Healthy Tex-Mex Stuffed Peppers

I've had a lot going on lately and the rest of this month is not going to be slowing down. I'm going to Orlando for work this Saturday-Wednesday (I know, poor me, right?), my roommate/best friend is moving out next weekend, Tom is moving in the weekend after, my semester is coming to an end soon, and I have another conference in Connecticut toward the end of the month. Lots of good things in the works, but it all makes me a little anxious. I used to jam pack my schedule as much as possible in high school and college, but these days, I really enjoy (and need) my down-time.

Things I Love Thursday and Meatless Monday All Rolled Into One

Last week was my First Day of Spring Edition of Things I Love Thursday. Since last week New England seems to have done a complete 180 and headed back toward winter. Poor Cape Cod got pounded with hurricane force winds and over 6 inches of snow! My neck of the woods luckily only had a lot of wind, causing my office to lose power (yay for work-from-home days!) and the railing on my rickety front porch to blow clean off (yay for having a landlord to fix things!). 

Anywho, here are a few things that make me really happy these days.

• Spring Blackberries
• Impending summer movie trailers

Things I Love Thursday - First Day of Spring Edition

It's the first day of spring and I have a lot of great things on the horizon! A couple of big trips and vacations I'm excited about and one really big step for me and my guy at the end of next month! :) But here are a few things that I love from this week:

1. I got new glasses this week (see pic above) and I absolutely love them! They have a little more personality than I originally thought I would want, but after getting some feedback from my co-workers and friends, the response seemed to be unanimous: YES! The new sassy glasses are making me want to get a new sassy tattoo!

Here are some more things I love from this week:

Happy St. Patty's Day! Irish Soda Bread

Happy St. Patrick's Day! On my weight loss journey, I'm down 3 pounds and I couldn't be more thrilled. I've been eating a higher protein, lower carb diet, cut out sugar, processed starches, most dairy, and I'm eating more veggies and seeing the numbers on the scale is definitely encouraging. That being said, I gave myself a pass to have a little traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner this weekend, and that comes with Irish Soda Bread.

Recipe Reviews: Lemon Chicken and Cauliflower Rice

Ratings

Shutterbean's Lemon Chicken: A+
Nom Nom Paleo's Cauliflower Rice: A+

Do you ever have those meals where everything just seems to go together perfectly? A beautiful symphony of mingling flavors and textures that make your taste-buds shout for joy? That happened for me last night, and the whole meal was very healthy! Healthy food that tastes good? What?

As soon as I saw Shutterbean put out this recipe for Lemon Chicken I couldn't wait to try it. Lemon is one of my favorite things to add to cooking and we're all familiar with my obsession with Lemon Squares. And the fact that she used chicken thighs intrigued me. I don't use chicken thighs often but they're on sale frequently, so when my local store had boneless, skinless chicken thighs on sale, it was like it was meant to be. 

In my continuing effort to be healthy I was looking into paleo recipes. The concept has always been interesting to me, and since I'm trying to be careful about blood sugar, cauliflower rice seemed like the perfect solution. I found Nom Nom Paleo's version by doing a search in Pinterest. Her Cauliflower Rice recipe was simple, and used coconut oil (another ingredient I've always been interested in trying out but was always intimidated.

Both recipes came out absolutely amazing. I wish I hadn't been so hungry that I didn't stop and take the time to take pictures with my real camera (sorry about the Instagram pic). The only change I made to either recipe was the addition of parsley to the rice instead of Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute. I didn't have any on hand, and since parsley tends to go with lemon flavors and also the thyme and oregano used in the chicken, I gave it a go and I was not disappointed. I roasted a little asparagus in olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper, and it was a perfect meal. Tom had most of his plate cleared before I even sat down. 

I can't wait to try variations of both of these recipes in the future. I'm already thinking cooking Cod or another type of white fish would be perfect in place of the chicken. And I can't wait to add different spices to the basic cauliflower rice recipe depending on what it's going with. Maybe a little saffron with a Mexican recipe? Mmmm. Look like I'll be buying cauliflower regularly now!

Frugal Foodie Makeover: Tex-Mex Breakfast Scramble

I've known it for a while. How could I have missed it? Buying bigger clothes to fit my expanding ass and out-of-control boobs. And those stretch marks? No, I didn't give birth recently, those are from cupcakes and brownies. Last week my doctor talked to me about weight loss. It's the first time I've had this talk with a medical professional but it was only a matter of time. She wants me to come back in 6 months to check in and see how I'm doing. Opportunity presents itself in weird ways sometimes, right? 

Dark Chocolate Nutella Cheesecake Brownies

Well longtime no talk! I apologize for my absence. Grad school had been kicking my a** and I have been spending pretty much any time that I'm not working, studying or reading trying to unwind. Although I've been busy, life has been great, except for all this snow. I've had about all I can take at this point. I've started painting my nails hot pink again to hopefully usher in spring. Or it really just makes me happy to look at something bright when the weather is so dreary.