16May / 2013

Day in photos

Day 15, Wednesday: A Day in the life (include photos from throughout your typical day)

Because it was storming this morning, I resorted to being indoors.

It rained, thank goodness! I wish it would rain for days!

A good reminder, because I don’t practice this most of the time. We almost never eat at the table, it’s usually in front of the tv and at work, usually in front of the computer. I am getting better about it at work, at least for lunch. Breakfast I often eat standing and on the computer.

I had a conference call most of the afternoon. It was a huge time suck and not very applicable to me. While I stand 90% of every day, I don’t stand for conference calls. If I do, I stand hunched over or on one leg, and really, that defeats the purpose. That stack by my feet, those are bills. 12 more days of session. I swear my office is really clean, despite what this angle looks like! I treated myself to a plain tea from Bill Millers because I needed more food for lunch, to stretch my bbq from home, so I bought a large salad and saved the ham on it for part of my snack.

I had wanted to go see Uncle Lucius and Jason Boland after work, but I really didn’t want to drive all of the way to Buda alone. Dan is in Canada. I don’t do well with driving at night, I get tired really easily. It’s much easier if someone is with me. I had friends going, but they all leave really far south.

So instead I opted to finally go get a new pedicure. I only ever want to go on Sundays and they aren’t open Sunday. Got a red-orange color. It’s pretty but I am not sure it really goes with my skin tone. Yes I know I need to take my fish rug home and wash it. Which reminds me, I haven’t been to IKEA in over a year!

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14May / 2013

Happiness

Day 14, Tuesday: Ten things that make you really happy

Vacations
Being active
Food. This was the mother’s day grub. Roast turkey, spicy bbq beans, grilled brats, roasted chicken, grilled corn, cabbage, onions. Oh and salad. If you’ve never had grilled cabbage, try it! It’s seriously underrated!

Love
Friends
Family

Music
Me time
Reading
Kitties. Chanel is obsessed with the yoga mat if I am no where near it.

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08May / 2013

Advice

Day 8, Wednesday: A piece of advice you have for others. Anything at all.

Everyone says, listen to your body. I think sometimes your body doesn’t tell you everything that is going on inside.

Get rest, solid good rest and i’m not just talking about sleep. Take Days Of Rest from working out, take them from stress, take them from work.

Do something different. If you are a runner or a cyclist, cross train, do yoga, lift weights, do some walking. (i’ve been a pretty loyal cross-trainer for almost 4 years). If you are just starting out or getting back into something, take it easy. Diving into something too hard and too fast is never a good idea.

I’ve learned many lessons the hard way. I don’t want others to have to make the same mistakes. I’m all about the stress relief and rest these days.

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24Apr / 2013

My trip to SF

It’s only a few weeks late Keeping it short and simple…

Lots of moving, learning, and FOOD!

My favorite salad and the only thing I can eat on Boudin Sourdough’s menu. It’s ok because I LOVE it. I got another one on the way out to take home from the airport. And I got Dan 2 lbs of bread, which is now portion controlled for him in bags in our freezer

One of my favorite parts of the whole weekend is that they take GOOD care of all of the girls, especially when it comes to food. If you are gluten free, dairy free, vegetarian, or all of the above, have no fear. I usually worry a bit when I travel, but at the hotel and at the Clif Co. dinner, I didn’t have to worry either year. It takes a HUGE load off of me. I will go hungry before I cave and eat gluten, ask Dan, he’s learned the hard way.

The food at Clif is excellent. This may be been the first plate of 2 (or 3)

That’s my team, putting Texas on the map at the Clif headquarters! LOVE my team and I am so proud of them.

The only thing I was really worried about was the run training. I had to quit running in January and had only started back about 1.5 weeks before I flew out to San Francisco. 3 months off of running is the longest i’d ever gone since starting. You also lose almost all of your fitness in anything over 6 weeks.

Our morning of run training was mostly a track workout, which was GREAT for me. The mile warmup at the time was the longest i’d run non-stop. I almost cried I was so happy. I was fine and didn’t really have anything to worry about. My team was really supportive and actually had to reign me in during the speedwork, because I was running my intervals at my old pace. I know too fast too soon is bad, but it felt AWESOME. I behaved and scaled back at the end. And there was yoga and lots of it, which I loved. Sadie, the Clif yogi taught the classes and I adored her!

We got a little silly on our final night of the conference. Had to get a pic on this round Hugh Hefner-esque couch!

The silly may have been the booze and the desserts. Ok for me, it was just desserts. My team devoured everything on the table. Yes, that’s a whole tray of gluten free! There were actually some tables who didn’t touch theirs. My team is obviously meant to be. We all love food.

We spent 2 extra nights, one on the front and one on the end for extra time.

The last day we had Mediterranean food at a cute little dive in a super fancy area. So random and so good! We were famished after we shopped at Athleta. The salmon kabobs really gave Zoe’s a run for their money. I will be back again!

The weekend ended way too soon. But once it was time to leave, boy were we ready to leave! It was a long day traveling home that Monday, lack of sleep, coffee, and own beds was wearing us down. It was an even longer day back at work on Tuesday!

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23Apr / 2013

Recipe review: Chorizo stuffed peppers

Sprouts had peppers on sale on Sunday, so I decided it was time for stuffed peppers! Just a little something I threw together as I was making it.

First, I made my own chorizo. Savory Spice shop chorizo seasoning. You add it to whatever type of ground meat you want, add vinegar (I use apple cider) and water and mix, then chill for a few hours or longer. The directions are on the side of the package. I like this seasoning so much, I have a big bottle of it.

Chorizo Stuffed Bell Peppers

-1 lb of chorizo-cooked (whatever kind you like, they make vegetarian versions too)

-1 cup of rice-cooked (I made a pan of Alton Brown’s Brown Rice)

-2 cups of cooked mixed veggies (I used HEB stirfry blend which has peppers, broccoli, carrots, etc)

-4 large bell peppers, tops sliced off

-shredded cheese (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Pull the tops off of the bell peppers and remove the seeds. You can either cut up the tops (minus the stem) and throw in the mixture, or toss them in trash. Put the 4 bell pepper bottoms in a pot of boiling water and boil 4-5 minutes. Remove from the water and dry them off.

In a skillet combine the mixed veggies, rice, and meat/meat sub and heat until warm. Then stuff each pepper with the mixture.

Place in a greased 8×8 pan and bake covered with foil, for 20 minutes. Remove foil, top with cheese if desired and broil until melted and bubbly.

Dan LOVED these. Good. Because we are having them as leftovers tonight. It’s LUNA run night and we always have leftovers on Tuesdays, because I don’t have time to cook. I am already doing well not to gnaw my arm off before I get home at 8 pm.

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18Apr / 2013

Things I like Thursday: good time Saturday night

We had a few people over last weekend.

Ok like 16.

Dan and I hosted our very first party and first house concert, featuring Drew Kennedy. The concert was also used as a kick-start for his new album, which he played in it’s entirety. No, it’s not cheap, but it’s really a neat experience to go to. Small number of people and very intimate. This was the 3rd or 4th i’ve been to, but our first time hosting. It was hard, because we couldn’t invite everyone, in fact, I didn’t have anything to do with the logistics other than being there and getting the massive amount of groceries and helping food prep.

The food was awesome, or at least I thought so. I finally got to use my new Auburn serving platter! That’s homemade jalapeno summer sausage that my dad made.

Dan smoked a bunch of meat (bacon wrapped pork tenderloins, Canecuh sausages from Alabama, and a brisket), made his mom’s potato salad, beans, I made my mom’s famous 7 layer dip. We also had people bring oriental slaw, 7 layer greek dip, brownies, an awesome fruit bowl, and lots of drinks (our whole kitchen table was a bar).

During the first break at the concert, we sang Dan happy birthday

and they dug into his cookie cake (writing in Auburn orange of course!)

I think it’s safe to say, a good time was had by all. The evening ended with a 18 person slumber party! It’s a good thing we have room.

The next morning the yummy bbq was converted into breakfast tacos. I cropped this so you can’t see the disaster my house was on Sunday morning!

It got cleaned up for the most part, but then we all went to the softball benefit and I never finished the job. Not spotless, but it’ll do until the weekend.

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12Apr / 2013

Fun facts Friday: like momma

I realized while I was in San Francisco last week, that I am more like my mom that I thought. This is a good and a bad thing.

I make lists. When I am bored I make lists of lists I need to make.
On both flights last week, I made lists on the notepad of my phone. I edited the first one on Wednesday, but I originally wrote it April 4 on my way out to Cali. If my mom knew how do do this on her new iphone, she would.
Lists lead me to be more organized most of the time and hopefully worry less. Unless stuff on said list doesn’t get done soon enough.
I am a planner. I do better when I plan. When I don’t plan, it’s not the end of the world. Unless it means I don’t get to eat, then all hell breaks loose.
She has the same haircut as me. I had it first though.
We both lost our weight on Weight Watchers.
She likes to fish with my dad. I spent many hours fishing with my dad when I was in college. Hopefully as soon as June rolls around (and the legislative session is over), I can take some time off to go with them. Although, spring and fall fishing is way better.
I am frugal. My parents spoiled me as a kid, but it was never at full price. When Solo Serve was around, we shopped there. Ross, TJ, and Marshall’s are faves these days for both mom and I. And I love a good outlet mall store. My first truck, yes, it was brand new, but my Sonic wages and tips paid for that sucker.
I worry. ALOT. This is bad bad bad for the health.
Both of my parents snack alot. I’ve gotten better but I still eat when I cook. This is something i’ve never been able to nix.
When I am at work, I worry about all of the stuff I need to do at home. I am getting better about worrying about work while at home.
One of the really bad things I do is let the snark come out full force or snip. I have huge issues with my tone. My mom is really bad about this. I am trying to be better, but Dan harshly reminds me of this often.

The bad I am really going to have to try hard to fix for my sanity and for my health. It’s not hard to see that some of my habits are very type A and type A’s have been shown to have increased risk for stress issues.

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11Apr / 2013

Things I like Thursday: veggie spiraler

Let me first by saying that I HATE gadgets that are specialized and create clutter. I used to work at Linens N Things and I used to sell specialized crap. In fact, my first few weeks before we opened the brand new store in Corpus Christi, I stocked that whole section of the store. They make a gadget for everything. I do not have the room for all of that clutter and with most things, if I’ve lived without it already, I don’t need it.

So I got this thing off of Amazon. I saw someone else had one of these and I decided I needed one too. I made an exception for this, because I figured i’d get good use out of it. My #1 reason for getting it is to make mock noodles. Not because I am avoiding carbs (which I am not), but I am gluten free and I wanted an alternative. Plus it makes fun and interesting shapes.

I’ve only tried zucchini and sweet potatoes so far. Sweet potatoes were a bit challenging to do, because it doesn’t spiral with the ease that a softer veggie does, but it still works and it wasn’t too bad. Once I sliced both ends off of the potato and applied constant pressure, we were in business.

Last night I used it to do a stir fry with a sweet potato.

LOVED it. Stir fried the sweet potato in coconut oil, then added other veggies and some pork loin strips.

I need to be more adventuresome and try some new fruits and veggies with it!

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26Mar / 2013

Cool new things

My veggie spiraler

I’ve only tried zucchini before, but other squashes, apples, potatoes, etc are on my list. It has 3 different blades to vary the size.

This spice from Savory Spice Shop. This was awesome on broiled pork chops. I will be back for a whole bottle! Says it’s great for poultry, burgers, meatloaf, and stuffed peppers. Oh the possibilities!

New venue and 2 new artists to me. We went to Texas Music Theater in San Marcos on Friday night to see grammy nominated writer Will Hoge (Dan was already a fan). Stewart Mann and the Statesboro Revue opened the show. It was all new to me and I had a great time. Not to mention, I got to have dinner with my good friend Alison and her husband before the show.

My mom (in pink) defended her Thin Mint Sprint age group title and had a PR on Saturday. That’s my sister running with her.

Photos not available yet, but we completed tore up our backyard on Saturday and Sunday. I hope this leads eventually to an awesome yard!

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23Mar / 2013

Last week’s Duck Dynasty Grub

Last Saturday night, I continued my theme for Duck Dynasty dinner of cajun inspired food. Since we were so busy last week, we didn’t watch it until Saturday. I also didn’t want to cook anything that would take too long, because we had been busy all day and were tired.

Cajun tilapia, “fried pickles”, and salad.

The fish was broiled with generic cajun seasoning. Easy.

The “fried pickles” were:

egg wash
dill pickle chips
red pepper flakes
garlic powder
paprika
crushed pork rinds

Pickles were dipped in egg, then the rind and spice mix, and then put on a rack on the cookie sheet and broiled for 5 mins each side. I forgot to spray the rack, darn it! Other than that, good. Dan said they tasted like the real thing. I MAY have picked off all of the little breading bits on the rack and ate them. Plus I sampled quite a few before they made it onto the plates. Ranch on the side for him to dip into. Most ranch dressing is not gluten free, so I don’t partake.

Dan isn’t a big fish person, but he ate it without complaining. In fact, I don’t think he EVER orders fish anywhere, not even fried fish.

I was finishing up my kabocha squash. That stuff is so good. But then again, you could probably roast shoe leather and i’d love it. There are no pickles on my plate because I’d eaten enough of them trying to get them off the pan and plated. SHAME!

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Recipe review: Chorizo stuffed peppers

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Fun facts Friday: like momma

Things I like Thursday: veggie spiraler

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Last week’s Duck Dynasty Grub

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