Happy Humpday Friends!

I hope you’re having a lovely morning so far. Judging by your comments on yesterday’s post, you guys have some great post-workout recovery routines! It turns out that lots of you are big fans of the foam roller too, one of my favourite pieces of gym gear. (If you don’t use a foam roller yet and want to know why you should, check out this post.) If you still haven’t entered, you’ve got until tomorrow morning at 7am ET. Click here to get your comments in!

And now, on to my new things tried this Tuesday:

1. Recipe of the Week: Cumin Spiced Chicken and Bell Peppers. This is a recipe that I used to make all the time when I lived at home in Bahrain. I don’t actually know what the original source was, but I’m thinking that the spice blend might have been a recommendation of one of my fellow weight loss group buddies in the days when I was still learning to cook. I added the cinnamon because in my opinion, it makes everything taste better. This recipe is no exception to that theory.

This dish makes a quick and filling dinner (especially if you serve it over rice or couscous), but it’s also a delicious hot lunch. I made 4 servings worth on the weekend and have been taking it to work with me every day this week. I don’t know about you, but sometimes hot lunches are just so much better than cold ones, especially on rainy days which is getting to be the usual around here.

2. A new-to-me Glo Bar flavour: Endure (Cranberry Apricot Spelt). Ange knows that I adore her Glo Bars, so last time we got together she graciously gave me a small supply to take home.

I haven’t met a Glo Bar that I haven’t liked yet, but this one really was outstanding! I had about half of it crumbled into my breakfast bowl yesterday morning at work, along with some chopped watermelon and yogurt.

I expected it to be very fruity in taste, but the flavour that I noticed the most was peanut butter! I’d never think to pair dried cranberries and PB, but it was SO delicious. I polished off the remaining half as my afternoon snack and enjoyed every last bite.

3. A new-ish dress. Ok, so this wasn’t really new, because I bought it about 2 months ago when the weather started teasing me and making me think that spring weather had arrived for good. Good one Mother Nature – clearly, it still hasn’t arrived. Regardless, yesterday was the first wear of this dress from RW&Co:

You like?

4. Cornbread. Somehow I’ve managed to go all 22.5 years of my life without once eating cornbread. Clearly, I’m not from any of the southern states. Lately cornbread has been popping up on a number of my favourite blogs, so I decided that this week would be a good one for a first-time cornbread trial. I didn’t buy pre-made cornbread because that would be cheating. Instead, I turned to my good friend Bob, who conveniently put a recipe on the back of his Gluten Free Corn Bread Mix package.

The ingredients in the mix:

Stone ground, whole grain cornmeal and sorghum impart an unmatched flavor and texture from another era. After easy preparation, you will bake perfectly moist and light cornbread. Specially designed for those sensitive to wheat or gluten, this mix contains: whole grain cornmeal, potato starch, whole grain sorghum flour, evaporated cane juice, whole grain corn flour, tapioca flour, baking powder (sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium bicarbonate, cornstarch, monocalcium phosphate), sea salt, xanthan gum.

According to the recipe, all I needed to do was combine the contents of the package with some eggs, oil, and milk (or milk substitute – I used Almond Breeze). Since we didn’t have any vegetable oil and I figured olive oil might affect the taste, I substituted unsweetened apple sauce.

Rather than making a loaf, I decided to pull out the muffin tins and make little cornbread muffins. They baked for about 25 minutes, at which point they looked like this:

I enjoyed one of my little cornbread muffins with a fairly enormous salad containing Romaine lettuce, lean ground chicken (cooked with some chipotle chili pepper, garlic powder, and cayenne for a little extra kick), bell peppers, chopped tomatos, red onion, and a smothering of salsa. The dressing was a little cilantro mix that I’ve been crazy about this week – but I’ll save the recipe for another day.

The verdict on the cornbread? Well, it was quite nice! The muffins had a more mild taste than I expected, with a subtle sweetness that I think was partly due to the apple sauce. I’m glad there are 8 left because even the leftovers taste really good when they’re nice and warm. I think those folk in the south might be on to something here…

So tell me…

• Are you a big cornbread fan? Am I the only one on the planet that hasn’t tried it before?
• Did you try anything new yesterday?
• Don’t forget to enter my TLC for Sore Muscles giveaway (Canadian residents only).  Quick, you’ve only got until 7am ET tomorrow morning!