A reheat away...

Tuesday Recap:

8:00am:  Coffee with creamer

9:30am:  Breakfast- Toast with butter & flax

This is called a "I wanted a smoothie, but it didn't seem appropriate on a '3 degree' day" breakfastJ

12:00pm:  Lunch- Tomato & Roasted red pepper soup with white beans 

I was SOOO excited when I found a box of this soup in the cabinet.  It had been FAR too long since it had crossed my lipsJ

3:00pm:  Snack - 2% cheese & clementine 

I'm sure I've mentioned this a zillion times before, but clementines are my absolute #1 favorite snack in January (aka- post Christmas 'reboot' time)  They're super sweet but soooooooo low in calories.  They always hit the spot.  Add the protein from the cheese & and you have such a great & filling, sweet & salty snack.

6:00pm:  Dinner- Leftover Black eyed peas, cornbread & collards

As you may have notice from my...ummm..nearly 4 year old blog, I sorta like cooking most nightsJ.  But even I never mind a night where a home cooked meal is just a reheat awayJ

And Katie never minds another night where BEANS are on the menuJ 

8:00pm:  Dessert- Hot Chocolate with 2% milk & a PEEPJ

Nothing more appropriate in January, right??

Well, the east coast is ready for a warm up today to the 20'sJ  I know...contain yourselvesJ  Crazy how fast time goes from being TOO HOT TO BLOG to being wrapped up in flannels & sweatshirts.  Never fear folks!  For in a blink, we'll be back to TOO HOT before we know itJ

Have a great WednesdayJ

From cookies to kale...and back to cookies;)

Monday Recap:

8:00am:  Coffee with creamer

9:30am:  Breakfast- Kale Smoothie

So this was a first attempt at a kale smoothie in my new blender (I once tried to blend kale in my old 'lower speed' blender and oh God...it was horrible.  CHUNKS of kale...I'll leave it at that).  For this one, I whipped up:

• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 3-4 chunks of frozen pineapple
• 5 green grapes
• 1/2 banana
• 2 teaspoons honey
• 1/4 cup non fat yogurt
• KALE

My Ninja still didn't make this as smoooooooooth as I had hoped (ONE DAY I'll get one of those REAL bad ass blendersJ), but it tasted fine enough, especially with all the sweetness from the fruit & honey.  If you want to try kale in your smoothie, this would be a good recipe to start.  Just like spinach, I SWEAR you CAN NOT taste it.  Pinky swear.

12:00pm:  Lunch- Olive hummus with 4 mini pitas

2:30pm:  Snack #1- Chai tea with honey & spiced latte creamer

Felt just a litttttllleee lousy yesterday afternoon (thanks to Katie's mini-ninja germs!), so hot tea hit the spot...especially with a little of that spiced creamerJ

3:30pm:  Snack #2- Wheat toast with butter & flax

5:30pm:  Dinner- Steak salad 

The only problem with this salad??  When I went to pull the new pack of arugula out of the fridge, we noticed nearly the entire thing was wilted & gross from too much moisture (BOO!).  So this salad is about 1 handful arugula topped with lots of:

• Shredded red cabbage
• Shredded carrots
• Green onions
• Leftover shredded steak (from the NYE sliders)
• Feta
• Slivered almonds
• Craisins

You CAN still have salad even with hardly any lettuce!J  Just use what you haveJ

6:30-9:00pm:  Beginners Power & Gentle yoga

You coulda knocked off the word "beginners" in that first class...phew!  It was TOUGH last night!  I think we did at least 87 'chair poses.'  Anyone who decided to try out yoga for the first time last night just MAY have gotten frightened away if that was their first classJ  Thankfully gentle was muchhhhh more paced after all of that!

9:30pm:  Dessert

Yes, SUPER late but I was just DYING for something sweet in the form of.... 

I found these under my tree on Christmas morning, thanks to Santa & his traditional gift of a "Trader Joe's box" of goodiesJ  And after sampling them for the first time over the holidays, I promptly told Scott to HIDE THE BOX.  

But I dug em out of hiding last night to once again sample these crispy, delicate and sweet cookies.  2 = 180 calories.  I can handle that. 

Well, as I'm SURE you heard = It's COLD OUT around here.  Deep freeze cold, at that.  Might just have to turn the oven on to make a treat warm up the houseJ

Stay warm & have a good Tuesday!

Last Hurrah...

Hey, everyone...ummmm...Happy Monday?  Nah...that doesn't sound right at all.  Especially after nearly 2 weeks of vacation around these parts (thanks to an added snow day, Scott worked exactly 1 day in the last 16!)  So for the sake of TRUTH, let's just call this "&@#$* Monday", shall we??J

I don't have TOO much to report this fine "&@#$* Monday", as I spent both Saturday AND Sunday enjoying 2 nice wonderful "ladies lunches" with friends & family...

Which, after a VERY brief hiatus, meant the RETURN OF HOLIDAY TREATS & SWEETS!  I didn't mind, since it really seemed to extend the beautiful season out just a litttttttlllleeee longerJ.  But THIS, my friends, is called the LAST HURRAH:

Hahahahahahahaha!  I enjoyed it ALL and now I'm ready to REALLLLLLLLLLY get back in the normal swing!  Especially since most of my weekend involved not a whole lot of cooking OR working out.  I usually find that if I feel GUILTY for missing a workout, that just means I was being lazy.  This weekend, however, was ZERO GUILT = JUST WANTED TO RELAX.  I'm OK with that.

My only brief time in the kitchen was spent whipping up some chicken & dumplings on Friday to combat the snow...

Trying my hand at Gwyneth Paltrow's 'healthy brownies'.  Although I can't really judge em fairly since I had to swap out a few ingredients for what I had around the house (didn't have spelt flour or enough maple syrup, even for my 1/2 recipe), but these were not my favorites, we'll just leave it at that...J

And from healthy to HOLY HELL...Sunday morning brought our attempt at those little Pinterest lovelies known as "Pancake Dippers," where you pour pancake batter right over strips of cooked bacon.  All though in this case, Scott just took the liberty and covered 2 strips at one shot...J

They were a BEAR to flip over, but he managed to pull it offJ  Do I even need to tell you these were good??  (oh yeah, with the mini chocolate chips tossed in there for good measure??)

So yeah, today will involve a little less cookies and BACON MONSTER PANCAKES and more...well, I already known KALE for sureJ  Hope you had a great weekend too and I'll talk to you tomorrow!

Easy Peasy...

Thursday Recap:

8:00am:  Coffee with creamer  (yep-still eggnogJ)

10:30am:  Breakfast- Grapes & 2 Laughing Cow wedges

Breakfast was a result of typing a blog post wayyyyyyy too long and winding up capital S- STARVING and in need of something ASAPJ

1:30pm:  Lunch- Leftover 1/2 Baked Potato & sour cream 

I know.  Please contain your excitementJ

3:00pm:  More coffee....just becauseJ

6:00pm:  Dinner- Turkey eggrolls with veggie rice

I forget about these crispy, savory babies WAY too often.  They should be in my dinner rotation AT LEAST once a month!  They really are a cinch to make and totally hit the spot for eggrolls minus the trip to the deep fryer.

While the eggrolls were baking, I whipped up a quick veggie rice by adding some cole slaw mix & frozen mixed veggies to a pan (or use whatever veggies you have on hand) and let them saute for a few minutes... 

Next, add some cooked brown rice and enough soy sauce, sesame oil and ground ginger to your taste.  A quick stir and you're ready to go.  (Katie loved this!)

 Looks difficult, but the whole meal came together in a snap.  You could even make the eggrolls ahead of time so all you have to do was pop em in the oven 20 minutes before dinner!  Easy peasy.

8:00pm:  Dessert- 2 leftover Christmas cookies!   

 Well, as I'm sure the WHOLE COUNTRY has heard, the near entire of the East Coast woke up to THIS:

So today shall involve more PJ's, soup and maybe a baking projectJ  The snow is making me do it.  I swearJ

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!  (and stay safe & warm, east coast!)