The Thing About Pot Roast Is...

It tastes a whole lot better than it looks.

So, I'm trying to clean out the majority of our food before we move. (We hate moving food.) We move April 10, which might seem like a long way off, but will be here before we know it. So, I threw together this meat and potatoes dish.

Red potatoes in my crockpot.

Pork Roast on Sale!

1 Can Cream of Mushroom Soup!

(No water - my crockpot creations are always too watery.)

Tada! We added half of a red onion one hour before serving.

My friend JGago is meeting me at 8am, because we're going to Torrey Pines to hike. It's one of the most beautiful places in San Diego, so I'm looking forward to getting some amazing photos. I will be sure to post them for you guys to enjoy the Cali sunshine.

***Silly Survey***

How many colleges did you attend?

What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Why did you choose the shirt that you have on right now?
If you didn’t have to work, would you volunteer?
What’s your drink?
Favorite 80’s movie?
Do you like these surveys as much as I do?

(my answers below)


Tootles!!!

Pita Pizzas

I loved today.

Ryan and I went to Casual Male XL to get him a couple much-needed shirts and a pair of shorts. He's very tall and muscular, so buying clothes, shoes, even basics like socks can be extremely challenging on good days, frustrating on bad ones. Shirts are always too tight on his biceps. Dress shirts are too tight on his neck, so on and so forth. It's also very very expensive. Try buying a pair of Size 15 shoes for less than about 75 bucks. It's hard.

After that, we strolled around Best Buy, hit up Starbucks (I'm a junky!), and returned some books at the library. To boot, it was a beautiful California day. I love it!

We got home around 3 or so. I called up my girl, JGago, as I call her, and we went grocery shopping. I didn't think about saving my receipts so I could give you guys a list, but we'll just say I got a bunch of stuff. :D

One of those great things was whole wheat pita bread.

I knew I already had a can of Hunts Sauce, so it had been on my mind to make pita pizzas, anyway. The Hunts is for Ryan. I prefer pesto.

The thing about pesto is that you need to go pretty easy on it. It's seriously caloric. I mean seriously.

Ryan's pizzas had turkey sausage on them. He prefers pepperoni, but I couldn't find it at the store. Boo! Mine had black peppered tofu.

I also chopped up some romaine that I bought at the market today. We eat salads almost every day throughout the week, but I chop it all on the weekend. The secret to keeping your salad fresh all week is paper towels and layering.

How to Keep Salad Fresh All Week

First, layer a papertowel on the bottom of your plastic bag (or container).

Chop your lettuce and add another paper towel half-way through.

Three romaine heads makes a whole bag, plus two salads. I found what appears to be heirloom grape tomatoes at the market, although they said they were cherry tomatoes. When Ryan saw them in his salad, he was like, what are these?!?

I love how everything on the pizzas was either pre-cooked or a non-issue (tofu). These finished baking in the time it took to chop the salad. 

 

I topped my pizza with slivered almonds when it came out.

While I wrote this post, Ryan did all the dishes! Yay! I love today! :D

Tomorrow is a heavy writing day for me, so I'll have to catch you guys on Monday. If I get to it, I plan to add a recipes section to the blog. Coming soon, for sure. xoxo

~~~Playtime~~~~

Healthy Lifestyle Quiz

Do you take a daily multi-vitamin?

How many days per week do you exercise?

Do you enjoy baking?

Do you get a flu shot every winter?

How much television do you watch?

Do you run the vacuum (or sweep) your floors every day?

(My answers below.)

P.S. Check out my friend Betty Jo's blog. She's a great cook and an absolutely amazing mom. She posts recipes for those of you who like to cook.

A Word of Warning

Do you remember how I mentioned I've been having wrist/hand issues and had to buy a brace?

Well, I went to the doctor today just to have it checked out, and I found out that I do have carpal tunnel syndrome. The doctor turned my hands over (palms up) and could tell right awa. He showed me how the nerves at the base of my right-hand thumb had collapsed. The fleshy part below my thumb on my right hand was almost flat. On my left hand, it's rounded (like it should be). He's sending me to a neurologist to test how bad the nerve damage is.

Considering I write/type for a living, this is really not good news. Still, it could be worse right?

This is all just to say... be sure that you are using proper posture and alignment when using a computer. Oh, and stop texting. It's really harmful to your hands, and honestly, who needs it?

Okay, so anywho... on to better news.

Last night, I made amazing pasta using the leftover chicken from Wednesday's chicken disaster. I made it using a bunch of leftovers we had.

Chicken Fiesta Pasta

Ingredients
-Shredded Cooked Chicken (I used probably 2-3 cups because that's what I had leftover.)
-1 cup light sour cream
-1 box whole wheat rotini pasta
-1/2 cup black beans
-2 tbsp taco sauce (salsa would work too)
-1 can cream of chicken (healthy request)
-1/4 cup nonfat milk
-1/4 cup 2% shredded cheese
-Nonstick spray

Directions
Boil pasta as directed, drain.

Preheat over to 350.

Shred chicken in a large bowl. Mix in black beans, sour cream, soup, cheese and taco sauce. Mix well. Add in shredded cheese. Next, add the pasta. Mix all ingredients together. Spray a glass baking dish (9x13) and pour contents of bowl into the dish, patting out the noodles to fill the bowl. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 mins. Uncover, add in milk, stir, and bake for 5 more minutes.

Serve with a vegetable or fruit to round out the meal.

This was really good. Obviously, not that low calorie, but it's a feel-good meal that uses lower fat ingredients to create a meal that can be frozen for other nights or to feed an entire family for dinner and lunch the next day.

***Silly Survey Time***

Cooking Survey

How often do you cook meals at home?
What type of stove do you have in your home kitchen?
Where do you get most of the receipes you use?
Do you own an outdoor grill?
When shopping for food and groceries, do you use coupons?
Have you ever had any culinary training or instruction?

(My answers below.)

Tootles...

Um... Chicken Explosion?...

Warning... If you are not already a vegetarian...

...you might be after seeing this chicken.

This chicken started out its little life as a whole (uncut) chicken in my fridge. Something like this:

So, um... well...

I've never actually made a whole chicken, but I tend to be pretty fearless about trying new cooking things, so I thought, what the hey? Can't be too hard. So, I threw the bird in my crockpot with some onion soup mix and water.

Well, the problem is that I inherited this thing from my mom that always makes me terrified of poisoning my family via undercooked chicken. (I heard it atleast a thousand times growing up.) So, I cooked this bird for like oh... 7 hours on high, then like 2 more hours on low.

Yeah... Sigh...

I literally could not get the bird out of the crockpot. I tried sticking knives in each end and lifting out, but it was caving in on itself. Random bones started poking out every which way. (Shudder.) So, plan B was to drain the liquid, with the help of my trusting hubs. Together, we basically helped the bird do a sommersault into this glass dish. At which time, it unceremoniously exploded.

It might not have been pretty, but the meat was hellah tender though!

Ok, that's enough for tonight. I'm feeling woosy. I think I need to curl up and read a book. Anything to get my mind off that exploding chicken. Ugh!

P.S. (Answering an earlier question.) Persian Cucumbers are slightly smaller than "regular" cucumbers and taste better. To me, they taste less cucumber-y, which is good because I don't really love the other kind. They are amazing with lemon and sea salt. To die for.

:p tootles

Glorious California Day

This day is absolutely beautiful!!! I wish we had a balcony. I would take my work outside and enjoy the sunshine.

I had an early lunch today. I was hungry around 11, which was a bit early for lunch, but too late really to eat a snack.

I had a green giant packet and persian cucumber sticks with a bit of sea salt.

I love the Green Giant Digestive Health side dish. It has two servings, but I eat the whole box as a meal.

 

I read my bookclub book while eating my lunch. It's called One Second After by William R. Forstchen. This book is terrible. The storyline is okay, but the writing is just absolutely ridiculous. I spend half the time I'm reading rolling my eyes. Ugh. It's a big book too.

Okay, back to work...

And, here's your Silly Moment of the Day :p

Either/Or Quiz

Books or TV?

Snowboarding or Skiing?

Rock or Pop (Music)?

Snow or Rain?

Sun or Clouds?

Night or Day?

Cookie or Cake?

Details, Details: Not all Rice is Created Equal

Woops!

My good friend Jess, who occassionally appears on the blog has been doing a little Julie & Julia Project of her own with Eat Move Write recipes. Admittedly, this all strokes my ego perhaps a little too much, but it also makes me realize that I should probably pay a wee bit more attention to the recipes I put on here.

Here's why...

Today, Jess attempted my Chicken & Rice Bake. It's a frequent meal in the Myers household, and I've thrown that recipe on here probably more than a couple times. However, I've apparantly never specified that in order to bake it the suggested amount of time, you need to use QUICK COOK rice.

Um. Woopsy.

Dear Jess used Basmati rice and called me after the allotted time. What did I do wrong?!? Nothing, my friend. I'm just the eternal artist, impossible with the details. Forgive me.

Of course, she did forgive me, and she managed to get the recipe to turn out semi-normal, if slightly dry, after alot more baking. She sent me home with some leftovers. yay!

So, all this is to say, that for future reference, all rice recipes I make will use quick cook brown rice, unless otherwise stipulated. :D

Anywho, on to the food. Last night, I made one of my favorite foods in the world.

Ground Turkey Stroganoff

I will attempt to give you the incredibly no-brainer spices-in-a-packet recipe, hopefully with no gaping what-type-of-rice-to-use kind of holes.

Ingredients
1 lb ground turkey
1 bag of no-yolk egg noodles
1 cup light sour cream or greek yogurt
1 packet beef stroganoff seasoning (you can also use dry mushroom soup mix)
2 cups water (not counting the water needed to boil the noodles)

Directions
Boil noodles as directed, drain.
Brown meat. Once browned, add in seasoning (or dry soup) and two cups of water. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occassionally. Take skillet off heat and stir in the sour cream (or yogurt). Stir in the drained egg noodles.

Serve... So easy! I swear!

I made salads to go with the stroganoff. I used these funny bell-shaped yellow tomatoes I bought at the market. Love them!

Today has been busy, yet productive. My favorite kind of day. I'm about to work a bit more on my book and then go pick hubby up from work.

Tootles!

Here's a fun "finish the sentence" survey to do. Do you love surveys? I do! And, I love to read people's answers, so answer it! :p~

1. I wish I was in...
2. I want to get...
3. I can't...
4. I'm nervous to...
5. My Mom thinks I'm...
6. My Dad thinks I'm...
7. I'm happy when...

Hubby in the Kitchen: Sausage & Pepper Supreme

Guess who's back?!?

Yes, tonight, Ryan resurrected Hubby in the Kitchen. He made his signature dish, Sausage & Pepper Supreme. You see, this is the dish he has made to impress most girls in his life. Unfortunately for him, I'm not most girls.

When he said he was going to cook for me the first time way back when (this was February 2007), I thought it was soooooo sweet. Then, I spotted these sausages, and I nearly went into convulsions. I texted my best friend, "OMG WEINER SAUSAGES!!!"

 

At the time, I was mostly a vegetarian. Not on purpose, but just because I don't really love meat. I swear to you I broke out in a sweat when I realized he was going to be cooking these for dinner. But I liked him SO MUCH that I ate them. They were... okay.   

However, now he knows how I am, so he also made me a side of tofu. :D

So, basically this meal consists of sausage, peppers, tomatoes, and onions (I pick out the onions)...

He made his own sauce using fresh tomatoes, tomato paste and water. It was fantastic!

Served over (brown) rice or pasta. He used rice tonight.

Today was a full-time work day. I worked AT LEAST 8 hours, plus I went to the grocery store. When I say I went to the grocery store that actually means I went to three grocery stores. One for produce, one for cheap yogurt and other assorted finds, and another for everything I can't get at those two places. It takes atleast 2 hours and that's hurrying.

So, I knew it would be a busy day, which is exactly why I started my day with Reeses Cup Oatmeal.

Actually, it's just oats made with water, 1/2 cup chocolate soy, and a dollop of creamy peanut butter. Not quite a Reeses Cup, but close.

For lunch, Ry Bread (as my mom calls him) and I split an organic veggie/cheese pizza and had (unpictured) salads.

Here's the pizza:

Oh, and while running errands, I hit up CVS to pick up a brace for my wrist. I think I'm developing carpal tunnel or arthritis. One of the two. It's become excrutiating to type. I'm 27 years old. I'm going to pretend like that doesn't make me want to throw myself on a chaise lounge in despair, because honestly I don't have the words for it right now. :(

How was your weekend?