The Friday Five–Manly Style

Hello friends! I am off for a little vaca and have a guest post (of sorts) for you.

Meet my friend Eric. Eric works at Blackbaud with me and is also food critic for the Charleston City Paper. We met through our mutual friend Rachel and bonded over a love for all things related to food and cooking. The food bond is pretty strong as we both have a slight obsession with beets and pickles. Oh, and did I mention he’s a Chick-fil-A fan too? Now you know why we are friends.

I enjoy cooking and learning about different foods, but this is where Eric and I differ. He LOVES cooking. And is really good at it. In preparation for a catering gig he was doing, he offered to let me sample some of the veggie burgers he was going to be serving.

As a new(ish) vegetarian, I was really excited to try homemade veggie burgers! Morning Star and Trader Joe’s veggie and black bean burgers have already been incorporated into my diet, but I knew it was only time before a homemade one made its way to my mouth.

While Eric played in the kitchen, I played with his pup, Copper. Look at this cutie!

Though I don’t have an exact recipe, the burgers are essentially a mix of the following:

• edamame
• red pepper
• red onion
• corn
• carrot
• spinach
• cayenne
• lime juice
• garlic
• egg
• bread crumbs
• edamame pureed with water, lemon juice, and oil

The veggies and seasonings were chopped in tiny bits, then bound together with the egg, bread crumbs, and edamame puree. So colorful!

He formed the patties,

and pan fried them.

For serving, Eric placed each burger on a mini Hawaiian sweet roll, topped them with tzatziki sauce, and garnished them with cilantro radish.

How adorable is this! Be jealous. They were flipping fantastic.

I thought to myself, “How am I going to go another day without these?” My prayers were answered when Eric offered to let me take home the leftover mix so I could make some at home.

Hash tag awesome.

Now here’s where the guest post comes in. We have the usual Friday Five post, but written by the cook himself. Enjoy!

What I'm Reading: Charcuterie: The craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing by Brian Polcyn and Michael Ruhlman. Who doesn't love cured meats?  I'm seriously considering turning my spare walk-in closet into a meat  and beer locker. Sausages, hams, salumis, and aged beers.  Can you imagine staying in my spare room and smelling bacon?

What I'm Watching: American Idol. Don't judge me. I've never been into the show until this season. The only reason I'm watching is to support a someone I know from Charleston, Elise Testone. She's killing it right now and everyone should vote for her on Wednesday nights!

What I'm listening to: Atlas Genius – Trojans. I heard this song for the first time on Alt Nation and I'm hooked.

What I'm Bookmarking: http://www.moleculargastronomynetwork.com/ 

I've been on a molecular gastronomy kick. Making balsamic caviar, foams, basil spaghetti, mojito spheres, bloody mary candies, and more.It's cool what you can do with food and chemistry.

What I'm Drinking: Bell's Hopslam. Hops, citrus, and honey - three of my favorite things all in one beer. This stuff doesn't sit on the shelf long so I get as much as I can as soon as it's released.

Hope you enjoyed the guest post. I will tell you where I am soon..

Two-A-Days: Good or Bad Idea?

Hi there! My name is Claire from Dine-and-Dash and I am so excited Xtina asked me to guest blog for her while she is away in NYC! (Lucky girl)

I first came across Hungry Meets Healthy when Xtina posted “Confessions of a Year of Singledom.” I laughed so hard I almost had to refrain from reading her blog while I was at work. After that, Hungry Meets Healthy became a regular on my blog roll and I welcomed her humor, wit and recipes into my life daily. If you are reading this, you clearly know how infectious she is…

Today I’m going to be talking to you about “Two-a-Days.” Not only is this a hilarious show on MTV with some very hot looking, albeit illegal for me, high-school boys, but it is also the act of going to the gym, or working out twice in one day. Do we think this is good or bad?

After doing some research, it looks like working out twice in one day is not considered bad for you at all and can even be dubbed beneficial if done the right way and with the right attitude.

Here are some rules to abide by when you find yourself wanting to tone up fast by resorting to “two-a-days.”

1. Time your workouts. Try a morning session and the second session should be in the evening or late afternoon.

2. Make sure you're eating enough food. Healthy food. Cook an 8oz. piece of fish or meat for extra protein followed by carbs 30 minutes later. Remember you're not only replacing the calories you burned, but also preparing your muscles for what workout lies ahead.

3. Get enough rest between workouts. Studies say a 20 minute nap can make you more alert and energetic afterwards.

If you are bored with your current routine, try two workouts per day for one week, resting for 2 days minimum. Please note to rest muscle groups for 48 hours is possible. The last thing you want to do is overwork your back or chest twice in 24 hours. (source)

This information was partially selfish for me to research. My wedding is roughly 70 days away and “stuff is getting real” to say the least! I may have to test this “two-a-day” theory out, the work-outs not the boys, just to see just how long I can put off not eating at Salsaritas. ;)

One way I am planning on tracking how effective my work-outs are for the next several weeks is to get started with Dailymile. I’ve recently found this on other healthy living blogs, particularly Your Food Smiles and think it’s a great idea! Basically, it is a “twitter-like approach for logging…training activities.” Talk about motivation!

You can log how many miles you’ve run per week as well as your pace and a how you felt. Of course you can log any other work-outs as well. You can create your profile and even share it via Facebook, your blog and Twitter.

Well ta-ta for now, I hope I was somewhat a worthy guest blogger for our girl Christina! Let’s cross our fingers she is all bringing us back something from H&M, shall we??

Whole Wheat Nutella Fudge Brownies

Gooey. Rich. Chocolate. Guilt?
No. These are not going to bust your diet. We're making these Chocolate & Carrots style.
Yes, it's 285 calories. But, half of one is enough to satisfy any chocolate craving...resulting in only 142 calories. Awesome.
And when you have this much Nutella, you've got to be creative and quickly find some easy and healthier recipes. This recipe is by far the easiest Nutella recipe I've made thus far. Three ingredients. How can you beat that?!?
Let 'em rise and crack. In just 30 minutes you'll have fudgey chocolatey-goodness at your finger tips.

I've hope ya'll enjoy these Whole Wheat Nutella Fudge Brownies! It was a pleasure sharing them with you!

Whole Wheat Nutella Fudge Brownies
adapted from {a thought for food}

Ingredients

• 1 cup Nutella
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup and 2 tablespoons whole wheat flour

 

How-To

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a 12 cup muffin pan, line 7 of the cups with either foil or paper liners.
3. Beat the Nutella and eggs together in a medium bowl.
4. Add in the flour and mix until blended.
5. Pour evenly into cups about 3/4 the way up.
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until they are crackly on the top.

Servings: 7 brownies

Guest Blogger: My Best Friend Nancy

Hey y'all!! I am super excited about being a guest blogger—VERY out of my element! So I will start with a little bit about Christina, a little bit about me, and then I'll get to the real post...

I have known Christina for 13 years. We met in middle school, were completely insane in high school (no, really-it was bad), went off to college together, and even lived together for a hot minute. We seriously never see each other (boo) but we are in love 'til the end. You can read more about our love story here. As her oldest friend, I feel obligated and entitled to embarrass her, so I will! Here are some things you may not know about our fabulous foodie:

1. There was a brief period in her tween years that she REALLY liked the Teletubbies. Po, if I'm not mistaken.

2. She used to eat pickles wrapped in American cheese with mayonnaise spread in between. No, this is not a joke. I am positive that this does not occur anymore.

3. If you like your life, do not get in a car with this woman. You'll be praying the whole way to your destination.

4. She dated Sk8er boys in high school. ha.

5. In our college dorm, when most 18 year old girls would have posters of half-naked men on the walls, she had posters of half-naked Britney Spears on the wall.

OK, OK, five things are enough. :)

My turn. My life is NUTS. I work full time, I go to school full time, I am married to the best husband ever, and we have three kids. Ryley is 5, Grayson is 3, and Camryn is 21 months.

As you can imagine, it's literally everything I can do not to go crazy. IF I have a spare moment to myself, I love shopping, the beach, having a drink or two or six (oops), and really just hanging out with my friends and sisters. Ryan and I LOVE food. We will cook an awesome meal, and sit down and watch food network. This is our idea of fun! My favorite foods are Southern-American, a good steak, Mexican, and Japanese. Not exactly the best things for you in the world. But I believe in balance, and I try to eat really well all week long if I know I am going to a barbeque or the hibachi grill on the weekend.

And here comes my dilemma:

I will admit, ever since I went back to school I have been eating fast food WAY too often. Like twice a week on average. This is not OK. Good thing Lent started on March 9^th. So, for Lent I have decided that I am going to give that crap up. I will pray to the Chick-fil-a Gods to forgive me later. I'm also not sure if its OK to talk about Lent and Chick-fil-a Gods in the same sentence...but I digress...

Time for me to find some healthy, family friendly meals that can be made super duper FAST. The answer? SLOW COOKER!! Here are the ones that I found online and can't wait to prepare:

Slow Cooker Lemon Garlic Chicken - With some fresh, blanched broccoli or zucchini on the side, my kids will love this!

Slow Cooker Braised Pork with Salsa - I'm definitely going to go with some quinoa on this one!

Do you give up anything for Lent—even if its for more of a restraint or cleansing reason than religious? What will you do this year?

Do you do a big binge before a fast? I definitely had a Spicy Chicken Deluxe with pepper jack and extra pickles on Tuesday night. Oh no! Does that mean no drinks too? Ugh....I will miss you diet lemonade.

I love you, Nina, and hope you have the best time ever in New York! EAT EVERYTHING!!!!!!

<3, Nancy