Silicone?! Well, I never..!

There are two things that inevitably make it into my weekly lunch menu each week: Chili and mini quiches. Chili comes to me in darling little used yogurt containers from Manski on Monday mornings after we work out. He wears the chili hat and adorns his cooking in delectable spices and different beans each week! Sometimes chili involves beef, other times chicken or turkey. Did I mention that he also carries a hand lens with him everywhere?

Mini quiches came into my life through another very special friend. Lisa shared this recipe on F-Heit many many months ago, but the simplicity and versatility of these little guys makes them a whole new experience each time I make them! The title of this post refers to the neat little silicone muffin cups that house the batter as it transitions from raw to ravishing!
This is an old photo and a recipe repeat (from elsewhere) but worth sharing for its simplicity and its ability to launch you to the front of the "cool lunches" club at work. Not that I've been trying...

Crustless Mini Quiche Base Recipe (Lisa's from F-Heit)
Ingredients:
2 whole eggs (Omega or regular)
5 egg whites
3/4 c cottage cheese
Salt
Fresh Black Pepper

Vegetables/variations/spices of choice. Try seafood, sauteed spinach and onion, smoked salmon, sundried tomato with feta and sauteed broccoli, roasted peppers and caramelized shallots/onions, etc.

This particular recipe (for me, at least) yields 1/2 dozen mini quiches + 2 small ramekin quiches. I generally reserve the "muffin" quiches for lunches and share the ramekin quiches with Mom while they're fresh. Her favourite combo so far is the roasted pepper/basil/feta recipe.

Method
1. Blend together eggs, whites and cottage cheese until well combined. Add salt and pepper and stir well.
2. Fill muffin cups with vegetable mixture of your choice.
3. Top with egg mixture.
4. Place in preheated 400 degree oven for about 15-20 minutes or until just set. If using a large baking dish cook for about 20-30 minutes or until just set.
5. Let cool then pop out of pan.
Can be stored in fridge for about 4-5 days.
*Can be made in:
Muffin cups lined
Muffin cups sprayed with non stick spray
Silicone Muffin cups no spray no liners
Small ramekins
Large ramekins
Soufle Dish
Large pie plate
Glass baking dish
Individual tin dishes mini
Large tin dish
Cake pan round or square
Large non stick saute pan oven proof
Cast iron pan
Just about anything! Very versatile!

On a completely unrelated note. Well, I guess nutrition and yummy might also make you think of Cassandra Forsythe. Check out Mike Robertson's latest newsletter for an interview with Cass and her views on women and nutrition. She even discusses the most common progress stoppers and nutrition myths that keep women from achieving their aesthetic and athletic goals.

This is the Stuff(ing) Dreams are Made of

Spinach green and spinach fair
I have saught you in recipes everywhere
For your sass in smoothies
And improving my booty
Manski suspects we're having an affair.

I love spinach - and not just because it's iron-rich and faciliates the betterment of my blog's theme [iron/i run/iron (ferric)] - but mostly because I think that it is quite possibly the most versatile green out there. Honourable mention to matcha, mind you.

Last night, I whipped up a modified version of Lisa's Spinach Stuffed Chicken Breasts. I also need to mention that I find the texture of grated parmesan borders on arousing! It feels like pearl spider silk in my fingers, just gorgeous!

Here she be:

Spinach Stuffed Chicken Breasts


Ingredients:
-4 large chicken breasts
-2lbs frozen chopped spinach, thawed
-1TB olive oil
-1 vidalia onion (chopped)
-3 or 4 cloves garlic, minced
-1/4 c grated parmesan cheese
-2 egg whites
-salt and pepper

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Sautee garlic in olive oil until transluscent.
3. Just 2 minutes before onions look done, add garlic to onions and sautee briefly.
4. Squeeeeeeze all the excess water out of the spinach and toss it (along with egg whites, onion/garlic, parmesan cheese and salt/pepper in your food processor.
5. Spin your partner round and round
6. Lay down those chicken breasts on a foil-lined baking sheet and stuff them real good!
7. Spray tops of chicken with a little more olive oil and spinkle with a little more S&P.
8. Bake for 20 minutes, or until just done.
9. Remove from oven and let them rest for 15 minutes, despite the fact that the afterlife is reputed to be quite restful.

Serve with whatever gets your ticker in a tickle and enjoy!

Upon consuming, task your dinner companion with spraying the wasp nest AKA domain of the stinging fiend that attacked me on Sunday.

Yes, this recipe is good enough that your dinner mate will gladly take on a whole colony of wasps for a chance at the leftovers. Better that he doesn't know that I would have given them to him either way. Little did I know that adventures such as these basically thrill him. Manski, only you could make an LED head lamp look this good.
Viva la Manski!

Puppies, Picnics and Passion

It's funny how in about 2 years of lifting, running and training, I have almost never missed a morning workout and yet in this past week, so many wierd and wonderful things have kept me from training..now that I actually have a goal to work toward!

I have however managed to get in my LSR (long slooow run) on Thursday (41 minutes) at around 60%MHR. Pretty tough, but very envigourating.

I've been finding that my hamstrings, abs and butt are a little bit perma-sore but it's basically because I feel like I am re-learning how to stand, walk and run! Correcting your posture is pretty damn humbling people.

Antoine won his tennis match on Thursday night and I got to pet a puppy. Forget Paris, we want puppies!


Cathy and Pardeep's little guy, Shredder.

Friday I had a really amazing picnic with my Geolobabe, Dave. Yep, my sweetheart biked all the from Carleton to my office in Gatineau with a backpack full of goodies. Be still my palpitating heart! Maybe it's that his thesis is enhancing his nerdly qualities, or if it's hearing him speak in his Geologese dialect, or maybe it was the glow of my nalgene bottle on his face, but I feel just as excited waiting to see him now as I did on our first date.


Forgive my poor photography, but hypoglycemia is a bit of a creativity killer :/


If you find a man who carries a hand lens with him everywhere, don't ever, ever let him go!

So I'm off to the gym to finally get to Day 2 (upper body). No cardio today, since I played 3 hrs of hockey last night and am going to have my first attempt at the "beep test" tomorrow. More on that later.