Ring in the New Year!

Happy New Year’s Eve!! So, what kind of plans do you have to ring in the New Year this evening?

We’re having some family and friends over for munchies, drinks, and fireworks. The city does a great firework display at midnight that we can see perfectly from our rooftop deck.

I’ve spent today doing some final touches, cleaning (o.c.d. here) and prepping food. We have quite a spread planned…

Pulled pork BBQ
Harry & David’s pepper relish cheese dip with crackers
Hot pepper cheese ball with sliced almonds
Dill Havarti cheese
Deviled eggs
Tortilla chips with salsa
Fresh veggies with hummus
Pumpkin roll
Cookie tray with chocolate covered cashews

Let me check the frig to see if I missed anything…. Oh yeah, three bean salad.

As you probably guessed I will not be eating much of this so I’ve planned on making a BBQ tempah sandwich to fill my belly. What better way to get rid of food you don’t eat, feed it to guest. (Oh that sounds terrible). I’ll post pictures of all these goodies sometime soon.

While I was cleaning today I used these stainless steel wipes for all our appliances. They work great so I thought I’d share.


Method Stainless Steel Wipes



We pick these up at Big Lots super cheap. Look how shiny the refrigerator is!

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Have you thought about your 2010 resolutions? Mine seem to be about the same every year and I haven’t put too much thought into them this year but here’s a general idea of what I would like to accomplish.

Save money (always on the list)
Live a simple and healthy life
Start a family (TTC this spring!)

I try not to set goals like loose 10 pounds, although I’d like to, I rather be realistic and stick to a healthy lifestyle. I just want to feel great and be happy! Of course I have other goals besides just these three (i.e. attend church frequently, spend more time with family and friends, further my education).

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In case you’re wondering about my eats (probably not but I’ll share anyway)…

Today started off with my regular black coffee and pb/ab oats. Like always I wanted to lick the bowl clean.

After cleaning a while I ate an apple, sliced with sprinkled cinnamon. This taste so good I’m not sure why I hadn’t tried it sooner. I also polished off the last two vegan cookies I baked. They were in the freezer just yelling my name :)

For lunch I am baking some carrot fries that I can’t wait to try. I always see these on Mama Pea’s blog and wanted to try them. There’s no better time than after buying 5 lbs of carrots from Sam’s.

Note to self: don’t toss in olive oil. The first batch burnt in less than 25 minutes.



Much better with canola oil.



For someone who loves sweet potatoes fries, carrot fries are right up there! I could have done without the salad and had more fries. These maybe a new staple in our house.




Fiesta themed salad: spring mix, broccoli, carrots, salsa, Kashi Fiery Fiesta rice

Time to finish house work and get myself cleaned up. If I have time I’d like to workout before guest arrive, we’ll see.

Wishing you a very happy 2010!!

Shrimp Scampi

Good Morning! As I mentioned yesterday, after watching Julie & Julia I was inspired to cook something different. After raiding our cabinets for ingredients I found this recipe to try. It’s nothing too fancy or out of the ordinary but something different for us. Shrimp Scampi.

I used the base of this recipe since those were all the ingredients we had and it turned out lovely.

Shrimp Scampi
(modified from the GoodLife eats recipe here)

1 lb shelled and deveined shrimp
2 Tbs Smart Balance Light buttery spread
1 Tbs olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup white wine
2 Tbs lemon juice
1 Tbs parsley
cooked pasta for 2

Sauté shrimp in Smart Balance until cooked through. Add garlic, sauté one minute more. Add white wine and lemon juice. Simmer sauce until thickened, about 2 minutes. Add olive oil and some parsley. Combine cooked pasta and shrimp with sauce in large bowl. Toss with additional parsley and add freshly grated parmesan (optional).




This didn’t photograph well but tasted great. I especially liked this scampi since it wasn’t rich tasting like most made with real butter. It went great with steamed broccoli on the side. I also made salad but we were so eager to try the scampi that I forgot to get them out of the refrigerator. So I have my lunch ready for today.


This morning started off like any other day with my black coffee and oats.



At the moment PB and apple butter oats are my favorite!

½ cup oats
spoon of peanut butter
spoon of apple butter
cinnamon
½ packet of stevia
cooked with about 1 cup hot water

Perfection!

There’s a lot to do today so I need to step away from the computer. Here is what’s on the agenda:

• Give Elli a bath
• Get oil changed
• Workout
• Finish Cleaning

Doesn’t seem like much but the last on the list may take awhile. Off I go…. Have a great hump day everyone!

Cabin Fever

Happy Monday everyone! We got over 12 inches of snow this weekend so I’ve been stuck in the house. Needless to say it was a pretty uneventful weekend. I stayed home today as well since the city still hasn’t plowed our side street where we park. Can you say Cabin Fever!

Still sore this morning from Jillian’s No More Trouble Zones that I did yesterday, and not able to run because of the conditions outside, I opted for yoga today. Every time I do yoga I describe it as “much needed” yoga. It feels that way since it gives my whole body the tender stretching it needs and leaves me feeling calm. The rest of my day seems so peaceful.

Back to yesterday, Jillian kicked my butt! I’ve been doing her 30-Day Shred on weekdays, when not running, since it’s only 20 minutes. I had extra time on Sunday for this other DVD that is 50 minutes total. What an amazing workout! I felt like I was in boot camp and sweated my ass off. I highly recommend this one but will have to get myself pumped up to do it again.

Not too much went on this weekend. While stuck inside I took the opportunity to wrap all our Christmas gifts, clean the house, do laundry, and play with Elli in the snow. Oh yeah and I had fun trying a few new recipes! I shared the pumpkin spice pancakes but we also made Mama Pea’s whole wheat pizza dough for dinner on Saturday. Jeff added some spices (garlic, oregano, parley, and what ever else) to make it an herb crust. This was so easy to make and it rolled out nicely. We may have found a replacement for the Trader Joe’s pizza dough- sorry TJ’s!

We we not able to get very creative with the toppings. Lack of groceries. But we doubled the recipe and got two of these.


I also have to fess up about my consumption of sweets over the weekend. We can’t wait to take all the baked goods to our family this week and get it out of the house. I’ve had absolutely no willpower and it’s driving me crazy. I wish I could just suck it up and move on but it bothers me when I eat healthy all day than blow it will cookies and crap. My goal this week is to stay away from sugar, period!!

That’s about all for today. Pretty boring, huh? I’ll leave you with the cutest pup ever :)


And this new book I found. If it wasn’t too late I’d add it to my Christmas list.

Namaste.

Kale, Yams, and Onions... oh my!

hello again, second post for today and then I'm done!

Decorating our Christmas tree today totally got me in the holiday spirit. We listened to festive music and ate sugar cookies :) Elli was so well behaved too.






I still can't get over the fact that she isn't interested in the tree. Maybe I should stop saying that so I don't jinx it.








We also did a lot of cooking today. Jeff made some huge turkey meatballs that he'll probably be eating all week long. I must admit they did look pretty good.



He cooked them then added peppers, onions, and seasoning.



Topped them with sauce and then put them in the oven for about 40 minutes.



Once they baked he covered them with a ton of cheese.


We each made our own dinners for tonight. I bought kale at the grocery store yesterday but have never cooked with it or ever eaten it for that matter. So I looked up some recipes on Veg Cooking and found this one. It sounded good and we had most of the ingredients. I had to modify it just a bit.

I chopped and cleaned the veggies.





Cooked the yams then added onions and garlic.



Tossed in the kale.


Once the kale was cooked down it was ready. Look at the vibrate colors!



This was a great way to eat kale for the first time. The meal was very flavorful, clean, and light. I believe I could eat the entire pot and not feel the least bit guilty. And I just might do that if I get hungry later :)



That's all for tonight. Time to put laundry away and plan my workouts for the week.

Have a good evening!

Apple Goodness

The weather tonight is amazing- I'm sitting on our deck watching Elli (our black lab) play. She loves her rope toy but seems to prefer the radishes we're trying to grow. I keep reminding her that the veggies are for us but the girl will eat just about anything.

Since Jeff is out of town playing basketball I decided to bake some goodies tonight. Here is my dish...

I found this cooking website that is great for healthy family meals. Most of the food seems geared towards kids but since we don't need to worry about that quite yet I decided to try this apple cake (good for all ages).

Tamra Davis' Apple Cake

1 cup sugar

1/2 stick or 2 oz. butter, melted

1/2 cup applesauce

1 egg

1 1/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 1/2 cups chopped apples

3/4 to 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease your baking dish. Mix the sugar, butter, applesauce, and egg together with hand mixer. Whisk the dry ingredients together. Blend the wet and dry ingredients and then add apples and walnuts. Pour into baking dish and bake for 30 to 50 minutes (depending on your pan and oven temp) or until knife or toothpick comes out clean when inserted.

Note: batter will be thick

Enjoy!

Irish Remix

We were grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s last week and decided to get cod fillets, which we have never made before. (For those of you not familiar with TJ, they have a great fish selection). Since we enjoy fish & chips we figured we would give it a try.

Jeff marinated the fillets in beer all day and then battered them in a fish batter we found at the store. To add a twist to this traditional dish we made sweet potato chips. We just cut up two sweet potatoes and cooked them in canola oil. Once they were cooked then the fillets were thrown (not literally) in the oil until golden brown.

I have to tell you we were a bit skeptical of this meal and even had a back up plan to go out if it was a failure. To our surprise this dish was delish!

A.M. Fetish

I have to share the most delish, energy packed, full-of-good fat breakfast. This gets made in our house just about every morning- it’s quick and easy.

Stasa’s breakfast fetish

1 English muffin
2 tablespoons natural peanut butter
2 teaspoons organic honey
½ banana sliced

Toast muffin and top with remaining ingredients.

Variation: replace the English muffin with a whole wheat tortilla, spread peanut butter and honey on tortilla and wrap around one banana.

Yum Yum

We enjoy eating all sorts of ethnic foods and trying new things. Without even realizing it we started trying things at home that we would try out at restaurants. By incorporating different ethnic foods throughout our weekly meals, dinner has become more exciting. Anything that you can buy in a restaurant we try our best to recreate from scratch. We have found that most of the time it saves money and is a much healthier option.

Here are some of the meals we will be posting recipes for:
Chicken & Shrimp Pad Thai, Turkey Black Bean & Rice Burritos, Better than Ruth Chris’ NY Strip Steak, Pulled Pork BBQ and Jeff’s “Famous” Chicken bites. As we experiment we’ll be adding even more.

Stay tuned for recipes…