Tag: dinner

Birthday Weekend Celebrations

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Another year of birthday celebrations have come and gone. It’s always a little depressing when something you’ve been looking forward to is over, right? I had total post-party blues on Sunday. Womp, womp.

I started out my birthday weekend with a pancake breakfast- something I never do. My date made up a delicious batch of paleo pumpkin pancakes which were delicious! He also made me a smoothie- I could get used to that!

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I worked a bit and then headed to Brighton to get a much-needed manicure and pedicure. It was SO relaxing. I go to Queen Bee nails and absolutely love it. I got a shellac manicure (which includes a paraffin wax) for $25! They also gave me a bottle of lotion for my birthday- so sweet of them.

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Saturday morning my sister and I went to a class at Recycle Studio. We were supposed to go to Lindsay’s class, but I was an idiot and we missed it. Luckily there was a class right after it that Lindsay was taking, so they let us just take that class instead.

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That afternoon, my parents came down for lunch at Santarpio’s. Although a pizza lunch was probably not the best lunch to have before getting into a tight dress, I enjoyed every bite of it 😉

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We came back to my apartment to have bunny cake and open presents. My mom makes me this cake every year- isn’t it the cutest?

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I was so happy that my parents made the trip down here. We hadn’t seen them in a long time and I always like when they visit!

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Saturday night was my birthday celebration at the Liberty Hotel. So many of my friends came- I couldn’t believe it! I had home friends, college friends, gym friends and other Boston friends I’ve made over the years. It was so good to see everyone!

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Thank you so much to everyone for coming out!!

I spent Sunday lunching with my Shapleigh girls, grocery shopping, and checking out all my presents from the weekend. My gym friends Steph, Alice and Jen brought me the nicest present- wine, wine glasses, napkins and a mani/pedi gift cert! I can’t wait to go back and use it. My upstairs neighbor, Lauren, gave me a nice bottle of wine and my other upstairs neighbor, Lisa, gave me the most gorgeous plant! You girls are all the best!

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I ended my day with a nice, long walk throughout the parks in Eastie and along the water. It was nice to have some quiet time just for me to reflect on the past year.

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Lastly, Monday night, my date took me out to celebrate with me on my actual birthday. We started with cocktails at Trade. I went with a Cosmo and I was very happy with that decision!

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We had dinner reservations at Row 34, which I’ve been dying to try. It was a good thing he tried making reservations a week and a half in advance because they were already booked solid (on a Monday!). I called and pulled some birthday strings, though, and got us in. Everything from the atmosphere to the service to the food was outstanding and we thoroughly enjoyed every piece of the experience. I even tried oysters- and liked them! I had the Bucatini and it was SO good. I think he had the bluefish, but I can’t remember… I blame it on the Cosmo’s 😉

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We both agreed that we can’t wait to go back!

Thank you, again, to all my friends and family for making my birthday weekend so amazing!! Here’s to 29!

 

Quick and Easy Asian Stir Fry with a Spicy Almond Sauce

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On Sunday’s where I don’t have a lot of time, but still want to make a healthy and tasty meal, I usually turn to stir fry’s. I like them because the only thing that takes any real time is cutting up the veggies and letting them cook. If you want to make it really quick, you can always buy a bag of frozen stir fry veggies 😉

Last week, a stir fry was just what I was craving, along with red meat, oddly enough. I decided to make a beef and veggie stir fry with a spicy almond butter sauce. Almond butter, you ask? I have been on a huge almond butter kick so I decided to see if I could make a peanut sauce with almond butter instead of peanut butter.  The verdict? It was great!

Asian Stir Fry w/ a Spicy Almond Sauce

Ingredients

Stir Fry

  • Sliced red pepper
  • Sliced green pepper
  • Sliced onions
  • Mushrooms
  • Carrots- thinly sliced
  • Chopped broccoli
  • Steak- I don’t remember what kind I used, but I feel like it was a thin-sliced piece of meat that was good for stir fry’s
  • Asian noodles

Spicy Almond Butter Sauce

  • 1/4 cup almond butter- I used smooth, but crunchy would have been good!
  • 3-4 tbsp. low sodium soy sauce
  • Few shakes of Red Hot
  • 1-2 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 4-6 tbsp. hot water

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Directions

1. Cut up your veggies. Add them to a pan and cook until they have softened. I added garlic and other spices. Remove from pan and set aside.

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2. Bring a pot of water to boil. While the water is heating, cook your steak and make the sauce.

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3. Once the water is boiling, add in the noodles. When the steak is almost fully cooked, add back in the veggies and the almond butter sauce. Stir to combine.

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4. Serve yourself some noodles and top with the steak/veggie/almond butter mixture and enjoy!

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As you can see, I didn’t list out specific amounts for the veggies or steak. I cooked up a bunch of everything and saved some veggies to use later in the week without the sauce. Since I was cooking, I felt like I might as well make up a big enough batch  to use throughout the week!

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This meal turned out better than I had hoped! The sauce had just enough kick to heat me up and I loved all the other flavors and textures as well. This meal was enjoyed throughout the week and I even used the leftover steak and veggies in a quesadilla which was delicious.

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I hope you like this as much as I did!

Questions for you: Do you like Almond Butter? What’s your favorite easy meal? Do you like to use frozen veggies for stir fry’s or fresh veggies?

Weekending: Relaxing, Spontaneous Girls Night, Sunday Dinner

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I wasn’t sure what my weekend was going to entail going into it, which is very unlike me! For once, I went entirely with the flow and sans plans. It was quite nice, might I add!

Friday was weird since I went into the office. Luckily, we can wear jeans on Friday’s now. Since I was dressed and had my hair done, I had wanted to get drinks after work, but no one was around and by the time I got home, the last thing I wanted to do was go back out in the cold so I just stayed in.

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Saturday morning I took a class at Recycle studio with my friend Lindsay which was the best way to start my day!

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We grabbed coffee (tea for me) at Starbucks after class and it was really interesting to hear how she got into teaching at Recycle. It makes me want to do it, but it was a huge time investment and I don’t know if my schedule allows for that right now. By the time I got home, I was starvinggggg, so I quickly whipped up this delicious quesadilla.

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Ground turkey, mushrooms, kale and cheese. It.was.perfect.

I was able to spend the rest of the afternoon catching up on a LOT of blogging. I don’t often have a solid chunk of time to do that, but I wish I did because I was so productive.

I met my sister and Amy at Stoddard’s in Downtown Crossing for a drink before our dinner reservations at 49 Social. It worked out perfectly because they are literally across the street from each other. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you probably remember that the “Shapleigh” girls like to get together for girls nights. Rachel was out of town, so it was just the 3 of us this time.

49 Social was really, really good! I didn’t take any pictures of the food, but we got hummus, a Duck Confit Quesadilla, a burger and some asparagus and everything was absolutely delicious. We always like to get things from the bar menu or appetizer section since we all like to share, so it was perfect. Danielle and I shared a bottle of this sauvignon blanc which was quite tasty.

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For once, I didn’t want to go home after dinner. We were having so much fun that we decided to keep it going and have “one more” at Gem as it was nearby. Well, “one more” ended up being “three more” without even really realizing it! I absolutely love nights that turn out like this. We were all just living in the moment and enjoying being out together, so we kept it going.

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We met the young man in the photo above when Danielle was showing off her stellar dance moves. He was visiting from Australia and I’m not sure he really knew how to handle us. It was hilarious.

Anyway! Sunday was productive, but also flew by. I went grocery shopping and then next thing I knew, it was time to head into the city for a class at Exhale Spa. When I got home, I got cookin’ in the kitchen. I made garlic and cheese mashed cauliflower, roasted veggies and marinated chicken. It was simple, but healthy and really good. The flavors were spot on.

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Fantastic way to end my weekend!

Questions for you: When’s the last time you were spontaneous? What was your best meal over the weekend? What was the best part of your weekend?

Caramelized Onions, Mushrooms, Kale & Ground Turkey Lasagna

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Well, well, well. I have quite the recipe for you today! I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it before, but I’m not a big fan of Italian food. It’s not that I don’t like it, it’s just that there are so many other things I’d rather eat instead of a big ol’ bowl of pasta. It’s just not something that fills me up and keeps me satisfied.

But, last weekend I got a craving for lasagna. My dad had given me a big container of his homemade sauce and I had been keeping it in the freezer for a time when I knew I’d use it all up. Lasagna was the perfect dish to do that!

Although this lasagna has real noodles instead of vegetable noodles (and, ps, my Zucchini and Summer Squash Lasagna post is probably one of the most popular posts I’ve done. It amazes me to see how many people have repinned it on Pinterest. Seriously. It’s crazy!), I think it’s still relatively healthy since I used whole wheat noodles, part skim ricotta and kale. That makes it healthy, right? 😉

Caramelized Onions, Mushrooms, Kale & Ground Turkey Lasagna

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Ingredients

  • 1/2 – 3/4 lb of lean ground turkey. You can use beef if you’d prefer, or leave the meat out entirely if you want to make it vegetarian!
  • 1 small onion
  • 2 cups of chopped mushrooms
  • 2 big handfuls of kale, rinsed chopped
  • 1/2-3/4 of a container of part skim ricotta (or whatever type you want)
  • 2-4 cups of sauce
  • whole wheat lasagna noodles (I think I used 6 in mine)
  • 1/4-1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
  • seasonings to taste (I used sea salt, pepper, Mrs. Dash, Pampered Chef & oregano)

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Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 350*. Brown the ground turkey. I added seasonings as well. I also got to use my new meat utensil that I got from my Pampered Chef party… loved it! If your lasagna noodles need to be cooked before you bake the lasagna, do that now as well.

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2. While the meat is cooking, chop your veggies. When the meat has finished cooking, remove it from the pan and add in your onions. I “caramelized” my onions by adding about a tablespoon of honey and a tablespoon of brown sugar, BUT, Elle, who blogs over at Nutritionella recently posted an amazing looking breakfast skillet recipe in which she caramelized onions and if you want REAL caramelized onions, follow her instructions 😉 Once the onions are mostly caramelized, add in the mushrooms. Lastly, add in the kale when the mushrooms have softened.

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3. When the kale is finished cooking, you’re ready to start assembling the lasagna!

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4. I baked mine at 350* for about 30 minutes. Once it looked bubbly, I broiled it for about 5 minutes to get that pretty browned top.

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This was the perfect meal for a Sunday night and as I’ve re-heated it a number of other nights this week, I can say that it only gets better! Casseroles are my favorite “Sunday Night Meal” to make because they are so easy to heat up when I get home from the gym and am starving AND they continuously taste good throughout the week. Some leftovers don’t re-heat well, but casseroles, soups, etc. re-heat so well.

I hope you enjoy this- let me know if you try it!

Questions for you: What’s your favorite type of lasagna? Do you make your own sauce? Kale- yay or nay?

Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Butternut Squash and Chicken with a Laughing Cow Cheese Sauce

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Hi there! I hope you all had a happy, healthy and safe New Years- Welcome, 2014!

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Wowzers. I know I say this a lot, but my “Sunday Meal” this week was seriously good. Like, so, so good. I blame it on the Laughing Cow cheese sauce. My mom is a lover of white sauces, and while I enjoy them, they aren’t the first thing I think of when I want a “sauce” for my meal. However, when I thought about the ingredients in this meal, I realized a white sauce would be perfect.  My idea for a white sauce was amplified when I opened my fridge and saw the sun-dried tomato Laughing Cow cheese wedges she had given me. Bingo! Combining those with skim milk would be the perfect “white” sauce.

In addition to the cheese sauce, I have recently become a huge fan of dishes with Brussels Sprouts and butternut squash in them. My sister found a recipe including those veggies that we made for Thanksgiving and it was SO good. I loved roasting the two together for this meal (with onions, because onions make everything better), and am not sure why I don’t roast veggies more often. It’s so easy and such a nice thing to have around the house throughout the week.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Butternut Squash and Chicken with a Laughing Cow cheese sauce

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Ingredients (I didn’t measure how much I cooked, so I’m just going to list out approximates of what I used)

  • Brussels Sprouts- 1-2 cups after I chopped them up
  • Butternut Squash- 1-2 cups after I chopped it up
  • Onion- about 1 cup
  • Salt & Pepper to taste
  • Herbs/seasonings as desired
  • 2-4 TBSP EVOO
  • Quinoa- I cooked 3/4 of a cup of dried quinoa with 1.5 cups of water
  • Chicken- 1 cooked 4 small chicken breast tenders
  • Laughing Cow cheese wedges- 1 used 2 of the Mozzarella, sun-dried tomato and basil ones
  • 2-4 TBSP skim milk

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 375*. Cook the quinoa according to the package. While that is cooking, cut your Brussels sprouts, butternut squash and onions and place on a baking sheet. Coat with EVOO (however much you want to use), salt & pepper and herbs and seasonings. Bake for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the squash is soft and cooked through.

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2. Prepare your chicken (I sprinkled salt, pepper and seasonings) and be ready to place that in the oven when you have about 15 minutes left on the veggies.

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3. Place the Laughing Cow wedges into a small sauce pan (how cute is this one that my mom got me? It’s so little!)- I used 2, just as an FYI. As they start to melt, add in your milk. I started with 2 tbsp. and added more in gradually as necessary. Make sure you whisk continuously so as it doesn’t burn! Once it’s thickened up a bit, remove from the stove. At this point, your quinoa should be done, so place that in a bowl, top with the roasted veggies, chicken and sauce.

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I forgot to say that I added some pumpkin seeds to the top, which provided a nice little crunch to the meal!

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As I began to eat my way through this bowl (which is also new! I got 2 for free by saving points at Shaw’s during their Rachael Ray dishware promotion), I realized how FILLING this meal was. I couldn’t believe it, but since it was all healthy/good for you foods, I kept eating 😉

If there’s one thing you make out of this recipe, please have it be the sauce… and roasted veggies!

Also, make sure you wear a fun/festive apron like this…

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Lastly, I wanted to thank my mom for this awesome Rachael Ray Garbage Bowl– it is perfect for me because I usually just use a plastic bag to collect trash as I cook (I hate making multiple trips to the trash can- interrupts my flow!), which can be wasteful. This is the best replacement, not to mention it’s pretty to keep on the counter!

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And, there you have it- a healthy, easy and delicious meal!

Questions for you: Do you like cream sauces? Brussels sprouts- love ’em or hate ’em? Do you own any Rachael Ray dishware?