Nummy Leftovers & Puppy Dental Work

Only in Minnesota can it snow one day, and then two weeks later reach 90 plus degrees. I guess it keeps us on our toes right? All I can say is the winter coat and boots have officially retired to the basement for the summer and they are not making a return for a loooong time. I am pretty excited for the warm weather and the thunderstorms too!

Yesterday was a fairly quiet one around here. The pooch had a rough day–I’ll get into that in a second.

Lunch yesterday was one of my favorites. I kept it very simple and did a slightly modified version of my sweet and creamy salad. In the mix was baby spring lettuce, fresh mozzarella, strawberries, avocado, black beans, and Newman’s Own Lite honey mustard dressing.

salad

I also munched on a bunch of trail mix.

For dinner I threw together a plate of leftover taco salad from our Mother’s Day lunch. Why I don’t make large batches of food at all times and have leftovers frequently, I am not sure? Who doesn’t love a meal that comes together in a matter of minutes? Leftovers are the best! I think it tasted better this time around actually. Seriously so good.

IMG_2701

taco salad

After I snapped these photos I realized I forgot to add shredded cheese and a couple of crumpled up whole grain chips.

I may have to get creative with the rest of the chicken leftovers though—I do get tired of the same meal if I have it more than 2-3 times in a row. I may freeze it for another time too. We’ll see if I catch any creative vibes later on and that will be my deciding factor.


Moose’s Dental Work

Anyway, let’s talk about the pup. Last Friday, we were cleaning Moose’s teeth and noticed that one of his molars was completely cracked all the way up to his gums. My stomach turned when I saw it because it looked so painful, yet Moose wasn’t giving us one single sign that he was in discomfort or pain. After agreeing that we needed to call the vet asap, we first continued on to the other side of his mouth and noticed ANOTHER tooth that was cracked. What had this dog gotten in to?! Again, he had given no signs that anything was wrong meaning he probably was feeling just fine. However, you can’t just leave these two huge cracked molars sitting in his mouth because the risk of infection, abscesses and other dental related issues are sky-high. So, we called the vet and made an appointment for him for yesterday.

First of all, dropping him off at his appointment yesterday was heart breaking. As I handed him over to the vet and started to leave, he looked back at me with his puppy eyes that said, “Mom, where are you going? No, don’t leave.” My heart broke and I had to turn away. I know some of you are thinking come on, he’s just a dog, but he is my little man, he’s my child and his pain is my pain! I can only imagine how tough it’s going to be when I actually have a human child. Geez louise! I’m such a sap.

Going in to the appointment, we knew that they were for sure going to have to extract one tooth and possibly two, but for some reason I was thinking positively and thinking they would really only need to pull one. Well, at about 8:30 yesterday morning they called us and gave us the news that they would definitely need to be pulling both teeth. My heart fell to my stomach. My poor guy!

I didn’t hear anything after that until about noon when the vet called me to tell me how the procedure had gone. Unfortunately, they were only able to pull the one tooth yesterday because of his size (he’s 95 lbs again!), and because of the size of the tooth. They were having a hard time getting all of the roots of the tooth and the one tooth had taken 2 1/2 hours which means he was under anesthesia for 2 1/2 hours. The vet didn’t want to risk the same thing happening on the other side that day, because that is a long time to be under anesthesia, so we had to schedule the other extraction for next Monday. He has to go through all of this again. :sad:

He was so groggy when we got him home last night. He is on a lot of pain medication and he seems to be doing fine. He does have a little swelling this morning but again, he shows no signs of pain and doesn’t wince or whine when I look at his mouth. The vet is so kind and told me to bring him by this afternoon if I feel it isn’t going down and they can take a peak at it. I know he is probably just fine but I’d rather be safe than sorry and I will probably bring him in.

You can see a little swelling in this photo on his right side…

moose

Needless to say, after we picked him up last night he did a whole lot of lying around.

moose

 

Despite being a little groggy, I was actually surprised at how coherent he really was. He wanted to be outside, and he wanted to play, but I had to keep him inside for the most part and make sure he continued to rest. Oh my little baby!

Anyway, that’s what is going on around here!

Questions of the day:

  • Have you ever had to deal with any health issues with your pets? Does it break your heart as much as it does mine?!
  • What is your favorite “leftover” food? 

I enjoy leftover tacos, and meatloaf always seems to taste better the second day for some reason!

Scenes from My Fun Weekend

I had such an insanely amazing weekend full of so much fun. Here’s a quick little recap for all ya’ll!

On Friday I got to see two of my fav girlies, Kate and Jules, who were both in town for a little while!

(Photo Circa Summer 2012)

kate and melanie

Friday night was date night at Piccolo with my honey. In case you missed it, you can read all about our fancy experience here!

Piccolo

 

Saturday I had lunch with my mom and dad, grandpa, and my great aunt and uncle who were in town!

Saturday afternoon we went to the Twins game. The Twins won and we got neat hats!

 

 

 

dana and melanie twins game

 

On Sunday, my mom and I completed our 6th Race for the Cure at Mall of America!

Mom and Melanie

mom and melanie race for the cure

 

Afterwards I had the family over to celebrate Mother’s Day and my grandpa’s birthday. I made pulled taco chicken and set out all of the fixin’s for Nacho Bar: chips, salsa, black beans, corn, tomatoes, lettuce, black olives, jalepenos, guacamole, sour cream. So delicious!

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you wonderful mamas out there by the way!

nacho bar Nacho bar nacho salad

 

By the time Sunday afternoon rolled around, I was spent. We ran one errand but besides that I spent the majority of the evening on the couch and then called it an early night.

It was one of those weekends where you look back and can’t believe how much fun you packed into such a short amount of time. I loved every second of it.

I’m going to leave it short and sweet for you all today. I have taken a four-day hiatus from Insanity and it’s time to get back in gear!

How was your weekend? Did you do anything fun?! Were you able to relax?

Quinoa Tabouli Recipe & Switching to Raw Honey

Oh happy day! Who’s doing their Friday happy dance? I am.

Yesterday was a day of great eats. Although I didn’t get too creative with breakfast and went with my fav; banana with peanut butter, cinnamon, and a touch of honey, I did change it up just a bit. I am now using raw honey instead of the good old honey bear and this stuff rocks my socks for multiple reasons.

honey

Why I switched to raw organic honey

  1. It tastes incredible.
  2. I bought it locally and could tell you exactly what farm in MN it came from.
  3. It has health benefits such as: wound healing, boosts immunity, traditionally has been used to heal ulcers, diarrhea, and other gastrointestinal issues.
  4. Rich in B vitamins and vitamin C and contains healthy minerals too!
  5. In the processing of your everyday honey bear squeeze bottle honey, beneficial enzymes, nutrients, and antioxidants are often destroyed. Instead of reaping the wonderful health benefits of honey, you are really stripping away the goodies.
  6. I love it.

some information was gathered from this source

The only downside is it is definitely a little more expensive than the traditional honey bear, but you can see why right? It’s worth it! Another FYI, buy organic if you can.

A friendly reminder: children under the age of one should not consume any type of honey as it has the potential of causing botulism.

Lunch

Anyway, moving on. After my Insanity workout, I was craving nutrients in a huge way. Usually I hedge toward smoothies post workout, but today I went the salad route. I must say this turned out to be one pretty darn beautiful salad.

What’s in it: mixed spring lettuce, grated carrot, grated pepper cheese, peas, red bell pepper, sunflower seeds, Applegate roasted turkey from the deli, and homemade mustard dressing.

Dressing: deli mustard, red wine vinegar, dash of garlic powder and black pepper, and a touch of water.

salad salad

Yum-o.

Mediterranean Feast

For dinner, we had my mom and dad and brother Kevin over for a Mediterranean themed dinner.

On the menu: chicken and veggie kabobs, hummus, veggies, fresh fruit, and quinoa tabouli!

carrots and hummus

Quinoa Tabouli!!

quinoa tabouli quinoa tabouli greek dinner kabobs hummus tabouli greek dinner kabobs hummus tabouli

Oh my goodness I love this food so much. I especially love making it at home because I can control EVERYTHING that goes into it–including the salt content.

This was my first ever attempt at making tabouli. Traditional tabouli uses bulgar wheat, but I wanted to make mine with protein-rich quinoa, and am THRILLED with the result. If you are a tabouli fan, this is a recipe you are absolutely going to want to try! It’s truly so easy too!

Quinoa Tabouli
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Ingredients
  • juice from ¾ of a large lemon
  • 2 Tbsp. olive oil
  • ½ tsp. dried oregano
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 2 cups cooked quinoa, cooled
  • 2 cups parsley, chopped
  • ¼ cup mint, chopped
  • ½ cup cucumber, diced
  • ½ cup onion, diced
  • 1 Roma tomato, diced
  • salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. In a large bowl, combine lemon juice, olive oil, oregano, and use a fine cheese grater to grate garlic cloves into juice mixture.
  2. Add remaining ingredients into bowl, stir to combine.
  3. Cover and refrigerate overnight if possible to let flavors blend together.
  4. Serve cold on a bed of lettuce (optional). Great with chicken kabobs and hummus.

 

Happy Friday to all of you beautiful people. Catch up with you later!

What are your favorite ways to enjoy honey?

My favorite ways are of course drizzled over pb toast or pb and banana with a touch of cinnamon, or in a mug of hot water with fresh ginger.

Chicken Curry Salad in Endive Boats

Happy MAY day! 

tulips

 

This is obviously not a MN scene but I think this is such a gorgeous photo and it makes me smile looking at this photo and thinking about the day when flowers will be popping up around here. Hopefully soon. For now, we are in a Winter Storm Warning. Yup…but anyway!

Some exciting news! Today is the last day you will see the old butcher block countertops in my photos because today we are getting NEW KITCHEN COUNTERTOPS! You know you are grown up when you get so incredibly excited about home improvements.

The butcher block countertops have been in the house for goodness knows how long, and they are terrible when it comes to stains and I don’t want to even think about any possible bacteria in the crevices.

banana pb

After much price shopping, stone shopping, and style shopping, we have decided on granite countertops. We went with a gray with specks of gold and red. It will be done by the time I get home this afternoon and I am ecstatic. I can’t wait to show you the refurbished kitchen later this week!

Lunch yesterday was a bunch of small meals throughout the span of 11:00 and 2:00. Here’s one of them…

egg

The afternoon included a lot of food prep time. In the morning I started two large chicken breasts (thawed) in the crock pot, seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder, and a cup or so of homemade chicken bone broth. I covered the pot, set it on low and the chicken was done in three hours.

On the dinner menu: Chicken Curry Salad in Endive Boats!

Once the chicken was cooled I pulled it apart and set it aside. I got started on my curry sauce experiment; adding a sprinkle of this, a touch of that, and tasting along the way. This was part of my other small lunch meal. After some time, I came up with what I think is a VERY delicious Chicken Curry Salad recipe!

The chicken and the curry sauce before it was mixed together (not the most appetizing photo). Later I mixed in cilantro, green onions, and raisins too.

curry chicken

The kitchen sure took a beating with all of this food prep!

Note the white backsplash next to the yellow paint–we removed the wooden backsplash to prepare for our new counters and the new backsplash of course. Also, Dana loosened the countertop in preparation of removal so that all we had to do last night was pull it up and out of there. This ended up being a bigger task than we were expecting, but we got it out of there nonetheless.

kitchen mess

After the chicken was mixed with the sauce, I covered the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit in the fridge for 4-5 hours. This helps the flavors blend together and “get to know each other.”

Once dinner rolled around, I gave the chicken one last stir, added in the celery and almonds at the last minute because I didn’t want to risk them getting soggy, taste tested it one more time, and scooped it on to some beautiful endive leaves. We went super classy with the Dixie paper plates last night because of the kitchen demolition.

curry chicken salad curry chicken salad

You could enjoy this chicken salad on a whole grain wrap, in a lettuce cup, with endive boats, celery, zucchini, or on a lettuce salad. It was a really nice change of pace dinner!

Chicken Curry Salad
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Ingredients
  • 3 cups cooked chicken breast, shredded
  • 2 Tbsp. cilantro, chopped
  • 3 Tbsp. green onions, diced
  • ⅓ cup raisins
  • juice from ½ a lime
  • ¾ cup Greek yogurt
  • 3 Tbsp. Light Mayo
  • 2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tsp. mustard
  • 1½ tsp. honey
  • 1½ Tbsp. curry powder
  • ¼ tsp. garlic powder
  • ½ tsp. ginger powder
  • salt and pepper
  • ¼ cup celery, diced
  • 3 Tbsp. almonds, sliced
Instructions
  1. In a large bowl combine chicken, cilantro, onion, and raisins. Set aside
  2. In a small bowl mix together lime juice, yogurt, mayo, vinegar, mustard, honey, curry, garlic powder, ginger, and salt and pepper.
  3. Pour over chicken and stir until chicken is evenly covered in sauce. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 3-5 hours.
  4. Remove from fridge, add almonds and celery, stir, and test for seasonings. Adjust if needed.
  5. Serve in endive leaves, in a whole grain or gluten-free wrap, whole grain or gluten-free bread, in lettuce cups, or on top of a lettuce salad.

 

This was super tasty and what’s great about it is all of the prep can be done ahead of time so that once dinner rolls around, all you need to do is throw it on a wrap and eat it up! Also, research is showing that curry (namely the main ingredient turmeric) may have some health benefits such as aiding in alzheimer’s prevention, reducing inflammation, easing digestion, boosting immunity, and more.

Have a happy Wednesday my friends!

Do you ever cook with curry? How do you usually use it?

Chicken Marbella & Weekend Scenes

Mother Nature is seriously testing my positivity and patience. It is ridiculous here. It has been consistently cold and rainy/snowy. Enough to make me want to crawl into hibernation again.

snow

We weren’t able to get our normal weekend run in due to schedule conflicts and freezing rain conflicts, and today isn’t too much better. Although, it isn’t raining or snowing yet. The treadmill has my name on it today unfortunately. It sounds like we’re going to have a week and a half or so of not so nice weather and then it’s supposed to turnaround. We can only hope!

Okay, enough of the downer talk. How about some photos from this weekend?

Mom and dad and Abbie time…

abbie

Morning coffee with coconut milk and a fruit and veggie smoothie…

smoothie coffee

Saturday night steak dinner!

steak

Moose shares my same love for peanut butter…

pb banana moose pb

Leftover steak salad with red bell peppers, tomato, olives, avocado, and Annie’s Green Goddess dressing…

steak salad

We planted some of the veggies for our vegetable garden which we will start off indoors and eventually move to our outdoor garden! These are the things we need to be doing to keep our spirits lifted.

dana garden

A batch of homemade gluten-free almond flour bread

almond bread

And the grand finale of the weekend is a recipe inspired from epicurious and introduced to me by Dana’s mom…CHICKEN MARBELLA. 

chicken marbella

Chicken breasts, olives, dried apricots, prunes, capers, red wine vinegar, oregano, garlic, red wine, honey, olive oil, bay leaves, and salt and pepper were combined in an oven-safe dish….

chicken marbella

And baked for an hour at 350°F…

chicken marbella

The result was pure perfection.

chicken marbella chicken marbella

I am a huge sweet and salty fan and this was the perfect dish to satisfy that taste combination.

Chicken Marbella
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Ingredients
  • 2 large chicken breast, cut into 10 large pieces
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced finely
  • 2 Tbsp dried oregano
  • ¼ cup red wine vinegar
  • 3 Tbsp olive oil
  • ½ cup prunes, quartered
  • ¼ cup dried apricots, halved
  • ½ cup large green olives, rough chopped
  • ¼ cup capers and some juice
  • 3 bay leaves
  • ¼ cup honey
  • ½ cup red wine
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Arrange chicken in a shallow baking pan; set aside.
  3. In a small bowl combine all remaining ingredients; mix well; pour over chicken.
  4. If time allows, let marinade in the fridge for a few hours, otherwise place in oven right away.
  5. Bake for 1 hour, basting chicken with juices frequently, until chicken is cooked through.

 

It is such an easy recipe that looks fancy but it is really so simple, and it tastes AWESOME. I highly recommend you make this one night this week. You won’t be disappointed.

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend and that your Monday is off to a great start!

Question of the day: Do you prefer salty or sweet?