An enormous amount of food was consumed over a 2 weeks period. I wanted to highlight these 5…

1. I made Self’s zucchini bran muffins that I found through Lara’s Thinspired.  She was raving about them so much, I couldn’t wait to make them (apparently it still took me forever, but whatev )

I doubled the recipe, divided it into 8 muffins (instead of 6) and halved the oil. I think I burnt them slightly They were pretty delicious but a little too sweet (I think since the raisins I used were very sweet, I could have cut the sugar amount by at least 1/3) and a little too dense. I definitely learned a lesson with these – cutting down on oil without any substitutions is not a good idea. I usually sub nonfat yogurt for oil (1 for 1 of regular yogurt – not greek) and that works well. I was out of yogurt and decided to just do it without but I think you really need all the fat in the recipe to make these moist (they are from Self so they are already healthified). Lesson learned.

Oh yeah, and I also made a zucchini chocolate cupcake with one of them by using some leftover frosting from this cake. This was good!

2. For the entire 2 weeks we were really low on fresh produce and groceries in general. I had to get creative. What to do with the pork tenderloin that’s in the fridge? Stuff that baby! It was my first time attempting to stuff a pork tenderloin but Kath’s recipe for pork tenderloin stuffed with blue cheese, dates and pecans inspired me (I hate blue cheese so I used goat cheese instead) and I was ready for the challenge. It turns out it’s really easy and it came out absolutely amazing! My husband ‘supposedly’ hates goat cheese and dates and he loved this! Said it had to get on our regular recipe rotation (hmm, I don’t think we have a recipe rotation yet). Note: pictures were updated in Jan 2012 (this remains to be one of our favorite recipes!!)

3. Remember my fun day with lots of packages?  These Buitoni wild mushroom agnolotti (ok let’s be real – ravioli) came very handy during our grocery trip ban (we maxed out on our grocery budget mid-month).

I wanted to make a creamy healthy sauce and tried to use a plain chobani as a base. Apparently yogurt curdles under heat. Oops! Plan A went straight into trash, so I steamed some asparagus and spinach, sauteed it with a tiny bit of EVOO, then added a drop of truffle oil (which transforms basically any food into a divine meal) and shredded some parmesan cheese over the whole concoction.

Both me and my husband absolutely LOVED this!! I’ve seen this all over the blog world with bloggers mentioning the high sodium content and high calories for the amount of food you get, but we thought they were amazing! I would say, without any hesitation, that this dinner turned out to be restaurant quality. I didn’t find it to be too salty (I guess the sodium is on the higher side but at least it didn’t taste it) and the veggies bulked up the whole thing. The mushrooms tasted so fresh and the cheese filling was nice and creamy. Of course adding the truffle oil didn’t hurt either! I savored every bite and was very satisfied. No need for dessert even. That’s huge! Needless to say, I’d buy it if (when?) it were sold in stores. Perfect quick meal!

4. I really hate throwing away food. We bought a whole baguette to made steak and cheese sandwiches (pictured in the bottom of this post), and of course had lots of baguette leftovers. I’m sure you know that stuff is completely dry and hard even on the next day and we forgot about the leftovers for days! Again trying to conserve the small amount of fruit we had, I went to the freezer and found some frozen berries. Perfect! I decided to make use of both of these, and made Ellie Krieger’s peach french toast bake (I substituted berries for peaches). Here it is the all together the night before:

And the next morning, post baking:

And my portion:

It was delicious! The brown sugar browned up nicely – it was perfectly sweet without being overwhelming. Love Ellie’s recipes

5. It was over 90* last Friday so my husband and I decided to go out for a drink + dinner and enjoy the weather at Burton’s instead of staying at home. I’m becoming less rigid about following “the plan” and it really helps with the sane aspect I tried to make a healthy choice so it really was the best of both worlds!

Bbq chicken salad: lettuce, bbq chicken, corn, black beans, cheddar cheese, tortilla strips, bacon bits and tomatoes (I think). It was so flavorful I didn’t need the dressing. Next time I’ll try it without the cheese too because I couldn’t really taste it much. The chicken was very nicely marinaded, though, and the tortilla strips added a nice crunch. I love tex-mex salads like this!

OTHER EATS

How did this guy get here?

Yeah, I’m a dork!

Phew! So did I make up for my recent lack of food posting or what?