This was only the second time that I've made risotto in my life. I'm not going to lie, it's kind of a pain in the ass. It's definitely easy to make, it just takes a while. But it's SO worth it. You'll feel fancy when you eat it, I promise. Once you learn the process, it's the exact same every time. The only thing that changes are the flavors or the add ins that you want to include. This time, I made it with onion, garlic, mushrooms and a bit of spinach for some pop of color. My favorite part about making this dish is that it tastes like there's a million pounds of butter in it. I didn't use one hint of butter. WIN!

Here's what you'll need: 

• 1 1/2 cups of risotto (arborio rice)
• 6 cups chicken stock
• 2/3 cup dry white wine
• 2-3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 Vidalia onion
• 4-6 cloves of garlic
• 1 lb mushrooms
• 1 1/2 cup chopped spinach
• 4 thin sliced chicken breasts
• Salt & pepper to taste
• 1/4-1/2 cup of parmesan cheese (more or less depending on your preference. I used about 1/3 cup)
• Olive oil cooking spray
• Fresh lemon to taste

Here's what to do: 

• Chop everything first to get that out of the way!
• Heat 2-3 tbsp of olive oil in a LARGE saucepan on medium heat
• Add in mushrooms, onions and garlic
• Sautee until onions are just about transluscent
• Add in rice and stir to coat with olive oil. Let it cook until it has a golden color and looks a little translucent
• Add in the white wine and stir constantly until the wine is fully absorbed
• Here comes the pain in the ass part: add in chicken stock 1/2 cup at a time. Once your 1/2 cup is dissolved, add the next 1/2 cup and repeat until the full 6 cups are absorbed. Keep stirring throughout.
• While the rice is cooking, heat a medium pan with cooking spray on medium heat.
• Season chicken with kosher salt and pepper and add to pan. Cook about 3 minutes on each side.
• Once the chicken stock is absorbed in the rice, turn off the heat, add in chopped spinach and parmesan.
• Now you're ready to eat! I squeezed a bit of lemon on top of mine for some freshness.

Enjoy!

- Rach

I'm just going to start by saying how HAPPY I am that it's the weekend! For some reason this week just seemed to drag on very slowly. Just one of those weeks, I guess! Last night MichaIel and I decided to stay around our new neck of the woods instead of taking the train into center city. The train to downtown Philly only takes about 25 minutes, but I was really tired from this week and we really haven't tried out any places around our new area since we moved in. I'm happy just to have some downtime in our new apartment this weekend!

I was really in the mood for sushi, so we tried out a restaurant near by called Hokka Hokka. Overall it was very good sushi! The cocktail menu didn't sound appealing to me at all, so I opted to start with a glass of Chardonnay and some seaweed salad. 

Michael ordered just the house salad with ginger dressing. I was expecting it to be a generic little salad, but it was HUGE. Such a nice salad.

For the rest of our meal we ordered three rolls to share: Spicy salmon, a Farmer's Roll and a Lobster Roll that was deep fried. It was the perfect amount! The Farmer's Roll was my favorite one. It had tuna inside and it was topped with salmon and eel sauce. The Lobster roll was delicious but VERY rich. It was kind of like sushi desert.

We left full and happy, but not too full to skip out on desert. Cue the Fro Yo.

Hope everyone had an enjoyable Friday night! I'm on the train on the way to teach my Saturday morning class as I type this up. Workout coming later :).

- Rach

P.S. My site got a little facelift, did ya notice?

Hello! Happy hump day :) Just wanted to check in before I head to work! Wednesdays are always a nice reminder that the weekend is only two days away. It's also nice because it means that most of my long days are over. On Tuesdays after work I head down to a City Fitness gym on the other side of the city to workout before I teach from 7-8. I don't get home until about 9:30 because the trains run every hour and I catch it at 8:52. Womp long day. But I can't complain because I do get paid to workout and do what I love so I'm very lucky for that!

Monday was also a long day and I couldn't wait to get home and relax. Relaxing turned to cooking in the kitchen for about an hour and a half, although cooking is very therapeutic to me.

Dinner was roasted veggies with sautéed ground beef and kale. Topped with Parmesan cheese and sriracha (always sriracha.) I also whipped up my lunch for yesterday and today. A big hearty salad that I add chicken to at work. It has Trader Joe's sweet leaf lettuce, tomatoes, red onion, cucumber, feta cheese, chick peas and fresh dill. Along with this salad, I bring many snacks. I like to nosh all day so I make sure I have plenty of healthy snacks ready to go. I brought some leftover ground beef & veggies, an apple and these protein balls (except made a new batch with peanut butter instead of almond butter and they're way better!)

Last week I managed to sneak in some quick workouts despite it being a busy week (who am I kidding, that's every week.)

Sunday - 4.35 mile run after my family left. This was a good one!

Monday - REST :)

Tuesday - This workout from peanutbutterrunner.com

Wednesday - HUMID 3 mile run. This one sucked a little.

Thursday - 3x15 reps of the following exercises: Dumbbell deadlift + squat jump, lunge with pulse (15 each side), single arm dumbbell row (15 each side), pullover with sit-up, heel tap bicycle crunches on bench, row 2 minutes.

Friday - 5x10 reps of the following exercises: Band assisted pull-ups, lunge jumps (10 each side,) deadlifts, thrusters, push-ups, burpee box jumps. This one was great and can be done in under an hour!

Saturday - REST :)

Sunday - 5 mile run. This was great except for the last mile when my earphones stopped working.

What's your favorite way to sweat?

- Rach