Tale of Two Marinades

Sunday was a good day. It was nice out, I didn?t have anything I had to do, but I did get some chores done, as well as eat really yummy food! Win, Win, all around!

It?s also amazing what you can accomplish when you find yourself incapable of sleeping in!! Grrrr. I mean I know it?s better for me to be on a ?regular? sleep schedule, even on weekends, but when you?re wide awake at 6:45AM on a Sunday morning when you were planning to sleep in, is a little?I don?t know, annoying!

However, I just went with the flow and got up. Brian wasn?t too far behind and then we attacked the first floor of the house and did some major cleaning :) Yay for a clean house (well downstairs anyways haha?my clothing explosion is a days task all in it?s own.)

We set out for lunch to a place I?ve been wanting to try for a while: ?
Za in Arlington.

They do pizza and salads, and that's it! (well a few desserts too).

We were thinking of ordering salads first, and our waitress explained that only 2 of them were lettuce based, and they weren?t very big. At first I was annoyed that we couldn?t just get 1 to share and it be enough?but I?m SO SO glad we ordered 2 salads?

Hass Avocado, Black Bean, Tomato, Red Onion, Cheddar Cheese, Bread 'n' Butter Pickled Jalapeno, Red Pepper, and Cilantro Salad with Cumin-Lime Vinaigrette, Sour Cream, and Tortilla Crunch

Cucumber, Tomato, Kalamata Olive, Verrill Farm's Radish, and Potato Salad with Feta Cheese, Fresh Oregano, and Roasted Garlic Vinaigrette

Those salads were incredible. Beautifully presented, so flavorful, and a perfect size.

I was confused at first as to where the ?potato salad? was going to come into play in my cucumber-tomato-olive salad, but it?s the white-ish puree on the bottom!! SO GOOD! It?s like purred potato salad, which sounds gross, but tasted awesome! I?ll go back just for that salad!

Next up, our pizza.

Bosc Pears, Caramelized Onions, Gorgonzola, Toasted Walnuts, Craisins, EVOO, Thyme, and Scallions

Crisp, airy, chewy crust. The toppings were mostly subtle flavors aside from the gorgonzola which was awesome. I can?t wait to try their other pizzas!

Now for the marinades.

It was nice out which = grill time.

I had a pound of chicken to work with and didn?t really know what I wanted to I did two marinades and split it up half and half.

Marinade 1:

olive oil (just a little?maybe 1T) juice of 1 lime lime zest 2 cloves of garlic siracha! Ummm don?t really know how much, just squeezed some in until it looked kind of orange/red. I?d say it came out medium spicy. salt & pepper fresh parsley fresh cilantro

Marinade 2:

approx. 1T olive oil juice of 1 lemon fresh dill salt and pepper lemon zest

also tried to roast some carrot ?fries?

2 large carrots olive oil salt & pepper maple syrup

We also grilled some zucchini and green peppers with a brush of olive oil, salt and pepper

The chicken came out SO good

I ate mine with a tortilla which I stuffed with the siracha chicken, salsa, sour cream, and green pepper?like a fajita!

I also whipped up some Granola! It?s been far too long to go without some homemade granola.

My new addition was crisp brown rice cereal! I love the crunch it adds!

I honestly can?t remember the exact measurements (bad Bridget!)?but you get the jist:

pre-heat oven to 250-275 2 ? 2.5 cups rolled oats 1.5 cups crisp brown rice cereal (it?s like rice crispies) 1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds 1/2 cup sesame seeds 1/2 cup shredded coconut 1/2 cup slice almonds few shakes of cinnamon 1 T canola oil 1 single serve container applesauce (6 oz) 1 T honey 2 T maple syrup (or agave)

I usually always heat my oil + sweeteners in a small pan over low-med heat. I do this to dissolve any honey clumps, or if you used another crystallized sweetener. It also thins it all out so it distributes more evenly.

Baked for about 1 hour at 250?stirring 1 or 2 times during the baking process.

MMmmmm good batch! I think I had more overall bulk this time and therefore would of maybe added another Tbsp of oil and maybe another of honey or maple syrup?but still really good!

Happy Thursday?almost Friday!!