A Variety of Dinners

This past week has seen some interesting and diverse dinners. Sunday night, I was in Miami and enjoyed a delicious dinner at this South Beach restaurant called On Ocean 7 Cafe. I ordered a mango mojito and salmon teriyaki. The mojito was fantastic and the salmon was very flavorful. The teriyaki sauce was super salty, but luckily, it was served on the side, so I enjoyed my salmon with the citrusy vinaigrette from my salad. It ended up being a great combination.

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Monday night, I was in the Miami airport and enjoyed a turkey sandwich on a baguette from ABP. It was a late lunch/early dinner and it held me over perfectly until late into the night. It was so fresh and delicious, which is super-rare for airport food. I was also starving since it was 4pm and I hadn't eaten since my 9am breakfast!  

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Tuesday night I went out to dinner with colleagues at this incredible French Bistro & Cafe, Parc Brasserie. It is hands-down one of my favorite restaurants in the city! I've only ever gone for breakfast, brunch, or lunch, but dinner was the best I've ever had in this city. I ordered salmon en croute, which was basically salmon in a pastry dough package with swiss chard and onions. It was spectacular. I also enjoyed a slice of their famous cranberry walnut bread from their bread basket. Post-dinner, I ordered an espresso since I knew I'd be up late working on my lab report! Everything was so delicious.

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Wednesday night, my friend invited me over for dinner and we enjoyed grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. It was so comforting and tasty. She used whole wheat bread and a slice each of swiss and provolone. The tomato soup was from Trader Joe's. She thought it was lacking in taste, but I thought it was pretty flavorful.

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And last night, I enjoyed a smoothie, which is easily one of my favorite dinners. I love that it's delicious, icy, cool, and filling. I love that it's slightly sweet and incredibly satisfying. Last fall, I started seeing bloggers posting about pumpkin smoothies all the time and I started getting the itch to experiment and come up with my own creation. I was thrilled with the product and I wanted to share it with you all! It was a light and perfect meal for the end of the week. I just took the ingredients below...

added them to the blender and in less than a few minutes, I had a delicious dinner, complete with protein, dairy, veggies, and fruit.

Here's the recipe:
Combine the following ingredients in a blender until smooth. Add 1/2 cup of ice cubes to create and icy smoothie.
1 cup unsweetened almond milk
1/2 cup nonfat greek yogurt
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1 banana
1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder (I used Vega One Vanilla, but you could use any protein powder. I love the Whole Foods Vanilla Whey Protein Powder!)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
stevia or splenda for added sweetness (optional - 1 to 2 packets)

Serve in a glass and sprinkle with cinnamon.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my dinners from this past week. And I definitely hope you try out this smoothie for a snack, breakfast, lunch or dinner. Let me know what you think. Enjoy! :-) xoxo