Contributing to the Conversation: Nom, Nom, Nom

I've been cooking more lately---yay! Actually, I'm trying to save money and in doing so I'm working through all the leftovers in my freezer. This means a lot of frozen meat. I mean, a lot of meat. I don't eat nearly as much meat as I used to, so this is kind of hard for me. In fact, I'm typically a "weekday vegetarian" in which I don't eat meat during the week and at work. On weekends though, it's fair game!

So in working through my freezer this past week, I have conquered two lovely new creations:

First: Spicy Italian Meatballs

Meatballs!

These are my lovely little spicy Italian meatballs. Perfect for that leftover hamburger meat in the freezer and it makes a boring, old pasta disk soooooo much more exciting. I never knew what a dash of red pepper flakes could to to instantly spice things up. I got the recipe from here.

Heating up some spaghetti and meatballs in the amazing All-Clad pan that I got for my b-day.

I know you're supposed to use regular spaghetti noodles with meatballs, but I had penne on hand. So deal with it. And one day I'm going to have a giant kitchen filled entirely with All-Clad utensils. (I'll keep dreaming in the meantime.)

Second (and definitely a keeper): Homemade Pizza with Carmelized Onions and Grilled Chicken

Get in my belly!

Pioneer Woman kept broadcasting a version of this recipe, so I've been craving it for weeks. Honestly, weeks. I only substituted chicken for the proccuitto (because that's what I had in my freezer) and used a tomato sauce under the toppings. The carmelized onions are to die for. I typically don't like onions but I'm drooling just thinking about it now.

Strangely enough, I think that working meat back into my diet is helping me both perform better in soccer and (gasp!) lose some weight. Usually by mid-week, I'd feel so protien deprived that I'd instinctively reach for the nearest candy bar just to eat something. But then again, this is probably just an excuse. No matter what I eat, I'm going to be reaching for the candy bars.

A note on the fitness side of things. In the past 4 days I have done a sunrise climb up Mount Quandary and have played four soccer games in a local tournament. AND I had a stellar goal in the tournament! It was a set play across the box---I brought it down with my head and 5-holed the goalie. Goosebumps, baby.