amazing (and kinda overpriced) kitchen supply store.

I love this place.

By the way, I'm taking a teen summer cooking class here in this very Sur Le Table kitchen. I'm not sure they'll let me take pictures, but I'll try my best to fill you all in afterwards.

More kitchen. Eventually I had to ask my mom to drag me out of here before I put us in the poor house. (Thanks, Mom!)

So at the Farmer's Market...Yes, yes this is chocolate pasta. I think the sample would've been better if it had been cooked, because raw pasta typically isn't overly appealing.

I just wanted to hop in a start basking in the fruit bath. (But that might've looked weird. Just maybe.)

So I swiped (but not before paying :) ) some seedless grapes, a package of strawberries, a mango, and three bananas before continuing on our Farmer's Market journey. 

To any gluten free readers out there, check these out! The man at the counter said they guaranteed you'd love it, or your money back. (Cool!)

Ahhhh, choices.

So on our way out, we stopped at this awesome ice cream/fro yo place called Bennet's, where I order some nonfat and no sugar added blueberry cheesecake fro yo. 

Yes, for calories, that actually says 50 per half cup. I'm  not really sure that's right, but, oh well, the blueberry frozen yogurt was DELICIOUS!

I think I'm smiling behind my fro yo. :)

Oh look, I am! (That's my fro yo smiley face.)

A nice man offered to take a picture of me and my mom. (It can be fun to have people think you're tourists.)

Ok, so I'm kinda obsessed with popcorn. I usually pop up an 100 calorie bag, but they can be laden with unpronounceable ingredients, and, because I have I probably have a bag a day on average, I decided to pop my own! I sprayed a large, heavy pot with nonstick spray, and put in two tablespoons of Archer Farms (Target) brand golden popcorn (only one ingredient, popping corn, which is a whole grain, and it only has 70 calories per two tablespoon unpopped, about 4 cups popped, serving!) Cover the pot and let it be until you start to hear popping. (I wouldn't take the lid off. Patience! It took a few minutes, but it did happen.) Once the popping slows, take the lid off and check on it. I

I'm ashamed. My two favorite popcorn topping are I Can't believe It's Not Butter! spray and Kernal Seasons popcorn salt. It's a habit to be broken, I know.

So by the time I got to dinner because of when we got home from the movie, I just had it in my mind to feed myself something pretty decent.

My Mishmash Egg Hash

1 cup frozen hash browns (Yeah, I know, this is probably not considered "health food." But the ingredients aren't that scary and there's some serious convenience there.)

1/2 cup liquid egg whites (or 4 actual egg whites)

1 onion, diced or chopped or however you like to cut your onions

a few pieces of celery, chopped

about 1/4 teaspoon salt (omit if you are a serious salt avoid er)

I literally just through this in a skillet sprayed with nonstick spray and stirred it around until it looked done. If anyone cares, I think I put it in in the skillet in the order the ingredients are listed, and let them cook for however long it took me to get the ingredient ready. 

At the end, I stirred in some Dijon mustard for flavor, and plus, I think I must've been in some kind of Dijon mood. It may not win the pretties dinner of the year award, but it was pretty darn good given the circumstances.

So for a before bed snack, (doesn't that bring back memories?) I made some of my stove top oats. Why? Simple, a day with oats is sorta like a day without sunshine. So I stirred in some Whole Foods white chocolate chips, and topped it with coconut chips, (got them at Whole Foods,) banana slices, some white chocolate almond butter, (hang on for the recipe,) and some frozen blackberries. I've topped my oats with frozen berries lately because it's kinda like topping your oats with chunks of fruity ice cream that won't melt all over everything immediately (although that might taste awesome.)

I think I might be done rambling on for today. Thanks for reading!

Enjoy!

-Kelly M.