Sometimes Boring is Fun

Yesterday evening was boring...and I loved it!!  We cooked dinner.  The husband grilled the drumsticks I marinated and I think he secretly loved it.  I asked him what he was doing on a Monday night and he said (with a smile), "Grilling in my backyard".  Okay, so maybe not secretly.  I made zucchini and Spanish rice (nothing fancy...straight from a package) to go with our chicken.

Yummy.

Then I measured the living room to make sure this little gem would fit where I wanted it to.

(source)

It is a storage bench which I think will look much better than the basket I have in the corner now.  Plus it is extra seating!  It is only offered online, so I hope I like it as much when it gets here as I do in the picture.  I would like to have seen it before purchasing, but I went ahead and took my chances.  It was on sale and exactly what I was looking for.  I ordered it this morning.  I would have ordered it last night, but our power went out.  It wasn't raining or anything in my area.  Just click...gone.  I found it very rude.

I hope you have a terrific Tuesday!!  It isn't Monday anymore!

Smile!  This picture is compliments of my niece.  This is one of their new kitties.

Faucets and Subway Tile!

One of my first purchases for the kitchen has turned out to be one of the last things to be installed.  I have waited a long time, but yesterday I came home to see my new faucet.  I am in love.

Yay!!

I did have to pout a little because in order to install the faucet, since it was a tight space, they scratched my windowsill.  Of course they will fix that...but still...I pouted.  

My subway tile back splash was installed yesterday also.  I love it!

I'm keeping the drop cloth.  I think it really adds to the space.

They will be grouting the tile today.  Hurray!

And I cooked dinner last night...chicken tenders breaded with Italian bread crumbs, roasted brussel sprouts, and whole wheat couscous.

Yes, I had already started eating before I took the picture...I was hungry.

Have a great Thursday!!

We're Cookin' Now

First things first...Sammy is home from her weekend at her favorite place Bed and Biscuits.

I was so happy to see her!  She was worn out from all the playing.

Second and SUPER exciting...I cooked dinner in MY kitchen last night. WOOHOO!!!!  I hit the grocery store at lunch and grabbed all the goods for a gigantic salad with Skinny Taste's White Balsamic Vinaigrette.  I also picked up some chicken breast tenders which were an adventure to cook in a not completely unpacked kitchen.  It wasn't until I had them out of the package and was trimming them that it occurred to me that I had no idea which box all my spices were in.  Almost cooking fail...but rescued by my favorite marinade...Allegro!  Thank goodness I had a bottle in the fridge.

Delicious!

I served it all up on a very fancy paper plate.  Hopefully I will get the rest of the kitchen unpacked in the next couple of days.  The only things left to be done in the kitchen are the back splash tile, swapping the faucet out, and a few odds and ends.

It is still cluttered right now, but it works!  The shelf which is skillfully holding a cutting board at the moment is where the microwave will go.  This whole counter top is a new addition to the kitchen.  This was kind of dead space before.

I am loving how the breakfast room cabinets turned out.  I love the hardware.  And there is a table in the breakfast room now.  I know...crazy talk.

We enjoyed dinner at the table last night.  We were fancy...or at least it felt kind of fancy.  The husband called the right to cook dinner tonight.  I suppose I will let him use MY kitchen.  :)

Dinner Date

Last night I had a dinner date with Rebecca.  Liz was also supposed to join us, but she wasn't feeling well.  We missed her.  Rebecca and I decided that we would cook for our dinner date instead of going out.  I am glad we did!  If you have not met the wonder that is cauliflower with laughing cow cheese, let me introduce you!

Cheesy Cauliflower

• 1 head of cauliflower
• 6 wedges of light laughing cow Swiss cheese
• garlic powder, to taste
• salt and pepper, to taste

Core your cauliflower and steam until tender.

 

Rebecca has this cool steamer that allows you to put herbs in the steamer to add flavor.  We added fresh rosemary and it added an awesome taste to the cauliflower.  Yum!  Don't worry, this recipe is also delicious without the bonus rosemary.  :)

Add the hot cauliflower to a large bowl and combine with cheese, garlic powder, salt and pepper.  The cauliflower will fall apart and you almost end up with a mashed potato type consistency.  The recipe made 6 servings which tallied to one weight watchers point + per serving.  It seemed a too good to be just one point, so I logged it as two.

Dinner on a Christmas plate :)

Yum!  We baked chicken drumsticks that Rebecca had seasoned in Allegro (you can read about Allegro in this post) and steamed green beans that we tossed with seasoned salt and a little olive oil cooking spray.  Delicious.

And of course there was a little wine.

I got to drink out of Rebecca's cute new wine glass.  She and some friends did a Christmas exchange of glasses, everyone brought a glass and they did a white elephant exchange.  What a great idea!  Do you have any cool Christmas traditions with your friends?

Dinner Party and Festivals

Last night my awesome friend, workout buddy and neighbor Rebecca (yes, that is her official title) had us over for dinner.

We had a little wine.

Rebecca made the most awesome stuffed bell peppers...they were amazing!

Ready for the oven

I do not know the complete list of details for her recipe, but I know that she had blanched the peppers, stuffed them with ground elk meat that she had cooked with sauteed onion and garlic.  To the cooked elk mixture she added Lawry's season salt, a little bread crumbs and one egg's worth of egg beaters.  Before baking she added a bread crumb and Parmesan cheese mix to the top.  For you weight watchers out there, elk meat is a great substitute for beef...it is delicious and comes in at the same points value per ounce as chicken.  It really rocks.

She served  the peppers with salad and a wild rice mix.  It was fantastic.  On a side not Rebecca tried making the Awesome Balsamic Dressing with red wine vinegar instead of balsamic and it was really good.  She said the only thing she did differently to the recipe (besides switching the vinegars) was add a little bit of splenda.  I liked the variation a lot.

For dessert we did a little beer tasting of a beer Rebecca's brother Cody brewed.  It was very good.  Tasted to me like fall in a glass.

And of course a blog about dinner at Rebecca's would not be complete without a picture of her pup Leo.  Isn't he a cutie?

Thanks for having us over Rebecca!

Last weekend I told you that we went to the Greek Festival and this weekend we are going to the Italian Festival!  The cool thing that I like about these two festivals, besides that they are on back to back weekends, is that they are also within blocks of each other and both are right in our neighborhood!  Plus since I work at the University of St. Thomas and that is also where the Italian Festival takes place, I get to go for free!  Definite bonus!

I will let you know on Monday how the festival was, until then I will leave you with a super cute picture from last weekend's Greek Festival.

At the Greek Fest they were selling those scarf type wraps that have the metal pieces on them that jingle (reminds me of a belly dancing skirt...and if anyone out there knows the name for these, please tell me...I would love to know...I tried to find out and didn't come up with anything).  This precious toddler was out and about in hers...it was so cute!  She was busy walking and jingling.

And today I am going to be wild and crazy and not pick a pen color.  I am going to mix it up!  Happy Friday!

Now tell me, have you tried any interesting meats?  Venison?  Elk?  Buffalo?

Let's Talk Lunches and Darts

I don't know about you, but I work in an office, so I try to bring my lunch with me.  It just makes sense, it is less expensive, there is nothing to think about when it comes to lunch time and I know just how many points + are in my lunch...no guessing.  The downside, if you are anything like me, make ahead lunches can be BORING...not to mention frozen dinners...let's not go there.  I try to avoid frozen dinners, but there are some tasty ones that can be useful in a time crunch situation.

I typically decide what types of lunches I will be bringing for the week on the weekend so I can get everything I need at the grocery store.  I try to make only one trip to the store a week, so planning really helps.  I usually cycle through these options: soup, salad and leftovers.  This week is salads.

Pretty...this is before tossing.

My salads this week will contain baby spring mix, spinach, red onion, cucumber and hearts of palm.  It will of course be dressed with Awesome Balsamic Dressing.  For protein I am adding imitation crab meat...I always think that sounds so gross, but it is so tasty.

Salad post tossing and adding crab meat - not as pretty

I use Sunday evening as a time to prep things for lunches for the week...you may have noticed that in a lot of my weekend recaps I have mentioned prepping for the week.  In my post Sunday Preparation I go into lots of details from that Sunday.  If I have planned soup for lunches, I will make that on Sunday and then portion it out for myself and my husband so it's ready for grabbing and going all week.  Some weeks I like to prep vegetables, so my lunch has ready to go veggie sides and I will get my protein by cooking extra chicken, beef, pork, etc for dinners each night so we will have a serving to go with our veggies the next day.  It makes lunch time pretty darn easy, which is good since I like to spend most of my lunch hour at the gym!

Last night I played darts.  I used to be an active player in the dart league managed by the Harris County Dart Association.  I still sub for a team and they needed me last night.  They will actually need me the next two Wednesdays as well.  It is fun to play...even though I am rusty.

Yes, those are my darts and yes, those are camo flights.

The match consists of the games 301, 501, 1001 and Cricket.  In all there are 13 games to a match.  We did not win and that is okay with me, I still had fun.  I like being the sub that everyone thinks won't hit anything and then throwing a ton-twenty-one in 501.  In dart lingo they call 100 points a ton, so my ton-twenty-one was 121 points consisting of two triple 20's and a single one.

The outside ring is doubles, the inside ring is triples, and the center of course is the bullseye.

The only thing that could have been better about that shot was if I hadn't messed it up with the single one.  A single twenty or even a triple twenty would have been so much cooler, but I will take it.  You might wonder why there are no people in my stunning dart photos and that would be because dart players can be finicky while they are throwing in league and do not like to be distracted.

Score board for a game of Cricket

Little or widely known fact depending on how well you know me...I met my husband playing darts.  He will love that this story is making the blog.  Anyway it was back when I was an active player in the league and he came in with his friend John that I knew from league to play darts.  I was playing with a friend from my team, Matthew.  So Matthew and I agreed to play Daniel (the now husband) and John in doubles Cricket.  Apparently, I was being competitive and talking some smack (I of course don't remember this part, since I never talk smack during a dart game with friends) and apparently Daniel not knowing me and knowing I had the skills to back up the talk was a thrown off by the chick with the darts.  I know this because the first thing my husband ever said directly to me was, "I'm not losing to the likes of you."  Great pick up line right?  He then walked to the restroom, at which point I asked Matthew his name and said he's kind of cute.  Ha!  If you know my husband you know that he is the sweetest guy on earth and that he was just talking back.  Case in point, this coming Saturday marks 6 years since our first date.  The date during which he cooked me dinner...tomatoes stuffed with feta, rice and shrimp (he even put the tops back on the tomatoes); roasted vegetables; salad and hand made chocolate dipped strawberries.  :)

Oh, and by the way...he did lose to the likes of me.

Today the pen color is red...well because that's the color of the double bull.

So tell me, what silly "sports" do you compete in and/or do you have any awesome lunch ideas??

Terrific Tuesday

The weather is beautiful here in Houston this morning.  Rebecca and I knocked out 1.89 miles this morning and it was awesome.  The time flew by, I think because of the weather and the great company.

Last night's dinner was simple.  I baked chicken that I had marinated in Allegro hickory marinade...I like the original marinade better, but this one was also very good.  (More about Allegro in this post.)  I made a side of pasta cooked in chicken broth and a salad with awesome balsamic dressing.

The new thing I tried last night was adding water chestnuts to the salad.  It was good...didn't blow me away, but it added a nice texture.  This dinner came in at 9 weight watchers points, 4 points for 4 ounces of chicken, 3 points for 2/3 cup cooked pasta, one point for the dressing and one point for the reduced fat feta in the salad.  Very filling and quite tasty.

I realized after posting yesterday's post that the pen color really should have been pink.  I will correct that by making it the pen color today.

Love my daisy mouse pad.  :)

Have a fabulous day!!

I Love Surprises!

Yesterday afternoon the clouds rolled in and we got a little rain.  I didn't even think there was a chance in the forecast so it was a great surprise.  We didn't get a lot of rain, but I still enjoyed the thunder and lightening.  This meant that we didn't go walking yesterday evening, but we did have movie night...which was awesome.  The movie we watched was not...Friends with Money...I didn't like it.

For dinner we had chicken, seasoned in allegro marinade, roasted cauliflower and roasted sweet potato.  It was delicious.  Dinner came in at 8 weight watchers points.

I was surprised at how few points a boneless skinless chicken thigh was.  Because of this I had lots of points left over for the day, so we had popcorn while we watched the movie.  It made the movie a little better.  :)

My friend Roberta...you remember her from Thursday! and A Little Bit of Everything...she brought me presents yesterday!  She knows I love Mary Engelbreit and she got me some cute nail files.  And it was perfect timing too...I needed one when she gave them to me.

THANKS BIRD!!

And I realized that I have mentioned working out with Rebecca for a while on the blog and her picture hasn't graced the pages since this post: BRAtober - cocktail party for a good cause.  I didn't want her to be jealous of Roberta and dump me as a workout buddy so I thought I better get her up here.  I have no pictures of us working out together, so you will have to settle for one of the party pictures.  All three of us are doing the Race for the Cure on Saturday morning, so maybe there will be a picture coming of all three of us in workout gear together.

Hi Rebecca!

Let's hope Rebecca likes surprises as much as I do!

Today the pen color will be yellow, since I am feeling bright.  HA!

It could be because it is Friday.  TGIF!!!

Have a fabulous weekend!

An Evening in the Life

We had an awesome evening, but it was very much more of the same.  Daniel and I went walking and I took bad pictures.

What tops of our heads?

Go Dano go!

Then we came in and made baked tilapia and salads with awesome balsamic dressing.  You can find the recipes on my recipes page.

Yum!

Rebecca joined us for dinner (the menu was at her request and she approved!) and she and I checked out the info for Saturday's Race for the Cure and planned our parking strategy.

Tuesday Sammy got a new toy.  It is a red ring toy...she had one when she was a puppy and it lasted a couple of years.  She loved that one and she is loving the new one.  We used to call it her pillow and I forgot about that fact until I came in and saw this.

"I don't know why they called it my pillow."

Silly dog.

The pen color today will be pink.  It feels like a pink day...

Enjoy your Thursday!

Sauteed Shrimp

I made a simple dinner last night and it turned out so well I thought I would go ahead and share my little recipe.  But first, a mocktail...in a fancy glass...it was that kind of day.

Fancy

Shimple Shauteed Shrimp

(I know, I know...I'm hilarious!)

• 4 cups raw shrimp, peeled and de-veined
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp smart balance light spread
• Old Bay Seasoning

Season raw shrimp with Old Bay Seasoning and refrigerate until ready to saute.  Melt Smart Balance in a large pan over low heat and add garlic.  Saute on low until garlic is becoming soft.  Add shrimp and increase heat to medium.  Stir until shrimp is pink and done.  Sprinkle with additional Old Bay as needed.  This recipe makes two servings.

I served the shrimp over my Easy Orzo...recipe in this post.  It would also be good over rice, quinoa or couscous.  For the weight watchers fans out there this recipe came in at 10 points.

I served it with a side of zucchini.  Yum.

The pen color for today will be black...it will look good on my Halloween sticky notes!

Have a great Wednesday!!

Weekend Recap and Weigh In

I am not feeling very well today...bummer.  I am staying home with Sammy and Trixie and trying to make sure this...whatever this is...doesn't get worse.  That means this post will be short.  Ready?  Here goes...

We took Sam to the park and she got to swim.  She was super happy.  She was the only pup swimming and everyone wanted to throw her chicken for her.

Satisfied Pup

My niece Courtney scored her first goal this weekend.  Way to go Courtney!!

I made green beans for as the prepped vegetable for the week.  Yummy.

I sauteed 4 pieces of turkey bacon and one sliced onion until onion was translucent.  I added beans, two cups of beef stock, a little worcestershire sauce (I have to look up how to spell that every time) and sea salt to taste.

I love this pot.

I simmered them until the beans were tender.  Excellent.

And now the weigh in...

This week: -2.9
Last week: -5
So far:        -7.9

YAY!!!

Have a great Monday.