This sounds so cliché because I feel like I say it every month, but how is it the middle of January already? My husband and I had a conversation yesterday about how time seriously does fly by, and we both agree that three months worth of time feels like one month to us. We just scheduled a dinner with friends for March, and guaranteed, although that sounds like a long time from now, it will be here in no time! I am not complaining though. . . I just want the time to go by really slow when summer hits!

In other news, happy What I Ate Wednesday! I managed to capture all of the food I ate on one day (Saturday), so this is more of a What I Ate Saturday post. Every meal was thoroughly enjoyed, but I must say dinner was by far the best meal of the day!

For breakfast, I savored a filling bowl of oatmeal made in the microwave. In the mix was half of a cup of oats, some ground flaxseed, pumpkin pie spice and perhaps a bit too much vanilla bean powder topped with a tablespoon of salted almond butter and a sliced banana. It tasted amazing, but the excessive amount of vanilla bean powder gave my oats an unusual dark brown color. Oh well . . . as long as it tastes good, right?

I haven’t had TJ’s minestrone soup in about a year, which is far too long. My local TJ’s doesn’t always have it, which makes me think it is more of a seasonal thing. Anyway, I adore this soup– it’s full of beans, veggies and brown rice, thus making it gluten-free and vegan. Minestrone is traditionally made with wheat pasta, so it is nice to have found a gluten-free alternative.

As I do with most soups, I turned it into a souper-salad. In other words, I heated the soup with some greens, grated carrot, daikon, pea shoots and cucumber until the soup was piping hot and the veggies steamed. The cucumber actually took on the texture of zucchini when heated and it kind of tasted like that too!

I also had a big old bowl of fruit for lunch dessert.

Dinner Saturday night was epic. We went to one of our favorite Indian restaurants in Providence aptly called India, and I surprised my husband by offering up a Groupon for the restaurant I had purchased a few weeks ago!

We had to wait for a bit (I think many people were cashing in on their Groupons!), which was fine by us. We were seated around 9 P.M., so by the time the food came out I was starving. We started with an order of aloo tikki (potato patties with tamarind sauce and chickpeas), which I ate the majority of!

I also enjoyed some pappadum (crispy lentil crackers) with chutney, while my husband took charge of the bhel poori (a mix of rice and wheat crisps, chutneys and veggies).

For dinner, I ordered up some rice for us to share. India has the best basmati rice– it is so flavorful and fragrant, and the peas are the perfect addition.

Mango curry with tofu had the honor of being my entree. India’s mango sauce is by far one of the best Indian sauces or curries I have ever had, which explains why I get it each and every time we go to India. Even my husband got that sauce (but with lamb instead). One of my favorite things to do is pick out each and every cashew in the bowl!

We didn’t get home until 10:30, but it’s never too late for dessert, right? I grabbed a vegan and gluten-free cinnamon sugar donut from my freezer stash, and topped it with the last of my TJ’s soy vanilla ice cream, as well as some peanut brittle, sweet and salty ale brittle and dark chocolate almond bark (also from TJ’s). It was divine, as one can imagine!

Twas a great day of food for sure. Man, I could seriously eat Indian food everyday, and my current self is so jealous of my Saturday self for having feasted at India!

So, have a wonderful day and enjoy the middle of the month!

What’s the best thing you ate this week? Do you like Indian food? What’s your favorite dish if so?