Birthday Funday Part II

Kathryn knew little of what was planned for Birthday Funday.  She did know that after breakfast that we were going shopping for a bit then to get pedicures. 

We headed to Kohl's where I found that lovely yellow shirt on clearance for just $3.80 and Kathryn got some long sleeve white shirts.  Then we checked out Burlington Coat Factory and decided to take a tour through Ross just to see what they had.  We weren't terribly amused with either store but on the way out of Ross I caught a glimpse of a purple dress.  It turned out to be hideous but there was a gorgeous one next to it.  I'd sort of been looking for a dress to wear to our upcoming company dinner dance.  The dress I stumbled across at Ross was beautiful, was in my size and was only $11!!!  Hallelujah... it even fit!  Major score!

After our short shopping trip we went to get our pedicures.  Kathryn didn't know that our good friend Rhianna was joining us for our afternoon pampering or the dinner that was following.  When we arrived Kathryn was oblivious to Rhianna being there for several minutes until Rhianna went to stand right next to her.  It was a definite surprise!

We all enjoyed our relaxing pedicures.  Thankfully I'd snuck in a call to Rhianna asking her to bring us some snacks.  Like any good mom she came prepared with a weeks worth of snacks stuffed in her purse.

Once our toes were pretty we headed to dinner.  Kathryn knew we were going to dinner but didn't know where.  When we ended up at Paul Martin's American Bistro she was very happy.

We celebrated happy hour by eating appetizers and drinking wine.  Well those of us who drink wine drank wine.

Eventually the husbands joined us.

Rhianna, who was husbandless that night, didn't want to be left out of the "couples" photos and snapped this lovely self-portrait.

We enjoyed a fabulous dinner then, of course, birthday cake.  And in birthday tradition I got this picture of our birthday girl.

Birthday Funday was a huge success.  Fun was definitely had by all!

Spinach & Mushroom Quesadillas

Last week I made Pioneer Woman's Spinach and Mushroom Quesadillas for dinner.

They were FABULOUS.

Do yourself a favor and make these.  You'll be glad you did.

Serve them with some roasted broccoli if you want.

Birthday Funday Part I

Our Beloved Kathryn turned 30 last month and we couldn't let this milestone go by without the appropriate amount of pomp and circumstance.  Knowing she wouldn't want a party we celebrated with Birthday Funday!  It started Sunday night after the Super Bowl and lasted all day Monday. 

Birthday Funday started as all good birthday bashes do, with presents and cupcakes!

With the all the money I saved not throwing a party I got to buy presents!  I decided to copy a gift idea that I received for my 30th birthday.  30 gifts for 30 years (more to come on how I did this without going broke).  After opening presents for what seemed like hours we were all pooped and headed to bed.

In the morning we had pancakes and bacon.  But not just any pancakes.  We had geek-cakes!  For Christmas Brett & Kathryn got Hubby a set of Star Wars pancake molds.  We waited for this special occasion to bust them out.

Seriously, I think we all geeked out a little bit over these.  Even Lily.  She may be a little more geeked out by the belly scritching actually.  

Starting the day with a stack of geek-cakes and a stack of back is a pretty sweet deal.

We were geeked out at the start of this meal then went down hill from there.  I declared our Orange Banana Pineapple juice to be Orange Panana Bineapple.  After several attempts to correct what I was saying I finally gave up.  Panana Bineapple juice it is then.  Would you like some?

In the middle of a story she was supposed to be paying attention to our birthday girl discovered that if you remove Yoda's ears and rearrange them he becomes a puppy.

Yoda puppy = Yuppy = Hilarious

What can beat a yuppy geek-cake?  Beats me!

Check back tomorrow for part two of Birthday Funday!

Weekly Meal List 2/19

Saturday: Chicken piccata

Sunday: Lentils with sausage & kale

Tuesday: Spinach salad with salmon & barley

Wednesday:  Leftover lentils

Friday: Pioneer Woman's Spinach & Mushroom Quesadillas

February Monthly Challenge

I might as well call this the month were I lose my mind!  

You're aware of just how much sugar is consumed in the month of February, aren't you?  In case you need a refresher, like I did, let me remind you about what goes on this month for most people.  They stop caring about their New Year's resolutions, if they haven't already, and start eating whatever they want.  This includes gobs and gobs of Valentines candy, Super Bowl party snacks and Girl Scout cookies.  But for me, it's the month I decided to reduce my sugar intake.  

The first day of the month isn’t even over yet and I’m already hating this challenge.  In fact in an email I sent to Kathryn I said:  

WHO THE HELL thought it was a good idea that I eat less sugar?  WHO?  I need to know because when I find that idiot I'm going to give them a piece of my mind!!!!  Today is of course the first day of this idiotic plan AND it's the day that FREAKING See's Candy is onsite selling all their stupid sugar filled crappy candy that just happens to be delicious!

I’ll give up meat again if I can have a piece of See’s Candy.  Damn those stupid See's Candy people!!!!  This challenge is going to be WAY harder than last month’s.

The problem is that although I’m eating reasonably healthy meals I’ve been sugar crazed since around Halloween.  I don’t know what my problem is though because I’m not normally a big fan of sweets.  Sure I like them and partake but they don’t usually call to me.  I’m way more into salty/savory treats.  But not lately and that needs to stop.  In reality this is probably the best month for me to reduce my sugar intake though I’m not feeling the love for that right now.

When I came up with this stupid-ass idea I decided to review where my wasted sugary calories are coming from and here’s what I came up with.

My daily goblet of coffee -- I can’t drink coffee that actually tastes like coffee so it gets sweetened with flavored creamer and sugar.  

Soda -- I don’t drink soda often but it’s just liquid sugar and nothing about it is remotely good for me.

Candy -- I’m not a huge candy fan but I’ve found that if it’s around lately I can’t seem to resist it.  If it’s there I’m eating it.  For example, my boss brought in a big tub of Red Vines.  Red Vines probably wouldn't even rank in my top 50 favorites because everything chocolate would come first and then a whole bunch of other non-chocolate candy that I like way better.  But because there out to be seen all the time I just keep eating them.   Sometimes I can resist for a day or so but I always come back even though I don’t even really like them.

Baked sweets -- Clearly baked sweets are terrible for me but I don’t eat them very often... not even right now in my candy-craze.  I’m definitely eating more baked sweets than I should but this isn’t my major weakness because they’re not as prevalent.  

Here are the modifications I decided I could live with:

Coffee -- I only drink coffee on work days.  I never drink it on weekends.  Clearly I can cut back and still survive so I’m cutting down on my coffee to only 3 days a week.

Soda -- Gone!  I have no need for this and it irritates me that I’m drinking empty calories.  I’d much rather drink my empty calories in the form of coffee.  Besides I’ve gone a whole year without soda and can easily go days without it so this shouldn't be that bad.

Candy -- Also gone!  This one is going to be difficult.  This is the one that is going to make me uber cranky and possibly want to rip someone’s head off.   Because I’ve been consuming so much of it lately it’s going to be hard to change my ways.  But I’m confident it can be done.

Baked sweets -- I’m not putting a quantifiable limitation on this.  Obviously special occasions involve baked goodies and I’m not going to be miserable because I can’t have a bite of cake.  I plan to just make good decisions and only enjoy the things I really like (in reasonable amounts) and pass on the things I don’t really care about.  

AND THEN, like that isn’t enough, I decided to have a second challenge for February.  I’m going to meditate at least 5 minutes a day.  This is going to be a whole different kind of challenge.  I’m a little nervous and a little excited.

I'm hoping the lack of candy combined with the meditation at least means I won't kill someone.  Wish me luck!

Review of my January Monthly Challenge

For my January Monthly Challenge I basically pretended to be a vegetarian.

I am amazed at how easy it was not to eat meat for a month.  I allowed myself the option of eating fish and seafood but didn’t intend to rely on those a lot.  Instead I prepared meals with lots of veggies, grains and beans... and surprisingly, I really liked it.  Even Hubby didn’t complain.  I wouldn’t say he loved it or would want to do it all the time but he didn’t complain.  We both learn that there are yummy meals out there that don't revolve around a big piece of meat!

Over the course of the month the only meat (including fish and seafood) I ate was:

• A stupid Slim Jim because for a moment I completely forgot about my challenge.  Oops!
• A tuna fish sandwich at the beginning of the month before I’d really gotten back on track with regular grocery shopping.
• Sushi with friends.
• Shrimp in some quesadillas which were fabulous.
• A bite of a friend’s salmon at lunch.

I am very thankful I not only survived for a month without eating meat but that I actually enjoyed it.  I will most definitely incorporate more meatless options into our weekly meals and I can be confident that neither of us will be miserable.

If you're interested in incorporating more meatless meals into your life here are a few websites you can check out.

http://www.meatlessmonday.com/

http://www.veggienumnum.com/

http://www.vegetarianized.com/

Weekly Meal List 1/30

Sunday: white bean soup with kale

Tuesday: grilled provolone cheese sandwich with pesto or for Hubby grilled turkey and provolone without pesto

Wednesday: spinach salad with salmon, barley & oranges for me, salmon with barley for Hubby.  I'm so excited to try this salad it's a little ridiculous. I saw it in my favorite magazine, Real Simple, and almost started drooling.

Thursday: pioneer woman's pantry pasta - I never got to it last week because we had so many leftovers from the roasted veggie pasta and the lentils.

Grilled Portobello Benedict

The main influence in deciding to go vegetarian for a month was our friends Brett and Kathryn.  Neither one of them is actually vegetarian but they both consume way more veggie based meals than meat based meals and they both truly enjoy them.

Hubby and I get together with them every week for our Shop & Shoot Night.  Shop & Shoot Night consists of dinner all together then the boys go shoot stuff in video games and Kathryn and I go shopping.  Week after week they've shown me that fabulous meals don't have to revolve around meat.  

When they came over for dinner this week I decided to finally try Kathryn's highly recommended recipe for Grilled Portobello Benedict (adapted from Ellie Krieger's version).  Since it was her recipe Kathryn did most of the cooking and I was her helper/photographer.  

You'll want one portobello per person.  Note there are only three.  Hubby ate scrambled eggs with ham and cheese.  There's no way he'd even dream of eating this.

Start by cleaning the portobello mushrooms. Remove the stem and weird gills and wipe with a damp paper towel.  Coat the mushrooms in olive oil, salt and pepper on both sides.  Grill in a grill pan or BBQ if you want to stand outside in the cold.

While the mushrooms are grilling crack two eggs per mushroom into a mixing bowl.  Please note my fabulous action shot here.

Beat the eggs a bit with some milk (and butter if you're Kathryn).

Scramble the eggs but don't let them get brown or Kathryn won't eat them.

When the mushrooms are done take them off the heat but keep them in the pan.  Add some spinach on top.

Top the spinach with the scrambled eggs.  The heat from the mushroom and the eggs will wilt the spinach.

Then top the eggs with feta (or whatever cheese you'd like) and some prepared pesto.

Here you should add some toasted pine nuts.  Unfortunately we forgot but we did add avocados instead which were quite tasty.  If you'd like you can also enjoy your Grilled Portobello Benedict with a little arugula salad like we did.  Just toss some arugula with a little olive oil, salt, pepper and parmesan cheese.

After our shopping trip Kathryn and I tested recipes for the drink contest at our upcoming Super Bowl party.  I really wanted to like this drink.  Mostly because of it's name.  It's funny and naughty.  It's a Dirty Pickle.  

I didn't care for it but Kathryn, who likes dirty martinis, says that if you like dirty martinis and pickles you'd like this.  It tasted way too much like alcohol for me to like it.  I prefer my alcohol to taste like candy which is exactly what my super secret entry for the drink contest tastes like.  

Weekly Meal List 1/23

Saturday: sour cream and shrimp enchiladas (sorta like this but not really since I can't follow a recipe)

Sunday: lentils and brown rice

Monday: roasted veggie pesto pasta, garlic bread

Tuesday: Kathryn's grilled portobello benedict (adapted from Ellie Krieger's version)

Wednesday: an adapted version of PW's pasta for two

Thursday: leftover lentils

Weekly Meal List 1/16

Sunday: Pioneer Woman's Chicken Tortilla Soup, Kale and white beans with cilantro pesto

Monday: Homemade pizza

Tuesday: Chicken Tortilla Soup

Wednesday: Scrambled eggs, cauliflower

Thursday: Fajitas for Hubby, fajita/taco salad for me

Friday: Quesadillas de Camarones (another Pioneer Woman recipe)


I made the chicken tortilla soup and the kale dish tonight and both of them were delicious!!!  I've decided I love kale.  It's so yummy.  The recipe I made today was a new one from Aarti on Food Network.  I highly recommend it!!!  Check it out: Greens & Beans

Also, PW's Chicken Tortilla Soup is the best I've ever had!  Make that too.  I cooked the chicken in the oven like she suggested but didn't actually add it to the soup.  I shredded it and left it on the side for Hubby to add himself.  The best part is that he was a 1/3 of the way through his soup before I asked him if he put the chicken in.  He hadn't... and he still liked it.  Ha!

Stuffed Mushrooms with Pine Nuts & Feta

This is a recipe I adapted from one I found on www.veggienumnum.com.  It's quite tasty.  I tried to get a photo of the finished product but wasn't smart enough to think of it before the leftovers got put away by my dish-washing Hubby.  When I went back into the kitchen the mushrooms were already in the fridge so I took this picture instead.

This is my beloved Lily.  She's the best pup ever!

10-15 large cremini mushrooms (or a few portobellos), wiped cleaned, stems removed
1 yellow onion, finely diced
1 garlic clove, minced
2 slices whole grain bread, roughly diced
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup pine nuts
1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese (or however much makes you happy)
2 tbsp lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350F.

Set the mushrooms on a baking tray; cut side up.

Heat 1T olive oil in a medium saucepan.  Cook the onion over medium head for 3-4 minutes.  Add the garlic and cook for another minute.  Add the pine nuts and cook for another few minutes until they turn golden.  Add the breadcrumbs and toss through until well combined.

Remove from head, add the feta, lemon juice and season with salt and pepper to taste.  Add a little extra oil if needed.  Top each mushroom with stuffing.  Drizzle with a little extra olive oil.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden.

Books in 2010

I love to read and since I got my Kindle a fews ago I'v enjoyed reading even more.  Here is a list of the books I read in 2010.  I think it's complete.


Abby Cooper: Psychic Eye: A Psychic Eye Mystery by Victoria Laurie
Better Read Than Dead: A Psychic Eye Mystery by Victoria Laurie
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
A Vision of Murder: A Psychic Eye Mystery by Victoria Laurie
Killer Insight: A Psychic Eye Mysteriy by Victoria Laurie
Crime Seen: A Psychic Eye Mysteriy by Victoria Laurie
Food Rules by Michael Pollan
Death Perception: A Psychic Eye Mysteriy by Victoria Laurie
Doom with a View: A Psychic Eye Mysteriy by Victoria Laurie
Ten Big Ones: A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich
Eleven on Top: A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich
Twelve Sharp: A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich
Lean Mean Thirteen: A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich
Fearless Fourteen: A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich
Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (again!)
Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert
Bright Lights, Big Ass by Jen Lancaster
Finger Lickin' Fifteen: A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich
The Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure Club: True Tales from a Magnificent and Clumsy Life by Laurie Notaro
Breach of Trust by DiAnn Mills
Executive Privilege by Phillip Margolin
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
A Proper Pursuit by Lynn Austin
A Scattered Life by Karen McQuestion
The Pawn by Steven James
Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu by J. Maarten Troost
Beautiful Lies by Lisa Unger
I'd Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman
Pretty in Plaid by Jen Lancaster
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling (again!)
A Glimpse of Evil by Victoria Laurie
The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff
The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney
The Sex Club by L.J. Sellers
Secrets to Die For by L.J. Sellers
The Autobiography of Santa Claus by Jeff Guinn
Rain: A Lilliphim Novel by Melissa Niska


Some of my favorites:
The Help:  Read this book!  That's my official suggestion.  Just do it.  You won't regret it.  I think it was my favorite book of the whole year.


A Proper Pursuit: This was a very cute love story set in the late 1800s.  This is not my usual style by any means.  I generally stay away from sappy love stories (this one isn't particularly sappy) because the unrealistic sappiness annoys me.  Period pieces usually aren't my thing either but I LOVED this story!  I think I only downloaded this book because it was a cheap Kindle purchase but I'm so glad I did.  


The Mockingbirds:  This is a fabulous story.  It's about a high school aged girl who is date raped.  The story doesn't include any details of the rape but discusses the aftermath and her (sort of) revenge.  It's very good.  


Also, I'd like to give a shout out to my co-worker friend Melissa Niska who wrote Rain: A Lilliphim Novel.  She just recently got her story published.  It's available in print at http://www2.xlibris.com/Bookstore/bookdisplay.aspx?bookid=90169 or through Amazon or Barnes & Noble for their e-readers.  If you enjoy science fiction or a good vampire/werewolf story you'll enjoy all the interesting mythical creatures in this book.


What books did have you read recently?  I'd love suggestions for 2011.

Weekly Meal List

This week we have a few things going on so my meal planning is pretty simple.  I'm only making two meals and we're having leftovers of each one.  While I really enjoy cooking I hate doing it when I come home from work when I'm tired and hungry.  This works for me.

Sunday: vegetarian chili

Tuesday: leftover chili

Wednesday: plain brown rice and teriyaki chicken for Hubby, brown rice mixture with kale and veggie stir-fry.  My brown rice mixture is a take on this: http://www.mydailydiner.com/2010/03/not-my-grandmas-brown-rice.html

Thursday: same as Wednesday for me, brown rice and shrimp for Hubby [and maybe an orange if I'm lucky : )]


How do you plan your meals?  Do you grocery shop weekly, monthly, daily, whenever you run out of food?  Or do you plan your meals at all or just eat whatever you feel like that day?

Week in Review

I've officially survived a week without eating meat.  For the most part.  I must confess that I did slip up but it was totally unintentional.  Last Sunday (yes, that's right... on the 2nd day of the month) I came across a Slim Jim that Jon had given me in my stocking and I just ate it.  Didn't think anything about it.  It was hours later that I realized what I had done.  Crap!  A Slim Jim, really?  Couldn't I have accidently eaten bacon?  Several people have mentioned that a Slim Jim probably doesn't count as meat anyway so I shouldn't worry about it.  But there it is... my meat eating confession.

Anyway, besides the Slim Jim incident, my non-meat eating is going well.  I don't really miss it all that much.  Because I'm cooking mostly meat free at home it hasn't bothered me.  The only time I was really tempted was this morning while making pancakes and bacon for my godson's birthday breakfast.  I really had to remind myself constantly not to eat the bacon.

Surprisingly my carnivorous husband hasn't complained.  He's had meatier versions of the same things I've been eating for the most part.  For example, the night I ate broccoli rice casserole, he had it with some ham added but picked out the broccoli.  So far it's working without a huge amount of effort.  The only thing that is noticeably more challenging is figuring out our meals for the week.  Normally this doesn't take me much time but I'm having to put more effort into in now.

Hubby and I made a slight modification to our eating out rules.  We basically decided they don't count towards lunch at work.  Sort of.  Hubby decided he's going to allow himself to eat out for lunch without it counting towards the six meals out for the month and he can basically do it whenever he wants.  I think that might be a little too loose but it doesn't really have anything to do with me.  I occasionally enjoy lunch out with my lunch buddies at work although it's really rare.  I decided that I can have lunch out with them no more than once a month and it won't count towards the six meals out a month that I can have with Hubby.  They also don't have to be pre-planned.

On that note, I ate out only once this week.  I enjoyed Mr. Pickles for lunch one day.  Some questioned my willingness to pay $6 for a sandwich without meat but it was totally fine with me.  And it was delicious!  I'm still 0 for 6 on the official eating out count.

I'm officially hating eating at the table.  When we're in the habit of doing this it's no big deal but we've been out of the habit for months.  Every day I've begrudgingly sat at the table for dinner, a few times because Hubby insisted.  It's getting better at dinner when we're together but I'm absolutely not sitting at the table when I'm having meals by myself.  Now that I've admitted that I suppose I should cut it out.

Everyday I've found something to be thankful for.  I honestly thought this was going to be really easy but it's way more challenging than I thought.  I figured it would be a cinch but some days it's kind of a pain in the ass.  I don't want to be flippant about it so I'm really trying to come up with something genuine and so far I've come up with something specific to that day.  If I was going to be lazy about it I could just spout off things like I'm thankful for my husband, my family, my friends, my house, my dog, my job, my fill-in-the-blank.  Granted I am thankful for all of those things and a I am thankful for them all the time but I want this to be something unique to the context of each day.

Unfortunately, Hubby and I were sick all week so we never made it to the gym.  I'm bummed out by that but there was no way my pounding head could have handled a treadmill.  Oh well.  We'll be at the gym at o'dark-hundred tomorrow morning.  Yay exercise!

If I keep chanting that do you think I'll believe it?

Meal planning

Last year I took a class called Eat Your Roots taught by Amanda at www.mydailydiner.com.  Amanda encourages eating local, whole foods without artificial preservatives.  Her class really changed the way I cook, shop for food and plan our meals (as in it made me actually plan our meals).  I think adopting her style has been one of the best changes we've made to improve our health.


Every week, usually around Thursday, I come up with a meal list for the following week. Usually I plan about 4 meals a week and have leftovers of one of those meals at least one night.  I find that we eat much better and spend much less money on food this way.  For the most part I plan our meals, buy only what we need week then we eat what I buy!


I do all my food shopping on Saturday morning.  First I hit our local farmer's market, which is thankfully open year round, for our fruits, veggies and eggs.  Then I do the rest of food shopping at Whole Foods or sometimes Trader Joe's.  


Most of my big cooking I do on Sunday.  This lets me cook when I have time and feel like it.  When I get home from work during the week I just have to put things together and do a minimal amount of cooking.  


This week, because I'm trying out this not-eating-meat-thing, I'm making almost all new recipes.  I don't usually do that but these struck me as interesting.

Sunday: Vegetarian pasta bake and winter fruit salad.  This pasta dish is made with lentils in the place of ground beef.

Monday: Miso soup for me, Spaghetti O's for Hubby since he won't touch tofu.  I don't consider Spaghetti O's a whole food but Hubby is perfectly fine believing these cans grow on a tree.  He'd eat them every day.

Tuesday: Leftover pasta bake, salad

Wednesday: Broccoli rice casserole and salad for me, rice casserole (with the broccoli picked out) and sausage for Hubby

Thursday: Portobello mushrooms stuffed with pine nuts & feta and salad for me.  I don't know what Hubby is eating yet.  I didn't quite think this meal through.

On a side note, I'm not really sure how me not eating meat for the month is going to work for Hubby.  He pretty much despises all vegetables although he's gotten much better over the last year.  Normally I do NOT cook two separate meals because that just irritates me.  Generally we can find enough common ground in our food and I just make a veggie or salad for myself.  But I realize this no-meat thing is entirely my own idea so I'll probably end up making some sort of separate thing for him on occasion.