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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Well since I AM a personal chef, my answer is trainer! As a busy new mom it’s so hard to fit in exercise and I’d love someone to put a little fire under my booty 😉
p.s. I love making beans & rice for dinner – so easy & satisfying!
I’d say a personal chef. I’m pretty good about exercising and are just a few weeks away from a M.S. in exercise science, so a personal chef would be much more beneficial. Plus, I’d never have the excuse of not having time to make a healthy meal!
I would definitely rather have a personal trainer. I really enjoy attempting new recipes and being in control of what and how I cook. My new gym membership came with 2 free personal training sessions and it was crazy how much harder I worked and pushed myself than when I workout on my own. I would love to have someone to tell me what exercises to do and how to do them and also to push me to do 5 more reps when I would usually just give up!
CHEF! I can get my buns to the gym, but I really struggle with coming up with tasty/healthy meals! Think it’s too late to start my campaign for the upcoming election? 😉
Personal trainer. I’m so terrible about making time to workout, but I love to cook. If I had a personal trainer, I could tell him/her what want to change, let them design the workout, and just do it.
I would definitely go with the trainer. I feel like I’m pretty good with our food and even if I did have some slip-ups, the trainer would kick my butt to make up for it.
Living in Mumbai, it’s common for families to hire a cook. Fortunately I rarely have to chop my veggies/clean up but I love the actual cooking process so do that bit on my own. For that reason, I’m going to go with a personal trainer 🙂
I like cooking and find it relaxing and rewarding, so I’d choose a personal trainer. Sometimes I really need help with motivation to work out!
I would chose the personal trainer. I have a hard time figuring out what exercises to do. I never know if I am doing a lift right or if my body is utilizing enough energy.
I agree, I am not always good at making myself eat as well as I should, but I can almost always push myself at the gym.
And when I read your opening line, I immediately started singing Sir-Mix-a-Lot….
That’s a really hard one… Since I’m currently marathon training and already have a plan set out, I’d go with personal chef. Espeically since food is my biggest issue currently, it would be so nice to have someone tell me what to eat!
Definitely personal trainer, who would push me hard every day 🙂 Nothing is better than a sweaty workout session that actually kicks my butt!
I love cooking and would never in a million years let it do someone else for me.
I would go with a personal chef, but only if I could cook alongside them!! I love cooking and would like te guidance of someone who can do all of the not-so-fun tasks like meal planning and prep work 🙂
PS- I went to The Fresh Market yesterday and tried their Summer Breeze Coffee. So much more flavorful than the PB Coffee. I think you’d like it 🙂
I would definitely go for a personal trainer. I mean I workout diligently but I need to fine tune some areas. like my triceps and get rid of my belly! 🙂
I’d definitely go for the trainer! I love cooking too much to give that up, but I think a trainer would be awesome for keeping me motivated, interested, and generally not bored with my workouts!
I’d want to BE the personal chef!! I’m certainly not Cordon Bleu trained or anything, but I think it would be an amazing job! In terms of fitness, I’m pretty disciplined when it comes to my workouts but ideally I’d BE the personal chef and HAVE the personal trainer! 🙂 I quite like contemplating this life actually! 🙂
how do you make your beans and rice julie? and also i agree, a personal chef 🙂
Hmm, I would love a personal trainer to help with form and really make sure Im getting my moneys worth =). I dont think I would want a chef since I love to cook and its such a happy place.
I’m in training to become a chef (and would love to be a personal chef at some point!) starting July 17th!!
Hands down, I would go with the CHEF!! I am pretty good about getting my workouts done as I actually enjoy them most the time.
Eating healthy however is another story. I like eating healthy and typically do but it can get boring having the same thing over and over again. Plus, it is so much easier to just grab crap food but if someone were cooking me healthy meals I would have no need for grab and go type stuff!
A personal chef since I am married to a personal trainer! I am very lucky to have a personal trainer with me FOREVER 🙂 Very interesting post today…loved it!
Chef for sure! cooking just takes up so much time.Working out is easy- don’t need someone telling me what to do 🙂
I don’t know how accurate this fact is, but I have heard it said that weight loss/maintaining a healthy weight is 80% diet and 20% exercising/genetics. You really need a combination of the two, but the calories you put in your mouth (or don’t) are going to have the bigger impact on what you see on the scale vs. how many miles you log at the gym. This being said–I would take the personal chef in a heartbeat as long as I have some influence over what he/she would cook, ie: low sodium, high fiber, etc.
As long as I could tell them what to make and when, I’d want a personal chef hands down. They can be creative when it comes to making their own food 😉
Personal chef for sure. For some reason, everything I make uses tomatoes as a base. I’m not a creative person so it’d be great to actually have someone do it for me!
I would love to have a personal chef. Even though I like cooking sometimes, I would love having someone pack my meals for me and have dinner ready when I get home!
I need both of them! I have a personal trainer and I wish I could afford to have someone cook healthy meals for me.
Hmm…I think I’d have to choose personal trainer. I need someone to motivate me when I get to the gym and teach me exactly how to do each exercise correctly. I am so scared of injuring myself!
Also, I just started a blog (comininhot.wordpress.com) and would looooove any advice you had about first time bloggers 🙂 I follow yours every day and love the way it flows with a mix of fun, humor, and info. Anything you’ve learned over the years that you wish you had known at the beginning?
Thanks Julie!!
I love Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me! I wish it was on daily. I think I would go for the chief as well.
I think I’d definitely go with personal chef! I enjoy cooking, too, but I think the convenience of a chef would be awesome!
Personal chef, no question! I don’t have much trouble motivating myself to workout but after a long day of work and time at the gym it would be awesome to come home to a cooked meal. Considering sometimes I resort to spoonfuls of peanut butter that I call a “meal” someone to cook healthy meals would be awesome!
I caught that Wait, Wait episode while running on the treadmill yesterday! I think I’d have to choose a chef. Eating yummy, healthy food all the time without having to do any work?! Yes please!
I’d choose a personal chef because it’s hard to plan meals with a good variety of vegetables, meats, and fruits. I tend to find something I like and eat it over and over again, and I think a chef would force me to try new things and broaden my horizons.
that’s a tough choice, but i think i would choose a personal trainer over a personal chef because i feel much more confident in the kitchen than i do in the gym! and if there’s any way to get both, i’ll take it!
that’s a hard choice!!!! i think i would go with a trainer because i can definitely cook and i CAN workout by myself but i think a trainer would push me harder than i push myself.
Considering that I AM a personal trainer, I definitely need to go with personal chef! Good question!
That is a tough one, but I might have to go with trainer. I really love to cook and bake so while I would learn a lot from a chef it would take an activity away from me that I enjoy. Whereas with a trainer, I am still doing the activity too!
Personal chef for sure. There have been more nights than I’m willing to admit that I go out to eat because I’m too lazy to cook.
Personal chef – as long as I got to pick the menu! 🙂
Oh, good question! I’d say personal chef for sure, too! It would be amazing to have someone prepare healthy meals for you. I have no problem getting out the door to exercise, but healthy eating seems like such a chore sometimes!
Personal Chef please! haha
Is that Red-Beans and rice recipe posted around here somewhere??
He was on The Chew last week too. A few of my girlfriends and I watch it during lunch in our breakroom and he is a cutie patootie. I’d say a chef. I hate having to think about what I’m putting into my body!
definitely personal trainer!! i don’t find it near as difficult to find the motivation to cook as i do to work out!!!
tough choice..i love to do both on my own..i might have to go with the chef because I love trying new things and don’t always want to do the research and work on my own hehe
Chef! If you think about it an hour workout takes an hour of your time whether you have a trainer or not. An hour of cooking by the chef would take up
None of your time! I hate cooking. I do love baking but that doesn’t exactly help with my weight goals lol
I would definitely choose a personal chef. It’s so difficult grocery shopping and cooking healthy food for just myself with a busy schedule. Especially with a baby on the way, having someone prepare my healthy meals would be a life saver.
I love to cook so I would definitely go for the personal trainer!
Personal Trainer! The trainers I’ve heard of are able to give good, healthy eating tips that you can use in the kitchen. I’ve been planning out my meals for the last 6 months and I’ve taken everything I’ve learned from blogs and healthy cooking websites/magazines and made some great week to week meal plans (snacks included!). The trainer would help me come up with exercises to target certain areas of my body (like the ever annoying stomach area!) and keep me motivated on days when my “get up and go gets up and leaves”!!
I’m really good with working out, and really good with clean eating too, but some more variety would be nice! CHEF all the wayyyy 🙂 Plus, I am always the chef for my fam, so it would be nice for someone to make something for me 🙂