Blogger Exchange!!

Yesterday I got a package in the mail from Emily at My Chubby Confessions



5 chocolate bars from Newman's Own Organics. Andy and I may or may not have sampled the dark chocolate espresso already.



White Chocolate Wonderful!!!! I was so excited when I saw this. I have been looking for it everywhere.



Some jambalaya mixes and hot sauce!



I'm very excited to sample this sauce.

And much more! Thank you so much Emily!!!



This morning Andy and I celebrated halloween with bagels. I got an asiago cheese bagel with sundried tomato cream cheese and Andy got an everything bagel with sundried tomato cream cheese.



2 small hazelnut coffees. MMM. We both love Panera Bread's coffee.

After breakfast we did some errands and ran 1.6 miles on the treadmill. My legs were killing me after! (WTF?!?!?! I had planned on aiming for 3 miles but my legs just wouldn't let me.)



Lunch was leftover sweet potato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich. The soup was so much better today. I think the flavors needed to sit awhile and get to know each other. I will make this soup again with pureed sweet potatoes and maybe some butternut squash? oh the possibilities!



I wish you could see how orange this soup was. My camera fails at life.



I love lazy grilled cheese. It's lazy because it was served on a child's plate. I do not know why I insist on owning these plates but I do. There is actually a grilled cheese recipe book out that I love and I should really attempt some non-lazy grilled cheeses soon.



What are your favorite lazy meals to make?

I feel a weakness coming on

Sorry for the lack of posts! I've been trying to keep up with my blog reading though. I've been keeping busy with my credential application and some other lovely things.



I've even resorted to eating apples in my car. At least I'm eating honeycrisps!



I visited my parents. They decorate their house every year with these Nightmare before Christmas wood cut-outs that my dad and sister made over 10 years ago.



They are pretty good actually!







Halloween is TOMORROW! I'm going to a halloween party and I still haven't thought of a costume. I'm not good at that sort of thing. Do you have any plans?

Last night I attempted to make Sweet Potato soup using a recipe from Cooking Light



The ingredients were simple. Cubed sweet potato, leeks, pancetta (it called for ham but we all know pancetta is better!) milk and chicken broth. I thought this recipe would be a snap!



I also made Cheddar-Green Onion biscuits from Williams Sonoma this recipe asked for bacon but I omited it. These biscuits were perfect. I think I finally figured it out. The key is sliced butter into tiny chunks and making sure the chunks do not melt!



I liked the soup but I need a stronger food processor. It had chunks of sweet potato in it. I threw in some cajun chicken sausage for smoky flavor and cajun seasonings and that seemed to really help. I guess I was expecting a super creamy soup and it wasn't. (It was tasty but needed something!) Next time I may try canned pureed sweet potato.

I'm not feeling so hot today. I think I'm coming down with a cold! Hopefully I'll get another honeymoon recap up this week. Andy has been so tired this week, I feel bad making him post one!

Awarded!

Yay! The lovely Mara over at I Made Dinner passed this Kreativ Blogger Award over to me.



For this award, I’m supposed to tell you 7 things you don’t already know about me:

1. I cry. All. The. Time. I cry when watching The Biggest Loser, while listening to Bright Eyes (my favorite band), when my husband does something sweet for me, when I see old people holding hands, when I think about my grandparents and at hallmark commercials. You can't take me anywhere!

2. Before I decided that I wanted to pursue teaching high school English, I thought about pursuing a career in psychology. It's still something I think about. Maybe I can be a school counselor one day or something.

3. My little sister Sarah just sent me a picture of her co-workers dressed up as Harry Potter. I am crazy about Harry Potter! I didn't become a fan until the 4th book. I don't know what I was thinking.

4. I know the lyrics to every song that comes on Kiss Fm. (it's embarrassing!)

5. I am an ex-junk food addict. I still crave it but I can't eat it without getting horribly sick.

6. I had a huge crush on my husband for years before we started dating. The crush would be on and off but he was always in the back of my mind. I never thought someone like him would like someone like me! I still can't believe we're married. It's surreal.

7. I am happiest when I am busy. I try to always give myself lots to do otherwise I will obsessively check gmail, twitter, facebook and blogs. I am actually going to unplug myself from my laptop now. ha!

I am passing on this award and the 7 questions to:

Sarah at See Sarah Eat

Ashley at On the Rocks

Erica at Itzy's Kitchen

and

Mari at Namaste Mari

Andy is going to post another honeymoon recap today! YAY!

Ashley is a freaking genius.

My friend Ashley over at On the Rocks is a genius. But before I go into that, let me show you what Andy and I had for dinner last night.



Zucchini with parmesan cheese, seasoning and butter. With a side of pesto chicken and some spinach florentine pasta sauce. (I have decided to make meat more of a side dish than a main course.)



This zucchini recipe is actually stolen from my dad. My dad usually does this by grilling zucchini with seasonings, butter and tons of parmesan. He wraps the zucchini in foil and puts it on the bbq. I don't own a BBQ so I did this in the oven instead. Not as good but still delicious.



My small side of pesto chicken was actually perfect. It's amazing how much less I eat when I serve myself less!!

Onto why Ashley is a genius. On Saturday a bunch of us went over to Ashley's house for a potluck dinner. I was lazy and didn't make anything but Ashley made AMAZING food.

Ashley's 25th Birthday

I knew I had to borrow Ashley's Southwestern Eggroll recipe and make it tonight.



Instead of using chicken, I used this frozen pork al pastor from Trader Joe's.



The filling had corn, black beans, red peppers, spinach, cilantro, cumin, chili powder, shredded cheese and chopped tomatoes.





I made the rookie mistake of frying these in WAAYY too much olive oil. I had to blot them a lot!



I also over lemon juiced the guacamole. I suck today!



Because of the over-oiling, I cut our portions down. I used whole wheat/high fiber tortillas so I knew they'd fill us up. I made a total of 8 southwestern eggrolls but we only had 4 tonight. Trust me I could have had all 8 by myself. They were THAT good.

P.S. I lost 0.6 at my weigh-in tonight. Slow but steady! I am totally down!!!!

winner, winner chicken dinner!!!!!!!!!!

or GREEK YOGURT!!!

YAY commenter #17 won!

Mara at I made Dinner Congrats!!!!

Chobani Re-Giveaway

Since the winner of my Chobani Greek Yogurt giveaway didn't respond. I have decided to throw out another chance to win!

Simply leave a comment with your favorite yogurt flavor by end of day today and I will randomly select a winner tomorrow at 8am!

Personally my favorite flavor of Chobani was the pineapple flavor. I would eat it daily.

Best Smoothie Ever Combo

I promise!



Get a huge bag of strawberries at Costco. Frozen strawberries are essential. Take 8 strawberries and chop them up.



Take one package of plain non-fat chobani



4oz of Pom Wonderful. I love pom-nectarine. one of these 16 oz babies makes me 4 huge smoothies. love it!



Add a chopped banana



Blend until smooth and creamy. This is awesome! I added in some honey for sweetness and some flax for fiber.



Think Pink. It is October after all.

Huge Hass

At the Farmer's market recently, Andy and I got some "huge hass" avocados. This one was starting to over ripen, so I decided it needed to be eaten immediately.



Andy thinks avocado can taste a little bland, so I jazzed it up with a dash of lemon juice, sea salt and pepper.



I made sandwiches with avocado, tomatos, pastrami and pepper jack cheese.


Today I actually have a busy day planned, so I am racing out the door!



Pom arils and a big bottle of water.



YUM!

I've got some exciting things going on today actually. I'm happy about that!

Taking it day by day

I feel much better today. Last night I hung out with good friends and just enjoyed being around other people. I feel like life will go on. I am excited for new opportunities. I want to find a job that makes me happy and makes me feel like a better person. So I'm going to do just that.

I have a feeling I will go through the whole "doom and gloom" thing again but I know that I have to hold my head up and move on. Thank you all so much for your sweet comments. It made my day!

I'm happy that I have the Foodbuzz Food Blogger Festival to look forward to. I can't wait to meet Andrea, Allison, Kath, Meghann, Tina, Jenna and so many more. I read these blogs daily and it will be nice to see you all in real life.



This is from a few days ago but I loved it and needed to share. My glowing martini! Made with pineapple juice. I love pineapple.



Breakfast of Champions. Honeycrisp + Thomgold grapes. YUM.



Potato Leek soup with multigrain bread.



This bread is the best. It's soft, doughy and has a nutty taste. I am obsessed.



My husband and his good friend Brett looking awkward at a bar.



So get this. This man was dancing to "Back that ass up" while nomming on some fire hot cheetos. It probably wasn't THAT funny but I was hysterical over it. Who does that at a bar?

And this morning....



I felt it necessary to make breakfast at home considering my joblessness.



And really how can you not love my pancake bowl?



And my secret ingredient? Multigrain pancakes are a little "healthy" tasting and I don't have any syrup so I needed something to top them with.



My plate. 2 pancakes topped with chocolate pb and bananas. One cheesy scrambled egg.



Andy's plate. I gave him an extra pancake because he's been so supportive and sweet to me. I feel very lucky to be married to a man like him. AWWWWWW

I have tons to do actually so I'm off to seize the day! Please send me some positive vibes this week. I'm going to need them!