2013 - Week 13

Well, Week 13 is over now . . . this year is just flying by. How was your Week 13?

Mine was very busy. Easter music practices and Holy Week church services kept me away from  home most evenings, so it was a bit of a challenge to get everything done, but somehow I managed. Strangely, I had very few dreams this week, I think it was because I wasn't getting very much sleep. Oh well, that was kind of a blessing because then I didn't have to spend the time in the evening to write them down. I did manage to keep up with my other journal and Bible reading though, and for my exercise this week I tried something a little new. I did the 20 minute Windsor Pilates work out a couple of times, did a little Wii Fit, but then started a FitSugar stretching routine. How to Do the Splits. Not that I really want to be able to do the splits, but my legs are not very flexible (they never have been) so I figured stretching was a good thing, and it helps with rock climbing and yoga as well, two things that I would like to continue doing in the future.

As for tasty things that I made, I (with the help of my husband) cooked up a batch of Gingerbread Caramel Crunch popcorn. It got devoured so fast that I have no pictures of it, but just picture regular caramel corn, with just a slightly darker color.

Another night, I was feeling very in the mood for Indian food, so I made chicken curry for dinner (this is my go-to recipe for that: Indian Chicken Curry II, although I make brown rice and add a bag of frozen mixed veggies) with some garlic naan (which I cheated and bought in the freezer section of my local Indian grocery store) and then mini cinnamon chai cupcakes to take to my work's potluck the next day. They turned out very cute and were a hit. I liked them quite a bit, but although there were lots of spices in them, they were missing the spiciness of the black pepper that is in the chai drink. Do you think I should be brave enough to try it again and add pepper to my cupcakes? I figure people put salt in their caramel, so why not pepper in my cupcakes? Thoughts?

Cute mini cupcake

Mmm . . . cinnamon chai

So that's it for this week, I hope to see you back here next week for more :) Let me know if you have any recipes or other challenges you think I should try :)

2013 - Week 12

Hi :) This post will hopefully be short and sweet (well, maybe not as sweet as some dessert filled weeks ;)).

I finished up some carry over task and exercise from last week and kept up with my daily tasks (which feel more like chores some days). For my exercise, I dug out my Windsor Pilates DVDs that I got brand new at a rummage sale for $3 this past summer. I had done the exercises before in high school, so I knew what to expect and I think it was a good workout. My task of cleaning out my external hard drive and organizing my pictures is going pretty well. I'm happy to announce that I think I'm almost done with this and can start organizing my "scraps" and working on my outline very soon. I may have said that last week, but I really am making progress :)

My new thing this week was to make some hummus. I used this recipe (Hummus) from Alton Brown. I visited my local Indian food store and bought real tahini (sesame paste) and I think that really made the difference. It made a huge batch, and as you can see, all of the chickpeas did not fit in my food processor at the same time. I mixed up as much as I could, then poured some of it out and mixed in the rest of the chickpeas. It worked out well and it was sure tasty. We ate a lot of it with baby carrots and then I placed the rest in a freezer bag, squeezed out the air, and put it in the freezer. I think it will work out okay, but we'll see when the time comes. It was pretty easy to make, so I would recommend trying it. Not as pretty as a dessert, but still fun :)

Too many chickpeas

I wasn't to sure about it after adding the tahini

But it turned out great and is really yummy with carrots

2013 - Week 11

Hello again everyone. Here is what I was up to this week:

It was a pretty busy week at work, so I didn't get as much done as I should have. Some of my time for task and exercise had to get carried over into the next week, but I'll make up for it, so no worries. I kept up with my daily tasks, and still did make quite a few fun new things. 

First of all, these coconut macaroons. Nothing too special, and I've eaten them before, but I had never made them. Here's the recipe (complements of my friend Dennis):

2 egg whites

1 1/3 Cup toasted coconut (toasted in 325 F oven for about 6 minutes, stirred halfway through, then cooled)

2/3 Cup sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla

dash of salt

Beat the eggs whites and vanilla until stiff peaks form. Gradually add the sugar and salt. Fold in the coconut flakes. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets. Bake for 20 minutes at 325 F, cool on a rack. Store in a sealed container. 

I doubled the recipe, they were really tasty. They kind of had an odd popcorn taste, but I think that was because of the cooking spray I used and I used the pan twice. I think next time, I will grease the pan with something else. You should try them . . . they kind of remind me of that astronaut ice cream that I used to eat when I was little, but coconut flavored, yum.

We invited a friend over for dinner, so of course the first thing I did was make a dessert :) I tried these marble blondies. They weren't my favorite, probably because I don't love white chocolate, but they were okay. My husband liked them, so I'll keep the recipe, but won't make them again unless he asks for them. Here is the recipe (from Penzeys.com):

Marble blondies

Then of course, I had to make something for dinner, I planned a soup, but figured I needed something else besides that, so biscuits came next (have I ever mentioned how much I love bread?). These are a copy cat recipe for Red Lobster's "Cheddar Bay Biscuits". The only change I made was to use skim milk because I didn't have any whole milk. I must say, they were really tasty, and went perfectly with the soup.

"Cheddar Bay" biscuits

Now, to complete the dinner (it wasn't finished until quite a while after our guest got here . . . oops) I made Roasted Garlic and Sweet Potato Soup. It was awesome. I have quite a soft spot for garlic, and roasted garlic is so yummy. Combine that with thyme, chicken broth, roasted onions and roasted sweet potatoes = one really tasty soup (I didn't have parsley, but it was still good without it). I will definitely be making this again. I would suggest pairing the soup with the biscuits too . . . the sweetness of the soup went great with the savory of the biscuits.

Roasted Garlic Sweet Potato Soup

So the week was busy and rather stressful, but it ended with a very tasty Saturday evening. Enjoy :)

2013 - Week 10

Hello everyone . . . welcome back for Week 10. Here is my weekly update:

All small tasks (dream journal, daily memory, and Bible reading) are still going strong. I didn't have as many dreams early on in the week, but by the weekend, I started having some more fun ones :) Exercising consisted of Wii Fit again this week . . . two 30-minute segments. I know it doesn't really seem like that much of a work out, but I try and make it as difficult as I can, so I think it still counts. As for my 5 hours of "task", I was still sick all week, so by Thursday, I had racked up a whole zero hours of task complete . . . oops. But, I drank lots of chai tea on Saturday (thanks to my lovely Kenyan friend) and managed to stay up late and get it all done. I worked on updating my photos and organizing / cleaning out my drive where all of the rest of my pictures are stored. Hopefully soon I'll be ready to start scrapbooking, I just have a few more folders to go through and then it's on to scrap organization and outlining . . . sounds like a good time, right? :) And now to the interesting stuff . . . my "new things" for the week.

First of all, I made a skillet "lasagna" (Weeknight Lasagna Toss). I am usually not that big of a fan of lasagna, but I think that is because of the ricotta and/or cottage cheese that is in it. This was made in my cast iron skillet and just had mozzarella cheese on top. I didn't actually have enough mozz though, so I made a four cheese blend: sharp cheddar, swiss, mozzarella, and colby jack, mmm, I'm glad I didn't have enough mozz . . . it was so tasty. I also used orange and green peppers instead of just green, and the recipe variation for regular lasagna noodles instead of the oven-ready kind. My husband and I decided this is a "make it again" recipe for sure :)

Skillet lasagna

Also, I tried my hand at my first risotto. It turned out really yummy. I just followed the recipe on the bag of Gourmet House arborio rice (Classic Risotto). I didn't have any dry white wine, so I substituted half diluted chicken broth, half apple juice, with a little lime juice thrown in too . . . I think it worked. The risotto was very easy and very good. I will definitely be making that again too :)

Rice with butter

Add the onion

Almost done

Yummy dinner :) 

Until next time . . . have a great week :)

2013 - Week 9

Week 9 is over already . . . wow, this year is going by so quickly. How was Week 9 for all of you?

It was unfortunately not so great for me. On Monday evening I got an accute sore throat that has continued to morph throughout the week into various stages of a cold . . . right now I'm in the "stuffed up nose so I can't breathe at night" phase, it's not enjoyable. Being sick seems to take a lot out of me too, so I was not in the mood to do anything, much less work on a task and exercise and be productive . . . this did not lead to a very good week. By Wednesday, I had zero minutes of task accomplished for the week. It was looking like it was going to be a very long week. I was still keeping up with my journals and Bible reading, but the rest was a challenge and I was struggling, so what did I do to make myself feel better? Made a cake of course :)

Mayo Cake

Let's get one thing straight here before we discuss this cake, I pretty much hate mayonnaise  Actually, anything with vinegar (except balsamic) in it, does not make my list of favorite foods. I do enjoy ranch dressing, but that does not taste like mayonnaise, so it's the exception. I think I might like mayo a bit more if I made it myself and gave it flavorings, but just out of the jar . . . yuck. Anyways, I really don't like mayonnaise  so the idea of putting it in a cake kind of scared me. But, it meant I didn't have to add any butter OR eggs to the cake (which was really strange for me . . . I am quite fond of butter, as you may know), so I decided to give it a try. The recipe I followed: Mayo Cake, from Taste of Home, was really easy and turned out great, in my opinion. It is a great recipe if you don't have a lot of ingredients on hand. It did have a little butter in it (half a stick in the frosting), but the frosting was not my favorite, so when I make the cake again, I'll try a different frosting. So, despite my aversion to mayo, I would recommend this cake . . . surprisingly, it was good.

But, I didn't stop there . . . I volunteered to bring a treat for the travelling choir who sang at my church on Sunday and also a dessert to a friend's house on Sunday night. So two more new desserts also had to be made:

1 - Chocolate Cherry Torte
I picked this recipe because I had a can of cherry pie filling and a Devil's Food cake mix sitting in my cupboard that I wanted to use up, simple as that. I got the recipe out of "The Cake Mix Bible" by Publications International, Ltd. I just took a picture of the recipe . . . I figured that was easier than typing it all out. My toasted almonds took a bit longer than 6 minutes to turn golden brown, probably closer to ten, but it was worth it. I had some left over and we put them on salad for dinner . . . yum :)

The recipe

The finished product

I won't say that it's my nicest or prettiest cake ever, but it was pretty simple and tasted good. I think it was a success.

2 - Frozen Chocolate "Souflees"

I found this recipe in a Kraft "Food & Family" magazine, but you can see it here: Frozen Chocolate Souffles. They were easy and full of store-bought materials (oreo type cookies, cool whip, pudding mix, cherries from a jar), but they were pretty tasty too. It's not the type of dessert I usually make or enjoy, but they were good, the variations are nearly endless, they looked fancy, and I think they would be really good on a summer night. Give them a try, let me know what you think :)

Photo courtesy of my lovely friend Lisa

As for the rest of my "projects", I did end up getting my exercise in (wii fit plus, wii sports resort and another fitsugar.com workout video), but I had to stay up late on Saturday night to get my five hours in for the week. I'm still working on my e-mail inbox and starting to work on my pictures too (so hopefully I'll be ready to scrapbook). This staying up late and cramming stuff in at the last minute is not how this plan was supposed to work. Hopefully next week will go better.

I had better go to bed now . . . I wish you all a wonderful week :)