A Winning Combination

I just signed up for a three month program at my gym that will focus on preparing me for a half marathon! Although I think I could do this on my own, I’m really excited to get out there with others who have the same goal. For me it isn’t even about “socializing” just their presence is motivating. It totally brings out the competitor in me. The program starts next month and is going to keep me busy for two nights (and one morning). So that dinners don’t become neglected, I’m going to have to really plan to have good “leftover” meals or crockpot meals. Some people hate leftovers but for me it is all about how much I really liked the dish the first time around. Hint: I really loved this dish the first time around…

Cajun Chicken Pasta! Normally, when pasta and creamy sauces are put together you get one heck of a calorie laden meal. Not with this recipe! A whole 11/2 cups of this pasta comes in at only 328 calories. Not bad! Also, I just love all the veggies packed into it!

I think the chicken is hiding in my pictures but don’t worry, there was just the right amount in each dish.

I followed the suggested recipe, however I added just a pinch of ground red pepper at the end just to make it a little more spicy! It was even a great leftovers meal for the next day which was great for today because my kids had a ton of homework and I needed to help them and not be busy cooking.

So do you have any favorite healthy leftover meals or crockpot meals? I’d love to hear about them!
The recipe for this yummy dish can be found at Skinnytaste.com.

Frothy on the Cheap!

So you didn’t get one of those fancy schmancy home coffee brewers for Christmas? No worries!! Let me introduce you to this little guy…

A milk frother (thanks Auntie M)! I picked this little guy up for $3.99 (I believe) at Ikea! So what can this little guy do exactly? Let me demonstrate it’s magic!

So what does this all mean exactly? Well let me show you!

Beautiful isn’t it?!? I found that lower fat milk seems to get more foamy than the higher fat. Let me know what your findings are! Also, I believe, I may be making another road trip to Ikea so for my hometown buddies, let me know if you want me to grab you one!
And now that you have the coffee shop drink, let’s pair it with a coffee shop sandwich shall we?

This sandwich just happens to take care of that pizza craving too!

I found this sandwich idea Pinterest! I just love banana peppers (I eat them straight out of the jar) so I topped my sandwich with them.

I cook mine open faced in the toaster oven and slap them together after the cheese starts getting melty.

Add a cup of soup and you have a happy lunch!
Original sandwich idea is from Green Lite Bites.

Back at it.

Well the New Year is here. Did you make a resolution? Have you kept it? I’ve really not been much of a resolution person in the past, but between the family being sick, being busy with the holidays, eating too much “comfort food,” I used the New Year to get back into my fitness routines.
These helped too…

This, although it is super beautiful, did not…

The good news is, my gym is pretty close so I can cruise on over there until it’s not so chilly! Also there is always sled riding for some physical activity!
If you play outside, be sure to make this dish for when you come back in. Spicy Chicken Stew!

Stuffed Puffed Pastries

Yet another Christmas is coming to an end. Almost. We have one more get together this weekend. In my head I feel like things will settle down then, however we have New Years and my dad’s birthday before the festivities will actually be over. Long story short, I have all kinds of recipes to share with you right now!

These Avocado, Cream Cheese and Salsa Puffed Pastries were a hit! Next time I think I’ll let them cook a little longer, but I was so worried they would burn and I didn’t want to the the chance. I’m also interested in how they would be if you used wonton or egg roll wrappers in lieu of the puff pastry. If you try that out, let me know how they turn out.

I really liked how quickly these came together! I’ll be honest I just spooned the avocado, cream cheese and salsa onto each square without measuring. Whatever looked good seemed to work out just fine. The only thing I didn’t like was that my salsa was naturally a little too wet and leaked from a few of the pastries. Next time I think I’ll use my little mesh strainer or even a fork to add the salsa so it’s a little drier.

Aside from not measuring, I followed the original recipe pretty closely and it can be found here at Averie Cooks.

So if you celebrate Christmas, I hoped you enjoyed it! Here are a few picture of my favorite things.

The weather was terrible and we had to get a tree so this is our $20.00 purchase from Tractor Supply! Not bad huh? My kids decorated our cookies, clearly they love sprinkles. Also our Elf, George was a hit and will be missed very much.
Although I got loads of cool gifts, I’m happy to share that I got this…

Also I’m hoping that this gift will help with all the holiday indulging!

Do you have one of these gadgets? I haven’t used my Nike band yet but I’m hoping it is as neat as it looks!!

Short Cut

So how was your Thanksgiving? Mine was pretty fantastic and I think a new tradition was born.

Gobble, gobble! I got second place in my age group in the Thanksgiving 5k my town had! I actually felt pretty crappy during my run so I’m gunning for 1st next year! But really, what a great way to start the day before eating (too much) and laying around playing Words With Friends, stalking blogs I adore, and watching football!!
Today, I’m so proud of the recipe I have to share with you! With the holidays coming, I think this is a fantastic dish for a small get together! This dish will look like you spent hours in the kitchen, but with the short cuts I made, you’ll have a wonderful dish in no time!
Sometimes I’m just too busy, or too lazy to follow directions. So when I saw this chicken recipe on Pinterest, I knew I had to find a way to make something like it! So I did…

This chicken had amazing flavor! The puréed cauliflower complemented it well. Yes, that is cauliflower and not potatoes. This is a pretty healthy dish!

Sore!

Today I want to share with you a totally comforting dish! This dish is cheesy, salty, filling, and of course eggy!!

But first I want to share with you an accomplishment I made yesterday!
I ran a 10.4 mile trail run!

Awww look how happy I look. Who knew how sore I would be today!! I don’t think I’m completely sore from the run (although it was extremely difficult), but more from all of the times I almost fell during the run. We had quite a few days of rain right before the race, so the trail was extremely muddy.
Exhibit A and B

I’m guessing I won’t be allowed to wear those shoes in the gym :(.
I looked for pictures of the race however the ones I found are completely misleading! They are all of these little flat spots of a beautifully wooded trails. Although the race was in a very beautiful setting, they failed to show pictures of all of the large hills you have to climb during the race (my husband counted seven). I’m pretty sure if there were seven, at least five of them were in the first five miles. A friend I was running with had asked me on the first hill if this was the “hill” I had been talking about (I had ran this course one other time in the past), I’m pretty sure that she didn’t like my response when I replied “it is one of them.”
The other “fun” part of this run was all of the creeks you had to get across (with no bridges). There were a few times my shoes got wet and that water was COLD!
But we made it! And I’m sure everyone felt proud!
Today however, I’m taking it easy because I’m so sore!
So let’s get back to cooking shall we?

We have been having a heck of a time keeping up with the chickens and all of the eggs they’ve been laying. So when I came up with this dish, I wanted to make sure that I would have lots of the couscous mixture for leftovers.
Here is what I used:
whole wheat couscous
frozen spinach, thawed and squeeze dry
parmesan cheese
goat cheese (not shown)
butter and olive oil (also not shown)
bacon (entire package)
eggs
chicken broth or chicken bouillon
salt and pepper
When I made this, I had doubled the couscous and made roughly four cups cooked. I would suggest only making about two cups cooked because it is just so filling and let you dish have more bacon and spinach. But that is just me!
So here is what I did:
1. Boil couscous according to package. Instead of water I used chicken broth for extra flavor. I didn’t add salt because of the broth base having plenty of sodium (plus your adding bacon later!). Once couscous is cooked, add in a little fat. I used butter (about two tablespoons) and just a bit of olive oil.

2. While couscous is cooking, fry your bacon until crispy.

3. Combine couscous, bacon, spinach, and goat cheese (I used what was left in my fridge probably about 11/2-2 ounces.
4. Fry eggs over easy and add a little sprinkle of salt and pepper while cooking.
5. In a bowl, add couscous mixture.

(This may have been a little too much for one serving.)
6. Top with an egg (or two and parmesan). Serve!!

Summer Love

I’m obsessed with fruits and veggies right now! I feel like any minute summer is going to end and the abundance of (cheap!) local produce will be gone. So right now, I’m doing my best to incorporate them into ever meal. My newest favorite?

Zucchini Tots!

It’s Giveaway Time!!

Hello Friends! Have I got some great news for you!! …so I did it myself is having its first Giveaway!!

Friends!!

How are you! I’ve missed you so much! The family and I snuck off for an island getaway to this lovely place…

It is actually Kelly’s Island! If you are unaware of where that is, it is a little island in Lake Erie. I highly recommend a weekend visit! We ended up camping up there for six nights and still felt like we didn’t get to do a few things we would have liked to do. In the mornings, I rode my bike around the entire edge of the island. I was constantly torn by checking out all the houses and looking at the water. One time I may have ridden off the side of the road into the grass because I was caught up in sight-seeing. Don’t worry no one saw me! HAHAHA!!

At our campsite, I was surprised by what I found on the treeline of our campsite.

Blackberries!

Lucky for me, I had packed some Greek yogurt so a few mornings I picked some of the berries and tossed them together!  We were even able to take our dog camping with us.

She loved swimming! I’m pretty sure she is part fish. We had to keep her on a rope because she would try to swim out to boats in the water. Actually, I’m not sure where she would have ended up if we would have let her keep going. Sadie was enjoying herself perhaps a little too much. Whenever we left her in the camper this is what would happen…

Such a priss! She knows she isn’t supposed to be on the furniture and yet as soon as I’d walk out I could hear here jumping up on stuff. So I would go back in and she would look at me like she had no idea what the problem was!So vacation was great! However when we came home…not so great! We got hit hard in our area with a storm the night that we left for the island. Lots of damage and lots of people without power. Did I tell you it has been riding stead around 90-100 degress where we live? We invited whoever needed a place to stay or any other uses access to our house. When we got back, home was a little busier than normal. Even though we had been gone for 6 days, there was still lots of people without power! I’m glad we had it, and that we could help out. Things were made really hectic though because our renters moved out of our rental and they left it a mess!! AHHHHH!!! So my husband has been working over there since we got back and today I’m headed over to paint and clean. It was ridiculous! Did you know cobwebs can turn black if you leave them long enough??? Bleck! I know some awesome people that do a great job taking care as a renter. It wasn’t these people! It breaks my heart because it was our first house and we LOVE that house, just too small for our family. Oh well! I could sit here and cry (literally) about it, but I’ve got an audiobook downloaded, Starbucks in hand and a day of burning calories ahead of me!!

Can You Hear That?

My house is completely quiet at the moment! Actually, it will be this way for the next few hours and I’m going to enjoy every second of it! My husband is on his summer break from work. Just finished Friday. Since then we have had a fun filled weekend! I realized this weekend, I desperately want an i-phone, because there were so many things I would have loved to share (good) pictures of with you!
Until then, I will share a few random thoughts and pictures I’ve been wanting to share!

Let’s start with breakfast!