Buttermilk & Rosemary Grilled Chicken

Why do weekends have to go by so fast?  Saturday morning I slept in until 9:30, even though we went to bed at 11 Friday night – must have needed my sleep!  I looked on my Insanity schedule and saw that I had the Fit Test again AND Max Interval Circuit – basically an hour and twenty minutes of working out!

I actually worked out on an empty stomach and I felt great – granted I was super hungry not long after, but I was okay and my blood sugar was fine too.  I was actually amazed at my Day 50 Fit Test Results.

Day 1 was June 1, 2013 – Day 17 – June 17, 2013 and Day 50 – July 20, 2013

Switch Kicks:

• Day 1 – 72
• Day 17 – 104
• Day 50 – 130

Power Kicks:

• Day 1 – 30
• Day 17 – 44
• Day 50 – 54

Power Knees:

• Day 1 – 68
• Day 17 – 85
• Day 50 – 101

Power Jumps:

• Day 1 – 30
• Day 17 – 32
• Day 50 – 37

Low Jump Globe:

• Day 1 – 7
• Day 17 – 11
• Day 50 – 15

Suicide Jumps (aka Burpees!)

• Day 1 – 8
• Day 17 – 15
• Day 50 – 19

Push up Jacks:

• Day 1 – 15
• Day 17 – 20
• Day 50 – 30

Low Plank Oblique’s:

• Day 1 – 22
• Day 17 – 30
• Day 50 – 42

As you can see, some of the moves I was able to double the reps in just 50 days – woop!

After I showered Tony and I went to a Mexican restaurant near our grocery store – $1.79 steak tacos!  I got some refried beans on the side – this was breakfast and lunch and really hit the spot.

Not only were tomatoes on sale, but cherries too – so that means – grilled cherry salsa!  And while we were at that Mexican restaurant, they had the most amazing tomatillo salsa – I had to recreate it.

This bowl of stuff to grill was heavy!!

I had to do it in two batches because there wasn’t enough room.  So I made one batch of baja fresh salsa, one batch of grilled cherry salsa, and then did a tomatillo salsa.

The tomatillo salsa turned out really good, but it wasn’t as creamy as the one I had at the restaurant, and because I charred my tomatillos, it wasn’t as bright green.  I ended up buying two avocados yesterday and added that to the salsa – it’s so good!

The pitfalls of photographing outside in summer – the fly wanted some!

Tomatillo Salsa

• 1 pound tomatillos, husks removed
• 1 jalapeno pepper
• 1 lime
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 avocado
• 1 cup cilantro, stems removed

Grill the tomatillo, jalapeno and lime (whole) until charred.  Throw everything in a food processor and pulse.  I grill the whole lime because it releases all the juice and the pulp when you cut it open.

We ended up grilling out Saturday night – ribs were on sale – we got a rack of baby back ribs for $6!   I followed my new method – cooking in the Dutch oven first and then finishing them off on the grill with bbq sauce.  These were fall off the bone delicious – although we are nearly out of our Rudy’s BBQ sauce – we are kicking ourselves for only buying one bottle to bring home.

Tony found a whole bag of jalapenos on the dollar rack.  I used several for the salsa, but of course had so much leftover.

Tony, being my muse said “why don’t you pickle the rest?!”  Duh!  I followed this recipe, except I left out the carrots and peppercorn, and added 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper and 1 tablespoon of Italian seasoning.

I can’t wait to try these later for lunch.

I got up early on Sunday morning to get my sister in laws lunches done – aren’t I a great sister in law?  Look, I even put onions in her food!

Then after I cooked I did Day 51 of Insanity – 55 minutes of Max Interval Plyo.  Guess who was cheering me on?  Lyle the Squirrel!

He watched me nearly the entire time.  Either on our gazebo frame, or on our table.  He was just lying there and every time I looked at him, there he was!  I gave him some granola last week, so I think he was back for more – he wasn’t too pleased with the sunflower seeds I gave him!  Nice and sweaty!  I can definitely tell that I am getting some definition in my arms.

Bone-in Chicken breasts were on sale too – I got two big ones for $4.  I cooked both of them but Tony and I quickly decided that we would split one.  I think bone in chicken has so much more flavor than chicken breasts, and they are almost always cheaper.

Buttermilk and Rosemary Grilled Chicken

Ingredients:

• 2 bone in chicken breasts
• 1 cup of buttermilk
• zest of one lemon
• juice of one lemon
• 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 stalks of rosemary

Add everything into a large ziploc bag and refrigerate for at least four hours or overnight.  Ours marinated for about six hours.  I grilled ours on the Weber grill on the cool side of the grill – or indirect heat.  These took about 30-35 minutes to cook.

Perfectly cooked!

I think I am going to use the leftover chicken to make chicken tacos for lunch with my pickled jalapenos and tomatillo salsa.

Operation Clean Basement is a bigger job than I thought.  We had a carpet in a bedroom we built for my step-son, and when our basement flooded, I just put a fan in there thinking that would eventually dry out the carpet.  Not.  It was still soaked – I had to take everything out of the room, roll up the carpet, pull down insulation.  We are eventually going to tear the whole thing down – the wood got moldy after the flood and we don’t need that room anymore.

Time to get my shit together for the day.  I am looking forward to going to the pool at lunch today – I just might have to go down the slide again too!

How was your weekend?  Try any new recipes?  Make it a great day!