A New Gym Class, Red Wine Green Beans and Beet Chips

Tuesday evening, Mariah and I decided to try a new class at East Shore: Abs, Core, and More. We had no idea what to expect and I was honestly afraid for my tummy until she told me it was only a 25-minute class. I got to the gym early and ran a mile (8:10), then walked a 1/2 mile. Then it was time for class.

We walked in and were told to grab a mat, a stability ball, a dumbbell, and a smaller ball. Right when class started, our teacher informed us that she loved this class because she could get away with saying “balls” over and over. Oh, okay. We warmed up, did a few crunches on the ball, and some planks. We also laid on the ball and did some side moves while holding the dumbbell. Later, we did plank pike-ups,  and ball passes. For more info, check out these stability ball exercises.

Then we did something really awkward. We straddled the ball and moved up and down on it by pushing the ground with our toes. I could not stop laughing and wondered why this woman would make us do this in public. Awkwardddddddd. After class, I ran an additional mile (8:03) then cooled down for 3 minutes. Then I peaced out because I was hungry.

When I got home, I realized I had so many veggies I needed to cook before I got my 9th CSA box  the next day. The first recipe was inspired by Paula Deen’s Honey Balsamic Green Beans. I was shocked to find that one of her recipes didn’t include butter! However, I still made changes. I nixed the balsamic and added wine. Why? Because I like to party. I also nixed the onion powder and used real onions. Why? Because I like onion breath. Duh.

Red Wine, You’re So Fine Green Beans

Ingredients:

• 16 oz. fresh green beans
• 1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 medium onion, chopped
• 2 tbsp. red wine
• salt & pepper to taste

Preparation:

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil over medium heat. Add the beans and blanch them for 2 minutes. Immediately remove the beans from the water and rinse with cold water. Drain.
2. In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and green beans. Cover, and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Uncover, then add the onions and stir again. Cook for an additional 5 minutes.
3. Next at the wine, honey, and salt and pepper, to taste. Cook for 5 minutes..
4. Transfer the beans to a serving bowl and serve.

After I devoured about half of those delicious beans, I made beet chips! These were incredibly easy now want a mandolin slicer so I can make beet and sweet potato chips.

Beet Chips

Ingredients:

• 2 medium beets, sliced thin
• 1 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
• 2-3 sprigs of fresh thyme
• salt & pepper to taste

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 350*. Arrange beet slices in a single layer on a cooking sheet. Lay fresh thyme on top.
2. Bake until slightly crispy, for about 20 minutes.
3. Remove pan from oven and flip beets. Cook an additional 10-20 minutes until you have reached desired crispness.

Which is your favorite vegetable to cook? You all know that beets are my latest obsession. I need to start making my own frickles! I’m also a huge fan of peas but those don’t need much babying. I’d eat those suckers straight out of the can.

Which vegetable do you despise? RED ONIONS! Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Uncooked onions in general make me shudder.

And be sure to check out my guest post on Lea’s blog!!!

Do you fancy a fancy dinner?

I feel absolutely miserable. So miserable I can't even say the whole word, so for now I am MIS. Three syllables is just too much, right?  I have had this silly cough for over 2 weeks and now I'm suffering from Spring allergies. Is Mother Nature out to get me? I recycle and use a Camelbak. I thought we were friends?

When I'm sick I become an extreme introvert and want to hide under a blanket. Weird. Despite this temporary state of introversion, I couldn't resist Lucy's invitation to eat dinner with her family. Those Brits are fun. I may not understand half of Lucy's dad's jokes nor am I able to pull off the card trick he taught me, but I have enjoyed spending time with them while they are here on "holiday."

For an appetizer, we had toasted French bread topped with a lovely mixture of tomatoes, red onion, garlic, virgin olive oil, fresh basil, and salt & pepper.

I ATE RED ONIONS AND I LIKED IT. Or maybe I’ve lost my sense of taste?

We also had an arugula salad with pear, pine nuts, and flaked parmesan tossed in a honey balsamic vinaigrette. Lucy’s uncle took one bite of the salad and said, “This cheese is sock cheese!” Funky?

All five of my senses were revived once Lucy’s mom started making our main dish. Believe your eyes – this is beet risotto.

She boiled the beets in water with a couple tablespoons of each balsamic vinegar and brown sugar. She reserved the beet juice and, along with white wine and thyme, added it to the Arborio rice. Many stirs later and topped with a dollop of goat cheese, we had our risotto!

After dinner, Lucy and I took some stale pita chips out back for the ducks. It was so pretty out tonight.

I'm so glad I didn't stay home under a blanket. Lucy's dad made me laugh so much I forgot I was sick. He really likes getting his photo taken. Here he is showing off a poster from the race he and Lucy's uncle sailed in.

Here he is posing with the vanilla granola he picked up from Whole Foods. This doesn't even have anything to do with dinner?!?

And later he made a really special face as he brought Lucy's and my dessert outside.

Love,

The American.

Goat Cheese & Spinach Stuffed Chicken with White Wine Lemon Sauce

sooo i (christina) created this recipe all by myself--you can tell it's me typing because i hate using capital letters. brandon is much more proper than me and loves punctuation. sometimes if he's sitting next to me when we're blogging (and i'm typing) i feel the need to use punctuation. boooooooring. but i will tell you that i am a grammar FREAK. (there's some caps for you). brandon is too. grammar is not a joke. seriously, people, start writing and speaking correctly. nothing gets on my nerves more than bad grammar. i have a list of what i find to be the most annoying grammar mistakes that people commonly make. that's a post for another day. i don't know where this obsession with perfect grammar came from. oh, wait, yes i do. when my grammy answers the phone and the person calling asks, "may i speak with meredith?" she replies, "this is she." growing up, i would think "ew. she sounds so weird." and then oh, around 10th grade, i learned why this is correct. sorry, but i don't have time to tell you why right now. look it up. anyway, it sort of became an obsession. i promise during my teenage years i used an inappropriate amount of slang and acronyms (i referred to my best friend nicole as my BFFL), but i KNEW right from wrong. holy moly. did i just start a new blog? sorry. onto the food.

we love chicken. we love cheese. we love wine. we love spinach. why would we not combine them into something oh so delicious?

i thought about the aforementioned ingredients, looked up some recipes online, and created my own. i would like to tell you a hundred times how delicious this is, but i also don't have time for that. but i will SHOW you!

Ingredients:
1 lb chicken breasts
2 oz goat cheese
fresh spinach leaves
salt & pepper
1 lemon
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
8 oz mushrooms
2 cups white cooking wine
2 cups fat-free, low sodium chicken broth
fresh thyme

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350*. Using a mallet or the back of a pan, flatten chicken breasts until 1/4" thick. Lightly salt & pepper. Across each flattened breast, lay a few pieces of spinach and crumbled goat cheese. Roll up each breast and stab those babies with a couple of toothpicks so they stay together in the oven. Now, here's the fun part. Take the lemon and grate a little zest atop each breast. This gives just a little hint of lemon flavor that really ties in with the sauce...Bake chicken for 25-30 minutes.
2. Place a large pan over medium-high heat and add cooking spray. Add the minced garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add the mushrooms and let those cook for just a couple minutes. Add the chicken, wine, thyme, and juice from the lemon. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently, and let it reduce to about half. If you want to thicken it, you can sloooooowly whisk in some flour towards the end.
3. When the sauce has thickened, pour it over your cooked chicken.

we wanted corn with this recipe, so we just boiled 2 ears. we cut the kernels off the cob and brandon sprinkled them over our chicken. he likes to make things pretty. i just like to eat.

Shrimp, Spinach, & Goat Cheese Risotto

Brandon had been craving risotto for over a week and since I had never made it myself I decided we should try it together. I spent some time looking at recipes online, decided on some ingredients I wanted to use, and Brandon picked them up at Whole Foods. Making risotto is a laborious process, but definitely worth the effort. I alternated arms so I could get buff. Haha. It came out really good. We actually used the juice of a whole lemon, but I adjusted the recipe below because that was a bit too much. You could use fresh dill in place of thyme if you'd like. We will definitely make this again.

Here it is in the pot:

And in the bowl:

Ingredients:

• Cooking spray
  
• 1 pound small shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cup chopped sweet onion (about 1/2 medium)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 cup uncooked Arborio rice
• 3/4 cup white cooking wine
• 4 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
• 1 1/2 tbsp finely chopped fresh thyme
• 5 oz bag of fresh spinach, coarsley chopped
• 2 tbsp lemon
• 2 oz crumbled goat cheese

Preparation:

1. Coat a medium pan with cooking spray and heat over medium-high heat. Add shrimp and cook for about 5 minutes, or until done. Remove from heat and keep warm.
2. In a large pan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook for 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add rice; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add wine and cook until nearly absorbed, stirring constantly.
3. Add broth, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring constantly for 5 minutes or until liquid is nearly absorbed before adding the next. When adding the final 1/2 cup of broth, add shrimp, spinach, thyme, lemon juice, and cheese. Salt & pepper to taste. Serve immediately. Makes 4 servings; about 1 1/2 cups each.