So Over It

Last week was amazing. Almost every day was above 50 degrees and we even had two glorious days that were close to 70! Then last night, it snowed. Winter, I am so over you!! Warm sunny days mean...

I can take caged-up, crazy boys outside to run out their energy during the witching hour and catch up with my neighbors!

It takes less than an hour to get everyone out of the house since we can forgo the coats, socks, gloves and hats!

I can wake up 10 minutes later to run since I don't have to bundle up in 25 layers like a snowman!

I'm done with soup, casseroles and comfort food. I'm over it. Bring on the crisp cold salads, dinner on the grill, fresh salsas, and margaritas!!

The nice weather last week got me fixated on making Green Papaya Salad (Tom Sum). I'm usually a curry-girl when it comes to ordering Thai food, but my girlfriend introduced me to this salad a few months ago and I haven't stopped thinking about recreating it. It's incredibly light and refreshing, with the perfect mix of sweet, sour, salty and spicy. It just screams summer time. And its like one calorie. Not that I really get hung up on calories, but if its one calorie and I love it, it's a win-win.

So I looked up a couple different recipes and it seemed simple enough. Except for that one main ingredient... Green Papaya. No ordinary papaya will do the trick here. Not a ripe one. Not a red one. I needed an unripe Green one so I could get that crunch.

So this weekend Superman ventured to the Asian store with me to scope out that Green Papaya. I had never been to Lotte, the huge ginormous Asian store about 10 minutes from my house. It was insane. I felt like a kid on Christmas morning when I walked in. Huge packs of basil for a dollar! Mangoes for 59 cents! Green papayas aplenty! I was throwing EVERYTHING into my cart.

Just like every other store on the weekend, this place was packed. It took a long time to navigate my way around (especially since I was pushing the obnoxious cart for kids with the race car in the front, banging Superman into a product display at least once every 2 minutes). By the time I got up to the register to pay there was a very long line waiting behind me. The cashier rang everything through, including the Cheetos Superman had already finished and the water he half drank. I reached in my purse to grab my wallet and felt... nothing. No wallet. In a panic, I asked the cashier if she could put the whole transaction on hold so I could run to my car and she could check out the long line of disgruntled customers behind me. She didn't quite understand and responded, No, I will wait. I told her to just void the whole transaction and I ran Superman out to the car praying my wallet was sitting in the glove compartment.

Let me paint this picture for you - this place is PACKED, there are gusts of 60 mph winds outside, I parked in the back corner of the parking lot, and I'm hitting every other customer in the ankles with my race car shopping cart trying to get to my car. I throw open the car door, lunge inside and find... no wallet. I told myself that the cashier understood that I wasn't coming back, and I left. I FELT SO TERRIBLE!! I really hope they gave up on me quickly, and I'm cringing at the thought of the poor soul who had to put back every single item that I threw in my cart in a fury of excitement.

But I wasn't giving up on Green Papaya Salad. I'm just over finding a Green Papaya. Besides, I want to share recipes with you all that are easy to throw together, and easy to shop for. So after browsing the internet a bit I found a good-enough substitute... Broccoli Slaw!

So Over You, Green Papaya Salad

1 package of broccoli slaw
2 tablespoons of Agave, palm sugar, honey or raw white sugar
juice from 1 lime
couple cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1/2 tablespoon salt
Thai basil (regular basil is fine, but if you can get your hands on Thai basil, its money. oh and its $1 at Lotte, just remember your wallet)
1 or 2 Thai red chiles (they do sell these at Harris teeter, wegmans, and bloom)
green onions
1 tomato
1/4 cup roasted peanuts

Halve the red chili and remove the seeds if you want it less spicy. I was making this for guests so I took the seeds out.

I have this fancy shmancy pestle and mortar I've never used so I decided to give it a whirl, but you can totally just rough chop all these things! Besides, I actually didn't really like the peanuts ground up, and next time I would just throw them in the salad whole.

The ingredients I ground up (or rough chop under a food chopper or in a food processor) were the red chili, salt, peanuts, garlic, and sugar

This was fun

Then mix in the juice from one lime, and the soy and fish sauce. I added a little more agave because it didn't taste sweet enough to me. Then throw in the bag of broccoli slaw!

Thinly slice tomatoes

Throw em in

Chop up the basil and green onion, throw that in

Throw some peanuts on top, mix it up, and you're done!!

Served it with a piece of grilled chicken. Salmon would be yum too.

It's not quite like the real deal from the Thai restaurants, but it did the trick for me!

Out of My Comfort Zone

It's really easy to get in a rut. Day after day I run the same boring 4 or 5 mile loop. I use the same key ingredients in different meals over and over. I pick up the same things from the grocery store week after week. It's natural to gravitate toward what's comfortable, and by extension, what is easy.

But it's the hard things, the uncomfortable and new things, that can be the most rewarding if you're willing to try. This weekend I'm running Army 10 Miler. I'm nervous. It's out of my comfort zone right now. It's uncomfortable to try and run fast for that long. There's a big difference between running my fastest for 3 miles and running my fastest for 10 miles. But at the end, it will feel that much more rewarding to know I pushed myself out of my comfort zone.

This Mandarin Salad I made last week was definitely out of my comfort zone. I'm just one of those people that prefers savory over sweet, and the idea of putting fruit in my salad makes me want to gag a little. But this Pampered Chef recipe was requested by someone else for a show, so I had to try it out before I presented it.

I'm SO glad I went out of my box and gave this a try. It was seriously yummy, easy, healthy, and I loved the flavors that would ordinarily NOT be my preference! It was a great combo of sweet and salty and definitely more filling than the average salad! It works well as a main course, but would be perfect to bring as a side dish to parties, with or without the shredded chicken!

Mandarin Pasta Salad

1 bag of baby spinach
1 package of farfalle (cooked and drained)
1 can (11 oz) of Mandarin Oranges
1 to 2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
1/2 a cucumber
half a red onion
2 carrots
Sliced almonds

Dressing: About 1/3 cup rice vinegar or red wine vinegar, 2ish tbl soy sauce, juice from 1/2 orange (I used 2 clementines, its what I had), about a 1 inch piece of freshly grated ginger (no one will know if you use ground), 1 clove pressed or chopped garlic, 1/4 cup sesame oil, and 1/4 cup olive oil ... because I don't like vegetable oil.

This thing is kinda awesome, the measure, mix n'pour has the ingredients for different kinds of dressings right on the cup. You fill it up to the line, shake it, then seal and refrigerate for a later use! So I mixed all the dressing ingredients in here first.
Add cooked bowtie pasta with the bag of spinach and the chopped/shredded chicken breasts

Julienne some carrot sticks. I have a nifty julienne peeler but you can also use any vegetable peeler for a fast result. You just get thinner slices instead of the "matchstick" pieces you get from julienne-ing. (is that a word?)

Add the carrot on top of thinly sliced red onion, and chopped cucumber

Mix in the mandarin oranges (drained), dressing, and top with the sliced almonds! Simple, light, and delicious. *** vegetarian tip... instead of chicken you could totally toss some cooked and cooled quinoa in here. Bet that would be tasty.

Pulled Pork Part 2 of 3

So for Part 2 I kept it nice and simple. I took the pork that I had refrigerated and not yet shredded (see post below), and simply shred it up and added our favorite store bought BBQ sauce. I put it in the oven at a very low heat while I made the potato salad.


Lightened Up Spring Potato Salad

3-5 red potatoes, diced smallish
1 hardboiled egg
chopped celery and onion
peas (but really, whatever you have/like in your potato salad works)
2 tbl dijon mustard
4 tbl greek yogurt
dill
chives
salt and pepper

I cut up three red medium sized potatoes (unpeeled, thats where all the nutrients are!) and added them into a big pot of water and turned up the heat so it would come up to boil. I threw in my egg that I wanted to hardboil for the potato salad too. Season the water well! The potatoes absorb the flavor... salt, bay leaf, herbs, chicken broth, use whatever you want or have on hand.

While it boils, get your other veggies for the potato salad ready. I went with what I had on hand... peas (leftover from the Buffalo Chicken Salad, and I like peas because they're Springy), onions and celery.

So, my husband HATES mayonaise and while I don't hate it, I don't particularly love putting huge spoonfuls of it in my food. So instead of mayo I used 1-2 tbl of dijon mustard, and 4 tablespoons of greek yogurt (also leftover from the Buffalo Chicken Salad). It was soooo good. It was still creamy, but not nearly as heavy or dense as it is with mayo.

Toss in your spices, I used fresh chives and dill (happened to have these on hand for the deviled eggs I made over the weekend. Again you don't have to use these spices, but I will say I really liked the dill in this).

When the potatoes are done, drain and run them under some cold water and toss them in with your yogurt/veggie/herb mixture. Peel the hardboiled egg, omit the yolk, finely chop the whites and toss it in too. Fridge til ready!

And the final products... I worked really hard on the beans too (opened up a can and heated it up).

Wings and Beer

Not really, but this is what the taste of this salad makes me think of. It was delicious, but you won't like it unless you like a good spicy hot wing dipped in blue cheese. Buuuut, the great thing is that this is way healthier than that!!


Speaking of getting healthy... registration opens for Army 10 Miler this morning!! Last year the race sold out in 6 short days!! I've only run Army 10 once, the year I had my second baby. I had done a few half marathons, but this was my first 10 miler ever. ANYONE can sign up for this race. If you've been running for a while, then a 10 miler is a great distance to work on improving your speed. If you are newer to running, a 10 mile race is such a great goal to set!! It's a totally attainable distance to train for, and such a huge accomplishment. And this particular 10 miler is so well organized and well marketed. So SIGN UP today! Don't think about it, just do it. Just sign up right now and figure out the rest later. I can promise you this, you will NEVER regret the runs you do, but you will always regret the ones you skip!!



Thanks ELINA for the great recipe!

Spinach Buffalo Chicken Salad

For the salad:
shredded chicken breast (not pictured, I had two breasts cooked and leftover from the weekend, but a rotisserie chicken would be perfect)
Red Hot (one of the healthier buffalo sauces b/c its not laden with butter)
big bag of spinach
sweet peas
carrots (shred or thinly slice)
celery (chopped)




For the dressing:
1 tbl mayo
3 tbl greek yogurt
handful of blue cheese
olive oil (maybe a tbl to two... enough just to loosen up the dressing)
salt
pepper
basil


Mix about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of Red Hot with the shredded chicken


Cut and prepare all your veggies and put them in a big bowl...


Mix all the ingredients for the dressing (it will be thick-ish) and toss it in the veggies. Use your hands!! The dressing is thick so its the only way to get it through. When I make this again, I will toss just the carrots, peas and celery in the dressing and then put it on top of the spinach... this will make it easier to save leftovers!!


Top with chicken...

See? Hot Wings and Beer with zero guilt :)