Wacky Wednesday!

This post is going to be all over the place, you have been warned.

First Things First:

Facebook!  The Babbling Brunette now has a Fan Page on Facebook!  Feel free to head on over there and "like" it whenever you decide.  

My New Favorite Find:

This fruit spread is wonderful.  I stumbled upon it while I was at Henry's getting Almond Butter for the best half.  I like to have some sort of fruit spread on whole wheat toast for breakfast sometimes and I was worried that this would be tart, you know without any added sugars and the like.  Well guess what, it's not!  It is the perfect amount of sweet (in my opinion) and even better because it's not full of chemicals and junk!  I will certainly be buying this again.

So Good!

My Latest Revelation:

I am no longer 18 years old.  Pretty far from it actually.  My supervisors at work always joke that I am an old soul.  It's actually an assessment I completely agree with.  I love watching reruns of old TV shows, listening to music on 105.7 The Walrus, and critiquing the attitudes and behaviors of today's teenagers.  

That being said, when I was shopping this weekend I finally accepted that I'm nearing my mid-twenties.  I started out at stores like Forever21 and Charlotte Russe.  The clothing fit just fine but every time I looked in the mirror I saw a woman who was trying to dress like a teen.  It was bad friends.  Top that off with the fact that the music was way too loud in those stores and I was certainly out of place.

 I headed over to Gap and The Limited where I not only found and purchased items, but I felt like I was back in my comfort zone.  This isn't to say I may never find something I like and can wear from the other stores, it just means they probably are no longer my go to places.  The best thing about this revelation is that I'm absolutely okay with it.  The last few years of my twenties have been wonderful.  I've had positive career changes, made incredible new friends, become an Aunt, a pet parent, and will be marrying my best friend.  Yes, the twenties have treated me well and I shall embrace the remainder of my twenties with open arms.

Wishing you all a happy Wednesday!

Meal Plan Monday!

This weekend was jam packed with fun activities that have left me feeling pretty exhausted so today I'm jumping right to the point!

What we're eating this week:

Monday: Teriyaki Pork Tenderloin with Coconut Rice and Roasted Asparagus

Tuesday: Crock Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup

Wednesday: Tuna Melts and Salad

Thursday: Baked Seasoned Chicken Breasts with Roasted Vegetables and Quinoa 

 Friday: Tilapia Fish Tacos with Spanish Style Rice

What will you be eating this week?  I'll be back in the coming days to discuss the moment I realized I'm no longer 18 and a delicious find I came across at Henry's.  Enjoy your Monday!

someecards.com

High Five for Friday!

It's Friday! That was more to remind myself than to inform all of you.  Between having Monday off for a holiday, and having a snow day on Wednesday, I am all thrown off.

 

Here are my top 5 for the week:

 

1)  I had a snow day this week!  We got about six inches at our house and since the freeway was closed I could not make it to work.  So instead of being at work I got to ride bikes with Aaron and my brother Chris over to visit my niece Ashlyn.  That little girl is a crack up.  It is amazing how fast they develop at this age.  We were playing with her princess castle and she babbled on and on, only to take breaks to look at me as if to say, "you know what I mean?"  It was awesome.

Side note:  I woke up around 5:15 on Wednesday and went to turn the news on right away to check the roads.  There was all of this black and white fuzz on the TV and I thought to myself, "Oh wow, they're already showing the snow on the news."  Umm no.  The snow had weighed down our cable wire and ripped it out of the house so the "snow" I was seeing on TV was the fuzzies you get when there's no connection. Yep, that happened.

 

2) I made homemade whipped cream for the first time this week!  It was incredibly easy and tastes so good.  I'm bringing it to a work function today and am excited for everyone to try it.

3) I also finished these thin mints.  This is a once a year thing, I'm not ashamed, I'm all about moderation.  

 

4) And I decided on the flowers I'd like to have in my bouquet. Butterscotch Cream Garden Roses and White Ranunculus, I cannot wait.  I'll have to but I don't want to. T-247 Days!

 

5) I'm going to spend this weekend having dinner with good friends, going to our nephew's first t-ball game ever, attending Ashlyn's mini birthday at my grandparent's house, shopping for a new outfit and getting a manicure and pedicure in preparation for our engagement photos on Tuesday!  I'm pretty excited to say the least.  I'll have to throw in some homework time but whatever.

How was your week?  How will you be spending your weekend?  Whatever you do I hope it is excellent!

Revelations & Smoky Navy Bean Soup

Happy Wednesday! I'll get to the soup in a minute but I wanted to talk about a revelation I had on my drive home last night. 

 Have you seen this saying around?

Pinterest

 

I've seen the phrase before but I never really understood what it meant until yesterday.  On my lunch I was looking at different flowers, specifically what I'd like to have in my bouquet, when I fell in love with some garden roses.  For whatever reason they reminded me of my grandmother who passed away this last year and so she stayed on my mind for the rest of the afternoon.

I was a little apprehensive about my drive home with the anticipated rain, wind, fog and snow. When I started the trek home I set some tunes on my pandora and thought I was mentally prepared to spend a decent amount of time in my car.  Fast forward an hour and I still haven't even made it to the freeway because traffic is so bad.  All I can think about it how bad the freeway must be if the side roads are this way.  I finally got to the freeway, and much to my surprise, it was wide open.  Literally, free and clear.  This has never happened on a rainy day at rush hour before and rarely happens on a bright and sunny afternoon at my normal leaving time around 4pm.  

It was at this moment that I said to myself, "Thank God. I don't think I could have handled traffic in all areas tonight."

And then I thought about what I just said and in that moment I understood, "God helps us handle what we are given."  I doubt He cleared the freeways just for me, but I felt the overwhelming presence of my grandmother in that moment, as if He sent her to say, "See, it's not so bad after all now is it."

Traffic in terms of so many other life struggles really is a small trial but it's this trial that I will remember when I'm faced with true struggles in life.  I will be stronger, because I understand.  

Now for what you really came to read about: Smoky Navy Bean Soup

Worst Photo Ever.  Sorry!

The jury is still out on this one.  Even though I soaked the navy beans overnight and cooked the soup on low for 10 hours, the beans still weren't done and it was overall a bit bland.  I think the soup has some potential but maybe needs some adjusting.  I'm letting it sit overnight in the fridge and I'll try it again tomorrow for lunch.  I'll post an update with my official verdict after the second taste.

If you'd like to try the soup for yourself or make your own variation the base recipe can be found here. Let me know if you try it out, what your thoughts are and if you made changes! 

Roasted Acorn Squash & Family Circle Turkey Burgers

As promised, I'm sharing my recipe for roasted acorn squash and reviewing our second dinner from Family Circle Magazine today!

Roasted Acorn Squash

Squash is a vegetable I love.  It doesn't really matter what kind of squash it is, I'll find a way to incorporate it in our meals if I can.

The idea for this recipe actually came from Martha Stewart, I love that woman.  Her variation involves canola oil and salt, but not being a huge salt fan over here, I put my own spin on it.

You will need:

1 medium acorn squash

Cinnamon (roughly 1/2 tsp)

Brown Sugar or Honey (roughly 1 Tbsp)

Olive Oil (roughly 1 Tbsp)

To Make:

1. Preheat your oven to 350* F.
2. Rinse your acorn squash and carefully cut it in half.  Scoop out the seeds and the proceed to slice each half like you would a cantaloupe.
3. Line your baking sheet with foil or a silicon baking mat and place your squash slivers onto the sheet.
4. Lightly spritz or brush each side of your slices with olive.  Then sprinkle lightly with cinnamon and brown sugar. If you opt to use honey you can lightly drizzle the slices with honey and then sprinkle with cinnamon after.  I went with the cinnamon and brown sugar route, which turned out great.
5. Bake your slices in the oven on the middle rack for 30 minutes, turning once, halfway through.  You will know they are done when you can easily poke them with a fork.

Nutritional Information per Spark People Recipe Calculator as prepared with brown sugar:

Servings: 4, Calories: 103.9, Total Fat: 3.7 g, Saturated Fat: .05 g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.6 g, Monounsaturated Fat: 2.5 g, Cholesterol: 0.0 mg, Sodium: 5.8 mg, Potassium 570.1 mg, Total Carbohydrate: 20.1 g, Dietary Fiber: 2.6 g, Sugar: 3.0 g, Protein: 1.3 g

Now onto the Turkey Burgers!

These are made with zucchini, green onions, ground turkey, salt, peeper, and parsley (optional).  You can find the full recipe here or in the March 2013 issue of Family Circle on page 122.

The original recipe calls for zucchini but I had extra yellow squash on hand so I used that instead.  I would recommend using turkey that has a bit of a higher fat content than the most lean so that the patties hold together better.  I used lean ground turkey and it worked fine they were just a little difficult to flip.

I made Black Pepper Hamburger buns from Portuguese Girl Cooks to go with these, although you could substitute any type of bun that would meet your specific dietary needs.

As for the taste:  Aaron said, and I quote, "These could possibly be the best burgers I have ever had."  I would have to agree, these were pretty darn good and we will definitely be having them again.

Meal Plan Monday!

Happy President's Day to you!  I am lucky enough to have an extended weekend thanks to the celebration of our President's which is always nice.  I hope you're lucky enough to have today off too!

It's has been a busy weekend so far, but enjoyable as well.  Saturday I had maintenance done on my car, grocery shopped, completed my homework, took the girls for a walk and went to a housewarming BBQ.  I then cleaned house on Sunday, completed more homework and went outside to pick up the yard.   I suppose my weekend was actually rather domestic but I'm okay with that.

The meals on the menu this week all come from the March issue of Family Circle magazine.  I started receiving this magazine out of nowhere.  I have not subscribed myself and I have not been told about a gift subscription from anyone either so it's rather strange, but appreciated nonetheless.  Anyway, in this issue there is a section dedicated to a month's worth of healthy meals made easy.  I'm all for an easy weeknight meal and we try to eat as healthy as we can so I thought it would be fun to plan this week's menu from their recipes and let you all know what we thought of them!

Here's what we will be trying out:

Sunday: Steak Salad

I made this with roasted acorn squash, which I'll be writing about soon. I opted for top sirloin and a side salad instead of the steak on the salad, as the magazine suggested.  I did this mainly because I rarely cook steak let alone flank steak so I stuck with what I knew.  

Monday: Turkey Burgers and Asparagus.

PS: Asparagus was on sale this weekend and is until Tuesday at Albertsons.  I paid under $2lb!

Tuesday: Crockpot Smoky Navy Bean Soup

Wednesday: Roasted Veggie Pitas and Chopped Salad

Thursday: Chicken Fajitas and Quinoa

Friday: Possibly Chicken and Dumplings (not from FC magazine).

I have tentative plans to join some friends for dinner after work so if that doesn't happen this is my plan B. 

What are you having for dinner this week?  I hope you're Monday is excellent and the remainder of your week is as well, see you Wednesday!

High Five For Friday!

Wow, things got fancy around here!  I wrote a while back about how I was considering moving things over to Blogger and away from Wordpress.  This probably seems very odd to those in the blogging world since many actually make the move the other way around, Blogger ---->Wordpress.  I decided to make the switch for now because I'm not ready for wordpress.org and self hosting.  That being said, Blogger has more of the options I find appealing than Wordpress.com does, in a free site.  Sadly, if you subscribed to my posts via e-mail, and would like to continue to receive them,  you will need to sign up again.  I'm so sorry but I promise it's easy, just submit your email in the box to the right and then approve the confirmation you receive at that e-mail address. Enough with the technicalities, have a look around, I hope you enjoy! 

Now onto my top 5 of the week!

1) This tea is so good that it has replaced my morning cup of coffee.  I am basically obsessed. Add just a little milk to it and you have the perfect blend of creamy spices. So good!

I'm absolutely in love!

2) The only thing that makes that tea better is the fact that I get to drink it from my adorable new cup.

New Favorite

3) I sent my sister a Valentine this week and it actually arrived right on Valentine's Day, how perfect is that?!  She was so excited about her new PJ's and chocolate, it was really neat.

Be my Valentine?

4) We set up our engagement photos.  So so so very excited about this!

Eeeeeek!

5) Valentines for my Valentine!

Chocolate strawberries, freshly baked scones, some truffles and an espresso chocolate bar 

6) A must share because this made me laugh so hard.  If you don't know Harry Potter you won't get this, and if you don't know Harry Potter I highly suggest you two become acquainted.  It's in your best interest, I promise. 

From somewhere on Tumbler but I couldn't locate the original source

Ooops, looks like I got a little carried away and went beyond 5!  What can I say, the week has just been that great!  I hope you all enjoy your weekend and I look forward to seeing you back here on Monday!

Link Up!

I Have a Secret

It's Wednesday, in case you woke up thinking it was any other day like I often do.  Today's post is very random and is actually something I've debated about writing on for a while.  It's not because I'm embarrassed by this or ashamed it's just an awkward fact that not many people know. I suppose I didn't want to write about this because I don't want people who know me to think I'm critiquing them every time they eat around me.  I don't do that, I swear.  You're probably wondering what the heck I'm talking about at this point soooooo.....

Do you know what Misophonia is? Well those with Misophonia, "Typically have strong negative emotional reactions, ranging from annoyance to extreme rage, to a variety of sounds--frequently associated with mouth and nasal sounds such as chewing, slurping or breathing." -Misophonia Online

THIS IS ME!

You can ask Aaron or my sister, I have the hardest time listening to the sounds associated with people eating. The louder the eating the worse I handle it.  If I'm in a group of people or in a restaurant I don't even notice the noises.  Things like this normally affect me most in quiet settings, like a library.  Love Library at SDSU was by far the worst.  I'd climb into the depths of that place to find a quiet, eating free zone to study.   I'd say I'm on the milder side of this leaning towards annoyance, but I have been known to allow such noises to annoy me to tears that I cover by uncontrollable laughter.  I even have special headphones I wear when I'm trying to focus and people are eating loudly around me.

Just the other morning Aaron was eating Cheerios near me while we were watching the news and I was getting ready for work.  I got up and walked into the bathroom to finish getting ready.  Shortly after that Aaron came into the bathroom and said, "you couldn't handle listening to me eat my cereal could you?"  What was funny was the fact that for once, it was just a coincidence that I walked away when he was eating, it had nothing to do with the noise.

So there you have it, a totally weird fact about me.  And now that it's out in the open I feel totally exposed, basically naked.

 In more funny news, I needed Aaron's signature on a document and when I brought it home for him to sign the following conversation took place:

A: "You didn't forge it?"

Me: "NO! I don't even know how to forge your signature"

A: "Why not?  It's part of marriage!" (Jokingly of course)

Ummm no. Forging your spouse's signature is not a part of marriage.  Glad we got that out of the way early!  Happy Wednesday all!

 

Meal Plan Monday!

Welcome back from the weekend!  Most of my weekend was spent trying to kick this cold/flu while watching the snow fall outside and the Grammys on TV.  I'm certainly not 100% yet but I have to say this is the fastest I have recovered from an illness in a long time. I will happily attribute this to my flu shot, vitamins and recent long term asthma treatment.  I completely understand that medications and vaccinations aren't for everyone, but the combination of those things have significantly improved my quality of life in the last six months so they are for me.

Snow just starting to fall

Marley's first real snow

In other completely unrelated news, MY CARE PACKAGE CAME!  I was paired up with Emilia from The Happiest Heart Blog.  If you'd like to read about our commonalities you can find them here.

Sadly the mug that was in my package did not survive the USPS :( The rest of these goodies made it quite alright though!

Homemade Salad Dressing Canister with recipes!

A new book! The puppy looks just like our girls!

So many delicious foods to try!

 

I love it all!  I can't wait to cook some wonderful things from the magazine, read the book and make some awesome salad dressings.  Thank you so so so much Emilia!!!!!

Now for what we are eating this week:

Sunday: Ginger Ale Pot Roast with Corn Bread

Monday: Tacos with leftovers from the Roast

Tuesday: Loaded Salads

Wednesday: Chicken and Dumplings

Thursday: Honey/Soy Salmon and Greens

Friday: Breakfast for Dinner

And lastly, for all my fellow Downton Abbey lovers, Sesame Street's take on the show discovered by Aaron on a "very busy day".  Upside Downton Abbey:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPqL-1aSbn0]

High Five For Friday!

Happy Friday! As I write this post I am breaking one of the biggest rules in the Things Not to do Before Going to Bed book.  I'm typing while in bed and watching Grey's Anatomy.  In case you did not know, apparently you are not suppose to use technology one hour before bed and especially not while you are in your bed.  Yeah I'm a rebel.  Okay not really, I was actually feeling under the weather today (I'm trying to convince myself it's allergies, and failing) so I thought the sooner I was in bed resting, the better.

Here are my top 5 this week:

1) I had this for lunch one day and it was all soooo good!  I really love the Better'n Peanut Butter. It is "too soupy" for Aaron but just right for me, lunchbox score!

2) This chocolate bar practically threw itself into my shopping cart and begged me to bring it home.  I am so happy I did, it is delicious!

3) The Love Crunch granola was on sale at Henry's.  If you ever have a time where you feel the need to give me a gift this would make me very very very happy.  The granola comes in several flavors all of which are wonderful.  The bags have big clusters in them (perfect for snacking) and then bits and pieces too (perfect for yogurt).  I really love this stuff.  .:sigh:.

4) When I came home yesterday Aaron had just finished vacuuming the entire house.  That was a most excellent, and much appreciated surprise.  I live for a freshly vacuumed home.  Weird, I know.

5) Last, but certainly not least, this beautiful little girl turns 1 tomorrow!  I cannot believe it has been a whole year since my niece was born.  I remember the night my sister-in-law told me she was pregnant, the call I got from my mom when this little girl was on her way and the first photo I saw of her shortly after she was born, all like it was yesterday.  She has blessed our family in so many ways and has brought such happiness and love into our lives.  She is full of smiles and giggles and has the ability to give my other brother baby fever with a simple bat of her eyelashes.  It's true, ask anyone!  Happy Birthday Ashlyn!

 

 

2013 Valentine Blogging Party!!!!

Remember when I wrote about how excited I was for the Valentine Blogging Party?  You know the one where I get paired up with another blogger at random, we learn about one another, exchange care packages and then write about our person and what they got us?  Well today is the day!.........only I haven't exactly received a care package.

I was paired with another blogger, we did exchange a few e-mails and I sent a care package her way.  I'm not going to say what's in it just incase she reads this and has not opened it yet. I'd hate to ruin the surprise and since the delivery confirmation has not updated since it said "out for delivery" last Saturday, I can't be 100% positive it's been received.

Anywho, for being paired up with a random blogger we sure had a lot in common.  She loves coffee, has an adorable puppy who is like her child, and is recently engaged!  I really enjoyed getting to know someone new in the blogging world and had a fun time putting together a care package for her too!

All that being said,  Aaron was worried I would not have a care package to write about today.  So, in the ten minutes it took for me to make it home from the grocery store he put together one of his own.

Check out the packaging!

A cleaned coffee can and some newspaper

What's inside:

1) A beer from Alpine Beer Company, a local favorite brewery.  Fun fact, he received this beer  yesterday as a thank you from one of our friends for some work he helped them complete on their new house. Total re-gifter!

Try it!!!!!!!

2) Some mints inside of a flip-flop shaped tin.  I'm pretty sure Aaron's Mom and Dad brought these home for us from their trip to Hawaii two years ago.  I also got some gift cards to Shutterfly.  These  happen to be the exact same gift cards I received from the bridal shop as an apology for when I went to pick up my wedding dress and they totally forgot about me in the dressing room. (notice a theme here)?

Mints and Shutterfly

3). And finally, a post-it that reads, "North friend, south friend, east friend, westest friend. You're the world's greatest friend, the absolute bestest!"  With his personal addition of, " It's true and I knew it was you!" and, " I hope this will work for your blog, instead of under a log".  I think we have a real poet on our hands!

Dr. Seuss Post It

In all seriousness though, this make shift, full of used items, care package from my best half is awesome.  I love this guy!

Throwback Thursday

If the other care package arrives I'll give a full re-cap of what was inside and disclose what blogger I was paired up with too!  See you tomorrow for High Five For Friday!

The Bachelor and Easy, Amazing, Pizza Crust Dough

First things first, seriously Sean Lowe, what kind of tool (sorry for the use of that word but it just had to be said) do you want America to think you are?!

For those of you who don't know, this is the guy on the Bachelor this season.

I want to like the guy but when he insists on doing these moronic things time and time again like: making girls drink goats milk, bringing a loosing team from a group date back for the evening date even though they lost and then making more of the girls jump into a glacial fed lake, it is very difficult. This is not a tough guy competition with your frat brothers! Top it all off with his need to keep that wench Tierra around and you've lost me folks. And there it is, my rant on the Bachelor. Now onto something better, pizza.

I'm pretty sure I should have been born in Chicago or New York because I really love pizza. It's an, eat pizza everyday if I could, kind of love. Lucky for me I stumbled upon this recipe for pizza dough from Kate over at The Small Things Blog and it's pretty amazing, partially because it is easy and partially because it tastes wonderful.

All you need is warm water, rapid rise yeast, sugar, flour, kosher salt and olive oil. To get all the details on how to make this awesome dough simply click here, then get in your kitchen and make some pizza.....now......please.

And because this post doesn't have any photos (author fail) I'd like to share my current desktop background on my computer at work. I like to mix it up each month and February's theme comes from Cheryl over at Tidy Mom:

Would you like this for your desktop background, or maybe on your iPad or iPhone? Well just click here and you can get any or all of those for free from Tidy Mom! She's even kind enough to provide you with instructions on how to make the image your desktop background or place it on your iPad or iPhone. You're welcome. Keep your eyes out for a post tomorrow too, I'm breaking out of the MWF routine. GASP!

Meal Plan Monday!

Hello there, welcome back from the weekend!  I don't know about you, but this last weekend seemed to pass rather quickly for me.  On Saturday I submitted my final paper for one of my classes (yes!) and then Aaron and I went out to dinner and grocery shopped.  Yes I know, we are such crazy kids <------Sarcasm.  I also worked on the design for our RSVP stationary and on Sunday we watched the Super Bowl with some friends.  I made soft pretzel bites, which seemed to be a hit since there were none left for me to bring back home.  I'll be sharing the recipe here eventually!  It's getting late on Sunday as I write this so please forgive the rambling.

On a side note related to absolutely nothing, have you heard that Dolce and Gabbana will be selling a perfume for babies?!  Ah yes, please let me know how explaining that allergic reaction to your pediatrician goes (see, rambling).  Seriously, with all of my allergies if my parent's would have tried that stuff on me I would have ended up in the ER looking like Veruca Salt (she is the one who blew up like a giant blueberry right?) Okay, enough with my rant on babies and perfume, here is what we're eating this week:

Monday: Tuna Melts and Salad

Tuesday: White Pizza

Wednesday: Chicken Bakes with Baked Broccoli

Thursday: Cilantro Lime Chicken Tacos

Friday: To Be Determined

As you can see I slacked a bit this week in the meal planning department leaving out Friday. Ooops!  If any of you have a favorite recipe, or suggestions as to what we should have for dinner that night, please share below I'd love to make something new!

I hope this week finds you all well!  Last week was a challenge between a few busy days at work, traffic and school.  This song came on my Dave Barnes Pandora during one of my drives home, I really enjoyed it and thought I'd share.  Sorry it's not a live version but you'll get the idea:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLDQEbdHhz8]