Sweet Treats Archives - Page 8 of 12 -

Hearty Lentils with Spinach

Post author:Melanie
Post published:November 11, 2012
Post category:Breakfast / Dinners / Fav Products / Home Life / Moose / Recipes / Restaurants / Sweet Treats / Workouts
Post comments:0 Comments

Hello there! Happy Sunday my friends. What’s everyone have on the agenda? Resting and relaxing or running errands and prepping for the week ahead? Whatever it may be I hope it’s a good one so far!

I still have yet to recap the second part of our Colombia vacation but I was really itching to write a “normal” post plus I have a recipe I want to share with you all, so the second recap will have to wait a little while longer. Here’s the Miami recap, and Colombia Part I recap if you’re interested.

I have a little bit of catching up to do from Friday first so we’re going to be starting off there right at lunch time. To celebrate my birthday (a week early) my co-workers and I went out to Houlihan’s for lunch. I received a free $15 coupon for my birthday to the restaurant so that’s why we decided to go there.

I ordered the french onion soup and a caesar salad with grilled chicken and polenta croutons. I was very happy with both of my selections.

Tasty!

Moving on to dinner…

This is your forewarning that the meal you are about to see is one of the most unappetizing dishes ever to appear on BN. However, I promise you that although unappealing to the eyes, it is very appealing to the palate.

Hearty Lentils with Spinach.

After I plated the lentils over the spinach, I stirred the warm lentils into the spinach and decided that I liked it that way better.

Oh yes I am falling in love with lentils. First the Curry Stew and now this.

Hearty Lentils with Spinach

Ingredients

1 small onion, diced
1 cup carrots, chopped
1½ cups lentils
¾ tsp. garlic powder
½ tsp. ginger powder
¾ tsp. cumin
½ tsp. curry
¼ tsp. paprika
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
3 cups reduced sodium chicken broth*
3 cups spinach
*Use vegetable broth if cooking vegetarian

Instructions

In a medium saucepan, saute onions and carrots on stovetop for 3 minutes.
Add in spices and stir.
Add in chicken broth, stir, reduce heat to simmer, cover and let simmer for 2 hours; stirring occasionally.
Before serving, add spinach and stir in until it wilts into lentils.
Serve hot.

It’s such a hearty and healthy dish that I truly enjoyed (and Dana did too).

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Saturday

I enjoyed two cups of Dunkin Donut’s Pumpkin Spice coffee with hazelnut creamer to kickstart my morning.

Have you tried this stuff?! If you haven’t please go buy some. You won’t regret it. NUM.

Next was breakfast. I topped one banana half with Parkers Farm creamy peanut butter and the other half with Peanut Butter & Co’s Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter. Yes it is a dream how good that stuff is. A dangerous dream. Thanks to Peanut Butter & Co. for sending me some coupons for their heavenly product.

I gave breakfast time to settle while watching two episodes of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, Dominican Republic and Maine. Both episodes were great. His humor cracks me up.

Then it was time to lace up and head out the door and face the dreary morning with a run. Moose surely didn’t care that it was drizzly and dreary, he was so ready to go. We trekked through the neighborhood and covered about 4 miles.

The rest of the day was spent cleaning up the house, “helping” Dana dig out the window well to prepare for egress windows so that we can finish our basement at some point, putting the patio furniture away for the season, hanging out with Moose, and baking up a treat for the worker crew.

Recipe to come soon!

I hope you’re having an excellent weekend. Catch up with you all later!

Peanut Butter Banana Cookies SCD

Post author:Melanie
Post published:October 2, 2012
Post category:Breakfast / Dinners / Lunch / Recipes / Snacks / Sweet Treats
Post comments:3 Comments

Well hello there and Happy Wednesday!

I am slowly but surely getting caught up on posting some meals from the past couple of days. Come tomorrow I think I will be caught up.

So, back-tracking to Monday. The morning after our anniversary celebration we woke up early and pondered over the breakfast menu for a bit. Nothing was really calling out to me that fit into the SCD so we decided to head home instead. Plus, we would save some money by eating at home.

What I really wanted was a piece of pumpkin bread (SCD) with Parkers Farm Natural peanut butter and the slightest drizzle of honey. In case you were wondering, I have eaten this breakfast every day for the past um, two weeks or so? I am lovin’ it.

Lunch

Lunch was leftover Rudy’s green beans from dinner the night before. I am head over heels for these green beans. They come with some sort of light teriyaki sauce with sesame seeds and the beans are crunchy, not mushy. They are just perfect. I could seriously go there and just order the green beans and be a happy girl.

I also ate what very well might have been, my one an only Honeycrisp apple of the season. They are SO delicious but they are so darn expensive! I had to have at least one this fall so I picked one up at the store. I also enjoyed a couple slices of muenster cheese and another piece of wedding cake.

I hit up the gym in the afternoon complete with a 40-minute elliptical workout followed by biceps, triceps, and some core work.

Dinner

Baked butternut squash fries coated in a small amount of coconut oil and a lean bison burger with pickles, cheese, tomato, and mustard served on a butter lettuce bun.

NUM.

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Get My Yoga On

To any of my readers who were following me back in June, you may remember I took on the June Yoga Challenge hosted by the beautiful Courtney of Sweet Tooth Sweet Life. In June, I challenged myself to complete 3 yoga sessions each week. It didn’t matter if they were hour-long sessions, 10-minute sessions, super intense, lower intensity….just as long as I did 3 sessions. On Fridays we would report in on Courtney’s blog to help hold us accountable and to encourage each other along the way.

Well, since completing that challenge I am embarrassed to say I don’t think I have participated in one yoga session since. It’s terrible! I felt SO good during that challenge why on earth would I not continue it like I said I was going to? I just don’t know the answer to that.

Anyway, it just so happens that Courtney is hosting the challenge again this month and you better believe I’m joining in again. I find I follow through so much better when I am actually held accountable with these monthly challenges. (See September Push-up Challenge)

This time around I am lowering the bar just a little bit. Considering I have been trying to incorporate more running into my routine, and still want to have time for that, I will be setting a goal of one yoga session per week. If I find that this challenge is WAY too easy, I may increase the goal to two a week. We shall see.

The most difficult part of this challenge will be finding the “right” time and most enjoyable time for me to get my yoga on. I prefer the morning however I have a really hard time getting up earlier than I have to for work especially now that it’s chilly in the morning and dark. I may just have to though. If only I could remember the endorphin rush I get after a workout, when that alarm clock goes off in the morning. I’ll work on that.

You can get in on the fun too, check out the complete challenge at: Sweettoothsweetlife.com

****************

Peanut Butter Banana Cookies SCD

This cookie recipe was mentioned to you last week and I’m glad I’m finally getting around to sharing it with you. These peanut butter banana cookies are 100% SCD legal. They are subtly sweet and the perfect dessert or snack. SCD or not, you can still enjoy this cookie.

If I wasn’t following the SCD, I absolutely would have thrown some chocolate chips in the mix. Peanut butter, banana, annnnd chocolate chips? You had me at peanut butter. Soon my friends, soon. This time you’ll just have to settle for the glorious in itself pb and banana combo.

Peanut Butter Banana Cookies SCD

Recipe type: SCD Snack, Dessert

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 20 mins

Total time: 30 mins

Ingredients

1¼ cup almond flour
½ tsp. baking soda
pinch of salt
1 over-ripe banana
½ cup natural creamy peanut butter
1 egg white
1 tsp. vanilla
2 Tbsp. honey

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In medium bowl, use hand mixer or stand mixer to combine banana, peanut butter, egg white, vanilla, and honey.
Add dry ingredients; stir to combine.
Use spoon to drop cookies onto non-stick baking mat or cookie pan coated with non-stick spray.
Bake for 20 minutes.

Enjoy!

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One last thing, today is the last day to enter into my LARABAR giveaway. Don’t miss out on a chance to win! You have until 9 pm Central Time to enter into the giveaway. The winner will be announced tomorrow, Thursday October 4th. Good luck!

Relive the Memories

Post author:Melanie
Post published:October 2, 2012
Post category:Dinners / Giveaway / Home Life / Sweet Treats / Wedding
Post comments:0 Comments

Wow, we had the most amazing one year anniversary. Thank you for all of the anniversary wishes! We celebrated mostly on Sunday. Here is a run-down of the glorious day.

Morning Massage & Coffee

We headed to Spalon Montage for our 9:00 am couple massage. We were given huge plush robes to wear and then were escorted to our room where two separate massage tables were set up. We each enjoyed a 55 minute full body massage. It was heavenly!

Afterwards we made a stop at Einstein Bros for a morning cup of coffee. They had a vanilla hazelnut blend which was oh so good.

Lunch

We made our way home to eat a quick lunch, pack, and bring Moose over to Dana’s parents place for a sleepover. I made myself a mixed green salad with bacon, tomatoes, Muenster cheese, salsa and a runny egg on top.

Dana’s parents gave us a marital bliss chocolate bar which I had to share with you all. Too funny and too perfect. That sounds about right, huh? Winking smile

Hike at Ritter Farm Park

Once Moose was all settled in, Dana and I headed over to Ritter Farm Park which is the park we went to after our wedding ceremony to take pictures.

Of course I asked Dana to play along with my girlish self and reenact some of our wedding photos. The things he does for me I tell ya. BTW this is when the camera battery died. Thank goodness for the iPhone.

We went for a walk through the park and I remembered it was the last day of the September push-up challenge. I dropped down and did my final 10 push-ups for the month right there in the dirt. Even though the month’s challenge is technically over, I don’t plan on stopping the push-ups. I do plan to continue and progress, I just may not do them everyday. I have a new challenge this month that I will tell you about tomorrow.

Drop it like it’s hot.

The Holiday Inn

After we were sweaty and smudged with dirt, we made our way to The Holiday Inn which is where our wedding reception was held one year ago. (“Whatchu doin’ ? Nothin, chillin’ at the Holiday Innnn…”).

Upon entering our room we were greeted with this sweet sight: a bottle of champagne, chocolates and a note from the staff including the woman who helped us plan the details of our reception. I thought that was VERY nice of them.

We decided to pop the cork, pour ourselves a plastic cup of champagne, and head down to the hot tub (no glass in the pool area of course).

When we first sat down in the hot tub the atmosphere was quiet and relaxing. That lasted all of about 6 minutes because the gates from a birthday party were opened and little ones flooded the pool and hot tub. It’s a good thing we both like kids; we thought it was hilarious. I can’t handle hot tubs very long anyway so it was a short lived visit.

We continued with the relaxed theme the rest of the evening. We poured ourselves a glass of wine from a bottle that a friend of ours had given us we think as an engagement present; either that or it was a wedding gift. We used our chalices from the wedding.

Next, off to dinner at Rudy’s Redeye Grill. They catered our wedding and did a fabulous job.

Excuse the poor lighting, but I started off with a side salad with balsamic dressing (croutons removed and not eaten).

For my main course I had the almond crusted walleye and their infamous green beans (photo on the left) which is the same meal I had at our wedding minus the mashed potatoes (photo on the right). I enjoyed my meal a little bit more this time around…a little less commotion and we didn’t have to get up and kiss every 4 minutes like we did during our meal at our wedding reception. Smile

With a little help from Dana, we polished that walleye off in no time. I probably could have polished off the beans too but decided not too feel miserable and saved them for my lunch the next day.

Next onto cutting the cake top that we saved from the top tier of our wedding cake. We wrapped it in saran wrap and aluminum foil a million times and freezer Ziploc bagged it twice. We stored it in the freezer for a year.

On Saturday we took it out of the freezer, unwrapped it, rewrapped it in loose parchment paper and saran wrap, and let it defrost in the fridge. An hour or so before we were ready to cut into it, we removed it from the fridge and let it sit out on the counter. It was perfect by the time we cut into it Sunday evening.

It tasted JUST AS GOOD as it did on our wedding night if not better. I have to shout out to the wonderful Ms. Arna Farmer of Arna Farmer Catering & Cakes for doing such an incredible job on our cake. Out of three cake places we taste-tested, hers was by far the most delicious and to top it off, hers was the most affordable of them all. I recommend her to anybody. Amazing.

We had so much fun reliving all of the beautiful memories of our wedding day. I can’t believe it’s been a whole year already. I love reliving the memories, yet living life in the present, and am thrilled to see what our future holds. Thank you again to all of you who helped make our day so special. Love you all.

********************

Back to the grind now….I still need to share a peanut butter banana cookie recipe with you all! I’m hoping tomorrow I will share that with you.

Oh, and in case you missed it, I’m hosting a LARABAR giveaway. Check it out here.

Have a great day friends! Catch up with you real soon.

Apple Butter Low and Slow

Post author:Melanie
Post published:September 29, 2012
Post category:Misc. / Recipes / Snacks / Sweet Treats
Post comments:4 Comments

Yay for Saturday! I hope you are all enjoying your weekend so far.

How about I preface this post by saying it was nearly impossible for me to take any appetizing photos of what you are about to see. I just couldn’t. With that being said, I want to share with you how I made my first every batch of homemade apple butter in the crock pot, with the help of one of my wonderful reader’s suggestions and Google for extra guidance.

Crock Pot Apple Butter

1. Peel, core and dice apples. Place into large crockpot. Sprinkle heavily with cinnamon and a drizzle of honey if you wish . *Next time I will probably add in some nutmeg or cloves.

2. Cover the pot and set on low. Let it go for 24 hours, stirring occasionally when you around the house.

3. Add 1 cup of water, stir and cover. Repeat this process 2 more times for a total of 72 hours or 3 days.

4. By the end of day 3, the apple butter will take on a deep brown color which frankly, looks very unappetizing. At this point, you could leave your apple butter a little lumpy like in the photos below…

Of you can blend until smooth. I chose the latter. I used an immersion blender right in the crockpot to work it until smooth.

If you make a small batch of apple butter and plan to use it within two weeks or so, you can ladle it into an air-tight container and store in your refrigerator. If you make a humongous batch like I did, you might need to do some canning.

The Canning Process

This was my first time canning and it really wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. I thank Google again for getting me through this process…

1. Wash canning materials in hot soapy water. Place glass containers in hot boiling water for 5 minutes to sterilize, making sure they are fully dispersed with about 2 inches of water on top and that the jars do not touch. Place lids in a separate pot of hot water but not boiling.

Fill jars with apple butter leaving about 1/2 inch space on top. Cover with lids and screw on top.

Place back into boiling water for 10 minutes, again making sure that water covers the tops of the jars by about 2 inches and that the jars do not touch.

Remove from water carefully and let cool on cooling rack. You will hear a popping noise from the lids once they start to cool which means they are sealed tight!

Store in your pantry and enjoy all winter long! Refrigerate after opening.

Some recipes for apple butter call for pectin and added sugar, but since I am following the SCD, I chose not to include those ingredients. The result is a very subtle apple butter with the perfect amount of sweetness, perfect for topping toast, muffins, crackers, or right off of a spoon. The great thing about this 3-day crock pot process is that your house smells amazing the whole time. Can’t beat that cinnamon apple smell! So fall, so comforting.

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I’m off for a run and a few other errands before some crazy fun festivities happen this weekend including celebrating me and my honey’s ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY! The actual date is October 1st but since that is a Monday we are celebrating this weekend. I look forward to filling you in later.

Hope you all have a super Saturday. Catch up with you soon!

The Easiest Cinnamon Applesauce

Post author:Melanie
Post published:September 18, 2012
Post category:Breakfast / Home Life / Recipes / Snacks / Sweet Treats
Post comments:7 Comments

This morning the thermometer says 38° F. The fall weather is officially here which gives me such a cozy feeling and has me grabbing for my sweatshirts. When I think of Fall I think colorful leaves falling, pumpkins, sweaters, football, chili, cinnamon, cool long walks, and fresh delicious apples. On Sunday I dove into Fall mode.

I pulled out a bag of apples and got to working on some homemade applesauce. I used the Jazz variety because they happened to be on sale but you can use whatever apple you prefer really. I began by peeling 6 medium apples, cored them and sliced them.

Apple peels remind me of childhood because when my mom would make apple crisp or baked apple slices, I would stand by her side and watch as she peeled the apples, and she would let me eat the peel. I loved the crispy treat.The simple pleasures.

I threw the apples into a large crock pot, sprinkled them with a large dose of cinnamon and a healthy drizzle of honey. If you don’t LOVE cinnamon you can go for a more conservative amount, but I really do love it. I’ve been using it like crazy lately. Good thing we bought a ginormous container of it at Costco.

Cover that bad boy and set it on high for 4-5 hours. Stir occasionally.

And here’s what you get!

I chose to keep mine chunky style but if you wish you could scoop this into a food processor and smooth it out. Chunky style doesn’t make for the prettiest photo ever but I promise you once you taste it, it won’t matter.

It tastes wonderful just as is, but I’ve also discovered that it tastes awesome on top of a piece of zucchini bread. It’s kind of like apple butter but chunky style.

I actually didn’t measure the ingredients (whoopsie) but I will do my best to give you the approximate amounts. Feel free to experiment with it on your own too!

Easiest Cinnamon Applesauce Crock Pot Style (recipe adapted from SkinnyTaste)

Ingredients

6 medium apples
~1 Tbsp. cinnamon
~2 Tbsp. honey
1 lemon wedge

Directions

Peel, core, and slice apples.
Place apples in crock pot, sprinkle with cinnamon and honey.
Squeeze the lemon wedge into the pot before adding it to pot.
Cover with lid and set on high for 4-5 hours, stirring occasionally.

It’s as easy as that. Yes, really. And it’s SCD-friendly. Go make your home smell like Fall. I am out to take on the day. I hope you all have a great Tuesday.

Birthdays, 5k, State Fair

Post author:Melanie
Post published:August 27, 2012
Post category:Dinners / Family / Friends / Moose / Sweet Treats / Workouts
Post comments:9 Comments

Yes, it was a jam-packed full of fun weekend.

It began Saturday morning. Dana and I hit the gym together (the what?!) and we worked through a back and bicep strength training routine. I left feeling very disappointed because I have noticed how weak I have become lately due to the U.C. and the limited energy I have had.

“But you gotta keep your head up….” and then laugh a little. I was pretty mopey after the gym but Dana cheered me up with this:

My mood improved after that. I know I need to get through this, and will get through this, and I will slowly begin to rebuild my strength. After my little moment, I cheered up thinking about the fun day ahead.

Dana and I headed to my grandpa’s house to visit with him, my mom and dad, and many of other family members who were in from out of town. We were only able to stay for a short while, but I absolutely loved seeing each and every one of them. I miss them all so much.

While we were there I felt the need to explain to them why we were looking all gnarly that day in our 80’s outfits. We were heading to an 80’s themed birthday party…

For our dear friend, Stacy.

The day was full of lots of laughs, big hair, neon, Glen Gulia, creepers (Nate and Nate) and great “rad” friends. We had a blast celebrating Stacy’s big day with her. Today is her ACTUAL birthday so…

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STACY!!! Love ya!

****************

Sunday

On Saturday morning Dana and I participated in our 3rd annual Minnesota State Fair Milk run. It is a 5k race which takes place just outside of the state fair grounds and starts at 7:45 am.

The weather was perfect. It was overcast, cool, and humid so I felt like my legs warmed up really fast but the cool temperature kept me cool. Duh?

Anyway, it felt like a great run. I am really curious to see our times which haven’t been posted yet. I felt like we were running at a pretty good pace but I’ve been wrong before so we’ll see.

After the race we headed to the great Minnesota get-together, aka The Minnesota State Fair. Those of you who aren’t from MN, the state fair is a BIG deal around here. I frankly don’t think it deserves all of the hype, but I do enjoy going every year.

It’s mostly a food fest, but there are other activities such as carnival rides, farm animals, sky rides, an agriculture building, a health building, etc. I do enjoy checking out a lot of those things, but I can’t handle crowds very well, so the visits are usually short lived.

Dana’s one item that he gets every year is the Pronto-Pup, or a corn dog if you will. I pass on the wiener on a stick.

Since I know we never stay long at the fair, and I have a limited stomach capacity, I try to choose my foods wisely. My first choice was falafel on a stick which I shared with hubs.

Next, was our free malts that we got from the Milk Run.

Mashed potatoes on a stick. These were actually very good. I was craving salty and this was definitely that. It was mashed potatoes, cheese, and bacon, all deep fried. Again, “says the dietitian.” We split these as well.

The last item we wanted to try was the bacon ice cream. The ice cream had a maple flavor and the bacon added a touch of salty bite to the combo. Meh, it was okay. We both agreed we wouldn’t get it again, but were glad we tried it.

Food fest 2012. I’m not proud of what I ate, but it only happens once a year so I know I shouldn’t feel too bad about it.

Sunday afternoon led us to celebrate yet another birthday, this one for my amazing brother Kevin. His birthday was last week but it worked out best to celebrate last night.

We had a very relaxing evening outside where we chatted, gave Kevi his birthday presents…

Ate delicious turkey sliders with chili cheese dip courtesy a la madre…

And birthday cake courtesy a la Melanie.

Kevin loves chocolate and peanut butter just as much as I do, so I decided to make him a chocolate peanut butter cake (inspired by Courtney).

I cheated and used a boxed gluten-free devil’s food cake mix. I baked two round cakes, and made a homemade peanut butter frosting to glue the layers together (don’t think I didn’t taste test the frosting as I was making the cake). It was peanut butter, powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla all whipped together.

I then topped the cake with store-bought sugar-free chocolate frosting and finished it off with chopped Reese’s peanut butter cups.

I completely forgot to snap a photo of the inside of the cake! It was beautiful too. Oh well. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed it. I can’t believe I was able to scarf down a piece of cake after all of the sugar I had already consumed that day. Blah. Dana and I both left feeling Thanksgiving stuffed, but it was well worth it. I loved celebrating with you Kevi! Love you all so much.

What an amazing weekend. Now, it’s time to detoxify my body from all of this extra sugar it’s not used to, and try to give it the rest it needs.

Have a great day everyone.

Decisions, Decisions: HLS Day 3

Post author:Melanie
Post published:August 22, 2012
Post category:Blog / Breakfast / Friends / Sweet Treats / Vacations / Workouts
Post comments:5 Comments

It’s time for the final recap of The Healthy Living Summit. Presenting you with day 3 (Sunday)…More photos, less talky.

HLS 5k

(photo courtesy of Courtney)

Healthy Breakfast and Good-Bye’s

(photo courtesy of Jamie)

Harvard Square

Both Shannon and I had later flights on Sunday, so we took advantage of our extra time by walking to Harvard and admiring their beautiful campus and the surrounding area.

It looks a little different from good old Minnesota State University, Mankato! It is a breathtaking campus.

We oogled the fresh goods at a local farmer’s market and bought flavored nuts from Q’s Nuts, a local company, and I bought a sweet apple for the airport.

A cupcake truck to tempt us on our walk home…we denied it after much contemplation.

Back at the hotel, we had 45 minutes to shower, pack, and be down in the lobby to catch a cab back to the airport. In case you’re wondering, yes I did have to sit on my suitcase in order to close it, thanks to all of the great swag! My bag weighed in at 48.5 lbs on the way home.

At the airport I polished off a small sample of Q’s nuts, my large farmer’s market apple, and then decided I needed some greenery, so wandered around until I found myself a nice little side salad. My first flight was from Boston to Chicago.

A layover in Chicago (for 3.5 hours) led me to buy more food. Another salad…

Hmm….what else do I want? So many temptations surrounding me.

After about 45 minutes I decided that a bowl of vanilla Fro Yo was just what I wanted. Those apples look pretty tasty though don’t they? I walk by them every time I am at the Chicago airport and drool by the window.

Fro Yo two days in a row. That needs to stop now. Have you noticed I am quite the indecisive person? It’s not something I’m proud of. Smile with tongue out

Next flight, Chicago to Minneapolis. I munched on a box of Wild Harvest Organic Raisins from the conference and then tried to sleep (with no such luck). I arrived in Minneapolis around 12:30, and crawled into bed around 1 am. It was a LOOONNGG day of traveling and I was so happy to be home.

The main message I took from the conference is, be true to you and remember why you started your blog. I started B.N. to share my love for food and fitness in hope to inspire others (and motivate myself) to live a healthy lifestyle. What you read on my blog is all me. I write how I talk, and am real with you every day. Not every day is a great day, but I do try and find the positives in every situation and keep my blog uplifting and light. I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.

To the great friends I met over the weekend: you are all such incredible, inspirational people. I learned something from each and every one of you. I look forward to staying in touch over the years and hopefully meeting up with you all again!

I am so glad I made the decision to attend HLS12. I attained so much valuable information and am now finally starting to digest and process it all. I am in the process of putting some of what I learned to work! Expect great changes to Beautifully Nutty in the future.

I will be back to normal posts again. The recipes are piling up and I have some major catching up to do. I hope you’re excited!

Happy Hump Day!

Aw Shucks

Post author:Melanie
Post published:August 13, 2012
Post category:Breakfast / Dinners / Sweet Treats
Post comments:0 Comments

Well hi there. Did everyone have a wonderful weekend? I surely did. It was fairly low key which was just what I needed.

In case you missed it, here are the weekend’s posts which include two zucchini recipes!

Friday: Date at Pittsburgh Blue

Saturday: Garlic Parmesan Zucchini Pasta

Sunday: Vegetarian Mexican Lasagna

As you’ve probably noticed, I usually recap the previous day’s endeavors in my posts rather than on the day of. With that being said, I will now be recapping Sunday for you. Here we go!

Breakfast

It was time to experiment with an old favorite, the Greek yogurt fruit bowl. A breakfast that I seriously ate day after day for a good month or two before moving on to my next obsession which I believe was the overnight chia seed bowl.

In this beautiful bowl: raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, Fage 0% Greek yogurt drizzled with honey. YESsssA!

The good news, is that this sat perfectly well in my belly.

After breakfast we did our usual Sunday gig with coupons and grocery stores. When we got home at 11:00, I was ready for lunch. I made myself a strawberry salad with avocado, black beans, feta cheese, and honey mustard dressing.

I loved every bit of it as usual.

As I was making my lunch, Dana was busy experimenting with a SCD tortilla so that he could make himself a burrito. I found a recipe a while ago and have wanted to try it but haven’t gotten around to it. He got to work on making the SCD tortilla which was actually pretty easy. It took a total of about 17 minutes.

The recipe was:

1/3 cup almond flour
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon cumin
3 Tablespoons water

Basically you just mix all the ingredients together and bake in a well-greased pan for 15 minutes at 300°.

Here was his burrito. Not too shabby!

In the afternoon we cleaned the house, I did some food prep, and we ran a handful or errands in record time. Then we headed to my in-laws to visit with them for a bit.

Dinner

By the time we got home it was nearly time for dinner, so once again I found myself in the kitchen (I really do enjoy food prep btw so this isn’t a big deal usually; only when I feel like I’m LIVING in the kitchen is when I get bothered by it).

On the menu was a very simple meal of grilled corn on the cob and bison burgers. When we went to the Farmer’s Market a couple of weeks ago we bought a pound of farm fresh ground bison and have had it in the freezer since then. It was time to give it a taste.

I got to shucking the corn. Is that not the best word? Shucking.

We seasoned the bison burgers simply with Worcestershire sauce, onion powder, salt and pepper.

Dinner was so easy and so delicious. This was my first corn on the cob this summer because it was not allowed on the SCD, but since I have modified the diet, I am allowing myself to enjoy it, and that I did.

Something happened after dinner…two Dairy Queen blizzards just showed up at our house and it just so happens that we both LOVE DQ. I wasn’t going to let this summery treat go to waste. 😉 I loved every bite of this double fudge cookie dough blizzard.

I will be cooling it again on the ice cream front, hopefully. It is just so refreshing and lovable in the summer I can’t help myself!

Did everyone watch the Olympic’s closing ceremony last night? I turned into my 12 year old self as soon as Spice Girls hit the stage. Spice up your life! Loved it.

Now we all know it’s Monday, and in lieu of Monday, I have another terrible joke for you courtesy of this site.

Q: Why did the cowboy adopt a wiener dog?

A: He wanted to get a long little doggy.

Garlic Parmesan Zucchini Pasta

Post author:Melanie
Post published:August 11, 2012
Post category:Dinners / Recipes / Sweet Treats / Workouts
Post comments:2 Comments

We are having the most incredibly beautiful weather here in Minnesota. The nights are falling to the mid 50’s and daytime in the mid 70’s.

This makes for perfect weather for a morning run. I hit the road for a 3.37 mile run (according to MapMyRun) and the temperature was 56°.

I jammed out to my Jack Johnson radio station on Pandora and ran at a leisurely pace. I find that my running pace often matches my music tempo. I was in the mood for a slower run, so I thought this music selection would be perfect and I was right, it was. My average pace was 9:37 minutes per mile. I think I’ve finally concluded that I’m not a fast runner, and I’m not sure if I ever will be a fast runner and I am okay with that.

I am starting to enjoy running again and am very happy to be able to say that.

My day’s eats went undocumented except for dinner.

Dinner

Zucchini pasta.

Garlic Parmesan Zucchini Pasta

Ingredients

1 large zucchini, peeled
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 cup mushrooms, chopped
1/4 cup onion, diced
1 large garlic clove, minced
salt and pepper
1/4 cup green olives, diced
6 grape tomatoes, quartered
parmesan cheese
1 tsp. fresh basil, chopped

Directions

Place zucchini pasta in strainer in sink, sprinkle with salt, and let sit for 10-15 minutes. Drain and pat dry.
In a large pan, sauté mushrooms, onion, and garlic in olive oil for 4 minutes.
Add zucchini, salt and pepper, green olives, and tomatoes until heated through.
Plate up pasta and top with parmesan and basil. Enjoy!

This was such an easy, fresh, and inexpensive meal. Both Dana and I really liked it!

Dessert

Strawberry banana soft serve!

A friend of mine asked for the recipe for this dessert and although I don’t have any exact measurements, I will do my best to help you out!

Strawberry Banana Soft Serve

Ingredients

2 frozen bananas
1/2 cup frozen strawberries
a splash of almond milk (maybe 2 tablespoons)

Directions

Place ingredients in blender and patiently blend until smooth. You will need to periodically stop the blender and push the frozen fruit around to get things moving. Once a soft serve consistency is reached, it’s ready to eat!

Happy Saturday to everyone. Catch up with ya’ll soon.

Date at Pittsburgh Blue

Post author:Melanie
Post published:August 10, 2012
Post category:Misc. / Moose / Restaurants / Sweet Treats
Post comments:7 Comments

Happy Friday to you all!

Last night, Dana and I had a date night. We still had a gift card from our wedding to a chain of restaurants in the area, and it was burning a whole in my pocket.

The chain of restaurants is called Parasole and among their restaurants, we chose Pittsburgh Blue Steakhouse which specializes in duh, steak, but also has a great variety of seafood.

We got all dolled up, had our own happy hour at home with a glass of wine, before heading out the door to the restaurant.

Moose wanted in on the photo shoot. I want to frame this one below. How stinking beautiful is he??

He made sure to smile for this one…

We told him that if dogs were allowed at the restaurant we would so let him come with, but no can do. Rules are rules. Sorry, Moose. Winking smile

While we contemplated our dinner orders, we both ordered a glass of Zinfandel which was perfectly smooth and slightly sweet. By far my favorite wine.

They also brought out a bread basket which I had originally said I was going to pass on, but changed my mind about 7 minutes later. Boy am I glad I did. The bread loaf was made up of 4 large rolls that were incredibly soft on the inside, and the outside had a light crust brushed with garlic butter and sea salt. OH MY. I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

For dinner I ordered the seafood cobb salad. The salad started with a bed of romaine lettuce drizzled with lemon vinaigrette, and then was piled high with these toppings:

Left to right: fresh lobster, tomatoes, chives, hard-boiled egg, citrus shrimp, cheese, bacon, avocado, and fresh crab.

What an awesome salad. I ate 80% of it and was pretty proud of my accomplishment.

Dana ordered the prime rib which to me is the most unappetizing thing ever. I’m just not much of a meat person as you may well know by now. He really enjoyed it!

We also ordered a side of asparagus which were the bomb.

Although I was feeling pleasantly full after dinner, I really wanted to finish date night with something sweet. I had the bright idea to stop at Whole Foods on the way home and get some gelato.

2 scoops: 1 scoop chocolate brownie and 1 scoop salted caramel.

Are you kidding me? My second glimpse of heaven that night. I especially loved the salted caramel.

It had been way too long since we have had a date night like this. It was perfect. I loved spending such a nice evening with my hubby. Thanks Brett and Krystle for the great wedding gift!

I hope everyone has a great Friday! My favorite day of the week. Catch up with you all later!

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