BBQ and Green Beans

More good news!  Well, mostly…

Last night, we had the Carolina-style shredded chicken sandwiches and green beans for dinner – delish.  But, as I picked Boog up from school, she was insistent that she needed a snack and that she wanted crackers.  Hmm, I knew we actually had crackers in the house, so I thought, what the heck.  Sure, you can have crackers for dinner, but you have to dip them in your chicken.  She seemed excited about it, so we had relative peace on the way home.

Searching through the freezer, I decided on some green beans for the side and popped them into the microwave.  Boog was pretty impatient and a bit whiny asking about her crackers, but I assured her, dinner was coming and on a monkey plate!  When I mentioned the green beans, she lit up and got excited about taking the balls out.

Boog’s deconstructed BBQ sandwich!

When everything was ready and I took her plate to her, she was so excited.  She did a great job of dipping her crackers into her chicken and she ate EVERY green bean on her plate, asking for more.  Why don’t I have these more often? I had no idea of her love, ha!

Tonight, the plan was to have the leftover barbecue chicken over a salad.  But, it wasn’t the plan when I actually did the grocery shopping.  So, what we ended up with was a bowl with:

Leftover barbecue chicken: self-explanatory

Fresh spinach: originally for a gnocchi dish that was moved to next week

Onions: always available in our home

Cooked green beans: Boog specifically asked for green beans for dinner, what!

Slivered almonds: The only green beans left in the house was one of those Green Giant boxes (love them) Green Beans with Almonds

Italian Parmesan Chex mix: She also asked for crackers, which I thought we had, but Husband finished them off last night.  I had already promised crackers on the car ride again, so…  I just threw some in the salads as well.

For the record, Italian Parmesan Chex mix makes some killer croutons!

Boog again did a great job eating her dinner tonight. She even ate a fresh spinach leaf!  She did call it a green bean…but whatever.  She has had some form of “green beans” every night this week.

On the fitness front, a victory and some disappointments.

Husband and I had another family walking date planned for tonight.  I tried texting him a couple of times today to confirm that we were still on, because I knew I could pick up Boog on the bike if we weren’t going to go walking.  Well, he finally called me back right after picking her up, in the car, and said he had to work late.  Argh.

I also had a killer headache all day and am feeling a bit rundown.  But, Boog and I still went for a walk after our dinner.  Victory!  The best part?  Husband found us mid-walk and at least joined us for a couple of laps.

The only bad thing is I was having a really hard time of it tonight and started to get a bit down.  I couldn’t jog as fast or as far as I could even a week ago.  But, I did my best to keep all that negativity down and be happy that we made it out 🙂

Ok Indian and Fresh Herbs = Phenomenal

After the blackened lasagna from the other night, we had nowhere to go but up this week.  Last night saw some Chicken Tikka that was okay.  I mean, definitely tasty, but certainly no where near amazing.  That’s okay though, a little naan on the side will always bring it around.  And Boog liked it.  She ate broccoli, chicken, rice and naan, pretty well-balanced so I’ll take it.

Tonight, we had the Layered Bruschetta Salad, with a few tweaks to make it a little more fresh.  Instead of buying pre-cooked chicken strips, I diced chicken breast and cooked it in Roasted Red Pepper Italian dressing.  I also used balsamic vinegar, a splash of olive oil, salt and pepper instead of the vinaigrette.

Beautiful, right?

This was delicious!  We go through periods where we eat a lot of salads, but then get burnt out on it because I don’t mix up the flavors enough.  But this was awesome.  Boog ate around the lettuce and tomatoes, but she was excited about it.  My husband used the term “phenomenal”, which is pretty crazy because he usually groans in protest when we have a salad night.  The fresh basil and the balsamic made the dish pop. I highly recommend it!  I think I might include some yellow bell pepper next time, just to add another beautiful color to the mix.

Oh, and we’re going to visit family tomorrow night, so Quinoa Black Bean burgers will be back up on the menu next week!