Pork Chops with Apples

Last night I tried a new recipe from FoodNetwork.com: Pork Chops with Apples and the results were delicious! I usually have a difficult time cooking pork chops, leaving them either under done or WAY over done, but this recipe had them cooked to perfection.  I added salad, asparagus, and scalloped potatoes to complete the meal. Yum.


In other news, I've been busy preparing for my first Masters swim meet this weekend.  In fact several of my swim buddies are going too, so our practices have been pretty packed the past couple of weeks.  The meet is this weekend, but all of my events are just on Sunday.  I'm swimming the 100 Free, 50 Free, and the 200 Free relay. Basically all the same events I used to swim in high school.. with maybe slightly different times. ;-) I'm both excited and a bit nervous for the big day! I'll try to get Todd to take some pics so that I can post them on the blog next week. :)


Happy Hump Day everyone!

Spring Treats

While my husband has been super healthy drinking his vegetable juices, I had my first frozen yogurt of the season yesterday.  The temp here in California hit 70 degrees, so I jumped in the car and drove to Davis for a cold treat.  Since it's a college town, there are several "froyo" places to choose from. I hit up Yolo Berry Yogurt, situated in a cute little house across from a park.  They had 4 different flavors of yogurt, plus hundreds of different candies, sauces, cookies, etc that you could put on top.  You can see here that I chose a pretty simple but delicious mixture: vanilla yogurt with strawberries, mango, and pineapple. Yum.

My husband, Todd, meanwhile has been very diligent about using our juicer to make himself healthy vegetable juices for breakfast and lunch, and has already shed a few pounds! I'll have a drink with him for a snack, but admit I cannot go 2 meals of my day on just the juice.  

Here's another recipe that I've been making every day this week for Todd: Sauteed Kale.  I'll admit, I am not a big fan, but Todd loves it. So maybe you will too!! 

My First Juicer Experience

The juicer has arrived! I braved the new machine with the following recipe from the Food Network: Rise and Shine Juice.  It actually turned out to be pretty filling and tasted really good! 

3 oz spinach

1 apple

1 carrot

1 celery stalk

1 inch piece of ginger

Juice and serve over ice... et voila!! 

Airport Architecture

Time to sit back in the airport and enjoy the .... view??  Gotta love airport architecture, where large window frames are conveniently placed at eye level to block views of the airplanes. 

However, I'm not complaining about this gorgeous Sacramento weather. Beautiful blue skies and high sixties.  After another busy week in California we're heading back for a weekend in Seattle.  

I haven't been doing much creative cooking lately, just some easy basics like chicken salads, fish tacos, and pasta. I've been doing a better job of including veggies in our meals though, one of our New Years resolutions. So two vegetable sides and no starch instead of 1 starch and 1 veggie. It's actually not much to adjust to, but means I'm exploring new vegetable dishes for some variety. Got any favorites to share? Please leave them in the comments section below! :)

Happy Friday everyone!

Juice Machine!

JUICE!  So Todd and I just watched this fascinating documentary: "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" which shows how one man decided to go on a juice fast for 60 days to lose weight and get healthy.  Not only did he lose a ton of weight, but he became super healthy and no longer needed any of his prescription drugs and had more energy than ever! Anyways, if you cannot tell, it was a pretty inspiring movie. You should watch it. Here's a link to the guy's website which explains more about his story: Reboot Your Life.

One thing the movie definitely illustrates is how LITTLE we Americans eat our fruits and vegetables.  But with a juicer you can pack in a TON of fruits and vegetables into one drink! 

So yeh, we bought a juicer.  It should be on our door step by this weekend and we're both super excited to "juice up".  Here's one recipe that looks pretty awesome: Great Greens Juice.

Have you tried a juicer before? Any good recipes to share? Leave a comment below! :)