Pizza Bites...

Tuesday Recap:

8:00am:  Coffee with creamer

9:00am:  Breakfast-2 multigrain waffles with butter & flaxseed

I knew I was going to be on the go this morning, and since I was COMPLETELY STARVING by 11:30am on Monday, I thought I'd slam down two of these bad bears before heading out the door.  And I honestly don't think I was really hungry for the rest of the day after thatJ  These things are REALLY filling!

1:00pm:  Lunch- 2 turkey tenders with 2 Laughing cow cheese wedges 

4:00pm:  Snack- Strawberries 

6:00pm:  Pizza Quinoa Bites

I followed the above recipe to the letter, only swapping in mini turkey pepperonis... 

...oh yeah, and making more "Quinoa MUFFINS" than bitesJ  Ain't nobody got time for THAT!J 

The only suggestion would be to make sure you add enough herbs & spices.  These definitely needed a lot more oregano and salt...that side of marinara for dipping was definitely needed.

(ps-Katie LOVED these...sans the pepperoniJ)

And don't pack those veggies away too far!  Considering it was blustery & COLD yesterday in Jersey, these seemed completely appropriate.  Oh, I love them so...  

8:00pm:  Dessert

And maybe a slice of Ivy's Cake was had... 

...and maybe it was heated in the microwave for 30 seconds to melt the buttermilk glaze...

...and then maybe a scoop of vanilla ice cream was involved.  Just saying!

Alright, I'm better get a move on & into my yoga clothes for class today!  Fun dinner out tonight...hopefully I remember my cameraJ

Have a good one!

Bursting with green...

Monday Recap:

8:00am:  Coffee with creamer

9:00am:  Breakfast- Multigrain waffle with butter & flax

11:30am:  Lunch- Salad

Maybe not the best lunch pick since I already knew what I was having for dinner, butttt I guess 'too much salad' in one day is not a real problem.  Besides, I was STARVINGGGGGGGG by 11:30 and this sounded SO good and came together in an instant...

• Arugula
• 1 diced cheese stick
• 1/2 diced apple
• Diced basil
• Raspberry vinaigrette

3:00pm:  Snack- Cashew Cookie Larabar

Ingredients list:  Dates, Cashews.  The end.

5:30pm:  Dinner- Yep, another Spring Salad with Goat Cheese 

Round 2 of salad & cheese for the day:)  This time mixed with:

• Kale ("marinated" in the basil dressing)
• Goat Cheese coated in diced & toasted walnuts
• craisins
• Green grapes 

6:30-7:50pm:  Beginners Power Yoga class

And all of our dinner plans nearly went out the window as I spent nearly the whole day thinking about our dinner on Sunday at Mikonos and how badly I wanted chicken souvlaki againJ  hahahhahahaha...well, that AND cinnamon rolls since the Pioneer Woman's recipe are supposedly extraordinary & the Food Network magazine decided to grace the cover with those scrumptious little gems...

WHY I have this out & about where it can stare me in the face multiple times a day is beyond me!  I have a feeling these will be whipped up in the near future.  I mean, how ELSE am I suppose to handle all this temptation? (oh, flip the magazine over?  Well, that's just blasphemyJ

Have a great Tuesday, everyone!

A Greek weekend recap...

Hey everyone!  Hope you had a great weekend.  Since Katie decided to take a super short nap today, I'm gonna have to make my weekend wrap up a quick one...although it WAS delicious!  Here's how it all went down:

The Pioneer Woman Cookbook was secured from the library...

Friday night, Potato & Leek pizza was made...

Leeks, potatoes, goat cheese, mozzarella, Parmesan and bacon = scrumptious! 

Cookbook cracked open again for Sunday morning breakfast...

Shhhh...don't tell anyone the secret ingredientJ  They'll NEVER know it's in thereJ  

Approved by husbands & kids alikeJ  

 PHENOMENAL Greek dinner was had (via a great GROUPON!) at Mikonos Resteraunt in Ewing, NJ.

Kolokithokeftedes...

(or zucchini croquettesJ  I just wanted to put that authentic, big word up there like I knew what I was talking aboutJ)

Light & bright Greek salad...

DE.LIC.IOUS chicken souvlaki with lemon potatoes... 

Their menu has about 89 dishes that sound intriguing, but I have no clue how I'll ever go here again without ordering this dish.  The herded & grilled chicken which you fold into the accompanied pita & slather in a tangy & creamy mustard sauce was simply DIVINE.  Even those lemon roasted potatoes were positively heavenly!  I'm drooling just thinking about this dish...

And ya can't complete any Greek dinner WITHOUT some house made, honey drenched Baklava... 

And all with a bill for $8, thanks to my Groupon purchase.  But regardless, we can NOT WAIT to go back to Mikonos again!  (thought you'd like that one especially, PaulJ)

And (hopefully) enough working out to balance out all that baklava!

Friday:  1 hour Body Jam class

Saturday:  yep, another hour of Body Jam (I'm obsessedJ)

Sunday:  1 hour BOXING class  (WITH handwraps this week, thankfully!)

Alrighty, let me get back to my little lunaticJ  Hope you have a great Monday!

Where we're going & where we've been...

Wednesday Recap:

8:00am:  Coffee with creamer

9:00am:  Breakfast- Banana Coconut Green Monster

I just figured I'd make a small glass since my new little smoothie swiper just LOVES to sample what I have...even with a whole highchair tray of Cheerios & bananaJ

Oh well, who would pass up the chance to see a baby in a spinach-green mustache, anyways?

And with that, I've managed to polish off a whole bag of spinach in 2 days.  Yeah...that surprised me tooJ

10:30am-12:00pm:  Power Yoga Class

1:00pm:  Lunch-Peanut Butter chocolate chip Larabar
I wanted EVERYTHING and NOTHING for lunch today.  Ya know that feelin?  So before I plowed through the cabinets trying to figure out what I wanted, with NOTHING hitting the spot, I just slammed down this Larabar and went and cleaned some dishes to take my mind off of food, period!

And it actually worked...despite my mid-afternoon Pinterest browsing seshJ

3:00pm:  Snack-9 Dark Chocolate Almonds

I probably should have had fruit for a snack...but my salt-tooth was flying off the radar.  And, ya know, who can complain about a chocolate fix too?

6:00pm:  Dinner- The return of GNUDI

Wohoooooo...who doesn't love a night where GNUDI is on the menu??

A quick mix of ricotta, eggs, parmesan, spinach & flour formed into dumpings... 

...a quick boil & kept warm in hot gravy.. 

So good!  Cheesy & decadent, but light, airy and not at all heavy...these are a cinch to throw together, but I think are even quicker to eatJ  I think I had dinner polished off in under 10 minutesJ

Oh yeah...and we had salad too, cause gals can't live on cheese alone.  But God, I wish we couldJ 

Katie was also a fan of her first samples of Gnudi...or was it her new 'child appropriate' forks?J 

Even if, after awhile, the fork was ditched to make way for a quicker way to shove in those dumpling bites.  No time for 'fork practice' when there's cheesy bites staring you in the face.  Can ya blame the kid?? 

Gnudi:  Approved by adults & 1 year olds alikeJ

And in other random thoughts, how bout some Weight Lose musings, shall we? (and who doesn't always need some of THAT?!)  So I've gone back and forth between being ELATED and soooooooooo frustrated trying to battle off these LAST. FEW. "KATIE." POUNDS!  I'm so close I can TASTE it and as of this morning, I'm only 3 pounds away.  Now I've been working out quite a bit (bumping up my cardio to an hour 2-3 days a week on top of my 2-3 days of power yoga a week) and FEEL good and fit, but I JUST want to see the DAMN NUMBER ON THE SCALE, ya know??   ...

Soooooooo...yesterday at yoga class I surprised myself by balancing a pose I didn't even think I would be able to get INto (a shaky little version of this number, in case you're wondering), so the teacher proceeded to start telling everyone else who was trying the move that "you might not be able to get it today, but in 3 months of working, you can get it."  Which got me thinking that a year ago I probably wouldn't have been able to balance that pose AND I was twenty pounds away from where I am today.  I had been SOOOOOOO focused on those last few pounds, that I hadn't even REALIZED that or to look back and see how far I've come.  What were you doing this time last year?  How has your life changed since then?  We really are so focused on where we're going, that we sometimes forget all we've accomplished to get where we are today.  So my advice for today:  Be proud of where you are NOW.  Maybe you're a LITTLE bit stronger, or even just THINKING about trying to get healthier.  ANY little positive change is better than where you were yesterday and setting you up to head in the right direction!

Don't even get me started on my loooooooong journey of my college degree in Film & Media Arts and where that may lead.  That's for another time & placeJ

OK...you've heard WAY more than you needed from me today!  Have a good Thursday!

They're confusing...

Tuesday Recap:

8:00am:  Coffee with creamer

9:15am: Breakfast- THE RETURN of the mulitgrain waffle with flax & butterJ

12:00pm:  Lunch- Cake Batter Green Monster 

So I had made this popular Pinterest Cake Batter Protein shake over the holidays and absolutely LOVED it.  I made it again yesterday (swapping cottage cheese for ricotta & 1/2 teaspoon sugar for the splenda...even if I don't think any sweetner was even needed) but threw in a couple handfuls of spinach because I figured "why not?"

OK...I'm not gonna lie.  The first few sips I thought you COULD taste the spinach a bit.  Which was odd because I've never tasted it in ANY of the other green monsters, but this one DID have a slight twinge.  After a couple sips though, it tasted just like a frothy vanilla milkshake.  I would definitely make this again, but just a heads up that ya gotta give it just 2 or 3 sipsJ  hahahahahahaha

3:00pm:  Snack- Dark Chocolate Covered Almonds

And yes, in case you're wondering, I did indeed make a 'stock up trip' to Trader Joe's on Monday...so WELCOME BACK Multigrain waffles and chocolate almondsJ  

6:00pm:  Dinner- Chicken gyros & fennel salad

This dinner required about 10 minutes of prep work in order to let the marinade & tzatziki sauce let the flavors blend an hour before cooking, but once that was done, everything else came together in a jiff.

Into a pita went:  Marinated grilled chicken & tzatziki sauce

Topped with...YUM...feta cheese...

These were SOOOOOOOOO light & delicious!  Spiced chicken with tangy yogurt, crunchy cucumbers & salty feta.  Tons of flavors!  Soooo good!

 As I side, I whipped up a quick fennel salad.  I just tossed a halved fennel bulb in the food processor with the slice blade (or just use a mandolin or slice thin) and tossed with some olive oil, lemon juice & grated cheese...and I threw in a little arugula to add some green since I had it on hand.

I told Scott:  As roasted vegetables is to winter, so will be lemon juice/evoo/grated cheese salads will be to spring/summer.  I made this along with the marinade & tzatziki to give the fennel time to soften from the acid in the lemon juice and it worked like a charm.  The simple dressing just makes everything taste so light & fresh and the parm just give it that little extra flavor kick.  Prepare to see this version of a side dish A LOT in the next few months!

I also had to laugh when I looked up and saw Scott balancing the pita in one hand and shoveling fennel salad in with the other.  

I said "yet another 'what the hell happened to us?' moment."  His reply:  "Yeah, it used to be burgers & fries."  hahahahahhaa...

And in more funny news, the gyros were a big hit all around in the house.  Katie thought the chicken was good...but INHALEDDDDDDDDDDD the FENNEL. 

Yes, I said THE FENNEL.  Much like the lime & cilantro quinoa, sometimes it's the acquired tastes I would swear she wouldn't like that she ends up DEVOURS.  

Kids.  They're confusingJ

Alrighty, well that wraps it up for today.  My most exciting tidbit of today is that after a month-long wait, my name FINALLY came up on the "hold" list for the Pioneer Woman's first cookbook at the library.  I never really followed her incredible blog, but LOVEEEEEEE watching her show on the Food Network on Saturday mornings with KatieJ  So who knows if my dinner plans may get bummed in lieu of one of her simple, yet decadent dinner recipes.

Yeah, sorry.  That's as exciting as it's getting around here todayJ

Have a good WednesdayJ