Phew! What a busy week I’ve had!  If you’re familiar with the service industry, you know that “Friday night-Sunday night” weekends are irrelevant, and are actually a bartender’s busiest days.  My weekends begin when I get home from my Tuesday night shift, which technically doesn’t end until around 4am on Wednesday morning.  Then I have until Friday night at 9pm to do WHATEVER I WANT!!!  Yeah right.  The more of an adult I become, the more I realize days off are only for getting ALL that stuff done around the house that you don’t have time to do through the week.  Especially when your boyfriend is a bodybuilder and eats for 3.  There’s always grocery shopping and food prep to be done on top of the dishes and laundry.  But I wouldn’t have it any other way.  Your health is nothing to gamble on and I was slapped in the face with that fact twice this week.  Unfortunately I had one of my favorite restaurant regulars pass away and another bar regular has ended up in the hospital with complications from diabetes and pneumonia.  Living a healthy lifestyle is so important.  You really are what you eat.  And if you want to see how true that is, take a little stroll through your local Walmart and just observe the correlation of what is in a person’s buggy and their size.  It’s disgusting.  Eat better, feel better, look better.  It’s really that simple.

So on Tuesday I made my weekly pilgrimage to Kroger for groceries and a gas fill-up.  I only buy groceries once a week, so I have to meal plan around both our work schedules.  And if something runs out or I don’t get it, it’s tough titty said the kitty!  I typically spend between $100-$200/wk, depending on what is on sale and what we’re out of.  But some things are a weekly staple, like eggs for example.  Between the 4 egg whites I have for breakfast every day and the 6 whole eggs that Mitch is currently eating, we’re about to go egg poor.  I bet I look like a crazy person coming through the line with 60 eggs!

So a lot of my favorite recipes are things that I have thrown together at the spur of the moment and only take around 15 minutes to make.  My apple/gouda chicken sausage hash and sweet and spicy stir fry are two such recipes that I happened to make this week.  Both are ridiculously healthy, natural and filling meals and cost very little to make.  Here are the recipes.  I hope you enjoy!

Kathie’s Chicken Sausage and Sweet Potato Hash

1 package of Hormel Natural Choice Apple Gouda Chicken Sausages, sliced into rounds

2 medium sized sweet potatoes, diced to bite size

Caribbean Jerk seasoning

Spray skillet with nonstick spray liberally and heat over medium.  Add diced sweet potatoes and sprinkle with Caribbean jerk seasoning.  Add sliced sausages and add more seasoning to taste.  Cook covered, stirring occasionally, until sweet potatoes are fork tender and glazed.  Serve with a green veggie on side.

Kathie’s Sweet and Spicy Chicken Stir Fry

1-1 1/2 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces

half of a green bell pepper, half of a red bell pepper, sliced into strips

half of a medium onion, sliced into strips

half of a fresh pineapple, cored and cut into bite sized chunks

7 or so asparagus spears, white ends discarded, and chopped into 1″ long sticks

2 garlic cloves, minced

salt

pepper

garlic powder

sweet chili sauce

soy sauce

Toss first 6 ingredients into a deep pan that has been sprayed liberally with nonstick.  cook over medium heat.  Season to taste with salt, pepper and garlic powder.  When chicken is almost cooked through, add sweet chili and soy sauces to taste.  (*note, tis better to err on the side of too little soy and add to it, than to put too much and ruin the dish.  Soy sauce is extremely salty and it’s hard to recover from putting too much in.)  This dish will be pretty juicy from the sweet chili sauce and pineapples.  All the better!  Serve with brown rice and let it soak up all that delicious flavor!  yum!

Bon apetit!