Weekly Balance, week 6...

Hey, everyone!  I know I'm a day late & a dollar short on my weekly wrap-up, but I'm trying to get back on track after a couple weeks of 'inspiration roadblock.'  I have plenty of things I WANT to write about, but haven't been able to get my thoughts together enough to write a 'deep thoughts' post and really don't want to half-ass it!  But I should have a couple posts this week to get back in the swing.

And in getting back in the swing....weekly wrap-up post comin at ya NOW!

Monday:  Taco dip with tortilla chips, apples & guacamole

This recipe needs to be the poster child of how I LOVE to cook, but trulyreally at the end of the day CAN NOT.  I mean, honestly!  I swear I just fake it on a wing and a prayer most daysJ  

Example #905048:  This recipe called for rice and we were out of white rice and I just wasn't feelin the brown rice that day (although, honestly, you probably wouldn't have even noticed the chewy texture around everything else going on in the 'dip').  So what do I do???  Add what we had laying around the kitchen,  Which was...wait for it....BLACK RICE.  And guess what BLACK RICE does to a pot of tomato-based red chili??  So yes, that is how we came to eat black/purple taco dip to kick off the week.

*shakes head in exasperation*

At least it tasted good....and even the purple-hued leftovers were really good, but...

*still shaking head in exasperation*

MOVING ALONG!

Tuesday:  Sundried tomato chicken + lightly glazed rainbow carrots

From black rice to rainbow carrots & I SWEAR they are SUPPOSED to be that color!  I'm currently LIVING for those purple/yellow/orange carrot bouquets.  Not to mention this entire dish is 'last meal on earth' contender worthy.  I actually told Scott if we had this same meal for an entire week, I'd be fine with that.  AKA- TRY NOW!

Wednesday:  Chicken puffed tacos 

I tried the Pioneer Woman version this week where you stuffed the chicken in the taco BEFORE taking them for a dip in the hot oil...but then you could barely pry them open enough to top them with all the good stuff...hence that pile of lettuce sitting on TOP of the taco in the frontJ  (oh yes, that IS a taco.  I know...J)  So I nixed that plan for our other 'cos in favor of giving us plenty of room to add ALLTHECHEESEANDGUACAMOLEANDLETTUCE.  I truly love the LETTUCE.

Again, I know....

Thursday:  Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce 

This meal came about because the day COMPLETELY got away from me (although with what?  At this moment I have ZERO CLUE.  #momlife)  But after flipping through my Pioneer Woman cookbook for those above tacos, I found this recipe and realized we had all the ingredients and that this meal was going to come together in .4 seconds.  I countered that cream in the recipe with replacing 3/4 of the spaghetti with zucchini noodles.  They all played nicely together in the pool of creamy, dreamy sauce.  

Hashtag Balance.

Friday:  Lunch/dinner at Palace of Asia

2 yoga classes and a terribly rainy & blustery day to end a week of terribly rainy/blustery days led to a craving for Indian food could NOT be ignored for one more moment.  The BEST part of Palace of Asia (besides it being a GORGEOUS restaurant) is their weekday lunch buffet, where you can try ALLTHETHINGS.  And for someone who does not know too much about Indian cuisine, this is a great introduction.  And even after going more times than I can count, I STILL have no clue what my veryfavoritedishes are from there, but I'm always willing to go back as much as possible to try to figure it outJ

Saturday:  Take-out baked ziti + cheesey garlic bread + salad

NEEDED.  At least Scott & I shared the entree with leftovers still lingering in our kitchen.  A great way to portion & 'keep it all in check.'

 Sunday:  Homemade Ravioli + meatballs + salad

I'm not sure anyone enjoyed our Mother's Day feast as much as LilyJ  This coming off the fact that I swear she ate a quarter pound of that ziti on Saturday nightJ

Splurges:

Vanilla Joe-Joe's:

Katie's "If you're good, I'll get you these" bribe impulse purchase of the week.  I had 2 of these a couple nights last week.

Wednesday Lunch:

I wouldn't even call this a 'splurge' as much as I would call it a 'better way to eat not-so-good-for-you' food.  My friend had told me about these and I was SO glad I had picked em up when a RANDOM craving for a hot dog took over.  And rather than another trip to Stewart's, I tossed one of these in the toaster.  And for 150 calories & 4.5 grams of fat, ya really can't do much better on the 'dog front.  

There was also cake on Mother's Day...and in true "I can't cook" fashion (see above), I managed to make the thinnest cake with the gooey-iest frosting the world has ever known.  I can't explain myself.  

Exercise:

Monday:  Vinyasa Hatha yoga

Tuesday:  Taught vinyasa yoga + tap class

Wednesday:  Power yoga + Body Pump  (THAT was all fun & games till it wasn't...hahahaJ)

Thursday:  Taught 2 gentle yoga classes

Friday:  Gentle + power yoga

Onward to a new week!

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As always...thanks for reading!

Backwards and forwards...

Hey everyone...sorry for the delayed post, but these last few days have been a little TOOOO indulgent!  Saturday there was Five Guys burgers...(not our original "Valentines plan," but a pretty decent back up!)

Cupcakes...

...that unfortunately looked better than they tasted.  I am a lover of MOUNDS OF SWEET, SWEET icing...but these were WAY too sweet for me.  What does THAT tell ya???  (and I SO wanted to LOVE you Samoa & Chocolate covered strawberry cupcake!!)

Sunday was a bridal shower with more yummy eats & Monday was capped off with a Short Rib sandwich that was SOGOOD that I forgot to photograph it.  Ei yi yi!  Too much food & not enough exercise.  My body COMPLETELY revolted on me & I've had major headaches since Saturday night.  Thankfully, Monday night yoga pulled me back together and I'm jumpin right back on the horse this weekJ

Tuesday Recap:

6:45-7:25am:  Body by Bethenny- 40 minute yoga

8:00am:  Hot Lemon Water

9:30am:  Breakfast- Strawberry yogurt with 2 tablespoons sliced almonds 

1:00pm:  Lunch- Whipped banana oatmeal with peanut butter

Even though yesterday was all about moving forward, my day was completely backwards once lunch time rolled around and the ONLY thing that sounded appealing was a hot bowl of BREAKFAST OATS.  Oh well...as long as it was HEALTHY, who cares what the clock says??J

3:30pm:  Snack #1-  1 Cheese stick & 2 clementines

Yep..that didn't do too much for me.  So THIS had to happen:

4:30pm:  Snack #2- 1 handful Soy Crisps 

After that snack, I knew I wasn't going to be a raving lunatic for dinner.  Sometimes ya just gotta eat so you don't OVEREAT!

6:00pm:  Dinner- Quinoa Lettuce wraps with Chickpea Masala

I'm always looking for a good recipe from Aarti to try out.  This one was SO simple that the hardest thing was making the quinoa.  Which is as hard as waiting for water to boilJ

 

I used cashews in the place of pine nuts (LOVED the crunch!), skipped the diced cherries (didn't think Scott would like that) & subbed orange zest & juice for grapefruit (because that's what we had on hand.) 

OH!  And I also DOUBLED the spices!   Yes, ME, miss anti-spice actually went holy haywire with the tumeric and gama masala!  Just make sure you TASTE as you go along.

These were sooooooo light & delicious. If you need a good 'detox meal'...look no further than these guys.  Super simple, healthy and permeated with all those lovely Indian spices.  We didn't have a drop of the quinoa leftover!

Nor did we have any leftovers of this... 

Chickpeas simmered in a exquisite masala sauce made by the ease of a toss in the microwave.  I ADORE TJ's masala sauce...add that to some chickpeas and I'm a fan!  It made a great & simple side.

Well, that wraps up Tuesday.  Hope you enjoyed 'getting back on the horse' with meJ  Ya gotta splurge sometimes and then ya just gotta pull it back togetherJ

Have a good Wednesday, everyone!

Happy Accident...

So I promised you a more exciting dinner after Monday night's baked chicken salad, and I do believe dinner last night did not disappoint in that statement! ;)  We made Philly Cheesesteak Sloppy Joes with Apple-Lime-Peanut Slaw...yowza!

The Sloppy Joes, however, turned into a bit of an experiment since we were planning on using this recipe and then ended up with a few swaps.  One, an inadvertent swap since Scott had accidentally taken steak out of the freezer rather than ground beef;)  So he cubed the steak into tiny pieces and cooked it with some diced peppers & onions... 

I was afraid the steak wasn't going to absorb the beef broth, Worcestershire & steak sauce very well...but of course, like most of Scott's "cooking mistakes", it turned out just fine;)  It was a cheeseSTEAK after all, no?? :)

And I had all good intentions of making the recipe's provolone sauce to go along with the sandwich, buttttt I had spied this at Trader Joe's a few weeks ago and was looking for the perfect excuse to try it out....

DING, DING, DING!  We HAVE A WINNER!!! :) 

We cut up slices of this FLAVOR BURSTING, TANGY, STRONG, DELICIOUS cheese and melted it on the whole wheat rolls...(I just love hamburger buns for sloppy joes, do you??:)

...and then we topped the rolls with the steak:)  Scott called it the "Not-so-Sloppy" sloppy joe, since the steak wasn't as much of a mess as the ground beef would have been...:)

...Although, I don't know what he was talking about, from catching a glimpse of HIS sandwich!!!

These were REALLY, REALLY delicious!  And although we want to try the "ground beef/provolone sauce" version one time...we did indeed love the steak & (DEFINITELY!) the caramelized onion cheese!  (...hmmmmm...now just to find more excuse to eat that cheese;)

For our side, we took a little help from Aarti Paarti and made her Apple-Lime-Peanut Slaw.  And even though you used 2 limes for the dressing, it really had a nice SUBTLE flavor to the slaw!  Sweet, sour, tangy & crunchy all rolled into one! ;)

And for the record...the recipe called for garam masala, which I did not have.  So instead of buying a whole bottle, I looked up the ingredients and whipped up my own! 

Now grant it, if you have ALL of these spices on hand, there is a PRETTY GOOD chance that you may actually have your own a bottle of GM...buttttttt, just in case, I figured I'd post the recipe I used: 

• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1 1/2 tsp. coriander
• 1 1/2 tsp. cardamom
• 1 1/2 tsp. pepper
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground cloves

All that, and you only used a quarter teaspoon of the mix! ;)  Butttt...I figured I'd have more if I ever need it;)  Time to add it to my "homemade spice rack"! ;)  (which I remembered to take a picture of last night;)

And to round out our meal:  What could be the LAST of the Jersey corn.  Two weeks ago we had AMAZING corn...but last night, it was just blannnnnnddddddddd :(   Here's to the ONE thing I'll miss about summer...oh sweet corn:  I'll miss thee!

And speaking of the end of summer, we took Penny on another walk to the park last night after dinner (she was literally leaping off all fours when Scott brought out her leash:).  Well we got home around the same time as last week (7:45ish), but it was about 20x's DARKER out!!!!  I could NOT believe that in less than ONE WEEK it had gotten SO DARK, SO EARLY!  Bringing us to the one thing I'm not a fan of in the winter:(  Oh well...with the good, comes the bad in all things, right?? ;)

Anyway...I got Delores working all day again today on another "End of Summer" type dish...here's a preview:

Hope you have a great Middle of the Week Day! :)  My sights are already set for the weekend:)

The Word of the Day IS...

Well...talk about a dinner that couldn't be FURTHER from a simple taco salad:)  Last night's dinner was one of the more 'unique' dishes that we've had in awhile!  We made Thai Shrimp Curry with Chopped Lettuce and Basil-Lime Couscous....

This was SUCHHHHHHHH a QUICK dinner!  The hardest part was chopping up the roasted peppers:)  You mixed the peppers with the shrimp, 5 cloves of garlic, 4 chopped scallions and a little ginger, salt and pepper to saute for a few minutes until the shrimp is cooked...

Next, you got to the "Thai" portion, by adding a cup of lite unsweetened coconut milk and the curry paste.  And even though the recipe called for 2 tablespoons...I wimped out and only used ONE.  But if you like HOT, HOT, HOT...by all means, knock yourself out with those 2 (or more) spoonfuls;)

You cooked the curry for a few minutes before adding in the peas...and WALLAH!  DONE!  :)

Meanwhile, we cooked a cup of couscous in chicken broth and then added a cup of chopped basil and about 2 tablespoons of lime juice.  Your couscous becomes layer ONE:

OK...this is where they lost me a bit, but the chopped lettuce is layer TWO.  I've never HEARD of a dish with a lettuce layer like this....but maybe it's sorta a big deal in Thai cooking??  Not sure:)

And finally, we capped off the layers with the shrimp/pepper/pea curry mixture and the very IMPORTANT layer of chopped cashews;)  (I <3 cashews:)

I said "unique," right?? :)  The textures of this dish are what made it the most....unique:)  The light couscous, mixed with the even lighter lettuce, capped with the light shrimp and curry topping.   This is a dish that does NOT weigh you down...mostly because it's hard to find any real substance:)   It had a very 'air-y' quality, all while leaving a BITE from the curry paste:)  VERY tasty...just very (here's that word again!) unique:)

And to add just a litttttle more 'substance'....we decided to try out this little number I got at the 'Joe's yesterday....

Lentils were my SINGLE. LEAST. FAVORITE. FOOD growing up.  SOMEWHERE my Grandmother is shaking her head that I free willingly bought an item that contained those lentils that I used to cry over having to eat;) hahahahahhahahahahha.....

Buttttt.....as a dip, the lentils were pretty darn tasty!  They were ground up with paprika, coriander, cumin, curry, brown sugar and cardamom...SPICE-A! :)  We had it with a shared piece of the Garlic Naan....

Yet another unique element to this dinner:)  This was definitely a step on the more "exotic" side for us:)  However, I may have to take a few MORE steps as now I need to find ways to use up the rest of my can of curry paste;)  hahahhahahahah....THAT will keep it interesting for sure!

Well...I think I'm putting Delores to work again to get started on a portion of our dinner a little earlier today:)  Should be yet ANOTHER unique one...stay tuned;)

Preparin for the Parti ! :)

So, we finally watched a season of "The Next Food Network Star" (a first for us!  Shocking, I know)....and I have been drooling over almost every single dish that Aarti has made this entire season!  For the non-viewer, Aarti's "theme" revolved around adding "Indian flare" to everyday dishes.  ANDDD (spoiler alert!) now that she's the big winner I am COUNTING DOWN until her show, "Aarti Parti," makes its debut on Sunday afternoon!!  Sunday's dinner MIGHT just revolve around whatever she makes;)

Andddd this all matters WHY, you ask??  Welllll...because it will explain how very excited I was to try out an Indian-inspired dish for the evening last night!! 

We had Curry Crunch Chicken salad (OVER salad;).  I used Rachael Ray's recipe this time, as I found it while flipping through one of her magazines the other day...but I REALLLLLLY loved Ellie Krieger's version a lot better.  (maybe RR's had TOO much spice???)

But let me tell you:  Scott was a NON-believer that any PART of this dish was going to be good (Curry, grapes & almonds in a cold salad were NOT exactly his ideal dinner:) and even HE enjoyed it!  It had GREAT textures between the creamy dressing, sweet grapes and crunchy almonds/cashews! 

And, ya know, THE REAL reason I'm excited to 'try out Indian' = a Great excuse to eat this:

I opened this bag and was WHACKED in the face with the lovely smell of ...sighhhhh...garlic!  AND LOTS of it, at THAT!!! :)

Any reason to eat CARBS, sounds like a good enough reason to me;) 

So we'll see where Aarti leads us too on Sunday...but this attempt went pretty well;)

Wohoooooo...Friday folks!!!  How happy are you??? :)  I'm going to, what I think will be, a QUITE interesting dinner tonight....if nothing else, it should DEFINITELY be 'blog photo friendly'! 

Stay tuned....;)