Nutty Roasted Broccoli & PandaPaws

My apologies for the lack of post-age yesterday. Turns out that sickness had not run its course. Thursday night I tossed and turned for hours before finally falling asleep. I had a splitting headache, my throat was dry and crackly, and my feet kept getting hot despite having the fan on full blast and my window cracked open. I. Hate. Hot. Feet. I hate hot body parts when I'm trying to sleep, actually. Which is why I keep my room like an icebox. And probably why I'm sick in the first place. Whatever. Both Thursday and Friday were absolutely gorgeous here though. After my run with Elle, I organized a ginormous 3" binder full of consent forms and other papers I've been using to organize data. The 3" binder filled up pretty quickly, so it looks like I'll have to go bigger at some point. We did this outside though and I was in shorts and a sweatshirt. It was glooorious. My feet are really cute too, I know, you don't have to tell me twice. Bleh.

Because I'm a lone wolf in this whole Paleo-eating excursion, I had 19 meatballs to crush (17 when you factor in the ones I gave to Smells) in 2 days before I was willing to make anything else that could potentially go bad in our ginormous clusterf*ck of a fridge. Seriously, it's like play tetris in there. I want my own fridge built into some secret room so. bad. And a freezer. And a huge kitchen that's clean and pretty and has top-of-the-line appliances and cooking gear. Mom, can I move back home please? I digress (all the damn time), so I've been eating meatballs for like breakfast lunch and dinner so I don't have much to share. But I do have some awesome side dishes and the beautiful weather we had allowed Smells, Cecil (Allyson's dog, also called Sienna and a bunch of other names), Allyson, Anissa, and me to go for some adventures. Yay!

This "Nutty Roasted Broccoli" is the product of one of my many "I just don't wanna make another boring roasted vegetable" moments. What is awesome on roasted vegetables? Parmesan cheese. But I'm sticking to the little-to-no dairy guideline for this whole 40 day challenge thing, so that was a no. The next best thing in my mind was obviously nuts. The answer is always nuts. What would you like to eat? Nuts. What would you like to snack on? Nuts. What would you like to crush in your mouth? Nuts. What's your favorite thing about the opposite sex? Nut-waitaminute ew! Their ability to eat with the same voracity as me, obviously. Ok so the answer may not always be nuts. But you get the point. I'm really dependent on pine nuts as my go-to flavor enhancer for things. They're amazing, but some people don't like the taste as much as I do. I never even toast them when it calls for toasted pine nuts. They taste amaze without any toastiness. Made that word up. So I decided to broaden my nutty horizons and use Macadamia nuts. Also to honor the fact that in a month or so I will be in Hawaii, HULA! The Macadamia nuts I have are unfortunately salted. Costco you fail on the raw nut selection. But that's ok, because I don't salt the broccoli before I roast it, so I think I break even.

"Nutty Roasted Broccoli"

• 2 large heads of broccoli, cut into florets
• 3-4 garlic cloves, sliced 
• Olive oil (I used 1 tbsp, you can use more, I'm still somewhat oil-averse)
• Freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 1/2 cup Macadamia nuts

1. Preheat oven to 425*

2. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil, spray lightly with olive oil, spread broccoli florets out on the pan so that they're in a single layer.

3. Add garlic slices to the pan, evenly distributed amongst the broccoli, toss with 1tbsp olive oil (or more) and course ground pepper. Redistribute the broccoli evenly. 

4. Roast for about 15-18 minutes.

While the broccoli is roasting...

5. Take the Macadamia nuts and grind into coarse, crushed pieces either with a mortar and pestle or in a plastic bag w/ a rolling pin. Or hammer. Or textbook. Get creative. The only reason I have a mortar and pestle is because my lovely sister knows how much I love guacamole and got me one for Christmas :)
6. When the broccoli has been roasting for 15-18 minutes, remove, sprinkle with the Macadamia nut crumbs, and stick back in the oven for 5 more minutes. That's it!

Pretty easy, huh? The Macadamia nuts give the broccoli a nice nutty, crunchy flavor and they taste really good toasted like that!

I'm starting to think that my night's sleep could have drastically been improved had my cuddle partner learned to share a bed. Look at that. She think's she's so cute and then she kicks me. Hard. Elle has violent dreams. Probably where she's chasing Blair (my cat), squirrels, lasers, ballies, squeaky toys, light reflections on walls...the list goes on. We are far too similar, that pup and me. Both neurotic, both weird, both antisocial at dog parks/large social gatherings, but we really like ya when we're in more intimate settings!

Elle does have a couple girlfriends though. She really likes Allyson's dog Sienna/Cecil/SiSi. So we go on puppy dates. Yesterday was absolutely beautiful so we went to Pandapas Pond in the Jefferson National Forest. I like calling it Panda-Paws, because that's just so much cuter that Pandapas.

Eleanor and Cecil getting dirty and having a freaking
grand ol' time together. Gotta love pups having fun.




Elle seriously thought she was going to be able to
catch one of those geese below too.
They were pissed.
She probably would get her ass kicked by a goose.

They wanted to play with the geese so badly. By the time we were done with our little excursion they were sooooo dirty. Elle's fur absorbs dirt and mud like it's nobody's business. The interior of my car now looks like it was smeared with poop. Thankfully it doesn't smell like that. I will be getting a full car wash at some point. My wheels are soopa dirty too. Bianca (car) is such a rugged individual.

Elle got a full puppy wash. Good. Lord. It was like pulling teeth from a T-Rex. I don't have a hose outside my house so I had to bathe her. Literally. In my bath tub. She HATES baths so much. And I hate giving her baths. Then I blew her dry with my hair-dryer. She loved that part even more.

That picture to the right? My friday night. Plus A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas. And blackberry glazed salmon, roasted sweet potatoes, and asparagus from Gillie's. Minus the 4-pack mini bottles of wine, which I never got to. Some day. Gotta love being sick. Since I missed out on yesterday's WOD and because classes are cancelled today I'm going to do yesterdays which was 7 minutes of straight burpees. We're starting to do the CrossFit Games Open WODs, which you can find here. Obviously I'm in no state to ever qualify in the near future. But you gotta start somewhere. So with 7 minutes of burpees, I shall start. May or may not post tomorrow depending on whether or not I survive. Chow!