Hello my little OHCers!  How is your Monday going so far? Mine is going by way too fast!  I have a ton of stuff to do and it seems like I might not have much time to get it done.  Hopefully this week will not be as crazy busy as last week which will provide me with more time to get stuff done here.

I’m up to my eyeballs in projects and I love it! It is also making me realize several things:

1. I need to be better organized.
2. I need to optimize my phone so it works for me and I’m using it to its fullest potential.
3. I need to work on my time management skills a little better.

My organizational and time management skills are actually pretty good but they can be better and I need to make them better!  But let’s talk about food shall we?

Yesterday was a glorious food day!  A day where all I wanted to do was stuff my face and get my grub on.  This may or may not have something to do with the fact that, to quote my friend Angela, “That’s what happens when you run a thousand miles.” Ha! :p

To be honest, I love the kind of days were I can stuff my face.  I am not afraid of food or eating. I love food.  More specifically, I love stuffing my face with real food that tastes fab and nourishes my body. Yesterday I did just that.

After my Thousander, I plopped down on the couch with my Bug (nickname for my netbook), Rocky, food, and my Zensha sleeves.  My food was some yogurt with homemade granola and chocolate chips.  Not too many chips this time!  Along with coffee on the side.  I couldn’t hold out any longer and busted out some of my fall dishes.  The coffee mug has a wee owl on the side of it and my yogurt bowl is in the shape of an owl.  He has eyeballs and a beak too, but the food covers that up.  The owl bowls I use all the time because they are just way too cute to only use during the fall months.  Both these items I got at Homegoods for el cheapie!

It wasn’t long after eating this little recovery meal that I was hungry for some real food in the form of pancakes.  Specifically pancakes the size of my two hands put together.  I use to make small pancakes, now I want the real deal!  Thankfully Scotty was up by this point so I could get moving on Sunday Breakfast.

Hello my babies!  Regular buckwheat pancakes with some fall spices: cinnamon, allspice, and clove.  Mmmm mmmm!

Two chicken sausages on the side, some OJ, and cantaloupe in the middle.  I buttered those johnnies up and dipped them in maple syrup.  Fantastic!

When it’s just Scott and I, I fully geek out on food.  I’ll take lots more pictures, make very loud “mmm mmm” sounds, and close my eyes.  Sometimes I’ll do a little happy dance in my seat and clap my hands.  Totally confessing to you all.

I told you, I like food.

Scott and I didn’t do much of anything yesterday but chill out.  The week was rough in terms of being busy (as I’ve stated way too many times) and on Saturday we spent the whole day cleaning out our office trying to make it more functional and organized.  Sunday we needed to just chill, so we did.  We hung out and watched Triple D.

Um, then I was hungry again.  I had to get started on dinner because there was no way I would be able to make it until later in the evening.  On Sundays we usually eat dinner between 6:30 and 8pm.  Not planned, that’s just how it works out.  Yesterday?  I was prepping dinner by 4pm.

Feed my bellah!

I’m totally in fall mode gang.  I made a HUGE crockpot of lentil chili on Saturday and yesterday we had some roast chicken breast with root veggies.

Local bone-in chicken breasts (buy bone-in gang! Totally so much better!) that I brushed with some olive oil and then put a simple rub on:

• Poultry Seasoning
• Garlic Powder
• Kosher Salt
• Cayenne Pepper
• Allspice

I know, that might sound like a weird combo but it’s amazing.  A little bit more olive oil and in the oven at 400 for about 45 minutes.

Poultry seasoning makes me think of fall which is exactly what I wanted.

Last week, Scott and I went out to dinner and my veggies that came with my meal were sauteed chard on top of mashed potatoes.  It was easily the best combo of veggies I have ever had.  I thought, “I could make this and kick it up a notch.”  Which is exactly what I did for last night’s side dishes.

Mashed potatoes with sauteed kale and golden beets.  Recipe for that soon!

There was much squealing and chair dancing as I was eating this.

I was a proud member of the clean plate club last night. So so good!

After dinner, I chatted with my mom while Scott did some more office related stuff, then it was time for more couch sitting.  Holmes ended up being one we’ve seen several times and we decided to watch something on Netflix Streaming instead.  We picked The Tick, live action version.

There was of course snacking during the show.

Coconut sugar cookies (vegan) along with some leftover wine.  YUMMY!

If you like silly humor then The Tick is for you!  It’s flipping hysterical and it’s a shame that Fox never picked it up after the first season.  Seriously could not stop laughing.  We have three shows left and I told Scott that we have to buy the DVD!

Let me know how your weekend was and what goodies you got a chance to create and eat!

This post was part of Homespun Sundays.  If you want to join in, just let me know!

Y’all yesterday was dang hot.  And I mean, sitting around needing to air yourself out kinda HOT.  The humidity was outta control and the heat index was just below Swamp.  Nobody really wanted to do anything and after I was done with my long run, I most especially didn’t want to do anything.

Rocky thought we were purposely keeping the air off and making him hot.  There was lots of stink eye being spread around and I may do a lot of things in the name of being green, but forcing folks or animals to be hot when they don’t have to be is not one of them.  Trust me, the air was on.

So you may be wondering then, if it was so hot why in the world am I suddenly obsessed with pumpkin?

Because I couldn’t hold out any longer friends and I had to bust open a can of that glorious squash.  See last fall all around the states, we were in the middle of Pumpkin Crisis ’09.  The pumpkin crop was bad last year and come fall canned pumpkin was slim pickings.  Grocery stores were out of canned pumpkin and when some would trickle in, they didn’t stay on the shelves long.

You can bet your veggie lovin’ butt that whenever I saw pumpkin I stocked up.  And if you think I didn’t fill my Sam’s cart to the tippy top when I found the HUGE 28 ounce cans of pumpkin in a Three Pack, you probably don’t know me as well as you think.  I love pumpkin and I will snatch it outta your hands when you aren’t looking, just so you know.

When spring hit, I pushed aside my multiple cans of pumpkin assuring them that I would see them in the fall.  I didn’t forget about them but I didn’t waste energy dwelling on them either, ya dig?

But this past weekend, I couldn’t hold out any longer and I felt the need to be reunited with my orange beauty.

First pumpkin sighting of the day was with a lovely yogurt mess post run.

• 2% Fage (Greek Yogurt)
• Homemade Granola
• Huge scoop of pumpkin
• Dash Maple Syrup
• Chocolate Chips

Delish!

Second sighting of pumpkin followed not long after.

Oh you know it, pumpkin pancakes for Sunday Breakfast!

Yumtastic!  I also loaded those bad johnnies up with some butter and dipped them in maple syrup which was fab.  Sliced apple in the back for some fruit.  Also an indicator that the fruit situation at the HQ is in need of replenishing.

I would love to give you a description of my day but really there was nothing to it.  I did a lot of prep work for dinner and then barely had time to sit down for a second before it was actually time to eat dinner.  Yesterday was one of those days that just got away from us and that’s kinda stinky.  Sundays are our days to catch up so when we don’t get that chance I feel a little bit off kilter.

Dinner was pulled pork tacos!  I had a pork roast that I put in the crock pot with a few other things and let simmer for a few hours.  I shredded it and then put the pork back in the crock pot for about another 1/2 hour or so.

We had lots of fixin’s to go with the tacos.  I made salsa, there was also homemade guacamole, and sour cream (more 2% Fage).

Since it was so hot yesterday and it seemed like it was going to rain, I figured grilling was out.  That made it the perfect time to get something going in the crock and Scott has been asking for this meal for a while now.  On the side we had some very basic roasted cauliflower.  I kept that simple since the main star was the tacos!

No Holmes on Homes last night, it was one we already saw.  We watched a movie instead and I started crashing hard around 9:30.  Yikes!  I made quick work of dessert.

Vegan chocolate chip cookies which look shiny because I popped them in the microwave for a sec to get all warm and gooey.

Accompanied with some Pinot Grigio.  This winery makes a really decent merlot but I wasn’t very impressed with the Pinot Grigio.  It is drinkable for sure!  Just not the best I’ve had.  A little on the plain side, no real kick or depth to it.

After dessert I hit the hay for some serious rest!

I have a guest post up over at Brandi’s! I am missing my Holmes on Homes Sister!  I can’t wait till she gets back from her trip.

How was your weekend?  Are you anxious for fall to arrive too?

This post was part of my Homespun Sunday series.  If you’d like to join in, just let me know!

Hi gang!  Yesterday was all about relaxing and recharging.  Sleep was my main goal for the day.   I’m also pretty sure that I love sleep more than Ray Ray loves to pretend her meals are healthy.

Instead of a long run yesterday I picked extra sleep and a short run instead.  Even though I got a late start it was still so lovely outside.  Not too terribly hot or humid but enough heat to remind you that we are still in summer.  When I got home and out of the shower my Scotty-pants was up!  He’s not normally up that early but he said, “I didn’t get to spend enough time with you yesterday, so I want as much as possible today.”

Awwww don’t we love him?!

Even though Scott was up and I only did a small run, I still had my yogurt mix as I sat on the couch enriching my mind, watching Food TV.

• 2% Fage
• Homemade PB Granola
• Blueberries
• Shredded unsweetened coconut
• Chocolate Chips

I was more careful with the chocolate this time around and did not over do it!

After writing up my recap of the most awesomest Saturday, I headed into the kitchen to make Sunday Breakfast.  Experiment time!

I’ve seen Biz make several breakfast pizzas and decided to give it a try.

Aren’t they gorgeous?!  I topped a whole wheat pita with:

• Quickie guacamole
• Cheddar
• Chopped tomatoes
• Shredded Carrot
• One egg

I baked at 425 until the egg was cooked.  It took a little longer than I expected but it was so good and very filling!  I could not even finish the whole pizza!  I did add some sour cream (2% Fage) and hot sauce on top once I cut it into four sections.  I forgot to take a picture of that though!  Apparently I was too busy trying to get this into my bellah.

I’m not trying to give you multiple angle shots of the same meal, but at least from this angle you can see I had some OJ and fresh fruit with breakfast as well!

After breakfast and clean-up, brace yourselves, I took a nap.

Naps are not something I do unless I’m sick or it is post race because racing wears me right out no matter what distance I ran.  But yesterday, my sweet lovely bed was calling my name and I spent the rest of the day there.

No lie.

It also was fantastic.

I chatted with my mom for a bit and then pranced around the kitchen trying to decide what to make for dinner.  I was craving potatoes like mad and I also sort of wanted some fish.  I also wanted to keep things simple since I was still a bit on the pooped side.  I tossed around ideas to Scott and finally decided on a meal.

I really really really, wanted a loaded baked potato but unfortunately I didn’t have any baking potatoes.  Instead I made loaded mashed potatoes!

• 2% Fage (I guess it was a yogurt overload day for me)
• Cheddar
• Local Bacon
• Green onion

MMMMMM

Salmon quickly marinaded in some teriyaki sauce and baked at 400 for about 7 minutes.

There was still some salad leftover from Saturday’s get-together, so I added more veggies to that for a lovely side salad.  I bought some Bolthouse Farms yogurt ranch dressing for the shin-dig and had a wee bit of that with my salad.

We also had some wine fizzies on the side just for fun.  Unless I’m out to dinner or a guest at someone’s home, I do not like to drink wine with dinner.  I actually like to have it afterwards so I can take my time sipping and enjoying it.  With dinner, I feel like it is only washing down food and therefore I don’t get to enjoy it as much.  But sometimes we want a fun little drink with dinner and that is where wine fizzies come in!  It’s a very small splash of wine, not even 2oz, and then the rest of the glass is filled with seltzer.  Fun drink without feeling like I’m wasting wine by having it with food!

Everything was delish and I ate my fill!

After dinner and cleanup we hit the couch to watch an old movie.  I was hoping for a black and white movie, but we ended up picking Breakfast At Tiffany’s because we had it taped and thought it would be a fun romantic movie.  It was color but I got passed that.

During the movie I snacked on cupcakes for dessert!

They were leftover from Saturday and needed eaten up.  I scraped off the icing since I don’t really like icing and got to business eating some mini cupcakes.  I had chocolate and raspberry.  Very good!

Sadly the movie was not so good.  Holy crap this movie is just one big hot mess.  I have no idea how it is beloved by millions and considered a classic because it was literally crap from the opening scene.  UGH  I almost had to turn it off and just move on to something else because I couldn’t take Audrey Hepburn’s flighty spaced-out character at all.

I would tell you why I don’t like the movie but it would get into a big huge rant which I don’t feel like typing out.  :p  But I will tell you that it goes on my list of movies I HATE for sure.

After the movie?  Well more sleep of course!

How was your Sunday?

This post was part of Homespun Sunday.  You can be a part of the movement too!  Just let me know!

Hello pretties!  How is everyone’s Tuesday going? Sorry that I didn’t get my HSS post to you yesterday!  OHC is having another crazy busy week this week and we are filled to the brim with activities.  All in a good way but you know when you’ve got a bunch of stuff going on and sort of feel like there’s just not enough time in the day?  That’s me this week!

So let’s get talking about our Homespun Sunday!  My long run got kiboshed which was a bummer but I still came home and refueled with some yogurt and homemade granola.  There was no chocolate chips this time around because I was bumming too much about my run.  I also ate right out of the yogurt container to keep things Klassy.  If you can’t tell, that’s 2% Fage right there, my favorite Greek yogurt ever.

Seriously.

I have yet to find another that even comes close in comparison.

Rocks and I kicked it on the couch for a bit watching Food TV and just relaxing.  I have to admit that I really do enjoy Alex Guamaschelli’s show.  Now I do think that some of her foods can rival that of a certain Ms. Deen in terms of health but I love the way she talks and presents the food.  Cooking is a very intimate relationship.  You have to get to know what you’re making and learn it’s language.  You have to know when it says that it’s done, or that it doesn’t have enough liquid, or if it needs more seasoning.  Like any relationship these are things that you pick up from sticking around for the long haul and working together and being observant.  That is what cooking is, a relationship.  Nurture it and it will take care of you.  I completely get this from her show and understand where’s she’s coming from when she talks about emotions and memories and images.  All of that happens for me when I cook too!

Scott actually got up relatively early and we were able to get our day started a little bit sooner too which meant that Sunday Breakfast was to be had!

Fresh fruit!  Watermelon and black berries!  Mmmm black berries, by far my favorite of the summer berries!
French toast made with Ezekiel bread!  I mixed some egg whites and 2 eggs with coconut milk and dried unsweetened coconut.  Dipped in the bread and cooked that on the griddle till each side was crispy and golden.

We had some sausage on the side from a local place and sadly it wasn’t so good.  It sounded good being mixed with apples, onions, maple syrup and spices but the onions were way over powering and affected the taste in a bad way.  I was burping up onions for a very long time!  ICK!

The rest of the day was spent doing some yard work outside.  We weeded the front yard and then Scott put down some extra mulch and topsoil in places.  We have this ridiculous tree that just started growing up in one area and so we figured we would replant it someplace else.  Hey, free tree, I’ll take it!

It’s a strange tree in that it just recently did a super growth spurt and now it’s as tall as Scott!  :o  And it has two different kinds of leaves which is just really strange, right?  I mean trees shouldn’t really have two leaf patterns, should they?

I looked at it closer to get an idea of how to dig it up and replant it when I accidentally stumbled into a situation where I was not welcome.Whoops!  Sorry for killing your mojo guys!  Actually they were under the leaf when I found them and as I was taking a picture the lady of the ladybugs moved her AND her dude around to the top leaf.

I don’t care who you are, you have to be impressed with that kind of technique!  She must work out.

The top of the tree had weird little green eggs on it that some ants seemed particularly attracted to so I decided that maybe this “tree” was too strange to keep.  Perhaps we should just dig it and toss it?  I left it for the time being and moved on to other things.

I dug up a huge flower bed in the backyard and removed all the flowers that I couldn’t stand.  These are just ugly things and high maintenance.  I’m not looking for that!  Then I planted four trees in the backyard.  We have some little pines that I’m hoping will grow up and provide a bit of natural privacy from our neighbors on either side of us.

When that was all said and done, I was a hot dirty mess (not Ladybug hot and dirty, legit hot and dirty) and hungry.  I showered and got ready for some grill time!

Mmm mmm some grilled buffalo burgers with meat from a local farmer.  On a bun from a local bakery, and with local tomato slices from the farmer’s market!  Score!  And yes, I totally ate this on a bun! I was craving me some carby carbs and a nice burger.   The bun was a cheddar scallion bun and it was so good!

On the side was a nice chilled and crisp salad with:

• Mixed greens
• Tomatoes
• Carrot
• Red onion
• Pumpkin seeds
• Sunflower Seeds
• Walnuts

With a balsamic honey mustard dressing.

There were also some oven fries on the side for our “burger and fries” night.

No lie, Scott and I were flat out exhausted after our day of kicking it in the sun!  It was hot but thankfully not too humid.  We decided to watch a movie and relax so we watched Ong Bak 2.  Lord do not watch this movie, not even for the fight scenes. It’s horrible!  And the ending is terribly lame.

I had some wine and a wee bit of chocolate.  I wasn’t feeling a huge dessert so I had a few of these chocolate pieces from Whole Foods.  They are a mix of dark, milk, and white chocolate into little button or M&M size pieces.  So creamy and good!  Technically not fitting in with the HSS I know, but I can’t make my own chocolate! :p

How was your weekend?  What did you cook up this weekend?

This post was part of Homespun Sunday. Want to join in?  Just let me know!

Hi gang!  If you saw yesterday’s post then you know that we have been dealing with some major crazy hot here in Columbus last week.  Goodness!  Also last week was very crazy that pretty much resulted with Scott and I running around with our heads cut off we had so much to do.

I was looking forward to Sunday in a big way!  Not only would we be able to chill out and relax but I would get to do my long run!  I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.  The best ended up being 80degrees with close to 90% humidity at 6am.  Not pretty.  I still busted out my long run and came home to a  fab bowl of cool yogurt with granola and chocolate chips.

If you have ever wondered if there is a possibility of too much chocolate chips, the answer is yes.  At least for this girl! I put too much on yesterday and ended up tossing some.  Eeep!  Not many though, we don’t let good chocolate go to waste in this house.

Scott eventually got up and we chatted a bit before I heard his belly rumbling and realized that it was time for some Sunday Breakfast!  I decided to go big with this meal.

There was refreshing fruit to be had!  Nice cool watermelon and fresh peaches.  I admit that I peel peaches before eating them.  I also peel kiwis.  I don’t dig that fuzzy texture and kiwis gross me right out if they aren’t peeled.  Skeevy!

And a monster egg sandwich on a bagel!  I don’t know why it looks like chicken, but I assure you it’s an egg.  With lettuce, tomato, green pepper, and red onion on a slightly toasted bagel.  A few dabs of hot sauce to spike things up.  This sandwich was so big!  I didn’t think I would eat it all but I plowed through that badboy like it was nothing.  YUM!

Scott and I gamed the rest of the day and finally finished up Lego Star Wars.  Criminey I do not want to play that game again for a long long time!  It’s horrible.  Gimme Lego Batman any day over some cheesy lightsabers!

I will tell you right now that the sandwich didn’t last me long and I was hungry again and wanted to stuff my face.  Scott’s sandwich was even bigger than mine was, but he was hungry too so I got moving in the kitchen.

We had marinated Norwegian salmon that tasted like heaven.  Super easy marinade that I do a lot for salmon:

• 1/2 -1C Coconut milk (from a can, low fat or regular, either one)
• 1/2C Teriyaki (I like Very Very Teriyaki)
• Garlic Powder (Amount is up to you, I use about 2tsp)
• Chili Powder (Ditto, I use about 1tsp)
• Sea Salt (pinch)
• 3-4 Green onions cut into largish pieces
• Bunch of cilantro roughly chopped

Place fish in a plastic storage bag.  Combine ingredients and pour over fish.  Marinade for at least 1/2 an hour in the fridge.  I bake the fish at 425 for about 15 minutes.  Until the middle doesn’t look raw but isn’t overcooked.

Norwegian salmon is so flipping good!  It’s creamy and tasty and so delicious I can’t stand it.  We save it for when we feel like having a special dinner and treating ourselves.

Sides included “fried” green tomatoes and some cheesy polenta with some corn tossed in as well.  The tomatoes I actually baked in the oven and they turned out so yummy that I was very impressed!  I used up all my panko bread crumbs on them though so I need to get more STAT!

And there was also a baked sweet potato on the side because clearly I needed more food.  If you think that I didn’t eat this entire plate you would be correct.  :p  I ate everything but a small portion of the salmon.  Which means there are plenty of leftovers for tonight and it’s all I’ve been dreaming about today!  I cannot wait for supper time again!

We watched an old movie (To Kill a Mockingbird) and also some House Hunters last night.  Dessert was not something I made.  I was craving a huge bowl of ice cream so that is what I had.  Lovely SO Delicious Butter Pecan and Mocha Fudge.  It was a perfect end to the weekend!

This post was part of Homespun Sunday. Want to join in?  Just let me know!

How was your weekend?  Any super yummy treats?

Hi gang!  How was everyone’s Sunday?  Did you all have some lovely eats?

After my run and glorious shower, I had myself a lovely little bowl of yogurt with homemade granola, fresh blueberries, and some chocolate chips.  If someone tries to tell you that chocolate and blueberries don’t belong together, they are full of lies.  Because blueberries and chocolate go together like hippies and flip-flops.  It just works.

Scotty made it to bed crazy late Saturday night (read Sunday morning) so I knew he wouldn’t be up for a while.  I settled in for some Food TV (or Food Network, y’all know what I mean) and my laptop.

Do you all know about the new Cooking Channel? It launched over Labor Day weekend?  Well they promoted it like it was going to be a channel featuring more shows that focused solely on cooking.  Using up and coming foodies discussing techniques, recipes, travels, and experiences.  I sort of thought that maybe it would turn into something great.  Now I do like Food TV and I love me some Giada, Ina, and Guy (Yes I like Guy.  Shut it.) but I’m also ready for something more from cooking shows.  I also just want cooking shows.  Food TV has turned down the road of MTV and VH1 where the main concept is lost to reality shows, contests, and challenges.  Food TV has way too much of that now.  I honestly could care less who can build a cake to look like a spinning Cinderella complete with diamond encrusted tiara.  Gimme someone who can show me how to fillet a fish.

Ok I’m rambling!  Anyway, I was excited about this new Cooking Channel.  Except that it’s owned and operated by Food TV.  It started off showing these up and coming foodies but now it just shows older Food Network shows.  What the wha?!  Or at least that’s all I ever see, the Chefology stuff and then older Food Shows.

Have you all seen this or have access to the Cooking Channel?

Eventually Scott did get up for the day and after some lazing around on the couch chatting, I headed into the kitchen to make some Sunday Breakfast.

Fresh blackberries and cherries, both of which were on sale at Whole Foods.  The blackberries are HUGE and delicious.  I could have eaten the entire container!  The cherries were just alright.  Good but could have been better.   Our breakfast continued to be berrylicious!

Double Berry Buckwheat pancakes!  Basic buckwheat pancakes (vegan of course) with fresh blueberries and raspberries.

I dipped those bad boys into some maple syrup and there was chicken breakfast sausage on the side.  One of the pancakes I buttered first!  Buttering waffles and pancakes is something I never ever do.  Ever.  I never did it growing up and this is probably the second time in my life that I’ve done this.  I always found it unnecessary.  But yesterday?  I wanted that extra little indulgence and decadence.  I wanted the richness of that little smidge of butter and it was delicious!

After breakfast I prepped everything for dinner later and then we headed back to the couch!  Scott did some freelance work and I read my first Runner’s World magazine.  I got my first two issues in the mail last week and I finally had a moment to read one.  It was fantastic!  I love that it is full of helpful tips but also articles of real everyday runners sharing their own experiences with life.  Amazing! And why I didn’t pick this up before I do not know.  I currently also get Women’s Running but I don’t really care for it at all.  It’s new so it has some growing to do but for me it focuses too much on diet and weight loss or how to run while you have kids.  I’m not in either demographic so there’s no appeal for me.

I had plans of grilling for dinner until we got slammed with a serious thunderstorm.  Yikes!  Trees were blowing around like crazy!  I figured it best not to sent Scott out to grill in the rain.

Instead, I had to switch tactics and cook our turkey burgers inside with a skillet.  I didn’t feel like dragging out my grill pan.  This worked great and everything tasted excellent!

We had a kale and golden beet salad with great northern beans I cooked earlier that morning.  I love everything about kale and this salad fully delivered.  It was cold, tasty, and had a nice chew from the kale.

We had what I am calling Southwestern Turkey Burgers (recipe upcoming) made with local turkey from the farmer’s market and a baked potato on the side.  The burger was full of yummy surprises and topped with some pepperjack cheese.  Yes I eat my burgers bunless.  For the record I love bread! And I’m not a carb hater or a low-carber or any such other label.  Bread just happens to fill me up and if I can fill my tum with more veggies or whatever instead of bread, then I’m kicking the bread to the side.

Look how huge that potato is!!  I only had half that I topped with butter, cracked pepper, and my sour cream of choice, 2% Fage Greek Yogurt.  So good!  This meal was filling and completely satisfying!

The rest of the evening was spent watching some TV.  We watched Holmes (hooray!) and then we caught up on Deadliest Catch.  Do you watch that show?  Gosh that is some serious sad stuff right now.

Dessert was some Chocolate Peanut Butter Silk Pie along with some white wine that I do not have a picture of.  The pie was creamy and very rich!  Then I hightailed it off to bed for some much needed rest!

Tell me how your Sunday was!

This post was part of Homespun Sundays. Want to join in?  Just let me know!

Hi gang!  Sunday was our last day of our anniversary vacation and that meant that we needed to relax as much as possible.  I started the day off with my long run and had really great weather for it.  Once I was home and showered Scott was up by that point which was surprising because I usually have the mornings all to myself! :p  I made myself a little bowl of recovery fuel.

Small bowl of Greek yogurt with homemade granola and some dark chocolate chips on top.  Because I’ve been having fresh fruit with the yogurt the past several weeks the chocolate chips have been missing.  And boy have I missed them!  I love that little Sunday treat to myself and having chocolate for breakfast is full of awesome.  After breakfast I worked on my exercise recap post and Scott was pacing around the kitchen.  He started rinsing out my yogurt bowl and wondered if there was more breakfast to be had.  He thought that since I just had a bowl of yogurt that was my breakfast.  I then reminded him that I just ran basically my own 1/2 and that he’s not normally up at this time, so I always have a little something to tide me over.  Plus that wee bowl of yogurt isn’t nearly enough to feed me after that kind of run.  Gimme food! :p

After I finished up my post, I headed into the kitchen to get crackin’ on Sunday Breakfast.  Last Christmas, Scott bought me this amazing waffle maker.

It gets super hot and has removable grates that makes for easy clean-up.  They are also reversible making the waffle maker into a sandwich press or a small griddle.  The trouble is that I have yet to figure out the right batter proportions for the darn thing.  Either I get waffles that are small and odd shaped or I use too much batter which then leaks out the side.  Because of that, I’ve been sticking to making pancakes instead. I like them a lot and it goes quicker for me than the waffles.  Yesterday though I decided to suck it up and pull out the waffle maker.  I’ll never learn if I don’t practice, right?

I made a really simple waffle batter using spelt flour and soymilk.  Even though I still got oddly shaped waffles they turned out fabulous!

I had two and topped them with:

• Yogurt
• Pumpkin seeds
• Sunflower seeds
• Walnuts
• Fresh blueberries

We also had fresh watermelon with breakfast.   After breakfast, I prepped everything for dinner later in the evening.  Then we plopped down on the couch to see if we could finish Lego Star Wars since we are so so close!  No dice though.  We tried to kick it but we had to repeat a lot of things since we kept dying.  Have I mentioned my great dislike for this game?  Because it’s huge.  I’m at the point where I’m not even sure I could replay it.  It does a lot of dumb things AND there are way too many flying levels.  I’m not a huge fan of the flying.

Eventually it was time to get down to business with dinner!  We had some lovely ribeyes that we were saving just for this occasion!  I rubbed them down with an awesome smoky cocoa-chili rub and let them hang out all day long.  They hit the grill and smelled amazing!

I promise that the steak is not burnt or overcooked.  The cocoa powder really penetrates the meat and darkens it to a very deep brown color.  The rub I used on the steaks is very similar to the rub I used on these chicken thighs.  For the steaks I added in some smoked paprika, smoked sea salt, and a pinch of brown sugar.  Steaks are local beef purchased from North Market.

I had half a steak along with some grilled eggplant that I picked up at the farmer’s market.  The eggplant sat in a super simple marinade of:

• Olive oil
• Soy sauce
• Garlic powder
• Salt
• Curry Powder

So yummy!  Still more food to be had, there were side salads to complete the meal.

Red leaf lettuce and romaine topped with:

• Chopped tomato (from the farmer’s market!)
• Shredded carrot
• Cucumber
• Red onion
• Sunflower and pumpkin seeds

A quick and easy balsamic honey-mustard dressing on top.  I am in love with having these side salads with our meals!  I can prep them ahead of time and let them hang out in the fridge until we are ready to eat.  They are so cold by that point and such a nice refreshing treat during these hot summer days.  It definitely might be something I stick with this summer.

I realized that as I’ve been posting these meal recaps, that every week you are seeing a meat product of some type featured for dinner.  Clearly we are not vegetarians.  In fact we don’t subscribe to any one diet in general, we eat what works for us. We actually only eat meat once a week and that just happens to be on Sundays! :p  Throughout the week our meals are mostly vegetable based with at least one seafood meal in there somewhere.

Will you continue to keep seeing meat on my Homespun Sunday posts?  Most likely since for meal planning purposes that is technically our “meat day”.  I’m sure there will be a few times that pop up when we don’t have meat for one reason or another but for the most part you can expect that to be a typical thing seen for these posts.

We didn’t get a chance to watch Holmes on Homes last night because we just sat down to eat dinner at 8pm and forgot to tape it.  Doh!  Will definitely have to remember for this week though!

Last night’s wine was also a special one.

I won this bottle at last year’s Foodbuzz Festival.  Since we were celebrating a special occasion it was time to crack this bad boy open!  It was a lovely deep and velvety merlot with a nice little kick at the end just to make sure you were paying attention that this is indeed a red wine.

I forgot to take a picture of dessert! But it was some double chocolate-chip cookies I had previously made.  I pulled a few from the freezer and warmed them up, making them the perfect ender to a perfect week of vacation.

How was your Sunday?

Also for more Homespun Sunday fun, check out Clarice’s post!  She had homemade pizza last night!  Whooo!

This post was part of Homespun Sunday. Want to join?  Just let me know!

Hi gang!  Yesterday turned into a scorcher of a day!  All of the lovely cooler weather we were having last week is now gone and we are back to regular hot humid Ohio summer.  Yesterday was a totally fabulous day!  I got up early and did a run.  Nothing too long but just enough on my legs because I did yard work on Saturday and planned to do more yesterday as well.  I didn’t want to wear myself out too much!

Surprisingly after my run, I wasn’t too hungry at all.  I knew I needed a little something though so I opted for fruit, yogurt, and a little bit of granola.

Two nectarines which probably could have been a little more ripe, some yogurt, and some homemade granola sprinkled on top.  Yummy and enough to tide me over till breakfast!

Normally Scotty sleeps for a mega long time on Sunday but because I knew that I wanted to get some yard work done and spend time with him, he was going to have to put sleeping-in off till Monday.  I woke him up and we got started on our day.  Over coffee we planned out just how we wanted to approach things and had a sort of timeline in mind.

I got all the stuff for dinner prepped and ready to go.  We were having ribs and they needed to get happy with a marinade of sorts.

Sunday Breakfast was a quick and easy one!

An easy fritatta with broccoli and tomatoes then topped with a sprinkle of feta cheese, an asiago cheese bagel because sometimes you just need the white goodness, and fruit on the side which was watermelon.  Yum!  There’s also some sausage on my plate that I ended up not eating.

After breakfast and once the kitchen was cleaned up it was time to tackle the front yard.  I might have mentioned before that the previous owners loved landscaping.  Which is fine but what they picked is time consuming and not at all to my taste.  Over the years that I’ve lived here I have slowly been going through and removing most of it.  I haven’t replaced anything yet only because I want it all gone first and then I’ll decide what goes in.  Trust me when I say this does not in any way leave my house barren and totally exposed.  We have a crap load of pine bushes and trees planted around the house.  They are too big for me to move and too large to move without having a plan in place.  I don’t really care for them either but those will all get dealt with at another time.

In fact there are only three things I like that they planted, a magnolia tree in the front, a boxwood by the deck, and a regular tree in the back.  We also have a cherry tree in the back that if it wasn’t so big already would have been long gone.  Fruit trees = pain in the tukiss!

I wasn’t out there for too long, about three hours, and I didn’t even get to do everything that I wanted to do!  But a good bit got done and I’m happy with that for now.  It was crazy hot though!  I was sweating buckets.  We had water out there with us to keep us hydrated but whoa with the heat!

I came in, showered, and got the ribs in the oven.  I start them in the oven and finish them on the grill.  While they were cooking I realized that I was really hungry.  I munched on some watermelon as I waited for Scott to come back in.  When he did, he said he was hungry too.  Well we had some time on our hands because the ribs just hit the oven so I made something to tide us over till dinner was done.

Man but I love salads!  Thank goodness I can eat one everyday!   This was a super simple one:

• Mixed greens
• Cucumber
• Cranberries
• Sunflower seeds
• Pumpkin seeds
• White cheddar pieces (Cabot)
• Walnuts

Topped with balsamic, honey, and olive oil.  Yum!  So good and totally a great way to start an awesome dinner!

Scott and I had some white wine fizzies (splash wine + seltzer) while he prepped and got the grill ready.  I had every intention of taking pictures but lord it was hot.  I was sweating just sitting on the deck!  Therefore no pics because I was being lazy.

The ribs turned out pretty fantastic!

I rubbed them down with yellow mustard and some worcestershire, plus a combo of seasonings and let them sit all day long.  Then at a low temp I cooked them with a bit of chicken stock till they were just about done.  After that it was time for the grill!  Topped with homemade BBQ sauce, they got even better.

You all know I love pork and ribs have to be just about the greatest thing ever.  Mmmmm!

On the side was some grilled:

• Zucchini
• Green Pepper
• Onion

That sat in a teriyaki marinade for a bit.  I adore grilled green peppers and onions.  Like in a big way!  But interestingly enough I like them better with steak I think.

Yes that is a half rack of ribs.  No I did not eat that entire thing.  Have you seen me?  I cannot put away that much pork!  In all honesty, I probably had four ribs total.  These were some meaty ribs!

We had to eat dinner inside because it was just too hot outside.  I was bummed by that as I adore eating on the deck but such is life.  After cleanup I had to take another shower since helping with the grill caused me to sweat buckets again.  Goodness!

Once that was all said and done we sat on the couch and just watched some TV.  We remembered Holmes came on at 8pm (Brandi, did you see it?!) and watched that.  Then it was time for some comedy that we watched on Netflix streaming.  It was too late and I was too tired to get involved in a movie or something that needed my attention.  I really just wanted to veg out.

The wine for the evening was something we saved specifically for our anniversary.  We purchased this last summer during our trip to Inn at Cedar Falls.

It’s a red wine made by a local winery here in Ohio and it is amazing.  Very dark and deep and intense.  You know you’re drinking a red for sure when you sip this.  Then I started falling asleep and headed up to bed to crash out.

Yesterday was a great day!  How was your holiday?

This post was part of Homespun Sundays.  If you would like to join in, just let me know!

Yesterday was a whirl-wind of stuff.  Or so it seemed because when I went to sleep last night I told Scott it felt like I didn’t get to spend any time with him.  Which of course isn’t true, we did spend a lot of time together during the day but it really felt like we didn’t at all.  Ever have a day like that?  Time sort of flies by and at the end of the day you’re like, “Wait how is it 9pm already?!”

Yesterday was a hot stinking mess.  I was out for my run and only managed to crank out 8 miles before I had to head back home.  The humidity was so thick, you could see it hanging in the air.  I showered and had a bit of a morning snack while watching TV and figuring out how I was going to work the rest of the day.

Yogurt with fresh blueberries and plums along with some homemade granola on top.  I’m almost out of granola so I’m going to have to make another batch soon!  I’m going to start experimenting with it a bit and I hope it works out because I love granola and I would hate to waste ingredients on a failed recipe.

I watched some Food TV which is pretty typical for me on a Sunday morning as I browse the internet and let my bod relax from the week and my most recent long run.  I headed back out in the heat to take care of Rocky and get his walk done before the sun got too high in the sky.  We did a short walk though because it was still crazy humid outside and he was not having any of it.  When we got back home I started prepping things for Sunday Breakfast and Scott was also up.  Hooray!

Prep was easy this week because I was able to use leftovers from the freezer.  This is why I always make a ton of food friends so that I have things to pull out when I need it.   I highly recommended giving it a try! I realize that this might mean changing your habits but change is good! Embrace it!

We had glorious buckwheat pancakes.

Topped with yogurt and a drizzle of maple syrup along with granola and crushed nuts for crunch and texture.  So good!

And totally filling! Adding a bit of extra toppings to your pancakes will help fill you up and keep you full for longer.  You’ll also find yourself eating less.  Instead of a stack of three, you might only need two or even one and a half!  Pancakes, just like oats, can be topped with whatever floats your boat and what tastes good to you.  Experiment!

Along with the pancakes we had some cantaloupe.  The first cantaloupe of the summer!  It was so delicious!  I love cantaloupe very much.  While it’s not my fave summer fruit, it’s up there!  Growing up we would eat it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on occasion.  It might sound odd but it was totally delicious and refreshing.

After breakfast I did some prep work for dinner and then Scott and I actually had time to game again!

We’re still playing Lego Star Wars and it’s still frustrating me.  Each section has a red brick that you can collect.  They are hidden or sometimes you have to preform a certain task before it appears.  They aren’t easy to find (at least not in the SW game) and we had just found one!  Hooray!  I was on my way over to get it when the scene ended, there was some animation to further the story and we were dropped into the next section.

CURSE YOU Lego Star Wars!  It also reconfirmed my hate for playing a character with a light saber.  Guns are much faster.

Then it was time for dinner!  We were grilling and had to make haste because clouds started rolling in and it seemed like it might start raining soon.  Dinner was super easy and with early prep there was no cleanup needed afterwards.

Those are my kinds of meals!

Grilled cider brined pork chops along with zucchini and yellow squash.  The squash sat in a marinade of:

• Soy sauce
• Rice Vinegar
• Garlic Powder
• Kosher Salt
• Chili Garlic Sauce
• Olive Oil

It was spicy and perfect!  The chops were tender and totally fully of flavor.  They were thin so they grilled up in a matter of a few minutes.  Scott was nomming away like crazy.  And for some extra veggie power, we had salads.

• Mixed greens
• Tomato
• Carrot
• Cucumber
• Pumpkin and sunflower seeds
• Red onion

Topped with a homemade honey mustard dressing.  So easy to make that you can whip it up in a minute!

• Dijon mustard
• Red wine vinegar
• Honey
• Salt, pepper, garlic powder (just a touch)
• Olive oil

Mix and dress!  No exact measurements because depending on how much salad you have will determine how much dressing you need.

Thankfully it didn’t rain on us! But it was really buggy outside so we had to eat inside which was a bit of bummer because I love sitting on the deck enjoying a meal and the outdoors.  During dinner our conversation was all about Star Wars.  I was having Scott explain the story to me because I’ve never seen it.

True statement.

I’m not interested in Star Wars therefore I have never watched Star Wars.  But because all dorky related works can be compared to other dorky related works, a lot of my questions were like:

“Oh, so the Sith or Dark Side is like the Dark Magic in Harry Potter?”

“So is Queen Amidala like Aragorn in that she is a lot older than she looks? She’s old but doesn’t really age?” (I didn’t really get an answer to this!)

Also? Can I just say that speaking as someone who hasn’t even seen the movies, I’m totally not buying the Amidala and Anakin romance.  Sorry. Scott, who has seen the movies and understands the story also agrees that their romance is a little (a lot) unbelievable.  Especially given how much of a prick Anakin is (his words, not mine).

Once we were done eating and ready to sit on the couch to enjoy the rest of the evening and relax, it was 9pm.  Just in time for Holmes!

Or so I thought.

Seems that HGTV decided to change the time Holmes comes on and now shows it at 8pm instead of 9pm.  I don’t recall this getting mentioned anywhere.  The changed caused us to totally miss Holmes!  Grrrr!  We watched a documentary instead because that’s how we roll.  We also had dessert!

Vegan Coconut Sugar Cookies (OHC original)!  With some wine, mmmm.  White wine because it was still super dang hot!  After the documentary (on coal mining because we are such partiers), I crashed out in bed.

How was your weekend my pretties?

This post was part of Homespun Sundays.  If you would like to participate, just let me know! It’s easy!