One good, one bad...
Good) Homemade peanut butter chocolate chip granola bars: I saw some people on Pinterest or somewhere talking about making granola bars and thought that sounded like something I could handle. These I make and keep in the freezer and just eat them right out of the freezer...I really like cold chocolate chips. The recipe makes 12 small bars. They're just enough that I can eat one right before running and have some sugar and protein in me but not feel sick while running. I substitute applesauce for the coconut oil and leave out the wheat germ. I tried one of the other granola bar recipes on this blog and it was a MAJOR bust, so now I've been nervous try other kinds besides these since I like them so much. I'm kind of a peanut butter and chocolate addict...
Bad) Honey garlic chicken thighs: Aldi has chicken thighs on sale so I thought that I would buy some and try them out. I normally just buy chicken breasts, but decided to live on the wild (i.e. cheap) side. I googled "slow cooker chicken thighs" and this is what came up and seemed easy and sounded good. Now I'll admit, it says to cook it for just 6 hours and I did more like 8...but it just came out kind of burned. The sauce was pretty much black. Not real appetizing...but we all still ate it, Shom even took the leftovers home. I think the flavors have potential, but maybe just not this cooking method.
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Saturday, July 7, 2012
The Virtual Bookshelf
(I know that normally in the summer, I actually post here...that just hasn't happened. We'll see if we can post a few things before summer runs out on me!)
One of my goals for this year, kind of a quasi-New Year's resolution, was to read more. I feel like sometimes I don't have a very good vocabulary and tend to just read books that take no mental effort, so it seemed time to put in some effort. Two things have really helped with that - two of my friends agreed to read some books with me in our own little mini book club and Brad gave me a kindle for Christmas. So since December, here's what I've been reading (in no particular order):
-Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
-Dracula (Bram Stoker)
-The Help (Kathryn Stockett)
-The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
-The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
-The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
-The Sign of the Four (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
-The Black Tulip (Alexander Dumas)
-The Adventure of Tom Sawyer (Mark Twain)
-The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain)
-Lord of the Flies (William Golding)
-The Scarlet Letter (Nathaniel Hawthorne)
-A Town Like Alice (Nevil Shute)
-Where the Red Fern Grows (Wilson Rawls)
-Crazy Love (Francis Chan)
-The Awakening (Kate Chopin)
-Chasing Mona Lisa (Tricia Goyer and Mike Yorkey)
-Shadow in Serenity (Terri Blackstock)
-An Eye for an Eye (Irene Hannon)
Except for the last few, most of these were even "real books"...you know, without an FBI agent love story in there somewhere. I have enjoyed most of them - I'd put The Scarlet Letter as my least favorite. Favorites were probably A Town Like Alice and The Help, at least those were the ones I couldn't put down :) I like being able to get a new book anytime with the kindle, and most of these that I read on my kindle were free. I still like paperbacks, and five of these I read as real books instead of digital. This is definitely way more books than I normally would have read by this point in the year, so I'm up for suggestions if you have any favorites...especially if they are free on kindle!
One of my goals for this year, kind of a quasi-New Year's resolution, was to read more. I feel like sometimes I don't have a very good vocabulary and tend to just read books that take no mental effort, so it seemed time to put in some effort. Two things have really helped with that - two of my friends agreed to read some books with me in our own little mini book club and Brad gave me a kindle for Christmas. So since December, here's what I've been reading (in no particular order):
-Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
-Dracula (Bram Stoker)
-The Help (Kathryn Stockett)
-The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
-The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
-The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
-The Sign of the Four (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
-The Black Tulip (Alexander Dumas)
-The Adventure of Tom Sawyer (Mark Twain)
-The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain)
-Lord of the Flies (William Golding)
-The Scarlet Letter (Nathaniel Hawthorne)
-A Town Like Alice (Nevil Shute)
-Where the Red Fern Grows (Wilson Rawls)
-Crazy Love (Francis Chan)
-The Awakening (Kate Chopin)
-Chasing Mona Lisa (Tricia Goyer and Mike Yorkey)
-Shadow in Serenity (Terri Blackstock)
-An Eye for an Eye (Irene Hannon)
Except for the last few, most of these were even "real books"...you know, without an FBI agent love story in there somewhere. I have enjoyed most of them - I'd put The Scarlet Letter as my least favorite. Favorites were probably A Town Like Alice and The Help, at least those were the ones I couldn't put down :) I like being able to get a new book anytime with the kindle, and most of these that I read on my kindle were free. I still like paperbacks, and five of these I read as real books instead of digital. This is definitely way more books than I normally would have read by this point in the year, so I'm up for suggestions if you have any favorites...especially if they are free on kindle!
Saturday, January 28, 2012
New Recipes
Well, it's been about five months since my last post. Really not much has changed since then :) This month I have had some time to enjoy cooking and have tried a bunch of new recipes. Some reports on the latest attempts in case you're looking for something fun for your kitchen:
1) Roasted red pepper hummus : I did change a couple things from the original...only did like 1/3 or 1/2 cup of red pepper instead of the whole jar and more like 2 Tbsp of the tahini. I also add a little of the liquid from the bean jar. I've been eating a batch a week of this stuff with my veggies in my lunch. Also great with tortilla chips or on tacos. I make it in my mini chopper/processor. I find that it chops up the beans better than my blender.
2) Peanut butter granola : I like to make little yogurt parfaits with berries, yogurt, and granola. I love that crunch :) Well granola is not very cheap (and I am) and the boxed kind tends to have ingredients I don't really need in my granola. So I thought I'd try out making my own. I like the flavor of this one, but it's not quite as crunch as I would like. I don't know if that's the recipe of if cooking longer would make crunchier. Still tasty...had a big bowl of it this morning for breakfast. I think I may try this one next time.
3) Garbanzo bean blondies : I just made these. They are currently cooling on the stove and smell fantastic and look like regular brownie type desserts. I haven't tasted it yet though.... (Update: Just tried these...and...they taste AWESOME!! Not gonna lie, kinda shocked.)
4) Brown rice : Ok I know, brown rice isn't exactly a new thing. But up until this week I made pretty bad brown rice. I saw this "recipe" and made it twice this week: 1 1/3 c. brown rice, 2 1/3 c. water, salt; combine in 1.5 qt casserole, cover, and bake at 375 degrees for 50 minutes. Take out of oven and let sit for 10 minutes covered before fluffing. Turns out perfect!
5) Lime chicken tacos : I make a lot of crock pot chicken tacos. Normally I just dump the salsa and taco seasoning in there with some frozen chicken and call it good. This recipe had 1 lb chicken breasts, 3 T. lime juice, and 1 T. chili powder in the crockpot until 30 minutes before eating. Then shred the chicken and add 1/2 cup salsa and 1/2 frozen corn (I put mine through the chopper first). Let everything mingle for 30 minutes and serve. I liked this better than my usual chicken. Not quite as liquidy at the end and some nice flavor. With the corn chopped up, you really didn't notice it texture-wise but it was nice for the flavor.
6) Honey garlic chicken stir fry : This one was from a Taste of Home Busy Family cookbook. In a skilled I cooked chicken with some soy sauce and honey and garlic, then removed it and sauteed some frozen veggies in the same liquid until warm and then added the chicken back in. This got served with some of my brown rice :) The honey and soy were nice together and it was pretty easy. Brad picked around most of the veggies, but seemed to like the chicken and rice.
I've instituted mandatory rating of all new dishes to see which ones stay and which ones go (Brad asked if he could just give everything a 5). I have a bunch of new recipes planned on this months menu plan so I'm writing down our rating for each one on a scale of 1-10 so at the end of the month I can remember what was worth making again.
1) Roasted red pepper hummus : I did change a couple things from the original...only did like 1/3 or 1/2 cup of red pepper instead of the whole jar and more like 2 Tbsp of the tahini. I also add a little of the liquid from the bean jar. I've been eating a batch a week of this stuff with my veggies in my lunch. Also great with tortilla chips or on tacos. I make it in my mini chopper/processor. I find that it chops up the beans better than my blender.
2) Peanut butter granola : I like to make little yogurt parfaits with berries, yogurt, and granola. I love that crunch :) Well granola is not very cheap (and I am) and the boxed kind tends to have ingredients I don't really need in my granola. So I thought I'd try out making my own. I like the flavor of this one, but it's not quite as crunch as I would like. I don't know if that's the recipe of if cooking longer would make crunchier. Still tasty...had a big bowl of it this morning for breakfast. I think I may try this one next time.
3) Garbanzo bean blondies : I just made these. They are currently cooling on the stove and smell fantastic and look like regular brownie type desserts. I haven't tasted it yet though.... (Update: Just tried these...and...they taste AWESOME!! Not gonna lie, kinda shocked.)
4) Brown rice : Ok I know, brown rice isn't exactly a new thing. But up until this week I made pretty bad brown rice. I saw this "recipe" and made it twice this week: 1 1/3 c. brown rice, 2 1/3 c. water, salt; combine in 1.5 qt casserole, cover, and bake at 375 degrees for 50 minutes. Take out of oven and let sit for 10 minutes covered before fluffing. Turns out perfect!
5) Lime chicken tacos : I make a lot of crock pot chicken tacos. Normally I just dump the salsa and taco seasoning in there with some frozen chicken and call it good. This recipe had 1 lb chicken breasts, 3 T. lime juice, and 1 T. chili powder in the crockpot until 30 minutes before eating. Then shred the chicken and add 1/2 cup salsa and 1/2 frozen corn (I put mine through the chopper first). Let everything mingle for 30 minutes and serve. I liked this better than my usual chicken. Not quite as liquidy at the end and some nice flavor. With the corn chopped up, you really didn't notice it texture-wise but it was nice for the flavor.
6) Honey garlic chicken stir fry : This one was from a Taste of Home Busy Family cookbook. In a skilled I cooked chicken with some soy sauce and honey and garlic, then removed it and sauteed some frozen veggies in the same liquid until warm and then added the chicken back in. This got served with some of my brown rice :) The honey and soy were nice together and it was pretty easy. Brad picked around most of the veggies, but seemed to like the chicken and rice.
I've instituted mandatory rating of all new dishes to see which ones stay and which ones go (Brad asked if he could just give everything a 5). I have a bunch of new recipes planned on this months menu plan so I'm writing down our rating for each one on a scale of 1-10 so at the end of the month I can remember what was worth making again.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
I told you this would happen...
Well as you can probably tell, school has started. So the blogging has nearly stopped. We're almost through the first week and it's going pretty well but the first week is just always crazy. Switching classrooms, people trying to get into classes and out of classes, technology not working, hunting down students that never show up. I'm so ready for everyone to just be set with their classes, their rooms, their online homework...and just do some math. My classes seem like nice groups of people. No one has stuck out as super annoying, and usually those students show themselves in the first few days.
And I did get myself to run one night this week, so I'm down to the final run of the Couch to 5k. In theory that should happen tonight...we'll see.
The freezer meals, however, are working out wonderfully. Totally have saved us this past week.
And I did get myself to run one night this week, so I'm down to the final run of the Couch to 5k. In theory that should happen tonight...we'll see.
The freezer meals, however, are working out wonderfully. Totally have saved us this past week.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Couch to 5k - Week 8 done!
Tonight I finished week 8 of the Couch to 5k program! Three 28 minute runs in the books. For the first time tonight at the recommendation of my facebook friends, I used the CardioTrainer app on my phone during my run. According to my phone I did 2.95 miles in 28:01. My first mile was 9:14 and my second mile was 9:44. So the next 0.95 miles would have been in 9:03. The route that I run in Pekin Country Club has two big (for me) hills during mile number 2, so that's definitely what happened there. The first mile and the last mile are completely flat. I know that I'm not actually running fast...but it feels fast. Maybe it just feels fast compared to the pace that I was running 9 weeks ago. I'm definitely running faster now. I know that speed is not really the goal, but it's kind of fun to go faster :) One of my goals at the beginning of this program was to be able to do a 5k in 30 minutes. So I am definitely on pace for being able to do that. I actually signed up for a 5k this week. No backing out now... There's a 5k at the Marigold Festival on September 10th. Brad is playing in the sand volleyball tournament that day so I knew we'd be down at the festival. So I'm going to do it. And I'm going to get a t-shirt. Maybe I'll even buy some shorts that stay up for the event.
Fall Semester Freezer Load-up Continued
Well with Brad out of town, I haven't really been cooking much for just me, so I decided to do a little more prep for some things in the freezer. Lawry's marinades were on sale for $0.88, so I grabbed two bottles and one of the super six pound packs of fresh chicken and came home and turned it into four meals for later. I was able to split it into 20 chicken breast halves and did two meals worth with the Tuscan Sun-dried tomato marinade and two meals worth with the Herb and garlic marinade.
I also made some chocolate chocolate chip cookies on Sunday night, and being the only one home, did not think it was probably a good plan to have too many of those laying around, so I froze two dozen cookies for when Shom comes over for dinner. And for Brad. :)
Our little jalapeno plant has also been producing peppers like crazy. Since the tomatillos aren't ready yet, I stemmed and seeded a bunch of peppers for salsa making later.
I need to make some freezer meals with some beef as I now have three meals with pork and like ten with chicken. I guess no-beef-wednesdays have kind of turned into no-beef-everydays.
I also made some chocolate chocolate chip cookies on Sunday night, and being the only one home, did not think it was probably a good plan to have too many of those laying around, so I froze two dozen cookies for when Shom comes over for dinner. And for Brad. :)
Our little jalapeno plant has also been producing peppers like crazy. Since the tomatillos aren't ready yet, I stemmed and seeded a bunch of peppers for salsa making later.
I need to make some freezer meals with some beef as I now have three meals with pork and like ten with chicken. I guess no-beef-wednesdays have kind of turned into no-beef-everydays.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
C25k - Not just jogging
I just finished Week 8 Day 2 - my second 28 minute run. And I gotta say, I'm starting to feel like a runner again. Not just someone jogging slightly faster than I can walk for short intervals, but like I'm actually out there running. And I don't feel like I'm going to die at any moment. It feels really good. My run Friday night and my run today both felt really good. Both times I did right around 2.9 miles in 28 minutes. Today felt a little harder since my route had some hills in it, but the hills are definitely good for me.
Friday was fun as I actually ran with some other people for the first time. Trisha and Natalie are working on the Couch to 5k as well and were on the last run for week 5 which is the first long run of 20 minutes. So we all did the warm up together and head off together. It was nice to have some others around and it was fun to see them conquer the first long run. And we went out for McDonald's smoothies afterwards :)
Friday was fun as I actually ran with some other people for the first time. Trisha and Natalie are working on the Couch to 5k as well and were on the last run for week 5 which is the first long run of 20 minutes. So we all did the warm up together and head off together. It was nice to have some others around and it was fun to see them conquer the first long run. And we went out for McDonald's smoothies afterwards :)
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