Sorry for the slowness, eat a salad!

Man, I am the worst blogger on the planet! Fear not, it should pick up soon, I just had a few setbacks this month, mostly dealing with trying to get student loans ironed out so I RECEIVE student loans!

I have successfully gotten the loans approved and am just waiting for it to arrive, so I can continue to go to school. In addition! I have been approved for a computer loan from the government, so I can turn in this sad little clunker (which now makes a rather concerning grinding noise when it is on) for a new streamlined machine. Worry not! Until I get that set up, I will continue to use this computer to update the blog, which should have more content very soon!

In other news, my stress over student loans made me reverse course on my healthiness, I have eaten more chips and french fries than I care to admit in the past two weeks. :(  le sad. However, I am trying to detox off of  my addiction to salty deep fried foods (my kryptonite) by spending two weeks on a sort of detox with lots of salads, veggies, brown rice, and fruit smoothies for breakfast. No fried foods, no junk foods, no candy, no refined sugars. It's a bit daunting, but I spent almost a year doing it, and didn't regret it the last time, so welcome to a healthier Natalia Eats (for the next two weeks anyway, then I will occasionally sway when I need a bit of fried tofu or something!) I will also include nutritional information from now on!

Also, welcome to my new lunch!

Cranberry Almond Spinach Salad
Ingredients:
3 cups Spinach
1/3 cup craisins (dried cranberries)
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp vinegar (I used Cider, because a gross spider snuck into my balsamic, and it grossed me out so I chucked it, but I usually use balsamic)
1 tbsp dijon mustard

Directions:
Combine the mustard, oil, and vinegar, and stir until combined.
Toss with the rest of the ingredients, and eat!

Nutritional Information:
Calories: 332
Fat: 18g
Carbs: 41g
Protein: 8g
Deliciousness: 8.5/10 noms

A little Simple Tiffin Lunch for your Wednesday

It's been a while since I posted a tiffin lunch, one of those 3 tiered lunches I make for Matthew.

I haven't been 100% lately, been dealing with a few life issues, and all last week Matthew was off from work, so we weren't home a lot, hence the lack of updating. I've been a terrible blogger!

In other news, I've become the editor of an academic journal for my department's graduate Journal, Word in the World. We're taking submissions for the next issue, so if you are a graduate student and have a paper, poem, story, or painting dealing with anything Theological, feel free to e-mail it to me! (If it is a painting or photo, or photo of a work of art, make it as high resolution as possible!) Click here to do so!

Back from plugging my new job, here's the food!

Deconstructed Sushi and Salad Tiffin

Layer 1

Spinach Salad

Ingredients

Enough Spinach to almost fill the tiffin

A small handful of peels from a carrot

A small handful of Dried Cranberries

Directions

Layer the salad with spinach on the bottom, carrot, and then craisins. 

Layer 2

Cranberry Cherry Salad Dressing

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp rice vinegar

1 tbsp dijon mustard

1 tbsp cranberry cocktail

1 tbsp black cherry juice

(I had a bottle of cranberry cherry juice, so I used 2 tbsp of that)

some snow peas for bottom of container

Directions

In a small container with a screw on lid, put all of the dressing ingredients. Shake vigorously until all the ingredients are combined. 

Layer 3

Deconstructed Sort of Sushi

Ingredients

1 cup Rice Mix

1 tbsp rice vinegar

1/2 small onion, diced

1 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp tamari

the peels from a small carrot

1 tbsp rice vinegar

1 sheet nori, shredded

1/4 cup tofu, diced into tiny dices

1 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp tamari

Sprinkles of sesame seeds or rice seasoning

Directions

Mix together the Rice mix and 1 tbsp rice vinegar, set aside.

Pour the other vinegar into a bowl, and add the carrot peels. Set aside.

In 2 small bowls, mix up the separate sesame oils and tamari. Add the tofu to one bowl, and the onion to another. Mix them well. 

In a small non-stick frying pan, fry up the tofu mixture.

Once cooked, mix together with the rice and shredded nori. Press into bottom of container.

Cook up the onions in the same frying pan. 

Drain the carrot peels, layer the carrots with the onions on top of the sushi, and top with the sesame seeds or rice seasoning. 

That's it! Tadaa!