I love life.

Sorry I wasn't able to do anything productive last week, I was under the weather and couldn't bring myself to do anything.

First, I have discovered smoothie making, taking advantage of the wonderful bounty (on sale!) at the grocery store this week I whipped up a mango, orange, carrot, blueberry, and spinach concoction this morning that is delightful. The best part: It's just fruits and veggies, nothing additional added. It's not the prettiest thing i've ever seen but I imagine the only difference between mine and one that costs $7 at smoothie king (or Jamba Juice for you lucky readers back home) is the addition of yogurt which I could do, but at the cost of extra calories.

Yep I see many smoothies in my future, Gary is even on board.

Speaking of, can I just say how much we love this lifestyle. Gary is very enthusiastic about it which keeps me motivated to try new recipes and experiment with different grains, vegetables etc.

This is my last week of work i'm afraid, so i'll hopefully be able to start taking pictures of things as I make them to at least provide you with some idea of what we're doing here.

Another side note, Gary is down 25 pounds! These positive changes are adding up! I on the other hand chose to scarf ice cream and not work out while I was under the weather and as a result the scale reads +2lbs for me. Making some adjustments this week for sure.

This week we're making:

Spinach Quiche (a repeat from last week, this is so delicious. It's an egg base with spinach, mushrooms, onions, and tomatoes - think the tastiest omelette you've ever had in pie form)

Veggie Fried Rice - Veggies and eggs with a light sodium sauce over brown rice.

Cheese Enchilada Casserole - We'll see about this one, i'm not so sure about it. It sounds more like a wet burrito to me, but anything is worth trying once.

Broccoli Pesto with Rice Noodle - Expecting great things from this, cheese-less pesto with a broccoli base with almonds, lemon, and yummy rice noodles.

We're undecided one day this week and we're going to wing it, Gary has a big test this week and I work every night so we shall see.

I'm also on the lookout for a yoga class, perhaps even Pilates. I'm treating the gym like it's my job, but I want an outlet for stress and they took out all the yoga classes at World Gym :( With my new-found-free-time as a professional student I will likely need a hobby outside of cleaning my house and annoying my husband.

In the meantime i'll channel my stress the same way I always have :) Have a wonderful weekend!

Taking a break

As the title would indicate, i'm taking a break from studying in attempt to get my weeks' meals planned.

First I would like I put up a recipe I like to use to make pasta sauce; No, I don't use this every time - i'm not betty crocker, but it's simple enough that you really could! Not to mention it is versatile and has multiple applications so it doesn't have to be a "sunday afternoon" type recipe. A friend came to the realization she was eating an atrocious amount of sugar, let alone everything else we don't want to think about, just from her store bought spaghetti sauce. I wont bore you with the details of why, but essentially these things are so bogus because they're meant to sit on a shelf for 6+ months before they are even consumed.

Ingredients:
10 tomatoes,
1/4 c fresh basil,
2 T olive oil,
1/2 t Italian seasoning (add more, less, or forgo and use your own mix based on taste, sweet basil oregano - fresh or dried, marjoram, red pepper flake etc. Get creative!)
2 T butter, room temp.
1 medium onion (more if you like chunky like I do)
1/4 c dark wine,
1 green bell pepper,
1 carrot, 1 bay leaf (dried),
2 celery stalk,
4 cloves of garlic (or mooooore if you love it like me),
And for the only canned item - 2 T tomato paste for a more intense flavor. 

There are two ways to prepare the tomatoes, but the easiest is probably blanching them. Plunge them into boiling water for about 1 minute until their skin peels. Remove from water and stick in an ice bath until cool enough to handle. Remove skin and squeeze out the seeds. Puree 8 of them, and rough chop 2.

In a stock pot, cook your chopped onion, bell pepper, carrot and garlic in butter (all chopped to your taste, fine if you like smooth sauce, chunky if you prefer. Once fragrant, about 5-6 min, add tomato puree and chopped tomatoes. Add basil, seasonings, bay leaf, whole celery stalks and wine. 

Bring to a boil, reduce to low, cover, and simmer for 2 hours. After 2 hours stir in paste, and more seasonings if you see fit. Simmer 1.5-2 more hours. When ready to serve remove bay leaf and celery. 

This is not only delish for pasta but I love dipping dry baguette bread in it, or making bruscetta style appetizers :)

This turned out to be longer than I anticipated and I'm afraid I still haven't decided what i'll be making this week, I do however LOOOOOVE the meal we made tonight: A salad of baby arugula, fingerling potatoes and fresh green beans with a homemade walnut/mustard/yogurt dressing. It was absolutely delightful, light and tangy with a roasted nutty flavor. Seriously I would eat it again tomorrow given the opportunity.

Have a wonderful week friends.

A blurb.

This week was rather hectic in our house. A lot of running in circles between work, school and errands, so i'll do a quick catch up.

Gary and I have decided we have opposite-wired tastebuds, which I attribute to the fact we grew up eating completely different foods. Upon moving to the south I was accosted with what one would call "excessive flavor" and seasonings (lol), having grown up in the north with a Gran who was partial to plain old S&P as sufficient seasoning - I am accustomed still to more bland food while Gary longs for the strong flavor (*see goat cheese?!)

On the bright side, Gary and I are accommodating to one another and are not opposed to compromising and rotating between meals we each prefer. This week Gary had a favorite (portabellos and goat cheese rotini) which I would not say I jumped with joy for, my favorite from the week was probably a warm (and spicy!) edamame salad.

We're going to start incorporating more stir fry style meals into the routine this week as they are incredibly simple, fast, and versatile.

Some more good news, I'm down 6 pounds and Gary 3 since we've started. Given it could be much better, we've both had weak spots (*see papa johns veggie pizza, and subway FebruANY is a convenient calorie deathtrap), I haven't seen the inside of the gym since school started but Gary is really rockin' it. He's been getting in the gym everyday and is really feeling good. He hasn't mentioned feeling sub par in quite a while. He was getting frequent headaches but since we've started cleaning up our act I have heard complaints few and far between from my hypochondriac-husband.

A little bit more sunshine, with a side of clouds: I decided this week that i'm unable as a person to cope with working and going to school while being a successful human so after much deliberation i've decided that it's time to end my service with Walgreens, at least for now - we can't be sure of what the future holds. It was a really difficult decision, I feel like I held myself to an unrealistic standard that just wasn't working out so despite the guilt I initially felt i'm starting to feel happy day-by-day that i'm finally going to be able to focus on school while bettering my health [can you say gym every day of the week?]

Sorry I went on a bit of a tangent to my original intention, tomorrow i'll work at getting the weeks meals up. I actually meant for this to be a short post but as i've had a bit o' wine this eve...well you get it.