meet the parents.

hey blog land! don’t check your vision, you’re seeing correctly, this is me posting two days in a row.. yep, i think i am back to my regularly scheduled blogging! for now, at least :) thank goodness, i have missed rambling! whether or not YOU GUYS have missed my rambling.. well, that is a different story.

so rambling it is.  let’s not waste any time!

sunday!

yesterday i polished off the last of lizzy’s powwow protein bars that she sent me to try out. dang.. that is a sad story if i ever wrote one. lizzy! these bars are too good to be true! i want need more!

after inhaling this little morsel, marshall and i headed up to my hometown to do some cooking. well, i did the cooking.. he did some hanging out.

this wasn’t our typical sunday dinner. this time, marshall’s dad and step mom were joining us for dinner! they had never met my parents so it was kind of a big deal :)

i think i lost my food blogger touch over the course of last week, because i just realized i don’t have nearly as many photos of the cooking extravaganza as i would like to have. nuts.

at least i have a few photos of me pounding raw chicken with a rubber mallet, right?

right.

on the menu:

• herb crusted chicken with a red wine blackberry sauce
• garlic & chive mashed red potatoes
• steamed vegetable medley
• fresh rolls & homemade raspberry jam
• green salad

SO. i failed miserably at photos, like i said, but i will show you what i’ve got.

for the red wine blackberry sauce i sauteed 3/4 cup shallots in a bit of olive oil and then added 1.25 cups of red wine~

after letting this reduce by half, i added 4 TB unsalted butter, 14 oz chicken broth, 6 TB blackberry preserves and two containers of fresh mashed blackberries.

i let this reduce by half, added a little corn starch and let it simmer until it was nice and thick.

PERFECT! this sauce is sooo good. it is delicious on chicken, steak, potatoes.. um.. just eating it by the spoonful.. you name it.

for the chicken, i simply pounded it super thin (as seen above) and then i coated it in egg whites and then an herbed panko bread crumb mixture that i just threw together.

my assembly line, no, the avocados had nothing to do with it:

 

egg whites, herbed panko:

after breading the chicken, i baked it for about 30-35 minutes at 400 degrees. it came out perfect~

the chicken was served alongside the blackberry reduction sauce.

here are the other components of the meal~

jamaica s&p shakers.. so appropriate because i bought them for my mom during the trip which is where marshall and i were engaged!

rolls! pillows of heaven. serious.

asparagus, yellow squash, zucchini and cauliflower. yum.

garlic & chive mashed red potatoes.

green salad.

and the part where i failed as a food blogger is i totally neglected to take a photo of my plate! what? yeah, im an idiot.

moving on.

as if we weren’t full enough, my mom made fresh strawberry shortcake for dessert.

i love angel food cake! i used to think it was “good” for me because it is fat free. umm.. not so much, janetha b.

so, it may not be good FOR me but it sure is GOOD! especially paired with fresh strawberries and homemade vanilla bean whipped cream~

 

nom nom nom.

oh, in case you wondered, our parents really hit it off and all is well on the marriage front :)

after dinner, marshall and i went to my bestie kristen’s mom’s house and watched the oscars and played darts. good times had by all.

monday!

well since sunday was kind of long, i will keep this snappy.

breakfast was my usual monday fare of eggbeaters & oatmeal~

lunch was not typical nor was it pretty, but it tasted good!

cranbran vita + greek yogurt mixed with chocolate protein powder + dollup of mighty mapes!

it was even less photogenic once i mixed it up…

 

the gym was hard for me to talk myself into today but i am glad i managed to get there and get a great run in.

here is how it went:

treadmill:

minute #	speed (MPH)
0-5	5.0 warm up
5-6	6.0
6-7	6.5
7-8	7.0
8-9	7.5
9-10	8.0
10-15	repeat minutes 5-10
15-20	repeat minutes 5-10
20-25	repeat minutes 5-10
25-50	5.0 cool down

total time: 30 minutes, total distance: 3.16 miles, max HR: 174, ave HR: 151, calories burned: 275

done and done.

after the gym i made cookies.. but not just any cookies, easter colored cookies!

i am going to a BBQ after i publish this and wanted to take something to share.

i used my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and swapped the chocolate chips out for easter m&m’s~

they turned out awesome!

but i am not going to have one, i will have to let my friends tell me how they taste :) yes.. the weekend was a tad too indulgent and i am not going to have treats again until the weekend.

 

for dinner i had some leftovers!

salad and stuffed chicken breast.

i think it was naomi that asked about the recipe?

sorry, a tad blurry.

for the chicken, i split each breast so there is a “pocket” for stuffing. i put a layer of my cheese mixture which is just softened laughing cow+chopped fresh basil and then i put a layer of my homemade sun dried tomato basil hummus in the pocket. my hummus recipe is super simple and i actually made it in the blender at my mom’s, no food processor needed:

• 1 can garbanzos
• 1/4 cup greek yogurt
• 1/4 cup chicken broth
• tons of basil
• huge handful of sun dried tomatoes
• salt and pepper

i ended up using a bit more broth to get the juices flowing.

after stuffing the chicken, i rolled it in eggbeaters first and then in italian herbed panko bread crumbs.  i baked it at 450 degrees for about 40 minutes. SO good, even a few days later!

my salad had some of the best balsamic dressing money can buy:

yes. love it. when is trader joe’s coming to utah?!

so there you have it, my meals & moves as of late.

a few other random tid bits…

• amie surprised me and i came home to these super cute larabars.. thanks amie!

 

• I AM IN A COOKBOOK!  well, my recipe is! last night, my friend’s mom was asking me if i like xagave. i told her all about how i LOVE xagave and have worked with the company in the past and that they had even told me they would be featuring my pumpkin protein shake recipe in their next cookbook! well, i had no idea the cookbook was even out yet, but my friend’s mom happened to have a copy! we opened the index and saw that there was indeed a pumpkin protein shake recipe.. flipped to the page and there my name and blog name was along with my recipe! i was so giddy :)
• i am 79 miles into my 400 mile goal for running this year. i know it doesn’t sound like a lot to you runners out there, but it is a lot for me! i hope to be 25% (100 miles) done by the end of this month, in order to stay on track.
• several of you asked about how my arm has healed up since i broke it 3 years ago. well, it still has the 8” titanium rod and 8 screws in there.. and yes, it still gives me trouble. it still hurts and lifting weights is still a challenge. especially bicep and shoulder exercises. i hope to one day be back to normal! at least i have a super sweet scar to show for it ;)

anywho, i have things to do and people to see and cookies to deliver!

hope you all have a glorious night and relish in the fact that we all made it through another monday. hooray!

Qs~

1. if you had to pick one of your recipes to be published, which recipe would you choose? i am secretly hoping this question gives me a stock pile of recipes ;) i think i would pick my pumpkin turkey enchiladas. 

2. what is the last fun thing you received in the mail? mine was the mini larabars! thanks amie!

xo. janetha b.

Tagged as: baking, cardio, chicken, cookies, dinner at mom's, eggbeaters, mileage, oats, recipes, scar, strawberry shortcake, vitatop