Yes, there has been a pause on the Eating This Week posts. First, I spent 10 days in Europe, and if I were to have preempted that trip with a food plan, it would have read something like this: beer, waffles, more beer, chocolate, pancakes, german sausage washed down with beer, cappuccino, croissants, french fries, espresso, a few more pastries, and mashed potatoes. Not the healthiest ten days, none of my clothes fit, but it was well worth the deliciousness that crossed my lips. Then, we got back from Europe, and, well, it just wasn't happening last week.
Now that that ridiculousness is over, onto real life:
Monday - Lunch: leftover quesadilla from our Super Bowl snackfest. Dinner: Linguine with Sun-Dried Tomatoes from Frolic Fancy Free.
Tuesday - Lunch: coworker's birthday lunch at local vegetarian indian buffet. Dinner: Pork Chops and green beans.
Wednesday - Lunch: leftover linguine and salad. Dinner: grilled chicken cutlets, broccoli, fake out mac 'n' cheese (recipe below).
Thursday - Lunch: veggie burger stacked with fresh veggies, carrot sticks*. Dinner: whatever I can grab on my way to quilting class.
Friday - Lunch: leftover mac 'n' cheese, salad. Dinner: leftovers aka whatever we have left in the fridge.
Saturday and Sunday - honestly, I just can't seem to plan this far in advance.
My Famous Fake Out Mac 'n' Cheese
-a few handfuls of elbow macaronis
-two Laughing Cow light swiss wedges
-a splash of milk
-seasoned bread crumbs
Cook the macaroni. While still hot, mix in cheese and milk. Divide into as many bowls as people you are serving, sprinkle with breadcrumbs.
Sounds weird and gross, but it's quick and delicious.
*try to hold your excitement over this lunch.
08 February 2010
07 February 2010
when did the phone book get creepy?
My coworkers and I were swapping weird/crazy facebook stories this week over lunch, and while Rachel* was describing her's, faces of disgust and shock swept the table as she spoke three, innocent words: The Phone Book
The summery of the story:
Rachel, now in her 40s, was contacted through Facebook by a boy she once dated when they were both 16. They engaged in friendly banter over Facebook messages, he asks for her number, they continued reminiscing over the phone. Now, as Facebook friends, he started putting off-color remarks on her wall. A few days go by, and flowers arrived at her house from him. She gets freaked out, naturally, and she called him to ask where he got her address. His answer: THE PHONE BOOK.
Cue looks of disgust, fear, and shock all across the lunch table.
When did it start feeling icky that someone, anyone, can find a home address in the phone book? No less than ten years ago, the phone book was the first place I looked for residential addresses and, god forbid, PHONE NUMBERS. Need to send a thank you note to my professor? Look in the phone book. How about the number of the smart kid in history class for last night's homework assignment? Yep, Mr. Phone Book.
Fast forward ten years, people put their whole lives online, especially on Facebook. Their jobs, email addresses, videos of their kids, drunk pictures, wedding pictures, hobbies, religion, likes, and dislikes are all out there for someone, anyone, to see. Yet, when one of their "friends" looks their home address up in the phone book, we were all shocked. SHOCKED.
Note to all: unless you want to be labeled a creep or a weirdo or a stalker or a sleezeball, throw out your phone book. I would toss mine, but I don't have one.
*coworker's names changed to protect the innocent
The summery of the story:
Rachel, now in her 40s, was contacted through Facebook by a boy she once dated when they were both 16. They engaged in friendly banter over Facebook messages, he asks for her number, they continued reminiscing over the phone. Now, as Facebook friends, he started putting off-color remarks on her wall. A few days go by, and flowers arrived at her house from him. She gets freaked out, naturally, and she called him to ask where he got her address. His answer: THE PHONE BOOK.
Cue looks of disgust, fear, and shock all across the lunch table.
When did it start feeling icky that someone, anyone, can find a home address in the phone book? No less than ten years ago, the phone book was the first place I looked for residential addresses and, god forbid, PHONE NUMBERS. Need to send a thank you note to my professor? Look in the phone book. How about the number of the smart kid in history class for last night's homework assignment? Yep, Mr. Phone Book.
Fast forward ten years, people put their whole lives online, especially on Facebook. Their jobs, email addresses, videos of their kids, drunk pictures, wedding pictures, hobbies, religion, likes, and dislikes are all out there for someone, anyone, to see. Yet, when one of their "friends" looks their home address up in the phone book, we were all shocked. SHOCKED.
Note to all: unless you want to be labeled a creep or a weirdo or a stalker or a sleezeball, throw out your phone book. I would toss mine, but I don't have one.
*coworker's names changed to protect the innocent
03 February 2010
all my pants must be joking
An open letter to all pants, jeans, and skirts in my closet:
I know you all must be playing a very mean joke on me. After I close the closet door I can hear the whispers, the soft chuckles, the planning of your next move.
Hey, let's all shrink a little each week.
It'll be comical to watch her squat and kick and wiggle to pull us on every morning.
Just wait until she gets to the buttons....that's the BEST part.
Yo pants, SO NOT FUNNY. Skirts, DO I LOOK LIKE I'M LAUGHING? And you, Mr. Skort, I realize that you have been ignored in the back of the closet, but your abandonment issues are not a reason to play mean, mean tricks on me. If you don't stop shrinking soon, I'll cutting you all into shorts. That's right, shorts. Shorts so short that the pockets hang out the leg. Maybe I'll get crazy and splatter bleach on you too. Ooh, and I'll rip your wide seams and hold them together with safety pins. Do you want to end up back in the early 90s? I DIDN'T THINK SO.
I refuse to believe that all the gelato I ate on our Italian honeymoon had anything to do with this. It's perfectly normal to consume gelato twice a day for 10 days. PERFECTLY NORMAL. Next came Thanksgiving and Christmas, which we all know, are holidays filled with vegetable crudite', skim milk, and wheat germ. I heard that waffles and chocolate, especially when eaten out of a truck on the streets of Belgium, are a nutritious and healthy breakfast. So full of nutrients, that it's common culture to have a few a day for at least three days straight. These three months post-wedding, with all the couch cuddling, sleeping in late, laziness, and eating out, couldn't have had an impact either. We all know that laying around with your husband and feeding each other ice cream counts as exercise. I mean, all that arm movement from mouth to bowl, it gets exhausting.
So, my lovely pants, skirts, and lone skort, since the problem of us no longer fitting each other is OBVIOUSLY SO NOT MY FAULT, please reconsider your notfunnyatall shrinking joke. Yes, it might give a chuckle to witness the gymnastics I practice to pull you up in the morning. And it also is probably amusing to see me trying to find a shirt that is flowy enough to cover the fat hanging over your waistband. But, please, expand back to your regular size so we can look cute together again instead of a stuffed, overflowing sausage.
Respectfully,
your owner
your owner
18 January 2010
Eating This Week 3
On Thursday night I leave on a business trip to Paris. Yep, getting paid to go to Paris to GO SHOPPING.
I'm a lucky girl.
Since I'll already be in Europe, Adam is meeting me in Amsterdam for European Adventure Part III. The week before a vacation is always a little tricky when it comes to food shopping and planning. No one wants to come home to a half eaten bag of brown, slimy lettuce, smelly milk, and a tupperware full of pasta with a mysterious fur growing on it. Therefore, the eating plan for this week is Consume All Perishables.
The things we must eat in the next four days: turkey bacon, some eggs, milk, deli ham, leftover butternut squash soup, one sweet potato, a pineapple, two pears, half a pizza, an assortment of cheese, baby carrots, one acorn squash, two bags of lettuce, a few whole wheat wraps, and chicken cutlets.
I have confidence that I could invent a few eatable meals from that assortment. They might not be that healthy, but my diet will be thrown next week when I plan on stuffing my face with Belgian waffles, German chocolate, Parisian macaroons, and whatever I'll be eating in Amsterdam. Oh yea, hash brownies.
I'm a lucky girl.
Since I'll already be in Europe, Adam is meeting me in Amsterdam for European Adventure Part III. The week before a vacation is always a little tricky when it comes to food shopping and planning. No one wants to come home to a half eaten bag of brown, slimy lettuce, smelly milk, and a tupperware full of pasta with a mysterious fur growing on it. Therefore, the eating plan for this week is Consume All Perishables.
The things we must eat in the next four days: turkey bacon, some eggs, milk, deli ham, leftover butternut squash soup, one sweet potato, a pineapple, two pears, half a pizza, an assortment of cheese, baby carrots, one acorn squash, two bags of lettuce, a few whole wheat wraps, and chicken cutlets.
I have confidence that I could invent a few eatable meals from that assortment. They might not be that healthy, but my diet will be thrown next week when I plan on stuffing my face with Belgian waffles, German chocolate, Parisian macaroons, and whatever I'll be eating in Amsterdam. Oh yea, hash brownies.
13 January 2010
the best part of your wedding
will be when your friends' expressions look like this,
when promising your life to a really nice and cute boy.
and like this,
when promising your life to a really nice and cute boy.
11 January 2010
It rained, but we had umbrellas: The formal pictures
Post ceremony, we took a few formals in the church. You know the kind: us with parents, us with siblings, us with bridesmaids, us with our fourth last cousins once removed. Me, being A) a complete control freak, and B) a hungry bride, handed out a typed list of formal pictures to be had to all involved to minimize time and be more efficient. We took 12 formal pictures in 30 minutes. The Guinness Book of World Records just called and are adding us in their 2010 edition under FASTEST FAMILY FORMAL PICTURES OF ALL TIME. Thank you very much.
After that craziness was over, we drove around, through the pouring rain, in search of an outside location under cover for some fun pictures. We came up under a bridge, and besides the one crazy guy walking around with no shirt and one shoe, it was scenic and only slightly wet.
Who said that outdoor pictures won't be possible if it's raining?? oh yea, I REMEMBER, my husband. This is why I sent him out two days pre-wedding to purchase $100 worth of umbrellas:
and this...
I took off my shoes and jumped around in the puddles with my best girls.
The guys pretended like they actually smoke cigars. Funny, because they all thought it was gross. Funny, because it made for really great shots.
Hey! I want to be in more pictures! Ok, let me just run over here and kiss my hubs!
OK, my turn to pretend that I smoke cigars. Oh man....this is bringing me back to my college days when I thought I was cool and TOTALLY PRETENDED to smoke clove cigarettes to get this loser guy to like me. He ended up not paying any attention to me and I ended up with smelly hands.
Again, the wall is great! Under bridges are the best locations.
Then we found a nice bridge to stand on. My only one regret from the wedding day was not posing for more pictures on this bridge. At the moment, not standing in the rain was more important so we kept these quick.
10 January 2010
Eating this week, 2
My first try at a weekly menu was only somewhat successful. We didn't eat the chicken or the pork chops, ended up having a little dinner party last night, Friday decided to go on a date, and I bought my lunch more than once. The squash and leek lasagna was delish, but was more labor intensive than I thought - it took 2 hours to make! We stretched out the spaghetti and meatballs to six servings, instead of four, which bumped the pork chops to this week.
Ok, let's try this again:
Monday - Lunch: leftover stir-fry. Dinner: chicken cutlets and salad
Tuesday - Lunch: Veggie Delight from subway with leftover cutlet. Dinner: pork shops with sweet potatoes and cauliflower
Wednesday - Lunch: sweet potato with salad. Dinner: butternut squash soup with grilled ham&cheese.
Thursday - Lunch: work party. Dinner: Ham and Macaroni-Stuffed Bell Peppers (recipe below).
Friday - Lunch: ham&cheese with leftover squash soup. Dinner: Veggie burgers with salad.
Saturday and Sunday are yet to be determined.
Ham and Macaroni-Stuffed Bell Peppers
serves 2
1/2 cup elbow macaroni
1/4 cup fat free mayo
1 tbls apple cider vinegar
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/4 lb lean ham diced
half a jar roasted red pepper
1/8 cup sweet pickle relish
2 scallions, thinly sliced
2 red bell peppers, halved lengthwise and seeded
Cook the macaroni, drain. Toss the macaroni, mayo, vinegar, and black pepper in a large bowl. Add the turkey ham, roasted red pepper, relish, and scallions; toss to combine. Spoon the salad evenly into the bell pepper halves.
Ok, let's try this again:
Monday - Lunch: leftover stir-fry. Dinner: chicken cutlets and salad
Tuesday - Lunch: Veggie Delight from subway with leftover cutlet. Dinner: pork shops with sweet potatoes and cauliflower
Wednesday - Lunch: sweet potato with salad. Dinner: butternut squash soup with grilled ham&cheese.
Thursday - Lunch: work party. Dinner: Ham and Macaroni-Stuffed Bell Peppers (recipe below).
Friday - Lunch: ham&cheese with leftover squash soup. Dinner: Veggie burgers with salad.
Saturday and Sunday are yet to be determined.
Ham and Macaroni-Stuffed Bell Peppers
serves 2
1/2 cup elbow macaroni
1/4 cup fat free mayo
1 tbls apple cider vinegar
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/4 lb lean ham diced
half a jar roasted red pepper
1/8 cup sweet pickle relish
2 scallions, thinly sliced
2 red bell peppers, halved lengthwise and seeded
Cook the macaroni, drain. Toss the macaroni, mayo, vinegar, and black pepper in a large bowl. Add the turkey ham, roasted red pepper, relish, and scallions; toss to combine. Spoon the salad evenly into the bell pepper halves.
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