Coconut-Encrusted Tilapia and More Yams!!!

Waste not, want not. This is the Eat Move Write credo.

So, as you know, I made yam fries for lunch.

Since Ryan had cooked the burgers the night before, I only needed to warm mine up. It shared a tray with the yams in the sauna.

I even got to use my new plate.

The yams were the obvious stars of the show.

After lunch, I had alot of writing to do, so the afternoon went really quick. Before I knew it, it was time to go pick up Ryan from work. Did I mention that drive is an hour round trip? Yeah... about that...

Dinner tonight was by candlelight, and not just any candle. My creme brulee candle... I like my candles to smell like things that are far too caloric for me to eat on a regular basis. Smells however are completely calorie free! :D

About dinner... It was scrumptious.

Coconut-encrusted tilapia with a side of shellie beans (love) and the leftover yam fries. The fries were a bit mushy since I didn't take the time to re-bake them. Still, I try to always use up my leftovers if I can.

About that tilapia... Yum! We love tilapia. We try to eat fish pretty regularly, but right now I'm avoiding tuna and salmon because we're trying for a baby. I know there are lots of other fishies in the sea, but pretty much those three are our favs.

Everything was delicious, but the shellie beans stole the show.

 

See... I grew up eating shellie beans. My gram and gramps had a garden, and they canned them for the winter months. So we were spoiled. Fresh shellie beans all year around. Here in Cali, they are impossible to find -- even canned. I found these at the 99 cent store. Go figure!

Now, I'm about to study some chemistry. I have class tomorrow from 5:30-10pm! That's a loooong day!

What was/is your favorite subject in school? Mine is definitely not chemistry or anything math-related. I love health and writing classes (of course). I also have always loved history, psychology, and sociology.

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Tomorrow is the last day for the contest. Enter here.

The Forgotten Breakfast & Sweet Yam "Fries"

It's a rookie mistake for a food blogger to actually eat breakfast while its still hot. :p

Good afternoon! Although it completely still feels like morning to me.

This morning, I took my hubby to work so I could use the car today. I need to run a few errands and it's not the easiest thing in the world to find someone to cart me around (or walk).

I was a bad blogger this morning. I forgot to take a picture of my breakfast!!! It was an ezekiel muffin with crunch pb. You've seen it a million times on my blog, but if you missed it. It looks like this or this or this. :D

After breakfast, I took the hubs to work, which is an hour round trip (ugh). After, I came home to work my butt off. Here's a pic of my dining room/office. Just for kicks.

Around 10:30, I was hungry again. I had a hummus plate alongside a Starbucks tea that exploded in my microwave. Boo hiss...

My hummus plate included fresh parsley hummus from Vine Ripe, pretzels, and a pepperjack stick.

My lunch is going to be partly in this post and partly in tonight's post. If I have time to do 3 posts, I will, but it's looking doubtful. I was inspired by a fellow blogger to make baked yam fries. Unfortunately, I don't remember which blogger inspired me. :( I would totally have given you a shout out. My apologies.

Don't you love the fresh color of a yam? I bought a bag of 8 yams for 99 cents. Go me!

I tossed the yam tots with a drop of EVOO, some sea salt, fresh ground pepper, and smoky red pepper.

Then, I bake them for a long time at a really hot a$$ temperature.

This is what a hot a$$ temperature looks like.

No, but really... How long I bake them depends on how they look at 30 minutes. At 30 minutes, I flip them and then put them in for 15-20 minutes more. I like mine BROWN, almost black. Yum!

We had a leftover chicken patty last night, so I'm going to have a bunless burger alongside my sweet yam fries. Yay for yam fries!

What's your favorite starchy vegetable? I'd have to say yams/sweet potatoes are pretty high on my list.

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One more day on the EMW Contest.

Oh, and Carrots and Cake is also doing a contest. A much cooler one actually. Check it out. :p

Also, a contest at Marlene on the Run. Awesome jewelry giveaway.

Do You See What I See

Baked Yams... OMG I love yams. I think I'd forgotten...

I bought two large yams at the grocery store and I'm loving it.

What's not to love?
-Chock-full of Vitamin A and Beta Carotene
-Fiberously Filling
-You can dip them in ketchup (the best part)

What are your favorite fall vegetables?

Sunny Days... Chasing the Clouds Away (and June Roundup)

Today is a beautiful day. It started out dreary and dismal, but the sun has come out and the birdies are chirping. Last night, my grandpa had a fever of 105.6. This morning I called the hospital, and he answered. "Hey sissy!" he said, when he heard my voice. He said he felt so much better. This is a huge difference from yesterday when they were throwing around the "stroke" word. It's a big sigh of relief.

Last night after I blogged, I curled up with my book and ate a mini-bag of salt and pepper popcorn. It was a quiet, relaxing night (and I needed that).

This morning, I had an english muffin with an egg sunny side down and a piece of light american cheese. I never eat that cheese, but it was in the drawer, so what they hey. I also sliced up a peach.

Mid-morning, I had a kashi bar and a bowl of apples and strawberries w/almond butter. The strawbabies are about to turn, so I need to eat them up today, for sure.

Today, the plan was to work until 1pm, then hit up the gym. However, I just remembered that my father's birthday is Sunday. (I am notoriously bad about remembering things like this. I love my family and friends ALOT, but I cannot ever seem to remember their birthdays or anniversaries.) So, the new plan at 1pm is to walk over to the mall, pick up a book for dad, go to Walmart and pick up some pictures to send to my grandparents (just because), and then hit up Costco on the way back. Round trip, it will be about 6 miles of walking. (And let's not forget I have circuit training class tonight.) All together, a good enough workout for today, I'd say.

Thanks everyone for your kind comments and emails. It means alot, and all the wonderful vibes you sent my way obviously paid off. My grandfather sounded fantastic on the phone. I'll talk to you guys after dinner.

xoxo
-j

============June Round-Up=============

Can you believe it's July already?! Here's what you might have missed in June:

* There is No Can or Cannot
* Hubby in the Kitchen: Pork Chops
* Yam Pancakes (No, I'm not Kidding)
* Flavor of the Week: Strawberries **Most Popular Post
* Hubby in the Kitchen: Spaghetti and Meatballs

Yam Pancakes (No I'm not kidding)

I hate to waste food. If you didn't know that already about me, you soon will figure it out. This beautiful morning, I used the last of the yams from Hubby in the Kitchen to make (whole-wheat) yam pancakes. They were excellent. The handy thing about yams is that they're already sweet, so you don't need to add any sweetness to the mix.

Other Yam Foods you might have missed:

-A Smiling Sunny San Diego (Ground Turkey and Yam Quesadilla)

-Cooler than a Polar Bear's Toe Nails (Pork and Yam Bowl with Apricot Preserves)

-Hubby in the Kitchen (Pork Chops, Baked Yams, Kashi Rice)


When I woke this morning, I was surprised to see it was 7:30. Pretty late for me. The sun was streaming in the windows above our bed. It was gorgeous, but also a little warm. As much as I love the summertime, I'm not looking forward to the heat sans AC. Oh well. It will atleast become one of those things I can tell my children to remind them how lucky there. Kinda like the whole "I walked barefoot in the snow to school uphill both ways" thing.

Right now, I'm procrastinating. I'm feeling lazy and just want to lay around and do a big fat nada. If I do that, I'll feel like a wasted the whole day. So, it's off for a run.

Tootles,

-j

A Smiling Sunny San Diego Day

Guess what we got today!!? Our dining table! We finally have a place to sit and eat all my concoctions instead of the living room couch (I'm a big proponent of eating at the kitchen table). We bought our table like 2 months ago at Ashley's Furniture, but its taken this long to come in! Yay! Unforunately, it didn't come pre-assembled.

Hubby to the Rescue

We had to go pick up the table at the warehouse in Rancho Bernardo. It was lunch time by the time I was cleaned up from the gym, and I become extremely cranky if I go too long without food (anyone else get cranky like this?). So, I took a PB&J sammy and an (unpictured) apple along for the drive up to North County. It was a REALLY beautiful day here in SD. About 80 degrees. I loved it.

We also picked up some much-needed chocolate when we were getting gas. He got a Kit Kat and I got Reeces Pieces. Hit the spot. Saved the wrapper for you. :)

After picking up the table, we thought we'd hit up downtown. We parked at Horton plaza and walked around the Gaslamp. We walked it literally from one end to the other. Maybe 2 - 2.5 miles total. It was warm, but so nice to see the sun smiling. We talked future talk. Careers. My school. Babies. The weather. All the important stuff. ;)

Thanks to giving into our candy craving, we were starving when we got home. It happens. Afternoon snack was a bowl of cheerios, a banana and a cheese stick.

Dinner was awesome blossom. Since we ate our snacks late, dinner wasn't until nearly 8pm, which I don't usually like to do. It's Saturday. We can make an exception. I still had leftover yams, so I made ground turkey and yam (whole-wheat) quesadillas with peach-mango salsa.

Hubby doesn't like yams (or weird concoctions), so I made him ground turkey, grape tomatoes, and onion quesadillas.

It's a Quesadilla Sauna

They were verrrry tasty and will definitely find their place in Jasmine's Cooking Concoctions. lol.

Salad on the Side

Nothing else on the agenda for tonight. We're just hanging out trying to beat the heat of the day, which is still hanging around the house even though it's now 9pm. Hubby is chillin' on the couch listening to music and waiting for me to finish this post. So, that's my cue. I'm outtie.

xoxo

-j

Hubby in the Kitchen: Pork Chops

Good evening my sweets!!!

I'm sure you have all been eaaaaaagerly awaiting the first installment of Hubby in the Kitchen. This episode is the first in what I hope will be long-running series and not just a one-time event (so be sure to give my hubby some props on his cooking skills!!!).

When I came home from class tonight, dinner was in the works. And Ryan greeted me with his signature cheeeeeeeese. I love it. (Please excuse my camera. It goes stupid at really inopportune moments.)

I, a ravenous wolf of a wife, hovered over him taking pictures as he put the finishing touches on his masterpiece.

Dinner included (well-seasoned) pork chops, baked yams (with butter and brown sugar), and Kashi Fiery Fiesta rice. It had that boom boom pow, for sure. Here's the final product. It gets a 10 for taste in my book. I ate every single bite. Fantastic!

Since I'm already working backwards, I'll tell you about this afternoon. It went something like this: @@#$%@$%@%^%^&(*&($^#$@#$@%#^&$.

Yep, that great. So, needless to say, I had my mind on other things when I was eating my yummy snack of organic vanilla yogurt and fresh raspberries and completely forgot to take a picture for you! No worries though! It was so good the first time, I'm taking the same for my afternoon snack tomorrow.

Lunch was scrumptious. I had carrot-ginger soup from Trader Joe's and an english muffin with almond butter and a smidge of grape jelly mixed in. The wonderful thing about this carrot-ginger soup is how fresh tasting it is. It really tastes like it came straight out of a food processor. I highly recommend it.

This morning I had an apple, which I always cut up because it seems like more food, and string cheese. Nothing fancy for the AM. No starbucks today.

So, that's my day. Right now I'm feeling a wee bit snacky, so there may be something else, but not much. Tomorrow night, my bookclub meets, so I need to buckle down and knock out the book tonight.

Oh, and on the topic of hobbies, I'm wondering...

Whatcha reading right now?

Talk tomorrow guys!

xoxo

-j