A Meal You Could Eat Every Day & A Super Cute Baby

You know you've made a good meal when someone says they could eat it every day for every meal...

Last night was busy! We babysat our friend's baby.

Meet Chase

We love him. He has tons of personality, always smiling and laughing. He's one of the best babies you'll ever meet. However, this particular night, he was a tad on the sick side and missed his mommy. This unfortunately meant I couldn't get two feet away from him without him screaming.

Since I needed to cook dinner, I improvised.

He sat against the dining room table where he could see me, while still being far enough away from the stove and stuff.

Jess was here, and she helped out too. He was mostly just interested in being in my arms though.

Dinner was AMAZING, but I didn't get to take alot of pictures. I made Peanut Chicken & Tofu with homemade peanut sauce. I used a bag of "stir fry vegetables" that I bought from Vine Ripe.

**Jasmine's Quick Peanut Sauce**

(I'm guessing at amounts here, because I wasn't measuring.)

-3/4 cup crunchy peanut butter

-3tbsp low sodium soy

-3/4 cup nonfat milk

-3/4 cup chicken broth

-1/2 tablespoon curry (I put the other half in the meat/veggies.)

-1 teaspoon of Cumin

Directions:

I brought the broth to a slow boil and added in the peanut butter. Using a whisk, I added in all other ingredients with the milk being the last ingredients. Simmer on low and whisk until your chicken and veggies are cooked and ready for the sauce.

I served it over the boil in a bag Success Brown Rice.

Ryan took the baby, so I could eat. Here's my portion. Jess proclaimed this the meal she could eat every day. :) Yay. A success.

Chase refused his peas and brown rice, so all he had was a "ba-ba." He left around 8:30, and we watched Donnie Darko. Fantastic movie!

This morning, I made an egg-white omelet sammy again. Because yesterday's sammy didn't seem to hold me over very well, I thought I'd add in one little Turkey Sausage patty, broken up into pieces. Tasty!

Flip Once.

Flip twice.

Done!

Love it!

Tonight, we are going to the gym together, and then we have another friend coming to dinner. I'm making Tilapia and Red Cabbage Tacos. Stay tuned.

Well, I'm about to pound out some work and then I have an eyebrow wax and pedi this afternoon. Yay! :)

Do you babysit for your friends' children? Do babies stress you out? I love babies. Even though he was sick and fussy, I still loved having him here (so did Ryan). It was cute. The baby is just whining and crying, and Ryan's talking to him so lovingly. lol. We're so ready to be parents. :)

Have a great day!

Lunch for Dinner

I love easy suppers...

Today, I did a very hard uphill 45 on the upright bike at the gym. Ryan ran on a treadmill behind me. It was the kind of workout that left me sore. My back, my thighs. I love it.

Nothing is better, after a tough workout, than coming home to an easy supper.

Thanks to my lunch-time handiwork, all I needed to do was chop up some romaine for salads and reheat the pasta.

My salad gets almonds.

He likes walnuts.

We decided to eat in the living room. He LOVES to eat on the couch, but I don't "let" him very often. :D

I'm very old fashioned. I really believe that it's important to eat dinner at the kitchen/dining room table. It was something we always did in my family, and I want to continue that tradition with my children.

We watched the Hornets-Magic game while we had dinner. I was rooting for Magic, considering we had enough of New Orleans yesterday. :p

Do you eat at the table or in front of the television?

Dinner for Lunch: Soyrizo & Broccoli Pasta

Lunch is the new dinner...

Happy Monday blogworld!

This morning, I started off with the usual...

I seem to prefer savory eats in the morning to sweet lately. I wake up and the last thing in the world I want is something ooey and gooey. I'm sure that will change, though.

My sammy took me straight through to lunch. I went through all my cabinets and the fridge and nothing lunch-ish looked good to me.

So... I made dinner...

Soyrizo & Broccoli Pasta

First, I browned the soyrizo crumbles in the skillet and added fresh broccoli.

Next, I got the pasta boiling and poured sauce into the skillet before my broccoli turned black.

Now, THAT's chunky sauce. Yum!

My "professional" shot. :)

The real deal.

It was so tasty!

Tonight, I told Ryan I'd go to the gym with him (instead of going by myself this morning), so it will be nice to have dinner already done. All that's left when we get home from the gym is to make a couple salads. Easy Monday night dinner!

Pasta dishes are a frequent on my blog because it's important that whatever I cook can stretch into two or three meals. What other dishes make good leftovers? Any suggestions?

Sunrise, Sunset: Food and Fitness in Trying Times

Today, our teacher gave us the option of doing circuit or track today. I chose track. I ran two miles straight in 25 minutes without stopping. I've never, ever done that before. It was bittersweet. My grandfather fell very ill this afternoon and is in the hospital right now. When these kind of things happen, the 2300 miles between me and them feels like light years, like I might as well be on the moon for all the comfort I can bring them.

Me and My Grandparents, Christmas 2007

Running really brought me back to life today, even if only temporarily. Only a few short weeks ago I was saying how I just wasn't a runner; today it was a sort of saving grace. A few years ago, the only thing that could have assauged this aching sadness would have been food. And, I would have only felt worse.

What non-food related things do you do to find comfort in trying times?

Dinner was easy and quick. I didn't feel hungry, but I knew I should eat. English Muffin with red pepper hummus, pepperjack and a boatload of cauliflower. A glass of soy for protein.

My afternoon snack was honey greek yogurt with the last of my raspberries and some unpictured bites of chicken leftover from the Ceasar Salad on Sunday.

Lunch was leftovers from Hubby in the Kitchen and an apple.

Morning snack was a turkey and pepperjack sandwich (this was a weird morning snack).

Breakfast was a mix of Kashi Honey Sunshine and Cheerios and a soy latte.

Sorry for the scanty post today, for only posting once and for it being a sad topic. In fact, maybe I'm breaking some food-bloggie code by talking like this. I don't know. I'm just feeling a little emotionally drained right now. But, I'm okay. As much and as deeply as it hurts my heart right now, I realize I've been so blessed to have my grandparents around my whole life thus far. We don't live forever. That's why life is beautiful.

Goodnight,

-j

Hubby in the Kitchen: Spaghetti and Meatballs

This will be a quick post. Tonight is my night "off." That's right, friends. It's another edition of...

Hubby in the Kitchen!!!

Mr. Myers decided to make Spaghetti and Meatballs. Instead of purchasing the pre-made ground turkey meatballs at the store, he decided to make them. (Did you guys know we don't eat red meat?) Anywho, when I got in from class, the house was smelling realllllly good. Hubby had decided to cook up some italian sausages in the case that I would allow him to put it in the spag (I don't really love italian sausages). After a quick taste test, I approved and off he went. Since the dinner was a bit higher carb than my typical fare, I split the difference by steaming some cauliflower and zucchini. I filled the majority of my bowl with the veggies (kinda hidden in the pic) and topped it with a little pasta, a bit of sausage and one meatball. Delish!

Do you know what the best thing about the meal was? I didn't make it. :)

The rest of the day was just fine. Lunch was particularly spectacular today. I knew I wanted some of my carrot-ginger soup, but when I pair it with a salad (which was the plan) it's never enough to fill me up. So I cooked up some brown rice in coconut chicken stock. I poured my soup over about a half cup of rice and voila, a very tasty, filling soup!

Along with my salad (w/strawberries), I also had a couple pieces of turkey rolled up since my meal was low in protein.

Later, I did about 5 miles during my little break from work, which ended up being more like 2pm instead of 1 as I'd planned. Of course, the sun chose that particular time to come out from behind the clouds. Despite my sunscreen, I still got a tad sunburned and man, was I hot!!!

Afterwards, I had a fairly big snack: whole wheat english muffin w/almond butter and low sugar jelly and a peach. I was kinda starving.

I also had about 4 ounces of soy milk when I got home from school (we did 45 minutes of circuit training).

And, that's all folks... I was planning to walk over to Costco after dinner (for grapes and bananas), but they close at 8:30 and it's already 8pm, so... that'll be a tomorrow thing. I'm about to curl up on the couch with the hubby. If he's lucky, I might even consider helping him with the dishes. ;)

Have a wonderful Tuesday night. Tomorrow is humpday, and you know what that means... Two days till Friday!!!

xoxo

-j