Dinner from the pantry...

So I'm not sure that it's ever happened in the history of Scott & I living together these last 5 years...but the time has finally come:  I do not think I've stepped foot in a grocery story in over 2 weeks. 

HUH???  How does this happen?  I'm usually there at LEAST once a week with little stops at Trader Joe's here and there.  But nope...I've been NADA since the Sunday before Thanksgiving.  And aside from a few meals out here and there, we really have been cooking A LOT.  Goes to show what a well stocked pantry & freezer can produce!

So I tell you all of this because I spent most of Monday having not a CLUE of what we were going to have for dinner...yet, I somehow managed to pull off a pretty awesome one just by using random ingredients I had lying around the kitchen...

First I remembered that I had some leftover fresh thyme that I had wanted to use up...along with the ALWAYS useful crushed garlic... 

If you have just these two things...miracles can occurJ

(ps-using fresh thyme, or most fresh herbs, are so easy.  You just run your fingers down the 'branches' to strip off the herbs.  It takes seconds.  And don't worry if you get a rouge 'twig' here or there, once you dice it up, you'll never notice it)

So like chicken, one thing our freezer has an abundance of is pork chops since they also haven't been OVERLY appealing these last few months (although, don't go looking for any ground turkey or meat...we are CLEAR OUT AT ALL TIMES!J)  So since it was what I had on hand, I coated up one side of the trimmed pork chops with the crushed garlic... 

...and coated the other side with the fresh thyme and let them pan seer until they were cooked through. 

After the pork was cooked, I set it off to the side and to the same pan I added a diced onion and some MORE of my prepared and frozen leeks... 

These baggies of leeks have become invaluable!  I had gotten 3 leek stalks for about $1.50 and I've already stretched them into 2 meals...and still have a baggie & a half left in the freezer.  A good 'save' if I do say so myselfJ

Anyways, I let the onion & leeks cook up and soften, while the 'water' from the frozen leeks had just enough moisture to deglaze my pan and have the onions pick up all of the colors...(add a little water or chicken broth if things are getting 'too hot'J) 

Next up, Scott made 'quick pulled pork' and added it back to the onions & leeks to combine... 

And aside from pork & chicken...what else was our house ABUNDANT in?????  Polenta!  I know, I know...strange, right?  But polenta is one of those things that I feel instantly happy about when we have it, so I guess that means the baby likes it and I had STOCKED UP at some point or anotherJ hahahahaha.... 

Not to mention, it's one of the easiest things to whip up.  I brought 3 cups of liquid to a boil (I happened to use 1 1/2 cups milk & 1 1/2 cups chicken broth this time...but use whatever you have).  Once the liquid boils, you whisk in one cup of polenta and stir until it 'masses.'  

Be sure to turn your stove onto loowwwwwww as this stuff turns to spurting molten lava QUICKLY!!!  After you whisk it for about 3 minutes, it's READY!

Add to the pot whatever you have to flavor it up....this time I happened to use the last of the thyme, a little salt, leftover gouda cheese & about 1/2 cup of grated cheese... 

Stir and wallah...how easy is that dinner?? 

To our plates we just added a layer of the cheesy polenta... 

...and then topped it with the pulled pork, onions & leeks!  So simple!  I started dinner at 5:30 and our plates hit the table at 6:01J 

And soooooooooo delicious!  The creamy, cheesy polenta made a great base for the herby pork & onions.  SUCH a good dinner for one that was 'pulled out of the closest'J

I actually have at least one more 'from the pantry' dinner planned for tonight.  A little spin on an old favorite.  We'll see how THIS one goesJ

Hope you guys have a great day...although that might be tough in Jersey, as it's rainy AND HOT!!!  Ughhhhhh...not a fan, especially in December. 

Off to go dream of snowflakes & gingerbreadJ

Christmas-y weekend....

Hey everyone!  Hope you guys had a great weekend.  Mine was filled with CHRISTMAS-Y events at every turn.  Tis the season!

Friday started off with "CHRISTMAS/Advent Yoga" which was relaxing AND a workout all rolled into oneJ  Romy always does such an amazing job coordinating these 'special event yogas.'  The whole practice was based on spreading Peace, Love & Joy.  Awesome way to kick off this season. 

And since my best friend joined me AND we both had worked out for two hours, we (+ Scott!) decide to break into a few 'CHRISTMAS cupcakes' from Crumbs...

The Peppermint Hot Cocoa was good, but I FLIPPED over the gingerbread!!!  It was just sooo sweet AND spicy...too festiveJ

Saturday brought my Mom, Aunt, cousin & I on another house tour.  This time to the 50th Anniversary of the Stanton Holly Trail in Stanton, NJ.  We lucked out with a picture perfect day and some SPECTACULAR homes to tour...

My favorite. 

Commence drooling now...

...don't even get me STARTED on their kitchen...J

And what was awesome & unique about this tour was that all of the house had a "decorating committee" that worked from JANUARY until the first weekend in December to HAND MAKE all of the ornaments & decorations in each home!  So as spectacular as the SETTINGS were, the decorations weren't anything you couldn't make for your own home!  It was AMAZING to see the ideas people came up with, starting with handmade luminaries up all of the driveways.... 

Not sure if you can see these, but this row of jars were made out to look like ANGELS!

How cute are these 'all edible' ornaments made of WAFFLES... 

...and bird seed (perfect for outdoors!)...

...and even Fruity Pebbles!

I also LOVED the wreath (in the window) made of cookie cutters...

Needless to say, we were charmed...

 

...at every turn...

It was amazing what a little time, creativity & 94 hot glue guns could produceJ  These folks did a SPECTACULAR job! 

Even the school buses that took us around from house to house were each uniquely decorated.  It was IMPOSSIBLE not to be in the holiday spiritJ 

But the HANDS DOWN favorite of our group was the village made of PEANUTS!!! 

Peanuts roasting marshmallows, anyone??

They were just so fun & cheerful! 

We even got some yummy treats along the way... 

Can you BELIEVE that someone would open their home to serve tea & cookies to over 1,000 people??  Yep...that's what happened here...

There were cozy seats by the fire and elaborately decorated kitchen tables for us to rest our feet & warm up... 

Not to mention the most YUMMY homemade cookies!  My pack had ROSEMARY OLIVE OIL cookies (too die for!) & a Salted Chocolate Molasses.  Oh man, so happy I got the 'salty & sweet' pack! 

And we even tea & coffee:  SERVED IN ACTUAL TEA CUPS!  I wouldn't want to do all of THOSE dishesJ 

Nice touchJ

Our homemade dinner was a cup of Asparagus soup, a slice of cheddar & leeks strata, salad & rice pudding...yum 

It was such a fun and JOLLY dayJ....of course until my car got stuck on the side of the road in the pitch black when we were on our way home and about 1 exit from my house.  But THAT's ANOTHER story...hehehehehehehehe

Sunday saw even MORE holiday funJ  As it was our day to pick out the CHRISTMAS TREE!!!  Wohoooo!  And of course, that called for an EXTRA special "Sunday Morning breakfast"... 

What says 'go get a CHRISTMAS tree' more then chocolate & cinnamon, right??  And I just knew I wanted to make a Chocolate Babka to 'celebrate'.. 

OK, OK...so mine didn't even make REMOTELY discernible "swirls" like the recipe's picture...but WHO CARES???  A mess of chocolate & cinnamon was A-OK with us... 

We're saving the rest for dessert...can't wait to have a slice tonightJ

After that, it was off to gather the goods... 

Scott says it should only take 10 minutes to pick out a tree...and this year, I had to agree with him.  Last year I tried to 'buck the system' and wanted to check out 'just a few more trees' before we secured the first one we loved.  And what happened?  We ended up wandering around for over an hour and COULDN'T find that first tree that we both loved & all the others paled in comparison. 

Soooo...this year, in 10 minutes:  We came... 

...we 'saw'... 

...we conquered!

Now just to magically levitate all of the ornaments right onto those branchesJ hahahahaha... 

And we had a cozy little dinner to round out our day... 

After a nearly SIX MONTH reprieve....chicken is SLOWLY making its return to our kitchen.  I still can't eat it grilled or roasted...butttttt shredded & mixed with this savory onion-y sauce from the Chicken & Leeks pie?  That, I can handleJ 

(ps-I used some of the leeks that I had cleaned & frozen and they worked like a charm!)

For our side, I made some roasted potatoes.  I let these babies crisp up for about an hour in a 400 degree oven... 

When the potatoes had about 5 minutes left to cook, I heated up a small pan with a little olive oil & tossed in about 7 cloves of thinly sliced garlic and let them cook on LOWWW... 

I let the garlic slowly toast...making sure NOT to burn the garlic.  Garlic turns SUPER bitter when burned... 

Once the potatoes were out of the oven & the garlic was toasty brown, I tossed em with all of that yummy garlic & now garlic scented oil...

This made for CRUNCHY on the outside/soft on the inside potatoes coated in all of that glorious garlic.  Is  there ANYTHING to complain about??J 

So that about wraps up my CHRISTMAS weekend of holiday fun!  Not a bad way to start of December, if I do say so myselfJ

And since it's Monday, here's my workout schedule from this week:

Monday:  Weight Loss Yoga-Level 1 & 3 (with 8 pound weights)

Tuesday:  40 minute Bethenny Yoga

Friday:  2 hour CHRISTMAS yoga

Not an awesome schedule...and unlike the week before, last week I have NO excuse...other than laziness and THIS: 

The culprit of so many "eehhh...do I feel like working out, or do I feel like kicking my feet up and reading??"  Can NOT put this book down...and thankfully, I'm almost done!  It is FASCINATING, although definitely the most ANTI-Christmas thing I've done this week.  Not much could be more Anti-Christmas than reading about North Korean hard labor camps.  Horrifying.

ANYWAYSSSS...on THAT note, you've heard enough from me!  Hope you guys enjoyed your weekend & have a good MondayJ

Here & There...

Morning everyone!  So I've been a busy bee the last few days...hope you are as SURPRISED as I am that it's FRIDAY already!

So on Wednesday I had visited a friend up in North Jersey and we had quite the feast for lunch!  We had visited the lovely little Ridgewood (home of HUGE pancakes & Cupcakes by Carousel), but this time sampled something with a little Mediterranean flair at "It's Greek to Me" which served...well, one wild guessJ hehehehehehehe...

I pretty much wanted to sample the ENTIRE appetizer menu, but we managed to narrow it down to the "Revithosalata"....or what I think was hummusJ  It was sooooo smooth, creamy & olive oil-y that I could NOT stop going back for more with the fresh, warm pita...yum!

And, again, while it was TERRIBLY tough to narrow down an entree selection, I figured since I never had actually have TRIED a gyro before, what better place to give it a whirl??  (me thinks a slight step up from the street carts in NYC, no?J) 

mmmm...so good!  The meat was super tender and served along with MORE fresh pita & my absolute FAVORITE part: the Tzatziki sauce!  I didn't leave ONE DROP of that yogurt, garlic & cucumber dip...it just makes everything taste BETTER.  I even got my 'french fry fix' from some "Greek" (aka-lemon & oregano) fries.  I loved how FRESH & vibrant everything tasted.

My friend had tried the Mousaka (eggplant, potato & ground beef pie) and enjoyed that...

...although I don't think EITHER of us enjoyed our lunch as much as her one-year old!!!  He chowed RIGHT down on that Mousaka and could not get ENOUGH of the Revithosalata!  I was cracking up!J  

What a sweetie pieJ

And while our tiny dining companion split some rice pudding with his Momma for dessert, I HAD to try the baklava...causeee...when in Rome a Greek restaurant... 

A sweet way to end a REALLY yummy lunch...I already can't wait to go back, and I'm sure my friend's little peanut would say the same!J hehehehhehee...

Yesterday I spent a nice afternoon sharing crabs & macaroni with my Aunt for lunch, but was pretty stumped as to what to make for dinner.  Thankfully, we had this little awesome number in our fridge... 

My Mom got this TOASTED COCONUT BREAD from an Amish stand at a Farmer's Market and I had been nibbling on it's coconut trimmed slices for breakfast & lunch ever since.... 

And last night we had JUST ENOUGH left to KICK IT UP a notch and turn that coconut loaf into some French Toast!  Complete with a little extra coconut kick from.... 

MMMMMmmmmmm....coconut-y & fabulous!  I could hardly bear to use ANY syrup on here in fear of ruining it's lovely coconut taste.  French & Fabulous! hahahahhahaha 

Well, that about sums up my last few days.  What are we having for dinner tonight??  NO CLUE!  But it has to be something on the LIGHTER side as my friend & I will need to scoot off to CHRISTMAS YOGA TONIGHT!!!!!!!!  SSOOOOOOOO excited!  I went last year and it was PROBABLY one of my favorite things I did the ENTIRE CHRISTMAS season.  So excited to 'kick off the season' on a 'centered' note to REALLY enjoy what the season is aboutJ hehehehehehe...Hope you guys have a great Friday!  I'll have LOTS of other CHRISTMAS-Y things to show you from this weekendJ

Until Then: 

Namaste...

photo source