Week in Review & Baked Almond Butter Chicken

Hi Friends! Happy Friday to each and every one of you! How has your week been treating you? Mine has been wonderful. It is my last full week off before I start work again(yikes!). I’m only going back half time, but ….I’m getting a little nervous about giving the peanut up during work hours. So, what did I do with my last full week? I ran, I strolled with the peanut:

I got a lot of soy pumpkin spice mistos:

I went to Menchies and got dairy free sorbet:

I spent time with friends and family, including Frank & Peanut:

 

and I had my post partum doctors appointment. I was VERY nervous for this. The thought of getting checked out just gave me the chills, but my Doctor (whose fabulous) made it easy peasy. Everything looks good!

Onto the food! I have a really bad habit of opening new jars of nut/seed butter to use in a recipe. I will use ALMOSTS the entire container and then leave it in the fridge with just a smidgen left. I noticed this bad habit when I had about 6 jars of almost completely empty nut/seed butter jars in the fridge. I figured it was about time I did something about it! Around then, I saw Renee make peanut butter chicken and decided to whip up a batch of almond butter chicken! I leaned on my hot and cold sesame noodle recipe for the marinade:

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons almond butter  (I used TJs raw, unsalted, AB)
• 2 tablespoons reduced sodium soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1/2 tablespoon hot sauce
• 3/4 to 1 lb chicken (breast, tenders, whatever you’ve got!)

 

Directions:

Whisk together first 4 ingredients.

Place mixture in a freezer bag and add chicken. Place chicken/marinade in the fridge for 1-2 hours.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray a cookie sheet (or cookie sheet covered with aluminum foil) with non stick spray. Place chicken on top and cook through, flipping once (I used tenders and this took me about 7 minutes per side).

Josh’s tenders went on top of brown rice mixed with peas, corn and additional soy sauce.

I had mine on top of a salad. Delicious!

Nut butter is so good in unexpected places!

Weekend plans? We have a date night in tonight, restaurant week out tomorrow night, and football time on Saturday/Sunday. I will throw a couple workouts in there too. Enjoy!!

Cookies & Cheese

Not together of course  

Halfway through the work/school week! As always, hoping your week is treating you well!! I taught Body Pump for the first time post partum on Monday. Class went really well and it felt good to be back! I’m going to have to totally revise my teaching schedule, as Kaylin can’t be in daycare at the gym until she is three months! What have you been up to so far this week?

On Sunday, we had friends over for football. Part of our food spread included two homemade cookies and a cheese/fruit/salami/cracker platter. I always like to try new cookie recipes, and this time was no different! I made Joy of Baking’s chocolate cookies with chocolate chunks:

And Brandi’s Browned Butter Cookies with chocolate chunks (yes, I am obsessed with chocolate chunks vs chips ).  I always wondered if browning the butter REALLY made a difference…and it does! The cookies have a great, caramelized taste.

All together now!

Along with the cookies, we had subs and a cheese, fruit, pepperoni and cracker dish. The cheese/cracker dish was part of a Sargento cheese taste test (disclaimer: a stipend was provided for free as a part of the Foodbuzz taste testers program). According to Foodbuzz & Sargento:

“Sargento is cut from 100 percent natural cheese and is never processed. It contains only natural ingredients (milk, cheese cultures, enzymes and salt) and is tested by professional fromagiers (cheese graders) to ensure high quality.”

I purchased Sargento Pepper Jack Cheese:

And a processed Pepper Jack cheese. I placed both on a platter with cheese parings:

I wanted to taste test the cheeses, but it appears as though Kaylin has an issue with dairy and has tummy troubles every time I consume it . The doctor believes this could be because I’m lactose intolerant! More to come!! Luckily, Josh and three of our football guests handled the taste testing for me! They tried cheese A (Sargento) and cheese B (processed).

Josh preferred Sargento…but our three guests all preferred the processed! The reason was that they all thought that the Sargento was a little too SPICY for them! But, they all agreed that the Sargento (cheese A) tasted like a better quality cheese. Thank you Foodbuzz and Sargento for the opportunity to do the cheese test! What is your favorite kind of cheese?