Cooking Fruit

Hi Friends,

No matter what I am having for breakfast, I always try to incorporate some fruit into my meal.  It feels strange now to have a breakfast without it.  The last two days I have been playing with how I prepare my fruit.

Day 18 – Grilled Pears

I cut a medium, almost ripe pear in half and scooped out the seedy steam stuff.  I sprinkled a little gingerbread sugar (sample from work!) on top and placed it on my grill pan over medium high heat.  I covered the top of the pan and let the pear cook for 5-7 mins.

Yum!  I love the slight caramelization that happens to fruit when you grill it.  I added some greek yogurt, powdered ginger, ground flax, and Kashi Go Lean to round out the meal.  It felt as if I was eating dessert for breakfast.

Day 19 – Broiled Grapefruit

I was telling a co-worker about my grilled grapefruit creation last week and she suggested that I try broiling it.  I cut a grapefruit in half, ran my knife along the edges, and sprinkled the top with a little gingerbread sugar.  I thought I had my oven set to broil, but discovered later that I needed to turn the dial a bit more in order to get it to click on.

I topped it with the quartet of greek yogurt, powdered ginger, ground flax and Kashi Go Lean.    I would like to try this recipe again with my oven actually set to broil.  The top didn’t get all crunchy and caramelized like my coworker promised and I was too hungry to wait so I just ate it!

Stay tuned for a post tomorrow about vanilla bean paste and my tips for the perfect cup of coffee

Kate

Mugs

Hi Friends,

I got home from a LONG day of work on December 23rd to find my blogger secret santa gift waiting for me from Laura.

Two of my favorite things, chocolate and coffee!  Thank you Laura!  She sent a whole Gladware full of the little chocolate cookies but it didn’t photograph so nicely so I just took a few out.

Breakfast 17 – Return of the Green Monster

I haven’t made a green smoothie for breakfast in a while.  I spotted the frozen spinach during my weekly trip to Target and added it to my basket.  I love eating veggies in the morning

In the mix: half a frozen banana, frozen cherries, frozen spinach, two ice cubes, Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze, 1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder, a dab of vanilla bean paste.  Topped with ground flax and some Kashi Go Lean Crunch.  Fruits, veggies, protein, and carbs all accounted for with a bit of omega 3s thrown in for good measure!

The real star of breakfast this morning was the coffee.  My brother gave me a coffee grinder for Christmas and boy could we taste the difference.  Grinding the beans this morning made for a flavorful cup.  I can’t believe I haven’t gotten a grinder before this.  Thank you John!

Have a good day friends!

Kate

Happiness is…

Hi Friends,

I give you the Christmas Edition of my happiness list.  Happiness is….

- your little Mazda 3 transporting you and your boyfriend 635.4 miles across two states for various celebrations.

- singing Christmas songs loudly in said Mazda while your boyfriend silently smiles and keeps comments about your awful voice to himself.

- seeing family!!!  and playing with their cute babies and dogs!!

- eating a snot load of cookies and chocolates and not freaking out about it ’cause you realize it is not everyday that you come across a giant tray of carbs baked with love by your aunts.

- crock pot meats.  crock pots are brilliant for feeding crowds of 30 plus people.  throw in some meat, a little something liquidy and let it do its thing.  why did i not invent crock pots?

- listening to your body well enough to know that it craves veggies and water after all the cookies and meats and alcoholic beverages.

- planning to make black bean soup for dinner tonight with your new immersion blender!!!!

- arriving home to find your camera is miraculously working again!  yehaw!  i seriously turned it on last night just to check if it was functioning and it appears to be working again.  weird.

- making a big old green smoothie dinner for you and your boyfriend and chilling on the couch after completing your first holiday season together

Ah yes.  Good times.  So I owe you all some breakfasts from my time without a camera.  I will extend the challenge in order to truly have 30 days of photographed breakfasts.  I am also scheming up a cookbook challenge of some sort for January.  Stay tuned.

Hope you all had great Christmas celebrations.  I am excited to read blogs and see what everyone was up to!

Kate

A Winner!

Hi Friends,

Congratulations to Joslyn at Miss Fitbliss for winning the cookbook and package of Lemon Pepper Panko!  And thank you to General Mills and My Blog Spark for sponsoring the giveaway.

With that, I think this will be my last post before Christmas.  Despite the fact that my camera is busted, I have been eating something different for breakfast each morning and have come up with a great recipe for grilled grapefruit that I can’t wait to share with you all. 

Have a wonderful Christmas and safe travels to wherever you may be going

Kate

Imagination Exercise and Giveaway

Hi Friends,

A while back I received a box of Progresso Lemon Pepper Panko and the Bottega cookbook by chef Micheal Chiarello from the lovely people at My Blog Spark and General Mills.  truthfully, I kind of forgot about it as it came at the busy time of the semester.  Thankfully they sent me a little reminder email

After perusing the lovely cookbook, I decided to create something on my own to use the panko in.  The pictures and recipes in Bottega were gorgeous and super yummy sounding but slightly intimidating.  The descriptions were lengthy and each recipe called for multiple ingredients that I don’t keep  on hand.  So I go my creative little brain working and came up with some salmon sliders to make with the panko.

Lemony Salmon Sliders

- 6 oz pouch of chunked salmon

- 1/3 cup Progresso Lemon Pepper Panko

- 1 egg white

- 1 handful of spinach torn into small pieces

- 1 clove of garlic minced

- zest of half of a small lemon

- Place all ingredients into a blow and mix until well combine.  Form into small patties (I got 5).  Meanwhile, heat a bit of olive oil over medium high heat in a skillet.  Place patties in skillet  and cook until golden brown on each side, about 3 mins per side.

As mentioned yesterday, my camera isn’t working so I don’t have any photographic evidence   Lame!!!!  Use your imagination and envision 5 little golden brown salmon patties with a nice, crispy crust to them   They were pretty tasty.  I mixed a little yogurt and spicy mustard together to make a dipping sauce.  The panko gave the patties a little crunch and a bright lemony flavor.  Art was hesitant to eat these but he enjoyed them as well.  They must be good if they have boyfriend seal of approval!

Onto the fun part! General Mills has worked with My Blog Spark to give one reader their very own box of Lemon Pepper Panko and copy of Bottega.   The giveaway will run though Tuesday, December 21st at noon with the winner announced on Wednesday morning.  You have two ways to enter!  Answer the following questions in two different comments:

1.  What would you make with Lemon Pepper Panko?

2.  Do you get intimidated by cookbooks?     

Ok, thanks for playing along and exercising your imagination with me!  With my schedule the next few days, I honestly don’t know if I will have time to pick up a camera battery before Christmas.  Art is on break ’til after the new year so he may get a “honey do” list

Later

Kate