Well, it's started-- Holiday parties, which I LOVE!  This last weekend we had an annual Friendsgiving over at one of my bestie's house.  They deep fry a turkey, make stuffing, potatoes, corn.. the whole works!  

Last night we decided to grill up some Tuna steaks.. which I have never done before!  So, I did a little bit of googling, and ended up just concocting my own marinade recipe!

Soy-Lime Marinade:

1/2 c. Low Sodium Soy Sauce

1/3 c. Lime Juice, or about 2 limes worth

3 tbs. olive oil

2 tbs. brown sugar

1 tbs. garlic powder, or minced garlic


My steaks were about an inch and a half thick.  So, I let them marinade in a pan as long as I could.  However, I was making them for dinner that evening, so I really only let them sit for about a half hour.  it could have gone longer.  Chase fired up the grill and we gave each side about 3 minutes each.  

If I had more time, I would have let them marinade a little longer.  

We paired it with a spinach and spring green salad, with tomatoes and avocado, topped with crushed walnuts and a raspberry vinaigrette!  Needless to say, our dinner last night was DELICIOUS!   

Last night, I decided to give hummus a shot.. and it turned out sooooo good!  And it's very good for you.
Hummus is fatty, but full of good fats!  Chickpeas and tahini are full of protein, and Omega 3 fatty acids.  It's great for preventing cholesterol build up and maintaining a healthy heart.
It's so good with veggies, on sandwiches as a replacement of mayo or cheese, and simply with crackers.

I made Roasted Red Pepper Hummus:

Bust out the food processor!

Ingredients:
2 cans of chickpeas
1/2 c. Tahini (found in the fancy olive area of your grocery store)
1/2 squeezed lemon
1 jar of Roasted red peppers (or you can roast them yourself)
1 small bunch of cilantro
A dash of chili powder

First, I put the cilantro in the food processor and chopped it all up finely.


Then, I simply added the drained chickpeas.  Once those were nicely mashed, I poured in the Tahini while food processor was still on.  I slowly added the whole jar of peppers.  Then, a little chili powder, or any spices that you prefer, really!  Squeeze that lemon in there for a finishing touch, and it's done!

Grab some crackers or anything of your choice, and enjoy.
I used these gluten-free brown rice and multi-seed crackers and it was phenomenal.

Last night I just didn't know what to make for dinner..  but I knew I wanted it to be easy to throw together.

I had some chicken in the freezer, so I thought that's a good start.
Then I went to the store, and picked up some organic broccoli and organic cream of broccoli, as well as some long grain brown rice.

Preheated the oven to 375*
Season the chicken to your liking.  I used some olive oil and Jamaican jerk rub I had laying around, along with a little bit of black pepper.
Mix together the 2 cups of  cream of broccoli, about 3/4 cup of uncooked rice, and a bag frozen broccoli.
Pour it all into a baking dish.
Throw the chicken on top.  I also added a little bit of bread crumbs on top.

Bake for about 50 minutes, or until the chicken and rice is done.  The rice can take a little longer.


Serve it up, and voila!  Quick, easy, delicious chicken and broccoli that everyone can be happy about!

I hope everyone's weekends went well!  Mine was good.. and BUSY!
Friday night we met with our Realtor and may have found The House!  It's on a beautiful lot tucked into the heart of Minnetonka.  It's a little more than we were hoping to be spending though..  We will see.  Right now, just the house shopping experience is so wonderful!  We really *LOVE* our Realtor.  He's so informative, honest, very generous.. which is just a nice plus.  He took us out for another very nice dinner!  And he told us about the awesome House Warming Parties he throws!  I'm pretty excited about that.. So, if there is anyone in the Minneapolis area looking to buy or sell a house soon, let me know!  He's great.

Saturday, I worked, and finished my pallet wine rack!  Everyone has seen them all over Pinterest.. but, I finally finished one, and I think its' going to look awesome.  I'll post about that soon!

Later on Saturday, we went to a friend's annual Thanksgiving Party.  And we ATE.  Tons and Tons of food.. pumpkin bars, apple pie, deep fried turkey, corn, mashed potatoes, artichoke dip...  you name it!  We had so much food.  On top of that, I ate SO TERRIBLY all last week.  I gave into every craving and stuffed myself full.  I am very disappointed in myself!  And so, today begins a new week and I am going to be a health nut and just fill up on lean meats and vegetables... which got me thinking about how to make this Thanksgiving a healthier one.  Am I going to have a slice of pie?  Yes.  But I would like to incorporate as many fun and healthy side dishes as possible this year.  If anyone has any recipes, please share!  I would love some ideas on how to make Thanksgiving a bit leaner.   

In other news, I will be doing a give away soon!  I'm looking for more FOLLOWERS!  So please, add me to your list!  I'm teaming up with Our Green Home and going to start giving away some fun, eco-friendly items!  Stay Tuned!

Last night after work, I went to the gym and got in a REALLY good full body work out!  (I am so sore today)  Afterwards, I was blog browsing and came across this wonderful healthy living type of blog where I found a great recipe for these cookies!  I decided I had to make them right away.
You can check out the blog and original recipe for yourself here.
I modified a few things, and it they turned out so good!

Here are the ingredients I used:
2 tbsp salted butter, softened
2 tsp. vegetable oil
2 Medium Bananas
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 egg white
3/4 Cup flour (it calls for white, and that was all that I have at the moment.. but i'm going to try whole wheat next time)
1/2 tsp Baking Powder (she used 1/4 tsp. of baking soda, but I didn't have any!  So I used twice as much baking powder, and it turned out great!)
1/2 Cup chocolate chips (obviously, I went over the half cup a little bit.. :)
I chose to add:
1 1/2 scoop vanilla whey protein powder.

Oven preheated to 375*
First I mashed together the bananas, brown sugar, vegetable oil and butter.  Then I added in the vanilla, salt, and egg white.  Slowly, I blended in the flour and baking powder.  Then I added in chocolate chips and the protein powder.

This recipe advised to drop 1/2 teaspoon sized cookies onto a cookie sheet.  This would make for each cookie to be approximately 34 calories.  That's cool..  but I didn't do that.  Mine were a full tablespoon.
If you do the mini cookies, it directs to bake for about 4-6 minutes, but mine being bigger, I baked them for about 8.

They are perfect!  The banana keeps the cookies so moist, and I couldn't believe how little sugar, butter, and oil was used.  I think I'll try a few healthy and different modifications in the future.  I'll keep you posted :)

Look at all that goodness!

This weekend Chase and I cleaned the whole house.. Granted, we live in a tiny little townhouse, but really deep cleaning everything takes a long time!  Then you start going through things.. and, you know how it goes..  But it felt SO good!  We even busted out some wedding gifts we haven't had the chance to try yet..  Like..  our AWESOME Ninja Blender!  So Chase decided to make us some smoothies!

We used:
A handful of organic frozen berries
About 1/2 c. of organic Greek yogurt
1 apple, sliced
A handful of organic spinach
some honey
ice
splash of organic milk

We didn't add any protein powder for this one, but I certainly will in the future.  This is what it looked like when it was all blended:

Pretty Purple

It turned out Ah-mazing!  So   full of flavor!  I kept it in the fridge, and brought it to work today for my breakfast.  I think we'll start doing this MUCH more!