A day of Fit Chick Foodie firsts!

It is official, people, I’m in a breakfast rut. Well if you’re going to be addicted to anything, it might as well be a mix of oatmeal, chia seeds, and almond milk with bananas and almond butter on top, right? Haha, there was a time in my life where I was addicted to frosted strawberry pop-tarts so I’m going to count this oatmeal addiction as a win for my health!

Lunch was courtesy of Wal-Mart and Subway. My office bought the entire staff tickets to a Pork Chop Jubilee today (and yes, that gagging sound you hear is me), but I manned up and decided to be a sport about going. At worst I figured that I could munch on some sweet corn and whatever fruit they served. I didn’t pack my lunch because of the dreadful delicious pork chop lunch I had tickets for, but when I got to work I found out that our office manager had other people lined up to take our tickets if we didn’t want to use them. I happily gave mine back. I had to buy a few groceries anyway so I grabbed a veggie sandwich at Subway on the way to Wal-Mart.

It wasn’t anything special. Way too much honey mustard though, it made me wish I’d ordered my sandwich sans sauce. The only notable thing about my sandwich was that I got it without cheese. It was the first time I’ve ever ordered a sandwich (of any kind) without cheese. I thought I would miss it desperately, but surprisingly enough I didn’t even notice that there wasn’t cheese.

I grabbed a Greek yogurt on my way out the door and snacked on that when I got back to the office.

Greek yogurt and I have a love/hate relationship. I want to love it, but most of the time I hate it. However my mom does daycare so I grew up with the idea that you have to try things multiple times before your taste buds adjust to the new flavors and accurately tell you whether you like it or not. I may not be four anymore, but the theory still applies. My persistence has finally paid off. Today the Greek yogurt and I called a truce and for the first time ever I actually liked the taste. Proof that the system works! I grew up on Yoplait Lights (and still love them) so the taste of Greek yogurt is a bit of a shock to my system.

I also picked up some new tea flavors. I’ve been craving chai tea like a beast ever since I had a cup on my mini road trip last Friday night. My tea supply at work was dwindling which made buying new flavors a necessity. I’m almost excited (but not really) for winter to get here because there’s nothing better than curling up on a couch with comfy clothes on and drinking a hot cup of tea while a blizzard rages outside.

Supper as I mentioned yesterday was a bit of an experiment. I found a recipe on sparkpeople.com for a quinoa dish with spinach and feta cheese. Considering I had a box of quinoa just sitting in my cupboard ready to be opened, it felt a lot like fate. I informed mom that I had the side dish of our meal under control and prepared for my maiden voyage with quinoa.

I know what you all are thinking. How in the world did I get to the age of 24 without learning how to properly cook anything more intensive than homemade macaroni and cheese?! The simple answer is that I just never wanted to. I never had any interest in learning how to cook until just recently. Not to mention I grew up as an incredibly picky eater and was always too cautious to try anything new. I was happy to stick to the things that I knew I liked without trying anything new. However reading all of the amazing food and recipe blogs out there, I’ve been inspired to try my hand at the culinary arts. With my newfound zest for trying new foods and exploring new ways of eating, it’s the perfect time for me to try my hand at cooking things that are out of my comfort zone.

In the spirit of that, let’s move on to my first foray into the art of healthy cooking. It was a fairly simple recipe (half the reason I chose it) so I was pretty sure that even I couldn’t screw it up too badly.

As simple as this recipe was, it still had a few cooking firsts. I’d never tasted quinoa much less used it in a recipe and the only garlic I’ve ever used has come out of a plastic jar. I’ve never worked with an actual clove of garlic before. Yikes! Haha, I told you that I was a rookie!

I totally killed that garlic! Score: Fit Chick Foodie 1, Garlic 0.

Stirring is serious business, yo.

The finished product!

End result: Eh. It wasn't anything special. It was actually pretty bland. It definitely needed a little more pizazz. Perhaps if I had more confidence in my culinary skills I would have done my best to jazz it up, but I'm not sure I'm ready to go off-recipe yet. Baby steps!