Simple Delicious Biscuits

I am getting really excited about my vacation next week.  We eat a lot, talk a lot, porch a lot, float a lot.  I love it when my brother and I go at the same time too because it’s usually the longest period of time I get to spend with him all year.  Eight days!  Basically we are a family that loves to cook, so there is no doubt there is going to be some good food.  And my Aunt Martha makes the best pimento cheese!  I’ve seen her make it, but just like her Chex Mix that she makes every year, it doesn’t taste the same as hers when I make it.

So we mostly deal with breakfast as a catchall, since people get up at all different times.  I decided I was going to try to get my biscuit recipe down pat and to make them as quick as possible.  Since we are driving I am definitely bringing my Baking Steel!  Okay, I just went on their website to grab the link for you guys – I didn’t know they had a Baking Steel GRIDDLE! Gah, I need to have that too.   Oh snap, I just saw the price tag – $195!  Okay, if I win the lottery I’ll get one of those!

So I decided not to cut out my biscuits this time because the second roll of biscuits never turn out as good as the first ones.  So after I made the dough, I shaped it into a square and stuck it on a cookie sheet in the freezer until the oven was up to temperature.  That way you get an extra flaky, buttery crust because the butter is super cold when it hits the hot Baking Steel.  I just cut them into 9 squares – each square comes in at 161 calories, 6 fat, 23 carbs, 4 protein – not too bad!

• 2 cups flour
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspooon salt
• 4 tablespoons of frozen butter, shredded*
• 1 cup 2% milk mixed with 1 tablespoon vinegar (to make mock buttermilk)
• 2 teaspoons melted butter for when they come out of the oven (the above stats don’t include this – optional!)

Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together.  With a cheese grater, grate the butter right into the flour and toss to coat.  Pour the milk/vinegar mixture and mix with your hands until combined.  I put my dough on floured parchment paper to shape into a square.  I let the dough rest in the freezer for 10 minutes, then cut them into 9 pieces and baked at 450 for 15 minutes.

Jacob is going crazy over them.  I think he ate four of them yesterday.  He made a breakfast sandwich to take to work, then ate three when he got home with some butter and honey.

I ended up cutting one in half and making two open faced egg white, ham, spinach and pepper jack cheese sammies with strawberries and blueberries on the side.  I ate one half, ate the fruit, and realized I was full and didn’t eat the second half – hooray for listening to my body when it was telling me I was full and I actually paid attention!

Our weather was a hot mess yesterday.  Rainy, a bit stormy and steamy!  I ended up hitting the gym instead of walking and when I left my blood sugar was 220 – nice!  Sadly, at the 2 mile mark, I could feel my blood sugar dropping and when I got back to the office, it was 66.  By the time I finished putting my lunch together it had dropped down to 44 – gah!  So I didn’t take any insulin at lunch because I knew I was going to the gym after work.  I ate the Chobani blood orange yogurt with blueberries first to get my blood sugar up, then ate my sammie.

I found that Joseph’s Bakery pita bread in front of the deli at Walmart – each pita is only 60 calories and 10 grams of cabs and its soft and delish!

I am still busy at work, so I am happy my last week before vacation will go by fast at work.  Before I knew it, it was time to head back to the gym.  I had chest on the menu, then I did 1 mile on the treadmill and realized I’d lost my fitbit – dammit!  Luckily I found it at the end of the treadmill.  I had already cancelled the workout I was on after a mile, and decided to change it up and did 5 miles on the exercise bike – that got me really sweaty!  Um, turns out biking doesn’t count your steps – boo!  Are my eyebrows on fleek or what?!

So my non-meat eating daughter will eat my pork potstickers.  You just never know with that girl.  These were delicious even though I thought they could have been spicier.   So simple too – just a bit time consuming to put the potstickers together – but it’s worth it because not only did I feed the three of us last night, I have leftovers already cooked for my lunch tomorrow, and I froze the rest on a cookie sheet for 30 minutes, so they won’t stick together in the ziploc bag for a quick weeknight dinner in the future.  This is enough for 60 potstickers:

• 1 pound ground pork
• 2 cups coleslaw mix
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger
• 1 tablespoon sriracha

Mix together and put a small teaspoon into each potsticker, dip your finger in water and go all around the potsticker wrapper and then crimp to seal.  I did 30 to cook, and made another 30 to freeze.  I heated up 1 tablespoon of coconut oil and sprayed my pan with Pam.  Cook flat side down for 2-3 minutes, or until the bottom gets browned and then add 1/2 a cup of water and put a lid on to cook the rest of the wonton wrapper and the pork filling.  The pork is raw by the way when you fill it.

I sauteed some zucchini on the side and picked up brown rice for $2 at my local Chinese restaurant because I forgot to bake some over the weekend.  I could literally eat these every day and never get sick of them.  Hannah and Jacob both gave these two big thumbs up.

So I got my steps in, even though I think I was cheated with not getting any steps with my 5 mile bike ride.  And I need to change my weight on my app!

I have a couple shout outs today!  101 Days of Summer Challenger Aimee did a 25k trail run over the weekend and kicked some serious booty!  Since it was her first one, she had no expectations, didn’t have a Garmin or anything, just enjoyed each and every step of it – so proud of you Aimee!  You can check out her recap here.

My blog friend Ally made an overnight peanut butter chocolate swirled oatmeal that looks amazeballs.  Bake it off on a Sunday and you’ll have breakfast all week.

I bought a bunch of broccoli at the farmers market over the weekend, how delicious does this broccoli with peanut sauce sound?

Alright, off to get some steps in before work – make it a great day!