Fish Tacos

My husband made us dinner tonight. We had spicy beans and fish tacos. I can't explain how the fish was made because he did it all by himself while I blogged away. As I type this, he is letting me know he was not happy with the fish but is committed to experimenting and getting it right. He made the fish and then we put it in a tortilla along with cheese, lettuce and salsa.

Here is the fish:

Check out the table set-up. Champagne and candles, my husband is the best!

Until tomorrow....

Coffee, Pancakes, Tacos and a former President

I want to start off by thanking all the Veterans and current Soldiers for fighting for our country. You all are very much appreciated!

I started off today having a cup of Java with some creamer.

The coffee we made today was Amy's Blend from Caribou Coffee. This is a really great coffee, not just for the taste but also for the donation it gives to the Susan G. Komen fund. Here is an explanation from the Caribou Coffee website:

AMY'S BLEND

About Amy Amy Erickson was a beloved Roastmaster of ours who passed away after a valiant fight with breast cancer. To honor Amy's passion for coffee and life, and to do our part to find a cure, each year we create a special coffee and other products that would meet her standards. We think she'd approve. Our Contribution When you buy Amy's Blend products, 10% of sales are donated to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Together we can make a difference.

Caribou Coffee offers this every year. I encourage you to check it out!

While I was drinking my coffee I decided to make some pancakes. I started off by mixing 1 egg, 2 tbs oil and 1/2 cup water.

By the way I used Cage Free Eggs.

Next, I mixed in 1 cup of Stonewall Kitchen Blueberry Pancake mix.

The finished product was pretty good. I added some butter and warm maple syrup to mine.

After breakfast we headed out to Macy's. On the way to the store we saw all these people hanging out:

Turns out Bill Clinton was in the area and we did get to see him. But the coolest part of seeing him was checking out the security detail. They had SUV's, cop cars, cops on horses and cops on bikes. One of the bike cops had a really cool coffee holder on his bike, so of course I took a picture:

(Does anyone notice the Starbucks holiday cup?)

Once we reached Macy's be did a little bit of shopping and then hit the 7th floor for Frontera Fresco.

I had the Chipotle Chicken taco and the husband had the Chipotle Shrimp taco. The food was excellent. I loved the way the meat was seasoned!

Although the food was good the experience was not all that great. The place was out of the first 3 things my husband tried to order and the staff were not very pleasant. I will check this place out one more time to see if the service is better but if it is not greatly improved than I can't say that I would go out of my way to give them my money.

On that note stay tuned for my dinner post!

One Month Anniversary

First and most important I want to say, Happy Anniversary Patrick! My husband and I have officially been married for one month today. I am so lucky to have found him and have him in my life from this point on. I love him with all my heart and more!

The last couple nights I've been having a really hard time falling asleep at night. I'm not drinking a ton of caffeine and I'm not exercising before bed time. I think the problem is I have so much on my mind it is hard to "shut off" my brain so I can rest. Throughout the day everything is fast paced and loud (living in downtown Chicago is very loud) so the only time I really have to stop and think is at night. When all the noise has stopped and it is just me. I need to figure out how to "turn the noise in my brain" off at night so I can get some good zzzz's!

This morning's breakfast was healthy for me and tasted good too. Can't beat that! To drink I had some Tazo Awake tea. I'm really liking this stuff. It is a blend of black teas and is a tea of boldness, depth and character, invigorating any time of day (at least that is what the package says). I would have to agree this tea has been doing a nice job of keeping me awake and alert instead of my normal latte.

I was really hungry this morning but did not have the time to make breakfast. Actually the only time I make breakfast is on the weekends because I'm just not awake enough during the work week mornings. I grabbed a Banana Nut Odwalla bar. I've had these before so I knew it would do the trick of filling me up and it doesn't hurt that it tastes fantastic. It is kind of sweet and has a little crunch to it.

Lunch was so satisfying. I had Mongolian stir fry which consisted of carrots, cabbage, celery, green peppers, lettuce leaves, onions, broccoli and chicken with a spicy chili sauce. All of these wonderful veggies were placed on top of half cup white rice. Nothing bad to say about this dish, pretty healthy and I got some protein.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this entry it is my husband and I's one month wedding anniversary. We decided to celebrate by first going out to Ceres and have a drink. I had a Captain Morgan Diet Coke.

And for dinner I ordered, yet again, the Asian Chicken Salad at Ceres.

After Ceres the hubby and I stopped at The Martini Bar. This bar is located in the financial district of downtown Chicago. It is a small bar located on a side street but once you get inside you are glad to be at The Martini Bar.

Check out this fireplace.

The Martini Park has a back room that you can rent out for parties. It is the perfect size for a gathering of close friends.

A little couch area in the back room:

And check out this painting on the wall. So cool!

Once at the bar we decided on a Pumpkin Spice and Chocolate Mint Martini. No, we did not get one of each for each of us. We just got one of each and shared them.

The Pumpkin Spice martini was amazing. I loved it and it was perfect for a fall evening.

The Chocolate Mint martini was also very tasty. How pretty does this drink look?

Great night and tomorrow I have the day off work.

Question:

How have you celebrated anniversaries?

Have a nice night everyone!

Monday Already!

I think I've commented before on how much I dislike Monday's. Something about having a glorious weekend with my husband and dogs. Coming and going as I please with no one to report to. Then Monday comes and everything changes so fast. I really need to learn to like Monday's because hopefully I will have a lot more of them to come!

I treated myself to a fantastic fall breakfast today. Starbucks skinny vanilla latte, pumpkin scone and a bottle of ethos water.



Nothing better for curing the Monday morning blues then a Starbucks pumpkin scone. These are delicious!

I wasn't really hungry by the time lunch came around. I knew I needed to eat something light that would hold me over until dinner tonight. I opted for the Ginger Chicken and Brown Rice soup.

My husband and I went to Ceres after work to get a cocktail. I ordered a Captain Morgan Diet Coke.

After walking the dogs we made dinner. We started off with a salad. The salad consisted of mixed greens, black olives and a sweet vinaigrette.

After the delicious salad we had some cheese pizza. The pizza was pretty good.

What made the pizza excellent was the addition of Spice Islands Spicy Pizza & Pasta topping. So good and just the right amount of spice.

To top it off I had a glass of Karma Vista Sauvignon Blanc.

This wine is great! My husband and I bought this while we were in Michigan on our honeymoon. In a later post I will talk more about the Michigan wineries. I know a lot of people don't know about Michigan wines but everyone should give them a try.

Veggie Soup with Barley

After work on Friday I came home and started chopping veggies for some veggie soup. I love soup and have made my fair share of soups but never have I attempted vegetable soup. I must say, for my first attempt, this soup was pretty tasty. However, it was more of a stew consistency then a soup consistency.

The ingredients I used are as follows:

• Barley


• Vegetable Stock


• Celery


• Carrots


• Red Potatoes


• Green Beans


• Cauliflower


• Onion


• Garlic


• Bay Leaves


• Black Pepper


• Salt


• Cayenne Pepper

Below is a photo of the ingredients I used.




The first step was to clean the barley and start cooking it. This was my first time using barley and it was really easy. I just followed the directions on the package.

While the barley was cooking I started chopping all the veggies. I normally HATE cutting veggies but I used the Professional Multi-Chopper and the chopping was a breeze.

Take a look at he perfectly cut veggies:



Once the veggies were chopped and the barley cooked I started sauteing the onion, celery and garlic. To do this I sprayed the bottom of a large soup pot with extra virgin olive oil and threw in the onion, celery and garlic and sauteed for about 10 minutes.




Veggies being sauteed has a yummy smell!

Since the soup was starting to cook I decided it was time to have a glass of wine.



After 10 minutes of sauteing I added vegetable broth, potatoes and carrots; bring to a boil. Lower heat; add cooked barley, green beans, cauliflower and bay leaves. I then added the spices and let it cook.



The green beans really turned a vibrant green color! The barley added a lot to this soup. Made it really filling and I liked the texture it gave the soup.

Let's take a closer look at the barley:



I let the soup cook for about an hour and a half. When it was done cooking I was able to enjoy a bowl of my very first homemade vegetable soup.



This soup was so good and perfect for a fall day! The spice added by the cayenne pepper gave the soup an interesting taste. If you like spicy foods I would definitely try using cayenne pepper in your soups!

Next time I plan on adding less salt, adding corn and leaving out the green beans.

Question:

What do you put in your vegetable soup?

Starbucks Holiday Cup !!!!!!

I'm so excited! I received my first Starbucks holiday cup of the season.

Christmas is right around the corner.

Organization of life

My life is really chaotic. I just got married a couple weeks ago and my husband (so strange to type that) and I are trying to get our house and lives in order. We are both in our 30's which means we have each individually accumulated everything a person needs to run a household. So we have at least 2 of everything crammed into a 700 square foot condo. So the equation looks something like this:

Lots of stuff + 2 Adults + 2 Dogs = Chaos

I freely admit that I have a lot of clutter type stuff all over the condo. I need to get my magazines under control and learn how to keep my closet organized (sharing a closet is harder than I thought).

House
My husband and I are both committed to organizing the house. When we are going through all of our things we will have multiple "piles". Everything we touch will have to go into one of these "piles" - Keep, Donate, Sell, Storage or Trash. We are going to go through the different rooms in the Condo and get organized. I know this will be a long process for us to complete but I would like to get things done by the end of this year. Start off 2010 with a organized slate!

Work
My work life also feels cluttered. I have been working in the same company for many years but I have been in multiple departments. This means I have accumulated a bunch of paper filed and laying on my desk. To me this is not just paper. It is my hard work that caused stress, tears and sometimes anger. It is hard to just throw these things away. However, I'm not using them and I don't see myself using these materials in the future. I need to go into work with a clear head and just trash everything that does not pertain to my current job. For some reason this has been something that is really hard for me to do. But, with that said, it will get done, promise!

Finances
Weddings are not cheap, especially weddings in big cities. Finances are hard for me to talk about, I tend to get defensive and not much fun to be around when the topic comes up. This probably is due to the fact that I don't know much about personal financial topics (ex: stocks, 401K, credit cards).
This is not a topic I will spend time discussing on this blog but I felt it was something I needed to mention. Finances stress me out and when I'm stressed I make poor food choices. I will get my head wrapped around a budget that my family can live with. I think knowing where the money is going and how it will be spent will help with the financial stress therefore aid in eliminating stressed food choices. Keeping my fingers crossed on this one!


I'm really thinking that when my life is more organized that I will feel better. I will sleep, eat, work and exercise better.

Does anyone have any organization tips that have worked for them?