Actually Using My Pins

Just like so many other people, I love Pinterest.  I pin things all of the time.  I love that I can keep track of all the interesting recipes, workouts, and quotes that I have found on the Internet.  I have accumulated tons of recipes and workouts that I was convinced I would make.  Unfortunately, just like so many other people, my Pinterest boards grow and grow and yet I do not fully utilize them.

Today, I changed that! Twice!

As part of my training, I'm suppose to do weights on Mondays.  I usually do my usual weights and call it a day.  Today, I did two strength sequences that I pinned.

I modified the abs workout by doing a plank at the end instead of the v-sit (for no reason other than I like planks better).  I was glad that I switched up my workout.  Doing the same thing can really get boring and this definitely mixed it up.  I'm sure my abs will be sore!

For dinner, I made a pinned recipe that I hadn't tried before.  It was Black Bean, Corn, and Cilantro Frittata.  Frittatas are extremely easy to make and are great for breakfast or dinner. You just prep some veggies, beat the eggs, put it in the pan, and bake.  This recipe had a southwestern twist and sounded awesome.  I made one minor change to the recipe.  I'm picky about the type (and by type I actually mean color) of peppers I eat.  I do not like red peppers at all...weird I know.  So instead of using frozen onions and peppers, I used fresh ones that I sauteed

I used to make frittatas all the time and used a 9 inch pie pan.  Apparently, I hadn't made one since I lived with my roommates a little over a year ago.  When I went to search for "my" 9 inch pie pan, I realized that I never owned one and that it was actually one of my old roommates.  Opps! I improvised and used a 9 x 9 inch pan instead.

I topped it off with some salsa and Sriracha.  It was delicious!  I am so happy that I finally made this recipe from my Pinterest board.  I will definitely start making more of the recipes I pin in the future.

Zucchini Boat of Yum

As always, I went to the farmer's market after my Saturday run.  I stopped at a vendor that had beautiful, vibrantly colored vegetables.  I knew that I couldn't pass up this stand without buying something.  Lucky for me, this vendor had huge, bright green zucchinis for only 50 cents each.  let me just clarify, that when I say huge...I mean HUGE!  It was bigger than the size of my foot and about the size of my forearm.  I would say that 50 cents for the absurdly large zucchini was a steal!

Ok...mine wasn't THAT big.  But it was still pretty big.

I had seen a couple different recipes for zucchini boats and decided to give it a try.  There are many different recipes for zucchini boats, but it essentially has 4 steps: cut the zucchini in half, hollow it out, stuff in with your ingredients, and bake.  Even with the large zucchini that I bought, not a lot of filling was needed (or really fit) into the zucchini.  Actually, I was a little over ambitious with my filling and had some leftover and ate it on the side.

My recipe is using rough estimates because I did not truly measure everything.  It is not a recipe that you will mess up by adding too much of one thing or not enough of another.  It's all about you taste and how you like it!

Zucchini Boat (2 servings per zucchini)
Ingredients:
1 large zucchini
6 bella mushrooms, sliced
1/4 cup yellow onion, diced
basil and garlic salt seasonings
handful of cherry tomatoes (about 8)
3 tbl tomato sauce
1/4 cup mozzarella cheese

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Cut zucchini in half the long way.

3. Scoop insides out of zucchini.  Some people save the insides to use in their mix. I thought it was zucchini overload, so I tossed them out.  Place zucchini on baking sheet lined with foil.

4. Saute mushrooms and onions with spices for 5 minutes.  Place into bowl.
5. Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, and cheese to bowl.  Mix.
6. Put mixture into zucchini.

7. Bake for 20-30 minutes.

Yummy, cheesy perfection!  I will admit that as good as it was,  I thought that it would be more filling than it turned out to be.  I didn't make anything else to go with it, so I finished my dinner off with some popcorn.  I definitely recommend making something to go with your zucchini.

There are so many different types of zucchini boats. Here are some other great websites that have different flavors/types of zucchini boats incase you want to try something else:

http://www.recipegirl.com/2012/02/13/stuffed-zucchini-boats/

http://www.adashofsass.com/2010/06/22/italian-and-southwestern-zucchini-boats/

http://inthelittleredhouse.blogspot.com/2012/07/how-to-eat-zucchini.html

Continued Love for Peanut Butter

Last night, I played beach volleyball with a group of friends.  It's a fun way to break up the week and get together with friends.  Plus, the weather was great last night so it was fun to be outside by the lake.  We've won a couple of games, but last night was not our night.  You win some, you lose some!

My friend Lindsey recently moved into a new apartment and did a Target run.  Living in the city without a car, Target is a little difficult to get to.  So, I asked her a HUGE favor.  I have fallen in love with a new cereal that I have only found at Target (I think people are hoarding boxes of it at the grocery store by me).   This cereal combines one of my favorite cereals, Cheerios, and my favorite flavor, peanut butter.  That's right...Peanut Butter Cheerios!  I recommend that everyone try them.  An enormous thank you to Lindsey and her mom Cindy for picking them up for me!

It was either a post volleyball or post shower picture. I opted for the cleanliness of post shower picture.

This week, I tried making a new and different dinner.  I love Indian food and have eaten it out several times.  I don't usually think to make it at home for 2 main reasons:

1. Indian food uses a lot of spices that I don't tend to have on hand.

2. It is known to smell.  Living in a small studio apartment, I don't have the luxury of containing smelly dishes (even if those dishes are tasty too).

The other day, I saw a pre-made Indian sauce at Whole Foods.  Having a pre-made sauce took away reason 1 for not cooking Indian food at home.  I decided to take a chance with reason number 2.

Maya Kaimal makes several different types of sauces.  I chose the vindaloo sauce, which is a coconut and chili flavored sauce. I had tried a vindaloo sauce at my favorite Indian restaurant in Chicago and liked it.  Also, it said that it was spicy and I tend to opt for spicier flavors.

I decided to go vegetarian and roasted a zucchini, mushrooms, onion, and a mixed bag of cauliflower and broccoli.  I set the oven to 420, coated the vegetables in olive oil, and put them in the oven for 20 minutes.  

Toward the end of the 20 minutes I started to simmer the sauce.  I then added the vegetables to the sauce and continued to simmer together for 5 minutes.

This recipe can easily be made using a pound of meat and/or chick peas and whatever vegetables you enjoy.  Be sure to buy naan to make your Indian meal complete!

It might not look pretty, but it was delicious!  And not to mention...smell free (an added perk)!

A Different Type of Cupcake

I have been using pinterest to keep track of my recipes recently, so my cookbooks and recipe binder have become somewhat neglected.  I decided to revisit my cookbooks and recipes the other day and found a recipe for mini meatloaf muffins that my mom had given me a while ago.  My mom often send me recipes she sees or has tried and think I will enjoy.  I decided it was time to finally give it a try!

These "muffins" use ground turkey breast and lots of chopped up veggies.  According to the recipe, each muffin has about 142 calories and the recipe makes 9 muffins total.  Obviously, I halved the recipe because I did not need 9 muffins for myself.  Turns out, even with halving the recipe I made 6 decent sized muffins.  The recipe also called for using ketchup, but I was craving BBQ sauce so I used that instead.

They tasted delicious and were super easy to make! The muffins were extremely moist and perfectly cooked.  When I took them out of the muffin pan, I was surprised at how well they stayed together.  Making meatloaf muffins made me feel like I was taking something retro and making it cool and up to date (yea...I just admitted that).  And with the 4th of July coming up, meatloaf screams America!

I'm going to give you the recipe with the changes that I made to it.  Just remember, you can use ketchup or BBQ sauce and you can easily double the recipe if cooking for a crowd.

Mini Meatloaf Muffins
Ingredients:
1/4 cup diced onion
1.5 cup bagged broccoli slaw (chopped)
2/3 pound ground turkey breast
1/4 cup quick cooking oats
2 egg whites (or 1/4 cup liquid egg)
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbl BBQ sauce

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix together all of the ingredients.
3. Line or spray muffin pan.  Distribute mixture into muffin tins. (I used 6 muffins but depending on the size you could use more or less). 
4. This step is OPTIONAL.  Spread the top of each muffin with 1 tsp of BBQ (I'm a dipper so I skipped this step and reserved extra BBQ sauce for dipping).
5. Bake for 30-35 minutes.  Muffins will become firm and lightly brown on the edges.

I had 2 muffins and roasted a veggie mix from Trader Joes (asparagus, mushrooms, and red onion) for a complete, filling meal.

A Lucky Morning and Gorgeous Day

Today started off great!  I got a ride to work today and parked right next to the best spot ever.  Too bad someone else got there first.

For those who don't know, 919 was the address for the house I lived in my senior year of college.  Oh the memories!  It was a long day of meetings at work, but at least the morning started off with a happy walk down memory lane.

I brought the peach bars to work today and they were a hit!  One of my co-workers said it was "like heaven" and he went back for a 3rd and 4th helping.  I would definitely, call that a successful recipe!

Since I was working at my downtown office today, I took full advantage of the beautiful weather and walked home from work.  Today it was only 80 degrees and the perfect weather for my 1.5 mile walk.  Walking home was a great way to unwind from my long day of sitting in meetings.

Once I got home, I started prepping my dinner.  Tonight, I was making Yucatan Shrimp Cocktail Salad.

The recipe was full of awesome, crisp veggies (exactly what I was craving)!  The veggies included (going clockwise) tomatoes, cucumber, scallions, celery, and poblano pepper.

As usual, I didn't completely follow the recipe.  The recipe can be found here.  The changes I made:

1. I halved the dressing and amount of shrimp, so that there were 2 servings instead of 4.  Perfect for leftovers tomorrow!

2. I didn't measure the amount of vegetables.  When it comes to vegetables, I don't think you can have too many.  I put in as many as I wanted (definitely lots of tomatoes because they are my favorite) so that it was a complete and filling meal.

3. I used a poblano chili instead of a Anaheim chili.  I only did this because they did not have an Anaheim chili at my store and the man said it was a good substitute.

It was the perfect light, refreshing, summery meal!  Lucky for me, I enjoyed it sitting on my balcony.  A great end to a good day!

Portabella Dinner

I usually go to the grocery store with an idea of what I'm cooking that week and a list of groceries.  This past weekend, I went with no plan.  I had no idea what to make and was not getting any good ideas looking around.  I had fallen into a dinner rut and needed some new ideas.  Dad to the rescue!  I called my dad and he suggested grilling portabella mushrooms.

I used Italian spices and added veggies, cheese, and tomato sauce.  To make the portabella, you can use a grill (outside of George Forman) or bake it.  I used the George Forman, but if you choose to make it put your oven at 420 and bake for about 15 minutes.

Grilled Portabella with Veggies (1 serving)
Ingredients:
1/2 bag spinach
sweet onion
cooking spray
spices of choice (I used garlic salt, basil, and red pepper flakes)
handful cherry tomatoes cut in half
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1 portabella mushroom
1 wedge Laughing Cow Garlic and Herb
grated parmesan (if you want more cheese)

Instructions:
1. Heat skillet over medium heat and spray with cooking spray.  Plug in and spray George Foreman.
2. Add onions to pan.  Season as desired.  Remove from pan once softened (about 5 minutes) and put on plate.
3. Re-spray pan and add spinach. Once spinach is wilted (about 3 minutes), add to onions.
4. Add halved tomatoes to spinach and onions. Top with half of the tomato sauce.
5. Season portabella. Place on George Foreman.  Cook for about 2 minutes.
6. Place portabella on top on spinach mixture.  Spread cheese on portabella and top with remaining tomato sauce.

Please notice the Vitamin Water in the top right corner on the picture.  Yup...that's me drinking something with dinner!  Making moves to meet my new goal!

Quick and Delicious Dinner

For some reason, the summer weather makes me crave seafood.  I rarely cook seafood for one main reason: I live in a small studio apartment and don't want it smelling like fish all night. However, one good "no smell" fish is shrimp. Here is a great summer shrimp recipe:

Cilantro Lime Shrimp (1 serving size)

Ingredients:

1/2 pound shrimp

olive oil or oil spray

2 small garlic cloves crushed

handful of cilantro

lime

salt and pepper (to taste)

Instructions:

-Heat a pan with olive oil on medium heat.

-When hot, add shrimp and season with salt and pepper.

-When one side of shrimp has cooked, turn over and add garlic. Saute until cooked.

-Remove from heat. Squeeze lime juice and toss with cilantro.

It's a great light recipe that is perfect for a summer dinner.  I ate it with steamed vegetables, but it would also be great over pasta.

If you want to change up the recipe, substitute basil and lemon for the cilantro and lime.

Eat-a Pita

Living away from my parents, one thing that I miss is my mom's amazing cooking.  She always made delicious dinners and this is part of what has inspired me to cook.  One recipe my mom sometimes made was falafel.  I asked for for the recipe and attempted to make them myself, with a little spin on it...

Yup...that's the falafel in the waffle maker!  I read about cooking falafel this way and decided to give it a try.  It was a part failure part success.

Failure: The consistency of the falafel was not the best for the waffle maker. The first few attempts crumbled and fell apart.

Success: By the third attempt, the falafel came out perfectly! Key to success...do not flatten the falafel mixture into the waffle maker. Pile it on!  Another success was the flavor.  The falafel (if I do say so myself) turned out delicious! Just like mom used to make. 

Ingredients:
1 can chick peas

2 garlic cloves

1/4 cup dry bread crumbs (I used panko)

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

1 1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground red pepper

1 large egg

a little bit of lemon juice

This is what the mixture looked like after the blender.

Instructions for waffle maker:

-Turn on waffle maker

-Place all ingredients into food processor and blend until smooth.

-Put generous portions of mixture into waffle maker (I divided the micture into 4 portions) and heat until golden.

Instructions for pan frying:

-Place all ingredients into food processor and blend until smooth.

-Divide mixture into 16 balls.

-Heat 1 tbl of olive oil in skillet (or use Pam). Cook until browned (about 5 minutes each side).

To go with the falafel, I had an Israeli salad (chopped tomaotes, cucumber, feta, and balsamic dressing), pita, and humus.  You can either make a falafel sandwich or eat the falafel on a salad.