Indian Food

The snow came and went this weekend and now we’re stuck with brown slushiness and huge puddles. Definitely not as pretty as the white fluffiness. Although, I am glad the roads are better because now we can actually get out and do things, besides going sledding.

Today is exciting because it’s Isaac’s 26th birthday!! That being said, we celebrated for much of the weekend. We had a few friends over on Saturday night and he invited a some guys over to watch the ol bowl on Sunday. Since I’m not a football lover nor do I have ties to the Saints or the Colts, I decided that food shopping would be a good idea. I made it to Whole Foods and Trader Joes, both of which were completely dead. My Trader Joes is typically packed on a Sunday so I was in heaven. It made the process much quicker. Plus, I got home just in time to have The Who serenade me while putting away the purchases.

Eats this weekend were pretty standard, however there are a few items worth highlighting.

Saturday’s breakfast of Extra Creamy Vanilla Oatmeal

I had put 1/2 cup oatmeal, 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk, 1/2 sliced banana, and a sprinkle of cinnamon in the fridge for overnight oats, but when I woke up to snowy scenery on Saturday morning I decided to toss the mixture into a pot and heat it up. I was so glad that I did that because it turned out to be the creamiest bowl of oats I’ve ever had. I’m not sure how soaking the oats in the fridge makes such a difference, but paired with a spoonful of better n pb, this breakfast was heavenly.

It was snowing pretty heavily, but I wanted to get in a good workout before being confined to the house for hours so I convinced Isaac to drive me to the gym. He thought I was crazy, but took me anyway. Can you see why I love him? The gym was actually pretty busy and It was hilarious because all the women in the locker room were chatting about their husbands and how they thought they were nuts for going to the gym in a snow storm.

I refueled after the gym with a raspberry greek yogurt topped with fresh mango.

I snacked my way through the rest of the day and made a pot of Bob’s Red Mill Vegi Soup to eat before partaking in the birthday beer. Twas a fun night, but for some reason I didn’t take any photos. Bad blogger!

After some late night g-chatting and sending a few Facebook messages (glad there was no BUI involved) I crashed hard and woke up needing to brush my teeth and wash my face – I hate when that happens! Despite drinking more than usual, I felt pretty good when I hopped out of bed, but for obvious reasons a nice healthy breakfast was in order.

I poked around the kitchen and came up with this concoction, which was absolutely delicious!

Clem-nana Smoothie

6-7 brazil nuts + 1/2 cup water, or 1/2 cup milk (regular, soy, nut, rice, etc)

3 clementines (peeled)

1 frozen banana

1 tbsp. frozen blueberries (the last of the bag)

2 ice cubes

Put the nuts and water into the blender, run on high until the nuts are completely blended and the water has turned creamy. Using a high-powered blender the nuts get pulverized and I didn’t see any point in straining the nut milk, however you could strain it if need be. Add the clementines, banana, blueberries, and ice cubes, turn the blender on high, and run until smooth. Enjoy!

With the smoothie I had a slice of WW toast with coconut butter and Olallieberry Jam from San Fran.

Breakfast was a great start to the day. We did some cleaning and then met up with a few friends for something amazing – an Indian Buffet at Shahi Kitchen. We’d never been to this restaurant before it’s unique in that it serves Southern Indian fare along with Mughlai Chinese cuisine.

From 12 clockwise – Sambhar, stir-fried veggies (that’s were the Chinese influence comes into play), Palak Paneer, Chana Masala, Dahl with rice, and a Idli (steamed lentil and rice cake to put into the Sambhar). Nann was also brought to the table and everything was quite tasty!

I love Indian food and ethnic buffets are always exciting because you get to do some experimenting. If you’ve never tried Indian food before I’d highly recommend finding a restaurant that serves a lunch buffet so you can try a bunch of different dishes and see what you like best. Then you’ll know what entrees to order when you go to a non-buffet restaurant or order takeout.

Despite being in a food coma and wanting nothing more than to take a long nap, I decided to hit up the gym and powered through over an hour of cardio and some abs. Seriously going to the gym after eating an Indian buffet is quite the challenge- I dare you to try it.

Hope you are having a lovely Monday. We don’t have any big plans for this evening as we did most of the celebrating over the weekend, however I do think I’m going to whip up something yummy for the b-day boy. So, a big happy birthday to my love (who probably won’t see this) and also to miss Meghann, who is turning 25 today! Meghann, please let me know how it feels to be a quarter of a century because I’m right behind you (only 6 more days)!!

-Brittany

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