Sometimes keeping it simple is the best. Every Easter when I was growing up - and really, almost every other holiday - my family would go over to my grandma's for a big family get together. I've talked about my amazing grandma before, but she loved to cook for everyone - and she pretty much always overdid it with how much food she made. There would be a ridiculous amount of dishes for everyone to enjoy. From a giant antipasto salad and homemade breads, to a gigantic spread for the main course, to probably half a dozen desserts, complete with her annual bunny-shaped Easter cake, my grandma always spent days preparing. She also always made me eggplant parmigiana because I loved it (and later on, I developed an allergy to it, probably from eating it too much!). One type ... [Read More]
arugula
Arugula Pesto Linguine with Tomato & Zucchini
Saturday was one of those days when I was all about checking things off my to-do list. Finish schoolwork. Check. Vaccum. Check. Dust. Check. Do laundry. Check. Fold laundry. Check. Clean bathrooms. Check. Walk the pup. Check. Do an at-home workout. Check. Purchase a car dog seat cover so that my pooch doesn't ruin my car. Check. When Saturday evening rolled around, I decided that it was a nicely productive around-the-house day, and now it was time for some weekend fun. My hubby and I had plans to go to a luxury movie theater with another couple, but first, it was time to check this off my mental checklist: Make an awesome dinner using the farmer's market pasta sitting in my cabinet. The week before I had met a girlfriend for a smoothie date, and afterwards we walked around ... [Read More]
Arugula Salad with Shaved Parmesan & Cherry Tomatoes
Hi there! Whew, Monday came so quick. The weekend just whizzed by for me! A lot of time over my weekend was spent doing house stuff, including buying a pool vacuum - it took us a few weeks to get the pool in order but now we're all good! - and looking for patio furniture that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. I also spent Sunday evening on the beach with this little maniac cutie.... ...and had my first tennis workout in quite awhile! My hubby is making fun of me because I'm so sore today since I hadn't played in awhile. I always get sore when I do an unusual workout, and my forearm, hand, obliques, and back are certainly achy today! I'd like to play tennis more often now that we live down the street from some pretty decent courts. I'm in no way a great tennis player, but I find it to be a ... [Read More]
Keepin’ it Simple & Delicious: Arugula Goat Cheese Crostini
Hi there! My Sunday morning has definitely started off on the right foot: I awoke to a message from my best friend saying that her and another girlfriend of mine are coming to visit me next month (YAY!), decided to have a living room yoga/stretching session in my PJs while my hubby and puppy still snoozed, and then I made a nice green monster smoothie to get my veggies & fruit in. Now I'm sitting here blogging to you in quite a fabulous mood. :) This weekend has been a nice low-key one for me thus far. That should continue throughout today, as my only Sunday plans are cleaning and errands, exercising crazy Harley girl, and perhaps a mountain biking trip with Adam (I know I know, I was just talking about my foot injury in the last post - but I'm feeling out what workouts I can and ... [Read More]
Veggie, Goat Cheese & Arugula Pesto Pizza
Today I ate breakfast early due to a conference call first thing this AM. Because of this, I found my stomach growling around 11 AM for lunch. I had pizza on my brain... and not just any pizza, leftovers from a new pizza recipe I came up with last weekend! Instead of using tomato sauce as I usually do, I came up with a healthy pesto to spread onto the dough. Though I'm a big cheese lover, I let veggies take the center stage with this tasty pizza. Veggie, Goat Cheese & Arugula Pesto Pizza Makes 8 slices Ingredients: 1 ready to bake whole wheat pizza dough (I use Trader Joe's) 2 c arugula 1/4 c fresh basil juice from 1/2 lemon 2 TBSP olive oil 3 oz goat cheese 1 c zucchini, sliced 1/2 c cherry tomatoes, sliced 1/2 c purple cabbage, shredded 2 ... [Read More]
Jumping on the Watermelon Salad Bandwagon
Happy Friday! First off, I've got to share what I'm munching on... I made oatmeal peanut butter banana cookies from PB Fingers , with just a couple changes. First, her recipe makes four dozen cookies. I do NOT need 48 damn cookies in my apartment with just me here! So, I made 6 instead, which was a smart move... these babies are delicious and I could probably eat a dozen if I made that many! I also subbed her egg for a flax egg and added chocolate chips to mine (because in my opinion, desserts are always better with chocolate chips added in). They came out so yummy, so if you're looking for a cookie recipe, make these! Moving on to dinner... Now that summer is around the corner, I keep seeing watermelon salads popping up everywhere. I find it to be an interesting salad mix ... [Read More]