A Pop Quiz, the Unknown, and Tuscan Pot Pie

Hi there!

I am filled to the brim with girlish glee this morning! (I will bake cookies and send them to the first person who can tell me what that’s from WITHOUT using Google. Seriously, no cheating.)

I decided to go to the 5am crossfit class this morning instead of hitting the 5pm class per my normal schedule.

One – it’s HAWT and I wasn’t sure I wanted to be in a hot box at 5pm

and

Two – I just didn’t feel like dealing with a ton of people today.

It will probably end up being a small class now that I’ve done that but that’s okay. I’d rather give up an hour of sleep than deal with a potential crowd. Besides,

🙂

Plus, it’s a great boost for the rest of the day!

Anyway, Joe usually puts the WOD up on their Facebook page super early in the morning. I swear, the man does not sleep. So, I like to look and see what the WOD is. I don’t get intimidated by it – it helps me to get in the right mindset and decide if I should wear knee socks or not. Hey, deadlifts can be torture on my shins if the bar scrapes me up!

So this morning, Joe was vague about the WOD.

“Come enjoy the fun that Thursday has in store for you!”

Uh oh.

Skeered.

And then I got there and saw what we were doing.

And, I knew it was going to be a GREAT Thursday!

No, I didn’t run the sprints for the warm-up. I rowed those because I know I’m not ready for the explosive start and stop that’s required when sprinting. But, I was sure as H-E-double hockeysticks going to run that mile! WITH THE WEIGHT, EVEN!

I scaled it down to a 10 pound weighted ball instead of the 15 pound plate and I planned on taking it slow and easy

and

I LOVED EVERY SECOND OF THAT MILE!

So exhilarating! I didn’t feel any pain – it was more an awareness of my hip but no real discomfort. I stayed slow and steady and it was awesome! Came back in and finished up my last 25 wall ball shots (unbroken, thankyouverymuch!) and knocked out the WOD in 13:43.

YES!

Comfort Food – Day 4!

And, it’s not southwestern!

Not that there’s anything wrong with southwestern food.

It was just time for a change.

So, over to the Mediterranean we go!

Italian sausage, cannellini beans, tomato/pasta sauce, and crescent rolls for a delicious meal in less than 30 minutes? WIN!

Tuscan Pot Pie
serves 4-6

3/4 pound sweet or hot italian sausage
1 jar (26 to 28 ounces) prepared chunky vegetable or mushroom spaghetti sauce (or, just use your favorite)
1 can (19 ounces) cannellini beans, rinsed and drained (I’ve never seen a 19 ounce can of beans so I used 15 ounce)
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese
1 package (8 ounces) refrigerated crescent dinner rolls

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Remove sausage from casings. Brown sausage in medium ovenproof skillet, stirring to separate meat. Drain drippings.

2. Add spaghetti sace, beans and thyme to skillet. Simmer, uncovered, over medium heat 5 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in cheese.

3. Unroll crescent dough; divide into triangles. Arrange spiral-fashion with points of dough towards center, covering sausage mixture completely or as much as you can. Bake 12 minutes or until crust is golden brown and meat mixture is bubbly.

4. Om nom nom!

– jennifer

Some random stuff and Beef and Vegetable Pot Pie

I was able to hit the Fresh Market this past weekend. I stocked up. Um, can you say addicted? 🙂

I may have mentioned that I have created my own cookbook from recipes found in magazines, the newspaper, and the internet. That is a project I’ve been working on for the past year or so. It’s coming along quite nicely, I think.

I grab these binders and flip through them, usually while I’m eating breakfast. I use those little sticky flags to mark my pages of the upcoming week’s recipes. Sometimes, Ginny…. aka my supervisor…

decides to remove those sticky flags for me. She’s so helpful. Anyway, one of the recipes I recently made was found in my handy dandy notebook. It came from an old Cooking Light magazine. A very old magazine. Like….1998. Did I mention I’m the wife of a sailor? Yeah, that means that magazine has moved around a lot. What? Packrat? Who, me? 🙂

A recipe from the book – no idea the year. Who doesn’t love pot pie? It’s everything that is good in the world all together in one simple dish. Make it quick, easy and healthy and you’ve achieved dinner nirvana. Pull up your chair and grab your fork. You’re definitely going to want to dig in to this one!

Beef and Vegetable Pot Pie
Yield: 6 servings

1 tablespoon olive oil, divided
1 lb ground sirloin
2 cups chopped zucchini
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped carrot
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 package (8 ounces) sliced mushrooms*
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup dry red wine
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 can (14-ounce) reduced-fat, low-sodium beef broth
2 tablespoons corn starch
2 tablespoons water
Cooking spray
1 (11-ounce) can refrigerated soft breadstick dough

*mushrooms = EW
If you feel the same way, you can certainly leave them out. I substituted yellow squash.
Yellow squash = YUM

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Heat 1 1/2 teaspoons oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add beef; cook 3 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble. Drain. Wipe drippings from pan with a paper towel. Heat remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons oil in pan. Add zucchini and next 6 ingredients (through garlic); sauté 7 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Return beef to pan. Stir in wine, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, pepper, and broth. Bring to a boil; cook 3 minutes. Combine cornstarch and 2 tablespoons water in a small bowl; stir with a whisk. Add the cornstarch mixture to the pan; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.

3. Spoon beef mixture into an 11 x 7-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Separate breadstick dough into strips. Arrange strips in a lattice fashion over beef mixture. Bake at 400° for 12 minutes or until browned.

Per serving:
Calories 313; Fat 8.5g (saturated 1.7g, mono 3.0g, poly 0.7g); Protein 22g; Carb 37.6g; Fiber 2.7g; Sodium 679mg; Cholesterol 40

Recipe from Cooking Light