M.I.A.

Sometimes I think I suck as a friend. HA! Not because I don't care about my ladies (and guys) but because I'm so busy with my own life, sometimes I find it hard to squeeze in a social life. I think it's imperative to "lovingly force it" sometimes. So I decided to invite some fab friends over tonight for dinner and games. I MISS EM! And I get to cook for people, which I LOVE... LOVE... LOVE doing!

But FIRST! Let's recap my day. I stepped on the scale first thing this morning and immediately began to frown. NOT a good way to start your day. %$@#*(!!!!!

I gained 0.8 pounds. I blame the following. I realize that blaming things is only making excuses but I don't CARE! I need to make this list to appease my fragile and delicate state.

• Thanksgiving feasting. Wasn't BAD but I wasn't super careful either.
• My water bottle hates me again. I hardly had any water last week. I FAIL!
• We skipped a day at the gym due to Thanksgiving.
• I'm bloated and retaining water. Ladies, you all know why!

I KNOW all of these things were a factor and I plan to nip this in the bud RIGHT NOW! Below is a list of my mini goals for this week.

• Drink water you fool! Aim for a gallon!
• Up the cardio to 40 min. at each workout!
• Use the elliptical (new to my workouts) for most of the cardio!
• Try NEW moves when weight training!

There, that should do it! Hopefully my update to the thinner and more healthy me will be a bit more uplifting next Friday. This week is what it is and I will not dwell on it any more. Moving on!

For breakfast I went back to my old friend, oatmeal. It's been too long again my beloved. Perhaps the lack of you in my diet as of late is another factor in my weight gain this week. You keep me full and happy for yours. You sexy bowl of hearty goodness you!

• 1/2 cup oats
• 2 tbs cracked wheat
• 1.5 cups water
• 1 tbs unsweetened cocoa
• dash salt
• sash cinnamon
• splenda to taste
• 20 grams dried cherries

YUMMY IN MY TUMMY!!!! Mmmmmm!

After breakfast I dove head first into turbulent work waters and spent the next few hours swimming. It was a busy day! I didn't even look at the clock until almost 12:30. LUNCHTIME! I had green beans with cherry tomatoes and spray butter and a toasted english muffin with some roast beef. Nothing fancy I know but I'm not a fancy kind of girl. Simple things titillate my taste buds!


ON our break today I did something NAUGHTY! I went to Macy's. Gosh I love that store. I have Nick's Christmas Party to go to on Saturday and though it is cassual, I just HAD to have something new to wear. Ladies, I'm sure you know what I am talking about! HA! So I got a lovely shirt on CLEARANCE, cute little bracelet and a necklace. These new items will make their photo debut tomorrow.... Now I feel complete and ready for the party! Ahhhhh.

For my afternoon snack I had a Chocolate Peanut Butter NuGo bar. Tasty stuff. I've had this one before and I like it! So did todays calendar kitty. LOOK! SO CUTE!!


After work Ann and I shopped at the speed of LIGHT. We ran through Aldi and Acme within an hour and managed to get all of our grocery shopping done. I flew home, put everything away and started on dinner. I was making mashed potatoes and stuffed peppers for everyone. Here is what I did with the peppers.

Filling....

• For me (Morning Star Farms Rounds)
• For everyone else, ground beef, cooked
• Arborio Rice, cooked
• yellow onions, chopped
• green onions, chopped
• black beans
• cayenne
• red pepper flakes
• cumin
• garlic powder
• salt & pepper to taste

I cooked all of these things together and set the mixtures aside. I cored and hollowed out 6 peppers and put them in my LARGEST saucepan with about an inch of water and covered them for about 10-15 minutes. This softens the peppers up a bit and helps them cook faster in the oven.

It was at about this time that everyone showed up. OH I'VE MISSED THEM ALL SO MUCH.. INSANE CRAZY PEOPLE!! ;)

When the peppers were done I lined them up in my casserole dish, filled them with the meat mixtures and smothered them in tomato sauce. I baked them at about 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

While I was doing all of this, Nick was working on boiling 4 mega sized potatoes for some mashed goodness. The potatoes were actually done at about the same time that the peppers went into the oven. Perfection. I drained them, tossed in some Oikos Greek yogurt, spray butter, salt, pepper, dried chives and garlic powder. Nick mashed the heck out of them and dinner was SERVED! The peppers were done and everyone was starving!!


I forgot to take a picture of the mashed potatoes. APOLOGIES! Basically, it looked white, creamy and delicious. HA!

We all dined on the good stuff and sipped on delicious coffee's (we drank two whole pots) and played Catan for a good solid two hours. I don't know why I love this stupid game so much. I think I've only ever won it ONE time! And yes, sometimes I do get all huffy and pissed while playing it!! I can get crazy competitive when it comes to playing certain games! I admit this. ;)

Zac is INSANE!


The gaming and hanging out stopped at about 12:00 and I was exhausted. Oddly enough the insane amount of coffee was not enough to keep me awake. As soon as everyone left I uploaded these pictures, finished this blog and now I'm taking my but to bed.

Goodnight everyone! ;)