Anyway, when your body has "special" dietary requirements, and I know I'm not the only one out there that does, you try to make it easier on yourself. You rid your house of the foods you don't eat. That's all well and good....until you need to leave your house.
Let's face it, in our modern world there are very few times you can just be a hermit and stay at home, you have to leave your house a lot of the time. When you have food Challenges as I like to call it, whether they are self-imposed or not, you have to consider it all the time. Do you not eat meat? Then if you're going to be out during a meal you have to plan for that, you bring food along or you plan to eat somewhere that you can have choices that fit into your dietary requirements. It's not always easy and sometimes it downright sucks but you do it, often because you don't have a choice.
I find that living in a small town makes this challenge that much more difficult. Not only are there many more limited options but I don't want to be one of "those" people who is constantly complaining and not able to have fun because of my complaining. Often this means I don't go out at all but that's not a bad thing. Monetarily and healthfully, that's a great thing as a matter of fact. If I cook at home, I save money and I generally cook very healthfully. As a matter of fact, really focusing on being gluten free and eating at home is what's kick-started my weight-loss and I want to keep that weight-loss going!
Some days are easy, you're at home, you can whip up a quick meal that you can eat with no issues. (That's if you remembered to go to the grocery store.) For me, Thursdays are a challenge. Let me explain.
I generally watch my friend WoolPrincess' children on Thursdays. That means, I get up very early (I am SO not a morning person) and spend the day at her house with her two girls. I love them to pieces but their house is not gluten free. That means that sometimes my lunch is a challenge. If I were organized enough to pack a lunch for myself, it would be much less of an issue, but that's another story altogether.
Some days, my lunch is an apple with peanut butter and I hope there are no bread crumbs in the peanut butter. Today though? Today, it was wonderful!
This may not look like much but this is Awesomesauce.
I really considered naming it Awesomesauce but I didn't. Instead, let's call it;
Sarah's Cilantro-Lime Vinaigrette
This lunch was inspired in part by my friend JennaKate's blog post about her similar salad but I took it and made it my own.
I started with mostly fresh ingredients and added no sugar, but still got a lovely sweetish, tangy-ish dressing thanks to some Stevia. So, here we go!
Sarah's Cilantro-Lime Vinaigrette
1/4 c. Fresh lime juice
2 T. Apple Cider Vinegar
1/2 a bunch of cilantro, chopped as fine as you can stand to chop
1 packet of Stevia (There are lots of brands including Food club, Great Value and Sweet Leaf, whichever you have will work.)
1/2 t. Garlic Powder
1/8 t. salt
1/2 t. French's Dijon Mustard with Chardonnay
3/4 c. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Put all the ingredients together except the olive oil and whisk thoroughly, slowly drizzle in the olive oil while whisking. Pour on your favorite salad or whatever and enjoy. Can be stored in the refrigerator in a tightly sealed container for up to 5 days.
I took my dressing and drizzled it on some rice noodles and added some fresh veggies.
Doesn't that look wonderful? It was! It was a fairly low calorie lunch too so I still had some calorie-room to play with. According to My Fitness Pal, it was only 278 calories for the whole lunch or 73 calories per Tablespoon of the dressing.
A note about my abbreviations: From here on out, here are the abbreviations I use:
T. = Tablespoon
t. = teaspoon
c. = cup
They seem pretty standard but I don't want to mess anyone up.
1 comment:
YUM!!! That looks awesome!
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