This Blog is Moving

I am moving my blog. Still on wordpress, but a total redesign with a new name and address. I have felt for a while that this blog wasn’t exactly what I wanted it to be and have been struggling to envision what I wanted, so I’m trying again. Hopefully I got it right this time. If you follow me here, I welcome you to come follow me there at www.spicysugarblog.wordpress.com. Thanks!

 

Photographing my 4-year-old: sometimes it’s a workout

While my older daughter creates outfits and poses for me, trying to get a picture of my younger daughter isn’t quite as easy. It looks something like this…

My daughter playing fashion designer with some scarves.

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What You See is Not What You Get

Just one of the reasons I don’t like to go to Applebees.

This is what I ordered:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is what I got:

Fancy Tomatoes

I love when companies pay attention to their customers. Thanks, Muir Glen. I wrote a blog post a couple months ago about Muir Glen organic canned tomatoes. I use a lot of canned tomatoes and I was searching for a BPA-free option. It took me a while before I found Muir Glen, who is switching to all BPA-free cans this year. Yay!

I was surprised to get a thank you from Muir Glen about my blog post since I didn’t forward it to them in any way, but they found it, and thanked me for it…by sending me this fancy collection of “Reserve” tomatoes. I didn’t even know Reserve tomatoes existed!

I was especially happy to receive my thank you gift because it contained some fire roasted tomatoes. I LOVE fire roasted tomatoes but have not been able to find the Muir Glen fire roasted variety near me.

Also included with the gift basket was a little recipe book and a hand-written thank you note. Yes, hand-written. How nice is that? First a move to make a better and healthier product, then amazing customer service and attention. Way to impress, Muir Glen.

But I Hate Running, Don’t I?

Not stilettos. My new running shoes. Saucony Cohesion 5. If I stick with it, I’ll upgrade.

I hate running. I say it all the time. I know a lot of runners. My husband ran the NYC marathon last year. They all know I hate running. I find it painful. Not physically painful, mentally painful. I think it’s tedious and boring, and I hate doing it.

So how did I get here? And by here I mean running at 6:30 am. For 30 minutes. Three times this week.

Well, I put on seven pounds between the end of last summer and the beginning of this summer. I know that might not seem huge to some people, but it’s a lot on me. My pants were tight. I like to blame it all on Hurricane Irene and my flooded basement derailing my diet and exercise routine (excuses, excuses), but I certainly can’t blame my flooded basement for keeping me derailed all through the fall and winter. Once I got out of a routine, I got lazy. It’s that simple.

Finally, in the spring, I started to get back to nice healthy eating habits and a regular exercise routine. And by a regular exercise routine, I mean 30 minutes of weights and toning exercises 4-5 times/week. Because that’s what I like to do. And I do it at home. The problem is, in a few months, I only lost two pounds and my pants were still tight.

I had to admit it. I need cardio. The easiest cardio without going back to a gym? Running. Ugh.

But I told myself I had to try it. Even if I dreaded it. Just try it a few times. See if I can get through it without being completely miserable.

Since I work best with structure and set goals, I decided to try a Couch-to-5k program. It will tell me exactly what to do. Just get through it.

Well…I ran three days this week. Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday. I did some core exercises on Monday. And I lost three pounds. Just like that. My pants fit. And that was with a not totally healthy day of eating on Wednesday…I ate out, had some frozen yogurt. Three pounds.

This running stuff works!

And I’m not miserable. Maybe it’s the success. Maybe it’s the goal of completing the 5k program. But I feel great!

It also doesn’t hurt to have a husband who makes me a nice healthy breakfast while I’m out running. Thanks, hubby!

So maybe I’ll have to ease off my “I hate running” stance. Maybe. Okay, definitely. For now, at least.

Black Bean Saute

This is one of my favorite side dishes. It’s easy, quick, delicious and healthy. What more could you ask for?

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 small vidalia onion, diced

1/4 cup cider vinegar

15 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 cup frozen corn

1/2 cup frozen peas

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

In a medium saute pan over medium-high heat, heat the olive oil, then add the red bell pepper and the onion. Saute  until tender. I let the onion just start to brown because this is how I like onions. Add the garlic and saute for another minute. Then add the vinegar, beans, corn and peas. Saute until the frozen vegetables are cooked and the vinegar has reduced. Season with salt and pepper. That’s it!

I serve this with so many things! Grilled chicken, fajitas, burgers. I love to serve bunless burgers on a bed of fresh spinach, topped with avocado and salsa, with this veggie saute on the side. Excellent summer meal.

S’more Cookies

Here is the recipe for the S’more cookies I made that everyone wanted. I am not the biggest cookie fan and I thought these were incredible! I did not bake them on graham crackers (that seemed weird to me). I was scared that omitting the graham crackers would un-s’more them, but the cinnamon in the cookies was enough to keep the s’more taste. I also left off the chocolate on top; it kind of seemed like TOO much.

Sweet Pea's Kitchen

Graham Cracker S’mores Cookies with a graham cracker base, topped with a chocolate chip marshmallow cookie and chopped Hershey’s bars on top. If you are a fan of  s’mores, watch out! These are incredible! 🙂 I don’t know about you, but I am more than ready for summer. I only have 12 school days left until summer break! I remember when I was a kid I would always wonder what the teachers at our school were going to do the whole summer without us. Now I know that the teachers are just as excited if not more than the students to be out for the summer. This summer is going to a particularly busy and fun one for my husband and I. June marks my husband and I’s 3rd wedding anniversary, so we are headed back down to the place we had our destination wedding-Grand Cayman. I am super…

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Warm Spinach Salad with Grilled Sausage

I got this recipe a few years ago from Real Simple magazine. It has become one of my absolute favorite summer grilling recipes. It is so delicious and perfect for eating outside in the summer. And, even better, it really couldn’t get much simpler. It is perfect for those summer nights or even afternoons for lunch when you are enjoying the nice weather and have little interest in putting a lot of effort into cooking. With this, you can have a fabulous outdoor meal with little effort, a dream come true!

To start, you need some sausages. Any kind you like. I use sweet Italian turkey sausage. You also need about 8 roma tomatoes and a large vidalia onion. Simply peel and slice the onion and cut the tomatoes in half (I cut off the ends first). You don’t want the onion slices too thin or they will be harder to flip on the grill. Or you can slice them thin and cook them in  a grill basket if you prefer. Brush both sides of the veggies with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. 

That’s it. Then put your sausage, onion and tomatoes on the grill.

While everything is on the grill, make the really simple dressing. You just have to put some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, grainy mustard (not yellow, yuck!), salt and pepper in a small bowl and whisk them together. Dressing done!

Fill a large bowl with fresh baby spinach. As you take your veggies off the grill, put them right on top of the spinach. Then cover the bowl until ready to serve so the spinach warms up a little.

Looks Beautiful!

Then just slice the sausage, serve on top of the veggies, and drizzle some dressing on top. Perfect!

Here is the recipe as it appeared in Real Simple:

Ingredients

• 4 Italian sausages (about 1 pound)
• 8 plum tomatoes, cut in half crosswise
• 1 onion, sliced into 1/2-inch-thick rings
• 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• kosher salt and pepper
• 3 bunches spinach, thick stems removed (about 8 cups)
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon whole-grain mustard

Directions

• 1Heat grill to medium-high. With a fork, prick the sausages in several places. Grill, turning occasionally, until cooked through, 10 to 12 minutes.
• 2Meanwhile, brush the tomatoes and onion with 1 tablespoon of the oil and season with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Grill until tender, 5 to 6 minutes per side for the onion and 2 to 3 minutes per side for the tomatoes. Transfer the vegetables to a large bowl as they are done, add the spinach, and toss.
• 3In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, mustard, the remaining 3 tablespoons of the oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Slice the sausages and serve with the vegetables and dressing.

Lemon Tarragon Tilapia

So simple, but so delicious. Served with roasted broccoli and mashed cauliflower. Also both really simple.

Just sprinkle the tilapia with salt, pepper, and tarragon. Then cook over medium high heat in a pan with some olive oil and butter. Once the tilapia is done, remove it from the pan. Then add lemon juice to the pan and scrape up anything stuck to the pan. Add a little more butter and tarragon to the lemon juice and stir until the butter is melted into the lemon juice. Pour some sauce over each tilapia filet to serve.

For the cauliflower, toss the cauliflower with olive oil, salt, pepper and some crushed garlic. The garlic should be to your taste, I like a lot. Roast at 375 for 45 minutes, turning two or three times during roasting. The cauliflower could really be done here. It is delicious like this. But sometimes I prefer the consistency of mashed with a meal. Here, I thought the mashed would be great with the lemon butter sauce from the fish. So then I put the roasted cauliflower in a food processor. Add some thyme and olive oil (about a tbsp of each per head of cauliflower), and process. Don’t think you can just steam the cauliflower if you are going to mash it. I’ve tried that and it is not nearly as good as when you roast it first.

The broccoli is just tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted at 375 for 30 minutes. Roasted broccoli is the best. So much more flavor than steamed! And it stays nice and crisp instead of getting soggy.

Sorry I’m lacking measurements, but I don’t actually do a lot of measuring when I am cooking. Especially for an easy meal like this.

This meal has so much more flavor than you would ever expect for how simple it is. So good with a glass of white wine.