Lunch, Dinner and Dessert

This will be a very short post to compensate for my looooonnnnnnnggggggg post from earlier.  I just wanted to share some pictures of my lunch, dinner and dessert from today.  All three were utterly scrumptious (that sounds like a type of Willy Wonka candy!) and made me feel really good and invigorated, which I need, given the crap I've been eating lately : /

Lunch was a spinach salad with simple, oven-roasted butternut squash, marinated tempeh "croutons" and pomegranate seeds, tossed in a maple-dijon vinaigrette.  It was super yummy.  I haven't had tempeh in FOR-EV-ERRRR and I don't know why because it tastes great, is versatile, does not upset my stomach and is an excellent source of protein (which I need).

I love eating food that is colorful and pretty to look at.  It makes me feel like I am doing something good for my body.  There is green spinach, orange squash, bright red pomegranate seeds and brown (okay not so colorful) tempeh.

For dinner I had a roasted carrot salad, which was beyond decadent.  I came across the recipe in the New York Times awhile back and have made it a total of three times, to date.  The reason for this is because there is a fair amount of prep work and dish-dirtying involved and, come dinner time, I'm not always in the mood for that : /  Tonight, however, I was up for it, had all the ingredients on hand, and time to spare!  All the prep was well worth the effort.  The dish was phenomenal.

Carrots, roasted in the oven with a cumin-thyme-garlic spread and orange halves placed on top, served with freshly sliced avocado, toasted slivered almonds, fresh parsley and a HUGE dollop of garlic hummus.

As for dessert, as simple as it sounds, I have been really digging almond butter-stuffed dates and oranges.  For dessert I had both!  The almond butter provides a perfect salty, fatty element.  The dates provide a nice, not-too-sweet (and fiber-rich!) element and the orange, like the date, is not too sweet but provides a great juiciness and acidity to cut the sweetness/fat of the stuffed date.  YUM!

HIGHLY recommend this.  Sooooooooooo satisfying and simple!  Just imagine an orange paired along with it...