WHAT I EAT IN A DAY | refreshing, nutritious, delicious, & balanced meal ideas!

I'm going to start by cutting the cabbage into thin strips. I'm also going to cut the onion into thin strips. I'm going to cut the garlic into thin strips. I'm going to cut the onion into thin strips. Hello, hello. I hope you all are well. Today I'm gonna be sharing what I eat in a diet. And the last time I filmed one of these videos was over a year ago, which is so silly because I love cooking and trying new recipes and thinking of recipes that are delicious, nutritious, but that we're also really excited to consume. So I'm glad we're doing this. And I feel like summertime meals are especially unique because I want something that's healthy, delicious, but also refreshing because of the hot weather. So we're gonna make some refreshing summer recipes today. And for dinner, we're actually making one of my all-time favorite recipes. So stay tuned for that. But I really am such a believer that filling your body with nutrient-dense and healthful balanced meals is such a crucial way to improving your overall health and life. And I truly love it, but I also strive for balance. And again, just creating meals that we're legitimately excited to consume and look forward to. So that's sort of my ethos with it all. But today I started off with a cup of coffee per usual, but I actually have made a lifestyle adjustment when it comes to coffee. I've been trying to wait a bit before having my cup of coffee. And I actually try to eat breakfast before or during my coffee sipping. So basically this has just been really beneficial in helping stabilize my blood sugar levels. And I really feel like it's just been a better choice for me. So that's what I've been doing. And for breakfast today, I actually made banana muffins yesterday. So delicious. I'll link the recipe. And so I had a couple of those and then I also had a side of fruit and then sipped on my coffee along the way. And then mid-morning, in summertime specifically, I typically always have a smoothie, which I'll show you the recipe. There really isn't a specific recipe. You could call it the kitchen sink smoothie because I just throw a bunch of things in there. You'll see so many different ingredients. But something that's been helpful is I make a big batch. So I fill my blender all the way to the tippity top as much as I can. And that way I can store it in the fridge and then just easily pour a cup for the following few days. And that way I don't have to remake it every morning. So that's been a time-consuming, helpful habit that I really enjoy. But let's go ahead and make ourselves a smoothie and then see what else the day brings. Just a few ingredients here. I know this looks overwhelming, but again, making a big batch ahead of time helps save a lot of time. And I love using all of these ingredients because it's not that I even taste them, but I truly just love how they add additional antioxidants or they all have their own specific nutritional properties that really enhance the smoothie and make it more nutrient-dense. So let me just run through all the things I throw in the smoothie. And again, really, if you proportion it correctly, you really only taste the fruit juice and the fruit. So that's the goal. That's what we strive for. We want it to be tasty and delicious. And then we hide in those nutritional properties. So we have chia seeds, whole Greek yogurt, makes it nice and creamy, lime juice. And I'm gonna juice both of these limes. And when I say juice, I just squeeze them into the smoothie. A big piece of ginger. If you don't love ginger, just do a little piece. You probably won't taste it that much or you can just omit the ginger. We have maca powder. We have spirulina powder. That makes it nice, bright green. We have hemp seed hearts. We have flax seed. We have bee pollen that I like to sprinkle on top for a nice little crunch when you're sipping it. And then we have frozen bananas, frozen mixed fruit, and then carrot juice, which again, you don't really taste. You could do any kind of other juice though. And then we have coconut water, which has amazing electrolytes. So this is great for hydration, especially in the hotter months. Baby spinach, which we put a lot of this. And I promise you, if you get your proportions right, you really don't taste it. And then you've like knocked out your veggies for the day. And then I don't put the pineapple in the smoothie usually, but we always keep a container of pineapple in our fridge. It's one of our favorite fruits. And it always collects a good amount of juice at the bottom. So I'll pour the pineapple juice into this smoothie for some extra flavor. So let's make this. Again, I just pile it up as much as I can and try to add enough liquid so that it's not too thick. the whole time, but I just feel like it'll fly off if I don't. The exciting part too is that since I don't use measurements every time, it tastes a little different every time. So you don't exactly know what you're gonna get, but this one's a good one. I may be like a little more accustomed to the flavor since I've been making it for so long now, but it's really tasty to me, really refreshing. And since I put so much ginger, that is one of the strongest flavors that I pick up when I sip on it. So if you love ginger, I highly recommend putting a fair amount of ginger because that is such an overpowering flavor. So it really makes it delicious in my opinion. And I'll put a list of all the ingredients I use as well as some other ingredients I like to use sometimes. And again, just trial and error with it. Sometimes I use berries instead of the pineapple peach mix. It really just depends what we're feeling. Also this smoothie at a juice bar or a health store would probably cost close to $15 with all of those nutritious ingredients we put in it. So it really is so much more cost-effective to make it at home. And we are in smoothie sandwich season right now. We're about to be in soup season, which I'm really excited about, but I've just been loving having refreshing smoothies and sandwiches for midday snacks and or lunch, which little sneak peek of what we're gonna be having for lunch. I've been looking forward to lunch all day. This has been a recent favorite of mine. I love to do an open-faced sandwich. We'll probably use this slice of bread. I'm gonna munch on. I just cut this fresh sourdough. I'm gonna munch on a fresh slice, just plain. And then I'm gonna use this piece of bread for my open-faced sandwich. And what I do is I put some mustard on it. I like to use a combination of mustards. I'm a mustard lover. And then I like to add some sharp cheddar cheese, spicy pickles, regular pickles work too, but I love a little kick and I just got some new spicy pickles that I've never had before. So we'll do a taste test. And then a sliced hard-boiled egg on top. And that's it. There you have it. I've really been into hard-boiled eggs recently. I make about five ahead of time and then we have them for snacks, breakfast, sandwiches, on salads. So they're really versatile. And again, great for summer because they're served cold. So I've been really loving those. And I just love this combination of sandwich with the cheese, the mustard, the pickles. It is just delicious. And then with the sandwich, I'm really going all out with this lunch. A lot of this is pre-made, but I'm making it a lot today just so that for the sheer purpose of showcasing it for you. So we're gonna make one of our favorite kale salads, which I absolutely adore. And this is another great thing because you can make it ahead of time, keep it in the fridge, and then you just have it easily accessible for quick lunches. So that's gonna be our side with our open-faced egg sandwich. I like to get these big stems out because they're super, super chewy. And I don't like that. And I massage the leaves a little bit too to kind of soften them up and make them more palatable, which I really was not a big fan of kale until this salad. And you'll see that the key is adding a lot of cheese, but still, it is just so tasty. And the good thing about kale is even though we're gonna put the dressing on it, like I said, you can keep it in the fridge for the rest of the week. It always goes really fast between the two of us. This is seriously Brandon's favorite, one of his favorite dishes that I make because he just, I don't know, he loves it. I actually had to hunt down this kale. I tried a few different grocery stores, but they were out of kale. There was like a kale shortage, but I finally found some, and I'm glad to be showing you this because it seriously is such a good one. And there really aren't that many ingredients in this salad, so it is a quicker thing to piece together. And again, I am making a lot of the different dishes I like to make fully today, which I wouldn't normally do in a given day because it's incredibly time consuming to make everything from scratch, homemade, but that's why I space it out. I try to do like, make one thing this day, one thing this day, and then just make bigger portions so that we have leftovers for the rest of the week. And I will say too, I am in awe of caregivers, mothers, fathers, whoever who feed their families. I mean, it's obviously, it's just a basic human, part of the human experience, but cooking just for us too, I love it. And I'm so thankful to be able to do it, but it's a lot of work. It takes a lot of work, a lot of time. So I think of people with kids and other family members living in their house and just how much effort and planning and energy that takes. So kudos to you. And of course, just do whatever works for you and your family. I recently purchased our first garlic press and wow, it is such a game changer and a time-saver. Also, it reminds me of that Play-Doh toy that I loved that would create like Play-Doh noodles. I never know if I'm gonna get a hard boiled egg that's easy to crack and peel or very, very tricky to crack and peel. I try to be good about the ice bath. As soon as I made these, I put them in the ice bath, but nope, we're still having a tricky time, but it's okay. It's not that big of a deal. And the good thing about the eggshells coming in these little pieces is that it's easy for me to take it out to the garden for some simple compost because our plants love some eggshells for some extra nutrients. Pickle taste test. Never had this brand before, but they say they're angry, spicy cucumber pickles. So let's see. See a lot of dill. I love when they're spicy, but like a little sweet too. Mm, mm-hmm, very good. Very, very good. They remind me of the Wickel brand pickles, which I also love. I decided to just go with stone ground mustard today, which is one of my favorites. I don't even really spread the mustard around, just sort of put it like that. And then I'm gonna do the egg next. Actually, let's do the cheese first. Our Superior Unexpected Cheddar Cheese, a favorite. Try to do our eggs so cute and gourmet. You eat with your eyes. That's what they say. Yeah, honestly, this isn't the most beautiful lunch, but it's very good. You could also add some sliced turkey for some additional protein. And some peeled carrot on top. Okay, not the cutest meal, but it is oh so good. It's time for a midday snack. Snack time varies day to day, but one of my favorite snacks that I've been talking about nonstop in the vlogs are date balls. I make them pretty much every week now. And I'll link the recipe I follow. It's only five ingredients. Sometimes I add extra ingredients like coconut flakes or honey or I don't know, whatever else speaks to me, but they're fairly simple to make. And they have a little sweet, well, actually they're very sweet because dates are naturally sweet. And then I add chocolate chips and then peanut butter. So it's definitely tasty stuff. So the recipe, it says to use a food processor. And in the past I've used my blender to blend it, but my blender has a hard time blending it because there's not much liquid. It's just super thick. And every time I blended it with the blender, it would blow a circuit and just was a hassle. So now I just sort of chop the dates and it works fine. It's more chunky. It would be a lot more smooth and blended if I used a food processor, but it's totally fine. Still absolutely delicious. Oh, and then of course our hibiscus sun tea, which I made for the first time a couple of weeks ago and I love it. It's so refreshing and I just love the art of it all, like making the sun tea outside and letting it sit. It just feels so quintessential summertime and it's very refreshing and delicious. And you can use whatever tea you want. I feel like hibiscus also feels summery and perfect for this time of year. But I think a peach tea would be my next one I want to try to make. It is now time for the grand finale. For dinner, we're going to be making black bean veggie burgers. And I'm also going to make a side of potatoes. I typically just do sweet potato fries when I make this recipe, but I have these, this bag of mini gold potatoes that have been sitting in the pantry for a few weeks now. So I want to make these as well and will be delicious paired. We'll do a little potato medley. And I'm also going to make a chipotle lime aioli to dip the potatoes in as well as top the burger with. So I really love this recipe. I've made it quite a few times now. It's truly one of our favorite recipes, super filling and it makes six patties, I believe. So it's great for leftovers as well. And this is just my favorite veggie burger option. I really like black beans as a base for veggie burgers. When I was vegan for a few years, I lived off of the Morningstar black bean burgers and those were good, those were good. Those had their time, but this black bean burger is phenomenal and a favorite in this household. So let's get making it and hopefully you'll love it as much as we do. Okay, but why is this garlic clove absolutely ginormous? I thought it was a few of them stuck together, but this is one clove. Hopefully you can even tell in the video. Sometimes the sizing doesn't transfer over well, but it is seriously so huge, crazy. It's literally the size of half of a lime. and I season them typically with steak seasoning and paprika and I also spray on some olive oil. For the chipotle lime crema, I just combine some whole plain Greek yogurt and I'll water it down a bit so it's a little thinner of a spread and then I'm gonna add some garlic salt, some fresh lime juice, which I'll probably just use that lime and our leftover lime from our hibiscus tea. And then I add in these chipotle peppers that are soaked in adobe sauce. We love the flavor of chipotle peppers. They are very spicy, so if you're not a huge spice lover but wanna try the sauce, maybe just use half the can, but I'm gonna make a big batch of sauce today so I'm gonna use the whole can and I just dice the peppers to smaller bits. I'm also gonna add a squeeze of honey to juxtapose the flavors a little bit and sweeten it up. Okay, they're out of the oven, looking and smelling gorgeous. I already put our patties in. We like to have them green style. Are you excited? Yeah, there's feta in it. Is that new? No, this is the one we always have. You always put feta in it? Yes. Sometimes it's like smaller pieces, but yes, there's always feta. And of course we have the classic toppings, some pickles, tomatoes, jalapenos, cheese. We have our sauce, which is super spicy, so I'm gonna go kind of light on it. And then some pickled red onions. You're gonna make yours stay crispy. I'm just sitting in there so nicely. It's like a little pocket, a little lettuce pocket. Nice crunch. I got a lot of lettuce in that bite. Veggie burger. But good. So it is the same recipe you usually make? It's great when the lettuce wraps all the way around. Happy Tuesdays. We are cozied up with our spearmint tea. Love it, love it before bed. And then I already have some leftover ice cream that my friend brought over the other night. So good, from Kelly's Homemade Ice Cream. Peanut butter, chocolate flavor, delicious. And then this chocolate is our favorite. We recently found it, or discovered it about a month ago, but it's this Alter Ego Mint Blackout Chocolate. It's super dark chocolate, but then it also has mint. It is divine, and I'm loving all this mint after all of the garlic we consumed today. Also, I am writing in our recipe book, which I love to update every so often, I'm writing down the black bean burger recipe because I didn't add that yet. And earlier today, I added in the hibiscus sun tea. You can see that. So we have this, yeah, I love to add in it every so often. I kind of have to be in the mood to write down the recipes because it can take a little while, but yeah, that's what we're doing the rest of the evening, just relaxing. We had a major summer rainstorm about an hour ago and it lasted like a good 25 minutes. It was fabulous, especially because I just finished doing some gardening and so I didn't even have to water the flowers after I finished. It was great, but that's a wrap on today. I really hope you enjoyed this video and enjoyed all the recipe ideas. Again, I don't usually make this much in one day. I usually spread it out a bit more, but I did want to showcase some of my favorite meals and recipes. So I truly hope you enjoyed, and let me know if you would like to see one in autumn time. I could do more cozy meals, butternut squash, soups, all of that good stuff, pumpkin. I'm really looking forward to it, but excited to see you next. I hope you have a beautiful rest of your day. Bye.