A Non-Mexican Cinco de Mayo

Happy Monday my fab friends!! I come to bring you yet another delicious recipe from my adventures in the kitchen! But first, a little recap of my weekend, shall we?

On Saturday evening, I organized a pre-cinco de mayo gathering at a yummy Mexican restaurant in town. A bunch of my friends came and we feasted on mango margaritas, burritos, and enough chips and salsa to choke a horse!

Sooo yummy..

The weather yesterday was lovely, so RJ and I took Daisy and went on a picnic in the park, followed by a long walk. It was nice to just be outside in the sunshine with one of my favorite people :)


When dinnertime rolled around, neither of us were in the mood for more Mexican food (a sin on Cinco de Mayo, I know), so I perused my cookbooks for a recipe to use up some boneless, skinless chicken breasts I had thawed. I found this recipe from a Cooking Light cookbook and adapted it to fit the things I had in my cupboards.

Ingredients

• 
  1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• Cooking spray 
• 1/2 cup chopped yellow onion 
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
• 4 (4-ounce) skinned, boned chicken breast halves 
• 1/3 cup seedless apricot preserves
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper 

1. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat until hot. Add onion; sauté 5 minutes. Combine thyme and 1/4 teaspoon salt; sprinkle over chicken. Add chicken to skillet; sauté 6 minutes on each side or until done. Remove chicken from skillet; keep warm. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add 1/4 teaspoon salt, preserves, vinegar, and pepper, stirring constantly until the preserves melt. Spoon apricot sauce over chicken.

As you can see, this recipe was very easy and perfect for a weeknight meal. I have made this recipe before with the raspberry preserves, but I much prefer the apricot. It added a completely different flavor that I was quite happy with!

Do you ever alter recipes to accommodate what you have? Was it successful?

Butter of the Peanut

happy Friday loves! Sorry for the inactivity as of late. My life has taken a pretty boring turn and I don't have much to post. Unless you want a rousing post about cleaning... I will try and post more in the future, because I truly enjoy it and I know you all can't go about your days without knowing what I'm up to ;)

Breakfast this morning was a good ol' standby-an egg sandwich!! I have perfected this sandwich recently and now I can't seem to get enough of them! I fried two eggs over hard and slapped them on a wheat English muffin with cheese and turkey. It kind of reminded me of an Egg McMuffin, but obviously with turkey instead of ham. On the side, I chopped up some fresh strawberries for some sweetness and nutrients!! Such a great way to start my Friday!

The other day, I was reading one of the many blogs I follow and she mentioned making your own peanut butter. I was intrigued, especially after my parents bought some raw peanuts from a farmer's market a few weeks ago. Apparently, if you out the nuts in a food processor and blend the heck out of them, they turn into creamy, yummy peanut butter! The end result didn't have as much taste as regular peanut butter (there is no oil or sugar in it), but it is alot healthier and great for those eating "clean". 

Before...

A billion years later...

Have you ever made your own nut butter? How did it turn out?

Meatless Monday!

Oh, hello there! You look very pretty today!!

Today was a very dreary Monday in my hometown and I needed something to break my rainy day blues. For a few months now, my family and I have tried to institute "meatless Mondays" in our household. For those of you who don't know, "meatless Mondays" just what they sound like- you try and skip the meat in lieu of more healthy options like vegetables, tofu, pasta, etc. Why, you ask? It reduces your carbon footprint and is simply more healthy. Meat, especially red meat, can be very high in fat and cholesterol and should be eaten in moderation, anyways. 

Now, let me get off of my soapbox...

Right, so when dinner time rolled around I knew I wanted to make something packed with protein to keep me full, but had no meat. This can be quite tricky.. Some of the best forms of non-meat protein are nuts, whole grains, beans and soy. For this meal, I chose to use the latter two ingredients. I made a serving of brown rice and tossed in some black beans (these are my favorite bean), spinach, and a chopped up Boca burger (Original Vegan). 

My dinner was very filling and very yummy as well! I definitely recommend going meatless for one meal a week in your house. After all, it's a great reason to experiment in the kitchen!! 

Do you like vegetarian meals? Or are you a strict carnivore?

Downtown Adventures!

Happy Thursday everyone! Since today was a pretty boring day (I ran errands and baked birthday cupcakes), I figured I would give you guys a recap of yesterday which was very busy!

For my workout, I did a quick 20 minutes on the elliptical and followed up with an ab routine similar to this one. I also added in some oblique crunches on a roman chair. It looked like this. Man! Do those things burn!! My obliques are really feeling it today.

Candid shot!

Afterwards, I had lunch plans with my friend CJ. He is RJ's best friend and I consider him one of mine as well. I can always count on him for good intellectual discussions about life :). Anyways, we decided to go to a small cafe called Cafe Nola downtown that caters to a more health-friendly crowd. Their menu had a variety of vegan and vegetarian options so I was very excited to try it!

I perused the menu and found something called the "Fresh Start". It was a breakfast sandwich that had hummus, greens, feta, and tomato on it. I am awkwardly obsessed with hummus so I decided to give it a try along with a side salad.

This wrap was soo good. The hummus was perfect and the cool greens and salty feta all blended for some healthy yumminess! I will definitely be going back to this place to try all of their sandwiches and a black bean burger that caught my eye ;)

Do you like vegetarian wraps/sandwiches?

Five Ingredient Muffins!

Apologies for the long absence my loves!! It's been a crazy few days and I am just now able to get online to update you all!!

Let's start with something easy, like a quick breakfast recap!! This morning, I was in the mood for something savory for my morning meal. I fried up two eggs over hard (I have a texture issue with runny egg yolks) and the slapped them on a wheat English muffin with some cheese. On the side, I cut up some gorgeous strawberries and of course my vitamins! I take vitamins everyday to help me feel and look my best. I take a multivitamin, a cranberry pill, vitamin D and Biotin every day.

Egg sammy!

I also have a pretty interesting recipe to share!! I am always browsing the net for easy recipes with a short list of ingredients. I love to cook, but sometimes you just want to make something easy. So, I found this recipe for 5-ingredient Paleo muffins from Tessa the Domestic Diva I hope you enjoy!!

5 Minute Muffins – High Protein, Grain Free, Sugar Free!

Prep time:  5 mins

Cook time:  8 mins

Total time:  13 mins

Serves: 24

 

Ingredients

• 1 cup any nut butter ( I have used cashew, peanut, almond, and sunflower seed. My favorite is cashew)
• 2-3 VERY ripe banana w/ tons of black spots (I have also used some prunes to help sweeten in place of the some of the banana)
• 2 eggs (I have also tried a chia/flax egg, and while very delicious, the texture is more moist and they do not rise as high)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 10 drops liquid vanilla creme stevia, or a a tablespoon or two of honey to taste (optional) This amount here greatly depends on personal taste and the sweetness of your bananas.
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Place all ingredients into a blender or food processor.
3. Blend until well mixed: batter will be sticky.
4. Pour batter into a greased mini muffin tins.
5. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 8 minutes or so, slightly longer with chia eggs. I am sure you could use regular muffins too, but you will have to increase the cooking time to 12-15 minutes

Overall, these muffins turned out pretty yummy. The texture is not that of a regular muffin because there is no flour but they taste peanut-buttery and keep me full for a while. An excellent snack!

Where do you find most of your recipes? 

I find mine on Pinterest usually..

Knee Update

Just popping in for a quick update! Yesterday morning I finally(!) went to an orthopedist to see what was going on with my knee. As you guys know, I injured my left knee running on a treadmill about a month ago. Since then, I have not been running at all and have been taking it easy on the cardio front.

My doctor said that I most likely have something called Iliotibial Band Syndrome (ITBS). This is a common injury among runners and bikers. In laymans terms,  there is a ligament that runs from your hip to the outside of your knee called the Iliotibial Band. When you run often, the band rubs against your knee bone, causing inflammation and pain. You can read more about it here.

He gave me a prescription for anti-inflammatory medication and that will hopefully clear it up. Thank you to those who were worried about me. It seems like I will love to run again :)

Toodles!!

Swimmingly Good Date Night!

Hola, internet friends!! I hope your weekend was fantastic and I am just popping in for a Saturday recap!!

On Saturday morning I went to a diner with some friends for a yummy breakfast. In case you were wondering, I ordered oatmeal and a fruit cup. They brought out my bowl of oatmeal with a side of coffee creamers and butter. Now, I am no oatmeal expert, but do people really eat oatmeal with creamer and butter? I am more of a sweet kinda girl, and I just added some sugar to mine and gobbled it up!

After breakfast, I drove back home and met my parents at a local indoor pool to swim some laps! I know I have been talking about swimming more recently and I know some people wonder about swimming workouts. They are a great way to exercise with no impact on your knees. So if you're like me and have a recent injury or just want to give the ol' knees a break, swimming is probably the best alternative.

I want to post my usual swimming workout but I don't want to confuse anyone so I should explain something before I post the workout. One length of a standard lap pool is 25 meters. Which means if you go once up and back, you swam 50 meters. Up and back twice would be 100 meters. Get it? Okay, now on to the workout:

• 200m freestyle
• 200m breast
• 200m backstroke
• 100m kicking with kickboard
• 100m freestyle only using arms
• 100m breast only using arms
• 200m freestyle cool down

Let me just tell you, my arms we a-burnin'!!! I love feeling muscles you haven't used in a while!

After swimming, I got ready in the locker room (and what an adventure that was. Let's just say, applying mascara with a 5 year old girl staring at you is a little unnerving.) and drove back to RJ's  for date night!! We went out to a restaurant called Austin Grill which serves tex mex style food. I ordered the Chicken Silverado off their "Lite Side" menu, which are options under 650 calories:

CHICKEN SILVERADO
Grilled chicken topped with a citrus salsa, served with green rice and seasonal veggies. 

It was so good!! According to our waiter, Zach, the "green rice" is actually just regular rice with some lime juice and cilantro added for some extra flavor. I probably could have had a plate of nothing but that rice and been overjoyed. I happily ate every bite!

Afterwards, we walked around a bit and just enjoyed our surroundings. It was a lovely night and there were tons of people out walking around and having a lovely Saturday evening out!

We saw this awesome street performer using plastic tubs as drums and we stopped to watch him for a bit. He recruited some kids to help him play for a few minutes. It was so cute and you could tell the kids got a kick out of it!!

Overall, it was a wonderful night with a wonderful companion ;) I hope to do it again soon!!