Tag: dinner

Beef Burgundy: Sometimes I crave red meat

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Whenever I’m scheduled to go home, my mom always asks me to think about what I would like her to make me for a special meal (I know, I’m spoiled!). Well, as soon as she asked me this question a few weeks ago, I immediately responded with: Beef Burgundy. Sort of a strange request, right? I don’t know why I was craving it, but I was totally in the mood for red meat and hadn’t had beef burgundy in a while so I thought it was a great idea.

Lucky for me, my parents always have every type of meat imaginable in their freezer, so this wasn’t a problem at all! And, for once, I sat back and let my mom do all the cooking. I drank bubbly and blogged, while chatting with her and keeping her company in the kitchen.

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I forget the name of the cookbook that she used for the recipe, but I did take a picture of the recipe and instructions since I thought it was good enough to share.

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Instead of using egg noodles, I requested that we use potatoes from my dad’s garden and make garlic mashed potatoes (my fav!). We also baked broccoli and had steamed carrots and parsnips.

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This meal was absolutely delicious and I’d love to say it was easy, but I have no idea how easy or hard it was to make since mom did everything 😉 Sometimes there’s just nothing better than having wine and a nice meal on a Sunday night, especially when you know you aren’t going into the office the next day 🙂

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Thanks for making such a nice meal for me, mom! B2B readers- if you’re looking for a change up to your normal meal rotation, I highly suggest adding this!

Questions for you: If someone offers to make you dinner, what do you usually request? What’s your idea of a perfect dinner? Red meat- fan or not?

Weekend in Maine: getting out of dodge

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City life can be so tiring. We are constantly rushing from one thing to the next: plans, work, gym, catching the next T or next stop light… always rushing. While I don’t mind a fast-paced lifestyle most of the time (I like to do things fast. All the time. Maybe that’s why I get so run down!), there’s something to be said about “getting out of dodge”, and for me, that’s heading to Maine for a weekend of complete R&R. Maine living is completely the opposite of Boston living and sometimes that’s exactly what I need.

With that said, after teaching my kickboxing class on Saturday, that’s what I did; made the trek up north, but not without a number of stops on the way. Not being on a timeline is something I don’t do often (or well, for that matter), so it was a nice treat to have the day open for anything I wanted to do!

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side note: how fun are my new pants?! Love them!

I stopped off in Kittery, which, in hindsight was a terrible idea since it was so busy, but I did score some good deals at Banana Republic so I guess that made it worth it?

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New pants that match the suit I bought this summer, 2 new blouses and a new sweater… all for less than $100! The outlet was 50% off. Doesn’t get much better than that! I also stopped off at Lowe’s to get a digital thermostat to help make regulating my heat easier.

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My last stop of the day before going to my parents was the hair dresser. I usually go to a salon in Boston, but as of late, I haven’t been happy with my hair cuts and she has gone up to $65, which I think is outrageous! I decided to get my hair cut in Maine since it’s $26… yes, that is a huge difference. She went a little shorter than I had wanted, but hair grows and I’ve always been more of a short hair person than long hair.

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I wonder how it’s going to look curly… hopefully not too short!

We had a dinner party on Saturday night at my parents, which is always a fun thing. What made it even better was how much bubbly people brought; sometimes I think they do it just for me and “Burpees to Bubbly” 😉

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Have I mentioned how much I love being home?

Sunday consisted of church with both parents (dad doesn’t always go, so it’s a nice treat when he does) and then lots of shopping at Wal Mart, Kohls and Market Basket. I also visited with my friend Meredith, which is always a special treat. She sent me home with ice cream.. the best ice cream!

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Yes, that’s liquor ice cream. Strong liquor ice cream.

We had visitors in the afternoon on Sunday… another one of my favorite parts of going home. I wish people my age did afternoon cocktail hour on Sundays that just consisted of a few cocktails and a few snacks.

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Bubbly and blogging… how fitting.

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Starting sweet Emma off young… her favorite thing at my parents’ house is the plastic wine glass collection. And Longaberger baskets.

For dinner, mom asked what I would want and randomly enough, I requested Beef Burgundy. It’s something I have made before, but likely wouldn’t make again for a while so it was the perfect meal to have her make me. Served with fresh, roasted garden veggies and garlic mashed potatoes (from the garden, too) made for a delicious meal. And, speaking of gardens, look at the last of the tomato crop from my dad’s garden.

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I wanted to have a “guess how many tomatoes” game on B2B, but that would require me counting the tomatoes and there were just too many to do that!

And, that about sums up my weekend. I’m heading back to the city feeling refreshed and ready to attack a few crazy weeks of work travel, parties and teaching. Bring it on!

Questions for you: Where is your favorite outlet shopping? What was the best thing you did last weekend?

Artichoke & Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken & a Summer Quinoa Salad

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The title of this post caught your attention, didn’t it? Last week, as I was thinking about what to make for my first *real* meal in my new apartment, I decided I wanted to make something different from the “normal” Monique meals. I always text my friend JP photo’s of my meals and he said a few weeks ago: “your meals always look the same! Delicious, but the same!”, so I decided it was time to change that! In addition to my meal looking different, I also wanted there to be no trace of zucchini or summer squash. No offense to either vegetable, but after 3 meals in a row with those veggies being the main focus (Summer Squash and Zucchini Lasagna, Zucchini Boats, and Zucchini & Summer Squash Parmesan), I wanted nothing to do with them!

While walking and talking to my mom, I decided to make one of my favorite “go to” chicken recipes: Artichoke and Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken. A number of Christmas’ ago, my mom got me the Cooking Light Chicken cookbook and this was one of the first recipes I made from it. I’m not big on repeating recipes (why would you when there are SO MANY recipes to try?!), but I have repeated this recipe a handful of times because it’s THAT good. And, it’s really quite easy, which is always a nice thing.

Once I decided on the main dish, I looked through all of my Hannaford “Fresh” magazines (which always has delicious looking recipes- I’ve tried a number of them and have loved them all!), in search of a fun side dish. In the January/February 2013 edition, they had a recipe for a Toasted Quinoa-Pistachio Tabbouleh and I knew that was what I wanted to make. I ended up changing the recipe quite a bit, but I followed the dressing recipe to a T, so that counts for something, right? Anyway, these two recipes paired for a delicious Sunday dinner! I hope you enjoy them as much as I did 🙂

Artichoke & Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken

-recipe is from Cooking Light

Ingredients – Just an FYI, since I was only cooking for myself, I halved the recipe below. This is how it is listed in the cookbook.

  • 2 1/2 tbsp. Italian-seasoned breadcrumbs
  • 2 tsp grated lemon ride (I don’t have a grader so I just squeezed the juice of a 1/2 of a lemon instead)
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 (6 oz) jar marinated artichoke hearts, drained & chopped
  • 1 (3 oz) package herbed goat cheese, softened
  • 4 (6 oz) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

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Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375*.

2. Combine the first 6 ingredients, sir well.

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3. Flatten the chicken breasts so they are nice & thin- it’s easier to roll them this way. Place about 2tbsp of the cheese mixture and roll the chicken (jelly roll style). Secure with toothpicks.

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4. Heat a large skillet, coat with a little EVOO and brown the chicken rolls. Move the chicken rolls to a baking pan/dish and bake at 375* for about 15 minutes, or until the chicken is no longer pink.

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Summer Quinoa Salad

-Recipe from Hannaford’s Toasted Quinoa-Pistachio Tabbouleh. My changes are noted in red.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup quinoa
  • 1 3/4 cup low-sodium vegetable broth– I forgot to buy this so I just used 2 cups of water
  • 2 tbsp. EVOO
  • 2 tbsp. lemon juice
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/4 tsp sea salt
  • 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
  • 1/3 cup pistachios, roughly chopped
  • 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 1/2 English cucumber, diced
  • 1 cup chopped parsley (packed)– didn’t buy this so I skipped it, but added lots of basil!
  • 1/3 cup chopped fresh mint– thought this was weird so I skipped it
  • 2 scallions, thinly sliced– didn’t add this
  • 1/3 golden raisins– didn’t add this

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Directions

1. Heat a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add quinoa and toast, shaking the pan occasionally. Should brown in 3-5 minutes. Add broth, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer (covered) until quinoa is tender- about 15 minutes. Once it’s cooked, remove from the heat and let cool. I skipped this- I just cooked the quinoa with water according to the package- how boring 😉

2. While quinoa is cooking, prepare the dressing. In a small bowl, whisk oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, black pepper and red pepper flakes.

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3. Chop the tomatoes and cucumber accordingly. If you’re following the recipe, also cut the scallions, parsley, and mint. Add to the dressing.

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4. Heat a small skillet over medium heat. Add pistachios and toast until fragrant and slightly browned (about 3 minutes). I did this, and burned them. Well, most of them. Whomp. (Don’t worry- I still used them)

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5. Once the quinoa has cooled, add it to the cucumbers, tomatoes and dressing. Mix well. Top with toasted pistachios. (if you’re following the recipe exactly, you’d be adding the quinoa to the veggies, herbs, and raisins.

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Ta-da! I steamed up some broccoli on the side, even though it wasn’t necessary. This was such a fun and delicious meal that was totally different from the normal meals I make. It’s a great dinner party meal, too!

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I happily ate leftovers of this meal for a good part of the week. Once the chicken was gone, I added the quinoa salad to a bed of lettuce, added some sliced turkey deli meat and goat cheese… ohhh my goodness! This was the best “salad” I’ve had in a long time.

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Questions for you: What’s a recipe that you tend to repeat? What’s your favorite salad right now?

Lemon Chive Broiled Tilapia with a Greek Yogurt, Lemon & Chive Sauce

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Hi there! Two posts in one day- you lucky ducks! I also realized it’s a little ironic that I posted a workout for you first, and then a healthy meal idea. Maybe you should try both, in that order 😉

Since I am not teaching Dynamax this session ( 😦 ), I now have Monday AND Tuesday nights off from teaching. I almost don’t know what to do with myself now that I have all this extra time! Luckily, I am very good at filling up an open schedule, so I certainly haven’t been bored yet. I had to work from home on Monday since we had plumbers coming (came back to the apartment on Sunday and realized we had no hot water- lovely), which was actually a really nice way to start the week. Saving the 1-1.5 hours in commuting is such a wonderful thing.

After I finished working, I went for a 40 minute run (4.62 miles- nothing too fast, but it felt good!) and then did about 30 minutes of strength and core when I got back to my apartment. I had gone to the grocery store during my lunch break to pick up 3 essentials for the dinner I had planned to make: fish, chives, Greek plain yogurt, so once I finished my workout and took a shower, I got right to work! This meal came together really quickly, so it is a perfect weeknight meal to make!

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Lemon Chive Broiled Tilapia w/a Greek Yogurt, Lemon & Chive Sauce

Ingredients

  • Fresh Tilapia (or any fish of your choosing)- I got a small filet since it was just for me and I didn’t want a lot of leftovers- it was about .3 lbs.
  • 1 lemon
  • Chives (side note: all weekend my dad kept reminding me to take some fresh chives from his garden, yet what was the one thing all 3 of us forgot to pack up for me? The stupid chives. It seriously pained me to have to pay $2 for a package of chives when I knew my dad had SO many for me!)
  • 2% Greek Plain Yogurt (they didn’t have 0%, but the thickness of the 2% was actually great)- I used 1/4 cup
  • 1/4-1/2 large onion
  • 1 small summer squash (this was REALLY small, but perfect for my meal!)
  • 1 box of Near East Quinoa Blend (mine was the Rosemary and Olive Oil)
  • Sea Salt
  • Pepper008

Directions

1. Cook the quinoa according to the back of the package. While that is cooking, cut up your onions and summer squash and saute those in a pan. I used a little bit of EVOO, salt and pepper (no wine since I didn’t have any- the horrors!).

2. Prepare your fish: I rubbed a small amount of EVOO on the fish, sprinkled some sea salt and pepper, topped it with 3 lemon slices & a few squirts of lemon juice that I had in the fridge, and finally, about 1-1.5 tsp chopped chives. I placed it in the oven and broiled it until it was white and flakey (about 5-7 mins).

0093. While the quinoa, veggies and fish are cooking, prepare your sauce. I used about 1/4 cup 2% Greek plain yogurt, juice from the remainder of the lemon that I took slices from for the fish, few shakes of salt & pepper, and about 1- 1.5 tsp chopped chives. I mixed it up well and let it sit.

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4. When the fish is done, remove from the oven. Your veggies and quinoa should also be done, so add the veggies right into the quinoa and mix well.

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5. Serve up some of both, top with sauce and enjoy! I also made a small side salad to go with this meal and it was perfect!

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Mind you, this was my FIRST time cooking a fish meal other than something simple like shrimp, so I was pretty nervous about how it would turn out.  No worries, though, I was pleasantly surprised with the flavor of the fish and how easy it is to cook! Normally, I get carried away in the kitchen and end up spending so much time on what I am making, but not on Monday night- I was finished before I knew it (maybe that is in part to not drinking wine while I was cooking… maybe that’s what drags out the process 😉 ). I can’t wait to use the leftover quinoa and veggie mixture to top my salads with… and maybe even use the “sauce” as my dressing?!

Don’t like fish? I think you could do the same thing, but use chicken instead! Obviously you’d have to bake the chicken and not broil it, but I think it would still be delicious!

Questions for you: Do you like fish? What is your favorite kind?

Mid-Week Check In

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Wednesday. Nice to see you! I love the feeling after a Wednesday is over because the rest of the week is downhill from there! I can’t say that this week has flown by, but it also hasn’t dragged on, so I guess that is a good thing!

Where did we last catch up? Oh, I posted a workout yesterday, but didn’t really post about much else (besides big news about my friend Jess’s new company!), so there is a lot to talk about!

We finally had nice weather on Monday!! My coworker and I decided to break in the nice weather with our first lunch on the water. Working in Fort Point definitely has its perks in the summer!

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Post work, to take more advantage of the weather, I laced up my sneaks  and went for a nice, 4 mile jog through Brighton before teaching Dynamax. Per usual, we had a great Dynamax class- can’t believe the last class of the session is next week! Time is flying by- I’ll be 28 in 4 days. Yikes!

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Yesterday was a much-needed rest day. Well, rest day except for walking at least 3 miles in the city and getting up to do my Triceps Tuesday workout for the April Arms Challenge. I loved yesterday’s workout because of the crab walks!! This got a funny conversation going between Athena and myself on Gchat.

animal workoutDo any of you have funny animal moves that are great forms of exercise?

After work, I headed over to Jess’s condo to talk about our partnership and congratulate her for her big day! Since we have the same birthday and I walk right past Crumbs, I picked her up a little treat!

001So, so yummy! Tell me, do you have a favorite flavor there? There are so many that I have a hard time choosing!

I ended up getting home later than I had planned, so I thought about what I could throw together for dinner while I was on the T. I didn’t come up with much, but it was healthy, tasted good and filled me up. I’ll take it! Looks, on the other hand, are really not that great. I promise it tasted good, though!

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Quinoa harvest blend, chicken, asparagus, goat cheese and marinara sauce. Quick, easy and healthy… and I used up some leftovers:)

And that brings us to today! I kept thinking that I could wear skirts and dresses with no tights this week, but between rainy mornings and cooler temps in the morning, I haven’t bitten the bullet yet.

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I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday!

Questions for you: How has your week been? Is it going by fast or slow? What is your favorite quick, easy and healthy meal to throw together when you get home late?