Rosemary Parmesan Chicken Burgers with Caramelized Onions

Hello my precious readers!

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend and a great Monday as well.

I have a little surprise for you all....

A new recipe!

It's been a while since I've posted up a new tasty recipe for you all to enjoy and make.

The past few days I had been contemplating making chicken burgers. But not just any plain ole chicken burger.

I wanted one full of flavor.

Rosemary pairs so well with chicken and so does parmesan. So I thought, why not combine them all together as a chicken burger!

Great idea, Jen.

So today, I got down to business and whipped these babies up.

Rosemary Parmesan Chicken Burgers

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground chicken

2 tbs. minced rosemary

1 tbs. minced basil

1 tbs. crushed garlic

¼ cup grated parmesan cheese

salt and pepper to taste

1 tbs. olive oil

1 red onion; sliced

Directions:

In a medium sized bowl combine the ground chicken, minced rosemary and basil, garlic, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper to taste. Stir well to combine, or get down and dirty and use your hands to combine. Form into 4 equal sized patties and set aside.

In a medium sized pan over medium heat, add the olive oil and the onions. Add a pinch of salt and pepper to taste.  Sauté until the onions have caramelized, they will be a golden brown. This should take about 15 minutes. 

Once cooked, remove from pan and place into a bowl and cover to keep warm. Using the same pan, cook the chicken patties. It should take 3-5 minutes to cook on each side. Once the juices run clear, the burgers are cooked all the way through. 10 minutes in total.

Serve the rosemary parmesan chicken burgers on a plate and top with the caramelized onions.

Enjoy!

They were delicious!! The parentals loved them! I paired it with mushroom couscous and zucchini. 

There were absolutely no left-overs whatsoever. Which, I must admit, made me a little sad. 

That's all for now! I hope you love these as much as I did.

For now, I'll leave you all with an amusing picture of my "child".

Stank Face

Hahaha!!

Have a great rest of your evening lovelies!

XO Jen

Through Pictures

Life lately through pictures

Chuck Love <3

Pasta Dinner

Pour, poke and spread eggs

BFF playing a racing game

Bonfire <3

Kale chips; these are amazing!!

Where and How I found Jack sleeping.

Peeking out

New all black Chucks!!

WIATW

What I Ate This Week (WIATW)

Yeah, yeah, I know... I still lagged on my blog this week. It's been one of those weeks where I just didn't have the motivation.

BUT I do have a few fun things to share with you all!!

As I said before in an earlier post, I won Jenny's shoe giveaway and I will soon have the pair of boots I picked out! Thanks again, Jenny!

These are the one's I picked out:

Can't wait to get them! Aren't they cuuuuute?? Haha. I've never won anything before, so I am super excited about it.

On Tuesday I went up to visit my grandma in the hospital. Man oh man was it ever tough to see her looking the way she did. My grandmother is one tough lady and for the past 28 years that I've been alive, this is the first time she has ever been admitted into the hospital. She had been in there since last Thursday.

Luckily, the doctors said she was well enough to go home, so on Wednesday they sent her home. I'm glad that she is doing and feeling better. I've been super worried about her.

Later on Tuesday evening, when I returned home, I made myself a quick veggie bowl for dinner. I roasted chickpeas, zucchini and mushrooms in the oven with a drizzle of EVOO, salt, pepper and dried sage to taste. While that was cooking, I sauteed some kale. Combined all the veggies in a bowl and topped it off with some goat cheese. 

It was delish! Exactly what I needed after a rough and tough day.

One of these mornings this week, I had a bowl of blueberry overnight oats. In the morning I added the almond butter and a 1/4 cup of frozen blueberries. It was soooo good!

On Thrusday, my mom and I took a trip to Sprouts. It just opened up this week. I've been waiting months for this grocery store to open!! 

So off my mom and I went. OMG... I LOVE Sprouts! They have all the healthy, organic food that I love!! We did a little grocery shopping and got some produce. They had strawberries for 77 cents each! Awesome deal! And I also got myself a little snacky-snack.

Actual, real, veggie chips! They are delish. The green beans are my favorite!

And now it's Friday. 

TGIF!!

I finally had my first homegrown tomato this summer. Well, it's not my first time eating one, just the first one I've had this summer. 

I cut it up and made myself a tomato sandwich. My fav. :)

There are the tomato plants off to the right.

One of my BFFs is having a get together at her apartment tonight. I decided to make Angela's Almond Butter Rice Crisp Treats to bring!

It was so hard to not eat one. They look so good!

That's all for now! I'm off to the gym!

Enjoy your Friday!

XO

Lagging

I've been seriously lagging on my blog posts.

And for you, my dear readers, I deeply apologize!

This past week had been hectic one. Summer quarter started up and I was stressed out with trying to add into a couple classes, and since it is summer quarter CSUEB isn't offering as many classes as the other quarters. Luckily, I was able to get into ONE of the classes I needed. I guess it's better than nothing.

Then a family situation emerged that had to do with my grandma. I was and still am very worried about her. This Tuesday I am going up to see her.

The rest of the week was filled with the gym and this weekend I spent it with my family.

My eating has been all over the place lately, so I am dedicating this week to getting my normal eating habits back on track.

OOOhh!! For an exciting piece of news... I entered to win a shoe give away on Jenny's blog, Peanut Butter and Jenny, and WON!! I am soooo excited!! A huge THANK YOU to Jenny for choosing me as the winner!

I spent the majority of my day today outside and snacked on one of my favorite snacks-- frozen grapes. The weather was perfect for it, and my baby booboo joined me for most of it.

Tonight for dinner, my dad grilled up some tuna. I had been waiting in anticipation all day for it!

 I marinated the tuna in:

• 1/4 cup light soy sauce 
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 tbs. crush garlic garlic 
• 1/2 tbs. ground ginger

Added all these ingredients to a bowl and whisked them together. Poured over the tuna and let them marinate for about 1 hr 30 mins.

The tuna was delicious! I like mine to be seared on the outside and raw on the inside.

My tummy was definitely happy after this meal.

That's it for tonight my lovely readers! I promise to post more this week!

Hope you all have a great rest of your night!

XO Jen

Finally feels like SUMMER

It finally feels like summer here in northern California!!

It's been a long time coming. Just a few weeks ago it was cold, cloudy and it even rained!

Now the sun is out shining down and the warm weather is upon us! I couldn't be happier. I can finally tan these pale legs of mine.

With the warmer weather comes the lighter meals and more green smoothies.

Today I made a summer quinoa salad with a balsamic vinaigrette that will last me most of the week!


Summer Quinoa Salad


Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup COOKED quinoa
• 1/2 a red bell pepper; chopped
• 1/2 a orange bell pepper; chopped
• 1/2 cup mini heirloom tomatoes; halved
• 1 cup mushrooms
• 3/4 cup shredded carrots
• ~handful kale; de-stemmed 
• ~1/4 cup balsamic
• 1 tbs. honey
• salt and pepper to taste

(These are rough measurements; please forgive me!)

Directions:
In a large bowl add the chopped up bell peppers, tomatoes, carrots, mushrooms and kale. Next, add the 2/3 cup quinoa and stir to combine. In a small jar or bowl, add the balsamic, honey, salt and pepper to taste. Stir or whisk together to combine. Pour the dressing over the veggies and quinoa and stir well to combine. I like my vinaigrette to have a bite to it; if you don't then add a little more honey to it.

**If you don't have any cooked quinoa on hand, cook 3/4 cup dry quinoa with 1 1/2 cups water. Bring to a boil and then cover and let simmer for about 15-20 mins, or until all the water has been absorbed. Then use about 2/3 cup of the cooked quinoa for the salad.

I also made myself a Banana Mango Green Smoothie for lunch and enjoyed it outside while soaking up some rays and tanning my legs!

Banana Mango Green Smoothie

Ingredients:

• 1/2 a frozen medium banana
• 3 slices frozen mango
• 1/2 c unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 1/2 c water
• handful spinach
• 1 tbs. ground flax
• 1 tsp. agave nectar (optional)

Directions:

In a blender, add the water, almond milk, banana and mango. Blend until smooth. Next add the spinach, ground flax and agave nectar; blend again until thoroughly blended. Pour into a cup and enjoy! 

After lunch I uploaded some new music onto my iPhone and did some strength training with hand weights and then abs/core. Then I took off to the gym and did 40 minutes worth of cardio.

Came home and made myself up a small bowl of the Summer Quinoa Salad and laid out in the sun for a while.

The sun and warm weather was calling my name, I had to take advantage of it.

Hope everyone is having a great Monday so far!

XO

Lately..

I've been eating some good eats!

A lunch and dinner meal:

Angela's 15 Minute Creamy Avocado Pasta

I used brown rice pasta and I didn't have any basil on hand so I substituted with spinach. For the veggies I used some zucchini, asparagus and yellow bell pepper. It was delish!

For dinner one night I threw together a Roasted Vegetable with Balsamic and Quinoa.

I lined a baking sheet with foil and preheated the oven to 450 degrees. I then got my vegetables ready, which were zucchini, mushrooms and chickpeas. Tossed them with a little extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste. Placed them on the lined baking sheet and cooked in the 450 degree oven for about 15 minutes. 

I always have pre-cooked quinoa on hand, so I just added about 1/3 cup into a bowl and heated up in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Once the veggies were done cooking, I added them to the quinoa and drizzled with balsamic and topped with a little parm.

Yum!

For breakfast this morning I tried out Ashley's Pour, Poke, + Spread Eggs from The Edible Perspective.

Sorry for the terrible lighting in this picture.

 I sautéed a small handful of spinach in a pan and sprinkled with salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste. Once the spinach was almost completely wilted, I added the egg and followed Ashley's instructions on her recipe.

It turned out delicious! It is now my new favorite way to cook eggs. Super easy and quick.

The other night, Monday to be exact, I popped open a bottle of Ryhan Estates Sparkling Almond Wine. It had been sitting in the outside fridge for some time so I figured I'd open it up and drink it. Hehehe.

It was perfect for a warm summer night. It hit the spot!

That's all for now! I'll leave you with a couple pictures :)

Do you see the heart??

Hope everyone has a fantastic Wednesday! 

Mini Bite

Yesterday I made another batch of the Ultra Fudgy Brownies, but instead made them into mini brownie bites.

It made roughly 28 mini bites and I tasted a couple of them to "make sure" they turned out perfectly.

The verdict is: They did! Perfectly scrumptious and bite sized! 

I hope everyone tonight likes them. :) 

I had my psychology final on Tuesday, the final and class that I've been stressing over, and received my grade on the final and my final grade in the class.

Are you ready??

Grade for my final: 39 out of 43

Whoo hoo!!

Final grade for the class: 101 out of 110 points! (The points were based on the quizzes, the one midterm we had and the final.)

Yesss!!!

I got a B in the class!! I know, you may be thinking, "How is that a B??" According to my professor's grading scale a 91% is a B, not an A.

Suuuuuper lame. But nonetheless I am perfectly content with my grade. I passed the class and that's all I care about. It's better than a C, D, or F.

My stress levels are down and I am feeling much better.

That's all for now! I'll leave you with a couple pictures I took of Jack. He's the best picture model. Haha

Hope everyone is enjoying their Friday. =)