Day after LA Marathon Dinner for Mister AC at Chez Calasanz

Mister AC ran the LA Marathon
on Sunday for his 40th Birthday

We followed up his run with wonderful friends
and his favorite treats of pizza and chips and other goodies.
So on Monday, I decided to cook him up something healthy, and nutritious.
This meal is packed with protein, fiber, and nutrient rich goodies.

Sauteed Super-Garlicky Shrimp and Shallots

Mister AC loves pasta
All kinds of pasta.
Any shape, size, hot, cold, with sauce, without sauce...he loves pasta!
He also likes spinach (lightly steamed and chopped), and cheese (little mozzarella balls), so I decided to toss them all together with roasted baby tomatoes (in the oven at 350 with just salt and pepper till they looked good to me), shallots (raw and diced), white kidney beans (canned, thoroughly rinsed), sage (fresh coarse shopped), a hint of olive oil, balsamic, salt and pepper.
The combo made an excellent pasta salad that was both nutritious and delicious.
Had to throw in a side o Green Beans for color and texture.

Served with love
and a bottle of Prosecco from our dear friend Jessica S
(Thanks Jessica S for the Bubbly!)
A wonderful home cooked meal for my wonderful man.
Cheers!
: )
3.21.11

Beautiful Bird

When the weather cools down

I love to turn on the oven and cook amazing meals

Lately, the weather has been hit or miss

One day it's freezing

(by my SoCal standards, anything below 70 should be against the law)

the next day,over 80 degrees

I love a perfectly cooked chicken

Paired with roasted veggies and a glass of bubbly

Last Friday,

The weather was in my favor!

: )

First Step

Start with the best ingredients

I Grabbed this beautiful bird at my favorite Butcher Shop

McCalls Meat and Fish Company

in Los Feliz, CA

Simply, Cut up some veggies and aromatics

Throw in a Pyrex dish

Place birdie on top after stuffing it with some of the veggies and aromatics

Smear the skin with delicious butter, salt, pepper, and garlic

Top with herbs

Put in oven

Take your time preparing your side dishes

and cleaning the kitchen

Here is your reward

A Beautiful Bird!

I could stare at this all day

but I'd prefer eating it

Crispy Skin

Juicy Meat

A Perfect plate of dark meat

Served with rice, roasted carrots and garlic, and steamed spinach

A Perfect plate of white meat

Served with rice, roasted carrots and garlic, and steamed spinach

I love adding roasted Shallots, yellow onions, thyme, and sage

Served up with my favorite view

Mister Andrew C enjoying one of my home cooked meals

along with his favorite garnishes

Slowly toasted green onions, garlic, shallots, and yellow onions

Dinner was amazing

Had to make a plate for Andrew to take for lunch the next day.

Thank you McCalls for another perfect bird.

Can't wait to rock the chicken stock I made with the bones and make some risotto this week!

I welcome everyone to share your favorite way of preparing a chicken.

Cheers!

: )

Quality vs Quantity

You'll find the best quality Meats and Fish at

McCAll's Meat and Fish Co.

And you'll leave with a really cute bag filled will amazingly delicious treats.

This bag had the prettiest piece of Salmon and a split Marrow Bone.

Some of you know that salmon is my least favorite fish.

I have the hardest time finding High Quality, FRESH salmon, so I am usually turned off by salmon...

If Salmon is even a hint low rent

it tastes and smells like broke-down-stripper-a**!

And it's usually hard to tell if you're really getting good salmon because, just like "broke-down-stripper a**", many sins can be covered with good lighting and all kinds of other smoke and mirrors...you can't always tell till it's too late.

I was in the neighborhood today

visiting the gang at A Runners Circle to pick up my "Potty Like a Rock Star Pass", courtesy of Brooks, for the The Los Angeles Rock n Roll 1/2 Marathon when the gang from Heartbeat House called me and asked if I could teach the 4pm Contemporary Dance Class.

I had been thinking of grabbing marrow bones from McCall's

for the last 3 weeks

but time and traffic just hadn't been on my side.

Today was my lucky day!

I was going to have a little extra cash in hand from teaching the class

so I had to go to McCall's.

I was really craving a piece of fish for dinner tonight.

I was feeling hopeful and was praying that they'd have the best of both worlds:

Marrow bones

and

Fish

and they did!

Even though Salmon rarely makes me smile,

I was smiling the moment I saw it in the display case...the skin looked so good.

Sorry there is no pic of the skin

I toasted it and ate it before taking the pic...what can I say, I have no restraint.

I had to keep it simple

Crisped up some of my favorite ingredients

Placed the pretty fish on top

and baked it at 325degress with a sprinkle of flake salt and freshly ground pepper.

I forgot to take a pictures after adding the heirloom tomatoes

they were baked with the fish

Served the fish over Jade Pearl Rice

and sprinkled with fresh chives

Topped it off with one of my favorite Cavas

which I picked up from my all time favorite boutique wine shop

Silverlake Wine

A perfect meal for the evening before a 1/2 Marathon

Cheers!

: )

What is your favorite meal the night before a big run?

BTW

The Salmon was

AMAZING!

I wish I saved some for breakfast!

How to Make Chicken Soup Even Better...

Poach an egg in it and serve it over crisped toast

Dont forget to rub the bread with a little bit of butter and garlic
and make it extra crispy

Makes the perfect "Breakfast of Champions", mid day snack, lunch, or if you're like me, dinner!

I love eggs for dinner!

What are your favorite random snacks that you think work great no matter what time of day or night?

You Get What You Give

New Post on the

Controlled Burn Fitness Blog

"Give your body tragic looking crap your body will deliver the same..."

Warning, this is more of a rant/scolding than an article, but I am certain many of you can relate
Read More

Your comments are encouraged

Thanks for Reading

-Melissa Adylia Gutierrez

Owner/Personal Trainer

Controlled Burn Fitness

The typing behind Disciplined Indulgence

Kelly, Thanks for the Champagne! : )

There is something about Champagne and something spicy

that makes an ordinary evening something special.

Andrew and I received a beautiful bottle Champagne

from my dear friend and client Kelly

(owner of The Pilates Body)

in honor of our recent engagement.

I'm a sucker for Champagne

and I cannot resist making some of Andrew's Favorites for dinner.

On this evening I asked if he wanted spicy shrimp with noodles or rice, his answer:

Yes

Instead of making him choose

I made both

with lots of crunchy fresh cabbage, onions, and carrots, along with some steamed peas.

Topped with Spicy shrimp

with red chili flakes, onions, garlic, and shallots

Don't forget, the blog does say:

"Taking Terrible Pictures of Beautiful Food While Living a Happy, Healthy, and Balanced Life."

Bring on the Bubbly!

The Table is set

(and 19 pomegranates mock me)

: /

Please excuse the mess

It was a week night  and I still had several programs to type up for clients

Mmmm, the hot noodles topped with fresh goodies

The noodles next to the rice topped with the shrimp

Thanks Kelly!

Cheers!

: )

Sardine and Anchovie Adventure

09.17.10

How many times have you told someone:

"I went out for a 2 hour paddle, wound up with a bag of squirming sardines and anchovies in my lap..."

?

Well, I have.

: )

This was a totally unexpected treat!

I was kayaking on Sept 17th and paddled up to one of those big bait barges by the Jetty (next to "The Wedge" in Newport Beach, CA) that had a sign that said "Sardines".

I'm a sucker for "bait fish", so I asked the guy if it was possible to buy some.

He said they sell them to fishermen by the gallon but would be happy to give me a few in a bag if I had a place to stick them in my kayak.

$2.00 later (totally within budget!), I paddled away with a bunch of them on my lap...

That didn't last long cuz the wriggling was beginning to freak me out, so I stuck them on my deck and hoped that a huge bird didn't realize my stash.

 ; )

Talk about an impulse buy.

But how could I have resisted since I had a bunch of fresh basil, heirloom tomatoes, and buffalo mozzarella boconccini waiting for me at home!?!

One big problem.

It was a super hot day and the tide was totally against me by this time, so I knew I still had a little over an hour worth of paddling to get me back to NAC, and I didn't want the little fellas to kick the bucket too soon.

Luckily, I'm almost always prepared for anything, and that's no exception when in a kayak. I actually had my running shoes packed in a dry bag "just in case".

Perfect. Now I had a plan.

 I decided to paddle to the Coast Guard Beach as fast as possible, where I refreshed the salt water for the little fellas and stashed the kayak till my return.

 I then ran the 3.65 miles back NAC to grab my car, stopped at a market for a bag of ice, and retuned quickly ro claim the goods.

The entire run, I was going over the inventory in my fridge.

Oooh, I knew I had a tons of options.

The Adventure Begins

Aw, how I love tomatoes

which terrible picture of tomatoes is the better terrible picture?
This one?

 Or this one?

 Heirlooms, salt, pepper, nothing more

 Add some radicchio, basil, olive oil, a little heat, start heating things up....

This was my first time dealing with live, whole fish.

This is me getting prepped to attack the little fishies

Decisions. Decisions.

Which would you choose?

 I'd love it if you'd share a picture of your favorite knife with me!

They finally "relaxed"

"one of these things is not like the other..."

Some sardines, anchovies, and one random little guy who may have been a grunion...

 Let's see him from a different angle

It took me quite a while to get used to lopping off their little heads...

 Whoa, it was sure "interesting" chopping heads off fish and pulling guts for the first time especially since those little fellas had been in my lap, wriggling, for a while in my kayak.

: /

I think my expression says it all.

Luckily that went away after I got through a few of them.

Heads off guts gone 

fish heads fish heads rolly polly fish heads...

 This is what the fish heads looked like to me up until about the 5th one

 I became strangely obsessed with this pile of fish heads

 de-boning not as easy as one might think...especially when that fresh...2 hours outta the water

Look at the bones!

: )

Stay tuned for the next meal where the bones make and extra special guest appearance

: )

About to get "dressed"

 Brusccetta and bocconcini topped with fresh anchovies

Ok, this proves it, I take horrible pictures of beautiful food.

 and yet another view

This was the little grunion

olive oil; Italian parsley; salt 2 minutes @ 350 degrees

Fresh Raw Anchovies

 Mmm, I loved this prep!

fresh finely chopped raw ginger, green onions, sticky rice, lime, green onion, ginger, and salt

Fresh Raw Sardines

in lime juice with green onions, ginger, and salt

with sticky rice

 

terrible picture, delicious dish

Our random fish

(later identified as a grunion)

dressed and looking good enough to eat

cooked at 350 degrees for 2 minutes with just salt and pepper atop sticky rice

 I love my dining room table and my simple plates...the food gets to speak for itself

 

From another angle.

Which terrible pic do you like best?

 Our Favorite prep!

Fresh Anchovies and Sardines gently baked at 350 for 2 minutes, marinated in white balsamic, olive oil, Italian parsley, garlic, salt and pepper, garnished with thin slices of raw garlic.

 Anchovies gently baked at 350 for 2 minutes with only salt and pepper.

Delicious!

These guys make an encore performance in our next meal...stay tuned.

Let the tasting adventure begin! 

A little sweaty, a little tired, but very happy with the outcome

So pretty and tasted so good

Please ignore the finger nails

I assure you it's not dirt, just food prep stuff

Finger licking good

 "...this was just alive how many minutes ago?..."

 Can't forget about the kitties!

Even they got to enjoy some of the adventure.

: )

You never know what you'll come home with when you go kayaking.

It was my first time cleaning live fish. Interesting, fun, but so worth it!

Stay tuned for round two:

Slow Roasted Fish Bones!

: )