Restaurant Review: Benito's Brick Oven Pizza, Pumpkin Muffins, BSI!

First off, the BSI recipes (Pear) look awesome so far! Keep them coming!! If you need a little motivation- here is the start of the prize for the winner:



Second, tonight we did our second restaurant review! We decided to keep it a little low key and tried Benito's Brick Oven in Mount Pleasant, SC. Benito's is located in the heart of Mount Pleasant in the town center. Here are the eats:

Josh ordered a personal pizza with artichokes and prosciutto:


I ordered baked ziti which came with a house salad which was topped with goat cheese, tomatoes, onions, olives (which I picked off), and their house honey balsamic dressing:

Josh's Review:




Pros: No extra charge for artichoke hearts. Fast service. Filling.

Cons: Food was nothing spectacular. Receipt was unnecessarily oversized. Poor beer selection.

Overall Rating: 5.2 out of 8

Erica's Review:


Benito's is conveniently located near a lot of the great shopping in Mount Pleasant. The place was basically empty because it was Halloween (Halloween is HUGE in Charleston). The decor in the restaurant was great- a combination of modern meets old Italy. The menu was large and offered some interesting choices- including cheese plates. The house honey balsamic dressing was really delicious- just slightly sweet! The baked ziti was also very good. The noodles tasted homemade. They do not use sauce in the baked ziti, they only top it with sauce. It was sooo filling I could barely eat 1/4 of it (don't worry Josh finished it off when we got home haha). The food wasn't INCREDIBLE but it was good. The service was pleasant and quick! I would definitely return to Benito's for a hearty, quick meal.

Frank's Review:



I wasn't allowed to go (some lame rule about no animals in the restaurant), so I had mini chunks for dinner. They tasted just as terrible as they usually taste. haha.

3rd: I came home tonight and decided to make some yummy treats to give to all of the instructors after the Body Step Launch tomorrow! I used Tina's recipe for Pumpkin Carob Chip muffins with a few modifications:

Ingredients:

1 cup plain canned pumpkin
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup apple sauce (unsweetened)
2 tbsp. ground flax seed
1 tsp. vanilla
1 2/3 cups whole wheat flour (or whole wheat pastry flour)
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
2/3 cup vegan carob chips (or chocolate chips but then they would be non-vegan)

Preheat the oven to 350º. Spray a nonstick muffin tin sprayed well with nonstick spray, or line the tin with paper muffin cups and spray the cups with nonstick spray. Set aside.

Put the pumpkin, water, applesauce, ground flax seed, and vanilla in a blender and process on high for at least one minute, until light in color and well-blended. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the whole wheat flour (or whole wheat pastry flour), sugar, baking powder, baking soda, kosher salt, and pumpkin pie spice. Add the pumpkin mixture and mix well with a wooden spoon or large spatula until well-blended. Fold in the carob chips.

Spoon the batter into the muffin tin, distributing evenly.

Bake until center of muffin is fully cooked (took me 26 minutes for full sized muffins). Let cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then use a spatula to gently lift each muffin from the muffin tin. Finish cooling on a wire rack.

I was too lazy to take a picture of the finished muffins! Hope you had a wonderful Halloween! Can't wait to see pics of all the costumes!

Blogger Week #7: Chickpea Pasta (LAST DAY!!)

I can't believe it is already the last day of blogger week! First a little jibber jabber about my day- work went pretty well, I came home and did the usual (walk with the Frankster, ironed, did laundry, etc) and then ran and went to take Turbo. There is only ONE turbo class down here and the girl who teaches it is pregnant so I may be subbing for her during her maternity leave! Unfortunately, no one showed up to her class :( Like I told you, Turbo is not big down here. So instead, I practice Body Step for 40ish minutes and worked up quite the sweat!

Onto dinner- thanks to VeggieGirl, I have started to explore a lot of the great vegan blogs out there. For my last recipe for blogger week, I used a vegan recipe from an awesome Blog: Your Vegan Mom. The only change I made to this recipe was to add some additional vegis.

Ingredients:

1 onion, diced
1 bunch chard, roughly shredded
1 1/2 c. cooked chickpeas
1 c. chickpea broth (if you don't have any chickpea broth, use pasta water or vegetable broth)
about 1 T. lemon juice
4 cloves garlic
red chili flakes to taste
1 - 2 T. olive oil
about 2/3 bag pasta

Directions:

Brown onion in olive oil. Add minced garlic and chili flakes and cook for a few seconds, just until fragrant. Add the swiss chard, chickpeas, broth, and salt. Cover and simmer until the swiss chard is wilted. Add lemon juice. Toss with cooked pasta and enjoy.

Simple yet yummy! What are you doing this weekend?

Blogger Week Day #6- Pancakes

Looks like blogger is working again!

Helloooo and happy hump day! Did you have a good one? First off- REMINDER BSI recipes (pear) are due to me either via comment or via email (itzyskitchen@gmail.com) by Midnight on Sunday :)

My day at work was sort of bleh, BUT when I got home I had a very fun package from Josh's mom! She sent each of us (including Mr. Frank) some Halloween treats. My favorite parts:

Dried Pineapple for me!!!

Treats for Frank:
I was thrilled! Thank you thank you ;)

Tonight, I took Body Pump and then I came home and made up some awesome pancakes from two of my favorite bloggers. First up, Ms. Sarah from Suite Apple Pie. You all know how much I love me some Suite Apple Pie Granola, so you can just guess how excited I was to try Suite Apple Pie Oatmeal Pancakes with Strawberry Sauce!! Here are the recipes:

Oatmeal Pancakes

Ingredients:

1/2 cup plus 3 Tbs whole wheat or all-purpose flour
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
2 tablespoons canola oil
1/2 cup skim or soy milk
1/2 cup plain nonfat yogurt

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients and whisk lightly to combine. Make a small well in the center of the bowl and add the egg, canola oil, milk, and yogurt. With a light hand, whisk to break the egg and mix into the wet ingredients. Then fold the wet into the dry, careful to overmix. It should come together in 10-12 'folds' or turns of the bowl.Meanwhile, heat a pancake pan or griddle over medium low heat. Using a 1/4 or 1/3 cup (depending on how big you like your pancakes) ladle pancakes onto the griddle. I used to do four at a time but now I do three so I have more maneuvering room when flipping. Once you see bubbles form on top and the pancakes feels firm, quickly insert a spatula under a pancake. With a quick wrist motion, lift and flip the pancake to the other side. Cook a few minutes more and remove to a plate. Repeat with the remaining batter. Top with strawberry sauce (recipe follows).

To keep pancakes warm while you complete the batch, put them on an oven-safe plate in the oven on the warm setting.

Strawberry Sauce

Ingredients:

2 cups fresh or frozen strawberries
1-2 Tbs brown sugar
1/4 cup water

Directions:

Hull and slice strawberries. You want different sizes so that some cook down and others remain in pieces, to create a chunky sauce. Place in a small saucepan over medium high heat, along with the brown sugar and water. Stir to combine. Once the mixture comes to a boil, lower the heat and simmer until it thickens, about 10-15 minutes. Serve over pancakes, or simmer longer to create a thicker jam-like texture for toast (I simmereed my remaining strawberries for jam and it is awesome!)

Fabulous Sarah!


I also made a half batch of Pumpkin Pancakes from a recipe provided by Jenn of Fit Bottomed Girls! I <3>

Pumpkin Pancakes

Ingredients:

1 C. whole wheat flour

1/2 C. cake flour

1 t. baking soda

2 t. baking powder

1/4 t. salt

1 t. ground cinnamon

1/2 t. ground ginger

1/2 t. ground nutmeg

1 C. buttermilk (or regular milk if you don' t have it)

1 C. canned pumpkin puree

2 eggs

2 T. oil

1 t. vanilla

2 T. dark brown sugar

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the first eight ingredients (whole wheat flour through nutmeg). In a separate bowl, whisk together the last six ingredients (buttermilk through brown sugar).

2. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and blend together with a wooden spoon until just combined. Lumps are ok, just make sure all the flour on the bottom of the bowl is mixed in. If batter seems too thick to pour, you can gently stir in a little more buttermilk.

3. Drop pancakes by ladleful onto a medium-hot griddle. Pancakes are ready to turn when the edges start to look a little dry and you can see small bubbles forming on the surface.

Jenn- these are divine! I knew I was going to have wayyyyy too many pancakes, but I couldn't decide between these two recipes! Please give these recipes a whirl!

Only one more day of Blogger week left! Are you loving blogger week? I am! I think I will probably have another one next month sometime! Would you like me to try one of YOUR recipes (or a recipe you like to use...doesn't have to be original!!)- either place a link in the comments or send me an email at itzyskitchen@gmail.com :)

Blogger Week Post #5 and Food List

So I totally missed that I had my 200th post yesterday! Yayyy how exciting :) I love blogging, mostly because of you ;)

How was your day? Mine was great! I found out I don't have to travel on Thursday/Friday yayyy. After work, I did a bunch of stuff around the place, including giving the frankster a bath. I knew I was going to take Body Attack tonight and then I have practice for our Body Step Launch. Given this, I figured I would make dinner before I left so that it was ready for Josh when he gets home from work and for me when I get home from the gym.

For dinner tonight, I decided to try a recipe from Hangry Pants (the title of this blog always cracks me up). I love Mark and Heather's posts- they both present great and different points of view on many topics. I also really enjoy reading about all of their challenges! Heather recently made up an amazing looking dinner of BBQ Tofu, Apples, Sweet Potatoes & Wheatberries for BSI. I immediately book marked the recipe for blogger week. I changed out the tofu for chicken and sweet potato for regular potato (since Josh isn't a sweet tato fan). I also couldn't find wheatberries at Harris Teeter this weekend, so I used Kashi rice pilaf. The result- beautiful and tasty! Thanks Heather for such an awesome combo!

Ingredients:

1 chicken breast

BBQ sauce

1/2 cup uncooked wheatberries or rice

1 medium white onion

garlic

Olive Oil

1 medium granny smith apple

1 medium potato (or several smaller potatoes)

Directions:

Bake chicken in oven for 25 minutes at 350 (or until no longer pink). Shred and mix with 2 tablespoons bbq sauce.

Make Apple Mix: Cube onion, apple and potato so they are the same size. After cubing potato, drizzle with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and bake for about 20 minutes (until almost crisp enough for you). While potato is cooking, saute the onion and 1 garlic clove (chopped) in 1 cap of olive oil until soft. Add apple and cook for 2 or 3 minutes. Take off the heat and add (cooked) potato and 1 T of BBQ sauce. Mix together over low heat.

Cook wheatberries or rice according to package directions.

Mix all together and ENJOY!

I also wanted to post my food list for this week:

Produce
2 small onions
1 Large bag of apples
1 Granny Smith Apple
2 Bananas
1 small bag of white potatoes
1 bag of butternut squash cubed
1 orange
Fruit for lunches (more apples, pears)
Garlic
Frozen Strawberries
Frozen cherries
Frozen vegis for lunches and for enchiladas

Packaged/Canned Items
Vegi oil
Confectioners sugar
Granulated Sugar
Whole Wheat Flour
Lemon Juice
8 oz tomato sauce
Enchilada sauce
Rice
2 cans pumpkin puree
Bars for Josh’s lunch (Caribou coffee)
Snacks for Josh’s lunch (tortilla chips- multigrain, goldfish)

Meat
Chicken

Dairy
Mozzarella Cheese Shredded
Butter
Eggs
Sour Cream
Cream Cheese
Cool whip elite
Milk
Yogurt (1 large, minis for lunches)
Non fat frozen yogurt
1% milk

Miscellaneous
Tortillas
Pizza Dough
Disposable pie tin (my pie plates are in storage)
Diet Soda (for Josh’s lunches)
Water
Crystal Lite packets
Gum

For Dinners:
Bbq chicken calzones

Desserts- Pumpkin cupcakes and apple pie with oatmeal crust
Chicken with warm quinoa salad
Pancakes- oatmeal and pumpkin
Shrimp Enchiladas
BBQ Chicken and Apple Casserole
1 more dinner- tbd

Hope you have a good night ;)

Blogger Day #4

Hi again! Today was an ok day on this end. I was really excited because the head group fitness instructor at the gym emailed me saying that she is going to give me a class! It will be an every other week class and I am thrilled! Yayyy!! On the yucky end, I found out I have to travel on Thursday and Friday. That means blogger week is going to get cut short by one post=boooo!

Tonight, I got in a nice run outside and practiced body step. I also made this Enchilada meal inspired by Chandra at Chandra's Shenanigan's. I <3 reading Chandra's posts. She puts up her meals, recipes, workouts, and her generally hilarious thoughts on various matters. I had never thought to make enchiladas with shrimp until I saw Chandra's post. Since Josh isn't a big fan of peppers, I used a corn and kidney bean mix with tomato sauce and onions. I made some enchiladas with chicken and some with shrimp.

Ingredients:
Flat out wraps (cut in half to make tortillas or use tortillas!)
1/4 cup onion chopped
1 cup corn
1 cup kidney beans
~4-8 ounces tomato sauce
1 serving thawed cooked shrimp (cut into small pieces)
1 serving cooked chicken (shredded)
Enchilada sauce (desired amount)
Cumin , chili powder and other desired seasonings
Desired amount of shredded cheese

Directions
Preheat oven to 375. Place a small amount of olive oil in a skillet, add onion and cook until translucent. Add tomato sauce, corn, kidney beans and spices and cook until desired tenderness. Divide mixture in half and add 1/2 to chicken, 1/2 to shrimp. Place into tortillas, roll up, top with enchilada sauce and bake for 20-25 minutes. Yummmy!

Blogger Secret Ingredient (BSI)

Hi Everyone!

How are you all doing? Hope your Monday wasn't too terrible! The wonderful Gina at Fitnessista selected me to pick the next BSI (Thanks Gina!!). I went back and forth on what to pick alllll day! I wanted to pick either something that was in season, that can be made to be either savory or sweet, or that everyone had on hand in their kitchen. So far, the BSI's have been:

Week 8: Cranberries
Week 7: Lentils
Week 6: Polenta
Week 5: Butternut Squash
Week 4: Apples
Week 3: Mushrooms
Week 2: Tomatoes
Week 1: Quinoa

and Week 9..................................
Pears!

(picture from here)

I picked pears for a number of reasons: 1. they're delicious, 2. they are "in season", and 3. they have many health benefits including (all of this info came from here):

1. Good source of vitamin C and Coper which protect our body from oxygen-related damage due to free radicals.
2. Pears contain fiber which helps prevent constipation and ensures regularity. ;)Fiber also binds to cancer-causing chemicals in the colon, preventing them from damaging colon cells. Results of a prospective study involving 51,823 postmenopausal women for an average of 8.3 years showed a 34% reduction in breast cancer risk for those consuming the most fruit fiber compared to those consuming the least.
3. They are a hypoallergenic fruit.
4. Eating more fruit can help protect against macular degeneration (i.e. losing your sight).
(for even more benefits see this website)

SO bring on the pear recipes! Please send me your recipe either via a link in my comments or email me at itzyskitchen@gmail.com by midnight on Sunday 11/2! A fun prize pack that will keep you cooking will be given to the winner!

Blogger Day #3- Breakfast bars and Quinoa

Did you all have a nice Sunday? Mine was wonderful and VERY lazy. Josh and I slept in and then ran out to get coffee and load my car up with gas for the week. Today was gorgeous down here, it was about 81 degrees and sunny- a very nice change from the pouring rain!! I walked to the gym this afternoon and took body pump. Other than body pump, I pretty much cooked and relaxed the rest of the day! My first recipe today came from Jenn at Eating Bender. Jenn makes great quick recipes. She also posts a lot of interesting health/food related information. I am sure that she will become a famous health writer some day! Any who, I made her fabulous and light Banana Oat Bars. The only changes I made to her recipe were to add some walnuts and I used regular milk and 1 tsp vanilla instead of vanilla almond milk. Great recipe Jenn!

Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup dry oats
2 tbsp. Promise light
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
Cinnamon to taste
2 ripe mashed banana
1 tbsp. light brown sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400*. Mix first seven ingredients together in a large bowl. Mix banana and brown sugar together in a separate bowl. Alternate adding banana mixture and almond milk to dry ingredients. Mix until moist. Spread on a cookie sheet covered with pam (or a cooking mat). Bake for 10 minutes or until the bottom is slightly brown.


After Body Pump tonight, I was ready for dinner! I made up some chicken and an incredible dish from Esi at Dishing Up Delights. Esi's recipes always look like they should be featured in a magazine. She uses a lot of different and fun ingredients. Tonight, I made her Warm Quinoa salad with Roasted Butternut Squash. The only change I made here was to add in some peas. This recipe is incredible! Great job Esi!!

Ingredients:
1 small butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into cubes
Extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed
1 cup water
2 teaspoons fresh sage minced
2 cloves garlic minced
1/2 orange, juiced
Cumin, to taste

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.Mix the squash with a small amount of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Toss to combine and spread onto a foil covered baking sheet. Bake for about 15 minutes, turn and bake for an additional 15 minutes until tender.

Set aside to cool.In a small saucepan, bring 1 cup lightly salted water and 1/2 cup quinoa to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover and cook until the liquid is absorbed, about 12-15 minutes (or cook according to package).

In a separate saute pan heat a small amount of olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and sage and cook for 1 to 2 minutes until the garlic is soft, but not browned. Add the orange juice, cumin, and season with salt and pepper.

Toss the orange juice mixture with the quinoa. Add the butternut squash and toss to combine. Serve warm, garnished with sage leaves if desired.

I also made some Suite Apple Pie Granola tonight. As I've said before, this is truly a staple in my house!

How was your weekend? Tell me alllll about it ;)

Blogger Week Post #2- Desserts

Happy Saturday! How was your day? My day was busy but very nice! Last night at the food store, they had no canned pumpkin! So I got up extra early this am to run to a second food store so I could start my baking! Unfortunately (believe it or not), the second store ALSO did not have pumpkin. I ran to Walmart where I was finally able to find some pumpkin. For my second set of blogger week recipes, I made desserts. The first dessert came from Cecil over at Food Craze. Cecil uses a lot of very unique ingredients in her cooking and I am always in awe of the masterpieces she creates! I had mentioned a few weeks ago that I wanted to make a pumpkiny dessert as my dad LOVES pumpkin. She posted up some pumpkin choco chip cupcakes that looked incredible! I decided to use her base recipe for my cupcakes (minus the choco chips ;)) and I topped them with a slightly lighter cream cheese frosting:

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs (I used egg substitute)
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup low fat milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil (or you can use applesauce)

Mix dry ingredients in 1 bowl, wet ingredients in another, combine and then fill 12 muffin cups. Bake at 375 for 23ish minutes. Pictures:

For the icing, I cheated on my no outside recipe rules, and used a recipe from cooking light:

Ingredients:

2/3 cups light cream cheese (or 6 oz)

1 1/4 tsp vanilla

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

Place the cream cheese and vanilla in a large bowl; beat at medium speed until smooth. Gradually add the powdered sugar, beating just until blended. (Do not overbeat.) place the cream cheese and vanilla in a large bowl; beat at medium speed until smooth. Gradually add the powdered sugar, beating just until blended. (Do not overbeat. Note: I did this with a whisk).

For my second dessert, I made an apple pie with oatmeal cookie crust. This recipe came from the Recipe Girl. I recently discovered her blog and love it because its full of dessert ideas. The outcome of this recipe is INCREDIBLE but I would recommend using unsalted butter in the crust rather than regular butter but otherwise its unbelievable (I also made a few other changes, please see the original)

Ingredients:

CRUST:
3 cups rolled (old fashioned) oats
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
½ tsp (rounded measure) salt
1½ tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup + 2 T. brown sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), melted

FILLING:

7 cups peeled, sliced Granny Smith apples
3 Tbs fresh lemon juice
2 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp grated lemon rind
3 Tbs unbleached all-purpose flour
¼ cup brown sugar (packed)
½ cup sour cream

Directions:

1. Prepare crust: Combine all crust ingredients in a medium-sized bowl, and mix well. Press firmly and evenly into the bottom and sides of a 9 or 10-inch pie pan, forming a thick crust. Reserve about a cup (or a little more) of the crust mix for the topping.
2. Preheat oven to 375°F.
3. Place sliced apples in a large bowl. Drizzle with lemon juice and sprinkle with spices; toss until well coated. Add rind. Sprinkle in flour and mix again. Gradually add brown sugar and sour cream as you mix. Don't worry if the apple slices break a little while being mixed and tossed.
4. Distribute the filling into the unbaked crust. Sprinkle the reserved crust crumbs over the top and pat neatly into place.
5. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until the apples are soft and the crust is nicely browned on the edges. Note: If the top appears to be browning too quickly during baking, cover loosely with foil (check after about 30 minutes).
6. Serve hot, warm or at room temperature. This is doubly good with a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Both desserts turned out great! Thanks ladies! You are the best! These desserts were taken over to my Aunt and Uncle's house for dinner tonight. My parents and grandmother were in the area, so we had a nice big dinner together up near Myrtle beach.

The men (from left to right- Josh, my dad, my Uncle Gary, my cousin)

The ladies (from left to right- my Aunt Lori, my Grandma, me, my mom):

I am so exhausted. Aside from the baking and dinner, I also went to the gym today and took body step and ran around town with my parents. It was so great to see everyone. What did you do today?

Blogger week/rain rain go away!

Hi everyone! I just want to let you know that it has been POURING like I have never seen all day here! I just braved the weather to get my laptop so I could write this post :) Today starts blogger week (hoooooooray). All week, I will only be making recipes from others blogs. Since you are all so great and make such unbelievable looking food, it was hard to select my recipes for this week! I have a ton of recipes in back log, so I think I may start doing a blogger week once a month. My first featured blogger is Apples and Butter. I recently discovered this blog and love love love it! Her photos are beautiful and she has a great variety of recipes on her blog. It was soooo hard to choose a recipe, but I ended up going with something I always wanted to try- BBQ Chicken Calzones. Can I just say- yum! The only thing that could have made this better would have been homemade pizza dough but I am without my mixer (its in storage), so store dough had to do! Any who, on to the recipe:

Ingredients:

2 cooked chicken breasts, shredded
1/2 cup BBQ sauce
1 small bunch cilantro, chopped
3/4 cup mozzarella cheese
1 small red onion
1 T canola oil
1 package store-bought pizza dough
flour for dusting rolling pin

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375*
Slice the onion thinly. Heat the canola oil in a medium pan over medium heat and add the onions. Saute until caramelized and let cool slightly. Divide pizza dough in two and form into flattened round discs. Let rest while you prepare the filling. Combine the chicken, chopped cilantro, cheese and onion in a small bowl. Roll each disc of pizza dough out into a 10" circle (no points for perfection here - anything close will do). Mound half of the filling on one side of each disc and fold remaining half over the filling. Seal the calzones by folding the edges up and pressing down lightly. Press edges down with a fork to ensure a tight seal and use fork to poke a few venting holes in the top of each calzone to release steam. Bake for 24 - 26 minutes until golden brown.

Note: I ended up making 4 mini calzones instead of two large calzones.

Fabulous! You must give it a whirl! On another side note, today was suppose to be part 2 of our Charleston restaurant reviews, but the rain kept us home. We may be doing lunch out tomorrow, so look for a potential review :)

I want to thank the wonderful Maria and Josh over at Two peas and their pod (another favorite blog) who gave me an award-

Haha, such a cute award. I would like to pass this along to Gina at Fitnessista. Gina makes incredible recipes, is a fitness role model, and overall is just awesome!

Someone elses dinner

Its 11 pm and I am full of energy! Ah! I feel asleep early last night and got almost 8 hours of sleep! I can't remember the last week night where I got 8 hours of sleep. After work, I ironed and got dinner prepared for Josh. I made up turkey meatballs and a spinach salad and then flew out the door.

Tonight, I taught for the first time in SC-I taught 4 tracks in Kristen's Body step class. I think I did pretty well (I messed up a few times but covered them up really well haha). The Body Step class was 45 minutes. After Body Step, Kristen taught a 45 minute Body Pump (which I also took). Then we had an hour Body Step practice for our upcoming launch. At the practice, I met a chunk of the other instructors who are all so sweet and were extremely welcoming! We went out to a little post dinner practice at On the Border. I got a really delicious salad and enjoyed everyones company. I couldn't be more thrilled to be teaching at such a great gym :) :)

Black Bean Soup/its not Thursday yet!

Whats going on? Today was another early morning workout! I got up around 5 and went to the gym. I did 10 minutes on the treadmill, 10 minutes on the elliptical and 45 minutes of Body pump. It is so great to get to the gym early but I feel hungry allll day afterwards :). For some reason, I kept thinking it was Thursday all day! I spent most of tonight working on Body Step. I would say I know 9 of the 12 tracks! Tomorrow night, I am team teaching my first class in SC and then we have a practice for the launch! I am thrilled!! For dinner tonight, I made my favorite easy, comforting meal, cheese quesadillas and black bean soup:

To save a few calories/fat, I always use pam spray instead of oil and 2% cheese when making my dillas. Whats your favorite comfort food/meal? Send me recipes if you have them ;)

A Josh Creation and more stirfry!

First off, thank you for all of your comments on my food list! As you can see, when you have a big, gym going husband, you need a LOT of food! :)

I am so glad today is over! I started my day off on the right foot and took Body Flow for the first time. According to the Les Mills website:

"BODYFLOW™ is the Yoga, Tai Chi, Pilates workout that builds flexibility and strength and leaves you feeling centered and calm. Controlled breathing, concentration and a carefully structured series of stretches, moves and poses to music create a holistic workout that brings the body into a state of harmony and balance."

It was definitely the best Yoga type workout I've ever taken! But still yoga is a once in a while activity for me! I think it is sooo good for your body but its a little slow for me :(. Any who, work went ok and then I came home and did some house work and practiced Body Step. Josh came home and while I was getting dinner together he made a "snack" he wanted me to share with you:

Ingredients:
1 can chunk tuna light in water(drained)
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp montreal steak seasoning
desired amount of hot sauce (or buffalo sauce)




Mix all together and enjoy! Josh promises its delicious! I'm not a tuna fan, so you will have to let me know if you try it :)

For dinner tonight, I made another stir fry. I cooked up some chicken until no longer pink (you can do this in either a bit of olive oil or pam). Add vegis, cook until tender. Add in favorite stir fry sauce, enjoy!

I can't get enough stir fry! How was your day? Oh and thank you for all of the wonderful pumpkin pie ideas! You guys are the best!