Five Things Friday {3/20}

1. Happy first day of Spring! I’m always confused as to what month it is here because the weather doesn’t change that much but I’m happy for all of you in the chilly states that hopefully things will start to warm up soon. Except for that extra snow today.. but hey, that’s what late March is all about, right? You could always come visit me and we can head to wine country..
   
2. First things first, I tried to burn down the apartment yesterday. Really, I was microwaving popcorn in a regular brown paper bag [as I’ve done 100 times before] and the damn bag caught fire! So instead of immediately pouring water on it, I decided it was a good idea to panic and start yelling “NO! NO! NO!” Genius, people. Pure genius. Don’t worry, I did finally realize that I had water sitting next to me and saved the day.
   
3. I made burrito bowls for dinner the other night and making my own black beans makes all the difference in the world. Have you ever tried it instead of getting canned beans? So much better! I use this recipe and it’s delicious.
   
4. Yesterday was amazingly wonderful [aside from almost burning the place down.] It was practically my day off with only 1 client and I soaked in all of the quiet. Especially after such a long Wednesday, it was much needed.
5. Don’t forget to enter my MealEnders giveaway!

Have a great weekend, friends!

Food for Thought

Any fun plans this weekend?

Beer, Wine, and Sunshine

Good morning! Today is the last day to enter my Manitoba Harvest Hemp Hearts giveaway.. are you in on it yet? Also, I’ve announced the winner of my Peanut Butter & Co. giveaway. Such excitement to start the week!

We had another fun-filled weekend with Nathan’s mom. Friday we went into San Francisco to shop. We were on a mission to find Nathan a new suit and were especially successful leaving with 2 suits! We also finally had success at Liguria Bakery. Our most favorite pillowy-soft foccacia bread has been on our radar for months and every time we’ve had the chance to get over to Liguria, they’ve been closed or sold out. Friday, however, we picked up a plain square and a rosemary garlic square. It’s just the best!

After a beautiful day in the city, we made our way to Jupiter in Berkeley for a little patio beer, pizza, and salad action. It was too nice a day to let it go to waste so we spent as much time outside as possible.

Saturday was another day of amazing weather and what better way to enjoy it than in Sonoma? We tried a couple new places—Gloria Ferrer for sparkling wine and charcuterie, Viansa Winery, Park 121 Cafe for lunch, and Meadowcroft Wines. While we don’t typically purchase any wine when we go tasting, we couldn’t pass up the cab franc and port. They’re definitely bottles that we’re going to be saving for a more special occasion. Two-buck chuck does just fine on a regular basis 😉

Saturday night, we had a wonderful dinner at Homestead, a farm-to-table style restaurant that changes their menu daily based on the freshest ingredients they can get. Nathan and I had been eyeing this place for practically a year and had read great reviews so we were pretty excited to finally try it out. It definitely lived up to our expectations! I ordered the pan seared black cod, chickpeas, artichokes, grilled treviso, almond pesto; it was seasoned perfectly, the skin on the cod had a nice crisp to it and it was overall a pretty light dish. The housemade sourdough levain with housemade sea salted butter to start out was a real treat too. I probably could have eaten a whole loaf of that bread!

Nathan got the pork loin, spaetzle, grilled onion, sauerkraut, whole grain mustard. He agreed that the flavors in his dish were on point and it was also rather light.

Sunday was pretty much back to normal; we dropped Nathan’s mom off at the airport in the morning and I headed into work. Back to reality, I guess. Ahh, it’s gotta happen sooner or later, right? We’re currently guest-less for 2 1/2 weeks before my friends get here and while we’ve enjoyed having company and are looking forward to more, we’re definitely going to the enjoy the quiet and home-cooked meals!

Weekly Meal Plan

Sunday – Leftovers
Monday – Crunchy stuffed buffalo chicken with ranch roasted potatoes and asparagus
Tuesday – Burrito bowl with perfect black beans [<–the best!] and chicken
Wednesday – Leftovers
Thursday – Thai chicken satay noodle salad with coconut peanut dressing
Friday – Out!
Saturday – Leftovers

Food for Thought

Five Things Friday

Hi friends! I wasn’t sure I’d get a post up today, but I decided that since I have some time, I wanted to drop in and share a few things.

1. Just My Imagination is having a huge semi-annual sale. Today through August 25th, you can get 40% off your entire order using code 40OFF at checkout. You don’t want to miss this!

2. Nathan and I are in concert mode this week. On Tuesday we cashed in his birthday gift and went to see Buddy Guy and George Thorogood. [Buddy was the jam!] Tomorrow we’re spending our day at Hot August Blues. What beats an all day blues concert outside when the weather is gorgeous?!

3. Speaking of the weather, I can’t believe it’s August. What is this 60 degrees when I wake up and 80 as the high?! It’s beautiful sweater weather but I’m not quite sure I’m ready for fall yet.

4. I absolutely loved making so many recipes from my pinterest boards this past week and I’m currently scouring to figure out what I want to make this weekend! Maybe some more roasted veggies and quinoa?

Roasted Veggie Quinoa Salad – The Talking Kitchen

Also considering a chicken salad. Which one do you think? [Nathan? ;)]

– Honey Chicken Salad with Grapes & Feta
– Lemon Roasted Chicken Salad
– Avocado Cashew Chicken Salad

5. As far as this past week’s recipes go, I’m needing to finish up this post so I can melt down a piece of chocolate banana peanut butter fudge to spread on a piece of toasted paleo bread for today’s snack! So on that note, I’m out! 😉

Have a great weekend!

Food for Thought

What are your weekend plans?

Which chicken salad would you make?

National Cookie Day!

Have you entered my giveaway for Hail Merry Macaroons yet? You don’t want to miss it!

Today is a wonderful day; it’s National Cookie Day! I’ve been planning on testing a holiday cookie recipe and had I realized sooner, I would have had it ready for today. But since I don’t, I wanted to share a list of some of my favorite cookie recipes. And maybe a few that I’ve been eyeing but haven’t gotten around to testing yet 😉 Those are noted with a *

Healthy Treats

• Cacao Carrot Pumpkin Spice POWERCookies – PowerCakes*
• Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie – Chocolate Covered Katie (Ok, so maybe not a cookie, but close enough that it has to be on the list!)
• Chocolate Peanut Butter LOVE Cookies – Eating Bird Food*
• Four-Minute Coconut Macaroons – Chocolate Covered Katie
• Flourless Chocolate Chip Cookies – Chocolate Covered Katie
• Protein No-Bake Cookie – STUFTmama
• Vegan Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies – Eating Bird Food

Indulgences

• Deep Dark Chocolate Cookies – Divine Baking*
• Hot and Spicy Gingersnaps – Recipe Girl*
• Mini Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies – How Sweet It Is*
• The Chewy – Alton Brown
• The New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies – Brown Eyed Baker
• Vegan White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies – Healthy Happy Life

I think I gave you enough to work with for a little while. Now get to baking! 🙂

Food for Thought

What are some of your favorite cookie recipes? Do you make holiday cookies every year?

Foodie Friday: Garlic-Chipotle Love and a Popchips Giveaway!

If you haven’t already gathered from my last couple posts, FitBloggin’ was awesome! Part of what made it so awesome were all of the amazing sponsors.

One of my favorite sponsors of the weekend was popchips. Not only were the chips delicious (and kept us full all weekend), but the people were awesome too. Popchip rockstars, anyone? 😉
Skip to the giveaway!

With Mary, Kate, and Jami

They were there introducing the new line of tortilla chips and I can vouch for each of the flavors; amazing! The chips are light and airy, like the traditional popchips, but have the corn flavor, so you don’t miss a regular fried tortilla chip at all. When they asked if I was interested in doing a giveaway, how could I say no?!

Popchips teamed up with award-winning Chef Aaron Sanchez who created four recipes to pair with each of the flavors of the tortilla popchips and beer. The first recipe on the list caught my eye — Grilled Chicken Cemitas and Garlic-Chipotle Love with salsa tortilla popchips and Goose Island 312.

Just so happens, we have some Goose Island 312 in the fridge right now and who can turn down some garlic-chipotle love? Not us! I put my own spin on this recipe and am so happy to share it with you as it got rave reviews from my biggest critic (the fiancé, naturally)!

Fiesta Citrus Chicken and Garlic-Chipotle Love

Serves 2

Ingredients

Chicken
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
McCormick salt-free fiesta citrus seasoning [some more FitBloggin’ swag!]
Salt
1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 roma tomato, diced
1 100-calorie packet Wholly Guacamole

Garlic-Chipotle Love Sauce
8 garlic cloves
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 large chipotle in adobo, chopped
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/2 tsp salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 375°F. Peel garlic and put the garlic cloves and coconut oil into an aluminum foil packet and place in the oven.

Season the chicken breast liberally with the fiesta citrus seasoning and a pinch of salt and let sit for about 5 minutes. Heat a pan over medium heat and drizzle with EVOO. Once the pan is preheated, place the chicken in the pan. At this point you should have a nice sizzle, but you don’t want the oil splattering; if it is, turn the heat down.

Cook the chicken on the first size for about 5 minutes or until it has a nice crust and then flip. Turn the heat down to medium-low after flipping to ensure that the chicken cooks all the way through the center.

As the chicken is finishing, remove the garlic from the oven. If you have a mortar and pestle, that would be the best to use. If not, you can just simply chop everything very fine. Mash the garlic, chipotle in adobo, lemon juice, and salt into a paste. I added about 1 tbsp of water to thin it out a bit.

Plate your chicken with some guacamole over top and the garlic-chipotle love sauce over that, and a sprinkling of diced tomato. I served mine over Israeli couscous with a side of coconut oil roasted brussel sprouts and broccoli and, of course, salsa tortilla popchips and a Goose Island 312.

Nutritional Stats
Per Serving

315 Calories  /  17g Fat  /  9g Carbs  /  3g Sugar  /  1g Fiber  /  31g Protein

Popchips Giveaway!

Popchips has offered to send one of my lucky readers a case of their new tortilla popchips! You have up to 4 chances to enter. Be sure to leave separate comments for each entry. Entries will be accepted through Thursday, October 4th, 11:59pm. Winners will be chosen Friday, October 5th.

1. Leave a comment telling me which flavor you’re most excited to try. (Mandatory)

2. Follow @popchips and @BarrAndTable on twitter and leave a comment telling me. (Optional)

3. Like popchips and Barr & Table on facebook and leave a comment telling me. (Optional)

4. Tweet “I entered to win a prize pack of new tortilla @popchips from @BarrAndTable! http://wp.me/p2mo7x-8Y” and leave a comment with a link to your tweet. (Optional)

*This giveaway is for U.S. residents only.