083. Dinner, Dresses, and Developments

Dinner

Tonight I made a quickie dinner because we had a 7:30 appointment at David's Bridal for Nicki to try on wedding dresses and for me to try on bridesmaid dresses.

For dinner I made some roasted red potatoes and a veggie burger inspired by the Red Robin Bonzai Burger. It was a Morning Star patty, with Munster cheese, a bit of BBQ sauce and some pineapple chunks.
I don't remember if I've ever posted how I make my roasted potatoes. It's so super easy so if you're curious...

• chop up potatoes and toss in a ziplock bag.
• add 1-2 T of EVOO (depending on amount of potatoes)
• add sea salt, pepper, garlic powder, oregano, and any other spices
• shake vigerously
• pour on top cookie sheer
• bake at 350 for 30 - 40 minutes.

Dresses

The trip to David's Bridal was a huge success! Nicki found (and purchased) her dress!! I took a ton of pictures, but since one of the dresses was actually purchased I'm not going to be posting any of them.

We're also almost 100% on the bridesmaid's dresses, but we want at least one other bridesmaid to try it on. We're all pretty similar in body type, but it helps to see the dress on more than one person.

This is the actual dress...

...and these are the colors.

That brown dress was a size 24 so it was way too big to actually try on, but we wanted a picture of the color combo for the bridesmaids.

Initially we considered the tea length dress in the photo above, but I decided I'm just too short for tea length so we went with the full length. (I was given full control of bridesmaid dress selection.)

Developments

I have some big news my wonderful readers! I am going to be moving over to wordpress in the next week or so. I've been considering it for a while now as I've heard wordpress is a much better blogging platform, but I made my decision after one of my earlier posts got eaten by Blogger. Blogger has eaten one post too many! So keep your eye out for my new address!

078. Running Around Like a Chicken with my Head Cut Off

Afternoon snack was a GIANT honeycrisp apple. It was fantastic - crisp and juicy! Sadly, the picture seems to have gotten eaten by my phone and/ or my computer.

I've decided I really don't like the fact that Wednesday night yoga is at 7:15. I much prefer the 7:45 class on Mondays.

I've been going nonstop since I got off the bus. My mom is coming to pick me up for yoga (Chris still had my car.) at 6:50, and the dinner I was planning tonight takes about 40 minutes. That leaves me about 10 minutes to eat said dinner. To some extent this was poor planning on my part. I need to plan faster meals on Wednesdays when I have less time to cook before class.

I was going to switch plans up, but I forgot a couple items when I went shopping yesterday (even though they were on my list, ugh!) so swapping one of the less time consuming meals on the agenda this week wasn't even an option.

So what was tonight's dinner. You might remember from my meal plans that tonight I'm made Southwest Chicken Stew. Honestly, the prep time wasn't bad, but the recipe calls for it to simmer 20 - 30 minutes. I think this might be one that would work out well in a slow cooker too.

I subbed chilli powder for the cumin since I didn't have cumin and didn't want to buy it for just this recipe. I also used a can of diced tomatoes. I think next time I might add a small can of tomato sauce to give it a little more liquid. I also only simmered it about 15 minutes.


You can't see it in the pictures, but I ate it on top of/ with 3/4 c. of brown rice. This is definitely a make again, but I can see myself changing it up a little bit next time.

069. Better than Kraft Mac N Cheese

Partially inspired by the grilled cheese with apple Caitlin made for her husband, and partially inspired by the fact I really wanted some mac n cheese (but not some lame out of the box mac n cheese), tonight I decided to make Better than Kraft Mac n Cheese. I made this one all on my own (no recipe) and it was AWESOME!

It's rotelle pasta, Dubliner cheese, reduced fat cheddar cheese, and some chopped up apples. It was so delicious and savory.


The cheesy deliciousness of dinner brings my to The Great Cheese Debate which will be coming tomorrow.

065. Welcome Hermione

I would like to introduce you all to my new guinea pig Hermione...

Yes, she is named for Hermione Granger from Harry Potter. Had I gotten a boy it was going to be either Weasley or Potter. Yes, I know what a dork this probably makes me.

I bought her at PetCo. One of the things I really like about PetCo. (as opposed to PetSmart) is that the employees really seem to care about the animals. The cashier actually took little Hermione out of the box and gave her some loving while ringing us out. They also made sure to give us a crash course on guinea pig care.

Of course, I spend about 2 hours Googleing guinea pigs while at work yesterday (I had to cover the front desk for a while.). I wasn't about to buy a pet without learning about it first!

I did consider adopting a guinea pig as I always rank adopting an animal over buying one. Unfortunately, the nearest guinea pig rescue is nearly an hour away. That said, I definitely think I will adopt one in the future.

I'm sure there will be plenty of pictures to come. I didn't want to overwhelm her too much on her first night.

Before we headed out to the pet store, I made us burrito "bowls" for dinner. I made black beans and rice with corn and topped it with some Boca I sauteed with red onion, sharp cheddar cheese, more red onion, and what I could salvage from an over-ripened avocado.

It was mucho delish! (Also, check out that balancing act!)

059. Practice for my 7 Day Vegetarian Challenge: Tofu Fried Rice

Lunch with my friend Colleen today was awesome. I didn't get a picture because I forgot my phone at the office and my camera is still with my dad. As I mentioned earlier, we met at Roti; it was so much better than I remember! We were at a different location and my order was slightly different, but damn was it good. I had the Chicken Roti Sandwich which was Roti chicken on flatbread. I added a little bit of hummus, lettuce, feta cheese, and some of their garlic sauce. It was stellar!

Moving right along to dinner, with my 7 Day Vegetarian Challenge on the horizon, I decided to go for a test run tonight. For dinner, I made Vegetarian Tofu Fried Rice.

It's a little blurry, I must've moved my phone. Oops!

(Notice the cute, fancy plate and different background!)

The linked name above will take you to the recipe on SparkRecipes, but here's what was in my nutritious and delicious fried rice:

• broccoli
• snow pea pods
• pea shoots
• red onions
• carrot
• corn
• tofu
• egg

I think this was hands down the best fried rice I have ever made! I ended up going back a second helping (only half a serving though.) I'm actually kind of sad we're going out for lunch tomorrow for a co-workers birthday, and I can't eat the left overs.

Turning the Dreadmill into...well, something a little less dreadful.

To go along with my amazing dinner, I got in a really great workout today. I've been really struggling with my running/ work-outs because I cannot stand running on the treadmill. I make it about 15 minutes before I start losing it. I started thinking about how last winter I had no problems running on the treadmill, and I finally realized the difference. Last winter I had just started the Couch to 5K program. I wasn't running on the treadmill endlessly, going no where. I was running intervals. That's when it hit me. If I want to survive winter on the dreadmill, I need to be mixing it up! I decided to seek out some treadmill workouts to keep me going.

In her post earlier today, Tina mentioned MotionTraxx and how much she was digging the downloads. I decided to check it out. On the site I found three podcasts for interval workouts from Fitness Magazine which, oddly enough, a friend on SparkPeople had mentioned to me earlier today.

I downloaded all three of the Fitness Magazine "Lose 10lbs" podcasts and tonight I did "The Countdown." It was an awesome workout! If you're looking something to make the treadmill (or even elliptical) a little less miserable, check out these podcasts. I'm not usually a big fan of dance/ techno music (It's something I really need to be in the mood for.), but it really got me going. I managed to burn 550 calories in 35 minutes according to my heart rate monitor.

After my kick booty treadmill work out, I hit the 60 minute yoga class with my mom. I really do love yoga. I always feel so relaxed and centered after I finish. I also love that I get to go to class with my mom!

It's getting late so I need to go Whittle My Middle and get in the shower!

I'll be back tomorrow with more eats, a review of the book Skinny Bitch, and some Veggie Challenge related posts.

044. Everything but the...Quiche

So, I ended up making a quiche for dinner. Some of my veggies were starting to look a little sad so I decided to make the quiche tonight before stuff started going rotten. So I started tossing things together and came out with my Everything but the...Quiche

In my quiche was spinach, red pepper, broccoli, Canadian bacon, and mild and sharp cheddar cheese.

While I was making dinner I snacked on some Goldfish crackers.

I've been really hungry all day today. I think my blood sugar is a bit out of control from all of my holiday indulgences. I need to get that back under control, and then I think my constant hunger will subside some.

Also, I apologize for the poor photo quality today. My camera battery was dead so I've been relying on my iPhone for photos today.