Shortage

I may have to blame Lauren on this one.

The other night, we met up at her place before running with her Team Challenge friends.

Because what good dish doesn’t start with sauteed onions and peppers?

It was after work and before dinner, so I walked into her apartment and almost died (it seems I’ve lately had a flair for drama).

“Oh my God, what is that smell? It smells SO GOOD in here.”

She had made tacos.

The only real seasoning used for the ground beef was Trader Joe’s taco seasoning. That stuff is cheap and amazing.

I instantly needed them in my life. Because I also realized later, while running with the group and hungry for dinner, that my trips for late night mexican after the bars have been at an all-time low. Concerning. And in need of correction.

As soon as possible.

When it comes to Mexican, I’m truthfully more of a loaded nachos/quesadilla/burrito/enchilada kind of gal. Or, in other words, I don’t like taco shells.

Everyone together now! Peppers, onions, black beans, corn and ground beef. My thinking? The more vegetables you throw in, the healther it becomes. So have at it!

They’re too crunch and messy and I’m too OCD for that nonsense.

Plus, I’m already a walking disaster. Who needs mexican food stains all over their shirt on top of that? Not this girl.

And because I sometimes have issues with wrapping burritos like a super star, I took a road less traveled and made a southwestern calzone.

Because sometimes a little mozzarella goes a looooong way. Bake those wrapped up babies just as you would a normal calzone – 350 degrees for 15 minutes. BAM.

Plus, on top of everything else, I just really love braiding the dough to make it look pretty.

Aesthetics are key.

Topped with salsa. Avocado would have been fabulous had I not forgotten to pick one up at the store…

And since wine seems to go well with traditional calzones, why not pair it with a southwestern variation?

Sure. A margarita or a beer may have gone better. But the wine bottle was open.

And I don’t discriminate.

The shortage of mexican (ish) food is no more.

Crisis adverted.

Whew.

Burgerfest Knockoff

We had a lot of fun at Roscoe Village Burgerfest on Sunday after Mon’s birthday dinner.

However, one little detail I didn’t mention was that Bailey and I also went on Saturday.What can I say? We love the streetfests. And when the fest has food in the names? Even better.

However, B and I are on a budget. Like always.

So we look for ways to save.

You can sort of tell I didn’t do a good job at mixing in the soy sauce and worcestshire sauce in evenly. Don’t worry. No one noticed after they were done.

Obviously we didn’t want to skimp on the drinks at the fest. So we made it work by starting our Saturday night with a Burgerfest knockoff celebration in our own apartment.

We decided to sautee green peppers as a burger topper. Because they’re delicious. But it’s possible it was also because the green peppers were going to go bad in another day or two.

I grew up on a farm. I have access to beef products pretty much whenever. Why go buy it when it can be made at home?

That’s what I thought.

Turns out my Tater Twister also works on sweet potatoes. Curly fries make everything more exciting.

Getting the burgers together was a simple process.

Mostly because I often open the refrigerator/pantry and just wing it.

1 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoons worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon chipotle powder
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
salt and black pepper to taste

The curly fries were made in the same fashion as a few weeks ago. Don’t fix it if it ain’t broke.

BBQ sauce and Munster was also involved. Just like the green peppers, it just happened to be what we had on hand. Worked out well…

The smaller buns were the deciding factor to create ”sliders”. They’re totally cute that way. And I’m all about cute things.

The one challenge? We may have set the smoke alarm off at one point. This involved frantically opening the doors and windows and fanning the air around the alarm to make it stop. In front of the new neighbors. Who are of the male variety. Who happened to also be having a party at that exact time.

Sigh. I told you I was awkward.

Anyway…

Turns out, it was best that we ate and had a drink or two before leaving for the street fest.

It only took a whole 30 minutes before things got nutty. We were desperate to watch Rusted Root play. But after waiting 30 minutes for a beer, feeling somewhat claustrophobic, taking 20 minutes to get from one side of the street to another…

It was bad. As much as I wanted to hear “Send Me On My Way”, getting swallowed by the crowd wasn’t worth it. So we went on our way to a bar up the street.

Instead of getting beer and sweat from random strangers all over me, I got to color. In a booth. With lots of personal space.Who doesn’t love coloring?

So maybe our entire weekend spent at Roscoe Village Burgerfest wasn’t a complete win. But we still got our burgers and beer.

And that’s what matters.

Better Than Drive Thru

 

Wanna know one of my favorite things?

Cookies. Obviously.

But you knew that.

I’m talking about another one of my favorite things.

Curly fries.

Do I have your attention now?

They really are. The one and only bar in my town makes the best ones. Of all time. They’re seasoned to perfection and made with love by the lovely Miss Kitty. Arby’s comes in at a close second. I suppose they’re not so much made with love, but rank because of sheer convenience. Less than 5 miles away vs. 500. Makes sense.

But if I take my already precious time to drive to the nearest Arby’s, I’d totally also pick up who knows what and spend who knows how much and the whole ordeal would assumably escalate very quickly.

We try to avoid that. Because this is a healthy living blog, yo. Not to mention this healthy living blogger works on a budget.

Plus my car is still at the shop getting that battery taken care of. So the drive thru thing isn’t feasible at this moment in time.

So no curly fries for me???

No worries! I have the solution!

A family that likes to share.

My roommate isn’t the biggest fan of potato skins. So we compromised. Because that’s what roommates do.

Along with the bag of zucchini came a similar bag full of potatoes when my mom came to visit a couple of weeks ago.

Best invention ever.

Add in the 15-year old tater twister contraption I swiped from the house over Christmas, and you have a recipe for success!

Well that and seasoning. It’s important, too.

I went with chili and chipotle seasoning. And some garlic powder. No worries, I have plenty of mouthwash and no dates lined up for the weekend. It’s safe.

After googling a million different instructions (yes, that many), I decided to throw caution to the wind and just throw the seasoned fries in at 400 degrees. I stirred them around at every 10 to 15 minutes until the roomie and I just couldn’t take it anymore at 40 minutes.

A shake of parmasean makes them fancy…

They were done and seasoned beautifully, I might add.

Sure, next time I’ll restrain myself an extra 5 minutes or so, or maybe cook them at 425 degrees because I prefer fries a lil’ crispier. But this time? Still delicious and a successful first attempt.

They were the star of the veggie medley thing that was going on for dinner.

Because sometimes veggies are all you’re hungry for while watching really bad reality television.

They were oven baked to perfection and didn’t come with weird cheese from a tub. Way healthier than the drive thru. Suck it, Arby’s.

Happy Friday everyone! I’m off to google a place with a patio and a good beer selection. Huzzah!

TV Night Comfort

May is a wonderful month. In Chicago, it seems to be the time when people start clawing their way out of their caves to participate once again in outdoor activities

We’re happy to have survived the 7-month winter. Happy to dine al fresco with friends. Happy to expose our glow-in-the-dark skin in hopes of absorbing a little vitamin D. Happy to run outside versus inside the funky-smelling gym alongside the meatheads and cardio queens.

We’re so freakin’ happy.

However, with all this activity going on outside of the home, it’s only natural there are consequences.

Like season finales.

This was the first time I’ve ever tried to make zucchini “pasta”. Or ribbons. Whichev. Either way, the vegetable peeler was involved and it slightly terrified me. I don’t do well with bloodshed.

The last two weeks have been devastating. All my shows are slowly drifting away. And I do not like it. What am I supposed to do all summer without Marshall and Lily? Sheldon? Jess and those three crazy kids she lives with?

It also doesn’t help that many of my finales this year have been absolutely heart-wrenching.

There’s no need to show raw chicken cooking. So I didn’t. But then I took the same pan (sans chicken) and sautéed the artichoke hearts. It’s all about the flava’, ya know?

Seriously- what is that about?

Turns out I had more zucchini “ribbons” than originally anticipated. Lucky for me, they shrank down a little in the pan with the artichoke hearts that had already been cooking up for a few minutes.

I’m not even going to get near what happened in Grey’s last night. Heaven forbid I ruin it for anyone. I’m also a bit embarrassed to admit my groupie status on this one. Thankfully, I wasn’t in it alone because my girls Kelly and Laura sat through it with me via text.

A new wine I tried from Trader Joe’s. Broke it out during the cooking process. Because after my horrid commute, there was no way I going without. Had two sips and realized there was a bad cork and the wine was ruined. Sadness. Thank goodness I had plenty of backup!

But I will tell you viewing the episode required this:

Pretty, yes? A combo of whole wheat pasta, zucchini ribbons, chicken, artichokes and black olives. Plus a little too much parsley. That was an accident…

Pasta and alcohol.

Comfort food and drink. They helped soften the blow. Sort of.

Guys. I am so distraught.

This really was good. And not too different from when I normally make pasta- with fewer calories because a lot of the pasta was swapped out with zucchini!
Too bad I had to enjoy it between waves of nausea. Thanks, Grey’s…. ugh!

Thanks ABC. You’ve RUINED MY SUMMER.

Alright, fine. That’s maybe a bit dramatic.

Thanks ABC. You’ve RUINED MY WEEKEND.

That’s better.

Luckily, I saved some of that pasta for lunch today.

I still need it.

Too bad the wine bottle didn’t also fit in my lunch bag.

What tv shows are you sad to see go for the summer?
Also, if you do watch Grey’s, PLEASE don’t give away too many details. I know a few people who are saving it for the weekend and I don’t want to ruin it for them!!

Times are a Changin’

Happy Monday!

Wow. Considering the time change really screwed me out of a full night’s sleep, I’m quite perky.

This is weird.

But understandable. I am in the beginning of a 4-day work week. Never a bad thing.

And I really don’t mind Monday. It’s a day of recharge, reset and general detox.

Instead of this:Not a healthy diet does champagne and cheap beer make.

And after a day of indulgence in the two (and fourth meal at a late night mexican spot like I said we always do), all I really want to do is feel refreshed. Solid breakfast. Salad or soup for lunch. A dinner that doesn’t involve grease. 

My insides cry tears of joy when Sunday rolls around. It’s a beautiful thing.

Getting the “living in excess” out of my system is important. At least for a few days.

Only problem is I’m SUPER lazy on Sundays.

Enter frozen food. And whatever else is in the refrigerator. In this case, it was all the necessities for a super bomb turkey sandwich.

Shout out to Mizzou and their #2 seed! Woot woot!

On toasted wheat. I really only like bread toasted.

And you know I’m right when I say toast is one of the best smells in the entire world.

No really. It is.

Oh and yes, I’m trying to bring “super bomb” back. So far it’s not working. What gives?

Through the Foodbuzz Tastemakers program, I got the chance to try out something of my choosing from Alexia’s frozen foods.

This is one of the first times I’ve ever made my own frozen fries. Not sure why I never buy them for myself, but it’s possibly because they’re viewed as a “treat” and order them when eating out because they’re “just not the same”. I’m weird. 

But I’ve seen the light. These were delicious. Alexia does good work because they way more crispy than I assumed they’d be- considering they’re baked, not fried. My mistake.

Kinda like the mistake I made by freaking out and spending a solid 5 minutes trying to figure out if the time on my alarm clock was the right one or not.

It was. I panicked for no good reason. Typical.

Some things never change.

Just a hint of hot sauce…

There’s one really really evil thing about the tradition in my house known as “Slowcook Sunday”.

The smell.

Elixir of the gods. And when I say a "hint", I really mean a full cup of it when you double the recipe. Weeeee!

It fills the entire house. So imagine my dismay when I arrived back home after a day of store returns (ahem… and more shopping) and I got smacked in the face with the wonderful smell of buffalo chicken soup. And there was still about 3 hours of waiting around until dinner time.

The longest part of assembling this recipe was cubing and cooking the chicken. There's a LOT of chicken involved. Yay for protein!

3 hours. That’s a LONG time when you’re hungry and the only thing you had for lunch was a gigantic cookie from Nordstrom’s Ebar.

Don’t judge me.

I'll admit- it's not the prettiest soup there is. But don't judge a book by its cover. Personality-wise, this soup is the sexiest thing to ever grace your plate. Muy caliente!

Anyway, this soup was SO good, guys. SO good. Probably one of my favorite things we’ve made lately. And that’s really saying something because the roomie and I are self-proclaimed cononisseurs of the crock pot.

Oh and it is high suggested you top it off with Trader Joe’s cheese and garlic croutons.

Perfection. That is all.

With a beer on the side. If there’s any kind of soup that would be paired well with beer, this is it. (Can someone say “good super bowl recipe”?)

I couldn’t resist. I don’t expect you to, either.

So click HERE for the recipe link (this isn’t so much a suggestion, but a demand).

The only adaptions we had were the elimination of celery and the switching in cheddar cheese for the velveeta. Both (the celery and velveeta) gross me out and give me icky feelings on the inside.

Also, check out the rest of the blog where I found the recipe- this chick made something in her crock pot every day for an entire year.

Needless to say, the roomie and I will never run out of things to attempt for Slowcook Sunday. Ever.

Also, be sure to chug a glass of water before and after dining. Because this stuff as a serious kick. And may or may not have a weeeee bit more sodium in it than your normal eats. You’ve been warned. And advised. Chug-a-lug, kids.

We pigged out ate white watching the SAG Red Carpet Show. You’d think this would have slowed my eating down.

It didn’t.

However, the soup was also taken down for dinner last night.

The cauliflour was roasted. Not moldy. Promise.

It lead to me doing situps, pretending to do pushups, and planking my way through a good part of last night afterwards as I watched The SAG Awards Fashion Police. All after a 4-mile run (8:18 pace!).

Because I really need to focus on being red carpet ready. This should help for when, oh you know, Jason Segel and I start dating…

Can’t Resist

Sundays are meant to be enjoyed.

How you enjoy them are completely on you.

I tend to spend mine doing the things I do best.

A low key workout… Catching up with my dvr… Reading…

And consuming every single cookie in my sight.

After making another giant cookie for just myself, like I did last week, my friend Annie called to see if I wanted to go out and grab something of a sugar-infested nature.

Who am I to turn that opportunity down?My just “going along to grab some coffee” turned into picking up a small butter cookie and then helping Annie finish off a giant piece of carrot cake.

Never say no to dessert.

No really, I mean it.

That philosophy is also one of the reasons I spend so much time at the gym. But whatev.

Another philosophy of mine is to spend as little time in the kitchen on a Sunday as possible.

Enter more crock pot greatness.Funny how I just said I never eat steak and here it’s making a second appearance in less than a week.Straight from the farm. It’s how I like my beef but not my boys.

The cookbook was broken open once again- we used a steak dumpling recipe as a guideline for our own concoction.Minus the celery, of course. Because no one actually likes it. Fact. We also switched out the “dumpling” part for noodles. Because noodles look fun. We had them on hand. And the point is to be lazy. They won out by a landslide.

While I was out getting coffee and cookies, this bad boy did work. And I came home just in time for this:From what I’ve experienced, 4 hours seems to be the magic time for potatoes and onions to cook to perfection.

And yet again, a successful meal that required little more than throwing together a bunch of things from the refrigerator/pantry. A successful meal to be enjoyed while watching 4 football teams you could care less about.

Yeah. I said it. My focus has already switched to basketball. Go Bulls.

Happy Monday everyone! I’m especially happy because the snow is slowly disappearing and the temperatures don’t make me hate life. That single digit crap was really working my last nerve. As was seeing all the yellow snow in my dog friendly neighborhood.

Is it Spring yet?

Bending The Rules

Hi folks!

You didn’t get my normal “Happy Friday” post and I feel sort of bad about that.

Hopefully you managed. I was a busy girl, being as how I was bending rules everywhere I went.

First off, I totally blew off any idea of working out yesterday morning. That extra 90 minutes of sleep was fun.

Truth be told, I had been saying Friday would be a rest day all week. But secretly figured I wouldn’t be able to sleep in all the way to 7:00, so the Jillian Michaels Yoga dvd was prepped. I’d still call it a rest day, too, because I really don’t take yoga as seriously as I should.

At least I’m honest.

Either way, I surprised myself.

Earlier in the week, it was decided to slim down the pantry/freezer a bit in order to save myself a trip to the grocery store for the week. It was going really well, too. Then, the roomie and I decided we want to bum around Friday night instead of be social.

Which only lead to the decision of cooking and ordering red box.So I picked these beauties up at the grocery store.

Oh how I love cheese…

The roomie had no issues. Obviously.

Neither did this lady:Hey girl! Heeeeey!

In order to make the amazing mozzarella-stuffed meatballs by Picky Palate, hands got dirty.I seem to have lost my grocery shopping skills because the recipe calls for onion and hot sauce. I knew this. And forgot.

There was no choice but to go rogue and use the recipe as a “guideline”.

And hope that Megan, in all her culinary glory, would not shake her finger at me in disapproval.

Or at least hope she wouldn’t find out about my onion/hot sauce “whoops”  until after the fact. Like right now. When she’s reading this.

Sorry Megan…Did I just catch you staring at my balls?

They still turned out ok with a few things missing. Or at least I think so.

Another rule broken? It was discussed in the mini “brain trust” of a few other lovely bloggers (hey girls, heeeeey!) to somewhat abstain from alcohol in order to detox and make ourselves that much more fabulous over the holidays. I already had plans for tonight, so I figured I should be dry the rest of the week.

Let’s get real.How am I supposed to eat pasta without the red? You tell me.

Right. You can’t.

Besides, Megan brought a bottle. And I’d hate to be rude…

However, Jess did propose a “pinky swear” to be allowed to enjoy a drink or two (or three?) as long as we were to “bring it” at the gym today.

And that, my friends, is one promise I plan to keep.

My gym tennies are on right now, matter of fact.

So I should probably go…

and do that…

It’s MY Kitchen

Hola kids!

How’s the lazy Sunday going?

Mine is fab. As usual.Any day that starts with alphabet pancakes is fab in my book. (And yes- I heart Sheldon)

Hannah was the friend who usually crashed at our house in college and would break out her breakfast-making skills amongst the beer bottles and cocktail glasses from the night before.

Turns out she’s still got it.

In this instance, I mixed the pancakes and turned over the batter to her. She makes a pretty awesome mickey mouse pancake, too…

This is really saying something about her skillz. My roommate hardly cooks, so it’s pretty much considered MY kitchen. Letting other people mess around and use it takes a lot for me. It’s mine. Don’t touch.

Like on Friday night- I had complete control of the kitchen and made chicken artichoke calzones!I’m not overly exciting when it comes to cooking (since I’m more of a baker). So when I break this out, you know it’s a big deal.

Or actually, I guess it was more “assembling”. Because really, it’s all the ingredients I put on a pizza. Just instead, I put it IN the dough.And made it all pretty. The braiding thing was learned from my obsessive browsing of Pinterest. I like it because it’s super easy but looks way impressive.

When boys come a callin’ again, guess what I’m serving? 

Check out that cheeeeese…. yeah buddy.

Hannah also had really good timing with  her trip up to see me. She was my fill-in date for a Second City comedy show.

Yes. I had bought the tickets. And not all the people they were intended for were going to be able to use them.

I also haven’t made mention of the man friend.

I’ll let you piece together that puzzle.

But no worries! We had a fantastic time watching one of my friends perform in a skit for the Second City Training Center. Who knew my friends were so talented???

After a few good laughs at the show and a nice cocktail or two, I can say, without any hesitation, it was a successful weekend.Now if only I could get more people to relocate to Chicago…

Breakfast First-Timers

When friends come into town, the one thing I’m always set on is making at least one big breakfast.

Not only is it the  most important meal of the day, it’s my favorite and, as my friend, you have to deal with it.

As soon as Laura planned her trip for last weekend, I started planning meals. Yes. I’m a nerd. But it’s a characteristic I’ve embraced.

Not sure why, but frittatas always make me a little nervous. Maybe because there’s a lot of stuff that goes into it. And if I screw it up, there’s wasted time and a hungry houseguest to deal with.

No pressure.

Given that Laura is one of my best friends and has to love me no matter what, along with the fact that I’m a cereal hoarder (as backup), it was the perfect time to give the frittata a shot.

And also time to break out the heavy skillet that used to be my grandma’s.I like to think it helped the meal be a success- quite a few meals have gone through this pan. Lots of love. Patience. And lard.

Laura, conveniently sedated with coffee, gave me free reign on the mix-ins for the frittata. So onions, olives, ground sausage, spinach, and mushrooms were thrown in. My standards.Along with 6 eggs (instead of the instructed 5 from the recipe). Because I added A LOT of stuff.

Later on, decide to add a 7th one after you pour the egg mixture in and realize it’s still a little packed all up in the pan…See? Packed.

Cover the dish while on the stove top??? Oh crap! This pan was probably purchased during the Great Depression. Did they make lids back then???I’m so clever.

Another 20 minutes in the oven and I took this baby out to test.Or, in my case, cut a million times because I’m terrified of not having it bake all the way through.

Because the sausage had been heavily seasoned with taco seasoning (it was thawed from a previous use) and I salt and pepper were in the eggs, no other seasoning was required. And we were both pleased. The eggs were perfectly baked and fluffy.And the cheese was nice and melty. Breakfast of champions who are about to take down some serious shopping…

That cake-like bread next to my frittata in that sad-looking picture is sprouted bread from Manna Organics. They were so kind to send some my way to try out.Who am I to pass down carbs?

I’m not. And last week there was a shipment at my door of 4 loaves of this stuff!

Anyway, the first day I had them coincided with a day where I was chillin’ with Mon, so we tried out the Sunny Sourdough with our turkey sandwiches:Yes, there’s turkey under that slice of provolone. I swear to it.

I really liked the pairing- mostly because I prefer dense breads with the whole grains and all the good stuff vs fluffy/airy. It crumbled a little easier than most, but it was a good change up.

So my opinion was already favorable when breaking into the sprouted bread during Laura’s stay.

The Sunseed was the first to be opened.The texture really is like cake and the poppy flavor is dominant and very evident in the first bite.

Even though it seems like cake, the ingredient list makes me feel about 10x less guilty about eating it for breakfast- no salt, oil or sweeteners. It’s also packed with fiber and protein. An all around win.Even if you spread a lil’ cream cheese on top…

Or peanut butter.

Or just eat it plain.

I’m knowledgeable on all these options. Which is why the sunseed bread is no longer.

There are two more loaves of this stuff chillin’ (literally) in my freezer. Waiting to be had.

Move over oatmeal. I’m having an affair with Manna Organics for the next week or two…