Meet my latest obsession: Quinoa.

[ look how pretty it looks with some black and white mixed together! ]

It’s nutty. It’s different. It’s filling. It’s awesome.

Mostly eaten with savory foods, quinoa is often overlooked for breakfast.

But look at this? Doesn’t this look yummy? Trust me. It does.

And it’s gluten free. Which is a bonus. I have an issue with gluten and sometimes oatmeal bugs me, and I was REALLY missing oatmeal this winter.

I found this great recipe on pinterest [ of course ] from Martha Stewart [ who else? ]. But of course I added some extra flair.

chimes’s Breakfast Quinoa [ modified from Martha Stewart's recipe  — 7 points + per serving ]
Ingredients:
2 c unsweetened almond milk [ or milk of your choice — moo works too ]
1/2 c white quinoa, rinsed
1/2 c black quinoa, rinsed
2 T honey [ or sweetener of your choice ]
1/4 t ground cinnamon
1/4 t ground nutmeg
1 c frozen blueberries

Directions:
Bring milk to a boil in a small saucepan. Add quinoa, and return to a boil. Reduce heat to low, and simmer, covered, until three-quarters of the milk has been absorbed, about 15 minutes. Stir in honey and spices. Cook, covered, until almost all the milk has been absorbed, about 8 minutes. Stir in blueberries, and cook until most of their water has been absorbed. Serve.

Makes 4 servings.

Of course, you can mix things up. If you don’t like cinnamon or nutmeg, use cocoa [ cocoa and blueberries go together really well ], add peanut butter, use all black or all white quinoa. Go nuts! Add nuts? It’s really good cold over greek yogurt too.

Share on Facebook

So a long long time ago, I had a birthday party. Yes. In October.

Regardless, you’re getting a recipe, so ignore the un-timeliness of this post. As you may know, I’ve been obsessed with everything spicy. Including chocolate. Chipotle chocolate to be precise. So for my birthday I made a spicy chocolate flourless cake. Because, as you may also know, I quit eating gluten in hopes of fixing my tummy troubles [ it worked ].

I used the Chipotle Flourless Chocolate Cake recipe from Simply Recipes. But there was one major problem: I couldn’t find chipotle anywhere. Apparently WalMart has it [ for future reference ]. So instead, I ground up about a teaspoon of crushed red pepper in the coffee grinder and added that.

Also, this is the easiest recipe ever. It’s basically 1 bag of chocolate chips [ semi-sweet or darker ] + sugar + butter + 5 eggs + any spices you want to add. And the end product? It’s like a slice of chocolate that’s the consistency of cheesecake.

[ melt the chocolate and butter together ]

[ stir up the eggs and sugar ]

Did I mention Danielle helped me bake? She’s my favorite baking partner-in-crime and we live so far apart we hardly ever get to do this anymore. My yearly birthday get-togethers are usually when we do such things. Last year we made Guinness Cupcakes.

[ grind up the spices ... or use chipotle ]

[ mix all together ]

[ bake in a springform pan ]

<

[ serve! ]

Share on Facebook

How about a Thanksgiving recipe? Okay. I’m on it. And it even involves booze.

Pumpkin Bourbon Frozen Yogurt
1 32 oz container of 0% Plain Chobani
1 small can of pumpkin (plain pumpkin)
1 c sugar (I used 3/4 at first, but Mark said to add a bit more)
1/4 t cloves
1/4 t nutmeg
2 t cinnamon
4-5 T bourbon
Optional: 1 vanilla bean

If using the vanilla bean … you should probably start making this recipe 3-4 days ahead of time. Why? Because you’re going to infuse the bourbon with the vanilla. Put your bourbon in an airtight container and throw in your bean. You could probably add a bit more bourbon if you wanted to have more of this saved for later.

Since I didn’t know any better, I mixed the two together and let them sit for about 6 hours. The bourbon was more vanilla-y but not quite what I had expected.

Okay — to make the yogurt you mix all the ingredients in a big bowl. I let them sit in the fridge for a few hours to let the flavors mingle.

Pour the mixture in your ice cream maker and let it go to work. Should take 20-30 minutes.

Share on Facebook

I’ve been obsessing over smoothies.  Big time.  One every day for breakfast.  I keep this one for the weekend because sometimes bananas give me stomachaches, but it is SO worth the tummy ache for this smoothie.

Chocolate Banana Smoothie

1 frozen banana
5 ice cubes
2 T cocoa (unsweetened)
1 scoop whey protein powder
1/2 c–3/4 c almond milk

Crush ice then blend until smooth. Serve cold.

Yummmmmmmm! It’s like having ice cream for breakfast. Except less naughty.

Share on Facebook

Share on Facebook

Hey all.  I realize my blog is beginning to derail and I’ve kind of gotten away from my regularly-scheduled-programming, so to speak. I am REALLY busy with work and with the holidays, so I haven’t had much time to post anything really well-thought out.

However, I did want to share with you this amazing sandwich idea I had this week. In fact, it’s so amazing that I’ve made one for myself for lunch every day this week.

Smoked Gouda and Chicken with Apples

1/2 apple — thinly sliced
2-3 slices of smoked gouda cheese
deli sliced or shaved Turkey or Chicken Breast (a dryer meat works best)
whole grain bread — a really seedy one is amazing with this
Mustard (optional)
butter or margarine (if you’re going to grill the sandwich)

Assemble: One slice bread, mustard if using, gouda, apples, chicken, more gouda if you happen to want another slice and the other slice of bread.

BONUS POINTS: Grill the sandwich. Assemble the same way (I would omit the mustard) except butter the outside of the bread. Place on a skillet over medium heat for 2-3 minutes, flip, cook for 2-3 minutes more and enjoy.

This is quite possibly the most amazing thing I’ve packed for lunch. EVER.

Share on Facebook

Nothing like a good breakfast to end your weekend.  I created a fluffy omelet with ham, pepper jack, mushrooms, onions and spinach. Sooo good!

Fluffy Omelet

3 eggs, separated
1 T milk
salt and pepper to taste
1 T oil or butter
toppings of choice — I used ham, cheese, spinach, onion and mushroom.

Heat a large skillet over medium/high and add the butter or oil to coat the pan.  If you have any raw vegetables or meat that you want cooked, do so at this point. I cooked the onion and mushroom for 7 minutes, until the onions were  glossy.  Set these aside when finished and continue heating the pan.

Crack your eggs and separate the yolks into a small bowl and the whites into a larger bowl.  Beat the yolks with the milk and some salt and pepper. Using a whisk or an electric mixer, beat your egg whites to soft peaks.  Fold the yolks into the whites.  Carefully pour the egg mixture into the pan and cover. Cook for 5-7 minutes, until the top of the omelet starts to set up. VERY carefully flip your omelet*.  Cook for 5-7 minutes more. Add toppings at this point. Cover to melt cheese if desired.  Remove from heat and serve.

*I cheated. I had a 2nd pan heating and flipped the omelet over into that pan.

Share on Facebook

Hey all!

My boy likes to cook and I thought it’d be a cool feature to share his creations (with instructions) once or twice a month.

I shall call this segment: Wonder Bread Italian Boy Cooks.

For those of you who don’t get that, my boy is about as Italian as white bread. Wonder bread that is. He’s got the last name and the recipes. Not to mention he’s an amazing cook and comes up with crazy delicious meals on the fly.

So without further ado, this is installment #1 of Wonder Bread Italian Boy Cooks.

Sorry guys, I promise from now on I’ll have better photos. I did just buy a new digital camera! This was kind of an on-the-fly decision to add this feature, so the photo isn’t great, but it was YUMMY.

Everything from the Garden Pasta

Ingredients:

1 full chicken breast (both sides of the breast)
4 T olive oil (reserve 2 for the end)
Salt and Pepper to taste
2 lbs assorted vegetables — he used:
1 small yellow zucchini squash, sliced
1 small green zucchini, sliced
1 red pepper, julienned
1 green pepper, julienned
1 yellow pepper, julienned
1/2 red onion, sliced
1 small package mushrooms, whole
1/2 c red wine
2 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes
italian seasoning to taste
Cooked whole wheat pasta

Directions:

Heat 2 T olive oil over medium heat in a large pan. Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces and add to oil. Season with salt and pepper. Cook through and remove from pan. Set aside.

Add veggies to pan. Saute while stirring until onions start to get glossy and see-through. Add half of the red wine. Keep stirring and sauteing for 15 more minutes or until veggies have cooked through.

Add the rest of the red wine, the additional 2 T olive oil, both cans of tomatoes and the chicken. Sprinkle with some Italian seasonings. Cook for 15 minutes more. Toss with the cooked pasta and serve with parmesan cheese.

Share on Facebook

I went to the Bell Center today to run on a treadmill. I set out to run 45 minutes or 5 miles — whichever came first.

Welll … I ended up running for an hour.  Which was somewhere between 7 and 8 miles (I need to recalibrate my nike+ hardcore).

Anyway, here’s my run:

Notice my playlist is titled \m/ \m/ … that’s for metal.

I spent a good 20 minutes stretching out and LO! I can touch my left toe!!! I haven’t done that in years. Especially since I’ve been injured.

I’m currently enjoying my new favorite post-run treat. A faux-chocolate malt.  I haven’t quite gotten an official recipe down, but this is kinda what I’ve got going …

1-2 frozen bananas (peel/slice before you freeze)
1-2 bananas
5-7 ice cubes
1/4 c milk (you might have to add more towards the end
chocolate milk mix to taste

Toss it in a blender … ice and frozen naners first, add regular bananas and milk. Blend until desired consistency … add chocolate milk mix. Tastes like a chocolate malt!

Share on Facebook

Wow that is a cheesy title, but it’s true!

I finally took the plunge and tried to eat a banana a couple weeks ago for the first time in at least 10 years. When I was younger I couldn’t eat bananas because they made my stomach hurt — which is ironic because it’s one of the things doctors always tell you to eat when you can’t digest much else.

Anyway, after a dormant period without bananas, I’m totally crazy about all things banana! (well, not as much as my friend Niki I suppose).

My absolute favorite thing and new obsession is making frozen banana custard.  I found this “recipe” on Iowa Girl Eats’s blog.  This was actually what prompted me to try bananas again.  I have a huge ice cream obsession and a few weeks back had an issue with stress eating (ie. pints of ice cream) lead to an unhealthily quick weight gain. So, I thought, if I could replace the ice cream with something healthy (ie. frozen banana) then I would be set.

AND yay. It worked. Those 7 pounds gone in a flash (gained ‘em one week, lost ‘em the next). They say that bananas are bloat-fighters, and I must agree. Because I’m going to throw it out there and say that 5 of those 7 pounds I gained in a week HAD to be water weight. (right? right.)

Anyway, here is my cleverly disguised banana for the day:

I will say that the trick is to cut the naners into smaller pieces before freezing. Also, I’ve been doing mine in the blender and using the “ice crush” function to get it going. I add a little bit of soy milk and some vanilla to the mix to get things going. I’ve also thrown in some chocolate ovaltine for a chocolate version of my faux ice cream.

Another thing that’s awesome about the banana obsession (aside from the health benefits) is the fact that they’re way cheap. I can make 3 pints of frozen banana custard using 4-5 medium bananas.  That is roughly $1.50 for 3 pints. Compare that to the price of one pint of Ben and Jerry’s. Just try.

Hopefully I don’t get sick of bananas because so far they’ve been doing wonders for me and my pocket book!

Share on Facebook