Currently Cooking

November 12, 2012 by burpeesboxjumpsandbeer 5 Comments

Tonight I was chatting with some friends about our husband’s eating/cooking habits….  the conversation was very interesting. One said her husband made her hot chocolate and toasted the marshmallows with a torch (that is dreamy). One said her husband doesn’t cook and also doesn’t like eating the same things ever so she is constantly having to find new things to make. What about me, you may ask? Well, J can grill anything but doesn’t usually get into cooking in the kitchen, which is fine because I enjoy it. The only complaint I usually have for J is that he is a meat and potatoes guy and I like EVERYTHING. The more ingredients in a dish, the better! I usually cook things and J looks on and says “what is that?” And he means it. He literally is not familiar with many of the foods I grew up eating… it is a regional thing. Let’s face it, there is corn and cattle farming around these parts! And no, that wasn’t a generalization about all Midwesterners, it was just an observation after being here a little over a year.

Here is an example situation that occurred recently at my house…

I was out and about one evening and I called J and asked him to start cooking the spaghetti squash for dinner (because honestly those things take FOREVER to cook).

I told him to cut it in half, leave the stuff in the middle of it and put the halves face down in a baking dish in the oven. I told him where to locate the spaghetti squash and how to cut it…. When I got home, all of the steps were complete.

But he had cut zucchini squash in half length-wise and put them face down in the oven. The simple distinction between the squashes was the confusion you see. We (I) had a pretty good laugh out of it, he is a good sport though!

I was getting to my point that I usually end up cooking 2 different meals. J likes his baked chicken breast with green beans and I make something a little more complex for myself. Tonight was one of those nights where I made a really random 1 dish meal that I was pretty pleased with and J didn’t touch.

Yep! Still steaming. On Monday nights as part of my Childhood Obesity Prevention class we counsel Latino families. Occasionally the facility has a chef do a cooking demonstration of a modified “healthier” recipe. I always leave those demonstrations in a random cooking mood so tonight you get what I put together from my pantry.

In a sautee pan I cooked up some sliced zucchini in olive oil and then added a can of no salt added pinto beans  and diced tomatoes. Once those were really hot and simmering I threw in 2 tilapia filets (cubed). It was a really weird combination but surprisingly delicious. I seasoned with onion powder, chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper so it was semi-Mexican tasting and I ate it on a few chips.

I have also been sustaining life in the form of turkey burger salads. I made turkey burgers in this previous post.

I made these on Monday of last week and again today. I make little sliders and one pound of ground turkey makes about 12-15. They are really convenient for lunches on-the-go. I just put the salad together: spring greens, avocado, tomato, green pepper, anything you want pretty much, and then the chilled turkey burgers. When I get to school I can just microwave the burgers! I don’t even put dressing on it because the burgers have so much flavor that drips down!

I have also been finishing off my evenings with either:

these are my new obsession… if you haven’t noticed, these obsessions come and go 😉 I am loving these right now!

Or a few forkfuls of greek frozen yogurt. I don’t know why but I have been wanting something sweet after dinner these past few days and I just have something small and move on. I am a huge proponent of this concept. Sometimes I make a conscious effort to avoid sweets for a day or week but usually I just have something small and then don’t think about it anymore. Some people seem to get a bit caught up in what is allowed and what isn’t but I am not on any sort of a plan so I just eat healthy and balanced. 🙂

Today’s WOD:

In teams of 2, complete 12 rounds:
15 air squats
20 sit-ups
25 Double unders (50 singles)

You rest while your partner completes a round and so on… My partner and I finished in 13:24!

Hi from the nugget… is it surprising that there is football on the TV yet again? The prospect of football season seems to always be better than the reality eh?!

Other than that… just counting down the days until Thanksgiving. Spending the holiday in NYC visiting my Dad!!!

Does your significant other like to cook? Picky eater? Think they can cook but really can’t? 🙂