Balsamic Caramelized Onions

I've recently been introduced to the concept of "sprouted bread".  Did you know about this?  It's supposed to be good for you.  I'm into that.  I'm also into it being stored in the freezer.  Since I travel so much, I desperately need the freezer to store food so things won't spoil quickly.  I know, I know. I understand that this is not a new concept and you can pretty much freeze any type of bread you like. Don't rain on my parade.

Since this sprouted bread and I have been hanging out more often, I've become completely re-interested in grilled cheese. Grilled cheese with onions have been calling my name. Since I will eventually make French Onion Soup, but it's now summer and a hot soup may be out of the question, I will have to satisfy myself with a version of this grilled cheese. But wait! I need to caramelize some onions first. Let's make that happen so my grilled cheese dreams can become a reality.

Giveaway! -- SlimKicker Digital Scale

**This giveaway is now closed**

Hey. We're all friends here, right?  Good.

It's true that I've been sort of quiet lately about the fitness aspect of my life.  But really, I've just been  good about doing it instead of talking about it.  (I've also been on vacation in Key West.  More about that here!)

But now.  Now I'd like to let you in on a little secret.  Since we're close like that.  It's not all about physical fitness.  It's sometimes about the food you eat as well.  I sometimes blog about healthy food.  Right now, my favorites include baked pesto chicken, carrot ginger soup, chicken broccoli feta quiche, edamame hummus, and baked tilapia. There are more favorites but I could go on for a while...

The thing about eating healthy is that you need to know two very important things: how to accurately measure your food and how to accurately determine portion size.  The easiest way to do these things is to use a kitchen scale.  Wait, you don't have one?  Well, then, let me help you with that!

This is my very first Giveaway, y'all!  It's sponsored by the folks over at SlimKicker, which is a calorie tracker and healthy living and fitness app.  They're making it easier for you to live your life right by turning your health goals into a level-up game with various challenges that you take on for a pre-determined amount of time.  You can level up by tracking your healthy calories and exercises through their app and also by completing challenges such as "not eating processed meats for 14 days".  You can totally do that.  And you can use their fancy website tools, such as a calorie calculator to help you along your journey.

Doesn't that sound like a winning plan?

image from Amazon.com

SlimKicker is on the hunt for new health challenge ideas.  Here's the deal:

Giveaway Rules: Leave a comment on this post, describing a new and creative health or diet challenge that you would like to see as a part of their site.  It should just be 1-2 sentences.  SlimKicker will pick their favorite and that lucky person will win their very own digital kitchen scale. Sorry international readers.  This giveaway is only open to US residents.  Giveaway closes at midnight, July 6th.  I'll announce the winner on the blog after the comment period is over.

Get your creativity flow on!  And check out SlimKicker while you're brainstorming.  Use it to get and stay healthy.  Your body will thank you.

Livin' the Life 6/27/2012

You may be wondering what I've been up to lately.  (Or maybe you're not)  If you follow me on Instagram, you probably already know.  I took a little jaunt to Key West for 4 days to celebrate a girlfriend's bachelorette party.  I'm still working on piecing some of the nights together.  Here are some of the tame pictures I took.

 

Plane ride to Key West.  A bird's eye view of the Overseas Highway. 

Popcorn in a Brown Paper Bag

Did I ever tell you about that time those lovely people at Patron sent me a care package? Yes indeed, they did.  Unfortunately, there was no alcohol involved in this gift.  What the heck, right?  Oh well.  I did receive the following:

• 2 Tequila Patron champagne glasses (This pretty much elevates me to Baller status.)
• Tangerine Rimming Sugar
• Gingerbread cookie mix
• Gingerbread house cookie cutter set
• Mulling spices
• Popcorn kernels
• Caramel popcorn seasoning
• Woven wood salad bowl

Livin' the Life 6/18/2012

I want to update you about my life. Like my everyday life. I take a ton of iPhone pictures but I recently realized that they simply hang out on my phone once I'm done taking them. So let me show you what I'm up to!

This type of blog post will be sort of sporadic. I'm pretty much planning on sharing pics with you guys when I have the time and inclination to post them. There will still be a ton of food in this blog's future. Never you fear.

Without further ado, here's what I've been doing recently:

Slow Cooker Hungarian Goulash

According to my Hungarian friend, I made this incorrectly.  Allegedly, if I were to make true Hungarian goulash, the result would be more of a soup instead of a stew.

Apparently, he thought I would care.  My kitchen isn't exactly a democracy.  When I think of goulash, I think of a beef stew, not a beef soup.  I also happen to like stews better than soups.  So I can make my goulash any which way I please.  And I did.  It was marvelous.  And I even "cheated" by using a crock pot.  So take THAT, you Hungarian.

There's also something new that I've been trying lately with my crock pot dishes.  I've been setting them up to cook overnight so they are done by the time I wake up in the morning.  This works particularly well for me because 1) I have no problems with taking down a bowl of stew for breakfast and 2) I typically work from home on Fridays, so this solves the problem of what to eat that day since my meal is already waiting for me in the slow cooker.  

You should try this too.  In fact, I encourage it.  Alternately, you could do something like on a Friday or Saturday night so that it's ready for brunch the next day.  That's convenience, I tell you.  Get with it.

Rosemary Fried Almonds

A few weeks ago, my friend had a beautiful and tasty birthday dinner at Aldea, an Iberian peninsula-inspired restaurant in NYC.  Although the food was quite excellent, one of the highlights of the night for me was the Marcona almonds that were brought out as a part of the "we're waiting for friends" appetizers course.  These almonds were lightly fried in oil, salted, and then presented to us.  I wanted to hoard the entire bowl myself.  I may have done just that.

I knew I wanted to recreate these almonds, so when I saw a similar item on my assigned blog for this month's Secret Recipe Club, I immediately chose that recipe to recreate.  New Yorker by Heart turned up the volume on these almonds by adding rosemary into the mix.  Why yes, I would like to have a little rosemary in there.  And it just so happens to be my second favorite herb (after basil, of course).

Bacon Egg Avocado Sandwich

Sometimes I need to slow things down.  Do you ever feel this way?  I have pseudo anxiety attacks because I feel as if I'm constantly on the go and trying to get way too much all at once.  Then when I try to balance things out by resting up, I get pseudo anxiety attacks that I'm not crossing everything off my To-Do list.

Breathe.

Sit.

Eat this bacon egg avocado sandwich.

That, my friends, is a great solution.