Monthly Archives: September 2013

Celebrating 2 Years

Daily Life!, Food for Thought

This past week marked Nick and I’s 2 year dating anniversary. He had a crazy busy week, and I was my normal busy with Jazzercise and work, so we decided to go out to dinner tonight for a mini-celebration. We have a normal ‘fancier dinner’ place that we go to called Santa Fe Grille. It’s upscale Mexican food, and it’s delicious!

As we pulled into the parking lot, the sign had changed to Springfield Gourmet Taco Company. (I vaguely remember seeing this announcement in the weekly newspaper, but it obviously didn’t stick with me!) Anyways, we were slightly leery, but it looked basically the same as we walked in. The menu had been revamped to include about 50 different tacos from which you could choose. Then you chose how to wrap your taco, hard shell, soft shell, lettuce wrap…the list was very big! Nick went with a steak variety of some sort in a corn tortilla, and I chose the Hawaiian Chicken in a lettuce wrap.

When our food arrived, we were a little thrown off. It was only 1 taco each! We had no idea we needed to order several to make a complete dinner.

photo(40)Luckily, they were AMAZING! Mine was covered in grilled pineapple, cabbage, and a sweet chili sauce. So we immediately waved over the waiter to order 1 more taco each. It ended up being a great meal + a learning experience for the next time we visit the new Gourmet Taco Company!

1234839_10151793048272182_969853993_nLunch + Sam’s Club

Lunch today was pretty light as I was wanting to get in a quick trip to Sam’s before it got any later in the day. Jazzercise kept me busy til around noon, and it made me hungry! So I knew I needed to eat a bite before I got around all the gigantic groceries or else my gigantic appetite would take over. I quickly topped a whole wheat Bagelthin with some cottage cheese and inhaled it before hopping in my car.

Carbs + savory cottage cheese!
Carbs + savory cottage cheese!

My favorite finds at Sam’s today?

photo(38)Pumpkin Pie Coffee Creamer! No less, in a convenient 2-pack! I usually go for the sugar free creamers, but this particular brand only has 20 more calories than the sugar-free. Plus it just looked amazing in the store. So I had to go for it! It doesn’t expire until January, so I can take my time with it. Yes, it’s not the healthiest. But it doesn’t include any real dairy products so it’s a win for this lactose-intolerant lady! I can’t wait for tomorrow morning!

Second favorite find…

photo(41)Cute right?! Fall Owl oven mitt and matching dish towel. These are already displayed in my kitchen. They are way too cute to sit in the drawer!! Our house is feeling very festive this evening  🙂

Well, we’re off to walk Mac and hopefully help our full tummies digest a little more. Have a great Saturday night! I’ll see you all tomorrow after my morning Jazzercise class. Sweet dreams!

 

Banana Gluten-Free Pancakes

Recipes, Workouts, , , ,

Yay for a good start to my Saturday! I usually wake up extremely early on Saturdays and roll out of bed to decide if I’m going to go take a Jazzercise class. Today, I didn’t have to make this decision since I’m subbing for my center’s owner this morning at 10:15 AM! And a little history, this class time was originally mine when I first became an instructor, so I’m feeling slightly nostalgic to teach it this morning. 🙂

Anyways, since my 5K is next weekend, I decided to head out about 7:15 to go for a 3.5 mile run. Honestly, I felt TERRIBLE through about the first mile. Usually it takes me about 2 minutes to get in the groove, but not this morning. I was struggling! But I made it through without stopping and actually decreased my time by 1 whole minute. Exciting stuff!

I made it back from my run feeling tired but happy with my time. So I quickly came inside to stretch and cool off because my coffee was a waitin’!

photo(36)I’ve had about 2 of these large cups full of steaming coffee by now, and my caffeine high is pretty high. HA! Guess that’s a good thing for a Saturday morning.

Once my appetite starting kicking in, I decided to whip up some banana pancakes that I had seen a recipe for on Pinterest last night. I changed up the ingredients a bit and they still turned out super tasty!

Caution: The pictures look really terrible through this whole recipe because I’m really bad at making pancakes. But I guarantee if you like eggs and bananas, you will enjoy this easy breakfast!

Banana Gluten-Free Pancakes

Makes 2 servings, or 4 medium-sized pancakes

Ingredients:

  • 2 extra-ripe bananas, mashed
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1/3 cup old-fashioned oats
  • 1 ts Vanilla
  • A dash of cinnamon or your favorite seasoning

Heat a skillet to medium-heat and spray it with a non-stick spray. I use Pam Olive Oil spray.

photo(37)Once your bananas are well mushed, mix in the eggs. Beat the mixture well to thoroughly combine.

photo(35)Then add in the oats, vanilla, and cinnamon. The mixture will be pretty soupy and runny!

Once your skillet is very hot, pour out 1-2 medium sized pancakes. This is where the pictures go down hill. Lesson learned: My skillet wasn’t hot enough so the batter ran everywhere!

photo(34)I fail, but as it got hotter, I kinda reshaped the pancakes to salvage the first batch.

photo(33)Slightly better, no? Well regardless, they still tasted great! I topped mine with apple butter while they were still hot.

photo(32)Nick had the other half of the recipe with maple syrup. So feel free to experiment with your toppings! I still think the yummy apple butter wins though.

Nom nom nom
Nom nom nom

This was a great, filling breakfast! I ate every bite off my plate. And with my apple butter included, it had just over 300 calories and 15 grams of protein. A great meal between my workouts today!

I hope you all have a great Saturday! I’m heading off to Jazzercise soon. Then I’ll be spending some time with Nick and Mac for the rest of the day. Yay for having no special plans!

Enjoy your weekend 🙂

 

Creamy Chicken & Rice Crock Pot Recipe

Food for Thought, Recipes

Returning home after work today and having my house smell like heaven was quite a little treat! I like cooking on my weekend evenings, but Friday nights are sometimes a struggle. I want home-cooked food, but I’ve been at work all day and have most likely forgotten to even defrost anything, let alone prepare something awesome for dinner. This is where my handy-dandy Crock Pot comes into play!

Nick bought me my first Crock Pot a little over a year ago, and I have used it about once a week ever since. I love it! ‘Set it and forget it’ cooking is my specialty 🙂

During my lunch hour at home today, I threw together our dinner in about 5 minutes. It may be hot outside still, but this dish is all about warmth and yummy comfort food. My fave!

Creamy Chicken & Rice Crock Pot Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 4-5 large chicken breasts (mine were still frozen)
  • 2 cans Cream of Chicken soup, low-sodium
  • 2 cups of water
  • 2 cups Baby Carrots
  • 3 celery stalks, cup into chunks (not diced)
  • 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
  • 2 ts Paprika
  • 1/2 TB minced garlic
  • 2 ts Garlic salt
  • Black pepper, to taste
  • A dash of dill weed
  • 1 cup instant Brown Rice

Turn your Crock Pot onto high. Place the chicken breasts into the bottom of the crock. In a separate bowl, mix up all the other ingredients, except for the rice, to create a chunky, creamy sauce. Pour this over the chicken in the crock. Cover and leave to cook on high 4-6 hours. The chicken will become more tender the longer you let it cook!

photo(30)When I got home from work today, I shredded up the tender chicken with 2 forks and stirred in the brown rice. Note: Use 1/2 cup more rice if you would like a thicker consistency. Recover the crock, leave it on high, and let it cook for about 1 more hour. Once the rice is nice and soft (and has soaked up a lot of the liquid), dinner is ready to be served!

YUMM!
YUMM!

This recipe came out to the consistency of a thick and hearty stew. Nick immediately said it reminded him of chicken pot pie. He was right! It is exactly like chicken pot pie without the crust. It was delicious and filling. We both had to have seconds tonight!

Since my lunch was completely carb filled (you’ll see below!), I opted to eat mine with extra veggies – green beans to be exact.

Green beans are hiding!
Green beans are hiding!

Nick would rather have his chest hair plucked than eat green beans, so he just ate his on it’s own. He completely loved it!

No beans here!
No beans here!

I think this will definitely be a go-to recipe for this Fall and Winter. It was a bowl full of comfort food at its best! And even better, we have enough leftovers for a few more bowlfuls. Yay for quick and easy leftover meals!

Since we both had several bowls of this hearty meal, we were in complete food-comas. So we leashed up Mac for a nice evening walk. Nick was totally game with the nicer weather we’ve been having. It’s so nice to go out for a little family walk! Plus it definitely helped my bulging food baby digest a bit. 🙂

Lunch

Backing up a bit…Lunch was rushed and all over the place since I was trying to decide what dinner would be tonight and walk Mac at the same time. I was STARVING when I walked in the door, so I won’t lie…I definitely overate at lunch today! I started with a Whole wheat Bagelthin topped in a mixture of cottage cheese and mango salsa. This mixture is completely savory and delicious!

photo(44)I lightly toasted the bagel first, making this extra yummy! I then moved on to graze around the kitchen as I was putting our dinner together in the crock pot. Other food included (but is not pictured!) some Wheat Thins and cheese – which I am now regretting! – some leftover pasta with marinara, and some more carbs (ahem…more whole wheat bread…) with strawberry jelly. I think I was just needing some carbs today after my morning workout! I only wanted bread and crackers, so I indulged. Oh well, a splurge once in a while is a good thing, right?? Let’s hope so 🙂

Luckily, I think I was in need of the nourishment. Usually this meal would’ve left me sick and feeling tooooo full. But I felt like I had barely eaten anything by the time I arrived back at work today. Just call me the real life Bottomless Pit!

So it’s been a food-filled Friday! Hope it’s been a good one for you all. Tomorrow will hopefully start out with a good run and then I’m teaching a 10 AM Jazzercise class. Have a great night!