Burger and Fries: Healthified

I owe the tastiness of tonight’s dinner to my favorite grill master:

Grillin' Machine

After work and an hour-long walk with Sadie, Ryan headed out to the backyard to grill up some chicken breasts for him and a big portobello mushroom cap for me.

That man is a grillin’ machine! He always gets it just right.

The Side

Before we left on our walk with Sadie, I prepared our yummy side.

Preppin' the Side

Turnip fries!

While we were on our walk, we let the fries bake at 350 degrees for approximately 45 minutes, after spraying them with cooking spray and sprinkling them with salt, pepper and chili powder.

Turnip Fries

Of course we enjoyed a squirt of ketchup on the side because fries aren’t complete without it!

Burger ‘n’ Fries

Once my portobello “burger” was ready, I placed it on a honey wheat sandwich thin and topped it with lettuce and light Miracle whip.

Burger 'n' Fries

Dinner

This was quite the healthy take on a typical burger and fries, huh?

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Birthday Burgers

Ryan stepped up to the plate to make me one heck of a tasty birthday burger for dinner tonight.

Birthday Burger

I swear, that man is a machine when it comes to grilling. He gets it right every time!

Ryan made our burgers with lean ground beef, seasoned with garlic salt.

While the burgers were sizzlin’, I roasted zucchini in the oven.

Roasted Zucchini

The other day when I was talking to my friend Carrie on the phone, she asked me about my veggie roasting routine.

Here it is for you, in detail:

• Preheat oven to anywhere between 375 and 415 degrees (depending on your level of patience 😉 )
• Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray and spread out veggie of choice on the cookie sheet
• Spray the veggies with cooking spray (or you may toss them in olive oil before spreading them out on the cookie sheet), and sprinkle with desired seasoning (I typically use garlic salt)
• Roast in the oven for approximately 20 – 25 minutes, flipping halfway through

And there you have it! It seems like almost any veggies tastes great when prepared this way!

My Plate

The burger was great and the roasted zucchini tasted almost buttery. Loved it!

Yummy

Check it Oooout

Presents + Dessert

No birthday would be complete without presents and a lil’ somethin’ sweet!

I came home from work to a kitchen table full of presents… all wrapped in Christmas paper.

Presents!

Apparently Ryan didn’t see the birthday wrapping paper in our storage closet. 😉

Merry Christmas... Errrr... Happy Birthday!

Me 'n' My Gifts

Ryan did a great job with all of my presents, as always. He’s a good gift-giver!

After presents, we headed out to Mochi for soft serve.

Birthday Soft Serve

I got a combination of strawberry shortcake, taro, chocolate and some white flavor I can’t remember. I added rainbow sprinkles, mini peanut butter cups, toffee bits and cheesecake bites to the mix as well for a little spice!

My 25th year is off to a great start!

Thank you to all of you for your thoughtful birthday wishes! You guys are the best. 😀

See ya in the mornin’!

Mexican Birthday Dinner

Last night Ryan and I headed out to meet up with our friends at Mucho Tequila and Tacos, a new restaurant in downtown Orlando to celebrate our friend Merri’s birthday.

Celebrating a Birthday

The Boys

We were one of the first ones there and ordered a bucket of Presidente Light beer to share. I typically stick to my favorite (Miller Lite) when I drink beer, but this was pretty good! It was a great compliment to the copius amounts of chips and salsa we ate before and during dinner.  

All Smiles

Enjoying Some Drinks

Me, Laurel and Kaitlyn

I was pretty full on beer and chips and salsa by the time our dinner was served.

Ryan and I shared a Mucho Mexi Burger with sweet potato fries.

Mexi Burger with Sweet Potato Fries

The burger was only okay but the sweet potato fries were fantastic! We gobbled them up in no time!

Overall the experience at Mucho was great! I would definitely go back to enjoy some more chips and salsa, but I think I would order the fajitas or tacos as my entree next time.

Today will be a relaxing day. We’re going to run some errands, clean the apartment, do laundry and may take Sadie hiking on some trails.

Enjoy your Sunday!

Pre-Dinner Milkshake

What better way to kick off the weekend than with a McDonald’s triple thick pumpkin milkshake? How have I never tried this shake before???

Pumpkin Milkshake

Ryan and I split this shake after taking Sadie on a nice long walk. Since it’s ridiculously hot in Florida right now, a milkshake sounded perfect! Oh-my-gosh-this-was-too-tasty! We both fell instantly in love. It almost made me forget how yummy McD’s shamrock shakes are… almost.

After our lil’ treat, we cooked up a slightly more nutritious dinner.

I chopped come brussels sprouts and tossed them with olive oil, salt and pepper before roasting them in the oven at 400 degrees for 12 minutes on one side before flipping them and roasting them for another 5 minutes on the other side.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

While the lil’ brussels were roasting, I tossed a salmon burger and some onion slices on the griddle and toasted a whole wheat Arnold’s sandwich thin. I topped the bread with light mayo, dijon mustard and dill and slices plum tomatoes.

Dinnah!

Dinner was quite yummy (but the milkshake was yummier). 🙂

Now Ryan and I are having quite the hot Friday night full of laundry, cleaning and packing! As one of my gifts to Ryan for his birthday, I booked us a weekend stay in Ft. Lauderdale and we’re leaving early in the in the morning. I can’t wait! We’re staying in a boutique hotel right near the beach. It’s our first vacation as an engaged couple. Woop, woop!

Our Hotel

I’m bringing my camera and computer along in hopes of making a blog post over the weekend, but I make no promises! 🙂 Happy Weekend!

Beefin’ Up the Beef

Sometimes I get annoyed by the food that sits in our freezer. It mocks me everytime I add something new. Tonight’s dinner was a “clean out the freezer” dinner. I pulled out a package of frozen butternut squash and frozen spinach and put my thinking cap on.

Butternut Squash

Frozen Spinach

I first unloaded the butternut squash into a pot with a bit of water on the stovetop. I then scoured the fridge for ideas to incorporate the spinach into our meal.

Beef! It’s what’s for dinner. I decided to use the chopped spinach to beef up the lean ground beef we planned to make into burgers this week. I combined the spinach with the meat, a couple squirts of barbeque sauce and some garlic salt and sent Ryan off to grill ’em up!

Spinach and BBQ Burgers

The pop of green really made the patties look pretty.

Grilled Burger

Ryan’s gettin’ pretty good at creating those wonderful grill marks.

I placed my burger on a whole wheat Arnold sandwich thin with sliced tomato, ketchup and mustard. I wish I had some lettuce…

Spinach Burger

Juicy Burger

The butternut squash was a great side dish. I added cinnamon and nutmeg to the simmering squash which made it look a lil’ poopy, but it still tasted wonderful. 🙂 I topped mine with some soy nuts for that crunch I just loooove.

Cinnamon and Nutmeg Butternut Squash

Soy Nut Crunchies

This dinner was the perfect balance of salty and sweet. Yummmm.

Off to read more of The Lost Symbol with Ryan… this book is fantastic!