Food Blogging in My Future?

Uh, probably not.  So since getting back to this blogging business and sharing my attempt at healthy eating, I've had people ask questions about what I'm eating.  I'm going to share this week's recipes with you, but before I do there are some things you should know.

     1)  I do not make up my own recipes.  I am a recipe follower.  I find recipes with ingredients that I like and recognize, then read the directions.  If it's not too complicated I give it a whirl.  Key point -- I have to recognize the ingredients.  I once thought I would branch out of my comfort zone and purchase saffron for a recipe, thinking I would add to my spice cabinet.  That was until I got to the spice aisle and a small container of saffron was $19 and some change.  Uh, no thanks.  I'll stick to what I know.
     2)  I often have culinary disasters.  It takes me forever to cook or make anything because I have terrible knife skills and tend to cook everything too hot which sometimes causes small fires.  Just one, in my oven, and it wasn't really my fault, the coil was faulty.
     3)  I'm trying.  In opposition to #1, I am trying to branch out and try new things.  I'm still not purchasing saffron any time soon, but I am attempting to expand my palate.

I love Pinterest.  It took me a long time to love it, but now that I understand how it works, I'm on Pinterest daily.  I use it primarily for recipes, entertaining and education.  Occasionally I'll look up hair styles I wish I had, home decor that would look good in a house that's nicer than mine and outfits that are way trendier than I am, but mostly I stick to recipes.  That being said, the three things I prepared tonight are all Pinterest recipes.  It is very easy to get lost on Pinterest and to find things way too difficult to execute (at least for me), but if you're patient you'll find what you're looking for.

I posted on Facebook last week that I was trying Overnight, Refrigerator Oatmeal for the first time.  I've discovered I love it!  I can make it the night before (important because I am not a morning person) and enjoy it in the morning.  Since I typically have a breakfast burrito from Sonic, where the carhops may or may not recognize me and know my name, making my own breakfast is a big deal.  Last week I tried blueberry and maple syrup, this week it's apple and cinnamon.  I found this recipe at The Yummy Life.  There are several flavors to try, I'll eventually work my way through them.  It's very easy to do and once you get in a rhythm it doesn't take long.

For lunch for the rest of this week I am going Greek so to speak....or maybe Italian, but that didn't rhyme.  Since one of my get healthy goals was to reduce my carbs I'm trying not to eat bread.  That rules out sandwiches for lunch.  And since I'm not big on big leafy salads all the time, I have to be a little out of the box.  I found a recipe for Antipasto "No Bread" Roll-Ups on Organize Yourself Skinny.  There are some new ingredients involved here for me.  I like hummus, but haven't had red pepper hummus and I've not had roasted red peppers either, so this will be a bit of an adventure.  My ham and turkey aren't smoked like the recipe called for, but here's how it turned out...

I paired my roll-ups with a cucumber Greek salad that I found on Belle of the Kitchen.  The new ingredient for me here is Feta cheese.  The gamble with all of these new ingredients is if I don't like it it's a waste of money and when you're talking about $4.50 for about a cup of cheese, that's a risk.  In this case I decided it was worth the risk, I would just be cautious about how much I used until I knew I liked it.  I wanted to make a different recipe that included a creamy dill dressing (using Greek yogurt) but I didn't have any dill and a third trip to the grocery store in two days was out of the question.  This is plan B...

Put it all together, add a few olives on the side and voila....

I'm sure I'm not doing all of this healthy eating thing right.  I know I have a lot to learn, but I'm trying to make use of what I have already learned to at least make decisions that keep me away from the drive through.  According to my probably unreliable bathroom scale, I'm down a little.  Down is good.  I appreciate all of the support and kind comments I've received, it is helping me maintain the stick-to-it-ness that often eludes me....

Travel Plans

I love making travel plans!  And being the Type A, detailed individual that I am, I make a lot of them.  When traveling to Philly a few years ago for instance, I had a map of the area, an itinerary for each day, and as many attraction tickets as it was reasonable to purchase ahead of time.  I'm a planner.

So when I decided that I deserve a vacation just like everyone else, I started planning.  I had dates sort of kind of in my head.  I had destinations sort of kind of in my head, but nothing firm.  I started by talking to my mom.  She and I had already been talking about the possibility of taking a trip together, but hadn't really settled on any destinations.  We essentially have a long weekend to work with, because of her work schedule, so we had to choose a place that we could get to and from in a day or less of travel time.  We starting playing with possibilities and finally landed on Galveston, Texas with a stop in College Station on the way.

Why College Station you ask, because of the George H. W. Bush library.  I've written before that I hope to visit all of the Presidential libraries, of which there are currently thirteen.  I've been to five so far, and my sixth awaits in College Station.  While most people collect stamps in their actual passports, I collect stamps in this passport....

A Passport to Presidential Libraries...I've mentioned this passport in blog posts before and I'm sure that tips the nerd scale a little more, but there it is.  I have a relatively childish way to document my visits to Presidential Libraries.  I'm looking forward to picking up another stamp in College Station at the George H.W. Bush Library.

Following the Presidential Library mom and I will be headed to Galveston, Texas to enjoy the beach.  Now, I know that some of my facebook friends are concerned about the flesh eating bacteria recently found in Galveston, but you should know that the bacteria is contracted by getting into the ocean with an open wound or eating raw, contaminated seafood.  Since I have no open wounds that will be exposed to ocean water, nor do I eat raw seafood, I feel confident that my trip to the beach will be a bacteria free experience.  Besides that, a large goal if my trip to the beach is laying on the sand with a book...no ocean water involved, just lots of sunscreen.

I have a few more details to sort out, but overall, mom and I are set.  Vacation here I come!

Wait...I think I've been here before...

In March of 2012 I began this blog.  I mentioned in the first post that I'm not much of a blogger, but that I would try my hand at it.  Now reading through those posts and watching how much my life has changed has been fabulous.  As I read back through some of my posts, I wondered...who wrote that?  She's someone I want to know.  And...oh mercy did I really write that?  I've stopped and started my regular blogging over the last four years.  Today, I'm getting back to publishing my journey.

It's virtually impossible to sum up the last two years in a few words and catch you up on where I've been and where life's journey has taken me.  I'm sure as I begin writing again, I'll find instances where I can share some of those lost stories.  For now, I'll just pick up where I'm at.

I've recently been reflecting on the cyclical nature of life.  If you're anything like me, you keep coming back to the same places and the same challenges, and if you're lucky you've learned something in the interim that will be helpful this time around.  I'm not sure how much I've learned in the interim, but I'm back in a place where I'm faced with the need to get serious about my health, specifically my weight.

I don't know that I've ever been skinny....high school perhaps (at least according to my various dance pictures), but certainly not since college.  Anyone who battles weight issues knows that it is a constant battle.  Mostly it's a battle in which I wave a white flag.  Quite some time ago I began associating weight loss with salad.  If you want to lose weight....eat salad.  Need to drop some inches....celery and lettuce for you.  Want to know a secret?  I don't like salad.  The occasional tossed salad as a side to my meal, okay....but tossed salad for the whole meal?  I'm not a fan.  I've tried various weight loss plans (that don't include transforming into a rabbit) with varying degrees of success.  In fact I imagine if you were to go back through the 90 posts of this blog, you'll find more than one related to my weight battle and the plan I was trying at the time.  It's a battle I try every now and then, when that cycle of life comes back around.  Well guess what....it's here again.  I've been here before...this trying to lose weight business is not for sissies!

In the last year, four months and five days I've gained a significant amount of weight.  I can't tell you how many pounds because I don't know, I just know that it's a significant amount.  I know that it was one year, four months and five days ago, because that's the day my youngest brother passed away.  That was the day that taking care of me took a backseat to anything else.  I've never been good at taking care of myself, and grief magnified that weakness tremendously.  I'll write more about my grief journey another time....for now it's important to acknowledge that for me to make an effort in managing my weight, what I am really embarking on is a journey to take care of me.

It starts with a mindset and a stick-to-it-ness that I've so far not displayed in this particular cycle of life.  I've been here before, I recognize the signs and hopefully this time I know more than I did before.  This time I'm focusing on cooking instead of eating out, meal planning a week at a time, multiple trips to the grocery store in a week and a massive reduction in carbs.  I'm pretty sure I've said those things before too....hmmm....

I would love to tell you that I'm super excited about this new path and that I can't wait to do this, but the reality is that I'm doing it reluctantly.  Knowing I need to lose weight and actually wanting to eat the foods that will facilitate losing weight are two totally different things.  I'm sure this journey will include some culinary hilarity, me in the kitchen usually does.  Tonight, however, I managed to successfully make honey garlic shrimp with rice.  Did you know that if you place marinated pieces of shrimp in the pan one at a time, that the first one will be ready to flip before you get the last one in the pan?  Yeah, learned that tonight...next time I'm just dumping the shrimp in there, this placing them to ensure they cook evenly is for the birds.  My mark of success?  Aside from the fact that it was edible, it turned out just like the food bloggers picture!  Score one for me!

Thank you for joining me on my journey.  If this is your first stop with me, welcome.  I can't guarantee I'll write consistently, or that it will always entertain or tug at your heartstrings, but I can guarantee it will be honest.  I tend to live out loud through this blog, thank you for reading.