Thursday, January 14, 2010

Friday Goals

Well, due to the weather, I totally lamed out last weekend. We did go bowling in place of the kayak trip. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't nearly as exciting as kayaking would have been. But onward and upward to this weekend. My goals for this long weekend:
  • Birding Turkey Creek. Check out the Events page for details. I hope people show up! HFC David is out of town this weekend.
  • Emptying the entertainment center, pulling it out, and fixing the back so the cats can't get behind the TV anymore. I just don't think it's safe for Maggie to be back there, and she'd killed the power to the TV twice now.
  • Find new recipe for next week's Taste of Tuesday. I have pretty much posted everything I know how to make. Given that I've only been posting recipes for about 6 weeks, that is pretty sad!
  • Play with Hiawasee mom and dad on Monday!
Your mission, should you choose to accept it: Make your own goals! And let me know if you are going to join me on Saturday.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

A Taste of Tuesday

This is a recipe that I got off the Fettuccine box, but I've adapted it a bit to make it more lap band friendly by reducing the amount of pasta, increasing the ham, and using lower fat dairy products. This recipe freezes and nukes up well, I have a bunch of 4 oz servings in the freezer as I write this.

Fettuccine Papalini
  • 1/3 (12 oz) package Fettuccine
  • 1 bag (10 oz or so) frozen green peas
  • 16 oz cooked ham, chopped
  • 6 oz (or more, I usually add the whole package) mushrooms, chopped
  • 1 clove (I add more, the worse breath the better!) minced garlic
  • 1/4 cup butter or margerine (this is optional, as described in instructions below)
  • 1 cup fat-free or low fat half and half
  • 2 egg yolks, slightly beaten
  • 1 cup fat-free or low fat parmesean cheese
Cook pasta as directed on package and drain. Nuke up the frozen peas till not frozen anymore.

Stir-fry the ham, mushrooms and garlic in some of butter. You can use cooking spray (such as Pam) if you want to reduce the fat/calories a bit.

Stir in the half and half, egg yolks and the rest of the butter (again, you can greatly reduce the fat and calories by just omitting the butter altogether.) Cook until hot through.

Pour ham mixture over the pasta and toss with the cheese. Nom.

Monday, January 11, 2010

It's the Little Things

There are days when someone could give me a million dollars and I would still be in the dumps. I admit, it has been very cold here lately, and I've been crabby, but for the most part, I am pretty easy to please and easily amused. Here are some of the little things that keep me going:
  • Waking up with NummyMuffinCoocolButter sandwiched between mine and David's pillows.
  • Painted Buntings at my bird feeder
  • Printing 2-sided brochures on a printer that only does 1-sided printing, and having the up, down, right and left all where they are supposed to be
  • Having the kitty use the new potty seat (we just started toilet training)
  • When eating a handful of M&Ms, realizing that I have an even number of each color so I don't have to eat a blue one with, say, a yellow one (yuck)
  • Realizing that a product I bought has one of those Boxtops for Education labels (which I am saving for a friend)
  • Putting my iPod on random, but having the most perfect song for the moment come up when I need to hear it
  • Free stuff that I realize I would have paid a million dollars for but didn't have to. Case in point: Over the weekend there was a special on Twitter where if you tweeted about the new Pearl Jam song you could get it for free. I did and the song is so beautiful and perfect it made me sob, but I listened to it over and over and over and over and over.
  • Big fluffy sweatshirts, especially fresh out of the dryer on a cold day.
  • Warm tuna salad made with cheese and pumpkin seeds on crackers.
I guess today's been a pretty great day as I am 10 for 10 today!

Your mission, should you choose to accept it -- tell me what are the little things that make your day go great!

Comments from previous blog:

(Anonymous) at 2010-01-26 16:22 (UTC) (Link)
I truly love the M&M thing. We really are too much alike! I agree with pretty much all the things on your list, but the M&M thing is by far my favorite! Your Monkish cousin, Amy =)