Happy Friday to all my readers! Today is another Food-Filled Friday, and that means I not only have a lot on my mind that is food-related, but today gives me a free pass to share it all with you! Yes, all of it!
This morning, my husband tucked the blankets around me in bed and told me to sleep in ’til my body woke me up. For the record, unless it’s a Saturday morning and he’s sleeping right next to me, I’m not a fan of this. My body is, of course, but my to-do list requires an early morning with more time than I would have if I just slept ’til I woke up. Well, I set my alarm to get up an hour or so later (so that I could still take his advice and get more sleep) but I ended up sleeping in way later than intended. Oh, well. Hubby knows best.
Of course, this means that my time is a little more crunched today and my to-do list not any shorter. So, after running 2.75 miles and walking 2, I’ve set out to hit my list with a vengeance.
I wanted to bake something today. My brownie bites are slowly diminishing and the peanut butter pie I made last week is down to a quarter pie after Adam took another quarter to work after lunch. So… my sweets inventory is in need of replenishing.
However, as Adam and I talked yesterday about our goals for this year, we shared some of our desires, one of which was my personal desire to instill a healthier menu into our daily lives. For sure, we’ll still make our own chicken wings, mozzarella sticks, sesame chicken, seafood fettucini, and macaroni and cheese, but I would like to work in some more nutrient-filled choices as well.
Adam and I discussed what makes a good salad in his mind, what I want to grow in my vegetable garden this year, and how he’s cutting out all soda; but today, I decided to try my hand at a recipe that I’ve been intrigued by for a while now: Healthy Chocolate Cake. Yes, I did say that. Healthy. (This recipe is featured here. I recommend you take a look.) I can openly declare this as such, because of a few, key ingredients.
To be honest, I’m afraid of mentioning them out loud here for fear of losing all my male readership, but the key ingredients for this healthy, flourless chocolate cake are… drumroll…. black beans and honey.
Wait…wait… don’t click off this post! 🙂 This sounds whacked, I know; but instead of flour and as much chocolate (this recipe only calls for 6 Tbsp of unsweetened cocoa), the beans add to the chocolate flavor and the honey is the sweetener. Of course, it’s not been declared good by Adam yet (It’s supposed to chill for a good 8 hours before icing and eating), so I’ll let you know what he thinks as soon as he tries it. Shhh… I’m not going to tell him it’s made of black beans, so we’ll see what thinks without that prejudice.
Because of my busy morning schedule, I was unsure of what to make for lunch. I just bought 10 lbs of boneless chicken breasts at $1.59/lb at Maines (NOTE: This detail was for all you local readers!), so I knew I had some of that sitting in the fridge, waiting to be split into small, freezable portions.
A quick Google search brought me a recipe worth trying, and let me tell you, it was awesome! It’s uncreatively named Sauteed Chicken Breasts with Creamy Chive Sauce, but it was a cheap, creative, and tasty meal I will for sure repeat. So, I whipped up that recipe, but had no sides planned. hmmm.
I don’t know about you, but when I have good food, I hate wasting it. Adam laughed at me last night after I put away the leftovers for a meal neither one of us were too impressed with (Barbeque Beef Cornbread Casserole). Why? he wondered. I’m just too stingy to throw it away; so, as much as it wasn’t my favorite, I’ll eat it ’til it’s gone to avoid wasting. I mention this, because in my fridge was some yellow saffron rice leftover from a recent night of tacos. Some people detest re-heating rice, but I have found that 1. cold rice is good 2. this rice is too expensive to throw away leftovers 3. taco bowls are great using reheated taco meat, melted cheese, and rice 4. if it’s too dry, just add some more liquid to soften it up again.
So, I added some of the extra creamy chive sauce from my chicken dish, and voilá, I served my hard-working man a creamy chicken dish over a bed of yummy, saffron rice….. (I had last night’s casserole… gotta use it up! lol)
So, those were my creative food-related decisions today. Of course, my to-do list still has a few must-do’s on it, so I’m off to tackle those.
Share with me! What’s your latest food-creativity been? Was it a success?
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Tune in next week for more Food-Filled Fridays! =)
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P.S. I saw this picture and just HAD to share with you this wonderful sandwich idea!
In this sandwich, I combined sliced tomato, sliced avocado, a little mozzarella cheese, and some salt and pepper to taste, fried it up in a sandwich maker, and enjoyed a wonderful, healthy and homemade panini! Give it a try!
Making My Boast 
Hey Ashley! Great post, looking forward to trying out that cake recipe!!!
I thought I would throw in my recipe for fried rice which is a great way to use up leftovers. http://abigailcristo.com/fried-rice/
Personally, I don’t mind reheated rice in general. I like to make a relatively large portion in the beginning of the week and add it to meals during the week (heated with milk and honey for breakfast, with chicken or in a soup, etc).
Thanks for your thoughts!
Thanks for sharing, Abbie! I’ve never tried rice with honey and milk for breakfast, but that sounds AMAZING!! I LOVE new recipes! hmm…maybe I should make some rice! lol
So I tried out that cake, I was pleasantly surprised! Couldn’t taste the beans at all! I gave some to my family and asked them what the secret ingredient was and they had no clue. In fact they said it was one of the better “from scratch” cakes they have tasted. Thanks for sharing that site!