Pasta Dinner

Food:
Dinner: Pasta with homemade tomato sauce and freshly grated parmesan cheese
Dessert: Fage 2% Green Yogurt with Ezekiel Original and agave nectar

Fitness:
My Netflix workout : 40 minutes boxing moves and core work

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Kale chips: a cure for potato chip addicts

Fitness:
-Ran 30 minutes in my neighborhood hills. Saw a gorgeous sunset and some cute deer.
-My Netflix workout (40 minutes boxing moves & abs)

Food:
Afternoon snack: 2 teensy-weensy pieces of dark chocolate…and…. 4 Medjool dates. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again. They taste like PASTRIES!
Pre-dinner: A large apple
Dinner: I made chicken tacos; I had two. Ezekiel tortillas topped with lemon-pepper chicken, spinach leaves, and sauteed onions. Fabuloso!
Dessert: Peppermint tea and a thick slice of banana bread

Weekend Recap:
Where did we leave off?….Here’s a nice little summary for you.

-Saturday:
Fitness: Day off
Afternoon snack: Lucas and I shared an oatmeal raisin cookie and large coffee with half & half at JP’s Java.
Dinner: Spaghetti with meat sauce
Dessert: Strawberry gelato sweetend with agave nectar—made in our juicer! That juicer can do anything. Ate my gelatto while watching “Amadeus.”  I forgot how long that movie was–but it’s so good! So is the song from the 80s. We were singing it all weekend thanks to the movie!

-Sunday:
Fitness: 10k at Town Lake
Brunch: Whole Foods: A breakfast taco (spelt tortilla with vegan chorizo, black beans, cheese) and later Lucas and I split a humongous Carmelita bar. Ooooohhhh my goodness. The best. Hands down. Ammmmazing. I love WF Carmelita bars.
Pre-dinner: Salad greens with Happy Rice.
Dinner: I made oven-roasted vegetables (potatoes, Japanese yam, onions, carrots) and Kale Chips.

Kale Chips!! Don’t be fooled by their healthy, green appearance. Kale chips = potato chips without the guilt.

Kale Chips!! Finally I know what all of those food bloggers have been fussing about.

Kale Chips are nothing short of a miracle. Basically, it’s kale (a leafy green) tossed in salt and olive oil, topped with some Parmesan cheese, and baked in the oven. After baking, they become potato chips. Basically. If you blindfolded me, I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the two. Honestly. Try it. Do yourself a favor. You will be amazed. Really!

Before the oven….

After….

Light, crispy, melt-in-your-mouth salty goodness. Unbelievably tasty.

This is a recipe I got from Kath’s blog:

• Preheat oven to about 375*
• Use about 1 OXO salad spinner’s worth of kale (which was a stuffed grocery store veggie bag). Tear the leaves off the thick stems into bite size pieces. Spread out on cookie sheets.
• Drizzle with about 2 tsp of olive oil
• Sprinkle with Parmesan, Asiago or your seasonings of choice. Plus a sprinkle of kosher salt.
• Bake for about 15 minutes, until edges are brown and kale is crispy when moved in pan.

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Get yer carbs on

Today was over in the blink of an eye. I knocked out one creative writing assignment, but that was the only thing I managed to do in the three hours after lunch! Still a good day though….I got in a nice run at Town Lake, and we had a fun dinner with my parents and Liz and Jill.

Fitness:
A slow-as-molasses 10k at Town Lake…..The crowds were out today! Must be a lot of those folks in town for the marathon.

Food:
Snacks: Dried currants and an apple
Dinner: Salad greens with honey dijon dressing and a large portion of spaghetti with meat sauce and parmesan, homemade bread, and white wine. We had to carb up Mom and Jill for the big race tomorrow!

As per usual, credit goes to Lucas for this amazing feast.

Early morning tomorrow! Heading out at 6:00 am to support my Marathoners!

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Yea for Saturday

I’ve been a really bad with the blog this week! But the weekend is here, time to refresh and regroup and get things done. Including the blog!

I saw a terrible “comedy” last night: “How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.” Have you seen it? It was so bad that I was uncomfortable watching it! I even felt embarassed for the big name actors that were in in it. It starred Simon Pegg (love him! Shawn of the Dead! Hot Fuzz! Run Fatboy Run!) so naturally I thought it was going to be a fun film. I was soooo wrong. Don’t see it! It’s a waste of time!

Anyways—we went to see another duplex this morning. What happened with the other one? Who knows! The landlord is MIA. She hasn’t returned my call or my email. We’re not giving up on her yet, but we are starting to look around at other places…We liked the place we saw today (and the owners seemed like very nice, genuine people)—- it’s good to know there is other stuff out there that meets our criteria.

Tonight is the birthday bash at my friend Alex’s. I’m bringing the desserts, so I have lots of baking to do this afternoon. And a run. Can I do both in 4 hours? I hope so! I didn’t work out Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday. Yikes! Oh, and for the record, I ate another ENTIRE bar of chocolate last night. Wah.

New day. Got to move on.

Food:
Breakfast: Small hot mocha from Starbucks.
Lunch: Glass of fresh orange & grapefruit juice.

No, I’m not on a liquid diet! Just a weird day. My weekends are pretty weird in general when it comes to meals. That’s just the way it turns out–it’s hard to have a set dining schedule.

Yesterday’s recap:
Afternoon snack: Pear and a bowl of cereal w/ whole milk and raisins
Dinner: Whole wheat linguini with tomato cream sauce and parmesan cheese
Dessert: Ready for this? A whole dark chocolate bar, raisins, and another bowl of cereal. 😦

Lucas made this wonderful meal, and like always, he makes sure the food is arranged just perfectly. He’s so sweet—I had started out taking pictures of another plate, and he said “Wait! Use this one! It has more food and looks better!” What a supportive husband–not only does he put up with my crazy food blogging, he takes part in it!

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Simple, easy, delicious

I’ve been really good about not watching TV lately (especially now that The Office is on hiatus!), but I’ve been hearing that  American Modern Family on ABC is hilarious, so I finally sat down to watch it tonight. It was cute, and there was moments when I laughed out loud, but I don’t think I would plan to watch it again. Probably better that way!

Food:
Pre-dinner: A banana and a couple of dried Cali figs
Dinner: A generous portion of whole wheat linguini with broccoli pesto and a glass of Malbec.

This is easy to make, and you will feel like a total chef! The below recipe is my own, but it was influenced by this recipe from Food Network.

Ingredients:
1 bunch broccoli, coarsley chopped
1/2 cup of sunflower seeds (or seed/nut of your choice)
1/2 cup of grate parmiagiano-reggiano cheese
1 package of whole wheat linguini (or pasta of your choice)
olive oil
salt

Directions:
1) Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Set up a large bowl of salted ice water. Cook the broccoli in the boiling water for 2 minutes, drain in a strainer, then place broccoli into the ice water. This will keep the broccoli crips and turn it a gorgeous, bright green.
2) Drain the broccoli. Place it in a food processor and puree until it is a coarse paste. Add the seeds and parmigiano and puree until smooth. Taste and adjust the seasoning; salt if desired.
3) Bring a large pot of salted water to boil, then add pasta. Cook as directed on package.
4) While the pasta is cooking, heat 3/4 cup of water in a large skillet, on medium-high. After 1 minute, add the broccoli pesto. Stir to combine; continue to heat for several minutes. (If desired, at a couple of table spoons of olive oil and stir well.
5) Drain pasta after it is cooked.
6) In the same pot, add the pesto onto pasta, mix well. Ready to serve! (Makes 4 large portions)

Fitness:
Ran 4.5 miles home from work. Perfect weather for running–not too hot, not too cold!…..Still, I miss the cold. Come back!

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