Salmon, Jasmine Rice, and Butter Peas

If you are wondering why I didn't post yesterday... it's because I left my camera in Columbia!  ARG!!!  Luckily, I have a backup here at home.  Normally, this wouldn't be a big issue, but I REALLY need my camera this week.  I think I have it worked out where I can get it by Friday afternoon. 

I just got home from teaching Zumba!  Our numbers keep climbing!  That must be a good sign!  I broke out 2 new songs tonight, one of which I want to recommend to all of you.  This is a great track that you need on your iPod or mp3 player.  It's sure to put you in a great mood!



Do you recognize it from the Corona commercial? :)  Love this song.

When I got home, I got busy making one of my favorite easy and healthy dinners: Salmon, Jasmine Rice, and Butter Peas.

I want to tell you about the Jasmine Rice because it's so easy but so tasty.  Bring 1 1/2 cups of water to a boil.  Add one tsp. of Better than Buillon (I used Chicken Flavor) and a handful of parsely.  Then add 1 cup of Jasmine Rice and lower the heat.  Cover and simmer about 15-20 minutes.  This rice is delicious and goes really well with seafood and Asian dishes.

The salmon was very simple: seasoned with salt and pepper, and some Tone's Salmon and Seafood Seasoning.  That's it!  (Oh, and did I mention that I got this salmon for a great price?  I paid $4 for 4 fillets!)

And the butter peas... they were frozen and steamed.  Sometimes those little packs are just so handy.

Ok... have to run... baby to wash and house to clean!

Sister Visit

I told you I was going to see some special people tonight... look who I am hanging out with tonight!

Tomorrow I have a meeting in Columbia, so I made it an overnight trip and headed down to see Meredith and David!

We snacked on some cheese and crackers (I really like this spread with cucumber and dill!)...

...and enjoyed stewed beef and noodles!  Delish...

Oh, and I got to show Meredith how to open a pomegranate, and we enjoyed some pom arils!

Afterwards, I gave Meredith a little coupon lesson.

Now, we're enjoying some Real Housewives action.  Do you watch any of the Housewives shows?  Which seasons/casts do you like?  I love them all!

Breakfast and the Mailbox Dilemma...

I am the kind of person who has a hard time letting go of things.  You know how sometimes something little will happen and it sort-of bothers you at the time, but then a little time goes by... and you get a little more irritated... and then a little more time goes by... and you get even MORE irritated?  Well, that's how I am feeling this morning...

On Friday, my next door neighbor emailed me to tell me that she heard a loud BOOM outside and she ran to the window to see what it was.  Turns out it was the people who live across from us, backing into our mailbox.  She said she watched, and one of the people got out of the car, "straightened" up our mailbox, and then drove off.  I kind of laughed it off.  I told my husband, "I am curious to see if they say anything to us."

Now, the mailbox is definitely damaged. It was about 10 years old, and it isn't anything fancy.  In fact, it was going to need to be replaced.  This incident just sped up the timeline. 

But now it's 2 days later, and it's getting under my skin a little.  I mean, like I said, it's not like we had some fancy-schmancy mailbox.  But to not even say anything to us?  That's the part that's under my skin.

I am curious... what would YOU do in this situation?  Leave me a comment below by clicking on "comments."

On to other things, this morning is the coldest we have seen so far.  It was 33 degrees when I woke up!  Hello Fall!!! 

I started the morning with some freshly-ground coffee!  This is one of the greatest features of the Magic Bullet.  It does so many different things.  The infomercial is totally true!

Then I made a batch of pumpkin muffins... this time I left out the chocolate chips, just to make them a little healthier.  And I really like them without the chocolate, too! 

I topped it off with fresh raspberries (Yay for raspberries being in season!) and a perfect hard-boiled egg.  None of that yucky gray color!

Have a great day, everyone!  I am headed to see some special people this afternoon...

Cheesy Beefy Chili Mac

Hello, all!  The weekend is here!  And sadly, it is almost halfway over... :(  But at least we get an extra hour of sleep time tonight! I bet my sisters, who are living it up at the Carolina Game, will appreciate that extra hour. 

Last night, I finally got to make that spaghetti squash.  I tried something different.  I tossed it with a little butter, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and parmesan.  It was... eh... just ok.  So I won't share that recipe with you tonight.  It tasted much sweeter this time, and I think that was the problem.  Maybe it was more ripe than last time.  We had some steamed peas and rotisserie chicken with it. 

Isn't it sad how we often pack all our chores into a Saturday afternoon, when we should be enjoying ourselves?  Today we had a lot of projects to tackle:
-- hitting the gym (Zumba for me, weights and treadmill for Ryan, play time for the munchkin)
-- unearthing our dining room table (We haven't seen the tabletop since around July, but now it's back!  Woo hoo!)
--meal and recipe planning (Good eats coming soon!)
--grocery shopping for the week (and a dinner party we've got coming up)
--putting away laundry (I HATE putting clothes away.  I would love, just once, for all laundry to actually BE in our drawers.  I don't think it's ever happened.)
--dusting, vaccuuming, etc.

So now I need another Saturday to rest up from today.

Tonight, I wanted to make a one-pot meal.  Something warm and comforting because it's been cold outside the past couple of days.  (Finally, the electric bill is going down!  The air conditioner can take a rest!)  I decided on Cheese Beefy Chili Mac.  I had this can of Ro-Tel sitting in the pantry and it was just calling out to me. 

This recipe passed the family test.  Ryan liked it, and so did Sadie.  They both asked for seconds, so that's a good sign!

Ingredients:
1 lb lean ground beef
1 can Ro-Tel (I used mild for the fam, but if it had just been me, I'd have gone for full strength)
1/2 can of Mexican corn
1 packet of taco seasoning
8-10 oz dried macaroni noodles (we used whole wheat)
1/2 cup reduced-fat shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup reduced-fat sour cream

Directions:
Cook noodles according to directions for al dente pasta.  While noodles cook, brown ground beef in a large skillet.  Drain fat.  Mix in Ro-Tel, corn, 1/2 cup of water, and seasoning packet.  Allow to cook, uncovered on medium, until sauce has thickened a bit.  Remove from heat.  Mix in sour cream.  Drain pasta and add to the meat mixture.  Mix well.  Top with cheese and mix well once more.  Serve hot.  Top with more cheese if desired. 

We served it with mango slices and a Pomegranate Martini-- you know-- just to test it out for the POM dinner...

Well, it just isn't a cooking week around here...

I've had high hopes for cooking this week and having a recipe to post, but it just isn't working out.  I have this poor spaghetti squash sitting on my counter, patiently waiting... maybe tomorrow!

This morning I was back at work and Ryan took his turn staying with The Incredible Pooping Machine Sadie today.  (By the way, she is feeling much better, and things are "moving again.")  Thanks to all of you for the well wishes!

I am officially addicted to Pomegranates.  Yesterday, I got a shipment from POM Wonderful!  They sent me all kinds of goodies for my POM Wonderful dinner party.  I have been experimenting and practicing cutting them.  I am trying to do it without making it look like a huge mess.  It's getting easier.  I have been eating the arils by themselves and as a garnish, just to get used to the texture.

This morning, I had yogurt, topped with some bran cereal and pomegranate arils.  (Most people would say, "Bran!  Bleh!"  But I really like it.)  YUM.  This would have been better with vanilla yogurt instead of strawberry, but I grabbed the wrong one.

For lunch, I tried to make the most colorful plate possible.  Doesn't it make you more cheerful when your meal is colorful?  Notice the pomegranate arils?  Today was baked potato day at school, which I LOVE.  I added just a little cheddar (low fat) and sour cream (light).  Just enough to taste.  Today, the potato also came with some ham, which I wouldn't have chosen, but was actually really good together.

And tonight I taught Zumba, so Ryan took care of dinner.  Wish I could say it was homemade, but it was one of those freezer-to-oven lasagnas.  Which are actually VERY good.  And very convenient when you are in a pinch.  (This one was super cheap because it was part of Bi-Lo's meal deal that they do.  I love a good deal.)

If you don't already do this, start reading the ads for your grocery store.  Many of them have a "meal deal" where you purchase one item and then get several other items free.  I bought this lasagna and got a 2-liter of Coke, breadsticks, and ice cream free.  The only down side to this is that you then have ice cream in the freezer tempting you. 

Happy Friday Eve, everyone!  The weekend is almost here!!!

Less Words Wednesday: Guess What We Did Today???

My friend Jenn does something called "Wordless Wednesday" on her blog, re{de}fining.  She just posts pictures on Wednesdays.  I am going to do a "Less-Words Wednesday" today because I can't use NO words.  I am just going to use fewer words today.

Remember that virus I was telling you about?  Well... as it turns out, Sadie did not have a virus.  It was a different sort of problem.

After a trip to the doctor's office and two pharmacies... we may be making headway.

So I am gonna post this picture of the items purchased today and then I am not saying anything else about it... which is hard for me, because those of you who know me know I have no problem (and maybe enjoy) talking about poop. 

Anyone wanna guess what we did today?

Well... guess who's home in the middle of the day?

This is a strange week.  It's so weird to have the day off for election day... you never get a day off right in the middle of the week!

Did you vote???  I hope so!

I am noticing a trend in my voting patterns... it seems that the majority of the people I vote for usually do not win.  It makes election night kinda depressing.  But I'm not going to dwell too much on that.  The people have spoken, right?

So, what did you do for Election Day?  I had high hopes.  A whole day off.  My to-do list read: "Clean house.  Cook creative dinner."  (I didn't have an ACTUAL to-do list.  But that was what was in my head.)  However, none of that happened... instead, we had... STOMACH VIRUS!  Ok, I didn't have it, but my poor little Sadie had it.  Not the throw-ups... the OTHER kind.  Poor thing.  She had a rough little day.

Today she seems to be feeling better and we have gone a whole hour without changing a diaper, so already that is a great improvement over yesterday.  I think that we went through 15 Pull-Ups yesterday.  Our usual number is somewhere around 2.  Sometimes 1.  And we've graduated to bananas and bread!  Mmmmmmm...

So, I realize that was a little TMI, but you know I am going to be real with you. 

In between all of that, I taught Zumba at Fascinating Rhythm.  It was a great, high-energy class.  I used one new song that I am loving: "Bimbola." 

I was considering going to a new yoga class at the Y last night, but skipped it because of the virus situation.  It was called "Candlelight Slow-Flow Yoga."  That sounds interesting!  Maybe I'll give it a try next week.  I googled it, just to see if I could find any info on it.  Take a look at this picture.  It looks so calming and relaxing. 

So that's why I am home in the middle of the day today...  I hate to miss work, but of course, my little munchkin is more important than work...

And on the positive side... I got to enjoy a leisurely breakfast (as opposed to eating in the car) with freshly-ground coffee... in my SANTA mug!  Now that it's November, it's getting really close to Holiday time.

Maybe I'll get some cleaning done today.  We'll see!