Happy Monday

Hey look... it's the return of Motivation Monday! Happy Monday, party people!! :)

We had a really productive weekend considering the massive list we set out to accomplish. Household chores... unfortunately really didn't get touched. BUT! We made some major progress with little C's room and I'm really keeping my fingers crossed that one more weekend will do the trick to be... um... FINISHED!

My Pinterest Thankgiving

I LOVE PINTEREST. And I'm not afraid to tell you. I pin and pin and pin, but do I really make that stuff? I did a few for Thankgiving and took pictures to share! Here are the potato skins/wedges I made. I put a piece of butter on each slice under the cheese and didn't put the bacon on until they were finished baking. They were seriously delicious and duh, super easy.

Next up, cupcake teepees. Seriously adorable, definitely not easy to make them stand up. I should have taken pictures of that... I tried with the round tin she suggested, but it wasn't working for me, so I ended up using a muffin tin and use a hell of a lot of tin foil to make them stand up while baking. It was a big mess early Thanksgiving morning. Thankfully, we only lost 3 in the baking process. They are super cute if you ask me, and pretty damn yummy, too.

And finally, these were supposed to be snackable acorns. But I used pretzels because cookies don't go over very well in my house (with anyone else but me). I think they were probably way more delicious with the nutterbutters. These were okay.

I also made the "best broccoli you've ever tasted." Quite honestly, it wasn't anything to write home about. I'd probably make it again, because it's different than steamed broccoli and just as tasty, but I couldn't see having this in replace of a steak as she was saying in the blog... It was good, but not THAT good.

Happy pinning everyone!

Cheesy Potatoes

I have been slacking on my 30 before 30 list. But now that we're in 2nd tri and my energy is slowly creeping back, I'm going to get back into it full force. I didn't plan for this to be a pregnancy/baby blog, but that's sort of what it feels like lately... Let's return to the originally scheduled programming... with a recipe! Even if it is stolen!

CHEESY POTATOES

Stolen from i'mthisbabysmom from theBump (my satisfied belly and was a great thing to bring to Lindseys Halloween Party. Thank you!)

INGREDIENTS:
1 Bag of Orieda Southern Style Hash Browns (small cubed potato) or slice fresh potatoes but that takes a lot longer. (I used the fresh potatoes and used about 8 or 9 smallish/medium potatoes)

3 cups of Mild Shredded Cheddar Cheese.

1 small box of Velveeta Cheese (dice it).

1 pack of Cubed Ham (or bacon or whatever meat you like, or no meat). (I did not use the meat this time around, but Hubby told me he thought it should have some bacon.)

1 can of Cream of Chicken Soup.

1/2 cup of Mayo or Miracle Whip.

1/2 cup of Sour Cream.

3/4 cup of Heavy Whipping Cream.

INSTRUCTIONS:
Thaw the potatoes in a large mixing bowl. All add the ingredients EXCEPT half of the heavy whipping cream. Stir to mix. Pour into a buttered baking dish (I used the large pyrex type of dish). Pour the rest of the heavy whipping cream on top and pat in. Bake at 350 for 1 hour to 1 1/2 hour until the top is slightly golden brown.

Then stuff your face!!!

Enjoy!

Lemon Cream Pasta with Chicken

I didn't take a picture... so if you don't believe I made this, I won't be made. Oops! But it was delicious, and very easy. If you've ever been to Houlihans and had the Tuscany Lemon Chicken pasta, this is VERY similar. I added some peas to mine to color up the plate a little bit and mushrooms to mine (because I love mushrooms and hubby does not.) Delicious!
http://www.melskitchencafe.com/2009/02/lemon-cream-pasta-with-chicken.html

Chicken Enchilada Pasta

Another Pinterest find! Super easy and my husband (ok and I) LOVED it! I was a little nervous about the green chile sauce because it definitely does not look appetizing, but all mixed together it was pretty yum-o-rific. I'm not even going to rehash the recipe because her instructions are insanely easy. Enjoy!

#5 Baked chicken with California Mashers

OK, so I'm cheating. I've made this chicken before and it's ridiculously easy... but I haven't made it in a long time and I've never made the mashers before... so there!

Thirty Before 30: Thursday Update

#5 Recipe: I slacked on June's recipe. I made healthy lasagna but sort of just made it up as I went along. I cut up an onion and sauted it until soft then added in some zuchini and spinach and layered that with the lasagna noodles, sauce, mozzerella and ricotta cheese, and some cooked up ground turkey breast. It was actually, really really good. I used whole wheat noodles as well. The only thing is I guess I didn't need to bake it very long because the noodles on top got sort of... crunchy... so! don't overbake it if you try it. I promise to do better next month with a *new* recipe.

#6 New restaurant x2 - Arelios. They just opened by my job and I tried it out with a co-worker of mine after work. It was so good! Apparently it's a chain, so see if there's one in your area. They serve Chicago style pizza. I had a calzone type pizza (they called it something else), but it was HUGE and filled with spinach cheese and mushrooms. So good! I really wanted to try one of the desserts which was listed as a half a pound of chocolate chip cookie dough topped with ice cream, whipped cream and a cherry, but I was so full after my meal. Next time, I'll know to save room. :)
I hadn't planned on going out to eat at a new restaurant again in June, but my brother-in-law's father (yes, I said that right) was in town visiting us and we decided to grab something quick before dropping him off at the airport so we stopped at The Vortex in Little Five Points. I'm so glad we did because my husband, who has a motorcycle, goes to this biker bar pretty frequently with his friends. It was so good! I had the egghead sandwich (fried egg on a BLT with cheese on texas toast) with a side of plaintains. Everything was SO GOOD. I won't tell hubby because next time he asks if I want to go to bike night, I'm going!

#9 Current mile pace: last months pace 12:58, this months pace 12:20. Actually, I run about 2 miles in each time, and the second mile is much slower. I actual finished the first mile in under 10 minutes! But I would still like to be able to do it with just running the whole time (instead of run/walk/run/walk) So, I'm still trying to get up to that.

#10 Gym: Awesome! I'm doing great with going to the gym 3 times a week. I've been going 3-4 times a week all month. Even pushed myself one day that I got home late and went at 845 at night to do my cardio and chest workout. I'm proud (and so is hubby :)


#11 Pushups: 6. Don't laugh at me. It's better than last month :)

Thirty before 30: Thursday Update

#5 Here is May's recipe: Stuffed Chicken with Mozzerella and Basil and Sweet Potato Fries.
This turned out to be FANTASTIC and actually kind of easy. I was really looking for a recipe that would pull from all of the herbs in my garden since they are overgrowing and really need to be used. It calls for fresh basil, green onions (scallions), and parsley (hello? Did they write this specifically for me?) The only part I had a hard time with was gently pounding the chicken to 1/4 inch thickness. How does one gently pound a chicken??! I put each peice between wax paper and tried to pound it with a rolling pin and it did flatten, however, the chicken was fraying on the ends... I'm pretty sure that's not supposed to happen. Still, the recipe turned out delicious and right at my skill level.

I made the sauce, too, even though it's not pictured (my husband doesn't like mushrooms) and it was really good as well! I'm usually terrible with gravys and sauces because they don't thicken for me, or get too thick, but this was perfect. I'll definitely save it for another time to make! The sweet potato fries were insanely easy and taste great. I definitely recommend them for an easy side!

#9 Current mile pace: 12:58 (Although I usually run at least 2 miles in one session, I do it pretty slowly because I like to alternate running and walking, so my goal is to at least get up to doing the first full mile running.)
#10 Gym: Awful. I've only gone twice this month (Tuesday and Thursday this week). Ew. But in my defense, I've only been tracking since mid-month. So, as long as I go on Saturday, I should meet my 3 times a week for this week and hopefully that'll start a good trend for me.
#11 Pushups: 4. That's pretty sad. I've included the link here for the program I'm using that will hopefully get me to at least 50 push-ups in a row. My original goal was set at 100, but hubby doesn't think that's possible. (Thanks for the confidence, hun!) Either way, I plan on starting this week to try and increase my strength!
Situps: I'm starting out with 90 every other night. (30 reg, 30 to the left, and 30 to the right).
Random IPod song: