Making Lists

For all of those working gals (and guys!) who take their lunch every day, do you prepare the night before?  Or grab whatever you can in the fridge on your way out the door?  Perhaps have the luxury of running home for a quick bite?

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My method has always been grab whatever on my way out the door, which usually results not grabbing enough and feeling hungry by 1 o'clock. I end up running down the street to buy a quick "snack" aka lunch that was actually thought out and healthy, that I could have prepared myself if i was a little more prepared.

Not good. 

So this week I tried something new!

I actually went grocery shopping on Sunday. Yeah!  The menu idea wasn't in my head then, but I happened to grab enough items to piece together breakfast, lunch, and a snack for the week.  This is what I came up with:

Not mentioned: a bag of chocolate candy in my desk, mixed nuts, and granola bars whenever I needed a little extra.

This is what I ate from 8am-3:30pm, and then grabbed another snack the moment I got home.  It's a pretty good start.  I had some awesome lunches this week, I didn't have to spend any extra $$, and I really enjoyed making that list above!

crock pot chicken!

It's no secret that I love the Skinnytaste website for recipes. They are fairly simple recipes with pictures, and I enjoy feeling like I ate sort of ate healthy. This time we busted out the crock pot for this simple delicious meal.

There are a ton of varieties of this dish, so really I'm not sure how original it is, but it's quick, easy, makes tons of leftovers and perfect for a chilly fall night. We ate over rice, but then doubled it up and did rice in a tortilla with our leftovers! We also added some more spices because my husband loves his spice!

Crock Pot Sante Fe Chicken

Please ignore my just showered look.

A wise man once said...

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My husband and I went out to dinner a few weeks ago for pho. It was a nice place, but the tables were still close together so you felt like you were eating family style. If you have ever had pho you know that it is not the easiest meal to eat while trying to be polite. While we were waiting for our food a table of 4 sat down next to us, 2 older couples. We couldn't help but overhear parts of their conversation. They mentioned their jobs, kids, and traveling. While they were eating their pho the conversation went like this:

55-ish year old lady- "This would be a difficult meal to eat for a first date."

60-ish year old lady- "It would be hard to get a second date."

Me, being the creep that I am chimed in with - "I couldn't help but overhear.... he took me for pho on our first date and I married him (wink wink smile)"

That opened the table up for full communication. They asked us questions, what did we do, where do we come from, how long have we been married, where are we going after it's all over, the usual questions we get. The 60-ish year old's husband was sitting next to me, he was 80, and he started telling us about his life. He was a scientist, criminal expert witness, he just retired because his wife made him. But he kept telling us one thing...

"Stay best friends, no matter what, stay best friends."

With our current lifestyle, I talk to more strangers than I do people I actually know. But those strangers sometimes say one little thing to you that means a lot. The crazy scientist reminded me of my Grammie. If you follow my personal blog then you know how we lost her suddenly just over a year ago. She was married to my Papa for over 60 years. She gave us all a lot of advice, mostly about sex (she was awesome) but her famous words of advice were:

"Don't go to bed mad, stay up and fight."

And this old man said the same thing when we were about to leave.

Old people are so wise, it's about time we started listening to them. 

What is the best advice you ever received from an elder? 

Heaven on Earth: Apples in a Pie Crust

Warning:  your mouth is about to start watering.

I'm generally against having fruit in desserts (that is what chocolate is for, people!), but when Heidi and I made our own little version of "apple pie" over the weekend, I changed my mind!

Borrowed from this recipe from The Daybook blog, it's as easy as this:

Slice up apples.
Toss them in a pie crust.
Dump tons of brown sugar and cinnamon on top.
Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.

CHOW TIME.

Something about the way the brown sugar melted down the apples and into the crust made it so doughy and yummy and just plain irresistible.  Make one.  Make one NOW.

[Also, this contains fruit and cinnamon, so it's suitable to eat for breakfast, right?  Right....?]

What We Ate: Chow Town

We all ate stuff yesterday and thought it would be fun to document! 

Breakfast-I actually normally eat an English muffin with peanut butter for breakfast, but I was out, so I had to go for frozen waffles with peanut butter instead (I wasn't that sorry about it).  Also, some O.J., which I love for breakfast but hate at any other time of the day!
Lunch- Big ol' bowl of creamy mac and cheese.  'Nuff said.
Dinner- Leftovers!  I always cook meals for 4, and so we always have leftovers the next day since there are just 2 of us.  This is Garlic Smothered Pork Chops (from a Weight Watchers cookbook - first time making it and it was DELISH), Uncle Ben's Wild Rice, and some good ol' steamed spinach!
Snack- Normally I have homemade treats on hand (really, I swear!), but we already gobbled them all up this week, so I was left to forage.  Which meant eating 3 handfuls of chocolate chips after work, and coming home later that night to find a Kit Kat in the fridge that Scott had picked up for me - yippee!  Also, not pictured:  some animal crackers.

Breakfast- We made a dish of the Budget Bytes Baked Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal and have been eating it all week for breakfast! Sometimes I heat it up or sometimes I top it with milk and eat it like cereal. Very filling and tastes like fall.
Lunch- My typical peanut butter and jelly. I could seriously eat PB&J every day.
Snack- I probably make a recipe from Skinny Taste at least two times a week and her Low Fat Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe doesn't suck. Cookies are my favorite food group so I don't feel that bad about eating two cookies, or four...
Dinner- We love taco soup in our house, it's so easy to throw whatever we have on hand into a pot, eat up the goodness, and have tons of leftovers but this time we wanted to try something different so we made the Skinny Taste Turkey Chili Taco Soup recipe. This was our 2nd time to eat it this week and it was just as good as the first time.

I had a very sad refrigerator yesterday, so my meals mostly consisted of free food at work or food that someone else prepared for me.

Breakfast- Coffee and a FREE cinnamon roll from work because someone who quit her job a few weeks ago is back working with us again and wanted to treat the office to sweet rolls.  Whatevs!  Score!
Lunch- FREE tofu and white rice because the lovely catering woman at work lets me "sample" the new hot food. "Sample", quoted, because it was totally a full plate of food.  Bonus: it was quite delicious. 
Snack- PB + Celery that Ryan packed for me.  No idea where he found celery in that very sad fridge, but I was grateful.
Dinner- Pei Wei that a friend brought over for TV watching.
Snack- The aftermath of a scrambled egg, avocado, and Chaluluha that I ate before I went to bed.  I finally cooked something for myself yesterday!  At 10pm.

(not pictured: 3 mini cupcakes)

Between being in college, working, volunteering, and life in general, it can really hard eating like I want sometimes. All we can do is the best we can! So, I've started premaking meals and shakes ahead of time to try and make things easier on myself. Some days it works, some days it doesn't. Luckily, things were flowing alright for this setup!

Breakfast: 1/2 cup FF cottage cheese, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries (BERRY EXPLOSION), all natural almonds, and 1 TBSP chia seeds. YUM!
Lunch: Melon mix, zucchini/squash cuts, 1/2 avocado, and 1 piece baked Cod topped with roasted tomato and a pinch of FF mozzarella.
Snack: Protein Shake! Although you can't see it, just pretend :) The picture shows a few of the many ingredients I like to use in my shakes. I always use the Protein (obviously) and PB2, but the other ingredients are ever changing; I like to add any fruit combinations I can find in the frig, unsweetened almond milk, and chia seeds. Just depends on my mood and what's on hand!
Dinner: Lean steak cutlets mixed with peppers and a dash of seasoning.

Fresh From the Garden

I followed this recipe to a "T" until it came down to the salsa, where I took my own spin on things. These little fried corn cakes were insanely delicious, and the salsa piled on top took things to a whole new level of deliciousness.  I just had to share...

(see those cute little tomatoes?  they came right out our garden! the basil and jalapenos too!)

Ingredients:

• 3 ears corn, shucked
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 1/4 cup diced red onion
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced fresh basil
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 tablespoons well-shaken buttermilk
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• Canola oil, for frying (I used olive oil)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with a brown paper bag.
2. Cut the corn from the cobs into a large bowl, and scrape the stripped cobs with the back of the knife (or a spoon) to release the juices into the bowl.
3. Place 2 cups of the corn kernels into a food processor, and pulse several times, until the corn is slightly pureed but still chunky. Scrape into the bowl with the remaining corn kernels.
4. Add flour, cornmeal, onion, basil, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pepper to the corn. Stir to mix.
5. Add the eggs, buttermilk and butter, and stir just to combine. (Do not overmix.)
6. Place a large skillet over medium heat. Add just enough canola oil to barely cover the bottom, and heat until sizzling hot.
7. One heaping tablespoon at a time, scoop the batter into the skillet. Cooking in batches of 4 to 5 to avoid overcrowding, fry the cakes 1 to 2 minutes per side, until golden brown.
8. Drain on the lined baking sheet, and place in the oven to keep warm while cooking the remaining corn cakes. Serve warm topped with a heap of Chopped Tomato and Avocado Salsa.

 Mmmm, enjoy!

Eat More Gnocchi

I have so many recipes pinned on Pinterest, it can almost be overwhelming.  But about once a week, I make sure to pick one randomly and just try it out.  Going on a vegetarian lifestyle for 5 years now,  I find myself making the same trusted meals over and over. So a big thank you to Pinterest for easily pulling me out of my same ol'-same ol' rut.

Ryan and I both gobbled up this pasta dish, it was so good.  Gnocchi is awesome you all.  Little puffs of pasta goodness. 

Ingredients:

• 3 medium-sized fresh sweet corn on the cob (or a bag of frozen corn, which I used)
• 3 C fresh arugula
• 3/4 C fresh mushrooms, chopped (optional)
• 1 pound potato gnocchi
• 3/4 C half and half (or half heavy cream, half whole milk/skim)
• 3 oz cream cheese
• 1 t salt
• 1 t garlic powder
• 1 t fresh basil, julienne
• 1/4 t black pepper
• Pinch of crushed red pepper 
• Parmesan cheese for sprinkling

   
Directions:

In large pot, boil water and cook gnocchi according to package directions, adding in the corn on the cob in the last 5 minutes. Remove corn, transfer to cutting board. Drain gnocchi, but make sure to reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water. Don't rinse your gnocchi.

For the cream sauce, combine half and half, cream cheese, salt, garlic powder, fresh basil, and pepper in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium for about 10 minutes, stirring until cream cheese has evenly dispersed throughout sauce. Stir in reserved pasta water.

Slice your corn off the cob.  (or you can use a bag of frozen corn)

In a medium bowl, combine your pasta sauce, corn, gnocchi and arugula. Sprinkle with additional salt, pepper, basil, and crushed red pepper if desired.

Enjoy! We sure did.

Look Ma, I made a Cobbler!

My mom is a whiz in the kitchen.  I noticed when I was a pretty young that she has this amazing ability to throw a meal together, a delicious meal, with no recipe or any planning.  She just did it.  Magic. 

I decided I wanted to make a cobbler the other day.  Granted, I had to look up a recipe (not quite to my mom's skill set yet), but I actually had all the ingredients on hand.  And I whipped it up.  And it was good!

Ingredients:

• 2  pints raspberries
• 1/3  cup  plus 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/2  cups  plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 2  teaspoons  baking powder
• 1/4  teaspoon  kosher salt
• 1  teaspoon  grated lemon zest
• 6  tablespoons  cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 2  cups  heavy cream 

   
Directions:

Heat oven to 375° F. In a shallow 1 1/2-quart baking dish or a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate, toss the blueberries, 1/3 cup sugar, and 1 tablespoon flour.

In a medium bowl, combine the baking powder, salt, lemon zest, and the remaining flour and sugar.

Add the butter and blend with your fingers or 2 knives until coarse crumbs form. Add 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons cream and mix until a shaggy dough forms.

Drop mounds of dough over the blueberry mixture. Bake until the berries are bubbling and the top is golden, 35 to 40 minutes. Serve with the remaining cream for drizzling, if desired. (it's desired, I promise!).

Enjoy!

4th of July Strawberries!

I've never been one for baking. Now cooking, I'm all for it. I am up for cooking any recipe I can get my hands on, but for some reason I've just never been that great at baking. However, when my church, the wonderful Brand New Church, decided to host a 4th of July cookout this past Sunday, I knew I wanted to do something creative.

These 4th of July strawberries aren't that hard to find online! I stumbled upon them on Pinterest but a simple google search would do the trick. I decided to use The Yummy Life blog.

You will need:

• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup white chocolate or vanilla chips
• 24 strawberries, washed and dried
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• Red,white/clear & blue decorating sprinkles

  

First thing's first melt the chocolate in a microwaveable bowl with 1 tbsp. canola oil. Now, the directions called for simply microwaving the chips for 20-30 seconds, stirring each time, until the last chip is nearly melted. I followed the instructions carefully, but still had trouble with the chocolate hardening up on me half way through the dipping. So, for those of you pro's out there that know how to handle your chocolate, I say use your own methods! 

Next, separate the strawberries and begin dipping each one into the chocolate letting excess drip back into the bowl and immediately after dip it into the sprinkles.  

Place the dipped strawberries on wax paper. I only had plastic so whatever works really :)

Let them sit for at least thirty minutes and ta da! 

You are ready to blow everyone's minds at the cookout!

OK, so mine don't exactly look as good as the others online. This was a messy process I tell ya! 

However, I guarantee they tasted just as good : )

Happy 4th of July one and all! 

Hope you have an amazing holiday with your family and friends,

and don't forget to give thanks for the freedom to make 

strawberries like these anytime you'd like!