Ugh...Y'all

I am cheating a bit this week by not sharing a fresh, new recipe. To be honest, I am not sure next week will be different. Things are crazy busy so I'm slacking a bit. In numbers news, things really suck. I exercised to the point of exhaustion last week, ate pretty well (with the exception of Mexican food on Wednesday) and I was up 2.6 pounds. Don't really feel like talking about it so I will move on and keep going this week. I'm hoping my anxiety decreases along with the need for "stress eating" once I have all of my grades turned in.

I wanted to share a new grocery fave. I love Sandwich Bros. They have awesome little chicken and burger pitas that make a great snack. Now, they have this breakfast pita with turkey sausage and egg whites with cheese in them. They are only 150 calories and take about a minute in the microwave. In theory, I'd love to whip up breakfast every morning but right now it's not feasible. These are perfect for an on the go breakfast. You can buy them in bulk at SAM's.

In last week's food prep news, I made more chicken breasts and chicken burgers. I am sharing because 1) I'm lazy and it's the only cooking I did this past week and 2) I tried something different with the chicken burgers. I added taco seasoning mix, a bit of light sour cream and salsa to the meat and then made the patties. I added cheese and salsa to the burger when I made it and I called it a taco burger. It was delicious! The taco seasoning added so much flavor which is nice because it changed things up a bit.

Most people that know me know that I write for a local paper called the Leaf and it focuses on art and entertainment around the state. In case you aren't Facebook friends with me, I wanted to let you know that you can catch my column, "Chasing the Sun" every couple weeks at http://www.readtheleaf.com/category/chasing-the-sun/    Check it out if you want. I hope you all have a great week.

Lazy Food Prepping

Hello everyone. It's Monday again so let's just get right to it. I gained about a pound last week and I'm not surprised. I had a couple days where I didn't put forth my best effort. That's all I'll say. Back on it today. Summer is upon me so I'm hoping the thought of getting in a bathing suit will help me reel in my splurges but you never know.

I have seen a lot of people do food prep for an entire week. I am not someone that will ever do this probably because a) I have a great desire for variety and can't stand the thought of one note food over and over again each day and b) I'm too lazy to do this. However, I have found extreme benefit in preparing meat for the week that I can just pop in the microwave to reheat and serve in a variety of ways. I have pre-made chicken breasts, chicken burgers and pork chops. I find that throwing it in a salad, heating it up and serving with a baked potato, making a quick "fried" rice and adding pork chops or mixing that rice with the burger made of ground chicken tastes delicious and when I prepare it all on Sunday, it makes a dinner that could have taken 20-30 minutes and cuts it down to 5. I most definitely see the value in that. Yesterday I just heated up some minute rice, threw it in a skillet with a little margarine, an onion and some peanut sauce, added the meat and had a delicious and low cal meal. The pictures you see are a result of the quick meals I was able to make during the week. By the way, that's barbecue sauce on the baked potato. It looks kind of gross. I pre-made some more chicken breasts for this week and I'm already relieved I have a quick easy dinner for tonight. Y'all have a great week!

Mumford & More Blue Apron Creations

Hey y'all. I am sooooo sleepy. I'm stuck in sick land and now Ian is sick and I'm pretty much sleepless. It didn't help that last night I was out late seeing Mumford & Sons (which was amazing) and then had a hankering to watch the movie Dirty Dancing in it's ENTIRETY until nearly 2AM. So, yes, I'm on the struggle bus this morning. I cannot express how much I enjoy seeing Mumford live. I love them in general but they are just fantastic live.  I had a GREAT time! When weighed on Saturday I was down almost a pound which I will take as a win even though I worked extremely hard last week. I ate too much Saturday and Sunday but Saturday was the only "problem" day where I was far too indulgent. Back in the saddle today as always.

I wanted to share the other two Blue Apron meals that I received in the free week I was provided. I plan on getting another week maybe next month. The first is Chicken Cacciatore which included chicken, mushrooms and fettucine pasta. This meal came with three servings. I was skeptical at first but when the dish was done, Ian and I filled two giant bowls of pasta and we had leftovers. This was a pretty simple recipe but because I made two separate sauce pans (one without mushrooms for Ian) it was a bit heavy on dishes.  You sear the chicken breasts, then loosely cover them with aluminum foil to finish cooking them. As far as the sauce, all it took was sautéing the veggies then letting the sauce simmer. I had to add a bit more flavor to Ian's since he didn't want mushrooms.  Blue Apron even provided a small baggie of Parmesan cheese to top our pasta.  Once the sauce, chicken and pasta was done individually, I tossed it all together with tongs in a bowl. Ian concluded he prefers ground meat in a pasta dish rather than chunks of chicken but overall it was filling and tasted great...plus we got two meals each out of it.

The other meal turned into an issue with calories. It was a Mushroom & Poblano Pepper Quesadillas. Without any manipulation, this quesadilla was nearly 700 calories. Well, I made ground chicken for Ian (and of course made some for myself) and then as we always do, we added tortilla chips and queso to the meal so even though I had a healthy quesadilla with lots of veggies (sautéed mushrooms, a spice mix Blue Apron provided and peppers that I roasted), as usual, I can't be trusted when I'm given chips and queso.  I thought for this one, the serving was a little small for the calories you were spending.  Blue Apron is fresh and mindful of healthy ingredients but doesn't claim to be low calorie. Plus, when I add ingredients I have nobody but myself to blame. My favorite part of this recipe was the yummy Jack cheese they included.

Have a great week y'all! And Roll Tide! (A-Day is this weekend)

WTF: I ate a kale and plantain salad and I'm still not skinny

Happy April y'all! The pollen is assaulting me in a way that I wish I could file a restraining order. I coughed all night last night so I've got gorgeous dark circles under my eyes that make it look like I was in a fist fight.  It's fine thought, whatever. When I weighed on Saturday I was the same weight as last week. I saw this as a victory because I had a couple residual Reese's Egg issues and had a late night Mexican food binge on Friday night.  Plus, I had been bloated and retaining water all week.  Slowly but surely I have chipped away at the Easter candy so it shouldn't be a problem anymore.  I'm in a positive mood about food this week. An unexpected German festival popped up on Saturday and I had a baby shower yesterday but hopefully no random temptations will hinder me this coming up weekend. I'm really focusing on food planning in order to have balance.

Yesterday, my mom came over and helped me give a makeover to my little flower bed in front of my house.  Thanks Mom! It looks so much better already. We picked the weeds (top left picture is the "before") and then added mulch and a planter.  At some point, I'd like to add more cute things but I don't want a lot of flowers to have to keep alive.  It was the first time I'd ever done real yard work at a place I call my own.

So, thanks to Nish, Ian and I were able to receive one free week of Blue Apron meals. If you've never heard of it, it's a meal delivery service where you are the cook but they send you all the fresh ingredients you need to make a delicious meal. The only thing you have to provide is olive oil, salt and pepper. They also give you an approximate calorie count. I will be sharing those meals over the next few weeks. Blue Apron is expensive but I'm obsessed. At some point, I'd love another delivery but I'm trying to save a few bucks first.  It's not terribly outrageous if you consider the amount of groceries you get for the money. The first meal we made was delicious! They sent us all the ingredients for Cuban sandwiches. Ian and I both HATE pickles.  Since they sent us cucumbers and the ingredients for pickles, I just ate the cucumber as a pre-dinner snack.  We seared and baked the pork roast they gave us, then then sliced it and added it to the bread. On the bread I added the grainy mustard they sent and the swiss cheese. We popped them in the skillet and used a cast iron skillet to make them all flat and crispy and gooey and delicious.

Ian is a very picky eater and some of the dishes from Blue Apron include lots of different veggies. He would't touch kale with a ten foot pole but I am pretty much always willing to try things. I had my reservations about a kale and plantain salad. I despise bananas and had never had raw kale.  I tossed together the kale and the plantains that I had sautéed in olive oil with a bit more oil, garlic and lime juice.  Somehow, some way, the combination of flavors made it taste pretty good. The lime juice gave it a zesty pop and I actually ate the whole salad.  Ian and I had a blast making the Blue Apron meals.

Class are canceled Friday so I get a three day weekend. It's the little things!

Also, I get to see Mumford & Sons on Saturday and I'm super excited!

I hope y'all have an awesome week!

Until next time...