New Ninja...

Wednesday Recap:

Breakfast:  Almond Meal/Flax pancake with peanut butter & syrup

 

I know you're probably tired of seeing this pop up as the lead pic of my blog near-daily, but I'm tellin ya, THIS as breakfast is a WISE choice because it holds me over for pretty much the rest of the day.  OR, should I say, it helps me to never reach that "I'M SO HUNGRY I WANT TO EAT EVERYTHING" point. Whatever helps in NOT getting to that point is a good ideaJ

Workout #1:  Power Yoga

A hot one, but I was happy to 'survive it' without too many breaks...although I do get some built-in breaks these days anytime the class is working on 'stomach stuff.'J

Lunch:  KALE SMOOTHIE!

And I'm sooooooooooooooo excited about this because I've NEVER been able to make a kale smoothie that didn't blend to the point of it feeling like I was chewing on a salad...ICK!  But thanks to my new Nutri Ninja my Mom got me for an early birthday present, I'm FINALLY in the KALE buisness (was def bummed when my Ninja blender DID NOT make any sort of smoooooth smoothie).  

In the mix:

• Frozen Kale & spinach
• 1/2 cup coconut milk + 1 cup water
• Frozen pineapple
• Frozen mango
• 1 scoop protein powder

It might have helped that I added the liquid and greens FIRST and blended them into oblivion BEFORE adding the frozen fruit, which quickly changes it to an ice cream texture...weeeee!  And quick FYI- every time I get a bag of spinach for smoothies, I automatically transfer it to a freezer bag and pop it in there so I don't have to worry about it spoiling too quickly.  This has saved me MANY a bag of spinach and it's good way to have spinach almost always on hand.

Snack:  Strawberries 

Workout #2:  Walk away the pounds with 4 pound weights

This was DEF a case where the 'exercise buddy system' REALLY helps.  If I didn't have Scott to encourage and BE encouraged by, this would have been soooooooo easy to skip.  I was pretty beat, so I kept my kicks pretty low and stuck only to my 4 pound weights...but I got through.  And then ended up having more energy the rest of the night than I had prior, of courseJ  But believe me:  I wasn't feelin it WHILST I was walkinJ 

Dinner:  Buffalo Chicken Lasagna + Salad

Around 2pm yesterday, I had made a definitive descision that something WARM & COZY had to be on the dinner menu, and it only took spying a peek of this on a quick scroll through Pinterest for it to be the deciding factor.  And since I had pretty much everything on hand, it made for an even quicker sell.  (swapped part-skim for the non-fat ricotta.  I think a little fat goes a long way in the flavor, texture & satiety in cheese)

After giving the chicken a quick poach in boiling water & a shred, the rest of the 'sagna came together in under 10 minutes.  An hour + 15 minutes in the oven and we were ready to go.....swwwwwwwwwooooooooooooonnnnnnn:  CHEESE! 

I thought the STRONG kickback of HEAT was going to help keep this to ONE portion, but I can not tell a lie:  I went back for another little 1/2 square since it was SOOOOOOO GOOD!

Warm, cheesy, SPICED and filling from the chicken....JUST. SO. GOOD.  And bonus:  It made enough for us to freeze the leftovers and save for another main meal...weeeeeee!

Dessert:  Cupcake

The leftover cakes from Katie's party went DIRECTLY into the freezer when we got home from partyin on Sunday night, butttt 2 already made a quick defrost last night for dessert for Scott & I.  Especially because we were setteling in to watch:

(photo source)

Already obsessed.

So the snow's comin down in Jersey today and we're lucky to be all safe & warm inside.  I did some quick dinner prep last night in the name of the storm and plan to spend the rest of the day by NOT slaving over the slow cooker and watching the snow fall with Katie...aka- her fav activityJ

Have a good Thursday! J

You had me at...

So this recipe for Fresh Summer Corn Cakes HAD me at "corn cakes"...but it was the part that followed that REALLLLLLLY sold me.  And it was awesome!

But first, let's not get too far ahead of ourselves.  Let's start with the cakes, shall we?

I shucked 3 ears of corn directly into a bowl (letting all of the juices collect right along with the kernels)...

Take two-thirds of the corn and toss it in a blender or a food process for a quick blend...

I mixed the 'creamed' corn back in the bowl with the whole kernels and added:

• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or white)
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 1/4 of a diced red onion
• 2 tablespoons diced chives
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• SALT & pepper  (make sure you salt these well...I did NOT and noticed it quickly!)

Mix until JUST blended.  Do not over mix or the batter will get tough.

Heat a pan with a couple tablespoons of canola oil before dropping the mix by rounded tablespoon into the oil...

The batter will be sticky, so it's easier to flatten the cakes once their flipped.  Just be sure that all the edges are cooked & lightly browned.

Once both sides of the 'cakes are browned, let them hang out for a few minutes on a paper towel to soak up any excess oil and then pop in the toaster oven to keep warm.

Once the cakes are cooked, it's time to work on the BEST PART!!!!

THE AVOCADO SALSA!!

And you know how I LOVE me some avocado!

In a bowl mix in:

• 1/2 pint cherry tomatoes (roasted and cooled if you're like me J)
• 1/4 cup diced chives
• 1/4 of a diced red onion
• 3 minced garlic cloves
• Drizzle of olive oil & red wine vinegar
• salt & pepper

And lastly, fold in the beauteous diced avocado!

DO. NOT. SKIP this stuff!!!  The corn cakes were tasty and flavorful....but the salsa???

Oh my God...the salsa.  It just put it OVER. THE. TOP!

I keep trying to think of more things to 'top with it!  Hell, I think my SHOE would taste good topped with avocado salsaJ  

And if you didn't catch my subtle hints, I'll repeat again:  DON'T SKIP THE SALSA!!!

Alright, well I think I've used my quota of the word salsa for the dayJ  Hope you guys have a great TuesdayJ

Fall Fun & Football (Guilt-Free!) Food...

All together now.... To Fall?  To FALL! 

CHEERS!

And what better way to welcome Fall then with a toast to health & happiness and a trip to Federici's in Freehold for some of their super delicious pizza... 

...complete with their famous cracker-thin crust.  Always a winner! J Welcome Fall, indeed!

After pizza, we did something that has been VERY out of character for me lately...

That's right:  We went for ice cream.

Jersey Freeze has been featured on many a 'best of'' list/TV shows...and for good reason, they have some of the creamiest & richest custard in ye ole Garden State...

Ask Scott, he thinks their milkshakes are some of the best ever...but my eyes were focused on their list of featured flavors for the evening... 

And to welcome myself back into the world of ice cream, I went with a small cup of cake batter ice cream with rainbow jimmies.... 

Sweet, super creamy, rich & luscious...this certainly isn't a bad 'welcome back', no?  (although I'd be lying if I didn't say it felt oddly bizarre to chow down.  I think it'll be a while before I indulge in ice cream again...it's just so strange right now.  Who knew? J)

The rest of the weekend was spent getting everything properly FALL-ized....from my stock up of Fall soap scents from Bath & Body Works (mmmmm...Creamy Pumpkin!) 

Finding great Fall-appropriate shopping bargains.  My new pretty plaid ('Italy appropriate!'...eeeee!!) purse: originally $25, marked down to $14 and rang up $7!  SCORE!J

Breakin out my "you're never too old for candy apple" flavored lip glossJ ...

And completely festooning my house with all things pumpkins & leaves...

And if that above picture is any indication, the other huge part of this weekend was the return of... 

College Football!  I can't say I was ever much of a football fan, but now that is a TRUE indication that Fall has arrived in our house:  well, I've come around in my fan-domJ

And football's returned just REQUIRED a fun dinner!  After perusing some recipes, I managed to make not only a VERY FUN and FOOTBALL FRIENDLY dinner....but get this:  This one is COMPLETELY GUILT FREE!!!! 

Awesome, right???  Who says football/sports snacks have to be loaded with fat & calories??  Try out these recipes the next time the big game is on...you & your waist line will thank me!

And dinner all come together with the help of one handy kitchen tool:  The food processor... 

First up was a recipe I stumbled on in my Weight Watchers cookbook:  Chickpea cakes.  I figured we needed something a little more 'hearty' to hold us over, and the protein in the chickpeas just hit the spot.  In the processor you whirl up:

• 1 can chickpeas, drained & rinsed
• 1/3 cup reduced fat sour cream
• 4 crushed garlic cloves
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/4 cup cornmeal 

Mix until smooth, scoop mixture into bowl and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.  (meanwhile, you can work on your OTHER dish...see belowJ)

Once the mixture has been chilled, roll into about 10 small cakes & coat both sides in MORE cornmeal. (mix will be super sticky...but they will firm up, trust me!) 

Finally, cook chickpea cakes on a skillet spritzed with olive oil and cook for 4-5 minutes.  Spritz the tops of the cakes with a bit more olive oil and flip over to finish off cooking for another 4-5 minutes.   

Topped off with a little salsa and WALLAH!  Crispy, creamy chickpea cakes with a little ZIP from the SAL-SA!  These were awesome!  And if you think these aren't "guy food", guess again...Scott polished off the other EIGHT of these babies!  They were that good! 

But I must say: TOP HONORS OF AWESOMENESS for the evening went to our OTHER dish... 

Bethenny's Guilt Free Spinach Artichoke Dip!!!  This tastes like the most decadent and delicious spinach artichoke you've ever tasted, but with a 1/2 of the fat and NONE of the fake, nasty ingredients from other low/non-fat recipes. 

Guilt Free Spinach Artichoke Dip

Adapted from The Skinnygirl Dish 

Serves 6

• 1 bag frozen artichokes (9 oz), defrosted & drained VERY well
• 1 box frozen spinach, defrosted & drained VERY well
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup grated Monterrey Jack cheese
• 1/4 cup part-skim ricotta
• 8 oz. reduced fat cream cheese
• 2 tablespoons low-fat mayonnaise
• Juice from 1/2 a lemon
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• Salt & pepper to taste

1. Blend all ingredients in a bowl with a food processor or immersion blender.
2. Serve cold OR pour mixture into a oven-proof pan, sprinkle with 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.  Allow dip to sit for 10 minutes.
3. Serve!

How easy and fantastic is that?????????  And believe me...it is as fantastic as it is simple!  You could fake ANYONE out with this dip...no one would EVER know it was guilt-free! 

In fact, I loved it so much that I'm whipping it up today for our little Labor Day get together.  And if you need some last minute picnic ideas, here are a few to try out:

Goat Cheese-Filled Watermelon Cups

Frozen Pina Colada Cups

Frozen Strawberry Pie

Triple Onion Burgers

Couscous Salad

Pesto Potato Salad

Grilled Creamed Corn

And one dish I will be making today:  Sweet Potato Salad

Alright, well I hope you guys are enjoying one last lazy day of this long weekend!  Kick your feet up, enjoy your day and I'll see you tomorrowJ

"So Easy"...Part 2...

We took another page out of our Ellie Krieger "So Easy" book again last night...because as soon as we saw these Pork Piccata recipe:  We knew those had to happen ASAP! :)

And they were SUPER easy!  All you had to do was dredge the pork in flour & salt and cook over medium heat for a few minutes, until browned.  Once the pork is cooked, remove it from the pan and add 3 minced cloves of garlic to the same skillet.  Immediately add 1 cup of white white and cook over medium-high heat until reduced by half (4-5 minutes),  whisking to remove the small bits (aka-THE FLAVA!) from the bottom of the pan.  Once the wine is reduced, add 1 cup of chicken broth, 3 tablespoons of lemon juice, 3 tablespoons of capers & salt and peeper.  Cook until slightly reduced and then add the pork back into the skillet to finish off cooking, about 3 minutes.

Couldn't have been simpler and the sauce with the garlic & capers is just enough to give it a fantastic taste!

For our sides I made some quick grits...butttt kept my FALL themes going by adding a few tablespoons of pureed pumpkin toward the end of cooking.  YUM:)

Anddd...we rounded out our dinner with some steamed broccoli WHICH I do love, butttt isn't exactly the most exciting thing to talk about:)

So instead, I'll talk about dessert, shall I??  WAYYY more exciting:) 

Have you guys ever tried the Weight Watchers Caramel Apple Salad???  If not, you MUST try this...even if your not a WW fan!  It is awesome and quintessential Halloween/FALL eats:)

In my mix:

• 1 container fat free cool whip
• 1 small box butterscotch pudding mix
• 1 small can crushed pineapple, drained
• 2 diced apples
• Coconut (LOTS:)
• A few handfuls of mini marshmallows

1. Mix
2. Chill
3. Try not to eat the whole bowl.

SOOOOO GOOD!!!!  I guarantee you'll love this too! :)

OK...well, we're having a few computer problems AGAINNNNNNN (looks like it's time to break down and get a new one:), so I might have to have a few archive posts the next few days.  Fingers crossed I can get my photos uploaded!

Have a good middle-of-the-week:)

Apple Day...

It was with some tentative steps that I walked out of my bedroom yesterday morning just PRAYING I would step outside and it would finally be COOLER out.  An thankfully, I was met with a nice September morning chill in the air!  NICE!!!!!  And PERFFFFFFFFFFECT for our Sunday morning "Fall" activity: Apple Picking! :)  We headed for Terhune Orchard in Princeton, NJ and made a beeline for their cute little farm market....

Because the sure fire way I can ALWAYS get Scott to agree to Apple picking is that it is the perfect excuse for....

An Apple Cider donut breakfast! :)  Yum!!! :)

We look forward to these every year!  They are just the perfect little Fall treat of Cinnamon & Sugar:)

Next, we headed off to the orchard...armed with our map of what apples were prime for picking....

And got down to the serious task of quality control to make sure we were picking some winners;)

That's what orchards are for, no????

Then we got to pickin some Red Delicious, McIntosh, Macons, Jonathan, Empire & Fuji apples....

We usually make it to the orchard a lot later in the season (last year, it was the week of Halloween:), so we were pretty happy at the amount of boulders HUGE apples we found!

And it was just so nice because we went first thing in the morning when hardly anyone was around and it was just so nice & peaceful...

...but as soon as we heard the tractor pullin around a packed wagon full of folks, we grabbed our nearly-full bags and booked on out of there;) hahahahahahhaha....

Think we got enough?????

We even made an effort to be organized and try to keep each variety in order...well, at least we tried to anyways;)  hahahahahaha.....

And then I went into whipping up baked apple treats for the next...hmmmm....3 hours or so:)  hahahahaha...I was ALMOST too tired to make dinner.  Almost;)

Yesterday turned into more PURE FALL COMFORT FOOD...with a little kiss of fresh apple...:)

The apple coming from my quite unphotogenic Pork Chops with Scalloped Apples....

The apples were JUST sweet enough to go with the seasoned pork...soooo good (even if it wasn't the prettiest:)

And as soon as I spied this side dish, I knewwwwwwww Scott was going to love it hook, line & sinker! :)  You started by sauteing 1 diced onion & 5 diced scallions in a hot pan...and then adding 5 cups of frozen hash browns.  I've NEVER bought these before, but I think Scott will now be a fan since he LOVES hash browns:)

After you get the 'browns...well, brown & crispy....you top them with some (low fat) shredded cheddar cheese.....

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...talk about warm & cozy!

We loved, loved, loved these...although, that's not really that hard to imagine!  Potatoes + Cheese = Yes, please!! :)  A perfect compliment to the sweet/salty pork chops!

And speaking of sweet & salty...how 'bout THIS one to tie everything together....SPICED squash with Brown Sugar Glaze....oh heavens!

Not gonna lie...making this was a TOTAL pain.  I mean...a little more work than normal for a side dish....

HOWEVER, they were indeed worth the effort!  The squash was super tender and filled with warm spices from my much-neglected Chinese 5 spice powder and the sweetness of the brown sugar glaze.  this was just TO DIE FOR and is soooooooooo going to be a side dish staple all throughout the Fall/Winter! 

This was one of those meals where we just kept saying "ohh...the squash is so good"...."oh, the pork chops are so good"...."THESE POTATOES ARE SO GOOD!"  hahahahaha...can't beat those kinda meals, huh??? 

And for dessert we cracked into ONE of the treats I made (I'll share more with you tomorrow!)....are you ready for this one???

A Bacon-Crumble Apple Pie!   If this is wrong, I don't want to be right! :) 

I made a few swaps to make this one a TAD on the 'lighter' end of the spectrum;)  I used:

• 2 slices of Trader Joe's bacon, rather than a half a pound
• Reduced Fat Cheddar Cheese
• And my no-fail Weight Watchers Pie Crust Recipe:
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp. confectioner's sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3 Tbsp. canola oil
• 1 tsp. apple-cider vinegar
• 4 Tbsp. ice water
• 1 Tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

I pulse all of the dry ingredients together in the food processor.  Add the oil & butter and pulse until the dough forms crumbs.  Then mix the water & apple cider vinegar together and pour in the chute while the processor is on low and allow to mix until the dough is just formed.  Then you flatten into a disk and refrigerate for a half hour. 
This seriously couldn't be an easier crust to throw together!  You could mix it by hand as well, but the food processor just makes it ridiculously easy...and the dough itself is SOOOOOO nice to work with, smooth & not too sticky.  Gotta love that!

OK....have you heard about apples enough yet??  Well, get ready because our whole WEEK is planned around using up our fresh pickins:) hahahahhahaha....maybe it will give you some ideas for your own harvest:)  Stay Tuned & Happy Monday....even if it's a rainy one here:P