A recap of this past weekend. It was awesome. It was seriously just a fun, relaxing weekend with friends/family. Andrea, Tony, and myself headed to Naperville on Friday night to meet with Lori and Scoot (who came from Chicago). The ride down was pretty uneventful, thankfully. We didn't run into much traffic at all, which is surprising. But once we arrived, we headed to the grocery store to get snacks and beer before Lori and Scoot arrived. Watched some Family Guy and got acquainted with Scoot's 5 cats. FIVE!!!!!!!!!!
Scoot and Lori arrived about an hour later and we were all pretty set to go out. We ended up going downtown Naperville (which is totally cute!) and pretty much just went to two bars. Lots of drinking/singing ensued and before we knew it, it was time to go home.
We get back to Scoot's condo and apparently I was on a mission to get pizza. But, that isn't easily attainable in Naperville. 459 calls and an hour and a half later, we had a $37 pizza delivered. Disgustingly overpriced.
We wake up about 5 hours later and head to MKE. Lori, Tony, and I had a healthy cooking class to attend. It really wasn't what I thought it was going to be, but it was very interesting and surprisingly relaxing. The smells in the room where amazing! Our teacher showed us how to make Chicken Piccatta, a Salmon dish, and a thin crust pizza. I will put the recipes at the bottom of the blog.
After the class, we went to Hooligans to have some lunch. It was a bit cold (WHAT!? IT'S AUGUST!!) But actually nice to be chilly instead of sweltering. After some run ins with a couple hungry bees and inevitably LeeAnn, we headed back to Tony's to take a nap. Much. Needed.
After a two hour nap, it was back to game mode! We head around the corner from Tony's to Cafe Hollander. There, we ordered some appetizers and waited for Tivis and Beaky to show up! A couple Grimmbergens later and 1 or 2 shots, it was time to head home. Again, ordering pizza. I swear, I ate so much pizza this weekend and I'm not even a huge fan of it.
All of the food from this weekend was disgustingly bad for me, but it was so worth it. I knew heading into this weekend that I was going to just let go and get whatever I wanted, as Boot Camp started up again today!
Anyhoodle, Aaron and I stay over at Tony's on Saturday night and headed home on Sunday morning. From there, we just sat around for a bit, Aaron took a nap, and I had a nutrition seminar to go to. If the seminar wasn't free with my boot camp, I wouldn't have gone. There was really no new information....but there is a thing called EPOC that I found very interesting!
After the seminar, I came home to pick up Aaron and we went over to Kathie's. We had some dinner over there and just sat around and talked. Nothing special, but its definitely one of my favorite things to do on a Sunny Sunday!!
From there, I went to the grocery store. I had to pick up two items and while going past the medicine section, I stopped to check out Stop Smoking aids. I was just doing some research and checking out the price options for the patch vs. gum. Gum is way cheaper...but from what I hear, disgusting. I continue to the check-out sans anything for anti-smoking. Half way to the check out lane, I double back. I was thinking, "if I'm going to be starting boot camp again, that will probably help with any weight gain that I will have and it will just make boot camp easier if I'm not smoking". So I did it. I got the patch. Totally impromptu! I feel good about the decision, as I've been wanting to quit for awhile....but we're talking years and years of smoking!! I don't know if you have seen those commericals for quitting smoking, but I literally won't know what to do in the car or right after I eat! I'm so scared that I will mess up and let people down! (as I just got an email from Andrea saying that her friend from work will give me a prize if I quit for 6 months!) Ack!
Today was the start of boot camp again. Ashley, my trainer, is so very hardcore. She just got done running a 200 mile run relay in the Cities area this weekend. (WHAT!!!!????) But anyway, I don't remember the first day of boot camp being this hard last time. I suppose we are all, but one, return boot campers. I think she figures since we've done it before, we can do it again...but harder. We did our introductions like we did last time (Name and our boot camp goal), but Ashely made me tell everyone that I quit smoking so that they would give me support!! I thought that was so awesome!!! Its hard (as I want one right now...) but this too shall pass.
Well, that's all for now. Doctors appointment on Wednesday (ack!!!). Nervous about that, but will post how that goes.
Hope everyone enjoys the rest of their
And the recipes:
Recipes to Help You Build Muscle and
Burn Fat!
Naomi’s Chicken Piccatta
Ingredients:
3-4 oz. of boneless chicken breasts, thinly sliced or pounded down
1/8 cup of ground almond meal (other nut meal may be substituted)
Salt to taste
1 tbsp Italian seasonings
Non-stick cooking spray
1 fresh lemon or 3 tbsp of pure lemon juice
1 cup of white cooking wine
2 tbsp of jarred capers with juice
3 sprigs of parsley
Optional: Pat of butter or 2 tsp of heavy whipping cream for more texture
Directions:
Line a baking sheet with non-stick spray and preheat the oven at 325 degrees.
Take ground almond meal, salt, and Italian seasonings, and blend together with
fingers in a flat plate. Using a fork, pick up a piece of chicken and lay one side at
a time on top of the almond meal mixture, until it is mostly covered. Place the
chicken onto the baking sheet and repeat until all your chicken is coated. Place
baking sheet in the oven.
Note: Instead of baking, you can use a small amount of olive oil or olive oil spray
to coat a pan and pan-fry the cutlets. Only add small amounts of oil if the pan
dries. Just make sure the heat is just below medium. This ensures that the
chicken cooks through without burning the breading.
For the sauce, place small pan over medium heat. Once the pan is hot, spoon
the capers making sure to use as much of the juice as possible. Place them into
the pan. Pour the white wine into the pan and stir. Finally cut the lemon in half,
pit it, and squeeze one half of the lemon into the mixture or pour the 3 tbsp of
pure lemon juice. Stir until little bubbles form and then place on very low heat to
keep warm.
Once the chicken is golden on one side, flip it over and let the other side cook for
an additional 5 minutes or until the other side has browned. Remove the chicken
from the oven or pan and place into the sauce. Serve by placing the chicken on a
plate and pouring the remaining sauce on top. For an extra kick, you can grate
and sprinkle a little lemon zest and parsley on top of the dish. You may garnish
by slicing the other lemon half and/or by using a few sprigs of parsley.
Garlicky Asparagus
Ingredients:
About 10 fresh asparagus stalks, hard bottoms cut off
2-3 Cloves of crushed garlic
2 tsp of extra virgin olive oil
Salt to taste
Directions:
Heat olive oil in a pan over medium or medium-high heat. Once oil is warm (you
can tell when the consistency is much more fluid) add the garlic. Let the garlic
brown and crackle. You will smell the aroma and see a golden brown color when
the garlic is ready. Make sure not to burn the garlic or the asparagus will taste
very smoky.
Throw in the asparagus and cook for just a few minutes until it is warm and the
green color begins to pop. Sprinkle with a little salt to taste and serve with the
Chicken Picatta.
Pamela’s Version of Florio’s Salmon
Florios is a famous Italian Restaurant in Little Italy, NYC. BJ and I went with
some friends and we unanimously agreed that they had the best salmon around.
Our friend, Pamela put this together:
Ingredients:
12 ripe Roma Tomatos or 1 Jar of No Sugar Added Tomato Sauce
1 bag of frozen chopped Spinach
1 cup pitted Kalamata Olives
Capers to taste
2-3 Cloves of Garlic
Olive Oil
4-8 oz. of Salmon Filets
Directions:
Boil the Roma Tomatoes, just as the water starts to roll, drain and let them cool
a little bit. Peel the skin off the tomatoes. Dice half of the tomatoes, quarter the
other half, disguard the the stem part. Place in frying pan on low heat, lightly
drizzle with olive oil. Add Kalamata Olives, garlic and Capers. Let simmer for
about 2-3 hours, stir occasionally.
For those who want to cut down the cooking time significantly, you may use a
no-sugar added tomato sauce and add the olives and capers to it. Allow that
mixture to simmer for about 10 minutes.
While the sauce is simmering, you can throw the frozen spinach in a fry pan over
medium heat and allow it to thaw and cook. Once the spinach is cooked, transfer
¾ of the contents of the sauce into the pan of spinach. Place the heat on low
and allow it to simmer.
For 4-6oz Salmon fillets...
Lightly coat the pan with olive oil or non-stick cooking spray. Cook for about 4-5
minutes on each side in frying pan on medium heat or until the outside is a nice
golden brown and the salmon has a nice flaky texture.
Once cooked remove from the pan, cover the salmon in the remaining tomato
sauce. Serve spinach on the side.
Naomi’s Yummy Thin Crust Pizza
Ingredients:
2 tortillas (Aim for one with 4 or more grams of fiber per tortilla)
Cherry tomatoes OR marinara sauce
Diced grilled chicken
Oregano, salt, black pepper, Italian spices
Mozzarella cheese
¼ cup Diced peppers and onions
1 cup of spinach
Directions:
Preheat oven on broil to 375 degrees. Dice raw chicken into small pieces
about 1-1 ½ inches in length. Heat a skillet at medium heat and line with fat free
non-stick spray. While the chicken is grilling add salt, oregano, black pepper and
Italian spices to taste.
While the chicken is grilling line the tortillas with spray butter and 2-3 T of
sauce. (If you are using the cherry tomatoes, roast those lightly for a few
minutes until they brown and then add to the pizza) Keep the layer thin so the
pizza will not get soggy. Divide the spinach evenly between the tortillas.
While the chicken is finishing up, add the peppers and onions and mix a
few times for the next 2-3 minutes. Next, divide the chicken evenly on each of
the tortillas, and top evenly with the cheese.
Place in the oven on a baking sheet or pizza pan and broil until brown and
curled on the edges. Enjoy! Feel free to experiment with other types of cheese
and veggies.
1 comment:
Try to save the amount of money that you would be spending on cigarettes per week, and at the end of the month (or series of months, depending on the size of the self-prize you want to buy yourself) go buy yourself something you've wanted but haven't budgeted for... like for me, I'd save up for a Coach purse that normally I cannot rationalize.
Or, my dad would tell you to put the money into mutual funds. 'Cuz that's what he's always said to do with money :).
Good luck!!!!!!!!! You can do it.
Post a Comment