Category: Dinner

Easy Dinner Recipe: Teriyaki Chicken and Veggie Stir Fry

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Sorry I teased you yesterday with a photo of the delicious dinner I quickly threw together on Sunday night, but it was worth the wait- promise!

While we were driving back to MA, we brainstormed meals that wouldn’t take a long time to throw together and wouldn’t leave lots of leftovers since neither one of us were really around for dinners this week. Veggie stir fries are always a good idea for a quick and healthy dinner. I was craving a real teriyaki sauce, so I put that on my grocery list, as well as the other ingredients we needed. I had some chicken tender strips in the freezer that we thawed which saved on groceries!

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know that I always cut up my own veggies, but I was so tired on Sunday night and knew I wouldn’t start cooking until 7 so I decided to take the easy route and buy a bag of frozen veggies. They aren’t my favorite, but man did they save time! I also usually make my sauces, but again, I was lazy and tired and bought that, too. It was interesting to read the labels on the thousand different marinades out there. After comparing many different brands, I settled on La Choy- good decision on my part! I forgot to buy rice so I used a quinoa harvest blend that I had in my cabinet and it ended up being fine.

Teriyaki Chicken & Veggie Stir Fry

Ingredients

  • Chicken- I had about 1/2 a pound. Cut it into small cubes
  • Veggies- you can cut up your own or buy a frozen bag like I did!
  • Teriyaki Sauce- I used about 1/2 of the bottle.
  • Sesame Seeds- about 1 tbsp.
  • Quinoa- 1/2 cup

Directions

1. Cook the quinoa according to the directions on the back of the box. While that is cooking, toast your sesame seeds over medium heat until they brown up.

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2. While the sesame seeds are toasting, cut up your chicken. When the seeds finish, move them to a small bowl and place the chicken in the pan. Cook chicken until it’s no longer pink. Remove from the pan and place in a bowl.

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3. Place the veggies into the pan and cook until they have thawed and heated through. Add the teriyaki sauce and the chicken once the veggies are cooked.

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Once everything is warmed, place some quinoa at the bottom of the bowl, top with the teriyaki chicken and veggies and sprinkle some toasted sesame seeds on top. This whole meal, even with photography breaks, took about 30 minutes to cook, so it’s a perfect weeknight meal!

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I think it would be even better served over udon noodles, but I clearly wasn’t thinking straight when I was at the grocery store. Next time!

Questions for you: How long do you like to take on meals during the week? Do you do most of your cooking on the weekends? What’s your favorite store-bought teriyaki sauce?

They Call it “Hotlanta” for a Reason!

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Hey friends! We’re almost through the work week! When I travel, I am always thrown off on my days, but I think I feel like today is Thursday! I got back from Atlanta around 10:30 last night and was so happy to get into bed. My flight home was less than desirable-the guy in front of me reclined his seat ALL the way and the girl next to me smelled like BO, but tried to mask it with abundance amounts of perfume. Yuck!

Tuesday morning, I got up and worked out before I started my short morning of working from home and then my long afternoon of traveling and working from the hotel. I did 2 rounds of one of my “go-to” no equipment workouts (Got 20 Minutes? workout, to be exact) and 2 rounds of the “15X10” workout that Athena posted on Instagram earlier this week (minus the 10 mins of cardio). Phew! For some reason, this workout killed me. I blame it on the fact that I am not used to working out first thing in the morning 😉

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The flight was productive; I got some blog posts drafted and wrote an article for work. Once I got to my hotel room, I worked until about 6:30 and then spent an hour on some trainings for the YMCA before I called it quits and headed down to the bar for a wine and dinner. While enjoying my wine (Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc- my fav!), I wrote up some kickboxing routines/combos. Lately, I can’t stop thinking about them and it has been keeping me up, so I figured if I wrote them down, it would help (which, it did. Between that and the wine I slept like a baby 😉 ).

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I got the fish tacos for dinner, which were a bit of a disappointment. The menu read “blackened tilapia”, but they came out as fried nuggets of tilapia. Whomp,whomp. I ate all the greens and picked at the nuggets, but they were SO fried that they were dry. Regardless, the bar was a fun place to spend a few hours. It was packed by the time I left, and they even had a live guitarist!

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Ok, let’s talk about “Hotlanta”… holy moly you guys. The HUMIDITY was unreal! I got up yesterday morning to workout before meeting my coworker at the client site and figured that 7am was a fine time to run. I grabbed the hotel running map (how cool is it that the hotel provides these?! Such a great way to promote healthy living even when you’re on the road!) and felt like I walked into a wall of humidity as soon as I walked outside.

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30 LONG minutes and 3 miles later, I finally walked back into the hotel. It was certainly the most humbling run I think I have ever had. I physically couldn’t run at my normal pace or go than a few minutes without stopping. I felt like I had never worked out a day in my life. It was awful, but also a good reminder to appreciate all of the good runs and workouts that I sometimes take for granted. The bell boy handled me this as soon as I walked in and I couldn’t have been happier!

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Now that’s some service! I finished off my workout in the hotel gym. They had Reebok Core Boards which made me SO happy! There is a Reebok Core Board class at my YMCA in Maine and I LOVE it! I played around on that and then did lots of core stuff including stability ball planks and stability ball v-sits (Athena I love these!!) before calling it a day.

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I showered, got suited up and headed to breakfast, which was AWESOME!!! Ok, so I have an issue with buffets. My issue isn’t eating too much, but rather with GETTING too much. I get so excited over all of the options: fruit, yogurt, granola, cereal, muffins, toast, eggs, potatoes, etc. that I want ALL of it. Or at least a bit of all of it. At least I was eating by myself so I didn’t have to explain myself to anyone!

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We were in meetings until about 3pm when we grabbed a cab and headed to the airport. I was traveling with my manager, who is awesome. We grabbed an early dinner and drinks and before you knew it, I was back home! I am working from home today and tomorrow, which is a nice treat.

I hope my BSC’ers had a good class last night! So excited to be back tonight! Hoping the kickboxing routine I made up while having cocktails at the bar turns out to be suitable for teaching 😉

Questions for you: Humidity- can you run or workout in it? When you travel, do you still make time to workout? Favorite “on the road” healthy trick?

A Productive, but Relaxing Sunday

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Hey everyone! How’s it going? I’m headed to Atlanta today for work, but I should have time to blog at the airport or hotel. I want to post my recent stations workout for you tomorrow, so hopefully I’ll find time to get that together!

I was in bed embarrassingly early on Saturday night, but the couple of cocktails I had in the afternoon wiped me out! I woke up Sunday feeling more rested than I have felt in a while- it was great! After breakfast, Danielle and I got right to the most dreaded task of the weekend: cleaning the apartment. Since we’ve all been gone for a number of weekends, the apartment cleaning sessions were severely neglected! I always at least wipe down the bathrooms once a week, but we needed a deep cleaning in a bad way. Luckily, when there are two of us doing it, we can do it in a little over an hour.

After cleaning, I drove Danielle to the airport since she is traveling for work all week. Before I came home, I swung by the Cambridgeside Galleria because I wanted to get new sneakers and a new dress from H&M. I got to the mall at 11:25 and was shocked (and really annoyed) to see that the mall didn’t open until 12:00!!! I understand a late opening on Sundays, but 12? That seems a little late! I had to practice some serious patience while I waited for the mall to open. I grabbed an iced coffee, wandered around and as soon as the clock struck 12, I was in H&M. I grabbed the dress and headed to Olympia Sports. I have and Edge card with them and had a $10 birthday gift card and a coupon for $10 off a purchase of $30 or more. I wasn’t supposed to combine them, but I put on my nicest smile and asked if there was any way they could combine them. Score for me! I got $20 off my sneaks! I tried on Reebok’s that I really loved, but they were more aimed for cross training, which is great for me, except for the fact I went there looking for new running sneakers. I ended up getting the same ones that I currently own, just in a different color.

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I tested them out later that afternoon for a 5 mile run and I loved them!

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Between shopping and running, I was able to catch some rays on my back patio! I also enjoyed lunch out there, finally.  The weather this spring has not been conducive to patio dining, unfortunately. I also spent time cleaning up the side of the apartment. There is a path along the apartment from the patio to the driveway, but it gets overgrown with weeds SO quickly! I hate the looks of it, so I cleaned it up for the 3rd time on Sunday.

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Since I knew I was traveling this week and would be gone two nights, not to mention I won’t be around Friday night- Sunday night for dinners, I decided to keep dinner easy: spaghetti squash, sautéed veggies and the chicken tenders from Saturday night. I didn’t measure anything, just eye-balled the veggies as I cut them.

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Paired with a glass of vino and I was a happy girl! The whole time I ran, I thought about enjoying a glass of wine when I finished… hey, anything that gets you through a run, right?

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Other than that, my Sunday night was pretty quiet. It felt great to have a clean apartment, clean room, no laundry, etc. to start the week. Anyone else feel this way? Food prep and cleaning and organizing might be a pain to do in advance, but to me, it is SO worth it once it’s finished!

Questions for you: What kind of sneakers do you run in? Do you wear different ones for running than you do when you take a class? Do you have any “mantras” or anything that gets you through a run (or a walk!)?

Baked Brown Trout, Caprese Orzo Salad & Corn on the Cob

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Hey hey! Happy Thursday; we are almost through the week- woohoo! I got a few requests for the recipe for the meal that I made on Monday night when I posted an Instagram photo on Facebook, so I thought it was only fair to share it with you today! My mom’s friend Jean (not to be confused with Jeanne, although we use “the Jeans” interchangeably because they are all one in the same to us!) gave me a filet of fish that her husband caught while fishing on Lake Ontario after I told her how jealous I was that she gave some to my dad a few months ago. Dennis, Jean’s husband, caught so much Brown Trout that they have been sharing with us fellow fish lovers! As this was only my second time cooking fish (remember the Lemon Chive Broiled Tilapia with a Greek Yogurt, Lemon & Chive Sauce I made recently? That was the first time I cooked fish on my own!), I was a little nervous! Luckily, dad was just a phone call away and he was able to walk me through the cooking process.

When I was thinking about what I should pair the fish with, I decided it was time to actually make some of the side dish recipes that I always drool over when I read different food magazines and cook books. Hannaford has an amazing little magazine that you can get for free if you spend $25 or more. Clearly, I never spend less than that, so it’s always a nice little treat when I grocery shop at home with my mom! The magazine is filled with lots of interesting recipes and nutrition facts and when I went through it over the weekend, I saw a recipe for Caprese Orzo salad and decided that was a perfect side dish for hot weather!

Baked Brown Trout

The filet that the Brennan’s gave me was MUCH bigger than anything I would buy on my own, but I certainly was not complaining! All I did was rub a little EVOO on it, squeezed the juice of 1/2 a lemon, sprinkled sea salt, pepper, Mrs. Dash and garlic powder and then cut up some scallions that I grabbed from my garden. I baked it at 350* for about 30 minutes and it was perfect!

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Voila! Easy as that!

Caprese Orzo Salad

This recipe is exactly as it is in the Hannaford “Fresh” magazine. I cut the recipe down by A LOT, since I didn’t want to cook a whole box of Orzo, but it’s listed as the full recipe below.

  • 1 lb. Orzo
  • 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
  • 1/4 tsp. finely ground pepper
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 1 pint cherry tomatoes
  • 2 pickling cucumbers
  • 8 oz. fresh mozzarella
  • 1/2 cup thinly sliced fresh basil leaves
  • 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

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1. Cook orzo according to the directions on the back of the box. While orzo is cooking, combine the ingredients from the lemon juice to the olive oil and mix well.

2. Cut up the tomatoes, cucumbers and mozzarella and add to the “sauce”.

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3. Once the orzo is cooked and cooled, combine it with the “sauce” mixture. I put mine in the fridge for the afternoon so it would be nice and chilled when I served it!

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Finally, steam up some corn on the cob and serve everything together!

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This was such a light and healthy meal- perfect for a hot summer night! The fish was absolutely delicious… there is nothing like eating fish and knowing where it came from and who caught it! Thanks again, Jean and Dennis! And, Danielle agreed that the Caprese Orzo Salad is going to be a staple summer salad this year. For lunch yesterday, I took the orzo salad, added grilled chicken to it and served it atop a salad- such a great way to change up the traditional salad!

Questions for you: What is your favorite cooking or food magazine? Favorite “salad” that you always make? Favorite light, summer meal?

Tia’s, Baby Zeke and Maine- Weekend Recap!

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Hey there! Has everyone cooled done a bit? I’ll tell ya, working from home on a Monday is ALMOST as nice as working from home on a Friday! There’s something about not having to do food prep and “week prep” on a Sunday night, especially after coming home from Maine, that is SO nice. Sunday evenings are drastically better when that’s the case.

Friday

My friend, Cristina, hosted a Lupus Fundraising event at Tia’s on Friday night after work. With the weather temps at over 90 degrees, I couldn’t think of a more perfect place to spent a Friday evening!

1460Not only did I get to hang out with my college girlfriends, but my friend, Stephanie, was also there! Steph and I went to the same high school and used to Rollerblade down Main street in Sanford in the summers. #classy

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1465The whole time we were at Tia’s, we were checking our phones since we knew Sara was most likely going to have little Zeke at some point that night. Sure enough, around 8:30, we got THE text from Amy that we had been waiting for! Baby Zeke Aronson White was born!!!! And boy was he beautiful! I think Danielle and I made everyone at Tia’s cheers to baby Zeke! We are proud “Aunts” of this little boy 🙂

Saturday

I got up and packed an overnight bag since Danielle and I were going to head up to Maine right from the YMCA after my class. Class was sweaty and awesome, but to be honest, my mind was TOTALLY focused on going home to meet Zeke that I can barely even remember what I taught! I hope everyone liked it, though 🙂

We got to Sanford around 1:15 and drove straight to the hospital. I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking, but I will say that Zeke is the most beautiful little boy and has a wholeeeee lot of people who are already so in love with him! Sara looked like a beaming mom and it was so sweet to see her interacting with Zeke. She was in labor for about 20 hours with unreal contractions and the kicker was that she couldn’t get the epidural 😦 Sara was fully on board with getting one, too, but things moved so quickly once they broke her water that it was too late to give her the epidural. Poor thing! I can’t imagine how tired and physically beat she was. Anyway, here he is!

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sara and zeke

(mom and baby! I had Sara send me a pic of her with Zeke when I was writing up this post since I realized I only had pictures of Zeke being held by other people… we were baby hogs!)

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(and then she sent me this! I wonder what he is dreaming about that makes him smile?!)

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We stayed at the hospital with Sara until about 5pm when we decided to give her and Tim some time to themselves. Once we got home we had a really nice cocktail hour on the back patio with mom and dad.

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Not long after we poured drinks, Amy and Chris stopped by to do more baby gushing and celebrating!

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We all decided it was too hot to BBQ or cook, so we ordered food from the Corner Store (literally right next door) and called it good. While it tasted delicious, I woke up in the middle of the night with the worst stomach ache 😦 Such a fun, impromptu little get together, though! Sara, congratulations on your new little baby boy. I cannot wait to spend so much time with both of you and to be able to watch him grow up!

Sunday

I woke up early (I mean, I was in bed at 10pm, so no wonder why I was up early!) and decided to go visit my very good high school friend, Caitlin. She was due to have her little baby boy on June 1st, but he decided he wasn’t ready to come out quite yet! As I was leaving the driveway, I caught a glimpse of the huge snapping turtle who crosses our lawn each year to get from the brook behind our house to the pond across the street in order to lay her eggs. She was HUGE!

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Anyway! For Caitlin’s sake, I hope he decides to grace the world with his presence sooner rather than later! I hadn’t seen Cait in far, far too long, but like always, as soon as we get together, it’s like nothing has changed; the true sign of friendship! She is the most adorable little pregnant lady (she literally just has a basket ball belly!) and I am so bummed I didn’t get a picture of her. Can’t wait to meet her little one!

When I got home from my visit, Dad and Danielle had already done all the potato planting.. bummer! Since there was nothing else to do to help around the house, we took advantage of the sunny (but HOT) weather and sun bathed on the back patio.

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We decided to hit the road relatively early so that we could go grocery shopping and unpack and grab dinner (since it was too hot to cook). We walked to the grocery store (about a 1/2 mile away) to get a little exercise since we did nothing all day but relax in the sun! For dinner, we kept it casual and grabbed apps at Not Your Average Joes. I got their special “Strawberry Rhubarb Sangria” which was SO SO SO delicious! And BIG! Look at this thing!

1493I got the Tai Chicken Lettuce Wraps for dinner and they were quite tasty.

1494Filling, but in a light way.. perfect for hot weather!

Well, there ya go! Fun-filled weekend surrounded by friends, family and a new baby!

Questions for you: What did you do to stay cool last weekend? Favorite summer cocktail? Any new babies in your lives? Do share!