FitFeat

Posts Tagged healthy cooking

Grill Fajitas

Sep 13

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking, Keeping Fit | 7 Comments

Hi friends!

Well we’re in the remaining days of the *3 weeks of cleaner eating* challenge.  How have you been doing?  Overall I’ve done well during the weekdays, but still have allowed some sneaky refined foods into my weekend eats.

Yesterday’s breakfast was 2 pieces of sprouted grain toast with almond butter, miso and drizzle of honey.  I had a “carb strong” meal because I was going on a cleaning frenzy the first half of the day so I needed some energy.  (I’m even SORE today from the cleaning if you can believe it!)  I moved around furniture to do some deep cleaning, did some hand scrubbing on hardwood floors then polished with the BONA mop, vacuumed our main level, our upstairs and our basement, cleaned all the mirrors in my training studio, pulled a ton of weeds in our front yard landscaping, ran the trimmer and the lawnmower in the front yard, etc. etc. etc.  I was beat!  And at the end of it I decided I miss having a 700 sq ft apartment.  The cleaning process was so much quicker!  :D

It was about 3 1/2 hours in all.  And you can bet I counted it as my exercise for the day!

Late morning I had a scoop of greens powder mixed in water:

For lunch I made some egg salad with two hard boiled eggs, chopped celery, Vegenaise and mustard, pepper and Hungarian sweet paprika.

I ate it along with a handful of baked pita chips.

Mid-afternoon I had half of a coconut cream pie Larabar and then got busy getting dinner prepped so that it could marinate for a few hours.

I was planning some fajitas on the grill, so I mixed up some lime juice, grapeseed oil, cumin, coriander, chipotle powder, a pinch of cayenne, black pepper, ground garlic and some Alderwood smoked sea salt:

It was veggies for me and chicken for Cory.  I used half of that crazy large zucchini, along with some onion, and a trio of sweet bell peppers.

I ate my ‘fajita’ without a tortilla since I was having a side of rice.

I’ve been using my cast iron pan on the grill here and there, along with my dutch oven.  It’s such a nice way to use high heat outside and not overheat the whole kitchen.  But I definitely need more practice out there, because I’m so used to being able to really control the heat on my stovetop.  It’s not quite as easy on the grill.  But it turned out OK and we had a nice little dinner and a LOT of leftovers!

Are you a GRILL MASTER?  Do you prefer using your grill to your stovetop or oven?  What’s your favorite grilled food (or just ‘cooked outdoors’ food)?  I know Cindy has been doing a lot of outdoor cooking this year (check out her solar oven!) so I bet she has some tips to share!

Have a TERRIFIC Tuesday friends!

– Shari B. =)

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Weekend of Weddings

Sep 2

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 4 Comments

Hi friends!

Are you excited it’s Friday?  I love long holiday weekends.  They feel like little vacations. We have so much planned for the weekend in addition to that hike I mentioned yesterday.  We’ll be going to the wedding of my good friends Beth and Jason (very excited about that!), hopefully dropping in on the Taste of Colorado to try some interesting eats, and I’m sure we’ll see a movie at some point because that’s just how we roll.  There’s another wedding happening this weekend as well – my cousin Carrie is getting married in California.  Unfortunately I don’t get to go to that one, but I’m thinking I should probably eat TWO pieces of wedding cake at Beth’s reception, in order to honor Carrie’s, right?   ;)

Congrats to BOTH sets of the soon-to-be newlyweds!

I’m excited for all of you!

***

Let’s talk about yesterday!

Thursday’s workout was an intense run at my favorite hilly spot.  Hike up the first steep big hill, then run fast on the downhills and “sprint” intervals on the uphills.  I put “sprint” in quotations because it’s an attempt to sprint for sure, but when going uphill you feel like one of those cartoon characters whose feet are moving so fast they are all a blur, but the rest of the body’s not moving at all.  :D

It was a gorgeous morning for it – getting outside for a run as the sun comes up is always a great way to start the day, even if I do grumble a little while I’m getting ready to go.  ;)

Before I left for the run I had my half-caff coffee and a little serving of Mom’s Best Naturals Toasty O’s for some fuel.

When I got back I felt the need for some GREEN but not of the smoothie variety because I just wasn’t too hungry.  This would my lazy version of a green smoothie – dried greens powder mixed with water:

Morning snack was cucumber cups filled with hummus and topped with leftover tempeh strips:

When lunchtime rolled around, I took a peek in the fridge and realized I had a lot of Italian-ish items (shocker right?  :)   Somehow I always have Italian goods…. they are my FAVORITE!):

So I made a little sauté of mushrooms, zucchini and shallots in balsamic, then tossed in cannellini beans and arugula toward the end.

I also made some whole wheat penne pasta which was tossed with pesto.  The veggies were served alongside and then topped off with a few flakes of raw goat cheese and a chopped heirloom tomato from my garden:

It was a TINY tomato…

But it was sweet and succulent, almost like you could taste all the nurturing that’s gone into the plant over the summer.

I’m glad it was good, because so far it’s been the only one we’ve gotten out of the garden this year.

After lunch I was craving a little chocolate, so I mixed up some almond butter, protein powder, carob powder and agave, pressed it together into a ball shape then tossed it around in hemp seeds.

I’m guessing the are somewhat similar to Gina’s protein balls, but I didn’t measure anything so I have no clue if they taste the same or not.

It was a delicious little bite and shut down the “craving monster”.

In the afternoon I had a few slices of raw goat cheese along with some unpictured Mary’s Gone Crackers flax crackers.

By dinnertime, I was feeling a little how Riley looked… which is to say TUCKERED OUT:

For dinner I made some brown rice with some shallot gravy (made with minced shallots, olive oil, spelt flour and vegetable stock) to serve with the last of the meatless loaf from earlier in the week.  But I just couldn’t bring myself to eat ANY MORE of that loaf.  As much as I loved it, I’d eaten it too many times this week.  So I just had a few ramekins of the rice and gravy while Cory cleaned up the loaf.

Then later a protein shake and piece of toasted Ezekial.

Mmmm it was a yummy day!

I hit up Vitamin Cottage Natural Grocer’s today to gather some goods to make a fun dinner tonight in honor of Labor Day weekend.  I’m crossing my fingers it turns out.  I’m trying a product I’ve never worked with before so I have no idea what to expect!  But I’ll share the results with you tomorrow!

Have a beautiful evening and a LOVELY start to your Labor Day weekend!  See ya tomorrow!

– Shari B. =)

 

 

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Mediterranean Egg & Quinoa Bake

Aug 4

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking | 5 Comments

Hi-dee-ho there blog buds!

So during this crazy heat wave we’ve been having, I’m the *smart one* who’s ALSO been running my oven and stove non-stop, further adding to the already “uncool” main level of our house.  (Damn you, inefficient south-facing windows that keep our house at a steady 82 even when the AC is on!!)

In my defense, I don’t really have a choice.  I’m on a deadline and have to have a certain number of “freezeable” recipes developed every month.

The bright side:  I never need to venture to the rec center to use a sauna!  ;)

Thought you might like to see a little of what I’ve been making lately.  This is one I really enjoyed: a Mediterranean Egg & Quinoa Bake.  I adapted it quite a bit from a Food.com recipe and per usual in the FitFeat household there is the SHARI side of a meal and the CORY side.

My side is on the left – you can tell it’s where the party’s at:

My piece after cutting:

Bottom view of the QUINOA crust:

The fun thing about this recipe is that you add rinsed, uncooked quinoa right into the egg mixture and give it a shake.  The quinoa sinks to the bottom and you have an easy-peasy “crust”!  To make mine Mediterranean, I included a lot of chopped spinach, Kalamata olives, sun-dried tomatoes, sauteed garlic/red onion, plus some nutritional yeast, dulse (sea veggie) and goat’s feta.

The lesson learned during this recipe test is that IF you want to eat the dish right out of the oven, the quinoa probably needs to be soaked for a few hours first (which is ideal anyway for increasing bioavailability).  But if you are making it ahead, it reheated perfectly the next day after the moisture had more time to permeate the quinoa.  It also worked well in the freezer, although I wouldn’t recommend keeping it in there longer than 4 weeks max.

Leftovers with a side salad:

Verdict:  I loved this one!

I don’t publicly post the recipes that I adapt and develop for clients; however, if you want to try it, feel free to mention so in the comments section of this post and I’d be happy to email you my adapted test recipe privately.

Hope you are having a TERRIFIC day so far friends!

***

Just wanted to give a shout out to my good friend Allison of The Sunday Flog who will be competing in her first triathlon this weekend.  Good luck Allison!  Stop by her blog to wish her luck and while you’re there you can read about her SHARK diving adventure or her delicious cake pops!

– Shari B. =)

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Party Like It’s An IKEA Opening!

Aug 1

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking, Handy Kitchen Tools | 14 Comments

Hi friends!

Last week I promised I’d give some more detail on a special day in our house:  the Grand Opening of our first Colorado IKEA store.  Months ago when we heard that the opening day was going to be July 27, we decided that we’d take a day off and go – mainly because it was also Cory’s birthday and a good reason to take a day off work, right?

Then as the day drew near, we realized that pretty much the rest of Denver and its outlying areas had the same idea.  It opened on a Wednesday and people started CAMPING OUT on Saturday night.  Now, I don’t care WHAT kind of free couch you give me, I am not going to camp out in a tent on a sidewalk for FOUR nights.  (well, unless that couch is perhaps filled with like $100,000 or something.)  ;)

We started to wonder if we’d even get anywhere in the VICINITY of IKEA that day, let alone in the front doors. Especially when we started seeing electronic signs all over town that said “Tune Into 1630 AM for IKEA Traffic Info”.  WHAT???  Really?  They are expecting so many people that they have an AM station designated just for it?

We drove by the night before to scope it out (and giggle at the people in their tents!) You should have seen all the cones, cops, traffic attendants, parking attendants.  It was pretty crazy!

When we went to bed that night, the plan was that we’d go just when they opened at 9:00 and not worry about any of the giveaways.   Then the morning of, when we woke up and turned on the news at 5:00, lines were getting bigger and we just got excited!  So we went to Starbucks to get a large latte to go and went to check it out.

We stood in line for a little over 2 hours, during which time they gave some speeches, had news crews there, sang the national anthems (both ours and Sweden’s) and it was actually a really great time in line!

Here’s what it looked like:

If you’ve ever been to a big amusement park and you have the maze of lines that you go to and fro in, that’s what this was.  Rows and rows…  But it was really organized and everyone was having a good time.

We got there early enough that when we walked through the doors (finally!!! yay!) we were each handed a $10 gift card.  And fortunately the night before I’d read on their site that if your birthday was ON the day of their opening, you could also get a gift card for $52.80 (in honor of their Mile High City opening).  So as soon as we were in we went straight to get that!  Now we had $72.80 worth of FREE IKEA stuff just for showing up!  Can’t beat that!

Let the shopping begin!

On our first time through we only spent $30 of our free money.  Then we went to enjoy a birthday lunch/margarita at the Rio.  And we felt like we just didn’t quite tackle IKEA yet, so we actually WENT BACK AGAIN at 5:00 PM that evening!  (We’re nuts, I tell you.) Final tally spent on IKEA during that day:  7 hours!!!

Here are some of the few things we picked up.

This fun napkin holder with weight, and some napkins to go in it (like $5!).

A two-sided mirror for our bathroom so I can put on my mascara and tweez my eyebrows without practically climbing onto our bathroom vanity!  Again, $5.

An expandable cabinet organizer that was meant for lids but that I’m using for cutting boards and baking sheets.  You guessed it, $5.

A new holder for any plastic bags we end up with – I used to have a cloth one that my mom made for me, but a dog ate it.  :)   This one was only $2!

The most exciting purchase of the day was this beautiful blue 5-qt cast iron and enamel dutch oven.  I’ve been wanting one for a year and refused to spend a ridiculous amount of money on one by Le Creuset (5 qt is $190!!). I told myself that if I lifted the lid of the IKEA one and found that it had basting spikes, I was going for it.

It did!  This one only set us back $49 – except that it didn’t because we used our free gift cards!  Bonus!  Wahoooo!

We got a few other odds and ends as well.  It was a super fun day, they gave away tons of food samples (three kinds of chocolates, little cinnamon rolls, Swedish meatballs, sparkling juices).  When you walked in early in the day, hundreds of IKEA employees were cheering and clapping at you. Plus we LOVE browsing at home goods stores to get ideas of things we can do in our house.  I’d rather shop for home stuff any day than for clothes, shoes, purses, etc.

Silly as it sounds, this birthday celebration is one we’ll remember for a while! I’ve already used the new dutch oven for some recipe testing:

It worked great!  I made a ridiculously healthy soup with 8 different veggies, beans and seaweed that I plan to cook for a certain personal chef client next week.  Love when something tastes GREAT and is insanely healthy at the same time!

Are you a home goods freak like we are?  Do you have a local IKEA (or have you been to one)?

– Shari B. =)

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Fast Friday

Jul 15

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 8 Comments

Hi blog buds!

OK, I know I say this a lot but it is definitely necessary today – where did the week go??

Last Saturday when I posted here, I was getting packed up for a work trip.  I left the house at 4:30 AM on Sunday morning and was gone until 1:00 AM Thursday morning.  Thursday was then spent unpacking and playing ‘catch up’ and now here we are at Friday already!

My days were spent doing lots of this:

And a lot of this:

And this:

No laptop, no Facebook, no Twitter, no TV.  Just a lot of chopping, slicing, dicing, sautéing, baking, and packaging! It’s so weird how out of touch you feel when you have to unplug from technology for a few days!

One thing I did find on my trip – a REAL kombucha!  Not the “enlightened” version.  And the cooler at the store had a sign stating you had to be 21 to buy it!  :)   The real thing is so much better- it’s been over a year since I had the old version.  It was wonderful!

Between now and October, things are going to be BUSY.  I have a lot in the “pipeline”.  The next week I will spend writing and designing documents for a meeting on the 26th that I am hoping will lead to me being offered the honor of joining a team of holistic caregivers.  Cross your fingers for me!  After that I have a lot of travel on the calendar as well.

Today I am in dire need of some groceries for my house.  I scraped together enough frozen spinach, frozen berries/cherries and a little mint from my garden to make a green smoothie.  Now I’m off to the store!

Any big plans for your weekend?  I have a “date night” planned with MSP (putt putt, wahoo!), a run at my favorite hilly trail with a dear friend, and a bridal shower for another dear friend.

If you have nothing going on, go see “Horrible Bosses” – you’ll have the theater all to yourself because everyone else will be seeing  Harry Potter.  :)   We saw “Horrible Bosses” last Friday and it’s just a good time all around.  Silly, funny, slightly raunchy.  I promise you’ll laugh.

Well friends, I know this was a pretty uneventful post, but I wanted to pop in to say hello!  I’ll be back soon with something a little more interesting!  :) In the meantime here are some articles I’ve been enjoying:

Mix Up Your Salad Greens – at the store today I plan  to buy mâche. I’ve never tried it and I need to get out of my salad rut

Miss South Carolina used to weight 234 lbs when she was 17 years old – I love hearing inspirational weight loss stories

Cindy is cooking in a solar oven!  So fun – check it out!

Have a FANTASTIC Friday, friends!

– Shari B. =)

 

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You Win Some, You Lose Some

May 10

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking | 6 Comments

Well hello there blog buds!

In the food blog world, we are all bombarded with photos of beautiful creations and fabulous recipes.  Does that ever make you feel inadequate in the kitchen?  It does me, I’ll tell you that!  (It also makes me feel inadequate as a photographer!)

So today I thought it might be fun to show you something that I thought was going to be this amazing idea only to have it just not pan out in reality.  (Truth be told, this happens more often than you might imagine!)

I’ve been carrying around this idea in my head that I wanted to make a vegan enchilada using a leafy green in lieu of tortillas to lighten it up a bit.  When I was little my mom used to make great cabbage rolls (why oh why didn’t I hang out more in the kitchen when she used to cook?) so I thought I’d take the idea of a cabbage roll but make it more of a Mexican style dish.

Sounds good so far, right?

Well, rather than the usual blah green cabbage, I decided to use red cabbage.  And to contrast that, I thought I’d use a green enchilada sauce.  Can you just picture the bright red of the cabbage with the green sauce?  Doesn’t that sound pretty?

So I steamed up a whole head of red cabbage (to make the leaves more pliable) and set it aside to cool:

I made a filling out of tofu, lentils, mushrooms, onions, celery, spices:

Then I stuffed the leaves and rolled them up:

And this is when things just started to go downhill.  First, the color of the cabbage was greatly diminished in the steaming so I no longer had that vibrant burgundy color.  Now it was just on the other side of blue.

Additionally the pigment of the steamed cabbage was staining everything just like beets do!  My fingernails looked like I’d been working on my car’s engine!  NOW I see why I wasn’t finding many red cabbage rolls online!

Next, the sauce I chose was one by Rick Bayless.  (He’s wonderful at Mexican cuisine – I’m not above using a quality premade sauce sometimes!)

For the record, I’ll tell you the sauce is delicious (so are the other sauces of his that I’ve tried).  BUT – when I looked more closely at the ingredients, it DID contain milk (so much for my vegan enchiladas!) and the color was … well … NOT very green.

I topped it with Daiya vegan cheese and baked.

Overall, I was a little disappointed only because the LOOK of them wasn’t nearly as vibrant as I’d had in my mind.  And the cabbage just didn’t compare as a shell vs. the corn tortilla.  BUT the stuffing turned out great and I’ll use the lentil/mushroom/tofu combo again in something else.  I made a little side salad out of jicama and served it up (on Cinco de Mayo actually):

So there you have it.  Not everything turns out “chef-tastic” in the FitFeat kitchen!  I’ll go back to the drawing board and come up with something else that might work along these lines and try again.  But you have to give things a try because you just never know when you’ll make something that surprises you!

Like this easy snack:

In lieu of my usual almond butter, I smeared a little fresh avocado on my Ezekial toast the other day and topped it with dried cranberries and a sprinkle of hemp seeds!  It was a really fun contract of color AND taste.  I bought a bag of dried cranberries the other day to use in a recipe test for a client meal, and I’ve been adding the leftovers to all kinds of things.  I even made a little ‘trailmix’ of roasted wasabi soybeans and cranberries!  Sounds crazy but it ended up working!

***

A BIG thank you to Joan (of the delightful and immensely informative gardening/beekeeping blog I’m in the Garden Today) for the wonderful gift of homegrown Organic Garlic Powder – her sister grows her own garlic and then even makes her own garlic powder!  It’s wonderful – thank you Joan for the thoughtful treat!  I’m enjoying using it in my cooking!

Have a great day friends!

– Shari B. =)

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Broccomole

May 5

Posted by Shari B. in Product Review, Recipes | 4 Comments

Hi blog buds!

A while back, as a part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program, I received some free samples of Tostitos Dip Creation mixes to try.  Of course, being the guacamole lover that I am, I decided to start with this packet:

And seeing how it’s Cinco de Mayo, I figured today would be a good day to share this particular creation.

Instead of using avocados as the directions stated, I thought it would be fun to try another green food.  You know I’m always looking for ways to boost my intake of green veggies.

How about trying it with a whole head of broccoli?

Truth be told, I was a little alarmed at the level of sodium in the dry mix so I figured that broccoli would not only keep the calories in check it would also provide a good amount of potassium to balance out some of the sodium.  If you were to use the entire packet, the sodium would be 1920 mg.  That’s a lot.  So I decided to use only half the packet and see how it would taste.

I steamed one head of broccoli florets for about 5 minutes, until they were bright green and fork tender, transferred them to my Blendtec with 1/2 packet of the guacamole mix and puréed.

Place into your favorite dip bowl and garnish:

Cover and place in refrigerator for a bit until the “Broccomole” chills out a bit.

Then enjoy with your favorite tortilla chips!

This was a really tasty snack and would be a great way to get those non-veggie loving friends or family members to boost their green veg intake as well.

One note:  you will want to eat this on the same day you make it.  Leaving it in the refrigerator overnight causes the broccoli flavor to get really strong. :)

You could also try this with green peas, green beans or edamame.

Happy Cinco de Mayo, friends!

– Shari B. =)

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Vicariously Vacationing

Apr 22

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking | 7 Comments

Happy Friday FitFeat Friends!

Another week has flown by in a flash and I have been a COOKING machine!

(Does that make me an OVEN??  ha ha! OK, that was terrible!)

SOOO glad it’s Friday – I’m definitely ready for a weekend NOT in a kitchen. ;)   Outside of some cheffing work, I’ve also been developing my library of client recipes – the ones this week are of the “freezable” variety for testing how they reheat and taste after coming out of the freezer, so I haven’t been taking pictures – they aren’t really pretty to look at as they are being packaged up.  This little guy was somewhat photogenic though, so I did nab a pic of him:

(BTW, would you believe that organic red bell peppers are currently $5.49 a pound???  OUCH!)

My house smells like onions and garlic all the time now.  No amount of candle burning or Febreze will eliminate it.  ;)

Here are some of the dishes I was testing/tweaking/tasting/freezing:

Tempeh NewMex Stuffed Sweet Peppers (a variation of the tomato version I did for my final presentation at school)

Southwest Healthy “Joes”

Creole Chicken with Jambalaya Brown Rice (an improved version of the one I made for Mardi Gras)

Greek Spiced Buffalo Sliders with Rosemary Thyme Mashed Cauliflower

Indian Chicken Curry with Carrots and Chard over Basmati

African Sweet Potato with Peanut and Red Beans (sounds weird, but it is delicious!)

Asian Cabbage & Daikon Pita Pockets with Hoisin Peanut Sauce

Tilapia Italiano over Herbed White Beans with Capers

Salmon and Millet Cakes with Dairy-free Creamed Spinach

Oh and one dessert (not for the freezer – I just felt like I needed something sweet!):

Peanut Butter Millet Bars (mmm – MSP liked these and he doesn’t usually like PB)

Apparently I’m aiming to vacation vicariously through my cooking – my recipe list seems to hit a lot of locations: Italy, Greece, Asia, India, Africa, New Mexico…!

If you’re wondering why I don’t have almond butter in these recipes where you see the peanut butter, there are two reasons.  One is that when I’m first testing out a recipe (and especially if I’m going to change it up to fit into a healthier food style) I don’t want to use my insanely expensive almond butter when I can use natural organic peanut butter, just in case the recipe doesn’t turn out how I had hoped.  But the other reason is that I learned that peanuts may be beneficial to my digestive system (for my blood type) – if I were to follow the blood typing nutrition plan such as “Eat Right for Your Type”.  That’s a whole other discussion that we’ll have to have sometime in another post.  So I decided to have some PB on hand as well my beloved AB and switch it up every once in a while.  If I were to fully follow the nutrition plan for my blood type, I’d need to get rid of two of my all-time favorite foods: chickpeas (what, no hummus???) and mangoes, among a list of other things.

But I digress!

I can’t believe it’s Easter weekend!  Hallelujah, the Cadbury Caramel Creme Eggs will finally be off the shelves again for the next 9 months!  Wahoo!  Those little devils taunt me and I had more than my usual share this season for sure.  Speaking of devils and creme eggs, you absolutely have to go look at this link – someone with LOADS more patience than I will ever possess made Deviled Eggs out of Cadbury Creme Eggs.  They are ADORABLE!

Do you have any big Easter plans?  Large family gatherings?  Easter dinner? If the weather holds out for us, we hope to spend our Easter morning outdoors, preferably on a little hike.  I have been easing back into exercise with Bob Harper yoga this week and it feels GREAT.  Next week I’ll attempt a little more intensity.  Thank you all for hanging with me while FitFeat has been lacking in the “FIT” the last few weeks!  It feels so great to be on the road back to normal!

Have an EGGScellent Easter blog buds!

– Shari B. =)

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Tuna, Termites and Diving Pigeons

Mar 31

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking | 11 Comments

Hi blog buds!

Wow, long delay there since my last post – the past week went by in a complete blink.  MSP was out of town all last week at an annual conference for work (the one I wrote about when I went along last year to Vegas).   I picked him up at the airport Friday and we spent a bunch of time together, eating out, ‘window shopping’ for furniture and home goods for fun (nothing purchased), catching up on the DVR’d shows and then Sunday what had started as a sore throat for him became full fledged SICK.  He sounds terrible!

So between playing nurse, wrapping up studying for ServSafe, spending all day in class Tuesday and taking the test, then recipe testing yesterday, here we already are at Thursday!  And the last day of the month no less!

When I last wrote, I had mentioned some beautiful tuna that I had purchased and couldn’t wait to sear.  I cut the piece in half so that I could have part of it one day and part of it the next, but freshly seared each time.

On the first day, I pressed the tuna first into wasabi powder then into toasted sesame seeds and seared it.

I sauteed some broccoli slaw in the juice of a blood orange along with some sesame oil and soy sauce.

It was heaven on a plate.

Then on the second day, I simply seasoned the tuna with sea salt and pepper, and then seared it, sliced it, and served it with salad, mango, avocado, wasabi, ginger and a little sweetened soy dipping sauce.

Despite all the nasty things I learned about raw fish in my ServSafe certification course, I just don’t think I can give up seared tuna.  It’s much too delicious!

Both of these meals were literally ready to go in less than 10 minutes.  Those are always my favorite meals!  Fast, fresh and restaurant-delicious!

While on the subject of ServSafe:  after taking that course let me just tell you that eating out will be much more difficult for me to stomach.  Our instructor was a ton of fun, and really loved telling us horror stories that she has gathered during the years.  And the attendees in the class got a kick out of telling their stories as well.  One guy talked about a pigeon that flew in through an open door and divebombed straight into the fryer!!  Can you imagine?  There was another story of wood chunks being tossed into a wood-burning pizza oven and watching a mass exodus of termites right before they incinerated.  (And these were stories told by the LOCAL participants in our class – not even the doozies the instructor shared!)

Makes you want to run right out and eat at a restaurant, no?

I told my friend from school who was there with me that this could be a great marketing key for our personal chef businesses!  ;)

Well on that appetizing note, I’ll leave you to consider what you’ll be having today for breakfast or lunch!  Hopefully you are making your OWN food today!  Now that the class is done, I promise not to share any more ‘grossness’ like that!  (For at least 5  years until I have to recertify anyway!)

Make it an AWESOME day friends!

– Shari B. =)

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No Longer a Sardine Scaredy-Cat

Mar 18

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking, Pescatarian | 2 Comments

Hi friends!

Happy Friday!  I hope that you all had a FUN St. Patty’s day yesterday!  We celebrated the birthday of my lovely friend Keri, from Om of the Rockies, last night.  And at a Thai restaurant thankfully!  So we were able to miss the crazy crowds.  :)

I didn’t cook any special meal for the holiday this time, like I did for Mardi Gras.  I’ve been cooking a ton of OTHER stuff during the week, so I think by the time yesterday rolled around I wasn’t feeling inspired by anything in particularly related to the holiday.  (Would you believe I didn’t even have a GREEN smoothie on St. Patrick’s Day??  If ANY day calls for a green smoothie, March 17 would certainly be it, right?)

I did welcome back an old friend though – one that hasn’t been in my food rotation for a while.   A PITA PIZZA!!!  My favorite!

mmm this one had roasted veggies (mushrooms, red peppers and zucchini) with some green olives, fresh garlic, olive oil, sundried tomatoes, a few bits of goat cheese and after cooking I topped it with fresh basil.  I’ve had two this week already and I’m thinking I’ll be having a third today for lunch!

I also picked up a copy of Eating Well magazine over the weekend and have been trying out a few of their recipes.

I just happened to have all the ingredients on hand for their Smoky Artichoke-Sardine Salad, which I thought sounded really unique and interesting.  I bought a can of sardines a LONG time ago because of all the wonderful health benefits that sardines provide (excellent source of Vitamin D, Vitamin B12, omega 3 fatty acids and selenium).  Then the poor little guys just sat in my pantry.  I was always scared to open the can!  But I finally got up the nerve and they taste great!

If you’re in the mood for a change of pace in your salads, go check out the recipe at Eating Well.  :)

Are you a sardine lover?  Or you still staring at a can of them like I did, wondering what do with them? Sardine fans, share your favorite ways to eat them so that FitFeat readers who are hesitant to try them can get their vitamin D fix this weekend!

Speaking of Vitamin D – SPRING arrives this weekend!

Have a FABULOUS FRIDAY, blog buds!

– Shari B. =)

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