Following my post on Wednesday concerning vegetarian envy, I decided that it would be a good idea to immediately proceed to Trader Joe’s and blow $75 of my hard-earned grocery budget. Luckily, I’m way under budget so far for the year, so I was allowed to pay full price for some wholesome TJ’s goodies.
At the time, I was mostly concerned with purchasing the missing ingredients so that I could whip up PW’s Ginger Steak Salad in an effort to offer My Darling Gazelle something other than Fiber One Pastries and PopSecret popcorn when he arrived home from his nightly 3PM-1AM shift. Poor thing. I really just wanted the salad and the dressing (hold the gross steak, please), but I needed fresh ginger and garlic. Because, well…you can’t really make a ginger and steak salad without ginger. And garlic. Because I said so.
Sidebar: I almost never have fresh ginger on hand…also…the garlic that I generally have is the kind that is already chopped up and in a jar. I’m lazy like that. But PW motivates me to buy the real stuff and stop being so damn lazy, because the truth is that it just tastes better.
So, I purchased the ingredients necessary for the steak salad, plus a few other goodies that tickled my fancy.
I said “tickled my fancy”. What the hell was that about?
I walked out of the store with two bags filled with pure delight, and a whole lot of healthy.
One of the things that I picked up was some Trader Joe’s Whole Wheat Tandoori Naan. I bought this because I love the idea of pita bread, but I can’t stand how hard and crusty it usually is. It reminds me of dusty cardboard, and that is just not my idea of a good time. However, this naan looked so yummy, and it was soft to the touch. I flipped it over and read the nutrition goodies, and then it was a lock. Per piece (and it’s a big piece), there are 240 calories, 3g fat, 44g carbs, 8g fiber, and 10g protein. I thought that if I was snacking, 1/2 would be sufficient, and if I was mealing, I could eat the whole piece. Carbs/protein/fiber. Jackpot.
Last week on my lunch break, I bought this container of deliciousness:
Today for lunch, I put a layer of horseradish hummus on the Tandoori Naan, then sprinkled with roasted slivered almonds. Then I threw in 2 TJ’s baked chicken tenders for good measure, and stuffed a bunch of TJ’s Herb Salad Mix under each 1/2 of the naan.
The result was nothing short of dreamy.
It was so good that I couldn’t wait to eat it, so I had to take the picture when I was already a few bites in. The terrible iPhone picture just doesn’t do it justice.
All of this food stuff said, I have been very inspired this past week by Strawberry Shortstuff’s posts about her daily homemade smoothies, loaded full of fruits and veggies. Due to all of the subliminal smoothie messages I’m receiving, I’m actually considering replacing the Magic Bullet that I lost in my divorce so that I can make my own!
Strawberry Shortstuff also mentioned The Green Smoothie Challenge, and I am going to check it out more tonight after my run.
Do any of you “SMOOTHIE”?
