Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Simple Salad


I used to hate salads but lately I've been loving them. I think it's because I used to not put anything good in my salads because I was worried about calories and fat. But now that I don't worry about that and concern myself instead with making sure the foods I eat are not processed and natural, my salads are yummy!

Here is a simple, yummy salad I've been into lately. It's nothing new, but thought I would post it in case you were in a salad rut and needed an idea for something different. It's a great salad to get you into the mood for fall, too.

I call it my Fruit, Cheese, and Nut Salad (got the idea from Crisp's "Fruit Cheese and Nut" salad. Really good if you haven't visited it in Charlotte - www.crispfoods.com)

This is how I make it for just me:

Lots of baby spinach
One apple sliced (make sure it's organic - apples are one of the foods on the "must get organic" list)
Sliced red onion
1 oz. of cheese of your choice (I do whatever I have on hand - today it was Gouda)
Handful of nuts (I actually buy this "Omega Trek Mix" from Trader Joes which has pecans, sunflower seeds, pistachios, and dried cranberries)

For the dressing:
Salt
Pepper
Red wine vinegar (2 parts)
Extra virgin olive oil (1 part) and make sure it's the good kind since you're not cooking with it

Toss together and eat. See - told you it was simple.



Friday, August 27, 2010

My Panera


Yes, I LOVE me some Panera and I REALLY loved it when I was pregnant. I still go there pretty often and now they have this new "My Panera" card. Have you gotten one? If only they had this nine months ago! It's free and they scan it each time you order and pretty much every 2-3 visits you'll get something free. I've already gotten a free pastry, free bagel, and two free mochas out of maybe six or seven visits. Definitely pick one up when you go in next time and keep it on your keychain.

Monday, August 16, 2010

My First “Real” Coupon Experience


I got all of this for only $66!

I’ve always loved looking at the coupons in the newspaper every Sunday, but not until recently have I begun to save them. I’ve heard about those people who go into the grocery store and walk out with a basketful of groceries for under $10, but I’ve never understood how they do that. I talked to my friend, Emily, about it because I knew she did it and she gave me some good information and resources to help me with my couponing. I’m still a beginner but today I did my first real coupon shopping experience and it felt great!

Emily told me to just save all the coupons each week and write the date on the front page. Then when you see deals come up from the websites she gave me, you can go back and clip them. Honestly, I’ve been too lazy to just shop for the things that are on special, but I did go through them yesterday and clip all the coupons that were over $1 and less than $1.98 for Harris Teeters’ Super Double Coupon Week that has been going on this week. I don’t like to eat processed food so I just went though and clipped things I actually use: toothpaste, Fish Oil vitamins, Ziplock bags and containers, shampoo for Elton, deodorant, contact solution for Elton, laundry detergent etc. I then wrote down all the items I needed to purchase so I wouldn’t spend too long in the store.


It did take me a lot longer to find all the items and I was definitely thinking, “Do I really need all this stuff?” As I approached the checkout counter I was nervous about some of the coupons not working and looking “stupid.” (Those who know me know what a freak I am about things like that.) Anyways, she scanned all the items I got and the total was $155.82. Yikers! Then she scanned my VIC card and I got $25.31 marked off. Then came the scanning of the coupons. That was fun to watch! My total came down to $66.22. So… I saved $25 with my VIC card and $66 with coupons - pretty awesome!

To sum it all up, I’ll definitely do this again the next time they have a Super Double Coupon Week. I saved the coupons for under $1 for the Triple Coupon weeks because they only triple the coupons under $1 for that. The one thing I think I'll do differently next time is ONLY get things that are also on VIC special so I'm really getting the bottom of the barrel price for each item.

Happy Couponing!

Monday, August 9, 2010

Prosciutto, P-R-O-S-C-I-U-T-T-O, Prosciutto.


I bought prosciutto last week because I really wanted a prosciutto and fontina cheese panini. Since then I ended up using it in all my recipes this weekend because I had it and didn't want it to go to waste. So, to say the least, I'm a little "prosciutto-ed out," BUT I did have some really yummy recipes that I wanted to share with you all. Here are my four prosciutto recipes from this past week:

1) Thursday night: Prosciutto and Fontina Cheese Panini (see previous post)

2)Friday night: Prosciutto and Fontina Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts

I just butterflied our chicken breasts, wrapped some prosciutto around some fontina cheese and put it in the middle and then grilled the chicken on the grill pan for 5 minutes, flipped them and put them in the oven for another 5 or so minutes. Pretty good.

3) Sunday morning: Herb and Goat Cheese Scrabbled Egg Sprinkled with Prosciutto
This is a REALLY good breakfast recipe that I got from Ina Garten. I baked some prosciutto at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes and crumbled it on top of the eggs and served it with whole wheat toast. Really good! Definitely try the egg recipe - that's what was truly good about it, but the sprinkled prosciutto was a nice touch, I thought.

Here is Ina's recipe:


I didn't use the half and half or the butter (just sprayed the pan with some extra virgin olive oil) and I used thyme instead of the chives this time.

4)BBQ Chicken

I love trying a Tyler Florence Ultimate recipe and usually they are pretty complicated, but this one really wasn't so bad. I'd definitely do this recipe again. It's definitely a "weekend" recipe. I love spending time on a Sunday afternoon cooking a yummy dinner while playing Scrabble with my husband.

Here is his recipe and I used prosciutto in the BBQ sauce instead of the bacon.


I served it with this roasted potato salad which I really like and got off of food network a couple of years ago. It's a love it or hate it kind of recipe. Some people don't like the vinegar/mustard flavor in it, but I love it!



Okay, folks. If you see prosciutto at the store and want to buy some you've now got yourself some recipes. Enjoy! Personally, I don't think I'll be eating any more for a while but maybe in a few months I'll get that craving again. I'm also pleased to say I learned how to spell it correctly after writing this blog. I kept wanted to put the u before the i. I'm ready for an Italian spelling bee!

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Simple Supper


I really needed something different for dinner tonight and definitely something simple. Here's what I came up with and it was really good. Just wanted to post it in case you also need a simple supper idea for the future.

Proscuitto and Fontina Panini with Sauted Asparagus

Ingredients:
Whole wheat bread
Proscuitto
Fontina cheese
Basil
EVOO
Asparagus
Garlic
Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper for taste

For the asparagus:
All I did was chop up the asparagus and garlic and saute it in a little EVOO, toss in some salt and pepper and then sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top. So good!

For the panini:
Put proscuitto and fontina cheese and a few leaves of basil on the bread, spray a little EVOO to it and press it on a grill pan. Also, really good!


Enjoy!

My Happiness Project


I’m sure a lot of you have heard of “The Happiness Project.” I found out about it last fall and was intrigued enough to put Gretchen Rubin’s blog in my Google reader. Since then I haven’t looked at it much but a post the other week grabbed my attention and afterwards convinced me to buy the book.

What was this post? I can’t remember the exact details but it was a list of “heuristics” or rules of thumbs she had written for herself to remember when she needed to make a decision.

For example, here are a few of her heuristics:

  • Whenever possible, choose vegetables.
  • Exercise every day.
  • Try to attend every party or event I’m invited to.
  • “Yes” comes right away, “no” never comes.

In this post she was re-examining her rules, which then made me wonder what rules of thumbs I would create for my own life. Well, I haven’t come up with that list yet and I don’t think I’ll have it anytime soon, but I have decided to read her book this year, one chapter at a time.

After reading the introduction to this book I learned this book is not for people who are depressed, which is great, because I know I’m not “depressed” and actually consider myself a pretty happy person. This book is more about making your life better. You only have one so why not make it even better, right? The idea is to consider ways in which you could improve habits/rituals in your daily life and to focus on one aspect of your life at a time throughout the course of a year. Rubin dedicates each month of the year to one quality she wants to improve and the idea is your habits will change within that month which you would continue as you began to work on another aspect of your life. If this works, think about where you will be in a year!

I read the first chapter the other night. Rubin decides to spend the first month on “boosting energy.” Her list of traits to work on for this month are to exercise, sleep more, de-clutter, and tackle the nagging items on her “to do” list. All of these things sound like qualities I’d like to improve. My hope is to get into the habit of actually tackling the things I need to get done around the house instead of letting them nag me for months on end. I want to actually find the energy to get my “to do” list accomplished this month and it’s a long one.

So… yesterday I woke up excited to tackle something. As I sat up in bed and looked around the room I noticed how frustrated I was with my husband’s clothes. They were piling out of his drawers and we had a slew of his button-down shirts hanging from our bedpost instead of on hangers in the closet. He also was complaining about not finding an undershirt and pair of underwear and asked if there were clothes in the dryer. Nope. I had done all the laundry the day before so I knew he had those things somewhere – he just couldn’t find them. Right then I decided what I was going to do that morning. I had been telling myself that I was going to get him to tackle this task on the weekend himself, but every weekend has come and gone. I realized this was never going to get done unless I did it myself. Plus, it was probably bugging me more than him. Well, I have to say, it was a lot less work than I had predicted and I felt GREAT afterwards. I also noticed what a better mood he was in when he came home that evening and found all his clothes organized.

I decided to write about this on my blog because I know I’m going to want to share the things I organize this month and now you’ll know why and where I’m coming from. If anyone else wants to do this with me and dedicate this month to boosting your energy, I’d love to have someone to chat to about what you’re doing. Again, it’s just about making your life even better.

Now I’m off to change the air filters and take all the clothes I decided my husband didn’t need to a donation center. By the end up this month I’m expecting my house to be de-cluttered and organized which I know will boost my mood each day.

I hope you all find some energy to tackle something on your “to do” list today. If not, there is always tomorrow.