Winning Friends with Salad

Hey guys,

I forgot to mention in my breakfast post that today was a Summer Friday, meaning I got off work at 2 PM. Whoo hoo! After work, I took my friend and colleague Ines to the nail salon to get manicures and pedicures. I was in need of a refresh, and her birthday is tomorrow, so I treated her to some salon time as a birthday present. She’s throwing a party at her house, so that will be my Saturday night hot spot. As for me, I got Heavenly Harp on my nails (beigy-pink, as per usual) and Shorty Pants on my toes (bright yellow - look out, I’m getting nutty!).

When I got home from work, I scarfed down a quick lunch: a serving of spinach and strawberry salad:

and an Amy’s Breakfast Burrito:

Lunch was 494 calories, 66g carbs, 20g fat, and 14g protein.

After that, I really got to work. I made some oatmeal zucchini muffins from my own recipe while listening to the new Girl Talk album. (AMAZING, ps. Download it ASAP.) I made the muffins from this beautiful CSA zucchini:

As soon as I saw this sweet baby, I knew I wanted to bake with it. My grandmother makes THE best zucchini bread. I tried my hand at mini-muffins.

Pre-cooking:

Post cooking:

Yum! These turned out great! Awesome nutritional panel, too. I had three for snack. Snack was 227 calories, 38g carbs, 8g fat, and 5g protein. They were a huge hit with P too, so they might be a repeater.

After that I finally made my dinner I had lined up for the past three nights: Polenta and Black Bean Casserole. The casserole had a bottom layer of polenta, then a layer of nonfat yogurt, then layers of corn, black beans, salsa and cheese. Really tasty!

The recipe had called for cream, but I used yogurt instead, trying to be smart. Well, I realized as I put it in the oven that yogurt separates when heated, so this was a little more watery than I would have liked. Definitely still good.

I’ve mentioned before the P and I belong to a wine club. We joined in January to learn more about wine - we get two bottles a month from a new featured wine region. Problem is - we never drink them! We have about 8 bottles of unopened wine in the house. I insisted we drink one tonight. I had two pours, totaling 5 oz. Here’s the bottle and my first pour:

Dinner was 516 calories, 33g carbs, 23g fat, and 22g protein.

I’m exhausted! Tomorrow I’m getting up early for a hard workout then I’m going to brunch with Arielle at a new place in the West Village - I’m pumped! After that, I’ve got to do some baking, then P and I are going to Ines’s birthday part in Brooklyn. Whew - better get some sleep! Night all!