My workouts have seriously taken a back seat the last two weeks. My schedule is pretty packed and I'm thankful for that, but somehow working out hasn't happened as planned. Grrrr.
I'm brushing it off and looking toward Friday. I'll be at yoga come hell or high water at 8 A.M. Count on it.
Today, I tried something new for breakfast: chia seeds! I've heard about these foxy little herbs for a while now and Carrots N' Cake frequently mentions them. They come from the mint family and are helpful in several area. Not only do they reduce your blood pressure, but they're loaded in Omega-3 goodness and aid in making you feel full. This morning, I added mine to an open fruit sandwich with bananas, strawberries and a tablespoon of reduced fat Jif. With some Arnold bread, it was pretty scrumptious if I do say so myself. I also had a cup of watermelon and an iced latte. Woo!
Lunchtime also saw the return of Chef Meg's Taco Soup. This time I had some multi-grain saltines from Nabisco and 10 cherries. With being back in the Midwest, I'm able to get my hands on some sweet cherries!
Once I wrapped up a few things, I decided to give pickling a try. Eating Well's guide to pickling various vegetables is quite thorough. I totally thought the process might be intimidating, but in the end it was quite easy and quick. Here's the scoop on making dill pickles:
I pulled out four cucumbers from Wednesday's trip to Green City Market and sliced them up accordingly. I had saved an old glass jar to use and only ended up needing two of the sliced cucumbers. Eating Well suggests the spears (at 3.5 pounds) be cut into quarters or eighths. I just eyeballed what looked right. Haha.
Next up, I prepared the sour pickle brine by combining 2 cups of white distilled vinegar, 1 cup cider vinegar, and 3 cups of water in a large saucepan. (*Note: Eating Well's directions called for 3 cups of one particular vinegar, but I combined the amounts of what I had on hand and it seemed to work out just right). Add 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons sea salt and 2 tablespoons sugar to the pan. Bring to a boil and stir until salt has dissolved. Let it boil for 2 more minutes and remove from heat. This sour pickle brine yields 6 cups.
From there, I added about six small cloves of chopped garlic, ground black pepper, and fresh dill to my glass jar and added my cucumbers spears and the brine. Overall, all of this preparation totaled about 20 minutes, tops. I am sooooo looking forward to trying one of these pickles in the A.M., as Eating Well suggests refrigerating for 24 hours.
I also pickled some of my purple haze carrots, as I had a lot of leftover brine. I've never had a dilly carrot before, but I figured why not give 'em a try. I bet they'd be good on a salad. I'll photograph those this weekend.
Once pickling was done, I returned to my computer to work on some additional edits on a press bio. I also snacked on a fresh peach.
Our Roasted Ratatouille Tart also made its final debut this evening during dinner. It was still as zesty as it was when I first made it, however, the crust didn't hold up as expected. I'll definitely be trying the cornmeal crust next time. In addition, we had some herb lettuce with some farmer's market cherry tomatoes and cucumber. I want more of these yellow and orange cherry tomatoes. They are just too good!
As the evening winded down, I chatted with my blog partner in crime Raina and made some Peanut Butter-Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies for Ryan ... more about those tomorrow. I also chatted with my friend Alyssa and she told me how I need to watch the Jersey Shore. I know, I know ... it's super lame that I haven't seen a full episode. But I come from the era of the first six seasons of the Real World. Anyways, Thursday has come to a close. How was your day?
As always, thanks for reading!
I love how you treated yourself! Everything sounds & look so healthy and yummy. I love fresh fruits especially. Have a nice day.
ReplyDeleteCheers, kristy