Yesterday was a day much like all of them this week — work, apartment stuff, and watching the Olympics.

But one thing was different because….we have groceries!  We finally went on Tuesday evening, so yesterday was filled with some fresh food that even lead to a few recipes.

First, I made this smoothie for a mid-morning snack:

Chocolate Strawberry Banana Smoothie

1 cup of frozen strawberries and bananas

1 handful of fresh strawberries

1 cup of chocolate almond milk

1 T of oats

1 handful of spinach

It wasn’t the prettiest thing in the world, but it was delicious and filling!

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Apparently the theme of the day is food that isn’t pretty because that carried through to lunch.

I made a fresh veggie salad with spring green mix, zucchini, squash, mushrooms, sunflower seeds, goat cheese, and balsamic vinegar.

Fresh veggie salad

Not pretty, but a great salad.  I love sunflower seeds on my salads!

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Finally, dinner was so easy — not pretty, but hey, just sticking to the theme.

I had a headache after work today, so I didn’t want to spend a lot of time making dinner, so I came up with this super easy gnocchi dish.

Gnocchi with Creamy Ricotta Sauce

Ingredients:

1 sweet potato

1 yellow onion

1 T garlic

1 can of diced tomatoes

1/2 c of milk

1 c of low fat ricotta cheese

A pinch each of dried basil, oregano, parsley, and black pepper (you can use more of any if you would like)

1 package of gnocchi

Directions:

- Peel the sweet potato and cut into one-inch pieces.  Add to a pot of water and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low, cover, and let the potatoes cook for 10-15 minutes

- In a saucepan, sauté a diced yellow onion and the garlic over medium heat.  Add the tomatoes and mix in with the onions.

Potatoes and veggies cooking

- Add the milk and ricotta cheese to the saucepan and mix everything together until the sauce is creamy

- Once the sweet potato pieces are soft, add them to the saucepan and mix into the sauce.  Add the spices and mix

- Cook the gnocchi according to the package (about 3 minutes)

- Drain the gnocchi and add to the sauce

I made kale chips as a side, and finally made the pumpkin oat loaf recipe from my Foodie Pen Pal.

Kale before going in the oven

Pumpkin oat mini muffins

I didn’t have a small loaf pan, so I used a mini muffin tin instead.  These were great with peanut butter and honey.

Well, off to work.  Have a good Thursday!