healthy – kristilynk

Insert catchy title here!

Feel free to read this post and title it for me. 😊 More often than not, I click the create blog post, the new, daunting, blank page beckons me to type the title of the new post. I stare blankly at this section of the post with an empty mind. OR, something dingy and random pops into my head and voila… that’s my title.

I have zero plans for this post. I have nothing and everything to say. We are 40 days into 2022, how is it going for you all so far? I feel like maybe be 2022 is going pretty well. I have so many activities going on in my head. This month I decided to try, dry February.

Why, you ask? I’ve read it’s good to give your body a break from alcohol, that it might not be a good thing for your organs to drink alcohol everyday. I chose February because it is the shortest month of the year 😃. They sayyyyy I may lose weight. That is if I can control my new desire to eat all of the cookies from a ridiculously good cookie shop called Crumbl that moved into the neighborhood. I’ll let you know how that goes come March 1.

I bought a few new plants that I love.

I am told this only needs to be watered one time per week. 😅 my type of plant!

To the right is Lavanda the Spanish Lavender and to her right is Rosemary.

I have not figured out how to care for those two babies. Jason has told me I should water them every two days. It seems like the Rosemary may need that but I think Lavanda can go every 5 days. These plants are my intro into horticulture. I love the idea of a raised garden bed in my backyard – this may or may not be on the plan for 2022. I’m not committing yet so settle down 😅

Until next time! Take care of yourself, you’re worth it! 🤩

Culinary Bucket List ~ May 2014

When Kim and I started this monthly culinary bucket list..I was a little worried I would have a hard time finding good, easy, fresh dishes I had never created.

It’s proving to be the case that I could, if I were motivated enough to, create new dishes like twice a week. Turns out, I forgot..I am not a professional chef, nor am I even an experienced chef. I would certainly not even make a good sous chef…Oh well..I am having a great time playing around in the kitchen and making tasty vittles. 🙂

With that said…on to tonights menu!

Caprese Stuffed Chicken Breast

That’s right folks…guess who’s never stuffed a chicken breast??? This girl!! And I’m not any kind of good at it either, but I’m jumping ahead of myself and I’ll just have to let you be the judge.

Here is the set up:

Straight off the bat I veered from the instructions. The recipe told me to start the grill. I am afraid of the grill soooo… THAT was not going to happen. Besides..I am SURE all of the stuffing would end up in the fire and I would have nothing tasty to share. It’s just best for everyone that I pre-heat the oven to 350 Fahrenheit/177 Celcius

Pull the handy dandy cast iron skillet out, lube it up with some avocado oil. I’m seriously in love with my cast iron skillet. I really use it for as many kitchen experiments as I can! And if you noted…avocado oil? Yes, we switched to avocado oil..especially in the oven because it can take much more heat than olive oil. This was a huge issue in our house because, I am not kidding you, every time I would cook in the oven with EVOO the fire alarm would blare it’s terrible tune. Now…my dogs are petrified every time they here the “beep” of the oven buttons or the microwave. Ok..Ok..if I’m honest..every time I go into the kitchen..the dogs are suspicious.

Since avocado oil…I have not set the alarm off once 😉 win ~ win !~

So anyway…dinner..

I had to get the nasty chickens out of their packages to butterfly them. I am a little leery of these chicken breasts. Seriously..what kind of chicken has a boob that weighs almost a pound? I guarantee you MY boobs don’t even weigh a pound..

and what exactly does “minimally processed” mean? Sorry get off course again..

Butterfly the chickens massive boobs.. check. Sprinkled pepper on them, thinly sliced up the cherry tomatoes to layer them, sprinkles the fresh basil I chopped up and shredded the Mozzarella Fresco on top..

Folded them up and put them in the skillet. I was supposed to put a little bit of basalmic vinagrette and some balsamic glaze but I only had balsamic vinegar so I used that instead and probably too much of it but whatever… 😉

Looks gross..I really really don’t like raw chicken skin. Good thing after they are put in the oven and this mess is cleaned up…

They turn out quite tasty!

Culinary Bucket List 2014 ~ April

Longer days and warmer weather…summer has quickly replaced Spring! With that we need light meals that refresh our palates 😉

This months CB dish is Chicken-Pineapple Fajitas..I followed the instructions from this website (Nope…I still do not know how to make a link with just a word…sighhhh) http://www.bhg.com/recipe/beef/chicken-pineapple-fajitas/

The hardest part of this recipe was cutting the pineapple. I’ll be honest..I had never cut a pineapple before last night.

I didn’t like it..way to much work.. I will recruit a sous chef to do this task next time I make something with fresh pineapple.

You are supposed to brown the pineapple in a pan..WARNING..this takes some time..who has the patience to allow these things to brown?? I waited and waited then flipped then waited some more. Grew impatience then took those slices off the pan, threw a few more on and moved onto taking the middle out and cutting the good bits into pieces.

Remember when I asked who had time to allow these babies to brown?? Well. suggestion..find

something else to do, you’ll forget about the pineapple and VOILA…they will brown! 🙂

This batch came out much better..while I was cutting up the not so brown fruit..the others were left alone to do their job.

I started this post in the middle of the process..sorry, the pineapple fiasco was a big deal and I had to get that off my chest right away. Before the fruit drama…I grabbed a big metal bowl, tossed in some sliced up chicken breast, baby sweet peppers, Caribbean Jerk marinade and some pepper and I let that sit while I was tending to the ‘apples.

After the fruit is done and set off to the side, I used the same pan to fry up the meat and peppers:

Jason and Kiah opted out of the pineapple…they missed out.

So good. Zingy taste with a little bit of fresh sweetness and lets face it..EVERYthing is better with cilantro!

Eet smakelijk!

Culinary Bucket List 2014 ~ March

Stuffed Bell Peppers!

Holy macaroni these were easy!!! 🙂 I followed the directions of good ‘ole Martha Stewart. Love her or hate her I tell you what..this woman has some really great recipes.

http://www.marthastewart.com/339288/stuffed-peppers

Pre-heat the oven to 400F

While the oven is preheating, dice your onion, grab a few garlic cloves, get out your ever so useful cast iron skillet (if you dont have one you can use any skillet but I HIGHLY recommend investing in a cast iron skillet..I LOVE mine!!) heat it up, add a tablespoon of olive oil, wait until the skillet starts smoking a teeny bit then toss in the diced onion. I use a garlic press to squish into the onion mix..cook until the onions are soft and browning a little. ** SMELLS SO GOOD!

**Add the turkey sausage ~ or whatever other meat you want to use.. I went for the lighter white meat.

Let this cook up for about five to seven minutes then add diced tomatoes and a cup of water. Here is a spot where I strayed from Marthas instructions. She calls for canned tomatoes… I don’t do canned tomato so I diced up two fresh ones. Yes, this makes me feel like I have a leg up on the queen of the kitchen Miss Martha 🙂 and look how pretty!!

Simmer for about five minutes to let the liquid thicken up ~ remove the skillet from the burner ~ then add 3/4 cup of plain cous cous (I get mine from Sprouts..it’s reasonably priced and you can load up a bag with as much as you like).

While the stuffing mixture was cooling off, I cut the bell peppers in half and emptied their guts. Then stuffed them and placed them in a baking dish ~ I had to use two baking dishes because I made eight halves. In each baking dish pour a half cup of water ( I assume this creates moisture so as not to dry out your dinner!) You’re also supposed to put tin foil over the dishes too BUT guess what….???

I did not have any sooooo out in the open they go!

Can you see how CLEAN the oven is???? I cleaned it for the first time – using the self cleaning method – in four years. It is like a brand new range!! 🙂

I baked for thirty five minutes and then grated monterey jack cheese over the top and baked for another five minutes to melt.

Luckily…the lack of tin foil was not a deal breaker and the stuffed peppers turned out pretty and tasted even better…even the finicky daughter loved them!

In the Beginning..Of February, that is….

Four days, ten hours and 30 minutes ago…I made a decision to quit smoking…again. I have quit before, it was about four or five years ago and I quit for a good two years. I am taking a few of the things that helped me last time and am hoping I can re-train myself.

The biggest help last time around was Bikram Yoga and I am giving it a whirl this time around. I found a studio super close to home so I signed up for a three day trial. I opened the door to the yoga room and was greeted with a not so pleasant smell. I honestly don’t even know how to describe it but it did make me scrunch my nose up.

I rolled out my mat and covered it with my beach towel, turned around and layed down in shavasana, you know, you have to mentally bring yourself to the room and into the moment. Shavasan is a great way to do this, you lay there, taking deep breathes and clearing your mind. This part used to be the most difficult for me, ADD and shavasana are a little contradictory BUT possible if you can learn to control your thoughts and controlling thoughts is an area of which I am very good! Here is a picture of an entire class in shavasana (relaxation and healing time) I snagged this picture from the internet 🙂

Check out how many people are in this class!! I bet it’s smelly in there!!

There were around 30 people in class last night which is not too crowded, I had a lot of space to myself which made me happy. I did feel like I was going to die. My heart was racing, sweat was pouring off of me and into my eyes which made them burn..note to self…wear a head band next time… my head was pounding as well. Another note to self, try to drink at least a gallon of water the day before class..I am pretty sure my head was pounding because I was dehydrated..

As sucky as it all seems (smelly, sweaty, headache) afterwards? I felt amazing. So cleansed, skin soft and I felt strong.

SO….I will go 4 days a week for 30 days and then switch back to regular yoga 🙂