Category Archives: chimichurri

by Becki | September 13, 2010 · 8:27 am

New Passport and Pumpkin Ale!

I had a full night of rest and, unfortunately for your reading enjoyment, am completely sane today. Therefore, today will be a dull post, full of relatively healthy food and PUMPKIN ALE!!!

Movie Theatre Breakfast!!! I had a Monsta made by the roommate that had 5 cups of spinach, 4 sprigs of asparagus, 1/3 of a cup of unsweetened soymilk, 1/3 of a banana, 1/3 of a cup of frozen blueberries and 1 lime. (THIS IS NOT THE MOVIE THEATRE PART!)
I then made a single whole-grain oatmeal pancake (HEALTHY!) with 1/2 of a cup of rolled oats, 1/2 of a teaspoon of baking soda, a pinch of salt and 1/3 of a cup of almond milk, then mixed in a crapload of Sno-Caps. They seemed necessary. They proceeded to rock my world!

I got to work around 10:30am after rocking out to Ke$ha in the car (I also strut to Ke$ha in the mall during my break. She’s got a good beat for speedwalking with a purpose. Deal with it.), and started the day with a trip to Paciugo. Gelato is necessary in the early morning. I promised you a gander (what a lovely word!) through the Paciugo passport, so here we go!

I’ll be adding a photo as soon as I print one out. I’m that serious about this.

My answers: Innie. Sweet. Gelato. Neat. POP – Yeah, Midwest!

I cannot decide, guys. Ninja or pirate? There are so many great qualities of both, but I think I lean more towards ninja…

Here are all the stamp opportunities. If you bring a date, you get a free cup of coffee and a stamp. High-five the cashier, you get a stamp. Wear mismatched socks? STAMP! Is it raining outside? STAMP! Show your best dance move to the cashier and STAMP!

Vicky and I have been trying to figure out a way to combine every single thing in this passport all on the same day. We figure that we’ll wait for a rainy day, wear mismatched socks while dragging a hot guy with us to Paciugo, perform some epic dance that will likely involve tribal bellydance on my part, then high-five the cashier when he gives us our free gelato. Sounds like a plan to me!

Griffin was having a craving for pizza today, and since he shared that thought with me, I was as well. We went to Sbarro for a slice. After gazing at the selection of different pies with congealed cheese coagulating on top, I decided on a slice of the Hawaiian. They generously reheated it in the oven for a minute before handing it to me.

Mmmm, slightly less congealed pizza!

Griffin wasn’t as disturbed by his slice…

I spent the remainder of the day hanging out with some coworkers and pretending like I cared about my job by DOING stuff (I made some people believe that I was actually trying! That’s how good of an actor I am!). By the time we closed, I was only slightly psychotic from exhaustion, and from reenacting my being chased by extremely short zombies the night before for all my coworkers. I drove home and was greeted by a home-cooked meal:

Steamed asparagus, smashed potatoes with chimichurri sauce, and grilled chicken marinated in lime juice and honey. OH! And a pumpkin ale! YAY!

(My roommate spoils me. Massively.)

Now, I’m watching Pay It Forward and preparing for what I’m sure will be a ridiculously depressing scene at the end (I say predicting, but I actually know having seen this once before). EDIT: Yep, it was definitely as depressing as I recall. Tissues, please.

I still have no idea what to do for a giveaway! Give me time… or ideas 🙂

And a happy website suggestion would be good too. Sniff.

3 Comments

Filed under chimichurri, green monster, Griffin, Pancake Sunday, Pay It Forward, pizza, pumpkin ale, Sbarro, Sno-Caps

by Becki | September 5, 2010 · 6:06 am

Guilty Pleasures

I hope everyone’s enjoying the beginning of their Labor Day weekend! I had to work all day today, and a few hours tomorrey, then I’m free to enjoy myself again!

I’ve been hitting the gym every day, utilizing every single second of my free trial week. Today I spent an hour on the elliptical, burned 502 calories and went 3.75 miles. Afterwards, I did a few rounds on the lat pulldown, then did a massive amount of crunches and stretching. All this was followed by a big Monsta at home – 3 cups of spinach, 1/4 of a cup of unsweetened soymilk, 1 lime, 1/2 of a banana, 1/3 of a cup of frozen blueberries, 1 carrot, and 4 sprigs of asparagus.

I had to work today, but I got to work with my lovely and ridiculously fun friend, Vicky, so it was more than bearable. Since nothing out of the ordinary happened today, I’m just going to put up a bunch of random pictures of some of my meals over the last few days.

After my intense workout yesterday, I decided that a trip to the indian buffet was in order.

As if the gigantic plate of food and garlic naan wasn’t enough, the chefs made my roommate and me this complimentary dessert that we’re obsessed with: Gajar Halwa – it’s basically grated carrots, sugar, butter, almonds and raisins. This is one of my all-time favorite desserts!

I had a late night craving for grilled cheese one night. I made this with Great Harvest’s Hi-5 Fiber bread, which is chock full with tons of seeds and nuts, then topped it with some real (NOT Kraft) cheddar cheese and fried it up in a teaspoon of butter. Sometimes, grilled cheese is a necessity.

Today’s lunch was a Subway 6-inch on wheat with turkey, roast beef, tons of spinach, cucumbers, tomatoes, green peppers, avocado, a little mayo and mustard.

PUMPKIN truffle from Godiva! I LOVE PUMPKIN!!!!

And a piece of the Hi-5 Fiber toast with some REAL chimichurri sauce on it. Real means delicious means not made by me.

Keep in mind that while some (most) of this isn’t the healthiest thing I could’ve chosen, I’ve completely balanced it all out with Monsters in the morning as well as lots of time at the gym. Plus, I wanted to eat it, so I did. Deal with it.

Tonight I’m headed out to a billiards club with some friends to play for a few hours, and hopefully drink a PUMPKIN ale? Ah geez, I really hope the bar carries pumpkin ale already! Enjoy your Saturdays!

What are some of your guilty eating pleasures?

2 Comments

Filed under chimichurri, elliptical, Gajar Halwa, Godiva, green monster, grilled cheese, gym, Indian Food, work

by Becki | June 11, 2010 · 8:13 am

Farmers’ Market!

Anyone want another picture of a GM? Too bad! I forgot to take one. Whoops! I’ve got a lot of pictures to post today though, so it’s probably best I leave out the Monsta.

Today was my day off from working out. I woke up early, had a big cup of java and a big Monsta, then basically wasted a lot of time staring out the window at the marine layer that covers SoCal every June. And then I drank more coffee.

The roommates went on a mini-vacation down to San Diego, so I have the house to myself! Before they left, they were kind enough to leave me with a lovely scramble.

This has one egg, zucchini, bell pepper, spinach and….

Look who’s back! HOT SAUCE!!!!

Lunch was a repeat, not that I’m complaining! I had half a cup of leftover chana masala (which really soaked up the spice after the first day!) and half of this piece of TJ’s garlic naan.

Lunch today, and more for lunch tomorrow!

Thursday is Farmers’ Market day! I went out and spent an hour wandering the rows:

I brought back a massive bounty!

Yes, that is Dear John, the movie – because tonight is DATE NIGHT! Cheesy films and good food, baby!

For dinner I made broiled tilapia with homemade chimichurri sauce. I used to buy a chimichurri sauce from the farmers’ market until it just got to be too darn expensive ($5.25 for a 9.2oz jar – it lasts for only about 2 marinades), so today I decided it was time to improvise and make my own based on the ingredients they used in theirs. The following wasn’t completely measured, so it’s a guesstimate turned into measurements:

Chimichurri Sauce a la Bexter

2 cups of fresh parsley

3 tbsp fresh oregano

4 garlic cloves

1/2 cup olive oil

2 1/2 tbsp red wine vinegar

Pinch of salt

Twist of freshly ground pepper

Pinch of chile pepper flakes

1. Rinse and dry the parsley, then tear off the leaves and toss them into a food processor.

2. Rinse and dry the oregano, then strip the leaves from the stems by pinching the top and sliding your fingers down against the grain of the stem:

3. Measure about 3 tablespoons of the leaves into the food processor.

4. Crush 4 cloves of garlic with the blade of a knife, roughly chop, then put into food processor.

5. Pulse the food processor a few times, then add the olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper and chili pepper.

6. Blend until all the ingredients are incorporated.

7. Bottle and refrigerate the chimichurri sauce.

For dinner I coated the tilapia in my fresh chimichurri sauce, then placed it under the broiler for 4 minutes per side. Being the genius that I am, I forgot that olive oil has a really low smoke point and ended up opening turning on the oven fan to get rid of the small amount of smoke that billowed from the foil….Whoops 🙂 Then I topped it with another spoonful of chimichurri sauce.

I threw together a salad of fresh mixed greens with farmers’ market strawberries that I sliced and soaked in a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar, and topped it with some pecans I toasted in a pan over medium heat for five minutes. De-freakin-licious!

I finally got around to watching Dear John! It was… fine. Nothing thrilling, not as good as the book, but movies hardly ever are. Now I’m watching Glee reruns and trying to figure out Blogger’s new format. I JUST got used to the old one! I’m technologically-challenged as it is, are they trying to drive me crazy?

Oh yes, and I picked up a little something for dessert to go with the strawberries.

Yes, those are the So Delicious coconut milk ice cream bars I’ve been lusting after for so long! I have really, really bad news: They’re AMAZING. Only 100 calories, 3.5g of fat! Not bad! I stopped at one, which is a healthy number, but that was an hour ago… I’ll probably have to have another and make sure that the first one wasn’t a fluke. I should actually, definitely go do that now…

Whoops….

3 Comments

Filed under Becki Kregoski, chimichurri, famers' market, Fat Tire, kitchen sink salad, marinade, strawberries, tilapia, Whoops