Marinara Salad

 

spinach marinara salad

It's Thursday and that means it YOGA day. Today the right cheek was solo in yoga-(I missed you lefty) but it's OK. I'm not suppose to talk during yoga anyway, just breath and move. Class was just wonderful, I went to Santa Monica Power yoga and was lead by Rudy. His southern twang and playful class makes the hour and half fly by. Class was a bit more challenging than last time as we started in a forward fold for three minutes-hello hamstrings!  

Now onto last nights dinner. That's right, marinara salad. I never tried it before, but thought I would pair my ingredients together and call it just that. It's a unique salad made with spinach, marinara and it's served warm.  I sauteed up a bunch of vegetables the other night, then was wondered what to do with them, beside just eating them. So, I opened a can of tomato sauce (actually thinking it was stewed) and poured it on the vegetables and cooked it up. Since pasta doesn't exist at HQ and I didn't want to put it atop broccoli again and looked in the fridge and found-spinach! 

Spinach Marinara Salad

What you will need:

1 onion-chopped
1 packaged mushrooms-sliced and chopped
1.5 medium sized zucchinis - chopped
1 can tomato sauce (nothing added)
olive oil
salt
pepper
garlic powder (all to taste)

2 packages of fresh organic baby spinach

What to do
1. Chop all vegetables (not including spinach)
2. In a large fry pan on medium/high heat with olive oil saute onions, mushrooms and zucchini and season with salt and pepper, cook until soft, about 15min.
3. Next add in tomato sauce and let simmer on low heat for another 10min.
4. Plate fresh spinach and top with hot marinara sauce. Top with fresh basil if desired. 

Enjoy!

Happy Memorial Day Grilling!

Happy Memorial Day weekend!!  Time for bikinis and beer!!  Hee!  Hee!  Bust out your BBQs and grill up some romaine!  Whaaaa???  Lettuce on the bar-b??  Yup.  It's crisp and delishp!  (you see what I did there, made it rhyme ;)  )  

And for a Serious Cheek moment, let's pray and give thanks to those who have died in our nation's service.  I'm very grateful for each and every one of you brave and selfless soldiers <3

Roasted Romaine

This recipe can be done on the grill or in your oven.

2 heads of romaine

1 lemon

Drizzle of olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

1/3 cup goat cheese crumble

Chop your romaine in half length wise.  Rinse clean.  Lay your romaine chopped side up.

Drizzle with olive oil.  Not too much, you don't want it to get soggy.  Generously sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Oven:  Preheat oven to broil.  Cook romaine for about 6 - 10 minutes until lightly browned on top.

Grill:  Cook romaine about 2 minutes on each side until lightly chard.  

Sprinkle romaine halves with goat cheese.  Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Meatless Mondays!

Last week I decided to experiment with meat, or should I say, a lack there of.  It was Day of Vegetarianism!  And this is how it went ...

For breakfast I ate sauteed kale, peppers and avocado with a cup of tea.  Pretty much my usual breakfast just minus eggs.  Delish!  I continued with a banana snack and butternut squash soup for lunch.  About this time I thought I'd be starving but actually was quite unaffected by my meatlessness so far.  When the afternoon hit though, I had a bit of a lull, felt pretty tired despite my 8 hours of sleep the previous night.  So two hours after lunch vegetarianism continued with a pack of almonds and a small bowl of roasted brussels sprouts, broccoli and grapes!  This helped me out a bit with my afternoon slump, but I still felt a little bit sleepier then usual.  For dinner I dined on another big bowl of roasted brussels, broccoli and grapes because it was so darn tasty.  I'm pretty sure I had a snack that night too, maybe some fruit.  And that concluded Day of Vegetarianism!  


Despite the afternoon sleepiness, I felt pretty great all day.  It was nice to take a meat break, since it's a pretty large part of my diet normally.  I also had a great workout the next morning, super energized and not sluggish at all.  Big bonus!  I like Day of Vegetarianism and will definitely do it again!  Since then I've had a few meat free meals (including the recipe below).  No full days of it again yet, but we're thinking of turning Monday's into meatless Mondays permanently.  

Veggie Stuffed Veggies :)

3 bell peppers

3 zucchini

6 medium portobello mushrooms

1 red onion

1/2 cup almond meal

1/3 cup olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Trader Joe's Everyday Seasoning

Preheat oven to 475.
Dice zucchini, mushrooms and red onion.  Add to large skillet with about 1/3 cup olive oil.  Add ample amounts of seasoning, salt and pepper to taste.  Cook over medium heat, stirring every so often for about 10 minutes until everything is soft but not mushy.  Remove from heat and mix in 1/2 cup almond meal.
Chop off tops of peppers and clean out the seeds.  Fill them up with the vegetable mixture.  Place in an oven proof dish and bake uncovered for about 20 minutes, until the pepper has reached it's desirable level of tenderness.
Enjoy your meatless Monday!

Entrepreneur Cheeks

The Cheeks have been a brain storming lately!  It's time to spread some Cheeks.  BAAHAHA!!  I'll take any chance I can get to use our sweet motto ;)  Any how ... first up, we're going to turn this blog into a website!  We're only in the very preliminary stages of researching different web designers and saving up some cash, but it's coming.  And we're excited.  We're also working on Twittering more food we're eating and just basic ridiculousness.  Be sure to follow us on Twitter!  We're hopefully going to have a photo shoot soon and make up a batch of new videos for y'all!  And of course, we'll be doing this all while cooking, eating and writing up new delicious posts!  Can't forget that part!

Crock Pot Chicken

This recipe is inspired by the Civilized Caveman!  We love him.  And Righty finally got to meet him in person at the CrossFit regionals this past weekend!  Awesome.

1 Whole Chicken, 3-5 Lbs

30-40 Cloves of garlic, peeled (Trader Joe's has already pre-peeled)

1 Whole Lemon

1 Onion, sliced

Salt and Pepper

1 teaspoon each of:

Thyme

Rosemary

Oregano

Basil

Line the bottom of your crock pot with your sliced onions and all of your peeled garlic.

Take out the giblets, wash your chicken under cold water and then pat dry.

Place your chicken on top of your onions and garlic in the crock pot.

Cut your lemon in half and squeeze the juice all over the chicken.

Season the inside and outside of your bird generously with salt, pepper, and herbs.

Place the lemon halves inside the cavity of your chicken or around the sides.

Put the lid on your crock pot and cook on low for 6 hours or until the chicken reaches a temperature of 165 degrees.

Remove chicken from crock pot and enjoy!

Last night's dinner

excuse the messy photo please! :)

Every week I try to to think of something new to make you all. Something you've never seen before or a variation of something we've had before.  This sometimes proves to be a challenge. Instead I've decided to share exactly what I am eating. (most of it, not all of it).  Not because I don't want to, but sharing everyday with you is more than you want to know and I want to share. And besides, what would Lefty share with all of you?  This is not to say all of my posts to come will be like this, but it's a little glimpse into what you might see.  


So- we are going to look at last night's dinner. Easy, fast and tasty. I haven't been doing a lot of cooking lately so anything I make is "new to me". 

Meat Marinara sauce on zucchini

1 pound organic ground beef- Trader Joe's
1 Jar Tomato basil sauce-Trader Joe's
1 package sliced crimini mushrooms
salt
pepper
fresh basil
4 organic zucchinis


1. In a fry pan set to medium/high brown ground beef until crumbly and brown.
2. Season with salt and pepper and add in sliced mushrooms. When mushroom are soft add in tomato sauce and cook for another 10-20 minutes. Just before serving add fresh basil.
3. Slice zucchini and steam on stove top until just tender.
4. Serve sauce over zucchini and enjoy! 


Lets hear what you like to do with meat and marinara sauce!

Zoom Zoomed!

When we last left the Left Cheek, she was on her way her first Zumba class ...


I must admit, it was not exactly what I expected.  Maybe it was the teacher I had, but it was WAY more of an abs workout, then a cardio sweat fest.  I completely understand why my teacher had her shirt pulled up all the way to her bra line, to show off those svelte abs she was smoothly shaking!  I, on the other hand, was clumsily bouncing around, moving more like an orge due to my tight muscles from oly lifting the day before and thinking "if only my CrossFit friends could see me now!"  


I expected my inner hip shaking to come alive once my body filled with the sexy notes of the Latin music blasting in the studio, but am sad to say our teacher chose more club type music.  After an hour of that filling my body with it's pounding beats, I was over it.  And speaking of an hour... coming from 5+ years of CrossFitting where everything is as fast as you can make it and usually kills you in 30 minutes or less, Zumba-ing for an entire hour seemed to take forever!  


I'm happy to have tried it, but I'm not sure if it's something I'd do regularly.  There is another Zumba studio right down the street from me that does blast those sexy Latin songs I am craving, so never fear my Zumba loving Cheekers, I am going to give it another go!  Maybe I'll even get Righty to come shake her Sweet Cheeks with me! 

Asparagus, Eggs and Dijon Delight!

For the Salad:

3 hard boiled eggs, diced

1 pound of asparagus spears, steamed to your desired level of crunch

 For the Sauce:

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons water

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

In a small bowl mix together all of the sauce ingredients.  

Place the asparagus on a plate and arrange the hard boiled eggs on top in any pattern you like.

Drizzle the dish with the Dijon sauce.  It's spicy, so use it sparingly! 

And enjoy!

Inspired by Serious Eats!  I love that website.

Muscle-ing it

CrossFitting has shown me a lot about myself. It's been over 4 years of CrossFit and I'm still having fun. I've learned that I'm very fearful of getting hurt-physically, which sometimes holds me back. I've learned that I am strong, and I LOVE to muscle my way through things. So much that at times it ends up holding me back. If you are a "muscler" like I am you know what I'm talking about. Muscleing through things is challenging and it makes much more work than need be. The true problem is learning new ways of doing things. I'm sure you all can identify with learning new habits. We often talk about exercise habits, eating habits and relationships here at HQ. 


Lets look at a few things that I've found particularly challenging in CrossFit:


Kipping pull ups.  Depending on the day I can do a handful of strict pull ups. The kipping pull up probably took me about 3 years to get right. First it was the grip, then the swing and then the linking together. After years of working on them I found the less I try to muscle it, the better! 


Muscle ups: The name would imply the need to MUSCLE it, but it's only necessary when doing a strict one, which I'm not, (not yet at least).  The less I pull with my arms- the easier these guys are.  I just needed to find the "right" body position-flexion and extension during the swing then, keep as hollow as possible, then BAM- do a big sit up.  So happy to have found them! Notice I said found because I had done some in the past. I felt I was willed by the CFLA community and I might have been. It's true, communities are really, really powerful!


Snatches: Don't muscle these UNLESS you are doing a muscle snatch. Even then-you should still keep relaxed arms and JUMP the weight up! This is my current problem. Pulling a bit early and not letting my powerful legs get me under the bar. I need to be a bit more aggressive than I'm used to and GET UNDER the bar!  


Just sharing a few life thoughts.... now to share a tasty dish I made a while back! Serve it alone or along side your fried egg in the morning! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Spicy Cauliflower Confetti

2 bags Cauliflower from Trader Joe's 
2 organic andouli sausages-sliced
1 onion-chopped
1 red pepper- chopped
1 can stewed tomatoes
fresh cilantro-chopped
salt
pepper
crushed red pepper flakes


Preheat oven to 350 degrees


1. In a food processor finely chop all cauliflower and set aside. 
2. Heat a dutch oven on the stop top and add in a few tablespoons of olive oil, add in chopped onions and cook until soft.
3. Next add red peppers and saute a few more minutes. 
4. Add in sausage, seasonings and some fresh cilantro, cauliflower and tomatoes and put in the oven with a lid on.
5. Cook for 20-25 minutes- or until cauliflower is tender.
6. Salt and pepper as needed.


Hope to see you all at So Cal Regionals next weekend in Pomona! Team CFLA and I are ready and excited to compete! Check out this fun video my friend Travis made!