Crowd-Sourced Dinner

July 20, 2011
Sometimes I can't pull dinner out of a hat. I have the ingredients but no clue how to pull them together. It's rare. Today was one of those days. We are on a mission to eat everything in the house before going grocery shopping again. Too much food has been going to waste. The chest freezer is almost empty (which the Teen pointed out has never happened in his memory).


Recipes:
Butternut Squash Soup
It's a little watery since I omitted the heavy cream, but both the Hunk and the Teen approve.

Ingredients
  • 2lbs butternut squash, diced
  • 1 onion - diced
  • 2 cloves garlic or equivalent garlic powder
  • 4-6 cups chicken or vegetable broth
  • nutmeg, salt, pepper, and cinnamon to taste
  • 1 TBSP olive oil


Directions:
Saute the onion and garlic. Add the butternut squash and broth. Boil, then simmer for 15-20 minutes until the squash is tender. Using a slotted spoon, remove squash and blend. Add back to broth. Season to taste with nutmeg, cinnamon, salt and pepper.

I started with 6 cups of broth but ended up pouring off 2 cups or so before blending.

Pan-Seared Mahi-Mahi
I really, really, really wanted to do my signature marinade for this, but we were out of soy sauce (remember, no grocery shopping until the cupboards look like Old Mother Hubbard's). Breading the fish is out of the question for the next 50lbs. So ... pan seared with olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Mango Peach Salsa
I got the idea for this salsa from Costco. I have frozen mangoes, canned peaches, and canned diced tomatoes. We'll see how this goes.


Ingredients:

  • 3/4 bag of Fresh and Easy frozen mangoes
  • 1 can peaches, in water or pear juice
  • 1 sweet onion, diced
  • 1 can diced tomatoes
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 2 tbsp chopped  cilantro
  • juice of one lime
  • dash salt and pepper

Directions:

Combine all ingredients and chill.



Quinoa (instead of rice) - prepare according to package directions. It was the first time I had made it.

All in all, dinner turned out pretty well.

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Wordless Wednesday: Last Dessert


Mamavation Monday: More Active

It's been a busy week. We re-committed to working out daily. I'm definitely the slacker in accountability relationships, so I need the extra push. The only upside is on the rare occasions when the Hunk wants to stop I get to give it right back to him.  I'm also in charge of the menus and portion control, one of the few things I'm good at.

The past week looked like this:
Sunday : biked 4 miles running errands, then walked 3.3 more miles throughout the day.
Monday : 2 mile walk
Tuesday: I'm not a very good swimmer (translation I sink like a rock) but I did some pool jogging and then laps on my back. My goal was to get across the pool a few times without my feet touching bottom. After dinner did a 2.5 mile walk with Zoe and the Hunk.
Wednesday : more walking. My dog is losing weight faster than I am.
Thursday: swimming. I float on my back and try not to drown in three feet of water. I'm getting better.
Friday: more swimming. It's a good week for it.
Saturday: walking and shopping. And the 24 Hour Fitness *finally* opened! Intervals on the treadmill for 30 minutes with an average speed of 3.5 and 4 incline. I was breathless and really feeling out of shape. Did a few sets of weights for my arms, chest, back, and legs, but not enough so that I wouldn't be able to walk home. Just enough for a slight burn and hopefully not enough to send my back into shock.

Food
Started modified "Eat to Live" eating plan (most dinners include ground turkey) this weekend. Went through 3-4 pints of strawberries, a banana, a plucot, cuban beans and salad for dinner and a really modified strawberry rhubarb pie. More like a crumble. Post with recipe and photos to follow. All that *after* a Shakeology shake. I'm always starving after a workout.

One thing I have noticed is that my face is not liking all of these changes. I now have more acne than I ever did as a teenager or when I was pregnant. Nothing better than your daughter pointing out the whiteheads sprouting magically on your face.

Weight: Gained a pound. Now 187.2. I really need to find my tape measure. I feel ok about the pound because I was able to get into some size 12 capris and still breathe after eating breakfast. That's a win right there and tells me I have probably lost inches.

What I look like as in Infographic

July 18, 2011
There's a new meme going around the social media set and I finally jumped on the bandwagon.

How it works


We are using data from your Twitter account's tweets (posts) combined with some twitter data from our friends over at infochimps. Our Twitterize yourself tool will generate an infographic in an instant based upon your information.

The 'outfits' and 'accessories' are chosen based upon keywords most associated for you. For example, if you tweet a lot about wineries, you will see a wine glass in your hand; Go to the ballpark often? Then your avatar will be dressed in a sports jersey and so on. There are a total of 11 possible outfits that depict your overall Twitter personality and 29 different accessories that could be assigned to show your interests.



  • Geeky grin: I do like to smile
  • Gamer: I guess because I tweet a lot about Android
  • Obsession: I think my last 200-500 tweets have included a higher ratio of tweets from Goodreads and about Nook Color
  • And I love the boots for "trailblazer"
 

Mamavation Monday: -6

My body puzzles me -- all the time. This past week I didn't have much activity, or much appetite, and I lost six pounds. Possibly more since I got my hair done. So I'm down to 186. If my body is in starvation mode, it's shedding instead of holding onto fat, which works for me.

I wish I could figure out what makes my body tick.

BLOGGING CARNIVAL:
Question: What has been your favorite Grunt Style workout? If you aren’t doing his workouts what has been your strength training routine?
Answer: I've been MIA from Mamvation for about a month and didn't know that we had new workout. I have ben doing P90X sporadically as my back allows me. I seriouly think the bike riding I started is doing wonders for my legs.

Walking isn't necessarily strength-training, but it's building up my stamina so that I can go on longer bike rides without feeling like all of the air has left my body. I can't wait to go on a decent hike again!

*Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Grunt Style and I’m writing this to be entered into a giveaway hosted by Mamavation and sponsored by Grunt Style.





The End of an Era

July 8, 2011
Photo courtesy of Breaking News
This morning I almost missed the last launch of Atlantis, the last of the space shuttles to be retired. I think I would have been really upset if I had missed it. One of the dreams I had as a little girl was to be the first Black doctor in space. Mae Jemison beat me to it. The closest I have gotten was having Sally Ride as my physics professor at UCSD.

Thanks to the wonder of the internet, and NASA really embracing social media, I was able to find a mobile optimized version of the stream.

I actually watched the first 10 minutes on the official NASA TV site, but then started getting lag, so switched to the Ustream NASA Mobile channel.


Streaming Live by Ustream


As of this writing, the stream is still live. I just watched the shuttle separate before it switched to Mission Control.

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