It's wednesday already?!

Wow, the week has just flown by, hasn't it? I'm just sitting down to write a recap of the weekend and Mother's Day, but it's already Wednesday! I can't even keep up. 

I sort of mix-n-matched some recipes and came up with a DELICIOUS frittata for our Mother's Day brunch festivities.

Bacon Swiss Chard Frittata

1 bunch swiss chard

5 slices bacon

1 sweet potato

8 eggs

I sliced up a sweet potato (you could also do chunks) and roasted the pieces in a 400 degree oven for about 40/45 minutes. Don't slice them too thin or they'll be sweet tater chips. 

While those are cooking, throw the bacon in a pan over medium heat and let them cook. Remove the pieces to a separate plate to cool and keep about 1-2 tbsp of bacon fat in the pan (I keep the extra to use later).

After they're done roastin', layer your taters on the bottom of a greased or sprayed 9-inch round pan or an 8x8 square pan. Turn your oven down to 350 degrees.

Throw your swiss chard into the hot bacon fat and let it cook until it's a tasty-lookin' dark green color.

Chop up your bacon and whisk up your eggs.

If you are either watching calories/cholesterol or are out of whole eggs, use 2 egg whites per egg.

Layer the chard atop the taters and half the bacon atop the chard. Pour your whisked eggy goodness on top and then sprinkle the remaining bacon bits on top.

Cook for 20-30 min.

Check the frittata often once it's in the oven. I actually forgot to set the timer, so I don't actually know how long this was in there for. At some point, I just realized I had thrown it in without setting the timer. So, I just kept checking until the middle wasn't jiggly. These frittata things are pretty easy to read like that.

I made an easy blueberry maple syrup (1.5 cups frozen blueberries + 1/2 cup maple syrup + 5 minutes boiling on the stove = DELISH) to go along with my favorite pancake recipe.

I made banana pancakes and just a few unbanana ones for my BIL (bro-in-law) who doesn't like nanners.

WHO DOESN'T LIKE NANNERS?!

I was in a rush to get brunch on the table, so these were mighty messy cakes, but they tasted AMAAAAAAZING.

Per usual.

My in-laws brought some bagels and fruit and we had a mega meal in our tiny apartment. 

I had leftover frittata over some spinach for lunch this week and I am determined to roast some sweet tater chunks in leftover bacon fat because LET ME TELL YOU -- that combo is bitchin'.

I also mixed up some of that leftover blueberry syrup with some greek yogurt for a snack yesterday.

I'm planning an experimental Blueberry Cheesecake Greek Frozen Yogurt recipe in the near future. 

This simply needs to be duplicated.

Lastly, I made another batch of Juli's sweet tater brownies.

This time, I used the right kind o' taters and they were amazing. They were good last time too, but these were sans tater chunks, which is preferable.

I like tricking people into eating healthy food. 

Everyone loved them, but we didn't eat them all.

Sokay, MORE FOR ME.

Hope you're all having a happy hump day. Check ya later.

DIY

Okay, so I have a really fun post today. Remember when I told you about that DIY project we did a while back? Welp, I'm ready to share!

You can't see them very well in this picture, but we had these very plain side tables from Ikea.

I looked at what felt like a million different stores/sites and couldn't find something that (a) I liked and (b) fit into our budget.

So, we decided we would just make due with what we had and take on a do-it-yourself project!

We took the tables outside and wiped them clean.

We sanded down every little inch of these guys.

We applied this paintable wallpaper to the front of the drawers.

It had to dry for a while, so we let the drawers rest for a few days.

And then we spray painted the shit outta these guys. 

I wanted something a little different, so we opted for a metallic silver.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We bought these cute little coral knobs from Anthropologie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Altogether, this is the finished product!

Not bad for our first DIY, huh?

The silver was a risky choice, but we actually love it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My favorite part of DIY projects = affordability. We did all of this for under $100.

 

I'm off to make a scrumptious Mother's Day mini feast. Wish me luck.

 

Take me to Downton Abbey, please...

Do any of you watch Downton Abbey? I'm most of the way through Season 2 and I. Am. Addicted. I'm not gonna lie, it's kept me a little preoccupied this week.

Let's chat about food.

Wednesday's lunch was a simple mixed green salad with leftover roasted zucchini, slivered almonds, baked chicken...

...an apricot (isn't he cute?!)

...and this yummy dressing (highly recommended).

Dinner was more baked chicken and sauteed kale.

I got halfway through this before I remembered I have a food blog and should snap a picture.

I probably ate dessert after this, but I honestly can't remember.

Breakfast yesterday was pb&j oatmeal. 

Lunch was leftover sauteed kale and a yummy chicken sausage.

Simple. Delicious.

I like the Aidell's and Bilinski's brand -- this one was the Aidell's Artichoke & Garlic. SO GOOD.

Another apricot for dessert.

Yogurt, granola, and honey for a snack.

I also made these brownies from Juli at PaleOMG. Did you know there are more than one kind of sweet potato? I didn't really know that. I found a sign that said "sweet potatoes" at the market, so I picked a few and used one for this recipe. 

Turns out it was a Japanese sweet potato.

It's actually sweeter than regular sweet potatoes, so it worked for the recipe, but it wasn't as mashy and the taters weren't very incognito in these brownies.

See what I mean?

I shared these with some friends at work and they all really liked them. Didn't even mind the tater chunks!

I loved them -- they were not only under 100 calories each, they are dairy, nut, and grain free!

 I had about four of these throughout the day. 

Although these were awesome, I definitely want to try them with normal sweet potatoes and a touch more cocoa powder to make them more dark chocolatey.

Mmm. I'm getting excited already.

Pass/fail...not necessarily in that order

I woke up yesterday morning in a state of alarm. I realized I went through the entire day on Tuesday without eating any peanut butter. I enthusiastically bounded out of bed to remedy the problem. 

I decided I was going to try the banana + egg pancakes that I've seen all over the blogosphere. But, per usual, I made some changes.

They didn't work out so well.

Basically, I added some coconut flour because it seemed too liquidy and then the coconut flour soaked everything up and they were too thick. So, I finally added some almond milk. Fail. 

They ended up in a heap at the bottom of my mug with peanut butter on top.

 Luckily, this sounds very similar to something Tina makes except mine was much smaller and not quite as much fun. 

It tasted like a warm, mashed banana with a little coconut mixed in. Not bad, but also not a pancake.

Let's backtrack.

I went to yoga Tuesday morning, so I snacked on some grapes before and then enjoyed some homemade granola and yogurt when I got to work.

I purposely do not have the recipe for this granola.

The thing is, my mom makes it. She has offered to give me the recipe numerous times, but I don't think it would taste as good if I made it. 

And mom, I'm almost out.

Lunch was blah.

Roasted spaghetti squash + tomato sauce + chicken sausage.

It was filling, but boring.

Dinner stole the show, though.

Grilled grass-fed strip steaks, sauteed swiss chard, roasted asparagus, and salt & vinegar potatoes!

I found a recipe for the s&v taters that worked really well, but we plan on doing some tweaking next time.

Basically, chop/slice your taters however you like 'em and cover them with equal parts vinegar and water in pot on the stove. Let 'em boil for about 8 minutes, then roast in a 400 degree oven until browned.

We liked these, but thought they could stand to be more vinegary. If you're in the same boat, maybe do more vinegar than water in the boiling phase.

Also, we were getting hungry, so I didn't keep them in the oven as long as I should have. 

They were a little undercooked, but we did not mind a bit!

Also, we had some spotty bananas and the boy was crying for dessert, so I followed an idea I found on Pinterest.

We didn't have marshmallows or graham crackers, but I bet they would have been delicious!

Just the melty banana with chocolate was amazing.

The boy actually thought there was more to the recipe, but I literally cut a nanner lengthwise, stuffed it with mini chocolate chips, and baked it until everything was melty.

Since I've been slackin' in a major way and not blogged all week, I'm going to end this post with Tuesday's eats and bless you all with a separate post for Wednesday's. I know, I'm too generous.

Baked Oatmeal Muffs

As promised, I have a recipe to share. I made these goodies in preparation for my half marathon. Since I've gotten used to fueling up for long runs with oatmeal, I wanted to bring my own pre-race food and not have to rely on hotel grub. These were the perfect solution and my family loved them as well!

I used this recipe, but I halved it because I knew we didn't need many. I also used a little less than 1/2 cup of maple syrup. I knew I was going to make flavors and I didn't want them to be super sweet. I made four of each flavor: banana nut, pb&j, and blueberry chocolate chip.

I filled the muffin tin with a few spoonfuls of batter, put some fillings in, then covered it with more batter.

I did this mainly so I didn't have to bring peanut butter along separately...it was already baked in!

Since I didn't have an extra muffin tin, I made some little mini muffins and topped them with leftover nanner slices and peanut butter and raisins.

I topped the banana nut muffs with walnuts, the pb&j with raisins, and the blueberry chocolate with chocolate chips so I could tell the flavors apart.

Needless to say, these were a huge success. They were incredibly easy to make and even easier to heat, eat, and enjoy.

The blueberries almost completely melted in the middle so I could hardly tell what was blueberry and what was chocolate. A problem I DID NOT mind having.

You can hardly see the banana filling, but the taste was perfect!

Of course, the pb&j was my ultimate favorite, but...no surprises there...

Make these and let me know your thoughts. I finished my batch this morning, so I'll need to make more--STAT! If you think of any other flavors, please share!

DC Food & Fun

So sorry it's taken me so long to post! I'm the worst. Let's recap.

This past weekend, I ran the inaugural Nike Women's Half Marathon in Washington, DC with my family! We had such a good time with plenty of face-stuffing fun and a little sightseeing. Let's recap!

 We found this incredible tapas place with an even more incredible lunch deal: unlimited tapas for $25/person. 

I think they actually lost money on us because, like me, my family can eat.

And we were adding calories to prepare for our race anyway, so this was a win-win sitch for us.

We ate a lot. 

I can't recap it all, but there was some good eats in there. 

We went back for seconds.

 We visited the White House where we could actually see the Secret Service agents on the roof.

So cool and terrifying at the same time.

 I think the Lincoln Memorial might have been my favorite. 

He just seems like my kinda guy.

They had his speeches inscribed on the walls and it was truly incredible to read and imagine what a ground-breaking moment that must have been.

The weather was perfect, so we walked outside a lot and enjoyed it.

I was amazed to see what a green city DC is.

Although I love NYC, DC's greenery is really vast and spread out and it was just nice to relish in all the space.

Sound cray? If you live in NYC, you know what I mean.

For the race, my mom and I planned to run at a comfortable pace since my IT band was killing me (before we even started running) and it was her first race in a while. I finished a little slower than my last half, but I was happy with my results: 2:20. Last race, I finished in 2:16, but I'll try harder next time...

My mom and I stuck together the whole time. Two peas. She was a great coach -- I definitely had trouble running the last two miles and I couldn't have done it without her!

Upon my return, I got right back into my breakfast routine with a batch of oatmeal with a chopped plum mixed in...

...and, of course, a dollop of peanut butter atop.

I also made this banana/peanut butter recipe again and munched on a few for breakfast this morning.

If you haven't tried this incredibly easy and scrumptious recipe yet, you should get on it.

Other recent eats:

 Leftover mash.

Rice & beans + balsamic spinach quinoa salad + roasted chicken + salsa

Looks gross, tastes great.

Like almost anything that's good for you.

 We also attended a Yankees game where a few in our party decided to indulge in this monstrosity.

That would be a bucket of fries topped with sliders. 

 A bucket of fries calls for a shit ton of ketchup.

 Although I know how bad these are, I couldn't help but scarf half the bucket. 

Moderation at its finest.

Coming up next, I have a fabulous baked oatmeal recipe to share, so be on the lookout!

A preview...

It's sad that I have to write a whole separate post for these because of all the pictures I've taken. But, you'll thank me. These little nuggets are amazing and customizable! You'll love me after this -- if you don't already...