Broccoli Butternut Mac 'n Cheese and Lemon-Mushroom Kale with Sweet Bits

"Don't you realize? The next time you see sky, it'll be over another town. The next time you take a test, it'll be in some other school. Our parents, they want the best of stuff for us. But right now, they got to do what's right for them. Because it's their time. Their time! Up there! Down here, it's our time. It's our time down here. That's all over the second we ride up Troy's bucket. " -Mikey: The Goonies 

Kale and Butternut Squash 

Mulling over the wise words of good 'ole Mikey made me start thinking... It is hard to find time to do things you love somewhere in between work, friends, exercise, eating, and sleeping. 

What works great for me is that I love many of those things, so I normally do have a place for "my time down here."

Broccoli Butternut Mac 'n Cheese

But recently I've been stretching myself thin and pushing every level of my time to the max. Somewhere between only getting 5 hours asleep over Mardi Gras, running 2 hours and 35 minutes to complete 16 miles, trying to think of creative blogging recipes and spending quality time with friends from college, Memphis and home i found that "my" time was getting very convoluted. my run wasn't as enjoyable, I was antsy around my friends, I coasted through the work week and haven't posted a blog or cooked anything in over a week. So what is the remedy? 

Things in life that i know i need to be happy:

1. sleep

2. good food (probably a hefty dose of chocolate in there)

3. exercise 

4. and close relationships with friends and family.

Quinoa Tri-Colored Pasta

However, it is not physically possible to be wonder woman (even though   often i think I am). Sometimes we lose our wallets, sometimes we slip up and eat pizza, sometimes we miss a run and sometimes we go for the quick fix of superficial "Troy-like" compliments rather than spending time with true friends. It is hard to realize, but no one likes people that do everything right all the time. We have to slip up sometimes so that we can find those people who are willing to be locked in an ice cream freezer, willing to set booty traps, willing to seek out treasure,willing dance with an octopus and most importantly willing to admit with pride they are a Goonie.   

Lemon Mushroom Kale with Sweet Bits

So I am trying to figure out which things I'm ready to send up in Troy's bucket and which things I'm going to deem as my treasures. And that is exactly what I'm ready to spend this journey of the Lenten season seeking out. Finding out where "down here is" and what "treasures" I need to have in order to make me happy. 

So far my tummy is very happy with these delicious recipes.
Click For Recipe:
Broccoli Butternut Mac 'n Cheese 

**Butternut Broccoli Mac 'n Cheese inspiration from www.ohsheglows.com

BOO-YEAH Rata-tou-YAH

"This much I knew. If you are what you eat, then I only wanna eat the good stuff."
~ Remy from Ratatouille

According to the Food Lover's Companion, ratatouille is "a popular dish from the French region of Provence that combines eggplant, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, zucchini, garlic and herbs-all simmered in olive oil."

If you ask me that sounds like eggplant spaghetti. So, that is probably why I made this dish thinking I was making ratatouille (or my mom just made up the name eggplant spaghetti, so I'd stop say ew gross everytime we had ratatouille), but ended up serving it over delicious spaghetti squash and topped it off with parsley cashew pesto. 

And for dessert? Carob Avocado Pudding topped with dried cranberries and pumpkin seeds. Que Rico! 

Spaghetti Squash Facts.

I cannot spell spaghetti

 Great gluten-free pasta substitute

Easy way to sneak in veggies. 

Super quick and easy

Hard part: cutting the squash

Needed: sharp muscles and a strong knife 

Cooking Instructions: 

1. Using a sharp knife cut squash into quarters. 

2. Remove seeds with fork.

3. Fill microwave safe pyrex dish with 1 inch of water and place squash skin side up into dish. 

4. Microwave on high for 8-12 minutes or until squash is tender. 

5. Use a fork to comb through squash creating pasta strands! 

~Enjoy! 

Sneak Peak into the Real Life of TFA (The Food Addict) 

Today we got a new "gadget" at work. The perfect portion scale (The New Gadget). We looked like kids on Christmas morning. We weighed apples, oranges, bananas (peeled and un-peeled), almonds, chocolate kiss, cookies, grapes, mushrooms, cheese, red and green bell peppers, broccoli..and we wouldn't have stop I'm sure expect that we started running out of things to weigh (and there was a little something called work nagging us to return to our desks).

The scale is really neat. You type in the code corresponding with the food and then place it on the scale (so say you wanted to know the exact nutrition facts for your morning cereal). You can zero out the bowl the food is in and then weigh the object and it digitally gives you the nutrition label. We started thinking though how our members most likely would use it to weigh their chicken biscuits and hash browns instead of grapes and mushrooms...its a good idea in theory, but I'm not sure it will be good for our population of people. maybe to show them the comparisons: you can eat this whole head of broccoli or this 1 oz square of dark chocolate (I'm personally still gonna go with the chocolate..who wants to know how many calories are in their broccoli anyway?)

The day started with me tornado-ing through my room to try and get to work on time and ended with us standing in the back hallway 10 minutes before leaving time as the sirens blasted throughout Shelby county. Quite the adrenaline rush driving home. Funny how things come full circle. Always seem to begin and end and end and begin at the same point. (obviously this food addict is tired and needs to sleep and stop trying to make deep un-profound statements)

Hoping to make it to an 8:30 hot yoga class tomorrow. Only time will tell whether or not I actually make it.

Carob Avocado Recipe to come..and yes mother it is good. I think carob is different now than it was in the 80s or maybe its just enjoyed best when paired with pumpkin pie. (Note: should not really be paired with pumpkin pie, read Pumpkin Pie post if confused).