Deployment Memories, 2nd Edition

I just realized that I didn't post any pictures of people, whom are the reason for all the fun moments!


Ok, not the greatest picture of Ali and I, but it is the only one on my computer at the moment of us from deployment. We were just having a silly night in the old metal box we called home.

My buds...on their Boy/Girl Band CD cover. Don't they look like NSYNC or something!

Some more buds...how cute, they are using the box that I painstakingly created for their mission as a stool...

Oh, well, I lied. Here is Ali and I at Abraham's House.

One of my favorite crews! (I don't have a full picture of my other favorite crew - sad - tear)

Well, that is it for now. The other pictures that I have aren't on my computer right now.

Love ya!

Deployment Memories and Day 30 - 33, December 8th - 11th

After a recent trip to my local VA clinic and seeing all these great old vets and talking with my Dad about how he is reconnecting with some of his old Air Force buddies, I started thinking about my last deployment. As much as I didn't want to be there and I wanted to be done with the Navy, I wouldn't have changed a thing. There were some very stressful times, hard times, lonely times, painful times, but there were also ALOT of fun times. Here are some of my favorite photos from my Iraq Deployment (I wish I could take credit for these, but I stole them from a guy in our squadron!)

This was the entrance to the Navy Compound

It's actually very pretty isn't it

We are the Skinny Dragons (the one on the far right)

That's the Mighty P-3 Orion - under the actual Orion Constellation

Then there are these awesome photos of the Ziggurat and Abraham's House (yes, the ACTUAL Abraham!)

The Ziggurat

Stairway to Heaven

Oldest Arch in the World!

The House of Abraham

Despite the long days, the sand storms...

It looks like Mars!!

Despite being away from friends and family, I can only hope that the work we were doing made a difference in people's lives and hopefully even saved a few.

I always have a prayer in my heart for all the soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen deployed oversees and I wish them good health and a safe return home!!

Day 25 - 29, December 3rd - 7th - Gift Wrapping Extravaganza!

Once again I know I haven't been very good at keeping up with the daily diet log, but lets face it, they can be pretty boring if I don't have anything else to talk about, so I am grouping up days as I go. From last Thursday to today, Monday, I have been doing very well on my diet. The diet has stayed in tact, however I did have a little hiccup with my workouts due to a late doctors appointment. I didn't get home until 7:00 from it and I just wanted to eat dinner, but I forgive myself, so you should forgive me as well :)

Todays topic is Christmas gift shopping and wrapping. I have been doing some Christmas shopping for the last few months (just little things) so that I wouldn't have to spend everything at once. This Saturday we shopped all day to finish up the list. We have everything we were going to buy and all we have left is some delicious food gifts. Besides the food gifts and one very oddly shaped item, I finished wrapping everything as well! I know, it's crazy!! But, we do have to ship everything so I felt like I needed to get all of this done as quickly as possible.

Have you noticed that way too often we tend to spend just as much money on the gift wrap as we do on the gift itself? Well, this year I decided to take some advice from a budget saving article and got some solid color gift wrap (on sale), some floral accents on sale, and then I splurged on some ribbon and gift tags. The great thing about the solid color gift wrap is that you can use it all year for any occasion! Here is the outcome of my fun day of gift wrapping:

Day 24 - Wednesday, December 2nd

Back to the old boring posts : ( I wish we could go on road trips everyday so I would have exciting pictures to show everyday. Wednesday was just a regular old hump day. However, we did get to watch Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer!!



I love that movie, but man, Santa sure was a meany!! Luckily, everything worked out alright in the end - hehe. However, we noticed that the movie got the amount of reindeer wrong. Isn't there 8 reindeer + Rudolph - "Now Dasher, Now Dancer, Now Prancer and Vixen! On Comet, On Cupid, On Donner and Blitzen!" ? The sleigh only had 6 + Rudolph! Craziness, anyway let me know what you think? Is it 6 or 8?

Day 24:

Breakfast - Cereal + Tea
AM Snack - Protein Snack Bar
Lunch - Protein Meal Bar
PM Snack - Cereal Bar
Dinner - Bean and Ham Soup

Workout - 5 minute warm up, 20 minute interval jogging, 5 minute cool down and abdominal strength training.

No Christmas movie tonight, but maybe some Christmas decorating!

Days 19 - 23 and The Grand Canyon!

I know that I have been a little lax lately - ok, a lot lax - about posting the last few days, but you know how it goes when you are traveling and you have family in town. Believe it or not I actually kept up with my diet throughout this time. The only thing that was difficult was the work outs - driving a few hours everyday wasn't very conducive to the gym. But, the good news is that we picked it back up on Tuesday with a good 30 minute jog and upper body strength training.

Now, on to the important stuff - our road trip!!

On Friday, we drove up to Flagstaff. We visited the Riordan Mansion, which was beautiful. It is a log cabin home that was built and occupied by the Riordan family, whom basically put Flagstaff on the map with their lumber company. The house is 13,000 square feet and was occupied by 2 Riordan brothers who married 2 sisters. Each family occupied separate sides of the house which were connected by a large gathering room (you can kind of see it from this picture).

We couldn't take any pictures of the inside, but it was beautiful. It was an amazing example of the Arts and Crafts movement of bringing the outside in. Trust me on this one!

On Saturday, we drove up to the Grand Canyon. The North Rim was already closed for the season (and it was an extra 5 hour drive) so we just stuck with the South Rim. What can I say about the Grand Canyon besides...

Beautiful.

Majestic.

Vast.

And cold! I look like a marshmallow all bundled up in my layers!

Towards the end of the day it started snowing! It was very light and melted immediately, until we woke up the next morning to this....

It was so beautiful and exciting. You have to remember that we are from Texas and we have spent the last 4 years in Hawaii, so yes, snow is very very exciting!

Flagstaff is such a quaint little town and it just looks right when there is snow all over the place!

It was all light and fluffy and perfect for making snowballs - unfortunately I don’t have any pictures to show you our snowball fight - well, ok, I was the only one throwing them at Z. He is a very polite gentleman that didn’t throw them back at me. Ha - I win!

And last, but not least, I leave you today with this amazing wall mural...

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Day 18 - Thursday, November 26th

Thanksgiving went really well. Everything was delicious and the timing worked out ok. We had some issues with the rolls, but we think it was due to some bad yeast. I wish I had taken pictures of everything, but once we had made everything we just wanted to eat it up!

I am very thankful to my wonderful family and friends. I wish that we could have been with all of you, but we are always together in our hearts. On Friday we headed to Flagstaff and then on to the Grand Canyon on Saturday. My next post will be about our trip and include pictures, it was majestic!

Day 18:
Thanksgiving!!!

Day 17 - Wednesday, November 25th

The day before Thanksgiving!!! Yay, we are super excited about all of our fixins!! Since my mother in law was coming in to town on Wednesday I decided I would get up early and work out. Now, if you know anything about me you will know that I say that a lot and never actually get up. However, I actually did it today!!!! Yay!! Needless to say, I was pretty proud of myself!

Day 16:

Breakfast - Cereal + Tea
AM Snack - Mocha Bliss Bar
Lunch - Protein Shake + Grapes
PM Snack - Cereal Bar
Dinner - Chicken with Mashed potatoes

Workout - 5 minute warm up, 20 minute interval jogging, 5 minute cool down. Abdominal strength training.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and then we will be off to Flagstaff to check out the Grand Canyon. My posts will probably be delayed until we get back!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Day 16 - Tuesday, November 24th

Tuesday was a good day. We were very busy at work which made the day go by much faster, I thought of some fun gift ideas for family and I had a good workout and dinner with my hubby, it can't get much better!

Day 16:

Breakfast - Protein Meal Bar + Green Tea Latte
AM Snack - Mocha Bliss Bar (Yum!)
Lunch - Protein Shake
PM Snack - Protein Snack Bar
DInner - Taco Salad

Workout - 5 minute warm up, 30 minute cardio (split between elliptical and bike because the treadmill was taken) and 5 minute cool down.

Tomorrow (as in today, Wednesday) I am going to attempt to wake up early and go workout! You will have to wait on pins and needles to find out if I actually did it!

Day 15 - Monday, November 23rd

It has been two weeks since I started this challenge and so far things are going well. I have lost a total of 3 pounds, which is awesome. But besides that, I feel great and I am in much better moods these days.

Day 15 - Weight - 120 (Total loss of 3 pounds!)

Breakfast - Cereal
AM Snack - Cereal Bar
Lunch - Protein Shake + Grapes
PM Snack - Protein Snack Bar
Dinner - Taco Salad

Workout - 5 minute warm up, 20 minute jog, 5 minute cool down, upper body strength training.

Day 14 - Sunday, November 22nd

Today was the usual errand day and massive cleaning house day. So, in other words, very boring and unexciting!

Day 14:

Breakfast - Cereal + Tea
AM Snack - Cereal Bar
Lunch - Protein Shake
PM Snack - Protein Snack Bar
Dinner - Turkey Burgers and Baked Potato wedges

Workout - Off!

Thanksgiving Run Down

Thanksgiving is fast approaching and the prep work is starting. I've decided to give myself a run down of our Thanksgiving prep schedule so that IF it works, I will have something to go off of next year. We are somewhat ambitious, but I think everything is going to be delicious!

Sunday - Grocery Shopping (wait, that's today, ahh!)

Monday - Take the Turkey out of the freezer

Tuesday - Nothing

Wednesday:
- Make the Mini Pumpkin Pie Bites and Butterscotch Pecan Pie.
- Chop the onions and celery for the stuffing.
- Make PW's Creamy Mashed Potatoes.

Thursday:
- Zoli will be making PW's No Knead Rolls.
- Put the turkey in the oven when the rolls are done.
- Make the Apple/Cranberry Stuffing and Green Bean Casserole.
- Put the stuffing in the oven towards the end of Turkey time.
- Put in Mashed Potatoes and Green Bean Casserole after the Turkey comes out.
- Zoli makes the gravy from the drippings (yuck).
- Everybody eats!!!
- Aggies beat t.u. - Ha, well, one can dream!

Alright, well we will see what happens. I think it will go well...fingers crossed.

Day 13 - Saturday, November 21st

Where did the day go!! Saturday went by pretty fast, maybe it is because I slept in really late, but whatever. We went to a Phoenix Coyotes game. It was kind of sad because the arena was so empty which made it very apparent why they are going bankrupt. However, they did win, 3 - 1 against the Philadelphia Flyers. It was fun anyway, but not as much fun as the Red WIngs vs Stars game that I went to with my good ol' Dad many years ago. Go Wings!

Day 13:

Breakfast - Cereal
AM Snack - No snack cause I woke up too late
Lunch - Protein meal bar + honeydew (once again, it was actually cantaloupe)
PM Snack - Protein Snack Bar
Dinner - Half a big pretzel, some popcorn and cereal

Workout - 40 minute cardio

Day 12 - Friday, November 20th

I am starting to freak out about Thanksgiving! Although there is absolutely no reason to. We are adding in one dish this year, green bean casserole, which is very easy so I'm sure we will be fine. I think its more just the cleaning and the laundry and the planning and the blowing up air mattresses and the grocery shopping and the....I'm a little dramatic sometimes, Ha! Z's mom is totally cool and laid back, so basically I'm just being my ridiculous self. I am going to go and continue to stew about this now.

Day 12:

Breakfast - Cereal
AM Snack - Strawberry Cereal Bar
Lunch - Protein Shake and honeydew (actually it is cantaloupe, but I call it honeydew because it is orange - duh)
PM Snack - Protein Snack Bar
Dinner - Turkey Burgers and baked potato strips

Workout: 5 minute warm up, 10 minute jog, 5 minute cool down, lower body strength training.

Day 11 - Thursday, November 19th

Why is it that it seems to get more and more difficult to plan meals as the week goes on? We plan all of our meals over the weekend and do our grocery shopping and put the meat that will be used later in the week in the freezer. Well, whenever Thursday rolls around we have inevitably forgotten to defrost the meat or we didn't give it enough time. Why am I rambling on about this? Well, it happened to us again on Thursday. We ended up getting Quizno's, which is good, but man a turkey burger sure would have been better!!

However, I did get some awesome knee-high boots on sale at Naturalizer! Which totally made up for the dinner mess up!


Day 11:

Breakfast - Cereal + Tea
AM Snack - Bliss Bar
Lunch - Protein Meal Bar + Grapes
PM Snack - Protein Snack Bar
DInner - Quizno's

Workout - Off day!

Day 10 - Wednesday, November 18th

Hump day! I started coming down with a cold or allergies or something today, which made an interesting time of jogging since I couldn't really breathe through my nose! But, I just kept telling myself that I just have to get through Wednesday and Thursday is a day off.

I am really looking forward to Thanksgiving next week! It's been two years since I had a real Thanksgiving, although last years turkey day was fun with Ali, Sparkling Grape juice, and a haji dressed up as a turkey! Z's mom is coming over to visit this year, so I am going to try really hard to make all the Thanksgiving fixin's. This weekend I will be rigorously cleaning the house, grocery shopping, and doing all the prep work so that it appears that I have everything under control on Thursday! Ha, that'll be the day!

Anywho, on to the diet, Day 10:

Breakfast - Cereal + Tea
AM Snack - Protein Snack Bar
Lunch - Protein Shake + Strawberries
PM Snack - Crackers
Dinner - Left over Pork Chops (note to self, the pomegranate juice sauce will melt your tupperware if you leave it in the microwave too long!)

Workout: 5 minute warm up, 10 minute interval jogging, 5 minute cool down, and abdominal strength training.

Day 9 - Tuesday, November 17th

Today was a boring day. On my drive home from work I was trying to think of something random that I could talk about, but all I could think about was going home and making my dinner. It was a new recipe that I actually got from the Special K website. It was awesome. But, you will have to wait to hear about it. Ha! Evil laughter...

Day 9:

Breakfast - Red Berries Cereal + Chai Tea Latte
AM Snack - Raspberry Bliss Bar (it really is blissful)
Lunch - Strawberry Protein Bar with of course, Strawberries
PM Snack - Italian Tomato and Herb Crackers
Dinner - Pork Chops with a Pomegranate glaze and roasted potatoes!!

Workout - 5 minute warm up, 20 minute jog and 5 minute cool down.

Dinner was totally awesome. Basically you get some nice pork loin chops, about an inch thick. You rub them with some salt, pepper and cinnamon. Cook them in a skillet until they are very close to being done. Remove them, but keep them warm. In the same skillet, pour in a cup of pomegranate juice, 4 teaspoons of sugar, and about a quarter of a small onion diced (this is for about 4 servings). Let that mixture come to a boil and boil it for 3 minutes or until the sauce reduces. Put the pork chops back in to the skillet and finish cooking them. Serve them with some roasted potatoes and be sure to cover them with the remaining sauce. It is delicious!!!

Day 8 - Monday, November 16th

Today was definitely a Monday. I walked in to work and the internet wasn't working properly. So I spent the first hour of work on the phone with the internet company and going back and forth to my computer and the modem. I eventually got it up and running, but it was annoying. Of course that put me an hour behind on catching up on everything from the weekend. Oh well, the good news is that I got everything done and then some.

Day 8: I've lost one pound, I'm at 122 today!

Breakfast - Go Lean Crunch Protein Bar + Grapes + Chai Tea Latte
AM Snack - Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Snack Bar
Lunch - Chocolate Protein Shake + Strawberries
PM Snack - Strawberry Cereal Bar
Dinner - Vegetarian Chili with Homemade Tortilla chips

Workout - 5 minute warm up, 10 minute jog, 5 minute cool down and upper body strength training.

I'm glad Monday is over!

Day 7 - Sunday, November 15th

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday! Sunday's are our chore and errand days. In other words, very unexciting.

Day 7:

Breakfast - Red Berries Cereal + Chai Tea Latte
AM Snack - Raspberry Bliss Bar
Lunch - Red Berries Cereal (It was supposed to be Chocolatey Delight, but somebody ate it all!)
PM Snack - Italian Tomato and Herb Crackers
Dinner - Home Made Pizza

Workout - Off! Yay!

Day 6 - Saturday, November 14th

Today we went on a hike at Pinnacle Peak Park. First of all, I never thought it would be so hard to find a state park! Our GPS couldn't find it and they really didn't have that many signs out there for it, however we eventually got there. The hike was nice, it was a 1.75 mile out and 1.75 mile in hike. There was a good variety of ups and downs, however the stairs were a killer! It was very interesting to see how different this hike was compared to hikes in Hawaii. Obviously the scenery was different, this hike overlooked Troon Golf Course in Scottsdale and all of the crazy huge houses surrounding the course. But the people on the hike were very different as well. The majority were there strictly for the exercise, which is always nice on a hike, but not so much for the scenery or just for the joy of being outdoors. Overall, it was really great exercise.


Day 6:
Breakfast - Red Berries Waffles + Chai Tea Latte
AM Snack - Raspberry Bliss Bar
Lunch - Protein Bar
PM Snack - Italian Tomato and Herb Crackers
Dinner - Yummy cheeseburger and fries

Workout - Hike!


Sunday is a day off, so I will be running around doing errands and the usual Sunday chores!

Day 5 - Friday, November 13th

Day 5 was a good day, nothing too exciting though. This is one of those days that if you actually read my blog, you can just skip over this post. This is purely for my own log keeping.

Day 5:

Breakfast - Red Berries Waffles + Chai Tea Latte
AM Snack - Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Snack Bar
Lunch - Vanilla Protein Shake + Grapes
PM Snack - Strawberry Cereal Bar
Dinner - Chipotle - Carnita’s Burrito Bowl with no rice or cheese

Workout:

20min jogging and lower body strength training.

Day 4 - Thursday, November 12th

Yay! It’s Thursday which means that tomorrow is Friday!! Today was a really good day. I watched this really amazing documentary called War Dance which is about 3 children in Northern Uganda. The documentary follows their journey to the Ugandan National Championship of Song and Dance. Absolutely incredible and so touching. These children are beautiful, strong and so courageous. Their story makes any of our “challenges” seem pretty easy to handle. Even though their story is sad at times, in the end it is a beautiful story about life, family and friends. If you would like to learn more about it go to Shine Global.

Day 4 of my Special K Challenge:

Breakfast: Chocolaty Delight Cereal + Chai Tea Latte
AM Snack: Chocolaty Dipped Raspberry Bliss Bar
Lunch: Go lean Crunch Protein Bar
PM Snack: Strawberry Cereal Bar
Dinner: 3 Cheese Wheat Ravioli with Chunky Vegetable Marinara Sauce + one slice of garlic toast

Workout: Off day! Yay!

Today was a day that proves that Life is the journey, not the destination. Be happy with yourself and who you are and enjoy the ride!

Special K Challenge - Day 3 - Wednesday, November 11th

Today was one of those really tough motivation days. I just wasn’t feelin’ it, but I did it anyway. I followed my workout and my diet, although I did eat a very small piece of bread after I got home and before working out.

Concerning the diet, it does include a lot of bars and I agree with you Linda that bars are not always so good. Pretty much the only time I eat protein bars was for Breakfast which was a habit I picked up on deployment because it was just easier. However, my office doesn’t have a microwave and I was having trouble coming up with creative alternatives. So, I started getting a case of sandwichitis and boring saladitis which then led to the trips to Schlotzky’s and Arby’s. The Special K Bars are very convenient, affordable, and they satisfy my chocolate cravings!!

Day 3:

Breakfast - Special K Red Berries Cereal + Herbal Tea
AM Snack - Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Snack Bar
Lunch - Vanilla Protein Shake + Strawberries
PM Snack - Italian, Tomato and Basil Crackers
Cheat Alert - Small piece of bread : (
Dinner - Turkey Burger topped with Guacamole and black bean, corn and tomato salad

Workout: 5 min warm up, 10 minute interval jogging, 5 min cool down followed by abdominal workout.

Today was a tough day because I wasn’t feeling very well, but I’m proud of myself for following through on the workout today. Tomorrow is an OFF day, yay!!

Special K Challenge - Day 2 - Tuesday, November 10th

I wanted to do a little more explanation on the Special K Challenge today. Technically the challenge is to follow the diet for 2 weeks and drop a jean size. I’m planning on doing this for 6 weeks (minus Thanksgiving of course), but that doesn’t mean I think I am going to lose 3 jean sizes (honestly, I don’t think that would be very healthy for me anyway). I just need to tone up a bit and get back to my “fighting” weight, or so they say and hopefully get into some better eating habits. I was going a little overboard with the sugar...but really, I blame my mother’s side of the family. They have the sweet tooth, but honestly I can’t really only blame them, my grandfather on my dad’s side did eat ice cream every night. Well, I was cursed from both sides, not too mention the fact that when I was a baby my sister poured chocolate syrup all over my face. I have always said that she was trying to drown me in chocolate (not such a horrible way to go), but she claims that my parents made her a sundae and she thought I would want some too. Well all I have to say to that is, “What about the ice cream! Hello!”

OK, so now on to today’s efforts.

Day 2:

Breakfast - Red Berries Waffles w/ Lite Syrup and Strawberries and Herbal Tea Latte
AM Snack - Chocolatey Raspberry Drizzle Bliss Bars (This was ok, it ended up being crunchy which surprised me a little)
Lunch - Go Lean Crunch Bar (I have a few that I need to finish off before I buy the Special K Protein Meal Bars) and Grapes
PM Snack - Strawberry Cereal Bar (This was ok as well, not my favorite)
Dinner - We made turkey burgers (topped with guacamole) and baked fries. Always a favorite!

Work-Out: 20 minute jog with interval inclines (while watching Barefoot Contessa - one of my favorites especially since she has been adding in somewhat healthier meals)

Well, that’s it for today. Overall, a good day with good amount of self motivation. Instead of being hungry later in the evening, I was hungry at lunch. Weird since I had a bigger breakfast.

Special K Challenge - Day 1 - Monday, November 9th

This week I've decided to start the Special K Challenge. It's amazing how easy it is to slip into laziness when it comes to work-outs when you are no longer on deployment and very angry! On deployment I was working out like crazy because 1) I didn't have anything else to do and 2) It was the only way I could sleep well and 3) It was the only way to get my anger out (Anger just goes with deployment). So, because I was working out so much I could really eat anything I wanted, especially since I usually only got 2 meals in a day. Well, that time is well over and I need to start reigning myself in before it gets bad. So, Special K Challenge and a new 6 week work-out program has started. I have decided that I might try to write about my 6 week experience here, just to keep myself motivated. My goal is to lose around 10 pounds, but really the poundage doesn't have to be exact, just need to tone up a bit.

Day 1: I unfortunately didn't weigh myself today because I didn't think about it until I got home from work, but I'm pretty sure it's around 120ish.

For breakfast I had yummy Special K Red Berries Cereal and some Hot Chocolate. Unfortunately I didn't eat my serving of fruit so I ended up being hungry later in the day. Morning Snack - Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Snack Bar (delicious!). Lunch - Vanilla Protein Shake (not as bad as I thought it would be) and Grapes. Afternoon Snack - Italian Tomato and Basil Crackers and Herbal Tea. Dinner - Open Faced Roast Beef sandwich with Black Bean, Corn and Tomato Salad.

The food was good, but I was really hungry after my workout. I am going to have to be super careful to make sure I eat everything I'm supposed to.

For my workout, I did 20min cardio (jogging) and an upper body workout. All in all, it felt good to be back in the healthy swing of things.

Wish me luck on Day 2!! All cardio day and I have to actually warm up breakfast and go in to work a little bit early, so we will see if I actually follow through on the scheduled breakfast of waffles. Sounds so good that it might just work!

Halloween Treats

Last night Z and I made some Halloween brownie bites! They were delicious. I copied the recipe from Bakerella's blog for Spider bites. Well, instead of spiders we went simple and just decorated with Halloween sprinkles. Bakerella also made her brownies from scratch, but I decided to just use a boxed brownie....Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge brownies to be exact.


Then we used some semi-sweet bakers chocolate to dip them in. Z had the job of adding the sprinkles. Didn't he do a great job!! Not only is Z a cutie, but these brownie bites are pretty darn cute too!


These are so super simple and very versatile, they are perfect for every occasion! Check out all of Bakerella's ideas, she is a genius. Here is the link to Bakerella's version.
Happy Late Halloween!

Blog GiveAways

One great thing about blogs are giveaways!! They are awesome because all you have to do is read your favorite blogs and you can win free stuff!! This week, my wonderful Aunt - ok, actually cousin, Linda is giving her first blog giveaway. She has a great blog about all the wonderful things in life and some zany things as well, which I adore reading. I think you would enjoy it as well. For her first giveaway the prize is The Pioneer Woman Cookbook!! If you don't know anything about either of these blogs, start out at Linda's: http://www.ourmushpush.com/

Have fun!!

My favorite things

One of my most favorite things to do is to decorate, well ok, think about decorating. We live in a great little apartment right now and I think I've done pretty well with what we had, but I really can't wait to have a house of my very own to decorate. Well, the next best thing is my very own office! The business that I am working for is currently moving offices. We are moving from a small one room locale to a much larger two room plus locale. So that means I get to use what we currently have and furnish and decorate the rest of the place! I'm so excited about it, I can barely contain myself. I really hope I get to start looking for some stuff soon! I already have some great ideas to make it a great and much more professional office. Oh, did I also mention that I love to organize, so yeah, there is going to be a lot of that going on very very soon. I will post pictures as soon as I can get started! Wish me luck!

Whole Wheat Pasta with Spinach and Walnuts

Tonight Z cooked up the delicious Whole Wheat Pasta with Spinach and Walnuts from Ellie Kriegers, "The Food You Crave." It is probably the best pasta salad I've ever had. We used to make this all the time in Hawaii and we never ever got sick of it. It is a combination of whole wheat pasta, garlic, red onions, spinach, walnuts, feta cheese, and a yummy dressing of red wine vinegar, olive oil, and dijon mustard. Now, Ellie says to put the pasta in the fridge after it is done cooking, but we love to keep it out so that it is a little bit warm when you mix it all up. It wilts the spinach just a little bit and it makes it all that much better! Be careful about the vinegar usage in the dressing. It is supposed to be a little bit tart I think, but if you don't get the proportions just right it will be too tart.

This is another super simple recipe that is really delicious. You don't even realize that it is actually healthy! We are lucky that we have two more meals left with this recipe! Yay! This weekend will be the Summer Corn and Vegetable Soup. I know you are as excited as I am!

On another note, Isn't it interesting how messy men are when they cook! Water all over the floor as well as onion peels. Oh, well, he's still the best guy in the world!

Buffalo Chicken Salad

Tonight we had the delicious Buffalo Chicken Salad from Ellie Krieger's book "The Food You Crave." It's basically like eating buffalo wings in a salad. It has the spice, the blue cheese, the carrots and the celery, all in one. As Z put it, "It had the right combination of creamy and spice." The only hard part was pounding out the chicken. Since we don't have a meat mallet, that meant Z went to work with my pink handled hammer! Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of that one!

The total recipe only took about 20 minutes and afterwards the kitchen was already clean, so it really didn't take much. If I had to do it over again, I would add a little bit more Chalula, just because I love it when it is super spicy. Have fun with this one!!



Next up, Whole Wheat Pasta Salad with Spinach and Walnuts, Yum!!