Good to be Home

I’m finally back home! The clinic I went to was intense, long hours! I started to miss my family, home cooked meals and these guys…

Can you believe how big they are?!

So I flew in late Friday night and Saturday I was pretty tired. I opted to make something for dinner that didn’t require much effort on my part! I’m super satisfied with how this recipe turned out!

Crockpot Chicken! This meal can totally be adjusted to what you have on hand!

This is what I used:
3-4 large frozen chicken breast
bag of frozen peppers and onions
1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained
1 bottle of marinade
cooked brown rice (optional)

Step one:

Throw the veggies, beans, chicken and about half the bottle of marinade in Crockpot, set to low if you’re not in a hurry. Allow to cook thoroughly, I stirred mine up a couple times.

Step two:

Shred chicken (chicken will pretty much fall apart anyways). I also added a little additional marinade (optional).

Step three:

Serve! Use slotted spoon to scoop veggies and beans.

I have what I believe will be a second recipe for the leftovers of this dish! I saved my chicken and beans and veggies (drained of broth) in to containers. Stay tuned!

Not This Time!

So there I was, 7:30 am, me and a table full of baked goods! Blueberry cakes. Chocolate too. And around 12:30, they rolled out the assorted cookies. Fortunantly, I came prepared! I karate chopped those temptations and stuck with my planned (healthy) snacks! A small (nice) surprise, there was yogurt, cheese sticks and tangerines, which made for a nice light lunch!

After the lunch break, the guy next to me brought back a smoothie from Tropical Smoothie Cafe. He was raving about them and was surprised I had never hear of it. Normally, I associate smoothies from shops as something that is misguided as healthy but really has like a thousand calories. I think my neighbor caught that I was leery because he went on to say they only use fruit and you can omit any added sugar. Ok, he had my interest. Just by chance, when I was looking for somewhere to eat for dinner, I ran into the TS Cafe and I just had to see for myself!

I’m so glad I did! They had great smoothie options, with options to blend in flax, whey protein, oats, vitamins and more! Would it be wrong of me to drink smoothies for lunch and dinner all week??

I Made It!

I am finally settling down after a long day of travel! I would have to say that so far today has just been ok. I get super nervous about flying so this morning I made some oats hoping they’d calm me down (and my stomach)!

In case you don’t already know this trick, this is a perfect way to get the last bits of peanut butter from your jar! As expensive as peanut butter is, nothing should go to waste! You can also use this trick with Nutella and Biscoff!

All you do is cook your oats (I use old fashion plain on the stove cooked in Almond Milk, it makes the oats creamy). While oats are still warm, stir in a near empty container of your favorite nut butter. Then pour it out into you bowl! If your adventurous and carefree of calories, I’d love to know how this tastes with a nearly empty frosting jar! I know, please excuse my sweet tooth for taking over!

So when I arrived to my destination it was raining…hard. 😦 My plan was to scope out the area to get a feel for where things were (and to stretch my legs). Luckily, my cab driver told me like 5 times the mall is right next to where I’m staying! It was like he knew me! The mall was ok. I was super excited they had a frozen yogurt shop, until I actually got there, it was a bust! I actually ended up coming back to the hotel and getting this…

It wasn’t too bad, although it had cranberries and there was supposed to be peanuts, I don’t know, just a little confused! I think I miss my kitchen!
Hopefully tomorrow I have better luck!

Don’t Forget!!

Don’t forget to head over to Danny’s Kitchen to vote for your favorite dish!  To go directly to his site, click here.

 

Have a great weekend!!

Survival Mode

Pretty soon I’ll be on my way to yet another week long, out of town conference. I’ve been to enough of these to realize that travel and conferences are recipe for belly disaster. Why? Because someone decided long ago that it was a nice gesture to serve things like doughnuts, cookies, wraps and cheesecake to people who have spent hours on their butts!!!!
Well I’m hoping this time around to not fall victim to their ways! Hopefully, I will have you with me along the way to keep me in check! Ok and in full disclosure, this particular training was pretty expensive and they don’t feed you! But just in case the doughnuts and cookies surface, I’ll be prepared!

So how about a quick treat before I leave? Remember this Banana Ice Cream? I’ve had people tell me they enjoyed it so much. When I saw this recipe for Strawberry Ice Cream, I had to make sure I tried it out and then passed along the recipe!

So simple!

This makes a single serving (if I made more I would not stop eating it!!)

1. Freeze 1/2 banana and 5-6 strawberries.
2. 1/4 cup cottage cheese

Mix fruit and cottage cheese with a blender. You may have to use a wooden spoon and push bits back down to bottom of blender (a few times). Blend until everything is creamy, serve!

Or if you’re like me, decorate and then serve!

Recipe adapted from The Gracious Pantry.

Would You Vote For This?

Cilantro, Black Bean, Corn Salsa 🙂

Of course it is fantastic on a chip, but don’t underestimate how versatile it is!

I actually also had this on a bed of romaine with some grilled chicken. Unfortunately, I didn’t think to take a picture of that dish until after I inhaled ate it.

Don’t be fooled though, this is an awesome side dish on its own!

What is all of this vote talk?
Danny at Danny’s Kitchen, is having a fun contest called, “the great leftover challenge.”

What is it? Basically readers were asked to submit a dish that was created based on leftovers. Initially, I wanted to create something, but my mind went blank. While rummaging through my fridge I had an epiphany, and came up with this dish! A friend of mine introduced me to corn salsa. I. Love. It. Looking around my fridge I thought, why not expand on it!

Danny will be posting all of the entries over the weekend. I hope you’ll stop over and vote! Click Here to go to the Danny’s site. You should click either way, he is a great cook with a great blog!

So what’s in this salsa?

Here is what I used:
1 bag frozen white corn, totally thawed and pat dry with a paper towel
1 bag yellow corn, also thawed and dried
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1 container of yellow cherry tomatoes, halved (red would be ok too)
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 avocado, diced (read below before cutting)
2-3 tbsp jalapeño peppers, minced
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsp sweetened lime juice (I use Rosie’s found in liquor isle at larger grocery stores)
Salt to taste

I can’t stress how important that the corn is thawed and dry.

1. Mix all ingredients except avocado.
2. This makes a large batch, if serving all at once, stir in avocado right before serving. If you are having a little at a time, I would only use what you will eat right away.
3. This dish continues to get better as it hangs out in the fridge, so feel free to make it hours or a day ahead of time!

I’d like to thank Danny for giving me the idea on how to use my over abundance of frozen corn (apparently I buy a bag everytime I’m at the store?), that lurking can of black beans, and the near death avocado!

Again, thanks again to my cooking buddy for the corn salsa concept!!

Peeta Strikes Again

Sorry for the half finished post if you got it in your email, Peeta sent my post before I was finished talking! Hahahahahaha! I’m really trying to get use to blogging from my iPad because I’ll be traveling soon and would like to continue blogging while I’m out and about.

So let’s just start over on the post I was working earlier!

Oh yeah! That’s right, another homemade meal that tastes as good as the restaurant made, if not better! If you haven’t tried the Mongolian Beef dish yet, I can only ask, “what are you waiting for!”

But now you’re going to have yet another fabulous dish to decide from!!

Kung Pao Chicken!

This is such an easy dish to make and it was super tasty.

Here is what you’ll need:

2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts (cut into 1 inch strips)
1-2 tbsp corn starch
2 tsp sesame oil
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp powdered ginger
2 tbsp rice vinegar (I used white vinegar because that is what I had, it was fine)
2 tbsp soy sauce
1-2 tsp sugar
1/3 cup cashews or peanuts
3 tbsp green onion, chopped

1. Lightly coat chicken with cornstarch.
2. Heat sesame oil in pan over medium heat. Cook chicken for 5-7 minutes or until cooked through. Remove chicken from pan and set aside.
3. Combine vinegar, soy sauce and sugar. Add mix to pan and also add in powdered ginger, red pepper flakes, green onion and garlic. Mix everything in pan for about a minute over medium heat.
4. Add chicken back into dish and add in cashews or peanuts. Heat thoroughly, serve!

Recipe adapted from Blog Chef.net

Take Out Fake Out Strikes Again

Oh yeah! That’s right, another homemade meal that tastes as good as the restaurant made, if not better! If you haven’t tried the Mongolian Beef dish yet, I can only ask, “what are you waiting for!”

But now you’re going to have yet another fabulous dish to decide from!!

Spring Is Here!

My eyes are slightly itchy today:( I guess that is just how it goes when you spend the day outside! Between pulling weeds, walking and hanging outside the allergies are bound to get stirred up. We have way too many flower beds. Have I ever told you that? They are LARGE flower beds. The flowers and I are at war with the weeds. Since I try not to use weed killer (or let my husband), hours are spent pulling weeds. So redundant! In addition to the weeds, there was a lot of other overgrowth from where our house sat vacant for so long before we bought it. My husband has spent lots of time clearing land for various projects. One we started last year was the garden….the garden is a work in progress. We may have delayed that progress a wee bit when we borrowed the wood that enclosed it to finish the chicken coop! It will be replaced…soon…

My husband cleared the land last spring for the garden, we weren’t even sure if anything would grow because the land is really rocky. Fortunately we were proved wrong! This year we got some early spring produce in and everything seems to be coming along great!

So if you were debating about your own garden, I would say to try a variety of things and see what works for you. We can’t grow regular tomatoes but cherry tomatoes go nuts.

To go with the spring theme, I had to share a springy dish!

Greek Yogurt Chicken Salad!

This is such an easy recipe and pretty guilt free!

When I made this dish, I wanted to have plenty of leftovers of lunch. This made roughly 4 servings.

Here is what you’ll need:

2 large chicken breast cooked and shredded (rotisserie would be great!)

1 1/2 cups halved grapes

4 stalks celery, cut thinly

1/2 cup Greek plain yogurt

3 tsp honey and dijon mustard

salt and pepper to taste

honey roasted almonds (chopped)

1. Mix yogurt, honey, Dijon and salt and pepper

2. In a bowl, combine chicken, grapes and celery.

3. Stir yogurt mixture into chicken mixture. I allowed mix to chill before serving and sprinkled about 1/8 cup of almonds on top. I also served everything over some fresh romaine. Enjoy!

Recipe from Iowa Girl Eats

A Weekend Edition!

Let me first say, I’m trying to type this post on Peeta today, so if something screwy happens, I blame him! Last Thursday, the family and I took off for a last minute mini vacation to Indianapolis. I know most of the time I spend blogging about cooking and DIY stuff by I’ve decided to also add in trips because they are about new experiences and really isn’t that what this blog is about? I have to start out by saying that I was really impressed with Indianapolis! Whether it would be a family vacation or a couple’s getaway, there are a lot of great places to go!

First off, we got lucky by scoring a hotel room at the Hyatt for $62.00 a night! Guess who else stayed there? The Cleveland Cavaliers! At first, I just noticed some extremely tall guys at the hotel. My first thought was basketball players. Quickly we realized who it had to be. Then the fans waiting outside and the charter bus made it abundantly clear!

The first night, we got to town a little late, so we justwalked a around a bit, hit the Rock Bottom Brewery for dinner and took the kids to the hotel pool. TheRock Bottom Brewery had some of the best chili ever, I was just a little disappointed with the portion size. I’m pretty sure I ordered a bowl and got charged for one! But if that was a bowl, I’m not sure what a cup would be.

Saturday was when all the fun started!

First stop, the Indianapolis Children’s Museum!

If you have never heard of a children’s museum, don’t think security guards and old stuff (although I guess there is both), think hands on learning and fun!

They have exhibits that change throughout the year, when we visited, there was a Lego, dinosaurs and Mr. Potato Head exhibit!

The people at the children’s museum should get an award. The kids had a ball but imagine the chaos of hundreds of kids all super excited running around your job everyday!

So after visiting the museum we took a break before heading out for a quick bite to eat and then we walked to the arena to catch the Pacers play the Cavs!

After the game we walked back towards our hotel and ended up stopping at a chocolate/ice cream shop. There were a couple of people playing live music at the outdoor seating area so we sat out there with our snacks and enjoyed the music.

Overall Indianapolis was a friendly city with lots to do! There was plenty more we wished we could have done so we plan to go back for sure!