Monday, May 31, 2010

Movie Review, 2 Strawberry Dessert Recipes, Kabobs + New Marinade Recipe, New Grill

Thanks for your sweet comments on my new favorite salad combo! As well as my new love of Inidian food. I haven't found any more recipes to make yet - but i'm working on it!! Let me back up a bit - it's been a great weekend!

Saturday my tummy was upset all day. ANNOYING. I had hoped to meet my mom and sister at the outlets (PB here I come!) but it didn’t happen. Instead I stayed home all day – no cooking, no cleaning, no workouts, no nothing. I decided to make the best of it and cleaned out the old Tivo. Also, sweet Austin rented us the cutest movie – The Blindside. We watched it twice. I absolutely loved it. Such a feel-good movie. I get that there was a fair bit of controversy around the film, but I personally decided to take it for what it was – a movie that shows that good things can happen to good people against all odds when people go out of their way to help other people. Warmed my heart! I ended the day at 1,734 calories, 207 carbs, 58 fat grams and 109 protein grams. Here’s what I ate.

Sunday I got up feeling better – and even dressed in gym clothes! I had a brunch pizza square for breakfast and then Austin was ready to go get his grill! (a gift from his parents!) We headed to Home Depot, had great service, and bought the grill Austin had had his eye on/been researching – yay!

The new grill in its new home
We want to replace the bench with a small table/chairs so when he grills he'll have some company! After this pic was taken he cut back the branches a bit


We were so excited to start grilling – I immediately began marinating chicken and shrimp in a marinade I found online, and I put together a smaller version of For the Love of Cooking’s Pasta Salad in homemade Vinaigrette. I also made some yummy strawberry desserts – chocolate covered strawberries and strawberries and cream.

Kabobs - BEFORE
Kabobs and pasta - AFTER

Strawberries & Cream for 2
Chocolate covered strawberries!

While Austin finished up putting the grill back together, I headed to the gym for 4 miles + abs (walked 2 miles; ran 2 miles). Then I showered and finished up putting together this menu:

Chicken and Shrimp Kabobs - 4 servings

16 oz. chicken, cut in large chunks
16 oz. shrimp, defrosted

Marinade:

1 tbsp olive oil
Zest of half a lemon
5 leaves fresh basil, chopped finely
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp kosher salt
½ tsp ground black pepper

Combine all marinade ingredients in a large Ziploc bag. Repeat recipe above for a second bag. Add Shrimp to one bag and chicken to the other. Add to refrigerator for 2-5 hours. Once grill is hot and its grtes are lightly oiled, thread chicken and shrimp onto separate skewers and discard excess marinade. Place kabobs on the grill, cover, and cook until the chicken is opaque throughout, about 4-5 minutes on each side, and shrimp about 2-3 minutes on each side.

Pasta Salad in Vinaigrette - 5 Servings

6 oz. cooked rotini
Cherry tomatoes
Small cucumber, seeded & diced
¼ cup Yellow Onion
¼ cup Orange Bell Pepper
1 oz. Fat-free Feta Cheese
Salt and Pepper to taste
Vinaigrette: ¼ cup canola oil, 1.5 tbsp rice vinegar, ½ tbsp red wine vinegar, 2 cloves minced garlic, ½ packet of splenda and salt/pepper

Mix together all ingredients and mix together vinaigrette. One hour before serving add vinaigrette. Put in refrigerator for at least 1 hour before serving.

Strawberries and Cream from Gina's WW Recipes - 4 Servings

12 large/extra large strawberries, washed
Fat free whipped topping

Cut greens off tops of strawberries so when you flip them around the strawberries sit flat. With a sharp knife cut slits all the way down the berry in an X shape, careful not to cut through. Arrange strawberries on a plate, and open them like a flower. Fill with cream.

Nutritional Information (per serving – 3 strawberries): 29 calories, 7 carbs, 0 fat grams and 0 protein grams.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries adapted from Gina's WW Recipes - 4 servings


2 oz dark semi-sweet chocolate
20 small/medium strawberries
Rinse and completely dry the strawberries. In a medium microwave safe bowl, microwave chocolate on high for 30 seconds. Stir and repeat until all the chocolate is melted. Dip strawberries and place on waxed paper to cool. Refrigerate to give it a hard chocolate coating.

Nutritional Information (per serving 5 strawberries): 93 calories, 14 carbs, 5 fat grams and 0 protein grams.

I had 1/4 of the chicken recipe, 1/3 of the shrimp recipe, 1 serving of pasta, 5 chocolate covered strawberries and 2 strawberries with cream. Here's my plate:


Yes, I was a full girl and yes, we ate slowly! :) Such a nice dinner. We were SO excited to eat outside but... it didn't work out. It started raining! So we headed in and had a game night - Trivial Pursuit and Buzzword, along with some drinkies. Great chill night! Reuben enjoyed it too... although he had to stay wrapped in a towel a lot because he kept getting his paw paws wet outside!


I ended up at 1,997 calories, 173 carbs, 65 fat grams and 88 protein grams. Here’s what I ate.

So ended my awesome Saturday and Sunday! Today has been great too! I think we really needed a chill/homebody weekend to get back on track.

What's your favorite thing to grill? Any favorite recipes or marinades? I think i'm about to grill a lot!

Have you ever made chocolate covered strawberries? I couldn't get over how incredibly easy they were to make! These might become a summer staple around here!

23 comments:

Andrea@WellnessNotes said...

I have grill envy!!! LOVE your new grill! And you made some delicious food! I love marinating and grilling portobello mushrooms.

Tyler said...

I love grilling anything and everything! It always tastes SO good! I also love chocolate covered strawberries. The Edible Arrangements people came into my work the other day and passed some out. Uh mazing!

lee@In My Tummy said...

Jason wanted to go to Home Depot and get a grill today, one day after we moved in. We didn't, but we really want one soon.

I want those chocolate covered strawberries.

Tami said...

Everything looks delicious! I just posted a recipe for pork ribs. We grill several times a week all summer long. I love the easy clean up and not heating up the kitchen.

Jenny said...

I grilled for the FIRST time on my grill this weekend and I did good!!! My parents got the grill for me for Christmas and I asked for a charcoal grill because I grew up with them- Food just tastes delicious and it's very simple really. After my dad gave me a few lessons :)

I made chicken kabobs in an awesome marinade!! I'll post to my blog this week sometime.

Mehnaz said...

Wow- your grill puts my tiny charcoal one to shame (think college days grill). I love grilling corn with butter - it's so good!
I don't know if this will help but this site has little videos for different Indian recipes: http://www.manjulaskitchen.com/
They are mostly vegetarian South Indian recipes but you can control the amount of oil and cream you use to make the recipes healthier and add meat yourself.
Here in Chicago, I get my spices from this great little shop: http://www.thespicehouse.com/
They deliver too - but I bet in your neck of the woods Whole Foods would also have everything!
-M

Sunny said...

what an awesome grill! your dinner looks delicious, i like your recipe for the pasta salad. yum! we love grilling shrimp kabobs, grilled chicken for salads, and grilled cod is really good too!

Lindsay said...

Yum!!! That marinade sounds yummy I am going to try it out this week.

Erica said...

I haven't seen the blind side yet, but have heard SUCH great things. Hooray for the new grill- we use ours all of the time. I like to make everything on it- grilled veggies, baked beans, burgers & meats for the man, bean patties for me, grilled fruit (amazingness). Hope you have a good Tuesday

April said...

Mike would LOVE that grill!!

I love grill asparagus mmmm...

I make Mike chocolate covered strawberries and he thinks i'm like a gormet chef or something.

Mica said...

Wowwwww, check out that grill! It is a monster!

I don't know how to grill, and neither does Harrison. We kind of feel like failures of adults, so we're going to learn this summer. First, we must buy a grill! (Duh...)

homecookedem said...

I have really been wanting to see the blind side!!

We love our grill... well Andrew loves it because he grills and I love it b/c I eat what he grills! ;) What a perfect weekend to get a grill... lots of grillin ahead of yall!!

Your chocolate covered strawberries look wonderful!! I've never made them before, but now I'm inspired to!!

Anonymous said...

The new grill is so pretty!

kacy said...

Those cream strawberry things looked amazing!

Glad you're feeling better :)

Pam said...

The whole meal looks and sounds delicious. I love the grills new home - so pretty.

Pining for Pinterest said...

I love to grill salmon in a wine marinade :) Yummy!!!

Anonymous said...

Grilled pizza is always good! I can use the same dough as I normally do but the texture is completely different!

You should try making my chicken tikka masala - it's gotten rave reviews from other bloggers who have tried it!

http://biz319.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/more-indian-food/

Hope you are feeling better - and I love the Blind Side - so good!

Kelly Olexa said...

OMG I have never made chocolate covered strawberries but I LOVE THEM big time!! ;-) And I'm so excited to try Indian food soon!! Yummy!!

erica said...

I want to come over to your place and eat! Look at all those goodies! Yum!

xo

Sunny said...

what an awesome grill! your dinner looks delicious, i like your recipe for the pasta salad. yum! we love grilling shrimp kabobs, grilled chicken for salads, and grilled cod is really good too!

lee@In My Tummy said...

Jason wanted to go to Home Depot and get a grill today, one day after we moved in. We didn't, but we really want one soon.

I want those chocolate covered strawberries.

Tyler said...

I love grilling anything and everything! It always tastes SO good! I also love chocolate covered strawberries. The Edible Arrangements people came into my work the other day and passed some out. Uh mazing!

Andrea@WellnessNotes said...

I have grill envy!!! LOVE your new grill! And you made some delicious food! I love marinating and grilling portobello mushrooms.