Big plans for October

Remember when I did the Lenten Adventure? I've been missing it a little bit. I've been missing structure, some sense of boundaries, rules, something to keep me in line. I thrive on routine, on the comfort of knowing what is coming next. And sometimes I let that all fall by the wayside just for funsies, and I have to rein myself back in. So, I'm re-adopting a few (just a few...) of the things I added or gave up earlier this year as part-challenge, part-being true to myself. It just needs to be.

 

1. Cheese - it's got to go.

2. Daily exercise - it's got to happen, broken foot be damned.

3. Church on Sundays - no brainer.

4. Snoozing the alarm clock - case and point, I should be at work right now and instead I'm working on my couch...

5. Making my bed daily - such an easy, satisfying chore.

 

We each have different coping mechanisms to deal with life, and creating rules for myself to live by is one of mine. Whatever works, I say, and I know this works for me. I haven't decided if I'm just going to do this for October or for the rest of 2013, but I'll report back.

 

What's the last thing you did in your own best interest? I also took myself home on Friday night rather than going out to another party and I call that a success by every count imaginable.

Shiner Ruby Red

It's the most wonderful beer of the year!

 

I discovered Shiner Ruby Red last summer, and didn't realize it was seasonal. Shame on me.

 

 

I saw it in the grocery store for the first time this summer over the weekend, and I bought 2 6-packs.

 

It's the perfect summer beer - great by the pool or paired with a fresh fish and fruit salsa.

I plan to never run out.

 

Summer, I love you.  

 

Pinterest Salmon + Brownies

I got home from work last night and had no idea what to eat. I knew I didn't want to go out and I knew I had a million different things I could cook in the freezer. Soo, what's a girl to do but open the Pinterest app in the elevator of her building? And then I found this pin. GAME CHANGER.

I keep a running top 5 recipes list. This one easily makes it. I followed the recipe exactly (except for subbing Greek yogurt for mayo, but only because I had no mayo and had Greek yogurt) as it was and I had to stop myself from running back to the kitchen to stuff my face with more salmon.

A food blogger I am not but seriously – this salmon was INCREDIBLE. I did things mildly backwards – I cooked the salmon in the whole marinade sauce rather than marinating it but otherwise… ya’ll. I’m just disappointed that I don’t have more salmon. I will most certainly be cooking this again.
If you don’t want 18 lbs of sriracha cream sauce, you might want to cut the recipe in… 10th’s. Or, you could make it as is and smear it on every single thing you put in your mouth over the next 5 days. To each their own.

So then, because I felt that my luck had not run out, I attempted another Pinterest recipe. Brownies. It’s pretty much impossible to go wrong  with 2 1/4 cups of sugar and 2 sticks of butter. And instead of Nutella, I used Trader Joe’s cookie butter because I just happened to have it in my kitchen. (Sometimes my annoying food hoarder tendencies drive me nuts, but today they served me well. I didn’t go to the grocery store for a single ingredient in either recipe.)

I forced EV to eat a brownie with vanilla ice cream and then got a text that said “that brownie was so amazing i feel mildly ill.” She’s a tough judge so I consider this a major success. I pretty much inhaled my brownie. They were moist, hot, chocolatey, and pretty much perfect. Delicious brownies, you’ll be entering my rotation immediately.

And really, I also have to give a special shout out to my kitchen sidekick, Mr. Bubbly. Thanks for keeping me company!

My favorite kitchen appliance

I’ve lived with EV for 18 months now, and when she moved in, she brought a lot of kitchen stuff that we already had. She had also basically fully furnished a kitchen in her last apartment, so between the 2 of us we now have what one might call an excess of dishes and kitchen appliances.

BUT.

She came with one thing that has easily been her greatest contribution to the condo to-date (aside from her fantastic roommate skills and friendship!)  A Cuisinart Griddler.

Seriously, if you don’t have one of these, run thee to Costco immediately and purchase. Or wait until you get another 20% off Bed, Bath & Beyond coupon and then purchase. Either way, purchasing is the key outcome.

I cook 3-4 nights a week, and we probably use this at least 2/3 of the time. Steaks, sandwiches, fish, chicken, quesadillas, bacon, sausage, hamburgers, hot dogs, basically you name it and I’ve probably prepared some portion of a meal on the Griddler. It sits on our countertop, that’s how much we use it.
My favorite part is that the plates are reversible, so you have flat plates or grill plates. Plus, they go in the dishwasher. This is really less of a plus for EV since unloading the dishwasher ends up being her chore more times than not but still, it’s convenient.

When my parents were visiting, my mom fell in love with it, so guess what she got for Christmas last year? Yup – now she has one in Florida AND at the lake because she loved it so much. I was talking about it at work the other day, too (standard professional conversation, you know) and 3 (THREE!) other people heard me raving about it and chimed in that they too love their Griddler.

Seriously, this thing has a reputation that can’t be beat. Totally worth the $100 – you’ll love it. It’s also now my standard wedding gift. Registry shmegistry, in typical Katie fashion, I clearly know better than you what you want, friends.

Happy faux-grilling!

PS – this might seem like a paid advertisement, and believe you me I wish it was, but it ain’t. Just a really rockin’ kitchen appliance.

Party Eats

It's no secret - I love to host a party.

New Years Eve 2011

New Years Eve 2010

Jersey Shore 2010

Engagement Brunch 2010

Tacky Sweaters Christmas Party 2010

Game Night 2010

You get the idea.

I also love to prep food for parties. I'd probably guess that I already have 9 out of 10 ingredients on hand. I tried some new recipses for a Super Bowl Party with a few friends, and thought I'd share them (and what I thought of them) with you.

1. Stacy's Healthier Buffalo Wings



 Rating: 4 out of 5

Tips: I did everything except bake in the oven the night before and stored them in the fridge overnight.

2. Closet Cooking Hot Corn Dip (found via Pinterest)

Rating: 4 out of 5

Tips: I used frozen corn and a frozen green pepper, red pepper, onion mix. I subbed greek yogurt for the mayonaise and didn't include any jalapeno, so I just added a whole lot more cayenne.

3. AllRecipes Spinach Artichoke Dip

Rating: 5 out of 5

Tips: This is totally not the first time I have made this recipe but I LOVE LOVE LOVE the addition of alfredo sauce. I also like to add a package of no-fat cream cheese. So creamy, so delicious.

4. MY guacamole

Recipe: 3 avocados, 2 pits

juice of 2 limes

1/2 tbsp cayenne pepper

1/4 tbsp garlic powder

1/2 large onion (yellow or red) finely chopped

Red pepper flakes if I'm feeling feisty

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Tips: Get the avocado all nice and creamy, dice up the onion into tiny little chunks and enjoy. I LOATHE tomatoes, so you won't find any of that around here.

5. Chili's Knockoff Skillet Queso (courtesy of Pinterest)

Rating: 4 out of 5

Tips: I didn't even end up cooking this!! Way too much food and not enough peopl.e.

So there you have it. Those are some of my delicious recipes. Do you have any that you would absolutely add to the list? Normally I would have buffalo chicken dip, but I felt like that plus the wings would have been a little overkill. I also had a couple of other things out that I just didn't make myself so didn't feel like sharing.  

I Love Stuffed Peppers

For the last few weeks I have been focusing on cooking something on Sunday that I can eat for at least 2 more days. Since earlier this week I've had my eye on these stuffed peppers. I don't like basil, so I eliminated that from the recipe almost entirely, but it was still SO good.

The directions are easy (althhough I never really follow a recipe...just add ingredients as I feel like it). Chop onion, saute, add garlic, add 1 lb ground chicken. Heat 1 package Trader Joe's frozen brown rice. Mix in. Add 1/2 cup parmesan cheese. Mix and heat 1/2 jar pasta sauce and 1/2 cup cream. Add 1/2 of the pasta sauce mix to chicken/onion/rice. Stuff peppers with mixture. Use 1/2 of remaining sauce to cover each pepper and in the bottom of the pan. Cook uncovered for 20 minutes at 400*. Cover with aluminum foil and cook for another 30 minutes. 20 if you are impatient. Dig in. YUM! And as you can see, I made 2 peppers. Guess what I'll be having as leftovers one night this week?

I'm a Tennis Fiend & Apparently Can't Focus on 1 Topic in 1 Blog post.

I just thought you all should know that I haven't won a tennis match in 2 weeks. Granted I've only played two official matches (and 2 unofficial matches) but still. My ego is feeling slightly bruised, and my competitive side is disappearing. Quickly.

I find myself looking at a scoreboard that reads 3-0 and thinking...ok, I'm going to lose, I might as well hurry up and get it over with so I can get out of this drenching, nasty heat. Then I end up tying the score at 3-3 and then losing 6-3.

One of my friends that I play with on the reg told me the first 3 games shouldn't count and while I didn't agree when he said it because it would have meant that I lost instead of I won, I am now leaning closer to agreeing. Maybe that's the loser mentality? If only those first 3 didn't count, then I'd win. But how do you stop at 3? How many do you play before it starts counting? When you start winning? Then it's definitely the loser mentality.

Anyway, I just wanted you all to know this about me. I don't like to lose, but I don't like being hot and sweaty either. For what it's worth, last night we lost and I was okay with it because we were making really good shots and placing them really well, just...a little outside the lines. But I'm okay with that. I'm not okay with hitting the ball 9 miles behind the baseline or into the net.

I also earned 26 WW points playing tennis the last 2 nights, so that's a win, too. I can drink 1/2 a margarita or eat 2 oreos. Actually, did you know that 3 oreos is only 4 points? Not bad, my friends, not bad at all.

Speaking of oreos, I heard about a few things recently that I wanted to share. Do you know there is such a thing as man versus machine? I thought it was some sick exercise thing, but no, I was dead wrong. Man versus machine is when a (hu)man eats 1 item out of every slot in the vending machine in a 24 hour period. Also, one of my friend's little brothers was challenged to eat the top 2 rows of candy in a vending machine in an hour. Who are these people? Apparently he wanted to practice and I was around for the text messages after his practice round that said, "Dude. My stomach hurts." Why would you practice something like that? People are so weird.

My other friend told me about a contest between 2 people. Real people! People she knows! One had to do Man versus Machine and the other had to eat only 1 bag of Cool Ranch Doritos every day for a week. Apparently 1 bag of Cool Ranch Doritos has the necessary caloric intake for a day. 7 days of only Cool Ranch Doritos! An entire vending machine in 24 hours! I think my heart just collapsed and the button on my pants popped off. GROSS!

I'll let you know when I hear about the results of both challeneges. Any other vending-machine-eating-idiots out there? Please share. Considering these two things were shared with me within days of each other, I'm convinced there is some subliminal messaging. Maybe I've already drank too much WW Kool-Aid and it's a subliminal voice screaming "STAY AWAY FROM THE VENDING MACHINES KATIE." Don't worry, voices in my head, there aren't any vending machines around here. Only open jars full of Oreos.

Anyway, back to tennis - who wants to play? I've got a vending machine to eat my way through and I need to earn some activity points.

Change Your Life Challenge: Cooking!

Remember when I used to post about delicious recipes I had created at home? Me too. Those were the days. The days before work consumed my life. The days before travel budgets lured me out of my house and into restaurants. The days before I gained 18.2 pounds because I mean...what's one more chip dipped in queso? The days before dinner with friends who I don't normally get to see during the week took priority over eating at home. Eating healthy. Eating normal portion sizes. Remember what I said about travel budgets? Apparently they mean ordering everything on the menu, too.

Guess what all of this means? It's time for my next...

It may seem silly to dedicate only a week to changing what has clearly become a lifetsyle for me, but I really think I just need to refocus and get myself back on track. I want to start cooking again. I want to start grocery shopping again. I want food to stop going bad in my fridge (or acquiring layer upon layer of freezer burn in my freezer!) I also really, really want to focus on cooking just for me. Not cooking for 1800 and freezing leftovers. I don't eat them. I want to cook for 1, me, moi, uno.

When: Starting today, Tuesday, July 5, through next Monday, July 11.

Why: I'm tired of eating out and feeling like crap afterwards. Plus, I miss cooking!

How: Plan at least 3 meals per week and focus on making enough to serve me for dinner and maybe some leftovers for lunch. But that's not the goal - I want to learn to cook just for myself without weeks worth of leftovers.

If you are ready to participate in this challenge, then comment on this entry so we can support each other! Got questions about the "Change Your Life Challenge"? Email me with any questions or concerns you have.

If you accept the challenge, post the challenge logo on your blog and encourage more people to scurry over here and sign up for the challenge, too!

Grab the link for the logo: http://i54.tinypic.com/28rfe6a.jpg if you'd like! Feel free to copy and paste (and post) this entry at your own blog. Just give credit and share the love!

President's Day Cleaning Extravaganza

One of the many, many, perks of my not-so-new job is that I get today off. I had big plans for today, and they did not involve sitting in bed until 10:30 reading Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks, nor did they involve moving to my couch and curling up under my leopard print snuggie only to get sucked in by work emails and Gchat. Nope, I had big plans for today. Wanna know what they were? (2nd update at 6pm; 1st update at 1:20pm; original post at 10:30am)

• Unload dishwasher
• Put dirty dishes that are in the sink into the dishwasher
• Take all things that don't belong on kitchen counters and move them to dining room table
• Sanitize kitchen counters
• Sanitize nook table
• Dust living room
• Dust dining room
• Vacuum living room, dining room, & kitchen
• Mop living room & dining room
• Mop kitchen
• Take out the trash
• Take out the recycling
• Dust bedroom
• Wash sheets
• Put away clean clothes
• Vacuum bedroom floor
• Clean bathroom counters
• Mop bathroom floor
• Cook my mom's chicken and dumplings
• Bake peanut butter cookies
• Apply leopard print fingernails
• Bathe? (this one is debatable)
• Not fall asleep in my food when I go to dinner at 8:30 (who goes to dinner at 8:30? on a work night? I am a grandma)
• Get a haircut (these pictures are from a long time ago, when I was a totally different person, and it's funny how something as simple as a haircut can really make a girl run wild!)

Clearly I have big plans for today, and there's only so much I can do in the next 9 hours while also not falling asleep in said food at said way too late dinner. I'm off to probably keep snuggling with my snuggie and quite possibly watching television and staring longingly at the pile of dishes I can see from the couch. Maybe my roommate will come home from work with a housekeeper? In my comfy-couch dreams!

Buffalo Chicken Dip

Let me tell you the following 2 facts about myself:

1. I hate beans. Black beans, pinto beans, blech. It doesn't deter me from eating Willy's, but I really really hate beans.
2. I love dips. I love buffalo dip, artichoke dip, crab dip... if it has ingredients such as 1 bag shredded cheese, 2 blocks cream cheese, and 1 jar ranch dressing, consider me in love.

I passed around my buffalo chicken dip recipe a few weeks ago for Super Bowl parties, and I got a ton of feedback telling me how great it was. But I didn't make it for myself, because, well, again... recipes that include 2 blocks of cream cheese and 1 bag of shredded cheese are not exactly healthy.

A while ago, Angela inspired me to substitute food processed beans for cheesy things. First I added pureed navy beans to a crockpot soup fail. It failed, so I never got to determine if the beans were a good or a bad thing. Then, I started thinking that I really wanted a healthier version of buffalo chicken dip. It is a staple at parties and meetings and honestly, I've yet to find someone who makes it better than I do (although that's because when I make it, I can include exactly what I want!)

Sunday morning, I woke up bright and early. I got to work sewing my sunglasses case. Then, I decided it was late enough in the morning (10am) to start boiling chicken and mixing together beans and ranch and Frank's hot sauce. Yep.

I had already soaked & cooked the beans per the instructions on the bag and they were just waiting in my fridge. I scooped out 1.5 cups of pureed beans and dumped those in the food processor. Then I added 3/4 cup of fat free ranch dressing. I started the food processor, and slowly added the last 1/3 of a bottle of Frank's red hot sauce. I have no idea what the actual measurement was, and you're lucky I bothered to measure the other 2 ingredients.

With that mixture sitting nicely in my food processor, I started to boil 2 chicken breasts. Some people would use canned chicken in buffalo chicken dip, and to that I say, I am not a cat and I do not eat things that smell like canned chicken smells. Yuck. I boil chicken breasts, wait for them to cool (or not) and shred them. It's the way real buffalo chicken dip is made, I'm telling you.

Mix the chicken and the saucy beany goodness. Sprinkle shredded cheese on top. Bake in oven for 20 minutes at 350.

Amazing.

snow day meal

All weekend the news predicted ridiculous amounts of snow and closures across Atlanta. A lot of times when they predict these kinds of things, nothing ends up happening. Well, not today.

I woke up to this:

Work was cancelled, MARTA buses stopped running, and the entire city basically shut down. Being the incredibly responsible employee that I am, I went to the office on Saturday morning to grab my computer in anticipation for the bad weather, so I was able to work for a better part of today. However, I ate like crap. I had conference calls around lunch time, and I made a pretty big breakfast, so I knew I wanted a yummy dinner. Only problem was, I haven't really gone to the grocery store in approximately...a long time. So while I had most of what I needed, I didn't have everything.

Someone asked me what my favorite thing to do outside was. Wanna know? Going back inside. So trekking 12 feet to Kroger was out of the question. I dug into the depths of my refrigerator and created what I think turned out pretty dang awesome.

I defrosted some chicken wings. I mixed up some honey, some soy sauce, some fresh squeezed OJ and a little bit of garlic. I put the chicken wings in the sauce, added more honey, more soy sauce, more OJ. It wasn't saucy enough before! I stuck the wings on a pan and put it in the oven at 475 for a little less than an hour. They turned out awesome! I made some rice pilaf to go with it and bam - dinner. No fresh veggies with dinner, but I also drank a carrot/celery/orange/lime juice earlier today, so I figured I was okay without veggies for dinner.

FYI, celery juiced = EW. Too bad I bought 2 giant stalks, and good thing my mom sent me 20 pounds of oranges.

It's no secret, I love food. A lot. I love to eat it, I love to cook it, I love to talk about it. So the other day I had pomegranate seeds for a snack at work, and my coworker confessed that she had no idea how to peel a pomegranate without a)getting juice everywhere and b)wanting to throw the pom at the wall because it's such a pain in the butt. But have no fear - the pictures below will lead you on a step by step path to pomegranate success. Ready? Go.

1. Cut off the bottom.

2. Cut off the top!  

3. Slice 5-6 times around the sides.

4. Split it open. Resist temptation to stop there and eat all seeds. See the bowl of water underneath? Just submerge the chunks of pom flesh and remove the seeds from the skin. Much easier when its under water!

5. Pull the extra skin off the seeds.

6. Take a spoon and chow down. YUM.

7. Still a little mess from the initial cut, but nothing compared to if you had peeled it on the counter!

Anybody else have any top secret tips for eating/cutting/peeling tricky foods? Onions & mangoes really mess me up, too. 

Change Your Life Challenge

I don't think I'm in a rut, or that I really need to change up much considering my life just went through a GIANT change, but I have a serious FOMO and therefore just HADDDDDDDDDD to participate in this. No such thing as too much change, says the girl who really hates change a lot. Just ask my mom, I usually just kind of hibernate until life settles down again. But no more, I've started embracing change for what it is, an opportunity to better my life and the lives of people around me.

Plus, some of my favorite blogger friends are the brains behind the operation and I do whatever they say. And maybe we'll like be famous or something, who knows. It's worth a shot, right? And PS, guys, can I get credit for helping by contributing hilarious tweets?
Every month I will feature a different week-long challenge, encouraging everyone to participate.

So, without further ado, I introduce to you the start of:

Each month a different challenge will be featured and I will be calling on you, my lovely readers, to join me and blog (if you have have a blog!) about your progress.

Our first challenge:

Who: YOU (and anyone else you want to encourage to participate!)

What: Eat vegan or vegetarian (your choice), every meal for a full week (ahem...that's seven days, not five!)

When: November 29th, 2010 through December 6, 2010

Why: I understand that the holidays are coming up, which is why this challenge starts after Thanksgiving. The idea is to challenge yourself to eat differently for a week.
Where: Anywhere and everywhere you eat!

How: I will be posting ideas and recipes (feel free to comment with your own ideas, as well), tips and local restaurants to help make this as easy as possible. I may even venture to some veggie restaurants around ATL that I haven't tried yet. Hello 101 in 1001 goal! Most importantly, it's about incorporating the changes into your life, instead of trying to change your life to suit these changes. Don't try to go too over-the-top. Make it feasible and, more importantly, make it enjoyable!


If you are ready to participate in this challenge, then comment on this entry with your email address and expect a challenge email update soon. Emails will be sent out within 24 hours of you leaving your comment to give you details about the challenge, and you will have ample time to ask questions, share inspiration, anything and everything.

Got questions about the "Change Your Life Challenge"?

Email me or Change Your Life Challenge with any questions or concerns you have.

If you accept the challenge, post the challenge logo on your blog and encourage more people to scurry over here and sign up for the challenge, too!

Grab the link for the logo: http://i54.tinypic.com/28rfe6a.jpg and check out the hashtag on Twitter.

Feel free to copy and paste (and post) this entry at your own blog. Just give credit and share the love!

Can't wait to see how this first challenge goes! Sign up and let's do this!