My New Obsession

Happy Tuesday!

So.... we all have our 'things', right?  Some people are obsessed with cats (crazy cat ladies...), some are obsessed with celebrity gossip (Perez Hilton...), and some are obsessed with the newest gadgets (IPod, IPad, I-can't-keep-track...).  I am obsessed with dog.  THE dog.  Dog the Bounty Hunter.  I tell you what, now that we have Netflix, I watch this show ALL.THE.TIME.  Now, those of you that know me will probably find my infatuation with this show pretty comical.  I'm not the most...let's say... 'rough and tough' type of person.  I don't know what it is... I just can't get enough of this show!

Ok now it's your turn to make me feel better... what weird thing are you obsessed with?

Shaun T... the INSANITY!

My hubby and his co-workers met Shaun T (you know... Mr. Insanity himself) a couple of weeks ago.  He came and did a masterclass in Columbus.  HOW. COOL.  Can you believe it?!?!  Totally star-struck.

HO-LY ABS, BATMAN!!!















Hubby is to the left of Shaun T (looking at the picture)

Insane.

Christmas 1 of 3

Once you get married, having multiple Christmas get togethers become the norm.  Since my brother and sister-in-law will be traveling to Texas for Christmas (safe travels you two!), we celebrated the holiday together a little bit early.  We had a very nice party- lots of good food, fun together time, and lots of laughs.

All of the food-  from top left, clockwise:  Herbed Quinoa, Black Eyed Peas (my SIL brought this), Moroccan Vegetables, Honey Baked Turkey (my MIL brought this)

YUMMY and filling meal.

Best. Dessert. Ever.  Recipe below- it's really complicated.... you might not want to try it.

Hot Apple Dessert

Serves 6

5 Apples, washed, peeled, chopped
1/2 C Raisins
2 T Cinnamon

Mix together in a casserole dish
Bake at 400 until Apples are tender- about 40 min
Serve with Vanilla Ice Cream

The. End.

Hard recipe, huh?  It is SOOOOO good.  And seriously so easy.  Enjoy!!

Christmas Morning Muffins

It's almost Christmas.  My gosh where on EARTH did this year go!?!?  For us, this year has been a blur.  Brenton was in school getting his MBA (he's done now YAY!) so our life was consumed by school, work, housekeeping, and very few extra curricular events (aka parties... movies... blogging :(... anything that wasn't necessary to our every day life).  Big sigh of relief that we can get back to normal!

This will be a season of celebration.  To make Christmas morning a little extra special, I have made some yummy (yes, I taste-tested) Raspberry muffins!  For my vegan friends, these are NOT vegan, but you could substitute Ener-G egg replacer or a mix of Flax and water for the Egg.  For my GF friends, feel free to sub Almond Meal for the Whole Wheat Flour.

Like the recipe?  I like the ''add raspberries, whatever'' part.  That goes to show you that I like to experiment with my recipes.....  hehehe!

2 C Flour (any kind you like!  I used Whole Wheat)
3 t Baking Powder (Aluminum Free)
1/2 t Salt (I used Pink Himalayan Sea Salt)
2 t Cinnamon
3/4 C Sugar (I used Honey, but you could use Raw Sugar, Maple Syrup, White Sugar...whatever!)
1 Egg (or replacer)
1 C Milk (you could use Almond Milk, Cow Milk, Goat Milk... or Water)
1/4 C Oil (I used Olive Oil- use whatever you have)
Any fruit you would like to use!  I used Raspberries, but you could do Apples, Blueberries, Raisins... be creative!
(I also added ground Flax Meal to the mix to increase fiber content)

Preheat oven to 400
Mix together all of the dry ingredients
Mix together all of the wet ingredients (including egg) and add to dry ingredients
Mix in whatever fruit you want to use
Either put paper muffin cups in muffin pan or spray with oil
Fill muffin tin cups half way- makes 12 muffins

These are AS GOOD as they look!!  We'll be topping ours with various condiments.... butter, goat cream cheese, jelly, peanut butter, honey.... you name it!  :)  These will freeze for 3-5 months.  Simply take them out of the freezer and put them in the toaster oven until warm (or microwave.......... choose the toaster oven if you have a choice.)

Wednesday- We need a song today!

Happy Wednesday to you all!  I think we're all in need of an uplifting Wednesday song, no??


I LOVE THIS SONG!!! Enjoy your day!

Fastest EVER Pasta Salad

Hi guys!  Happy Thursday!!  I made pasta salad last night for today's lunch- SO YUMMY, so easy.  AND so quick.

A Song.... One Song...

Happy Saturday, everybody!  Today was mentally a very good day for me.  It's not like I did anything special or out of the ordinary, but with this past week's events, I made myself do a lot of thinking and reflection.  After doing some research about emetophobia and how debilitating it is for the people it affects (obviously...), I realized that I didn't want to let it rule my life.

You know how in movies they play songs that directly relate to what is going on at that particular moment?  Here's mine.




So, friends, don't burn the day away.  It's been a long road... and I'm ready to take a detour.

Tomorrow, we go back to some yummy Christmas treats :)

Phobias.

Happy Friday to you all.  What a week!!!  It was a very difficult week for me, that really brought to the surface some underlying anxiety that had been swirling around.

Do any of you suffer from phobias?  I do, in a MAJOR way.  I am an emetophobe, aka I don't like ''throw up''. I have been this way since I can remember.  What I have recently found out is that this phobia affects more people on earth than any other phobia.  Isn't that weird?

My hubby was sick a few days ago, which caused me to go into a MAJOR panic.  I'm talking panic attacks like I haven't had in a LONG time.  My sister recommended that I try Rescue Remedy.  This is basically a vile with flower essences that are supposed to calm you down.  I've been using it off and on and I really DO feel a difference.  I can't exactly describe the feeling... kind of like a soothing of my energy fields.  Hippie, right!?

So, to help overcome this (or at least try to make it a little better) I'm going to start doing EFT again, using the Bach Flower Remedies, and talking about it with people that I trust.  All of the hesitations in my life (well, most of them anyway) have all originated here, with my emetophobia.  I don't know why I have this fear, nor do I know why it's so debilitating for me.  There have got to be others that are in the same camp that I am.  Right?  Anyone?  Anyone?

So, if you have a phobia, what are you fearful of?  Anyone in the same camp that I am?

Holiday Prep

December is here… in FULL FORCE!  I don’t know where this arctic blast came from (actually, I do- thank you Lake Michigan…) but boy o boy is it COOOOLD!  Ick!  Now that the holiday season is in full swing, I figured it was appropriate for today’s bloggie to talk about how I prepared for Thanksgiving/Christmas this year, and how I’m 95% done with EVERYTHING.   Yes, EVERYTHING. 

I started back in October with the “Cruising through the Holidays” plan that The FlyLady (www.flylady.net) puts together.  This plan gets your house clean, then ready to be decorated, not to mention gets all of your wrapping supplies, food, recipes, etc. ready to go in baby steps so you don’t stress out at the last minute.    

IT.WAS.WONDERFUL.

My entire house was clean and decorated for Christmas by mid-November.  ALL of my Christmas presents are wrapped and under the tree.  ALL of my Christmas cards are signed, addressed, stamped and ready to go in the mail.  My recipes for Christmas dinner (and various other dinners/potlucks/special events) are all picked out. 

Now that all of this prep is done, I have time to do fun things.  I have time to enjoy the holidays.  Once a day I clear out a “hot spot” and do 15 minutes of regular “maintenance” cleaning.  This keeps my house clean and off my mind.  Christmas could come tomorrow and I’d be ready. 

I don’t endorse a lot of things, but one thing that I WILL endorse is The FlyLady.  Check her out!  You’ll be glad you did (and so will your home!)

Yummy Christmas Treats

So even though it's not Thanksgiving yet... I've started working on my Christmas candy!  Look how easy!

Chocolate Almond Bark

Ingredients-  1/2 Bag Chocolate Chips (I used Trader Joes), 2-3 Cups Almonds (just eyeball it)

In a double boiler (or microwave), melt the chocolate chips.  Stir in Almonds.  On a baking sheet, pour mixture and spread.  Place in freezer for 10 minutes to harden.

The. End.

You can use any nut you want!  Go nuts!  (har..har..)

Punkins!

 Happy Halloween!!  I really don't like this holiday... at all.  But I like carving pumpkins!  Here are my two.  First up- Mickey!

Isn't he cute!  All was going well, went on to pumpkin #2 to carve Minnie.... but then I bent my carving knife! The skin was so tough that I couldn't cut through it!  Soo.... I resorted to painting instead.

Kinda.... evil looking.  HAHA it wasn't intentional.  

I gotta tell you, the kids that work for me are great.  Look what one of them made for me out of play dough!

GHOST MICKEY!!!   Too fun.

Have a good Halloween!  Don't eat too much candy!  (actually.... don't eat any candy.  death.  gross death.)

Apple Chaider

Thank you Kevin and Annmarie Gianni for this recipe!  IT WAS AWESOME!  I used a little modification, but it turned out GREAT!!  Here is my modification of the original (original is the title link below).

Apple Chai-der

My recipe serves 1

1 Apple
2 Chai Tea Bags


Boil the chai tea bags in 1 cup of water over medium heat for 10 minutes
















In a food processor, chop up/blend an apple with the chai tea

Strain the liquid through a strainer or nut bag

SO SO SO GOOD!!!   What a yummy fall drink!!!!

Disney World!

So it's been a million years since I have updated.  Ok, maybe not that long, but it seems like it!  Brenton and I went to Disney World, first time ever as vegetarians.  Here's what we got as groceries-

1 Loaf of Bread
Peanut Butter
Jelly
Apples
Bananas
Oranges
Mixed Nuts
Oatmeal
Raisins
Flax Crackers
Water
Clif Bars
Kashi Cereal
Kashi Granola Bars
Cinnamon
**then we brought Amazing Grass Chocolate Powder, Chia Seeds, and supplements from home**
Ah travel food...

Each morning we had a Breakfast Cookie, and packed PB and J sandwiches, fruit, nuts, and water to take to the parks.  It kept us going for a good long time!!

Of course, Brenton wanted to have some treats while we were there.  It took me a while to warm up to that idea, but I caved.  We're not at WDW every day (though I wish I was!!!), and we certainly don't eat junky stuff at home, so "why not" right?

Sanaa- Veggie Sampler, Spread Sampler, and a free Anniversary Dessert!

ESPN Club-  Brenton's Nachos.... my Veggie Sandwich

Kouzzina by Cat Cora-  Bread, Spread Sampler, Orzo and Veggies

Divvies!!!!!

Pear Tart and Waters

Wolfgang Puck Express-  Brenton's Veggie Pizza, my Roasted Beet Salad

Norway- Cloudberry Horn and School Bread

Les Chefs de France-- Bread, Salad, Veggie Lasagna

Tangarine Cave- Veggie Platter

We had NO problem being veggies at Disney!  Everyone was so accommodating!  We even met with a couple of chefs to discuss our preferences.  If you have food allergies, Disney is the place to go!  You'll have no problem!

End of Summer Sorbet

Summer has come to a close, but that doesn't mean that the summertime treats have to!

Here is a quick summer sorbet.

1/2 Frozen Banana
1/2 c Frozen Blueberries

In a food processor, blend all together.  That's it!

Immunity, Part 3

Part 1 was RELAXATION

Part 2 was EXERCISE

Part 3 is SUPPLEMENTS

You have heard it before-  take Vitamin C to get rid of a cold.  But for some reason, that's ALL that we've ever heard about.  You may have heard of echinacea if you're lucky...

There are so many vitamin, mineral, and herbal combos that can REALLY help your immune system along.  Here's what we take:

1- Vitamin C (prevents a cold, but doesn't shorten it's duration)
2- Zinc (prevents a cold and shortens duration)
3- Aged Garlic Extract (Kyolic) (anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal)
4- Oregano Oil (anti-bacterial) (anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-parasitic)
5- Echinacea (anti-viral) (shortens duration of a cold)
6- ProBiotics (the good bacteria that live in your gut)
7- Vitamin D3 (THE immune booster)

We don't take these supplements every day.  Each day, we take probiotics, a multi-vitamin, and vitamin d3.  When we have been around someone with a cold, or are going into an unfamiliar or crowded place, we take the rest in the list.

The fact of the matter is, the immune system will be what prevents your cold.  Pair that with good hand washing (with regular soap... anti-bacterial is not necessary) and a diet rich in colorful, organic produce and you'll be JUST FINE!!  No flu shot-o-death necessary!