Tag Archives: sloppy

Food

Prelude To The Turkey

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Last Friday while doing my weekly grocery shopping, I remembered it was a {short week} and that took the pressure off a little as far as meal planning and packing lunches go. I gave in and purchased two Lunchables for Elliott for Monday and Tuesday, but made up for it with our dinners!

We tried several new recipes this week that I wanted to pass along…are you ready?

French Onion Soup {a favorite of Jay’s}

This was my first ever attempt at this soup. I looked at several recipes before settling on the one from Epicurious…very pleased with the way it turned out, though. I found the little ramekins at Ross for $1.99 each. They were the perfect size for two ladles of soup and two baguette croutons. Gruyere is about $20 a pound, but so worth it {I got 8 ounces at Sprouts for a little over $10}!

BLT Pasta Salad {via Pinterest}

Spotted this and realized I had every single ingredient ~ the perfect way to use up several tomatoes on the vine, some center cut bacon, a head of romaine, some green onions {in place of the chives} and the last of some light sour cream! I even had a box of whole wheat penne in the pantry. This could totally pass for a main course salad.

Bombay Sloppy Joes {courtesy of cute Aarti from Food Network}

Sloppy Joe goes exotic! When I first spotted these, I filed them away in my mental food rolodex. I love Indian flavors and knew that these would be right up  my alley. The slight sweetness comes from just a bit of honey and raisins and the kick comes from serrano peppers! The house smelled divine as this was cooking up. I will never buy Manwich again. We’ve been making Rachael Ray’s homemade sloppy joes for years, but these are a nice twist.

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes {again, via Pinterest}

Not a great pic, but they were soooo yummy. We had our neighbors over in their pajamas this morning, brewed a huge pot of coffee and enjoyed these. This was one of the new traditions on this year’s holiday list {click on the link if you want to see how the pancakes are really supposed to look ~ ha!}. You could certainly use pancake mix, but I made this from scratch as the recipe suggests and it was a cinch. I made mini silver dollar size by using a tablespoon to measure out the batter. The cream cheese drizzle puts them over the top!

*****

Looking forward to Mr. Turkey and all his side dish friends tomorrow.

I am learning that a lot of people don’t care for the green bean casserole with the dried onions….I love it! It kind of wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without it.

What is the one thing that is a must on your Turkey Day table?

Fitness, Food

Mmmmmm & Oooowww!

I love me some sloppy joes.

I used to think that the only way to make them is to buy a can of Manwich and brown some ground meat. But then I came across RR’s recipe for “Super Sloppy Joes”. I think the preceding “Super” is unnecessary and sounds silly, so I will just call them:

Sloppy Joes From Scratch

They are so delish ~ you will never want to buy another can of Manwich ever again. When I first read the recipe I was a little “huh?” … the red wine vinegar and brown sugar threw me off, but I went ahead and moved forward. They were fabulous! I have served them at 2 birthday parties as minis with little potato or dinner rolls and they were a big hit. I do use ground turkey rather than the ground beef, though. I love that there is a whole red pepper in the sauce…I throw a whole, seeded pepper in my mini processor and get it all finely chopped and it just blends in with the tomato sauce ~ the kids won’t even know it’s in there, folks!

Here is the line up:

Here is the meaty goodness:

And here is the final ‘wich:

So yummy I could’ve eaten another….but I didn’t because I had to go to “Boot Camp With Carmen” this evening!

That is where the “Oooowww!” comes in.

Ay Carmencita! It is night one and I am already feeling it.

OK, this may sound lame, but the whole time I was there, I was pretending that I was on Biggest Loser and that I was on camera. I made certain that my form was on point ~ standing with my stomach in, knees slightly bent, the whole nine. This really worked. I held the full body plank extra long because, afterall, I was on television in front of millions and I wanted to look like a rock star. Held the lunge like a statue because I didn’t want to look weak.

But then I reminded myself THAT THIS IS THE FIRST DAY and that it’s OK to have something to improve upon for goodness sake!

I did learn 2 things, however:

1. I have absolutely NO core strength!

and

2. I def need a better bra!

Jumping jacks and I have never been the best of friends, but if I’m going to turn this boot camp out, I need to invest in some serious sports bras. I’d better do it quick because I report back on Wednesday night to do it all over again!

A far cry from Jillian, but I think if I put my all into it I will see some good results after 7 weeks with Señorita Carmen.

Man, I must be a glutton for punishment this week ~ 2 nights of boot camp, a mammogram tomorrow morning and a scheduled 13.1 on the elliptical tomorrow night.

Ay Caramba!