It's Friday night! Whoot! I've deemed Friday nights my self-date night. Lame? Au contraire mon ami. On date night I take myself to a yoga class and then for a nice stroll along the river. I prepare a lovely, nourishing meal from scratch and cap the eve with some Netflix (tonight I'm checking out "Flaked") and a sweet or salty treat:).
And you know what else makes it pretty sweet? I get to stay in my yoga clothes and then put a face mask on with some comfy jammies. Sound like a good date now? Jealous? Maybe even a little? Tonight I even got a little spicy. As in curry and cardamom spicy:).
I've been in love with curry and cardamom forever, but at the present I especially crave these warm, exotic spices. So this evening, I dined on curry tuna watermelon radish salad and a Mojito Kevita komboucha. And for dessert -- drumroll -- fresh strawberries and vanilla cardamom black pepper frozen yogurt with a chocolate teeccino.
Here's the recipe. It's pretty freaking simple. I put it together in 15 minutes.
1 can of tuna. I used albacore. And about 1 teaspoon of curry and mix. Set it aside.
1/2 avocado (or a whole) and mix with 1 tablespoon of nutritional yeast and 2 tablespoons of Braggs and set aside.
Oh, yeah, now come the veggies! There's no right or wrong with this step. For this salad, I mixed together 1 bunch spinach, 1 radish and 2 carrots. I buy bulk and generally go for what might be on sale or in season. I love using my food processor because it makes salads so easy. Although every now and then some chopping is refreshing -- espcially when I can take the time to really look. at. the. veggies. Seriously, check out the watermelon radish! It made me happy just to look at it.
Add some extra crunch and sweet to the mix with1 tablespoon of seeds or nuts and 1/4 cup raisins (I added strawberries for a little sweet) -- then toss with the tuna and avocado mix. And this leaves you with extra salad for the week-end. Yay! Make another salad, or better yet, scramble with a couple eggs for a veggie scramble. Maybe top it with lucious honey goat cheese? Now we're talking. And you know what you have? Breakfast-in-bed the morning after your date night.
Lastly, dessert, right? Vanilla cardamom frozen yogurt and a chocolate teeccino almond latte.
Seriously, it's so easy. I use Greek yogurt (higher fat has a better consistency, like a cream top) and place it in the freezer while I'm making dinner. Or I put it in the freezer after a trip to the co-op and dethaw while making dinner. Once yogurt it parially frozen or thawed, "chop" with a spoon, add the sweetener, spices and mix. Yep.
Now for the hot beverage. Also super simple and tastes really indulgient, but low-calorie (depending upon your choice of milk and sweetener) and zero caffeine (because I like to go to sleep early on my self-date night) so I can wake up early, take a morning walk, and watch the sun rise. The early am is incredibly fresh and new. It always washes away what you need it to.
And usually, I have some of the latte left over to take on my walk, because you can make a good batch and unlike coffee, it's taste improves after a day.
One bag of Teeccino. I prefer the loose option, but I ordered the bags on accident (and I always use what I buy). Lately, I put the bag in a small pot of water, bring it to a light simmer and add 1/2 cup of unsweetened almond milk. That way you can sweeten it to whatever degree you'd like.
I just realized, I accidentally snapped a selfie on the lid of my tea pot on my self-date. I have no control of myself: it's selfie-date night.
xxoo - christine