Stuck ... Sort Of

Sometimes, when you're really hitting your stride with exercising, life flows pretty nicely. You're happier and some of the negative stuff just bounces off you a helluva lot easier. Things just seem a bit brighter. Am I right? But what do you do when everything comes to a screeching halt because of a small setback?

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!

Ratatouille Tuesday

Hiya! How's it going in your neck of the woods? It's still pretty summer-like here in the Windy City and the hot temps aren't going to disappear too soon, either. More of the same today: laundry, deadlines, and emails. Good news is that I kept my promise and finally reunited with my elliptical trainer. I thought I'd have hell to pay since I hadn't been on it in ages, but I pushed through for 45 minutes. It felt great, too.

I opted for an egg this morning for breakfast. As you've probably noticed, I am not an egg-cooking expert. But still, with an Arnold sandwich thin, an iced coffee, and a nectarine, my morning got off to a good start.

I was mentally ready to prepare Chef Meg's Taco Soup for lunch today, but it got away from me and I was much too hungry after my work out to make anything like that. Instead, I had a veggie sandwich with spinach, cucumbers, tomatoes, and carrots on Arnold whole-wheat bread, with roasted garlic hummus from Athenos. YUM! Can't get enough of this one.

I also had an orange. I haven't had one all summer, it seems. Glad to have it back in rotation.

Around 4:30, I dove into my ratatouille recipe and had a mug of white pear Revolution Tea. I was craving a coffee, but I didn't want to have a second cup, for I don't want to become a coffee crazy person. HAHA!

Anyhow, I'd been eyeing this dish from Ellie Krieger's The Food You Crave cookbook for years, but I always felt it was too much work with a New York City schedule. I've been in the adventurous mood this summer when it comes to trying new things. And Mrs. Adventure posted her own ratatouille recipe recently, thus inspiring me to finally take this on. Here's the scoop on Ellie Krieger's dish, but I did mine without the cornmeal crust. I used a whole-wheat pie crust from Wholly Wholesome instead.

Ingredients for the filling:
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon olive oil
2 shallots, thinly sliced (about 1/3 cup)
Cooking spray
1/2 pound thinly sliced eggplant rounds (about 1/3 medium eggplant)
1 zucchini, sliced into 1/8-inch rounds (about 8 ounces)
3 medium tomatoes, sliced thinly
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 ounces shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup shredded fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Instructions:
For the filling: Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Heat 1 teaspoon of olive oil in a nonstick pan over medium heat; saute shallots until soft, about 5 to 6 minutes. Spray 2 baking trays with cooking spray.

Arrange the eggplant, zucchini and tomato slices on the trays in a single layer and brush with the remaining olive oil. Season with salt and pepper, and roast the vegetables until soft but not browned, about 15 minutes. Remove the vegetables from oven and cool.

Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees. Lay the eggplant slices in 2 layers on the bottom of tart; cover with 1/3 of the mozzarella cheese and some of the shredded basil. Add the zucchini and shallots, top with another 1/3 of the mozzarella and basil, then the tomatoes.

Top with rest of the mozzarella cheese and the Parmesan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until cheese is melted and vegetables have further wilted. Remove from oven, let cool for 5 minutes, and cut into 8 slices. Serve warm.

I think Ryan and I cut the ratatouille a little too early, as it was a little runny when trying to add a piece to our plates. Leaving it for a few minutes might be a better idea ... so don't be alarmed by the mess that's on my dinner plate. I assure you it's pretty darn tasty. I l-l-love the tomatoes!

We also paired ours up with a herb lettuce salad, some chopped cucumber, and blueberries. My Mom has been adding fruit to her salad all summer. We also have a ton of it in our fridge right now, so why not add it to our salad. Perfect!

Later tonight, I was hungry for something else. We had a little bit of ice cream left, so I opted to make myself a Vernors float. Vernors, if you're from Michigan, is a BIG DEAL! It's not bad for you and it's just a piece of childhood. Whenever you're feeling sick, a glass of Vernors helps settles your stomach. It also has the coolest logo! My Vernors float was exactly what I was looking for. I had mine with a half-cup of dairy-free vanilla ice cream from So Delicious and a Diet Vernors. BEST EVER!

Do you have a favorite snack or drink from your childhood?