It feels like it's been awhile! I'm only a weekend and a loooong Monday away from my fabulous vacation in Arizona for a week! Totally exciting!! The wee hours of this morning, however, were not exciting. I had THEE worst dream about the trip...one of your classic trying to pack, trying to get to the airport, and it all failing miserably dreams. We were SUPER late and I forgot my purse at home, so I had to have Mandsi go and get it. She was all frantic and getting lost, but finally made it, only with some other random purse (claaaassic). I mean looking back, the events weren't really that bad, and I'm sure I would've handled them much calmer in real life, but you know how dreams are. I even woke up with a start and had to calm down for a few minutes to convince myself it was 'only a dream'. I blame it on Lost...it definitely had a Lost vibe. Only LAST Friday morning I had a LOVELY dream about Daniel Faraday ;)
Well, a new month is upon us, so on to the update!
#45 Recipes:
For my last Feb recipe, I made this wonderful chicken dish: chicken breasts covered with chopped portobellos, muenster cheese, and chicken stock baked for about 40 mins. I served it with some easy 90 second Uncle Ben's chicken rice and the whole thing was totally on point!
For my first March recipe, last night I made cauliflower "mashed potatoes"...mashed cauliflower essentially :) I didn't have a recipe, but have seen Rachael Ray make them, so I threw together the basic ingredients: boil cauliflower in 3cups chicken broth for 8mins or so until soft. Drain most of the broth, and smash cauliflower with a fork. In another pan, melt butter and sauté a couple garlic cloves...add smashed cauliflower, a tsp of dijon mustard, pepper, dill, and any kind of melty cheese. Stir all together and top with green onions. YUM!!! It was actually a lot better than I expected! And of course a nice healthy alternative to regular mashed tatos!
#50 - My atypical produce item this month will be rutabagas! I've never had them before, so this will be interesting. I found a recipe in my Women's Health so I'm down.
#51 - The sweet bakery give-up from Feb was brutal! But on March 1st at Maggiano's, I indulged in some tiramisu as well as some pound cake covered with hot fudge and sautéed bananas! I also got to have Oreos finally as everyone decided to wave them in front of me all month! ;) And finally, my bestest friend Monica sent me a COOKIE bouquet themed "Thanks a Latté!" So even though I still can't have coffee, I can enjoy a coffee mug shaped cookie ;) Anyway, March's give-up will be chips. I needed something super easy with being on vacay for a week and everything. One of these months, I'm seriously considering giving up meat for a month for kicks! It'll be hard and I know I'll crave meat (that's what she said) like nobody's biz ...but I gotta try it! Plus I have like two dozen veggie recipes in a recent Women's Health that all look really good.
#64 - On the aforementioned trip to AZ, I have the chance to go to the Grand Canyon. WILL it happen??? I just don't know. Fingers crossed!!
#68 - My feeding frenzy for March is definitely the dinner at Maggiano's where not only did I indulge in tiramisu and pound cake, but I also ingested chopped salad, fried zucchini, stuffed mushrooms, gnocchi, four cheese ravioli, garlic mashed potatoes, buttery asparagus, chicken parm, and chicken saltimbocca. Oh...my...god. I thought I was going to explode. Only in America folks. Needless to say, I worked out a lot this week ;)
#87 - new band...that's a big ol' question mark. So in it's place I'm going to put the website Pandora Radio. Just type in any band or artist your little heart desires and they give you an entire "radio station" of similar bands and artists. Registration is free! It's a great way to listen to your old faves and discover new ones!
#95 - I have 30 pages left in A Tale of Two Cities which I will finish this weekend for sure! (The last 100pgs have been fabulous by the way! I can't wait to finish!) Next on the docket is On a Pale Horse by Piers Anthony: the book John gave me for Christmas! I'm going to read on the plane and such :)
And that's that! A good weekend to all and I'll HOPEFULLY chat again on the other side of my vacation!
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7 comments:
you can pound MY cake....
anyway, so funny that we finally ran out of Oreos like over a week ago and I do NOT crave them at all anymore. Maybe my body was craving them to make up for you NOT eating sweet bakery for a month? weird. But the other night I finally baked the cut & bake cookies "Turtle" - OMG why are they so good? it makes me feel worthless and that I should never even attempt home made cookies?!?!
Well...having done both, if I needed to choose I would take the shorter trip to Sedona versus the longer 5 hour trip to the Grand Canyon. I think Sedona is like 2-1/2 hours from PHX. And WAYYYYY beautiful. Awesome Red Rocks. Sedona is the perfect photography stop BTW.
AH HAHA....Monica!!!!
Haha! Monica you were my surrogate bakery eater???? TWSS!!!
I gotta try those turtle cookies! Shannon here at work made some cookies with Honey Bunches of Oats and craisins and they were SOOOOO GOOD!!! I'll try them and if they're easy, I'm making you make them ;)
Jen! Not sure if my mom told you, but I went to Sedona the last time I was in AZ with John!! We went there for the day and you're right...totally gorgeous! I took 932482304 pictures :) John purchased a switchblade. So hey! To each their own! In any case, the trip to the SOUTH Rim (which is the only part that's open this time of year) is only four hours so that won't be too bad. Plus this could be my only chance to see it!! It's like one of those MUST SEE BEFORE YOU DIE situations ;)
I'm SO jealous that you gut to go to Arizona! I've been all over the Southeast but I've never been to AZ or anywhere in the Southwest area. We just got a save-the-date email from Josh's cousin who is getting married in Scottsdale in July, and it looks SO beautiful. I'm so sad we won't be able to go, but I definitly want to take a trip out there some day. I didn't know you and John had been there together already!?
Tina! I can't believe you can't go to Sedona!!! It is like THEE most beautiful place on earth I swear!! Arizona as a whole would be a great place to live except I really do love the change of seasons which you don't get there...UNLESS you're in Sedona!! They totally get changing leaves and even sometimes a touch of snow that melts right away! And the summers aren't as hot as Phoenix and its 119 degrees (can't deal with that). I would TOTALLY live there! Maybe I'll be rich one day and retire there? haha! Anyway, one day you and Josh will have to visit AZ...it's such a different and amazing region: cacti AND palm trees AND mountains!!
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