Category Archives: sharing

Chocolate Tortillas and Zucchini Mush

     I’m currently sitting in a cloud of dust, staring far, far ahead at the wagon that I fell off of this weekend. It was a long, hard fall. Today I started to climb back on, but lost my footing and got some more gravel in my knees.

     The day started off well enough.

I had a big Purple Monsta with 2 cups of spinach, 1/4 a cup of frozen cherries, 3/4 a cup of soymilk, 1/3 of a banana, a tablespoon of flaxmeal and some lemon juice.
     I hopped back on the trails for a hot hike wearing my new WHITE Nike Dri-Fit shirt (my black one has been absorbing the sun and killing me in the summer heat). It was nice and quiet, with very few people, and no breeze at all! The air was completely still and quite torturous. 
     All I could think about on the hike was the coconut cream cake that I ate last night after we got back from Ventura, so I caved and had a teeny-tiny piece from the freezer.
No guilt. If you truly take the time to taste, enjoy and appreciate something and don’t just mindlessly stuff your face, then guilt should never factor in.
     Those chocolate tortilla chips I got for my dad were crying out to be tried, so I took a nibble of one.
Yes, they’re tortilla chips, and yes, they’re chocolate. YES, they’re incredible! Sweet and salty is one of the best combinations ever.
     Lunch was very simple – baked ziti.
This was 1/4 a cup of whole wheat pasta, turkey meatballs, diced orange and red bell peppers, onions, chopped tomatoes and a teaspoon of goat cheese.
     I ran out to Costco to get some more spinach and came back to attempt making zucchini birdnests that caught my eye from my library book, Cooking from the Farmers’ Market. I started by shredding 4 green zucchini (zucchinis?) and 3 yellow squash (squashes?) – Let’s just call them by their New Zealand/British English name: Courgettes. After adding a pinch of salt and letting them sweat for five minutes, I wrung them out to get rid of all the liquid – courgettes have LOTS of water in them! Next, I shredded a small yellow onion, minced 2 cloves of garlic and broke an egg.
     I’m not a fan of having a lot to clean, so I broke the egg in the center of my mixture, and then lightly beat it in the bowl so I wouldn’t have another dish to wash.
     After mixing it all together and stirring in a tablespoon of whole wheat flour, I plopped them into a frying pan that was sprayed with a thin coat of canola oil and heated over medium-high.
Lookin’ good so far!
Hmmm, maybe not…
     I think these still had too much moisture in them, even though I wrung them out over a strainer multiple times. They totally fell apart, then burned on one side and stayed raw in the middle, so I threw them in the oven with convection to try and dry them/cook them.
They do not look pretty :(.
     This is what they’re supposed to look like:
And here’s mine:
Yeah, so it completely fell apart and became a zucchini scramble. It was edible…ish. I tried to make the recipe healthier by using whole wheat flour instead of white flour, and using spray oil instead of the recommended 2 tablespoons to fry them in. Sometimes healthy just isn’t worth it!
     …And sometimes it is. For dinner I had my good old standby – a wonderful KSS.
2 cups of chopped baby greens, 1/2 of a diced bell pepper, 1/2 a cup of warmed lentils, 1/2 a cup of egg white salad and dressing made with 1 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar, 1 teaspoon of whole grain mustard and 1 teaspoon of blood orange olive oil.
     I had the closing shift at work so I headed off with my beer book to study… I mean work… yes, work.
I just got to the “Beer Appreciation” chapter – tasting! So cool!
     Looking back over this post, I’m realizing I wasn’t THAT bad in the eating area. That all changes now. I went to Paciugo and got a child size of their soy chocolate. Hint: at most places you can request a child size and it will still fill you up! No more American-size portions!
So creamy and delicious! Can’t believe it’s soy – a lot of soy ice cream is grainy and gross, but this is heaven in a dainty cup!
     One of my coworkers went to Godiva and decided to share – darn you, Kyle! I was very happy, but very upset at the same time. My happiness definitely overwhelmed the upset :).
That’s half of a chocolate-covered strawberry and banana stick, plus one of my dad’s chocolate tortilla chips. I shared the other half of the stick with my roommate. Everyone wins when you share!
     Tomorrow will be a little difficult in the eating area again. I have my acting class in LA, followed by running a talent manager’s office completely by myself all afternoon into the evening, so I won’t be able to sit down and have a nice, well thought-out meal. Hopefully I’ll have time to grab a big salad to-go from Trader Joe’s or something.
I shall go sleep now and hope for an early waking to squeeze in a hike before I head to LALA Land. Ciao = CHOW!

4 Comments

Filed under Godiva, kitchen sink salad, sharing, Tortilla, work, zucchini