Brocco-tastic!

Good morning, all!

So, I know you've all been dying to know if I made it out of bed yesterday morning for a 5 am workout... I did!

My alarm went off at 4:45 (for some snooze time)... I reached my hand over to my nightstand where I'd left an apple to entice me out of bed and had a bite... and then finished it when I got up around 4:55. I knew I needed to use all sorts of tricks to psych myself up at that hour.

Then I proceeded to let Jillian kick my butt! To change things up, I did the 30 Day Shred Level 2. I hope my jumping jacks didn't wake up my basement neighbour...

The reason I decided to do a morning workout was not because I didn't have the time later in the day, but because I LOVE how great I feel afterwards. I'm much more alert and awake than usual. Plus, if I'd left it until I got home from work, I probably wouldn't have wanted to do it.

On Monday, I tried my third recipe from Eat, Shrink and Be Merry! Another winner! I made the pad thai (Tongue Thai'd):

AND, last night, I actually invented my own recipe!! I never do this. And, well, to be honest, I did copy all of the delicious elements from another recipe.

I had a ton of broccoli left over in my fridge, and I was trying to figure out what to do with it. Then, I remembered one of my FAVOURITE ways to cook chicken: This Indonesian Chicken recipe from the blog A Year of Slow Cooking. The reason I love it is the hot, gooey, peanut butter sauce.

I decided to try the same recipe, using broccoli instead of chicken! (Because in my opinion, whatever you throw in there is just a vehicle for the peanut butter).

Behold: Katie's Peanut Butter Broccoli!

• 1/3 cup peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce (I'd run out of soy sauce, so I used a couple of packets I had leftover from Chinese food)
• 2 chopped cloves of garlic
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sesame oil
• a few dashes of hot sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon jarred ginger
• 4 cups broccoli
• some chicken broth that I threw in later (not sure how much)

I put everything except the chicken broth in my slow cooker on high and stirred it around as best I could. After maybe 20 minutes, it seemed to be really dry in there (I'm not really a pro... I don't think you're supposed to open your slow cooker often to stir things around/taste test/etc, but I definitely did) so I poured in some chicken broth every now and then.

I had it on high for maybe an hour and 20 minutes (my slow cooker is not very slow), and then I decided it was done. Voila:

It was so good! I ate it right away, so it had a high hotness/gooeyness factor that I really liked. It yielded 3 cups for me, and I calculated 1/4 cup to be 1 point. So, it's a bit pointy for a broccoli dish (I wanted to eat it all), but I liked it.

I really just wanted to share the original recipe with you, because I LOVE the sauce in it so much! And maybe next time I make this dish, I'll use more broccoli and chicken broth, and less peanut butter, to try and keep the points down.

What's your favourite way to eat broccoli? Do you leave apples (or other food) on your nightstand for morning?