Making A Comeback

I felt the need to redeem myself for dinner last night after yesterday's epic failure for breakfast.  I was in the mood for protein pancakes but wanted to change it up a little bit.  I chopped an apple, tossed it with a little honey and cinnamon and threw that mixture on the stove to brown a little bit and soften the apples. 

So far so good.  I should have just used that as pancake topping.  Instead I decided to put it in the pancake batter.  Looks harmless enough:

You try flipping that.  It was really just a pile of cooked pancake batter mixed with cinnamon apples.  Still delicious, but not the presentation I was looking for (to present to myself of course). 

After work, I was brainstorming: something veggie...cold...protein...not tofu...a quinoa salad!  It was pretty freaking delish - possibly horn tooting quality. 

While the 3/4 cup of quinoa was cooking, I sauteed some chopped mushrooms, 1/4 yellow onion and some garlic.  Once that was done, I put it in a mixing bowl with 3 diced roma tomatoes, fresh chopped mint (from our plant!), 1/2 diced cucumber, and 1/2 package of TJ's steamed lentils (cold).  I let the quinoa cool a little bit and mixed it into the bowl, along with a little bit of balsamic vinegar.  The idea was to eat it cold (mint...cucumber...refreshing...you get the idea) but it was pretty bangin the way it was at room temp - straight out of the mixing bowl.  I knew I'd get to test the chilled version today for lunch so I went for it.

While all that was going on, I had some kale chips in the oven too.

Even better than last time. I prepped the kale as usual, but this time, I came up with a magical seasoning blend. 

Verdict: my half is gone.  ;-)  I had to save some for Colleen though. 

Have a fantastic Friday!! xo Shaina