Recipe: Chicken with Grilled Peaches and Arugula

One of my favorite things is when I come across a recipe that I already have all the ingredients for and can try it right away. This is exactly what happened yesterday. I bought a bunch of locally grown fresh peaches the other day (thank goodness they are finally in season - I have been waiting all summer!) and needed to use some before they went bad. I also had leftover arugula from a potato salad we tried on Monday (it was gross, so I won't be posting that recipe), and imagine my joy when I saw this recipe called for blue cheese, which I just so happened to also have (leftover from the burgers). I didn't think you could go wrong with those ingredients, and I was right. This was a super fast, and completely wonderful dinner.Get the recipe HERE and make this for an easy summer meal.

Recipe notes: since I was just cooking for myself, I used one chicken breast, one peach, about 1/3 of an onion, and 1/2 oz of blue cheese. I made the entire thing in my grill pan and it was on my plate in 20 min start to finish.

Recipe: Grilled Sweet Potatoes with Lime and Cilantro

Bobby Flay is the king of grilling, and this recipe is no exception. This is a fantastic side to accompany any of your grilled summer meals. The only thing I would suggest is to go easy on the salt. The lime zest is an awesome addition to the sweet potatoes. Oh, and don't let your potatoes get too soft when you cook them.

Enjoy this recipe HERE.

Recipe: Bacon-Blue Cheese Stuffed Burgers

This recipe is neither healthy nor light, but is oh so good (funny how that seems to work...) If you like burgers and blue cheese, this is the next recipe for you. The link doesn't work unless you have a subscription to Taste of Home, so I'll copy it here.
Bacon-Blue Cheese Stuffed Burgers
(August Taste of Home magazine)

Ingredients:

• 1-1.5 pounds lean ground beef (90% lean)
• 3 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese
• 1/3 cup bacon bits
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1 pound sliced fresh mushrooms
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 Tbsp water
• 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
• 4 whole wheat hamburger buns, split
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 4 romaine leaves
• 1 medium tomato, sliced

Directions:

• Shape beef into eight thin patties. Combine the cream cheese, blue cheese, and bacon bits; spoon onto the center of four patties. Top with remaining patties and press edges firmly to seal. Combine the salt, garlic powder, and pepper; sprinkle over patties.
• Grill burgers, covered, over medium heat or broil 4 in. from the heat for 5-7 minutes on each side or until a meat thermometer reads 160F and juices run clear.
• Meanwhile, in a large skillet, saute mushrooms in oil until tender. Stir in water and mustard.
• Serve burgers on buns with mayonnaise, romaine, tomato and mushroom mixture.
• Yield: 4 servings.
  

My notes: I used 95% lean ground beef and it was fantastic. I added the salt, garlic powder, & pepper into the beef mixture before shaping into patties to give them more flavor, rather than sprinkling it on top. ext time, I will probably use about 2/3 of the cheese mixture in each one - it was a lot of cheese. I didn't use the bacon bits (didn't have them). I also didn't make the mushroom topping, since I can't stand mushrooms, but I have to say I think it would have been amazing with it. Next time I may do an onion topping to try. We served this sans buns (and any of the other burger fixin's) - and this was great just by itself. I grilled 2 of these, and froze the other 2. Hopefully they keep! By the way, the grilled vegetable salad is a home run with blue cheese...

Recipe: Pineapple Mango Salsa

One day I will blog about when I met Pioneer Woman. In the meantime, make this! YUM. I had it on grilled mahi. I wish my tortilla chips weren't stale - this would have been great as a salsa.

HERE's the recipe.

Recipe: Carmelized Onion and Grapefruit Salad

This is the third (and final) installment of the entire Giada episode we recreated, "Light and Delicious." And light and delicious it was.
HERE is the recipe to this scrumptious salad.

My recipe notes: next time, I would probably chop the fennel rather than slice it. I love the flavor, but it needed to be more mixed into the salad. The carmelized onions are so good - I could have just had a plate full of those!

Recipe: Herbed Quinoa

This is the yummy, yummy side dish to go along with Giada's salmon I just posted about. Cooking the quinoa in chicken broth and lemon juice gives it a nice fresh flavor. The fresh herbs add to it to make the whole thing simply delicious.

HERE is the recipe.

Recipe: Grilled Salmon with Citrus Salsa Verde

I can thank this recipe for inspiring me to experiment with new recipes. I saw this on the Food Network over Memorial Day and quickly made it for dinner that weekend. I love salmon in general, and this is simple, oh so flavorful way to make it. The citrus salsa verde was an excellent complement to the fish (and on chicken the next day).
Recipe notes: I omitted the capers because I don't like them, and I didn't use quite the full amount of parsley. Everything else was done exactly as Giada (who I have a new respect for after this recipe) instructs.

Get this recipe HERE.

Recipe: Grilled Vegetable Salad

This recipe comes without a picture of the finished product (sorry). That doesn't mean you shouldn't make it though. The Neely's are one of my favorites to watch on the Food Network because they are so cute and funny together. Oh and their food always looks wonderful. Who wants to go to Tennessee with me and visit Neely's Bar-B-Que??When I saw this on their show, I knew I had to try it. The recipe calls for feta, but they used goat cheese on the episode. I've made it both ways, and both are fantastic.

I have also made it with eggplant and zucchini - pretty much whatever vegetables you have would be delicious in this. I didn't use as much olive oil as it calls for, but followed everything else pretty much as directed. Grill your veggies, pour balsamic vinegar, garlic, & oil on top, and toss with cheese and fresh basil. It doesn't get much better than that. Super easy, and incredibly flavorful.

Get this recipe HERE.

Recipe: Shrimp & Feta Tabbouleh Salad

This recipe comes to you courtesy of Women's Health Magazine (we need a healthy recipe after yesterday's). I have tried a number of their recipes, and they are surprisingly good. This one is my current favorite because salads like this are the perfect summer meal.I cheated a little with this one and used quinoa rather than bulgur, mostly because that's what I had (and because quinoa is one of my new favorite foods). Precooked frozen shrimp from Costco make this meal a piece of cake. It is very flavorful, and keeps well in the refrigerator for a few days.

Find the recipe (and the picture that I stole) HERE.

Recipe: Chocolate Nutella Molten Lava Cake

Today's recipe might be my new favorite dessert. Everyone needs a good dessert every once in awhile, no matter how healthy you are trying to eat. Next time you decide to treat yourself, do yourself a favor and make this. Be prepared - it is very rich. I made these last night and I'm still full. The recipe makes 4 individual molten cakes. I cut the recipe in half to make 2. I could have just made one and split it and it still would have been more than enough. Yep, it is that rich (this coming from a chocoholic).
If you don't know about Pioneer Woman's Tasty Kitchen site, you need to check it out. You will find this incredible dessert HERE.

I didn't have fresh strawberries (for probably the first time all summer...thank you Costco), so I thawed some frozen mixed berries (again, thanks to Costco) and sprinkled chopped hazelnuts on top. Warm and gooey deliciousness on a plate. Enjoy!

Recipe: Spicy Chicken Stir-Fry with Peanuts

I got an email last week with "meals for one" and thought this looked good. I have made it twice since. HERE's the recipe.

Some adjustments I've made to the recipe: I had sugar snap peas, not snow peas, so I used those. Since I am trying to eat more veggies, I added yellow and orange pepper. I used a green jalapeno pepper, lots of fresh basil, and also added halved cherry tomatoes. The second time I also added fresh cilantro at the end. It was good, but I actually think I liked it better with just the basil, so there weren't too many competing. Next time I will try to throw in some sliced green onion. Here's the best part - at the end, when I squeezed the lime juice onto it, I added 2 tsp of PB2* instead of the chopped peanuts - YUM! Just enough of the peanut flavor without all the calories/fat! I served it with a little bit of leftover rice that I had in the fridge. It was delicious. If you like Thai food, you should totally try this.

* Never heard of PB2? Check it out (and buy it) HERE (and thanks to ANNE for introducing us)!

Recipe: Open-Faced Turkey Avocado Burgers

This is the perfect recipe for a weekend BBQ. The recipe actually calls for ground chicken, but I substituted ground turkey breast (NOT ground turkey, just a personal preference), since I already had it in my freezer. (this will change the nutritional information - for the better - on the link I'm including). I thought I had the nutritional info for the sauce, but I must have written it down in the magazine. Email me if you're really interested in it and I'll dig it up. While the grill was on, we grilled corn on the cob and asparagus (one of my absolute favorite grilled veggies). The other recipe we used was one from Giada, for a Parmesean Broccoli and Cauliflower Salad. It was ok, but not my favorite. I made it a few days later just roasting the veggies in the oven, rather than trying to coat them in parmesan and cook them in olive oil (it just seemed like the veggies soaked up the oil when we did it the way the recipe called for. Plus I don't like frying vegetables anyway). It was much better this way. The dressing was really light and good though - and a great way to get lots of veggies in one dish.

Back to the main course though - the burgers. HERE is the recipe. I have made these a couple times now, and the flavor in the burgers themselves is just fantastic. I love when four ingredients are all you need! Ground turkey breast, parmesean, pesto, and garlic. YUM! A few tips. The avocado spread is good, but it makes a ton (you would have to slather it on to use all of it in 4 servings - no wonder the calories/fat are so high on the site!) and doesn't last long, so keep that in mind. I think you could get away with cutting it in half. The second time I made these, we just sliced fresh avocado instead (always a good choice in my opinion). And, I firmly believe that fresh mozzarella makes anything better, so how can you go wrong? For my local friends: Wegmans bakes an awesome fresh Italian bread that you should definitely consider using for this. It is also good sans the bread. Serve with a caprese salad on the side (or on top) and you're in for a treat. Now if only I had my own garden to grow tomatoes (and a number of other things)...

For those interested in the nutritional information, for the burger only (not including any toppings): 174 calories, 5.6g fat (1.7g sat), 59.3mg cholesterol, 236.8mg sodium, 1.7g carbs, 0.2g fiber, 0.3g sugar, and 28.4g protein

Recipe: Mahi Mahi Fish Tacos

It was never a deliberate decision I made to stop blogging, but it happened anyway. I'm still alive. I bought a new (to me) car, since after the tree incident my car decided it hated me (maybe one day I'll post that drama). I've been to 3 new baseball stadiums (both the new Yankee Stadium and the Mets Citi Field last summer, and the Minnesota Twins new Target Field last month). Life is good.

But let's not get too carried away thinking that I'm actually going to start writing about my life online again any time soon.

One week (over Memorial Day weekend), I was sick. My head hurt so bad that I couldn't even read, or really do anything other than lay on the couch. Naturally, I watched/listened to a lot of the Food Network, and when I started feeling better, I made a list of a bunch of new recipes I had to try. Some of them are just too good and I simply must share them with anyone who is still reading my blog (all two of you)! I have quite a list, so I'll start with one of my absolute favorites, courtesy of Bobby Flay. Just looking at the name of it makes my mouth water:

Grilled Mahi Mahi Tacos with Red Cabbage Slaw, Tomato and Avocado Salsa and Pineapple Hot SauceLet me warn you, this recipe takes awhile to prep. But it is worth every single minute. Honestly. The charred pineapple-habenero hot sauce might just be a staple in my kitchen now. Recipes like this make me never want to order fish tacos at a restaurant again!For the recipe, click HERE. Enjoy!

The Sky is Falling!

Henny Penny will always have a new meaning in my life. Sometimes the sky really does fall. Or, trees from the sky I should say.

Last night Jenny and I were driving to a friend's house for a birthday bbq. Lawyers Road is a windy road, but nothing out of the ordinary for Virginia. Pretty, isn't it?Pretty until I tell you that the tree laying on the side of the road attacked my car a few minutes earlier! We'd had a huge thunderstorm about an hour before we left, but now it wasn't raining, and it wasn't even windy. Literally out of nowhere, a tree fell on top of my car. It all happened so fast that I don't remember seeing it coming (not that I know how anyone could have, it was seriously a split second), nor did I really have any reaction time to freak out. So, I didn't even slam on my brakes or anything, but I just kept driving. That instinct could have very well saved me from causing an accident, since there were two or three cars behind me. Oh, but now there was a tree blocking the road. I pulled off onto the next block, tried to slow my now pounding heart a little, and we got out to assess the damage.

Another car behind us had already moved the tree from the road, and that was that. Later when we went back, I honestly couldn't even tell where the tree had fallen from. It didn't look as big as it felt as it hit my car (and no it didn't break in half when it hit my car, but when the person had to move it out of the middle of the road, at least I think that's what happened..,), but that doesn't take anything away from the damage it did - and you can see exactly how big it was by the dent in the roof of my car.I have no doubt that there was Someone looking out for us though - the tree literally hit my car in the small space between the windshield and the sunroof. It must have bounced off right away because it didn't hit anywhere else on my car. I wish I could have seen a video of this (then again maybe some things are better left unseen).A couple of inches in either direction and it would have hit glass, and I don't even want to think about what could have happened then! As it was though, we were completely ok. My car, on the other hand, came away with a few scratches ... You can see just how close to the sunroof it came in this picture -Yes, my car is dented in, but both Jenny and I were fine (other than the fact that my back is hurting today) and it does kind of make a good story.I called my insurance right away, and I have an appointment on Tueday morning to get the damages appraised at a body shop. And so the fun begins ...

Wow.

Pathetic. Sad. Embarrassing. What do all these words have in common? Adjectives that could be used to describe my blog, that's what! Oh well, I have neglected my blog. So what? That doesn't mean I have been hiding in my room, doing nothing. Sometimes you just have to "take a break" so to speak. And so take a break I did. I'll post some pictures soon, I promise. Because let's be honest, a blog post without pictures is hardly a blog post at all. No one wants to read my rants and raves. Probably no one wants to see my pictures with commentary either though, which leads me back to the reason for a "break."

In all actuality, you should be grateful that I don't have pictures of some things though. Like what??

1. The ants that decided to invade my kitchen. I think its under control now though. I HOPE so at least.

2. The squirrel that I chased off of my deck yesterday. He apparently managed to chew through the garbage bag on the deck, and proceeded to pull out a ziplock baggie of something that he found tasty enough to rip into and eat while I watched him. Gross. Those dang garbage can lids just keep disappearing. Someone told me if you spray ammonia on your trash, the squirrels will stay away. I think a trip to Target is in order!

3. The chipmunk "trap" that my co-worker told me about at his house. If I see one of those at my house, look out little chipmunks. Don't mess with me. I know your weakness and am not afraid to exploit it.

One day I'll download some pictures and post something a little more entertaining. Hopefully not rodent-related.

Spring Training!

And just like that, baseball is back. Hooray! Last weekend I headed to Florida with Jenny, Katie, & Courtney for a baseball trip. And when I say baseball, I mean baseball: 5 games in 3 days. It was awesome.First stop: Atlanta Braves vs. Toronto Blue Jays, at Champion Stadium, the spring training home of the Braves - at the Disney Sports Complex.
We started off our trip with lawn seats and enjoyed every minute of the Florida baseball and sun. Some of us a little more than others (more on that later).That night, we headed to Lakeland, home of Tigertown, to see the Detroit Tigers take on the Tampa Bay Rays. We had bleacher seats for this game, but they were so crowded that we found a nice spot on the grass in right field to enjoy the game.The game was great, and it even got a little chilly that night. The stadium was packed - I guess there's not much else to do in Lakeland on a Friday spring night! Halfway mark: Houston Astros vs. Philadelphia Phillies. Jenny's team - and they were great. The game was probably the most exciting one of the weekend, and it didn't hurt that we had seats about 10 rows behind home plate.The Florida sun sure beat down that day - we were sooo hot by the time the game was over!! Thanks to the burn on my legs/feet from the day before, I spent most of the game like this ...Nice, huh?!? I kept getting comments all weekend about my sunburn ... and I'm really not sure how it happened that I missed that entire part of my legs. Oh well. It looked a lot worse than it actually was.

Next up: New York Yankees vs. Cincinnati Reds in Tampa at the Yankees Steinbrenner Field. As much as I hate the Yankees, they sure know how to make things nice. Their spring training facility is nicer than some of the MLB parks I've been to. And they even won their game. I did find it odd though that when they sang the National Anthem, only 5 Yankees were lined up outside of the dugout, and 3 of them were coaches. As opposed to the almost entire lineup of Reds. Hmm. Oh and Richard Gere threw out the first pitch - that was entertaining. Speaking of entertaining, here's a shot of my sunburned legs enjoying the game ...
Katie's parents came to the game with us, and since her dad is a huge Yankees fan, I had to pretend to be happy that they won...it didn't work out so well.At least the game ended with a bang:
On our last day, we went back to where it all began only two short days earlier: to see the Braves take on the Yankees. Unfortunately, they couldn't win. Why is it that when I go to spring training, when the Braves had the best spring record going into the weekend, they lost both games I saw them in? Hmm. I guess that's nothing new as a Braves fan, but still. How cute is this little boy though? He's holding the foul ball that his dad scrambled to catch for him. Lucky kid!Spring Training in Florida? Awesome! Baseball, friends, sun, and every night when we got back to the hotel, we watched NCAA basketball games before going to bed. It really doesn't get much better than that!

Round 2: Greensboro

Saturday, March 21: Luckily for us, the games in Greensboro weren't slated to begin until 5:45p on Saturday night, so we didn't have to wake up at the crack of dawn and start driving. We took our time and arrived in Greensboro late afternoon-ish to meet Sharyn's brother at a little sports bar/pizza place for dinner before heading to the Coliseum. One thing is for sure: Greensboro is not a happening town. On the flip side, however, the Coliseum was incredible. UNC Tarheels fans dominated the entire arena. Light blue was everywhere. I haven't been to a sporting event that LOUD in a long time (ok the World Series was...!) and we loved every minute of it.

UNC-LSU was first. LSU kept the game a lot closer than I thought they would, but UNC dominated as the game went on. The crowd was electric, and we had so much fun. After the break, the Duke-Texas game begun. In my naivete, I was surprised how few Duke fans exist. All the UNC fans turned anti-Duke for the second game, and cheered for the Longhorns. Despite their efforts, however, Duke prevailed in a closer-than-expected game. I was a little nervous at the end when Texas came within striking distance, but Duke held out and won the game (and kept my bracket alive).

Being in North Carolina for March Madness was phenemonal! Definitely something you just can't explain in words, and I'm so glad I was able to experience it. What was less than phenomonal was our estimation of how far Richmond was from Greensboro. Pulling in at 3am was not in our gameplan, but we survived.

Round 1: Philadelphia

Thursday, March 19: NCAA Tournament begins. I headed up to Philadelphia with Chris & Josh and a group of other Cougar fans. We were thrilled when we got our tickets and found out that we were about ten rows from the floor. The excitement didn't last must past the introduction of the players and the first 3-point shot by BYU, which ended up being the only time they were ahead in the game. They were pathetic. Not that I was surprised, but I hoped they would at least put up a better fight - or some kind of fight! They kind of forgot to show up - at all.

We stayed for the UConn v. Chattanooga game (which made BYU's game not seem so bad) before heading into the ghetto otherwise known as Philly for cheesesteaks. And getting a parking ticket when our meter expired 9 minutes prior to our return. That's just the kind of day it was. At least I was with good friends to laugh about it with!

March Madness

Long before Selection Sunday, I decided that I wanted to go to March Madness this year. A few friend were on board, and we bought tickets to the Greensboro, NC round. Why Greensboro? Because the Philadelphia tickets were sold out. And Greensboro wasn't. Fast forward to Selection Sunday ... who is playing in Greensboro? Round 1: UNC/Radford, Duke/Binghamton, Texas/Minnesota, and LSU/Butler. Fun teams to watch! The plan was to sell our Thursday tickets and go to the Saturday games. With that lineup, we figured it shouldn't be that hard to execute our plan.

Until...BYU was slated to play in Philadelphia, and most NCAA Tourney-goers were heading to PA, not NC. It is closer, after all, and Cougars will follow their team anywhere. Myself included.

I think I called, texted, and/or emailed everyone I knew to see who wanted the tickets. But to no avail. Nothing seemed to be working, no one seemed to be able to take work off and go to the games, and we started to feel mixed emotions. Sure, we were out the money for the tickets, but more than that, we didn't want them to go to waste. Four games in one day? Someone needed to be able to experience the sheer excitement of that!

Wednesday night, 8:25p: I came home from running a few errands, and upon turning my computer on, noticed a message on Facebook from my friend Trevor. Trevor and I met at Duck Beach about three years ago, he lives in Raleigh, NC, and I completely forgot that the day before, I'd sent him a message to see if he or any of his friends were interested in the tickets. He asked if I still had the tickets, and gave me his phone number. I promptly called him to touch base. Yes, I still had the tickets. The question was could I find a way to get them to him by the next morning? The last FedEx pickup by my house was 7p, but I knew where the FedEx building by the airport was. I wonder if I could take it there?! I told him I'd do some legwork and see what I could do, so hang tight. And text me a shipping address, just in case. And this is what ensued:

I grabbed my purse (which had the tickets in it), and ran out the door after the 30 second update to Jenny, who was on her laptop looking up an address to call me with so I could get on the road and head in the general direction I thought I should go. I stopped by a FedEx Kinko's to get the packaging, got Trevor's text with his address, told him to pray that this worked, and filled out the label while I drove. Jenny called, gave me the address, and told me their last pickup was 9p. It was 8:40p. I punched it into my GPS and drove. Exited into a very dark business park, and drove until I was instructed to make a left turn. Into a parking lot with security gates, and a sign that read "delivery trucks and security passes only." Hmm, not a good sign. And no FedEx in sight either. A car came the other direction. I hung up on Jenny, and jumped out of my car to flag him down as he sped by me. Luckily, he slammed on his brakes, reversed, and rolled down the window just enough for me to see his dark sunglasses covered face. I asked if he knew where the FedEx place was, he naturally didn't have any idea what I was talking about, since this was the FAA building where he worked. Even if there had been a FedEx drop, I wouldn't be able to get in because this is a secure building. I told him the address, he didn't know what to tell me. Thanks anyway! I got back in my car, freaking out now that it was 8:50p and I was so close, yet so far away. I drove across the street into another "private property, no tresspassing" sign. And then I turned the other direction. Literally, out of nowhere, appeared the FedEx building, with a giant semi pulling out. I parked and RAN in, and must have looked pretty ridiculous since the two guys manning the counter were laughing at me. I said "do you know how hard you are to find??" They laughed and said "were you using your GPS?" Yes, I was. "Do you want to know why it doesn't work?" Yes, that would be nice. "That building over there is CIA, and they have all the satellite signals blocked." Huh, that makes sense. At least there was a reason! Then one of the guys said "and hey, you still have 5 minutes to spare! If you would have been here an hour ago, your package isn't going out for another 5 minutes anyway." WHEW!

Signed, sealed, waiting to be delivered. I got back into my car, took a deep breath of relief, and called Trevor to let him know he'd better call his three closest friends and tell them what they were in for on Thursday. After all of that (I felt like I was on The Amazing Race or something), I can't believe it actually worked!

What would we do without Facebook and FedEx??

My Baseball Book.

This is the reason that I neglected blogging for so long. I started on it when I was home for Christmas, and then spent hour after hour of late nights and early mornings creating, editing, changing, and fine-tuning this book on MyPublisher. This was my life for the entire month of January, and into early February. After I received it, I decided to take a break from staring at the computer screen for so many hours!

Every hour was absolutely worth it. I love, Love, LOVE the finished product. It is fun to have all my baseball memories (through 2008 anyway) all in one place.

If you are interested in viewing it online, click HERE. If you want to see it in person, let me know!