Holiday Staycation

I have this whole week off from work!  My office decided to close this week as it is traditionally a slow week (unfortunately that means forced vacation time :/…) but I guess if I wasn’t “forced” to take this time off I never would be having a glorious staycataion!  I always carefully track my vacation time to save for trips, but never really just have time off at home!  I don’t know why either because it’s AMAZING!
Even better when the husband takes 2 days off as well…like on Monday, there was basically a blizzard from Sunday afternoon into Monday so we did a whole lot of NOTHING!
Except shoveling and taking the dog out…Bromley loves the snow it’s hilarious, the snow was almost taller than him so he was hopping in and out of it.
He also got covered!

I love how the white snow on his face makes it so you can’t see much of his mouth
and shake off…

The greatest aspect of being home this week is actually being able to cook…breakfast, lunch, and dinner!
Let’s see, I’ll start with the not-so-great item from Sunday night.
I was sent a whole box of delicious Chobani Greek yogurt a few weeks ago and adding it to recipes here and there.  Delicious.  One meal I was dying to try is a beef Stroganoff using Chobani instead of sour cream.  Simple right?
Well I picked the wrong recipe as my base…woops.  It was an Ellie Krieger recipe and until now I’ve loved everything of hers I have made.  However I made the mistake of not looking it up online for reviews first (if I had I would have known!)
I only have shots of the prep…
(new shiny pan :)


And that my friends is where the photos end because I was so pre-occupied with saving this meal!  and I did!!
The main problem was WAY too much liquid and not enough thickening agent, so when I initially added the yogurt it just broke up/curdled.  Basically I strained out almost all of the excess liquid with a spoon, added another container of yogurt and then it was fine :)  It was actually quite tasty and I want to try again.
Onto Monday morning.  As I said before we had about 20” of snow and the winds were ridiculous! (a shingle even got ripped off our roof!)
This makes snow bearable:

Leftover Christmas sticky bun

and freshly made cappuccinos
(like my new post-Christmas sale placemats from Crate and Barrel??)

After fueling on sticky buns and caffeine, Brian and I tackled the driveway.  Shoveling is rough, but I just think about the great workout I’m getting!  400 calories/hour…yes!!  1.5 hours later…Breakfast #2 
Yogurt Parfait:

• 1 container 0% Chobani Plain Greek Yogurt
• 1/2 green apple, chopped
• 1/2 banana, chopped
• cantaloupe chunks
• Bob’s Red Mill Muesli
• maple syrup drizzle

 
even had time to layer it all pretty
It’s also been hard to stay out of the Christmas treats!  I mean look what Brian got me…LOOK!!
Dark chocolate covered marzipan!!!!!   This stuff is incredible!!!!!  He went to the Hotel Chocolat on Newbury St in Boston…if you can get there I highly recommend this if you love all things dark chocolate and almond as I do.

Well I think that’s a long enough post for now :)
Happy Wednesday!  (why oh why does the week fly by so fast when you’re not at work???)
Today I’ve been doing some home organizing…what do you like to do when you have extra time off at home??

Baked Beans and Cabbage

Seems like it’s been a while since I’ve done an Ellie Krieger dinner!?  Her cookbooks are two of my very favorite spots to look when I’m trying to think of simple, healthy, delicious, and fairly quick weeknight dinner ideas. 

As I was flipping through one night…

I came across this:

Brian LOVES baked beans, so I know he’d be all for it.  Plus I liked the idea of getting more fiber rich beans into my meal, and the cabbage salad sounded like a perfect accompaniment, not to mention that it screams of Autumn with the apples an hearty cabbage!

Ellie’s Baked Beans with Ham

I’m a very lucky girl.  My husband actually does cook once in a while, but not only that if I know he’ll be home before me I can give him a little task list of things to chop and I come home to this…  

Everything chopped and ready to go!!  I’m telling you ladies, just ask them to help out and they’ll soon realize a little chopping will make eating time arrive a LOT sooner ;)

This dish comes together pretty quickly, and only needs to simmer for about 15-20 min. 

  Mine didn’t get quite as thick as the picture in the book, but it was still a good consistency.  I also added a couple tsp of sugar because I like my baked beans a tad sweet.  The recipe itself is on the tangy side, but still delicious.

Unfortunately the recipe for the Green Apple and Cabbage Salad is not yet available online!

However, I’m sure you could figure something out very similar.  I just used red cabbage and green apple (left out the scallions in the original recipe as I didn’t have any).

Then the vinaigrette is just a basic red wine vinaigrette slightly sweetened!

It’s super crunchy and so flavorful!  I LOVED this salad.  Not to mention this sturdy salad was even good the next day, dressing and everything; didn’t get soggy.

 

This was a hit!  I also loved how colorful it was.

Thank you, Ellie, for another fantastic dinner. 

We’ve had some unseasonably warm weather here in MA this weekend!  Love that!

Plans for the day:

• Meeting a friend and our dogs for coffee + walk
• Run with Brian
• Make salad to take to my friends house tonight.  I’m making THIS salad…always a crowd pleaser. 
• Italian Supper at a friends :)  I am SO excited for meatballs, and stuffed shells, and garlic bread…mmmm.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Craving Ellie Food

If you’ve been reading for a while you know I love to make Ellie Krieger recipes! I own both of her books and, in my opinion, she comes up with the BEST recipes…healthy, good for you versions of everyone’s favorite dishes.

So I was shocked how long it took me to find this blog: Craving Ellie in My Belly. I was so excited to find a whole community of Ellie-food lovers out there, so I immediately joined in!

Basically every week a new person chooses an Ellie recipe and then everyone else makes it and posts about it…we’re supposed to post Thursday, but I was at a meeting till 10pn last night and all I wanted was my bed!!! Hope that's OK!

Plus I love how now I already have 1 meal picked out for the week!

This week was Garlic Basil Shrimp hosted by Tea and Scone

I love shrimp, garlic, and basil so this sounded like it would be delicious!

Frozen shrimp from TJ’s:

I love cooking with shrimp…scampi has become a frequent occurrence around here, but I’ve never done a shrimp dish where the shrimp was cooked before any of the other ingredients.

Sautéed the shrimp in Olive Oil, then remove. Then add your garlic and red pepper flakes. After about 30sec, add the white wine and simmer.

If I did this again, I’d cook the shrimp in the wine/garlic so it would soak up the flavors. The wine didn’t reduce much either.

Lastly, add the chopped tomatoes and fresh basil

Then add back in the shrimp!

The recipe calls for it to be served on Orzo but neither I nor Trader Joe’s had any! So whole wheat linguini it is!

I also cooked up some green beans as a side :)

The verdict: I thought it was very good! Not amazing, but good. I think my many scampi versions are way better, also Ellie’s Baked Shrimp and Feta blows this away!

But it is quick and flavorful, and I had leftover for lunch which I thought tasted even better!

Hair Update: Thank you so much for your comments :) After I posted that I realized both “curly” hair pics were definitely on “good hair days”….which in the curly hair world do NOT happen often! It usually is annoying and unmanageable and I end up pulling it back. I do love my curls on occasion, but this will be a very nice curl-vacation!

One more day of this crap! I go back to the salon tomorrow morning for the wash out, yay!

Happy Friday

Food Loves + Ellie Returns

Do you ever…

• Sit down at the computer to write a post only to get completely side-tracked looking at other blogs, facebook,..etc?? I am so guilty of this A LOT! Like right now…I should of done this an HOUR ago, and would love to be in bed now.
  
• Have pictures of yummy food, and just want to post them but don’t have much to say? Yeah, me too and here are a few from the past week!

My weekend pictures are always my favorite…so much more sunlight and I have time to make things like Breakfast Sandwiches!! LOVE!

• WW Sandwich Thin
• 1 egg
• 1 slice cheddar
• 1 slice ham
• Fresh Strawberries

Veggies + Sunlight: about to get grilled! Major LOVE!

Ok, I confess the grilling was brought about by Brian wanting a grilled hotdog last weekend. So I threw together all the veggies we had and asked him to grilll those too :)

and yes, I had a grilled hot dog too. Doesn’t happen often (and I don’t like to think about exactly what I’m eating), but there’s nothing like a grilled hotdog when the weather gets warm!

Ellie Time

I think I should start getting a cut from Food Network or something. I LOVE her recipes and frequently head to her cookbook or recipes online for dinner ideas.

This recipe is one I made before and LOVED.

Baked Shrimp with Tomatoes and Feta

I love frozen shrimp. I love shrimp scampi. We eat it a lot.

This recipe is almost like a baked shrimp scampi…with tomatoes and feta. I find the shrimp come out much more tender this way! This recipe is AMAZING (with my couple of additions of course)

The fresh dill and parsley are KEY to the fresh flavors of this dish.

After sautéing the garlic + onions, you add the canned tomatoes and simmer. When I add the tomatoes I also add some white wine (maybe 3-4T?) and juice from half of a lemon.

After that simmers, you take it off the heat and THEN add the shrimp and fresh herbs. This prevents the shrimp and herbs from being overcooked.

Top with Feta and bake!

We ate this over a bed of baby spinach and TJ’s Harvest Grains.

I cook the grains in chicken broth for extra flavor…I think this is another key element to the deliciousness of this dinner!

Love this dish!

More loves? How about I obviously finished my dinner first (a combination of a smaller portion and eating much faster…I gotta work on that!), so I decided to snap photos…

stop playing with your food!

Goodnight! Early Body Combat tomorrow morning :) LOVE Combat!

~B