Weeknight Jambalaya #not

I was a bit worried bringing breakfast parfaits for birthday treats, but they were a hit!  I brought vanilla Chobani’s, granola and I made two different compotes.  I bought two pints of strawberries the week before last.  It’s kind of ridiculous, but even though it’s just me and Tony at home, I use  two refrigerators.  I normally put “my” food in the downstairs fridge:

• Chobani
• fruits
• vegetables
• jalapenos
• any hot shit Tony doesn’t want to accidentally touch

But I forgot about the strawberries and they had to be cooked up or I’d have to toss them.  I hate to waste food, and while I try to do a good job, sometimes things just slip through the cracks and I toss stuff out before using it.   This strawberry sauce couldn’t be easier – 2 pints of strawberries (about 2 cups) cut in quarters, 1/3 cup water and 1-2 tablespoons of sugar, depending on how tart the strawberries are.  Just cook down for 8-10 minutes on low.  At the end, mix 1 tablespoon corn starch with 1 tablespoon of water, mix well and add to the sauce to thicken.

So good!  And this ended up not being too sweet for me so I ate the whole thing – 366 calories and a whopping 56 grams of carbs.  I gave myself what I thought was enough insulin so that my blood sugar would be in the low 200s before working out.  Breakfast parfaits usually spike my blood sugar a lot, so I was shocked when I tested it at 11:15 and it was 95.  Dangit.  So I ate a half cup of my homemade granola, and that worked. Got me up to 175 which is doable.  I had plans to swim, but the pool was crowded so I ended up doing 8 miles on the bike while watching The Chew.

It felt great after not working out the last four days.  I was hungry though when I got back to my desk.   I had leftover beef stew – yumz!  Since Tony doesn’t eat leftovers I knew he wouldn’t mind that I took the whole container – this might be my lunch again tomorrow too.  I followed this recipe, except at the end when I scooped out all the veggies and meat, I mixed 1 tablespoon corn starch to 1 tablespoon of flour and cooked the gravy for 5 minutes on the stove, so the sauce is nice and thick.  And I used a chuck roast that I cubed myself – I think it’s a much better cut of meat than the “beef stew cubes” you find in grocery stores.  Look at all the fabulous marbling of this cut of meat.

At the restaurant, the Chef makes a mean jambalaya.  I haven’t tasted it yet (it’s a shared entree at $44 bucks – even half price that’s a bit pricey for me!) but every time I serve it I think “I need to make that at home!”  Only I wasn’t sure Tony would be on board with it – but he said he likes it – I just can’t spice the shit out of his.  No worries – generous doses of Tabasco were added to mine after I plated his dish.  This is a combination of several recipes I saw.  I decided my proteins would be chicken breasts, shrimp and smoked sausage.

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:27]

Going to New Orleans is on my bucket list.  Tony tells me that I would die over all the spicy food they have there!  So how did this dish turn out?  Crappy.  The rice was tender, but there wasn’t enough seasoning – in my attempt to not make it too spicy for Tony, I ended up not making it spicy at all.  The shrimp and chicken had hardly any flavor.   We both felt this tasted more like spanish rice!   This dish makes 6 servings: 438 calories, 14.9 fat, 42.5 carbs, 6.2 fiber and 11.4 protein.

You win some, you lose some – no big!

When I got home from work there was a squirrel on the deck, but we don’t think it was Kyle or Lyle – just one hungry squirrel who didn’t mind if I got too close, but was a bit skittish.  We threw out shelled peanuts to it, picked one up and was like eh?  I came back in the house and found some walnuts and tossed those out – seemed very happy about that!  I guess shelling his own nuts was too much of a chore for it??

Once it gets really nice out we’ll have to do a major clean up of the deck – so many peanut shells!

Alright, time to get my stuff together.  Love that it’s 35 degrees already (even if we are supposed to get more snow this week!).  Make it a great day!