From farm to face
Hiiiii ๐ Happy Monday! Hope youโre having a great morning <3
Last nightโs fresh-from-the-farm feast was kind of ridiculous.
The star of the show was the banana peppers.
I de-seeded those bad johnnies, stuffed them with goat cheese and pan-seared on med-high heat until toasty.
I baked them in a bed of homemade marinaraโฆ
Topped with goat gouda and finished with fresh basil.
The basically rocked our faces off ๐
In between moaning with foodgasmic ecstasy, I munched some mung bean pasta with spinach, arugula and nutritional yeast
and the pilot had brown rice penne with homemade alfredo sauce (super easy- butter, heavy cream and parmegiano reggiano).
He also had a Greek salad from the Publix deli.
Faces were rocked ๐
We stopped by Jeniโs to take her some of our giant watermelon, came back to the casa for Next Food Network Star (team Aarti!) and called it a night ๐
This morningโs bfast was breakfast cookie cereal sans banana. Publix didnโt have any yesterday- the horror!
Still not sick of it ๐
Plan for the day:
-Weights (back and biceps- I havenโt lifted weights in two weeks since I was sick last week)
-Take Viesa to get her Bordatella and heartworm test (and then for ice cream)
-Send out HLS Indian Feast email ๐
-Training appointments
-Blog
-More training appointments
-Dinner with the girls
See ya later today!! <3
xoxo,
Gina
Note: I get a ton of emails, and in the past I havenโt been as great as I would like to be at responding to them. This is not on purpose at all and Iโm so terribly sorry to those of you who didnโt get a response. Since Iโm not home very often, Iโll often read emails on my crackberry and respond to the quick questions instantly and save the longer ones for later. I fell behind and I know that there are beautiful, wonderful emails that I didnโt get the chance to respond to. I have a new system in place โif I open the email, I am COMMITTED to responding right then and there and will not let 48 hrs go without opening and responding to an email- so if you sent me an email in the past and didnโt get a response, please resend it if youโd like. <3 Is there any youโre working to get better at, too??
I swear the crackberry is the BLACK HOLE of emails! I read about them then totally forget – they just disappear. I have started responding immediately too – total stress relief.
yummm dinner sounds amazing!!! i love homemade marinara and alfredo sauces ๐
I like how you used your banana peppers! ๐ We grow millions of them, and I’ve resorted to pickling. You idea looks great, thanks!
I am not good at listening to my voicemails, I’d rather someone just text me then leave voicemails, but it’s not possible for everyone. I need to get better at listening to them and calling people back.
haha i’m terrible at that too! when i finally do listen to them, some people say “i know you’re not going to listen to this voicemail” hahah
MMMMM, I lurrrrrve banana peppers! I bet they were FAB with the goat cheese! I don’t think there is anything better than a roasted/grilled/baked stuffed pepper- of ALL varieties. I don’t discriminate ๐
One thing I would LOVE to be better at is organizing/staying organized. I am the sloppiest person ever- my closet looks like a war zone, my drawer in the bathroom is trashed, my car looks like i live out of it, and my desk at work is uber cluttered. I get about half way done with a cleaning project and get bored/distracted and never finish what I started!!
I’m working on getting better at not letting the laundry get away from me and get out of control. I would rather do anything than laundry ๐ lol
girl, me too. i avoid laundry at all costs
Those banana peppers look so good! I wish they had some over here!
mmmm I love nutritional yeast and that dish looks yummy
Our garden is exploding with banana peppers…I’m going to make these tonight!!!! YUM!!!!!!
you will love them! ๐
That dinner looks great!
No bananas? I would have cried ๐
I’m terrible at calling people back — I put it off until the “right time”, well that time never comes and then I forget about it!
I love banana peppers, and stuffed with goat cheese sounds so good! I love the idea of that whole dish. Yum!
Holy moses girl– goat cheese stuffed banana peppers?! That dinner looks epic!
That’s so cute your taking Viesa for ice-cream after her shots. haha My mom used to do that for me when I was little…okay and when I was older too, b/c I’m a big fat baby when I get shots (ie. turning pale and passing out).
I’m definitely trying to work on not letting my ironing pile up. I loathe it. As I type I literally have 15 of my husbands dress shirts piled up on the ironing board. Ugh. I should probably get on that, huh? ๐
oh my this feast looks amazing!! goat cheese stuffed peppers mmmmm!! yummy!
I’ve been wanting to try mung bean pasta-what does it taste like? where did you purchas it?
i got it at whole foods- it tastes like regular pasta but has 20g of protein per serving!
That dinner looks so yummy! Hopefully there were some leftovers!
hahah no way! we left no pepper behind ๐
Those stuff peppers look awesome! super easy too!
I was so inspired by your new goal to reply to emails more quickly (did you tweet about it? I can’t remember) that I spent 2.5 hours replying to emails yesterday to clean out my inbox! I’m vowing now to stay on top of it going forward!
yup i tweeted about it ๐ that is AWESOME! i’m going to stay on top of it from now on ๐
Yum! That dinner looks so good! I love greek salad too!
uh, yep – totally making those peppers this week!
Fab idea for the banana peppers! I wouldnt have thought to pair with marinara
i try to set time aside each day to work on emails. i probably don’t get as many as you, but since it’s important to be communicative i usually say that i’ll work on emails for 1 hour and schedule it like a business thing that i can’t cancel. it usually keeps the email answering to just that hour and then i have the rest of the day to be free!
Ugh, the crackberry makes me so dissorganized too! It’s great for short emails, but I always open longer ones and then forget to give them a thought-out response later. I definitely need to get more organized in that department!
I’d like to get better at overall organization. In lesser situations, I’m fine. I can budget, keep a clean house, get things done, but there’s so many things on my plate right now and everything’s pinging around in my head, and I can’t keep up long enough to get any sort of system going. This is why my house is always a wreck, I never have clean laundry, and I’m always getting behind at work.
Wow – I’ve found my daily foodie inspiration boost with the goat’s cheese peppers! Thanks! Not sure what I’ll sub for banana peppers in the UK tho…
Don’t you just find that gathering up fresh produce gets the creativity going so much more than wandering into a store? Shame the weather here in England is about as inspiring as a damp cloth! ๐
I have the same problem with my Blackberry – only I have a habit of reading messages in the middle of the night if I see the light flashing, then when I wake up, I totally forget that they’re there! (SUCH a bad habit, I’m really trying to break it!!)
Glad you’re feeling better! ๐
anything with goat cheese is a winner in my book. I may have to try those stuffed peppers.
A grocery store out of bananas?! I didn’t think that was possible. ๐
they were totally out of organic bananas and the conventional ones were completely green. :/
That dinner looks SO. AMAZING. That marinara is just beautiful ๐ I am very intrigued by the mung bean pasta. What’s the flavor like? I do like raw mung beans so I can’t imagine I’d dislike it….
it’s a lot like regular pasta, with more chew to it. i’m obsessed ๐
that dinner sounds amazing!! But then again, anything stuff with goat cheese would have to be ๐
You are quite the genius with your stuffed peppers and marinara… My mouth is watering.
*Yay* on the HLS email..I’ll be checking my inbox. ๐
A few weeks ago Publix was out of bananas and I was so out of sorts that I actually drove to Walmart (too late to go anywhere else) to get a couple conventional bananas because I just *couldn’t* live without them.
i might do that today. life is not the same without bananas
I am constantly working on my patients. This past week the hubby got the snip and there will be no babies in our future. So, I am trying to truly just enjoy the 3 beautiful boys that I have. I often look for the “next big thing” and stop enjoying the things that I already have. I am trying to live for the now!!
that is an excellent goal.. it’s so easy to focus on the what-ifs and the future, and forgetting to enjoy the present moment.
Those banana peppers look awesome! Hmm…dinner inspiration for tonight, I think!! ๐
Did you ever end up getting a ticket to HLS? Can’t wait to meet you!
yes, i did! a girl who couldn’t make it sold me her ticket, so i’ll be there ๐ can’t wait to meet you too!
OMG, reading emails on my phone has done that to me, too! I read it while I’m out, then TOTALLY forget about it by the time I get home!
I am so jealous of those goat-cheese stuffed peppers! I used to love eating cheese-stuffed jalapeno peppers, so I bet those were SOOOO good! Yum.
Shout out to the Next Food Network Star.
I’m so happy with the final 3 and would watch any of their shows. Can’t wait for next week!!
The episode last night was so fun.
i can’t wait for next week, either! it’s going to be amazeballs
At what temp and for how long did you bake the peppers? They look so yummy, I can’t wait to make them! Thanks in advance : )
350 covered in foil for about 10 minutes; then under the broilerfor 2 min ๐
Thanks a bunch, Can’t wait for dinner tomorrow!
I bought a package of mung bean pasta the other day, been trying to decide when to use it…maybe today might be the day?
when it comes to doing things for others – like work obligations – i’m all up on it, but when it comes to responding to emails/checking my voicemail/doing my laundry i am soooooooo bad. i literally have three months worth of laundry waiting to be done right now.
I am definitely craving goat cheese after reading this post. I need to get better at organizing. My desk looks like a disaster area. I need to find a place for everything, and then keep it there.
That dinner looks fabulous! Lucky lucky pilot! I can get horrible at emails too. Then when it comes to actually emailing back, it only took like 5 minutes! lol
seriously! it really doesn’t take that long! it’s easy to get overwhelmed though
I wish I had the creativity to throw together a yummy dinner like that!
I’m working really hard right now on trying to make my personality come through on my blog…most days I feel like I just end up writing a boring recap instead of actually TALKING to my readers, ya know? Work in progress… ๐
I don’t think i’d get sick of that breakfast either! xx
Girl about the emails….I do the same thing, and I do get tons too. Over and beyond the comments. Everything from raw vegan to lifting to yoga to parenting to poop and breasts LOL. But it got to the point, and this is not to sound mean, but it got to the point people were writing me about really detailed stuff that I was not qualified to answer and I put an autoresponder on my emails giving people the option to check google and that I totally appreciate them wanting me to answer their questions but that sometimes I just dont have the time in my life as a mom, worker, spouse, etc to get to everyone in a timely fashion and that if it’s been a couple weeks and they still feel i am the best person to answer it, to resend. I felt kind of bad but honestly, it’s given me the freedom to not feel obligated to respond b/c i am a GIVER. As you are.
Anyway, now if only I could somehow let go of commenting guilt. I need Gina School on that one…Teacher, help me! LOL
๐
hahah i will send you an email! just don’t auto-respond me, mmm k??? hahah just kidding, you always write back ๐
I’m always forgetting to respond to texts/emails too! People must think I’m always ignoring them! ๐
No banana this morning? Poor you! Breakfast just isn’t the same without them!
Genius way to use banana peppers. I need to be more organized at home, since I’m way organized at work.
When school gets rolling my email gets really backed up. There are emails coming in from my sorority, the architecture department, personal email (aka mom, sometimes dad), the blog… it just continues. But it’s always pretty fun.
Nothing could be better than farmers’ market to table… except for when they’re making shakes too!!! They used to make a peach-date-banana for me with homemade vanilla ice cream at the one down the street from my high school, a verrrry long time ago.
Of course, they tasted best while we were supposed to be in class…;)
The feast looked AMAZING!!!!
haha! that sounds glorious! ๐
The banana peppers look really good. So does your breakfast. I think i’m gonna have to try both of those.