WIAW #2

It's Wednesday again! And that means not only is it Hump Daaaaaaay (in my head I said that like the camel in the insurance commercial), but it's also time for What I Ate Wednesday hosted by Jenn over at Peas and Crayons.  This week's "What I Ate" is brought to you by Tuesday.  Without further adieu, here is what I ate Tuesday...

Coffee.... duh.  Pre-breakfast, post-breakfast, coffee all day.  I'm currently lovin' this s'mores flavor from Target.  Actually, I love all of their flavors.  Besides this "buttery caramel" may be my favorite.

After a cup of coffee I went for a run outside.  I haven't run outside much this summer.  I haven't actually run much at all this summer.  I'm one of those weird people who actually loves running, like loves it, but I've been trying to focus more on strength training so running been put on the back burner as far as workouts go.  Plus, I hurt my foot a couple weeks ago and haven't been able to handle the pounding in a running shoe.  But, the fiancé's car broke down yesterday and since I'm still a "lady of leisure" for the next two weeks I oh-so-generously gave him mine for the day.  With no way of getting to the gym I went for my first al fresco run in a while.  So, how does a planned 5-mile run turn into 7 miles?  Well, you lose your apartment keys part way through and have to back track to find them of course...

Breakfast of Champions: After my impromptu 7-miler I blended up a protein shake... I'm calling this bad boy a "Chocolate Dipped Strawberry Protein Shake" and I made it with a scoop of chocolate whey, a cup of frozen strawberries, and a cup of almond milk.  Not the best picture, but I think it looks like a big frothy milkshake!  I also had some almonds on the side for some good fats.

So this week I'm heading down to Norris Lake to go boating and wake boarding.  I spent the whole morning/early afternoon cooking up some enchiladas for dinner one of the nights down there.  Needless to say, when I cook I snack so I munched on some of the enchilada filling throughout the day.  But, more on the enchiladas another time...

Lunch: After snacking on enchilada filling I wanted something light.  On sunday the fiancé and I made sushi for dinner and had an asian salad with it.  There was some left-over salad so I cooked up a chicken breast and threw it on top of the asian salad for lunch.  Besides chicken the salad had shredded lettuce, shredded cabbage, red onion, red bell pepper, broccoli, scallion, and mandarin oranges in it.

Snacks:  Let's talk snacks.  I've done it..... I've officially made my first Quest Bar pop tart.  While there are some tweaks I would change for next time, it was everything I had hoped for and more!  Most of the recipes I've seen call for two bars, but that just seems like a LOT to me, so I made mine with one bar.  To make a pop tart that doesn't end up being tiny with only one quest bar you need to roll it out pretty thin.  I popped a strawberry cheesecake Questbar in the microwave for a little less than 10 seconds.

**note!** you ONLY need to put it in the microwave for long enough to soften.  I destroyed one bar in the process by putting it in there for 20 seconds and it was so melty I couldn't handle it (well, I didn't destroy it, it's sitting in my fridge, slightly deformed and waiting to get in my belly tomorrow, but it was un-poptartable). 10 seconds in the mic people!

After warmed I rolled it out very thin using a jar of salsa (what? I don't own a rolling pin).  After rolling it out it should be about twice as large as a normal pop tart, so cut it in half.  One piece is your top and one is your bottom.  Spread a tablespoon of sugar free strawberry jam on the bottom half and place the top over it.  I used a fork to crimp the sides together and put it under the broiler for a minute (if you have a toaster over, this would be the time to use it).  After it came out of the broiler I topped it with a tablespoon of vanilla whey powder mixed with a tablespoon of almond milk.  This is what I would change next time, the "frosting" was delicious but very thin.  I would use less milk and let the heat of the pop tart melt it.  Oh, and of course there are rainbow sprinkles on there to make it pretty :o)  so good guys, so good.

Dinner: Dinner was supposed to be stuffed peppers made with left over vegetable enchilada filling and ground turkey, but by the time I drove the fiancé to pick his car up from the shop it was way to late to start making that.  Instead we stopped at Firehouse Subs.  He got a big 'ol italian sub and I got the "Chief's Salad" (no, I didn't misspell that, it's called the Chief's Salad).  It had romaine, sliced chicken (chicken lunchmeat... I was hoping for chicken breast), tomatoes, cucumber, green bell peppers, hard boiled egg, and red onion.  All-in-all pretty good for a fast food salad, so I can't complain.  Topped it off with balsamic vinegar and a bit of EVOO and it was actually a pretty good dinner.  I'm not usually a two-salads-a-day kinda girl... I like having a hot meal, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do.  Stuffed peppers will be tomorrow.

Well, there ya have it.  A day in the food of Kylie.  p.s. I took The Goober over to meet my friend's dog since she will be staying with them while I'm at the lake this week.  They whipped out some carrots to snack on.  Did you know dogs like carrots?  At least these two new best friends apparently do.  Why have I been buying treats this whole time???

Do you have a pet?  What's their favorite "human food"?

Have you made any yummy Quest Bar creations I should try?

lean on me...

I know this is early, but today (as in Sunday) I'm linking up with my very talented, extremely young, fantastic mother's blog for Song-ography Sunday.  My mom is an amazing photographer and she's the one who inspired me to start this blog, so you should probably check her out over at her blog.  Although it's a photography link-up and my photographs are decidedly not artsy, I told her I wanted to link up if I could figure out a way to tie my food into her photo-prompt for the week.  She gives a song every week and the point is to represent that in pictures.  I figured this week's prompt of "Lean On Me" could be represented by food.  Did I make this dinner specifically to be photographed for the song? yes.  Did my fiance make fun of me for doing that? yes.  Did he stop making fun of me because his stomach is now pleasingly filled? yes.

Today the fiance and I had an unbelievebly productive little Saturday.  We went to Macy's to register for our wedding... translation?  I totally abused the power of the scanning gun and registered for everything in the store.  Four hours later we emerged from the store feeling like we had spent more money that either of us have, tired, and hungry.  I knew exactly what I wanted to make for dinner, so we went to one of my favorite places on earth, Findlay Market, and got the supplies. 

I've always had a love of farmers' markets.  I trace it back to when I was a little kid and we would go to the farmers' market on Thursday.  My mom would give my brother and I each $0.50 to get some candy and we would run to the candy stand and figure out how we could get the most candy possible with that money.  I still think that's where my math skills came from (sorry high school algebra teacher).  Looking back, it was just a way to get us out of her hair, but that's where my love of the farmers' market came from.  Fast forward 20 years and it's still one of my favorite places to go.

Anyway... on to the food.  When we went to the food tasting for our wedding I found out how much the fiance loved lamb, so I decided to make lamb tonight for dinner.  We bought a rack of lamb from the butcher at the farmers' market and started cooking away.  If I have one suggestion, go to a butcher to get a rack of lamb.  The only other time I've made lamb I had to french the chops myself... not pretty.  I love cooking, but let someone else do the dirty work for ya!

As long as it's trimmed up and frenched, lamb is a pretty lean cut of meat.  I'm not gonna go eat it every day, but as far as red meat goes it's a good splurge.  I left the loin whole and cut it into individual chops after cooking.  This was MUCH easier than cutting it before cooking.  When I got home I put it in a little marinade made with 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, 1/4 cut extra virgin olive oil, 2 tablespoons of dijon mustard, 1 tablespoon of honey, and lots of rosemary and thyme.  I only let it marinade for about an hour, but the longer the better.  If I planned it out I would let it marinade overnight.

After marinading, pat the lamb dry.  Pre-heat a pan to medium high heat and pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Brown the lamb in the pan.  I let it sit on each side for about minute.  You want to get a good sear on it to seal in all the juices.  Then transfer it to a pan and roast in the oven until it's done to your desire.  We like our meat pretty rare/medium-rare, so I let it roast for 20 minutes.  I would say 25-30 minutes for medium.  Take the rack of lamb out of the oven and let it sit, covered with aluminum foil, for 10-15 minutes before cutting it into individual chops.

And here, my friends... are the "Lean on Me" pictures....

Let me tell ya... it was perfect! You can cut the meat off the bone like I did or save on the dishes and pick the bones up like lollipops (like the fiance did).  Either way, tastes like heaven.  I also threw the left over marinade in a pan and heated it to a boil.  We used that as a dipping sauce and it was perfect.  So perfect that the dog went crazy for it...

 ...and then she begged for more.