I sent my lens off to Canon last week and hopefully they will be able to send me a new one ASAP.  I am sure missing it something fierce.  I have an ancient piece of crap to work with and I’m trying to make the best of it.  I hope you don’t mind  I have a great roasted pork loin with POM reduction recipe, along with a new twist on grilled pizza, and my first attempt at making coffee!  

I don’t make pork loin too often, but when I received some free samples of antioxidant-rich pomegranate juice from the nice folks at POM, I knew exactly what I wanted to make!  A lot of this can be done in advance too.

Roasted Pork Loin with POM Reduction

Serves: 5-6

For the marinade in a zippy bag:

• 1 pork loin (mine was on the smaller side)
• 1 cup POM juice
• 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp salt + pepper, garlic powder
• 1 tbsp herbes de provence

Marinate everything in a zippy bag overnight.

For the pistachio cous cous:

• 1 cup water + 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 cup ww cous cous
• sprinkling of salt, AP seasoning
• 1/3 cup chopped pisatchios
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• 3 tbsp reserved POM sauce (see below)

For the POM reduction sauce:

• 1/2 small onion, diced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 cup POM juice
• 1/2 tbsp butta’

Instructions

Pre-heat oven to 325 F.  Remove pork from marinade and sauté pork loin over medium-high heat in an oven safe pan until nice and golden around the edges.  Place pan in oven for about 30 minutes, until the pork registers 150 F.  Take out, cover in foil and let rest.

While the pork is roasting, make the cous cous.  Boil water, oil and spices in a pan; add cous cous, turn off heat and cover for 5 minutes.  Add reserved pistachios, cranberries and reduction sauce (see below).

For the reduction sauce, when the pork loin comes out of the oven, remove the pork and any really dark bits from the pan.  Sauté the onions and garlic in the pan until golden; add the POM juice and reduce down till nice and syrupy (about 15 minutes).  Add the butter and then add to the cous cous.  Serve the rest of the sauce along side the pork.

mmm butta’

These pictures aren’t very pretty but you get the picture, right?

The POM sauce went really well with the pork.

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I also made a great new twist on pizza that would be great to try!

Instead of the usual red sauce, I made a pizza with canned black beans to up the fiber and protein.

Mexican Pizza

Serves: a butt load

For the sauce:

• 1 can black beans, rinsed & drained
• 2-3 tbsp of your favorite salsa (I used TJ’s 3-pepper salsa)
• Favorite toppings: spinach, green onions, tomatoes, mexi cheese, avocado, etc.

Pulse the beans and salsa in a food processor until your desired consistency.

I used packaged pizza dough from TJ’s this time, but if you want to make your own check out my WW pizza dough recipe

Simply roll the dough out, lightly brush with oil, and grill each side.  Then add the black bean sauce, top with salsa and the rest of your favorite toppings and grill until melted.  Easy!

I also made some traditional ones with red sauce, roasted zucchini and mushrooms.

Alongside Chris and I shared this hefe, but I won’t even try to spell it out or pronounce it.  It’s one of our favorites imported from Munich, Germany.  It has a nice, dark and rich flavor profile.  Not very light compared to most hefes.

I want to jump right in!

It was a great dinner to share and I was hungry!

~~~~

This morning, while Chris was still sleeping, I decided to experiment with our new coffee maker and whip up an omelet. I’m not usually much of a coffee drinker because I have a verrrry low tolerance for caffeine.  Just one cup and it’s not too long before I’m zinging and shaking like a crazy person that just won a new Trek Bike.  It also can upset my tummy. I just love the idea of making coffee though, and want to at least have a little bit for fun

After trying a little sample at TJ’s the other day, I picked up this Bali Blue Moon.  I like it because it’s not too dark and has a nice flavor.  Chris on the other hand loves blacker than black coffee so I’m thinking I’ll get another can of a dark roast decaf and we can mix the two.

Well, my first attempt at making coffee wasn’t too bad.  I even added a little bit of chocolate milk to make a mocha latte thingie  Chris said that it was ‘weak’, but oh well.  I have a lot more pots to make and experiment with!  I’d also like to throw a cinnamon stick in there too mmm

I’m going to start with having just a small cup.  I think this size is just perfect.

For breakfast I made a simple 2 egg omelet with leftover pork and veggie fillings from the other day.  Alongside I had some cottage cheese and berries.

I managed to up all my weights in body pump this morning!  It felt great.  Since my next century is not for another 3 months, right now I’m going to focus on building strength and being consistent with 2-3 fairly easy base training rides/week.  I’m excited for Viva!

Tonight I’m actually going to a Snoop Dogg private concert at the Palms with a friend!!  I’m super excited, it should be fun.  Hopefully I can stay up and make it to work tomorrow morning

Happy Weekend!

Any suggestions on a reasonable point and shoot that is good with foodie shots?

ooh, sorry for being a missing person lately.  Yes, my good ol’ laptop decided to take a dump on me again for a 3rd time!! grrr It was actually pretty funny because Chris and I were talking about how I should get Mozy to back up all my files since my laptop has been so shady, and the moment I tried to then turn it on . . . nuthin’.  Yep, it was dead.  Another good thing about all this though is that my 2-year performance plan will be up in July, so if it would have waited to die another month or so I would have been sh– out of luck.  I’m hoping that they will send me a store credit for a new one since this is the same problem for the third time.  *fingers crossed*  I do know that I will NOT be getting an AMD processor again.  That thing just got too hot and fried itself every time.

I hope you all had a nice Father’s Day!  Just a little re-cap of the weekend and our dad’s day celebration . . .  

Friday night Chris and I were thinking about going out to eat, but finally decided to stay in, save money, and scrounge up what we could.  I made a wonderful BBQ ‘chicken’ salad that really hit the spot.

I had some TJ’s tempeh that needed to get used and decided to make grilled BBQ ‘chicken’ with it.

All you have to do is slice it and marinate it in your favorite BBQ sauce for a few minutes (I used TJ’s brand).  Then place it on a grill pan to get some good grill marks and that’s it!

I made a salad of romaine, carrots and cranberries with a dollop of NF Greek and a 1/4 of a WW tortilla with Mexi Cheese on the side.

The BBQ dressing really stole the show and was a great idea I got from Kalli.  Thanks girl!

The dressing was simply about 1 scoop BBQ sauce, 1 scoop roasted garlic hummus, 1 scoop Greek and a few tsp of water to thin it out to desired consistency.  It was tasty!

This was a great go-to meal and I am loving tempeh.

Saturday we spent the day running errands and finally got some grocery shopping done.  We also had our swim lessons and I feel like I’m getting somewhat better for only my second class.  I wasn’t having the best time trying to turn my head and breath with my strokes, but learned that actually rotating your torso makes a huge difference in arm extension and breathing.  Doh!  I feel like it is getting better and I just need more time to practice!  I have to admit with this hot weather, I’ve been lacking in motivation to get up at 4am to get a workout in  Hopefully I will snap out of it.

Sunday was Father’s Day!  We went out to Pahrump to visit my dad and the fam.  It was nice to see everyone again, since we don’t get out there too often.  Before heading out for the drive I decided to have a little Vega smoothie to hold me over until breakfast.  I’m really loving my Magic Bullet and Vega Shake and Go Smoothie mix!  This time around I used some of the wonderful berries that are in season and tried the bodacious berry mix flavor.

This one contained:

• 1/2 cup NF milk + 1/2 cup H2O
• big handful of raspberries
• about 1/3 cup frozen blueberries
• 1/4 frozen banana
• 2 heaping tbsp of Vega Shake Mix (berry flavor)

This held me over well until 10am.

We decided to grab breakfast at the local golf course, which always has really good breakfasts and the grounds are gorgeous!

I ordered the ‘Hole in One’ wrap which is my favorite on the menu.  It’s a tomato basil tortilla stuffed with scrambled eggs, bacon, avocado, cheese, sour cream and salsa.  mmm and I ate the whole dang thing!

Afterwards we just hung out around the house and the kids ran around like crazies  My dad has 3 little ones under the age of 8, so it’s always an adventure when we go visit!  Let’s just say Chris and I don’t want to have kids for a while ha! They are all getting so big and it’s really neat to see their little personalities develop.  My step mom also kindly highlighted and trimmed up my hair, yay!

After getting home later in the afternoon, we got caught up on things and I got ready for a little birthday dinner for my friend at work.  We went to a local sushi restaurant called Sumo Japanese Restaurant.  I haven’t had sushi in ages and this place certainly satisfied my long overdue craving.

They had a ton of special rolls to choose from and I swear I changed my mind a few times before I settled on a roll called Joe’s Special.  It had tempura shrimp and cucumber, topped with avocado and tuna with a sweet eel sauce. Delish!  I sure miss Reno and their $15 all you can eat sushi though.

I’ve started my summer school class in person, so I’ll be trying to focus on that for the next two weeks in addition to a bunch of other things going on eeek!

I also forgot to mention that BSN never called me back regarding the Consumer Reports article and their whey protein. hmmm seems a bit strange and I still don’t sit well with the whole thing.

Hope you all had a nice weekend!  A little bird told me there may be a giveaway coming up

Any fun Dad’s Day celebrations?

Overall it’s been a great weekend and once again I’m sad to see it go!  I have a few tasty recipes and a few meet-ups with good friends to share, as well as some reflections on my cycling training so far and my goals for the coming month.

Friday morning I threw a pork loin roast in the crock-pot and we had BBQ pulled pork sandwiches for dinner.  I also topped it with marinated veggies and used a whole wheat roll from Great Harvest.  Easy!  

I took about a 3 lb pork loin roast (mine was 3.36lbs) and placed it in a large crock-pot with 2 medium chopped onions and 1/2-1 cup water or broth (I used the last of our spiced apple cider).  Cook on low for 6:30 – 7:00 hours and then shred with 2 forks.

Add about 2 cups of your favorite BBQ sauce and mix.  I had TJ’s version on hand.

And that’s it!  It’s great because it makes a butt-load!  This would be great for a party too.  It seemed like our whole weekend was full of pulled pork leftovers  We put it in sammies and multiple omelets.  I’m sure glad Chris doesn’t mind leftovers because it saves a lot of time and money for us.

I also roasted some sweet tater fries sprinkled with olive oil, kosher salt and cinnamon on the side at 450 F for 30 min, stirring 1/2 way through.  These are soooo good!

Saturday morning Kristen and I went out to breakfast to catch up and chat at a local place called The Griddle.  I got a dish with 3 eggs, along with chicken, mushrooms, spinach and feta over home fries and pita bread.  It was huge!  I had 2 eggs, 3/4 of the hash mix and 2 pita triangles.  Kristen kindly let me borrow her camera to snap some shots.

The food wasn’t too stellar, but I enjoyed the company much more

After that I decided to peruse BCBG for some sales since my friend at work had mentioned that their pants fit really well and are long.  It’s so hard to find long pants for me!  She decided to join me and we first stopped at the regular ‘full-price’ store; they didn’t have even one of my sizes in pants, and I couldn’t really pay full price anyway.  So we decided to make our way to the Las Vegas Outlets where I found BCBG pants galore!  I was in heaven!  I found 2 pants and a suit jacket that fit really well and I’m super happy to have work pants that are loooong enough.  We also stopped at Whole Foods and picked up some goodies to try and had a nice salad bar lunch  Before I knew it the day had flown by and it was time for you guessed it . . . pulled pork leftovers!!!  yaya  I will spare you a double photo

Sunday I knew I had to go on some kind of ride.  I’m feeling a little bit stronger each ride and I want to keep it going I had a bit of a dilemma though because I had to choose between a ‘C’ ride that would probably be a bit too easy for me or a 53 mile ‘B’ ride.  I would say that I am a ‘B’ rider and avg 15-16mph, but usually most listed ‘B’ rides are really ‘A’ rides because of the riders that join.  Then I end up killing myself and burning out after a big hill (i.e. last week).  I had contemplated going on the harder ride, but finally decided that I would go on the ‘C’ ride and just extend it by 12 miles by also riding my bike to the starting point.

Breakfast started with a new find from Bob’s Red Mill.

I liked the little bits of apple in there, along with a bunch of other whole grains including wheat, rye, oats, triticale, barley, brown rice, and oat bran.  Whole grain powerhouse!

I really liked it and also added some more pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon, topped it with Kashi Cinnamon cereal & a few shredded wheats, 2 new date varieties (see below), 1/2 naner and a scoop of cottage cheese.  I’m a big texture person, and it was more like porridge, so I think next time I will add some different things to it like barley or whole oats.

I’m still in love with dates and found two new varieties to try at the farmer’s market.  On the left is a zahidi and right is a Halawy.  Zahidi dates are not quite as sweet or soft, with a subtle nutty flavor.  Halawy aren’t overly sweet, but have a nice caramel flavor.  I’m amazed at how many date varieties there are.

On the ride I had 1 L of water, 16 oz Gatorade, 2 dates and 1 energy ball.  I’m not usually a fan of Gatorade because it’s overly sweet for me, but I know that I need to start upping the extra energy and fluids, and I had some on hand.  It makes a huge difference to fuel at least 1 hour after the start of a ride and drink adequate fluids throughout.

To be honest the ride was a bit easy for me, but the winds were absolutely terrible again!!  I’m glad that I went on this ride though because those winds would have killed me on a faster ride.  Overall it wasn’t a bad ride, although slow with the gale force winds . . .

• Distance:  40.2 miles
• Time:  2:49:00
• Avg Speed:  14.5 mph Max:  24.2 mph

~~~~

Looking at my goals and reflections so far . . .

Last month my goal was to focus on strength training and work up to feeling confident (both mentally and physically) about hitting the road.  I’ve been doing strength training 2x per week for 3 weeks straight now and I’ve noticed a huge difference in my strength and definition.  Yes, I’d still say I have chicken arms though  In body pump I’ve been able to work up to squatting 50lbs!  I’m not even sure if I’ve squatted that much, or if that’s really that much, but I’d say that’s pretty good for all the reps we do?

I would say that I’m not absolutely 100% confident about biking, but I have actually gone on several rides so far all by myself, without a group.  It’s kind of stupid to say that doing something by yourself should be something to jump for joy about, but I’ve always been a group exercise person (Dance team, dance and group fitness classes, etc).  Plus with biking it kind of worries me sometimes if something happened I’d be out in the middle of nowhere.  It sure is an empowering feeling though, and I’m becoming more and more confident!

My goals for March are to continue with the strength training 2x per week because I feel like I could be stronger. I think I need to supplement body pump, which is usually lower weights and high reps, with a session of heavy weights/low reps.  I am going to gradually start increasing my mileage, even if the pace isn’t ideal.  Like running I want to get the mileage down before I start trying to increase speed too much.  I want to get more than 40 miles on the weekends at least and also bike to work 1-2 times per week which is about 16 miles each way (depending on if I have to be out in the community for work).  But we’ll see how it goes!

~~~~

After the ride, I was ready to eeeeeeeeeeat!

I whipped up a simple smoothie with the Smoothie Elite for Chris and I.

• 1.5 cup NF organic milk
• 1/2 cup vanilla Wallaby yogurt
• x-large bunch of spinach
• 2 cups frozen fruit (TJ’s mango mix – still trying to finish off this one)
• 3 kiwis
• 1 pkt Sun Warrior Vanilla brown rice protein
• 2 Tbsp hemp seed
• 1/2 tsp Maca powder

I topped mine with a handful of Kashi Crisp.  I am happy to note that even towards the bottom of the box there are big chunks of cereal left!  I hate when you get down to the last of a cereal and all that’s left is nothing but tiny pieces.

I don’t know about the brown rice protein, it has a chalky taste to me on its own?  But it worked really well in the protein cookies I made a little while ago, which I still need to post!  I’m also giving Maca powder a try.  Stay tuned for a post on Maca soon, detailing its limited research and safety information.

I also had a 1/2 piece of WW Naan with a scoop of BBQ pulled pork.  We still have a ton of this stuff leftover!!!  I think I’m going to have to put some in the freezer.

Whew!  Tonight I need to focus on some studying because we have midterms next week already!  Dinner most likely will be simple baked pasta chock full of veggies and some chicken sausage  I can’t believe it’s already March!

How was your weekend?  What are you looking forward to in the coming month?

I just have to share the photos from our new favorite waffle recipe!  As I mentioned before this banana brownie waffle recipe is from the Meal Makeover Moms and is one of our new favorites.  You should also stop by their blog because they are actually giving away a gorgeous waffle maker!  How perfect is that?

I have a small UNO waffle maker that is pretty versatile because you can either make regular deep-set circular waffles or you can flip the plates and make heart-shaped ones.  Of course since I was in the Valentine’s kind of spirit, I decided to try out the heart-shaped side for the first time.  They turned out adorable and of course you can imagine that I get all giddy over this kind of stuff.  Heck, I get giddy over spatulas and cute bowls

So here’s just a little re-cap of our new recipe adventure and it was pretty easy too.  You could always prep the wet and dry ingredients the night before and then add them together just before making the waffles.

First you get out the goods:

And your handy dandy waffle iron, any kind will do.

Mix the wet and dry ingredients together in a large bowl.  *Make sure you sift the AP flour in addition to the cocoa powder because they can get clumpy*  I used almost 2 – 1/3 cup scoops for each waffle.

And after waiting for a few minutes, ta-da!  Heart-shaped waffles!  But this wasn’t my first attempt of course because the first one always comes out like crap, so that’s the one you can ‘taste-test’  hehe  shhhh

I got about 8 good waffles with this batch.

I also decided to spruce ‘em up with a peanut butter ‘mousse’.  Of course whipped cream gives the best texture, but I decided to mix in a little non-fat yogurt and it was heaven!  Didn’t miss the whipped cream one bit.

Here’s approximately what went into the peanut butter mousse:

• 1/4 cup TJ’s peanut butter, creamy and salted
• 1/3-1/2 cup non-fat yogurt, regular or greek (Greek would make it extra thick)
• 1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped
• 1-2 tbsp milk to thin if needed

I also defrosted some plain strawberries and layered those, in addition to some more sliced naners, in between the layers of goodness.  I think I was in heaven for just a moment while eating this.

Chris also made some scrambled eggs, these were heaven too!  Make sure to cook your eggs over low heat while stirring with a spatula.  Here’s what went into the eggs:

• 3 large eggs
• 2 tbsp TJ’s Mediterranean feta cheese
• 1/4 cup cottage cheese

Here’s my first presentation attempt, sprinkled with some more cocoa powder:

My next presentation attempt was a waffle tower!

mid-bite mmmm

I liked them both, but I think the second version more?  But I do know that they sure tasted good.  These waffles are also great schmeared with nutella or you can get them crispy and top with some frozen yogurt for dessert?  They also freeze really well.  I hope you check out the waffle recipe and also be sure to enter for a new waffle maker!  Hope your week has gotten off to a good start too!

What’s your favorite waffle recipe?

Boy, Sunday just flew by and was packed with a lot of food!!  Hope you had a nice Super Bowl and/or Sunday.  I wasn’t really rooting for anyone in particular and only watched maybe the last part of the game (the most thrilling part!), but it was kind of nice to see the underdog win.  Sorry Colts fans!

The day started out really nice with a casual and easy breakfast of

blueberry flax pancakes!  FlaxMatters.com sent me a few of their flax products to review and I was eager to give them a try.  What makes their products unique is the patented processing that separates whole, plump seeds from damaged ones.  By eliminating the damaged seeds, their flax is made to be shelf and nutrient stable for up to 2 years.  Flax seeds are also a great source of ALA-Omega 3s.  While these aren’t quite as beneficial as DHA/EPA omega-3s, I still believe they should definitely be included in a heart-healthy diet as they are also packed with beneficial and filling fiber in addition to healthy fats.  They even have flax products with DHA/EPA omega-3s as well!

The Flax Pancake & Waffle mix had a nice nutty flavor from the addition of flax and whole grains.  It was also a cinch to make!  I decided to double the recipe since we enjoy pancakes for leftover peanut butter sandwiches and ended up with 10 pancakes total.  Yum!  This would even be doable on a weekday.

I also tried their Milled Golden Flax with Blueberries.  I loved how there were little bits of dried blueberries in there in addition to the smoothly milled flaxseed.  I even added a little bit of this to the pancakes, and it would be a great addition to oatmeal, yogurt or smoothies.

Here’s what went into this batch:

• 2 cups Flax Pancake & Waffle Mix
• 2 cups NF milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp canola oil
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup Golden Flax with Blueberries
• 1 banana + frozen blueberries added while cooking

Simply mix all the ingredients together and cook (1/4 cup batter for each) in a pan or on a griddle about 5-6 minutes per side  As they were cooking on the griddle I put a few sliced naners on top and a sprinkling of frozen blueberries.

Here’s my GIANT pancake spatula!  It works really well

We topped ours with NF Greek yogurt, mixed with a little Wallaby vanilla yogurt, and some more flax.  With a fried egg on the side.

I then had the ingenious idea to spread a little bit of peanut butter on top with the yogurt . .  heavenly!  I’m all over the good fats this morning.

Afterwards, while I should have been working on school stuff, I transferred over some more recipes to the recipes page and decided to get a quick workout in on the bike trainer.  After our downpour on Saturday, I think we are supposed to have even more rain this week!  It was a really good sweat session, all while I watched DVR-ed Oprah.  I loved her diabetes episode, so very informative and wonderful of her to bring the tragic reality of this deadly disease to the country.

• Bike Trainer Stats:  1 hour, 14.01 miles, 550kcals (I think this overestimates?) —- It’s nice to have the Garmin cadence sensor and I actually really liked having the timer going because I was able to do some interval training as well as harder hills.  I hate working out and not knowing my time frame sometimes!  I really want to work increasing my avg pace to 15-17 mph.  I think I’m going to go for the Napa Metric Century!!!  I just have to first okay it with work and make sure I can stay with my aunt who lives there.  So excited!!

After a nice sweat session, I re-fueled with a smoothie bowl, topped with some tasty granola (can’t get enough Gina!).  I also had a leftover spanakopita.  I didn’t want to eat too much since it was almost time to leave for Kristen‘s Super Bowl party!  Woo-hoo!

This one contained (for 2):

• NF Milk, Wallaby plain yogurt
• TJ’s frozen mango, raspberry, blueberry mix
• 1 scoop chocolate whey protein powder
• chia seeds
• scoop peanut butter

It was delish!

Oh my gosh, there was so much food at the party!  Kristen’s family always has such a wonderful spread of really great food.  I had to control myself from eating too much since my friend also invited me out to dinner later that evening.  It was sure tough!  Here’s just a few of the choices, yes just a few:

With all the selection, it was so hard to decide!  Here is what my plate looked like.  I ate most, except the pasta salad.  It was all delicious!  I also had a bite of the football cake

It was a really great party and it was nice to catch up.  Thanks Kristen!!!

After the game (wow, what a game!), I dropped Chris off at home and headed to the next eating session  A good friend invited me to dinner at a restaurant in the Palms called Nove Italiano.  Oh boy, this place was chic!  I get all excited trying restaurants like this since I don’t get to go that often, and we sure received the VIP treatment.

I started out with a glass of their Cabernet on the list.  It was nice and full, bursting with luscious fruit and a rich finish.

Then the food kept on coming!

Chickpea Tuna Crostini — I had one

Panzanella Salad with a wonderful variety of heirloom tomatoes and hearts of palm.  This was my favorite!  I had two small plates full.

Fire-roasted cheese pizza — I had one slice.

Agnolatti Ravioli with spicy ricotta and walnut pesto.  This was a close second!  I had 5 raviolis.

Since we received 2 complimentary drinks, I decided to order more of a dessert drink called Strawberry Balsamico.  Oh man, is there really alcohol in here??? lol  Sooo good!  After dinner and lots of great conversation we walked around the PlayBoy Nightclub, although there wasn’t too much action at 10:30pm.  It was neat to just check it out.

Such a great night!!  I am definitely feeling it this morning as the alarm was blaring and I groggily rolled out of bed at 5:30am, dang it!  ah such is life and I’m hoping to get an afternoon nap  I can’t even tell you how many calories I had yesterday and I’m perfectly ok with that, time to get back on the wagon, savor the wonderful experience and move along

Gina’s having a random giveaway of peanut butter, pilates DVD and coconut milk, check it out!!

Thanks for reading, hope you all had a nice weekend!!

Thank you for all your kind words on the site!  I’m super excited and happy you guys enjoy it.  If you haven’t yet, be sure to enter my giveaway for some Mighty Leaf tea and an Anthro mug here.  I first thought I gave the wrong feed address, but it seems that both of the ones below will work when added to your feed.  Please let me know if it’s not updating in your reader so I can remedy.  I’m a computer retard!

http://eatingrd.com/?feed=rss2

http://feeds.feedburner.com/eatingrd

I am having the darndest time getting up in the morning lately!  ugh, 5am is just too darn early and when the alarm goes off I moan and groan wishing I could just stop time for a few more hours.  I’ve always had this fascination with wanting to be able to stop time.  Wouldn’t that be awesome?  ha, in the mean time I’ll keep wishing for that day and get my butt out of bed!  I think it does have a lot to do with not getting to bed till close to 11pm, which I need to fix.

I’ve been trying to get

most morning tasks done the night before so that if we do end up pressing the snooze a thousand times we don’t end up running around like chickens with our head cut off to get to work on time.  Muesli has been one of those tasks, and boy it sure tastes good!

I tried a new blueberry muesli mix from TJ’s for this morning’s batch and it was pretty good.  I didn’t like it as much as Bob’s Red Mill, but it was still tasty.  I think it may be the freeze-dried blueberries in it.  After soaking they get kind of spongy and taste a little funny to me.  Here’s what went into each batch:

• 1/3 cup Muesli mix
• 2 tbsp quick-cook barley (I found this at Walmart and love the texture it brings)
• 1/3 cup NF milk (or any non-dairy substitute)
• 1/3 cup Wallaby vanilla yogurt (Wallaby is my favorite yogurt style/brand, besides Greek)
• 1 tsp flax meal
• 1 tsp chia seeds
• 1/4 naner
• cinnamon

In the a.m. I just added a handful of Kashi Warm Cinnamon, some pistachios and some pb.  Yummy and quick!

Much of my cooking philosophy revolves around making several meals that are easy to prepare ahead of time, and then finding other ways to use them throughout the week.  Yes, I would love to go to the farmer’s market and find ingredients for a new dish to make every day, but life doesn’t really allow that kind of time.  boo!  I am definitely a multitasker, anyone else?  I always have to keep my mind busy and focused on many things at a time it seems.  The other night I was on the bike trainer, all while watching SYTYCD, texting and tweeting  But a lot of times thinking too much about all the things that need to get done just leaves me frustrated and overwhelmed.  Or I focus on one thing too much and everything else goes to the wayside.  I saw this funny comic from Oh She Glows (she has some great tips on how to NOT multi-task) and found it very fitting for the society we live in nowadays . . .

Here’s a great recipe that will give you enough time so that while it’s cooking away at home you can be at work, running errands and not have to worry about it.  Nice!  It’s also great for sandwiches and salads for lunch the next day.

Crock Pot Pesto Chicken

Serves:  a butt-load (about 4-6)

Ingredients

• 3 cloves of garlic (whiz these in the food processor first)
• A nice big handful of fresh basil leaves (I used about 1/2 pkg from TJ’s)
• 2-3 tbsp toasted pine nuts
• 1/3-1/2 cup fresh Parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper
• few splashes of white balsamic vinegar or lemon juice
• 2-3 tbsp of olive oil
• 4-6 lb. young chicken (preferably no-salt/broth added) – you could also use some bone-in chicken breasts which I want to try next time
• 2 onions, chopped
• about a pound of small yellow taters, chopped (you could also add other hearty root veggies)

Directions

For the Pesto:

Pulse the garlic in the food processor, add the next 5 ingredients (through olive oil), and pulse until a nice paste forms. Save half to serve alongside & for sammies later.  Use the other half to pat over the chicken and underneath the skin.
Place the chopped onion and taters in the bottom of the crock pot, place chicken on top (up to this step can be done the night before, just place the crock in the fridge).

I really like these potatoes from TJ’s because they cook super tender and not mealy.

Cook on low for 6-7 hours.  Be careful when taking the chicken out because it falls apart!  (Note:  There will be a lot of juice and fat at the bottom, so that’s why I’d like to try just bone-in, skinless breasts next time?)  Drain and scoop out the veggies onto a sheet pan and roast in a 400 degree oven until golden, about 20 minutes.

Enjoy!

Reserve skimmed broth for another use (I think I’m going to make soup).

What’s great about this recipe is that you can multi-task in a good way by making pesto panini sandwiches for lunch the next day with the leftover pesto.  I also schmeared a light laughing cow on one side with a few slices of mozzarella.  You could stuff all kinds of things in there too like roasted peppers, artichoke hearts, etc.

Gotta love that crispy, gooey pesto cheese!!

Are you a multi-tasker?  What are your best strategies to staying sane?

*~REMINDER~*

The Chic Life is hosting the Bake Sale for Haiti starting tomorrow the 27th!!!  Check out all the awesome baked goods that are up for bids here .  I’m going to be whipping up a batch of Gina’s crunchy and nutty granola too, so be sure to bid on it if you want some amazing oat-y goodness

Hope you all are having a nice week so far!

Hello!  I hope you all had a nice week!  I think Vegas has gotten more rain in these past 4 days than we have in all last year!  Crazy.  I can’t believe how much rain California is getting too.  Overall this week has been nice, work wasn’t too crazy, I got my committee together for my thesis (finally) and I may be doing a couple cooking classes for Whole Foods!  The site is sooo close, but there are a few things that I need help with still, so I just won’t say a date anymore ugh.

I got some pretty good workouts in this week:

Mon – thanks to the handy dandy bike trainer I rode for about an hour watching SYTYCD & tweeting, all while it was pouring outside.

Tues – body pump was a nice hour full-body weight sesh

Wed – Rest

Thurs – 3.5 mile run, progress!!

Fri – early morning spin, woot!

We’ve been having some yummy eats too.  I’ll have to share a crockpot pesto chicken recipe with you soon.  I think this was the most tender white meat I’ve ever had.  Just melts in your mouth like butta’.

And is the bomb for paninis with gooey, crusty pesto cheese.

I think I’m on a muesli kick this week and breakfast this morning was pretty tasty!

This bowl included:

• 1/3 cup Bob’s Red Mill muesli mix
• 1/3 cup NF milk
• 1/3-1/2 cup TJ’s NF honey Greek yogurt
• 1 tsp chia seeds
• 1/4 naner
• little squirt of agave + cinnamon

This morning I added some Kashi Warm Cinnamon, 1/4 naner, grapes, peanut butter and Nutella!!  oh man the Nutella sent it over the top.  Yum!

Plus it just tastes better in a cute bowl

Sorry this is so short, I need to get to studying, researching, getting the site presentable, organizing about 2,000 pictures, making granola bars and prepping food for the week.  Kabocha black bean burgers are on the menu tonight!

Happy Weekend to you all!

Whew!  I’ve been trying to work on designing the new template for many hours today and I think my head is about ready to explode!!!  I first got a theme template from a site called VivaThemes and I was not impressed at all.  I liked the overall look of the theme, but I also spent many hours to find it was not user-friendly, customizable and the customer service was terrible.  Even worse I couldn’t get a refund, which is a load of crap.  I would not recommend, but I won’t rant on about that . . .

I did find a new theme that is much more user friendly and I’ve been spending more time trying to figure it out.  While I will have to eventually code certain things, it just seems better so I guess it’s worth it.  ugh!!!

Hopefully I can get it looking somewhat presentable soon, yay!

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Yesterday our Red Rock ride was a blast!  Even though I waborn and raised in Las Vegas and have been to Red Rock thousands of times, I’ve never cycled up there before.  Even though the temperature wasn’t too bad, it was pretty chilly coming down those hills!  brrr my blood couldn’t get flowing and my muscles wouldn’t work up the hills, c’mon legs work!

It was a lot of fun either way and we met some other fellow cyclists that were really nice and live near us too

The ride started at Great Harvest in Summerlin, but first I wanted to have breakfast at home since I wasn’t sure what they would be serving. The night before I made a quick batch of muesli, oh boy I was so excited for breakfast in the am!

I love the little chunks of dates and nuts in the mix.

This overnight mix contained (per serving):

• 1/4 cup muesli + 2 tbsp regular oats
• 3 oz vanilla yogurt (about 1/4 cup)
• 1/4 cup NF milk
• 1/2 banana
• 1 tsp chia seeds
• cinnamon

When we got up and ready for breakfast I added some grapes, pistachios, Kashi Warm Cinnamon cereal and a spoonful of pb.  Delish!  I am going to have to make this more often because it was easy and satisfying.

I got this cute bowl from Anthropologie, love that store!  But I have to limit my stops there because it’s dangerous.

When we got to Great Harvest they had french toast, maple syrup and sausage, along with coffee and juice.  We grabbed two toasts and a sausage to share.  I had about 1 and 1/2 pieces of toast + syrup mmm not too bad, but I’m glad we ate breakfast before

I didn’t really like riding right next to cars whizzing by at 60mph or inhaling the exhaust fumes at times, but the views were absolutely gorgeous!  The pictures don’t do it justice.  There’s me at the back.  The hills killed me since I couldn’t get my legs to work in the cold.  As the incline increased, I would fall behind lol

Wanna grab a wheel?  That’s ‘cyclist speak’ for getting really close to someone’s back wheel and drafting.  It does actually help keep the pace.

It was a 41 mile ride total and I had a packet of Luna Moons halfway through.

Even though it was pretty chilly going down the hills, it’s amazing to me that here in Vegas we can be outdoors in shorts and a t-shirt in January!

After the ride I had a Post Workout Glo Bar with 11g of protein!  I don’t know if I’ve had it too long, but it was kind of stale & didn’t have too much flavor but I liked the texture.

My muscles and tummy thanked me and I do like the nutritional profile I’m still making my way sampling the others and will review them in the near future.

I made some spruced up Annie’s mac for lunch after we got home.  Boy I was hungry because I ate almost 2 bowls and then felt ready for dinner!  Instead I drank some water and had a plain coconut water which satisfied me at least for awhile.

Chris and I couldn’t really decide what to make for dinner even though I just went grocery shopping Friday (doh!).  We didn’t really ‘feel’ like anything, but when I mentioned possibly having a big fat burger that was all we could think about!  So, we hoped in the car and picked up some burger ingredients, along with a movie called ‘The Goods’.  It was stupid but pretty darn funny

I haven’t had a burger in ages, but it was just what we were craving mmm  That’s a slice of Great Harvest Dakota under the burger that we had to purchase before the ride.  I think Dakota is my favorite GH bread!

I also found these Vit D fortified mushrooms.  Isn’t that cool?!  They basically expose the mushrooms to UV light, detailed here.

I also made some ‘chips’ on the side, courtesy of Kath   Have you made these before?  They had the best texture and were really fun to eat.  We kind of burned them though, but most were still were salvageable.  I sprinkled mine with salt, garlic powder and parmesan before baking at 375 F for 18 min (at 15 they didn’t look toasty, but at 18 they got a bit too burnt, so I would recommend 16 minutes).

And we couldn’t pass up this at the store!  I don’t think I can be let loose in any type of grocery store really.  We went in for a few items and went to the check out with our hands full!  I even found a kabocha and spaghetti squash while looking for mushrooms and about shrieked with glee when I saw them!

Dreyer’s 1/2 fat mint cookie crunch + movie =

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Much more time is needed to figure out this new theme, so I may be MIA for a little bit but will return!  Classes also start tomorrow, ugh.  I am taking Statistics (pray for me!) and an Independent Study.  I hope to do an internship with a corporate wellness program here, but have to get things straightened out with my work schedule first : /  And I need to make big strides on the thesis.  Sometimes I just wish I had a clone to get everything done, right?

Thank you so much for all your sports nutrition suggestions, I think those are great topics to talk about in the future.

Have a wonderful week!

Are you familiar with CSS?  Did you design your own blog or get outside help?  Any suggestions are much appreciated!

Usually the weeks just draaaaag for me, but for some reason this one flew by!  Maybe because it was the first week back?  Who knows, but that’s alright with me.

Oh boy I am sore from kick-my-butt box on Wednesday!  Every little back muscle along my rib cage is sore and of course my bum and abs.  I couldn’t manage to make it to 6am spin this morning, but that’s okay because I want to be ready for our Great Harvest Red Rock bike ride on Saturday!  I’m looking forward to riding the Red Rock loop for the first time.  It’s about 41 miles and Great Harvest is providing breakfast for us before the ride, yay!

Yesterday morning I put all the prepped ingredients in the crock-potfor a stew to be ready for us when we got home.  I’m in love with this new crock-pot and it’s so much bigger than my old one!  I would highly recommend this one because it has several different cooking settings and a probe insert.

The only thing I had to cook up when I got home was some quinoa.  Easy!

Lamb Daube Provencal

(adapted from CookingLight)

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 12 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1.5-lb lamb meat, trimmed and cut into 1-inch cubes (you could also use chuck roast)
• salt and pepper
• 1 cup red wine (I used a malbec, wine gives it a rich depth of flavor)
• 2 cups chopped carrot
• 1 1/2 cups chopped onion (I also added parsnips & zucchini)
• 1-2 cups less-sodium beef broth (use more for soup-like and less for sauce-like stew)
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tsp herbes de provence, 1.5 tsp thyme
• Dash of ground cloves, dash of cinnamon
• 1 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced fire roasted tomatoes
• 1 bay leaf
• Freshly grated Parmesan cheese for sprinkling
• pasta, taters, rice or quinoa to serve over

Directions

Heat oil and add garlic; cook 5 minutes or until garlic is fragrant, stirring occasionally. Remove garlic with a slotted spoon, and add to slow-cooker.

Increase heat to medium-high. Add lamb to pan; sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Cook 5 minutes, browning on all sides. Remove lamb from pan and add to slow-cooker.

Add wine to pan; bring to a boil, scraping pan to loosen browned bits and reduce down for 5 minutes.

Add wine, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, carrot, and next ingredients (through bay leaf) to the slow-cooker, stirring to combine.

Turn slow-cooker on high for 1 hour, then reduce to low for 6-7 hours more. Or you can just cook on low for 8 hours.  It just needs to get nice and reduced. Serve over pasta, roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes, rice or quinoa. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. The possibilities are endless!

Leftovers Idea: This would also be great for the base of a shephard’s pie if you use less broth to make it sauce-like. Yum!

We had quinoa with it and I also added some spinach to get wilty

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This morning we had one of our usual breakfast staples . . . we call it peanut-butter naan.  But all you do is take a 1/2 piece of TJ’s whole wheat naan, slather it with toasty pb and jam, then top it with cottage cheese or yogurt, cereal, nuts and/or fruit.  I also like to micro about 1/4 cup of egg whites on the side.

I love how the peanut butter ooooozes off the sides and the naan is nice and doughy mmm

Not too much going on this weekend.  We are going to go on the Red Rock ride Saturday and I’m going to try to savor the last days of freedom before the semester starts up again with some research . . .

The new template is coming along . . . slowly.  I spent about 4 hours on it last night just trying to figure the CSS out, doh!  I’m such a computer ra-tard, seriously.  I have such respect for you fellow bloggers that are computer savvy, bless you!

That’s about it from here, hope you have a nice weekend!  I’m hoping to do some more sports nutrition related posts soon including overtraining syndrome and safe weight loss for athletes . . . stay tuned!

Are there any sports nutrition topics/supplements you are interested in learning more about?

Ever since we got back home my sinuses have been in some kind of a funk and yesterday they decided to wreak havoc on me something fierce.  I didn’t know if I had contracted something from all the hacking people on the plane ride home, or if I seemed to have formed some kind of allergy to coming back to daily grind, ha!  Either way, I was in a bit of a stuffy fog all day where everything was muffled and hazy.  By the afternoon a nice headache greeted me, and by the time I got home I was about ready to burst from the built up sinus pressure.

Dinner was tasty though.  We made falafel pitas the night before and had some leftovers . . . mmm  So far so good with the Eat In Month Challenge!

Usually for our weekly dinners I’ll plan for 3 larger meals and go grocery shopping the Friday before.  Then on the other days we have leftovers & adapt them to our liking.  It also makes it easy when you prep for the week in advance.

I think the hardest part of this challenge won’t be during the week surprisingly for me, but the weekends.  Usually Chris and I like to grab at least one meal out together per week or twice per month.  Many times his parents also graciously take us out to eat & catch up, but I don’t think this counts?  Even though we aren’t paying for it, we are essentially eating out which is against the rules   ah well, more cooking time in the kitchen, which is just fine by me!

It sure doesn’t look appetizing thanks to the wonderful lighting of our kitchen   I added a bit of spinach to the mix this time, which gave the falafel a bright green color.  It’s underneath all the roasted parsnips and zucchini, topped with NF Greek yogurt and roasted red pepper hummus.

After dinner I became kind of sick to my tummy and my frontal lobe was pulsating with such pressure, I was sure it was going to pop right out of my head.  After lying down for three hours from 6-9pm and taking a Sudafed sinus + allergy I started to feel a bit better.  I was only awake for another 2 1/2 hours after that and crawled back into bed . . .

What a nice welcoming start back to the work week! lol

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Today I am feeling better with a slight, deafening backup in the ears.  I wish they would just pop already & stop crackling. . . . ooooh what-cha say??

Breakfast was a easy bowl of quick oats.  I added some cinnamon applesauce to the mix, along with a few dates for sweetness.  Then topped it with a handful of cereal for contrasting crunch, 1/2 a pear and some frozen blueberries.  And of course some TJ’s roasty pb with each bite!

I swear there’s oats under there somewhere . . .

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Hope you all had a wonderful day!  I’m looking forward to making chicken enchiladas for dinner (another easy recipe!) & possibly going to a kick-butt hip hop class later!  Word.