January Recap

I can’t believe it is already February! January flew by! I’ve been MIA for a couple of weeks due to an unexpected trip to SC and an unexpected car situation, not to mention spending a few days in NYC! – I feel like life is finally settling down.. in a good way!

How about a January Recap!

Meatless Meals

Ryan and I have been trying to fix dinners that are Vegan/Vegetarian in nature and we have had some successes and some failures! I CANNOT wait to share some of the amazing restaurants and meals that I had in NYC – pricey but unbelievably delicious.

• Epic Failure
• Mexican Tomato Bean Soup

• Oh She Glows – Naughty and Nice Vegan Enchilada Casserole – so good! I think I made it 3 times in January

• Oh She Glows – Vegan BBQ Chili

Project Pin

I started “Project Pin” in January and even though I got side tracked towards the end of the month here are two projects that I absolutely love! I have big plans for February!

• ‘P’ for Potter

• Stand By Me

What have I been up to lately?!

Well… I took a trip to SC during the last full week in January and saw my adorable flower girls and ate at one of my FAVORITE restaurants! It was good to be home with Ma and Pa.

Laney and I at Mom’s store one afternoon

Wade’s Restaurant Spartanburg 

Why can’t there be Meat and 3’s in Ohio!? Or in my case” the 4 “Veggie” Plate but what I really want is 1 Veggie and 3 southern comfort foods” Green beans, Mac & Cheese, Sweet Potato Casserole,  Hash brown Casserole, Yeast Roll and of course Sweet Tea Please! So good – it’s a good thing I don’t live there anymore!

Big SURPRISE! My sweet husband got me an iPhone for Christmas and it finally came in! I think I am officially one of the last people on earth to get one – but I’m obsessed – I am amazed that you can deposit a check into your bank account without going to a bank, refill a prescription with the touch of a button, and even blog from this phone… (You didn’t think I’d publish a post without a picture of Reese did you?!)

And I’m saving the best for last… After I drove back from SC, my car of 6 years and 200k miles would not switch from reverse to forward and in mechanic talk that means “New transmission”…

So Ryan and I have been spending quality time every morning together carpooling while my car has been in the shop! Totally takes our relationship to the next level now that we are carpooling don’t you think?!

Hope you had a great January!

NYC recaps coming up soon!

Who can get to 500 faster?

After a long weekend it was hard to wake up this morning! Ryan had to work yesterday so I had the day to myself. I cleaned the condo and went to the mall to browse all the MLK day sales before coming back to snuggle with Reese until Ryan came home.

Workout

After work today Ryan and I decided to go to the gym and see how fast we could burn 500 calories – according to the cardio machines – I’ve heard they aren’t the most accurate when it comes to actual calories burned. I usually go to the gym to do cardio with a goal in mind to achieve a certain time or distance, never calories. So this was a new mindset for me!

We started on the stair stepper for 5 minutes and then we moved to the treadmills. I can’t compare myself to Ryan for obvious reasons but he ended up reaching 500 in about 28 minutes. Me on the other hand..   it took me about 48 minutes! I started off by doing intervals for 15 minutes between 3.8 mph and 5.5 mph and then I ran for 5.0 for 10 minutes. The final 18 minutes I went back and forth between 4.0 and 5.0. In the end I burned 500 calories – sounds good to me!

I felt like it was a great cardio workout for me and I liked that Ryan and I were able to do it together – even though we are on different fitness levels! Baby steps but I’m working towards my 2012 To Do list of working out more!

Mexican Tomato Bean Soup w/ Corn Dumplings

Dinner came together so easy tonight – This weekend I looked through our “Cooking Light – Way to Cook Vegetarian” cookbook and flagged a couple meals for the week. Tonight I was in the mood for some soup (it is supposed to be a cold night – maybe even some snow).  I tweaked it a little bit but I think this soup will make its appearance in our kitchen again!

I had high hopes for the corn dumplings but I either used too much oil or not enough cornmeal.. they disintegrated as soon as I made them in the soup – maybe you will have better luck!

Here is the link to the original recipe – I added a can of Pinto beans and eliminated the limes (just because we didn’t have any).

Off to play hide and seek with Reese! She hides under my hanging clothes in the closet….

Have a good night – Thank goodness for a short workweek!

TGIF

We have had such unseasonably warm weather today! No heavy coats, gloves, or ice scraping here! Hard to believe it is January 6th.

I came home for lunch and took Little Bit on a walk – she has a stick fetish.. I have no idea who she got it from! She always tries to find the biggest stick every time we take her outside!

My mom gave us a Houndstooth Leash for Christmas and I love it because it lets her get a little bit ahead of me but I can still pull her in when I need to. Can I get a Roll Tide for the big game on Monday night!?! Go BAMA!! (I actually broke the leash 5 minutes after taking this picture.. maybe the husband can fix it for me..!)

I was able to squeeze in another quick walk with the pup after work before I went to workout and the sunset was gorgeous! Working on my photography skills… it is a work in progress!

 

 

Dinner tonight came together pretty quick and it turned out better than I thought. I made a vegetarian casserole by combining a few things we have left over from our Monday grocery store trip. I based it off another one of Oh She Glows recipe’s: Naughty and Nice Vegan Enchilada Casserole.

 

I only used one of the peppers and a small sweet onion (omitting the green onions all together – Ryan doesn’t like them..) and topped it with chedder cheese, avocado, and crumbled flax chips. The best part – we have leftovers for tomorrow! Another recipe that we will definitely be making again!

 

We have BIG NO plans this weekend – after a busy couple of weekends, being lazy, and checking things off my To Do list sounds fantastic! I need to take advantage of these weekends with Ryan in town – his busy season will be here before I know it.

TGIF!