Rushed Lunch & Remixing Leftovers

For some reason I keep thinking today is Thursday – wishful thinking! But at least the work week is halfway over. Typically I know better than to go to Whole Foods for lunch on a rainy day. But I decided to risk it today since I needed to pick up a few things. Our Whole Foods is near a trendy mall, has free wifi and a kids play area in seating area. So it’s always packed with strollers, screaming kids and people parked in front of laptops not actually eating. Not a problem on nice weather days, outdoor seating is plentiful. But since I didn’t feel like going back to work with a mushy, wet butt, I had to find what I could inside. Luck was on my side though, I spotted one free table in the corner to enjoy my feast while watching kids throw plastic groceries at each other. I started with a new Synergy flavor for me – Cosmic Cranberry.

The cranberry flavor was not very cosmic, it was hardly there. I was hoping for something like a tart, cranberry cocktail. But this was more of a sweet punch with a mild cranberry flavor. Not bad, but not what I was expecting.

And then there was my hurried creation for a salad, topped with balsamic vinegar and Chipotle Cayenne Parma.

It’s been awhile since I consumed that many beets at once, so I went into a bit of a panic before I remembered what they do to urine. Pretty! TMI?

Anyway, when I got home from work, I opted to cram in a run before dinner while the rain let up for awhile and it was a hard one. My legs are still tired from all the hills I ran on Sunday and the work stress this week was catching up to me. But I finished while cranking up tunes and enjoying the amazing Christmas decorations in our neighborhood. One neighbor even has all the lights on a phase-timer system making the entire house a flashing spectacle of color, it was wonderful.

By the time I was ready for dinner, I was not ready to put a lot of effort into it. I had a package of tempeh and plenty of leftover steamed broccoli and baked kabocha squash from last night.

And I was craving something curry.

So I placed about a cup of baked kabocha squash chunks, 1 cup of water, 1 tbsp. of shredded coconut and 1 tbsp. of curry powder into my Vita-Mix.

And turned it into a curry custard goodness.

Poured over the chopped broccoli and tempeh chunk mixture in a wok and tossed together over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes.

For a quick curried tempeh dish.

Baked kabocha squash makes a fabulous base for a curry sauce, the sweetness and the texture does wonderful things with curry. And the broccoli and tempeh added a fun, varying texture to the dish even if it’s not the most appealing to the eye. For last nights leftovers, it hardly looked or tasted like it. :-)