Happy Saturday!  My favorite day of every week!  I hope you had a fantastic Friday.  Mine was bueno:  it was so nice to get back to my regular eating schedule.  I seems like my eating has been a little erratic this week.  I would miss an afternoon or mid-morning snack and then after dinner I would feel like I hadn’t had enough to eat and was experiencing crazy cravings.

The day started with a trusty old friend:  1/3 cup old fashioned oats (measured dry for those of you wondering), sprinkled with some raisins, unsweetened coconut flakes and cinnamon.  Mmmm.  Coconut was meant for oatmeal.  It seems like such an odd combo, but it is fantastic!

For lunch I had the leftover veggie enchilada from Thursday’s visit to Three Margaritas, with a side of stinky broccoli.  More on the broccoli later…

After lunch I needed a “dessert” so I grabbed a medjool date.  Perfect little snack to squelch that sweet tooth!

And later a beloved Lemon Larabar…  Larabar, it’s been a few days.  I’ve missed you!

MSP wanted his favorite for dinner (Chipotle) before heading off to poker night with the fellas and my tastebuds just weren’t in the mood for the spice and onion overload.  So while I was out picking up his dinner, I swung through Whole Foods to wander around uninterrupted grab something from the salad bar.  I left with a $26 grocery bill (not bad considering that it’s usually over $40 there, AND $5 went to a donation to the Women’s Crisis Shelter.  But then again, I had just come from Vitamin Cottage, where I spent $21 so see… I’m right back at $40+ for a “quick trip to the store”.)  But if it meant I got to eat these beautiful treats for dinner, then it was well worth it:

Sesame emerald kale, gigande beans, and quinoa pilaf with roasted red peppers.  I should take a picture of these beans next to something to give you a reference of their size next time.  They truly are GIGANDE!  Every once in a while you see one with vericose veins!  I’m not joking!

And because I was feeling a definite lack of greens in my day, I couldn’t resist trying a new BUBBLY flavor, aptly called multi-GREEN. 

Doesn’t it look tasty? 

And still I was craving more veggies, so for “dessert” I had a spinach salad with leftover roasted mushrooms and my homegrown crunchy sprouts. 

Ah, that did that trick.  Full now. 

So back to that stinky broccoli…  the other day I had this idea to bake broccoli, much the same way that I do with kale.  I had about 3/4 bag of florets left in the fridge…

…so I tossed them with some macadamia nut oil and some nutritional yeast and put them next to the mushrooms I was getting ready to roast.  Cooked ‘em good at 350 degrees until they started to get brown tinges on the edges.

While I definitely loved the flavor of the baked broccoli (tasted an awful lot like baked kale, who knew?) I most definitely did NOT like the stench that was left hanging around.  It was so BAD!  If we left the house and came back, it smacked us good and hard in the face each and every time we walked back in the door.  Putting the leftovers in the fridge made it exponentially worse.  I wasn’t even really in the mood for broccoli with my leftover enchilada, but I couldn’t take the stanky stink any longer. 

I have never experienced that with broccoli before.  I will have to pay closer attention to how I prepare it.  I want to make a broccoli salad for Thanksgiving, but now I’m thinking I may have to run down to Tokyo Joe’s and just place an order just for steamed broccoli to use in the recipe so that I can keep the house smelling nice that day! 

Another lesson learned: (one that I think I’d read one time about cruciferous veggies and methane, and made the mistake of not committing to memory):  there is a limit to how much broccoli should be consumed in one sitting.  Scarfing down half a bag of baked florets was not a smart idea.  I want to save you poor souls (and the poor souls standing within smelling distance) from this horrible misstep. 

There, I’ve done my good deed for the day.   

Have a SNAZZY Saturday friends!   See you back here on Monday!

– Shari B. =)

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