My Greek Inspired Thursday

A Day of Rest

This morning I woke up around 4:25 and decided to reset my alarm clock. So no morning workout for me. After being sick last week, my typical workout schedule got a little off track. I realized that yesterday's workout marked 8 straight days. I usually only workout 6 days straight then take my rest day and start over. While I really would like tomorrow to be my rest day, as is typical, I needed to take today to recover. I'll be up early tomorrow anyway since Jason will be up for swim.

It was super sunny out today. Breezy, so not nearly as warm as yesterday. I really started pondering a lunchtime run. If Jason would have agreed to one, then I would have gone. I just keep telling myself it's for the best. I do plan on running Saturday anyway.

This sudden warm weather and sunshine is giving spring fever in a major way. I'm almost depressed when I can't be outside, I mean seriously down in the dumps, no energy blues. But once I step outside, back to normal. Does anyone else experience this????

Oh, but I do have something to look forward to! I'm excited to announce that I schedule our first big vacation of the year today. We'll be heading to Perdido Key, FL in June. So excited. I can almost smell the salty water and hear the crashing waves now...almost.

There are actually so many trips I have planned in my head. We have some friends in Seattle that I've been dying to go visit again. The last time we flew out in a 4-seater plane to the San Juan Islands. The next time I hope to take a train up to Vancouver. A) never been on a train and B) never been to Canada. Would also love to go hiking while visiting. So much to do... Then, of course, we have a Mexico trip in December. Oh, and blogger buddies Jessica and Jolene are sort of twisting my arm to head up their direction and possibly join them at Cathe's annual Road Trip. Now, if I could just win the lottery and take a year off.

My Big Greek Dinner

I really spent a lot of time obsessing about what to make for dinner. I'm trying to rethink dinner now that it's getting warmer. I thought a big Greek Style Salad and Tomato Basil Soup would be good with a side of homemade hummus I'll affectionately call Heather's Hummus (I mean, why not right?).

Heather's Hummus

Ingredients

1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1/2 can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

1 large clove garlic, rough chop

1 1/2 - 2 tsp tahini

Extra-virgin olive oil (I try to be very light-handed, less than 1/4 cup)

2 tbsp soft silken tofu (optional)

To taste: salt, pepper, lemon juice

Directions:

In food processor, combine all ingredients but the olive oil. As you pulse the mixture, slowly add in oil until desired consistency.

A few notes: I use the cannellini beans and tofu as a way to give extra creaminess allowing me to use less oil. Plain, non-fat yogurt is another option I have used.

Tomato Basil Soup

Ingredients:

1/2 small white onion, chopped,

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 15 oz can no-salt diced tomatoes

1 8 oz can no-salt tomato sauce

8 oz low-sodium vegetable broth

1/4 box soft silken tofu or soy or almond milk

To taste: salt, pepper, basil, parsley, oregano

Directions:

In sauce pan, saute onions and garlic in small amount of olive oil until soft. Add in remaining ingredients except for tofu. Cook approximately 5-10 minutes.

Pour mixture into blender, add tofu, and puree until smooth.

Transfer back to sauce pan, re-season if needed, and simmer until slightly thickens.

The Greek Style Salad was topped with sundried tomatoes, kalamata olives, artichoke hearts, roasted red bell peppers, Quorn, banana pepper rings, and balsamic vinaigrette.

On a really sour note, my blogging may decrease over the next few days as I pretty much fried our laptop. Our regular PC is ancient and so slow that it took 30 mins just to upload these two pictures. Needless to say, I'm having a major panic attack. The fact that tomorrow is Friday is beyond good news.