Weekend things and a little bit of food prep

Hi there!

Happy Monday!

Are you gearing up for Thanksgiving? Are you cooking? Have you started cooking already? Are you traveling to where someone else is doing all the cooking? <—-winning

I’ll be doing only a small amount of cooking this year as we’re headed to my folks’ house.

Mom’s having the bulk of the meal catered (this should be interesting – my first catered meal experience) and the rest of us are  responsible for a few side dishes and desserts.

I’m making this. I made it for just us last year and it is the bomb dot com.

Plus, the pecan tree in my back yard is literally vomiting pecans so…..yeah.

My town had its Thanksgiving market on Saturday and my favorite vendor was going to be there so, you know we had to go. 🙂

There were like 65 vendors or something!

Lots of artsy craftsy stuff.

There were lots of puppy dogs.

Seriously, I can’t post pictures of all the dogs – we’d be here all day.

And there were lots of leafy green veggies!

There was a pony that I wanted to ride but I don’t think he was there for people of my size age.

I loaded up on sweet taters (duh!) and apples and the biggest butternut squashes I have ever seen (needed for above recipe!).

I tried to get my sailor to take a picture of me holding the butternut squashes but he said no. Because I don’t have a porn blog.

Seriously, where was HIS brain? Haha

And besides, has he never ever heard of food porn?

Whatever.

So, he took this picture of this goat instead. Her name is Latte. She was hanging out with the goat cheese lady. Mmmm…..goat cheese……

Here’s my haul on fresh beef. Score!

After the market, we took our goodies home and headed out for some lunch and errands.

We went to our favorite Indian place. MMMM…

I had the medium spicy vindaloo and was sweating bullets at the table. lol

For the record, I only ate one little triangle of the naan because it is made with wheat and I’m doing that whole gluten free thing.

I was okay with it (or I just couldn’t tell I wasn’t because I was still breathing fire) but a few hours later, I had an iced skinny vanilla latte from Starbucks and that made my stomach hurt.

Did some research and turns out the skinny vanilla stuff has gluten in it! Blech!

I didn’t finish it. Which sucks. Starbucks ain’t cheap.

So, I’m thinking about heading to the doc to officially get tested for celiac, just to see. Because it really did make me feel bad.

Sunday was a pretty low key day.

I did a little food prep but not too much since we’re going to be laden with turkey leftovers, too. 🙂

I made some gluten-free banana bread. Because, it’s banana bread. Duh.

I made us some homemade chicken noodle soup (gluten free rotini pasta) with the last of the chicken from last week and some of the broth that I made.

To make it creamy, I added a tablespoon of grass-fed butter (I buy Kerrygold and if you haven’t tried it yet, you are totally missing out!) and about half a cup of heavy cream.

So delicious!

Then, I made some beef stew in the crockpot using some stew meat that I snagged at the farmer’s market.

I used less than 2 pounds of meat so I used upped the veggies a little. I also subbed Yukon Gold taters for the red taters because that’s what I had and I used regular onion because the recipe didn’t state red onion until down in the directions.

Yes, I broke the cardinal rule of following a recipe – I didn’t read the whole thing before I started.

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It worked out okay though. 🙂

I also didn’t add any frozen corn because I didn’t have any. T’was fine. Delicious, in fact.

Talk to me: What’s your favorite thing on the Starbucks menu?

– jennifer

Running fast & some Paleo Beef Stew

Hello!

Happy Wednesday!

I saw this on Facebook today. Cracked me up!

So, I jumped both feet into my 8 week marathon training plan yesterday.  Knocked out a quick 7.28 miles. I honestly didn’t mean it to be so quick but … well, it was cold! I had to run fast! 🙂

Actually, I pretty much just went out on an “explore” and checked out the running routes around my house (preliminary testing for those early morning runs once I find a J.O.B.) and then headed up to the park.

I took the long way to the park and was a little afraid I was going to overshoot my mileage.  Luckily, there are 2 routes once inside the park and I took the short one back.  I could have done more but – it’s an aggressive plan and I didn’t want to overdo it.

So, I overdid it when I got home by finally getting all the boxes in the bedroom unpacked and rearranging the dresser drawers.

This is what I looked like by dinner time:

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So, I tried to stretch some while I was making dinner.

And  do some pistol squats.

Because, those seemed like a good idea.

Yeah.

Not so much.

But, dinner was a GREAT idea!

My sailor unpacked my cookbooks while I was unpacking the bedroom boxes and arranged them all on my cookbook bookcase.

Yes, I have a bookcase for just my cookbooks.

some cookbooks not pictured. 🙂

I need another one because it’s stuffed.

Or less cookbooks.

Hmm.

Anywho, it was pretty chilly yesterday so I was in the mood for a stew of some sort.

But, not one that would take forever to cook – which I normally love! – but, well, I didn’t have time for that.

I found a recipe for a beef and vegetable stew in my Paleo Diet Cookbook.

So, a little about me and beef stew.

I WANT to love beef stew.

I try so hard to love beef stew.

I’ve tried quite a few different recipes and they all smell just so good while they’re cooking but, when I get to the finished product, I’m always a little disappointed.

Everyone else always loves it but there’s something about the texture and doneness of the meat.  Yes, doneness is a word.

But, I keep trying them because – well, apparently, I’m a glutton for punishment.

And, sometimes, I find a gem in the coal mine that is beef stew recipes.

And, this one, my friends, is a sparkling diamond!

O.

M.

G.

This was SO GOOD!

It doesn’t require all day to cook and I think that’s a major part of why I liked it so much.  The beef cooks just enough.

Plus, it has butternut squash in it.

I ❤ butternut squash.

Beef Stew with Vegetables
serves 4

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 pounds chuck steak, cut into cubes
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
4 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
4 celery stalks, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 small butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch cubes
2 cups chicken broth
1 bay leaf
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1. Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a cast iron skillet over medium flame (I used my Dutch oven). Add meat to skillet and brown evenly on all sides, for approximately twelve minutes. Remove from skillet.

2. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil, onion, and garlic to pan. Saute for 5 minutes. Toss in carrots, celery, and squash and saute for 5 additional minutes.

3. Return beef to skillet. Pour in broth. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to low. Add bay leaf, rosemary, and oregano. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with black pepper.

4. OM. NOM. NOM!

Question: How do you feel about beef stew? Do you have a favorite recipe?

– jennifer

Cindy, some Paleo grub, and moving stress

Hello!

Happy Tuesday!

So, yesterday was my first day of “unemployment.”

I was busier at home than I probably would have been had I gone into the office!

We’ve got a move prep list that is a mile long.

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Okay, maybe not really, but there’s definitely a lot of stuff on there!

We actually managed to get a fair amount accomplished – including setting up the house cleaning and carpet cleaning companies.  What a stress relief that was!

We can certainly clean the house ourselves but the prices that were quoted were just too awesome to pass up and, BONUS, now we don’t have to scrub the baseboards!

My least favorite part of cleaning.

Palpable relief. 🙂

This is my last week of CrossFit at Alpha Omega.

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I’m such a nerd that, even though I’m just coming home afterwards now, I’m still getting up at 3:30 to make the 5am class.

(I live like 35-40 minutes from the box.)

The 5am class is my family.

I’ve planned out my “going away” WOD for Friday.

It’s going to be a good one. 🙂

Today, we did Cindy.

I actually LOVE Cindy!

I really liked that we worked on kipping pull-ups before the WOD.

Helped me focus my kip before the WOD.

I knocked out 14 rounds + 6 reps – all Rx!

WHOOP!

After a while, it was difficult to string together more than 2-3 kipping pull-ups at a time but I kept on.

I’m hopeful that the next time I do it, my kip will be that much more efficient and I’ll be able to get more rounds done.

So, I’ve tried some new Paleo meals the past few nights.

Sunday was Bacon Beef Butternut Squash from the Civilized Caveman.

Om nom nom!

The balsamic onions really make this dish something special so don’t skip that part.

Trust me.

*Note: 30 minutes may not be long enough for the initial cooking time for the butternut squash.  If the flesh doesn’t come out easily, put that baby back in the oven. You definitely want it tender.

Last night, was Bacon Chicken Bowl from Juli at PaleOMG.

Let me tell you something.

O. M. G.

This dish was the bomb x 12!

And, so stinkin’ easy!

And, I made some extra chicken and there’s a whole sweet potato left – JACKPOT!

I already claimed the leftovers for lunch.

Nope.  Not sharing.

#sorrynotsorry

Question: How many times have you moved in your life?

I was a Navy brat, an active duty Sailor, and am a Navy spouse, so I’ve moved a lot my whole life.  This will actually be my 26th move.

!!!!