Mom's Cooking + Monday Meals

Happy Monday everyone! I hope everyone's week is off to a great start! The weekends always seem to fly by, don't they? Mine was jam-packed with football and then some back home in Michigan. Michigan State beat Notre Dame on Saturday night with an awesome last-minute fake field goal touchdown and I nearly lost my voice from screaming so much.

While I was home, I also enjoyed some of my Mom's cooking. It's been fun watching my Mom embrace the food community online, too. She's discovered sooooo many new ingredients and recipes, which has only made her more excited to cook healthy. Going to Whole Foods is one of her favorite field trips. And what an amazing change from when I was a kid, for I always heard my Mom say that she didn't like to cook. Here we are 30 years later, and she has a bread maker, a juicer, and other kitchen gadgets. Plus, we're swapping kitchen techniques, recipes, and other helpful hints. It's a lot of fun! This weekend she really hooked us up, cooking my Dad, Ryan, and me a fabulous pre-game breakfast on Saturday, with some homemade oatmeal and blackberries, plus fruit and eggs.

She also served a lovely brunch prior to our jaunt back to the Windy City on Sunday. The chicken salad with grapes and apples was delicious. Her homemade spicy tomato soup included tomatoes from her garden. And you can never have too many raw veggies and fruit! YUM!

Come this morning, I was still reeling from the excitement of Saturday's game. Such excitement only pushed my motivation in the right direction ... for work. I caught up on loads of odds and ends, while tinkering away on some freelance work. Breakfast included Love Your Man Steel-Cut Oatmeal and an iced coffee. I also tried Vega Shake & Go's Vanilla Almondilla flavor. It was nice and frothy, but I think I prefer the Choc-o-lat version.

With several deadlines looming over my head, my butt never left the chair today, sadly. I gotta kick some serious booty on the exercise front tomorrow, stat! Lunch was a quick one, too. I had lemon dill tuna and kalamata olives on an Arnold multi-grain sandwich flat, with spinach and stone ground mustard.

Later on, I snacked on an apple with a tablespoon of reduced fat peanut butter.

Dinnertime was spent at the super-size Whole Foods, for Ryan and I had zero groceries in the house. Hitting two birds with one stone tonight seemed appropriate. For dinner, I had some mixed greens with vegetables as well as some sliced golden beets, italian vegetables, and chili lime tofu. I have to have my soup whenever I'm at Whole Foods, and tonight I opted for the Black Bean Adobo recipe. Can't forget my LaCroix sparkling water. A few new changes to my regular Whole Foods menu. Apologies for the dismal lighting in the following pics.

Man, and here we are, almost the end of Monday. Tuesday is likely to be just as busy, but I prefer it that way :) First proper day of fall and my brain is already churning with several recipe ideas.

Thanks so much for reading! I hope you had a great, stress-free Monday! xx