Life is short

This is totally non food relat d but it's been a very hard weekend. On Friday I randomly googled my old boss at UT and found his obituary 😦 Ben was such a great guy. Then my old friend Rory posted on FB that our good friend Kim Hardy had passed away that morning. Kim & I were REALLY good friends. Maybe for only 2 or 3 years but she had such an impact on me. She was just starting teaching when I met her… Or maybe finishing up her certification for it. Either way we both taught for Leander. She was a roller derby girl, how cool is that. She taught me a lot about cooking and taught me to make hummus and SHES the one who taught me my favorite salad: Apple, lettuce, feta & poppyseed dressing. She got me a great volunteer position at SXSW. We were REALLY close. Kim had this really cool OLD school white Lincoln with suicide doors that she was so proud of but it wasn't rare that you would find it stalled out on the side of Mopac. For my 21st bday it was just her & Rory celebrating with me. I have no idea why we stopped talking. I'm sure it was my fault.

 

I joined Instagram yesterday to find out more about her life. She gave up teaching when she found out she had cancer and lived. So many trips. She did a triathlon & ran a 10k. All while knowing she doesn't have much time left. She died how she lived. Going out in style. Even though I didn't know her that long and we weren't in contact it's had SUCH an impact on me. As I walked yesterday I was thinking about times with her and suddenly “over the rainbow” came on my very Beatles/70s Rock station. The good Hawaiian version. Life is short friends. Live it loud

 

 

Farmers market Friday!

I loooove the farmers market!! I wanted to buy 1 of everything but I'm actually trying to be responsible with money for once…I made a recipe list for the next week or 2 and only bought what I needed. What a novel idea! Sad I'm just learning these things! Ha this is what I picked up:

Basil, grape tomatoes, 2 huge zuc, a massive head of lettuce & onions. BEAUTIFUL produce for $11!

I got my hair chopped off today and ran some errands. Drew & I joined our town pool so I grabbed some things I needed for that because tomorrow is the 1st day we can use it. The pool is only opened weekends till next week. I'm SO excited about swimming and tanning for the 1st time in forever. As of this afternoon our whole weekend is now a wash 😦 only Sunday was supposed to storm. I might have a bit of time Saturday afternoon that isn't raining. We will see. This pool membership is a big step for us! I refuse to not do things just because I don't like how I look. Time to live more 🙂

Drew got home yesterday and left this morning 😦 my meal of the day was a salad & chicken thighs. Drew hates chicken thighs so I only get to make them when he's gone. I LOVE them!!

Lots of new recipes planned out for the week. Very exciting! Here's to a great weekend!!

 

Zucchini boats

I have a really bad habit of buying zucchini and never cooking it. I got some BEATIFUL zucchini at the farmers market so I was determined to put it to good use. This recipe was awesome… You can find real recipes all over Pinterest but here's what I did:

*first I sautéed ground turkey with onion, lots of garlic, chopped tomatoes & some Italian seasoning. No reason other than I had that in my fridge 🙂

*next while that cooled I halved & hollowed out the zucchini (the guts of the zuc I put into the meat mixture) and heavily seasoned with salt pepper & olive oil. I roasted that for about 20 minutes to soften up the veg

*finally I added a beaten egg to the cooled meat mixture to bind it and filled the zucchini with it. I topped it with parm & mozzarella and baked it at 350 for about 45 min. (The parm is KEY!!)

I had mine today for lunch. Topped it with a tiny bit of organic pasta sauce I had in the fridge. This was a GREAT meal. Light, filling & really healthy!

 

 

Farmers market is back!

I loooove the farmers market and ours is finally back! I got some great produce & a dozen farm fresh eggs for $16! Love it. I didn't do much cooking at all last week but I'm changing that around. If I don't make it we don't eat it! Last night we made some great “fajita meat” from snake river farms of course

I marinated it in worchestershire, lime, fajita seasoning & a tiny liquid smoke. We grilled it over some spring onions I got from the market

We sliced it thin & I had it with homemade pico & a tiny bit of sour cream

It was so good I ordered a couple more. Yum! I have a great recipe I'm making tonight so we are ready for eating right tomorrow.

 

 

Still here!

It's been busy here. I had a couple days of a pity party but we are moving forward. I made the best pot roast. Got the roast from Snake River farms. Put onion, taters & carrot in a crock pot. Threw in the roast with beef stock & dry onion soup. It was SO tender and delicious!!

Another favorite snack has been polish sausage with spicy ground mustard I got from TEXAS yuuuum

Apparently I'm 80 years old & have had killer lower back pain the past 3 weeks or so. All symptoms started a couple months ago. Saw a chiropractor and its either sciatic nerve pain or herniated disc. Going to a spine center to get more relief/answers. In the mean time these have been my best friends

Happy Thursday to all.

 

 

Very productive day!!

This morning we got up early & drew went to work and I went on a walk. I haven't been on a walk in over a week. It was 55 out this morning.. PERFECT walking weather. I wish it would stay this nice all summer but next week we are back to highs of 88. I can't complain too much. I found a new little neighborhood on my walk today. HUGE houses. I can't wait to go explore it more. I get very bored walking the same path so new areas are always good. I made a GREAT new recipe today but I will get to that in a bit. My eats today were:

Breakfast: usual

 

Lunch: I got us salads from the Whole Foods salad bar. YUM

Dinner: NEW recipe!! Chicken, broccoli, “rice” casserole. THIS is the recipe I followed as a guideline

Here's what you do, basically. FIRST shred a head of cauliflower & cook it with some chicken stock. Put that in the bottom of a baking dish. That's the “rice”

NEXT boiled cubed chicken & broccoli in chicken stock till cooked through & put on top of the “rice”

THEN you make a fondue sauce using chicken stock, white wine, cream & cheese. Not going to lie my sauce had way too much liquid in it so I had to add a SMALL corn starch slurry to thicken it up. 1 TB of cornstarch has 8 carbs so not too worried about it since this made a lot of servings. the only problem with this recipe is I didn't dry the cauliflower properly & there was quite a bit of liquid. Thankfully I was able to spoon it all out but YALL this recipe was killer. I wouldn't make it often way too much dairy but it was great. Perfect for the holidays!!

I'm at work now & I now have all supplies I need for June events! This cabinet is done YAY (Really i need Oreos for 1event but that will wait )

 

Tomorrow is going to be a long day! I'm going to the city to see The Audience. Super excited about it. My train home doesn't get in till midnight so let's hope I can stay awake

 

 

Leftover day

I'm exhausted. I thought yesterday was busy at work but today was insane. I don't have energy to talk to my poor husband who is actually home for the night. The good news is I got a ton done at work! Today was craft day. It was ocean themed so we made these cute fish using celery to paint the scales & paper bag jelly fish

I had a mom come in & ask if the craft was appropriate for her 8 year old “eh probably not” so she then got very snippy with me complaing how her 8 year old loooooves crafts & all we do is things you can cut, glue & paint. My biggest crowd is nannies who need something to do with their 2-4 year old, so yes she is right. I usually would let this mean lady bug me all day but instead I decided to have a craft day once a month geared towards 7-12 year olds 🙂 I bet $100 that mean lady won't even bring her kid to it. Oh well.

Eats were all left overs today. Need to clean out the fridge so I can keep trying new recipes!

Breakfast: usual 🙂

Lunch: leftover pulled pork & broc (this recipe was SOOOOO GOOD)

Dinner: leftover sampler platter 🙂 drew & I shared this. I grilled leftover chicken cubes I had from chicken nuggets & the beef is a leftover burger patty

In other news I just finished these 2 books & im soooo sad!!!! It's so hard to let go of characters you love. I am such a library nerd these days

Alright off to bed early!! Excited about my recipe for tomorrow!

 

 

TWO new recipes!

Today was SUPER busy at work since I've been out for a bit. I didn't have 1 minute of down time today and that never happens. The good thing was I had a ton of energy & started getting organized for all my summer programs. I emptied 3 cabinets & labeled them June, July & August. Each event I have is color coded by month & labeled in chronological order within each cabinet. Some are empty spots right now, but they will soon be filled with supplies. YAAAAY to being organized!! Today was also filled with new recipes. When low carbing I feel the need to become a gourmet chef 🙂

Breakfast: chorizo, eggs & cheese

Lunch: “pulled” pork tenderloin AMAZING recipe I will use OFTEN! This is the official recipe

But I'll explain what I did cause it's super easy & I messed up measurements & it still came out great! I put a pork tenderloin in a crock pot & covered it in a sauce I whipped up that had

  • 1 cup chicken stock
  • 1/2 cup soy sauce
  • 2 TB balsamic vinegar
  • 1 TB Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 TB chili flakes
  • 1 TB crushed garlic
  • Good amount of honey. Maybe 1/3 cup

I poured that over the pork & cooked on low for 6 hours. Shredded the meat & let it cook in the juices for another hour. GREAT meal!!!

Dinner: coconut crusted chicken nuggets w/ spicy mango sauce

I would properly recognize the site I got the recipe from but now I can't find it!! Basically you cut up chicken into chunks, dip in a mix of egg white & lime juice then into unsweetened fine shredded coconut. Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes a side. The sauce has me bummed!! This recipe needs a GOOD dipping sauce but mine just didn't work 😦 it's a good recipe & would make perfect coconut shrimp but now I need to find a great dipping sauce. Back to the drawing board.

Drew is gone yet again!! He is usually home 3-4 days a week and lately he's home maybe 2 nights. I'm starting to think I'm a single old maid. Oh well!! Hope tomorrow is a WONDERFUL Wednesday!!

 

Rainy Monday

Today was a boring day. It rained all day so aside from a few errands I stayed in. Drew finally got home!! He unexpectedly worked every day since Tuesday. Boo to that. The exciting part of today was I got tickets for a show in the city on Friday. YAY. really excited about that! On to my eats…

Breakfast: chorizo, egg & cheese

Lunch: chicken wings. This time I cut them down before cooking. I loooooove chicken wings!

Dinner: Garden salad with grilled chicken. Drew wanted take out so this was the best option & delicious

I've already made a pork tenderloin for tomorrow. I'm trying lots of new recipes soon and I'm SO excited!! Tomorrow I have to go back to work. Boo! Hopefully it will be a great day though 🙂

 

Not so busy day

I wanted to get a lot done today: groceries, walking, church but I woke up tired. That's the worst feeling ever but thankfully I got groceries last night so that was off my list. I decided to watch church online and instead of walking I went back to the zoo. What a GREAT zoo & I got my steps in 🙂 I read online it's rated the best zoo in NJ. I just assumed it was a small no big deal zoo since we live in such a small area. It's huge, nestled in between mountains & even has a ropes course & zip lining. Super cool

 
 

It was a great day exploring. I knew drew wouldn't want to go & he's out of town so I'm glad I made myself get out of the house & go. On to my eats:

Breakfast: chorizo egg & cheese ( so glad I still have some chorizo in my freezer. Yum!!)

Lunch: cheese & meat plate The raschela cheese was new to me but I liked it! The description of it said “strong hay flavor” which sounded appealing 🙂 it wasn't hay at all. More like Muenster. I did NOT like the farmers cheese. Mack enjoyed it though. He helped me eat this

Dinner: chicken wings (Spiced with the rub I make) I love chicken wings!!!

Need to actually eat veggies tomorrow. Oops!!! So in the sermon today the pastor said something that I SO needed to hear. “We experience optimum growth & change when we fuel the good things that are already present & happening in our lives” he went on to talk about how we focus on the negative. We could have done 100 good things that day but go to bed worrying about 1 mistake. I've been sooooo consumed with my hate of New Jersey & desperation to get back to Texas so that reminder about positivity was just what I needed.

Tomorrow will be filled with cleaning & drew gets home YAY!! Happy Monday to all!