My PB + J

parmesan crusted chicken with simple mediterranean pasta

i have been on a roll with craving pasta dishes with a light sauce and bold flavors. when on a playdate last week at my girlfriends house she made me a salad with parmesan chicken, it was delish so that night i scoured our pantry and made some chicken parm cutlets with a mediterrenean inspired pasta. i used the brown rice pasta again, and after this time i am reverting back to my whole wheat. it’s just too sticky and chewy for me. i coated the pasta with a white wine butter sauce, tart capers, sweet sun dried tomatoes, buttery artichokes and some spinach (toasted pine nuts would be fab too!) paired with the chicken it was way better than consuming the traditional chicken parm dish!
 have a great weekend everyone. i am doing my first 5k in honor of poway’s chelsea king, getting my hair done and spending some time with the family since jim has been out-of-town all week. oh! and looking at some houses! very exciting stuff i tell you!
make it a great weekend everyone and hopefully wherever you are there will plenty of sunshine! 

a whine sesh & curried egg salad {recipe}

i am honestly having a shitty day. it’s the fourth day in a row where i feel like doing absolutely nothing. i don’t feel well, i just feel outta whack. i think it’s the hormones speaking and i realize that i did not even do my weigh-in wednesday post. this clearly shows that i am just having an “off” week. brayden had his four-month shots on tuesday and has been whiny since. i never experienced this with payton, she would just sleep for a day or two and bounce back. jim won’t be home until about midnight since he is crossing the border to see his co-workers dentist. don’t ask, just accept that you read that and move on. so, basically on top of this super magical day i get to do the nighttime routine solo. i am so not in the mood. i guess i better get used to this. he will be gone monday through friday next week. and, since cooking for a toddler and this measly adult isn’t the most exciting thing i decided to finally post my egg salad recipe that i told so many friends about. so i leave you with something egg-citing. i know, corny. 
curry egg salad 
recipe from my brain. 

what you’ll need:
6 hard boiled eggs, peeled and chopped 
1 rib celery, diced 
1 stalk green onion, chopped 
1/4 cup mayo (use more or less depending on how you prefer your salad)
1 teaspoon yellow mustard 
1/2 teaspoon curry 
salt & pepper to taste
tomato 
bread of choice 
here’s how:
in a bowl mix together all of the ingredients. taste for salt & pepper. if you like more curry, add more. it’s easy peasy. 
i toasted a slice of rye bread since it is allowed on the 17-day diet, starting cycle three. i placed tomato slices on top with some cracked pepper and sat happily eating as the kids slept. it’s the simple things in life that keep us going!
and now leave to press post since the damn dog barked and woke the baby up after only being down for twenty minutes. does anyone want our corgi/dachshund mix dog? i swear…

mediterranean pasta {recipe}

during the three years i worked as the general manager for a local brewery i fell in love with the mediterranean wheat pasta we offered. since leaving the company nearly two years ago i still crave this simply light and healthy pasta dish. i have made it once before but i revisited it over the weekend knowing it fit into cycle three of the 17-day diet guidelines. suz here is another vegetarian recipe i am happy to share! oh! and did i mention that i skipped using wheat pasta and replaced it with brown rice spaghetti. delish! pair it with a glass of white wine, a simple salad and sorbet and you’ve got one amazing guiltless meal. 
here’s what you need:
1 cup baby spinach
1/2 cup grape tomatoes cut in half. 
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1 cup artichokes, i used frozen (defrosted) but any variety works 
1 garlic clove, minced 
1/4 cup feta (17dd use fat-free)
juice of a lemon (mine was really juicy so i only used half)
1 TB butter 
1/4 cup white wine (i used budget friendly pinot grigio)
brown rice spaghetti, cooked according to package directions
here’s how:
in a skillet melt butter. add in onions and sauté until soft, 5-8 minutes. add in garlic and cook for a minute, do not brown the garlic. squeeze the lemon juice into skillet and then wine. let the sauce simmer for a few minutes deglazing the pan. add in tomatoes, spinach, artichokes and cook until spinach is wilted. add the spaghetti to the skillet and toss to coat. plate the pasta and top with feta cheese. enjoy! 
have you cooked with brown rice pasta? what are your thoughts about it? i thought it was very starchy, especially while cooking but once it was mixed with everything i thought it tasted just like wheat pasta minus the chewy-ness. 

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

now that i am about to start cycle four of the 17-day diet i have begun to incorporate meals that we used to eat back into our lives but with a healthy twist. take these stuffed peppers for instance, the old school recipe our grandma’s used to make had ground beef and other non-figure flattering ingredients. mine on the other hand skips the meat and adds in the super food, quinoa which packs in the protein along with the black beans.  this meal was so filling and made for great leftovers. 

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers
recipe adapted from good life eats

the ingredients:

2 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 rib celery,  finely chopped1/2 of a poblano pepper, diced
1 tablespoon ground cumin 2 cloves garlic, minced
1 – 8.5 oz. can corn, drained 
1 – 15 oz. cans diced tomatoes, drained, liquid reserved
1 – 15 oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained
3/4 cup quinoa
1 1/2 cups grated carrot
1 1/2 cups grated Pepper jack cheese, divided
4 large red bell peppers, halved lengthwise, ribs removed

Directions:

Heat oil in saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, celery, and poblano pepper and cook 5 minutes, or until soft. Add cumin and garlic, and sauté 1 minute. Stir in drained tomatoes. Cook 5 minutes, or until most of liquid has evaporated.
Stir in quinoa, carrots, and 1 3/4 cups water. Cover, and bring to a boil. reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 20 minutes, or until quinoa is tender. Combine quinoa and carrots with black beans, corn, 1 cup of cheese, and the onion mixture from the first step, . Season with salt and pepper if desired.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Pour liquid from tomatoes in bottom of baking dish.
Fill each bell pepper half with heaping 3/4-cup quinoa mixture, and place in baking dish. Cover with foil, and bake 40 minutes. Uncover, and sprinkle each pepper with 1 tablespoon of remaining cheese. Bake 15 minutes more, or until tops of stuffed peppers are browned. Let stand 5 minutes. Transfer stuffed peppers to serving plates, and drizzle each with pan juices before serving

the 17-day diet version without the jack cheese or you could substitute fat-free. 

jalapeño popper dip {a recipe}

there are many versions of “crack dip” floating around on the internet these days. i first dubbed the buffalo chicken dip as crack dip because let’s face it, that stuff is amazeballs. that was until i had jalapeño popper dip at my nieces birthday party in december. jalapeño poppers hold a place in my heart from those early days working at tgi fridays in late 90’s. i am a popper snob though, i do not care for the cream cheese filled variety, i love me some cheddar cheese filled ones. nobody really carries these but when i find them i am in love and it brings me back to my teenage days. damn. my mouth is salivating just thinking of them. 
for the super bowl i knew i wanted to make a fatty dip to indulge in so i went onto handy dandy pinterest to see what recipe my sister used. i found myself on annie’s eats and i fell in love with everything she has posted, even her photography. gorgeous stuff i tell you. i whipped up the dip while chatting with the in-laws the night before the game and baked it right before we headed over. by the time we drove the 3.2 miles it was the right temp and boy was it! half of it was gone within twenty minutes. i paired the creamy, slightly spicy dip with fresh veggies, tortilla chips and ritz crackers. it was perfect. even my mini me loved it. so, if you are having a girls game night, watching march madness, or just want an excuse for filling your belly with hot yummy goodness you need to make this dip. 

hot out of the oven. 
john couldn’t wait to get the first bite, but i told him i needed a picture first. that first bite was well worth it. 

twenty minutes later. 

p with her eye on the dip, no time to look up. 


jalapeño popper dip 

Ingredients:
2 (8 oz.) packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup mayonnaise
1 (4 oz.) can chopped green chiles, drained
1 (4 oz.) can diced jalapeño peppers, drained
½ cup shredded Mexican style cheese (i used 1 cup)
½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese (i used 1 cup)
1 cup Panko breadcrumbs
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
Cooking spray

Directions: 
Preheat the oven to 375˚ F.  In a medium bowl, combine the cream cheese, mayonnaise, green chiles, jalapeños, and shredded cheeses.  Mix thoroughly with a spoon or spatula until smooth and evenly combined.  Spread the mixture into a baking dish (approximately 9 x 9-inches).
In a second bowl, combine the Panko and Parmesan and stir with a fork until combined.   Sprinkle over the cream cheese mixture in the baking dish.  Spray lightly with cooking spray.  Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the mixture is hot and the topping is golden (i baked the dip for 30 and then turned the broiler on low for 5 minutes) 
Serve warm with baguette slices, vegetables, etc. as desired.