Lentil Chili

Well, that’s what it sounds like if you listen to the news right now. The vast majority of Connecticut schools had cancelled classes before a single flake of snow fell. Libraries, community centers and childcare centers, all closed. Is everyone being overnervous, or am I just hard to impress? The weather channel suggests that we will get between 18 to 24 inches of snow. Is that a lot? Nah.

I can count the number of snow days I experienced as a child on one hand. This is not because I lived in sunny Southern Florida or tropical Hawaii. I grew up in the northtowns of Buffalo, NY. Snow capital of the United States! In reality, Buffalo ranks ninth among cities over 50,000. There is a town in New Hampshire that averages over 200 inches of snow per year, Buffalo averages only 93. Anyways. You’re thinking, “All that snow, now snow days?” There are reasons that all the Western New York children are constantly disappointed.

Problem #1 – Snow Plows! The Atlanta airport has one snow plow. The driver most likely learned how to plow in Buffalo. Every year there is a plowing convention held in Buffalo, where drivers learn the fine art of snow plowing. This means that the snow plow drivers in Buffalo are good at what they do, much to the chagrin of schoolchildren everywhere.

Problem #2 – Winter is long in Buffalo. Some years, snow starts falling in October and will keep coming until long into spring. There is the occasional blizzard, the ones that make the national news, but these are rare and usually only happen when Lake Erie is unfrozen. So 93 inches of snow, spread out over 5 months equals lots of snow, a little at a time.

So our 18 to 24 inches of snow might keep me from heading to work, maybe. My boots only go up to my knees, and I don’t own any snow pants (I recently destroyed a pair while tubing). Just in case the grocery stores are wimps, I decided to prepare myself a big pot of lentil chili to last me through the onslaught of snow. I’m going to enjoy my piles of snow while eating bowls of chili, knowing that if I was still in Buffalo, I would definitely be at work.

Health tip?  Eat the rainbow!  Don't eat the snow.

Pineapple Chutney and Chicken

Sometimes, simple can be beautiful. How many times do you find yourself staring at a bright blue sky? Free of clouds, birds and planes, a blue sky is something beautiful in its simplicity. Today I found myself standing at my lab window, staring out to the sky. Maybe this is because I was a little bored with what was going on inside of the lab, maybe.

So, simple things. You don’t have to get fancy to have something fantastic. The perfect chocolate chip cookie will bring anyone to the table. A steak, grilled to perfection, will be excellent without any sauces. And a grilled chicken breast will be amazing with addition of a three-ingredient chutney.

This is the kind of meal that comes together out of necessity. Two factors lead me to make this dinner. Number one – I was very hungry. Number two – I had almost no food in my house. I tend to buy things at the grocery store according to the recipes I want to make for the week. Sometimes I think that I have more time on my hands than I actually do. My original plan was to make a slow cooker recipe, unfortunately the recipe only called for 7 hours of cooking time. I generally work ten hours a day. This just wouldn’t work, and I was hungry! Now, if you’re hungry, read on.

Pineapple Chutney and Chicken

3 Chicken breasts (cut into ½-inch strips)

Olive oil

Salt & Pepper

1 cup crushed pineapple

½ yellow onion (diced)

2 tbsp cilantro

Toss together pineapple, onion and cilantro. Allow chutney to sit for ten minutes so flavors mingle.

Toss chicken strips with 1 tbsp olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook on a grill or grill pan until juices run clear, about 6 minutes per side. Plate three strips of chicken with ¼ cup of chutney.

Spicy Peanut Noodles

How is your New Year going? I know it’s only a week in, but that’s 1/52nd of the year! Now doesn’t that sound like a lot of time? Aside from my VERY important resolutions, I’m working on a few smaller goals. One of those is to try and do more things that scare me. I’ve found, in the past, doing these scary things have yielded amazing results.





A number of years ago I joined my first gym. For the first year I spent a good amount of time on the elliptical machine. Walking in place, uphill, downhill. Very fulfilling. Got some killer calves from that year, rock hard. After a while I got a little bored and decided to try out the weight room floor. All those shiny machines were calling to me. After a personal trainer showed me the ropes I dove in, hit those machines, usually on Fridays. This lead to some nice arms and a few too many offers of friendship from the muscle-bound men.

Look at all that color!  Delicious!

The final hurdle I jumped was going to the group fitness classes. I decided that I liked this the best. Not only would I have awesome arms and calves, but I would be able to work my whole body! Pilates, body sculpting, yoga it was all so much fun! But what really caught my eye? One night I spied a kickboxing class while pedaling away on my elliptical. Punching and kicking, all the members in unison like one of those Bally’s commercials. I could do that, right? You bet! Although it took an introductory class and a pair of new shoes to get me into the rhythm with the rest of them. But now I can round house kick like Chuck Norris.  Totally worth it!

The scary thing for this week? I stopped at that imposing looking Asian market on my walk home from work. Walking inside and being greeted with strange candies and bad lighting. I walked up and down the aisles, looking over the bottles and jars with words written in Chinese, Korean and Japanese. I decided to bring home some of these sauces, even though I wasn’t quite sure what they all were. Dinner would be spicy tonight, because the bottle we’re using tonight says chili!