Quick (and Healthy) Dinners

The last two nights I've stuck to the healthy meals plan, even though I am seriously starting to crave some fattening food. Here are the last two dinners I made. Last night I made some salmon, which I marinated in a quick marinade (peanut oil, sesame oil, chili oil, rice vinegar, soy sauce, garlic and pepper). I baked that at 375 for 10 minutes. While the salmon was marinating I baked a potato in the microwave and chopped up some veggies. I sauteed some mushrooms in a little bit of butter and garlic. I sauteed some zucchini in a little bit of peanut oil, salt, and red pepper flakes. It was about a 30 minute meal and there was enough to save half for another meal this week.

Tonight's meal was a little weird. I make a spinach salad that I really love with baby spinach, Sesame Ginger dressing and pancetta. I was really in the mood tonight for a BLT, but I don't have iceberg lettuce or bacon. I did have all the ingredients for the spinach salad, though, so I combined them to make what I call a Spinach Salad BLT. I had a package of pre-chopped pancetta and popped the pancetta in the oven at 400 for 7 minutes. While that cooked I put two slices of oatmeal bread in the toaster oven. Then I whipped up a quick salad dressing: peanut oil, sesame oil, rice vinegar, garlic, and pepper. While the marinade is mostly oil, the dressing is equal parts oil and vinegar. Then I dressed the spinach and let it sit to soak in the dressing. I sliced up some tomatoes and put salt and pepper on them. Then I spread some mayo on the toast, put some pancetta bits on top, tomato slices on top of that and finished with the spinach salad. I had some pita chips and hummus as a side. I was a little wary of how this was going to come out, but it was actually really yummy. I would definitely make it again. I guess the healthy meals are going well. I just wish in between healthy meals I could have some chips and dip and easter chocolate and still be able to get into my pants. ::sigh::

Babies!

So as a BzzAgent I was alerted that there's this new movie coming out that I *might* like. If you know me, you know that I am baby obsessed and it's all I can do to not have a baby as soon as possible. But you know career goals and a need for money keep getting in the way. ::sigh:: So this new movie coming out has me very excited. I already spend many of my lunch breaks watching "A Baby Story" on TLC and this does it one better by looking at babies in different cultures! Check it out:

Healthy Lunches

So I finally had some free time today after I finished running my first batch of analyses. I ended up making some pasta salad and fruit salad for the week. The pasta salad recipe is from the food network: Whole Wheat Pasta Salad. I followed that recipe exactly. I made the fruit salad out of watermelon, strawberries, tangerine pieces and grapes. I always pour a little orange juice into my fruit salad to make some extra juice.

For lunch I grilled some spinach and feta chicken sausage and had the pasta and fruit salads as sides. My grocery store always has a variety of sausage flavors and this is one of my favorites.

Yes, that's mayo on the plate. I know it's not healthy, but I need to dip. Like I said I'm really a big sauce person. I'm still trying to work on healthy snacks. The meal thing has gone well so far (yea I know it's only been 3 days), but I find myself craving snacks during the day and plain almonds have not been cutting it. I'll keep you posted.

Exhausted From a Day of Running Analyses Dinner

So I've been working on my dissertation all afternoon (and was up early working on a midterm for my class). Hence I'm exhausted. Mentally drained. I wanted something quick and super easy. I picked up some swordfish yesterday and whipped up a quick marinade inspired by my stir-fry sauce (olive oil, chili oil, sesame oil, rice vinegar and soy sauce). Marinated the fish for about 15 minutes, then sprinkled with cracked pepper. Baked at 450 for 15 minutes.

While that was cooking I sliced up some hot peppers, onions and yellow squash. I cooked that in some peanut oil, salt, pepper, garlic and a splash of white wine.

Topped the swordfish with a mango salsa prepared by my grocery store. Dinner in 20 minutes. Given that I'll be up super early tomorrow continuing the dissertation analyses, that makes me a happy girl. Now I can spend the rest of the night watching LIFE (if you haven't seen it on Discovery Channel yet- You MUST!) and with some coffee flavored frozen yogurt for dessert.

Quick, Healthy Dessert

The original recipe called for figs, which I couldn't find- so I just used dried plums. Dried plums, with a dollop of ricotta cheese, topped with honey and crushed pistachios. It was a little tart, with the plums and ricotta, but I think you could make up for that by using more honey if you wanted it sweeter. All in all a quick and healthy dessert.

Stir-Fry

Quick post, since I'm writing as I'm cooking. For healthy dinner #1 I'm making stir-fry. I followed Pat's recipe (You know of the Neely's: the cutest tv cooking couple ever. They just seem so in love and use cooking as a bonding experience. I think they're adorable.): Chicken & Broccoli Stir Fry.

I added some extra veggies: zucchini and mushrooms. I also made a double batch of the sauce. (I love sauce. Plus I knew I was making rice and I like extra sauce to mix in with my rice.) I also added 1 tbsp of chili oil to the sauce, since I found a bottle in the Asian section of the grocery store today and thought it would be good extra spicy.

For a side I made Near East Sesame Ginger Rice Mix.

I paired it with a Cherry Wheat Sam Adams, since I had one at BWW the other night and it was magically delicious. (Sidenote: The Cherry Wheat did NOT mix well with the stir-fry. Hence I stuck it in the freezer for after dinner).

The rice was really moist and flavorful. The stir-fry was really good. The sauce thickened up really nicely and was spicy and delicious. Not sure if it really was the healthiest meal, but it had lots of veggies, so let me pretend.

The "Need to Button My Pants" Diet

So the past few weeks I have totally given up on my healthy eating habits. You can see that I haven't posted much in terms of recipes, mostly because I've been too lazy to cook. I have seriously eaten either Taco Bell (Nachos Bell Grande... with extra jalapenos) or Wendy's (Spicy Chicken Nuggets with Cheese & Bacon Baked Potato) almost every day for lunch. As a result I have not been able to button a single pair of jeans since in almost 2 weeks. While I was home I went out to dinner and had to unbutton my pants after I sat down and then sneakily button them again before I got up. Sad I know. So in order to rectify this problem I have decided to go on the "need to button at least one pair of jeans by the end of the week" diet. I have come up with a list of healthy meals (including lots of salad, fish and chicken) and just went grocery shopping this morning to buy the ingredients, as well as some healthy snacks. I also went to the farmer's market to buy a whole bunch of fruits and veggies. Finally, I picked out some exercise (mostly yoga and pilates) dvd's from Netflix. I am determined to fit into my pants darn it. I'm moving in 2 months and definitely don't have money to buy a new wardrobe. I'll keep you all posted on the recipe outcomes.

My First Restaurant Review

Exciting I know. So after a week of begging Chris to come out for Indian food with me I finally did it. And I may have used a bit of manipulation, but I think that could be debated. I actually ended up painting him this very adorable picture of us sitting in a corner of some sexy, steamy restaurant and feeding each other with our hands. Obviously it didn't quite go down like that. Although in my defense I did not promise it would. I simply "imagined" out loud how romantic such an Indian meal could be.

Regardless, it worked and we got to go for Indian last night. I love Indian food, but don't have it very often. He has not had it before, but was under the assumption that he would not find it very appetizing. Therefore, I did my research beforehand, because I knew that if I didn't pick a good place we would not be going out for Indian for several years after this. Luckily I came across a place that had great reviews (by both critics and patrons).

We got there and the decor was slightly disappointing. I mean it was very cute, but I think I actually started believing we would be eating in some steamy, sexy restaurant with bright, plush fabrics and comfy little couches. The food, however, was delicious. They have some signature cocktails, I got a Rose Margarita (yummy and strong) and Chris got a Taj Mahal beer which he sang praises about all night. We ended up going with the Masala Dosa as an appetizer (which came Martha Stewart recommended) and was a big delicious crepe filled with potatoes and peas. It came with a three different sauces. For dinner we shared the Chicken Vindaloo and Chicken Masala. I kind of wanted to get a lamb dish, even though I don't usually eat lamb, but my guilt overcame me and I couldn't do it. I just kept picturing cute little lamb babies. Both chicken dishes were really yummy though. The vindaloo was spicier than I expected. They had warned me it was spicy, but I've had vindaloo before and thought I could take it.

Thankfully the water lady was spot on. Anytime my water glass was less than 3/4 of the way filled she was there filling it up. She must have come filled it at least 10 times. It was great. Because the worst thing when you are eating spicy food is to be out of a drink and unable to find the waiter to refill it. I think this was my favorite thing about the restaurant. My face lit up everytime she came by. The service was fabulous. For dessert I tried the milk patties, which were in this AMAZING sauce. Like to.die.for.

Overall, it was a really delicious meal, great service and Chris ended up really liking it. Genuinely. He cleared his plate and had seconds and thirds. I guess we'll be having Indian food in our future regardless of the lack of sexy, steamy decor. Although, if anyone actually does know a great Indian place with sexy, steamy decor let us know; we'll have to check it out. ;)

Hospitals and Ice Cream...

So we had a bit of a rough day on Tuesday. I took Rae in to get her Bordatella and Parvo boosters in the afternoon. I'm always hesitant about this, because when she was a puppy the first time I brought her in to get her vaccinations she went into anaphylactic shock and scared me half to death. The vet figured out that she was allergic to an ingredient called Lepto in the Parvo vaccine. Since then I always speak with the vet before doing that booster to remind him and she's never had a problem.

This time was no different. I reminded the vet and he assured me that the vaccine was Lepto-free. I assumed we were good to go. Since her birthday was yesterday, post-vet I took her to Pet Smart to pick out a toy. We then went home and I started doing work, she played in the living room with the squeaky sheepy toy she picked out.

A few hours later she jumped up on the bed and I noticed she looked really weird. Her face was SUPER swollen. Her snout was so swollen I couldn't lift her lip up to look inside her mouth, she had big bumps on her head and when I lifted her up I saw she had hives all over her belly. Naturally I panicked. This was around 7:30pm when our vet was already closed so I called the Small Animal Emergency Clinic in town. They started to ask me questions about what was going on, but a few minutes into the conversation I started panicking that if things got worse we should really be at the hospital, so I just stopped them and said I was going to bring her in.

When we got to the clinic they immediately took her back into "triage" and said that I had to wait out in the waiting room. I was not happy about this at all, but I wanted them to hurry up and take a look at her as soon as possible, so I agreed. A few minutes later someone came out to take a history and then the wait began. It took almost an hour for someone to come out and give me any information. My anxiety reached new highs. I began to think of all the worst possible scenarios. I truly consider my dog to be my first baby and I could not bear to think of not being able to take her home healthy and happy. When they came out they let me know that she had some kind of allergic reaction to the shots and they had to give her antihistamines and steroids to get the swelling down. They also tried to cool her off since the hives made her skin really hot. Luckily no anaphylactic shock though; her vitals were fine.

I was able to take her home and called the vet the next morning to get to the bottom of it. Apparently she may just be allergic to something else in the vaccines now, so we're going to have give her Benadryl before doing all vaccinations and do all shots in the morning so she can stay at the vet as a precaution during the day.

I'm just thankful she's healthy and happy. She turned 4 years old on Thursday and has brought more happiness and companionship into my life these past four years than I thought imaginable. We celebrated with a bit of vanilla ice cream and of course her new toy. Happy Birthday Roo!!!

Sheepy present!

Dairy Queen celebration!

Cutest baby ever!!

Oscar Dinner: Zuppa de Pesce

So Zuppe de Pesce is one of my faves. I make some version of it every Christmas Eve and fairly often throughout the year. I am a big seafood person and like to play around with different recipes and different types of fish. Tonight I made Giada's version in honor of the Oscar's. I did work all day, so that I could relax tonight and watch the Oscar's (and red carpet pre-show) with a glass (or two!) of wine and a yummy dinner. Giada calls her recipe Ligurian Fish Stew. I followed the recipe pretty much, but I substituted a cup of chicken broth for the cup of water. I almost always do that, as chicken broth always gives whatever you're cooking more flavor. I also only used 1lb of Cod and used .5 lb of mussels instead, because I can't make zuppa de pesce without mussels. I heart mussels. I also added a bit more red pepper flakes, because I like it spicy. I thought this recipe came out really well, but you can always play around with it: different veggies, herbs and fish. The musts are garlic, some kind of broth, tomatoes (always use San Marzano's) and white wine. The crostini came out yummy too. It's always important to have some kind of bread to dip. All in all a yummy Oscar meal. My belly is fuuuullllll. :)

Go Sandra!!!