Happy Presidents’ Day!

I am fortunate to have the day off work and look forward to catching up on laundry and a lot of missed workouts. Confession time – I did not make it to the gym once in the last week. I felt pretty crappy during the beginning of the week and decided rest was what I really needed. I did do a nice little at home workout on Tuesday evening and Jillian Michaels “6 Weeks to Six Pack Abs” Sunday but that was it.

My Tuesday at home workout went a little something like this:

20 Squats

20 Walking lunges

2 Minute plank (did a few variations here – standard, side, single leg raise, forearm)

repeat 3 times ;)

Not the best workout ever but better than nothing! I did most of it between cleaning up the kitchen, doing dishes, and picking up the house.

This weekend I found myself craving cilantro, black beans, and avocados. Really there is not a more perfect flavor combination. Have you tried my black bean and cilantro salad?! That was what I was going to do at first but decided to try my hand at making a new cilantro dressing instead. I will be the first to say, it is amazing! I came pretty close to scrapping did scrape the extras out of the food processor. I’ve made a similar dressing to this before for my protein booster salad (it’s pretty awesome, too) but this dressing beats out that one hands down!

To compliment the dressing, I made a salad with spring mix, black beans, corn, and red onion. On the side I prepared quinoa and balsamic roasted asparagus. Perfect meal to reset the body! I had been CRAVING real food all day. I spent the early part of the weekend at my parents’ house and they aren’t really big on the fruits and veggies. I settled for munching on a bagel and some soup. Not exactly my kind of food (love you mom) but it filled my belly during the visit.

The dressing has a balsamic hint to it so I decided to roast my asparagus spears with a balsamic and olive oil mix and lightly season with salt and pepper. Perfect combo! Also – I am so excited I was able to get asparagus for $0.99 a pound at the grocery this past week! I really hope the low prices stick around because I love asparagus.. but not enough to pay $4.99 a pound of it. That is just crazy!

Avocado Cilantro Dressing

Makes about 1 1/2 cups (2 servings)

Ingredients

• 1/4 tightly packed cilantro, stems removed
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 lime, juiced
• 1 whole avocado
• 1/2 to 1 jalapeño, I used dried jalapeño for the first time and it worked great – about 1-2 tsp
• 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• Dash salt

Directions

Combine all ingredients into high-speed food processor until well combined. You may have to mess with the amount of oils you use. If you want a sweeter dressing use more balsamic. For a more citrus dressing, use more olive oil. Mine was still pretty chunky in the end. I like it that way. If you don’t, use more oils to thin it out.

This dressing is great on salads and great as a veggie dip or spread on crackers. Because of the lime juice in it, it also keeps color and flavor for several days. It can be used for up to a week when kept refrigerated.

Balsamic Roasted Asparagus

(Serves 2)

Ingredients

• 1 bushel of asparagus
• balsamic vinegar and olive oil to your preference
• salt and pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 400°. Cut ends of asparagus and lay flat on baking sheet. Drizzle with oil and vinegar and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook asparagus for 10 minutes, flip and cook for 10 more minutes. Serve immediately.

I just love how roasted asparagus looks, don’t you?

And another shot of my beautiful plate. I love eating whole nutritious meals packed with veggies and healthy grains! Quinoa is one of my favorites, either for the main stage of a recipe or as a side. It is great by itself cooked in half vegetable broth and half water with a little salt and pepper. And of course it is also awesome in larger meals! NOM NOM NOM :)

I love meals like this, where I go to the kitchen with a plan in mind and something unexpected happens. It is so fun playing with ingredients and creating new combinations!

I would love to hear some of your favorite impromptu creations!