Salads are weird.

Normally, I'm not much of a salad person. I try, I really do. I try to fall into that skinny-girl group of salad-lovers, but let's be honest: my favorite foods are pasta and cheese. Not exactly the greatest picture of health, but I really try to do things in moderation.

In an attempt to be a bit more on the lean side, I made TWO salads last week. Only thing is.. they aren't REALLLLY salads. More like concoctions of things I had left over in my fridge and pantry. Which turned out quite nice, if I do say so myself. Like I said: salads are weird.

So here we go..

Kung Pao Chicken on top of Mexican Rice
Recipe adapted from: myrecipes.com

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
3/4 cup water
3 tablespoons lower-sodium soy sauce
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon bottled minced ginger
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 cup thinly sliced bell pepper (about 1 large pepper)
1/4 cup frozen corn
2 tablespoons chopped unsalted, dry-roasted peanuts

Preparation:

1. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion to pan; sauté 3 minutes or until softened. Add garlic; sauté 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Add chicken; sauté 3 minutes or until chicken begins to brown.

2. Combine 3/4 cup water and the next 5 ingredients (through crushed red pepper), stirring with a whisk until sugar dissolves. Add water mixture to pan; bring to a boil. Add bell pepper and corn to pan; cook for 2 minutes or until vegetables are crisp-tender and sauce thickens. Sprinkle with nuts and serve on top of Uncle Ben's Mexican Rice blend.
 
 

 
Warm Tortellini and Cherry Tomato Salad
Recipe adapted from: myrecipes.com

Ingredients:

1 (9-ounce) packages fresh cheese tortellini
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon extravirgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
4 cups trimmed Romaine lettuce
1 1/2 cups halved cherry tomatoes
3/4 cup (3 ounces) pregrated fresh Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion
1/3 cup thinly sliced fresh basil
1 (14-ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained and quartered

Preparation:

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain.

While pasta cooks, combine vinegars, oil, and pepper in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add pasta mixture, Romaine lettuce, and remaining ingredients; toss to coat.
 
Well, lots of things are happening in the month of May. Dad visits DC this week and I couldn't be more excited! It'll be the first time he has visited me and Adam's new apartment. We can't wait!
 
And in less than three weeks, the Marshall clan heads to Kill Devil Hills in the Outer Banks! It is one of my most favorite times of the year! I just can't wait to hug my aunts and uncles, play ridiculous amounts of yard games, float in an intertube for days straight, eat some amazing cooking and snuggle with these pups!
 

 
Until next time, 
 

A few tidbits..

Here's what I've been up to!

This past weekend, Adam graduated from Hampden-Sydney College! I am so proud of him and it was such a fun time. His fraternity had a graduation party on Friday night with a huge dinner of a variation of Beer in the Rear chicken and all the fixin's. They had a band called The Brothership who played all kinds of Motown music. All of the families of the boys were there and it was so much fun.

Saturday we moved Adam out of his dorm room. Needless to say, I am ecstatic that I will never have to see that place again. Later in the day, we attended Baccalaureate, followed by a super yummy dinner at Charley's in Farmville.

Sunday was Graduation Day and we were up bright and early! Adam's Aunt Lynn and Uncle Ray came up for the day from North Carolina and we had a nice lunch after the ceremony.

It was a great time and I am glad I could be there to support Adam. Here are a few photos from the weekend:

Tuesday night, I made Oven Fried Chicken with Collard Greens. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture, but I will say, this is definitely worth trying because it is so unbelievably easy. I get nervous when it comes to frying food in my apartment, so if the recipe calls for more than a few swirls of olive oil in a pan, I usually won't make it. To fix this, I decided to "fake" fry some chicken.

Oven Fried Chicken

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts
2 tablespoons of Dijon mustard
2 cups multigrain cereal flakes (I used Total)

Seriously, that's it..

Recipe:

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Put the two cups of cereal in a large plastic bag. Zip it up and crush it into smaller pieces. In a bowl, toss the chicken and mustard until it's coated. When coated, dump the chicken breasts into the plastic bag and zip it up again. Toss the chicken in the cereal until it is completely coated. Shake off the excess cereal flakes and place on the baking sheet. Bake for about 50 minutes or until cooked through. 

I always think crunchy chicken goes well with a side of greens. I keep my freezer stocked with frozen veggies for times just like this. I put some frozen collards in a bowl with about 3 tablespoons of water. I stuck them in the microwave for about 2 minutes, stirred them around and then put them back in the microwave for about another minute. Then I drained the excess water and added a dollop of butter and some garlic salt. De-lish! I would normally have added some Texas Pete Pepper Sauce, but apparently, that's a deep South thing because they don't sell it up here in Virginia.. Booo!!!

And, finally I got crafty with my lunch today. I took a page out of Courtney's book on this one. I saw her make a version of this a few weeks ago, and decided to try it myself.

Steak Salad with Mandarins, Walnuts and Feta

Ingredients:

1 package shaved steak (You can find this at the meat counter and it can be any type of meat as long as it's bite-sized)
1 cup balsamic vinegarette dressing plus more for drizzling
Olive oil
1 can mandarin oranges, in light syrup, drained
1/4 cup walnuts, or however many you like
1/4 cup Feta cheese, crumbled
1 Roma tomato, diced, optional
2 cups lettuce (I used Butter lettuce)

Recipe:

Place the meat and the balsamic vinegarette in a dish and toss to coat. Cover with aluminum foil and refridgerate for at least an hour. Heat a large pan with a swirl or two of olive oil over medium high heat. Remove the meat from the refridgerator and add to the pan. Sear until meat is cooked through about 3-4 minutes. Let it cool. If the steak needs to be sliced a bit more, wait until it is cool to cut it.

Next, assemble the salad. Add the lettuce, walnuts, feta cheese, mandarin oranges and tomatoes to a bowl. Add the steak on top. Lightly drizzle a little bit more balsamic vinegarette over the top. Enjoy!

This steak can really be marinated in any of your favorite dressings. I may try it with raspberry vinegarette some time soon. Here is a photo.. please excuse the Tupperware container.

Well, that's it for now. Have a great Thursday!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Just wanted to share with you my lunch today, since I was a bit creative and it was yummy. I made a spinach salad with dried cranberries, walnuts, Gorgonzola cheese and a honey dijon vinegarette. It was salty and sweet, which is a nice diversion from the usual dinner leftovers and sandwiches. Please forgive my poor presentation. You get the point I'm trying to make, right?

And in memory of St. Patrick, here are a few photos of my visit to Dublin, Ireland, two summers ago. As well as a few more London and Paris pictures thrown in there. Enjoy!

Our tour of the Guinness factory in Dublin, Ireland

Typical phonebooth photo.. All crammed in there!

Pouring my own pint of Guinness in the factory

Courtyard at Trinity College in Dublin

London Eye

 

Big Ben.. I know.. where's my fanny pack, right?

Dance party.. totally normal..

In King's Cross Station.. on my way to Hogwart's.. Bahaha.

Eiffel Tower in Paris, France

Louvre Museum in Paris

Adam and I on our first date.. No big deal.. Ha.

Best six weeks of my life.. any who, I hope everyone enjoys the rest of your St. Patty's Day! I'm making tacos for dinner and watching all the great Wednesday night shows on TV. I also will probably start packing for Hampden-Sydney this weekend! Yay!

The Beginning..

So, it's here folks! The first day of February! I have officially started my new diet and exercise plan. I have also decided, that since I will (hopefully) be posting everyday, this will be my last post that I make as a Facebook or Twitter status. I think it will get old not only on my own wall, but also on people's mini and news feeds. So, if you wanna read my blog, you have to put in the teeny bit of extra clicking to get to it. It's located on my FB under Web site, if you are interested. Which I hope you will be!

This morning, I had my usual coffee with Splenda and half and half. I am trying to limit caffeine intake as well, so I will try to drink water for most of the day rather than soda. I enjoyed a Nutrigrain bar as well. Nutrigrain bars are my favorite breakfast bar. Since I moved out of my parent's house and went to college, I didn't have a lot of time to eat breakfast,* so breakfast bars became a regular thing. They are only 130 calories and they come in lots of different flavors as opposed to other breakfast bars that only come in a variety of about three or four. My favorites are raspberry, apple cinnamon and strawberry.

For lunch, I ate a salad (that I prepared at home last night, yay!) loaded with cucumbers, cherry tomatoes and red onion. The best part about this salad: the dressing. Red wine vinegar. I kid you not. It is amazing. It is straight out of the bottle and I am obsessed.** It also has ZERO CALORIES. That, my friends, is awesome too. Because that means you can use as much as you want, and IT DOESN'T MATTER!*** Wahoo!!  Around 2:30 p.m., I'll eat a banana as an afternoon snack.

Later tonight, I am working out in the gym for about an hour. I hope to do about 30 minutes on the elliptical and about 30 minutes back in my apartment on the Wii Fit doing some strength training and some yoga.

The part I am most excited about though is dinner. Every night this month, I have a dinner planned that is under 400 calories. Tonight, I am making Steak with Golden Zucchini. Hooray! I will post pictures and recipes tomorrow.

Have a great day! Again, if anyone is interested in hearing about the plan, I have some more info that I made for myself outlining the plan that I can share. Just e-mail me at sugarandspicedc@gmail.com.


*Clearly, this is because I never woke up more than 10 minutes before class started back when I lived on campus at USC and before jobs and internships set in. And when they did, I only woke up in exactly enough time to get ready, grab a Nutrigrain bar on the run out the door and get there on time. Isn't that what everyone else did? Mmm, hmm.

**Shoutout to Katie M. for introducing me to the wonderful world of RWV!

***Well, unless you use too much, in which case you may get heartburn from the acidity.