Dinner and My First Ever BSI Entry!

Today was a good day!  It was pretty chilly here all day (which helped to inspire my BSI entry), but the sun was shining and the sky was blue.

 

After lunch, I ran up to the grocery store to pick up a few more things I couldn’t get earlier, then came home to fold some laundry. We bummed around on the couch for a while before I started on dinner.

 

I thawed some chicken breast and decided we needed a little Mexican flavor for dinner   :)

 

Cumin and Oregano Chicken Breast topped with Avocado (mixed with scallions, cilantro, cayenne, salt, and lime juice)

 

chickendinner

 

 

On the side, we had some brown rice mixed with salsa, cumin, and garlic powder and the leftover green beans from the other night.   ¡Olé!  Right Mara?  :)

 

 

 

Now…for my first ever Blogger Secret Ingredient entry, I decided to make  the perfect dessert on this chilly winter day.

 

Barley Date Pudding!  A new spin on a classic rice pudding.

  • 1 cup dry quick cooking barley
  • 12 oz. can fat free evaporated milk
  • 4 oz. skim milk
  • cinnamon (to taste)
  • pinch nutmeg
  • 6 dates, chopped
  • pinch salt (about 1/4 tsp.)
  • orange zest (to taste)
  • 1 tsp. honey
  • 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

 

This makes at least 4 servings, maybe 6-8 depending on your serving size.

 

1. Put barley, evaporated and skim milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, and dates in pot on stove. Heat to a low simmer, then turn heat down to low. You want it to stay hot, but you don’t want to scorch or curdle the milk.

barleypot

 

dates

 

 

2. Let it cook until the barley is tender and most of the milk has been absorbed. (I ended up adding about 1/4 cup of water near the end, too).

 

3. Take off stove, put into large mixing bowl and stir in fresh orange zest, vanilla extract, and 1 tsp. honey.

 

orgzest

 

 

4. Drizzle a tiny bit more honey on top of each serving. Enjoy!  We tried ours warm right off the stove and it was awesome. I will probably try it cold tomorrow  :)

 

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Enjoy your evening!  I feel the need for pajamas   :)

Home on the Ranch

I have been all about the ranch dressing lately – it’s like I can’t get enough!

 

Lunch today was a salad with romaine, tomato, the last few mushrooms and a tsp of ranch dressing, plus my 2 leftover pieces of pizza from last night

 

salad

 

 

pizza

 

 

Just as good as last night!

 

For some dairy and a sweet little lunch dessert, I had some 0% greek yogurt topped with pomegranate and some turbinado sugar/sea salt chocolate covered almonds. This combination was AWESOME. The almonds are from Trader Joe’s.

 

yogurt

 

 

I’ve got some laundry to do and a few more groceries to pick up. 

 

Have a good afternoon! It’s chilly here, but at least the sun is shining!  :)

Bob's Breakfast

Bob – you better be reading this today!  Breakfast was inspired by you  :)

 

 

Breakfast today may  be something you’ve never seen or done before, but once Bob (Nick’s dad) did this and made it for us, it’s become one of my favorites!  It’s also the best thing to eat for breakfast after a race – we had it after our last 5K in October and it. was. so. good.

 

 

To start, we had coffee. :)  Nick makes the perfect cup of joe.

 

coffee

 

Isn’t this mug cute? Nick’s mom bought it for me at Kohl’s – it’s made by The Food Network and has their logo in red on the inside  :)

 

 

I mixed up a batch of Ellie Krieger’s whole wheat pancakes with a few modifications.

  • I just used all skim milk, since I didn’t have any buttermilk this time – they are really good with buttermilk, though.
  • I saved the last 2 eggs I had for a different part of breakfast  :)  So, I used about 4 tsp of canola oil in the batter instead of eggs.

 

 

The result?   Bob’s Breakfast   :)

 

 

bobsbfast1

 

 

That’s right.

 

2 pancakes TOPPED with an over easy egg AND pure maple syrup. I had never thought of putting these together, but it is so, so good.  I always love when maple syrup gets on my eggs, so this is just doing it on purpose!

 

 

We had a mix of banana, strawberries, and clementine on the side.

 

Check out these action shots!!  Nothing like a golden, runny egg yolk  :) 

 

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What a way to start our day. 

 

 

I’m off to get groceries!

Pumped Up Pizza

Geez a lou!  BodyPump killed me tonight!  It’s been almost two weeks (we went last Monday), but man….I got worked tonight!  It felt great by the end though  :)  I think I may need to try one of my yoga download classes this weekend to stretch everything out.

 

 

Back to my afternoon! 

 

Nick and I went to Mike’s Grille in Blacksburg today for lunch.

 

insideMikes

 

Smoke free – nice, huh?

 

They are known for their huge burgers and he likes them a lot.  Here we are with our food – look how big that burger is!

 

NBmikes

 

 

We had to try their onion rings….just so we could compare them to New River Grille’s (which are my all time favorite! ). Here’s a picture of New River Grille’s onion rings, just for visual comparison.  Mike’s onion rings were pretty good, but a bit greasier than New River Grille’s. I know they’re fried – but I would rather not have tons of grease left over on my fingers after picking one up. Good enough to get again, but they don’t beat New River Grille’s onion rings  :)

 

I got a chef salad, and ate a few of the onion rings.

 

Work was work – I was glad it was Friday!  We had couple crazy things happen this afternoon, so that made it a bit more exciting. I am so happy it’s the weekend!!!!

 

 

For a snack before BodyPump, I had a hard boiled egg and a clementine – I needed a little protein to get through class!

 

egg

 

 

clems

 

 

BodyPump was killer, and I felt like I got a really good workout. This is when I really wish I had a heart rate monitor, because I just have no clue what I burn in that class! Someday soon.

 

 

I was SO excited about dinner tonight!!!

 

Over Christmas break, I got to go to the Trader Joe’s near my parents house. We don’t have one close to us, so I’ve only been twice – sad, I know.  :)  I bought some of TJ’s whole wheat pizza dough and thawed it out today to use for dinner.

 

We did a half and half pizza. Can you tell whose side is whose?    :)  By the way – the pizza stone is awesome Mom! I love it!

 

wholepizza

 

 

Nick’s has a bit more cheese than mine.  I didn’t have any mozzarella other than string cheese, so I just cup of a few of those to use on my side.

 

Nick’s side had sausage, red onion, mushroom, quesadilla cheese, string cheese, and pepperjack cheese.

 

Mine had string cheese, pineapple, and ham.  Yum  :)

 

mypizza

 

 

This and a salad?  Perfect and easy Friday night meal!

 

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I hope everyone has had a great Friday!!! The weekend is here!  

 

Breakfast tomorrow should be good  :) 

 

 

Do you have a  favorite Friday night meal?