Vaaaaaaalentine's Day

Not really my favorite holiday or anything- please- I’ve obviously spent way more years single than dating/married- but I do love the pink and red décor, and the excuse to have pretty flowers. And brunch with friends. With champagne.

 

It occurred to me that I have all this pretty china and stemware, and it’s hardly been used. It was time to fix that.

 

The tablecloth? Wal Mart. $9.44. I swear by Wal-Mart’s tablecloths. They are good basics and they’re cheap enough that if they  gets stained (which, ha, polyester is tough to stain), you can toss or repurpose without guilt).

 

The glass vase? Dollar Tree. I have intentions of painting it or glitterizing it, but haven’t gotten around. Dollar stores are great places to find glassware and other items for craft projects.

 

Pink scalloped plate chargers are from Michael’s. I love chargers. I’m slowly accumulating them- teal, red, silver, and now, pink.

 

China is Mikasa, and was generously gifted by friends and family for our wedding gift. Pretty pretty pretty.

The champagne glasses are vintage Waterford from my uncle.

 

The main item on the menu was an asparagus and prosciutto strata from CookingLight.com. It was good, but I was compelled to make a second the next day, with a few tweaks, that transformed it even more to my liking.

 

 Asparagus & Prosciutto Egg Bake

1 slice whole grain bread, torn into 1” pieces

12 large eggs

1 cup skim milk

1 tablespoon dry mustard

1 teaspoon nutmeg

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

2 cups halved and very thinly sliced sweet (yellow) onions

1 cup thinly sliced leek(s), white part only

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 bunch thin asparagus (about 1 pound), trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces

3 very thin slices prosciutto (about 1 1/2 ounces), torn into strips

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, divided

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9x13 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray (I like olive oil).

 

Heat oil in large pan over medium  heat. Add onion and leek. Stir and cook until golden brown and somewhat translucent, about 10-15 minutes. Stir in garlic and remove from heat. Spread evenly in bottom of 9x13 dish. Add 1” of hot water back to your pan and heat that up. Once it starts to bubble, add asparagus, cover, and cook for 2-3 minutes or until crisp-tender. Pat dry and layer on top of on onions/leeks. Spread prosciutto strips over the onion.

 

In a large mixing bowl, whisk eggs with milk, dry mustard, nutmeg, pepper, parsley. Stir in bread bits and half of the cheese. Pour into the baking dish. Bake, uncovered, for 45 minutes. Add the rest of the cheese and continue baking for 10-15 minutes, or until the middle is firm to the touch and the temperature registers at least 160 degrees. Cover and let cool for ~20 minutes before serving.

 

I like egg bake that’s not overly eggy or squishy, and the vegetables keep it from becoming just that. One piece of this (6 pieces per pan) gives you two servings of vegetables and 300 calories. I wouldn’t recommend subbing in all egg whites, since it’d change the texture to be rubbery.

 

A non-dietitian-y finish to the meal included brownie pudding. “That is a THING?”

 

Oh yes. Not sure if it’s good or bad that Barefoot Contessa seems to always be on TV when I’m at the gym. This recipe comes right from her with no alterations. I baked these individual ramekins and served with a scoop of good quality vanilla bean ice cream and a bite of heart-shaped strawberry. And champagne.

 

Too bad now I want to have flowers and brunch every weekend.  And champagne.

What's in my kitchen

I mean, figuratively what’s inside my kitchen. ‘Cause right now, it’s cans of primer and tarps. So maybe more accurately- what’s littering the floor of my living room.

What I’m getting at is the items that I’m always sure to have on hand.

You’ve probably noticed that, ahem, I’m not the most creative when it comes to meals. There are many recurring ingredients. I like the idea of keeping enough basics on hand for easy healthy whip-up meals. Here’s my list of things I’m rarely without:

-Can of black beans. YES. Fiber. Protein. CHEAP. It’s what I feed my baby a good portion of the time too. I’ve even made black bean brownies before. Are you horrified?

-Whole wheat tortillas. If you don’t go through tortillas like we do, keep these in the freezer and thaw by microwaving a few seconds.

-Whole wheat pasta. Have I ever told you that I love fiber?

-Bag of fresh spinach. Spinach is so versatile- seriously. Make it into a salad, blend it with a bit of frozen fruit for a shake, add it to pasta sauce, hotdishes, quesadillas, scrambled eggs, sandwiches- almost whatever. Except brownies. I’ll never you any spinach brownies, I promise.

-Frozen fruit. We fall in the camp of “it goes bad before we finish it all,” so we usually just freeze the fresh fruit we buy, or buy already frozen fruit. Add it to oatmeal, yogurt, said spinach shakes, etc.

-Shredded chicken or pork. Every few weeks I’ll make cheater shredded chicken or pork, which I’ve blogged about before. You just take chicken or pork, place it in the slow cooker with low sodium broth, and cook on low for 7-8 hours. I’ll portion this into baggies and then freeze. That way when I want to add some protein to a recipe, I’ve got it pre-cooked and all I need to do is thaw.

-Fiery Cheetos. Kidding! Just seeing if you’re paying attention.

-Plain nonfat Greek yogurt. I usually swap this for sour cream- chili, baked potatoes, veggie dip, tacos, etc. But the nice thing about plain, is you can easily just add a pinch of sugar (or my Trader Joe’s liquid stevia) to sweeten it up enough to eat as a high protein snack.

-Eggs. We go through a lot of eggs. Scrambled eggs are our go-to weekend breakfast, sometimes cooked up with some aforementioned spinach or other veggies. Use the whole wheat tortilla to make an easy breakfast burrito (hint- these freeze pretty well too).

-Tomato sauce. I’ll use this as pizza sauce with a whole wheat tortilla, or else with pasta and some shredded chicken for easy Italian. Just add some basil and garlic to season it up.

 

Here are some meal and snack ideas using these ingredients.

Black bean & pork tostadas

-1 can black beans

-4 whole wheat tortillas

-1-1.5 cups shredded pork or chicken

-1 teaspoon chipotle chili powder

-1 cup shredded taco or cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Layer shredded meat, black beans, chili powder, and cheese on tortillas. Bake 15-20 minutes, or until tortilla starts to get browned and crisped. Serve with a blob of salsa and plain yogurt. Makes 4 servings.

 

Baked Pasta Florentine (ßfancy speak for ‘there’s spinach in here’)

-1 box whole wheat noodles- I like penne- cooked to package directions

-1 20 oz can tomato sauce

-1/2 teaspoon dried basil

-2 teaspoons minced garlic

-2 cups shredded chicken

-2 cups fresh spinach

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients in a large pot and transfer to glass 9x13 baking dish. Bake until bubbly. Makes 8 servings.

 

Favorite Shake

-1 cup fresh spinach

-1/2 cup frozen mixed berries (I like blueberry/blackberry/raspberry blends best)

-1/2 cup water

Blend on high speed until smooth. Optional- add ¼ cup plain Greek yogurt + 1 teaspoon sugar before blending for a protein boost.

DIY is better when it’s someone else

  

We’ve been renovating our kitchen for oh, 12 months. Which ultimately is fine, buuuuuut, it’s starting to get old.

Who’s fault is this?

Pretty much just mine, since it was me who decided “oh redoing our cabinets won’t be that much work.”

I am one piece of sandpaper away from throwing in the towel. There’s a reason why people pay others to do cabinetry.

Here is a little update into my life as of late.

Baby is full on eating solids, and eating like a champ. Blueberries are his favorite. Maybe his first word will be “antioxidant!”

The fact that this is his neutral face is proof positive that he is indeed my kid.

On the plus side, redoing the cabinets has forced me to clean out the pantry. I learned that apparently I’ve been hoarding almond bark.

What.

The.

Heck.

So much bark.

And then I even found a baggy with some extra cubes of bark. BECAUSE CLEARLY I FELT NEED TO SAVE EVEN MOOOOOOORE BAAAAAAAARK.

So for the next few weeks, the majority of my kitchen items are in the living room. I have to remind myself “it always looks worse before it looks better.”

If anyone wants to burn some calories in the form of priming and painting this weekend, come on over.

I’ll save some almond bark and blueberries for you.

Jamba-leuia

This post was going to be about jambalaya.

But then I got lazy about looking up an actual recipe, so I just bought some ingredients that maybe sounded legit, and I went for it. The result?

Jamboluyo.

Jimbulwhooya.

Jumbo-jimblin-whooz-ya-what’s-ya.

A-JAMBLE-MAMBLA-HOOPLIN’-HAMBYA

I should really be in like a southern fried TV commercial.

So yeah, I kinda made something that resembles jambalaya.

Traditional? Not really. But it’s pretty good nonetheless, and it’s a one pot meal. Less to clean up? Yes please.

Jambalaya-ish

2 cups instant brown rice

2 cans fire roasted tomatoes

2 cups low sodium chicken broth (or water is fine too)

2 bell peppers, diced

1 yellow onion, diced

4-5 Andouille chicken sausage links, the precooked kind (I got mine at Trader Joe’s, but Target has some good spicy precooked sausages as well), sliced into coins

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

¼ teaspoon paprika

¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 teaspoon minced garlic

Combine all ingredients in a large stockpot. Heat to boiling over medium high heat. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until rice is cooked. Stir occasionally.

Makes 4 servings. Per serving: 380 calories, 45 g carbs, 10 g fat, 25 g protein.