Happy Summer

Today is officially the first day of summer. However, we have been having 90 degree days in the District for quite sometime now. S2H and I successfully kicked off the summer with friends at Jazz in the Garden and a Saturday Nationals game! I also snuck off to the pool for some reading time in preparation for this Tuesday's Book Club. We are reading Bel Canto. I am only a hundred pages in and struggling! I'm just crossing my fingers that I will finish in time.

This week I will be busy prepping for a weekend in Charlotte celebrating bride-to-be Nina! We have plans for lunch, wedding gown viewing, bridal shower, and lots of snuggle time and yummy food. From Charlotte, I will be heading straight to San Diego for work and play! Busy Busy! I am the worst packer and already have anxiety about packing for these ten days in two very different climates...yikes! Any advice? PLEASE send it my way!

A little update....I have been successful with my stickk.com goal for two weeks in a row! I think all the healthy cooking is paying off. I now need to get an action plan for all my travel so the numbers on the scale keep dropping! I wore my bikini out this weekend and I feel VERY uncomfortable and that maybe it is only appropriate at a private pool, like with no other humans. We shall see...

There were many pictures taken this weekend, just not by me, cause I am so bad at that! But hopefully I can snag some from friends soon. Until then, have a good week!

photo from PB.

A week in the kitchen

I tried three new healthy meals this week and they were a big success! They left S2H and I feeling full but not guilty. I think I may save my more "savory" recipes for the weekend when we can eat them for a late lunch and then "walk" them off. I'm just not prepared to give up my baked mac & cheese obsession!

Below are the links for the three meals I made. All are from Cooking Light and took no time at all!

-Crispy Fish: I am not a huge fish fan but I loved the panko bread crumbs with the tilapia I used. The only additions I made to the recipe were a few baby itty bitty pats of butter on top (I couldn't help myself) and added some all-seasoning to the breadcrumbs. I served it with roasted zucchini, just tossed with a bit of olive oil, salt & pepper, and a sprinkle of fresh parm!

-Mushroom-Herb Chicken: I made a few edits to this recipe...(1) I didn't have marjoram and had never seen it in any other recipes before so there was no way I was going to buy it. So I used tarragon and I think it worked out well! I also didn't have sherry on hand so I used port wine. S2H liked the meal but I still missed the yumminess of cream sauce...but that does not fall in the "light" category! I served the chicken on top of mashed garlic red potatoes, very good for soaking up extra sauce, and steamed broccoli.

-Chicken-Orzo Salad: This was S2H's healthy meal find of the week. And he made the whole thing by himself while I slept off the weariness of my morning root canal. I love orzo, it's practically guilt-free pasta! And the goat cheese really pulled everything together. We've made variations of this type of salad before but never with arugula. The arugula added a nice peppery bite. Definitely a keeper for future Friday night dinners!

On another yummy note I made Mini Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes this week for a fiesta inspired baby shower at work! The cake was nice and airy, and there was a nice heat at the end of the bite thanks to the cinnamon, cayenne pepper and coffee in the batter. I topped them with awesome cinnamon cream cheese icing...delicious...I would know as I ate half the icing while I tried to get the perfect amount of sweet. I followed the recipe to the T but for some reason I had about double the batter. Instead of 24 minis I could have made 48! Not sure what happened, I stopped at 36 cupcakes just for my own sanity. But no harm no foul, they were a big hit at work and I think I am slowly becoming the baking princess of the office...I love a good title! Both recipes came from the blog, Everchanging Plate. This is my new favorite food blog, the writer is a Chicago Pastry Student, how cool is that?! I wish I knew I could be a pastry student when I chose Finance as my major in college. Maybe in another life? :)

Sorry for the lack of pics. I just can't bare to bust out the camera in my non-air conditioned kitchen! Pains me just to stand near the oven! I hope you all have an amazing weekend...filled with yummy food and friends to share it with!

Kitchen I am obsessing over via here. If only I weren't a renter, my bitty kitchen would be in demo as we speak!

The Last 10 lbs....

In my quest to get into a bikini this summer I signed up for stickK.com. StickK.com’s mission is: “stickK empowers you to better your lifestyle. We offer you the opportunity, through 'Commitment Contracts', to show to yourself and others the value you put on achieving your goals.”

I made a commitment to lose 10 pounds in fifteen weeks. In turn I have to lose .67 pounds every week to meet my goal. To motivate me stickk suggested I put a wager on my commitment. I wagered $10 per week on myself. So if I lose the .67 pounds- yay me, no money lost. If I don’t meet my weekly goal, and here is the kicker, S2H gets my $10!! You can choose for your wager to go to a friend, charity, or wherever. I have been unsuccessful the past three weeks and let me tell you it sucks! You have to confirm 5,000 times on stickK.com that yes I DID NOT achieve my goal. And then I have to watch it recalculate…booo, worse then waiting for your GPS to recalculate when you’re lost. And then five seconds after all this trauma I get an e-mail that my hard-earned, potential Starbucks money, is going to S2H. Gah, the misery!

I am crossing my fingers and my toes that this same tragedy doesn’t happen to me this week (the big weigh in is every Wednesday). However, I was a bum all weekend. And I can’t even remember if I worked out last week. What I do like about this little commitment is that because of the website reminders and the trauma of being unsuccessful there is a little voice in the back of my head always reminding me of those .67 pounds that need to be lost. These ten pounds are definitely going to be a challenge. I am going to have to be smarter and more creative than the first go-around. I totally understand now when people say the last few pounds are the hardest to lose. S2H is on-board so that helps. He has his own stickK.com goal too (and yes I get reap the reward!). So the friendly competition will hopefully work in our favor. We are also trading off weeks to find healthy new recipes to make, to help keep things exciting (I will be sure to post any winning recipes). I even ordered a bikini…I may just hang it on my full length mirror to add to the torture. I’ll be making posts here and there as a quasi journal for myself. Hopefully you all don't mind and may even get involved and give me any tips that have worked for you! So here we go...I now have to answer to this blog and stickK.com, wish me luck!

Friday Finds

Happy Friday inter-webs! I have been lacking with my posting but I have still been perusing and have some things to share. Hope everyone has a restful and fun weekend. I have a babysitting gig tonight (hello tax-free cash), some special invites to pull together (future post on that to come!) and then pool time with S2H! I am also hoping to write some posts this weekend and download about 3 months worth of pictures. Why is it such a challenge to get the pictures off the camera and onto Shutterfly? Does anyone else have a brain block when it comes to this stuff? Please tell me if you have any tips!

thought provoking article thanks to hilary...i need to practice my patience

are you a smart cookie? i get daily e-mails from this site with tips on how to save & be a smart spender!


my new favorite food blog...i have made the mac & cheese recipes, tequila burgers, and many more-all have been a hit!

when-to-wash-it handbook...i am my clothes worst enemy!

food myth busters courtesy of Hungry Girl

Polyvore is my new favorite tool! i've used it two times now to create quasi inspiration boards. it is so fun and easy...download the tool and click on any inspiring picture you find and it saves it to your account for later!

these food pics make me happy! i might just steal some of the supper menus from this blog!

photo via here