Starbucks Holiday Cup !!!!!!

Woohoo!!! I received my first Starbucks holiday cup of the 2010 season.

This cup says, " My sister and I would just stare up at the sky. Trying to see where the snowflakes were born".

Looks like they have multiple versions of the holiday cup this year. I'm looking forward to seeing what they all look like!

A Dog Halloween

I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween! I did!

I started off the day getting my outfit together so I could participate in the Halloween fun and hand out candy. I dressed up as a disco girl. I've actually worn this the last 5 years because I secretly wish I could rock the Blonde fro wig everyday of the week!

After I was all situated it was time to dress the dogs. Solera was Frankenstein and Cappy was a Bat dog.

The association organized trick-or-treating in our building. Those condos that wanted to participate put a note on their door so the kids would know which doors to knock on. We had about 20 kiddies show up at our door and they were all very cute!

However, I think our candy bowl scared more than a few of them. We thought it was innocent enough...

until we realized when you stick your hand in the bowl the skeletons head moved and it eyes glowed red. I hope we didn't cause any nightmares:(

Dinner

After all the Halloween night fun, I started on dinner.

I had an acorn squash sitting on my counter from my last CSA order and it was screaming to be prepared like Iowa Girl Eats stuffed acorn squash.

I prepared my squash exactly like Iowa Girl Eats but added cayenne pepper and chili powder:

However, I stuffed my squash a bit differently. I prepared some ground turkey using taco seasoning. I also prepared some Stove Top following the directions on the package minus the butter.

Next I put a scoop of cooked ground turkey in the cooked squash and topped it with some prepared stuffing. Then I placed the stuffed squash back in the oven to broil for a couple minutes...and voila...

Great meal! The husband even liked the squash!

This dish will be making a repeat performance in my kitchen:)

And it's a Wrap

After dinner all I felt like doing was slamming my head into a pillow and calling it a night. Looks like I wasn't the only one feeling exhausted...

It was a long day for the pups too!

Question:

Do you dress your pets up for Halloween?

Ding, Ding, Ding ... We have a winner!

Monday was Columbus day so I had the day off work. Love 3 day weekends but hate having to cram 5 days of work in a 4 day work week. Oh well, I'll take a 3 day weekend anytime!

I had some time so I made Patrick and I Last Minute Lasagna that I found on the Real Simple website. I love Real Simple recipes because they are, well, real simple to make;)

Not only is this dish easy to make but it tastes good AND is a cinch to clean up. Ding, ding, ding ... we have a winner!

I pretty much followed the recipe except I added broccoli in place of the spinach and added less cheese to cut down the fat content.

My plate:

On the side we had a piece of Texas Toast which was crunchy, cheesy and garlicky!

The lasagna was so good.

This dish is definitely a crowd please and will be making more appearances in my kitchen.

Next time I'm going to try and health it up a bit by using whole wheat pasta, reduced fat cheese and loading it up with more veggies. I will for sure let everyone know how the healthier version turns out.

Question:

Have you ever made a dish featured on the Real Simple website or in the magazine?

Wedding Albums and Restaurants

Last night I was woken up by the sound of very loud thunder. It scared the bejesus out of me and my little dog. By the time morning came around I only had one thing on my mind ... coffee!

Breakfast

I'm a classy girl so I chose to drink my iced coffee out of a ball jar:

The coffee was really good, just regular iced coffee with milk and some vanilla syrup:

To eat I had my favorite Lara Bar, Peanut Butter & Jelly:

I do admit it doesn't look very appetizing but it really does taste like a PB&J sandwich!

Lunch

My normal Wednesday lunch was consumed. Pasta with broccoli, carrots and peas with alfredo and pesto sauce:

After lunch I was craving chocolate like nobodies business. A Kit Kat was the only thing that would hit the spot:

Dinner

After work we had to venture out to the burbs to pick up our wedding album. One thing everyone needs to know about my husband and I is that we are big jackasses! This is proven by the photo we chose for the cover of our album:

We were totally being jackasses when we were getting these pictures taken. But we also had a lot of fun!

We picked up our album and stopped into Cabana Charley's to look it over as well as have a little dinner.

The place was filled with lots of island themed decorations:

This cocktail was very tasty:

and for a good cause. It was called the TA TA TINI!

Patrick and I shared these nachos. Homemade chips with seasoned meat, cheese, green onions and jalapenos:

The nachos were amazing! Wish I could say the same about my burger. I ordered a Cajun burger and was expecting a blackened spicy burger but what I got was a plain burger sprinkled with some spices:

I would not go back to this place. The service was slow, the place was way to loud with people talking on microphones and the food wasn't that great. Oh well, at least our photo album turned out great!!!

Memorial Day

I just realized that I didn't share anything about my memorial day weekend. Patrick and my friends invited us over to their beautiful house to celebrate the holiday weekend.

My cocktail of choice was raspberry vodka and lemonade with a strawberry, can you see the strawberry under all the ice?

There was tons of food but my favorite was the fruit platter. Pineapple, Strawberry, Watermelon and Cantaloupe!

The strawberries were huge and tasted amazing!

My contribution was Pepperoni Pizza Dip. This dish was pretty simple to make and got tons of compliments. I got the recipe from A Better Bag of Groceries blog.

The ingredients were sour cream, cream cheese, garlic powder, oregano, green peppers, red peppers, onion, pizza sauce and cheese!

Once the food was consumed we sat around the fire and made smores!

Patrick and I had a GREAT time with everyone at the party. We are incredibly lucky to have such great friends!

Question:

When and where was the last time you had a bad restaurant experience?

Desert Mouth

Ever have those days were you wake up with (what feels like) a desert in your mouth? That was me Wednesday morning. I think it probably had something to do with the salt that was in the stir fry my husband made the night before.

Usually I go for coffee in the morning but this time around I went for a big bottle of water and some Crystal Light:



Add the CL packet to the water, shake and this is what you get:



My eating today was not very nutritious. I had so much going on at work and for some reason I wasn't really that hungry so I accidentally skipped lunch. Not a good thing when you are planning on working out later in the day.

I knew I needed to have something in my stomach before I worked out so I decided to try a LUNA protein bar:



Chocolate Peanut Butter flavor, how can a person go wrong with chocolate and peanut butter:



The bar was actually pretty tasty. It didn't taste like a candy bar but why would it. The 12 grams of protein did it's job because after eating this bar I wasn't hungry at all. I was actually really satisfied. I'm going to try out a couple more flavors of this bar and of course I will share with everyone what I think.



Wednesday was Cinco de Mayo so dinner was easy. I celebrated the holiday with my favorite go to Mexican restaurant, Flaco's Taco's!

A taco with beef, potato, lettuce and salsa:



I ate about half of this burrito. Filled with beef, potato and cheese:



I just love the flavor of the beef and the potato picks up that flavor and oh my word, it's heaven!



Topped off with hot sauce cause everything is better with hot sauce:



Workout

As I mentioned earlier my plan was to workout and I'm happy to say that I came through on that plan.

I walked for 5 min, ran for 25 min, walked for 5 min and than did some stretching to total 45 minutes of exercise:



And I burned 407 calories:



I think those 407 calories burned will offset a bite of that burrito ;) Just kidding, I think it's fine that I had a burrito as long as I don't have that big burrito everyday.

Moderation is key!

Question:

What is the first thing you grab to drink in the morning? Mine is coffee or water.

Earth Day Cocktails

Happy Earth Day!!!

I had to hop on the blog to let everyone know about a cocktail that is being offered at Lockwood restaurant located in the Palmer House Chicago.

treetini

"Treetini is a cocktail that uses local/seasonal ingredients and plants a tree for every cocktail purchases. Trees are planted in an area of the world that is in dire need of the replanting of trees to enrich and hold the soil together. One tree over a 50 year lifecycle can provide air pollution control, recycle water and control soil erosion.

Have a treetini today, plant a tree!"

What's in a treetini?

Veev acai spirit, st. germain liqueur, pomegranate liqueur, fresh lemon juice

I had the opportunity to try this cocktail a couple days ago and it was delicious. I really liked everything about it! Plus, you can't go wrong when you have a cocktail for a cause!

Everyone should go out and sip a treetini cocktail today!