Relaxation Station

All is well with the world.  My day of relaxation was awesome.  The day started with brunch at Water Course with my friend Christina.  Water Course is a vegetarian restaurant in Uptown Denver.  The ambiance was fun, nothing special.  The food was pretty good too.  I ordered the NYC scramble with sweet potato hash browns and a biscuit.

The scramble was pretty good, the hash browns were really greasy though.  I didn’t finish either.  The biscuit was delicious.  yum!

After brunch Christina and I went on a walk through our neighborhood.  It was really nice to be outside on such a beautiful day.

 

After the walk I headed over to the massage place.  I went to the Renaissance Aveda Salon and Spa.  It was my second time there, but my first time getting a deep tissue massage.  When I got to the salon, they immediately handed me a hot towel and a cup of tea. 

I had some time before my appointment so I got changed into their robe and sat down in the waiting area.  It was really peaceful, I just wish that they had reading material or something.  I am far too much of a multi-tasker to be ok staring at the wall.

 

When the masseuse came to get me I was so surprised at how petite she is!  I was worried she wouldn’t be strong enough to work out my knots.  Boy was I wrong!

The massage started out with some cards, I had to pick out my chakra?  I don’t know about that stuff, I hope it didn’t count against my 60 minute massage.  I just wanted her to get down to business.  When she did get down to business, it was fantastic.  I walked out sore, but I could feel that she broke down some of the knots.  It was a fantastic experience, but at the end she took my robe and put it on my back?  That was kind of awkward.

The really weird part of the appointment was when I went to pay.  I never know what to tip, but when I have a good experience I want to reflect that in the tip so I tacked 20% on.  However, when I got the receipt, it turns out that they automatically include $10 in the cost of the service (even though there is a sign in the changing room about the fact that gratuity is NOT included).  So I gave her a HUGE tip. which isn’t the end of the world, but I thought that was kind of shady.  Next time I know to give a 10% tip since it’s included already.  Overall, the experience was a good one, my back feels SO MUCH BETTER!  That is a success.

I walked home from the appointment because it was such a gorgeous afternoon.  Dinner was a bit of a mess.  Since Dan just came home, he wanted to order pizza.  I only had a piece (oops) and then had an artichoke.

I also snacked on some total crap.  I won’t recount it all.  Just let’s say, I need to get back on track.  At least I walked like 6 miles total!

 

How much do you tip for haircuts/waxes/massages etc? 10%, 20% somewhere in between?

Productivity

This has been an extremely busy weekend!  There is so much that we needed to do because we were gone for so long.  My to do list looked like this:

• Go to photo composition class
• Go to recycling center
• return Old Navy clothes that didn’t fit (boo-but in my defense, one of the items that they sent me was a baby onesie-not exactly the tank top I ordered!)
• Go through magazines for recipes
• Order Adobe Light room
• Order photography books
• Order GRE books (for Dan)
• Prepare recipe posts for the week
• update Recipes/reviews pages
• Update blog
• Buy cookbook holder from crate and barrel
• Buy headset for Droid
• Exercise!
• Track Food again on sparkpeople
• Organize photos
• Put away Christmas Tree

 

So, I got a lot done on Saturday.  Yay!  The day started with an unmeasured bowl of Just Bunches.  Which were followed by an (Unphotographed) serving of toaster pastries.

Lunch was also not photographed because I ate it during my photo composition class.  I have been taking classes through the Digital Photo Academy.  The photoshop class was amazing and taught me a lot.  The composition class was OK.  Nothing I hadn’t learned before and the teacher had us take pictures but didn’t critique them.  You get what you pay for.  This was a 2 hour $35 class.  Oh well.  This is my fave pic from the class. (note: we did not drink the wine, it was a prop)

 

Then I had a major camera fail.  Dan made this amazing Pork Tenderloin recipe.  I carefully put the plate together and turned on the day light lamps and got to work.  I didn’t realize that anything was wrong until I saw the files uploading from my eye fi.  They were black.  I uploaded them into Light room hoping to salvage one but alas, it was not to be.  30-40 shots completely lost.

 

This convinced me that I have to master the manual settings on my camera.  I didn’t even notice that I had shutter speed priority set on 1/2500 setting. (I was playing around with it in my photo class).  Crap.  The pictures are so unsalvageable that I won’t even try to show them here.

 

I guess I should add “Dedicate time to working out shutter speed/aperture”  to my to do list!

 

What were you doing this weekend?  Did you get through your to do list?

Friday, lovely Friday!

5 day weeks are cruel and unusual!  Even worse, my Friday was packed with meetings and appointments.  Boo. 

The morning started with the last bagel.  I know this isn’t a habit I should get into, but I enjoyed the daily bagel this week!

I also brought some clementines to snack on.  I love these as a snack.  They take awhile to open, don’t pack many calories (20-30ish) and they are sweet.  Dan finds them to be “not worth it” for all of those reasons.  More for me this way!

Lunch was leftover chicken from the night before.  I know I said that I was sick of chicken breasts, but is it just me or do they taste different when they come from a whole roast chicken?

I also had some white chocolate coconut for dessert.

The real story of the day was not photographed.  A cinnamon roll and chex mix.  I thought I’d bring the chex mix to work so it wouldn’t be at home tempting me.  Why! Oh Why! Did I think it was a good idea?  At least there won’t be chex mix tempting me this weekend.  I did have a single serve pack of Lay’s that I did photograph.

After work I stopped by Barnes and Nobles to use the gift cards Dan’s parents gave us for Christmas.  I also had a few hours to kill before we were meeting our friends Amy and Jordan for dinner.

Dan had given me his wish list, but I totally struck out.  I did find out that Jamie Oliver (The Naked Chef) has an Italian cookbook.  Unfortunately it wasn’t in stock.

I then went downstairs to look through the photo geek books.  I get a bit nervous before buying these types of books.  What if I get the wrong one?  I had picked out my books (Close up and Macro photography and Adobe Lightroom 2 instruction book) and on a whim decided to use my new shop savy app on my Droid.  All the books were much cheaper online and had free shipping!  I asked the store clerk if they’d match their online prices and they said no.  So, I ordered them all on a great discount online.  Sweet.

I did buy one book at the store.  It was half price and was the same price online.  Have any of you read “Born Round” by Frank Bruni?  He’s a food addict that took on the job of being a restaurant critic for the NY Times.  So far it’s a great read.

We went to a new restaurant (for us) D’Corazon, a Mexican restaurant in LoDo Denver.  It’s fun to walk to restaurants.  I had called to make a reservation Thursday and was told that I don’t need one but when I got there it was packed!  I found my way to the bar and met some nice people and sampled the house margarita(s).

Amy, Jordan and Dan showed up right after we got a table and got ready to order food.  Amy recommended the fajita, but my favorite food is tamales so I ordered the tamale plate.  I need to remember that I like my old roomates tamales, not restaurant tamales.  It was covered in so much stuff.  I ate maybe half before I was uber full.

The fajita was delicious though (I stole a bite of dan’s).  We are going to Mexico in just more than a month.  Yay!  I’m so excited for 5 days of sitting by the beach(under an umbrella) and drinking margaritas.

Where is your next trip going to be?  Do you relax on vacation or adventure?

Glazed Carrots

This is definitely a decadent recipe.  Although the calorie stats aren’t too bad (83 calories per serving).  If you are missing the heavy treats from the holiday season, this would be a good dish to make.  Especially since you don’t need to eat that much to be satisfied!

Brown Sugar-Glazed Carrots

Ingredients:

• 1 lbs peeled and chopped (or baby cut) carrots.
• 1 T butter
• 1 T packed brown sugar
• salt
• pepper

 

Instructions:

Fill a medium sauce pan with salted water and bring to a boil.  Add carrots chopped into 2.5 inch pieces.  Blanch the carrots for six minutes(cook uncovered).  Drain and remove the carrots.

 

In the now empty saucepan add butter, brown sugar and salt.  Cook these ingredients over medium heat until combined and then add the carrots.  Stir the carrots in the butter mixture for about 2 minutes.  Season with pepper.

 

Nutritionals(Serves 4 with 3/4 cup servings) Cals: 83, fat: 3, Carb: 14, Fiber: 2, Protein: 1.

(p.s. bear, thanks so much for the awesome dishes!  Doesn’t this one look awesome!)

Happy Birthday Dad!

Dad, I know you won’t read this until Saturday, but know I’m thinking of you!

 

I always think that getting back into the recipe rhythm takes awhile.  It’s kind of a slow transition from eating high calorie food to eating good food.  For Dan it is a transition back up to 6,000 plus calories!  In good news, the scale on Thursday dropped another pound!  yay!

 

The food yesterday was OK and just a little bit boring.  Breakfast was the same.  A blueberry bagel and cream cheese.

 

Lunch was a PB&J but I don’t think it is pretty enough to photog.  I also had a few Clementine's. 

 

I had a meeting all afternoon and made a rookie mistake.  I went to target on an empty stomach.  I left with tortilla chips, chocolate and chex mix.  I had some of the chex mix and by the time I got home I didn’t even want to look at the tortilla chips.  I put it all away in the cupboard.  I remember a time (not too long ago) that I’d look at treats with the full knowledge that I’d eat the entire bag.  I would multiply the calories (or carbs) by the number of servings in the bag.   I am very proud of myself for not consuming it all! Go me!(not pictured)

 

When I got home I was distracted by some home maintenance and getting the dinner ready.  Dan prepared another roast chicken (note to self: replace pictures with some from yesterday).  The chicken came out pretty well and I felt confident about the carving. 

Our cooking class in December taught us how to carve.  I should have taken better notes.  I didn’t carve.  I butchered.

 

Ooops.  It was still tasty though!  I was craving dark meat tonight.  It was yummy.

Accompanying the chicken Dan made brown sugar glazed carrots. 

For dessert I had a few cupcakes.

 

This five day week is almost OVER!  It’s totally cruel to make us have a five day work week after a vacation.  And once again Yay for me for not eating all the treats I bought!

 

What are you proud of?

Lamb with minted spaghetti squash

We often don’t get lamb because it’s so expensive here, so we were excited when it went on sale and we were able to try this recipe. It’s another Real Simple find from awhile back and always looked intriguing, especially since we both have a new found love for spaghetti squash.
 
Ingredients:

• 1 small spaghetti squash
• 3 T olive oil
• 4 small lamb shoulder chops
• 1/2 t ground cumin
• salt and pepper
• 4 thinly sliced scallions
• 1/4 c sliced fresh mint

 
Instructions
Prepare the spaghetti squash by chopping of a half inch from the top and bottom and then slice it in half lengthwise.  Place the halves face down on a microwaveable plate and microwave on high for about 10 minutes or until tender.  Cool the squash for about 5 minutes.

Season the lamb with the cumin, a half t of salt and a quarter tsp. pepper.

Heat a large skillet on medium high.  Add a T of oil and wait until you see faint whispers of smoke.  Place lamb into skillet and cook for about 4-5 minutes per side.

Return to the squash and flip them on their backs, scoop out and throw away the seeds.  Use a fork to gently scrape the flesh into a bowl.  Toss the spaghetti squash with the scallions mint, the remaining oil, a half tsp. salt, and a quarter tsp. pepper.
 
Nutritionals(Serves 4): Cals: 325, Fat: 18, Protein: 23, Carb: 21, Fiber 5.

Sausage Bean Casserole

This recipe has comfort food written all over it.  It’s hearty, and warm and cozy.  We found it in the October 2009 issue of Real Simple and I loved it from my first taste.  I’ve noticed that all Real Simple recipes serve four and that a quarter of a dish is quite a lot!  So, I’ve started eating half a serving and I find it quite filling!

 

Ingredients:

• 1 T olive oil
• 1 t olive oil
• 1 lbs Italian sausage
• 2 chopped carrots
• 2 chopped cloves of garlic
• 2 bunches of shredded spinach
• 2 15.5 oz cans of cannellini beans
• salt and pepper

 

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400

 

Heat 1 T oil in a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat.  Chop the sausage into bite sized pieces and brown in the skillet for about 5-6 minutes.  Remove the sausage from the pan

 

Add carrots and garlic to the skillet and cook for a minute.  Then add the spinach and cook for about a minute or until it is wilted.  Then add the beans and a half cup water, the quarter teaspoon of salt and pepper.  Bring this mixture to a boil and then add back the sausage.

 

Move the skillet into the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden.

 

Nutritionals (Serves 8): Cals: 255, Fat: 15, Protein: 13, Carb:18, Fiber: 5.

Butternut Squash and Pear Puree

Dan and I first tasted this puree when we went to Duo for our anniversary.  We decided immediately that we needed to try to make this at home.  Dan made a few iterations and this was by far our most favorite.  It would be a great addition to any meal since it is fresh with just a hint of sweetness.

 

Ingredients:

• 1 butternut squash
• 2 pears
• 1 t salt
• 1 T butter

 

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400

 

Cut squash in half and place face down in the pan.  Roast the butternut squash for 40-50.  Cut the pears up into pieces.  Let squash cool until you can hold it and scrape the insides into the food processor with the pear pieces, and a teaspoon of salt.  Pulse until blended and enjoy!

 

Nutritionals(Serves 4): Cals: 136, Fat: 3.4, Carb: 28.7, Fiber: 6.5, Protein: 1.7