About a month and a half ago, there was a crisis in the Kate-Peter kitchen. Our blender, a $5 purchase made many, many years ago by Peter, broke. Normally this would not bring things to a screeching halt, but I've been following the Abs Diet and making breakfast smoothies on a daily basis for months now. Without this tool, breakfast (i.e. a race to get food in my body as quickly as possible in the morning) became significantly more difficult. I was a cranky girl.
But there's redemption. For my birthday, Peter bought me a fancy blender. It's made of actual glass and metal (squee!) AND has a pretty decent food processor attachment. So, of course, I've been making smoothies on a very regular basis ever since. This week's recipe is adapted from the Abs Diet peanut butter and jelly smoothie, one of my favorites.
1 cup low-fat or fat-free milk
1 handful frozen whole strawberries
1/3 scoop vanilla protein powder
2 teaspoons natural peanut butter
6 ice cubes
Toss that all in the blender, and watch the magic happen. If your blender is like our old one, defrost the strawberries in the microwave first and crush the ice if possible. The end result is thinner, though, and you should really think about getting a kick-ass blender eventually. It'll make life so, so much easier.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Major life milestone!
Hello everyone,
Sorry I slacked off on this for awhile here. Part of the issue has been a major personal milestone for P and me--we're engaged! I proposed to him in mid-February, and we've been busy since then figuring out some preliminary arrangements for that. We have a venue, which is an old house in St. Paul (I'm going to keep a lot of the details under wraps until invitations go out in a few months), booked for late April 2013. It's so exciting! So that's part of why I haven't had a lot of spare time the last few weeks.
I've also recommitted myself to the job search, and to really focusing on my volunteer work lately. Which has been frustrating and rewarding all at once. I'm learning a whole, WHOLE lot about kids and enjoying the most motivated adult student I've had in my (very short) career so far.
So, a little background on the seeming sloth on this blog. But I came up with a meal last night that was pretty darn tasty, and simple to do! I took some inspiration from the name of "greek pork chops", but then ran with it and used the spices I like best.
Greek-style center cut pork chops with sauteed potatoes
2 center-cut pork chops, bone in
1 tbsp olive oil, divided
2 Tbsp lemon pepper seasoning
salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 cup water
Dash dry white wine
6 baby-size yukon gold potatoes, sliced
1/2 lemon, cut into wedges
Add 2 tsp. olive oil to a medium-sized pan over medium heat. While oil is heating, sprinkle both sides of pork chops with lemon pepper and s&p combination; rub spices into the meat. When you can smell the olive oil, add the pork chops and saute for five minutes on each side. Add a cup of water, and the white wine. Cover, reduce heat to medium low, and simmer until the liquid has picked up the color from the pan drippings and reduced to a gravy-like consistency. Remove pork chops from the sauce, and add the potatoes to the mixture. Add a touch more salt and pepper to taste. Stir well to coat potatoes in sauce, add remaining 1/2 cup of water. Cover, and simmer until the liquid has been absorbed by the potatoes and they have a light char. Serve with green vegetable of choice and lemon wedges for the pork.
Sorry I slacked off on this for awhile here. Part of the issue has been a major personal milestone for P and me--we're engaged! I proposed to him in mid-February, and we've been busy since then figuring out some preliminary arrangements for that. We have a venue, which is an old house in St. Paul (I'm going to keep a lot of the details under wraps until invitations go out in a few months), booked for late April 2013. It's so exciting! So that's part of why I haven't had a lot of spare time the last few weeks.
I've also recommitted myself to the job search, and to really focusing on my volunteer work lately. Which has been frustrating and rewarding all at once. I'm learning a whole, WHOLE lot about kids and enjoying the most motivated adult student I've had in my (very short) career so far.
So, a little background on the seeming sloth on this blog. But I came up with a meal last night that was pretty darn tasty, and simple to do! I took some inspiration from the name of "greek pork chops", but then ran with it and used the spices I like best.
Greek-style center cut pork chops with sauteed potatoes
2 center-cut pork chops, bone in
1 tbsp olive oil, divided
2 Tbsp lemon pepper seasoning
salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 cup water
Dash dry white wine
6 baby-size yukon gold potatoes, sliced
1/2 lemon, cut into wedges
Add 2 tsp. olive oil to a medium-sized pan over medium heat. While oil is heating, sprinkle both sides of pork chops with lemon pepper and s&p combination; rub spices into the meat. When you can smell the olive oil, add the pork chops and saute for five minutes on each side. Add a cup of water, and the white wine. Cover, reduce heat to medium low, and simmer until the liquid has picked up the color from the pan drippings and reduced to a gravy-like consistency. Remove pork chops from the sauce, and add the potatoes to the mixture. Add a touch more salt and pepper to taste. Stir well to coat potatoes in sauce, add remaining 1/2 cup of water. Cover, and simmer until the liquid has been absorbed by the potatoes and they have a light char. Serve with green vegetable of choice and lemon wedges for the pork.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)