Sweet Treats

I'm enjoying not two days with hubby this weekend (as expected), but THREE! Yesterday, today, and tomorrow we get to spend the major part of the day together before he starts up training again. I'm definitely taking the time to be grateful and enjoy every bit of snuggle time (he's on the phone with his parents right now, hence the blogging). We're of course having a good weekend including food - some of the same Congo Bar and lasagna from last weekend (frozen during the week to preserve them), plus some soup I made last night and pizza we're making tonight. We may even go out to lunch today or tomorrow!

Meanwhile, I've been eying some new recipes for desserts that I think I will have to try out in the near future (but of course then share with others so as not to get out of control!). I came up with a desire to try making fudge for friends for Valentine's Day (this is partially self-serving because I love fudge and haven't had any in a while). After a little browsing I settled on a Paula Deen recipe, you can find it here if you're curious. 

I also just saw a recipe on a blog for cookies that contain oats, dark chocolate, and peanut butter, and are made with only whole wheat flour. They sound incredibly tasty but with a few things that give you a halfway credible way to say "Hey! They're good for me!" That recipe is here.

And to top it all off, a recipe I tried out when H came over on Thursday night. It's mini mocha cheesecakes from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine. They're actually relatively light, because the "cheese" element in them is cottage cheese! It really is hard to tell though, because all the ingredients get processed together until they're smooth. I should have taken pictures, but alas, they're all gone. Next time!

Alright, off to enjoy the rest of this day (and it happens to be a beautiful one, weather wise) with my husband! Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

The Best of All Worlds - In a Recipe!

If it seems like all I write about these days is food... that's probably because I do mostly write about food. But it's my blog so I get to do that. :-) Honestly, there isn't a ton going on with me this week besides my little food triumphs, and doing more reading than usual (yay!) but I am going on a mini-outing with some of the ladies this evening. And hubby will be home again during the day tomorrow and Sunday! We might even do normal things like watch movies and last weekend he mentioned taking me out to lunch or something - fancy!

Anyway, back to the title of this post. Yesterday I finally tried a recipe I'd been meaning to try for a while, it's from the New York Times, and it's for Cardamom-Scented Oatmeal Pancakes. It's mainly made up of oatmeal, some flour, and so on, with chopped dried apricots and almonds sprinkled in. There's a little cardamom of course, and I added some flaxseed to mine for good measure. The resulting food was different than your normal pancakes (I'm pretty sure hubby would request a return to Bisquick if I served them to him), but I loved them for the blend of nutrition and sheer deliciousness. The recipe also calls for one to drizzle honey over them before eating, and I certainly obliged that request! Making the full recipe made 8 pancakes, and I've been eating them in servings of two. They also keep me full for a while which is a nice plus. This is definitely a recipe I will return to, because there is just something awesome about pancakes that I can truly say are good for me!

I haven't taken a picture of them (gasp!) yet. Maybe I will have to do that when I heat up some more of my leftovers over the weekend...

My Beautiful Culinary Creation!

It's no secret here on my blog that I love recipes - finding them, using them, eating them. For a while I posted all my meal plans (I'm sure that will be back by the way!) and almost all the time I have a link to a recipe. However as with most things in life, in cooking, balance is key, and I've known for a while that a good goal for me is to move in the direction of cooking from a recipe less often. This particularly comes in handy weeks like this one, when I had a lot of extra food for a dinner party that was going to happen this weekend, but there was a change of plans. I had (and still have) delicious things sitting in my fridge like mushrooms, broccoli, prosciutto, goat cheese, and rosemary, just to name a few. So, I appealed to a new resource of mine, a Christmas gift from my parents called How to Cook without a Book. Ironic, yes, but with the neat idea of teaching basic methods/frameworks for cooking to become familiar with and then have at one's disposal. I opted to use the book as inspiration for creating my own frittata, and the results were tasty!

Making the frittata was really easy. I chopped up some mushrooms, broccoli, and red onion, and threw them in a skillet to saute. At this point I changed my plan a bit because I had way more vegetables than would work with the frittata, so I moved some to another pan but still cooked them. I whisked up some eggs with parmesan and rosemary, and a little salt and pepper. Before adding the egg, I threw a clove of garlic into the saute pan with the veggies. Then I poured the egg around the veggies and topped it off with prosciutto and goat cheese. I stuck the whole thing in the oven (400 degrees) for about 7 minutes until it seemed like it was done. The resulting dish was more about the filling than the eggs (at least compared to a classic frittata) but it certainly didn't make it any less delicious. I also topped the actual frittata with the extra sauteed veggies. I felt so good about the healthfulness AND the taste which is always a good thing in my book. Here is my creation in all its glory:

I still have plenty to learn but this was a great step toward not relying as much on recipes as I usually do!

Unexpected Goodness (and some other changes)

I've been gone for a little bit! I did start working on this post a couple days ago but I finally uploaded a photo to use, so at least I'm getting the post done in the middle of the week. :-)

Well, the weekend didn't necessarily go as I predicted, but that's okay. After three weeks of not seeing hubby, I spent all day Saturday and all day Sunday with him! There's also going to be an extra month (at least) tacked onto his training, so it's not all good news, but we are both looking at positives more than negatives. I will also get to see him next weekend. We really didn't do much, but after 3 weeks without each other (and basically no communication) things like taking naps, cuddling on the couch watching TV, and of course eating together, were all just fantastically enjoyable.

Since I am thinking about food (when am I not?) I thought I'd share some of the recipes I used that we both enjoyed this weekend:

- Lasagna al Forno from Tyler Florence, on foodnetwork.com

Here is a photo of mine:

- Hummus Dip Recipe by Dave Lieberman on foodnetwork.com

- Congo Bar (YUM) by Bakerella

I've been spending the week socializing with the girls, catching up on workouts, and working on the book I'm reading. I feel really inspired to use my free time to do it, so I'm going to try to force myself off the computer, keep the TV off, and spend a good chunk of time reading this afternoon! 

Uncertainty

Tonight, it's not that I'm way overly antsy, but I certainly don't feel settled. Basically, hubby is currently reaching a milestone in his training (not the end, but a break point), and from everything I know, I should be able to see him tomorrow, or possibly Saturday. I could even get a call tonight - but then again, I might not. Either way I am going to show up tomorrow at the earliest time I think he could be able to leave, but know that he might not even get to leave that day at all. I will either know when I hear from him or see him, and until then there's no way to know. I've gotten ready for him to be home for a little while, but there are no guarantees. I guess this is just a standard part of the lifestyle, but I just don't know what's going to happen and it's a little nervewracking to have to be ready for any of a bunch of scenarios.

There's not much point to this post - just venting!

Processed Guilty Pleasure

So, for my health in general, and in particular my current nutrition and weight loss goals, I feel like I have been reinforcing to myself over and over lately that I need to be eating and cooking with foods that are as natural as possible, and avoiding processed food to the greatest extent I can manage. Most of the time, I feel really good about where I am with that (I mean, I'm working on incorporating flax and quinoa in my diet!). However, tonight I indulged in one of my lingering processed food guilty pleasures - boxed macaroni and cheese, replete with the powdered cheese that you mix with butter and milk! For what it's worth, I used an organic/natural brand, and I added some peas in there for color and texture and veggie content. I know it doesn't really make it better though. But it was so good, and I don't regret it. Tomorrow I'll be back to my normal ways - making pasta with asparagus, goat cheese, and lemon, and using whole wheat pasta to boot!

(Sorry for the rapid fire posts - feeling inspired tonight I suppose!)

What I've Been Watching...

So particularly with my current lifestyle, I've been taking little bits of pleasure in television. Possibly too much - but that is a topic for another post. I'm going to spend the rest of this little ditty on what I've been watching on the tube recently.

Sunday night, I watched the Hollywood awards show that was on - but you know, I realized more than ever that I enjoy the red carpet/fashion aspect possibly a lot more than the awards themselves. It's frivolous, it's silly, but it is fun!

Last night, I watched... wait for it... The Bachelor! Oh my, such a guilty pleasure - however, I watched it with a few other ladies and it made for a fantastic girls night. That's gonna have to continue in the weeks to come. :-)

Tonight, it's been What Not to Wear - a show that I have loved for a while, mostly because the style tips are wonderful, but it's so much more than a makeover fashion show. Stacey and Clinton are part stylists, part therapists, and to watch them help people break through whatever baggage they might have and just start to feel so much better about themselves, is amazing! I also try to regularly remember their tips and pointers when I shop for myself.

Right now my focus is turning to preparations for hubby's brief return home (!!!) in a few days, but after that, I want to work on staying more focused on goals, like the major clean outs and other things I'm hoping to accomplish. I've been doing pretty well so far, but in the next phase of being on my own I really want to take it to the next level of staying motivated and moving forward! I'll also have plenty of fun weekend plans to look forward to, and that will help as well!

Relaxed Weekend

I haven't done a ton this weekend - that only became slightly bad yesterday when I realized I'd spent too much time on the computer. I started off well by going to spin class (which had some added squats and ab exercises). I ate according to my plan, which was another plus, and I accomplished one of my goals for while hubby is gone - I got iTunes onto my computer and combined our music together. (I also bought some new stuff, some for us both, and some for me, with the large amount of giftcards we have to spend.) I do just wish I'd managed to mix in a bit more variety by completing another goal or reading more than I did. Today is another day however! I'm going to baby-sit this afternoon, which will add some variety and something to do outside the house.

I had a delicious breakfast smoothie this morning - banana, Greek yogurt, frozen strawberries and blackberries, a little fruit juice, and a little honey! So tasty! Speaking of tasty, I made a delicious and fast dinner thanks to Giada - and one I knew was super good for me as well, so I felt great about it all around. In photo form, here is my Broiled Salmon with Herb Mustard Glaze:

As you can see it was paired with some roasted broccoli and a little lemon for squeezing!

I've also found myself interested in foods that are a little on the "weird" side like quinoa and flaxseed, both of which I'll be experimenting with soon. If anyone has yummy ways to prepare and use either or both of them, I'd love to hear about it! In reading all about health these foods come up a lot, and since I'm not familiar with them I figured why not. Also, with hubby not here, I'm not making him a guinea pig for my weird food experiments. :-)

Fiddling with Food

With my current eating goals and plan, I spend a decent amount of time fiddling with my planned meals to attempt to somewhat stay on track. Today I spent some time attempting to chart out the next week (until the day that hubby might get a chance to come home for a little while). Instead of my usual relatively boring format, I'm going to try to give some photos where I can, so you can see what will be cooking in my kitchen in the coming week. :-)

There's Flash Fajitas from Real Simple: 

Broiled Salmon with Herb Mustard Glaze, by Giada: 

Pasta with Lentils and Arugula, by Martha: 

Asparagus, Goat Cheese and Lemon Pasta from Smitten Kitchen: 

That's a sampling! It's really hard to think of myself as dieting when I'm eating food like this. The combination of choosing my favorite foods and the planning element are really what make this style of maintaining/losing weight work for me - and in case anyone is wondering, it is working so far, which only pushes me to want to continue.

In other news, I finished Freakonomics in record time - 3 days. The snow day helped, and it was kind of a fast read as books go. I made a library run today to stock up on two more books - I'm definitely on pace to hit my 3 per month goal!

How to live a day in my single married life

Consider this a little guide (really meant to reflect how my day went today). Also, credit for the term single and married goes to d.a.r. - I saw her write it and it struck a chord!

So, here are the steps:

1. Wake up around 6:30, wondering how icy and bad the roads are. Instead of showering right away, start with breakfast. Also, step on the scale and pat yourself on the back because you see a new low weight. 
2. Spend some time browsing around on the computer.
3. Decide you'll go into volunteering today, but not as early as usual. You haven't heard anything, and you do have the luxury of being a volunteer.
4. Put together a lunch, shower, and get ready (checking things on the computer in between...)
5. Get yourself out the door a little past 9:00 am. Push ice and slush off your car with your gloved hands because despite your upbringing as a northern girl, you don't have a scraping tool in the car.
6. Drive to volunteering praying the slush on the roof doesn't fly off the car and cause issues for other drivers.
7. Arrive at volunteering, do a decent amount of work but not too much, and head over to H's house around 1:00 pm.
8. Spend the afternoon with H, drinking tea, watching Food Network, talking, and taking a quick trip to the grocery store.
9. Change into workout clothes and head over to the gym for spin class.
10. During spin class, wonder if this was actually a good idea. Conclude that it was only when it's over.
11. Drive back home looking forward to dinner, and happy to be arriving in time for Jeopardy. Also, sing along to "I Will Always Love You" when it comes on the radio.
12. Heat up a serving of the pasta you made last night in the microwave, pour a small glass of wine, and enjoy while watching Jeopardy.
13. Share your nice day with the world on your blog. Plan to write a letter to hubby and watch a new episode of What Not to Wear tonight. Delight in the little things, even if you do miss your hubby. Feel grateful!

Just wanted to share my good day with everyone. More tomorrow or soon I am sure!

Snow Day, Southern Style

Today is a new experience for me - being kept inside by about one inch of snow and some ice and freezing rain. Up north where I'm from, or even in the mid-Atlantic where I went to school, these amounts of weather would be slightly inconvenient, but wouldn't halt very much business as usual. Here though, it's keeping me and a lot of other people indoors for the day, as far as I can tell. My plans for today were grocery shopping, baby-sitting, and some evening plans with girlfriends. As of now, I'm not planning on doing any of that, and definitely not the shopping and baby-sitting. I was only going to pick up a few things at the store anyway, so it's not a big deal. I guess today will be a continuation of yesterday, generally relaxing while trying to get some chores and other things done.

I also finished one book last night and I'm about to start reading Freakonomics today hopefully. I'm on pace for my goal to read at least three books per month while hubby is gone!

If you've got a snow day as well today, stay cozy and enjoy!

Two very different weekend days

This first weekend without hubby around, Saturday and Sunday are very very different, but both are types of days I need in my life. Yesterday, I got up at 6:45 for an 8:30 spin class! It felt really good not only to get myself to the gym, but to do spin - which is one of my favorite challenging, but fun, heart-pumping sweat-dripping workouts! The instructor did a short core workout for anyone who wanted to stay afterward, and it was really challenging - seems like I need to get my abs in better shape! I was definitely patting myself on the back all day for getting myself to the gym for spin.

After spin, I baby-sat in the afternoon, and then I went to a friends for dinner with a few other girlfriends, since it was A's birthday! We ate pizza and cake and had a lot of great conversation. I'm so grateful for this group of girls to socialize with while our hubbies are gone, that's for sure.

Today on the other hand... I had all good intentions of getting up for church, but I ended up sleeping in instead, and actually quite late for me (at least post-college me). I don't have any other plans for the day, other than Skyping with Kristen and catching up on a few things around the house. Even though I am trying to stay busy while on my own, having this day of rest is really nice. I've got some chick flicks from the library, laundry to fold, dishes to do, and a book I really want to finish (so I can read the next one on my list). I'll also plan out this week's meals, which is another thing altogether - my goals for this week (in addition to the nutrition aspect) is to minimize waste and expenditure by maximizing my use of food that's already in the fridge, freezer, cupboards, and pantry. While many ladies I know say they don't cook while their husbands are gone, I seem to have an issue of still cooking too much, and ending up with leftovers I have to eat up, and ingredients to use up as well! As long as I'm mindful, keeping these goals in mind should really reduce the grocery bill for the month, so that's exciting!

Speaking of cooking, I've now got it in my head to throw a dinner party for the group of girlfriends I always talk about, so I've been working on the menu, and I think I'm close to having it finalized. Now we just need a date to do it!

And, since I always prefer a blog post with pictures, here's one of my Spiced Shrimp with Ginger Rice and Peas (another example of me cooking even just for myself):

 Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

Playing Hostess

Thankfully, since hubby left for his training I've had friends who want to be social - particularly the group of ladies whose husbands are doing the same thing as hubby right now. We were hanging out the other night and I found myself volunteering to host a get-together tonight. The apartment was partway clean already, so I didn't even have too much to do (it's a post-dinner timeframe). I got some flowers, which make me happy when I am in here, made sure to have some beverages available, and tidied up a bit. Thought I've known these ladies for months now, only one of them has been to my apartment before, since I'm not at the most central location, and I'm excited for them to see my place, and to have people over. Plus, when it's all said and done, I won't have to drive anywhere to get home. :-)

I also have plans both tomorrow and Saturday night (with varying combinations of this same group of ladies - one of them has a birthday on Saturday!). Thankfully I will not be spending any weekend nights alone, at least this weekend!

Because I Want To Share

It's your lucky day, you get to view photos of my dinner last night! It delighted me so, but there was no one else to ooh and aahhh over my creation, so I figured I'd plaster some photos up on the internet. :-) Without further ado, my spicy black bean soup:

 Doesn't look as appetizing as it really is quite yet - but this is a nice shot of my new Dutch oven :-)

Finished product (with the bowl a little messy...). There were also some pita chips and a little sour cream under the avocado. I was pleased!

Silver Lining of the Day

It's a two post day, fun times!

I realized today that what I have going on while hubby is away right now is something that will probably not exist in my life for a while - quite a lot of flexible, free time. I don't have a full time job, law school, or children, and the energy I usually put into my relationship with hubby when he's around, is freed up as well. So, despite missing him, I am determined to enjoy all this time I have for myself. I'm going to keep cooking, enjoy doing yoga, enjoy time with the girls, chick flicks, trashy TV, reading, and so on and so forth, and just be grateful for this time in my life. Don't get me wrong, I am looking forward to law school, to a full time job, to having kids someday, and of course to hubby coming back, but in this military life I know I have to be good at finding the silver linings, and appreciating them, so that is what I'm focusing on today!

In other news, I managed to do a decent amount of laundry today, and worked on some thank you notes, both of which are also good things to accomplish. There's plenty more ahead, but I'm making progress.

Hope everyone had a good Monday!

Annnnd another goal

I remember another goal I left out of my original post that listed a bunch of them - I need to complete the FAFSA, and along with that make sure our taxes get completed (ie, make sure I bring all the proper documents to the service that will complete our taxes). The earlier I do these things, the better, so I'm hoping to keep myself accountable.

Not much to say, other than I am waking up feeling pretty positive today, which is refreshing. The whole tracking what I eat thing is going pretty well so far - yesterday probably could have been better, as I went out to Mexican with girlfriends and definitely didn't track my tortilla chips or anything. I try to still let myself be somewhat relaxed. Since I'm still planning everything out anyway, here are some meals for the week:

Monday: Everyday Food Spicy Black Bean Soup
Tuesday: PW Beef with Snow Peas and rice
Wednesday: White Turkey Chili (CL)
Thursday: Everyday Food Spiced Shrimp with Ginger Rice and Peas
Friday: Everyday Food Shrimp Pot Stickers with Ginger-Sriracha Dipping Sauce

I felt really inspired by my January issue of Everyday Food magazine (which I got for free through doing some wedding vendor reviews). I'm also going to try out at least one smoothie recipe that I found in the issue!

Bye Bye Hubby....

Well, I dropped hubby off for his training this morning. I couldn't really have asked for a better last couple of days with him - we did a couple things that you could call productive but mostly we just lazed around and enjoyed each other's company. We did end up staying up until midnight on New Year's Eve, but we were definitely asleep right after that! I did a pretty good job holding it together before he left, but we set each other off a couple of times - and we watched Time Traveler's Wife yesterday - it's a tearjerker and I was emotionally vulnerable, so I definitely cried!

Much as I tell myself to hold it together and be strong, I will be honest - I had a little breakdown moment when I got back to the apartment. I am working on transitioning into "independent mode" as I've been calling it, but the first couple days after a good-bye are always the hardest. I think it just really hit me when I got back that he'd just been there with me, and then I got back and he wasn't, and won't be for a while, and it was just that moment of sadness. But, I'm getting together with some other ladies tonight, and I know I have girlfriends both locally and far away who I can lean on, whether in person or through computer and phone.

Today's project (at least until I leave for dinner) is cleaning the apartment. So far I've made a little progress, but there's plenty left to do. I'm just going to keep on working on being productive and doing little things for me, and start writing letters to hubby when I get his address from him!