It’s me and my food again for your viewing pleasure. This was just another oh so typical day of eats with nothing special going on really. I’m in my peak week of marathon training right now and the hunger is full on as would be expected. I feel like my body is in that almost-over-the-brink state and will be ready to taper as of Sunday. Okay sorry, I know this post is about food and not running but clearly all I can think about lately is running! But back to the food. Here’s my food, it’s Wednesday.
Big thank you to Jenn @ Peas and Crayons for hosting the “What I Ate Wednesday” link up so we can all get inside each others bell-ays! Gross, but maybe just inside my kitchen? Uhh, that’s gross too. Trust me 🙁
Okay folks let’s begin at the beginning. I woke up at 5, went for a 9 mile easy paced run (this did not feel easy today unfortunately) and then somewhere around 7:30-8am ate this breakfast.
It’s bacon from U.S. Wellness Meats (the best, my favorite, just darn good) with a chopped Japanese sweet potato (a smallish one) some collard greens, and two salt-and-peppered eggs. I cook the bacon first and then use the fat to cook the rest. Just an FYI after I post my breakfast pics I make the eggs do a face plant over all the other stuff to get all the benefits of the creamy yolks. Ugh, I said creamy. It’s good though.
So we were out of coffee this particular morning but instead of crying I went to dunkin donuts after school drop off and got a medium dark roast and drank it black. I was also out of coconut milk. This is me drinking my coffee people! I am not this happy all day, it was probably just this 5-10 minutes.
I wrote kind of a heavy blog post all morning so I needed that dark roast coffee. In case you missed it, here it is. When I was done with that I realized I had almost no time to have lunch before picking up my son. I threw together a salad of spinach, roasted beets (pre-cooked in my slow cooker) half an avocado and sardines in olive oil with cracked pepper. I’m not really a cracked pepper fan, it was an experiment and I won’t buy it again. I like my sardines in olive oil and I don’t need much else going on.
Around 2:45 before I picked up my daughters, I quickly sauteed some more chopped japanese sweet potato in bacon fat, sprinkled with a little salt and ate it with the other half of my avocado from lunch, chopped. I had some water too, not pictured.
By the time we get home from the girls’ dance practice it’s 5:30 and I do everything I can to get dinner ready by 6:15 so we have time for bath/shower, homework, and other bedtime stuff. This night I made chicken thighs with collard greens and Crispy Roasted Carrots. The carrots are really just like the other baked fries I make, but I gave them a fun name.
Here’s what I did with the carrots. I was happy and dipped them in homemade mayo for an extra kick. Yum!
Crispy Roasted Carrots
Ingredients
- 6 large carrots peeled and ends cut off
- 3 tbsp fat of choice - avocado or olive oil will work well!
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp dried dill
Instructions
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Preheat your oven to 425 degrees
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Line a large baking sheet - or 2 if you need - with parchment paper.
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Cut the carrots into 1/4-1/2 inch sticks. The thinner the better if you want them crispy!
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Toss the carrots with the oil, salt, pepper, onion powder and dill
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Line them up on the baking sheet or sheets so they do not overlap or touch each other. This will prevent steaming and get them crispy!
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Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes. Then check on them and move the ones on the edges of the baking sheets to the middle and the middle ones to the edges. I find that this helps them brown more evenly and ensure no one is left with the soggier middle carrots.
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Bake for another 10-15 minutes or until nice and brown and crisp. Since oven times can vary, check often to make sure they are not burning!
Around 8pm my kids and I all had a snack. This is routine for us and I usually eat with them or right after they’re in bed. I had a sliced banana topped with some trail mix I chopped up sort of half-assed and unsweetened coconut flakes. The trail mix was almonds, raisins, cherries, and cranberries. It was a good amount of dried fruit, and I don’t do this often but it actually didn’t bother my stomach and was delicious.
After the kids went to bed I had some peppermint tea. It’s tea season, I feel it.
I made it to bed by 9:45 but probably didn’t fall asleep until 10:30. All the noises get to me! Plus my brain is just in overdrive. I’ve been thinking about the marathon A LOT and it’s definitely keeping me from falling asleep. I wound up sleeping relatively well based on the past week.
What’s your number one favorite veggie to roast? Do you drink tea in the fall/winter? If you could create the perfect trail mix, what would you put in it?
I love roasted carrots. And I love that I can sometimes get my son to eat them!
That’s why all my roasted veggies are in the shape of “fries.” Definitely gets the kids on board!
Love roasted or veggie anything, really. I don’t do roasted carrots enough. Perfect trailmix? A bit of EVERYTHING but definitely with a sweet and salty combo and dried cherries, kiwi, pineapple, papaya, mango, and everything else that is possible to include.
I love dried cherries and pineapple! Very easy to go overboard on it though if I eat it alone.
Yum, thanks for the Carrots recipe! A doctor recently told me that cooked vegetables are easier to digest than raw veg, so I’ll definitely be trying these!
They definitely are, I’ve found. I can do some raw leafy greens like spinach, but if I have raw carrots, broccoli, and other things I notice some discomfort. Luckily roasted veggies are delicious!
I’ve never baked carrots before. I can see why you do it though, they sound delicious. I’ll have to keep this idea in mind for next week or so. It seems like the perfect substation if you aren’t trying to eat french fries.
They are delicious! And since you make them look like fries, you can dip like fries. Plus my kids eat them.
I’ve never had roasted carrots- I’ll need to try them sometime! They look just like sweet potato fries! And I love pretty much anything roasted so I don’t know why these would be any different:)
They’re good! They don’t crisp up the same as sweet potatoes since they have a higher water content but this gets them as close to “fries” as I’ve made.
Roasted brussel sprouts are my fav, particularly the little burnt leaves 🙂 I recently found your blog and really enjoy it!
Thanks, glad you found me! When I first started eating paleo I made roasted brussel sprouts often and I LOVE them, but figured out that they aren’t great for my stomach! I still have them sometimes, in a smaller portion but definitely not before a longer run. Love the crispy leaves too!
Carrot fries = the bomb 😉
Yes, agreed!
Yay for tea season! I’ve been loving drinking my tea all day long lately. Peppermint tea is my favorite as is chamomile with a bit of whole fat coconut milk. So good! I haven’t made carrot fries in quite sometime but they are always a hit! Definitely adding them to the menu for next week :-
Had chamomile last night. I love the feeling at night when it first gets cold and it’s time for tea 🙂
Roasted root veggies are seriously one of my favourite foods – honestly I could eat bowls of them if it wasn’t for the digestive… discomfort it causes! Carrots are definitely up there… but I’m all about parsnips right now!
I love parsnips too! And I agree about the digestive stuff. I would eat them unlimited they are so delicious 🙂
The carrots sound Wonderful, I’ll have to try them. Happy WIAW!
Great, and you too!
Dying to try the carrots–that’s one I’ve never roasted. I do love to roast up a tray of root vegetables, though, so I will now add them!
Roasted roots are just the best 🙂
I love roasted carrots!! I’ve never done it this way, but sometimes when I’m roasting a whole chicken, I’ll put carrots around the sides of the pan and roast together. Right now my favorite is roasted asparagus. I just discovered this last night and I’ve vowed to never cook asparagus any other way.
I’m ALL about tea right now. There is mint tea in the cafeteria at work so sometimes I’ll have that in the afternoon, and at night I’ll have Celestial Seasonings Bengal Spice (SOO good,) or Honey Chamomile. (Is that spelled right? I have no idea.)
I love asparagus but can’t have too much, it’s kind of in the brussel sprout category for me!
I love to roast brussel sprouts and green beans! My favorite tea lately has been Egyptian Licorice Mint from Yogi – its so refreshing after a meal!
Licorice mint sounds awesome! I love both flavors.
Those crispy carrots look amazing!!
I love all your breakfast pics. I need to focus on adding more veggies in at breakfast, when i do I stay full so much longer!
I love veggies in my breakfast now, breakfast doesn’t feel complete without something green, especially if bacon or sausage are involved as well 🙂
I think I would have cried if we would run out of coffee. I get up around the same time as you, and I just need that caffeine. Plus, I tend to stay up way later than I should because my husband doesn’t get home until 9 or 9.30. Oi. I’m glad you got your coffee fix though 😉
All of your food sounds awesome! I love roasted veg – all of it. I don’t really like it raw anymore and cooking in the oven is just so easy! And yes, I drink tea in the fall/winter/spring (it’s all one season here in the Netherlands anyway). I went to the market recently and picked up loads of loose leaf teas, and have been experimenting with new flavours.
I hear you on the husband coming home late! I feel bad about going to bed early and only seeing him for 20 minutes sometimes, but the alternative is never worth it lately. I wind up sleep deprived and struggling. I don’t eat too many raw veggies either anymore after having discovered roasting.
I love roasted veggies! last weekend, after our long run, we stopped into Trader Joe’s and bought a bunch of root veggies, then I made this big ass salad and used the caramlized/roasted root veggies as toppers. I roasted parsnips, carrots, beets, brussel sprouts and sweet potatoes in this mixture of molasses and tamari and oil. YUMM. I can eat anything roasted in this mix 🙂
That mix of veggies sounds nothing but fabulous! Definitely something for me to try 🙂
Those carrots look amazing! And I totally feel you – I cannot crack a smile before my morning coffee!
There’s just something about the coffee!
I have never tried sardines. Idon’t jnow if it’s something that I’d enjoy. Just the sounds of what it is isn’t too apealing to me. You homemade mayo sounds tasty.
My husband can’t even stand to see sardines let alone eat them! I actually really like them and never had a break in period.
Number one veggie to roast is definitely kabocha! I’m rarely ever without one these days, and I’m probably going to end up turning orange very, very soon. As for trail mix, my biggest requirement is that it have chocolate. Dried fruit is a plus, but chocolate is a must 😀
No joke there is a kabocha in my oven right now. And a pumpkin! I always forget to roast them ahead of time and wind up doing a few at night when I have time. Dark chocolate plus dried cherries are just the best. Plus maybe some roasted and salted almonds 🙂
Thanks for the carrot recipe! My fave roasted veggie right now is cauliflower.
I have roasted cauliflower with garlic and then puréed and it was awesome! Not great for my stomach though so not often.
those carrots look so good!
They were, thanks 🙂
Oooh, yum! I haven’t roasted carrots in a long time, I’m going to give your recipe a try. I am a big fan of roasted broccoli, too. Usually pretty plain but with something like crushed cayenne for heat on them!
Love roasted broccoli, and such an easy one too 🙂
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