Peachy sippers and Sunday Night Blues

Well for today's edition of Peachapalooza I am going to share a couple of peach beverages:

One is a recipe for Peach Sangria, obviously you can make this up fresh however we were freezing ours into a slush to use all these peaches up now:

White Summer Sangria with basil, peaches and raspberries

(From Betty Crocker - Hey it may be September but we hit 80 this weekend!)

Ingredients:

• 1 Bottle of white Zinfandel wine
• 1 cup Amaretto
• 1 cup Peach Schnapps
• 1 cup peach puree (see this recipe here)
• 1 L diet ginger ale
• 3-4 fresh peaches, pitted and sliced into wedges
• 1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
• A handful of fresh basil leaves, torn

Directions:
Mix everything well in a punch bowl or large pitcher, and then add the fruit and the basil. Chill and serve cold. (We froze it and then scooped it as a slush in a glass and poured diet Sprite or diet Vernors on it to serve, lovely Friday night treat!)

And if you need a non-alcoholic sipper idea...

Peach Limeade

5 peaches

1/4 cup sugar, plus 2 tablespoons

1 cup lime juice (from approx 6-7 limes)

3 cups of water

Mint for garnish (optional)

Lime slices for garnish (optional)

Peel and slice the peaches and transfer to a blender. Add the sugar and blend until completely smooth.
In a small bowl (or measuring cup) juice the limes. Add the lime juice and water to the peach mixture. Chill in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Serve with a few ice cubes, mint and a lime. Pretty! (Once again we chose to freeze it and serve it slush style with diet Vernors or diet Sprite, a yummy combo, kids really liked it!)

Lastly I wanted to talk about a health and wellness topic near and dear to my heart, the Sunday night blues.

Being married to a teacher I don't know if that magnifies it so much more during the back to school season for me but my husband and I both really get Sunday night blues.  I used to think this was just a description of a feeling only I had but this is an actual condition recognized by the medical community.  Wikipedia defines the Sunday night blues is an acute condition, mostly affecting nine-to-five workers and students. This condition is characterized by anxiety about the week ahead and a sense of helplessness and depression.  It most often occurs on Sunday afternoons and evenings. It is also referred to as "school bus blues" or "Sunday night depression". WebMD sites a study where 85% of workers polled admit to struggling with sleeplessness and most often it is on Sunday nights.  In an attempt to improve my whole self, it's not just about weight loss, one of the areas I hope to improve is not only my sleep habits but change my outlook so that this issue itself is improved for the overall health of our entire family.  Here are some tips I gathered from both our MESSA newsletter and HealthyNow.com:

• Do your weekend chores early so Sunday is a fun and relaxing day (it is the day of rest after all!)
• Accentuate the positive by finding or planning something fun for Monday to look forward to whether it's coffee with a friend or catching up with coworkers
• Be mindful to enjoy and live in the present, enjoy Sunday instead of focusing on any worries of Monday
• Write a to-do list for the week so you feel organized and prepared (My husband and I are much more at ease for the week when we sit down on Sunday nights and coordinate our schedules)
• Do something enjoyable and relaxing, spend time with family, get some exercise, go for a walk outside (and of course for us the main focus of Sundays is worshipping at church)
• Recognize the Sunday Night Blues for what they are and that those feelings are relatively common, in other words you aren't alone in feeling this way!
• Finally and most importantly get some sleep, not just Sunday but all week long!

 I am totally speaking to myself.  I am notorious for staying up till 1-2 am all the time.  I can't sleep, I worry about junk, I enjoy the peace and quiet late at night and lastly I find staying up late my delusional way of avoiding something unpleasant the next day.  In other words, if I go to bed the unpleasant task will come "sooner" so I should stay up late to delay the inevitable.  Yup totally weird like that.  So lately I have been feeling very convicted that I needed to start getting healthier sleep and I have been trying desperately to get my butt in bed by 11.  I am definitely a work in progress. Having a kid starting school has caused me to be more organized at night and especially Sunday nights, to make better choices and I believe these things will work for a healthier me.  I am not in any way a psychologist or a Dr, of the tips I read these were the ones I wanted to start diligently applying and I wanted to put it on my blog because you are my main source of accountability. Now you all can ask me if I have been going to bed at a reasonable time! (Oh no, what have I gotten myself into...) Thought I would also share in case any of you ever feel this way and wanted to change your Sunday night outlook with me.  By the way, tonight we started our first week as AWANA leaders and after playing with a ton of cool kids excited to learn the word of God and coming home and having a bunch of giggles playing with my kids, getting them into bed, reading a couple of Shel Silverstein poems and Magic Tree House book I had absolutely NO Sunday night blues.  It's all about changing your outlook, it works! Hope none of you have the blues tonight and you all have a fabulous joyous Monday morning!

Miss Me???

Hey all, I have a couple I O U's to fullfill.  I was way too ambitious thinking I could have got to this prior to leaving for vacation and although I have been home for a week, would you believe there has been no time??

I will give you the recipe I made for my parents before I left today and maybe tomorrow or Sunday I will give you a recipe we had while up North that was super yum.  Plus I need to do a new menu plan! Much to do!!!

Before we left I had food I needed to use up and I wanted to visit my parents so, wah-la, dinner party!

Citrus Marinated Fish Tacos

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup fresh orange juice
• 1 large garlic clove, minced
• 2 canned chipotle chiles in adobo, stems discarded, seeded and thinly sliced, plus 1 teaspoon of the adobo sauce from the can (OK here is the skinny on this - I only used 1 can and I was very careful to seed them and wash them and it was SO spicy! I can't imagine using 2 cans, I have worked with these little guys before so I knew they are seriously hot.  So needless to say the kids were crying "Too Spicy" throughout dinner. If you have kids, skip this ingredient and maybe just add a little chile pepper or red pepper, if no kids and you like spicy give it a try!)
• 2 tablespoons of fresh lime juice
• ½ cup cilantro
• 1 1/2 pounds shelled and deveined large shrimp
• 1 1/2 pounds skinless meaty fish filets, such as snapper, bass, tilefish or cod, cut lengthwise into 1-inch strips - I used 3 fillets of fresh Walleye my hubby caught thank you very much, good job honey!1 large sweet onion, cut crosswise into 2 thick slabs
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
•  Sliced onion
• 1 tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil
• 14 corn tortillas
• Sliced oranges, Mild salsa, lime wedges, shredded lettuce and diced avocado, tomato and onion, for serving

Preparation

1.     In a medium bowl, combine the orange juice with the garlic, adobo sauce, cilantro and 1 tablespoon of the lime juice. Add the shrimp and fish, season with salt and pepper; let sit at room temperature for 10 minutes.

2.     In a large nonreactive skillet, warm the oil over moderately high heat. Add the fish and shrimp cook until whitened but still opaque in the center, about 2 minutes per side. Add the onion and garlic, reduce the heat to moderate and cook, stirring, until the onion is wilted and the fish breaks into large flakes. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

3.     Add the sliced oranges, chipotles, cilantro and the remaining 1 tablespoon lime juice. Season with salt and pepper.

These little guys were for my hubby, who ALWAYS orders fish tacos at Mexican restaurants and I always thought weird but I saw this recipe and thought, that sounds about my speed and so I went for it, plus I got to use his fish.  Sweet.  However they were definitely not sweet they were SPICY!!!  3 pts each though, awesome, eat 2!  I paired them with...

Black Beans with Cilantro

 Literally take a can of black beans, heat up and through in fresh cilantro and garlic salt and eat, yum!

My Cilantro Lime Rice

‎1 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup basmati rice (its worth making the switch to the more exotic rices, they are yummy or for more healthy choice go brown!)
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
2-3 cloves minced garlic
2 Tbsp fresh lime juice
zest from one lime
1/2 cup fresh chopped cilantro
1 tsp salt

Add oil to sauce pan and heat on low. Add garlic and rice and saute for 2 min stirring frequently. Add the chicken broth, salt, lime juice and bring to a boil. Cover and cook on low for 15 minutes or according to rice directions. When the rice is done, add lime zest and chopped cilantro and stir to mix in. Serve immediately.

And a little something new

Lemon Herb Coolers

Ingredients

• 2 cups water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 cups (packed) basil leaves and small sprigs
• 1 cup (packed) cilantro leaves and small sprigs
• 1 cup (packed) mint leaves and small sprigs
• 2 tablespoons tarragon leaves
• 2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• Diet Sprite
• Lemon twists and mint sprigs or lime wedges, for garnish

Preparation

1. In a medium saucepan, combine the water and sugar and bring to a boil, stirring with a wooden spoon until the sugar dissolves. Reduce the heat to moderate and simmer for 5 minutes; let the sugar syrup cool.

2. In a blender or food processor, combine the sugar syrup with the basil, cilantro, mint, tarragon, lemon zest and lemon juice and puree. Let stand for 1 hour, then strain through a coarse sieve, pressing on the solids with the back of a spoon to extract as much liquid as possible.

At this point it looked like this

To which my dad said, Ewww I am not drinking that.  But then I took a can of diet sprite added 3-4 tbsp of green sludge and a lemony herby delicious and refreshing beverage for 1 pt.

3. For each drink, pour 3-4 Tbsp of the fresh herb syrup over cracked ice and fill with diet sprite. Garnish the drinks with a lemon twist and mint sprigs and serve.

So there you have it a lemon inspired menu (there was a jello item too but that sort of didn't go as planned so I spared you my packing for vacation mayhem that this item fell victim to!)  Hope you see something you like. 

It's good to be back...