Catching Up

I am here!  I just got caught up in all the things.  I have to figure out how to work in my blog time too. I have loved being back and I don't want to lose it again.

In case anyone is still wondering about the question I last left you with....what I was my plan for this bowl of yum - chicken, pea shoots, carrots, cucumber and Thai basil?

A few pieces of each were lined up on a rice paper wrapper.

 Summer rolls!!

 The perfect summer lunch.

Apparently early August was The Wrap Era. I seemed to be wrapping everything. This one is leftover turkey burger and veggies, with a bit of hummus to hold it together.

Grilled chicken, tomatoes, onions and spinach. In addition to holding everything together, the hummus "glue"makes all the difference in flavor.

Grilled chicken and leftover peach salsa. It was tasty, but got a bit soggy by lunch time.

I made a batch of one of our all time favorites - Salsa Verde Chicken tostadas. Red cabbage with cilantro and lime juice to top it off.  I used the salsa verde I wrote about in my last post - it was perfect! It isn't a character glass, but I couldn't resist these vintage daffodils,

We had a grilled pizza party this weekend.  I love this white pizza topped with greens and crispy pancetta.

We cut up a buffet of toppings and everyone built their own pizza. We cooked the pizzas on the grill. Grilling gets a little crazy, but so worth it. Afterwards, I collected all the leftover cut up veggies into one container. The next morning I used them in a super simple veggie egg scramble. 

I had a little bit of dough leftover. This morning I made breakfast pizza with spinach, tomato, mozzarella and sausage.  An egg is carefully placed in the center before baking.

Bake for at 450 for 10-12 minutes until egg is set. I wasn't sure how cooked the yolk would be - it was a perfect like my favorite over-easy eggs. Then spreading the yolk around the top was so decadent.

I was definitely a fan and will probably play around with this concept in the future.  I would like some fresh herbs next time. Unfortunately, my husband was not into it. I knew I was taking a chance with fresh tomatoes and spinach, but I was hoping the egg and sausage would win him over.

Food has been a bit unbalanced with a few too many treats again. However, I am not throwing out whole days because of them, so that is progress.

Loving the farmers' market this time of year...as long as we get there early before it gets too hot.

I am still enamored with these tiny eggplants - the color :)

Speaking of color, there are so many varieties of  tiny tomatoes in the market. Thankfully, the squirrels are finally allowing me to have some of the Sun Gold tomatoes from my garden, so I didn't buy any of these.

 Who knew there were so many kinds of garlic??  I bought three varieties to sample.

 I snapped a quick picture of the description to help me remember why I chose what I chose.

 My three.  I have to be honest. I should have written down which three I chose. I am already not sure :(

In addition to the produce, there are some beautiful handmade items. The colors of this yarn makes me wish I were a knitter.

 I am not sure why I didn't buy this shark. It feels like something I need, but where would I put it??

My haul from the week before last - tomatoes, English muffin bread, eggplant, peaches, chard, beet, zucchini.  I am ashamed to admit I wasted another beet. I love beets, but apparently I am too intimidated to actually cook them. In the green box are ground cherries. Inside each papery husk is a sweet/tart little fruit.

I didn't get a close up of the ground cherries, but I found this picture and description on Sage Garden Greenhouse's website.  "Sweet, tropical-tasting gold berries wrapped in paper husks add magic to your garden.Bushy plants grow 2.5 - 3’ tall. When ripe, the husk around the fruit becomes papery dry and the fruit falls off the plant to pick picked up from the ground. Some people place a tarp underneath the plants to make harvesting easier, but either way the husks keep the fruit clean. Native to Central and South America. Use as you would a common tomato. Can be eaten raw, used in salsas, salads, as a flavouring, and in jams and jellies. Fruits are excellent in desserts. Fruits dry well." 

This Green Zebra tomato was perfectly ripe and delicious in a wrap pictured above (with Grumpy Bear glass and a side of cherries).

In an out of my comfort zone move, I tried my first clothes swap last weekend. Everyone brings clothing they no longer want.  Then for a $5 donation you can take as many "new to you" clothes as you wish. My niece invited me last minute and I didn't have anything to take, but they accepted can goods if you didn't have clothing to share. I was concerned I wouldn't find anything in my size, but I did pick out a couple of things (I will post pictures when I wear them). I also got a couple things for my sidekick - shoes and a cute hat for winter. My niece got a couple bags of goodies. The poor workers were hanging items as fast as they could as more people came in. I didn't think I was going to get my niece out of there - she was constantly rechecking racks for new items. They had a good turnout and I saw plenty of happy "customers".

Last week we had the opportunity to go to a practice round of the PGA Championship golf tournament held this weekend in St. Louis. Unfortunately, a thunderstorm ruined our plans. We ended up exploring a neighborhood I've always wanted to check out. It is called The Hill. It is known for its Italian cuisine - restaurants, delis, bakeries and grocery stores. Baseball greats like Yogi Berra and Joe Garagiola grew up there. We picked up a few things to take home.

First stop the Missouri Baking Company. I could not resist the Concord Grape Coffee Cake - word is the grapes were grown by a gentleman right there in the neighborhood. It was tasty but the seeds in the grapes were a bit tedious and the cake part got a bit too soggy from the juice. I wonder if I can get back there before peach season is over...

Gioia's Deli is know for its hot salami. (hot as in temperature - not spice). The guy in the white hat did a great job introducing us to the menu.

 My husband chose the Italian Trio and I got the Hogfather. You have the option to top your sandwich any way you want, but sometimes you just have to go with the menu The Italian Trio was Mortadella, Genova & Hot Salami. Served on Garlic Cheese Bread and Garnished with Pepperoncinis, Onions and Vinegar & Oil. "Cathy's Favorite." It sounded too simple and we were tempted to add on. It was perfect just they way they made it. I  got a kick out of the little pig nose on my Hogfather sandwich.

I have a thing for fire hydrants and love the different paint jobs in various communities. These red, white and green ones were everywhere.

I was intrigued by these long narrow houses and would have loved to go on a door to door tour. I couldn't help imagine growing up in this neighborhood in the 50's. Nonnas cooking huge Sunday dinners and kids spilling of the porches. Apparently the houses are rarely offered on the open market and the neighborhood is still over 75% Italian-American.

I would have liked to have walked around a bit more, but we were dodging rain as it was. Not to mention, is it creepy to just stroll around random neighborhoods?  Next time we will need to try one of the many restaurants. I will let you know if I talk my husband into a return. I just checked and their are walking tour plans online, so it must be okay :)

There are a few more things I want to include from the last week or two, but if I don't get something posted it will be another week or two.  Life marches on :)

Marketing, Cooking, Eating

SPOILER ALERT:  I didn't get in any exercise this weekend and I went over on calories on Sunday.
However, those two facts do not negate a good weekend.

Saturday morning I got the weekend off to a fun start with a trip to the farmers' market...well actually two markets in two separate towns.  I like different things about each market. Here is my bounty....

I wanted to get more of of the Northeast Pole Beans I bought last week at the first market - got their last bag! I like the way the flatness looks.

Bought two of these pretties - only $1 each!

I went to the second market mostly to meet up with my mom, niece and her grandniece (I know, I don't think I am old enough for that either).

I bought a few more tomatoes. I felt so badly for one of the vendors. She had the last of her tomatoes because a hail storm wiped her out..."total loss" she said. She did have other items for sale, but I think her tomatoes were the majority of her business.

My niece had asked me the other day for zucchini ideas.  I had completely forgotten about my zucchini pies of previous summers. I decided to make this Sweet Corn and Zucchini Pie. I've made it before and remembered liking it.

I am a bit obsessed with corn on the cob. I love to grill it and eat it with nothing on it - seriously no butter/salt needed. I also cut it off the cob to use in all sorts of dishes. For this recipe I am starting with raw corn. My favorite part is how some of the kernels stick together. I can never resist nibbling.

 All the veggies are sauteed until tender before mixing in the cheese and eggs.

Ready for the oven! The recipe said to line the pan with parchment paper. I did in hopes it will be easier to get out and hold together better for pretty portions. Let's see how it worked.

I did make two tiny revisions to the recipe. I reduced the butter by 2 tablespoons and the cheese by 4 ounces. Divided into 6 servings, my modifications will save about 100 calories per serving (322 per serving). I don't think it is quite a meal on its own, so a few less calories will give me a little wiggle room for "sides".

I ate a piece for lunch, took a sample piece to my niece and have four servings ready for meals this week.  Saturday's lunch was delicious with a side of cherries and cherry tomatoes.

I' made one of the Cooking Light recipes I mentioned the other day - Grilled Romaine with Feta and Nuoc Cham  Nuoc Cham is a Vietnamese sauce (super simple to make). Yes, that is me grilling lettuce! It isn't on the grill long but enough to wilt a bit and get some grill flavor.

While I grilled Millie stationed herself between the garden and the shed. She has dreams of catching a rabbit or squirrel one day. She chases them out of the garden and they run under the shed or up the tree by the shed.

I finished off my salmon with a bit of peach salsa.  The romaine was very tasty. The Nuoc Chom sauce has great flavor (salty/sweet/tangy) and the feta is a nice complement or the crunchy lettuce texture. (Look closely and you can see the pretty grill marks.) The lettuce retained much of its crunch. I ate two servings!  I think I will save this sauce recipe for my upcoming summer roll plans.

Maybe I am the absolute last to know this, but just in case...MyFitnessPal will do all the work for you when entering a new recipe!! All you have to do is copy the URL and voila!!  I thought I was just going to have to quick add some calories for things not in the database because I was too lazy to enter ALL the ingredients. You have a chance to edit the ingredients before logging it. When I made my zucchini pie I edited it to reflect less butter and cheese. For the recipe title I did mark it less butter and cheese so future users would know it had been modified.

Sunday morning my husband had a group of friends over to play nerd games. It was a brunch potluck. I have never made chicken and waffles and decided Sunday was the day. I used this recipe.
It was pretty straightforward and called for boneless skinless chicken thighs. Not only did it reduce extra calories by being skinless, it reduced my anxiety about properly frying the chicken by being boneless. Win/Win.  They turned out very well. I ate two waffles and two small pieces of chicken. Because I made a batch and a half and didn't really keep track of how many waffles it made and didn't weigh portions of chicken. The recipe came out to about 450 per serving (my educated guess with MFP). I had two delicious servings just like below. The syrup was a supposed to be a mix of maple syrup and hot sauce. However, my maple syrup had gone bad (I didn't know it did that), so I had to scramble and make my homemade syrup, to which I added the hot sauce. It sounds strange, but the hot sauce really makes the dish. I could have eaten several more servings. The boys all tried it as chicken and waffles and then ended up eating up all the chicken plain - I even had to fry them more. They played and I cooked another win/win :)

I did track my brunch, but that was it for the day. I had planned on a nice salad or something for late lunch, but we ended up going to our Mexican place. I didn't even begin to guess the calories, but I had about half of my steak fajita nachos (subbed chips for tortillas), so it was not a calorie disaster by any means. It does bother me not to be able to be exact, but I am not letting that trip me up from the big picture.

I ended up not being hungry at dinner time, so I just skipped it. I confess I was a bit hungry before bed, but decided to just sleep it off. So overall, I am not at all unhappy with the day. I am working very hard to keep balanced this time around. It has to be something I can do forever. And now that I know about these chicken and waffles I have to be able to work them into my lifestyle.


Good weekend behind me and back to 100%  tracking today :)

I spy corn and zucchini pie...can't wait until lunch. I also have some Rosemary Sea Salt hummus I am looking forward to. I promise I will eat it with the carrots...not my fingers.

And so starts a new week. I might be faking it until I make it, but I am ready for you, Monday!

Weekend Wrap Up

Friday -


Double Light strength training.  I was happy to get it done in the morning on Friday. Please take a moment to appreciate this workout because the rest of the weekend was all about relaxation. 

There were push ups. I know these push up pics are super blurry, but hopefully you can see well enough to prove that I am actually doing pushups. Granted they are still knee modified, but I will take it. Next time they are on the schedule I am going to try a traditional push-up :)  

I was proud of my lunch Friday. I really didn't have a good plan of what to take to work for lunch. When in doubt...make a taco :)  Not having a bunch of junk in the house meant even my unplanned pulled together lunch turned out to be something healthy - corn tortilla filled with leftover grilled chicken and grilled corn, spinach, avocado and a bit of feta - super good! 

Gratuitous shot of my husband doing the dishes. #morethanatrainer

Saturday

The day started with a trip to the Farmers' Market. I wore one of my new dresses with my bare arms for all to see. This is has been front and center on my mind since Mary (one of the awesome ladies in our fitness group) had some frank words for us.  Our group had decided on a weight loss challenge for the summer - part of it was posting our starting weights and posting a "before" picture. She reminded us of our strengths and how are weight does not diminish those strength.  She urged us to be proud of ourselves and not focus on numbers/pictures. Seriously though ladies. Being healthy is supposed to feel good. It's not supposed to hurt, not emotionally anyways.  Allow yourselves to feel good. Don't stress about how you look now and where you are. You're all really strong women I admire with a very diverse set of talents. You all accomplish so much day to day just being YOU, so yeah, I have 100% faith in all of us reaching our goals! No more negative self talk!  So here I am, world. I felt good enjoying the market and not caring one bit about "less than perfect arms," who by by no accident are stronger than they were three weeks ago.  They do push-ups.   I admit posting my weight and pics did make me uncomfortable, but guess what, I haven't thought about it much since because these things do not define me.

These reminder from a vendor made me chuckle.

I splurged on a container of black raspberries. My mom used to have tons of black raspberry bushes and picking them could be painful, so I understand why they are expensive. I am not a blackberry fan and red raspberries aren't bad...but black raspberries are like the perfect summer in a little tiny package.

An afternoon of lounging and watching House of Cards with my snuggle puppy.

 Saturday evening we met some friends to see Wonder Woman.

Sunday

I started the day out with a solid breakfast (see, I don't always eat that wacky sweet potato hash!).

And I made a healthy lunch - tikka masala chicken with a ton of veggies. The best part is I have three more servings for lunches (or lazy dinners) this week. Showing off my new Pioneer Woman flat edge spatula - makes scraping all the goodness of the bottom of the man so much easier and it has a butterfly on it :) 

So, the reason I was extra vigilant about my meals on Sunday was because it was my mother-in-laws birthday and she requested I make this decadent cake - Raspberry Pink Velvet Cake with Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting.  Can I get credit for all the fresh fruit in every component?? The cake batter was probably the best I've ever stuck my finger in :) 

There were several steps to making this cake, but it was quite simple. 

 Meanwhile....

Ready for the birthday girl. I bought the roses - they are made of cornstarch so technically edible, but why would you?  The greenery is some Mexican Tarragon I found at Walmart. It has good flavor and I am looking forward to using it more this summer.

I was surprised (and relieved) how much the berries between layers "melted" down. I was a bit concerned it wouldn't stay together when served.  The cake was a huge success and nobody complained about the generous pieces my husband cut.

I wasn't even hungry come dinner time, so I didn't force myself to eat. Later in the evening when I actually felt hungry I had an egg sandwich with a slice of Swiss cheese (250 calories).  So even with the huge cake indulgence I felt good about the day's eating. Finding the balance is going to be a key to my success.  I am consciously working on treating each meal/snack as a separate entity - no more giving up on the whole day/weekend/week/month because of a splurge.

It was a nice weekend, but here it is Monday morning and time to put my relaxation and treats aside.  A quick bowl of oatmeal and black raspberries with a hard boiled egg was a perfect segue to a healthy week. I usually like blueberries on my oatmeal and was a little hesitant to try the raspberries (they don't seem like oatmeal fruit to me), but it was SO good. I hope they have black raspberries at the market next week.

Millie did not get the Monday memo. I don't think we can get out of bed fast enough if the morning to suit her bed hog self.

 Week 4 of Double Light starts today. I see things ramping up....

Looking forward to a good week. What is on your agenda?