Kabobs and Cullen

Hiya.  I've had a busy week and just had a hard time thinking up clever, funny and cool things to say.  I mean, I'm totally all those things at any given moment.  But the kids.  The KIDS!  Brain matter is sucked out the longer the day goes on and by the end I'm tuck in bed with nothing to offer but a tylenol pm coma.  That and my computer was giving me a hard time when I tried to upload pics.  I did a software update and lo and behold- it fixed it!  Go figure.

I've been working my butt off.   Literally.  Bootcamp started and I've been thinking and doing nothing but lunges, sprints, kettle bell swings, planks, wall sits, kicks, sqauts, yada, yada, yada.  We burn an average of 500 cals per workout.  And I tell you what- it takes more time than you'd think to come up with balanced workouts that meet the 500 calorie mark and also leave room for modifying.  So far we have 12 girls.  All different levels and it's great!  But I won't lie, when the alarm goes off at 5:40am, I dream up extravagant scenarios I could come up with to bail out.  But I don't.  I put my shoes on and go. And it's so worth it.

I'm really trying to take my diet more seriously in terms of staying fresh and staying whole.  Fuel.  I need fuel.  Boredom leads to take out for me.  Take out is expensive and fatty mcbutter pants.  You have no control of ingredient quality.  So, I needed to pull it together, put my big girl panties on and cook.  Well, not only in my panties.  In clothes too.  That would be gross.  Cooking in your panties.

So, I do what I always do- copy other people.  Monkey see.  Monkey do.  I combed over some sites and found some really great recipes.  I made a few different ones, but only remembered to take pics of one.
I made Lemon Chicken Kabobs and Middle Eastern Chopped Salad from Girl Hero and it was soooooooo good.

First I set up my station.  (Note wine)

I added jimica to the chopped salad because I like crunch.  As well as an apple.

  The tahini dressing was AMAZING!! 

The kabobs were a hit with all family members.  I used chicken tenders instead of breasts because they were on sale- but they were great.  I only marinated for 30 mins, but chicken was juicy and flavorful even with minimal marinating time.  But I'll marinate overnight next time.

And if you play your cards right- you get to have Edward Cullen watch over you while you cook....

I've got to put together the bootcamp workouts for this coming week.  We're working on endurance building.  I see shuttle runs in my future...