Happy Tuesday Heatday. Today has been officially renamed Heatday. Temps in Michigan reached into the upper 90s, although I think I saw a flicker of 100 on my car's thermometer, too. I couldn't quite tell what it said because my face was melting off at that point.
Despite the heat wave, today was a darn good day. I loved, loved, loved reading the comments I received on my full-of-blah post from yesterday about needing to find motivation.
Here were some of the suggestions you fabulous peeps left me with:
Paula reminded me that having a good goal would help keep me in line. I'm thinking a nice 5 or 10k will do the trick, and I plan to sign up for one in either late June or early July.
Trisha recommended mixing things up by adding in a little cycling or swimming to my running schedule. I have a gym membership, so swimming just might be a nice change. (Plus, this reminded me that I made a goal to take a yoga class this month!)
Erin pointed me in the direction of Pinterest. Ooo, I love it already. I can tell that I'll be spending many of my work-free summer hours obsessing on this site, much like I do on Etsy.
So thank you, blog friends. It's makes me all kinds of smiley to hear your suggestions and commiserations.
On to FOOD. Oh yeah, I dug deep today and got off the couch for a while to not only venture in to the heat for groceries, but to also make these uber-tasty Barbeque Chicken Rolls and pasta salad for dinner.
I found the recipe on Can You Stay For Dinner?, one of my favorite blogs right now. Andie provides simple recipes with easy-to-obtain ingredients along with beautifully written commentary.
My culinary skills extend about as far as tacos, spaghetti, and (sometimes homemade) pizza. We don't have much dinnertime variety in the RoadAgain household, so let's just say I was initially a bit intimidated by the recipe.
But - Oh. My. Delicious. And Easy.
I started by picking up a package of egg roll wrappers in the refrigerated section of Kroger (near the tofu and tempeh).
They were cheap - $1.99 for a whole pound. Luckily, I only needed 8 for our dinner, so I have plenty leftover to try out some of Andie's other delicious wrapper-based recipes.
First, I diced up two small chicken breasts and threw in some barbeque sauce at the very end. Mmm.
When it came to rolling the wrapper with the chicken, cole slaw, and sharp cheddar, my fears kicked in. Yikes, I thought. They're going to tear into piece. It won't all fit. I suck at cooking. Maybe I'll just go get Taco Bell instead. Yeah, Taco Bell. Kevin and I can both eat for $2.75.
But I sucked it up and rolled away. And it was fun. And seriously so easy. So easy a Megan can do it.
The recipe instructed me to seal the ends with a bit of water, lay the rolls on a cooling rack coated with non-stick spray, and put the whole setup on a cookie sheet to ensure even browning all the way around. Additionally, I sprayed each roll lightly with oil as per the recipe.
In to the 400-degree oven they went for 13 minutes; I went to work cleaning up the kitchen, and Kevin put together the pasta salad.
Moments later, we were staring at 8 crispy, cheesy, chicken-y rolls. Yum.
Queue the Eric Carmen song "Hungry Eyes" for a moment:
Because that's what was playing in my head when I got ready to indulge in these tasty rolls. I wanted to eat all 8, but my husband would've given me some mean side-eye. Plus, they were surprisingly filling for being small and adorable. I ended up eating only two alongside a mountain of pasta salad.
Verdict: Making these rolls gave me confidence to try new, seemingly exotic recipes. They were healthy, simple, and best of all - so, so good.
Try them out tonight. Or tomorrow. Or every night :)
I'd Love to Know... Are you a confident chef or baker? Or do you tend to stick to "safety" meals, like me?