Oh hey, what was that? Did you see that? Wow. You better look over there in case it happens again.
This past week was one pathetic attempt at maintaining any sort of sanity. I don’t know what happened, it was as if the Universe said “meh, let some shit fly for a while.” and it did. It’s never completely soul crushing shit. it’s just continuous… one rapid-fire turd after another. So I’m going to lie to myself and ignore the fact that I didn’t run one single step all week… I’m going to distract myself (and attempt to distract YOU) with food. Luckily, the benefit of this exercise is two-fold. 1. I get to cook – hello therapy. 2. I get to eat – hello happy fat kid inside me.
First up, Smitten Kitchen‘s Lemon Yogurt Blueberry Cake which was adapted from an Ina original. In general I was very happy with how this turned out. I may add a little more sugar to the syrup next time, it was a little more on the tart side than I expected, but still quite delicious. I think this is the second Smitten Kitchen recipe I’ve tried and both were super tasty. I makes me a little sad that I never really explored this blog until recently. Oh well, better late than never.
Blueberry Lemon Close Up
Well aren't you one gorgeous slice of cake.
See, that made you forget about running for a second, didn’t it. And that’s what it looked like before the lemon syrup glaze. I must have subliminally pulled from Luv & Cupcakes (that must be how the recipe wound up on my list).
I experimented with my slow cooker… that was probably a mistake. What usually happens when work ramps up, is Dan and I eat out… a lot. I mean A LOT! I wanted to try some new set-it-and-forget-it meals and see if they were decent options. So for the first time ever. I tried roasting a whole chicken in my slow cooker. I’ve had slow cooker chicken before, but it’s usually some onion soup packet and condensed cream of mushroom soup something-or-other. I thought it would be an interesting change.
Chicken, prepare to be slow cooked.
After lining my Crock Pot with an awesome Reynolds Slow Cooker Liner, I threw in some carrot, onion, and potato along with some lemon wedges. I salt and peppered the inside of the bird. Then took a bulb of garlic, sliced that in half and stuffed it, along with a quartered half a lemon, into the cavity of the chicken. I combined sea salt, red and black pepper, thyme, garlic, paprika, onion and who knows what else, rubbed that all over the skin of the chicken, and set it in the crock pot on low for about 7 hours.
Not too shabby for a slow cooker recipe, right? That’s what I thought, but it still has the same problem the onion and cream of mushroom soup mix versions… it’s overcooked and way too soft, almost mushy. Ditching this idea totally. It’s just too easy to roast a chicken in the OVEN, and FAR tastier that way.
Here’s my practical meal of the week. Dan doesn’t do leftovers… so, that’s usually what my lunch options consist of, leftovers. But every once in a while I’ll make something early on and stretch it all week. I’m attempting to cover both the breakfast and lunch bases at once with a crustless spinach and onion quiche.
Hellooooo, Spinach Onion Quiche!
- Ok, I can tell you needed a close up here.
Mine was very loosely based on a recipe on food.com. Did I mention I put 3 cheeses in this baby? Freshly grated parmesan, applewood smoked guryere, and sharp cheddar. Weird bacon thing on this recipe… this was my first attempt at baking bacon. It did not go well. I wound up with jerky dry strips of pork that were well horrible and tasteless. Obviously it went in the trash and not in my quiche. It was just really weird, almost fisher price plastic food weird. So maybe I need to bake my bacon on a baking rack to keep it out of its own grease. Perhaps that was the problem. Maybe I left it in there too long and it dried the eff out. If anyone knows the answer, please share. Either way the quiche turned out fine without it. Not everything needs bacon after all, weird.
Yep, all was forgotten with that one wasn’t it? Running? What’s That? You’re doing fine. You really had a rough week. You’ve got next week to really buckle down. You’re fine, don’t sweat it.
One final thing… I thought I’d share what I face every morning when I go to get ready. Two (sometimes three) cats staring at me. Waiting desperately for me to be nice, and turn on the faucet in the sink for them to drink from. They’re a pain. I love them, I just wish they weren’t such divas.
Two of My Three Mother F-ing Cats: Luna (black cat on toilet) and Wickett (stripey cat staring into oblivion)
Ok, really, back to the program this week. That Rock n Roll National 1/2 waits for no Yang! Besides, I need to justify all those carbs somehow. 
