Summer Update

So it is August.

Well...let's be real. It's almost September. Despite my best efforts, even when I'm slightly less busy I can still only manage to update this thing once a month. Oh well, sorry I'm not sorry. My life isn't interesting enough to post more than that. I wouldn't want to bore you :)

Now for a brief summary of what I have been up to since I last posted:

1. I was in my gorgeous friend Sierra's beautiful wedding and got to spend an amazing weekend with my girlfriends from college. The dancing was plentiful, as was the champagne.

2. Laughed my bum off at my cousin's bridal shower where I pretended to be her fiance answering questions about her [note: I got more right than he did...obviously your favorite movie is Fools Rush In, Em. Duh.]

3. Got to spend so much quality time with my family. I galavanted around Milwaukee with my Mom, drinking wine and eating small plates. I read and ran errands with my Dad. I taught my sister what "Beelzebub" means. Drank vodka gimlets and actually relaxed. Basically had a ball.

4. Reunited with my Italy loves in Boston (minus the lovely Katie Waldeisen unfortunately). Walked around the North end, went to the Sam Adams Brewery, and ate eggplant fries.

5. Got offered a job working part-time at Greenfield Public School District as a psychometrician! This is going to be one crazy semester, full of finishing up classes, internship applications, and weddings. But also exciting :)


For your eating pleasure, I have two recipes (but only one picture) and a workout.

Chipotle Lime Grilled Chicken with Avocado Ranch

I was sneaking bites of this avocado ranch all week, and put it on EVERYTHING. It makes the best sauce/dressing. I didn't grill this chicken because it was raining, so I just sauteed it with some asparagus and squash. I also made the rest of the orzo we had and added a little parmesan cheese :) Here's the recipe for the chicken and avocado ranch: http://www.howsweeteats.com/2013/08/chipotle-lime-grilled-chicken-skewers-with-avocado-ranch/.

I also made an amazing chopped cashew chicken salad with chili dusted mango. I don't have a picture because my camera had no battery left and I was experiencing an extreme case of hangriness so could not wait to eat. This salad was light and flavorful, and didn't even need dressing. Great week night dinner. Here's the recipe: http://www.howsweeteats.com/2013/08/cashew-chicken-chopped-salad-with-chili-dusted-mango/.

I just tried this workout the other day...great combination of cardio/strength. This blogger is wonderful and frequently posts workouts that she creates. Here's the link to this one: http://www.pbfingers.com/2013/08/19/starting-the-day-with-fruit/

I'll try to keep posting, but I may fall behind because I'm pretty sure I won't have time to breathe this semester. But, cheers to my last year of school, and finding out where I'll be completing my internship :) Happy eating!

July!

Good morning everyone!

My life as of late has consisted of:

1. Way too many smoothies.
2. Bastille Days (food consumed at Bastille Days includes super french options such as crab rangoon and tacos...wait what).
3. Volleyball (both watching and sucking at).
4. Reading amazingly hilarious books like Bossypants and the Mindy Kaling one #behindthetimes
5. Pretending to work on my preliminary exams at cute coffee shops but really downloading the whole soundtrack from Parenthood
6....watching all three seasons of Parenthood...
7. waiting until the next socially appropriate time to eat peanut butter in a given day.

In other news, here are three more recipes for my breakfast/lunch/dinner sequence!

Breakfast

4 Ingredient Greek Yogurt Pancakes

Um so easy and so yum. Easy because, let's be serious, 4 ingredients. So yum and thick and flufffffffffyyyyy. Also I added chocolate chips to the batter (duh) and topped mine with bananas, raspberries, and honey. Yes, I'm weird and don't totally love syrup on my pancakes. When I was younger, I actually used to specifically ask my aunt for powdered sugar to put on the ones she made me in the morning. I know..I should be cast away and isolated from all society. Here's the recipe: http://www.everydaybelle.com/2011/06/greek-yogurt-pancakes/

Lunch

Tuna Salad (Original recipe whaaaaat!)

This is what I have been eating for lunch the past couple of weeks. I make this tuna salad with greek yogurt, so it's a little healthier than your average tuna salad and I also add some fun stuff. It's easy, tasty, and fills me up.

Recipe:

What ya need:
1 can of tuna (in water)
3 TBL plain greek yogurt
2 TBL mustard
Salt and peppa
Garlic powder (just a sprinkle..I know my amounts are so exact)
2 stalks of celery, chopped
Chopped pecans (whatever amount ya like!)
Craisins (whatever amount ya like!)
1 cup fresh spinach
A sprinkling of fresh dill if you have it!

What ya do:
Mix it all together and enjoy! I had some fresh raspberries and grapes on the side. This makes for a nice, healthy, and fresh lunch. Just so everyone knows, I usually split this recipe in half across 2 days if you would like to do that.

Dinner

Chicken Bombs (warning-Steve's choice...)

 

 Whoa mamma are these not so good for you but so good in your mouth. They consist of a half of a jalapeno, stuffed with cheese, wrapped in chicken, which is then wrapped in bacon. Add a little BBQ sauce and you are good to go. I served it with plenty of carrots to balance it out. Although there was plenty of brown sugar in the carrots..so...hmm..

Here's the recipe: http://www.keyingredient.com/recipes/346290727/chicken-bombs/print/

Things I am excited for:

1. MY MOM IS COMING NEXT SATURDAYYYYYYYYYY.
2. I'm reading "The New Rules of Lifting for Women" and learning a lot about myths of lifting weights for us ladies. I'm thinking about doing before/after pictures..thoughts?
3. SO many weddings! Our fridge is littered with invitations so it makes it hard to see the Chinese take out menu which is disappointing.
4. Going to Chicago tonight. Will report on amazing food consumed. Hopefully will be more ethnically appropriate than eating crab rangoon and tacos at a French festival...

HAPPY EATING!!! :)

Flavor bomb.

YOU GUYS I NEED TO SHARE THESE FLAVORS WITH YOU IMMEDIATELY BEFORE I EXPLODE.

Breakfast

I discovered this flavor combo by accident. Steve's brother Sean was visiting this past weekend, and I realized he had never had Nutella before. WHAT. UNACCEPTABLE. Obviously I immediately dragged everyone to the store to pick some up and then proceeded to eat the whole jar myself. Sean got a bite, relax...

So I was trying to figure out what to eat for breakfast. I chopped up some fresh strawberries, and mixed a spoonful (heaping) of Nutella with half of a TOASTED COCONUT VANILLA oikos greek yogurt.  Come on now. This will blow your mind. It was a light breakfast, albeit a little too sweet for everyday.

Lunch/Dinner

Kale quinoa cakes with avocado. Yes. Steve actually cooked these up, as I got home from work late and was grumpy and lethargic. As I grunted at him slumped over on the counter, he whipped these up and they were amazing. Super healthy, and actually very filling. We cooked up some broccoli and spinach with lemon to eat with it. If you are a vegetarian, this would be a super yummy and filling meal. I was actually craving them the next day, and we had leftovers for lunch, plus some extra! Here is the recipe: http://yummysupper.blogspot.jp/2012/09/quinoa-kale-patties.html

Snack

Here is the ultimate winner winner chicken dinner, the true flavor bomb. I have been drinking these after my workouts for the past few weeks and I can't get enough of them. It almost encourages me to work out more just so I can have one. 

These are the ingredients for a mocha peanut butter smoothie recipe from one of my favorite bloggers. It has some healthy stuff and some not so healthy stuff, but many of my favorite flavor combinations: chocolate, peanut butter, and coffee. 

I never knew what the deal was with putting spinach in smoothies, but you really can't taste it and it adds a lot of great texture. YUM. I already had one this morning and I want another one. Please do yourself a favor and go make one right now. Here is the recipe: http://www.pbfingers.com/2011/12/14/sneaking-in-vegetables/

Workout

Here is a great strength workout that has been my favorite for a couple weeks now. Sometimes I do a half hour of cardio (running or bike) before, or sometimes I incorporate some high intensity cardio in between the strength exercises. Whatever floats your boat. Choose your weight and reps, and I promise you will be sore the next day.

Squats

Bicep curls

Stationary lunges

Shoulder press

Pliet squats

Bent over rows

Walking lunges

Bent over shoulder flies

Single leg deadlifts

Tricep extensions

Squats with calf raises

Hammer curls

Deadlifts

Skull crusher

This weekend will be full of birthday celebrations, psychological evaluations at the clinic, and hopefully amazing music at Summerfest :) Happy eating!

Summer Eats

It's June! And it's sunny in Milwaukee! ANDDDDD we've been able to sit out by the pool a few times :)

My life lately has consisted of: margaritas by the pool, bachelorette parties, frequent hangovers, getting my name on multiple poster proposals for the National Association of School Psychology conference next year, food tours, researching internship sites for next year, snapchats, and grilling. A mix of productivity and ridiculousness it seems.

Summer is wonderful. One of my favorite parts of summer is the light and refreshing meals. My schedule this summer is also pretty flexible since I am only taking one online class and starting to transition a lot of my clients at the clinic. This creates a lot more time to plan meals and come up with creative concoctions in the kitchen.

This post includes a recipe for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. All yummy and easy to make.

I've been struggling lately to come up with tasty and healthy breakfast options. I saw these mini waffles at the store and decided to try them out for a week.

I just put half of a greek yogurt and some fresh strawberries on top, and it was sweet and filling. I only toasted them for a minute or two..I learned this the hard way one morning when I left them in too long and burned them. I just flipped them over and pretended they tasted good.

For lunch, I made a big portion of these kale soba noodles. I left out the miso (mostly because I didn't have any and our grocery store does not have a very diverse selection) but it was still awesome. Steve liked it too, and it lasted for lunches all week.

It wasn't the prettiest looking dish, but it packed a punch of flavor and was super light. Here's the link to the recipe: http://www.ahouseinthehills.com/ahouseinthehills/2013/4/30/kale-noodle-bowl-with-avocado-miso-dressing.html

Finally, I've been joking with some of my friends that I have been trying to eat "fake" paleo. I've been trying to cut down on carbs and dairy, and eat more lean meats and veggies. This has proven very difficult, mostly due to my ongoing love affair with pasta. Obviously the waffles and yogurt and pasta recipes that I just described clearly depict my struggle with this daunting task. However, the past two weeks I've been doing a pretty good job, and the following dinner was a success.

This was roasted chicken thighs with fennel and lemon. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of adding some of my leftover kale, which soaked up the AWESOME flavor of the juices. But, it was still very tasty and healthy. Steve thought it was great too, and I think we will definitely make this again. It was a pretty cheap and quick option for a weeknight dinner.

Here's the recipe: http://www.thekitchn.com/dinner-recipe-roasted-chicken-139854

So, Steve's brother is coming to visit this upcoming week, and I need some ideas for fantastic meals to serve (when we are not exploring restaurants in the area). Any suggestions?

Happy eating, and a happy father's day to my wonderful Pappa, a huge supporter of cooking and other food/beverage-related activities :)

Baked goods.

Hey there! I told you I would be better about posting. Let's see how long this lasts.

So I told you that I had one of my first true baking successes. About a month ago, it was my friend Alex's birthday. Months before, he was over our apartment, drinking Trader Joe's wine and eating a family dinner. As we were browsing through Food Network magazines, we came across an awesome issue that had birthday cakes for every month of the year. The first one I made was the maple walnut cake for Steve's birthday, which was only a minor failure. This was a black and white mocha cake. I agreed to make it for Alex's birthday without much of a thought. My, my this cake was a labor of love, but so much fun and it came out pretty beautifully.

I made all FOUR (that's right, four) cakes the night before, because I am notoriously known for being too impatient to frost my cakes before they've cooled.

The next morning, I made the frosting and the ganache. Holy moly. This cake was GOOD.

Making sure it didn't topple over proved very difficult. There were a few moments of panic, but all went well.

I was also very fearful when cutting the cake, but surprisingly that went okay too.  I mean, how could this four layer cake cut in one whole piece? And how were people supposed to eat it!?!?! Man this cake was anxiety inducing. Lucky the birthday gods were shining down on Alex, because I cut that cake like a friggin surgeon. I should probably stop bragging, but I do believe this might be my one successful baking experience EVER. Here is the link for the recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/black-and-white-mocha-cake-recipe/index.html

I also made some pretty good cupcakes for my friend Josh's birthday...I didn't take any pictures but the link is here: http://www.howsweeteats.com/2011/06/peanut-butter-cupcakes-with-chocolate-cheesecake-frosting/. Peanut butter cupcakes with chocolate cheesecake frosting. How could those not be good? Wish me luck in all my future baking endeavors! For now I'll just stick to shoving Dove chocolates in my face every night.

Happy eating!

Let's pretend this post isn't over 2 months late...

Oh hey there remember that time that I had a food blog that I tried to post in at least once a month?

That being said, this was the HARDEST SEMESTER EVA. I'm glad it is over so I can go back to posting pics of delishie food instead of writing up confusing SAS syntax for my statistics class.

A quick update over the last couple months...

We got a kitten (if you didn't know already by the bajillions of pictures I post all over the internet). His name is Ernie and he is the devil/the cutest.

 It was a million people's birthdays, and I actually had not one but TWO successful baking experiences! WHATTTT?!?! No way. Stay tuned for my next post, including the masterpiece.

I went to Denver with two of my besties. I ate amazing food (including an out-of-this-world macaroni and cheese burrito at a diners, drive-ins, and dives restaurant, featured below), drank beerfloats, and hiked with gorgeous views.

I'm currently on this new kick of making something really cool for lunch for the week.  Here's been my favorite so far: Thai quinoa salad.

This was so so yum. Textures galore, and peanut butter was involved. Need I say more? Plus, it made enough for a decent sized lunch for the majority of the week. Find the recipe here: http://www.ambitiouskitchen.com/2013/04/crunchy-cashew-thai-quinoa-salad-with-ginger-peanut-dressing/#comment-5123

Now, to make up for being absent for a few months, I have some recipes saved up and will try to update much more frequently :) But, first I will leave you with our dinner from this evening: mini cheddar BBQ turkey meatloaf, wild mushroom rice pilaf, and roasted asparagus. It took less than 30 minutes tops.

I got the recipe for the meatloaf on pinterest (http://aggieskitchen.com/2013/04/29/mini-cheddar-bbq-turkey-meatloaf-muffins/). Steve took care of this part, and basically you just toss everything together and put everything into muffin tins! The rice pilaf was from the box (Near East) and the asparagus I roasted for ten minutes with some olive oil, parmesan cheese, and garlic salt at 375 degrees.

Happy eating!

Surprise cakes and sweet potatoes.

Remember the month of February?

I don't. Neither does this blog I guess.

However, there have been some amazing meals this month. There has also been some tragedy...I gave up desserts again for Lent. This has resulted in compensating with wine and huge spoonfuls of peanut butter. That's not dessert right? If so...sorry God. Gotta have me some peanut butter. Necessary protein.

I don't know why, but I always manage to increase my baking frequency when I CANNOT EAT BAKED GOODS. That, or there are always more baked goods in my vicinity. Here are some explicit examples.

Example 1: Valentine's Day. What a cruel joke to have Valentine's Day THE DAY AFTER LENT STARTS.  Come on. I can't eat roses. Steve's Mom sent us AMAZING looking chocolate covered strawberries and mini cheesecake bites. I glared at Steve as he ate them, with looks full of spite and resentment. I tried to convince him to freeze them, but he said the instructions said to eat them within 48 hours...I should probably double check that.

Example 2: Steve's birthday is in February. I threw him a little surprise dinner with some friends at an amazing southern restaurant in Tosa. I also lied to his face (which I'm terrible at by the way) and told him I was going shopping while I actually baked him a maple walnut cake at Caroline's apartment, while she made Kahlua cupcakes. I'm pretty sure the cake was full of longing tears from when I was mixing the batter. Find the recipe for the cake here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/maple-walnut-cake-recipe/index.html

Don't worry, I drank plenty of Kahlua to wash away the pain.

Example 3: I don't know why everyone and their mother is born in February, but I also baked a chocolate chip cookie pie for my co-therapist and our girls' trauma group. They told me that I was "old" because I was in my twenties, then demolished the pie. I'm overwhelmed with their appreciation. Find the recipe here: http://www.bakerella.com/chocolate-chip-cookie-pie%E2%80%A6-oh-my/. I would highly recommend this....it was CRAZY easy and looked amazing. I bought two frozen pie shells at the store so I can make it again after Easter.

I'll stop complaining about limiting my sugar intake and share some highlights of recipes from February. One of my favorites comes from my Uncles Doug and Charlie. It doesn't even have a recipe because it's so easy; the perfect meal to throw together on a whim. Pick out any type of sausage you like (I usually go for chicken sausage), and sautee it with kale and white beans. AMAZING flavor, and takes probably less than 10 minutes.

 

Yummo. Steve and I also did an all Ina night, in celebration of my two new Barefoot Contessa cookbook. 

Lemon thyme chicken, roasted cauliflower and cous cous with pine nuts. Check out her cookbooks Foolproof and Back to Basics for the recipes. Here are some links that have similar recipes: http://www.lhj.com/recipes/holidays/thanksgiving/ina-gartens-fabulous-thanksgiving/?page=2, http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/couscous-with-pine-nuts-recipe/index.html (substituted spinach for currants), and http://barefootcontessa.com/recipes.aspx?RecipeID=632&S=0.

Finally, I made a sweet potato chipotle soup with avocado.  It was DELISH. Little difficult to get the right amount of salt, but it was tasty and can easily be made vegan. It was actually a vegan dish, but I ended up using regular milk instead of almond milk.

I microwaved the sweet potatoes for 10 minutes to soften them a bit, and then only ended up baking them for about 10 minutes. I used an immersion blender to get the consistency, and it was spicy and tasty.

Happy eating :)