Most days I go about my business without much thought to my history. The days of bread lines and food stamps are long gone. I’m very comfortable in my home in the center of Boston, with every needed amenity within a few minutes of walking distance. And then something happens that reminds me of how lucky I am – most of us are – to have such simple things as running water, electricity and internet (and plentiful food). We didn’t always take those for granted in Kishinev (I specifically remember filling up buckets of water for showers and cooking – water outages were quite frequent) and I learned to appreciate them once again after the power outages this week. It was rough.

It was a gorgeous day in Boston when a transformer caught fire and contributed to a 15-block power outage in Back Bay. We were just 2 blocks away from the fire and had the largest impact. We had no power at all for 2 days straight and then we had random power outages (of course every time I was about to cook us a meal!) for the next few days after that. It’s crazy how much we rely on electricity these days! Besides the obvious (lack of light in the house so you can’t see anything, especially when even the street lights don’t work), there is no heat, no access to the fridge or stove top (which makes it really hard to stay on your diet!!) and no tv/internet (those were down for almost the whole week). We downloaded the flashlight app on our iphones to help guide us through the house, but after a while our phones died too (since you couldn’t charge them!). Pain in the butt for sure

I lived out of coffee shops, my parents’ and friends’ houses all week and I’m so so happy to be back to normal in my own home right now. Who knew that having power and internet would feel like such a treat?!

[Left: 2 standard pork chops; right: pounded chops]

Anyways, this recipe for Russian “chicken fried” pork has nothing to do with all that (I just wanted to vent ) but it’s a classic and absolutely delicious so you should make it! Otbivnii or betki are both common names for these guys and basically mean that the meat was “beaten” (aka pounded) into thin cutlets. You then dip them into an egg/flour batter and pan fry them. The result is a juicy piece of meat with a delicious eggy crust. It’s definitely a favorite!

Pork is sort of the “original” meat of choice but my mom tells me she recently started buying thin chicken cutlets and doesn’t even pound them. They are ready to go right there! Serve with a simple tomato/cucumber/sour cream salad (and maybe mashed potatoes) and feel like a cool Russian. I did

Open wide!

Printable recipe

Which ordinary thing are you thankful for having today?

So here we go – 3 new favorites from the past few weeks

Healthified zucchini bread from The Sweets Life

I made 2 loaves of this bread last weekend and have been enjoying a slice (or 2) each morning with some Greek yogurt and a cup of coffee. I can’t imagine a better breakfast to wake up to! This bread/cake is slightly sweet, moist and full of cinnamon flavor. And who doesn’t love hidden veggies for breakfast?

In the perfect world, I’d start my morning with the above zucchini bread and have these grilled pork chops with peppers and capers from Mario Batali’s Italian Grill cookbooksince these were the best pork chops I’ve ever made!!

The secret is brining the pork chops overnight (actually since salt is a preservative, I left them in the brine for a few days since I was too busy to cook – extra bonus points for ease!). You know how salt makes you retain water and bloated? Well brining does the same for meat. The water retention makes them super juicy!

These peppers with capers were fantastic as well – smoky and briny. Yum! And no, these aren’t onions – they’re purple peppers from the farmers market. Cool, right? I have not made one thing out of that cookbook that I wasn’t completely head over heals for. LOVE.

How about something packed with veggies for dinner? When I saw Ranjani blog about this grain salad with corn and poblano peppers, I knew those wheat berries all the way in the back of my pantry had to come out of hiding.

I will take advantage of the last days of summer, fresh corn, heirloom tomatoes, local hot peppers and all!

I went light on the olive oil, used goat cheese instead of queso fresco (when is goat cheese not the way to go? amiright??), added chickpeas for extra protein… and apparently forgot the toasted pumpkin seeds. Oops. (I didn’t miss them though)

I loved the chew from the wheat berries, the sweetness of the corn, spice from the 2 kinds of chili peppers and the wonderful garlic infused olive oil dressing the grains. It’s fantastic room temperature but even better warmed (the goat cheese gets all melty and seductive. Do it!)

Oh and as proof that I’m committed to reinstating some old favorites – here is an oldie but goodie. My favorite chocolate chip cookies. Everyone needs a go-to choc chip cookie recipe. Could this one be yours?

Get a little closer…

Hungry yet?

That’s a whole lot of favorites. What are your favorite recipes? Do share. And yes, I want details!!

PS – A new post on a summery Russian dessert is up on Russian Bites. Check it out!

SO, I’m currently on the Amtrak train to NY, where I’ll be spending the rest of the week (let me know if you want to meet up on Friday at some point!!). I originally told Adam about this business trip and the fact that I was going to stay over my sister’s for the weekend and he didn’t seem to be fazed by it… until he realized he was going to have to feed himself for 6 days! Ha!

He’s currently trying to be healthy so in order for him to avoid feasting on takeout every night (not good for our budget or his health), I told him I’d prep some stuff for him. I ended up being really happy with my super easy “meal plan” and thought I’d share it with you. This is how you make a week’s worth of food in just over an hour!

To make it that quick, you’ll need help though from your grocery store (I originally was going to roast the chicken myself and make homemade tomato sauce but we all know by now from my frequent absence from this blog that time is not typically my friend).

This is the stuff I picked up for the week:

A roasted chicken from Whole Foods (just $9.99!!), broccoli, Applegate prosciutto, 1lb of 90% lean ground grass fed beef. I also had a jar of tomato sauce and a tube of polenta in the cupboards and some carrots, baby spinach and dying asparagus in the fridge. Wraps, burger buns, pasta, cheese and condiments are not shown here. We had them at home (you probably do too!) and they will come in handy during the “assembly stage” but not yet.

I started by roasting some veggies. They make great sides for just about any meal!

[Carrots were tossed with coconut oil, salt and pepper; asparagus and broccoli with EVOO, salt and pepper. 425* until nice and toasty… that’s about 15 mins for broccoli, 20 for asparagus and 30 for the carrots. Toss occasionally]

Then it was time to jazz up the tomato sauce. Jarred tomato sauce with extra red pepper flakes, baby spinach and roasted chicken – let the sauce simmer with the mix-ins for about 10 minutes.

I also made some chicken salad (see below) and grilled the polenta rounds. Lastly that ground beef was made into some burger patties (to be frozen) [1lb beef with 2T ketchup, 1T Worcestershire sauce and 1/4t salt is my go-to burger seasoning – it makes the patties moist and flavorful].

Here we go – all done!

Meal #1: Roasted chicken with roasted veggies and fried potatoes (from last night’s dinner)

Meal #2: Pasta with tomato, spinach and chicken sauce (Adam will cook the pasta)

Meal #3: Chicken salad [chicken, reduced fat mayo, light sour cream, pinch of cayenne pepper, lemon juice, s&p + carrots]

Mix in sliced toasted almonds right before eating, wrap with tomato and avocado slices.

Meal #4: Grilled polenta with tomato sauce and prosciutto

This idea comes straight from Jamie Oliver’s Jamie’s Dinners cookbook. Actually the whole idea of repurposing a few ingredients for different meals (in this case chicken, tomato sauce and prosciutto) came from the book. Love Jamie and all his books!

Burger patties to be frozen and grilled on demand

Other meals… that Adam can handle on his own

• Prosciutto panini
• Chicken/avocado/tomato sandwich

Roasted veggies for sides

Snacks:

• Baby carrots with hummus (Whole Foods jalapeno hummus is our my recent obsession)
• Yogurt with homemade granola and organic blueberries (all washed, ready to eat)
• Fruit (organic apples, pears and bananas in the living room platter)

Oh and if you’re wondering what’s sneaking behind there in the photos… that would be parmesan thyme biscuits and maple walnut shortbread cookies I made over the weekend. No big deal

All together, ready for the fridge!

I had one happy husband on my hands! Now he has to report back on how everything was. I better not see greasy Chinese in his online food journal!

I need to do things like that more often even when I’m in town! What would you have made??

Since I didn’t cook dinner today, I figured I’d go through my photo archives and see if there are recipes I made (and photographed) that I haven’t shared with you yet. Lucky for me and you, there were quite a few… and after picking my favorites, I realized they were all Asian. Cool, we even got a themed blog post after all. Let’s pretend that was all planned. K?

BANH MI

This is one of our absolute favorite sandwiches. In fact, when Adam says… “You know what you haven’t made in a while…” I know it’s either a banh mi sandwich or a steak & cheese sub. I love recreating these at home because I can use humainely raised pork from our CSA and it really is quite easy (the veggies marinade for only 1 hour, the rest gets prepared during that time).

I stuck to the same recipe for the veggies and spicy mayo as last time, but instead of turkey meatballs I followed this recipe for the pork marinade. The result was delicious (and more like the traditional banh mis we’ve had) but we both agreed the meatballs felt a little more special. Next up, I’m going to try beef or pork meatballs for a slight variation on our favorite.

EDAMAME LO MEIN WITH SEITAN

Have you ever tried seitan (btw, how the heck do you pronounce that? I always want to say satan, lol)? I decided to give it a go a few months ago and while the flavor was definitely tofu-like, I thought the texture was reminiscent of chicken. Kind of fun for a change! I really enjoyed the edition of seitan to this simple recipe of edamame lo mein from Eating Well.

This tasted light and fresh. I remember really enjoying the dish.

HOT AND SOUR CHINESE EGGPLANT OVER BROWN RICE

When I saw these creatures cute eggplant, I was immediately brought back to high school when my favorite dish at Chinese restaurants was Chinese hot and sour eggplant (I thought it was healthy, ha!).

This of course led me to a little googling for a recipe and I came across this one. It wasn’t as saucy (or greasy) as my old favorite but the eggplant did soak up all that lovely soy sauce, vinegar and sugar.

It didn’t convert Adam to an eggplant lover but I was loving every bite.

And that’s all I’ve got for tonight!

PS – I have a bunch of Stonyfield/oikos coupons for free yogurt to giveaway. You’ll have to enter on Facebook.

PPS – There is still time to win a cookbook, if you’re interested.

See ya manana!

Sounds luxurious enough?

I planned the meal the night before and hit up 4 grocery stores the morning of (it was supposed to be just 2, but they didn’t have pork tenderloin at Whole Foods and I ended up driving around to 2 other stores until finally changing the menu to pork chops – you have to be flexible sometimes. I should have made this decision right away but sometimes you get married to the menu and it’s hard to let go. It actually ended up being better at the end. )

The loot:

The night before I also made a detailed list of everything that needs to be done, including specific times for certain steps (like “churn ice cream at 4:30″, “bake bread at 7″). This schedule was essential to smooth prep work since there were so many components to every item! Scenes from the day:

Don’t forget to stop for lunch! I was going at 100 miles/hour; my stomach growled around 3 and I realized I haven’t eaten since breakfast. You need fuel, even if you’re having a little too much fun in the kitchen.

Finally the guests arrived a little after 8. I had fresh bread ready (kept warm in the oven until they got there). The recipe for the hummus bread comes from my newly acquired King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking cookbook. I made the hummus myself, substituting white beans for chickpeas, and served the rest of the dip alongside the bread. This was my first attempt at making bread and I found the dough difficult to work with and very sticky. It turned out well though. The guests had no idea about my struggles earlier in the day.

I also decided to be a little more fancy (you may say “luxurious” lol) by making some roasted garlic and thyme butter (recipe here). I think flavored butter is always a little more special and it’s definitely a very easy way to impress your guests.

Since I was responsible for making all the dishes, timing was key. I knew the amuse bouche and the entrees will take a bit of time (I needed them fresh out of the oven!) so I plated the salad when the guests arrived but didn’t serve it right away. About 15 minutes into dinner, everyone got their own pre-portioned salad.

My inspiration for the salad was the one we had at Zuzu just days prior. I actually had Anne Burrelle’s raw artichoke salad recipe saved for months and thought it would be a great base for the salad. Unfortunately, baby artichokes and me just don’t get along (they didn’t shave properly – I was getting tiny flakes that just looked messy) so I gave up on them pretty early on. The shaved artichokes were pretty much a garnish in the salad at the end (each person maybe got 1 artichoke’s worth – if that). The salad was very well balanced, though – peppery arugula, sharp cheese, nutty pine nuts and a rich finish of truffle oil. I was pretty happy to see everyone clearing their plates (including veggie haters). [She pats herself on the back ]

While Adam was being a good host, I had to get back to business. I prepped the amuse bouche prior to everyone’s arrival but the little cups still needed to bake. The pork chops were also stuffed and wrapped but needed to bake.

The side dishes were made while everyone else was chatting up. I was all business (and yes, the kitchen was quite the mess at this point).

Hey, look what just came out of the oven!

Puff pastry cups with creamy mushrooms, thyme and peas. The stuffing recipe was based on this one (I subbed ham for peas). I made my own “cups” by slicing a sheet of puff pastry dough into 9 squares, rolling it out and stuffing it into the muffin pan. So rich and buttery. A nice segway from salad to the main course if I do say so myself.

In 15 minutes or so, everything else came together (and the chocolate cakes were ready to go in the oven). I served the stuffed pork chops to each guest individually (the recipe is exactly like this one but I used pork chops instead of pork tenderloin, baking the chops covered with wet parchment paper for 15 minutes and then uncovered for 10). The sides were served family-style.

Haricots verts with wild mushrooms and hazelnuts (recipe from The best of Cooking Light 9, special edition)

… and roasted cauliflower (recipe here)

A little more wine, please. Thank you.

Check out the pork cross-section. Mmm, goat cheese and pecans. Yum!

I especially loved the wild mushrooms soaked in the delicious red wine vinegar and EVOO dressing. Liz and I were picking them out of the large dish towards the end of the night. Hey, we’re still at home and we’re all friends (no need to be too fancy)!

No meal is complete without a fantastic dessert. This one definitely fit the bill!

The cake was based on this recipe (I baked them in my popover pan) and was just seriously mind-blowing. It tasted rich and decadent – the way a chocolate dessert should be. The butter pecan ice cream with candied bacon had the perfect cooling effect (ice cream base was a Ben & Jerry’s recipe, candied bacon recipe came from here). I decided to do the bacon twist to make this dessert just a little different. It added a nice sweet-salty component to the ice cream and was delicious although I think Ben & Jerry’s butter pecan ice cream is perfect on its own (so I actually wouldn’t mess with it next time).

What a meal! Happy bellies always makes for happy guests!

This was definitely the most involved, most luxurious meal I’ve ever made. My feet were burning by the end of the night (I was literally going non-stop for 12 hours!) but I wouldn’t change a thing. Being in the kitchen makes me happy and once in a while it’s fun to take it up a notch and make it fancy (yet still mostly healthy!).

What does a luxury dinner mean to you?

As you may have guessed, we spent most of the afternoon/evening trying to clean up the mess. We extracted over 10 gallons of water just out of our carpet in the hallway. Thankfully Adam built up this little barricade between the living room and hallway so at least it prevented the water from going too far into the rest of the place (our bedrooms are dry). Our living room floors are 100% okay (we are still trying to figure out whether there is a risk of mold growing under there, but the carpet is soaking wet days later. The shop vac is unable to extract that much water at this point so we’re not sure what to do.

Anyways, we’ll get through it, I’m sure. Maybe we’ll at least become friends with our new neighbors out of this. They were extremely helpful – unclogged the sewer drain, brought lots of towels and around 7pm on Saturday even brought us dinner, fresh out of their oven. How incredibly nice is that?!!!

We weren’t going to stop until the mess was cleaned up, but when she came over with a hot pan of lasagna and meatballs, we realized we were actually starving. Talk about a random act of kindness. Adam and I couldn’t get over this. Definitely one of the nicest things a stranger has ever done for either one of us.

By the way, my laptop charger got submerged in water and is not currently working so I’m using Adam’s laptop which is painful (switching from a mac to a pc is not as easy as one might think), so I’ll try to keep it brief. Basically, this whole flood in our condo is a metaphor for my life. It been ridiculous at work, I feel like I can’t catch up with anything at home and the last drop in the bucket which I can’t ignore is that I gained so much weight recently that it’s affecting everything from how my clothes fit to my fitness level at the gym and how I generally feel about myself. I stepped on the scale last week and let’s just say that I haven’t seen that number in 4 years (!!!). I’ve been ignoring this issue since then but it’s time to clean up the flood mess!! I am not going to feel bad about myself, I’m going to do something about it. The plan of attack:

- Plan meals for the week and stick to the plan!! It’s ok to make minor adjustments based on taste preferences at the moment but I will stick to 3 meals + 2 snacks + 1 dessert (in moderation) equation until some progress is made in the weight dept.

- No mindless snacking/eating. My hours at home are going to get all out of whack over the next few weeks as I spend majority of my time in the office. That usually means stress eating. As mentioned above, I will make sure to stick to the pre-planned meals and snacks only. When life gets crazy like this, structure should be a good thing. I can do this!!!

- Continue making exercise a priority. I’ve been pretty good about this recently. I hope I can continue to keep it up despite the longer hours at work. I usually need a mental break mid-day anyways. A good sweat session should kill 2 birds with 1 stone (or something along those lines that’s less gross ).

How does this sound? I think it sounds good. I did A LOT of prep work last night for the next few days. Hopefully this builds up the momentum I’ll need.

So since I haven’t blogged in a few days, here are the highlights of this weekend’s eats.

Iggy’s ww bagel with olive jalapeno cream cheese and tomatoes

These tasted like sugar cookies with a pomegranate twist. Amazing!!

Beet/pesto/goat cheese and pecan panini + leftover b.good southwestern chicken salad

Spinach/artichoke hearts and mushroom calzone from Mangia (a treat on Friday night)

It was really delicious. We’ll definitely order from that place again!

I had the leftovers for lunch on Saturday. Yum!

+ Carly’s Confection 7 layer bar with a twist. So much white chocolate goodness. Another amazing treat for sure.

Sunday brunch at Sel de la Terre

Virgin bloody mary (I had to go to work!)

I had 2 of these. They weren’t very spicy but were definitely delicious.

Bread basket - I helped myself to a mini cinnamon roll and a cracker

For my entree I ordered the brioche French toast, strawberries, honey roasted almonds and vanilla butter.

It was really fantastic!! I removed that big butter blob and didn’t use any maple syrup because it was already rich and flavorful on its own. The strawberries were amazingly fresh and sweet as well. The sides of the french toast were perfectly grilled and the middle was kind of goey (souffle like) which normally would gross me out but it was so tasty that I didn’t care about texture. I would order this again in a heart beat (I ate half for brunch and then ate the other half later in the day as a “snack”).

Garlic/thyme smothered pork chop over qunoia and roasted rhubarb (adopted from this recipe).

It was great having a home-cooked meal again! Adam and I ate every morsel of our plates and I can’t wait for leftovers which I plan on making into a sandwich tomorrow.

All right, time for work! I apologize in advance for my random blogging schedule. I’m thinking of doing a picture collage at the end of each day and noting how my plan of attack is working so far. What do you think? Are you up for it?

I’ll be back with a bang in a few weeks. I have some giveaways in the works and a few posts that just need a little more research time. Happy Monday!

BREAKFAST

Oikos, 1/2 banana, healthy and sane YouTrailMix

Lots of good stuff in there.

LUNCH

A few days ago I saw Shannon’s post on shaved asparagus & egg pizza and decided that I had to make that right away. I had all the ingredients on hand… except wait, my pizza dough got moldy. Bleh. Tortilla wrap to the rescue!

I used 1 oz of goat cheese and only 1 egg to make it a lunch sized meal. It was a really fun dish but I think more goat cheese would balance it would more. It needed something else. Ooh, maybe some hot sauce… or more goat cheese. Ha.

Runny egg yolk…

I was actually on a conference call while making and eating this so there was no time to make a side salad as I planned. I grabbed a cherry & chocolate granola bar instead. I LOVE these bars!!

So here is the first new thing I tried today – while eating lunch/working, I was icing my foot. It’s been sore since the half (actually it’s been sore after most long runs lately but obviously 13.1 miles is the longest run I’ve done and it’s taking forever to recover). I’ve been stretching, getting massages on occasion, but I’ve never iced! It felt so much better right after but I think I was just numb. It still hurts a bit now. I’m going to keep it low impact for the next few days.

SNACKS

+ almonds + roasted broccoli. I roasted a bunch while at home waiting for our new dining room table to deliver and munched on it throughout the afternoon. SO good! Back at the office, I also had a mojo bar. We’re all out of fruit. I hate snacking on bars all day long but you do what you gotta do. I told you I was hungry all day!

WORKOUT

Another new thing – I tried pilates at a real pilates studio last night. The pilates at my gym got so lame but I know it can be a good workout. We used a circle and some 2lb weights. I forgot that there are all these “gadgets” you can use in pilates. I remember using the circle back in the day when I was going to Healthworks. Maybe they have better classes there than my current gym. I’m going to have to check it out. For now, I got a mini membership at the Boston Body pilates studio through buywithme and I can’t wait to get more into it. They have reformers too. I have a personal training scheduled for next Monday. So fun!!!

DINNER

You guys didn’t tell me how amazing rhubarb is!!! That’s another new ingredient for me to cook with – I bought some at the farmers market last week and planned a meal around it. I followed the recipe for superb marinated pork fillet roasted on rhubarb from Jamie Oliver’s Happy Days with the Naked Chef (recipe can be found here).

Of course I had to healthify it a bit. I used ONE tablespoon of oil instead of FIVE (come on Oliver, that’s so unnecessary!). I also used 2 slices of prosciutto per pork chop instead of 5 (does he like the number 5 or something?).

I used the orzo blend from TJ’s to serve this dish over. I made this before pilates but had to run to the class and I was dreaming of it.

And it was even BETTER than I could have imagined. The pork got smoky from the prosciutto juices and the rhubarb was so tender, juicy and sour. I just loved that sourness. Next time I’m going to quadruple the amount of rhubarb. Amazing!!!

The last of sour cream ice cream for dessert.

Have you tried anything new lately?

After a day full of delicious and pretty healthy meals, I found myself snacking on some fresh bread with sundried tomato pesto, which went undocumented. And then of course there were too many almonds. I didn’t feel great afterwards physically but this is where my mindset about this situation could make or break my night, or even the next day. I had 2 choices: understand that some days we are just hungrier than others and also that I have a weakness for roasted almonds which can only be controlled by portioning them out before hand. This is the reasonable approach and if taken, could let me move on with my life… like a normal person. My other choice was to view this as a failed attempt at eating reasonably and mindfully. I am no longer counting calories so listening to my hunger cues is key to maintaining my weight. The problem with the second approach is that of course it’s negative and not constructive. This kind of mindset would only bring me down and make me question other things in my life because that’s exactly what happens when I’m in “that” kind of mood. How many of you believe that the first approach is the right one? How many of you can’t help but take on the second one? The same situation can take on a really different life, depending on your perspective. I’m happy to report that I let this little incident slide. I just brushed it off and ate like I would (read: healthy + yummy eats) the next day (see below). Your perspective can make a big difference. I am questioning my own ways of viewing things and mindfully trying to take the right approach. As a result, I’ve been much happier lately. I think the sunshine may have helped a little too.

Now let’s talk food + fitness

BREAKFAST

Green monster: 1/4 block of silken tofu, 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup water, 1/2 frozen banana, frozen spinach, frozen organic wild blueberries, 1/4t xantham gum, 1/8t guar gum

Toppings: Zoe’s granola + dried bing cherries

I love the crunchy cereal in every few “bites.” This was a delicious combo

MID-AFTERNOON/PRE-WORKOUT SNACK

I actually ate only 1/2 of this banana. This is definitely one of my favorite snacks, although a big messy.

WORKOUT

We have summer weather here in Boston (like 80*!!) and I’ve been taking full advantage of it by incorporating more outdoor runs. Yesterday I ran for 5.25 miles (taking a short walk in the mega sun at some point for maybe 2 minutes). Warm up + cool down walks also amounted to about a mile. I was a giant sweaty mess at the end. It was a tough run. I’m trying to work up to 6+ miles over this week and maybe even attempt some double digits soon. Man, taking time off from running is really making it difficult for me to come back. I’m determined though.

LUNCH

This next picture is lame but this lunch was delicious!

Ww Tuscane pane, edamame spread, grilled asparagus + grilled peppers, feta cheese

Fantastic sandwich! I just love eating fresh foods like that. It makes me feel so good, knowing how well I’m feeding my body. And seriously, just the thought of this sandwich makes me a little more excited. It was the perfect lunch!

MID-AFTERNOON SNACK

I shared another one of these little packets with Adam at night.

DINNER

Yes, go ahead, start drooling now.

Manchego-stuffed pork chops with roasted red-pepper pepita sauce (recipe can be found here).

+ fiddleheads! I steamed these guys for 7 minutes then quickly sauteed them with garlic and 1tsp of EVOO on a hot skillet. They were so yummy – reminded me of a cross between sauteed spinach and snap peas with a texture of tender asparagus. Yummy.

The manchego stuffed pork chops were of course the stars, though. This recipe was so simple and produced such flavorful results. I forgot how much I love manchego cheese (I nibbled on a little square while prepping this meal). The roasted red pepper-pepita sauce also freshens up the indulgent, cheesy pork chop.

I think it’s going on my favorites list! [PS. I only ate 1/2 of what you see here. 1/2 of a pork chop just doesn't photograph well so I took a picture of the whole thing and saved what I left on the plate for lunch the next day.]

MID-EVENING SNACK (at photography class)

Chocolate white chocolate chip cookie

And once again, I’m running late for work. Story of my life. Peace.

I kept the menu simple but of course made sure to cook some of my FIL’s favorites – pasta bolognese, fresh homemade rolls… + a special surprise dessert.

Since pasta was going to be the main star ingredient, I wanted to make sure we got the best fresh pasta we could find. Good thing we had a Groupon from Dave’s Fresh Pasta in Sommerville. It was a bit of a drive (not far but with a billion traffic lights in took forever) but the place was so cool! Dave’s offers pasta and ravioli (with the most unique fillings!) made fresh daily. They also have monthly specials for ravioli and sauces.  For the pasta, you can indicate the kind you want (I chose whole wheat) and the cut (see picture for options below).

Pappardelli is my favorite pasta cut and I thought it would go perfectly with the pork bolognese dish I had in mind.

Freshhhhh!

I made a full-fat dessert but decided to keep dinner “lighter” by following this recipe from Cooking Light for spaghetti with pork bolognese. It sounded quite rich already. I believe the “trick” is to use a mixture of ground pork tenderloin (very lean) and regular ground pork (fattier). The guy at the Whole Foods meat counter laughed at Adam when he asked for ground pork tenderloin, but I knew we could just grind it ourselves. We got a pound of pork tenderloin, and after 10 pulses in the food processor, it was perfect! [PS - if you do this, don't pulse for more than 10 pulses, otherwise it will become a pork paste - not exactly the consistency desired here]. I also omitted the onions and celery (we don’t care for either) and used organic bacon instead of pancetta since we already had it in the house. The sauce took a while (not hard, just time consuming) but at the end we had a giant bowl of papardelle with pork bolognese for our (um, my) efforts.

This pasta was rich with A LOT of pork.

I also made some no-knead overnight parmesan and thyme rolls (recipe from Cooking Light can be found here). The picture in the magazine just looked too good and the no-knead promise eluded me into thinking that this was going to be easy. Well, there were certainly a few problems with these guys for me. My yeast seemed dead (I tried it twice and didn’t see any bubbles but went ahead anyway), it didn’t roll very pretty so I cut the rolls in half (I think that was a good decision anyway); I didn’t let it rise for a full hour (since I wasn’t sure that the yeast was fully active, I didn’t bother waiting the entire time)… but they came out all right!

My plate:

I didn’t realize that the traditional bolognese is made with red meat (I knew it, it just didn’t click that this was not what I was making) but it was still pretty good. Not to-die-for amazing but quite good. Adding a pinch of nutmeg and simmering with the cinnamon stick did add nice warmth to this dish. As to the rolls – I really enjoyed the thyme, and they were a little nutty from the olive oil. A little butter went a long way on these.

The pasta was quite rich so I ate only a little over half of it, but I did have this whole glass of Honey Moon Vognier.

Oh, and a slice of Boston cream pie!

It’s my FIL’s favorite, and we all enjoyed it. And yes, you’re going to have to wait for more details on it until the next post.

What’s your favorite kind of cake?

No, not spices. It’s my new kitchen (with this awesome built-in spice drawer) that makes me smile every time I walk into the house and I cannot wait to get in there and cook something healthy and delicious! Why waste calories on stupid stuff when you can have a satisfying meal? There are so many recipes I’ve marked over the past month and a half of construction, I don’t have enough meals in a day to execute all of them. But I’m up for the challenge! Now, should we take a look at that spice drawer again? [And yes, I alphabetized them!]

Yesterday the black peppercorns were the star of dinner.

I haven’t participated in CEiMB in almost 2 months now. This was a great recipe to dive back into it! I used to hate pork but pork tenderloin turned that around – it’s lean and tender and I’m pretty sure it’s one of my husband’s favorite meats (we discovered it together). For this reason, when I saw that Rachel of Rachel Hearts Food chose Ellie’s pork au poivre as this week’s featured recipe, I was more than happy to jump back on the CEiMB wagon.

This recipe was easy and had a very short ingredients list – perfect for a weeknight meal!

Gena’s carrot fries (found through Thinspired) made for a perfect side dish! Adam was making fun of me when I started making these but I knew they’d be amazing. I cut up a bunch of carrots (maybe 3/4 lb?) and used 1T of coconut oil. I think I’ll cut down on the oil even further next time, there seemed to be more than ample amount of it, but let me tell you… there will be a next time. Soon! Adam quickly stopped making fun of me after tasting these babies. They reminded us both of sweet potato fries due to a subtle sweetness from the coconut oil (I think that’s an important ingredient!). SO so good!! Adam said to add this recipe to our short list of “favorites.” Yup, carrot fries need to be on our favorites list. I’ll leave it at that.

Veggies take over the world! Or at least this plate… (carrot fries were accompanied by garlicky string beans which I just stir-fried while the wine sauce was reducing)

Did I mention this pork au poivre was great? It was! Tender, juicy, flavorful – we both loved it!

Oops, don’t forget the wine sauce!! I’d double the sauce amount next time… it was quite nice.

So yeah, dinner was amazing. Let’s fly through the rest of the eats.

BREAKFAST

Bacon, egg and cheese on a FFL english muffin + coffee

Breakfast of champions! Or something like that

MID-AFTERNOON SNACK

1/2 blueberry muffin with 1T Barney Butter + tea

Oh yeah…

WORKOUT – 75 minute vinyasa class. It was great today. I was almost able to do the crow pose. Yay for progress!

MID-AFTERNOON SNACK

1/2 cup reduced fat cottage cheese + 2 clementines

The clementines deserve a spot at the front and center too

MORE SNACKS

I finally got my last package of the bake sale for Haiti winnings. This one included some peanut butter/choc chip “granola bars” and banana bread.

These granola bars are basically bar cookies… and they are amazing!!!!!

It took a lot of will power to only eat 1. They are full of oats, seeds, choc chips and peanut butter – so dense and buttery. Oh yeah, there IS butter in them. Like I said, not exactly granola bars but damn, worth every calorie for sure! (I can provide you guys with the recipe if you’re interested).

The banana bread was nice too

I had 1/2 of this slice.

And that’s how you do it!

Do you ever lose motivation to keep eating healthy or exercising? What pushes you to keep at it? I have a feeling not everyone can just redo their kitchen