The Weekend Blate

I'm positive that I've never crammed as much awesome into my weekend as I did over the past 5 days that Melissa was in Portland. 

Not only did I get to meet this beautiful and confident lady in the flesh, Brooke and I were able to show her some of the "greatest hits" that the Portland Metro area has to offer. She's got the cutest Canadian accent and we enjoyed pointing out how it was even more obvious when she'd get excited. Trust me, there was tons to get excited about.

Food, scenery, girl chats, good music, wine, meat(!!!). Such a packed weekend that I don't even know how to recap it all.

Let's list some of the yummy places that took my moneys this weekend. So many meat sweats I can't even count them all.

- Casa Del Matador

- Smokehouse 21

- McMenamins Blue Moon

- Tilt

- Willamette (rhymes with "Damn it") Valley Vineyard

- Stoller Family Estate

- Red Hills Market

- McMenamins Edgefield

- Deschutes Brewery Portland

Each day was something differently epic. Wine tasting, hiking and taking advantage of the beautiful things I sometimes take for granted in this city I live in. I know the song is "Don't go chasing waterfalls" but why?! They are beautiful, I want to chase them all!

On Melissa's first night she even got to see the unicycling bagpipe playing Darth Vader ride by while all of the Portlanders looked at him and immediately went back to what they were doing without taking a second look. #KeepPortlandWeird

Maybe the biggest win was that Melissa realized how not-normal Brooke and I actually are. Surprisingly she seemed to be okay with that!

Blate weekends rock. Can't wait to see you again, Melissa!!

Weekend Prep Returns

Even though I've been quiet about my weekend food prep it's still been going on.

For you new faces around here, I recommend that you check out the archives:

Take the Time: Meal Prep and Weekend Food Prep will give you an idea of what usually goes on in my home on the weekends.

Lately however, food prep begins with a sweet and gentle, "Dan, can you please please please grill some chicken and salmon burgers? I bought lettuce yesterday."

From there, he jumps out of his seat if there's no sports on TV and heats up our extra convenient grill. He's finished in under 45 minutes, has protein ready for the week and all I have to do is chop the lettuce, squirt the sriracha and make sure the avocados are ripe enough for bliss at work the next day.

Okay, so I know that arrangement sounds unfair and I'm working on it, but this weekend since he wasn't home I had to take meal prep back to my top standards and make a mini-production out of it. It was especially fun this weekend because I didn't even have to go grocery shopping!

1. Egg 'pancakes':

Nothing involving pancakes goes into cooking up these eggs, just the shape the finished product ends up being after a quick 90 seconds in the pan. At work I can pop these into the microwave, add spices or 1/2 of an avocado and voila - protein made easy.

2. Tempeh, Lentils, Avocado, Sriracha Salad

Here's where I get to use the other half of the morning avocado and also get to watch all my co-workers turn their heads to see what the amazing smell is that's coming from my area.

Tempeh is a protein powerhouse so it's no wonder that I love to include it in my meals wherever I can. What you see below is 4 servings worth of the good stuff, and I can pre-portion it into my convenient tupperware for the whole week - each day's ration alongside 1/2 cup of wonderful Trader Joe's Lentils.

I pop the lentil / tempeh / sriracha mix into the microwave for 35 seconds and have a clean and filling meal ready to be instagrammed and devoured.

3. Sweet Potato + Quinoa Stir Fry

This one's for dinner every night this week.

Sweet potato, Quinoa, Jalapeno peppers, black beans, grilled chicken and a dash of love make this the perfect 'comfort meal' after the long days of work I've been experiencing. 

The recipe is here and you'll find the peeled thin potato slices to be the perfect texture and just the right size for cooking without extra time or effort.

Have you ever done your food prep on the weekends? What are your favorite easy fixes for a whole week of quality meals?

Throwback Thursday: ¡Olé!

We made it to Thursday - ¡Olé!

Today has me thinking about how close we are to a holiday that is very near and dear to my heart: Cinco de Mayo

What's not to love about celebratory margaritas, chips, salsa, guacamole and other traditional cuisine not Taco Bell, Dan!.

I know that whenever I don't want to put dinner on the table the first restaurants that come to mind serve chips by the basket, keep the salsa coming and have eclectic flare and mariachi bands. Seriously - my salsa to chip ratio is 2:1, I have plenty of tomato stains to prove it.

Lately around the house we've been mashing avocados, chopping onions and chilling that guac like we've never tasted something so decadent! I'm looking forward to maybe putting together my first shot at making Sangria this weekend. Who knows, maybe I'll share!

Sorry for the shorty post - today is going to be one of the busier days of the whole month with quite a lot of pressure on the little girl below's shoulders.

Today's Throwback Thursday is brought to you by a little girl who has always been chasing the sun with a smile on her face, sombrero and all.

¡Olé!

Sweet Potato + Quinoa Stir Fry

Today I'm sharing a new favorite recipe with you - by request of some facebook followers!

Sunday was a marathon of food prep and I was so thankful to have Dan by my side chopping, stirring, opening, grilling and sampling storing the foods we were making. This was a new one on our list and was born out of some inspiration from the internet over the past month: Brooke / Pinterest. It was also put together due to the fact that we had some vegetables that needed to be used or thrown out and I was having a productive weekend with more energy in store to prep.  

Feast your eyes on the mix that had me wishing for more and waiting in anticipation for today's identical lunch.

Sweet Potato + Quinoa Stir Fry

3 cups quinoa {cooked}

2 cans black beans {drained}

5 sweet potatoes {peeled + chopped}

2 jalapenos

1/2 white onion

2 tbsp olive oil

pepper to sprinkle

Preparation:

• Cook 1 cup of dry quinoa (1 cup seeds + 2 cups water) = 3 cups cooked


• Peel/chop sweet potatoes into bite sized pieces


• Dice onion + jalapenos into small pieces for flavor in every bite


• Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees


• Place your chopped sweet potatoes into a baking pan with 2 tbsp olive oil drizzle, bake for 15 minutes


• After 15 minutes - Stir your potatoes and bake for 10 more minutes


• Open 2 cans of black beans, drain


• In a large bowl, mix all ingredients {jalapenos + onion + beans + quinoa + finished sweet potatoes} and sprinkle with pepper


• Sample it, add protein to it, put it in a large container and have this for days!

Co-workers were sniffing and oogling over what I was bringing back from the microwave - you'd have thought these were Laughing Planet leftovers!

What's your favorite way to use sweet potatoes?

March Summary

You guys have been on a wild ride with me this past month and I'm a little bummed to say goodbye to it.

If we look back to March's Eight Great Goals here's how I opened up my eyes to the month:

Ah, March – what do you plan to bring?

More responsibility, more puppy fun, more photos, more love, more smiles, more silliness, more laughter, more improvement, more sleep? I honestly hope all of the above!

And seriously - ALL of the above were fulfilled and exceeded.

• I realized what I am made of with the new responsibilities and weight on my shoulders at work


• Matt was home - that's never a bad thing. Proof here & here.


• The food around this joint was un-believable. Take a look for yourself!

Breakfast - Brownies - Steak - Soup - Cake - Spaghetti Squash

• I accepted a blogging award - thanks! And Dan received an Employee of the Quarter Award! 


• Dan treated me to a Blazers game and we splurged on a Shamrock Shake!!


• I met little miss Olive and more importantly was able to catch up with her beautiful mom, Tanna!


• I'm pretty sure that Dan and I didn't eat out more than 5 times - but I sort of definitely lost track! Twice we may have eaten popcorn at Cinetopia for a meal - I haven't decided if that counts? Not Accountable
  


• As of today, Friday morning - I'm still leading my NCAA bracket


• I'm constantly reminded of how wonderful my boyfriend is


• I got some time on this inspiring girl's website sharing my food prep with her followers - she's studying to become a registered dietitian

The last 29 days haven't been perfect, but I feel like things are looking up and they will only get better from here.

And once again as we leave the month, I'd like to repeat that I thank you for all of the well wishes, thoughts, notes and letters wishing us well after the loss of a wonderful woman. We miss you Granny!

New Favorite: Spaghetti Squash

I've seen all the craze about spaghetti squash on my instagram feed and the foodie/fitness blogs I follow so I decided that I'd give it a try myself. Not only would I see what it was like for myself, I wanted to put it through the ultimate taste test - Dan!

When I bought these two I was a little bit skeptical of being able to extract noodle-like strands that would rival spaghetti out of this dense yellow gourds. I watched a few YouTube videos and got after the following steps to see what it was like for myself.

And what do you know - the finished product is delicious! At less than 50 calories per cup, this is the perfect vegetable to satisfy a noodle/carb craving and can be guiltlessly topped with sauces, meat, other veggies and even cheeses says Dan!

Here's two ways that we've enjoyed it so far in the home:

Spaghetti squash with marinara sauce and grilled chicken.

Or how I enjoyed it at work yesterday - with lentils, grilled chicken and my ultimate favorite - sriracha!

Have you ever tried spaghetti squash? How do you/would you eat yours?

Food Share

{Thank you everyone for the sweet notes and condolences for our family - we appreciate you}

I've wanted to share this one with you for a few weeks now but haven't found the words. I don't know that there are words, maybe just a dangle of drool down the side of my face.

This was the breakfast we enjoyed on Sunday morning at the coast two weeks ago when my brother was in the states. It was a family affair where I made the pancakes, mom made the scramble and the boys helped us clean up to ensure that there were no leftovers remaining. They didn't disappoint and neither did our brunch!

The scramble is filled with eggs, turkey, ham and Trader Joe's Healthy 8 Veggie Mix - the pancakes are Trader Joe's multigrain and the whipped cream was delicious!

The following St. Patrick's Day inspired cake is the dessert I made for Dan on Saturday while he was away playing basketball. There's nothing clean about this one except for maybe the spinach I added to get the authentic green color. The mix looked promising - made with Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Flavor, and I had all of the other ingredients already on hand to make it happen in no time.

The trick for making it was that I baked it in my new muffin-top only pan to get thin, individual servings to aid in portion control. I had to adjust my cook time for these thin mini cakes since there was no way it would take 40 minutes like the box instructions called for. I quickly threw it all together, got my photos taken (in surprisingly good light) and waited to see what I would pull out of the oven.

I allowed the cakes to cool and had the mini-cakes frosted, sprinkled and finished by the time Dan walked in the door before our Blazer game plans.



Taste test approved and we still have some left over!

Weekend of Ups and Downs

This weekend brought many ups and a few downs for Dan and I - I'll start with the happy times so that I don't fall short on the events of the weekend.

Friday night after the work week Dan and I went to see Oz The Great and Powerful and loved it! I highly recommend that you head to the theater to see it if you have the chance. Oz the Great and Powerful is the prequel story to the Wizard of Oz and enchanted us for the entire 2 hours and 7 minutes in 3D. The Wizard of Oz is a classic film that you couldn't imagine being enhanced upon but this was creatively made and so well cast that without knowing you'd honestly believe that it was made before the 1939 classic.

1. Spring has sprung - the cherry blossoms are blooming in the neighborhood and I stopped to take twenty photos on my Saturday run

2. Dan scored 9th row Blazers tickets to their win vs. Detroit on Saturday night with Club level tickets <3

3. I baked a shamrock cake on Saturday - you'll see it tomorrow!

4. There were $2 Guinness cans at work on Friday as employee appreciation for St. Patrick's Day so my work team took advantage.

5. The Blazers scored 100 points in their win, so we got a Chalupa coupon which can be used at Portland's best food cart KOi Fusion as well!

6. Friday night ended with spontaneous margaritas at Dan's suggestion while we were driving home. His best idea in a while!

We finally caved and treated ourselves to the real deal - the Shamrock Shake from McDonald's.

You can see the excitement and surprise that Dan had when the following things occurred:

1. I wasn't having anxiety going through a drive-thru A story for another day

2. Was agreeing to the drink since I've been re-creating healthier versions and pushing them on him

I wish that this is where I could wrap up my weekend update, but I need to share the real, the sad, the human part of the weekend that sours the joy we had.

Saturday I heard the news that my 98 year old grandmother had a fall that broke her hip and sent her to the hospital in an ambulance. Her health has been declining recently and as you'd imagine of any person that age her bones are fragile and her mind has been wandering for a few years. It was sad to see her on Sunday afternoon laying in a hospital bed, helpless, seemingly gasping for oxygen and only comforted by the medication and the breathing assistance she was receiving from modern medicine. It was heartbreaking to see my aunts standing by her bedside, and especially seeing the emotion on my dad's face knowing that this was a sign that she's near the end.

We are wishing her a comfortable and peaceful week - hoping that she is able to eat, rest and enjoy the company of family members at her side.

Hug your family and friends love them with all you have.

Recipe Share

I'm one of those people who hates trying new recipes because I can't stand going back and forth between instructions, ingredients, steps, measurements, photos (DSLR + iPhone) and managing my pandora playlist. #firstworldproblems.

This weekend I tried to challenge myself by making a special trip to the grocery store for ingredients to make a few recipe's I've been eyeing lately.

#1 Kale & White Bean Soup <--recipe

Saturday's weather was beautiful in Portland and probably the last thing on my mind during the day was making soup that night. Once the sun fell over the residential horizon I felt the wind chill kick in and was reminded that we won't truly put our trust in that summer air until July. Get used to it PDX!

Marisa at Uproot From Oregon always has great recipes to share and this one is full credit to her:

#2 Protein Shamrock Shake <--recipe

Something that Saturday afternoon did bring to mind was the Shamrock Shake from McDonald's for a limited time only. It's definitely been a guilty pleasure of Dan and I's and we've shown a lot of self restraint to avoid that drive-thru this March. When I saw Taralynn share a protein-shake version of the same creation I knew I would have to try it and especially have Dan be the master taste tester.

In the end I think I used too many mint leaves, but was happy with myself rather than caving for the McDonald's version. Plus nobody ever complained about whipped cream topping and sprinkles!

#3 Tempeh + Lentil Salad

This one is a home creation and I always get rave reviews from people who see, smell and want to taste what I'm bringing back to my desk around noon.

• 1 cup of Romaine Lettuce


• 1/3 cup of Trader Joe's Steamed Lentils


• 4 oz. of Trader Joe's Organic 3 Grain Tempeh


• Drenched in Sriracha (as much as you can handle)

Pack the lettuce separately from the other three ingredients so that you don't heat the lettuce. Pop the tempeh, lentils and sriracha into the microwave for 45-60 seconds until you can hear it steaming, then dump it onto the bed of lettuce. Ta-dah! There's a tasty and clean meal in front of you waiting to be devoured.

Sometimes I even add an avocado and pepper - live life on the wild side, my friends.

Go on, what recipes do you have to share with me?

Week 9: Cohabitation

Its ONLY  been 9 weeks that we've lived together in SE? Where has the time gone?

For how this week started off I am pretty impressed that we made it through.

Dan and I returned home from the coast early Sunday night to make sure we had laundry + food prep in order and also so that we had time to enjoy the latest episode of the Walking Dead. We headed to bed at a decent time because I wanted to be in to work at 6am and to do that he would have to come with me.

Monday morning our alarms went off, Dan rolled over, I sighed - then murmured that it was "okay" if we didn't go in early. Check - set, we will wake up at the normal time (5:15) so that we can leave the house a little after 6. We both were back to sleep before we could even count to 10.

I wake up to words I shouldn't type, several shakes, and an announcement that "It's 6:00!" I've never gotten ready so quickly in my life. It may surprise you that this very scene used to happen to me so often in college that my brother started sending me videos of annoying alarms to test out.

Never have I been so thankful that a top knot is in style, that I have a long commute to do my make-up (stop lights) and that I didn't have any meetings scheduled.

A huge award goes to Dan - because normally he can sleep until noon on weekends and he was the one that got us up and running. I would have never lived it down at work and would have been forever paranoid of how many alarms were set.

After this bump, the week only got better!

1. Mid day latte on a sunny day at my favorite local coffee shop

2. Hit my goal with the sunrise with my new and improved black ice Nike+ Fuelband

3. Yummy mid-day yogurt, honey & granola snack

4. An evening latte after Dan and I passed out napped after getting in the door Tuesday night

5. Tiger is happy to be back home from his road trip beach vacation

6. Dan posing at the beach, my handsome :)

7. Garlic Naan from Trader Joe's for dinner (with grilled chicken + steamed veggies)

8. Sister snoozes on Thursday at home with my family

9. Puppy play date at the park - Dan didn't make it but the girls had a great time!

Happy Friday to all!

Don't forget to Spring Forward this weekend. Sleep an extra hour for me, please!

Easy Trader Joe's Brownies

Do you want to know the secret of how to make the easiest and most delicious desserts? Let someone else do the work for you! The lazy man's plan.

Even after all of the desserts I've pinned onto my Pinterest boards and the delicious morsels I see posted within the blogging community, I still am a fan of simplicity and efficiency.

To prove how quickly you can convert this from box to brownies - picture this. I was able to un-box, pour, mix, photograph and throw it in the oven before Dan even realized what I was up to. It was only when he smelled ooey gooey brownies that he raced into the kitchen to take a look! If I didn't still have the evidence out of the ingredients he'd have no idea it was the 'reduced guilt' option.

Bravo, Trader Joe's!

I'll show you how easy it is:

You can imagine how quickly this dessert disappeared from our house - I'm already getting asked when we can make it again!

Not One Square to Spare

If you were able to follow along a little bit last week you'd know it was a rough one. To sum it up in one photo, this one would paint the best picture. Too little, too late.

Can Anyone Spare a Square?

This was actually a photo Dan sent me last week (i assume after messily doing his business) and it was so fitting for everything we were going through. Long hours at work, car troubles, under-achieved workouts and sleep deprivation.

It's over, I'm over it. This is our week, I can feel it! 

We had a much better weekend than last. I was able to knock out 14 miles (7 Saturday, 7 Sunday and planned for 6 this morning with no success) and am on my way to victory with only 22 remaining before Thursday at midnight. Sadly I didn't get to enjoy my massage as planned, but had a wonderful weekend spending quality time with mom, dad and sister Bailey.

Things are looking up; brother is in the USA, in the same time zone and we have a great weekend planned just a few days away. I also have some exciting news to share (maybe tomorrow!) and from that news you can expect to see a lot more cuteness going on around here! Just give me a moment to get some photos together... I promise I won't disappoint!

To kick off the week, Dan made fresh Portabella Mushroom burgers on wheat buns, topped with avocado, lettuce and all the best spices. Portabella's are hearty and healthy and can be the perfect disguise for a healthy yet satisfying meal. It's a mature mushroom - seasoned and sophisticated.

Happy Monday to all!

<3 JE