Tuesday, February 21, 2012

World's Best......

The world's best husband award goes to my man.  I love him for many reasons but today he did something out of the norm and sent me flowers at work.  It made me cry.  He always knows what to do to make my day and he NEVER makes it feel like he did it "because it was on his calendar".   He does little things everyday that I make me smile...like leaving the remote on the pillow in the bed when he wakes up HOURS before I do.  (He knows I like to watch a few mins of the news in the AM when I get up)  Or making me dinner everynight.....or unloading the dishwasher b/c he knows I hate to.   I love him...Thanks babe for brightening my day today..You knew I needed it...XOXO

PS-ignore my messy office floor...

Monday, February 20, 2012

Dinner talk

I've been pretty slack keeping my blog updated with my DETOX progress, but I promise I am doing really well with it.  Tonight I made what was supposed to be a "pasta" but using rice noodles with a "pesto cream sauce"  Yeah, not so much.  NOTHING can replace good old GLUTEN slathered pasta.

Here was the recipe:   Whole Living Recipe (click on it)
You'd look at that and think not bad, should be yummy right?  Nope-nope-nope.  It looks pretty:
Tasted like old water.  Seriously.  I'm sure I didn't use the proper proportions, but ick-ick-ick.  Chad's super funny comment "Babe-I could make this taste a little better for you with just a couple of ingredients.  Butter, bacon and cream.  But you aren't allowed to eat that."  Yeah thanks asshole-Like I didn't know that already!  Always a team player that hubby of mine!  :)  XOXO-still love him...

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Shower her with gifts

Last weekend I made the trip up to Virginia to help throw a shower for my girl Jennie.  Her dream wedding is taking place in April and we thought it would be a lot of fun to pull everyone together for bridal shower. 

The night before the shower we all hit up a local sushi restaurant, Wild Ginger, and it was delish.  Our waiter was fun and even sent out this dessert when he learned Jennie was getting married-it was hysterical:




I am so SHORT

Sisterly love

A lot of planning went into this big day and four of us from three states plus her Aunt pull an amazing event together.  I must say our decor of pink and black turned out mighty adorable.  We sure hope she loved her day!















Sunday after the shower, Mama, Daddy & I went over to the Science Musuem.  I haven't been there since I was a little girl-a girl scout in fact.  It is awesome.  Mom didn't want to tour the museum, she just would agree to watch the IMAX movie which was amazing.  It was on orphaned elephants and orangatangs (spelling??) and I found myself tearing up at the end-It was a GREAT ending-nothing traumatic!



I got to hang out with Andy and Michelle too, but unfortunately we didn't snap any pictures!  :(   Next time for sure.   It was a great weekend and I so wished I lived closer to home....a girl can dream I guess.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Detox-End of week one

I survived week one of detox and I have to admit I feel pretty damn good.  The first day was tough, but that was because I didn't plan as well as I thought.   I have more energy, seem to be in better moods and overall just feel 100% better than I have in a long time.   (And I've lost 4 pounds...YIPPEEE!   Even though that was NOT my main factor for doing this.  Which to me is surprising because I am CONTSTANTLY obsessing thinking about my weight)  Hence my Detox Recipe Book cover:

 
Thanks Hope for the inspiration....

 
What did I learn I liked this week? 
  • Radishes & red cabbage in my salads
  • Sweet potatoes
  • Beets-cooked
  • Cilantro (I knew I liked it but pretty sure I love it)
  • Butternut squash
What did I learn I don't like this week?
  • Beet soup (I never actually tried it, but each time I did I gagged)
  • Carrot & Mango smoothie-seriously that stuff was some nasty shit.
  • Kale Chips-pretty sure this would be something a dog wouldn't even think to sniff

 What did I overkill this week?
If you know me, you know once I find something I like, I'll over:
  • eat it (birthday cake)
  • play it (Eminem & Rhianna anyone?)
  • read it (Twilight)
  • watch it (Real Housewives & Dirty Dancing)
So with that said, I over ate the hell out of avocados & sweet potatoes.  Pretty positive I kept the local grocerer wondering where their avocados & sweetie taters went!

 
I'm so looking forward to week 2!  I get to re-introduce beans and some protein like salmon and flounder and tofu!  My favs!

 
Here are some shots of that McNasty Mango Carrot Smoothie:

 
You'd think this wouldn't be so bad right?
I remember thinking..."Hmmm...I don't know about this"

 
Maybe if I put it in my Hokie Tervis it won't be so bad???  WRONG

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Detox-Day 1 & 2

Detox....where shall I begin?  I really should have done a few posts about detox already, but I'll try and cram this all into one post, broken down into segments.

Grocery Shopping:
Holy balls Batman.  I had a cart load of stuff and only went down three aisles.  That would be the produce aisle, the spice aisle and the frozen veggie/fruit section.  I put things into my cart that I never even looked at or heard.  (Delicata squash anyone?)   I called Hammond on the way home and told him I was stopping at the grocery store, that he better have one hell of a "last supper with wine" waiting on me when I got home.  Over an hour later I get a phone call, "Where are you?" to which I replied "Um....still at the grocery store, what the hell is cardamom??" 

That same night I made beet soup, butternut squash soup with apples, and fruit/nut balls (my "snack"-YUMMMMM)  Needless to say this HOKIE was exhausted.  Seriously, I fell on my knees next to Chad on the couch and told him how much I loved him and thanked him for always making my dinner EVERY. SINGLE. NIGHT. for the last 10 years.    I think he was thinking I'd thank him in other ways that night, but again-I was pooped.    Sorry babe!

D-Day  Day One:
Breakfast-fruit smoothie with apple juice and water.  Not bad, the frozen fruits had too many seeds, so that was a little gross.  I'll adjust the next smoothie with maybe just strawberries and no blackberries.  Those seeds hurt!

Hope and I both made the butternut squash soup from the same recipe for lunch, but we learned when you make soup and forget a few of the key ingredients (not mentioning names here Hope) your soups turn out quite different.   Our lunch bunch crew at work both gave us two thumbs up-they sampled our soups.

I was fine until about two pm.  I wanted bad food in the worst way.  Case in point-I don't really eat beef and anytime anyone has a burger for lunch, I think "YUCK"  well damn if I didn't want to steal my girlfriend's hamburger and sneak into the pastry kitchen and scarf some cookies into my pie hole.  This detox is 90% mind f**king-you have to get past that and then it isn't so bad.

For dinner I was supposed to do the beet soup, but I was so over all the liquids I wanted to gag at the sight of the soup.  I ended up eating a cucumber and an apple. 

Day Two:
Day two has gone MUCH better.  Smoothie for b'fast, some mixed nuts as a snack, avocado with cilantro and garlic for lunch, and yummo cauliflower and roasted red peppers for dinner.  (I still am craving a dessert-and an apple ain't it)

So far I have clogged the sink two times in which Chad has annoyingly asked me wtf I put down the disposal.   Not sure what I'm doing wrong, but pretty sure we'll need a plumber at some point in this detox.  Chaching, chaching, chaching. 

Here are some of the pictures from Days 1 & 2 so far.  Enjoy!


My last sip or shall I say bottle of alcohol prior to detox day 1
And yes, I am well aware I am in my PJ's.   I had a lot of cooking to do....Might as well be comfy 
Kitchen disaster...worse than when Hammond cooks

Where is my maid??

Fruit/nut balls.  Good snacks.  Got me through Day 1

Butternut Squash & Apple Soup

GAG-The beet soup.  Ugh....haven't tried it and it makes me want to barf.

Candace trying a seaweed snack-looks yummy right???

Day 2 Dinner.  Very tasty.  I'll cut back on the EVOO next time...