Vegetarian Open-Faced Avocado Chickpea Sandwich

Ahh..Summer, the perfect time for swimming, camp fires, long walks and delicious food. Looking for the perfect summer lunch? Try my Open-Faced Avocado Chickpea Sandwich. I love avocado and chickpeas so I thought why not combine them in a beautiful sandwich rather than my typical salad. It turned out super delicious, packed with protein and the perfect meal for vegetarians!

Ingredients:
Salad:

• 1 piece of thick cut whole wheat bread or crustini (I used vitality country harvest, 90cals/slice)
• 1/5 of a large avocado
• 1/4 cup of rinsed and drained chickpeas
• 1/2 tbsp  green onion finely chopped
• 1/2 tbsp finely chopped red onion
• 3-4 chopped cherry tomatoes or 1 slice of tomato chopped
• juice from 1 small wedge of lime (to taste!)
• salt/pepper(to taste)

Spinach Layer

• a few leaves of fresh spinach

Egg Layer:

• 1 sliced hardboiled egg
• 1/4 tsp paprika
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/4 tsp chili pepper flakes
• salt/pepper (to taste)

Directions: In a small bowl, mash together the avocado and chickpeas.(optional-I left out a few chickpeas to add back in later for extra texture). Once combined add in the other salad ingredients and finish-off with salt/pepper & lime until it’s seasoned to your liking. Next either toast your bread or leave it as is. Spread the salad mixture on top of the bread then place spinach leaves on top and your egg layer on top of that sprinkled with spices & additional salt/pepper. Now grab a fork and knife or use your hands and dig in! Enjoy!

Nutrition Facts(using vitality bread): 29o calories, 35g carbs, 12g fat, 16g protein, 9g fibre

 

 

P.S, My perfect side to this sandwich is a serving of large frozen shrimp thawed and deveined with cocktail sauce…amazing!

Eats For Today

I was lazy and hungry this morning so breakfast was pretty simple! Plain Greek yogurt, (2 drops stevia sweetener, 1/4 tsp vanilla extract) topped with chopped strawberries, pineapple chunks, an extra pinch of sweetener and a few crushed almonds. Oh and since I was in the mood, some Chocolate Chai Tea. Sadly it was raining..so no sitting outside for breakfast today!

One of my snacks today was this protein bar I’d had sitting in the back of my cupboard for ages that I’d been meaning to try! It the macros are not perfect but they are still decent! It’s a smaller bar too which I liked. The taste wasn’t something I could quite put my finger on. It tasted pretty similar to any typical protein bar. The chocolate coating was nice and I liked the little pieces of chocolate inside. Overall I probably wouldn’t purchase again but it’s not bad!

For dinner I had one of my favourite things..it’s weird but I now love to eat my spaghetti sauce and meatballs over brown rice! Half a cup just cooked normally with a little salt. (Though I do add a little extra water to the rice and cook it slightly longer so it gets a bit more fluffy!).

My favourite toppings..Parmesan cheese and red chili pepper flakes, nothing ever has enough spice to me.

So..I’ve been having this big debate with my family, what do you prefer spaghetti and meatballs or spaghetti and meat sauce? For me, it’s definitely meatballs!

Eats For Yesterday…

Breakfast: Super High Fibre amazinggg oatmeal! Recipe will follow :)(had this with some scrambled egg whites)

Lunch: A delicious BBQ chicken salad w/kidney beans, herbed goat cheese, italian dressing & spices.

Subway assorted sub! (This was a treat!) with subsauce, mustard, lettuce and cheddar cheese!

For dessert I made oatmeal raisin cookies! I managed not to eat the batter haha but I made sure to have one after they were baked! They were really, really good!

During this day I also had half a fig whole wheat bar from costco (really tasty!) and 3/4 cup greek yogurt with a little fruit on top as well as cottage cheese with one tbsp peanut butter before bed!

*Following IIFYM for life!*

What did you eat today?

My Eats Yesterday…

Hey everyone, so as requested here are my eats for yesterday..I am not very exciting during the week so many of my meals are pretty repetitive. I wasn’t (and am not still) feeling very well towards the end of yesterday so my food choices are a little different then usual. I think I may post again to show you what I eat about 75% of the time(when I am not sick haha) if you would like..?(yes I am pretty boring actually..lol).  But because I took these semi-attractive photos to say the least I thought I might as well go ahead and share yesterdays eats with you. Maybe it will help to give you some alternate ideas to what you’d normally eat too…

My counter is never clean when I go to make a smoothie! haha. This one was peanut-butter banana since my freezer is overflowing with ripe frozen bananas. Not sure why I had the stevia out, this smoothie was plenty sweet enough on it’s own.

Here’s the protein powder I use for smoothies, I took a picture as I scraped out my last scoop! Love this stuff! I highly recommend it.

And..the final product.

For lunch I had one of my typical giant salads consisting of a ton of romaine lettuce, red pepper, green pepper, green/red onion, carrots, kidney beans, herbed goat cheese, black forest ham, 1 hard boiled egg, a little salt, pepper, basil & oregano topped with light italian dressing.

For a snack this is also a bit different for me because I had a new protein bar I bought as a treat. I’d heard they were really good…

…and they are. Like eating an OH Henry bar! This one was Caramel Chocolate. I also had some usual carrots with 2 types of hummus(supremely spicy/roasted red pepper) and a cup of chia tea plus a cup of water!

For dinner(note this is when I started to feel a little sick), I picked at 2 ribs my Mom made, they were good but sadly I could only eat a little.
I also had only about a spoonful of these amazing beans(again I wish I could have brought myself to eat more!).
Lastly I also had a small bowl of my Mom’s delicious macaroni tuna salad.

Later being a little hungry still due to my small dinner I stupidly had a strawberry healthy choice greek yogurt bar. It tasted great! But my stomach wasn’t too pleased with me later!

Before bed I usually have a big snack so instead I just had a small piece of my favourite whole wheat toast, some natural peanut butter and banana and a couple strawberries and carrots. Perfect comfort food to me!

So that’s my yesterday in a nutshell! Everything I ate was fit into my macros, although I think I may have eaten slightly less than normal due to my upset stomach. I also was not able to complete my workout but it’s best to listen to your body so I am not going to lose sleep over it..Anyways, hopefully I can share more of my meals with you and include some more exciting foods haha, but that’s it for now! 🙂

~Sam~

High Protein/High Fibre Bagels???

Hey all! I just had to make a post about these amazing bagels I picked up the other day! The nutrition facts on them are outstanding! 10g fibre, 15g protein, 2g fat, 46g carbs & sugar only from fruit!

If you have yet to try them I highly recommend them! They also come in garlic and herb and a “Squirrely” kind(nuts/seeds). They are huge! They are slightly lighter and fluffier then a regular bagel, almost like a croissant but they are so delicious lightly toasted with natural jam and light cream cheese! I had one for lunch today along with this giant salad.. Yum!

Don’t forget to eat your veggies !

I ate all of this yesterday. Half for lunch and half for my snack later. So good !

Bodybuilding Meal Examples

Just a few examples to give you an idea of what I eat and to help you if your stuck!

1 cup greek yogurt with 1/4 cup quick oats, 2-3 drops stevia sweetener, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, 7-12 almonds crushed, chopped pineapple and strawberries. Mix! (I like to let the oats sit in the fridge with the greek yogurt for a little before adding the toppings).

1 cup romaine lettuce, 1/4 of a large tomato chopped, 1/4 of a large avocado chopped, 4oz lean ground beef with taco seasoning, 1/2 an elzekiel wrap (heated in the microwave), a few chili pepper flakes, cayenne pepper, 1 chopped green onion, 2 tbsp fresh salsa, 2tbsp greek yogurt. Optional sprinkle of cheddar cheese. Mix! (Serve with the meat hot!).

Simple 1/2 cup plain shredded chicken breast with a little salt/pepper(I use canned for this because it flakes nicely and is moist). 1/2 cup peas, 1/2 cup cooked brown rice and 1/2-1 tbsp reduced sodium soya sauce, chopped green onion and a little pepper to taste. Serve hot.

My favourite salad..

My current favourite salad includes chopped romaine and spinach, lemon dijon chicken, red and green peppers, red and green onion, a large handful of chickpeas, a little crumbled herbed goat cheese and about 4 large crushed pecans topped with a dash of salt and a lot of pepper served with Italian dressing. delicious !
via PicsArt Photo Studio

Chicken Slouvlaki Lettuce Wraps

Good afternoon everyone!(Felt like I needed a new intro lol). Who’s hungry for an awesome new recipe that takes minutes to make? These amazing wraps are super healthy, made with fresh ingredients and fill you up without making you feel too heavy! If you’ve ever had a Slouvlaki wrap, you know they are really good! And what would these lettuce wraps be without creamy tzatziki sauce?? So without further ado, I give you my newest creation: Chicken Slouvlaki Lettuce Wraps. 

Tropical Shrimp Dinner For One!-Recipe

Oh my gosh guys, this one is a winner. I created this recipe today and I fell in love! This dish is spiced coconut shrimp kabobs over mango/avocado quinoa with a side of lime and homemade tzatziki sauce. Wow, Just like a restaurant menu item! I recently got back from vacation in Turks and Caicos where they are known for their seafood! I missed the delicious flavours I had there and so of course I had to try and re-create them at home. This recipe does just that. Grilled shrimp, coconut, avocado, mango..and more all come together to form the perfect dish to take you back to that vacation atmosphere. Hope you try it out!