Fitness Blog Site

2 of my most favorite people in the world, are married and are both personal trainers. They know SO much stuff!  They have a blog with their recommendations and fitness tips and meal suggestions.  It's pretty awesome. 

Check it out: http://www.bobayfitness.com/

Beef Stew and Press-On Nails

This beef stew was awesome. I tweaked the original recipe, of course, to accommodate for what I had onhand.

Crockpot Beef Stew

• 1-2lbs beef stew meat
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 4-6 new potatoes, quartered (or can used canned potatoes)
• carrots, about a cup
• green beans (1 can)
• 2 cans beef broth (or 28 oz)
• 1 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp black pepper (if you don't like spice, only use 1/2 tsp)
• 1 tsp seasoning blend (whatever you have on hand for bbqing, stir-frying, etc. I used "Garlic and Herb" last night)
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 cup flour (to coat beef chunks in)

The Directions:
--wash and chop all of your vegetables.
--plop them into your biggest crockpot.
--put the flour in a bowl, and toss your meat in it to fully coat.
--put the meat into the crock (throw away the rest of the flour. don't add it in.)
--add dry seasoning and worcestershire sauce.
--pour in the beef broth.
--cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours.

What's even more exciting than fantastic beef stew?  My press-on nails I just bought.  Yep.  My brother's wedding is coming up and all my life I've bitten my nails.  They are awful.  So, I thought getting some fake nails might prevent me from biting them until the wedding so they can heal!  To my excitement, the nails actually look really good.  They stick on with super glue, so hopefully they last a few days.  The box said a maximum of 7 days, so we'll see.  I'm just really excited to have nails that aren't so ugly for a while. :) Who knows, this may be a new way of life for me!  Buying press-on nails each week.  Can't beat it for $6 and you get 2 sets!  But maybe I can just break my habit and have my real nails look good.

This first round was definitely practice.  I got the glue all over the nails because I used too much glue. And you can see the glue bubbles underneath if you look really closely.  But, I'll do better the next time!

BBQ Shredded Chicken

I had 2 lone chicken breasts in my fridge that I needed to use up.  I've been craving some BBQ Chicken sandwiches, so I thought it'd be easy to make in the crockpot.

Even better was that I could use my little 2 qt. size crockpot!  Yes...I have a 1.5 qt, a 2 qt, a 5 qt and a 7qt.  I did have an awesome red 4 qt one from Target that cracked and I miss terribly.  Hint hint for Christmas...

I tweaked the original recipe and came up with this:

Shredded BBQ Chicken
2 thawed chicken breasts
1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup warm water
1/8 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp  Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp liquid smoke (optional)

Toss all in a crockpot, cook on high 3 hours, or low 4-6 hours. Take chicken out, put in a Tupperware and shred it with 2 forks. Then top with remaining sauce, stir.

It was tangy and sweet! I am not usually a fan of vinegar based BBQ, but this was mild and tasty, and not your normal BBQ out of a can.  The vinegar made the chicken shred easily and make it really tender and moist.

I'm going to use it to put on hamburger buns tonight for dinner. It will probably make about 3 sandwiches worth, maybe 4.  So perfect for 2 people with a little leftovers.  You could also serve it over rice.

Beautiful Chairs! Craigslist Score!

I'm always so happy when my romance with Craigslist is renewed.  Craisglist just hasn't appealed to me lately because so many people are posting crap junky things at laughable prices. But, Blake and I had been desiring a chair for our Living Room lately because the big black contemporary chair just was an eyesore.  So, I casually pulled up Craigslist yesterday around 4:50pm as I was wrapping up work, and low and behold, 2 of the cutest chairs EVER were posted!  For $30 for both!  Immediately I started salivating.  I called Blake and asked if he liked the chairs and if we could go get them last night. He said sure, always sweetly indulging my craigslist escapades, even though they usually don't work out exactly how I planned. This trip, however, did.

We scored 2 matching chairs that go with every room in our house.  They're even clean, not a stain on them.  So, we're playing musical chairs with them to see what rooms they fit best in.  For sure, we are keeping one for our bedroom. It's just too perfect for a reading nook and comfortable.  I can do my "quiet times" in this chair now and read comfortably without having to lay in bed with the ceiling lights glaring in my face.  (see my other Craigslist purchase? The table/lamp thing?  I need to paint it and get a new shade.)

We have 2 other spots that the second chair would go in.  I think I like it best in our guest room, but since that room isn't used often, we have placed the second chair in our living room.  It goes pretty well, but isn't a completely perfect fit.  It's a small chair and at the moment looks a little odd scale-wise.  But, it's better than the black chair we had in there, which has since been moved into the guest room now.  This picture also shows off my little houses my mom gave me.  They had been a Christmas gift from my dad to her early in their marriage (I believe) but after 20+ years of prominent display in their house, they redecorated.  And I got the little houses :)

Here's the chair displayed in the guest room.  The chairs have this cute satin/cotton hatch design which matches the unpictured white comforter on the bed.  The yellow really adds a splash of color to the guest room, so when we finally get a real TV for the living room, and rearrange the furniture appropriately, I am pretty sure a yellow chair will end up in this room instead.

What little pillows or throws should I get for these 2 chairs!!??

Meal Plan Monday and "Bacon, Egg, and Toast Cups"

Monday: French Onion Soup Pork Chops, Mashed Potatoes and Canned green beans
(Awesome recipe - just brown some pork chops, throw in a crockpot, cover with French Onion Soup. Cook high 4-6 hours, or low 6-8 hours.)
Tuesday:  Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese
Wednesday: BBQ chicken
Thursday: Meatless Spaghetti
Friday: Lemonade Pie (for a work party, will post recipe then), Sandwiches at home and any work leftovers people will share
Saturday: Breakfast stuff* - eggs, toast, bacon, cereal

*Try these Breakfast cups, they're pretty terrific. I think I'll nickname them "Breakfast Duck Cups". :)  I forgot to oil my custard cups, so Blake and I ate these straight out of the dishes, using a hotpad to hold them. Blake noisily exclaimed his delight with this dish, after me reassuring him the egg was, indeed, cooked.

Bacon, Egg, and Toast Cups:

Adapted by For the Love of Cooking.net

(Original recipe by Martha Stewart)

• Cooking spray
• 1 egg
• 1 piece of whole wheat bread
• 1 piece of bacon
• salt and pepper, to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Coat the Pyrex custard cup with cooking spray.

2. Cook the bacon in a skillet over medium heat for a minute on each side to get rid of some of the grease.

3. Take a rolling pin and roll out the piece of bread until thin. Turn the Pyrex custard cup over and use it to cut the crust away from the bread. Slice the bread round in half then press the halves into the cup overlapping the pieces. Use extra bread to patch any holes.

4. Place the bacon slice in the cup then crack an egg over the bacon. Season with sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste.

5. Place on a baking tray and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until the whites are cooked but the yolk is still soft. Remove from the oven, run a knife around the edges of the toast to remove from cup and serve immediately. Enjoy.

Crockpot Inside-Out Chicken Pot Pie

I cooked again! What has gotten into me?  Maybe it's because I'm tired of having no money because I spent it on eating out.  Maybe.  Maybe it's because the weather is changing and winter makes me want to cook.  Maybe it's because Blake has been hanging around the house and was available to start the Crockpot this morning.  I'll let you deduce my most inspiring reason.

Crockpot Chicken Pot Pie

• 2 large boneless chicken breasts frozen (no need to thaw)
• 1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
• 1 can of water/Milk (fill soup can with half water, half milk)
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 3-4 small potatoes, quartered
• Frozen vegetables (1 mixed bag)
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1/2 tsp Pepper
• 1 tsp Garlic Salt
• 1 tsp Poultry (or Rotisserie) Seasoning
• 1 tube biscuits, to bake before serving

Literally toss everything in the crockpot. Cook on low 6-8 hours. Shred chicken with a fork right before serving and this will thicken up your soup. Bake your biscuits and serve!

This was really good.  Like an inside out Chicken Pot Pie.  Without the nasty crust part.  The broth thickened up nicely after we shredded the chicken and let it sit a few minutes with the lid off.  We cut a couple biscuits in half, put them in each bowl and poured the pot pie filling over them.  It was delicious.  Blake had seconds and devoured them faster than I could finish my first bowl.  He contemplated going for thirds, but must have deciphered my look of horror and decided to call it an evening.  This will definitely be a meal to enter our rotation for winter.  It was cheap and easy and healthy in my opinion.  Probably enough to serve 4-5 people if they don't have thirds.  I put some in the freezer and will see in a few days if it is good as leftovers.
**Update**: 10.25.10- Don't freeze the soup. It's great as normal leftovers, but don't freeze them because the potatoes will get weird on you and the broth evaporates.

Crispy Herb Chicken

Finally cooked something again last night that wasn't sandwiches, cereal, or spaghettios.  I pulled out my mom's stash of recipes she gave me when I got married and I remembered this one being good. And easy.

Crispy Herb Chicken

-Chicken Breasts, thawed (2-4 pieces)

-2/3 cup potato flakes
-1/3 cup parmesan cheese
-1 tsp garlic salt
-1/2 tsp basil
- dish of melted butter for coating (half a stick?)

1. Preheat oven to 375. In 13x9 pan, line with foil, set aside.
2. Melt about half a stick of butter in microwave in a bowl. Set aside.
3. In another bowl, combine potato flakes, parmesan cheese, garlic salt, basil and mix together
4. Dredge chicken pieces in butter, then dry mixture. Make sure to get a thick coat of the dry mix.
5. Place pieces in pan and cook for apprx. 30 min


This was yummy!! I made it with mashed potatoes and green beans.  Best part is that leftovers are good too. Some meals don't taste good the next day.  This one still does :)