Jessica

Quarter Year Goal Review

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Ok so Last week marked the beginning of May. That puts us one
quarter of the way done with the year. I
think that makes it a pretty good time to check in with all of my goals since
New Years. I’m including, fitness, life, and blogging in all of this so
sorry if it gets a little wordy on you.

Fitness:

I am pretty much on track with where I wanted to be with my
fitness goals. I have fallen back into love with lifting, and I am seeing someamazing results from it. However the
last few weeks there has been a lot of discussion about running events with
friends, and even triathlons. So I think it is time to reassess my goals and plan, maybe add a little more running in.

Life:

Maybe I should re-title this section to wedding/event planning.
I’m way behind on the wedding planning front, as I haven’t done a damn thing. In
my defense I have 17 months, and no I don’t want to hear that it will be gone
before I know it, or it will sneak up on me or any of that crap. I HAVE 17
MONTHS OK? In every other respect I am swamped with friends and family having
babies, weddings, and the usual summer events that I like to go to. So I guess that’s
good? It’s pretty overwhelming to be honest, and I would really love for everyone
to take a chill pill. Life is not pinterest
perfect people, get over it and enjoy the imperfections!!!!!

Blogging:

I didn’t really start off the year with any blogging goals,
but that has changed. I really enjoy watching this little space grow, and have
really fallen love with camera practice. I also really like how this space
helps cultivate my creativity and push my personal boundaries. Ideally I would
want to create a cohesiveness that can extend over to my shop and all of my
social media. I guess you would call this a brand, but what I am really looking
for is a unique style that I can carry with me for a good long while, instead
of redesigning my blog every few months, and not having it match anything. I
also want to challenge myself to create some new posts beyond the basic recipes
and adventures I usually post. I want to show more of myself, and my interests.

Overall I think I am doing ok, and things are going good. I’m going to be adding more running workouts to my routine. I’m going to take every opportunity I can relax, since those moments are going to be few and far between soon. I’m also going to be making a few changes around the blog so keep an eye out.

What are your goals this year?
How are you doing with them?

Spring Sangria & Mothersday

By Jessica

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Spring is a time of celebration, rejuvenation, rebirth, and
celebration, did I say that already? Well it’s kind of what I am going for
here. Recently we celebrated the 60th birthday of someone near and
dear to my heart and I made this amazing Spring Sangria. It was a hit at the
party and I thought it might also be a hit for your mom this Mother’s Day.

Fresh Spring Sangria

1 bottle Spanish White Wine

1 lime, sliced

1 lemon sliced

½ cup sliced strawberries

1 granny smith apple, cored and sliced thin

1 (12 oz) can of seltzer

2 cups mint simple syrup

Combine all ingredients in a large picture. Stir to combine
and serve over crushed ice.

Mint Simple Syrup

2 cups sugar

2 cups water

1 cup packed fresh mint leaves

In a small saucepan combine all ingrediants over medium
heat. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 4-5 minutes stirring
occasionally, until all of the sugar has fully dissolved. Remove from heat and
let cool before using.

The recipe makes a good sized pitcher but I promise you that
it goes really quickly. It’s super light and fresh, so it’s good for a spring
brunch. And since we are talking about brunch why don’t you check out these
amazing brunch ideas for mom?

Baked Blueberry Lemon French Toast - Amazingly sweet and scrumptious make-ahead french toast using King's Hawaiian bread!

Baked Blueberry Lemon French Toast From Damn Delicious

The Yellow Table’s Orange Zest Scones with Strawberry Rhubarb Compote

Orange Monkey Bread with Cream Cheese Drizzle recipe via www.thenovicechefblog.com

Orange Monkey Bread with Cream Cheese Drizzle from The Novice Chef

Ham and Asparagus Vol au Vent with a Creamy and Grainy Mustard Sauce

Seasons & Suppers’ Ham Asparagus vol au vent with Creamy Mustard Sauce

Roasted Asparagus Sandwiches from The Candid Appetite

Clean Greek Chicken or Fish?

By Jessica

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If you have been following my fitness journey (I’m not even
sure if that’s the right thing to call it, my fitness ramblings maybe? Whatever)
then you saw earlier this week I posted a 2 week clean eating menu plan that
included Greek Tilapia. I got the idea/recipe from one of my all time favorite
magazines Oxygen. I have been reading this religiously for years now, and
I love it. This was one of the featured reader recipes.

Now when I went about making this we had plenty of frozen
tilapia and a random piece of chicken in the fridge that we needed to cook. So I
made the same recipe both ways, it worked out because Chuck isn’t a huge fan of
fish, so I figured we would both be happy with this. Upon making these guys we
both agreed that the chicken version was better by a long shot. Like a super
long shot. I think it was the savory chicken juices, and tomato mixture that
did it.

Then I had to decide which to post on here, the one that I
told you I was going to post or the super delicious one I liked better. I
couldn’t decide, and it’s my blog anyway so today you get both. Maybe we can
have a vote to see what you guys like better?

Any who, this is a pretty quick and easy meal that is full
of flavor. I would serve it with something simple like quinoa, or brown rice
since there is a little extra broth that’s packed with flavor anything else
would probably be just too much.

Greek Chicken

1 lb of boneless skinless chicken breast

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 cloves of garlic, minced

2 tbsp dry white wine

Salt and pepper

1/2 cup kalamata olives, halved

1 cup chopped cherry tomatoes

2 tbsp chopped red onion

2 tbsp chicken broth

½ a lemon

2 ounces feta cheese (optional)

Prepare the chicken breast into paillard form. In a large skillet
heat oil over medium high heat and sauté garlic until it begins to become
fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add the white wine and cook for an additional
minute. Generously season the tilapia with salt and pepper before placing it
into the pan. Cook the chicken for about 3-5 minutes a side, or until it turns
opaque and the juices run clear. Reduce the heat to low and add the onion, tomatoes,
and olives to the pan along with chicken broth. Cook for another 5 minutes or
so, until the vegetables are tender. Squeeze half a lemon over the top and
serve warm with crumbled feta on top, if desired.

Greek Tilapia

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 cloves of garlic, minced

2 tbsp dry white wine

32 ounces Tilapia

Salt and pepper

1/2 cup kalamata olives, halved

1 cup chopped cherry tomatoes

2 tbsp chopped red onion

½ a lemon

2 ounces feta cheese (optional)

In a large skillet heat oil over medium high heat and sauté
garlic until it begins to become fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add the white wine
and cook for an additional minute. Generously season the tilapia with salt and
pepper before placing it into the pan. Cook the fish for about 2 minutes a
side, or until it turns opaque and the edges can be flaked with a fork. Reduce
the heat to low and add the onion, tomatoes, and olives to the pan along with a
couple tablespoons of water. Cook for another 5 minutes or so, until the
vegetables are tender. Squeeze half a lemon over the top and serve warm with
crumbled feta on top, if desired.

Garden Plans 2014

By Jessica

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It’s finally looking like garden season around here, and I couldn’t
be more excited.

Chuck put together some garden boxes for us. We used these
two years ago at our first place together and they worked wonderfully. Last
year we just cleared a patch of land, since we had good soil we thought the raised
beds would be unnecessary, however we under estimated the excitement of Brody
and his digging ability. We are hoping the boxes will help him understand the
barrier between the garden and the rest of the yard. I’m thinking this will
also help with the weeds; we had a terrible creeping vine last year that was impossible
to keep out of the garden.

I’m also interested to try out the square foot method. I
have trouble pruning, and whittling down the correct number of plants in a
space, and I’m hoping this method will help me with that.

We decided this year to have two 4×4 ft boxes for the main
garden and three 4x ½ ft boxes that we will put along the porch for peas. Chuck
has a pretty big affinity for peas so we want to make sure there are a lot of
them. There will also be a small container garden on the porch for herbs,
because I like the easy access when I’m cooking.

Here is my list of plants: Peas, green beans, yellow beans,
cherry tomatoes, beef steak tomatoes, cabbage, Caesar lettuce, masculine
lettuce mix, spinach, kohlrabi, carrots, heirloom carrots, cucumbers, radishes,
parsnips, peppers, and onions.

My list of herbs (some of these I already have and will just
move them outside): Rosemary, basil, purple basil, parsley, cilantro, mint,
chives, tarragon, thyme,

Clean Orange Chipotle Chicken Stir Fry

By Jessica

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So way back when I fell in love with this recipe from Cleaneatingmag.com (great place I tell ya). We are talking several years back, and as great as it is I haven’t made very much of it, probably because it’s not one of those quick and easy kind of things I like most of the time, and what vegetable do you serve with it? Well I decided to revamp the recipe into a stir fry, and made a few other additions, because we are trying to be healthy over here. It came out pretty darn good in my opinion, and now that it’s made that much easier (only 20 minutes!!!!) I think we will add it to the rotation a little more often.

For starters I used chipotle chili Powder because I already have it in my pantry, and I like recipes so much more when they don’t require a fancy ingredient I have to search the shelves for (chipotles in adobo sauce are not that popular in upstate NY apparently). I made it as basic as any other stir fry recipe, and added a few spices to the mix, like turmeric. I like turmeric because it turns
everything a really bright vibrant yellow, and I’m told it has all kinds of benefits like fighting Alzheimer’s and what not. I chose peppers and broccoli, because my love of broccoli runs deep, and peppers seemed like a good fit, plus we don’t eat them that often and variety is good for you too.

I just put it over plain rice because there was plenty of flavor in the recipe already, but I’m sure the cilantro rice in the original recipe would be a great addition as well.

Orange Chipotle Chicken Stir Fry

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bits size
pieces

1 tsp chipotle chile powder

½ tsp ground cumin

½ tsp turmeric

1 tbsp pure maple syrup

Juice from one orange

1 tsp orange zest

1 small yellow onion, chopped

1 medium red bell pepper, chopped

1 medium yellow bell pepper chopped

1 head of broccoli

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add chicken and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring regularly. Add spices, syrup, juice, and zest cooking for another minute, stirring well to combine. Stir in the veggies and cook for another 5 minutes until just tender. Serve warm over cooked rice.

Jessica

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