Time to be good

Hi all! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas! Only one more holiday to go (New Years) and then we can all get back on track with our healthy habits, right?

I've had pretty much a full week of eating random crap and I need to get back on the wagon! I'd say about 75% of the time I ate healthy, but that 25% is finally catching up to me. Saturday afternoon I started to seriously feel like ka ka.

Here are two healthy things I cooked this weekend: chicken breasts and a shrimp salad.

The chicken breasts are a recipe I have been making for a long time now. It's kind of a variation on chicken piccata. I pound the chicken until it is an even thickness then brown in a pan. When it is done I remove the meat and add olive oil, chopped garlic and fresh rosemary or thyme to the pan. Turn off the heat, add some lemon juice to deglaze and a big blob of butter. This makes a nice pan sauce. Sometimes I add capers, but I prefer it without. Pour the sauce over the chicken and serve. YUM!

The shrimp salad is simple, just saute the shrimp quickly in a pan in olive oil, lemon zest, thyme and garlic. The dressing for the salad is raw garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

For these two recipes I used some meyer lemons. Have you had these before? They are soooo yummy! A little sweeter than regular lemons, with a lovely floral fragrance.

Anyone else back at work? I feel like everyone else is on a two week vacation. It works for me because traffic is so light - woo hoo!!!

Have a great Monday!

I've been bad

Time to come clean...I've been bad! The fun with friends and holiday parties are just too enticing!

But you know what? I don't have a real problem with it. It hasn't been that difficult to get back on track after a dessert-eating or wine-drinking festival. For the most part I have been eating very well during the week and having a little fun on the weekends. And it HAS been fun!

I hope you all are doing well coping with the holiday treats! Have a great Monday!

Lamb again!

Happy Tuesday my friends!

I haven't been very creative in the kitchen lately, work has been busy and I've been getting home late. Hopefully after the holidays I'll have more time for cooking fun!

But here is a simple dinner from last night - lamb sauteed with onion and zucchini. I ate it with some red pepper artichoke tapenade type of thing. It was ok. I mean, the tapenade part was only ok, the lamb part was fantastic! haha!

It would have been delicious with some red wine but I am avoiding alcohol until New Years Eve. I plan to consume copious amounts of champagne and am preparing myself! hehe!

I hope you are all having fun with holiday gift shopping - I personally hate it with a passion. I also hate christmas music. I know, I know I am a horrible heartless person...

Have a great day! :)

Halibut and mushrooms

Good morning my friends! How is everyone today?

Last night I made a delicious dinner of halibut with oyster mushrooms and a nice salad. I sauteed the oyster mushrooms in copious amounts of butter with garlic and thyme, then added a little grated cheese which browned up in the pan - YUM! Then I quickly seared the halibut which I had sprinkled with salt, pepper and lemon zest. When it was done, a squeeze of lemon juice over the top.

On another topic, I tried a funny social experiment this morning while driving to work. Do any of you have to drive to work through traffic? I usually have to sit in stop-and-go traffic for at least 30 minutes each morning. So today I thought hey, I'm going to blast my music (with the windows up, it's a frigid 60 degrees!) and crazily dance my ass off every time I am stopped at a traffic light or in gridlock.

The social experiment was on the other drivers. They would totally stare and watch me - but as soon as I turned to look at them, they would quickly look away, even if I grinned at them! I wonder why that is? Do they think I am crazy and they are afraid? (hey- I look decent and have a nice car) Are they embarrassed for me or embarrassed for watching me? I was hoping that at least one person would smile back or wave or dance along with me...!?!

Anyway, it was a fun and funny experiment, and I'm going to try it every day! :) I was in a great mood when I got to work after my dance-off. Anyone out there weird enough to try it with me?

Have a wonderful day my friends!

Rainbow!

Just thought I'd share with you a photo of a lovely rainbow, as seen from our office window today!

Where is my leprechaun and pot of gold, eh?

Flat iron steak

Happy Monday my friends! Did you all have a good weekend?

I spent a little time in the kitchen making chicken stock yesterday! Yum yum! I also prepared a flat iron steak with guacamole and salad for dinner. It was scrumptious!

Aren't these grill marks nice? Especially from a grill pan? I was pretty impressed with myself on that one.

The finished dish - the steak was super tender! For salad dressing I just used olive oil, garlic, lime juice and salt. It tasted very fresh and tangy! Oh and a little cotija cheese too...

Have you tried the flat iron cut before? It's got great flavor!

Have a wonderful Monday! :) It's raining here!

Salmon and salad

Happy friday my friends!

I haven't really been too creative in the kitchen lately because I got a little cold and was feeling blah. Hey, I had it coming to me after all the staying out late and night swimming! Eek! Anyhow last night I made a simple yet delicious meal so I thought I'd share it!

Broiled a piece of salmon and topped it with herbed butter and lemon juice. Plus a salad of chopped romaine with a dressing of olive oil, lemon juice, raw garlic, black pepper and a bit of cheese. I used this aged gouda that one of my new friends turned me on to. It's creamier than the aged goudas I've had before. I love cheese!!! (have I mentioned that before? hehe!)

Doing anything fun this weekend? Holiday season is upon us and that means parties, right? I have a few this weekend myself. Also it seems like a have a million friends with birthdays this month...why is that?

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Devil-ish eggs

I wrote a while ago that I don't like hardboiled eggs. That got me thinking...I also believed that I didn't like mayonnaise but when I made it myself (esp into aioli) I liked it much more! I realized that I just don't like store-bought mayo.  Maybe I need to rethink my assertions...

So I decided to go crazy and make some deviled eggs, or my take on them, to see if perhaps I do like them?

As the regular deviled egg recipe never did it for me, I decided to murder it and make up my own recipe. But first off, I learned that when I made hardboiled eggs in the past I cooked them way too long. I guess only a few minutes is necessary, rather than the 10+ I was usually boiling them.

After boiling the eggs, letting them cool and then peeling them, I sliced them in half and removed the yolks. I mixed the yolks with homemade mayo, paprika, red pepper flakes, some bacon pieces and lemon juice - then dolloped the mix back into the firm whites. (sorry about the crappy pic)

Topped with chopped cilantro, these devilish eggs make a great snack or a meal along with a salad.Yum yum! I see endless flavor possibilities for these eggs. You could make curry spiced eggs, pesto flavored eggs, harissa eggs, jalapeno cilantro lime eggs...the options are limitless.

I am still not the biggest hardboiled egg fan, but adding spices and flavors makes them a lot more exciting! Trivia...did you know that another name for deviled eggs is "eggs mimosa" - from the french. Ooh I like that! These would go wonderfully with a mimosa! :)

By the way, you do buy free-range eggs right? I am lucky to get mine at the farmer's market and I never go back to grocery store eggs if I can help it. The free-range ones taste soooo much better and have more nutrients, not to mention the obvious benefits to the chickens.

Ta ta for now!