Celebratory Tuesdays

Hows everyone doing on this Tuesday? I am doing alright but am totally exhausted and bed bound. Today was a crazy day of getting things done so we can move! I also went through my favorite Turbo Round (Round 29) so I can teach half of it tomorrow (my last Turbo class in MD!!). For dinner, I went out with Josh and a bundle of his colleagues to celebrate his last few days at work. We went out to Cheeseburger in Paradise and I got a big salad. Tonight, Josh is having two of his work buddies over for a great deal of drinking and then two of them will be crashing here. To make certain they have a decent breakfast, I put together some of the raspberry bars. Off to bed I go! Sorry for the boring and picture-less post!!

Garden Risotto

Sorry for the blog slacking! With moving coming up in 1 week (yikes!), I am super busy! Last night I took Body Pump and then did a bundle of things around the house. For dinner, I made Ellie Krieger's Garden Risotto. This recipe seems to have disappeared from food network, so here it is (slightly modified):

Ingredients:
6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
2 cups frozen peas
1/2 pound asparagus, steamed and cut into 3/4-inch pieces
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Bring the broth to a simmer in a medium saucepan. Heat the oil in a heavy saucepan over moderately low heat and cook the onion, stirring occasionally, until soft, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the rice and cook, stirring constantly, 1 minute. Add 3/4 cup of the hot broth and simmer, stirring constantly, until broth is absorbed. Continue simmering and adding hot broth, about 3/4 cup at a time, stirring constantly and allowing the broth to be absorbed before adding more, until rice is almost tender and creamy-looking, about 18 minutes(I usually end up using about 5 1/2 cups of broth).

Add the asparagus and peas and cook just until vegetables are hot. Stir in the Parmesan and more broth if the risotto seems too thick. (I also add some cooked chicken)
Today has been an interesting day :). I got up early, ran a mile and took a 45 minute spin class before jetting into the office for a telecon and a bit of work. Due to the large amount of work I had to do this weekend, I have pretty much overrun my allotted amount of project hours and got to leave really really early today :) I am back home and working to get more stuff done before the move!

Nothing too exciting to report ;)

Hope you guys had a great weekend! We had a pretty good weekend. I did a lot of cooking and very little picture taking (sorry)! I got up early on Saturday to take a Turbo/weights combo class and then spent a bundle of hours working. Saturday night, I cooked up some homemade pizza and we watched football. The tv guide said the Penn State game was going to be on but they were showing another game instead :(. Today was a pretty relaxing day. Someone I know did nottttttttttt want to get out of bed...

Whose that in the bed?
Owww Frank
I think he could sleep all day!
I made chocolate banana marble bread to give to some of my favorite fellow instructors as goodbye gifts- its my last week of teaching up here!!

Josh and I are watching the Eagles game now. How are you guys spending your Sunday night?

Pizza Dough

Thank goodness its Friday! Work today was totally draining and it looks like I have a bundle of work to get through this weekend too=booooooooo. I went to the food store after work and then ran and took Body Pump. Josh and his buddy were playing some video games and were not ready to go out to eat, so I decided to prep my pizza dough for tomorrow night. As I've noted before, I use this recipe from 101 cookbooks, but use half whole wheat flour, half all purpose. Here is what my process looks like, dry ingredients:

The yeast brand I use:
Wet+dry combined (mixed with a spoonula):
After being kneaded my my electric mixer:
All wrapped up and ready for the fridge:

Alright, I'm hungggggggggggry! I hope these boys are ready for dinner. What are you guys up to this weekend? I'm thinking of getting up early to go to class and then I have a bundle of things I need to do around the house to get ready for moving- yikes!

Baking and Baking and...

Phew! Today was crazy busy at work! After work, I taught Body Step and then came home to get my baking on! One of Josh's good friends from College is coming to visit tonight and will be here throughout the weekend. I wanted to make sure he and Josh had some yummy treats. For them I made Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies:
And raspberry oatmeal squares:


I am feeling oddly not hungry so I haven't really eaten any din din yet...not sure whats up with my belly. For Josh, I made eggs and banana chocolate chip pancakes:
For the pancakes I combined:

1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 egg
1 tablespoon vegi oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
desired amount of milk (about 1 cup)

This recipe makes six larger pancakes.

I am sooooo excited for the office tonight! I wish Lost was starting now too :(. I <3 class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Yayyyy Alison, can't wait for the wedding!!

Mac and Cheese and Shrimp

I can't believe it is only Wednesday! This week is going by wayyy too slow for me :). After the usual work, I did house stuff and then taught Turbo Kick. It was my second to last turbo kick class before we move, tooooo crazy. After class, I made an easy and quick dinner of boiled shrimp topped with old bay:

and Organic Mac and Cheese with peas and corn:

Way easy and totally delicious! Has anyone been watching dancing with the stars? Its been on like 20 hours the past three days haha. Any who, I watched it tonight and the Jonas brothers were on. Now, I know....my generation had NKOTB (thats new kids on the block for those of ya'll who don't know haha), N'sync, and Backstreet boys and yes, I loved all of them! But...I don't get the Jonas Brothers? Their music is way catchy but they are odd looking and I will never understand men in tight jeans. Anyone else? Have a wonderful night :)

Whole Wheat Drop Biscuits (Vegan!)

Hey everyone! Couple quick things- 1. the apple bars are really yummy! They are totally moist and fullllll of apple chunks!, 2. I found the Arnold's thins at my local Giant. They were near the deli. You can locate a food store that has this product by going here. 3. Thank you for all the vegetarian chili recipes. You guys really rock.

Ok back to today- I hope that you had a good day! I started my day out with an early am workout. I got the gym around 5 and ran a mile and then took a 45 minute spin class! It felt good to get my workout done! Work went alright. I came home and did the usual cleaning, some laundry/ironing, took a short nap (hooooray!!), and then decided to bake some biscuits to go with dinner (leftover chili from the other night). I found this recipe on Healthy Vegan Blog.

Ingredients:
1 cup pastry or all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons vegan sugar (I used sugar in the raw)
3 tablespoons canola (or vegi) oil
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons soy milk (or regular milk)
Adders (I used 1 tablespoon parm cheese and 1 teaspoon oregano)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 415º F.
2. Stir together the flour, baking powder, and sugar. If using herbs/cheese, add them to the dry mixture.
3. Combine the oil and soy milk in a measuring cup. Pour into the dry ingredients and stir.

4. Spray a cookie sheet lightly with high heat canola oil. Drop 12 heaping spoonfuls onto a baking sheet.
5. Bake for 14 minutes.
These rolls are light and tasty! They were perfect with the chili!

Stuffed Potatoes and Apple bars

This Monday went by quick! Work went well. Tonight, I took Body Pump and had a fabulous workout! The whole moving thing (2 1/2 weeks go!!) is starting to stress me out a bit. I decided to push all my stress into my workout and I think the results were great! I felt awesome after! When I got home, I made some breakfast/dessert treats (recipe below) for Josh and washed the dog. Tonight for dinner, I made stuffed potatoes! I cooked up 2 potatoes (a sweet potato for me and a regular Idaho for Josh) at 425 for 1 hour. I also baked up some chicken. On the stove top, I did the following:

Ingredients

1 15-ounce can black beans, drained
1 8-ounce can no salt added tomato sauce
desired amount of Frozen corn
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chili powder

Directions

Bring all ingredients to a boil. Reduce heat, simmer for 10 minutes.

I then topped the potatoes with the above mixture and a little low sodium Provolone cheese. I also topped Josh's with the chicken. The above recipe is an adjusted version of this recipe.
The breakfast/treat recipe that I made today was apple bars! I had a lot of apples in our fruit bowl and I saw that a lot of bloggers had gone apple picking this weekend (i.e. Sammie and Bridget) , so I thought it would be perfect. I was inspired by this recipe, but adjusted it quite a bit:

Ingredients:
5 cups tart apples, cored, peeled, chopped
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 egg, beaten
1 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup rolled oats
1-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions:
Mix chopped apples, sugar, and almonds. Let sit for 30 minutes- 2 hours.

Add vegetable oil, egg, and vanilla. In a seperate bowl, mix dry ingredients. Mix wet and dry ingredients together:

Place in Pyrex dish:
Bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Let the bars completely cool, cut into individual servings. Store in fridge:

In other exciting news, I found these cool arnold rolls at the store this weekend. I am going to use them in Josh's lunch tomorrow and will let you know what he thinks about them!!

Chili and Cornbread

Sunday is coming to a close :(. The rest of my day today was spent cleaning the house and cooking. For dinner tonight, I made the Ellie Krieger chili I posted about here. The chili contains three kinds of beans- black, pinto, and kidney. I also added corn (when I added the beans) and used 1 1/2 cups of water instead of two. I used 1 1/2 tablespoons of chili powder instead of the chipotle chile in adobo sauce. For the ground beef, I used the 93/7. The recipe is also great with turkey. To go with the chili, I made Cookie Baker Lynn's Yankee Cornbread. It was very delicious (although I think I will use 1/2 tsp of salt or maybe omit it all together next time).


After dinner, I made up a half batch of these oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for Josh's lunches this week. I didn't have butter so I used smart balance. Here they are stored in our cookie jar.
Does anyone have any good recipes for vegetarian chili? Let me know :) Have a good Monday!!

Weekend/Good Eats

This may be a long post....but I promise lots of pictures haha :) Ok, so back to Friday. I got my hair done up (hoooooray) and then ran to the foodstore. I came home and made a dinner of my very own Sloppy Janes (haha, thanks again for the new name Chandra!):

Josh and I also watched Baby Mama, which was pretty funny. Saturday am, I got up extra early to make some food gifts for one of my best friends from college, Ally. Ally and her husband Steven bought a beautiful new townhouse and I was finally making the trip up to see the new place! As a gift, I made the pumpkin bread that Sammie had posted about. The bread turned out well, but I wish it was a tad sweeter. I also made Raspberry Oatmeal bars from Joy of Baking which are out of this world. My tip to you is to let these bars cool all the way before cutting them!!


I bought her a cute white tray and put the baked goods on it for a nice homemade gift!


Once my goodies were all done, I ran to teach Turbo Kick at the gym. After, I headed up to DC. Ally, Erin (another of my best friends from college) and I headed out to lunch at Guapo's. I ordered the Rosita salad, totally delicious!

The three of us also went shopping before heading back to Ally's house. Before I left, I took a few cute pictures I thought I would share with you. First, Ally's adorable daschund:

She is such a peach! I fell in love with her like 2 minutes after walking in the door. Next, a picture of Erin, myself, and Ally. They are both so wonderful! It was awesome to spend time with them:

Saturday night, Josh and I went to see Tropic Thunder. The movie was funny. Tom Cruise was probably the best part! Today has been a house day! Josh and I ran to Lowe's to get some mulch and plants. We then came home and Josh mowed the law, while I cut down the shrubs and put in the new flowers. Everything was a little over grown and I think it looks soooo much better now. Before pictures:

Frank had started to kill my flowers:

After:

I'm off to make some cornbread and chili and watch football! How was your weekend?

Suite Apple Pie's Spinach Pasta

I am sooooooooo thrilled that tomorrow is Friday! Work today was....work :) I taught Body Step this afternoon and the class was very high energy! I taught three new tracks and felt like they went well! I came home and gave the house another good cleaning (I can't wait until this place sells ahhh!). During my cleaning, I moved the door rugs onto the carpet so I could vacuum them. Frank decided it would be fun to lay on them instead:




He cracks me up :) For dinner tonight, I put together Suite Apple Pie's spinach pasta. I used whole wheat pasta and about 1 1/4 cups chicken broth. The pasta was very light and tasty! Josh really loved it! Sarah- Thanks for another fabulous recipe!!
Whats everyone up to this weekend? Tomorrow I am getting my hair done and then Saturday I am heading up to DC to see a couple of my good friends!

Taco Casserole (Healthier!!)

Yayyy for it already being Wednesday night! This week is flying by! Work today was great but really busy! I went to Body Pump after work and then taught Turbo Kick. It was an intense but fabulous workout! I came home to a husband in pain :(. Josh's back is giving him major issues and he was couch bound pretty much all day. To try and cheer him up, I made a healthier taco casserole. Before I give you the recipe, I served the casserole with some of the multi grain tortilla chips I pictured yesterday. They are a little on the high end for calories (even though 1 chip is huge), but they are totally delicious. Snyder's is making all sort of multi grain products, for nutritional information and ingredients- check out the Snyder's of Hanover site here. Onto the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 package lean ground turkey (about 1 1/3 pounds)
1 packet taco seasoning
1 8-oz can no salt added tomato sauce
Frozen vegis (corn, peas, green beans, etc- whatever you want)
1 can vegetarian refried beans (or whichever kind you like best:)
1/2 cup low fat mexican cheese blend
tortillas to line baking pan

Directions:
Brown ground turkey, drain any fat. Add in tomato sauce and taco seasoning, cook for 2-3 minutes. Place tortillas in the bottom of baking pan. Add in turkey mixture:
Top turkey mixture with frozen vegis:


Top vegis with refried beans (I put down lumps and then carefully spread it out):
Top beans with cheese:
Bake at 375 for 30 minutes:

Enjoy! This is a great dish with lots of leftovers. Keep in mind its not lowwww calorie, but its much healthier than other taco casseroles. Enjoy! Do you guys like the step by step directions or do you just prefer a recipe with a final product picture? Let me know!!

Traveling Tuesday

Hello!

How was your day? Mine went pretty well. I got up and did a bit of work before I headed out for my two hour trip to my meeting! The meeting was actually really valuable, so I'm glad I attended. After, my team and I had lunch at Panera. I had a Greek salad with no olives. I drove home and continued working for a few more hours. I then got the house all clean and gave the Frankster a bath. Josh came home from work with a terrible headache. He went out to lunch today, so he still had his lunch I packed for him this am in tow. He was starving and didn't want to waste his lunch, so he decided it would be his dinner :)(Part 1 anyways, I will probably make him some eggs or oatmeal later hehe). Given this, I decided to skip the big dinner I had planned and save it for tomorrow night. Instead, I make myself some soup! I had Amy's organic (and vegan I believe) pasta and three bean soup.
Topped with a few of these bad boys.

Dinner was filling and yummy. I had one of Tina's bars afterwards too. I am off to practice some Body Step (I still haven't gotten to it and only have a day and a half to learn it-yikes!). Hope you all have a nice night :)