I would like to say thank you once again to Kevin whose Curried Honey Dijon Roasted Chicken was the reason I started blogging.
Pumpkin Butter Oats
Ingredients
3/4 cup unsweet vanilla almond milk
1/2 cup Bob’s Red Mill Rolled Oats
2 Tbsp PB2
Coarse salt, to taste
Cinnamon, to taste
1 packet stevia
1 Tbsp pumpkin butter
1 Tbsp wheat germ
Directions
1. Bring the almond milk to a boil over medium high heat. Stir in the oatmeal, salt and cinnamon and cook oats to package directions.
2. Top with stevia, wheat germ and pumpkin butter.
Kale and Sweet Potato Soup with Chicken and Beans
Serves about a zillion people
Printable Recipe
Ingredients
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 lb organic, free range chicken thighs
1/8 cup white wine (estimate, eyeball it)
2 onions, chopped
1 sweet potato, diced
7 small carrots, chopped
1 bunch of celery, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
1 bay leaf
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 cups organic chicken or vegetable broth
7 cups stemmed, chopped kale (about 1 bunch)
1 (15-ounce) cans no-salt-added cannellini beans, rinsed, drained, and divided
1 (15-ounce) can no-salt-added kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
Poultry seasoning
Directions
1. Heat a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add olive oil to pan; swirl to coat. Season the chicken thighs with coarse salt, pepper and garlic powder. Add to the pan and cook until the bottom begins to brown, 3-5 minutes. Flip and brown on the other side, an additional 3 minutes or so. Remove the chicken and set aside on a plate to rest. Pour a splash of white wine in to deglaze the pan, scraping most of the brown bits from the bottom.
2. Add the onion, carrot, sweet potato and celery, season with poultry seasoning and sauté 6 minutes or until tender. Stir in 1/4 teaspoon salt, bay leaf and garlic; cook 1 minute. Stir in chicken broth and kale. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat, and simmer 3 minutes or until kale is crisp-tender.
2. Add beans and pepper to soup. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes. Stir in remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and vinegar.
One of the most excellent bloggers ever, The Pioneer Woman, just posted the best blog post ever. Ten Important Things I’ve Learned About Blogging. Number ten being my favorite.
10. Value every person who takes time out of their day to stop by your blog.
Tell ‘em you love ‘em. Regularly.
So here goes.
Thank you, thank you, thank you to anyone who stops by to visit and comments. I love you guys and you have made my life a gazillion times better! (Why else would I be so eager to fire up the computer after a long day of looking at spreadsheets on the computer?)
A few weeks ago we had two couples staying at the house for about a week as they have a business that hosts large corporate conferences and this one happened to be here in Jacksonville. They were actually lovely house guests and once they left the house seemed empty.
While they were at the house there was a comment about how much food we have in the pantry. And that if we go to war everyone will come to my house because we could eat for a year. It made me think about other people’s pantries that I have seen. They are strangely empty.
Something I just couldn’t imagine.
What if I want to whip something up and I don’t have all the ingredients? I would have to make a special trip to the store? Yuck! This led to a whole new line of thought. Wait, what if I’m the weird one? Or do I just have a really stocked pantry because I cook so much at home and I’m a foodie? My daughter does have her own shelf due to all her allergies.
Help a girl out here fellow food bloggers….what does your pantry look like? Please tell me I’m not a crazy food hoarder. I mean it’s not like I’m stuffing canned goods under my mattress or anything. Those would be too bulky. I only keep tortillas under there. Kidding!
In the interest of trying to pare back a little bit I thought what if I center a series of recipes around what I have in my pantry.
Before I start, a quick note of gratitude before going forward. How fortunate am I to have a surplus of food in my pantry? The first order of business will be to go through and donate a portion of it to the local homeless shelter.
Second order of business. What is on the menu. At first glance….canned hearts of palm.
This is a recipe inspired from the “South Beach Diet Super Charged”.
Ingredients
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 heaping tsp coarse ground mustard
1 tsp minced garlic
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 (14 ounce) cans hearts of palm, drained and chopped
3 cherry tomatoes, chopped
Fresh ground pepper
Kosher salt
1 packet sweetener of choice (optional. I used Stevia after tasting it and thinking it needed a little sweetness)
Directions
1. Whisk the first four ingredients together and then pour over the hearts of palm and tomatoes and season with salad and pepper.
….from my body pump teacher?
“If you don’t change you won’t change.” Deep.
She was trying to get us to up our weights in body pump class and said this and I thought you know what, she’s right! I was so grateful to get this post as it was sort of a kick in the pants that I need to change some things up. Add weight. Add cardio. Walk the dogs more. Start running a bit again every now and then. No excuses!
In light of this I added a workout page to record my workouts. I am going to put everything down. If I move it, it gets recorded. Hopefully this will motivate me to do more if I’m actually writing it down.
If you were going through a slump was there one thing that got you motivated?
And, what are you grateful for today?