Dijon Mustard Salad Dressing

Happy Monday, y'all! The summer weather has definitely hit Texas. To celebrate the heat, one of my best friends and I went for a walk after work. LMR is currently fostering an adorable little Pomeranian, so we got a dose of cuteness to counteract the heat. I returned home to do a P90X workout, and then whipped up a hefty salad to stave off my hunger. My salad ingredients consisted of red leaf lettuce, carrots, celery, almonds, pumpkin seeds, and pine nuts. And here's the dressing I whisked together to add some extra flavor...

Dijon Mustard Dressing

2 Tbls Dijon mustard

1 1/2 Tbls extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 tsp lemon juice

1 1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar

salt and pepper, to taste

Whisk the ingredients together in a small bowl, then drizzle over your salad.

I added some chopped prosciutto to make myself feel fancy while I lounged around in my sweats. What a wonderful Monday night!

Whole 30 - Day 11

I'm really cutting this close with getting a post out today, aren't I? Well, my reasoning is simple. I had crew practice after work, where I took out a single and gouged some more skin off of the knuckles of my right hand. Then I rushed home to shower and grab a bite to eat before meeting up with my out-of-town friend J. I figured nobody at the bar would appreciate me showing up sweaty, and I didn't really want to sit in my sweat-drenched clothes (Boy, was it warm today, so I didn't exactly have time to sit down and type up a post, but I'm doing it now. So there.

Despite being up and out so late on a weekday, I'm still pretty energetic, probably because I was so excited to see J again. We had interned together up in Pennsylvania five years ago, then had both lived in Texas for a while, before he returned to the North. Work brought him back to the grand state of Texas, so I abandoned my 9 pm bed time and caught up with him and his wildly ridiculous stories. He is the BEST storyteller. I always have a blast with him!

Anyways, I'm going to share with you a way of steaming asparagus in the microwave... without any dishware. Say what? Keep reading.

Prosciutto-Wrapped Asparagus

1 bunch asparagus

1/4 cup water

1 tsp lemon juice

salt and pepper

1 packet of Proscuitto

1. Grab 3 papertowels. Use the 1/4 cup of water and lemon juice to wet the entire papertowel. Lay flat.

2. Rinse the asparagus and trim off the bottom inch to inch and a half of the stem.

3. Spread the asparagus on the papertowels, sprinkle with salt and peppa, and roll that sucker up. Proceed carefully so you don't tear the sheets apart.

4. Place in the microwave and nuke it for 4 minutes. And your asparagus is ready.

5. Wrap up 5-6 stems in each piece of Prosciutto and serve... with some chicken and wilted spinach and baby kale.

Whole 30 - Day 6

Today a few friends and I went kayaking. I loved it. More and more lately I've discovered that I like spending my friend time doing something active. Probably has something to do with the fact that I'm not drinking alcohol and it's tough going out to eat at certain places and finding something on the menu that's Paleo-friendly that I don't mind paying for. I have serious issues with paying $30 for a dish when I ask them to hold 75% of the dish.

Anyways, you're here for food, right? So here's what I made for myself after 3 hours of kayaking.

Prosciutto-Wrapped Egg

1 slice Prosciutto
1 egg

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Use olive oil or coconut oil to grease the inside of one muffin tin.
3. Place the Prosciutto into the tin, arranging it so that it covers the bottom and sides.
4. Place in oven and bake for 8 minutes, until starting to get crispy.
5. Remove pan and crack an egg into the Prosciutto bowl and return to the oven. Bake for 10 minutes or until egg is cooked through.
6. Use a large spoon to carefully remove the Prosciutto from the pan. Then eat.

21DSD Day 11 - Prosciutto on a Burger? Yummmm

First off: Hell yes! Half-way through! 11 days down. 10 more to go. And I managed to go all of today at work without snacking. Amazing!

In sad news, it was one of my friends last days at work with my company. He's switching to a different company a couple miles down the road where he can hang out with two of our other friends. I'm happy for him, but super sad that he's leaving my cubicle bay. Who will I talk to about awesome cooking knives, or Paleo, or working out, or things like the Engineer's Guide to Cats (http://youtu.be/mHXBL6bzAR4)? So, we may have taken a sanity break from work last Saturday (yes, work on a Saturday) to watch a little bit of cat yodeling... don't judge.

Anyways, back to 21DSD... I lasted 48 hours without any nuts. And it was glorious. But, when hunger starts calling, and you're at a restaurant where everything on the menu would need serious tweaking to make it 21DSD-friendly, then sometimes you cave in and eat the handy nuts. And that I did. I ate pistachios. I admit it. And I can tell you that within a few minutes of eating them, my stomach started grumbling at me. Bad sign? Please don't tell me that my body doesn't like pistachios. They're so yummy! We'll see what happens after a week without nuts when I try them again.

It's probably is a better idea to go off of nuts next week anyways. I'm celebrating the long weekend with some friends and there will be roughly 8 hours where I won't have access to a fridge, a store, or a stove, so I need something to sustain me, that's preferably not a sandwich that I have to eat the insides out of. I'm thinking that nuts may suffice for part of that. I'm still trying to figure out for sure what I'm going to bring with me. Carrots and celery are definitely on the menu, and I just chopped up quite a bit of those tonight in preparation. I'll keep you posted on what I end up eating.

Anyways, here's one of the ways that I tossed together toppings for a 21DSD-friendly burger (man, I really wish that I could have continued the "t" alliteration there)... 

Guacamole - Prosciutto Burger

So, this is simple. Grill, fry, or broil your ground beef. Then top with guacamole, tomato, mini-bell pepper slices, and a slice of prosciutto. Wrap with iceberg lettuce (I find iceberg is the best for wrapping). Then open that gaping hole in your face, and insert burger. Chew. Swallow. Repeat. 

And yep, I got fancy and added prosciutto to my burger. Just keepin' it classy, y'all. Try to contain your jealousy... jk. Go out and get the makings yourself. Then you can enjoy the yumminess, too!