Category Archives: Workouts

Peaaanut, peaaanut butter. And chicken?

Monday’s word of the day was T-I-R-E-D!

After a post-Super Bowl bedtime of wayyyy too late o’clock followed up with the random early body-clock-alarm-wakeup I was seriously struggling for energy yesterday!

Good thing I had planned on throwing together a crockpot meal to be ready & waiting upon my arrival home :)

Gave me plenty of time to relax and get in a rejuvenating yoga session.

Has anyone else tried the Body by Bethanny yoga workout on ExTV?  I absolutely love her first of all, plus am really liking this workout on days where I want some physical activity but not too much, ya know?

Perfect for this particular Monday if you ask me :D

After yoga was over it was time to serve up some dinner.

Crockpot, sometimes I think we may be soulmates… you make my life so easy on days that just seem to be so hard!

Here’s the recipe, courtesy a A Year of Slow Cooking.

Slow Cooker Peanut Butter Chicken

I kind of doubled the recipe to fill the 6-quart slow cooker I have (did you know you are supposed to make sure your slow cooker is between 1/2 to 2/3 full?)

I also didn’t have any soy sauce on hand, so substituted this wonderful SoyCha sauce instead.

For the sauce:

  • 2/3 cup MaraNatha peanut butter
  • 1/2 cup SoyCha (or soy sauce)
  • juice of 1 lime
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1/4 container chicken broth

For the rest:

  • 2.5 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs
  • 2 red bell peppers, sliced
  • 1 onion, sliced

I mixed up the marinade (sans chicken broth) Sunday afternoon before we left for the Super Bowl festivities. 

I also chopped up the red bell peppers and onions so they’d be ready to roll in the morning.

After 9 hours on low, I came home to some pretty awesome kitchen smells!

Once I opened up the slow cooker I removed the chicken & veggies and drained most of the fat from the remaining sauce.

With the combo of peanut butter, chicken thighs and SoyCha sauce there was a bit of oil to remove, no big deal :P

To serve, I cooked up some spaghetti to serve as well as some simple spinach.

Dinner is served.

Very very rich dish.  A little goes a long way!

But also very flavorful and tasty.  The cumin and lime added a different spin to the “normal” peanut sauce that I’m used to – but in a good way!

The chicken was also fall apart tender and just sunk itself into the spaghetti with each bite.

Good thing we liked this because we’ll be eating it for a few days (close to 3 lbs of chicken, what was I thinking? ;) )

Does anyone else remember this song (in reference to the post title)?  Guess having a sister 7 years younger means I remember wayyyyy more Barney than any normal person should hahaha.

Here’s to a much more “awake” day today – thank you 8 hours of sleep!!!!

Happy Tuesday all :)

Cutie Pies & Veggie Gardens

Hey everyone!  Hope ya’ll are having a fabulous Monday :)

Well we spent the day yesterday visiting these cutie pies!

And one of my best college friends (the mommy) and her hubby!

The twins have gotten so much bigger and are outta control adorable :P

The happy fam also has a big garden in their yard and was nice enough to let us go pickin’ (excited!)

Lotsa tomatoes (we all know my affinity towards these suckers…)

A giant watermelon (!!)

And some unseen poblano & green bell peppers.

It was a great visit, always so nice to catch up with good friends!

Then we spent the evening at a going-away party eating bbq chicken, beans, veggies & dip… you know, the usual summer party fare — however my camera was shy around new friends so sorry for no pics.  Twas deelish though :D

And after a great Monday at work today plus some Yoga w/ Weights, it turned out to be a no-cook dinner kind of night.

Well that was more-so due to the fact that The Man had his playoff bball game, so I was on my own!

I decided to go with a trusty frozen option that was a zero-effort kinda deal.

I rarely eat frozen foods (I think I OD’ed in college) but this Cedarlane burrito is one that I go-to in a pinch.  I really like it!

Frank” and I are having a lil’ love affair ;)  I’d rather not talk about it haha….

To go with my easy peasy burrito dinner I whipped up some okra fries (told ya I was obsessed!) and a fresh heirloom tomato w/ sea salt & peppa.

I tossed the okra in 1 tsp olive oil, black pepper and sea salt then 20 minutes at 400F and they were ready.

Dinner is served!

And now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to hang out with my “tv boyfriend” for a little while ;)  Shhhh, don’t tell!

If you watch Bachelor Pad, who are your favorites so far?!?!  I really like Jesse Beck as far as guys go (could ya tell haha?) but the verdict’s still out on the ladies!