Shortcuts

Sometimes taking shortcuts pay off.

Today’s guacamole shortcut definitely was one of those.

Instead of chopping an onion, mincing garlic and running across the street to the market for a tomato to chop to make the home-made guacamole that Brian and I have been putting together here in Korea, I went for a speed route and ended up with the perfect, portion controlled snack of guac!

All in the skin of the avocado too. Double bonus when you don’t dirty excess plates!

After cutting the avocado in half, I took a knife and sliced up the half without the pit, right in the skin before adding salt, pepper, a spoonful of salsa and drizzle of lime juice.

Mix it all together and serve with tortilla chips, veggies, pretzels…whatever your dipping item of choice may be.

Or just use it to top burritos, burrito bowls, tacos, burgers…the possibilities are endless!

Dinner

On our last trip to Costco, we picked up some tilapia fillets and decided to break some out for dinner tonight.

After dusting them with flour, pepper, salt and garlic powder, we lightly pan-fried them in olive oil for a couple of minutes on each side until they were cooked through and flaked easily with a fork.

On the side it was a mix of rice, beans and corn – pretty typical.

The fish came out great! Definitely good Costco find!

Question:

What do you take shortcuts on that have a finished product that you think is better than the long way of doing it?

Guacamole Coma

After part II of my workout this afternoon (Body Revolution, Phase 3, Workout 9), I made sure to get in my 20 minutes of stretching for the “Stretch for Seven” Challenge. Today, I incorporated more yoga positions and flow sequences into my routine than yesterday. I forgot just how much I love the stretch I feel in so many different yoga poses.

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Triangle pose was pulling me in all the right directions today!

The 20 minutes flew by since I was also watching the end of the Orioles game against the Whitesox on MLB.com’s Gameday during them. An Adam Jones HR to tie the game and then a Matt Wieters grandslam to seal the deal. That’s Orioles Magic, baby!

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Snack

As soon as I was done with my stretching, I was hungry but not quite lunch hungry yet so I pulled the leftover guacamole out of the fridge and snacked on some with pretzels (gotta put a dent in the six-pound bag somehow!) and two tortilla chips.

I used the tortilla chips to really gauge how the guac was after sitting for the night and my taste buds were pleased. The extra hours in the fridge allowed all of the flavors to really mix together. Yum!

After my snack, I ended up not leaving the kitchen for quite a while longer because I caught the baking bug again.

By the time my cookies were pulled from the oven, I was ready to then start on lunch.

Oh…who cares about lunch? You just want to know more about the cookies you see above? Patience is a virtue, my friends. Plus, I haven’t gotten to adequately taste them and you know I have to do that before sharing where I found the recipe and the adaptations I made! 🙂

Lunch

When I put together lunch, my first step was to pull the perfectly set guacamole back out from the fridge. I covered half a toasted whole wheat bagel (from the bakery at Emart) with some guac and then set half of a chicken breast topped with pepperjack cheese on top.

A little lettuce rounded out the bagelwich.

On the side, I enjoyed a peach yogurt with peanut butter cinnamon spice granola on top.

And now that I am in a guacamole coma, I’m hoping to motivate myself to break out the text book and get to studying for the rest of the afternoon.

The weather is absolutely amazing outside and I would LOVE to know of a close place to sit outside and study, read, relax…whatever…while enjoying the sunshine! Do any Korean readers have a suggestion of a place close to Hanbat Stadium where I can do just that? I know there is a park by Say Department Store but I was hoping for someplace a little closer to walk to!

Question:

What is your favorite way to stretch?

Fiesta!

Last Night

When I last left you, I was on my way to the kitchen to make a Mexican dinner with Brian so lets back up to right there. One of our favorite meals from either a Mexican restaurant or even from our own kitchen is burrito bowls and we were both really excited to make them for the first time here in Korea.

Rice, black beans, corn, green beans, shredded cheese and chicken.

Topped with salsa and guacamole.

See, there really was rice, beans and corn under all of the rest of it!

Obviously, in true burrito bowl fashion, everything ended up being mixed all together!

Now that you have seen the complete meal, lets focus in on the guacamole. Neither of us have seen guacamole in any market here but avocados are plentiful so the easy solution was to grab some other ingredients and make the guac from scratch.

Guacamole

Ingredients:

• 2 avocados
• 1 plus 1/2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 medium tomato, chopped
• 3 tbsp. lime juice
• 1/2 tsp. pepper
• 1/4 tsp. salt

Directions:

1. Prepare the onion, tomato and garlic and set aside.

2. Cut the avocados in half, remove the pit and use a spoon to scoop the meat of the avocados into a medium mixing bowl.

3. Use a fork to mash the avocado into a smooth consistency.

4. Add the onion, tomato and garlic to the mashed avocado and mix well.

5. Add the salt, pepper and lime juice and again mix well and then refrigerate until serving (at least 30 minutes is best).

Enjoy with tortilla chips, corn chips, pretzels, on burritos or burrito bowls or even straight from your finger tips.

It I had access to it, I would have preferred to add some cilantro to the mix as well but otherwise, for the ingredients we had, the guacamole was the perfect Mexican dinner accompaniment!  All in all, we both walked away from the dinner table with very happy bellies!

Workout – Part I

I got out of bed early enough this morning to make sure I could hit the track for a run before the morning hours that it is open to the public were over. With the run to and from the track, I totaled 4 miles on the morning.

After B leaves for the field this afternoon, I plan to get in the second part of my workout – Body Revolution, Phase 3, Workout 9.

Breakfast

The good eats continued this morning after last night’s dinner. You know what happens when there is an empty peanut butter jar waiting to be put to use right?

Oats in a jar happens! But nope, not this morning.

If oats in a jar are good to use up the lasts of the peanut butter why not a protein smoothie in a jar?

A banana chocolate protein smoothie with extra peanut butter in each spoonful.

Right up my alley!

Question:

Do you prefer homemade guac or store-bought?

Burritos – traditional or in a bowl?

Shaking Things Up

Strange things have been happening at the office recently and this morning was no different. Without getting into all of the details, what did happen left me without an appetite for a while so when I started to get hungry my original plan was to just snack on a few things I had in my office.

I pulled out what was left of a bag of Stacy’s pita chips and a pack of guacamole and was just about polishing them both off when coworkers came in to see if I wanted to grab lunch.

Since both of them were walking to Potbelly’s I joined in the “fun”. We used the time to clear our heads about our morning and the fresh air and sunshine was nice.

I haven’t had anything but a salad from Potbelly’s in forever so I went with something new and got the Skinny T-K-Y with lettuce and tomato.

And a Diet Coke…just because it was that kind of morning.

Oy Vey. No more surprises please boss man!

Question:

What do you like from the Potbelly’s menu?