Tag: recipe

Review: Balsamic Glazed Chicken and Potatoes

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Disclaimer: Any links are provided as a convenience and for informational purposes only; they do not constitute an endorsement or an approval of any of the products, services or opinions of the corporation or organization or individual.

It’s only been about 2 weeks since I’ve been back and yet somehow it feels like it’s been longer, but I also can’t believe that January is already over. I also feel like I haven’t done very much. I’ve done some socializing with some coworkers, updated my photo albums, and played video games. That’s essentially my week’s summary. It’s been a good week, very relaxed.

I do have some exciting news. I am part of a rotational program for my job, and for the program, we complete a company sponsored project. The projects are still undecided, but I’m excited to hear what we’ll be working on, and hoping we’ll hear soon. I pitched myself as a project lead to my peers and the program’s leadership team, and I’m excited to share that I was voted for as one of our project leads! I know it’s going to be a lot of work, but I think it’s such a great opportunity. I’m really looking forward to challenging myself and learning through this process. Wish me luck!

In a second round of exciting news, which I may have shared last week, I submitted my preferences for my second location/job. The goal of this program is to help individuals develop a strong skill set to be future leaders, and so they try and rotate associates to different locations to learn the different aspects of the company, but also through different jobs. Supposedly, the leadership team met last week to discuss what was submitted, so I’m also very eager and excited to hear more news on that.

Even with my exciting news, it was still a very relaxed week.

My plan was to share this recipe last week, but I really wanted to kick off my Color Series. Making the January dish was a lot of fun. I was very nervous about it because I haven’t had much experience coming up with recipe ideas. I was worried the combination wouldn’t be good, or it wouldn’t be filling, or it wouldn’t be a good nutritious blend. The first two concerns were removed quickly. The meal was delicious. While I’m not too sure on the nutritional value of the dish, I feel that it was a good mix of different veggies, some carbs and some protein.

I loved having this chicken dish for work. The recipe was very easy, and there was minimal work on my part. I threw everything in a cast iron and essentially my job was done. This was also very filling for work which was nice. I added some rice to help the chicken and potatoes last a little longer through my week. Overall a great combination. I’m typically not a big potato person (I know, a crime), but I do really like red potatoes.

The skin of red potato is filled with fiber, vitamin B, iron, and potassium.

Pulled from Black Gold Farms

I found this recipe in one of my many cooking magazine: delish Chicken Dinners. Although this recipe was not used for dinner, I’ve found that many of the recipes in this magazine can be modified to be lunch or dinner.

Rating

9/10

Recipe

Balsamic Glazed Chicken

This is a dish where, once again, I forgot to take photos. If you are interested in seeing more of the process, check out my Instagram page! Some notes and lessons learned:

  • Adding rice was a great idea. This would not have lasted me the week otherwise.
  • I doubled the potatoes. I did one batch on Sunday with the chicken, and a second batch on Wednesday, which didn’t have as much flavor because I wanted it to be quick. However doing the two batches made sure I had enough to eat and meant I could add a little more to each dish.
  • I wish I had doubled the chicken. Maybe not fully double, but I wish I made more. I felt I had a good amount of rice and a good amount of potato, but I also felt like the chicken went so quickly. If I had made more chicken, I would have made less potato.

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Seared Sea Scallops with Cauliflower Purée Sauce

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Recipe at bottom of post. Happy cooking!

Hello everyone! Thank you for your patience while I adjusted my posting schedule and also had some unexpected events in my personal life. I also really appreciate the following support on my Instagram. Although I was offline for a little more than two weeks, I actually gained some additional followers which was a nice surprise.

I haven’t had a chance to post any updates so I’ll start with that. For Christmas, I was gifted a noddle maker and a massive nutrition book, both of which I’m super excited to use. The noodle maker is exciting because I’ve been looking to start making more foods from scratch whether that be pasta, marinara sauce, pickles, etc. I really want to see what I can do.

The nutrition book is significantly larger than I was expecting. I thought it was a normal sized book – it’s a whole textbook. There’s a lot to go through, but I am excited for it because I want to start making my own dishes instead of focusing on recipe reviews. With the dishes I make, I want to make sure they’re covering all of my nutrition basics and why. I really enjoy learning, so this is a great way to enjoy my cooking a bit more.

A fun gift that was unexpected was a set of assorted olive oils and vinegars. Thankfully, a little recipe book came with them to offer some ideas, but I’m excited to try those out to see what new flavors I can bring to my food.

Naturally, all of these wonderful gifts will be used in my cooking blog! I’ve really enjoyed trying new recipes and making some of my own. The hardest part for me is remembering to record videos and take pictures, and remembering to post it. I think I find it hard because I enjoy cooking and I enjoy sharing my cooking, but my motive behind it is not to grow a following or have a famous Instagram account or anything. I enjoy writing and cooking, and this was a great way to bring those two aspects together. However, doing the recordings and posting on Instagram is the way for me to share these meals with other people. So although it’s sometimes difficult, I try to keep that in mind to boost my video-recording motivation.

I have many more updates since I’ve last posted, but I’ll save those for next week’s post so that we can get started!

This week I am very excited to kick-off my first series! I was originally going to post a delicious Balsamic Glazed Chicken recipe, but I wanted to kick this series off sooner rather than later, so the chicken will be for next week. Stay tuned!

Welcome to my Color Series! For each month, I’ve selected a color to represent that month or the holidays in that month. There were a few obvious ones such as February, October, and December, but for many of the months I had to think about what color might relate to them and why. There will be at least one recipe a month dedicated to that month’s color and my goal is to have an assortment of dishes: breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, or desserts. So now, January….

January is white! I picked white because, although it hasn’t snowed in January in a long time, I’ve always associated January with white tones. For New Year’s celebrations, Champagne is a white wine and many of the poppers, confetti, etc. are usually a white or silver material. Way back when, when I was very young, it used to snow in January. Even now, although it no longer snows very often, January is typically cold and windy, and even the air seems to have a white tone to it because of the morning frost that occurs.

Thinking of white foods was initially very difficult. I thought of the usuals, garlic and white onion, but I couldn’t initially think of how to piece those together into a meal. Thankfully, Google exists, and was very helpful. The core of this white dish used garlic, white onion, white mushrooms, cauliflower, and sea scallops. Of course a few extra ingredients were included (that were not white). Check it out below and let me know what you think!

Seared Sea Scallops with Cauliflower Purée Sauce

Recipe List:

  • 4-5 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 small/medium white onion, sliced or diced
  • 1 pack white mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 head cauliflower
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 bag sea scallops (between 1-2 pounds)
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1/4 cup of chicken broth (plus a little extra for later)
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • A bundle of parsley
  • 1/2 pack of linguini*
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Recipe Directions:

  • Thaw your scallops if needed. Pat scallops dry to remove excess moisture.
  • Heat olive oil in skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Add scallops in single layer. In a separate pot, prepare water for boiling to make linguini (cooks for 8-9 minutes)*
  • Season with salt and pepper and fry for 2-3 minutes, then flip and fry again. remove from skillet.
  • Melt butter. Add in garlic, mushroom, and onion. Cook 1 minute.
  • Add chicken stock and bring to a simmer. Cook for about 2 minutes. Add sour cream and simmer until slightly thickened. Add lemon juice and parsley.
  • Remove mushroom and onion from skillet. Add cauliflower, small amount of chicken stock, and small amount of sour cream. Cook until cauliflower is tender.
    • Add enough liquid to just cover the cauliflower. If easier, transfer from skillet to a pot. If there is too much liquid, the sauce will not get thick enough.
  • Using a blender or an immersion blender, blend cauliflower and liquid into a purée.
    • Adjust consistency as needed – thickening by cooking further, or thinning by whisking in liquid.
  • Once blended to your liking, mix in linguine.
    • You can also mix in the mushrooms, onion, and scallops!
  • Serve scallop, mushroom, and onion mixture over linguini. Add parsley and additional sauce as needed.

*The steps are optional depending on preference

Since this is my first “big” recipe that I’m sharing, I thought I’d also share some lessons learned:

  • Making a purée is much harder than I thought it would be. As you can probably tell from the pictures, my purée didn’t turn out as I had intended. I think I added too much liquid, and I think the skillet I was using was not deep enough to use the immersion blender. I had a hard time getting the cauliflower to break down even though it was tender.
  • It was also my first time using an immersion blender. The directions on the pack say not to use the blender for more than a minute, and to let it cool for 4 minutes. I wasn’t sure how long blending would take, but I figured it would be quick. I think it’s quick if you know what you’re doing 🙂 I think I just became impatient and gave up/ Instead of a purée, I ended up with a delicious cauliflower sauce that mixed in with the linguini very nicely.
  • Biggest lesson: It doesn’t have to be perfect. This was still delicious and I would make it again. I had so many firsts in this dish (scallops, purée, blending), and it was so fun to learn new things and cook with ingredients I haven’t cooked with before. While it didn’t go according to plan, it tasted just as good, and possibly even better than what I initially had in mind. Just have fun with it!

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Snack Boxes

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Disclaimer: Any links are provided as a convenience and for informational purposes only; they do not constitute an endorsement or an approval of any of the products, services or opinions of the corporation or organization or individual.

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.

A few different locations from Spain 🇪🇸

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

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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

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Disclaimer: Any links are provided as a convenience and for informational purposes only; they do not constitute an endorsement or an approval of any of the products, services or opinions of the corporation or organization or individual.

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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Review: One-Pan Lemon Garlic Shrimp & Asparagus

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I don’t have too many updates this week, but sometimes that’s a good thing! I’m in the midst of preparing for my holiday trips, some of which I will be taking PTO for and others in which I will just be working remotely. My first stop is to my parents house to celebrate Thanksgiving. We haven’t had the opportunity to celebrate Thanksgiving together as a family in a while since both my sister and I moved to California. This is the first time in what I believe is 6 or 7 years that we will be having a Thanksgiving dinner together. My dad is in charge of preparing the Thanksgiving meal, so I know it’s going to be delicious. I’m really excited for it. It’s been nice being back on the East Coast for a while and being able to visit my parents more often. My sister is also on the East Coast for a quick visit, so I’m glad the 4 four of us will get to spend some more time together.

After Thanksgiving I will quickly but safely drive home and get ready to head to California for a bit. I’m thrilled for this because I think it is freezing n the East Coast right now and I can’t wait to be back in California for that “winter” weather. I’ll be visiting my boyfriend which I’m excited for since we currently live on two different coasts. It’s definitely been tough, but I think we’re trying all we can to make the distance feel minimal.

After visiting my boyfriend, I get to relax in my home for a few days before I have to start packing again. This year I’m spending Christmas in Spain with my boyfriend’s family. It’ll be my first year not having Christmas with my family which makes me a little sad. I do really enjoy spending time with them and being together at the holidays is always special. We’ll be doing a mini Christmas on the 21st so that we can still say that we had Christmas together!

In between all that, I’m fitting in my work schedule, my blogging, and I’m looking to be a part of some virtual volunteering opportunities. It’s hard to find something in my location because I do travel quite a bit to visit my family and there is potential for future work travel. I don’t want to commit to an in-person volunteering event only to find out that I can’t make it. I think the virtual option is much more realistic for my schedule.

On the topic of food, I’m starting to draw a blank. I have a few recipes and pictures on file that are ready to be shared, but I can’t decide which is a good choice to share. I assume I’ll eventually share them all, but some are from before I purchased a ring light, and now looking back at those photos, they’re pretty bad.

I shared the blueberry scones on my Instagram this past Monday, but a post relating to them is not live. So if you’re looking around for it, stay tuned!

This week I’m sharing this super easy One-Pan Lemon Garlic Shrimp and Asparagus recipe. My biochem brain sees “asparagus” and immediately thinks of asparagine because that’s how I would remember the amino acid and know how to spell it. Full disclosure, I used two pans. You can find this recipe from the blog Carlsbad Cravings. I’m always amazed when I look at the home pages of the blogs I try recipes from. Everything looks so effortlessly delicious, and it usually is!

Asparagus is high in asparagine, from which it was named (of course!). Asparagine is a non-essential amino acid (amino acids our body can synthesize) which is critical for producing many of the body’s proteins, but also plays a role in the metabolism of ammonia.

I’ve started to notice that many of the recipes that I am making are not heavily focused around meat (even fish). It’s not intentional, I just found it curious that it was a pattern. This week, however, I am sharing a shrimp recipe and for dinner I made some chicken (which will be shared soon!).

Rating

9/10

Recipe

One-Pan Lemon Garlic Shrimp and Asparagus

I’m so focused on taking videos for my Instagram page that I often forget to take pictures. This is one of those recipes in which I forget to take a picture of the full, finished meal. I did take a picture of the shrimp, which turned out delicious!

This was a great recipe to make in a pinch because i only had to purchase 3 ingredients to make this work because I already had the rest at home. Some notes and lessons learned:

  • Add rice or pasta to make this a more filling and complete dish, unless you’re stacking up on the shrimp and asparagus
  • Following the cook time from the blog, my shrimp were still heavily grey when I pulled them out
    • I popped them back in for the same amount of time and they turned out great. Just play it by ear to make sure you’re cooking the shrimp based on the capabilities of your oven.
  • If you don’t like asparagus, my recommendation would be to replace with broccoli. I personally find them to be relatively light vegetables so the dish doesn’t make you feel stuffed afterward
This is what my shrimp looks like after the full cooking session. This includes the addition of the parsley and the butter.

Try it out an let me know what you think!

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Review: Vegan Fall Pasta Salad

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The first half of this week was very busy at work, and the second half of this week picked up in my personal life. My sister, mom, and aunt came for a visit so my usual weekly writing in preparation for a Friday afternoon post was postponed to prioritize cleaning, cooking, and freeing up time to spend time with my family. Next week I will be posting on Friday!

We’re trying to get an early start to the Christmas shopping to beat out some of the crowds and any last minute “out of stock.” I had to work Thursday and Friday while they were here, but Friday afternoon I was able to join them for a trip to Macy’s and Barnes & Noble.

This is one of the first weekends in a while that I’m staying home. Normally, I take a trip to my parents house to spend some time with them, which is always a nice time, but I’m really looking forward to not driving anywhere this weekend.

This week’s lunch was so yummy and full of fall and winter mixes! I tried a Vegan Fall Pasta Salad. I found this recipe on Pinterest from the blog Rabbit & Wolves. For a vegan page, I thought this was an interesting choice to name a blog. In reading the home page, the name is such a unique and smart choice! They’ve got a few other recipes I’m itching to try!

Poppyseeds are rich in manganese which is important for bone health and blood-clotting. They are also rich in fiber, healthy fats, and several other micronutrients.

Pulled from Healthline

Unfortunately, I’m not sure if the version I made was Vegan. I used a Poppyseed dressing from the store and didn’t check the ingredients, however if you are looking to follow a vegan recipe, the blog Rabbit & Wolves lists directions for making your own poppyseed dressing topping.

This recipe was delicious, but definitely had quite a bit of prep work. Good thing is that after the prep work, all of the work is essentially done. The veggies go straight in the oven, and the pasta essentially cooks itself! So I think it was a fair trade off. I cook lunches for work pretty regularly and this was the first recipe that I’ve had several comments on! “That looks so good,” or “that smells great!”

Let the prep work begin!

Check out my notes below, and head over to the blog Rabbit & Wolves to try it out for yourself!

Rating

10/10

Recipe

Vegan Fall Pasta Salad

So yummy and so filling! Some days I brought a side salad and would decide to have it later as a snack instead. This was easy to make and even easier to pack for work. Some notes and things I learned:

  • I didn’t make the poppyseed dressing from the recipe. Instead I bought a poppyseed dressing from the store, but did not check if it was vegan or not
    • If you are looking to stay strictly vegan, the poppyseed recipe from the blog seemed very easy to follow and looks like it would taste even more delicious than the store-bought
  • I underestimated how much food this would make and bought 2 bags of brussel sprouts just in case
    • 1 bag was more than enough, especially mixed in with everything else
  • I added shrimp to this on my work-from-home day, and that was a great addition!

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Kale and Sausage Stir Fry

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This week really picked up at work. We have a mix of project components all due by November 10th. Some components we can complete without roadblocks, but others are data-based, and so we can only progress based on how much data has already been compiled. I added formulas to the spreadsheet we’ve been working on to try and make the process less manual, but to also minimize how many times we have to go back into the spreadsheet. It’s definitely saved us some time overall to commit to other project components. As we enter Version 2 of our project, I’m curious to see if there will be a Version 3, and if not, what my involvement will be in the next steps of the project. I’m excited to see it!

Halloween this past “weekend” was a lot of fun! I spent it with my family and we ordered matching skeleton onesies to make it easier. Although we ended up not going trick-or-treating, we had a lot of fun setting up the candy table for the trick-or-treaters. My dad has a great set-up going with a skeleton who sits behind the table with blinking eyes, bats and ghosts flying in from a nearby pole, and a remote controlled spider/skeleton hybrid. We ended up going out for dinner and drinks dressed in our costumes. It was a fun night!

I was feeling a bit lazy this past weekend so I tried to opt for something that could be very mindless. I didn’t want to have to worry about how long an ingredient was being cooked for or having to add certain ingredients at a certain point in time. I wanted to be able to put everything in the pan and call it a day.

Some of the ingredients for this dish. Placed on a cutting board that was handmade by my dad! They were great Christmas presents from a few years ago!

This week I made a Kale and Sausage Stir Fry which was great to have for work. The skillet I have is large, but not large enough for the quantities I was making. Unfortunately that meant that I couldn’t throw everything in the pan and call it a day, but it was still a very straight forward meal. Cooked red onions tend to lose their strong flavor and add a nice subtlety to the recipe. They also don’t have that distinct onion smell when you re-heat them in the office microwave.

Kale is not an ingredient that most people like. I personally do not like kale. However, when it’s cooked and mixed with other ingredients, I really don’t mind the taste of it at all. The downside to cooking kale is that many of the high nutritional benefits are lost or minimized. In contrast, cooked bell peppers apparently help you absorb the vitamins better. I’m not sure how true that is, but if you’d like to read more on it, here’s the article I found. And finally, there was the asparagus.

Asparagus is low in calories and a great source of vitamins A, C, and K

Pulled from Healthline

Mixed with the sweet potatoes and the sausage, I found this to be an easy but filling recipe. I love adding sweet potato to my recipes. I find to to be a great fall ingredient, it’s always easy to prepare, and there are many ways to make it! I did have a minor cooking accident which made the prep time much longer than anticipated, but all is well and my minor wound healed fine. Check out the recipe below and let me know what you think!

Recipe List below:

  • 1 Bundle Fresh Kale
  • 1 Bundle Asparagus
  • 1 Yellow Bell Pepper
    • Can also substitute for other colors depending on what you prefer
  • 1 Red Onion
  • 3 Small/Medium Sweet Potatoes
  • 1 Pack Sweet Italian Chicken Sausage*
    • I use pre-cooked sausage that takes much less time to prepare
    • This is another ingredient that can be substituted for what you prefer
  • 2 tbsp Olive Oil
  • Medium Sprinkle Garlic Powder
  • Medium Sprinkle Onion Powder
  • Light Sprinkle Salt
  • Medium Sprinkle Black Pepper
  • Medium Sprinkle Sesame Seeds
  • Light Sprinkle Red Pepper Flakes*

Recipe Directions below:

  • Prep veggies and goodies:
    • Peel and cube sweet potato
    • Separate and slice kale
    • Dice red onion
    • Cut up asparagus
  • In a large skillet, add 1 tbsp Olive Oil and sweet potatoes
    • Cook sweet potatoes on medium heat for 6-8 minutes or until golden brown
  • Add 1 tbsp Olive Oil, bell pepper, onion , and asparagus
    • Add garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, sesame seed, and red pepper flakes*
    • Cook for 8-10 minutes or until tender
  • Remove ingredients from skillet and add to large mixing bowl
  • Add kale to skillet and cook for 2-3 minutes or until kale is wilted
  • Add kale to large mixing bowl and add pre-cooked sausage* to skillet
    • Cook for 8-10 minutes
  • Mix ingredients together and serve.
The final product. This was a great mix of veggies and a filling dish for a busy day at work.

*Optional additions. This sausage addition helps make the recipe a bit more filling. I add the red pepper flakes because they’re one of my favorite additions to any meal.

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Review: Instant Pot Pumpkin Chili

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Disclaimer: Any links are provided as a convenience and for informational purposes only; they do not constitute an endorsement or an approval of any of the products, services or opinions of the corporation or organization or individual.

Another pretty open week at work. Our original project is on hold for this week to focus on a separate training aspect of our project. We had the first session yesterday and I think it went really well! There was a lot of engagement and positive feedback, and we had some constructive feedback that will help us for the next few training sessions. After these sessions are done we’ll be transitioning back into the main project.

I’m not contributing too heavily to any main content right now, but I’m pulled in when we need to make any updates to the presentations and I get to participate in all of the meetings with the senior teams. In my downtime I finished up some online Green Belt courses and have been taking some LinkedIn Learning courses to both help my project and to develop skills. Long-term (for now) my interests lie in business development and strategy, or something that couples those two aspects. Some of the LinkedIn Learning videos I watched (and took notes on!) dove into this a bit more and gave more insight into the business aspects that I’m not directly interacting with currently. Even though I’ve got a bit more free time at work, my project is still a main focus and I don’t have the bandwidth to completely dive into a business-based project to get more hands-on experience. The LinkedIn Learning gives a good opportunity to learn some of those skills so I can refer to them in the future.

This weekend I’m spending some time with my family. We bought matching glow-in-the-dark skeleton costumes for Halloween and are going to do some trick-or-treating. I haven’t gone trick-or-treating since middle school, maybe high school. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun and I’m really looking forward to it!

Other than that, there hasn’t been anything too exciting this week. I did a mini online shopping spree but ended up returning more than half of the items I ordered. The few pieces I kept though I really like. Since I moved, my wardrobe has been in need of some updating due to the change in weather. I’m trying to do this progression slowly so I don’t break the bank 🙂

Now onto the food!

This week I made an Instant Pot Pumpkin Chili from the blog Noble Veggies. I’ve made chili a few times and I always love the variations I find. Most of the chilis I’ve made have been veggie based, but still filling and delicious. The Instant Pot Pumpkin Chili of course featured a special ingredient: pumpkin!

Pumpkin, like other types of winter squash, is high in fiber which supports digestive health.

Adapted from Dr. Axe

Having just driven 4 hours back to my apartment, I was most definitely not in the mood to cook or prepare food. Finding this recipe was great because it uses the Instant Pot! My prep work included cutting the zucchini, onion, and bell pepper, and mincing the garlic (with my garlic press). Other than a few minor initial steps, once these ingredients were in the Instant Pot, they were ready to go! Check out the post on The Noble Veggies blog to find the instructions!

As I said in my last post, pumpkin is not an ingredient that I regularly cook with. In fact, I think prior to my previous post, I had never cooked a recipe using pumpkin puree. I really wanted to try this recipe in the spirit of Halloween and fall, but have to admit I was a little nervous. In last week’s recipe, the taste of pumpkin was very subtle and added a small sweetness to the pasta. I was nervous that in a broth form the pumpkin puree would have a more powerful taste, and I’m not sure if that’s a flavor I like. It turns out that I had nothing to be worried about. Similar to last time, the pumpkin was subtle. I did taste it a bit more in this recipe, but it was a good taste and a great mixture of the different flavors.

This recipe cooked very, very quickly which makes it great for a busy night. I didn’t eat right away, but I kept the Instant Pot on the “Keep Warm” setting and the chili kept nicely. This recipe lasted me about 5 servings with a mix between small and generous portion sizing.

Another added benefit of this recipe is that the clean-up process is super quick. The prep work easily took me the longest amount of time. That can be cut down by purchasing pre-cut veggies at the supermarket.

Rating

10/10

Recipe

Instant Pot Pumpkin Chili

This was so easy to make, so incredibly delicious and a filling dinner. Best part was the minimal prep work and the minimal hands-on requirement. Please, please try this. It was so good! Some notes and things I learned:

  • Add some extra goodies to each serving like avocado and shredded cheese
Here’s the final product! I’m still learning to take good looking photos, but I bought a light source for next time that should help. Top this with some avocado and cheese!

That’s my only note and lesson learned. Honestly this recipe was perfect. It’s a bit heavy so I can’t make this every week, but I would love to make this a part of my regular meal cycle.

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Review: Creamy Pumpkin Pasta

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Disclaimer: Any links are provided as a convenience and for informational purposes only; they do not constitute an endorsement or an approval of any of the products, services or opinions of the corporation or organization or individual.

This week I had the luxury of free time and leaving work on time! We just finished a project workshop and my next set of action items are on hold until I get the needed materials. This means I’ve had a bit more free time at work to pick up other projects that were put on hold to prioritize materials for this workshop. It’s been nice to get back into the other projects and have a bit of a change-up, but by the end of this week, the main project has picked up again so we’re back to it!

Good thing is that I’m really enjoying the project and the work that I’m doing. We’ve had a few late nights associated with this project, but I always feel energized at the end of the day. We still have a lot of work, but I know we’ve made great progress and it’s great to be a part of it.

As we begin to enter the next stage, there’s “chatter” that we may be able to travel to some of the different site locations. Fingers crossed! I think it would be great to see this project implemented at some of the locations and get a better understanding of the impact it will have. There may even be an opportunity for some international travel which would be very cool!

To get into the spirit of Halloween and fall, I decided to make a recipe that had pumpkins in it! Pumpkin is not an ingredient that I regularly (or ever) cook with, so I was excited to give this a go. I was a bit relieved to be using pumpkin puree rather than having to buy a pumpkin and start from scratch.

Pumpkin is one of the best-known sources of beta-carotene, a powerful antioxidant.

Pulled from Medical News Today

I found this recipe from The Washington Post which surprised me a little. I never think of looking on these types of sites for recipes, but they have some great suggestions! I’m really thinking about subscribing to get the weekly recipe ideas. They always look delicious and easy to follow.

All the goods minus the protein we added! I have two cans of pumpkin puree pictured here, but I only needed one. I also only needed one out of the 4 bottles of chicken broth.

I would say that this recipe took me about 40 minutes to make including prep work. I try to use as much fresh stuff as I can because I personally find that it tastes a little better, but you could easily cut down on prep time by purchasing prepared items.

The one thing I absolutely loved about this recipe was how easy it was. I’ve found that blog posts tend to give a lot of details for how to heat up your oven, or how to chop up your onion, and sometimes you can get lost in the weeds. These directions were very clear, very short, and very direct (directions my Fiery Red personality loves!).

The big mix! Plated with the extra goodies really makes this look delicious.

I would say this is one of a few recipes that for me, turned out exactly or very similar to the photos displayed in the article. The article suggests serving the pasta with steamed broccoli. It wasn’t clear to me if that was intended to be on the side or mixed in, so I mixed my steamed broccoli into the pasta and it was a great addition. I also switched up other additions such as protein. One night I added some leftover balsamic marinated chicken and another night I added dried prosciutto. Even though I loved this dish, I think it would have been a bit plain without some of these additions.

Rating

10/10

Recipe

Pasta with Creamy Pumpkin Sauce

This might be my new favorite comfort food. It was really easy to make and for me, gave a new twist on the classic pasta with marinara sauce. I would 100% recommend trying this, and please do and let me know what you think! Some notes and things I learned:

  • I think I somehow made it a bit drier than it was intended. I’m not sure how, but maybe I needed a bit more liquid or not to cook the sauce for as long
  • Adding protein to this was a great idea. It really upped this recipe. My recommendations:
    • Small broken up pieces such as chicken, prosciutto, beef, etc.
    • I think anything could work honestly, even some shrimp, etc. Experiment with it!
  • Don’t forget to add the sage and parmesan on top!
    • I forgot for the first bite, but added it for the second and it was even better
The final product!

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