Spontaneous Dinner Success

Wednesday morning I felt a lot better.  Not quite cured, but I'd actually slept through the night and could breathe a lot better.  It's amazing how much more you value your health after just a little cold.  But I wasn't out of the woods yet, so I started the day with a strawberry banana protein shake (keep that vitamin C coming!). 

 

I also wanted to make sure lunch was super healthy, so I packed leftover quinoa salad from dinner Tuesday (which apparently I never took a picture of, so I didn't discuss it yesterday). 

 

I mixed up a new quinoa salad this time.  In the mix: artichoke hearts, grape tomatoes, white beans, capers, red pepper flakes, and a squeeze of lemon.  I don't think it beats my original quinoa salad, but it's nice to have variety.  And it's definitely really healthy and full of protein. 

 

Mid-afternoon I snacked on oatmeal with a big scoop of peanut butter.  I probably eat way too much of this stuff ... but I just can't stop!  It's so good! 

 

I was originally planning to attend a book club meeting for The Passage Wednesday night, but the meeting was rescheduled to next week at the last minute because the organizer wasn't feeling well (we're all getting it!).  But because of the last minute change I didn't have anything planned for dinner.  I don't normally do well without a plan (I plan everything), so I panicked for a minute before I came up with a couple of pretty brilliant solutions. 

 

Well, perhaps not so brilliant because they relied heavily on leftovers from prior meals.  But the outcome was delicious, so I guess I'll stick with brilliant. 

 

I pan fried leftover mustard and cornmeal crusted seitan from last week (I coated many more pieces of seitan than we could eat in one sitting), and quickly made some mashed parsnips, leftover from creamy parsnip sauce (also last week). 

 

To make the mashed parsnips I boiled chopped parsnips until tender, then blended them with a couple cloves of garlic, rice milk, salt, pepper, and a bit of Earth Balance.  Then I topped them with a bit moer salt, pepper, and Earth Balance.  I also tossed a piece of toast on the side because I had one piece left in a loaf of rye bread. 

 

This dinner was so good and came together from conception to plate in about twenty minutes.  The parsnips were probably my favorite part.  I'll definitely be making those again!