Caroline Dines

This morning I decided to try oatmeal again. I had been off it for a while now since it wasn’t exciting me but for some reason the cold weather and snow outside has made me re-think my breakfast options. I picked up some “Complete Oatmeal” packets from Trader Joe’s yesterday and decided to add a little extra goodness: ground flax seed.

I stirred in this amount of cashew butter after the oats had been heated with unsweetened almond milk.

To make it festive I added coconut, dried cranberries and a half a sliced banana. Oh, and a little sprinkle of cinnamon too! It was a delightful breakfast to say the least.

I spent the morning cleaning, packing and getting organized. I also decided to whip up a batch of “Roasted Chickpeas”

• 1 can of chickpeas drained, washed and patted dry
• 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil
• dash of salt and pepper
• dash of garlic powder

Bake at 450 for 30 minutes until crispy.

I added my freshly toasted chickpeas to a bed of spinach, carrot nubs, roasted red pepper dip, one slice of light havarti cheese and balsamic vinegar. An uber healthy salad plate!

These chickpeas were rock solid! They reminded me a lot of hummus (duh, hummus is made from chickpeas), more so than plain chickpeas because of the roasting action I do believe. A great snack too, I popped a few in before my salad!

After lunch, I bundled up and walked to the store. Along the way I listened to my latest Pandora station: Alvin and the Chipmunks Holiday!

I love my walk to the store.

I was on a mission to make Chex Mix and had it in my head that I wanted to make it as healthy as possible but still have a good flavor. The key for this batch was still using butter, but just not as much. I used the best butter I know of: Kate’s from Maine!

I had thoughts of getting different ingredients to boost the nutritional content but in the end I stuck with the old standbys: three varieties of chex, dry roasted lightly salted peanuts, and pretzel sticks.

The only ingredient that deviated from the original recipe was a dash or two of ginger people sauce. I think that this made a huge difference in the flavor because it meant that I didn’t need to use as much butter!

I ended up using about 4 tablespoons of butter, 2 tablespoons of worcestershire sauce, 1 tablespoon of garlic powder, and a good shake of Virgin Islands Salt Mix (you could use Seasoned Salt, just don’t use the kind with MSG!). This baked for about an hour at 250 degrees. I checked it every 10-15 minutes though. They say you can make it in the microwave but that just didn’t seem right to me!

I was quite happy with the final product but feel as though I could have used more worcestshire sauce. Maybe I am just used to the one my Dad used to make with lots of sauce so that all the pieces were sticking together. Mine is very mildly flavored but I am happy that it doesn’t have all the loads of butter that a normal batch would contain. I may “rebake” it tomorrow with a bit more sauce. Although, Darin gave it the big thumbs up so maybe I’ll just let it be. Besides it does look pretty in it’s holiday tin!

Dinner was a medly of Trader Joe’s frozen goodies. I was inspired to try the Vegetable Gyoza after reading about Kat’s success with them. Once I was in this section of the freezer I just had to try the chicken and vegetable dumplings and the lemongrass chicken rolls. All of these were a fabulous alternative to take out in my opinion and because they were steamed in the microwave they remained very healthy with no added oil!

I heated up some edamame for color and nutrition and made a light dipping sauce of soy, ginger, agave, and rice wine vinegar. The best part is that I have this exact meal (times two) in the freezer ready to go! Darin and I only ate half of each box which turned out to be plenty for both of us.

About an hour after dinner I found myself searching for something sweet, I happened upon this luscious looking Ghiradelli square and figured it better than the alternatives. I am trying to be super accountable before the Holiday because I KNOW there will be lot’s of tempting dishes once I am on break!