Happy new week! We survived a snow storm that allowed for good napping and some nice cooking, along with some pretty good exercise. Get ready!
As I had hoped, Erin did make it home (yay!) on Friday. I had one of our favorite dinners waiting for her, scallops-n-pasta. Mine is a slight adaptation: I throw in a few handfuls of spinach to wilt at the very end. This is the recipe that taught me how to cook scallops. I use my big cast iron skillet. To get a nice sear, the scallops must be VERY VERY DRY. This means draining them, placing them on layers of paper towels, turning them over, then doing it again. Otherwise, you're just steaming them. And watch your timing - they cook quickly. No one wants rubber scallops. (Note: I always turn on my range hood fan and also light some candles. No matter how hard I try, after cooking scallops, our house smells like it needs a feminine hygiene product! You can avoid this by using shrimp.)
Saturday during a lull in the snowfall
Today
I'll tell you what wasn't beautiful: how Erin and I looked after shoveling! Our driveway guy came, but then we got a few more inches of snow, and we still had to do the sidewalks. No problem, right. Should've known better. The two of us were out there for about an hour. (Hardy peasant stock.) Oh, and I had shoveled the sidewalk once already after about seven inches had fallen. This snow was so WET and so HEAVY - we basically picked up one shovelful, walked it to the edge of the driveway, dumped it, and came back for more. I could almost see the snow forming little snowmen each time I scooped. But talk about torching calories! (Since we went out about 4:00, I was soon STARVING. I had to stop and find my quick energy snacks from cycling - it was either GU or a Honey Stinger Waffle. I opted for the waffle.)
Dinner was a new recipe that I saw and wanted to try: Grilled Balsamic Chicken with Mozzarella and Pesto. Chicken, balsamic vinegar and reduction, fresh mozzarella, and pesto. What's not to love? It was pretty delicious. I kind of wanted to lick my plate. And I served it with my favorite veggies, roasted Brussels sprouts. (I hate my grill pan a little bit, and the outside grill was under a foot of snow, so I just used my faithful cast iron skillet. Grilling might work better, though, since the balsamic vinegar caramelized a bit.)
And since yesterday was Super Bowl Sunday, we needed to have something Super Bowl party related, and the two things I could think of were pizza and wings. Neither of which I was going to eat, but I did find a recipe for Buffalo Chicken Chili. You should go out and buy the ingredients right now. It's that good.
This makes A TON. The recipe says it serves four, with each serving being 2 1/4 cups. I dished out one cup for each of us and it was PLENTY. Recipe notes: I used 1/2 cup of the buffalo sauce - the recipe called for 1/4-1/2 cup, but I know we love the flavor. The whipped blue cheese topping was a wonderful addition: just mash together equal parts blue cheese crumbles and plain nonfat Greek yogurt. We sent some home with Erin who was looking forward to it for lunch today. I'm looking forward to it for dinner tonight!
Just to get caught up, see if you can guess what I had for breakfast. That's right: pb bagel thin, skim milk, and I thought I'd change it up and have a banana instead of berries.
I did my C25K workout today (week 1 day 2), and today's Fab Abs February workout. Still not too difficult. The hardest part of that workout is trying to see the stopwatch while in plank position while one of the cats is doing figure-eights between my (shaking) arms!
Oh - and lunch:
I am all about sweet, salty, and sour lately, and this fits the bill: mixed greens, pepitas, cannellini beans, and craisins. And my new favorite dressing: Brianna's Champagne Caper Vinaigrette. SO SO GOOD.
And that's it! Have a great day! I'm excited for tomorrow - we're opening a big exhibition at the museum this week, and tomorrow is the staff walk-through. I can't wait to see all the treasures!
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