December 2022 – Gabriela Maria

Snack Boxes

December 29, 2022January 21, 20231 Comment

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We’re finishing up our last few days in Spain and I’m feeling a mix of emotions. Excited, because I’m looking forward to seeing my family, getting back to my apartment, and overall getting back into the swing of things. Sad, because almost over and it’s been such a great trip, I’ve really enjoyed spending time with my boyfriend’s family, and when I go home, I won’t be seeing my boyfriend again for a while.

Today we’ll be doing another tourist day instead of family time. We did a tourist day on Tuesday and ending up both getting sick the next day. We don’t think it was from anything in particular that we ate, just the overall change in diet. We’re looking forward to going on a day trip today. A few pictures from our trip below.

Since I’m spending a lot of time with my boyfriend’s family, we’re having many large, almost festive, meals. A big spread of food is made and everyone picks what they want. We have lots of appetizers, lots of the main courses, and lots of dessert! It’s a lot of food! A dinner or lunch can normally take a few hours of eating and socializing. After, we have some tea or a small coffee and talk some more. It’s been really nice (and makes sure everything is digested!). However, we haven’t done any snacking.

I love to snack which is why I tend to have smaller portions at my main meals. I love foods I can pick at throughout the day. I especially love my “snack boxes” I bring to work. After lunch, I tend to feel much slower. Even if my lunch isn’t heavy, having that pause in my workday makes me want to sit back, watch an episode, and relax for an hour. Unfortunately, after my lunch break I have to get back to my desk! Having the snack boxes is a great way for me to stay engaged and attentive while also satisfying the hunger I start to feel toward the end of my workday. Below are some of my recent “boxes”:

Blueberries, Swiss cheese, Chili Roasted pistachios

This first “box” is very easy to make as there’s very little preparation. I typically buy a block of cheese and slice thin(ish), the blueberries need to be washed, and the pistachios come pre-spiced. There are a variety of flavors for the pistachios which makes this a great base to easily mix up. You can also mix this up with your favorite cheese or picking fruit. I like to keep all the pieces small so I can quickly grab something without having to shift my concentration to my snack “box”.

Salami wrapped cheese cubes, strawberries, grapes

I’m a big fan of the cheese and fruit combo. This is a snack box from when I was in Kansas City where I sometimes worked late due to the nature of my project. This is also a very easy box to make and requires little preparation. I wash the grapes and the strawberries and combine the salami with the cheese cubes. I don’t cut the strawberry tops; instead I just bite until the calyx and put them back in the box. Then I throw them out when I get home. The grapes are still on the stem, and after I’ve plucked the grapes, I put the stem back in the box and bring that home as well to throw it out. This minimizes how much time I’m spending prepping these boxes. They seem like small actions initially, but there’s also any clean up (knife, cutting board, etc.), so I can avoid that and spend time on other things.

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Sweet Potato Burrito Bowls

December 16, 2022January 21, 20231 Comment

The days have truest been flying by and I’m amazed that today is already December 24th! I believe I posted two weeks ago. After that, I went on a day trip to Disneyland which was so much fun! It was colder than we were anticipating but we warmed up by midday. After Disney, I flew from California to New Jersey to spend a few days with my parents, then drove back to my current state, picked up my boyfriend from the airport, and then we drove back to New Jersey a few days later. And now, I’m in Spain!

With all the travel, plus work, plus cooking, it’s actually been difficult to find a few moments to sit down and write a blog post to send an update and a new recipe. Yesterday we busy because we landed in Spain in the morning and then spent the remainder of the day with my boyfriends family. We were both exhausted and so this morning we ended up sleeping in until 1pm (which was about an hour ago).

This week I thought I’d share an oldie, but a goodie. This is recipe from when I was still living in Kansas City, MO which was a little more than a year ago. I wanted to make something filling and work friendly, but also healthy. So I thought a twist on a burrito bowl would be a great option, substituting sweet potato for the ground beef.

These are a great base if you want to then branch off to tacos instead. Simply cut the sweet potato into smaller cubes, and some lettuce, cheese, and other favorite toppings, and you’re all set.

I sued minimal seasoning this time around to try and minimize smell. The site I’m currently at has about 4 microwaves upstairs, more downstairs, and more in the other building. At the Kansas City site, there were only 2 microwaves in the kitchen upstairs and they were in high demand!

Based on that, feel free to adjust based on what works best for you to make this delicious 🙂

Recipe List:

Sweet potato
1 pack grapes/cherry tomatoes
1 can sweet corn (or fire roasted corn)
1 can black beans
2 cups white rice
1 pack of fresh cilantro

Recipe Directions:

Cook rice based on your preferred method
- I use an Instant Pot: 2 cups rice, 2 cups water. Pressure cook on high for 5 minutes, and let pressure release for 12 minutes.
- I then let the rice sit in “Keep warm” until I’m ready to use it.
Preheat oven to 400° and prepare sweet potatoes.
- Remove skin from sweet potato*
- Slice sweet potatoes into thin halves.
- Cook sweet potato in a single sheet for about 22-30 minutes, until tender.
When the rice is completed, chop up cilantro and mix in.*

*The steps are optional depending on preference

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Review: Ranch Marinated Chicken

December 2, 20221 Comment

I announced last Friday that I would not be uploading a post due to the holidays, but it feels like I’ve been away much longer. I spent Thanksgiving at my parent’s place which was nice. We had been debating whether to go out to dinner or to cook at home and ultimately decided to make a home-cooked Thanksgiving meal. I ended up helping out a bit and made Garlic Butter Roasted Carrots which I made a few years ago at my sister’s place. This time we added some broccoli to the mix to use up some of the veggies we had in the fridge. If you decide to add broccoli to this mixture, I would either cook them in a separate pan and mix them in later, or mix them in at the halfway point. The oven temperature is very high and the carrots cook for about 30 minutes. If the broccoli is in for too long it becomes a bit too soft.

Here’s our Thanksgiving spread! Shout out to my dad for making such a delicious meal!

I’m spending some time in California this week. I’m not sure how much cooking I’ll be doing so I may be sharing some old dishes on here. You can tell they’re old because the photos I took are not great, but they’ll do for now. I didn’t take PTO for this trip. Instead I’m working remotely from California following an eastern time work schedule. My day starts early, but I also end early due to the time change, so it’s actually been really nice. I have so much time in the afternoon now. I do a small workout, watch a few episodes of a TV series, and get to make progress toward a certification. Next week I am taking one day of PTO to go on a day trip which I’m excited for!

This recipe is from one of the magazines I picked up at Whole Foods. They have them strategically placed right next to the checkout counter and of course, while I was waiting in line, I was looking around and it caught my eye. That’s how they get you to spend an extra $20 at the grocery store! In all honesty, I could have put it back, but this magazine specifically focused on chicken recipes. If you’ve been following along, you’ll probably have noticed that many of the dishes I post are not very heavy with the meat and instead pull protein from other sources. Well my boyfriend loves to have meat. If eating beef everyday was healthy, he would do so, but he settles for chicken and only has red meat every now and then. I grabbed this magazine hoping it would generate some ideas of what to cook that would offer him a break from my plant-based dishes.

I remember taking a picture of the recipe, the dish name, and the magazine name, but of course I can’t find them on my phone! If I was home it would be quick to just grab the magazine and jot it down, but the official name and magazine will have to wait until I return home!

Rating

9/10

Recipe

Ranch Marinated Chicken and Rice

Don’t let “Ranch Marinated” scare you away from tryin this dish out. I thought it was a bit odd, as ranch is not an ingredient I use at all in my cooking unless it’s to have as dip for my carrots. When I read that I would be marinated my chicken in a bowl of Ranch dressing, I was a bit concerned as to whether or not I was following the recipe correctly, but it turned out delicious.

This recipe also included one of my favorite rice “hacks” which is to cook the rice in broth instead of water. This gives the rice some flavor and it makes cooking easier because there’s one less pot to clean!

Some notes and lessons learned:

Although there is spinach mixed into the dish at the end, I would have liked some additional veggies. To me, this dish was on the heavier side with the chicken broth rice and the chicken. I felt that it needed something to balance that heaviness.
Although the recipe calls for bone-in chicken, it was a hassle to remove the bone when it was time for dinner. I would have much rather purchased boneless chicken. Next time!

Try it out and let me know what you think!

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