As I exited, merely a half an hour later, I had to totally eat my words because the skies had indeed gone from dreary to dreamy – yes! Right then and there I decided to opt out of happy hour and opt in to an outside run!

4.5 miles in the sunshine followed by 20 pushups and 50 crunches. It was amazing and I even got a tan line on my legs from my shorts. A TAN LINE – yahoo! Ooo, I will say that my quads and calves were HURTin’ for certain during this run. The 8 Minute At-Home Cardio Circuits I did on Sunday totally rocked my lower body!

After showering, I threw open both the front and back doors to listen to the birds (I’m 80) and cook up some dinner. (Yep, the football is still out there…a watering can too…don’t judge!)

Green beer or not, it’s still St. Patty’s Day, so I put a spin on the classic corned beef & cabbage to make a Rueben Pizza!

Rueben Pizza

Ingredients:

1 personal size whole wheat crust

2 tablespoons Thousand Island dressing

1/2 cup sauerkraut, drained well

1/2 cup corned beef, chopped

1/4 cup shredded cheese

Directions:

1. Layout your pizza crust.

I got these at Super Target – there’s two to a pack, which is nice!

2. Layer on Thousand Island dressing,  

sauerkraut,

corned beef,

and cheese.

3. Bake according to package directions.

Presto – Rueben Pizza!

Mmmkay, I inhaled this. It.was.so.good!!

Who wouldn’t love a classic sandwich, such as a Rueben, morphed into pizza form?

Ok, I know there’s a lot of Rueben haters out there. I won’t try and persuade you to make this if you don’t like them, because it tastes exactly like the sandwich – except way more fun and fabulous!

And here’s the thing about sauerkraut – it’s pungent, people. Real pungent…which is why I LOVE it. Growing up we had it all the time with pork roasts, on pizza, etc, and I never thought anything of it. It wasn’t until around high school that I realized not everyone else liked it as much as I did!

I get it, it’s got a pretty strong flavor that some can’t handle, however I’ll never understand how people who love pickles (cough, Ben, cough) can hate sauerkraut. It’s like pickles on crack – sour, crunchy, amazing! 

I served some quickly roasted asparagus on the side. Misted with olive oil, sprinkled with garlic salt and roasted at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes with the pizza.

I think I’ve reached my green veggie quota for the day!

If you love Ruebens, you will LOVE this pizza! Two very enthusiastic thumbs up from IGE!

My kitchen is in need of a deep cleanse, so I will be spending some quality, one-on-one time with it this evening!

Have a great night!

~~~~~

What foods do you eat and love, that other people think are strange or gross?

I’ll give you one of Ben’s – he was inhaling bacon wrapped gizzards at Bacon Fest a couple weeks ago, and I thought I was going to lose it! (still can’t eat bacon yet, FYI!)

Related posts:

1. Adventures in Pizza Toppings
2. Not Your Mama’s Pizza
3. Get the Dish on “The Dish”

I am not crazy though and, in fact, we only reached 36° today. BUT, we’re expecting 50° on Sunday, and since we haven’t seen temps above 45° in over 91 days, well, you can only imagine how excited that makes me!

There was no extra time to spend in the rays though, because I have a big to-do list to tackle tonight! Whenever I have a ton of stuff on my plate, and am feeling a bit overwhelmed, I make a list. They make my life SO much easier and help me to visualize and prioritize what needs to get done. Tonight’s list:

From the top:

1. Bake: DONE!

Per Day 2 of my cookie making process, after work I rolled and baked 5 dozen cookies in an hour and a half – a personal best time for me!

2. Blog: DONE!

Dinner was seriously outstanding tonight – I wish I had more than one Ham & Apricot Panini!

I started with these chewy, fluffy Ciabatta Buns. $0.99 for two buns? Yeah!

These came right from the bakery section of my grocery store, and are pre-sliced. They couldn’t make it easier to incorporate into a quick and tasty dinner.

The rest of the panini ingredients: low-sodium Sara Lee deli ham, mild cheddar cheese and apricot preserves.

I started by smearing a thin layer of the apricot preserves onto both sides of the ciabatta bun.

Add a slice of cheddar cheese,

and some ham.

Place the two halves together and mist a skillet with some olive oil. You could use a little bit of butter too. You just need something to help the bread crisp up on both sides.

Ok…here’s the thing. A panini press comes in really handy when you’re trying to make panini’s, however, when you don’t own one – you’ve got to improvise! Here’s my solution – a skillet stacked with a heavy container of protein powder, a giant can of baked beans, and a massive jar of PB!

Psssht! Who needs a $50 panini press?!

When the bottom got nice and crispy, I misted the top with olive oil, flipped the sandwich over and placed a folded piece of foil on top, so the weighted skillet wouldn’t get dirty.

The stack goes back! I only suffered 2 topples. No biggie.  

At this point, the cheese started oozing out and I was getting hungry! Baking sure takes it out of a girl!

Finally, the sandwich got crisped up on both sides, so I took it off the skillet, sliced (on the diagonal) and served!

WOW! Best sandwich I ever made!

The crunchy exterior gave way to a cheesy, gooey interior.

And that JAM! Sweet to ham’s savory. UN-believable!

Proof positive you don’t need a fancy piece of kitchen equipment to make fabulous, fun meals.

I served my crispy panini with some crunchy carrots.

This whole bag was $1.88! Niiiiice.

I needed some veggies in my life, and these did the trick.

Although I’m wishing I had about 5 more of these sandwiches…so fabulous!

Well, per my list, I’ve got two more items to cross off tonight:

3. Make the icing which I’ll be decorating my cookies with tomorrow.

4. Get a head start on tomorrows dinner. Cookie decorating will be dominating my night, so it’ll be nice to whip something pre-made out of the fridge!

I should be done in plenty of time to catch LOST, though, which is delayed an hour for a local basketball game. Found time! Love it.

ps you guys are JAZZED for the chia seed giveaway - I’m so glad! I did want to tell you that although chia seeds may appear to be expensive at first glance, they honestly last forever. I’ve been using ~1/2 Tablespoon from my 2lb stash everyday since I got it last month, and I seriously think I’ll be using it for the next year. If you spread the cost out over the period of many, many months, it’s really not bad at all. PLUS ChiaSeedsDirect.com offers FREE shipping! So, there ya go!  

You have a great night!

~~~~~

What’s your favorite kitchen gadget?

Do you ever rig up contraptions in place of fancy appliances?

Do you prefer hot, or cold sandwiches?

Related posts:

1. My Must-Have Kitchen Item
2. A Not So Tasty Bite + Kitchen Fail
3. My Ultimate Dream Kitchen