Something may need to give?

This first month of school has flown by! Not only that but school has almost been an afterthought. The coursework has been pretty light, we haven't had many assignments, and I have a lot of other things going on!  Currently I'm training for the triathlon, taking 6 classes, work as an independent contractor for two different consulting firms, and have a Graduate Assistant position through my program. Occasionally I attempt a social life.

Unfortunately it's all about to get a bit more crazy. We have a few big assignment/exams coming up between Feb 20th and Feb 28th. Plus training ramps up to 6 days a week soon.

Oh, and I'm about to start a new internship...in Baltimore...

It's possible something may need to give?

***

In less stressful news...

I made this for dinner...and it was delicious

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Training plan - off

My plan - reintroduce strength training to my life (I've been bad about this since starting the triathlon training!)

Actual - reintroduce strength training to my life...tomorrow.

I eat like a kindergartener

Ideally I eat every 2 to 4 hours. Basically I'm hungry every 2 hours, try to make myself wait 3 hours to eat and can push it to 4 but I might not be any fun to be around. On weekends in addition to my constant snacking I often eat a "snack lunch."

Basically eat a lot of little things instead of one meal like a sandwich. Today was turkey with laughing cow cheese, PB2 with Wasa Crackers and an apple with cinnamon and sugar (ok - splenda baking blend but whatever).

You might have noticed I called my Friday lunch a "weekend" lunch. One of my favorite things about my grad school is that we never have classes on Fridays! So may weekends generally begin at 9am Friday morning.  One would think they begin Thursday evening, but you would be wrong. I often have to attend meetings at the hospital from 7am until 9am.  Not an ideal start to your weekend, but I'll take it.

To be fair, I often spend my Fridays (and every other Monday when we also do not have class) getting all my work for the week accomplished.

Training plan - off

My plan - first it was strength training, then it was at least an hour on the bike, then I thought maybe yoga

Actual - a whopping 3.47 miles on the bike; a good 15 seconds of yoga #trainingfail

Turkey Veggie Chili Win, Blogger Fail

So Monday night I made a pretty darn good Turkey Veggie Chili. About halfway through eating it I realized...I could brag blog about this! Unfortunately it was too late to get any good pictures of the chili situation so use your imagine (hint - it looked like chili)

Turkey Veggie Chili
Adapted from: Bethenny Frankel's Ultra-Healthy Mexican Chili

Ingredients:
1/3 medium red onion, chopped
2 tsp oil
1/2 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (optional/varies based on spicey preferences!)
Salt and pepper, to taste
3 cloves garlic, mined
1/2 to 1/3 red bell pepper, chopped
14.5oz can of diced tomatoes
1/2 cup baby carrots, chopped
5 oz ground turkey breast

Directions:
Over medium-high heat, saute the onion and carrots in a nonstick pot in the oil
Add the chili powder, cumin, cayenne, salt & pepper
Stir in the garlic and bell peppers, cook until peppers are soft (about 5 minutes)
Stir in tomato sauce
When all the vegetables are soft, add the turkey breast (about 5 minutes)
Let the chili simmer for at least 15 minutes, longer if you stand it.

Serve over brown rice with sour cream & cheese

I've made many variations of this recipe and I love that it's super flexible! Change up the meat (I've used chicken, I bet buffalo would be great as well), mix up the veggies (zucchini? sweet potato?), I've also served over Bulgar instead of brown rice...

Updated:
Training plan - off

My plan - off

Actual - Pretty sure I'll stick with the plan today!

What is a rabe?

I don't think I realized, until this weekend, that people don't know what broccoli rabe is. Growing up in my Italian family I always assumed everyone had sauteed broccoli rabe at dinner. Granted when I growing up I refused to eat said broccoli rabe, but I knew it was there.

Apparently it's not a common dinner side dish? Who knew!

This hit home for me this weekend when I made Red Wine Pasta with Broccoli Rabe and Sausage. I also served it with Stuffed Artichokes and Garlic Bread. I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off as  I prepped this meal so I'm lacking in photographic evidence. Fortunately Jenny stepped in and snapped a few.

 Early in the day when I was less frantic I prepped my veggies.

 And cooked up the sausage early to throw in with the pasta. I blanched the artichokes and sat them out to dry.

 I mixed up a stuffing of bread crumb, cheese, parsley, (lots of) garlic and black pepper.

 Stuffed artichokes ready to go into the oven!

 Annnd stuffed artichokes out of the oven. I love these suckers. I need to start making them more frequently.

 Also - garlic bread.

 My friends snacked on the garlic bread and stuffed artichokes while I finished up the pasta. Fortunately I always over cook! The guest list crept up to 7 people and I still have leftovers.  I think 7 might be the max I can have over in my current apartment before we run out of dishes!

 Possibly one of my favorite things ever. Olive oil, garlic and pepperoncino crushed red pepper.

 Pasta boiling up in red wine

This is where my pictures end. Eventually the broccoli rabe and sausage get together with the red wine pasta and even into a serving bowl.

Update: How could I be so remiss as not to mention the dessert Jenny so deliciously provided!

Our group benefited from Jenny's excess buttermilk situation in the form of a Blueberry Buttermilk Cake. She even went above and beyond to top with a buttermilk glaze. 

 

My cakes never come out this easily!

Delicious!

***Also***

Did you notice I added a new page to my blog?  The Road Trip 2011 page has the details for my October road trip. I still very much need recommendations! I'll be updating the page as I receive recommendations.

Poll Results & Road Trip Recommendations Needed!

Ok so I'm pretty sure the title of the blog post gave it away but...I'm going on a road trip!!  It wasn't so much decided by the poll, but it is nice to see at least some of my readers support this decision!

Jenny and I booked our flights from Las Vegas back to DCA a few days ago. We will figure out the rest of the coming weeks. The nice thing about this trip is that we can be super flexible (if we were flexible people, we're not. We're planners).

Below is what I know of our itinerary. Please help us fill in the gaps! We would love recommendations on places to go, things to do, sights to see, food to eat, etc! I would even consider not staying at a Starwood or Hilton if there is a interesting local hotel you might suggest.

Also - if you're free Sept 30th through Oct 9th and want to join us - let me know!

September 30th - DC to Charlotte
Time in car:  6 hours 51 minutes
Place to stay: Jenny's house
Things to do:
Sights to see:
Food to eat:

October 1st - Charlotte to Nashville
Time in car: 6 hours 36 minutes
Place to stay:
Things to do:
Sights to see:
Food to eat:

October 2nd - Nashville to Little Rock (with a stop in Memphis along the way)
Time in car: 3 hours 29 minutes to Memphis; 2 hours 18 minutes to Little Rock

Place to stay:
Things to do:
Sights to see:
Food to eat:

October 3rd - Little Rock to Oklahoma City
Time in car:  5 hours 29 minutes
Place to stay:
Things to do:
Sights to see:
Food to eat:

October 4th - Oklahoma City to Albuquerque
Time in car:  8 hours, 40 minutes
Place to stay:
Things to do:
Sights to see:
Food to eat:

October 5th - Albuquerque to Flagstaff
Time in car:  5 hours 0 minutes
Place to stay:
Things to do:
Sights to see:
Food to eat:

October 6th - Flagstaff to Las Vegas
Time in car:  6 hours 16 minutes
Place to stay:
Things to do:
Sights to see: Grand Canyon
Food to eat:

October 7th & 8th - Las Vegas
Place to stay:
Things to do:
Sights to see:
Food to eat:

October 9th - LAS to DCA

Friday Night Dinner

For the last 3 weeks when Jenny and I got together for our Friday night dinners they largely revolved around shrimp. I got it in my head that I would introduce Jenny to the wonderful world of scallops. At some point in the week I decided dinner had to include risotto. I haven't had risotto in a while but I couldn't decide what kind to make. I've made cheesey risotto, butternut squash risotto, mushroom risotto, etc. I did a quick search for risotto recipes and scanned down the list until I found a recipe for Red Wine Risotto and Peas. It seemed reminiscent of one of my favorite other recipes Red Wine Spaghetti with Broccoli Rabe (I throw sausage in as well which I think makes it perfect). I decided to go with the Red Wine Risotto and Peas. The recipe calls for 1/3 cup of frozen peas but as I was prepping the ingredients I decided that was definitely not going to be enough, so I threw an extra cup in.

The recipe starts out in the best possible of ways...melt 3 tablespoons of butter!

 Add a cup of chopped onion.

 Toast a cup of arborio rice for about 2 minutes.

 And follow that up with 1/2 a cup of red wine. Stir until absorbed. Add 3/4 cups of warm chicken broth at a time, stirring until absorbed, add the next 3/4 cup of chicken broth...repeat as necessary.

 Eventually it will look like this!

 

 Hmm. Maybe the extra cup of peas was overkill??

 While the risotto is finishing up I threw the scallops in a pan with some butter.

 I think the 1 1/3 cups of peas was the right call! 1/3 cup of peas would have gotten lost in there!

 Plating expert I am not!

 Jenny may not feel the same way about scallops as I do...more for me!

A very delicous whirlwind

This weekend was a whirlwind! A very delicious whirlwind! Friday night Jenny made a delicious Thai shrimp dish in the Littler Kitchen that Does Okay. This was our third Friday night dinner and next week is my turn! I'm planning to introduce Jenny to the wonderful world of scallops. Right now I'm thinking some sort of risotto (potentially butternut squash) and scallops but I'm open to suggestions.

More to come on Saturday's adventure in the next few days. Saturday night we made our version of burrito bowls which I may or may not have eaten for lunch on Sunday and for dinner tonight. (Note: "our version" is significantly healthier than Chipotle's with white meat chicken, reduced fat sour cream and cheese and brown rice...or at least that's what I keep telling myself).

Sunday was all about the food. Jenny came over around 1pm for lunch we didn't leave the kitchen until we sat down for dinner closer to 7pm. Jenny made Rosemary Olive Oil bread, Bolognese Sauce and Tiramisu. I slacked and just made gnocchi.

I had never made gnocchi before and was kind of intimidated but it was easier than I thought it would be! Definitely time consuming, but less so than making regular pasta. 

I roasted the potatoes at 400 for about 70 minutes until soft. Once the potatoes were done I removed from the oven and peeled the skins off.

After removing the skins I mashed the potatoes with my newly purchased masher. (The recipe called for pressing the potatoes through a ricer but I figured the masher would get slightly more use beyond the gnochhi).

After mashing I spread the potato mixture on a floured surface and drizzled an egg plus egg yoke and tsp of salt over it, followed by about a cup of flour.

I mixed all the ingredients together and continued to add small amounts of flour until no longer sticky. 

I divided the log of dough into eighths (the recipe called for fourths but I don't have that much counter space!) and rolled the dough. It's like play-doh for grown ups!

The last step is to cut the rolls into 1 inch pieces and place on a floured baking pan. The gnocchi can sit for up to 2 hours before cooking. 

Don't be fooled by the tulips on the table. It's not spring here. It snowed here this weekend!

Dinner was delicious and was the perfect opportunity to break in my new serving bowls and carafe.

Head over to the Little Kitchen that Could for more details!

Good Food, Bad Photography

So I'm back from vacation. I had a great trip and amazing weather nearly the entire time. Reality was a little harsh when arrived to DC to find cold, rainy weather. I'm sure there will be a few more posts in the days to come but in the meantime I'm sharing some of the photos of the various meals I made while in South Beach. I love to cook and was trying to be somewhat fiscally responsible so I made most of my own dinners. 

I picked up some great tilapia filets. The first I pan fried with an Old Bay/Cayenne/Panko crust.

The next night I also made tilapia but this time around I seasoned with salt, paper and a garlicy/lemon spice mix. I placed the fish in a casserole dish and topped with a little butter and lemon and baked until white and flaky. This was my favorite of the two fish dishes!

When my friend Jenny arrived I made us a taco dinner. I marinaded the chicken a "mojo" marinade and served with sauteed peppers and onions, cilantro, salsa, lettuce and rice.

We had so much cilantro left over we decided to give Cilantro Pesto a try. Frankly this was my least favorite of the bunch, although I did like it and continued to eat it for lunch. I think the aesthetics of it kept me from loving it. I kept thinking it looked and should taste like basil pesto and was ever so slightly disappointed it wasn't actual basil.

I'm going to miss having time to cook nice dinners!

Cilantro Pesto

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When I'm not working II

My cousin Bobby came up from North Carolina for the weekend and Bobby, my other cousin Victor and my sister Emily and I spent lots of fun, quality time together!

We went out to dinner Friday night.

Played pool and shuffle board later that night.

Saturday we went down to Quantico and met one of my cousin's friends, ate Greek food and saw the real headquarters of NCIS.

EDIT: apparently I got too excited about the NCIS building and jumped the gun. Not the headquarters. (Thanks for raining on my parade vic).

Saturday night we went out in Adams Morgan.

Sunday we ate Mexican food and went to go see Cedar Rapids (really funny).

Also...this happened...

After the movie we went back to my house where Emily made us a delicious Sunday night sauce dinner.