2013 - Week 19

Well, another week down already. Since I didn't get any feedback about lessening up my crazy challenge, I kind of did, and kind of didn't. I didn't really keep track of the time that I spent on my music planning, but I'm fairly certain it was still over five hours. I was a little behind on my exercising too, but I got it done eventually thanks to more PopSugar 10 minute workouts and the Gold's Gym Wii game. So not a whole lot to report this week, but I do have a couple of new recipes to tell you about.

First, I made some Cincinnati chili. Now, many of you have been introduced to Cincinnati chili at the famous Skyline Chili like I was. A special thanks to my brother and sister-in-law for taking me there, but even greater thanks for the Colonel De spices that I used while making my own version of Cincinnati chili. I used this recipe that I found in the Food Network magazine: Cincinnati Chili. In my humble opinion, it was better than Skylines :) Very tasty. I had to modify it a little bit because I didn't have fresh tomatoes and my jar of tomato sauce was too small, so I compensated by adding a 14.5 oz. can of diced tomatoes . . . it worked out fine. Also, I added the beans to the meat mixture halfway through the simmering time just so I could make sure they were fully cooked instead of just putting them on top when it was done. I was a little worried because I am not a huge fan of a few of the spices used in this recipe (and there are a lot) but it all came together really nicely . . . I would recommend this recipe.

Cincinnati Chili

The other recipe I tried was for an "Ocho de Mayo" party at work. We didn't have a Cinco de Mayo party because it was on a weekend, and for some reason, people decided they wanted the party on Wednesday. I wanted to make churros or these adorable piñata cookies, but churros aren't really good unless they are fresh, and the cookies didn't make enough for a pot luck, so I needed a better idea. I thought: Mexico . . . hmm . . . beaches . . . sand dollars :) I had seen the recipe for these cute sand dollar cookies on Pinterest that I had been wanting to try. The cookies didn't turn out quite like the tasty sugar cookies I was hoping for, they were a little dry, but they looked great. For a very easy substitute, just try the slice and bake sugar cookies, or your own go-to sugar cookie recipe (maybe add a bit of cinnamon to the dough to make them extra cinnamony :)).

Sand Dollar Cookies

So that's all for this week. Have you tried any good recipes lately? How about any fun workouts? Let me know :)