Sunday food prep – what went down in my kitchen

Hello!

Happy Monday!

(wait, is there such a thing?)

source

So, did you have a good weekend?  What did you do?

After Saturday’s long run, I went and got myself a new do!

Sometimes, a girl just needs to be sassy. 😉

Then, I pretty much watched the CrossFit games all weekend.

Those athletes are amaze-balls. Every. Single. One. of. Them.

I actually (briefly) considered, after this 50k, just training and seeing how I could do in 2016.

I’d be in a whole new age group category!

Yes, that means I’m old. Old enough to be in the Masters grouping, that is.

I don’t know. We’ll see. I picked 2016 because there are still so many things I have to work on.

It might be fun! 😉

Anyway, on Sunday, while watching the Games, I food prepped all day.

With me at the 6pm CrossFit classes these days, I’m not usually home until 7:45 – 8:00pm and that’s just too late to cook dinner.

I was setting things up for my sailor to cook but his work life has gotten busier and last week, sometimes I beat him home! Plus, he doesn’t always remember to pack a lunch so he’s eating fast food or not eating at all. That will not do!

I figured if we discussed it all and food prepped together, then he would know what we have and be more prepared to take a lunch AND we’d have things we could toss together for dinner in a hurry.

So, here are some things that went down in our kitchen yesterday:

one whole cut-up chicken, roasted.

This was SUPER easy. I would have purchased a whole chicken but I didn’t get to the Farmer’s Market on Saturday and the Harris Teeter only had organic chickens cut-up. So, I bought it.

Here’s what you do:

 Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Put the chicken pieces in a pan (I used 9×13), rub all over with olive oil and season liberally with salt and pepper. Roast for 30 minutes. Turn the heat down to 350 degrees and roast 10-40 minutes more, depending on the size of the chicken pieces.  I took the wings, thighs and drumsticks out after 50 total minutes but the breasts had longer to go.

Once cooled, shred and use on sandwiches, salads, in pasta sauces, whatever. 🙂

(you can shred it when it’s hot, if you want to. just don’t be mad at me when you burn your fingers.)

Then, we got some chili going in the crockpot!

I used this recipe from PaleoGrubs but I left out the adobo sauce and added some Chipotle chili pepper for some smoky heat.

Chili is perfect on top of a sweet tater with some avocado (that may or may not have been my lunch today), or just heated up and served with cheese and Fritos or whatever you choose.

Of course, I had to make some of my triple chocolate avocado brownies. 🙂

Left the chia seeds out this time.

Okay, honestly, I needed to save them for my overnight oats in a jar. 🙂

And, for quick  breakfasts (I’m the only one who doesn’t forget to eat breakfast. How a person can FORGET to eat breakfast is beyond me!! Umm..doesn’t your stomach tell you it’s hungry?!?!) and/or snacks, I decided to make some of Lindsay’s Peanut Butter Banana Oat Muffins.

Holy YUM!

As you can see, I had one to sustain me while I was cooking. 😉

I have one today for my pm snack. Also have some fresh cherries. Om nom nom!

Not pictured are the overnight oats and the chopped veggies for lunches (mostly mine).

And last night, after all that, I made some “deconstructed enchiladas” with this green chili enchilada sauce.

I used a can of black beans, added some of the chicken we had roasted, and poured in the sauce. Heat over low heat about 10-15 minutes. Serve over rice.

So. Stinkin’. Delicious!

Too good for pictures, obviously. What can I say – we were hungry!!

And, the bonus is, there’s at least one serving left for a lunch or dinner later in the week! #winning

I’ve done food prep before but then, I’ve gotten lazy and fallen off the wagon.

It was definitely better with help!

And, the benefit is, everyone is invested and knows what’s in the fridge so there will be less uneaten food.

Pretty sure we’re going to make this a habit. 🙂

Talk to me: Do you food prep? What are your go-to recipe choices? Do you prep more for lunches or dinners?

– jennifer

Recipe Round-up – what’s on my “to be made and gobbled up” list

Hello!

Happy Tuesday!!

So, my friend Lena over at Lean Lena does a Tasty Tuesday linkup party on her blog.

It’s about darned time I joined in! 🙂

(And, it’s about time you headed over there to check it out! Who knows what sort of yumminess you’ll find? Like Cheesecake Cupcakes. Ahem, need I say more? I’ll wait.) 😉

I’ve seen some pretty amazing recipes come into my in-box these past few weeks and I want to share the ones that are on my “to be made and gobbled up” list. Maybe you’ll put them on your “to make” list, too! 🙂

First things first.

This.

Photo credit: Kylie at immaeatthat.com

Kylie at Yeah….Imma Eat That made this AMAZING Caprese Salad Focaccia with Crunchy Roasted Chickpeas.

Ya’ll know how I feel about the chickpea.

While we’re at it, Kylie also made dessert!

Photo credit: Kylie at immaeatthat.com

Peanut Butter Cookie Chia Seed Banana Pudding.

She totally had me at peanut butter cookie.

Lexi over at Lexi’s Clean Kitchen has been whipping up some pretty amazing stuff, too.

Are you into cherries? Omigosh, I ❤ cherries!

Cherry pie, cherry cobbler, cherries straight from the bag…..

*sidenote – fresh cherries make the best driving snack. Trust me. I’m an expert.

Lexi took it a step further.

photo credit: Lexi at lexiscleankitchen.com

Steak Salad with Cherry Salsa.

Genius!!!

I’m so totally going to eat that.

And, while we’re on the subject of cherries…..

photo credit: Erin at http://www.thelawstudentswife.com

Erin at The Law Student’s Wife shared this to-die-for recipe for Double Crust Cherry Crisp.

Brilliant!

I may need to buy more cherries.

Finally, chocolate. And peanut butter. In a brownie.

photo credit: Katie at chocolatecoveredkatie.com

I die.

Katie made Chocolate Peanut Butter Buckeye Brownies …

and she made them HEALTHY!

She’s a girl after my own heart. 🙂

Talk to me: What new recipes have you found that are on your “to make” list?

Five on Friday – randomness

Oh. Em. Gee. It’s FINALLY Friday!

This week has been ridiculously long. Painfully long. That’s probably because last week was a 3 day week with the 4th of July falling on a Friday. A 3-day weekend that’s Friday, Saturday, and Sunday rather than Saturday, Sunday, and Monday is just odd.

Speaking of odd, I have some random things to share with you in this week’s edition of “Five on Friday.”

ONE

So, Eliza doesn’t like to be brushed. In fact, she really doesn’t like to be held. Sometimes, like maybe 2 or 3 times a year, she’ll sit on your lap but only when she decided that’s what she wants to do. She also likes to be outside. Not outside, outside but outside in our screened in porch. Where it’s hot. And humid. And OUTSIDE.

She has a fur coat.

She doesn’t like to be brushed.

She’s not big on grooming herself. Yes, she’s lazy.

Because of that, her fur gets really matted. Like BAD. HUGE. AWFUL clumps of fur.

And then she gets a hair cut.

 

She’s happy. Trust me.

TWO

These Vega bars.

Oh my goodness. So good!

I was lucky enough to get a hold of a few dozen at FitBloggin’ and I’m in heaven.

I eat them as I go from work to CrossFit and we even took them on our hike last weekend. So what if they got a little melty and smooshed on our fingers? Chocolate + peanut butter + melty = licking the wrapper. 🙂

THREE

W. T. F.

Have I ever mentioned that my new CrossFit box is attached/next door to a dry cleaners? We share the restroom and I see some odd things when I’m going back that way.

FOUR

I found these at Harris Teeter. You must find them. They are UH-MAY-ZING.

 

They come individually wrapped so you could even throw one in your lunchbox if you chose to. We’ve grilled them and served them with grilled veggies, tortilla chips, and guacamole. My sailor put his in a bun. (you know, no matter how many different ways I tried to say that, it all just sounds really, really inappropriate.)

 

FIVE

Random spray painted words on the street.

 

I don’t know. I got nothin’.

Talk to me: What sort of random things have you seen/heard this week? Have you ever given a cat a hair cut? Do you think all manholes are filled with dirt?  (Ha! More inappropriateness. I crack myself up.)