We Live in a Frat House

Apparently, we live in a frat house. This is not the aftermath of a party - just a regular weekend....

Visions of 5ks Danced...

One of my goals for 2012 is to walk a 5k. Geesh - when see it in black and white it looks so pitiful to me. I wish I could say that my goal is to RUN a 5k but at this point, walking one is enough of a challenge. Not only did I let myself get preeeety out of shape over the past few months, I have also been suffering from a nasty case of shin splints that have never bothered me so much as they do now. Its so frustrating to feel like I could push myself WAY harder cardiovascularly but have to stop because my shins are screaming at me. Its gotten to the point where I was worried about my ability to finish a 5k. So Randy and I decided to try a test "run" of the course for the 5k version of The Flying Pig Marathon - Cincinnati's signature running event - before I register for it.

And guess what- I did it! Without too much shin pain! And I got a lot of fun photos along the way and afterwards at our date-night dinner at Senate restaurant in Over the Rhine, which was deeelish. Photos below:

What I Ate: Day 28/31 Day Photo Challenge

I love everything miniature. If anyone out there could get there hands on one of those miniature display tents or sleeping bags they have at the sporting goods stores, I'd be eternally grateful! So obviously when I saw these TINY potatoes I had to buy them. Immediately.  They tasted delicious roasted with green beans, olive oil, and Parmesan cheese.

Bad Habit: Day 11/31

I'm a little too addicted...

Warmth: Day 9/31 Day Photo Challenge

What's warmer than a baked potato, loaded with goodness at the end of a long day?

Photo taken with iPhone: Standard Camera

Side note: see those fresh chopped green onions? Those were home grown! On our window sill! In water! Remember back on February 2 when I told you about the possibilities of ETERNAL GREEN ONIONS? Turns out, the Pinterest rumors were TRUE. We placed the bottom white parts of a bunch of green onions in a shot glass of water, set it on the window sill and hoped for the best. They started out looking like this:

Eternal Green Onions Experiment: Day 1

 And a little over a week later, we had THIS:

Eternal Green Onions Experiment: Day 10

And they're still going strong. I read that you should change out the water regularly and rinse the bottoms off from time to time and have found this to be true. The parts in the water somehow get uber-slimy. I'm not sure how long we can keep this up - we'll just have to see - and I'll keep you posted!

Scattered: Day 3/31 Day Photo Challenge

My nephew, Daniel turns 1 tomorrow, and we are throwing a big Mickey-themed blow-out! We made these Mickey Oreo Pops as favors. Wrapped and piled onto a tray, they look pretty scattered - and after a day of full-on party sweat-shopping, I feel pretty scattered. Time for BED.

Photo taken with Cannon Rebel T3i

Macs

I made Valentine cookies today! I'm really into cookies lately. I love having a bite sized, homemade morsel of sweetness at the ready for an afternoon snack or an evening dessert. My challenge is keeping it to that and not ending up gobbling them for breakfast in the car, washing them down with a travel-mug full of milk, and then hating myself for it. So far, I've been able to restrain myself. Yay! Anyway...the following chronicles my foray into chocolate topped coconut macaroons. You can find the recipe I followed here.

By the way - this was a lot more work than I anticipated. The cookies were good, but not good enough for me to justify the effort. But they did make for nice coworker valentine gifts!

Eternal Green Onions

Mind-blow Alert!

Word on the streets (Pinterest) is that after you use green onions you can stick the bottom white part into a glass of water and the green tops will grow again.

WHAT.

You heard me. Green onions...forever.

Challenge accepted.

Green onions, about to become immortal.

I'll report back with the results. I still can't 100% believe that this magic is true, but the prospects are too tantalizing.

Grasshoppers

Despite my lack of love for most things chocolate, I have an inexplicable attraction to mint chocolate chip ice cream. So when I came across a Weight Watchers recipe for grasshopper pie on Pinterest, I decided it was a perfect candidate for my quest to try 52 new (to me) recipes in 2012. Find the original recipe here.

Crush 4 or 5 Grasshopper or Thin Mint cookies. (The original recipe says to use two cookies but that's absurd - don't listen. It won't even cover half the pan!

Grasshopper cookies taste a lot like Thin Mints, but if you have the opportunity to buy Thin Mints, do it! Support a local Girl Scout Troop instead!

Sprinkle the cookies over the bottom of the pie plate.

This is five cookies. Imagine what two would have been like!

Finely chop one square of semi-sweet baker's chocolate.

I used baker's chocolate but I'm sure mini chocolate chips would work well too!

Beat one 1 oz. package of sugar free, instant pistachio pudding mix, 1.5 cups of skim milk and .25 tsp. of peppermint extract extract with whisk for 2 minutes. Stir in one tub of fat free Cool Whip, and chopped chocolate.

I love the minty green color!

Pour into pie plate over crushed cookies and chill in the freezer for at least 6 hours until set. 

The original recipe says to garnish with two extra cookies, cut into quarters, but I decided that was fancier than I needed, so I left it pure and simple.

My verdict on this recipe? It was tasty, but I think that in the future I'll probably skip all these steps in favor of buying a pint of low-fat mint chocolate chip ice-cream. Though this recipe was fairly quick and easy, I think I'd get similar results taste and calorie-wise for less effort. And I'm pretty much always about low effort when it comes to food. :)

Dinner Bell

This is a 5 Year Journal post. The goal is to answer a simple journal prompt each day of the year as a real record of daily life in this moment.  

January 13: What did you have for dinner?

We met Randy’s parents, brother and sister at Longhorn for dinner. Randy and I were such model health citizens in that den of calorie iniquities. We both had a grilled chicken breast topped with a garlic mushroom sauce and a stuffed portobello, served with grilled green beans and a side salad, all for less than 750 calories. Win.

Peanut Butter Makes Life Palatable (See what I did there?)

This is a 5 Year Journal post. The goal is to answer a simple journal prompt each day of the year as a real record of daily life in this moment. 

January 9: What is your current favorite snack?
Apparently, this is turning into a food blog (see yesterday’s post). I do like food. A lot. And since I’m really trying to be healthy and actually take care of my body after a long neglectful period, I’m full of new food ideas. In fact, one of my goals for the year is to try one new recipe per week. One of my new favorite food combos is really good and really healthy and I’ve been using it as a snack and as a breakfast option. Please to enjoy:

Peanut Butter Apple Greek Yogurt Parfait

1/2 cup plain nonfat Greek Yogurt
1 granny smith apple
1 tbs natural peanut butter
Splenda or sugar to taste

1. Don’t be scared off by the word Greek before the word yogurt. DON’T. Its not scary. Its just regular yogurt which has been strained so that most of the whey (liquid carbs, basically) drain out, leaving you with a thicker, creamier, and best of all, much higher protein yogurt. Randy and I sing its praises often as it is so healthy and so versatile. It can be used as a virtually undetectable (at least to me) substitute for sour cream, so we use it in everything from baked potatoes to tacos to chili. We never use sour cream anymore. And with some sweetener, you can use it in desserts and sweet snacks. Ahhh....I love you, Greek Yogurt! You can also purchase it already sweetened in a variety of flavors, just like regular yogurt - if you’re not brave enough to start with the “hard stuff”.

Oikos is a good choice. Kroger brand is also great.

2. Now that you are on board with the awesomeness that is Greek Yogurt, you can begin constructing your snack. Mix the tablespoon of natural peanut butter into the yogurt. You can use regular peanut butter, but its much more difficult to blend it into the yogurt. If you are going to use regular, I’d suggest getting it just barely warm so that it loosens up a bit. But why not just go natural? Is soooo tasty and easy to spread.

3. If you’ve started with plain yogurt you will definitely need some sweetener - because that stuff is T.A.R.T. tart. Play around with it and keep adding until you feel comfortable with the tartness level. I use Splenda and I us a lot. You could also use sugar or honey.

4. Chop your apple into small pieces - I think I usually go for cubes that are about a half inch - and stir them into the yogurt/peanut butter mixture.

5. Enjoy!
 

I am the Pizza Monster

This is a 5 Year Journal post. The goal is to answer a simple journal prompt each day of the year as a real record of daily life in this moment. 

January 8: What is the last really good thing you ate?

I love pizza so much its almost obscene. Now that I'm trying to take care of myself more, I am limiting the amount of carry-out pizza I eat. But I can't just break up with all pizza completely. I'm not sure a pizza-less life would be worth living…

So on pizza night (which is Thursday, if you were wondering – just in time for 30 Rock and Parks and Rec) we've been making what we've termed "Dippin' Stix", which we dip into my homemade pizza sauce, which is to die for. I can't even explain how much I love this sauce. Here is the recipe!

Dippin Stix
-Loaf of Italian Bread
-I Can't Believe its Not Butter Light spread (or butter if you’re feelin’ bold)
-Garlic Powder
-Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

Slice bread into 1-inch thick slices. (I usually allow about 5 ounces of bread per person, but you can divvy out the bread amounts as you see fit!) Spread a thin layer of the Not Butter spread onto each slice. (I usually try to use about 1 to 1.5 tbs per 5 ounces of bread to keep the fat and calories in check.) Sprinkle garlic powder to taste over the bread. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over each slice of bread. (I allot about 2 ounces of cheese per 5 ounces of bread.) Bake in a 400 degree oven for 8-10 minutes or until cheese is golden and bubbly. Use a pizza cutter to slice into stix!

Mouth = Watering

Galaxy's Best Pizza Sauce
-2 medium onions, finely chopped
-1 28 ounce can of tomato puree
-1 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes
-1 small can of Italian Style tomato paste
-5 cloves of garlic, crushed or minced
-2 tbs olive oil
-2 tsp dried basil
-2 tsp dried oregano
-1 tsp salt
-1/4 cup sugar (if you like your sauce less sweet, decrease to 2 tbs)

Coat large pot with oil and saute onions and garlic over med or med-hi heat until the onions are soft and golden. Add all other ingredients and bring to a gentle boil. Turn heat to low or med-low and let simmer for about an hour. You will need a vented lid or a splash guard - this sauce is very active and likes to Jackson Pollock your stove, backsplash, and counters with its red, tomatoey goodness. Which is decidedly more good if it stays in the pot.

This sauce recipe makes several servings. We usually use about a cup per person for our Dippin Stix, but you may use less if you are not a sauce person. We are sauce people. Use what you need the first night and then freeze the rest. I usually divide the sauce into 1 cup servings and pour into sandwich size zip top bags, then put all those bags into a gallon zip top bag and freeze. Then I take out what I need and  after a quick thaw in the microwave or in a bowl of warm water (while the bag is still sealed!) its good to go.

I know you will be tempted to just use canned or jarred pizza or marinara sauce. Resist! I know its easier, but this recipe is really pretty painless and its SO much better, in my most humble opinion! At least try it once!

Summer Berries

So I know that I am SUPER late for the 4th of July - blame it on camp season - but I'm posting about our dessert anyway. We had a really low-key Independence Day weekend, spending most of it cleaning (you're jealous, I know), but we did stop working long enough for a mini cook-out. I thought we should have something festive, so I threw together these berry "parfaits". Parfaits is probably a generous way to describe them, because they consisted only of layers of strawberries, blueberries, and Cool Whip. Maybe I'll call it a Lazy Girl Parfait. Anyway, I thought they were pretty, so I took photos!

How to Make a Chocolate Chip-Oreo Love Child

I can't take credit for this idea - I saw it on Pinterest a while back and even as a non-chocolate-lover I stopped to take notice. I can, however take credit for the brilliant idea (because I'm sure I'm the first person in the history of the planet to have this idea) of using 100% store-bought ingredients. I executed this diabolical plan around 2 am the night before/day of Randy's birthday and I just happened to have my trusty new iPhone with me to document the process:



Step 1: Get a husband or friend who likes chocolate to have a birthday. Or I suppose you could make them for yourself if you yourself like chocolate for some reason.

Step 2: Buy a package of Double Stuff Oreos and some chocolate chip cookie dough. For maximum laziness purposes, I suggest the type of dough that is already pre-formed into perfect cookie portions. Also, if you happen to have some Hershey Bars lying around the house leftover from your husband's last go around with s'mores (since you don't like s'mores, even if it makes you a bad Girl Scout), go ahead and throw those into the mix, for garnish.





Step 3: Get the chocolate chip cookie dough ball ready for its big date by slimming down a bit (flatten it with the palm of your hand). Then, gingerly introduce the Oreo, ensuring that you provide them plenty of time for small talk and to get to know each other.





Step 4: This next part could get a bit awkward, as you are going to introduce a third party to the romance. Place another flattened chocolate chip cookie dough ball on top of the Oreo. Don't worry - they'll grow to love each other in time.





Step 5: Much like at a middle school dance, you will need to encourage mingling. Smoosh the sides of the cookies together, completely encasing the Oreo in a chocolate chip cookie bear-hug. Repeat Steps 3 - 5 until you run out of chocolate chip cookie dough. Then eat a couple of the leftover Oreos and remember how much you like them, despite their chocolatey nature.





Step 6: Place your Hershey Bar garnishes on top and put your Frankenstein cookie creations into the oven that you preheated even though I didn't tell you to, because you are proactive.  While you wait, eat a couple more Oreos and perform the "experiment" wherein you make a quadruple stuff Oreo out of two Double Stuff Oreos.



<quadruple stuff Oreo not pictured due to extreme distraction caused by eating quadruple stuff Oreo>



Step 7: Check on your little darlings after about five minutes. Most likely, they have become unruly and started spreading all over the place, trying to morph into unattractive blobs (similar to how I'm starting to look after eating the quadruple stuff Oreos). Crack the whip - that is to say - the spatula! Get those cookies back in line and mold them into round, respectable fellows.









Step 8: Leave your cookies in the oven a little longer than the package recommends, since you have more than doubled their size. Keep checking on them and when they look golden delicious, snatch them up (use a potholder). Once they've cooled, place them on a cute red plate and admire.





Step 9: Try to resist the urge to cut a cookie in half to see it in all its glory. Resistance is futile - cave in and cut away.





Step 10: (Even though the process is essentially complete, you have to have a Step 10 because the ever expanding Mr. Monk part of your brain absolutely WILL NOT tolerate having only 9 steps.) Be glad that you went ahead and cut a cookie open once you see how scrumptious it looks in the photo. Be seduced by the scrumtiousness and take a bite only to discover that its just too much chocolate for you. Decide to leave the rest for your husband or chocolate-loving friend and stick to the safe confines of Oreos. Delight in watching their head nearly explode when they see the awesomeness you have created for them.

Its Gotten Completely Out of Hand

FAQ

Q: Since you work for Girl Scouts, do you get free cookies???

A: NO. And there is no secret stash in the office supply closet, either.

 

Q: Do YOU sell Girl Scout cookies? Can I order a box????

A: NO. Adults do not sell Girl Scout cookies (at least they're not supposed to!). But I have been around a LOT of girls this year who do. And I have been a good customer. A little too good for my waistline.