I am lucky that my husband is totally willing to try crazy ethnic vegetarian recipes that I put on our weekly menu plan. We may struggle about my desire to go 100% vegetarian but at least we’ve come to a good compromise and only cook meat/seafood at home a few nights a week.
This week’s menu plan included an Israeli dish from Smitten Kitchen that I have had starred in my Google Reader for months. Shaksuka is a dish of Israeli/Moroccan/Egyptian origin that features poached eggs in a spicy tomato sauce. It’s easy to make and a healthy vegetarian dinner. Brandon will pretty much eat anything with an egg on top of it so I knew he’d have no objections to trying this.
I served the Shaksuka with the pita bread that I made on Sunday. Sometimes it’s just fun to eat a dinner that doesn’t require silverware. 😉
We’ll go in reverse for today’s eats. Lunch was a really random assortment of things from the fridge because I had a meeting during lunch (which I’m VERY excited to share the outcome of with you guys very soon!).
When I got back to work I assembled this plate from my lunch box – apple slices, brie, carrots, green peppers and half a bagel with light cream cheese and cucumbers.
And finally, breakfast. I had the treat of eating a bowl of oatmeal at home while I worked on some stuff for the blog this morning before work.
What we’re working with: rolled oats, Bob’s Red Mill 10-grain cereal, almond milk, water, pinch of salt, chia seeds, cinnamon, banana and dried cranberries. Topped with almond butter, Crofter’s and raspberries.
I know I promised you guys a post on stability ball ab exercises tonight but I need a little more time on it. I need to retake some of the pictures. Promise it’s coming this week.
And finally, a quick update on the hamstring. I’m trying not to overdo talking about it on the blog after my pity party a few days ago. Also, I’ve just been really scared and sad about the injury. It’s been rough going for the past week but I am very tentatively happy to report that it is finally starting to feel better. Today is the first day that I have felt major improvement. I had electrotherapy done yesterday that made me very sore last night but I felt tons better this morning. I’m going for an adjustment tomorrow to try to correct some lower back/hip issues that are showing up in x-rays. I’m praying that the healing continues and I am back on the road in a couple days.
I haven’t given up hope on running Marine Corps yet but I am going to take a long, hard look at the future of marathoning for me after this race. But more on that later.
What is the craziest ethnic dish you’ve ever tried?
Aww Jen, hang in there! I really hope you continue to improve and can run MCM. I know how much this sucks and how upsetting it is to work so hard and then get sidelined 🙁 So many hugs to you!
Thank you a million times for all of your amazing support and encouragement. It really, really means a lot to me.
I’m totally going to try Shaksuka. I used to do a shirred egg (I guess that’s what you’d call it) where I’d bake an egg in a ramekin with a basic tomato sauce, fresh herbs and parm on top and it was fantastic. This looks awesome, thanks for the suggestion. Hope y’all are doing well.
Eric – I love the idea of the egg in the ramekin. Sounds so good! Just wanted to let you know about a few changes I made to the original recipe. I added about a teaspoon of turmeric with the spices (because I saw online it was a common ingredient but not listed on the recipe I used), reduced the amount of garlic to two or three cloves and only used four eggs instead of six (six would have been a waste for us!).
Let me know what you think of it!
Yum! The Shaksuka looks really good, I’m going to have to try it out!
This looks divine! B and I love food from the middle east so this is getting added to next week’s menu list. Glad to hear your “hammie” is getting better! Hang in there!!
Yay! Let me know what you think. The only changes I made to the original recipe were adding about a teaspoon of turmeric, reducing the amount of garlic and only using four eggs. There was just no reason to use six for the two of us!
The shakshuka looks delicious! I’ll have to put that on the menu in the near future. Anything with eggs is always a winner.
Glad to hear that your hamstring is starting to feel a little better. My mom is also struggling with hamstring issues and ended up getting some steroidal shots in her epidural space, which helped for a while, but now she’s having trouble again. Those hamstrings are BRUTAL!