mashed everything BUT potatoes

Oh boy do I have a delicious dinner for you that's quite the trickster! The title was a little bit of a hint as to what it is but first let's look at breakfast and lunch...

Breakfast was my beloved Chocolate Protein Pumpkin Rice Pudding with twice the amount of rice! I wanted to use more rice to use up my leftover brown rice AND to fill my belly up since I'm still slightly under the weather. Just slightly. I'm about 95% better. I'm going to eat my way out of this!





For lunch I packed myself the last of my leftover spaghetti squash from my cooking night with Jill. I added some cooked chicken on top that TJ's suggests I eat by today. Trader Joe's cooked chicken usually has an expiration date of about 2-3 days after you purchase it which is okay with me if that means less preservatives.





I packed a side of tomato sauce and a side of grated parmesan. This was amazing! I was also shocked at how long it kept me full. I thought between it being lean protein and vegetables that it wouldn't have staying power but I was definitely wrong! I didn't even eat the honey flavored Greek yogurt I brought. It also could have been the mini tupper of Thai lime cashews that I devoured... those things are amazingggg! I have another spaghetti squash in my vegetable bowl so I'm eager to make it again soon :)

And on to the main event...

Just don't tell your picky eater that there actually no potatoes in this! No regular potatoes that is...

While catching up with Maria, one of my best friends from Miami, over AIM, I was struck with this genius idea. Maria was my muse really because weeks ago she told me about boiling and mashing cauliflower and eating it like mashed potatoes. Just speaking with her reminded me of this interesting dish and that I did indeed have cauliflower. I also had a can of canned beans that I had seen incorporated into mashed potatoes in a low fat cookbook. And lastly, I had a white sweet potato that has been sitting in my veggie bowl for a couple weeks.



The theme of this dish was "mish mash of things I had laying around". I brought a pot of water to a boil and threw in my beans and veggies, covered and simmered for 20 or so minutes.







Not a great picture but the sweet potato should be your indicator to tell when these are ready. It should fall apart when poked with a fork. Next, the mix-ins! Remember, this is a bowl of mashed veggies, you NEED to add flavor!!!





Mix-ins were also a mish mash. I used the remaining goat cheese I had (2 oz?), a splash of heavy cream (only because I had it in my fridge!), squirt of low-fat Ranch dressing, two scoops of Greek yogurt, 1/2 tablespoon of crushed garlic and a few dashes of garlic salt. I could have flavored it more simply but this worked pretty well.

I paired my mashed-everything-BUT-potatoes with the last bit of my cooked chicken which I heated in a small pan with some Trader Joe's General Tsao stir fry sauce.





Oh ya, and a little Parm on top :)

This meal is deceptively nutritious and obviously delicious! I'm not 100% convinced on the General Tsao chicken pairing with it but it worked for tonight...

10K Training:


As I've mentioned, I will be running my first 10K this Thanksgiving! This is a completely new distance for me. I've run 6 miles with the break of going to the gym in between but never 6 miles consecutively. The most mileage I've run consecutively is 5 miles so I'm excited for this new distance and to accomplish something I never have.

In the past, I have tried increasing mileage too quickly and gotten shin splints which set me back for weeks. My approach this time is to use compression sleeves for recovery and to use Hal Hidgon's 10K Novice Training Plan. This will be my first time following a formal training plan and I'm feeling pretty good about it. Since the 10K is on a Thursday (Thanksgiving morning), I switched around the days of when I do which type of training but all of the important elements remain the same.

Here is my training plan:



I'm very happy that the training plan includes strength and cross training. I would do those things anyways but it's nice having everything in one neat spot.

So, all along I knew my training plan technically started Friday and have had this mental mindset. As I mentioned earlier, I've been a tad under the weather and even today am not 100%. I was a little nervous about starting my training plan tomorrow and, of course, would not have if I hadn't felt up to it but would have hated to start it on that foot. In the afternoon I inspected the worksheet more carefully only to find out I had designated Friday as a REST day! WOO HOO!!! I think I needed the extra day of rest and I'm looking forward starting my training Saturday with 30 minutes of cross training :)

buffalo chicken casserole

Tonight I knew I wanted half of my dinner to be roasted brussel sprouts and broccolini with ketchup. Well, that takes care of the vegetable portion, what about the rest? My thought process went something like this...  Hmmm... What do I have? I have cooked chicken I need to eat... Ohhh I also have leftover brown rice that I need to eat...  And I must have been loving my dinner last night because the buffalo chicken casserole was born!

First, put equal parts brown rice and cooked chicken in a bowl (1 cup?).



Pour equal amounts each of Frank's Red Hot and bleu cheese dressing (1/8 cup?).



Top with a handful of cheddar cheese (1/4 cup?).



I had my veggies roasting in the oven while I prepped my casserole. I microwaved the chicken rice mixture for a couple minutes to warm it up, poured it into a french onion crock, sprinkled it with cheddar cheese and popped in the oven with my veggies. As soon as the veggies were done, I switched the oven from 400 degrees to the broiler and the cheese on top of my casserole was nice and melty in mere minutes!





This was deliciousss!

Confession: Even though I showed you the casserole on a fork (because I wanted you to see the ooey gooey cheesiness), I ALWAYS eat my veggies first so that I can enjoy the rest of my dinner after. Not that I don't enjoy my veggies, of course, I just don't enjoy them as much as cheesy buffalo chicken casserole ;)

Along with this meal, I also enjoyed one of these:



Mmmm... pumpkin ale! I LOVE pumpkin beer :):):) It rocks my autumn season!!!

bake it pretty

Today's breakfast was unusual and amazing! I'm pretty sure I dreamt this recipe up, I can't really explain why else I would have tried such a thing. I bought some Kashi Go Lean cereal on my last trip to Trader Joe's. It looks like dog food but tastes delicious! Just the perfect amount of sweetness with 13 grams of protein and 10 grams of fiber!!! Great nutritional stats :)

Anywaysssss, I bought the cereal to go atop some honey flavored TJ Greek yogurt and then this wonderful idea popped into my head...





Pumpkin milk cereal!!!

To make this, I poured my almond milk into my cereal bowl so I would know how much I need (about 1.5 cups) and then it went straight into the blender with about 1/4 cup of canned pumpkin and 1/2 tablespoon of agave syrup. Blend blend blend, pour your cereal into your bowl and your pumpkin milk on top!

Pumpkin milk would be great on its own too as a drink. It made the milk nice and thick and added an extra nutritional punch! I'm not one for eating fresh fruit on my cereal as the clash of crunchy and soft textures weird me out but this was a great alternative and allowed me to get a serving of veggies while still fulfilling my cereal craving. Add pumpkin pie spice and you may just be in heaven :)

Lunch was a brown rice burrito bowl with a side of green salsa and some honey flavored TJ Greek yogurt with more Kashi cereal for topping.



This was not the lunch I planned on but I was so excited about my pumpkin milk that I forgot to pack the rest of my spaghetti squash for lunch. Instead I scooped some brown rice, canned black beans, shredded cheddar and pickled jalapenos in a tupperware with green salsa for topping. This is one of my favorite and easiest lunches to make and oh-boy does it satisfy both my tummy and tastebuds with just a fraction of the calories of a Chipotle burrito bowl! I do love me some Chipotle, just not every day...

I ate my lunch around 12:30pm and ecstatically ate the Greek yogurt with cereal around 2pm even though I didn't need it. I will have to make up for the lack of vegetables (do 5-6 pickled jalapenos count?) in my lunch come dinner time!

Bake it pretty!

As I mentioned in my previous post, baking cups are ideal, nay crucial when it comes to making mini cupcakes. Because of their moist consistency and tiny size, I ruined a good four of them (which my boyfriend and his friend happily snacked on) while getting them out of the cupcake pan. To ensure such tragedy does not befall me again (dramatization), I headed over to Bake it Pretty to purchase some mini baking cups.

This was the plan... And then I got sucked in by all of baking supplies they offer!

I asked Matt what he thought would be an "UNreasonable" amount to spend on cupcake liners and cookie cutters to which he responded, "$15". Let's just say that I spent a more than "UNreasonable" amount and leave it at that!

Here are some of the goodies I ordered, I will show you everything once it comes in!









From the top we have the Dashing Dots Baking Cups, the Animal Print Baking Cups, the MINI SIZE Hot Solid Baking Cups and the Skull and Crossbones Cookie Cutter.

Between my pink zebra baking cups and skull and crossbones cookie cutters, I feel some pretty BADASS baking coming on...

the fanciest thing i ever made

are these:



But first, dinner! I made a buffalo chicken quesadilla.











I filled the rest of my plate with roasted brussel sprouts and cauliflower.







Buffalo Chicken Quesadilla

Ingredients:

• whole wheat tortilla
• 2 tablespoons bleu cheese dressing
• 1-2 tablespoons Frank's Red Hot
• 1/2 cup cooked chicken
• 1/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

Spread dressing and hot sauce on the tortilla. Layer chicken and cheddar cheese on. Heat a skillet with non-stick spray to medium heat. Lay the tortilla flat on it and let it sit until the cheese begins to melt on the edges. Gently fold in half, pressing down with a spatula and cook for another couple minutes. Flip and cook for a couple more minutes. 

To make roasted veggies, preheat your oven to 400, toss veggies with olive oil, salt and pepper and lay on a roasting pan. Roast for about 30 minutes, stirring halfway through. 

Dinner was amazing! I made sure to eat all my vegetables first before enjoying the cheesy goodness that was my quesadilla :)

But moving on to the gooood stuff! Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting!!!

I used this recipe from Cupcakes take the cake and halved it because I simply did not have enough butter, the HORROR! 

I've never used a piping bag before and just recently purchased one for $6 on eBay complete with 6 piping tips:



I think I got the hang of it...







I LOVE how the frosting came out and overall they are so beautiful and delicious; looking at them makes me smile :):):) I also love how tiny they are. My other cupcake pan is pretty huge so it's difficult to finish one entire cupcake but these are bite-sized and perfect for snacking. What would have made 6 normal cupcakes made about 24 baby cupcakes so even with the 2-3 I ate in the process, that doesn't even equal one whole regular cupcake. My only complaint is that they were difficult to get out of the pan, I definitely need to get mini cupcake liners.

Also, this pan is another wonderful kitchen purchase that Matt's parents bought for us :)

Foodie Challenge!

As promised, I'm going to tell you about the foodie challenge I am facing this weekend head-on! My friend Nicole wrote me because her boyfriend is coming to town next weekend (Friday night - Sunday afternoon) and she wants to cook him something that won't take too much time and will make her appear to be a better cook than she is.

Excuse the corny expression but I had to put my "thinking cap" on for this one! I also wanted to implement a few parameters for myself:

• the menu should be inexpensive - which I hope to achieve through ingredient overlaps
• non of the meals should be overly time-consuming or require special equipment
• meals should be boy-friendly (think steak and bacon) while still having fruits/ vegetables and a sophisticated touch

I have created a menu complete with breakfast, lunch, dinner and desserts and over the course of this weekend, I will be making and tweaking these recipes along with possible additions and tips for healthy substitutions. I will also include a grocery shopping list and show what prep work can be done beforehand to make the recipes quick to throw together! 

Here is the menu I created:

I'm really excited to get started on this! Stay tuned...

prep work

Today's blog post is brought to you by prep work. All food items I'm about to show you were assembled last night for today's enjoyment :) I'm usually tired and eager to get to bed but last night I decided to take ten minutes to prep breakfast and lunch which, in turn, allowed me to get ready more leisurely in the morning AND be early for work! Amazing what a little forethought can do...





I made Overnight Pumpkin Oats in a jar!



Overnight Pumpkin Oats in a jar (this was a peanut butter jar that I cleaned and now reuse):

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup rolled oats
• 2/3 cup almond milk
• 1/3 cup canned pumpkin
• agave syrup, to taste
• maple syrup, to taste
• 1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder
• chopped pecans (optional)
• cinnamon (optional)
• sunflower seed butter (optional)

Directions:

Mix together all ingredients except the sunflower seed butter the night before and let sit in the fridge overnight (or for at least two hours). Give it a stir in the morning, drizzle with sunflower seed butter and enjoy!

Holy Yum! I think I strongly prefer my oats cold to hot. I need to get my hands on some pumpkin pie spice because right now I think that's all that's missing in my life.

This morning I woke up with that itch in my throat, you know, when you're either going to get sick or not. Matt and I had this hilarious conversation about my possibly impending ailment:

Dani: I am HUNGRY! That's good, right? It must mean I'm not getting sick...

Matt: When are you NOT hungry?? I mean, it's a good thing. You have a healthy appetite. Every time you get sick you say, "I'm just going to eat my way out of this"...

What can I say? I'm a hungry girl!

Lunch was great today!! I made a healthy burrito that came together in mere seconds. This is a great recipe if you're pressed for time and love Mexican food as I do.



Easy Healthy Burrito:

Ingredients:

• whole wheat wrap
• 1/3 cup leftover brown rice 
• 1/4 can black beans
• 1/8 cup, plus more for topping shredded cheese (I used pepper jack)
• 1-2 tablespoons Greek yogurt, plain (I use non-fat)
• 1-2 tablespoons, plus more for topping salsa
• pickled jalapenos (optional)

Directions:

Line up brown rice, black beans, shredded cheese, Greek yogurt and salsa on a whole wheat tortilla leaving a 1.5 inch border on each side. Tuck in the sides and roll up. Top with more salsa, cheese and jalapenos. At work, simply microwave for a couple minutes on high. 

New addition to the family!


Yesterday, Matt and I got a package in the mail. And what was inside, you ask?



The newest member of our kitchen appliance family!!! Matt's mom (and Dani Does It blog reader) sent us her Little Dipper crock pot that she never uses :):):) I am so excited to make some cheese fondue or artichoke dip in this little bad boy! Doesn't it look like the little baby to my monster slow cooker (right behind it)??

Also in the package was a tube of Bath and Bodyworks body cream which smells deliciously citrusy. I'm happy for any moisturizer that comes my way. I'm used to the murky humid Miami air, I constantly feel like I'm drying out in Los Angeles, haha!

Thank you, Sharon!!!

Foodie Challenge


I have a very exciting challenge I will be working on this weekend as per a friend's request. I will explain it all in full detail tonight or tomorrow... 

don't cry over spilt milk...

But is it okay to cry over spilt almond milk, pumpkin smoothie?



(That's an old pumpkin green monster picture)

Let's just say I had one of those Monday mornings! In an effort to be at work early, I made myself a pumpkin smoothie for the ride instead of other eat-at-home options I had debated. As I was loading my gym bag into my car, I spilled a good half of my smoothie on the passenger seat. Errr...... I rushed upstairs to get paper towels and Lysol to clean up the massive mess I made and somehow, in the process, misplaced my keys (which I later found in the bed sheets)! I ended up having to take my spare car keys and my boyfriend's apartment keys (I get home before him) and, with all that happened, ended up 10 minutes late to work :/

The eyes may have watered a bit but, of course, things could be much worse than spilling a smoothie in your car and I understand that! Luckily I was able to quickly turn my day around with a trip to good ole' Trader Joe's :) There's nothing a Trader Joe's goat cheese pizza can't fix!

Here are some new foodie TJ items I picked up that I can't wait to try!





Okay, I tried the Smore's bites right away... Verdict? Yummmmm, tasty :) I better hurry up and finish them before Matt reads this and finds out that these are in our pantry!!

Epicenter Twenty Ten


Yesterday, Matt and I attended Epicenter Twenty Ten. When we got to the venue, it was in the middle of the desert and 110 degrees out! People were huddling in the few bits of shade and dousing themselves in water. The longest line was for the shaved ice.

Luckily things cooled down quickly as soon as the sun started going down. We made our way through the crowd to see 30 seconds to Mars, Rise Against and Blink 182. Oh wow, high school flashbacks!

Look, Jared Leto!





Watching Jared Leto play in 30 seconds to Mars was best described by Matt when he said it was like watching an actor playing a rockstar and this is what he imagined. Leto called the audience "crazy motherf***ers and gratuitously flashed is abs all while wearing way too much leather for 110 degree weather.

And here are Matt and I after way too much time in the sun...



Rise against was good but truthfully I didn't know too much of their stuff.



Then there was the main event straight from my high school years...



BLINK 182!!!



I had started to get a little grumpy by this point from being in the heat with little to no personal space. I used to go to the warped tour every summer but I'm 25 now, not 15... But it felt like high school all over again when Blink started playing and I knew every word!





The show ended with confetti and, of course, the crowd demanded an encore. They wouldn't take no for an answer but nothing was happening... I was ready to throw in the towel but Matt insisted we wait. And then, all of the sudden, the curtains dropped...



They had been setting up a drum contraption for Travis Barker (sorry for the blurry pic)! During his drum solo the contraption turned, even making a 360 with Travis completely upside down and all the while he didn't miss a beat. Pretty freaking cool!

As much fun as I had, I think from now on I will stick to outdoor concerts with assigned seating like The Hollywood Bowl! Getting a little old for sweaty hoards of people and mosh pits!

What is the coolest thing you've ever seen at a concert?
What is your favorite type of venue?