Healthy Cooking as a Hobby

I was inspired by Angela's post on Oh She Glows about my relationship with my kitchen after the transformation to healthy eating. As one who tries to incorporate as many homemade meals as possible, that means lots of food prep and cleaning. I use my blender every morning for green monsters, pack a lunch and snacks for the office and cook meals throughout the week for dinner. During the week there is a lot of planning and prep and endless dishes, but I have found that cleaning as I go makes clean-up much more manageable. We do have a few meals out on the weekends, but also enjoy the extra time to cook a more time-consuming meal.

I want to mention that I would not be as excited about hanging out in the kitchen if I didn't have a good layout or appliances. When my boyfriend and I moved, the first thing we were looking for was a nice kitchen since we both enjoy cooking. We lucked out with a brand new building with an amazing set up. The space is an open floorplan with higher-end appliances (we bought the island from IKEA and added the shelving unit for more storage).

I also don't mind the view out our HUGE windows as I cook...it definitely makes for a pleasant experience:)

View of downtown Seattle.Mt Rainier from my window...it really is such a beautiful mountain and so much bigger in person...the camera doesn't do it justice!

The island is where we spend all of our time preparing and plating meals. It doesn't look like a ton of counter space, but I've found it's perfect for us two. We try to cook one meal a week with an expensive piece of protein from whole foods. Last week it was New York Strip with roasted yukon golds and steamed green beans from our CSA.

Don't these green beans have great color? They were so crisp and delicious. I'm not sure I've tasted a better green bean...great raw and steamed!

The steaks had great flavor, but were huge...I had half of one and it was the perfect amount.

Do you enjoy spending time in the kitchen preparing healthy meals?

Last night I came home and changed into workout clotes and complete some HIIT on the treadmill...WAY too hot to run outside. I warmed up for 5 minutes, then did 20 minutes with 1 minute intervals (1 minte @ 4.0, 1 minute @ 6.0 to 7.5...worked my way up) and cooled down for 5 minutes. It was pretty intense as I haven't been keeping up with my running in a few months. I hope to build my endurance back up over the next month and then work on my speed.

After my run, I walked down to Barnes & Noble to get the new Steig Larsson novel...I am super obsessed and can't wait to read the whole thing! I also picked up a huge unsweetened iced green tea from Starbucks for the walk home. We cooked an awesome dinner of balsamic chicken with couscous and braised swiss chard from the CSA box. I was soooo tired...I probably could have gone to bed at 9:00...I blame it on the cardio since I really push myself when I do HIIT. Here's to hoping it gets easier as I keep consistent!