And in the 'less calorie' corner...

Monday Recap:

8:00am:  Coffee with creamer & cinnamon

9:30am:  Breakfast- Vitatop

11:00am:  Snack #1- Cheese stick  (I was STARVINGGGGGGGGG!)

12:30pm:  Lunch- Tropical Smoothie

So in an effort to use up all the scraps & stragglers, I took the leftover peaches & mangos from the caprese salad, froze them and used them for the sweet fruit in this smoothie!  I love when I feel somewhat clever & thrifty...even if it's just 'somewhat' J

• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1 pineapple Chobani yogurt
• Frozen leftover peach & mango slices
• Drop of coconut extract

The frozen fruit made this so thick & ice cream-like that I had to eat part of it with a spoon... 

Mock ice cream for lunch??  I'm OK with this. 

3:00pm:  Snack #2- Healthy Cinnamon Toast  (starving...againJ)

5:30pm:  Dinner- Salad with Maple-Almond Vinaigrette 

OK, so...Scott & I had a salad for dinner on Sunday night that was so ridiculously delicious that it was the first dish I've caved and had seconds of a dinner in YEARSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.  YEARS, people!  Pretty impressive for a salad, no??  I'm planning on making it again & sharing it with you guys later this week, but for now, I'll just give you a preview with the dressing, since that ALONE is just BEYOND DELICIOUS!

• 1 tablespoon almond butter
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 tablespoon maple syrup
• 1/2 tablespoon olive oil

(that's enough for 1 salad....double for 2!)  I mixed the salad with said dressing, grated parmesan cheese & a sprinkle of almond (and of course a lettuce/kale & spinach mix).  Parm & almond butter, you say??  YES!  The cheese swims right along with the sweet & salty dressing to create a luscious coating around the kale.  It is BEYOND divine.  I'm not sure how Scott & I will have any other dressing from this day forwardJ hehehehehhehe

6:30-7:45pm:  Beginner's Power Yoga

Phew...I was sweatin up a storm last night after a weekend of gentle yoga.  But it felt PHENOMENAL!

Well...that about wraps it up for today.  I have another zucchini 'pasta' recipe on the horizon for tonight.  Stay tuned for my newest twist & have a great Tuesday!J

Menu for the dog days...

Hey everyone!  So sorry for SUCH a long delay!  I felt under the weather nearly ALL week thanks to Katie passing on her 'summer cold' germs.  So dinners consisted mostly of chicken broth with tortellini (or, in all fairness, tortellini with chicken brothJ) all weekJ  But we're both finally feeling better & I wanted to rewind a bit and show you the goods from LAST weekend, since they were pretty tasty!

So that horrible heat wave FINALLY broke last Sunday, leading to cooler temps and a BLISSFUL day in the low 70's last week.  It was HEAVEN ON FALL EARTH, albeit, SUCH a teaseJ  But anyway, here was the COOOOOOOOOL menu I had mentioned, for when it is JUST. TOO. HOT.  (which, I'm sure we will have a few more days in our August future...sighhh...)

First up was one of my prettiest dishes to date:  A mango & peach caprese salad!

I'm not a big 'raw tomato' fan (if I haven't mentioned that 10 million timesJ), so this fruity swap was the perfect change of pace!  I simply layered sliced mango & peaches with fresh mozzarella and topped with a few sprigs of fresh basil.  Right before serving, I drizzled the salad with a mix of:

• 1/4 cup basil
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar
• dash of salt

(Not pictured...sorry!)  The mango/peaches made for a pretty presentation and the basil drizzle added just enough PUNCH to bring out all of the flavors.  Definitely do yourself a favor and make this to dazzle at your next summer picnic.  Your guests will thank youJ

Next up was a seashell pasta salad with buttermilk-herb dressing.  Yes, you have to turn on the stove to cook the pasta in advance, but after that...it was smooth & cool sailing!  

OK...so we DID turn on the toaster oven for ONE more element for dinner.  We made a batch of 'green goblin' garlic bread....but we had a good excuse since our niece was dining with us, and this is one of her favsJ  But you can always serve this meal with a regular (COOL!) loaf of Italian bread to round it out.  It definitely was a great compliment with the mango caprese saladJ

So there you have it....a perfect cooool menu for those dog days of summer!  I was certainly happy with this meal after multiple days 42093742093% humidityJ

And since we were celebrating my fellow coconut lover/Mother-in-law's birthday that night, I whipped up a quick pie worthy to conquer ANY sweet tooth.  (trust me, this thing is VERY SWEET)  First, I added about 12 chopped mini Almond Joy bars to the bottom of a pre-made graham cracker crust...

SIGN OF A GOOD DESSERT: 

Next, I topped with a layer of crumbled coconut cookies.... 

Then a layer of coconut...and lots of it!... 

And finally, 1 can of sweetened condensed milk... 

Toss in a 350 degree oven for about 25 minutes, or until the center is set... 

...and WALLAH!  Almond Joy pie! 

And like I said, this baby is SWEEEEEEET!  A very small sliver goes a LONG wayJ

I also had a fun little 'girls night experience' last weekend, where a Groupon led us to Chocolate Lovers' Club in Princeton, NJ for a 'savory & sweet fondue experience' that the store hosts on Saturday nights.  First up was the 'savory,' with an array of cheese, crackers...

...and WHITE CHOCOLATE! 

I LOVED the salty cheese with the creamy white chocolate.  It went perfectly, especially with the harvarti & brie cheese.

And for the sweet, we were served an array of fruit with chocolate... 

...along with a scoop of their chocolate nib gelato, that I loved!  It was creamy & dotted with crunchy & bitter cocoa nibs.  I'm not a huge fan of DARK chocolate, but this hit the spot for some reason. 

But, OK, let's be honest....some cheese, fruit & chocolate does not a dinner make.  So what did we do??  Pretty much THE most indulgent "PLAN B" and headed off to the 'new' Delorenzo's in Robbinsville, complete with their old sign in the entry way...

It had been FAR too long without a DeLorenzo's red clam pie.  It was a sweet, sweet reunionJ 

Well, this weekend was also rounded out by too much cheese & some more pizza (the delicious Federici's, this time!)  So it is BACK TO THE GRIND todayJ  My workout schedule also took a hit last week, but I started taking some GENTLE yoga classes at the end of the week to start getting myself back to work, and then dove 2 feet in for some boxing class yesterdayJ  I was VERY happy to get out and MOVE, I must sayJ

ALRIGHT!!!  Enough from me!  Have a good oneJ

Cheese x's 2...

Thursday Recap:

8:00am:  Coffee with creamer & cinnamon

9:30am:  Waffles with butter & flax

I made a waffle for Katie for breakfast yesterday and it just smelled toooo darn good.  The call of the waffles is just too tempting sometimesJ

2:00pm:  Lunch- Quinoa buffalo chicken mac & cheese

I had made Kristin's recipe for this tangy, cheesy dish over the weekend and polished off the last of it for lunch yesterday.  Even Katie tried a few bitesJ

3:00pm:  Snack- Peach 

My first sweet peach of the summer...although not Katie'sJ hehehehehehhee

6:00pm:  Dinner- Pizza Grilled cheese 

So dinner last night wasn't as coooooool as the other dinner's this week, but it WAS one that required only about 10 minutes in the kitchen.  Which was about all I could handle last nightJ  I knew this dinner was going to be 1,2,3 and I STILL almost reached for that phone to call for pizzaJ  But instead, I did the next closest thingJ  All you have to do is gather up all of your ingredients...

Top a few slices of bread with mozzarella, mini pepperoni and a sprinkle of grated cheese, oregano & garlic powder...

Top the bread with another slice and slather with butter & another sprinkle of garlic... 

5 minutes on ye ole griddle... 

And wallah!  Crunchy & cheesy pizza grilled cheese! 

All of the flavors of the garlic & oregano, not to mention the string-y cheese, REALLY brought out the flavors of the pizza.  But what put it over the top in the flavor department was a little dip in the tomato sauce/garlic powder pool...YUM! 

And since CHEESE was already on the menu, I figured why not go big or go home, right?J  So I took some simple summer Jersey corn... 

...and kicked it up about 400%!

With, what else???  MORE CHEESE!!!!! 

I started with a mix of canola-based mayo with a sprinkle of garlic powder, salt & a dash of chili powder...

Then you slather it on the hot corn...

And then it's time for the corn to take a rolllllll in the cheese!  Cotija cheese to be exact (which is what is traditionally used in Mexican street corn.) 

And finally a spritz of lime...which is TOTALLY essential!  Any bites without the lime were just THISMUCH less spectacular from an absolutely spectacular piece of corn.  Want a simple way to impress your guests?  Try this out!  It's so easy, yet over-the-top deliciousJ

And speaking of over-the-top delicious, a HOT day & night just CALLED for a cool treat...and yesterday I went TOP SHELF... 

Cool & creamy mint ice cream surrounded by smooth chocolate mixed with crunchy sugar crystals...talk about DECADENT!  These things are definite ONCE IN AWHILE treats, but oh-so worth it when you get to indulge!

And despite my splurge, exercise was just NOT on the menu yesterday.  It was one of those days where even the air conditioner didn't make the house cool enough and the last thing I felt like doing at 9pm, at the end of a HOT day, was to sweat some more.  I knowJ  Scott works outside all day and I think complains about 95% less than me about the heatJ  I just can't help myself this time of year!J hahahahhahahaa

Alright, well that's enough complaining from me!  Hope you guys have some COOOOOL weekend plans!  We have a COOL menu planned for tonight that I'll share with you on Monday, since I know we have PLENTY of dog days still ahead of us...

Have a great weekend!!!!

It's...

TOO. DAMN. HOT!

Now that I got THAT outta my system...J

Wednesday recap:

8:00am:  Coffee with creamer & cinnamon

10:00am:  Breakfast- Wheat toast with peanut butter

10:30-11:45am:  Power Yoga

Including mountain climbers...yeeeee!

1:00pm:  Date smoothie 

I added a scoop of protein powder to this one since I was coming off a sweaty & muscle-y yoga class.  Just as yummy.  Did I mention 'I heart dates' this week???J

5:00pm:  Avocado chicken salad lettuce wraps 

Considering I nearly fainted of heat stroke walking from my air-conditioned car to my air-conditioned home (GOD BLESS YOU FOLKS WHO WORK OUTSIDE IN THIS WEATHER!  You are all rockstars!), I knew there was nothing but a coooooooool dinner on the horizon!

Crisp lettuce cups filled with creamy avocado/Greek yogurt mixed chicken salad in one corner... 

...and sweet watermelon in the other....

Tell me THAT's not an easy, breezy summer dinner!  And you only need to turn your stove on to poach the chicken = BONUS!

6:00-7:00pm:  Body Jam

I nearly didn't make it since I was NOT really looking forward to going back out again, but thankfully the new release is SUPER fun that I couldn't stay awayJ

Alright...well I believe my child has now taken out every single pot & pan from my closet in the time it took me to type up this quick blog post!  I better go and begin to rearrange my house again...hahahahahhahaa...

Have a good day!J

Cool & crisp...

Tuesday Recap:

8:00am:  Coffee with creamer & cinnamon

9:30am:  Breakfast-"Spinach Pizza"

It's as delicious as it is...non attractiveJ hahahahahha

12:00pm:  Lunch- Date Banana smoothie

So I've literally had this bag of dates in my cabinet for so long that, after racking my brain, I still have NO CLUE what I originally bought them for!  But I had been hearing about date milkshakes for awhile and how sweet & creamy they were, so I thought I'd try one out for myself with ye ole dates....

• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 4 dates, chopped
• 1 frozen banana
• 3-4 cubes of ice
• cinnamon, nutmeg & cloves

Super sweet with a little kick of sweet spice, this was definitely a unique smoothie flavor.  Now watch, I'll have to buy a NEW bag of dates after all these years once I get on a date smoothie kickJ

2:30pm:  Snack- Healthy cinnamon toast

6:00pm:  Dinner- Southwestern Shrimp Salad

I have been eyein this recipe since it graced the cover of my Cooking Light magazine a couple years agoJ

And it was definitely worth the wait!

Crisped bacon...

Sauteed red pepper & fresh corn...

Seared garlic-coated shrimp...

And lots of other goodies including spinach salad mix, avocado, red onion & diced scallions...

And a quick whisked dressing made of lemon juice, olive oil, mustard & salt...

This made for one light, healthy and REALLY delicious salad made with a variety of textures of flavors (my favorite!)  I LOVED the addition of the cooled, sweet fresh corn...and of course, who can hate on the added bacon??  You'll LOVE THIS, for sure!

Alright...well, it's too damn hot to type anything elseJ  Stay cool & have a good Wednesday!