Last night’s dinner was a one-pot meal: Red beans and rice!
We had a ton leftover, so red beans and rice became today’s lunch as well.
I added chopped chicken breasts and a bunch of cauliflower to the dish yesterday, so it had a little more protein and some added nutrition.
My eyes ended up being a bit bigger than my stomach this afternoon, so I wasn’t able to finish the entire bowl that I dished for myself that you see above.
Sadie happily swooped in to take care of the few remaining bites. Dog to the rescue!
Personal Chef at the White House
After breakfast and before blogging this morning, I took Sadie on her morning walk around our neighborhood. Monday morning walks are my favorite because it means that I get to listen to the latest episode of my favorite podcast, Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me, that debuted over the weekend.
White House chef Sam Kass was a guest on this week’s show and offered a little insight into what it is like to cook for the Obama family.
(Photo credit: Kevin Dietsch-Pool/Getty Images)
Sam said that he uses fresh produce from the White House garden nearly every day and that the family definitely “walks the walk” that First Lady Michelle Obama preaches in her “Let’s Move” campaign when it comes to eating healthy food.
The interview with Sam immediately made me think about how nice it would be to have a private chef to cook healthy meals that taste delicious for me every day. Wouldn’t it be awesome to have someone do all the meal planning, vegetable chopping and fancy cooking for you? And then have all that food actually taste amazing and be healthy? Sign me up!
I did some digging to see if I could find out what Sam Kass makes for the Obamas to eat and wasn’t able to find much. According to The Huffington Post he’s typically discreet when it comes to talking about what he makes for the president, but the article stated that the following meals and snack ideas were “talked up by Kass” throughout the past few months:
- Seared tilapia with fried rice and broccoli and carrots
- Garden herb-roasted chicken with braised greens
- Broccoli soup, sweet potatoes and greens
- Cauliflower gratin
- Warm grapefruit with honey
- Banana boats stuffed with raisins, nuts and crushed whole grain cereal
While I love baking and think cooking is fun for the most part, I’d definitely be on board for having a personal chef if I lived in the White House. I’d want to hang out in the kitchen and pick up some tips and tricks from the best of the best. I also think it would be cool if the White House chef had a website or blog that detailed the Obama’s weekly menu so we could all see what they’re eating and make the healthy meals that the first family enjoys. C’mon, Chef Kass! Do it!
The whole concept of having a personal chef made me think about which I would prefer to have in my life: A personal chef or a personal trainer?
I’d definitely go with the chef since eating craptastic junk food happens more often than a missed day at the gym for me.
Question of the Afternoon
- If you could have access to a personal trainer or a personal chef every day, which one would you choose?
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I love spending time in the kitchen, so I would have to go with personal trainer. I’m always looking for a little extra motivation when I head to the gym!
I’d definitely pick a personal trainer. I need as much motivation as possible! I’m a pretty good baker, and an average cook, so I could definitely handle my own in the kitchen.
I’d go with the a personal chef too – or maybe just someone who would make sure my fridge was always totally stocked so I had no excuses. I love cooking, so I wouldn’t want to totally give it up.
I’d take the trainer – I can make some pretty decent (if not really good) meals, but I’m not very creative at coming up with workouts. I’d love to see how my running could progress if I had a coach who knew what they were doing!
Definitely the chef for me. I don’t enjoy cooking all that much, so if someone would whip up delicious, healthy meals for me every day, I would be one happy girl.
Absolutely choose personal chef. I like to think I’m pretty motivated, I get to the gym 5 of 6 times a week … but sometimes the nutrition factor in my meals can be lacking.
I’m going to daydream about this now 🙂 how wonderful would it be to get home and have food be ready for you?! If only…
Oh tough choice! I think I’d go with the personal chef though, it would be nice to just relax and have someone do the cooking for me. And I like making up my own workouts! Haha, your dinner last night had me thinking of the baby got back song, because you know the line”red beans and rice didn’t miss her”. Um yah, I’m a dork for thinking of that 😉
I’d take a personal chef who is also a personal trainer later. I just learned about new food allergies…and I’m constantly too tired to cook, so it would help to have someone to do it all for me.
And then, once I’d figured out the food and gotten some of my energy back, I’d take over the cooking and they could get my butt in gear fitness wise!
I’d love a personal trainer! I’d also love a chef, but since I enjoy cooking so much, I think I’d get more out of a trainer. 🙂 I need someone to push me!
I think I’d choose the chef!
I’ve got to go with the personal trainer! I’m so terrible about making up good weight routines for myself and when I had a trainer in college he was so helpful with those things. I’d really enjoy a chef too, but I think I do better with my eating than I do with working out so someone to push me with my workouts would be more beneficial!
Personal chef, 100%! My theory is this: With all of that healthy food fueling me, I wouldn’t need the extra push from a trainer to get to the gym!
Most definitely, a personal chef. I try to eat healthy but after making three different dishes a meal, three meals a day for the family, I am less than inspired to make something for myself. If I make something healthful, they choose to not eat or make me make them instant noodles. Since they don’t eat left-over, I usually end up eating the unhealthful left-over. So, I would love a personal chef to lessen my load or at least make something healthful for me.
Most def a personal chef. I already am a trainer so no need for that (it’s fun to get ideas though…) but still. I so do not love cooking, and I would LOVE if a person cooked everything to my wishes. YUMM!!
I love to have both. Someone to get my butt into gear and teach me more about strength training since I’m pretty clueless, and someone to cook me delicious healthy meals. But if I had to choose I’d say chef.
Cooking can be very time consuming, even if I do love doing it, and not everything I try comes out perfect. That and I’m perfectly happy to just keep on running.
Personal chef for me please! I think I can handle exercising for myself. Plus I feel like eating healthy makes the bigger difference in my physique. If I ever put on a few pounds its usually because I have been eating too many goodies…not because I’ve been lazy at the gym.
Definitely a personal chef! I’m not a very good cook. Although I am experimenting with new recipes and learning, I’d rather have someone else take care of that stuff and I’ll just enjoy eating yummy healthy food.
Working out is my time to escape, push myself and build some mental toughness. I wouldn’t give that up for the world!
I say chef!! It would be so nice to have someone make me healthy amazing meals! 😉
I say personal chef, that would be amazing.
I heard that episode of Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me this weekend, I thought it was an especially funny segment with Sam Kass. He was great!
Definitely a personal trainer. I love cooking and meal planning too much 🙂
I would much rather have a personal trainer!
This is a hard one!
I’ve had a personal trainer (just for an hour a week though) and loved it. It was so motivating.
A personal chef would be nice, but I think more so I didn’t have to cook and clean up the kitchen.
So, I’m going to go with the personal trainer since that would probably be more helpful in the end.
I would choose a personal chef no doubt about it. I am really good at working out. When it comes to cooking I love it but sometimes ( a lot of times) I m really lazy and eat the most random stuff, that usually just tastes like blah or unhealthy.
Hands down Personal Trainer. I love cooking but do not love working out as much!
Definitely a personal trainer! However, if the personal chef were Sam himself that would be a different story. He’s hot!
I would probably do the personal chef. I seem to be more consistent with exercising than eating!!
Definitely chef!
I would loooove to get the recipe for your beans+rice dish! It looks absolutely delishious and my mouth is watering just looking at the picture
Personal Trainer by far…I don’t need an elaborate meal every day. I only eat a “proper dinner” a few times a week. I’ve lived alone for years and I’m fine with a sandwich or eggs or soup for dinner most nights. Tonight it’s a sockeye salmon salad melt on crusty ciabatta bread and sliced tomatoes with salt and pepper…same thing as last night:)
Julie, there actually is a blog that covers what the Obamas eat (as much as it can). It’s called Obama Foodorama and it’s a favorite of mine.
It doesn’t include day-to-day details, but it does have a lot of good stuff, especially if you hit up the archives. 🙂
http://obamafoodorama.blogspot.com/
Personal chef! I can’t even imagine how awesome it would be!
Personal trainer for sure! I get in workout ruts and find it’s easier to stay the course (or skip it all together) than change things up. I’d love for someone to plan my workouts based on my goals, provide feedback while I’m doing them, and kick my butt if I started getting lazy. Since grocery shopping and cooking are two of my favorite hobbies, I’d pass on the personal chef. Maybe once I have kids and a household to run, I’ll change my tune! Haha
While having a personal chef would be nice on occasion, I also like to cook my meals for myself. I’d rather have a personal trainer to keep me engaged and continuously pushing my body further.
I think I’d rather have a personal trainer, only because I like cooking myself too much…I think it would be very cool to get a glimpse at a daily White House menu though, and even to see how it’s changed from administration to administration.
Chef, chef, chef! Imagine (healthy, delicious) dinner being on the table every night and lunch being packed….plus, it would leave more time for workouts if you never had to cook! Double win 🙂
What did you put in your rice and beans? It looks really good!
Chef, hands down. I am much more likely to go for a walk than I am to put time into cooking. I like to cook and love to eat, but I have no patience.
Having a chef would be cool, but I love to cook too much. I’d choose a personal trainer to make sure someone was there to push me in the gym!
I completely agree that I would LOVE to see a weekly menu from the White House – that would be really interesting and motivating, I think! And I’m with you – I would pick a personal chef… because I eat about 5 times a day and usually just work out once 🙂
Love your idea of a website detailing what the chef is making that week!! I think I’d rather have a personal chef…I really like the idea of someone creating healthy nutritious meals for me :).
Hands down a personal chef! Now if only I could win the lottery.
I would definitely choose personal trainer! Having a personal chef does not equal healthy meals per say, most chefs use more oil then necessarily and are far richer. Not to mention I have found my love for cooking and would hate not being able to play around in the kitchen myself :).
Love your blog btw <3
Totally a personal trainer! I’m sure it would be nice to have a personal chef but I enjoy cooking myself. I could use the occasional push to workout, though!!
Personal chef. I love working out more than cooking and need more food inspiration!
I would gladly take either one, but more to learn than to actually use them. Like you said, it would be so cool to learn all their tricks! So I guess I’d take the personal trainer to add more variety to my workouts. 🙂 Good question, BTW!
I wonder how is it to have a great trainer and a fantastic chef at the same time. I think I would just stay at home all days. 🙂
Personal Trainer!
With sites like Pinterest and blogs like youts that offer quick food options, it takes less motivation for me to cook up something delicious and quick.
Working out–is a whole other story! Need someone to help hold me accountable and move it!
oooh, tough one…. While I rarely have an issue making it to the gym, I know a personal trainer would TOTALLY ramp up my efforts while I’m there, and produce mega results. It would also be awesome to have someone critique my form all the time. I also rarely have an issue making healthy meals, but a personal chef would cut out so much of the work for me! I think based on the making-my-life-easier factor, I have to go with chef.
I would pick the trainer because I love to cook (and cook healthy). Now, I could use a few cooking classes to learn some new techniques, but other than that I would pick a trainer.
I’d love for the trainer to be Bob Harper, but I wouldn’t want to be on national tv (even though I love the show) plus after losing quite a bit of weight, I don’t think I would qualify as a candidate for the show anymore. 🙂
I’m a personal trainer so I would definitely go with personal chef! 🙂
As nice as it would be to have someone making sure that i’m getting to gym and not slacking off, I’d go personal chef hands down!
I love cooking and baking, but if I had the opportunity to have someone make me healthy, delcious meals everyday….I’d take it in a second!