Hey people! Sorry for the late post today; work was too crazy for me to get this post finalized during my lunch break like I usually do. You see, each day at work I’m supposed to take an hour lunch break since I’m technically there for nine hours but am only allowed to bill for eight. A forced lunch break is a-okay with me, and I usually use that time to catch up on blogs and finalize whatever post I am working on However, on really busy days like today, I have to work through my lunch and can’t get to the blog. Womp wompp. Oh well, that’s what the evenings are for!

Anyway, now I am sitting comfortably on the couch with Jack and we are having a nice evening bonding since Fabio is at the beach with his friends. Jack is great companion, since sometimes I can freak myself out when I’m home alone (anyone else get like that?). Jack has been coming over to sit next to me and is current;y resting his head on my shoulder because he ~~loves me~~ wants me to throw his tennis ball. This dog never runs out of energy!

Workout

My workouts this week have been really good! After not doing Insanity for a while after Memorial Day, I was feeling incredibly sore after starting it up again earlier this week. My calves were soooo tight and my glutes were painful too! I was especially sore in the mornings so my runs with Jack were pretty painful, but we pushed through them! Plus, after completing a few more Insanity workouts my body has readjusted again and my muscles feel fine now. Phew!

I was planning to add in a few afternoon runs to the dog park in addition to my morning workouts, but with this weather I didn’t think it would be good for Jack (heat warnings being what they are…). Instead I settled for taking him on a long leisurely walk around the neighborhood this afternoon, which he seemed to enjoy.

Recipe

Before Fabio left for his male bonding trip, I cooked us up a dinner that would use up a lot of the veggies we had in the fridge, since I knew I would be eating less by myself for the rest of the week. After looking through the pantry and the fridge, I came up with a delicious orzo salad with chicken sausage and plenty of veggies. This salad recipe is perfect for cleaning out your fridge and pantry because it can be made with whatever you have one hand!

First, I picked a base for my salad. In this case, it was spinach but it could easily have worked with romaine, arugula, spring mix, or whatever greens you have.

Then I picked the protein, which happened to be these delightful chicken sausages made with broccoli that we picked up from an Italian deli in New York.

I cooked them up in a small skillet with some garlic and onions.

While the sausages were cooking, I picked an add-in for my salad. I chose to use up the rest of the orzo that we had on hand from the last orzo salad I made.

FYI, if you’ve ever seen on Pinterest that a wooden spoon will keep a boiling pot from spilling over, it’s true!

While the pasta and the sausages were cooking, I assembled the rest of my add-ins. You could include any veggies or flavors you want here, but I chose to use some tomatoes, steamed brussels sprouts, and basil, since that’s what I had available.

When the pasta was done cooking, I mixed it up with the spinach and vegetables.

Then the sausage was done cooking, so I sliced it up and added that in as well.

When it was all ready to go, I mixed up a quick salad dressing of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper (I made a little extra because I like having it on hand to flavor my veggies).

Then I drizzled a couple of tablespoons over the entire salad and mixed it all together. Then it was time to serve!

Yummmm! It was so good and easy!

So good!

The Clean-Out-Your-Pantry Salad

Assemble the following ingredients based on what you have on hand.

Salad Base (pick one or more)

Spinach leaves
Romaine
Arugula
Mixed greens

Protein (pick one)

Cooked chicken breast
Fish
Ground turkey
Chicken or turkey sausage
Black or red beans
Almonds, walnuts, or other nuts
Fat free Greek yogurt

Add-ins (pick one)

Quinoa
Orzo
Rice
Sunflower seeds
Croutons

Vegetables (pick one or more)

Cut fresh asparagus
Cooked halved baby carrots
Broccoli or cauliflower florets
Steamed, halved brussels sprouts
Quartered mushrooms
Bell peppers
Peas
Corn
Green beans

Flavorings (pick one)

Italian: basil, tomatoes, garlic, balsamic/olive oil dressing

Mexican: salsa, chopped onions, cilantro, cumin

Asian: ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, spicy garlic sauce

Mix everything together in a large bowl and serve! If you’re smart, you’ll make enough to have leftovers for lunch the next day

So tell me, how do you guys use up ingredients in your fridge and pantry? Egg scrambles are another way I like to use up veggies that are on their last legs. These salads are quite tasty though!

Now I’m off to watch some TV, work on a craft project, and hang out with the pup. What the heck do I watch on Wednesdays now that Modern Family is over? When there is no So You Think You Can Dance, America’s Got Talent, or The Bachelorette to watch, I am at a loss. The Choice? Hm. Don’t think so.

Hello everyone! Happy Wednesday! I am starting to notice that every week when I write my WIAW posts I am insanely busy at work. I used to think Thursdays were there really busy days around here, but I guess it depends on what projects I am working on. Anyway, I’ll keep this brief so I can get back to ~~being a slave~~ work.

If you’re new around here, WIAW stands for What I Ate Wednesday and it documents what I ate for a whole day. The idea was started by the ingenious Jenn over at Peas and Crayons and it’s a fun thing to participate in each week so you can keep track of your eating habits. So, without further ado, here’s a compilation of everything I ate yesterday!

1. My morning started out with a bowl of Frosted Mini Wheats cereal with fat free milk. This is one of my favorite breakfast cereals because it has a lot of fiber but doesn’t taste like crap. I first bought it when my Fooducate app (everyone needs to download this app!) showed me that it was a better choice than many cereals, and I’ve been buying it ever since! It also fills me up for the entire morning, which I know from experience that a lot of cereals don’t (at least for me). I’ve tried switching up my cereals a bunch of times, but this one always finds its way back onto my shelf. It’s a keeper!

2. For lunch I had another staple for me: turkey breast on a whole wheat sandwich thin with reduced fat American cheese and mustard. I also, not surprisingly, at this with a handful of raw almonds from Trader Joe’s, pretzel twists, and yogurt-covered pretzels for dessert. I know, I know, this is a very boring lunch and I eat it almost every day, but I like it! And that’s all that matters, right?

3. Midway through the afternoon I was feeling hungry again so I munched on a banana. I was happy that I remembered to bring one to work because sometimes if I’m running low on fruit or rushing out the door, I forget. Nom nom nanner

4. I also sipped on half a bottle of All Natural Nantucket Nectars Apple Juice. I didn’t drink the whole bottle because I was saving the rest for later (mostly because there was too much sugar in it for me to consume in one serving), but the juice gave me a quick boost of energy when that end of the day drag started creeping up on me.

5. Apparently I was really tired at work because I also munched on two Hershey kisses. These kind are the air delights, which have more air and less chocolate so they kind of break down when you eat them. They taste pretty similar to the regular ones but are only 200 calories for 11 of them. Yes, I said 11. Who eats 11 Hershey kisses in one sitting anyway?? For two little kisses it’s only about 35 calories, which is not bad at all if it cures my chocolate craving.

6. For dinner I had Chicken Orzo Summer Salad with asparagus, tomatoes, and bell peppers. If you missed this recipe yesterday you should check it out immediately. It. Was. Awesome.

And that concludes today’s WIAW post! As my friends will tell you, it’s a good thing I didn’t decide to write a What I Ate This Weekend post because it would have included a ton of fattening foods like chicken tenders and pizza. Ugh! I’m trying to squeeze a lot more fruits and veggies into my meals since we’ve been back, and last night’s salad definitely helped! Hopefully I can keep the streak going

How do you guys recover from crazy weekends? I’m thinking a detox shake might be in order. You should see all the greens I picked up yesterday. Oy!

Ah, my favorite time of the day is right now. Dinner is done, the kitchen is clean, and I can relax on the couch and blog. This evening is especially welcome after the tough day I had at work. Coming back from vacation is always difficult, but today my to-do list was never-ending and I had a ton of assignments that needed to be finished by the end of the day. It was super stressful so coming home and enjoying an easy and fresh dinner was exactly what I needed! Before I share the recipe with you though, let’s talk about my workout.

Workout

Last night Fabio didn’t get home from New York until after midnight. To make things worse, he needed help bringing in all his bags and, since it was late, he had to park far away. This meant I had to stay up waiting for him and didn’t get to bed until way past my bedtime. So, when the alarm rang at 6 am for my morning workout, I opted to snooze for an extra 30 minutes and only ran a mile with Jack. I felt a little guilty for skipping the other half of my workout, but my body was so drained from Memorial Day Weekend and I knew it made more sense to sleep in. I will just have to vamp up my workout tomorrow!

Recipe

I was feeling pretty uninspired today when I was thinking about dinner (must have been that lack of sleep/busy workday bringing me down) so I turned to Cooking Light for some inspiration. I saw this beautiful Chicken Orzo Salad with Goat Cheese which looked bright, colorful, fresh, and easy. I was immediately hooked! Although I had most of the ingredients on hand, I didn’t have any orzo or arugula so I picked some up from Trader Joe’s after work. I couldn’t wait even one day to make this delicious recipe!

Luckily, it lived up to its expectations! It was so flavorful and I loved all the different elements. I actually wound up omitting completely forgetting to add the goat cheese, but it honestly wasn’t missing a thing! I loved this light summer salad and was happy I could incorporate so many veggies into one dish. Here’s how it came together.

First I cooked the orzo according to the package directions. If you’ve never had orzo before, it’s a rice-shaped pasta that makes a great base for salads. I used Trader Joe’s brand (shocking, I know).

While it was cooking, I got all the veggies together. I first chopped up some spinach and arugula. Then I plucked a few leaves (about 3 tbsp.) from my basil plant, julienned them (remember when I talked about that?), and mixed them with the other greens.

Then I moved the greens to the side and got started chopping some red onion, grape tomatoes, asparagus (not pictured- woops), and bell peppers.

The bell peppers I used were frozen (I always buy them in bulk, chop them, and freeze them) so I tossed them in a skillet with the asparagus for a few minutes until both were tender. I used my handy Misto olive oil sprayer to keep the oil to a minimum. I bought it for just a few bucks from TJ Maxx/Ross/Home Goods/one of those stores ages ago and it’s one of my favorite kitchen gadgets!

Once all the veggies were ready, I got the chicken going. I cooked two frozen chicken breasts on the George Foreman grill and seasoned with them with salt and pepper. I love my George Foreman because you just have to plop the frozen chicken down and walk away Smile What could be easier?

Then it was time to make the vinaigrette. It took me literally three seconds to bring together and included some olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, and pepper. So, so easy.

By this time the orzo was finished cooking so I drained it and allowed it to cool for a minute or two. Then I combined everything (the arugula, spinach, basil, asparagus, bell peppers, red onion, tomatoes, chopped chicken, and vinaigrette) together in a large bowl until everything was mixed thoroughly.

Then it was time to serve!

All the flavors came together beautifully. Plus the recipe made enough for us to have leftovers for lunch! Woohoo!

Chicken Orzo Summer Salad (Adapted from Cooking Light)

Serves three

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups uncooked orzo (rice-shaped pasta)
3 cups chopped grilled chicken breast strips
1 cup trimmed arugula
1 cup trimmed spinach
3 tbsp. chopped fresh basil
1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup chopped bell pepper (I used a mix of red and yellow)
1/2 cup chopped asparagus
1/4 cup red onion, diced
2 tbsp. red wine vinegar
1 tbsp. olive oil
1/8 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. black pepper

Instructions

Cook pasta according to package directions; drain well.
Chop the next 6 ingredients (through red onion) and add to a large bowl; toss well.
Combine vinegar, oil, salt, and black pepper in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk.
Drizzle vinegar mixture over pasta mixture; toss well to coat.

This salad made me so excited for summer because of all the great produce that’s available. I loved the crunch of the asparagus, the soft tomatoes, and the buttery pasta. Yum!!

What are your favorite seasonal foods? As much as I love fresh tomatoes and asparagus in summer, there’s something to be said for apples in the fall and butternut squash in winter!