And the verdict is...

The bbq chicken last night was definitely a success! The sauce really thickened up and had an almost molasses flavor and the chicken was really tender. It ended up making way more food than I thought- enough for 6 or 7 sandwhiches which sort of surprised me. Maybe I'll only do 2 chicken breasts next time, although I'm sure the leftovers will be eaten! I didn't add any extra spice to the sweet potato fries since the chicken was spicy and just stuck to s&p and some cumin. I made my sandwhich open face and P added the top of the bun along with some fresh parmesean cheese.





Tonight I'm going to try the mushroom chicken from last week but skip the noodles. I felt like they didn't add much to the dish. I have a sweet onion to use instead of scallions (I'll probably juch chop up half) and some white cooking wine to add along with tons of fresh mushrooms. The cheesy asparagus was so good earlier this week I'm excited to recreate that dish along with fresh green beans tonight. I'll remember to take pics this evening so I can post them tomorrow :)

I can't believe our trip to Chicago is less than a week away! We made reservations for Le Colonial on Wednesday night and I'm stoked that we can walk right there from our hotel. I'm also really excited for dinner at Blackbird on Thursday. We saw the chef on Anthony Bourdain and Top Chef and I can't wait to try the food! I was also thinking this morning how excited I am to eat Chiptole :) It is probably good that we don't have on here since I would eat there every day! P also wants to get sushi at some point, although I'm not much of a fish eater, so hopefully we can sneak that in for lunch on Friday or Saturday. I wonder if there's anywhere that's tasty and conveiently located to downtown that isn't crazy expensive...

It's such a gorgeous day here- hope everyone is having a fabulous week! :D

My Friday

Holy yum bucket- the cat barf oats were even tastier this morning! They looked extra gross since the bananas are even soggier on day two but the taste and consistency was awesome. It's nice to take a break from cereal and have a new fave breakfast.

This may be the most boring photo ever, but here's how the lemon bars turned out:



They were so tasty and definitely didn't taste like a "diet" recipe. Parker must have agreed because I think he ate about half the pan which is a baking success in my book :)

I skipped the sweet and sour chicken last night and made Parmesan and sage crusted pork chops with sweet potato fries and lemony asparagus. I tried the pork chops last week and just made a few changes the second time around. The pork chops we bought this time were extra thick so I cut them into thinner and smaller pieces and also added more sage and some red pepper flakes to the breading. I also added a little extra mustard to the egg glop. Cutting them thinner cut the cooking time way down and the extra flavors in the breading were delish. Here's a photo of the crispy choppers:



For some reason I was really craving sweet potato fries yesterday and happened to have one at home so I cut it into small pieces, sprayed with pam, and sprinkled salt, pepper, and some cumin on top. They baked at 425 for .... hmmm should have timed those.... between 30 and 45 minutes I think. I stirred them around a few times and just kept and eye on them. Amazingly easy and tasty. These are a new favorite!



I also made some quick lemony asparagus with just a little bit of evoo, salt and pepper, and lots of garlic and lemon juice.

Here's how the whole thing turned out:



At 6:00 this morning when the alarm was going off I wondered if my earlier post this week about morning workouts was written in a fit of delusion. Getting out of bed to work out this morning was the last thing in the world I wanted to do. So I snoozed for another 20 minutes while Bruce tried to chew on my face and finally got moving. It really does feel so good to wake up and get moving and have that extra burst of energy to start the day out. I think I'm finally figuring out that just because it's not easy doesn't mean it's not worth it :)

Oooh- and I forgot to mention yesterday how grateful I am for my lovely, er handsome, talented and helpful photographic assistant. These photos are my doing, if you hadn't already guessed. I may have to make another batch of those lemon bars to bribe Parker to keep helping ;)

If you have an extra minute today check out this blog: http://healthytippingpoint-fattalk.blogspot.com/
Really inspiring ideas about how we think about weight, food and ourselves. Lots of food (har, har) for thought.

Hope everyone is having an amazing day and enjoying this gorgeous weather!