Free range, local, organic and sustainable eggs are best for you, the chickens, and the Earth.

Around Thanksgiving, lots of Americans are thinking of turkey and pumpkin pie… traveling to see family and friends, maybe waking early on Friday morning to initiate the Christmas consumption. Many people also take a brief moment to give thought to what they are thankful for in this life: the family and friends come back into the picture, maybe our health or vitality, something usually registers on this day of pensiveness around our fortunes.

I feel extremely fortunate for eggs! Specifically, the eggs of one of my favorite feathered friends: the chicken. While I am also grateful to Aurore, the other winged friend featured in this year’s bountiful Thanksgiving feast, the eggs really shone through as I was making all of the various dishes for this year’s meal. Eggs are a necessary and ubiquitous component of many of the  side dishes which make their way onto the Thanksgiving table I have had the fortune to share the last few years. The sheer volume of egg consumed this year will be staggering:

• 2 quiches — 4 eggs each (two whole eggs, two eggs yolks)  — 8 eggs total.
• 2 pumpkin pies — 4 eggs each — 8 eggs total.
• 1 casserole of mac n’ cheese — 2 eggs.
• 1 bread stuffing — 3 eggs.

What a nice bird.

That makes for 21 sweet delicious eggs. The dishes not featuring eggs are only the turkey herself, and vegetable based dishes (raw salad, roasted root veggies, greens, brussel sprouts)—everything else calls for that jack of culinary trades: the egg; for which I am especially grateful this year. Having cracked and opened each one, I am trying to picture them now. Sticky and slimy. The gelatinous whites dusted in nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves before mixing. Being beaten into milk and cream, creating the frothy beginnings of custard like desserts. Mmm, thank you eggs.

To all you seasonal chefs out there, what are you thankful for in the kitchen this year? (Or if the day has passed, of what were you appreciative?)

The Abbess: “Steve would you pray for the food?”

Padre Steve: “Dear Lord we pray for this turkey and all of it’s relatives on this Thanksgiving. We ask you to comfort them in their sorrow and give them your peace. Amen.”   Padre Steve’s Thanksgiving prayer from 1992.  I think the last time that we hosted a Thanksgiving dinner.

I am on duty tonight, pretty tired and I have been pretty busy this evening.  Hopefully things will settle down and no one will take any turns for the worse that will cause them or their families to have to mourn on this Thanksgiving 2009.  We have several in pretty bad shape as well as some I know not in hospital who are in pretty dire straits.

But since things have settled down a little I do need on this Thanksgiving Eve pause to give thanks for all of the blessings that I have been given.  I also need to give thanks for  wife who has had to suffer all of my rough edges, refusal to completely grow up, my wanderlust, dreams as well as my obsession with work, academics and yea verily, even baseball.

I am grateful for so many things but most of all the Abbess of the Abby Normal.  This dear soul has put up with me yea these 26 years of marriage and the 31 years that we have known each other.  She has had to deal with a husband who has devoted himself to a military career and vocation as a Priest that has spanned 28 years of that time.  She has endured separations too many to count and a decent number of deployments, unaccompanied tours and temporary duty out of the areas that we have lived.  In the 20 or so months that I have been back from Iraq she has also had to deal with my struggle with PTSD and all the trimmings that go with it.  Likewise she has had to see me grieve my dad, who though still alive only exists in body and does not know me anymore. I am truly thankful for the wife that I am blessed to have.

I think I have tried this dear woman’s patience quite often in our marriage, of course I do not think that she has forgotten the 1992 “Prayer for the Food.”  It is dangerous sometimes to ask me to pray because I might just take you literally, as I did the Abbess back in 1992 who slipped up and instead of asking me to “ask a blessing on the meal” “say grace” or simply “give thanks” but rather asked me to “pray for the food.” Something that I did, and I think that the prayer was actually longer as I remember making eye contact with her during the prayer as she glared daggers at me as the guests either giggled or listened in stunned silence. This will surprise no one who really knows me well.  Tonight as I made my rounds in our cardiac care unit I noticed one of the newer high-tech CPR dummies looking bored in the training/ conference room.  I had to remedy the situation.  Taking the obviously bored and neglected dummy I set him in a high-backed office chair facing the television which happened to be on.  I so arranged him so that a person coming in the room would see the back of the head, which happens to be bald like mine as it was looking at the TV.

Bob the CPR Dummy Watching TV

A person entering from the hallway into the unit would see the profile for the dummy.  This one is kind of cool as it has a shirt and the facial features are more realistic than the old style.  I did let the charge nurse know so he could get a laugh out of anyone who does a double take as they enter the unit bleary eyed at two or three in the morning.  I mentioned my misdeeds to my buddies Cinda and Jennifer over in the PICU who both got a laugh out of it.

Bob Chilling Out

I think the greatest honor that I had on a Thanksgiving  was in 2007 serving in Iraq. I got  a chance to serve the troops and workers in the chow hall at TQ after coming back that afternoon from an aborted mission to Waleed on the Syrian border when our air support mission was cancelled when a host of Congressmen, Senators and dignitaries decided that they needed to visit Iraq leaving us and quite a few others marooned at Al Asad’s air terminal for 4 days as they flew about Iraq in our aircraft.  Thankfully when I knew that we could not get anywhere the west and that we had to return to TQ so we could prepare for our next mission later in the week I got us on a C-130 back to TQ which delivered us home in time for me to help serve at the dinner that night.  I was in charge of the Mac n’ Cheese and the Sweet potatoes.  So since Mac n’  Cheese was not in my typical Thanksgiving dinner growing up I figured that I had to sell it.  So with that in mind as each person came up to where I was I would say “Get your Mac n’ Cheese, an American Classic….8 of 10 customers agree that this is the best Mac n’ Cheese in Iraq.”  The servers from the Gulf Catering Company who were to my right and left, both from the Indian subcontinent somewhere had very limited English but were laughing as I served people and even called people over to my serving station from across the room. When the workers got a chance to come up and eat knowing that they were mainly vegetarians  I would say, “step right up, get your Mac n’ Cheese an American delicacy making American kids fat for years.” I don’t know if they bought the shtick but they did come back for more and most were smiling.

This year because of my duty schedule as well as my comprehensive exams the Abbess has done most of the work, even the turkey which is usually my job. When I go home I will help her with what I can since she has worked hard to get ready for this.  After all, we haven’t hosted one of these since 1992 so I’d better help.

Anyway, it is late and with any luck the Deity Herself will grant me a night’s sleep with no 2 AM pages.

Peace and Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.  Please pray for my fellow Sailors, Marines, Soldiers and Airmen who serve in harm’s way, those who suffer the wounds of war in any form and those in need in the USA as well as around the world.  Despite all of our countries issues we still have so much to be thankful for to live in such a country.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I know that I am grateful and thankful for all the blessings that God has given me and all the people who have been there for me.  God bless you again.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Peace,

Padre Steve+

On yesterday’s post was a good comment made by Jeff(or Jon or whatever name he used this time ) about the processed foods I eat, saying that aren’t I being a hypocrite with how I present myself? I say: No. I do eat processed food. And I love it. And I can, because the processed food I choose doesn’t conflict at all with my all-natural ingredient diet. A mint Newman-O is just as processed as a mint Oreo, but I’ll gladly chow down on the former whereas I won’t touch the latter. Of course, I completely expect some people to think this is absurd and not see a distinction, but I very much do and that is what shapes what I eat. I definitely think Jeff’s comment was a good one as it gave me the opportunity to share this all about me. And I was touched by how many of you replied in defence of this distinction I make It reminded me of how I have some of the best readers in the world. Oh, and while I’m publically responding to comments–Food Makes Fun Fuel is a blog written by a guy. Rare in blogworld, I know, but true.

That’s not to say I never eat raw foods, though, like this apple I grabbed before class:

Apple

Then again, this was pretty nasty and old and by the time I finished I wished I had something more processed. Thankfully, coffee washed it down and I picked up a new bar to try later that I’d been eyeing. In class we got yet another end-of-semester paper. If I didn’t use Google Tasks and Google Calender to keep track of things like this, I’d be very frightened right now. But I’m not. That apple, as bad as it was, held me over well through class and blog reading, to the point where I was making a lunch to eat in Greek History. It came in two parts.

Broccoli And 2 Eggs Scrambled With 2 Lightlife Sausage Links

2% Chobani With Raspberry Chocolate Jam

For the “main course” I scrambeled 2 eggs with the last 2 of my new, favorite processed not-meat and microwaved that until most of the liquid was set–so good! I loved the spicy sausage in the egg with a little salt. For “dessert”, I sweetened the 2% Chobani a little and topped it with jam; the 2% are really hard to find but they’re soo good. Full fats a bit too much, but plain’s a bit… plain :-/ This is a great compromise. This meal had over 40g of protein. I don’t really track that for the most part, but sometimes I like to check for kicks and giggles, and that impressed me.

Class 1 was dull. Class 2 was duller. I had to take the escalator with my teacher. She’s nice but that’s always a bit awkward. She also smokes everyday before class so that was a bit nauseating to be in close-quarters with. After class I wasn’t quite ready to go back to my dorm and finish up some work, so I didn’t

Blue State Coffee At The Book Store

I know I’m not alone in loving book stores and coffee on really rainy days. Last year, one of my classes was a good mile down Comm Ave in Boston from where I had been picked up normally, so on nasty weather days I just went to Barnes And Nobles and waited for a ride to come to me. I also got a message while I was moseying saying my dinner plans were not. Not ideal, but much better than learning this at 6. Eventually, I hobbled back to my dorm. I got a bit peckish and broke out that new bar I mentioned.

Chocolate Chip Trail Mix Odwalla

I like the idea of trail mix, but I don’t like how clumsy it is. I like bars. So I had good hopes for this. In the end, it was good, but didn’t blow me away; it reminded me of a Clif mountain mix Mojo, except with an oat base instead of soy protein, and a little less nuts. Since I get plenty of oats on a regular basis, I think I prefer the Mojo because of the protein. Otherwise, this was decent. Speaking of getting enough oats…

Pumpkin Oats With Vanilla Almond Butter And Vanilla Powder

I wasn’t feeling like anything extravagant, per say, so instead I kept it pretty vanilla. Vanilla, in my book, is quite tasty I think I listened to all my Bing Crosby Christmas songs at least once while catching up on television. I watched 2 episodes and I still have a good 10 left. I guess I slipped on that last week. I have to say I was a bit happy when dinner was called off; it was pouring last night and I was happy to be in PJ’s a bit early. It also let me have a go at this cornucopia:

Acorn Squash With Macarroni And Cheese With Tuna

Yum! It tasted as delicious as it looks. It’s amazing what you can make with canned tuna and a single serve mac n’ cheese packet. I had a lovely tofu dinner planned but this salty mess stole my mind and the show. The acorn squash was perfect steamed in the microwave in a bowl of shallow water for 5 minutes and let rest.

I loved Heroes last night for some reason. It totally dragged me back in to the season where it lost me. I think I’m a bigger fan of Claire’s story line at the time than anyone else’s. Afterwards I had a snack.

Peanut Butter Yogurt With Strawberry Jam And Chocolate Chips

I wasn’t sure if the strawberry, peanut butter, and chocolate chip would work in sync. What was I worried about? This was delicious. I just love the crunch of whole chocolate chips, and the strawberry was a nice sweetness to the sweet-but-not-too-sweet yogurt. Because I foresee questions on this, peanut butter yogurt is 6oz plain greek yogurt with 2 tablespoons Byrd Mill peanut flour(PB2 also works for this) and vanilla liquid stevia. It has a slightly nutty flavor and packs a protein punch. I think The Big Bang Theory was also great last night–what a good ball comedy. To the Jay Leno show, I finished the night with this.

Pumpkin Oatmeal With Mighty Maple And Chocolate Chips, 3/4 Cup Silk Nog

I like to think I have some restraint around Silk Nog. Mighty Maple and chocolate chips, on the other hand… I need to remember to pack that today because it’s clearly one of my favorite nut butters and yet we don’t have one at home! Shame. While watching Leno, I came to the conclusion that, while Lady Gaga is fun to run to, she’s a scary scary person to watch perform. Not Adam Lambert scary, but still. Now I could definitely picture him opening for her.

This morning I hit the snooze twice and felt totally rejuvenated after my morning routine. Seriously, why didn’t I feel this good yesterday morning? I wasn’t particularly hungry, but I grabbed this bar knowing it would make my workout that much more amazing.

Amazing Grass Whole Food Energy Bar

It must have worked because my running felt so strong. Seriously, where was this energy yesterday? I planned for 10 miles, and ended up doing 13.1 in 1:51:02. I easily could have done the 15 I wanted except for time restraints; I can’t wait until next semester when, no matter which schedule I end up with, that won’t be an issue Monday, Wednesday, or Friday! Even more shockingly, I wasn’t feeling very “sweet” for breakfast. All I wanted was something spicy!

Oats With An Egg, Morningstar Breakfast Patty, And The Heat Is On PB

Pumpkin Pie Yogurt

I decided to do oats that Green Dog Wine would be proud of These set my mouth on fire with The Heat Is On. And the processed breakfast patty was the perfect protein touch to compliment it all Lol. I jest, because if you can’t make fun of yourself, who can you make fun of? The yogurt was more of a thing of convenience, as in, it’s convenient that I don’t have to take home 2 tubs of yogurt because I dumped what was left of them in there with some pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, and liquid vanilla stevia.

I’m currently employing the throw-everything-on-the-bed method again for when I go home today!! Ok, that might be a tad more exciting if I didn’t have to go home this past weekend for the party, but still it’s pretty fun when it’s for 5 days. Later on I have a nut butter review to share with all of you  :-)

Time: 2-3 hours               Serves 4-6

2 Cups uncooked elbow macaroni

4 TB Butter

2-3 Cups Sharp Cheddar Cheese or your favorite cheese (I use Extra Sharp and Pepper Jack)

3 Eggs

1/2 Cup Sour Cream

10 3/4 oz can of cream of cheddar soup

1 Cup Milk

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp dry mustard

*Optional

Garlic powder, red pepper flakes, cayenne pepper, or anything your heart desires! Make it your own.

Directions

Cook 2 cups of elbow macaroni for 6 minutes.

While macaroni is cooking, shred your cheese. (It’s VERY important you use good cheese. Not just regular kraft cheese, I recommend experimenting with a few cheeses in the cheese section of your grocery store or in the deli) I ended up spending about $12 on the cheese I bought, just as an indicator. You don’t have to, it’ll still be good, but not as tasty.

In a sauce pan, melt 4 TB of butter and throw your shredded cheese in and stir it occasionally until it’s completely melted and smooth.

In your crock pot, mix in 3 eggs (you can skip the eggs if you want), sour cream, milk, can of soup, and spices. Stir it up before throwing in the rest.  

Throw your noodles in the crock pot as well as your melted cheese and cook on low for 2-3 hours. (I did about 2 hours and 15 minutes) Stir occasionally.

This recipe is very tasty. Not great for you, but if you love mac n cheese, you’ll love this homemade style recipe. Experiment with the spices. I added garlic powder. I like my mac n cheese to have a bit of a spicy taste, but not so it takes away from the orginal mac n cheese flavor itself, so I may end up adding some red pepper flakes to my dish. This would be great with meat or vegetables in it as well so enjoy!

Hi friends!  Hope ya’ll kicked off this short holiday week to a great start

After work today I was really excited to repeat Saturday’s workout again — I know I know, bad Fanatic, but I usually switch it up friends and this one was so good that I needed just one more dose

Last time around:

20 min Cardio Max Bootcamp + 15 min P90X Ab RipperX = felt for the next 24 hours and it was great!

This time around:

Same workout, same place, sweating within 2 minutes & an amazing workout in such a short time!  Abs are feelin’ it too… ahh felt wonderful!

Oh and guess what, we are quickly approaching day 30 of The Man’s P90X adventure so you know what that means!!  Update pictures to come probably around Wednesday just in time for the holidays.  Let me just tell you that the results so far are far past my expectations… and let’s just say that I am one happy lady

Quick update:  K sorry friends, I’ve just been informed that I can’t post anything until the 90 days are up (ummm yea, that was a minor misunderstanding on someone’s party eh hmmm not me  ) I’m really sorry friends!!

Dinner tonight was more of the leftovers from last night’s birthday dinner but with a twist! (Mom cooked for 80 haha love you!)

Probably one of the only times you friends will see the same meal pics 3 times in a row haha, but for realz it’s just so good!

Of course there was the bacon & onion mac n’ cheese

And too go with I made up  a quick salad with some homemade croutons using the leftover frozen CheeseCake Factory bread! 

Toasted up in the oven at 425F for about 10 minutes with some cooking spray, salt, pepper and oregano until crunchy   Love random ideas like this on a whim!

Piled high on top of some romaine, onion & sprinkles of this guy

And voila!

Of course you know what I did from here…. it’s just too good!  (+ Italian dressing & hot sauce?)

All together now

We have some serious TV to watch tonight fireside… unfortunately Gossip Girl is a repeat but ah well!

And pretty soon it’ll be time to heat up some leftover fondue on a commercial break!  Oh and get this, Mom made the fondue with Fat Free evaporated milk so erase some of that guilt right there!

Tomorrow night looks for some fun sister cooking adventures and perhaps the return of one of my fave meals (she’s a vegetarian, there’s your hint )

There will probably be some wine consumption occurring as well considering no work Wednesday is in full effect this week!

Alright you peeps, gotta run, see ya tomorrow

Ahh Monday, today may be the first time in a long time that we are actually friends   Why?  Because I only have a 2 day work week this week whoop whoop!

How you like ‘dem apples rainy, cold Monday morning?!

So today started out with my new obsession:  Banana & Cream Cheese oats.  What can I say, when I find something I like I eat it over and over again stick with it haha.

I also decided to make The Man a batch of these vs. his regularly scheduled peanut butter & banana oats.  I didn’t clue him in on the change & had him take a guess the new ingredient! 

I just got an email saying “Was the new ingredient Oikos!!!” — music to my sweet ears eyes…. I can’t believe he just used the word “Oikos” – I felt like such a proud foodie right then and there!!  And by the excitement in his email “voice” I think the oats were a hit….

Speaking of Oikos, look who ran into each other this morning…

Yea, that gets a major holy yum in my book!  And yea, Jenna, you pretty much rock for sending me this addicting delicious peanut butter from food heaven

Lunch today included some leftovers from last night’s birthday dinner, A-Okay with this girl

Mac n’ Cheese w/ Bacon + Onions

Caesar Salad topped with BBQ

If you’ve never put barbecue on top of Caesar salad, I highly suggest you try it.  I’ve done this many times before (used to buy bagged lite Caesar kits & premade shredded chicken BBQ and make a dinner out of it all the time in my younger years) and it never ceases to be fantastic!  Something about the hot bbq with sauce on the cold salad w/ dressing that just tickles my taste buds

I was literally about to leave work and drive to my Mom’s house to hug her and thank her for the most delicious lunch ever!  Day 1 as dinner was amazing…. Day 2 as lunch was even more amazing… wow.

Now onto the BSI winner… featuring bleu cheese!  Thanks everyone for participating, but I must say that the responses were low so I don’t have much to post   Guess it was either time of year (i.e. so much holiday cooking going on) or bad ingredient choice (yea, that’s to you all you bleu cheese haters! ) but ah well.  You win some you lose some…. 

…. speaking of winners, how about the definite winner of this show! 

Biz’s Pear Blue Cheese Soup with Pancetta and Pesto Bread Crostini

Wow.  I am speechless over this one friends.  It sounds AMAZING!

Thanks for the fabulous entry Biz, send me your address (smlane1369@yahoo.com) so I can get your prize in the mail!

For next week’s Blogger Secret Ingredient head over to my homegirl’s website at The Balance Broad   Thanks girl for taking the torch for another week of great food!

Well this week should be a good one…. here’s how the agenda is shaping up!

• Monday:          ExerciseTV workout
                              Relaxation & TV after a busy weekend!
• Tuesday:         Thanksgiving dinner food shopping (with the rest of the world)
                              Cooking dinner & girl’s night with the lil’ sister
• Wednesday:    Cardio3 class @ gym with small blonde lady (lil’ sis)
                              Holiday cooking day 1:  Apple Cranberry Relish (ala Whole
                              Foods demo recipe + teaching the sis!) 
• Thursday:       Holiday cooking day 2:  Homemade Hazelnut, Sage &  
                              Mushroom Stuffing
                              Thanksgiving extravaganza with the fam! 
• Friday:             Kickboxing class @ gym and shopping!

My kinda week friends

Now I want to hear about yours!  Specifically, is there a new recipe that any of you will be trying for the Thanksgiving holiday this year?  We are trying the apple & cranberry relish that was made during last week’s Whole Foods cooking demo and I am excited because it was deelish!

Alright friends, I am off to tackle the rest of this workday and you know I’ll see you back tonight for some Monday night fun   Have a wonderful day however you may be spending it!

Sunday, 11/22/09 – Barack Obama’s Chili Recipe from A Year of SlowCooking. This is supposed to be the OFFICIAL Obama family chili recipe. When I heard about this, I thought “I need to give it a try!”
Monday, 11/23/09 – Moe Monday!
Tuesday, 11/24/09 – Stuffed Onions.
Wednesday, 11/25/09 – Dinner Out w/ Friends. Since it is holiday weekend, we may end up not meeting, but my hubby and I will probably be eating out.
Thursday, 11/26/09 – THANKSGIVING. See below for what I am planning to take for the family festivity this year.
Friday, 11/27/09 – Whatever Day. There may be some leftover. Maybe NOT. I cannot really predict at the moment…

Well, this Thanksgiving, I am planning to take the following:

Butternut Squash Soup w/ Toasted Pumpkin Seeds as a little topping
I don’t know if you realized this already, but I just LOVE butternut squash soup. Since there will be a variety of people (and cute little ones) at the party, I am going to omit red curry. Just a iddy biddy spoonful (like 1/2 tsp) is juuuuust enough for my tongue. I put about 2 tsp of curry when I tried it for the first time. I had a first couple sips and I was sweating.

Dinner rolls or Pull-Apart Butter Buns
I haven’t tried the Pull-Apart Butter Buns recipe from King Arthur Flour web site yet. I just haven’t been able to find Potato Flour or Dry Milk at my local grocery stores. I tried 2 stores but haven’t found either one yet. I guess it is time for me to take a trip to Whole Foods Market and/or Dekalb Farmer’s Market I love both stores! I just wish they are closer to my house. If I cannot make to either store for these ingredients, I am going to try Dinner Rolls recipe that I found on The Pioneer Woman Cooks.

Em’s Mac ‘n Cheese
Em’s Mac ‘n Cheese is one of my family favorite recipe. I found this recipe is by Emeril Lagasse on FoodNetwork.com. Ever since I took this dish to one of many family gatherings, the in-laws ask me to bring for the next one. Yeah, we have been typecasted It’s all good Below is the recipe if you are interested:

*————————————————-*
Em’s Mac ‘n Cheese
Recipe by: Emeril Lagasse from FoodNetwork

6 Tbsp Unsalted Butter
1 Pound Elbow Macaroni - the original recipe only uses for 1/2 lb of macaroni, but I use 1 lb
6 Tbsp All-Purpose Flour
3 Cups  Whole Milk
1 Tsp Salt
1/4 Tsp Ground Black Pepper
Pinch Cayenne
2 1/2 Cups Grated Cheddar Cheese (about 6 oz) - My hubby likes cheesy mac ‘n cheese, so I use about 3 cups total of cheese
1/2 Cup Fine Bread Crumbs
1 Tsp Emeril’s Essence (Original) – Recipe follows

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 2-quart baking dish with 1 Tbsp of butter and set aside.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the Macaroni and cook until al dente, about 10 minutes. Drain in a colander and rinse under cold running water. Drain well.

Melt the remaining 5 tablespoons butter in a heavy 3-quart saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour, and stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, cook over medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes, being careful not to let the flour brown. Using a whisk, add the milk in a steady stream and cook, whisking constantly, until thick and smooth, 4 minutes. Remove from the heat. Add the salt, pepper, cayenne, and 2 cups of the cheese, and stir well. Add the noodles and stir well. Pour into the prepared dish.

In a mixing bowl, combine the remaining 1/2 cup of cheese with the bread crumbs and Essence. Sprinkle evenly over the macaroni and bake until golden brown and bubbly, about 25 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Emeril’s Essence ORIGINAL (Creole Seasoning):

It would be so much easier if you PURCHASE a mixed seasoning, but you could also make it on your own.

2-1/2 Tbsp Paprika
2 Tbsp Salt
2 Tbsp Garlic Powder
1 Tbsp Black Pepper
1 Tbsp Onion Powder
1 Tbsp Cayenne Pepper
1 Tbsp Dried Leaf Oregano
1 Tbsp Dried Thyme

Combine all ingredients throughly and store in an airtight jar or container (Yield: about 2/3 cup)

For more organizing and menu planning tips, please visit I’m an Organizing Junkie.

Hola friends!  Happy Sunday night ??

Since last visit here’s how our day went down:

After a short noon-time nap on the couch I ate a quick leftover lunch then woke Sleeping Beauty from his slumber, 1pm friends, yes 1pm haha

We got showered up an headed down to BW3’s to watch the Packers game & to get his royal highness some buffalo wings – win win on all accounts!  Great way to spend a few hours this afternoon…

After some more Wii Mario Bros (we have problems haha) we headed over to my parents house for The Man’s birthday dinner!

DINNER WAS AWESOME  

When we arrived at the parental’s abode the cooking action had already started!

The big to-do remaining was the mac n’ cheese since Mom had made the bbq ahead of time (she’s a planner, apple doesn’t fall far from the tree eh? )…. so Mom enlisted yours truly to lend a hand.

The sauce was made using a roux of butter & flour, adding some herb & garlic infused milk until thick before finishing with the cheese

Then mixed with some elbow macaroni & into the oven to bake for a while

In the meantime we cooked some delicious peppered bacon on the stovetop

Along with some chopped onion & garlic… these were going to be the toppings!

Once the mac was done in the oven, we topped with the chopped bacon and onions

Holy cow I couldn’t think of a better dish for The Man for his birthday dinner, this was amazing  

Mom had also made some pork tenderloin bbq in the slow cooker earlier in the day, so a quick reheat was all it took

Plus a superfab Caesar salad to go alongside, complete with fresh Parm & croutons!

Of course while us ladies were hard at work, the men were making sure the TV “stayed safe” haha

I decided to serve my bbq open-faced style, on a fresh roll with some hot sauce + coleslaw… yes please!

After dinner & perusing through some old school’ pic albums it was time for some dessert!  Mom & lil’ sis were in charge of this venture and let me just say that they out-did themselves this time!!!!

Chocolate Fondue, ummmm pot o’ gold?!

Served with poundcake, bananas, strawberries & apples for dunking… plus some candles for the birthday of course 

Served by the most beautiful sister in the world!

OMG was this ever good!!!

Let’s just say I was s-t-u-f-f-e-d after this meal… but so freaking worth it.  And there may or may not be a picture on my camera of a certain someone licking the chocolate off their plate (haha DEF not me )

It was a wonderful way to end our fantastic weekend — thanks again Fam for being so wonderful and having us over for this incredible meal!!

Alright friends, it’s late and I need to get myself together and ready for this 2 day week whoop whoop!  See ya”ll tomorrow for BSI winner and Monday funday!

Normally, I hate leaving my room if it’s not perfect. Even if that just means one dish is unclean. What did it look like yesterday?

Messy Bed

Beautiful. But let me explain. I get out of class at 2:50 and my dad had planned to pick me up at 3. I was using the “throw it on the bed as you remember it so you can grab and go later” method. Surprisingly, I think it worked, because it’s been a day and I can’t think of anything I forgot. After my first hour of class I grabbed a bit of lunch and supplemented it with a bit more of what I was feeling.

Trader Joe's Mac And Cheese, Roasted Balsamic Portabella

Broccoli With Cream Cheese

I think the backlash of vegan Thursday was wanting dairy products wherever I could put them(i.e. on broccoli). By the way, that was delicious and something I’ll do more often. And the mushrooms from the dining hall were soooo good. I’m not even sure what they were roasted in but there was tons of rosemary. This really filled me up for my next two classes, and when I got out at 2:50 things when just as planned. We piled everything up in bags and hit the road. I grabbed a nutritious pick me up.

Orange Zevia

Let’s pretend this has nutrients even though it completely doesn’t and doesn’t even have caffeine. On the way home, I did something I haven’t done in forever: nap in the car. I tried working but napping one out. I usually can’t/don’t and am always afraid my contacts will disappear somewhere if I sleep with the but it felt so good I couldn’t care less. That also made the trip that much shorter. When I got home I realized we really didn’t have much of the food I’d like, so I grabbed a snack and we went off to Hannafords.

Blueberry Crisp Clif Bar

This was the last of the Clif bars I recieved to review and i’m very happy that it ended things on a good note. I was a little skeptical about how this flavor would be, but I think the blueberry flavor with the plethora of spices(which I take to be the “crisp” part) worked really well. A little bit heavy on the sugar but I probably needed that at that point. We just picked up some Greek yogurt and pumpkin(surprise surprise) because we really didn’t have tie to do more damage.

The reason I came home yesterday was because my elementary school principal was retiring and they were having a banquet. Not many people get to know their elementary school principal and facutly well but I went to a very small school for 7 years where it was easy to become like family with everyone. My graduating class in 6th grade was 4 kids including me, and my full class(6th plus 5th) was 7. Here’s the class photo that was on the wall last night:

6th Grade Class Photo

I’m the little chubby one on the bottom left. I guess I’ve always liked food But I like the better food now(i.e. not tacos from a box). It was a ton of fun to get to see all my teachers. Because it’s so small a school, most of the faculty’s the same; my kindergarten teacher from 13-14 years ago still teaches kindergarten and was as kind as ever. There were just a few speeches, the best given by the man himself.

Mr. O'rourke

Did I mention he’s retiring at 87?! We actually don’t know his age; it’s been debated that might be 89, but it’s pretty high up there. Amazingly, he also has most of his mind with him. Most of the night was fun and light-hearted but it was a little emotional when he mentioned how he missed my grandfather; in the time I was here they became good friends and he even surprisingly showed up to his funeral 4 years after I left the school. There was even someone from my old class there.

The Thomas And Tardiff Family

Andrew(the tallest one who dwarfs us all) was pretty much my best friend from kindergarten to 5th grade. We basically all sat and chatted about the scandelous moments from the past, like when so and so broke a window or someone knocked over the school’s sound system. I was hoping I could make a dinner out of the Whole Foods energy bar I packed and what there was but it really wasn’t the case; thankfully, Whole Foods is pretty close to the school so we took a short trip there.

Carrot Ginger Soup, Traditional Stuffing, Salad

Yum! I can’t believe Thanksgiving is less than a week away, at which time I’ll have about 10 times more that stuffing. It’s soooooooo good. And the soup was delicious, too. The ginger gave a strong kick. There was cake:

Retirement Cake

Which I avoided because I figured it was box mixed and the frosting was from a tub. There was apple crisp:

Apple Crisp

It wasn’t very good and probably because it had twice as much flour and butter as it should have but I figured it had a good chance at being all-natural none the less. This made me appreciate how amazing my vegan apple crisp is for something relatively healthy. It was a fun night and such a trip to go back and think “this is where I learned to read”. I hope that I retire long before 87. I even got approached by a 50-60 year old man who saw my sweatshirt and was an alumnus of Brown. Apparently, his kids went to my school in the 80’s. I honestly don’t think I’ve met an alumni of Brown who’s had anything bad to say about the school. I’m so happy to be part of that community. When I got home I was a bit famished from the lack of eats, so I made some comforting oatmeal.

Pupkin Oatmeal With Chocolate Butter Toffee Peanut Butter And Vegan Pumpkin Molasses Cookie

I’ll pretend like this wasn’t almost exactly my breakfast except with chocolate butter toffee instead of butter toffee peanut butter. Nope. Not me I was basically away from my computer since noon so there was tons of catching up to do but only so much that could happen before my self-imposed bed time(maybe I am 87 already?). After I logged off I was still hungry so had some random snacklings.

Kashi Oatmeal Raisin Walnut Cookie

Newman's Own Organic Milk Chocolate With Smart Balance Peanut Butter

Raw Broccoli And Carrots

I warned you it would be random. I forgot how much I love those cookies until I heard Tina and Melissa mention they score a NuVal score of 41 when the average for a cookie is 3! I’ll eat to that The chocolate square was good, although I was looking for my favorite Mocha Milk Chocolate. Apparently this family likes their chocolate too much for it to stick around while I’m gone. And the vegetables were eaten in bed when I realized I was still pretty hungry. I forgot that I hated raw broccoli, so left half the bag untouched. Talk about going back, I found The Golden Girls on The Hallmark channel to fall asleep to. Things like that remind me of being sick when I went to elementary school and staying with my grandparents and watching their daytime tv. Such great memories

This morning I slept in until a little after 8. Glorious. After grinding some beans and making a pot, I mostly meandered around the house until I got hungry an hour later.

Pumpkin Oats With Maple Yogurt Frosting And Mighty Maple, Snickerdoodle Greek Yogurt

I couldn’t decide what I wanted so I went with the obligatory pumpkin oats. Still delicious The snickerdoodle yogurt was just plain with cinnamon and vanilla stevia, and then topped with 5g of turbinado brown sugar. The fun thing about buying plain in my mind is you can do with it whatever you want, and 5g of raw sugar compared to the pre-flavored ones is a smart move.

This morning I’d love to get out and run 5-7 miles. It doesn’t even look that bad out. However, at the moment, I’m catching up on the TONS of tivoed shows, and I kind of haven’t started homework even though it’s a pretty light weekend. You can be assured that, since I’m home, there’ll be baking and recipes We just need to hit Whole Foods and Price Chopper today to grab the ingredients and we’re good to go. Yikes, that’s making running seem less probable. Have a great weekend!

Here’s a soupy giveaway.

Michelle(Lucky Taste Buds) is really outdoing herself with a peanut butter giveaway, a soda stream giveaway, all in honor of her own birthday! Happy birthday!

I make an awesome mushroom mac n’ cheese, and for under $10!! I start with the mushroom cavatappi box mix from Archer Farms, which is $5 and then mix it with a $4-5 block of guerre or fontina cheese. Things you also need that you keep on hand are, slices bread, milk, salt and pepper, garlic, and onion.

• Prepare the noodles, and sauce as the box says.
• Dice onions and chop garlic, then sauté.
• Add 3/4 of Milk (or you could use cream if you want a richer sauce) to the mushroom sauce, then add the sautéed onions and the garlic.
• Add the cheese, shredded, to the sauce slowly,  mixing constantly.
• Once noodles have been cooked and drained, add sauce  and mix together
• Pour into a 9×13 baking dish
• Toast bread in oven while its preheating, once toasted/dried out remove from oven
• Once bread has cooled crumble with your hands over top of the noodles
• Place dish in a preheated over (350) and cook for about 20-30 mins, until bread crumbs are golden brown and cheese sauce is bubbling.
• Serve while warm, and Enjoy!!!

Happy Friday friends!

I hope everyone is having a lovely night, I know we sure are!  It’s gettin’ a lil’ chilly here tonight so we have the gas logs burnin’ and are so very cozy – love it.

So remember my grand plans for Wii Fit Plus after work…?  Yes dear friends, those will remain just a memory since instead I got side-tracked by Whole Foods haha oooops!  I just can’t resist going there as a fun treat after a week of work, does that make me a weirdo?  Story of my life

I wanted to go grab some Oikos using the rest of my fun coupons (thanks again Oikos friends, ya’ll rock!) and WF has a great selection.  I also wandered around for some deelish wine & brews for The Man and myself tonight – it is definitely a cocktail kinda night!  Gotta get this birthday weekend started off right

Local Richmond brewery Legend’s IPA is The Man’s fave!

I ended up grabbing a few other things as well just to round out our food stash at home because I decided earlier today that since we have “grocery spillover” from the previous week that it’s going to be a “use up what ya got” kinda pre-holiday week!  I am excited, but ya’ll know I like that kinda stuff.  Gettin’ my food creativity on

Anywho, I was originally planning on doing a frozen TJ’s veggie lasagna tonight with some salad however was overcome by a random craving for slow cooker barbecue chicken, kicked up mac n’ cheese with bleu cheese salad.  So that’s what went down!

It had been too long since Nanny’s slow cooker had made an appearance, and it is really the perfect thing for small pieces of meat and the shredded style none the less.

So I used our good friend Mr. Giant Lasts Forever BBQ Sauce and dumped that over 3 small chicken breast halves.   Cooked on setting 5 (high) for about 40 minutes until done.

Then removed chicken, shredded it up using the 2-fork-method

And put back into the sauce with some additonal as well.  Voila, easy peasy!

We also had some of this Whole Foods purchase to go alongside, made with none other than my fave Icelandic butter

Plus a fun & festive salad including

• romaine mix (eek bought the mix tonight, needed a break!)
• chopped cucumbers
• chopped onion
• chopped granny smith apple
• blue cheese w/ cranberry crumbes
• black pepper

I made up a quick vinagrette using these guys + salt/pepper

• 1 tblsp olive oil
• 1 tblsp balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 tblsp rhubarb & berry jam
• 1 tsp agave
• salt/pepper
• splash water to thin out if you need it

TRUE STORY:  The Man, and I quote, was almost refusing to eat this dressing mixture bc he said it was gonna be “thick and eww” — so I proceeded to do some mixin’ around and made him taste it.  Yea, take that boyfriend, he loved it upon first finger dunk!!!  :P

Salad was AWESOME! I love the bleu cheese w/ the random bites of cranberries throughout — it really reminded of something I’ve had at Panera I think?  Either way, heck yea

Also, I have GOT to find more of this bbq sauce… it was on sale last time I got it at World Market so I am prayin’ it’s still around bc it is seriously the best sauce I have tasted from a bottle!!!

The WF mac n’ cheese kicked boo-tay too… it came with some sort of herbs mixed throughout that just added that extra something, pretty impressed for a box o’ noodles

Dinner served.  Yummmmm-Ooooooooooo Friday easy dinner I <3 U!

Check out what The Man was doing while I got to cookin’   a lil’ curiousity on the Jillian Michaels Wii Fit workouts ehhh?!?!

He was “setting it up for me”    ….  

As for now, time to go play some more Wii games with my main man (yes, that would be Mario haha jk! ) and be an uber-nerb tonight!  Plus more wine, obviously

Oh, but before I go, friends don’t forget to send me your entries for the Blogger Secret Ingredient this week!  Gotten some great ones so far & want to see some more from all you fabulous peeps   Don’t leave me hangin?!

Have a fantastic night friends!

Cars, computers, gadgets, things around the house, and it goes on. I can’t have things the way they come; they need to be modified. They need to be made better in some way. Better than they were meant to be. Not that there was anything wrong with them, I would just rather not use them as they come.

Obviously, food gets modded too. Cases in point:

Exhibit A: Suuped up Mac-n-Cheese with 3-cheeses, black forest ham, bread crumbs, and a bechamel creme sauce. Hallelujah.

Exhibit B: Suuped up brownies made from Duncan Hines brownies, topped with melted marshmallow, topped with rice crispies, topped with peanut butter and melted chocolate.

Exhibit C: Suuped up nachos. It was a whole baking sheet. I'll let the picture speak for itself.

Exhibit D: Suuped up lasagna made with spinach, apple sausage, and ricotta cheese.

The Mac n Cheese Bake-Off of 2009 was super yummy! Nine people entered their unique homemade mac n cheese (mnc) dishes, judged by four feared judges: Kevin, Joey, Brian and me.

The Judges

No we are not sheriffs. We were wearing stars labeled “Judge” but Joey thought it said “Jorge” (pronounced hor hey). We wore them so people would know who would be judging them…I mean their dishes and also so they could bribe us with compliments and drinks.

There were a variety of mnc dishes, including vegan, chicken sausage, grandma-style, spicy, and ham & cheese. Everyone laid out their dishes at once, labeled them from 1-9 and included a brief description of each of them.

MNC Dishes

Myself and the other judges collaborated in the beginning and checked out all the dishes before we dug in, since one of the categories we were judging the dishes on was presentation. The other categories were taste and creativity. We scored them from 1-5 and the winner received the most points.

Some people paired drinks like Prosecco mixed with St. Germain (so good!) with their mnc dishes as a way to woo the judges. Totally fell for it. Others took the challenge literally and boiled macaroni and then melted swiss cheese on top. Points for creativity!

Of course there would only be one winner though….And that went to Joanie Tobin. She was actually the person who originally inspired me to do this bake-off since she always talked about the different kinds of mnc dishes she tries out. So it makes sense that she won.

So what does Joanie get, you ask, as the winner of the Mac N Cheese Bake-Off of 2009? The opportunity to write on this very blog! Yay! Who doesn’t love that?!
Oh yeah and the first, second and third place winners got gifts from Crate & Barrel.

Congrats Joanie on a tasty mac n cheese dish! (Sorry, I’m not going to give away her secret recipe. But here’s a hint: it has apple cider in it.)

The Winner

Good morning!!!!!!!

I’ve had a frazzled Monday morning so far… my puppy and I had a RUDE awakening to a fire alarm this morning. Uggggggh.

Our apartment’s fire alarm system is so LOUD it makes my skin vibrate! I can’t even imagine what it does to Yasha’s poor doggie ears! She was FREAKING out, so we quickly got outside for a walk until it was over. I’m so grateful to be at home with her for situations like that. I heard multiple doggies stuck in their apartments, barking at the alarm while we were outside, and there was nothing I could do for them.

Fortunately, it was just a false alarm and we got to go back inside within fifteen minutes. Whew!

Since my morning was a bit thrown off, I decided to try one of the free samples I recently got of Starbucks VIA coffee:

The little packet was really easy to tear open, then I simply added 1 cup of hot water and stirred:

Voila! Instant coffee! And it actually tastes okay! I think I still prefer my brewed coffee over this, but if I’m ever in a pinch, I’d be perfectly happy with another packet of VIA.

I’m sipping on my coffee a little later than usual today, because I still have no appetite for breakfast. My husband and I had company over last night, and we made a “practice” Thanksgiving dinner! It was a HOG-fest! And to think, all I really wanted to do was try out a new recipe I had for mac n’ cheese…

For our main entree, we had a lovely Tofurkey:

I like to baste my Tofurkey in a marinade of 1/4 cup orange juice + 2 Tablespoons of soy sauce. I pour half of the marinade over the roast, then wrap it in tin foil and place it on a baking sheet. Let it cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes at 350 degrees. When the time is up, unwrap the foil, and baste the roast with the rest of the marinade. Return to the oven, uncovered, for another 15 minutes until the “skin” is golden. It turns out perfect every time!

Now, for the real “experiment” of the night: an “adult version” of Mac n’ Cheese!!!!!!

I will say it right now, I am NOT a fan of mac n’ cheese. I never liked it as a kid, and I never liked it as an adult. So, I was really trying this recipe out on the behalf of our guests who will be coming to dinner next weekend. I wanted to make a high-quality version, rather than that orange-powdery stuff that makes me cringe! So, I started off with high-quality ingredients:

I was really excited to find this organic brown rice pasta at Trader Joe’s! I could make gluten-free mac n’ cheese! Of course, I ended up using whole-wheat flour, and organic wheat bread crumbs… so this was not a gluten free version. But it could easily be done! I also used organic 1% milk, raw gruyere cheese and organic sharp cheddar. Don’t you love how I try to balance out this completely unhealthy recipe by using organic ingredients? Ha ha.

I used the Barefoot Contessa’s decadent recipe, and this was the final result:

This was so incredible, that even I liked it!!!! This recipe is a keeper! The only adjustment I made was using 2 teaspoons of sea salt instead of a full tablespoon (that sounded like a LOT to me….). I’ll probably reduce the amount of bread crumbs next time, too. Other than that, it was perfect. WAY better than that box stuff!!

So you can see why I’m still stuffed from last night… it was worth it, though. I think it’s good to indulge in the “real thing” every now and then!

But now it’s back to lots of fruits and veggies today!

First of all, I’m still not a good food blogger! I went to dinner with two girlfriends from highschool last night and I took a picture of the appetizer, but forgot my delicous Honey Lime Chicken Salad. GRRR..oh well, some yummy chips and queso for ya.

Back to the title of my post…I truly believe that. That men and women can be so completely different. Today, at least for the majority of the day, has just been really stressful. Me and Sean got in a fight, and when I get in fights with people I don’t say mean words, I just cry. Then, of course Sean says I’m being insensitive and overreact. I tell the issue to all of my girl friends and they immediately understand my side of it, but Sean didn’t quite ever get it.

However, a few hours later, Sean came by my house with a nice surprise and he apologized and water was under the bridge. Glad thats over…I don’t do well with conflict.

Onto other things, like eats and my day. I woke up this morning at my moms and went for a run—the Couch to 5k program. I also jump roped for a while and did some band pull aparts to strenghten my upper back to be able to do some more pull ups.

I also did some grocery shopping at my moms house (PB Fingers always talks about this). I, like her, always come home with the coolest things from my moms house. And the best thing about it—it’s free.

EAS Carb Control Drinks, Extra Lean Ground Beef, Lean Ground Turkey, Lara Bars, Fuze drink, and Chobani Greek Yogurt

My breakfast: Emerald Cocoa Almonds and an Apple

Had some almonds and an apple for breakfast.

Snacked on a Cashew Cookie LaraBar

Some Mac & Cheese that I made me and Sean for dinner...it was a gourmet night...

I also had a quesadilla today along with too many brownies and pumpkin bread. Oops .

Have a great day everyone!

Some days it feels like all the Negative Nancies are out to get you. Those are the days when I like to think back and instead think of all the Positive Petes out there who make things better.

Decaf Coffee With NuNatural Stevia

Thankfully, I had enough time to run to The Blue Room for some coffee before class. There I ran into my first Positive Pete of the day, Gabe. He’s a friend from Greek and Greek History and a freshman like me. For someone who had only done 1 of his 3 history essays, he was definitely a Positive Pete Or maybe he just was over caffeinated. After that I ran off to Latin class, where I learned that “dry” has meant “sober” for many more millenia than I would have thought. There really was nothing in the dining hall worth picking up, so instead I made a simpler lunch with what I had.

Macaroni And Cheese With Sweet Potato

Apparently, “I don’t know what to make” means “Gimme carbs”. This was great for something so simple. I would have loved something green in there, but I wasn’t about to use a meal credit for broccoli alone, so I was happy with what I had and packed some bars for class in case I needed something more.

I turned in 2 of my 3 Greek History essays. Hey, that’s not bad, right The other one I should have set for Monday. The Positive Pete of the class was my friend Alex(read: Alexandra but no one calls her that). Some people are just great to sit next to because they make the best doodles and pick up on all the points to make fun of the teacher; that’s Alex. I’ve actually known her since I was a freshman in high school but we didn’t really become friends until I was a junior and she became a freshman here at Brown.

After that was Epic, and then a waddle up and down Thayer street. Doesn’t a walk sound more exciting when you use a more fun verb? By the time I got to my dorm, it was 3:30, but you might think it was 2am because my roommate was asleep, the lights were off, and the clouds covered any sunlight. Great. How did our sleeping schedules become so off? I made some oats, avec flash because it might as well have been night.

Banana Oats With Vanilla Almond Butter And Vanilla-Cinnamon Frosting

I’m having soooo much fun playing around with this “frosting” idea. This time, it involved copious amounts of vanilla powder, with a touch of cinnamon and NuNatural vanilla stevia. That with the vanilla nut butter from Naturally Nutty really enhanced the banana and oats. My only complaint was not being able to see this while I ate. Also difficult: reading The Aeneid by the light off my laptop. But that was ok because I was also blog reading and you definitely all count as Positive Petes I wasn’t really hungry before dinner but my eats were a little low so I found some cookies for Cookie Friday.

One Lucky Duck Gingerbread Cookies

Raw and vegan One Lucky Duck cookies to be exact. These were one of the samples they sent me. I was a little curious how a raw cookie would work but it worked just tastily! It reminded me of cashew butter with maple and ginger, but in a crisp cookie form. They didn’t have me rushing to the website to have more, because I’ve had plenty of cooked and non-vegan cookies I love, but for the raw eater in your life these would make a great treat. This was around 6 and at 6:30 I headed over to the dining hall.

Vegetable Melange, The Heat Is On Tofu Salad

It was really slim picking at the dining hall. I made some tofu salad with the last of my tofu before I left because I saw there was nothing I wanted. Anyway, what I had was decent, and I got to catch up with Positive Pete Adam. Apparently, he’s basically sold himself to science, and was trapped in a dark room Thursday night from 8pm-2am and had his brain waves measured. Weird. He’s the kind of person who I would expect running experiments like these, not being the lab rat, but whatever floats his boat. Since that was rather light, I had no hesitation busting out my treat for Cookie Friday.

The Vegan From The Cupcakerie

Can we just call it Cupcake Friday? That’s all I ever get. I went with The Vegan today–scrumptious. I swear the ones the woman didn’t give me had twice the frosting but I didn’t want to be “that customer” and point at the pile of frosting with some cupcake under it that I wanted. On TV was some movie where Adam Sandler was a football player married to Courtney Cox. I think it lost me at the point where Adam Sandler could be a football player and get Courtney Cox. Instead of trying to make sense of it, I made a snack.

Strawberry Yogurt Mess With White Chocolate With Dried Strawberries

Chocolate bars are the gift that keep on giving when you eat them in yogurt messes! On the down side, I’m going to need to restock on a lot of fruit jams pretty soon. For the yogurt, I did a 3:1 ratio of plain Oikos to full fat yogurt, so that it had just the right creaminess. It felt so nice to kick back and watch an episode of Leno not thinking about what’s due the next day I haven’t done. More breads and spreads to celebrate.

Carrot Ginger Muffin Top With Smart Balance Peanut Butter, Blueberry Vitatop With Butter Toffee Peanut Butter

I think a muffin top off an actual muffin tastes better, but I can’t complain about either Did anybody else watch the ABC 20/20 on crazy cat ladies? Sometimes I feel overwhelmed caring for one pet; how do people keep over 100 cats? That’s absurd. This morning I slept a good 9 hours and woke up naturally. That always feels excellent. I think I tapped into my own Positive Pete when I called running off for the morning; I’ll admit I’m one of the worse ones at taking rest days but even I can see when I need one. Instead my morning has been warm and rainy.

Coffee On A Rainy Morning

I’m thinking that today will be a rest day, and I’m already wondering how’d I get things done if I were running right now. Laundry is in the machine, I’m on my 2nd cup of coffee, and I’m getting geared up to make breakfast and right the 4th and last of my essays, all with a playlist of 51 Christmas songs playing in the background I also got word that a Positive Pete from high school will be visiting campus today so hopefully we’ll arrange a meet up! Too bad normal people don’t enjoy meeting at Whole Foods to catch up because I am out almost everything(even oatbran, and I just got my 2lb bag last month…). Have a great Saturday!

Who’s your best Positive Pete?

This Sunday marks the first annual Mac n Cheese (MNC) Bake-Off at Chez LaLiz!!! So far I have about 15 friends who have entered the event, with three judges. This is sure to be the eating/food event of the year! Here are the rules I gave to everyone:

• Everyone who attends MUST provide a mac n cheese dish. I don’t care for freeloaders.
• It has to be made a head of time, BUT you can re-heat it at my place.
• It doesn’t have to be real cheese—vegan dishes count!
• Feel free to adjust the mac n cheese in a box, BUT you’ll have to be creative and add or change the recipe, ‘cause we can’t just have a bunch of Annie’s or Kraft dishes laying around.
• No microwaved/frozen mac n cheese offerings (e.g. Stouffers).
• Can’t be leftovers from a restaurant or supermarket.

I can’t wait to see what everyone makes. There are so many crazy different ways to make mac n cheese. For those who are struggling to come up with a dish, they can easily find some recipes online that include videos. But I suspect, based off the people I chose to invite for this elite event, they’ll have no trouble coming up with some creative mnc dish.

I have prizes for first, second and third place winners. In addition to a great prize, the first place winner gets the priceless gift of being a guest blogger on my blog. But everyone is a winner in my book. Even the losers.

Oddly enough, Great Scott is also having a “Mac & Cheese Takedown” on Sunday. Mine will obviously be better.

May the best mac n cheese win!

So I signed my papers on Tuesday.  That kind of sucked, not going to lie.  I wasn’t supposed to sign until Thursday, but you know how that goes.  I didn’t want it to “ruin” my off day on Wednesday, since I had plans Tuesday night.

And, ready for the shocker, it did.  I cried the whole day at work on Tuesday, but luckily the boy was a total ass and it 100% reminded me that this is the RIGHT choice.  I wasn’t crying because I “love” him or anything, I guess it’s just the finality of it.  He was my best friend.  Luckily, I am lucky and have SEVERAL besties, but it still sucks.  But such is life. <—note: Every time  I type “such is life” I ALWAYS managed to type “suck is life”; some sort of Freudian slip I suppose.

Anyway, you know I like to get off track, a lot.  So it’s done, well, officially in thirty days, but once my signature was notarized, that was official for me.

I’ve met some interesting new people as of late, and that’s pretty rocking.  I’m the shyest person in the universe (if you don’t believe me, think back to the first time we met.  I likely didn’t say anything and avoided eye contact) so that’s “new” for me.  I’ve been forcing myself since I don’t really have a crutch anymore.  I guess I was too dependant on the boy, and I definitely used him as my crutch.  I won’t be doing either one of those again. 

Sorry to those of you I’ve blown off recently.  I’ve been so up and down I don’t know from one minute to the next what I want to do or what I will do.  Matt: I totally have to edit your story! I may do that tonight, although I DO have to make my awesome book list tonight (have to in an OCD sense), maybe I can do both; Jamie: sorry I keep blowing you off, I really don’t mean to.  Jazz and Matthew are experts on my making “plans” and not following through.  It’s usually best to not expect anything then it’s an awesome surprise later! But it is really something I have to work on.  I have a total fear of commitment in certain areas.  I can have a “relationship”, but I don’t like to commit to plans, because I never know if I’ll be depressed or antisocial that day.  BUT I do need t start calling folks and letting them know, that is a definite flaw that I 100% acknowledge (along with others I won’t mention) and need to correct.  I guess it’s part of my see-saw of a journey. 

Oh, and a big sorries to Jonny Jay;) haha.

I lost my train of thought.  Work + texting + emailing + yaddayadda =distracting!

Oh, got it back, score! Remember that I have a SUPER heavy heart, even though I’m tough and all of that crap.  It takes only an iota to get me in le depressed mode.  So just a gentle lil nudge will do, at least for right now.

It all works out one way or the other.  I know this one isn’t very entertaining, but I promise to deliver later. 

Oh here’s a good ending note:  My sweet lil Oedipal kitten, Shadow, left me a shiny quarter in the shower this morning. haha. I love how he totes crap around in his mouth.  Usually I wake up covered in toys and bits of trash (i.e. gum wrappers–not actual trash, ha).  This was a pleasant lil change and set my day off to a good start.

Oh WAIT, I remembered an even better ending.  How can this be so, you ask?  Because it’s me!! SO I had contacted divorce court back in October because I didn’t think I’d be able to come up with money for the divorce.  I totally, forgot about it.  So I got contacted by them, and they are recording again in January and wanted us to come on. hahah. Too bad we just signed.  They’d pay both our airfares, hotels, and give us $570 a piece. haha. That sounds like a forking vacation to me! This is the second show I’ve gotten an offer to be on.  Dr. Phil offered it awhile back=score.  I’m a big wimp, so of course, I didn’t go.  But how is that for awesome?? Even the boy thought it was hilarious and would have gone to d. court. hahaha. score.

Yesterday was really busy…so busy…I am still tired.

I:

Worked the soup kitchen..wipped up some homemade mac ‘n cheese in less than 15 min(take that Rachel Ray).

Listed my first wedding veil in my fall collection.  Visit my etsy store!

Illustrated something that Bella wanted me to.  Shh!  it’s a secret though♥

(i much enjoyed playing with watercolors).

Ate carrot(birthday) cake.

Wanted to go to indoor practice…but couldn’t because my foot is still hurt.  It is much better today!

Tried to get something uploaded for my dear friend kirstie.  I am still working on it though♥

Went to an 11 ‘o clock mean’s fùtbol game.  We lost..only by one though..only by one.

Got to go through the burgerking drive through(one minute before they closed..I am sorry BK employees).  There is nothing like eating free fries after midnight.

Slept.

I hope you all have a really amazing day.

Keep close to Jesus♥

love…

ria♥

]]> http://foodmakesfunfuel.com/2009/11/11/im-kind-of-a-big-deal/ Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:05:51 +0000 Evan Thomas http://foodmakesfunfuel.com/2009/11/11/im-kind-of-a-big-deal/

I’m very important. I have many leather-bound books and my dorm smells of rich mahogany. Anchorman, anyone? I actually hate that movie but my 9th Grade Latin teacher was obsessed with it and Will Ferrell, so I have all the quotes down, and they pop into my head when relevant. Yesterday, I was kind of a big deal

Not in the morning, though; then, I just left my dorm with empty plates and bowls so I could get coffee before Greek. I knew it would be an unimportant class since our real teacher is away; instead we had a guest lecturer talk about basically everything I learned in Greek History class. Oh well, it was worth it just to hear our substitute pronounce war as “vowr-er” with his mid-European accent.  I swung by The Ratty on the way back to my dorm, but ended up not eating until around 12:50 because I had a lot to tidy up and Google read before lunch.

2 Eggs With Portobella Mushrooms And Red Peppers, Broccoli, Carrots, Jalapenos, Mustard, Ketchup

If Picasso made an omelet, I’d like to think it’d look like this. This won nothing in terms of presentation; I don’t think half of the egg was cooked because I ended up pouring a lot of liquid on the plate at the end, but it was still tasty. I get asked a lot what’s from the dinign hall and what’s mine; in this case, everything was dining hall except the 2 eggs, mustard, and ketchup. Speaking of ketchup, I used to despise it. What is most ketchup’s except processed tomato and sugar? I still feel that way on the whole, but I’ve found two that really got my attention: Trader Joe’s store brand and Napa Valley Red Bell Pepper. The former is really vinegary and not sweet, which goes great with eggs and veggie burgers. The latter is spicy and great for robust burgers. Clearly, I put way too much thought into my condiments

I ended up skipping out on the last 10 minutes of Days to get out early to Whole Foods; how has Sammy not learned a thing about her baby? I feel like this story’s gone on so long the kid should be in preschool. I took a brisk walk to University Plaza. It was double productive because every trip to this Whole Foods piles on 2.2 miles As usual, I spent way too long oogling at too many thing I ended up not getting. I went in with the notion that this would be a “big” shopping trip but they didn’t have quite everything I wanted. Unsweetened coconut was on sale, but they didn’t even carry the sweetened kind; and salmon was on the salad bar but it was mixed with spinach and I wasn’t convinced it’d taste any good. After getting out with most of my wallet I stopped at McDonalds.

Newman's Own Organic Coffee

Well what else do you think I’d go there for I love this Newman’s coffee, and that all their sizes are only $1 from now until who knows when! I’ve taken advantage of that many times. I also nibbled on this new product.

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Clif Bar

This White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Clif Bar was one of the ones I was sent to review. I wanted to love it; if I could find a portable, healthy excuse for white chocolate, I’d be overjoyed. Unfortunately, this didn’t have me jumping up and down. It was OK, but not what I was hoping for. I only took about 5 bites and didn’t even finish it, which is rare for me with foods, because I knew I’d be back to my dorm soon enough where I had unpackaged food to eat. I put the rest back into the wrapper for when I need some energy for running in the morning.

Right before I got back to my dorm, the coolest thing happened to me, and I was kind of a big deal. There are only a few of us in the gym at 7am(shocker) and it’s usually the same crowd. 2 of the other people are these big middle-aged men. Well, I ran into one on the road outside my dorm. It turns out he’s the dean of residential life, and he told me that every time he sees me running strong on the treadmill in the morning I’m an inspiration to him to work out(I think he’s trying to lose weight). I really felt like I had a fan when he was telling me other people look like they’re going to keel over on the treadmill but I have a strong confident posture. He also said I have a good choice in cartoons, lol! That was a great experience, and after it I couldn’t wait to run into him more at the gym knowing who he is.

When I actually got into my dorm, I felt so overwhelmed. I just needed to take things one at a time. I turned on the TV and plugged in everything electronic that needed charging. Then I unpacked what I bought.

Groceries

See? It was all very sensible. Oikos and oats I burn through in this room. I also needed some stevia for my coffee and 365 brand looked decent for 7.99. I also bought 365 nutmeg, which was the cheapest they carried. One other thing might have worked its way into my bag.

Divine White Chocolate With Strawberries

I wanted to treat myself with something for doing so well and (hopefully) what’s more to come. I have trouble when it comes to buying groceries to treat myself, but I finally settled on this bar of white chocolate; I’ve been eyeing it for a while, and if anything says nutritionally devoid and decadent it’s white chocolate, speaking of which…

Banana Oats With Mighty Maple And White Chocolate Chips

The next thing to do was make a snack, since I ended up not eating most of the Clif bar. I thought the maple, vanilla, and banana might be too much for one dish but not at all! Everything worked well together. I had 2 possible plans for the afternoon/dinner but I took the lame responsible road and cancelled them so that I could purely work on my essay; I find projects like this so much easier to take on all at once than try to draw it out. I got a good deal(about 1/3) done before it was time for dinner, which I already decided to make for myself.

Dinner Ingredients

These are definitely two staples to have in any dorm room: healthy, delicious, and instant. I did something which I thought was a little genius and used the water from the tuna to cook the macaroni in for added flavor.

Tuna Mac And Cheese With Acorn Squash

Perfecto! I know the old generation Italians would find fault with fish + cheese but we’re not in Italy here The acorn squash from home was so nice, even though it might have needed another 2 minutes in the microwave. Other than that, the buttery flavor went well with cheese from the macaroni, and the whole thing was just a salt mess–my favorite kind!

Flash foward to 8: Does anybody else just feel motivated to move when they hear The Biggest Loser theme song? I do and I love it. I got into my PJ’s, took up my essay books, and got ready for some quality television. I celebrated with trans fat.

Yogurt With Strawberry Jam And White Chocolate With Strawberries

This was awesome. And, yes, there’s trans fat in the white chocolate bar, but it’s natural from butterfat and only .2 grams in the whole bar(which I had maybe an 1/8th of. I was actually surprised the label mentioned trans fat, since companies aren’t required to list it if it’s less than  .5 grams per serving. It’s definitely a curious thing to think how much trans fat is really in certain foods and how much it adds up to. Anyway, this was delicious and easily a new favorite chocolate bar. Sweetening it with jam makes the fruit feel fresher.

Silk Nog With Nutmeg

Newman's Own Organic Espresso Chip Cookies With Coffee

I’ve never been one for “milk and cookies”; this is about as close as I ever get. The nog on its own is a little thin and needs some extra sweetening, but you’d never guess that it wasn’t made with real milk let alone has no eggs in it. I don’t really get “espresso” out of these cookies but they do taste nice and chocolatey, and the espresso part is always a great excuse to make coffee(like I needed an excuse). I was really sad to see the entire Orange team go off The Biggest Loser. They had so much reason to be there, but they were on Jay Leno afterwards and it looks like they’re doing great.

Oatmeal With Semi-Sweet Bakign Chips And Smart Balance

I wanted to want anything else but this while watching Leno. Because, really, who wants to be washing oatmeal off a dish right before bed? instead of fighting the craving I went ahead and made the oats, knowing if you give your body what it really wants it’ll reward you.

That reward definitely came this morning. I woke up at 6:20 6:25 after snoozing a little bit. I felt the long-term energy from the oats still in effect, and head off for an undetermined long wrong. I took the rest of my white chocolate macadamia nut clif bar but ultimately decided that I didn’t want it this morning and didn’t want the burden of having something I felt like I “had to finish” and so tossed it at the gym. Anyway, back to the run, I ended up doing 12 miles and finishing in a quick 1:36:22! It felt good to pile on all those miles; if only my new gym friend had been there! When I got back I made a great breakfast, too.

Pumpkin Oats With Maple Almond Butter And Sliced Butter Toffee Almonds, Creamy Greek Yogurt With Blueberry And Raspberry Jam

I spent the entire time on the treadmill thinking “what else can I make myself besides oatmeal and yogurt to switch it up for breakfast”. But truly this is what I love to eat for breakfast, for flavor and satisfaction. For the yogurt, I mixed 4oz plain Oikos with 2oz full fat Voskos–oh my God was that good! It had just the right amount of cream to be not too heavy but something special. The best thing about creamy yogurt is it doesn’t need sugar or stevia because it’s a flavor all its own. I added some fruit jams and mixed them in and topped it with some more jam to get the pure flavor.

If you can’t tell, that yogurt got me way more excited than any normal person should be by yogurt. I’m sure I’ll be thinking about it all through Latin class now.

I know you’re a nut for nuts, so check out this giveaway!

As I’ve said before, macaroni and cheese is a vegetable in the South. Moreover, it is a mode of survival in my house. It’s like water; we will die in three days without the cheesy, buttery curled noodles of adoration.

I am giving you fair warning that this recipe really has no health benefit whatsoever. In fact, if you experience high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes or if you are susceptible to stroke, do not ingest. Additionally, if you become winded going up a flight of stairs, can’t see your toes in the shower, have a spare tire the size of an 18-wheeler’s or if when you bend over, we enter Daylight Savings Time, I recommend to steer clear. Otherwise, indulge with your Turkey Day dinner or couple it with an aforementioned Slow Cooker Pork BBQ.

 Crab-aroni and Cheese

•  1 lb. elbow pasta
• ¾ stick of unsalted butter
• 6 tablespoons of flour
• 1 teaspoon of dry mustard
• 1 teaspoon of paprika
• ½ teaspoon of cayenne pepper (less if you can’t handle the heat, more if you can)
• 2 cups of milk (2%)
• 1 chopped bell pepper (I had to incorporate a vegetable somewhere.)
• 1 can of lumped crab meat (Use the affluent crab if you wish. We used bourgeois’ canned crab meat. It did the trick.)
• 1½ cups of sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 small log of goat cheese
• Handful of bread crumbs
• Sprinkling of parsley and red pepper flakes

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Boil a large pot of water. Once water boils, add elbow pasta. Boil for about seven minutes. Strain the pasta in a large colander. In the same pot, melt butter. Add flour a little bit at a time and whisk until you develop a thick roux. Add next three seasonings. Whisk. Add about ½ cup of milk at a time. Keep whisking. Add bell pepper and crab meat. Insert dirty innuendo about crab here. Next, add cheeses until they melt. Sprinkle red pepper flakes. Stir. In a casserole dish, pour ½ of sauce and noodles. Fold together. Pour remaining sauce and noodles. Stir. Top with bread crumbs, parsley and a handful of cheddar cheese. Bake for about 30 minutes until bubbly. 

Note: If you have sherry on hand, a few tablespoons would mesh well with the creamy crab.

sauce with butter, flour, crab, pepper, cheese and spices

bread crumbs and shredded cheeses over layers of velvety elbows

Inhale for nourishment.

I was going to post a video here of the SNL digital short with Taylor Swift spoofing Twilight, then talk about how awesome I think she is even though no one else does but it’s not working, soooooo…

Hi? How are things?

Cool.

Oh me? I had a fantastical weekend. One of my BFFs and I took a small roadtrip to Atlanta ** to see Matthew Sweet/ Susanna Hoffs perform at Eddie’s Attic. It was great. We did merch for them, drank vodka tonics/amaretto sours, ate (FREAKING delicious) tacos/mac n cheese and got real silly. We stayed two nights at the W hotel which is just… ridiculously good. The rooms were accented with purple walls, it smelled like heaven and we got free movies. I kept feeling like we won some kind of radio show prize, where the station flies you out to a fun city to meet the band and they throw down for your meals and bombass hotel rooms. There were times when we were waiting for our elevator that we literally just started dancing in the hallway and giggling like pre-teens. God, don’t I sound like such a spoiled little brat right now? I’m sorry. It’s just that I am wide awake at 10:26PM on a Sunday and the Taylor Swift video didn’t post, my HULU isn’t working and well, what did you WANT ME TO WRITE ABOUT?!  THE WEATHER?! Would it make you feel better if I told you we went to four different gas stations looking for Corn Nuts and I came out of each one empty-handed and dragging my feet? What is up with that Georgia? Seriously? What do you have against Corn Nuts? They are the perfect ROAD SNACK, GEORGIA. Get hip to the nuts, GA.

In other news, I am JUST now getting caught up with all the work I missed while I was in Korea for two weeks. I’m pretty sure all my professors hate me, or at least, heave a heavy sigh when they open their MTSU mail and see all those pesky messages from yours truly. You know how sometimes you just have to be annoying for things to work out? I am embracing it. I am being annoying to everyone lately. I even have a category on my wordpress for annoying. I’ll remember to check it before I submit.

I’m still thinking about Corn Nuts. I wonder how cold it is outside right now…

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Worth it. See ya.

** This is the point I realized that we could have seen I Love You, New York while we were in Atlanta. We even had downtime yesterday. Really effed that one up, Spaleck. Shit.

P.S. Oh! Here’s a picture of me holding a real baby this weekend. I may or may not be drunk off several glasses of red, but I didn’t drop her or hit her head or make her cry! I think she even liked me for a second or two, maybe I should be a nanny to make those dollars:

Series of 25 Photographs