Orange-Cilantro Black Bean Salad

Hi Friends 🙂

***Did you check my blog this morning? WordPress messed up and deactivated my blog — they have since apologized for it thankfully. Sorry for the inconvenience!***

Did you have a nice weekend? I did, lots of relaxing, but also some running, yoga, reading, cleaning and shopping! I am ready to get back into my Mon-Fri routine, that’s for sure.

We did watch most of the Super Bowl – I got laundry folded and a little art project finished as well:

My niece (who turns 4 in a few weeks) and my sister/brother-in-law/nephew all live in OK – so I have to mail her birthday gift instead of being able to give it to her in person. I thought it would fun to surround her gift with these paper “snakes”. Here is her gift:

Little butterflies shoot out of the elephant’s trunk and you use the included nets to catch the butterflies. I thought it was so cute, I hope she really likes it.

For dinner last night I prepared a few tilapia filets and topped them with a black bean/orange salad. I found the recipe on the Weight Watchers website and prepared it as follows:

Orange-Cilantro Black Bean Salad

Serves 4

• 1/2 tsp olive oil
• 1/2 medium red onion, thinly sliced
• 2 clove garlic, finely chopped
• 1/4 tsp Ground Cumin Seed
• 1 cup(s) canned black beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 medium oranges, peeled, segmented (I used mandarin oranges)
• 2 Tbsp cilantro, fresh, chopped
• 2 tsp red wine vinegar
• 1/8 tsp table salt, or to taste
• 1/8 tsp black pepper, or to taste

Instructions

In a large skillet, warm oil over medium-high heat. Add onion; sauté 2 minutes. Add garlic and cumin; cook 1 minute more.

Stir in black beans; cook just until heated through, about 1 to 1 1/2 minutes. Transfer bean mixture to a medium-size bowl; stir in oranges, cilantro and vinegar. Season to taste with salt and pepper; serve. Yields about 3/4 cup per serving.

Over the fish:

This was so bright and beautiful! I liked it, but Jason did not like the onion + orange flavor. You can’t please everybody 🙂

*Do you like shopping for gifts? Do you tend to buy what the recipient “needs” – or do you just go with what you think they would want instead?

*What is your favorite way to use black beans? Or, what is your favorite type of bean?

Have a great day!

Holly

Clouds & Cucumbers

Hi Readers!

I’m so glad so many of you have been to a Mongolian restaurant before, it is such delicious food! When we were walking out to the car we saw a huge wall cloud:

Check that thing out! A big storm was headed right for us:

I sent them into our local news station, but I forgot to watch the news, so I don’t know if they included out photo (they usually show pics taken by residents). It ended up storming hard for most of the evening, the sky turned yellow/green for a while, it was crazy!

I stayed up way too late last night, so drinking a GM this morning was just what I needed:

Nothing special, same as every other day: almond milk, spinach, 1/2 banana, whey protein, chia seeds, peanut butter

What is your favorite smoothie?

Lunch is almost the same as yesterday too! I know I eat basically the same thing every day, but this is just getting old!

Romaine w/chicken breast, blueberries and almonds, with an Ezekial tortilla and carrots.

J brought these beauties home yesterday:

Here they are with a Larabar so you can see how thick they are!

So, I’m thinking we need to include a cucumber in tonight’s dinner. How do you like to eat cucumbers? Do you have a favorite recipe?

Plans for tonight:

1. Grocery shop

2. Laundry (ugh)

3. Clean kitchen (ugh)

4. Dinner: chicken fajitas

5. Bake blueberry muffins (recipe will be posted later tonight!)

6. Top Chef!

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Question of the day: Do you plan your night ahead of time or do you like to go with the flow? I “need” to plan, I love to make to-do lists and plan ahead.

Have a great day!

Holly