Chicken & Veggie Zoodles- Scampi Style

Good morning! It’s hard to believe that we are entering our last full week of August. On the one hand, this summer has gone by in a blur, but on the other, I feel like it’s been one of the most relaxing summers I’ve had in a long time. We only had 1 wedding, we didn’t have any big trips planned and we were able to get to the Cape for a few nice weekends. Even though I always want a nice, sunny weekend, this past one- rainy/gloomy/humid weather and all- was actually welcomed.

It was nice to be able to do stuff inside my apartment rather than go to the beach! Plus, my parents came down on Saturday for the night to help my sister and me with some packing and to celebrate my dad’s birthday. We ordered lunch when they got here on Saturday and then headed to Piers Park to hang out and relax before going food shopping in order to make dinner on Saturday night. We ended up grilling burgers- some were beef/veal/pork and the others were plan ol’ beef burgers. So good! On Sunday , mom and I went to church and then we all helped pack up some stuff that they were gracious enough to take home for us. All in all, it was a great weekend and so nice to just be home. I can’t remember the last time I woke up in my apartment on a Sunday and then had most of the day to do whatever the heck I wanted to do (which, consisted of watching part of a movie, doing a quickie workout, cooking, reading and blogging).

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Anyway! The point of this post was to share an easy “zoodle” recipe with you. It seems like spiralizers are all the rage these days, and I can’t lie- I love using mine! I’ve used it for carrots, zucchini and summer squash, but zucchini is my favorite. This recipe came together pretty quickly and I enjoyed it all week. Loaded with wine and garlic and veggies, you can’t really go wrong 😉

chicken & veggie zoodle scampi bowl

Ingredients- rough estimate- I didn’t measure 🙂

  • 2 large zucchinis, spiralized
  • 1 ear of corn, steamed and kernels cut off the cob
  • handful of small Brussels sprouts- cut in half
  • 4 chicken breast tenders
  • 2 tbsp. pine nuts (or nut of choice)
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 1/4 cup EVOO
  • 1/4 cup white wine
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • S&P to taste

Directions

  1. Steam the corn & cut the kernels off. Meanwhile, cut the Brussels sprouts and steam for 2-3 minutes to speed up the cooking time.
  2. Spiralize your zucchini and set aside. Head a skillet at medium heat and let the oil, garlic, wine and lemon juice simmer.
  3. Once it’s simmerd a bit, add in the steamed Brussels sprouts and let them cook for a bit. Once they are mostly soft, add in the pine nuts and corn and raw zucchini. While that is cooking, heat up another skillet and cook the chicken.
  4. Once the chicken is cooked, chop it up and add it to the veggies.

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I’ll be honest, I had no idea what I was creating when I started this dish- I just knew I had a bunch of things in my fridge that I needed to use up so I went with it and I have to say- I’m pretty happy with the end result!

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I loved the flavor combination as well as the bright green and yellow colors- and the slight crunch from the pine nuts was great for a texture queen like myself.

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I ended up even eating it cold throughout the week and it tasted just as good as when it was nice and hot.

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I tend to eat more veggies in the summer (because everything is fresh and they are light and easy), and this meal totally hit the spot in that department. Nothing like quick, easy & healthy meals to throw together and eat throughout the week!

Questions for you: How was your weekend? Has your summer been busy with weddings and travel? What’s your favorite dinner to make in the summer? Do you have a spiralizer?

 

 

 

Scenes from the Weekend

Good morning and Happy Monday 🙂 Did you guys have a good weekend? I sure did! It kind of started on Thursday night when I hosted book club, continued on to Friday night when RM and I tried a new place in East Boston and then to Saturday/Sunday when my sister and I tried out a class at the new Handlebar Indoor Cycling Studio in Harvard Square and then headed up to Vermont for a quick one night getaway with our parents. I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking- enjoy!

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Great book! We all highly suggest it. Rose was delicious too 😉

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I grilled pizzas- they were fantastic!

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Love my SMC girls.

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We found a new place on Maverick Street in East Boston- it’s a market/café called Maverick Market and it has a small menu and beer and wine. We had some ginger BBQ chicken sliders and a spicy shrimp and veggie stir fry. We were so impressed with everything!

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Because sweaty/post spin pictures are always necessary…

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Weekending: 4th of July

Good morning! I am so excited to get back on track with normal eating, drinking and working out this week. Don’t get me wrong, I like to indulge and enjoy extra vinos, BBQ food and dessert, but it really doesn’t make me feel as good as I do when I eat my usual healthy way. With that said, this past weekend was filled with lots of good food, wine and company- hope you enjoy my recap!

Thursday-

I ended up not having to work on Thursday so I made good use of the day by cooking, blogging, working out and going to the beach. It was quite relaxing!

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Thursday night some of my girlfriends were getting together to celebrate Jessi’s birthday, which was yesterday. We met up at Ducali’s and enjoyed vino, salad and pizza- oh, and a big ol’ side of girl talk 😉 RM made fun of me for my festive outfit, but I liked it!

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We weren’t quite ready to end the night so we headed to Tavern in the Square across from the garden for one more drink.

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(photo credit: Lauren)

On Friday, RM and I headed up to Maine… along with the rest of the friggen state of Massachusetts it seemed! It literally took us 2 hours to get to Portsmouth from Boston, which is more than the time it normally takes to get all the way to my parents house! Of course, it was the most beautiful day, too. We decided to pull off in Portsmouth for lunch on the deck at the Oar House to wait out some of the traffic and get some sun and drinks.

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We ended up being there for almost 3 hours- oops!

Once we made it to Maine, we sat outside and chatted with my parents before having a dinner full of all sorts of random things including my dad’s fish chowder and pork pie, fresh trout from Lake Champlain, pizza on the grill using dad’s dough and sauce and my mom’s tomato and zucchini casserole. Although it was everything I wanted to eat, it may have been a little too many different things in one meal 😉

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Saturday morning, I got up and went for a 3 mile run before heading into town for the parade.

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Rm had never been to a parade, and was quite amused by the one we went to 😉

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Our family friends had a BBQ later in the day, but unfortunately the weather did not cooperate and it ended up sprinkling for the majority of the party 😦  While annoying, it didn’t ruin the fun, though! All the food was fantastic.

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We ended the night making s’mores back at my parents house- perfect ending to a great day!

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On Sunday, we helped my dad in the garden. I’ll tell ya- manual labor is no joke! After, we headed up to the lake to go out on Sara and Tim’s boat… all of which I did not think to take a single picture of- #bloggerfail. But, it was a perfect afternoon- we’re so lucky to have friends who have boats and live on the lake!

All in all, it was a great couple of days and mini “vacation”. Just what I needed!

Questions for you: How was your 4th of July? Do you have any traditions for the 4th? Did you indulge on holiday eats and drinks?

Weekending & Life Lately Catch-Up

Good morning! I hope you all had a great weekend 🙂 Mine was really pretty great and I actually took pictures so I thought I’d spend today sharing those with you! But, before I get to that, let’s catch up over the past couple of weeks. I can’t believe we’ve been back from Italy for over 3 weeks- seems like just yesterday we were packing up to go there.

  • I’ve been working out outside a lot- whether in the form of running or bootcamp style workouts. With the nicer weather upon us, I just want to be outside as much as possible!

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  • But, I’m also loving being back in the gym with weights and strength training! Feels so good to leave the gym with jello-feeling everything 🙂

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  • I’m participating in Neghar Fonooni’s Bikini Rebellion challenge this month and am more than obsessed with it. If you follow me on Instagram, then you’ve probably seen some very personal, “leave it all on the table” types of posts, which has been hard, but also really refreshing.
  • We’ve been loving healthy, light meals. In the heat, it’s awesome to throw something together quickly!

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  • My curly hair is back… BIG and back! I was afraid my curls were going away over the winter, but fear not… it was just the dry weather that made my hair less curly than usual!

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Italy Recap Part 2: Pienza {including stops in Montepulciano & Siena}

In case you missed my Rome recap, you can find it here: Rome. Today i want to share the second portion of our trip, which was spent in Pienza. Grab a coffee (or a glass of vino), and settle in- it’s a long, picture-filled recap!

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On Monday, we packed up and headed out in this bad boy:

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Poor RM- he was the only one who felt comfortable enough to drive this beast on the windy roads of the Tuscany region (and he knew how to drive a standard!). It wasn’t the most ideal vehicle to have due to the size of it vs. the size of the roads, but we made it work! He handled it very well, too, so that helped.

Anyway, before this trip I thought Tuscany was a specific place to visit like Rome or Florence, but in fact it’s a region to visit and you go there to visit all the little towns within the region. We absolutely loved Pienza as it had a super cute city center and was relatively close to other charming/picturesque towns. It was about 2.5 hours from Rome.

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We stayed at Tenuta Santo Pietro, which was about 6KM from the city center, for our 4 night Pienza part of the trip. I loved the B&B for so many reasons! Here’s a bit about it from their site:

Nestled in the heart of the rolling Tuscan countryside, Tenuta Santo Pietro
is a tranquil oasis comprised of a twelve bedroom inn that dates back to the 13th century, and a 72 acre working farm. Vineyards and olive trees spread through rolling hills rising to a small valley. A stay at Santo Pietro is one of the best ways to enjoy all that Tuscany has to offer.

They serve wine from their vineyard, olive oil from their trees and vegetables from their garden- pretty awesome, right?! The service was impeccable and we all felt really at home while we were their. The rooms, grounds, food, wine, pool, etc. made for such a great stay!

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