It was humid and rainy here, so I thought the weather called for cozy food.

First up – OATMEAL! Plus nice, hot coffee, of course.

Pre-cooking:

• 1/3 cup coconut milk
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/3 cup rolled oats
• 1 tsp chia seeds

Cook stove top till thickened.

Post-cooking:

• handful of blueberries, stirred in at end
• flaxseed on top
• sliced almonds on top
• cacao nibs on top (so glad to have these back in the rotation!)

Remember you can get cacao nibs (or anything else in my OpenSky shop) either 20% off or with free shipping with these codes (july20pct or julyfreeship) in my OpenSky shop. Click here for details.

Lunch was sort of random.

Chips and salsa

Giant salad:

• baby spinach/lettuce mix
• organic celery
• organic red bell pepper
• organic baby carrots
• farmers market cucumber
• sunflower seeds
• TJ’s balsamic

I got stuck in meetings and didn’t get to the rest of my lunch till 4pm. Luckily (or not so luckily), I had a 5-6pm meeting. So, I used my snack tide me over till dinner.

My snack was related to a recent package I got – Barney Butter!!!! Yes! Barney Butter sent me some individual packages of almond butter for me to enjoy! Woohoo!

Yep…Barney Butter + Whole Grain Goodness = fabulous-o snack!

I toasted the bread and spread the BB on top. Love the way the heat makes it nice and gooey.

And for a little something sweet – organic cherries!

***

No workouts for me today. I worked out Sunday, twice on Monday and taught zumba on Tuesday. I think it’s time for a rest day.

Like I mentioned before, I’m still working on cooking more recipes from my cook books, starting with the 3 Ina Garten cookbooks my mom got me recently.

Since declaring my desire to try some of Ina’s recipes, I’ve already made one recipe – Ina’s Strawberry Country Cake – a real winner!

One of the recipes I selected was Ina Garten’s chicken noodle soup.

I used parsley from my garden in my soup.

And to save time, I roasted extra chicken breasts when I made dinner last night and used the leftover chicken to make tonight’s soup!

I adapted Ina’s recipe because I like sauteing my veggies and I wanted to add onion.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Adapted from Ina Garten’s recipe from her book Barefoot Contessa Family Style

Ingredients:

• 1 whole (2 split) chicken breast, bone in, skin on
• Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• dash garlic powder
• dash dried rosemary
• 2 quarts Chicken Stock
• 1 tbsp EVOO
• 1/2 large onion chopped
• 1 cup medium-diced celery (2 stalks)
• 1 cup medium-diced carrots (7-9 baby carrots)
• 2 cups wide egg noodles
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place chicken breasts on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Drizzle chicken with EVOO and rub into skin. Top chicken lightly with dashes of salt, pepper, garlic powder and rosemary. Roast 35-40 minutes (you may need to cook longer if the chicken breasts are really big). Set aside to cool. Note: You can also cook the chicken the night before like I did this week – cook extra for dinner one night and more for the soup – use the leftover meat for the soup.
2. When the chicken is cool enough to touch, remove meat from bones and skin and pull into smaller pieces. Set aside.
3. Heat a medium pot over medium heat. Add onion, celery and carrots and cook till onions translucent – about 3-5 minutes.
4. Add chicken stock and bring to a boil.
5. Add egg noodles and reduce to simmer. Simmer for 9-10 minutes or until pasta cooked al dente.
6. Add chicken and parsley and cook to warm through.
7. Serve with crusty bread.

Very easy and tasty!

Hubby and I enjoyed our soup with Great Harvest Whole Grain Goodness toast and a dab of real butter (his had a lil extra butter).

Hubby got his hair did today.

And dessert – hubby picked up 3 mini cinnamon rolls from GH when he was getting bread. They aren’t nearly as good as one large cinnamon roll, which is what he was going to get me until the 2 ladies in front of him ordered the very last 2! Bah! I’m not mad – 3 cinnamon rolls in mini size are way better than none. And they’re pretty darn tasty on their own, too – just not as tender.

***

Remember I scored you guys some deals on my OpenSky shop (20% off Galaxy Granola anyone? What about cacao nibs?) – click for details

And check out my latest recipe – marinated kale! Nommm

Do you like to eat anything in particular when it rains? I always seem to think comfort food – oatmeal, soup, casseroles, cobblers…you?

I’ve owed you guys this recipe for ages now, but thanks to a reminder from reader Karen, I’m actually posting it!

Here it is – my recipe for Marinated Kale! It’s so easy (no cooking!), tasty and healthful – give it a go!

What does it taste like? Well, kale to me, in general, is sort of like spinach except with a much heartier texture. Spinach is tender and bruises easily while kale holds up nicely (which is why a lot of recipes ask you to “massage” the kale – it tenderizes without bruising). Once marinated, the kale will soften up a bit, but it will still have a bite to it, texture-wise. The flavor mostly comes from the sauce ingredients, which end up being salty yet sweet with the lovely flavor of sesame oil ever prevalent and bits of fresh garlic and ginger popping up here and there.

Anywho, I LOVE to make a big batch of this to start a week. It’s an easy side veggie to take to work – just pack some into a tupperware – no re-heating necessary. You just need a fork! Makes a great vegetable serving.

On to the recipe…

First up – some visuals:

Be sure to triple wash your kale – it’s usually pretty gritty when you get it home from the store. I usually tear my kale into smaller pieces with my hands while I’m doing the washing part, but you can also chop it with a knife.

Other key ingredients: Tamari, Sesame Oil.

Whisk up sauce.

Add sauce to kale and massage – preferably with your hands. Why? Well, it seems like you can get away with using less sauce if you just rub it in a little. I believe most people massage their kale to tenderize it, but I just like to ensure my kale is well-coated without being in a puddle of sauce.

Add sesame seeds. Done-zo!

***

Marinated Kale Recipe

Raw, Vegetarian, Vegan and Gluten-Free

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch kale (curly leaves, not dinosaur), triple-washed, cut or ripped into small 1-2 inch pieces (1 inch pieces will be easier to eat later)
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 1/2 tbsp tamari (use wheat-free if you’re going GF)
• 1 tsp minced garlic (you can omit this but it’s so much more flavorful with it!)
• 1 tsp minced ginger (same note as for garlic)
• 1-3 tbsp sesame seeds depending on how much you like them.

Directions:

1. Place prepped kale into a large bowl.
2. In a separate small to medium bowl, whisk together sesame oil and tamari till emulsified/combined nicely. Whisk in garlic and ginger.
3. Pour sauce over kale and massage sauce into the kale (this will help ensure all pieces of kale are covered.
4. Add sesame seeds to the kale (if you’re not sure if you’d rather go 1 or 3 tbsp, I suggest adding 1 and mixing up and checking coverage. You can always add more sesame seeds but you can’t take them back out…not easily at least).
5. Store in an air-tight container. NOTE: You may wish to make your kale the night before you want to eat it so it has time for the flavors to combine.
6. Enjoy!

It’s heeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrreeeeeeee!!!!!!!

Green Monster Muffins batch #1 came out dry, but this time I think I’ve got it!

As a reminder, I loved the idea of using a vegetable in sweet muffins/breads when I made zucchini bread recently. What other veggie is often used in sweet recipes? Spinach – the main ingredient in the very popular Green Monster smoothies! Inspired by the Cooking Light zucchini bread, I worked hard to develop a recipe that would work with spinach.

Here are a couple things to note with the recipe.

#1 – when you measure the cup of packed spinach, make sure you pack the spinach is real good. I mean press down on it really hard in your measuring cup. You want it to be about 1 cup after you process it, not before.

In fact, my spinach was bursting out of the top just a bit.

#2 – when you process your spinach it will start out looking like quite a bit of spinach.

See – after you process it, it reduces in size quite a bit. And pretty much you process it till the food processor stops chopping the spinach. At some point, the blade really doesn’t chop the spinach any more size the volume is so reduced.

And in case you’re curious, here’s about what the texture of the spinach looks like when it’s done processing.

#3 – Don’t skip the lemon zest (unless you just don’t like the flavor of lemon)! I feel like I often skip zest on recipes because I don’t think you’ll be able to taste it, but you totally do and the zest adds great flavor!

In my recipe, I suggest stirring walnuts into the batter, but since I had someone with a walnut allergy taste-testing later I only added some to the top of half my muffins.

Pre-baking

Post-baking

Last time, the muffin was dry, but this time it was quite most! I may tinker with adding a wee bit more flour to see what happens, but I’m happy enough with it to share the recipe this time.

PS Next up I’m going to work on vegan and gluten-free versions so everyone can try them!

Green Monster Muffins

Most spinach muffins are savory but these are sweet!

Makes 12 muffins

Dry Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup oat flour (note: you could probably sub flours of do 1 1/2 cups total of a single flour, instead of 2, if you’d like)
• 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda

Wet Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 single serving applesauce (or 1/2 cup)
• 1 cup PACKED, triple washed baby spinach, chopped by food processor into small bits (see photos above)
• 3 tbsp canola oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 – 1 tsp lemon zest (depending on how lemon-y you want it)

Optional ingredient: 1/4 cup chopped walnuts, plus extra for topping

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F and prepare a 12 cup muffin tin with non-stick spray.
2. Add dry ingredients into a medium bowl and whisk together.
3. Whisk to beat egg and sugar together till light (I did this by hand for just a couple minutes).
4. Whisk in the rest of the wet ingredients.
5. Pour dry ingredient mixture into the wet ingredient mixture, add 1/4 cup walnuts if desired, and stir gently just to combine – do not over-mix.
6. Pour muffin batter into muffin tin cups – about 3/4 full each. If using walnuts, sprinkle walnuts on top of each muffin.
7. Bake for 14-17 minutes until centers set or a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
8. Cool at least 10-15 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

Sneaky way to get the kids to eat their greens, no?

I actually think these muffins look really pretty because of the vibrant green color

Plus, these would be super festive for either Halloween or St. Patrick’s Day!!

Happy Friday!

My day is always brightened with my cozy coffee. Soooo warming and awakening.

Hubby picked up bagels for our Bagel Day Friday. I haven’t been celebrating my bagel day as much as my Starbucks day – mostly because I’m trying to eat as much whole grain as possible and the local bagel shops don’t exactly make whole grain bagels. Why have a bleached-white bagel when I can have lovely whole grain toast?

But sometimes you just want a bagel, ya know? We had ours with sloppy scrambled eggs. And my bagel of choice today was rosemary olive oil.

I finally re-stocked on yerba mate tea at Trader Joe’s. Thank goodnes…I’ve been missing this stuff.

***

I finally harvested some of the swiss chard that’s been growing in my garden for awhile now. I can’t believe how tall it’s gotten!

Look at those bright stalks!

I took off a few bright and beautiful stalks.

Plus a couple of my tri-colored beans – purple, yellow, green! (uhh – think I need to plant a couple more green bean plants though) lol

I whipped up a quick mac and cheese lunch using the Boursin cheese leftover from that fancy-schmancy dinner I made the other night.

Boursin Mac and Cheese Non-Recipe

I was a little unsure how this would turn out as it was completely experimental. I boiled water for the pasta (about or under half a box of penne), then cooked the pasta (with salt) in the pot for 9 minutes, then added the swiss chard (cleaned and chopped) for the last 3, then green beans for the last 2.

For the sauce, I melted butter in a pan (about 1 tbsp), then added about 2 tbsp of flour and cooked for a minute. Then I whisked in about 1/2 – 3/4 cup of milk. Once that was combined, I added the rest of the Boursin (about half a container), which I whisked to combine. I was a little terrified the sauce was going to be a complete bust, but it turned out ok. phew!

I added the cooked pasta and veggies to the sauce mixed. Done and done.

You could probably sub out different veggies…or even forego the veggies totally (though I would at least have some on the side to complete your meal).

Anywho, it turned out really great! I loved the garlic-y mac and cheese with the tender chard. Yum!

Plus lightly-buttered nine grain toast.

Bailey says “hey!” guys!

Anywho, remember how I was all worried about my cheese sauce. Guess what came on TV later? Barefoot Contessa! And she made a cheese sauce for croque monsieur using nearly the same steps I did! With a different cheese though. Hey, maybe I’m not so bad at this making-up-recipes thing.

Snack = 1/2 coffee cake scuffin

***

I had a really stressful day at work today. Add that to some additional stress and drama going on in my personal life and I wasn’t really feeling a work out today. I went back and forth between whether or not to go to class. I felt really zapped of energy. Yet, at the same time, I knew that I would feel better after a workout.

Well, I decided to go!

As I was driving to class, Just Dance by Lady Gaga came on.

The chorus struck a chord with me. She said: “Just dance. Gonna be ok.” And I thought, you know what…zumba class tonight (dancing) is just what I need. I knew I made the right decision going for my workout. See, in zumba, I can let go and forget all my worries and for one lovely hour, I can do as Lady Gaga says – just dance. Without fail, I can go into zumba with the crummiest attitude or feeling totally down and by the end of class I feel …happy.

So…I went to class. I danced. And I know it’s all gonna be ok.

Very glad I went to class!

Post-class, I had just-under-one-scoop of Vega Whole Health Optimizer in vanilla chai mixed with water. My current fave post-workout protein.

***

I had to rush home to shower and change to make it to a show.

I had my other half of the coffee cake scuffin on my way.

Can you guess the show from this photo?

It’s Annie! I went to see the show with friends to support my friend’s daughter who was in the show.

Gosh just hearing the first few notes of the opening song made me feel so sentimental. I used to watch this movie all the time when I was a kiddo!

The sun’ll come up…toooomorroooooowwwwww!

I got Dove’s autograph for when she’s famous.

Me and Dove – future movie star!

After the show we all headed out to grab a quick dinner. I was disappointed Panera closed at 9pm because I was feeling one of their yummy soups, but Dean and Deluca came through.

I had a random assortment of food for my “dinner” – tomato basil soup and pita chips with hummus. I only finished about half of everything.

Cheers!

What do you do to cheer yourself up after you’ve had a bad day or if you’re in a bad mood?

Do you work out after work? Does it make you eat late? How do you cope?

While I love my zumba workouts, recently, I’ve found myself eating dinner later and later.

I normally don’t like eating after 9pm-ish (so my body has time to digest my eats), but take for example this beautiful peach breakfast crisp (which I had last night after blogging…egads!). This by itself wouldn’t be so bad (remember, this is a healthified version – click for recipe), but eaten so late, I don’t think it’s healthy at all – fruit serving or not!

Anywho, I think I need to make a better effort to eat earlier…find recipes that I can prepare faster…maybe even prep ahead of time (crock pot anyone?)…and possibly change my eating habits. Post-work-exercisers: how do you cope with your later schedule and eating?

***

This morning I tried something new for breakfast – breakfast quinoa flakes!

I whipped a pot (took no time!)

And added milk and sliced bananas. I usually don’t add extra sweetener to banana-oats, but I find quinoa tends to require a little added in.

Turns out – this stuff is quite nice! Much easier to prep than my breakfast quinoa bowl, but that was also a nice use for leftover quinoa. Anywho, I’m happy to be able to add this to the breakfast rotation…plus, I’m hoping to use the flakes some time soon to make some yummy muffins or cookies!

I celebrated Starbucks Monday today since I didn’t go into the office on Monday. Grande vanilla soy latte = fabulousity!

I had two salads for lunch: a green salad with garden-fresh tomatoes, sunflower seeds and balsamic vinaigrette plus leftover Summer Millet Salad.

Post work I got my hair did!

Aren’t salon trips the best? I used to have more fun with them when I did funky things with my hair – new hair cuts and styles and new highlight colors – all that jazz. These days I usually just go in for a trim.

My friends came over for their thank you dinner tonight. With work and a post-work hair cut, I wasn’t sure about entertaining mid-week, but it turned out great! Messy…but good!

Plus, I owed my friends this thank you dinner for their help clearing out my basement before the house warming party.

I even attempted a homemade, from-scratch dessert!

For the main event, I made something up…

Pan Seared Chicken with a Boursin Cream Sauce

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken breasts, sliced halfway lengthwise so you have 4 flat/thin pieces
• 1 cup white wine (I used pinot grigio)
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 a package of Boursin Garlic & Herb cheese
• 2 tbsp canola oil
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Heat a pan over medium heat. Add canola oil (add 1 for first batch and save 1 for second batch, if cooking in batches). Add chicken. Cook to brown on both sides – about 4-5 minutes per side. If cooking in batches, pre-heat oven to 200 degrees F and place cooked chicken on baking sheet in oven to stay warm while cooking second batch. NOTE: If not cooking in batches, you can just move the cooked chicken to a plate and tent with aluminum foil.
2. After cooking all chicken, add wine to pan and stir to de-glaze pan. Be sure to scrape up brown bits. Cook till wine reduced roughly in half, about 2-4 minutes.
3. Add heavy cream and bring to a boil. Turn off heat. Add boursin and whisk till creamy in consistency.
4. Serve chicken over rice pilaf and spoon sauce over chicken/rice. Complete meal with steamed veggies.

Enjoy!

Lucky me, my experiment tasted deeelicious!

I served the chicken with steamed veggies (green beans from my mom’s garden and organic broccoli with a butter drizzle) plus a rice medley (found at Trader Joe’s) with garden-veggie flavors – the perfect accompaniment!

Megan and Erica were happy with dinner…yay!

As for me, I enjoyed dinner on my new placemat!

We enjoyed dinner whilst catching up on So You Think You Can Dance. I can’t believe Alex is hurt!!! I hope he is feeling better soon.

(Just in case you’re wondering who Alex is…check out his video by searching on youtube for “Alex and Outta” – it’s the Outta Your Mind Dance…and it’s fabulous! I’d embed it, but that seems to be disabled on most videos. Anywho…keep in mind he is a ballet dancer. BALLET. Dancing hip hop. Like that! Booyah!)

For dessert, I kept my promise to myself to try one recipe from each of my new Barefoot Contessa cookbooks by trying one from Barefoot Contessa PARTIES!

I knew as soon as I saw this Strawberry Country Cake (recipe is online here, yay!) that I’d be making it this summer while berries were still in season. So glad I tried it out!

Be sure to check out the comments. I followed some pointers. I definitely baked my cake for a shorter time – I think even 30 minutes instead of 40! And I made extra whipped cream – about 50% extra. Think I may make my whipped cream with powdered sugar instead of granulated next time a la Giada. Oh and the zest in the cake is a MUST – don’t skip this step! You can definitely taste the citrus in the cake and it’s excellent!

The cake was the perfect summer dessert! Decadent but light. Refreshingly sweet.

The presentation on this cake is so easy and pretty, too!

Don’t you just want to dig in!?

We dug in for you!

Megan and Erica were really excited about dessert!

As was I! Helloooooooo summer cake!

Done-zo!

Best part of this dessert – it makes 2 cakes so you can have the cake again whenever you want! Just de-frost, whip up some whipped cream, slice some fresh strawberries and layer your ingredients.

Oh yea! Can’t wait to make this again!

***

Do you entertain mid-week? What do you like to make?

And remember my other question - Post-work-exercisers: how do you cope with your later schedule and eating?