Workin the Leftovers...

Well, it took all of ONE day before I broke back into my new "cheese stash!" I couldn't let it go to waste, AFTER ALL....
So I ended up making these ridiculously delicious Homemade Ricotta "Flatbreads"....holy moly...
Since the homemade ricotta had this awesome "burnt" taste to it, I had a grande plan to grill the flatbreads (aka. rolled out pizza dough;) to give the dough itself a burnt taste as well. But all those plans went out the window after the skies decided to douse us with flood inducing rains. Soooooo....we went with a good back up: Our pizza stone! I preheated the oven (and stone) to 400 and cooked the dough for 20 minutes, flipping after 10 minutes. They came pretty perfect...

Meanwhile, I chopped up some cherry tomatoes and cooked them in a saute pan with some olive oil, basil and about 6 cloves of garlic. We always smell AWESOME!!!!....

And once the dough was crispy, I topped them with a few scoops of the ricotta, the tomato & garlic and a drizzle of olive oil....I could have eaten 10 more of these:Totally simple, but AMAZING flavor! I wish I had VATS of this ricotta just laying around...it was THAT good!

I hear sunshine and warm weather is coming tomorrow (thank God!) Have a great night!

Say "Cheese!"

Well, now we proceed to the OTHER end of the spectrum from this morning's post, as I show you my latest "culinary adventure": A "How to Make Italian Cheese" cooking class that I took with a friend on Saturday afternoon!

Here we are learning how to make fresh mozzarella. Well, my friend is doing all the work...me & the woman in the green are just checkin out the situation... :)
We also learned how to make fresh ricotta (which was just TOO. DIE. FOR...so fantastic!!) & sale cheese...which was the same as mozzarella, but you use a yellow curd to form a firmer cheese, rather than the soft white curd.... (do you feel "cheese smarter" already?? Thought so! ;)
Here's a real cheese artist doin his thang...
Look at me: Learning;) Here I am trying to wrap up the fresh mozzarella, while the teachers behind me are doing all the heavy lifting;)
Nice, right??
And as our "grand finale" for the class...we made a FIVE cheese pasta baked in parchment.....did you feel your cholesterol go up a few notches just reading that?? :)
We used ricotta, mozzarella, Parmesan, asiago and Swiss...not to mention the heavy cream & butter.....;)

Totally worth it....just look at that amazing cheesy goodness!!!!
There was also a loverly plate of the fresh mozzarella with tomato and basil. Life doesn't get much better than this:
Well, after that, we were all cheesed out! Well, until I start using my "take home leftovers" in my meals this week! Hahahahahahahhaa...stay tuned!

ps-Thanks for the pictures, John!! :)

Monday Healthy Tip #2...

Well...mean ole Monday just has a way of ruining a perfectly good weekend, doesn't it?? It always seems to rear it's ugly head just as your starting to RELAX! Oh well...at least I have two EXTREMES for you today. We'll start with one end of the spectrum: Healthy Tip #2....

And I think this one is JUST as important as not thinking of yourself as being "on a diet". My whole weight loss journey started, literally, because I woke up one day and said to myself "I'm going to start working out, NOT watching what I eat, but I'll work out." And with that, I started using the Leslie Sansone 30 minute "Walk away the Pounds" DVD's that my Mom had in the video cabinet for years. And the reason this finally STUCK with me is that I rationalized in my head "in the time it could take me to go back and forth about all the reasons I could or couldn't get off the couch and do this, I could be done with it." And it stuck. So my advice for the day: ALWAYS make your healthy habits ACCESSIBLE! I'd be super proud if you told me you were going to get up every single day and run 10 miles and live on carrots....but really, how long are you going to do that for?? You have to do what you enjoy and what you can easily work into your life. I need to give myself as few reasons to have excuses as humanly possible! :) So make whatever changes you choose to be accessible and realistic and you'll go into "lifestyle mode," rather than "diet mode," in no time!

OK...after that healthy post, I have something quite UN-healthy for later today. But life is all about moderation, right?? ;)

Sweet Saturday Treat

So you might remember my plea for a way to add chocolate chips to my Oatmeal "Breakfast Cookie," and still being able to call it healthy. Well....I might have stumbled on a way to solve that problem, and the answer was right in front of me! (well, in a bottle on my window ledge;)

I present to you:
Some of the healthy benefits of these little nuggets of gold included a high number of antioxidants (more than blueberries & green tea!), the #1 food source of magnesium and heart healthy monounsaturated fats. Well, that's enough of an excuse for ME to like them! For more info. on cocoa beans, check out this link. Pretty interesting, right??

So after I ran my cocoa nibs through the coffee grinder, I cooked my oatmeal on the stove top and added a (OK, maybe 2) teaspoons of brown sugar and a good sprinkle of cinnamon....

So good! The cocoa gave it just a subtle taste of dark chocolate, plus I liked the CRUNCH of the few leftover bean pieces. Try this out if your a chocolate fan....I'm sure you could find cocoa nibs in a health store, or here. (Although I wouldn't mind going back to Costa Rica to stock up;)

In other food news, I spent my morning kneading like crazy on my Grandmother/Mom's recipe for our traditional Italian Sweet Bread....Fingers crossed this comes out good!! (If not, my arms at least got a workout for the day;)

The Shiny New Toy...

Do you like my new layout?? I wanted to go with something a little simpler to allow the food to (hopefully!) shine...now I just gotta get crackin on these photography skillz ;)

So if you had told me about...what?...10 years ago that my husband & I would be settling down to nice warm bowls of POLENTA and SPINACH on a Friday night, I would have said you were crazy.

And yet, it has happened:
AND, not only did that happen, but this just happens to be one of our favorite simple, healthy meals. I think we managed to cut our cooking time of this dish to just about 20 minutes. You can't order pizza THAT fast!!
We use this recipe: Vegetarian Pumpkin Polenta....
First you mix up the pumpkin polenta, which takes all of 10 minutes TOPS:
And about 10 minutes to heat up the white beans & spinach....(although I like to leave this for a little while longer so the beans crisp and start to crackle:)
Sooooo delicious, quick and simple. If you've never tried polenta, this might be a good starting point since it's flavored really well. And I'd like to make a public apology to my Mom & Grandmother who, had they made me this for dinner back in the day, I probably would have flung myself on the floor and caused a ruckus of epic proportions:) Somewhere, my Grandmother is either laughing...or rolling her eyes;) hahahahhahahaha....

After dinner, I had a cup of eggnog coffee....which was not a good idea:) I took one whiff and it was just Christmas morning all over again in my house;) ahhh, memories:) Oh well, guess I better get in the CORRECT seasonal swing and start crackin on my EASTER bread! Have a great Saturday!!

Sesame Vegetable Stir Fry with the Mystery Dinner Guest...

So my Wednesday night prep turned into these: Turkey egg rolls! O.M.G...FAB-U-LOUS!
Along with a sesame vegetable stir fry that was awweeesoomme:)
For the stir fry, I took a little help from where else?? (Well, Trader "Ming's" as the bag proclaimed;) I liked the mix of veggies (however, I did meticulously pick out all of the mushrooms...cause their just gross;) and thought this would be a helpful addition since I had already prepped the egg rolls and cooked up the brown rice...

I heated a tablespoon of oil in a pan and then tossed in a clove of minced garlic. Once that got all toasty, I added my cooked brown rice and the vegetables. I stirred them a bit along with some soy sauce, sesame oil, sesame seeds and some ground ginger until everything was heated through. Rice = Done!

And no, I actually didn't burn the sesame seeds!! I just happened to find these nifty black roasted seeds at Wegman's awhile ago and was OH-SO-EXCITED when I realized I had the perfect excuse to use them...

And the egg rolls were a LOT easier then you would expect. They were easy to prep, and all I had to do was pop them in the oven last night. Which was just GLORIOUS:)

On Wednesday night I cooked almost a pound of ground turkey, 2 cups of cabbage, a few handfuls of shredded carrots and bean sprouts, chopped up celery, a clove of garlic and an onion. And mixed it all up with soy sauce and ground ginger....SO GOOD!

Next, you lay out the egg roll wrappers and place a few tablespoons of the turkey filling in the center...

Fold the top corner over, followed by the 2 sides and then the bottom end to seal (use water around the edges to help it stick!)

I ended up with 7 (pretty packed) egg rolls! Last night, I just had to preheat the oven at 400. I covered a cookie sheet with foil and cooking spray and placed the rolls seam side down. I gave them a quick spritz of the cookie spray to help crisp them up and baked for 15 minutes:

I felt sooo "guilty" eating these, because they tasted JUST like the deep fried version! I actually kept having to remind myself that they were baked...which is always a good thing! (And I didn't miss that greasy, gross feeling that comes along with oily fried egg rolls!) Take out made right at home just can't be beat!

Well, I was awake long enough last night to upload these pictures and then I PASSED OUT!! :) Sooo......HAPPY FRIDAY!!! I have quite a few interesting food "adventures" planned for this weekend, so hopefully I'll have some good stuff for you coming up! Have a good (FRI)day!

Trader Oats...

Are you sick of hearing me talk about Trader Joe's yet?? Well, the bad news is: I doubt I'll be stopping anytime soon. I just looooovvvvveeee it there! I feel like I've lived there since they opened a store near us in December:) Can't I do a commercial for them, or something?? They can pay me in discounts;) Not that their prices aren't completely reasonable to begin with. But you can always find the most interesting things.....


Which leads me to my breakfast today....
Ok, ok...steel cut oats aren't earth shattering, BUT they normally take a half hour or so to make, so a 2 minute microwavable version is a pretty good weekday substitute. However, imagine my surprise when I opened the box, and found this:

Well, I guess if I can eat "Oats in a Jar", it really shouldn't be that surprising to see "Oats in a bag"...(plus, really, who wants to pay for the extra packaging for a mini bowl??)

I just had my oats plain and heated up in the microwave...completely forgetting the almonds that I had thought about including for the last, um, 8 hours...oh well! But it was nice, warm & yummy. You may need to add a little extra sweetener, but I didn't want to mess with the "natural" brown sugar & REAL maple syrup that the box claimed it contained. Yum!

Tag Team Dinner

Tonight's dinner was a true joint effort:) We were busy bees around the kitchen...
While Scott was busy working his magic on the pork chops:
...I was busy working on our side dish: Green Harvest Couscous...All the while, I was able to get started on dinner for TOMORROW night...and let me tell ya, our kitchen smelled AMAZING when I took this picture!! It's moments like this that you wish computer screens were scratch 'n sniff;) Believe me! :)

And once everything was completed...it looked a little somethin' like this:

This was one of those PERFECT dinners that was QUICK, healthy and BURSTING with flavor!!!

(ps-like my new "spring" placemats??? I got them from the $1 store! Sweet, right??)

Couscous salad is one of our very favorite dishes during the summer months, but this was a PERFECT spring hold over! We couldn't figure out from the recipe if it was suppose to be served hot or cold, but it turned out sorta lukewarm and completely amazing!

I used chicken broth in place of water to cook the whole wheat couscous (I always do, it adds extra flavor), skipped the pecans and swapped feta for the goat cheese. The zucchini, cucumber & arugula were great, but you can use whatever you have laying around to make this...it was just awesome, fresh and healthy!

And Scott made some meeaaaaaannnnnn pork chops! I never ate pork chops until I moved in with him (sorry, Mom!!), but now I'm a huge fan:) I didn't see exactly what he threw in the coating, but I heard something about grated cheese;) Crispy & delicious!

For dessert...this was calling to me:

Edy's makes some of the best, best, best light ice creams around (unlike some brands, that might or might not begin with the letter "B"...I'm just sayin...:) This flavor has mini peanut butter cups and peanut butter swirled through the vanilla ice cream...scrumptious!

This is my only real use for a wine glass:) Sad, right?? ;)

One last thing for the evening: Here's a sneak peek of tomorrow night's dinner...any guess what it is???

Geeze...I typed all of this and American Idol is STILL on!! They really need to cut these results shows to 10 minutes. Less painful for all of us! Have a great night!! :)

I survived...well, so far...

So I cracked open the Jillian Yoga DVD this morning and braced myself. Now let me preface by saying I ONLY did LEVEL ONE, but it really wasn't THAT scary!! She just takes yoga moves and adds extra movement to them. And she does them in a circuit: 3 sets of 3 different poses/exercises, which you do on both your right & left sides. It kept it interesting and just slightly different that a "traditional" yoga 'practice' where you just go from movement to movement.


Now level TWO, that might be a different story.....possibly a story like this:

We'll see:)


In 'breakfast news', I had a bowl of Warm Cinnamon Heart to Heart Kashi this morning.....

...which did just what I was afraid it was going to do: It reminded me of FALL! Everything is such a tease:) But this is GREAT cereal, and it's only 110 calories for 3/4 of a cup. I added a quarter of a sliced up banana and it was just loverly. Thought I'd pass that on:)

It's back to gorgeous & sunny in NJ! Can't wait to go catch some rays on my lunch break:) Have a good day:)

The Best Cure for a Rainy Day...

So our beautiful spring weather got swept away the last 2 days.:( But around 5:00pm, I was QUITE ok with it, knowing that I was going home to my slow cooker that had been simmering allllll day on this: Chicken Tortilla Soup...isn't it pretty??
Well, I actually took a little help from my beloved Trader Joe's and added both the roasted corn and fire roasted peppers & onions....so I think I ended up with a Chicken FAJITA Tortilla Soup;)

I was afraid it was going to be a little TOO much in the ICK department, adding the entire can of enchilada sauce...but let me tell ya: I let out a LOUD "MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM" after my very first bite! It was sooooooooooooooo good! I just kept saying "I can't believe how good this is!!!" Absolutely warm, spicy & perfect after the dreary, rainy day that was today. And topped with a little cheese, sour cream and a few tortilla chips knocked this outta the park! Make. This. Tonight! (even if it's sunny:)

And Trader Joe's is also to blame for my dessert choice of the evening, as I was seduced by their damn newsletter announcing the arrival of THIS to the store...
Oooey. Gooey. Sweet. Buttery. Cinnamon. Sugar = YES, PLEASE!!!!! Just LOOK at that baby:

They did NOT mention the raisins in the newsletter, but I'll forgive the oversight:) It was wonderful, non the less...especially the crust...

This is practically BEGGING me to make French Toast on a Sunday morning! Yum!

I hear the sun is suppose to make it's grand return tomorrow. Finger's crossed "they" are correct! Enjoy your night:)

I'm Terrified...

And completely thrilled by this news:

So, I am the biggest fan (no pun intended) of Bob Harper's Yoga workout video. I live, breath and die by it (wow, that was dramatic:), but it's true! I was always afraid to try yoga thinking it wouldn't be a good enough workout and it would be too "chanty". Well, Bob TOTALLY changed all that for me! This video will KICK. YOUR. A&%! It's no joke:)It made me fall in love, love, LOVE with yoga, and for that I will forever be thankful!! :) But now look who just joined the yoga block party:Talk about kicking your ass! My life just got so much better and yet, so much more painful! ;) I ordered this the other day and it just came in the mail last night! Soooo I can't wait to try it, however I fear she's just going to make you hold planks for a solid hour:) This should be interesting... ;) If you don't hear from me for a few days, just know it didn't go well ;)

I have dinner brewing away in the slow cooker at the moment...so I'll have a picture for you tomorrow, especially since our salads last night were pretty boring:) Enjoy your day!