Maple Balsamic Dressing

Adrienne cut her third tooth yesterday. Top right. It’s adorable…she looks like a little snaggly tooth pirate. That’s an adorable image right?

(Well, it is when said pirate has cheeks so chubby that you can’t even stand it.)

Also, her chin is chapped from the constant waterfall of drool that has been cascading down her face at every second of the day.

The only thing that seems to ease her sore gums is chewing on things. Preferably the most expensive electronic that she can get her sticky little hands on. Meeker’s iphone is her favorite. My phone won’t cut it because it’s some cheapy free phone that would not be missed for a single second if something happened to it. And she knows it.

But I play a sneaky little switcheroo game where I replace the iphone with a chunk of jicama.

She screams at the  top of her lungs and then forgets all about it .5 seconds later and is her happy self again.

Everybody is a fan of jicama. Teething babies, tired mama’s, even steak-loving husbands.

But it sort of tastes like…well, nothing. So you need some dressing to go with it, right?

Here you go.

Maple Balsamic Dressing

PRINT Recipe

• 2 T olive oil
• 1 T balsamic vinegar
• juice of half a lemon
• 1 T maple syrup
• 1 clove of garlic
• salt & pepper

Put all ingredients in a blender or mince the garlic and whisk by hand to combine. Cut yourself some jicama, throw it on top of some spinach and enjoy!

Healthy(ish) Breakfast Burrito

I woke up on Saturday morning with an overwhelming need for a breakfast burrito. Need.

Considering that my desire for things that aren’t cake are usually fleeting, I jumped all on it.

Meeker was at work and due home in less than thirty minutes. I (really badly) wanted to surprise him with the smell of eggs and bacon cooking when he walked in, so Baby A and I hustled ourselves to the store for ingredients.

When Meeker walked in I was jumping around like a monkey, hollering I have a surprise for you!

He said it smelled like a delicious surprise and it was.

Little did he know it was a slightly  healthy surprise, too. Only slightly, mind you.

(Meeker, that wasn’t real chorizo in there…surprise!)

Healthy(ish) Breakfast Burritos

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Makes 4

• 4 high fiber tortillas
• green bell pepper, sliced
• half an onion, sliced
• 6 ounces Soyrizo
• 3 eggs
• 4 slices of bacon
• 1 c hash browns
• 1/4 c plain greek yogurt
• 1/2 c shredded cheddar cheese
• 4 T salsa
• cilantro (optional)

Cook the bacon, drain the fat, and set it aside. In the same pan, sauté the onions and peppers.

Meanwhile, cook Soyrizo and the eggs in a skillet over medium heat. About 5 minutes.

Divide all the ingredients between 4 tortillas, garnishing with cilantro (unless you are one of those odd people that thinks cilantro tastes like soap…in that case, just skip it)

Oatmeal Apple Crisp

So, you know oatmeal doesn’t do it for me, right? Like, a big bowl of steaming hot oatmeal holds no appeal. However, if you want to put oats inside some baked goodies…I’m game.

I got a craving for all things fall while reading through that cookbook I told you guys about yesterday. I wanted to make an apple pie, but considering I’m the only person in this house that eats stuff like that, I decided to make little individual crispy things instead.

Actually, Baby A eats stuff like that (she eats everything…like a goat), but I thought splitting an entire apple pie with an 8 month old seemed a tad irresponsible.

We did, however, split this little ramekin full of apple crispy deliciousness. She got 2 bites, I got 8. Then I ate the other one during naptime the next day.

Sorry A, life’s not fair.

Oatmeal Apple Crisp

PRINT Recipe

makes 2

• 1 large apple (I used a honey crisp)
• 3 T butter, divided
• 1/4 c flour
• 1/4 c oats
• 1 T molasses
• 1/4 c sugar
• 1 t cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cut up the apple into small chunks. Sauté them in a pan with 1 T of butter until softened.

Mix the flour, oats, cinnamon, sugar, molasses in a small bowl. Cut in the remaining 2 T of butter like you would if you were making scones. (Basically just smush it around in your fingers until the butter is mixed with the flour. You could also do this in a food processor.)

Split those sweet squishy apple bits into two ramekins. Cover with the oat mixture. Put the ramekins on a baking sheet and pop it in the oven for about 20 minutes or until the tops look browned.

Happy Friday!

Thursday Things

1. This book exists. I found it at the library the other day and then came home and pretty much read the whole thing.

2. I get to see this girl in 15 days. I could not be more excited.

3. How did my little tiny newborn baby learn how to stand up?

4. Arugula Pesto? Please, please, please can I eat this for every meal of my life from here on out?

5. Watch this and try not to laugh. Just try it. (Have I been hanging out with a baby for too long?)

6. I had a dream this week that I convinced Meeker to let me redecorate our kitchen to look sort of like this. In my dream I kept chanting: white on white! white on white! white on white! I really wish that dream would come true. Chanting and all.

7. Rob Lowe’s autobiography is so good. I can’t put it down.

8. BLEND Retreat is going to be so much gosh darn fun. I positively cannot wait another minute. But I have to.

9. I want my hair to grow out immediately so I can do this with it. Until then, I’ll just be content with looking like a mom-version of Justin Bieber (what’s a Justice Beaver?)

Sautéed Cabbage and Chicken

I didn’t plan on sharing this meal with you all because it was just sort of thrown together for dinner on Monday. But as I was eating leftovers yesterday afternoon I thought man, this is really good, and really colorful.

My camera was begging for me to take a picture of it. I can’t say no to my camera. (So I stopped to take pictures mid way through lunch – and I had already given all of my chicken to Baby A. It was there. Promise.)

I also can’t say no to cabbage. I have this weird love for it. It’s so cheap that I can’t help but but it when I pass it in the produce section. Then I always have too much and have to eat cabbage for a few days so it won’t go bad (maybe I could juice it?!). My stomach always revolts after a few days of a steady cabbage diet – but whatever.

How can you say no to colors like this?! You can’t. You and your camera just can’t.

Sautéed Cabbage and Chicken

Chicken

2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 t olive oil
1 t sesame seed oil
1 t soy sauce
salt and pepper

Salad

3 c green shredded
3 c red cabbage, shredded
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1/4 cup freshly chopped cilantro
chow mein noodles and peanuts (optional)

Dressing

1 tablespoon sesame oil
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 teaspoon ground  ginger
1 clove grated garlic
2 T tahini
2 teaspoons soy sauce
salt and pepper

Preheat skillet or grill. Salt and pepper chicken. Add oils and soy sauce to a small bowl and mix well. Brush chicken with oil all over. Cook chicken until browned and set aside to rest. In the same pan, sauté the cabbage and bell pepper, adding more oil if needed.

Add all ingredients for salad to a  bowl. Add all ingredients for dressing to a separate bowl and mix well. Pour dressing over salad. When ready to serve, top salad with cooked chicken and chow mein noodles and peanuts.

Crusty Bread

I’m never buying bread again.

Alright, that’s probably not true. But this bread is so gosh darn good, and so easy to make. It only has three ingredients.

THREE.

It looks and tastes like you paid five dollars for it. But you didn’t. You paid however much three cups of flour costs. What…like 25 cents? The other two ingredients are used in such small quantities, I’m not even counting them.

Just mix up a few things before bed, wake up, push a little flour and yeast around, bake…and bread!

It truly doesn’t get easier.

Or more crusty-on-the-outside-chewy-on-the-inside wonderful.

Recipe Here

Baking the Perfect Loaf of Bread at Home
Formula and Process created by Jim Lahey, owner of Sullivan St Bakery

3 cups (430g) flour
1½ cups (345g or 12oz) water
¼ teaspoon (1g) yeast
a little less than 1 tablespoon salt
olive oil (for coating)
extra flour, wheat bran, or cornmeal (for dusting)

Equipment:

Two medium mixing bowls
6 to 8 quart pot with lid (Pyrex glass, Le Creuset cast iron, or ceramic) *I use a dutch oven
Wooden Spoon or spatula (optional)
Plastic wrap
Two or three cotton dish towels (not terrycloth)

Process:

Mix all of the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Add water and incorporate by hand or with a wooden spoon or spatula for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Lightly coat the inside of a second medium bowl with olive oil and place the dough in the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rest 12 hours at room temperature (approx. 65-72°F).

Remove the dough from the bowl and fold once or twice. Let the dough rest 15 minutes in the bowl or on the work surface. Next, shape the dough into ball. Generously coat a cotton towel with flour, wheat bran, or cornmeal; place the dough seam side down on the towel and dust with flour. Cover the dough with a cotton towel and let rise 1-2 hours at room temperature, until more than doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 450-500°F. Place the pot in the oven at least 30 minutes prior to baking to preheat. Once the dough has more than doubled in volume, remove the pot from the oven and place the dough in the pot seam side up. Cover with the lid and bake 30 minutes Then remove the lid and bake 15-30 minutes uncovered, until the loaf is nicely browned.

Vegetable Leek Soup

I love leeks. I don’t know why I don’t eat them more often – probably because I don’t know what to do with them except make soup.

When I was a kid, I used to eat this potato leek soup that came in a paper cup. You just poured hot water in, stirred it up, covered it for a few minutes and then you had soup!

Delicious, potato leek soup in four minutes.

This soup takes a little longer, and has potatoes and leeks – but I’m not sure you can call it potato leek, per say. There are too many good things in there that deserve to be in the title.

However, Potato Carrot Spinach Leek Corn Soup doesn’t really roll off the tongue very well.

So, I’m just going to tell you about it. You can make whatever substitutions you want – whatever you have on hand – but you have to keep the leeks.

Because I’m keeping leek in the title. 

Vegetable Leek Soup

adapted from Alton Brown

• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 chopped leeks
• 3 cloves minced garlic
• salt & pepper
• 2 medium carrots, diced
• 2 red potatoes, diced
• 4 c spinach
• 2 quarts vegetable broth (8 cups)
• 2 cans diced tomatoes
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 1/4 cup packed, chopped fresh parsley leaves
• 1 to 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Directions

Heat the olive oil in large, heavy-bottomed stockpot over medium-low heat. Once hot, add the leeks, garlic, and a pinch of salt and sweat until they begin to soften, approximately 7 to 8 minutes. Add the carrots, potatoes, and spinach and continue to cook for 4 to 5 more minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the stock, increase the heat to high, and bring to a simmer. Once simmering, add the tomatoes, corn kernels, and pepper. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook until the vegetables are fork tender, approximately 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from heat and add the parsley and lemon juice. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.

Have a happy Monday!

Lunch Lately

I’m on an arugula kick. I have been putting it in every meal I’ve eaten this week. It tastes like peppery butter to me – which means it goes with everything.

I’m also on a Dr. Praeger’s veggie burger kick. They seriously taste like egg rolls.

Add a bagel slathered in horseradish and spicy mustard and you’ve got yourself one heck of  a lunch.

What’s your current lunch kick?

Tabata This & The Z-Fund

Want a quick workout for today? It’s kind of confusing…so pay attention. It’s taken straight from Crossfit a few days ago – I don’t make this stuff up. Couldn’t if I tried.

Tabata This

Tabata Row*
Rest 1 minute
Tabata Squat
Rest 1 minute
Tabata Pull-up
Rest 1 minute
Tabata Push-up
Rest 1 minute
Tabata Sit-up

First of all: tabata means that you do 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest. For example, if you are doing tabata jumping jacks, you do jumping jacks for 20 seconds, then rest for 10 seconds, then jumping jacks for 20 seconds, then rest for 10 seconds…for eight rounds.

Following?

So in this workout, you tabata each of those exercise 8 times. Resting 1 minute in between.

I recommend this timer to help you keep track.

*Also if you don’t have a rowing machine (like I don’t have a rowing machine) just do this move instead. You’ll be sore tomorrow.

Or just roll around on the floor with a 20lb ball. Either one.

***

On a crossfit related note, I got an email from a reader this week (actually, the boyfriend of a reader) about The Z-Fund. You should go check it out. I know I’m going to get myself one of those shirts. My prayers go out to Zach and his family and friends!

Easy Blackberry Jam

The other day my friend Sarah tweeted about some scones and blackberry jam she was eating.

I tweeted her back and basically told her that she needed to email me the recipe in the next five seconds or else our ten years of friendship would go down the drain.

Just kidding. I didn’t tell her that.

I didn’t have to. She emailed her recipe to me within five seconds.

I then told her that I was stealing her recipe (it’s so easy you can barely call it that) and putting it on my blog.

I’m such a good friend, right?

Oh heavens, you can’t believe how good this is until you make it. It’s especially good with oatmeal scones. If you have five spare minutes today – you must make this. MUST, I tell you.

Otherwise, our internet friendship is over.

Easy Blackberry Jam

• 1 small carton of blackberries
• 1 T sugar (or agave, or honey or whatever)
• the juice of 1/2 a lemon

Put all the ingredients in a small saucepan and turn the heat on medium. Once those blackberry juices start flowing, squish it all up with a potato masher or a fork.

Let the mess simmer for about 5 minutes then remove from the heat until it’s thickened and looks sort of like jam.

Thank you Sarah Fred…I love you.