je na sais quoi: 2011 June

Entries from June 30th, 2011

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Three Recipes for a Paleo Summer Cookout

While these recipes were perfect for dinner at home, I think they’d be awesome at a cookout. So, here you go my dearest readers. The best part about the first two recipes are that they take only about 10 minutes to prep. The Shish Kabobs add on a little extra time for grilling, but still, so easy. Plus, not only are they paleo, but also vegetarian and vegan. So if you’re trying to please a bunch of people (pain in the ass people), try the following two summer recipes for your next BBQ. Perhaps at a 4th of July cookout!? There is a simple grilled chicken recipe included as well, because, I eat meat so, there.

Summer Shish Kabobs

1 zucchini, 1/4 inch slices
1 summer squash, 1/4 inch slices
8 baby portabella mushrooms
1-2 tomatoes, sliced into 8 wedges
olive oil
balsamic vinaigrette
4 chopsticks

Place all vegetables on chopsticks. Drizzle in olive oil and balsamic dressing.
Grill for 10-12 minutes or until vegetables are crisp.

Avocado Kale Salad

1 bunch of fresh kale, washed and ripped into small pieces
1 1/2 avocados, pitted
1/2 yellow onion
1/2 lime
salt
garlic salt
1 tomato, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup shredded carrots

Place avocado, onion, lime and salts in food processor. Process until smooth, creamy dressing forms.
In a large bowl, place kale, tomatoes and carrots.
Pour avocado dressing over salad, mix with spoon until everything is coated!

Grilled Garlic Chicken Breasts

4 chicken breasts
olive oil
3 cloves of garlic
1 lemon
1 cup balsamic vinaigrette

Crush and mince garlic. Mix olive oil, lemon juice and balsamic vinaigrette together. Add all ingredients into a large ziplock bag. Add chicken breasts to bag. Marinate for 3 hours. Grill em up.

For dessert, may I suggest:

Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies
Almond Jamberry Bars
Dark Chocolate Paleo Fudge Brownies

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Things You Didn’t Know You Wanted To Know Wednesday

I didn’t make dinner last night. I don’t have a photo of my outfit. I don’t have a new recipe for you.

I just want to tell you stuff.

1. This week on The Frugal Flambe, my column lightly touches on How To Plan an Allergen Friendly Party. Head over there and leave me some more ideas or just tell me about your experiences at parties while eating a restricted diet.

2. My best friend Catherine arrived safe and sound in Italy yesterday. She’ll be there for 5 weeks taking art and living in an apartment. No big deal! I got her set up with a blog to document her experiences in Florence, Italy as a Vegan! Head over to Veni Vidi Vegan to follow her journey and show her some love!

3. I started reading the book Nudge about Health, Wealth and Happiness. After reading The Happiness Project, I decided I need to balance my love of reading fictional leisurely lame ass girl gets boy books with books that help me understand more about human nature and ultimately, myself. This will be the next giveaway book.

4. This picture was taken this weekend of my best friend Mary Beth and I at her sister’s baby shower. We’ve been together since birth. Although she stopped growing somewhere around age 14. Hi baby!

5. I need 4th of July recipe ideas. Preferably dessert.

6. Steph and I killed it at kickboxing last night.

7. Our teacher can’t count.

8. We also took our first gym showers so that we could go down the street and meet up with Kelly and drink margaritas immediately following our sweat sesh.

This picture is from the fall, but I wanted you to see their faces.

9. I’m addicted to chai.

10. I discovered something that you’ll either find amazing or disgusting. I want it.

11. I’m moving home this weekend.

12. No, I don’t want to talk about it.

Your turn. Tell me something interesting. Or uninteresting. Or tell me how you feel about a dark chocolate bar with bacon and salt in it.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Paleo Pancakes for Dinner & Michael’s Birthday

I really need a haircut. Or at least, I thought I did. Once I decide I need a haircut, nothing will make me happy until I get one. Since most salons are closed on Mondays, I decided I’d go to the first salon that was open. All I need is a trim, you don’t even have to dry my hair. I’m easy.

So I see a little decent looking salon with an OPEN sign out front right on my very street. Lovely. I walked in. A man was on the phone. There were no clients. No stylists. Just him. “Um, hi, I see you’re closing in 30 minutes, but do you have time for a trim?”

“Yup. What’s your name?” he responds like a douche bag.

“Jenna. J-E-N-N-A.”

Blank stare from man.

“JENNA. JEN-NA” I repeat.

“I’m sorry, what?”

ARE YOU ALRIGHTTTTT?!?

“J-E-N-N-A”

“Oh. Okay.”

I proceed to give him my last name in this same, painstaking fashion. He asks if my Italian relatives imported leather, and not in a way that seemed like was interested, but in a way that implied, no matter how I answered, I’d be annoying him.

He brings me to a back room.

“Sit up. Put your head back.” He scrubs my head so hard and fast, I think he hates me. Or all women. Or hair. Why are you even a hair dresser? I hate you. The man then tells me he has to give some lady a blowout and leaves me under a dryer for 30 minutes. With no magazine. Isolated. You’re a douche.

He comes back. Tells me to stand up. Feet together. Brushes my hair so hard. Then says, “You don’t even need a trim, your ends are fine.” He trims it anyway. He turns me around. “Now here, here you need work. Who did this!?!” I don’t answer. He asks if I ever get thought of highlights. I told him that I stopped dying my hair a few months ago. He looks like he wants to punch me. “Color. Not Dye. You stopped coloring your hair.” Okay asshole.

I tell him not to even dry it. I ask if I can add a tip with my debit card. He says no, I can bring a tip back next time I come in. “Yah, definitely.” Like I’d ever come back to your salon you psycho.

The moral of this story is this: Wait until Tuesday you OCD freak. Get your haircut from the nice girl in Wayland square who treats your locks like the tiny threads of angelic wonder that they are.

My new ****ing Haircut!!!

Then I came home and made breakfast for dinner.

Paleo Pancakes with Blueberries & Chocolate Chips

Scrambled Eggs

Oven Baked Bacon

Then I watched The Diving Bell and the Butterfly which made me cry and realize its about time I start writing my book, because if a man completely paralyzed with no speech can write a book by simply blinking his right eye, then I have absolutely no excuse. So, it’s on. I really did love this movie. Two thumbs up. It’s in French. I saw parts of Paris that I traveled to. It’s the story of Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby and his life after suffering a stroke, with flashbacks to before. Beautiful.