2013 - Week 8

Hi all. How was your week? I would have to say that mine went pretty well, but was super busy. I managed to keep up with my dream journal, daily memory journal, and Bible reading, and for exercise, I did 30 minutes of Wii Fit and 30 minutes of fitsugar.com workouts (this was one of them: Full Body Workout). I liked the 10 minute workout videos . . . for some reason that makes it seem like it's not so long. I would start a video, and would you look at that, it's almost over :) I did a ten minute arm workout though and I think I went a little crazy with my three pound weights . . . my right elbow is sore now . . . oops.

For new things, I tried something that I found on Pinterest, a gelatin face mask It was touted as a full-face "pore strip". Unfortunately, it didn't really clear my pores or get rid of larger hairs but did get rid of some smaller ones and made my skin a little smoother. I took some pictures, but then I decided that no one needed to see my face that close up, so I'm not putting them on here. I wouldn't recommend the face mask . . . it smelled (but not as bad as some commenters claimed) and really hurt on sensitive places where I might have left it on too long. Oh well, it was worth a try.

On a more fun note, the coolest new thing I did this week was to make my own edible arrangements :) So much fun, and so tasty too. When it comes to giving gifts to people, I tend to go for the cake / dessert route, but when the recipients are watching their sugar intake, I'm pretty much at a loss of what to do. I decided fruit was healthier than cake, and give these a try. I perused a few web sites:
http://www.onehundreddollarsamonth.com and http://www.ediblearrangements.com
before deciding what I wanted to do. Luckily, all of the fruit I wanted just happened to be on sale this week . . . awesome :) I already had the skewers, so all I had to buy extra was the vase and the florist's foam, and I was all set.

My initial set up

Taking some tips from the website, I surrounded the foam with the kale to make it pretty (I was going to halve the head of lettuce to make it rounder on the top, but didn't end up using it).

The base

 I wanted to make pineapple flowers, blueberry skewers, cantaloupe wavelets, and of course, chocolate dipped strawberries. Unfortunately, I've never tempered chocolate, so that was a new experience too. I don't know if I did it exactly right, but I followed these two sites: http://www.instructables.com and http://sweets.seriouseats.com and it seemed to work fine. It looked like it was supposed to on the strawberries too, which was a plus. I picked the prettiest ones and then washed and blotted them dry on paper towels before dipping them in the chocolate.

My mid-bouquet mess. You can see my chocolate covered strawberry drying stand in the back (the blue glasses with the foam resting on them . . . I just stuck the skewers through the foam and let the chocolate dry for about 15 minutes)

The beautiful finished product

I got all of the materials needed to make this (minus the skewers and the small amount of chocolate I used) for $15.50, it might not be 100% as perfect as the Edible Arrangements, but considering it's less than half the price (a comparable one from Edible Arrangements was about $60), I think it's worth it :)

 PLUS, not only did I get the arrangement, I had lots of fruit left over, so I made this cute smaller arrangement for a friend, just because she's awesome:

 Then I still had more left, and my husband LOVES fruit, so I made him the "fruit lovers" edition where the vase was filled with layers of fruit (the pieces that weren't perfect enough to go on the skewers).

 Needless to say, he was very pleased with his fruit sticks :) I told him not to eat it all in one sitting . . . he ate in it two.

 Not too bad for ~$15 and a couple hours of my time . . . it was tons of fun and I think the recipients all enjoyed them. I said a big prayer of thanks that all the fruit I bought was perfectly ripe . . . it could have turned out poorly if that wasn't the case, but I think they all turned out just wonderfully :)

Until next week . . . :)

2013 - Week 7

Hello from Week 7 :) I hope you all had fantastic weeks. Here is how mine went:

I convinced my husband to come rock climbing with me and I think we did pretty well. He's been working out so he did much better than last time we went, and we worked really well together on finding the routes. I did a little bouldering as well as rope climbing, so that was a nice change. Also, he spotted me a difficult boulder problem that I was too scared to do alone. I got it :) We climbed for about two hours . . . I didn't end up getting to all of the V1s in this month of climbing, but I did almost all of them, got all the V0s, and even a V2, so I still think it was a successful climbing endeavor.

I had only sporadic dreams to record, but Bible reading and daily memory recording has gone well. We're reading about Joseph right now and these songs are just so entertaining (pardon the weird nature of the videos): Jacob & Sons and Joseph's Coat, from "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat".

As for my new things this week, I have a few again:

First, I made these adorable heart-glazed cornmeal cookies for my Bible study group on Sunday (as Valentine's Day is this week). Aren't they cute? They really hit the spot too, they were exactly what I was hungry for. They tasted kind of like a cross between shortbread, cornbread, and a sugar cookie . . . so tasty :)

Cornmeal cookies

I don't mean to brag, but I think mine are prettier than Martha Stewart's ;)

My Valentine's Day present from my valentine :) 

Secondly, I made a tomato-peanut soup. I had high hopes for it because it sounded so interesting (peanut butter, tomatoes, and curry powder), but unfortunately, it wasn't as good as the black bean soup from last week. It might be just because I'm not the biggest fan of hot peanut butter, but I didn't end up keeping the recipe.

Tomato-Peanut Soup

Also, I made a Mexican chicken pizza with cornmeal crust that was really tasty. The green onion flavor left me with bad breath all evening, but other than that, it was very good and really easy to make too. I just used the plain diced tomatoes (actually I used whole canned tomatoes and chopped them up), but I think the fire-roasted would make it taste even better. I will definitely make this again.

Mexican chicken pizza with cornmeal crust

Finally, I tried a new chocolate chip cookie recipe that I found on Pinterest. Supposedly, it was a copycat recipe of Mrs. Field's cookies, but I don't think I've ever had one of those, so I couldn't tell you whether it tasted like one or not. I thought they were a little overly sweet, but I blame myself for trying a new recipe. My lovely friend Kerry's mom makes the best chocolate chip cookies in the world, in my humble opinion. I was lucky enough to get her recipe and that is the one I always go to . . . I should have known better than to try anything else. Oh well, now I know for next time.

So, have any of you tried any of these recipes yet? Oh, I almost forgot to tell you, I used a Keurig for the first time this week too, that counts as learning something new, right? It was fun. Anyways, I hope you are all enjoying reading about my adventures every week. Stay tuned for more fun next week :)

2013 - Week 6

Hello from Week 6 :) How are you all doing?

My week went pretty well I think. Rock climbing is still going okay, I've finished almost all of the V1s, but then of course they put up more, so I don't think I'll get them all done. One of the days that I went to the climbing gym, the youth competitive climbing team was there, and I got totally schooled. I watched in amazement as these young kids scaled V3s with ease. Granted, they weigh next to nothing and have quite a bit of prior climbing experience, but it was still neat to see.

My journal writing and Bible reading has been going well. I guess I never realized how many dreams I actually have. I always seem to have something to write in my dream journal, even if it's short. One day, I didn't have anything though, but then I took a nap in the afternoon. I have to say, that was the craziest dream I've had all year. It was so vivid with crisp details and a fun story (the highlight was living in a eco-dome in the center of the Mall of America in preparation for moving to a similar dome on the moon) . . . fun stuff :) Do any of you record your dreams? I think it will be really entertaining to look back on some of these later on.

My new things this week were recipes again. One of my wonderful brothers bought me some truffle oil for Christmas, and if you read my 2013 - Week 1 post, you will have seen my previous attempt at truffle fries. This time I went for small cubed potatoes baked with olive oil, garlic salt, and plain breadcrumbs on them, and then I sprinkled them with more bread crumbs and the truffle oil after they were done baking. I baked them at 450 F for 35 minutes, stirring about halfway through. They were so good and truffle-y . . . yum. I don't know what it is about truffle oil, but the flavor just gets in my head and I can still taste it days later, it's so good :) Along with the potatoes, I used this recipe from Penzey's Spices for the chicken tenders and added some green beans so there was something healthy in the meal. I love Penzey's :)

Truffle potatoes with green beans and chicken tenders

My other new recipe came from another recipe magazine, but I don't remember which one. On Googling the recipe, I found the exact one from Martha Stewart, so maybe it was her "Everyday Living", I'm not sure. At any rate, I'm glad I found it because now I don't have to type  it all out . . . here is the recipe: Spicy Black Bean Soup. I am a huge fan of this recipe. I don't really like beans, and amazingly, I loved it. It tasted creamy and exotic . . . not something I thought could have come from my kitchen, that's for sure. I used the canned beans and toasted some corn tortillas to put on top. I just love cilantro and avocado, so that could be one of the reasons that I liked this so much, but I would definitely recommend trying it. I took most of the seeds out of the jalapenos, but I think next time I'll leave one of them with the seeds in because it could have been a little spicier, I just didn't want to overdo it on the first try. So, if you have a few cans of beans in your cupboard that you don't know what to do with, definitely make this recipe . . . it's so good.

Black bean soup

Until next week then . . . see you soon :)

2013 - Week 5

So, how was Week 5 for everyone? I slacked a little bit on my rock climbing and only went once, but I made up the rest of the time getting almost all done with my recipes. I even took a completely relaxing bath while finishing the rest of my "Breaking Dawn" on CD and working on my recipes . . . now that's the way to get a task done :) I did 30 minutes of Wii fit to finish out my hour of exercise for the week, and the strength training challenges (push ups, planks, and those V sit up things) kicked my butt . . . I was sore for two days. Other than that, all of my reading & writing stuff (dream journal, daily memory, Bible reading) is still going well, nothing too exciting to report. As for my "new thing", I actually had three new recipes that I tried this week:
#1 - Cheesy Chicken & Salsa Skillet

It was pretty tasty. I used a frozen pepper and generic brand salsa but it was still good. The chicken was moist and the flavor good with the salsa. I turned on the broiler and put the pan under that to get the cheese to melt since the heat from the dish alone was not doing it. It's a keeper I think.

#2 - Chocolate Yummies

Graham crackers with marshmallows melted on top

Chocolate / Peanut butter / Rice Krispie mixture spread over that

Mmm . . . 

Now, something called "Chocolate Yummies" really can't be bad, but I have to say, these weren't as good as I was hoping. Perhaps it is because they were up against a lot of other amazing treats at the party I took them to, but I wasn't as in love with them as I thought I would be (for how much I like s'mores). They are okay, but the inspiration they gave me (to attempt a similar dessert, but with a few changes, to try to recreate my favorite candy bar, the Nestle Lion Bar) was worth it. They are tasty, but I probably won't make them again unless specifically requested. Stay tuned for my Lion Bar creation one of these days :)

#3 - Velveeta Spicy Cheeseburger Dip

Unfortunately I don't have a picture of this one, but it was by far the biggest hit of the week. Everyone at the party loved it and the recipe was requested by all. One girl loved it so much she said she felt jealous every time anyone else took some because it meant there was less left for her to eat. It was especially good with tortilla chips, I thought, but I also had Ritz type crackers, carrots, celery, yellow pepper, and pizza crust with it :) I doubled the recipe and kept it warm in a crock pot during the party. Afterwards, there was a bit left (only because I made a double batch) so I used some to make homemade "Crunch Wrap Supremes". I also took some and diluted it with milk, thickened it back up with cornstarch + water and served it with shell pasta . . . it was like spicy, tex-mex Velveeta shells and cheese . . . highly recommended.

I hope you enjoy all of those recipes, and have another great week :)