Most of my food today had a Mexico flavour to it.  I didn’t plan that way but it is how it worked out.

I managed to get back on track with the cayenne pepper in hot water with fresh lemon juice first thing.  I hate it but if it’s going to help my metabolism I will consume it.  While I thought about breakfast I enjoyed the beautiful sunrise.

Red sky in the morning, shepherds warning.  According to the rhyme.  But it turned in to a beautiful day.

I felt fruity for breakfast and had a cup full of frozen berries.

With 1 cup (about 200 ml) full of this delicious coconut milk.

One banana and a tablespoon of the coconut nut butter I made yesterday.  All blended together in a smoothie.  It was lovely.  4 WW points.

I took the  dogs for a good walk in the forest with Lucy and it was just amazing outside. Sunny and crisp with a very bright blue sky.   We spotted a huge fire in the distance and I am very curious about what it was and hoping no one was injured.

For lunch I made a new salad.  Angela at Oh She Glows posted various posts about the best recipes of 2011 for certain categories and she did one about the top 5 salads.  I really wanted to try something new and chose the Quinoa and Black Bean Vegetable Salad.

Quinoa and Black Bean Salad

Ingredients (serves 2 for a main or 4 as a side dish)

• 1 cup uncooked quinoa (170 g)
•  1 heaped tsp bouillon powder (optional)
• 1 x 400g can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 red pepper, chopped
• ¼ cup fresh coriander, finely chopped
• 2 spring onions, chopped
• 1 small can of sweetcorn, drained
  1 small avocado, chopped
• Juice of 1 lime

Method

• Make up the quinoa in a saucepan according to the packet instruction.  Mine said to use 3 x as much water as quinoa, bring to the boil and simmer until water is absorbed which takes about 20 minutes.  Add bouillon powder for additional flavour when you add the uncooked quinoa to the water .  When cooked, allow to cool slightly.

• Drain black beans and place in large bowl.
• Add chopped red pepper, coriander, spring onions, sweetcorn, avocado and lime juice.
• Add quinoa and mix gently.

Oh She Glows uses a dressing but I wanted to keep the points/calories low so just used the lime juice.  It was so tasty it didn’t seem to need any other flavours . The black beans, red pepper, avocado and lime juice reminded me of Mexican food.  It was fresh and full of flavour.   I thoroughly enjoyed this salad.

The WW points for the total salad were 38 and I ate about half so 19 WW points.  It seems a lot of points for something so healthy!

Supper was chicken fajitas.  I had mine without the wrap.

I ate a whole chicken breast, Fajita seasoning, 1 tbsp oil used for frying the chicken, red onion and peppers and I served it with cherry tomatoes and 1 heaped tbsp Greek yogurt.

I like the spices in a Fajita and it is a very quick and easy meal to cook.  11 WW points.

Daily points total is 36 so I have used some of my weekly extra.  I earned 4 activity points by walking for an hour.