Weekend Recap

Who has two thumbs and looks like a nerd on wheels?

This girl!

My husband took my bike to the shop to get new brakes.  A nice gesture, and I can't really fault my bike, seeing as it was my Christmas present in like 1996.  Yep, I ride around on a teenage boy-size mountain bike.  But I have a matching helmet and bell, which ups the cool factor big time.

We went for about a 20 mile bike ride on Saturday morning on a trail that took us through St. Paul out to around Stillwater.  A DQ lemon-lime Mr. Misty on the way back was my reward.

   Nothing reminds me of my childhood summers quite like these.  I think the DQ kid was a bit stingy with the lemon lime syrup.  

We also took a trip to Wal Mart.  Not our typical shopping destination.  Did you know that they sell Hard Candy makeup and nail polish?

Oh Hard Candy, how you have fallen.  I remember being about 12 years old shopping with my mom at Neiman Marcus- NEIMAN MARCUS- and she bought me an electric blue metallic bottle.  The plastic ring was the best part.  If I were to write a biography of nail polish, it'd be like "From Posh to Pegboard: the Hard Candy Story."  I passed on buying a bottle.  They just looked too sad.

Then it was time to try a new recipe.  A truly made-up recipe by yours truly.  I hadn't made Thai food in awhile, and with ground chicken on sale, this is what I came up with.

Thai Chicken Meatballs with Carrot & Pepper Salad
-2 lbs ground chicken
-1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
-3/4 cups panko (or plain breadcrumbs)
-1/2 cup finely chopped green onion
-1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
-1 Tbsp honey
-2 tsp sesame oil
-1 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce
-1 egg
-1/2 cup cilantro, finely chopped
-1 Tbsp chili garlic paste
-1/2 jalapeno, finely diced
-1 large yellow pepper, diced
-1/2 cup unsalted roasted peanuts, chopped
-1 1/2 cups chopped carrots
-1/2 cup light coconut milk
-1 lime
-1 bottle Trader Joe's Thai Spicy Curry sauce (ok this is optional)
-Brown rice (optional)

-In a large bowl, combine the first 9 ingredients (stop at the yellow pepper).  Go ahead and mix with your hands until it's all well combined.  Shape into 2" meatballs and place in the bottom of a glass baking dish.  Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until nicely browned and internal temperature is at least 165 degrees.

-While meatballs are baking, combine the yellow pepper, peanuts, carrots, coconut milk, 1/3 cup of sauce (optional), and half the lime's juice.  Refrigerate until ready to eat.  

-You can also prepare some noodles or rice to go with this dish.  I was out of brown rice, so I made basmati.  I added a few pinches of pepper and the juice of the other lime half.

Argh, after 10 minutes of trying to rotate this picture the right way, it still posts sideways.  Tilt your head for me please.

Makes six servings of four meatballs.  Per serving: 303 calories, 14 g carbs, 19 g fat, 33 g protein.

There you go- the meatballs are a little spicy, a little sweet, a little peanutty, a little oniony, and really really good.  The veggie salad has a nice fresh taste to it as well, and would be good heated up as leftovers.  For us this recipe is a keeper- in the future I may try making pita sandwiches with them.

So there you have it- helmet, slushie, polish, meatballs.  Dietitian-approved.  Well, except for the slushie.  A little FD&C Green No. 3 and high fructose corn syrup never hurt anyone.  Bike it off, baby.