No Biggie

Well my Grandma had her appointment with the oncologist. Right now it looks like the oncologist is recommending surgery. He is not worried right now. They won't know more until they remove the cancer. So, for now we sit tight.

I called my Grandma to talk with her and when I asked her how she was coping with this she said, "it's no biggie". This is why I love her!She was in the middle of watching Casablanca so we only we chatted for a few minutes. Again I love her!

I worked out hard at the gym so I'm beat. It's off to dream land for me. I hope you have a lovely evening!

This and that

I have been so busy with working out that unfortunately I have been behind with blogging! Eek! I hope you will forgive me... pretty please? 

There have been some changes at work so there has been a little bit of stress looming over my work days. Luckily I've been good in that I'm not allowing my self to stress eat. Instead I work out and feel so much better. I'm also continuing to drown myself with so much water! I've made little changes to my diet as well. For example I now only use salad dressing that has no more than 60 calories per serving, I no longer eat any lettuce unless it's spinach leaves and I have not had a sweet treat this year! By golly when you eat better, drink more water and work out it actually works! Imagine that???

Last Monday Brittany and I went to the local park and climbed all over the play structures in preparation for our races. It was a fun way to work on upper body strength and let's be honest play outside!Afterwards we did a bit of running. I really need to run more and get my endurance up. Luckily I have time to keep working on this.

I have this song stuck in my head, have you heard it yet? It's addicting especially while working out!

I've also decided that I'm sick of people telling me, "Oh I have this guy that would be perfect for you!" EVERY time I get my hopes up only to be crushed! These 'guys' are always wonderful and I'm sure they are really are but I can't keep putting myself out there only to be told no. So, if you are one of those people please stop getting my hopes up and let me just be me. Thank you, I will climb off my soap box now. 

Tomorrow my Grandma has her follow up appointment with her doctor. Remember this? Please pray our family and for my Grandma's health.

College Visit

Last Sunday I drove down to see my little brother and his girlfriend and also deliver lasagna and red velvet white chocolate chip cookie dough. Then together we made tomato bisque soup. I miss seeing my siblings often but I'm lucky that we all live in the same area. Did I also mention that I may have brought with me way too many girl scout cookies for them?? Well, I did. So there!

 Aren't they adorable???

 I'm so glad Becky is a part of our family. She is calm, clear, sweet and a total love!

It's no secret that my little brother is my favorite. Sorry Heather, I know he's your favorite too! He is just the nicest person to be around. I'm so proud of his accomplishments and for his ability to tolerate me as his sister.

What do you send in care packages?

Tomato Bisque Soup

Once again I decided to make my little brother and his girlfriend some yummy soup so here is my SUPER EASY AND FAST recipe for tomato bisque soup.

 In a large pot add 1 heaping tablespoon coconut 

oil and place pot on medium heat.

 I found this at Traders Joe's and I'm in love!

 For a few bucks it has carrots, celery and onions! LOVE THIS!

 Into the pot goes approximately 1 large chopped carrot, 1 large stalk celery chopped and 1/2 of a white onion chopped. I decided the Trader Joe's wasn't enough so we added one more half of a chopped onion and 1 teaspoon crushed garlic.

  Cook this and stir frequently until the vegetables are soft. Next add 3 teaspoon better than bouillon chicken paste. You can you use your own broth or bouillon cubes if you wanted to.

 Then add 3 cups water and stir.

 Next open two 28 ounce cans of crushed tomatoes.

 Add the crushed tomatoes to the pot. 

Add 3/4 teaspoon dried thyme leaves.

 Stir and crank the heat up until the soup is just barely boiling. 

Let cook like this for 20 to 30 minutes.

 Once the soup is ready it will resemble chunky salsa but have no fear we will make it smooth by mixing it all up in he blender!

 In small batches puree the soup and serve hot.

This recipe made 8 servings of soup. Adding a dollop of sour cream would make for a nice garnish. We also forgot to season with slat and pepper but didn't notice that it was missing. 

Enjoy!

Red Velvet White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Remember how I make yummy stuff for my little brother and his girlfriend whom are both in college? Anyway this time I made them a double batch of red velvet white chocolate chip cookie dough for Valentine's day. Here's the how to:

In a large bowl sift together 4 and 1/2 cups flour, 5 tablespoons cocoa powder (I used dark chocolate cocoa powder), 3 and 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch, 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking soda and 1 teaspoon salt. Set aside.

 In a separate bowl cream together 2 sticks room temperature sweet cream butter, 12 tablespoons vegetable shortening (I used the butter flavored sticks) and 3 cups white sugar. Mix until light and creamy.

 Then add 2 eggs and 2 yolks, 3 teaspoons white 

vinegar, and 4 teaspoons vanilla.

 Next add 4 tablespoons red food coloring.

 Once the wet ingredients are red gently combine the 

wet and dry ingredients to make the dough.

 Here's my cookie dough almost ready.

 Now to make it even better add one 10 ounce bag 

of white chocolate chips and mix in.

Using my small cookie ball scooper (1 teaspoon) and baked up three cookies just see how they looked once baked. Before I popped them into the 375 degree oven I place three additional white chocolate chip onto each cookie.

Let them bake for 8 to 9 minutes.

I ended up making enough dough to make 4 dozen cookies for my little brother. I also gave my little brother another 10 ounce bag of white chocolate chips to press into the dough prior to baking. 

Enjoy!

Mega Desk

What a day! This morning I left the house early so I could Starbucks and ended up getting stuck in traffic so I didn't my coffee. Then I was tailgated by two people and come to find out they are my fellow co-workers. Geez! To make it even better right as I was pulling into the parking lot a vendor cut me off! Again Geez! Needless to say I was pissed this morning at work! 

The day got better as my desk was turned into mega desk! We were able to expand my desk area and now I have so much more functional space. One little hiccup is somehow my fax machine was disconnected which caused me WAY too much stress but I can now say I have mega desk!

After work I worked out and really worked on my arms. They now feel like jello. I also weighed myself and since working starting January 1st I have lost 22 pounds. Come to find out drinking more water, eating better and working out will make you weigh less. Such a novel idea right? I'm being totally sarcastic! It's tough but it's worth it!

Tomorrow is Friday...YAY!!!

Katie Coo

I started house sitting for a new family on Sunday and I'm done tomorrow, so just a short 4 days. Katie (I call her Katie Coo) is super sweet but seems so confused as to why I'm here. She just seems out of sorts and is unsure of what to do. She has gotten more comfortable as the days have gone by but I feel bad for her. I wish I spoke dog.... or whale for that matter. NAME THAT MOVIE and you will have my heart! Anyway Katie's life will be back to normal tomorrow as will mine.

Brittany convinced me to sign up for another race. This race will prepare me for Warrior Dash this fall. Here goes nothing! 

My sister is getting married and I'm having a hard time getting a hotel for her destination wedding at an affordable price. How do you save money when booking a hotel?

Timber

Remember how I volunteered yesterday at the animal sanctuary? Well last night a massive tree fell down and took some other trees with it. Luckily no animals, people or buildings were damaged. It was just a giant mess to clean up!

Here's the small but mighty crew!

Here's the downed tree.

The start of the brush pile.

Sawing away!

We took a few limbs to the goats/sheep for them to munch on.

Here they come to munch away on.

Cali the kitty stuck by side for most of the day.

This limb impaled the ground and would not budge.

Sort of like sword in the stone.

Cutting the logs into sections.

See how big this tree was?

Continuing to cut the sections.

The base snapped once the last cut was 

made and down the roost went!

Massive root system!

Ta-da! The completed drive way is now clear!

Toby photo bombed me!

My new boots all muddy but so worth it!

I'm sore, bruised and tired but it was an 

excellent work out and very rewarding! 

What did you do on your Sunday?

Lasagna

As I have mentioned before I like to make my little brother and his lovely girlfriend freezer meals as they are both in college. I decided to make them lasagna. Here's my recipe:

What I used (not all items pictured): 3 large cans spaghetti sauce, 10 cups fresh chopped spinach, 2 cups shredded mozzarella, 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan, 1 cup shredded Italian cheese blend, (2) 8 ounces boxes of ready to bake lasagna noodles, non stick cooking spray, Italian parsley, crushed garlic, 4 eggs, salt, pepper, 1 pound ground turkey breast, (1) 8 ounce block of cream cheese, (1) 16 ounce container of cottage cheese, and (1) 32 ounce container of ricotta cheese. 

Cream together (1) 8 ounce block of cream cheese, (1) 16 ounce container of cottage cheese, and (1) 32 ounce container of ricotta cheese in a bowl.

 Add 10 cups chopped fresh spinach 2 cups shredded mozzarella, 

1 cup freshly grated Parmesan and mix in.

 Add 4 eggs, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon 

crushed garlic, 1 tablespoon Italian parsley and blend.

Cook the ground turkey. Set aside.

Divide the cheese/egg filling into two bowls. In one bowl add 

the ground turkey. I made my little brother's lasagna with meat 

and mine without.

Spray your pans. I used a 9X13 pan for my little brother and an 8X8 for myself.

Pour a little sauce in the bottom of each pan.

Spread all around. If you do not do this step your bottom layer will burn.

Add noodles. ***Remember to use the oven ready kind!!!***

Spread a layer of filling onto the noodles.

Then add a layer of sauce.

Add a layer of noodles.

Repeat with filling, noodles and sauce until almost at the top of 

the pan. Make sure you end with your last layer being sauce.

Top with shredded Italian cheese blend.

I had enough filling, sauce and noodles left to make (2) bread loaf size pans of lasagna. I know had I used the same size pans through all of this it would have exactly (2) 9x13 pans. I like the smaller sizes for me as I'm only one person, so it's more manageable.

My mess was actually minimal once I had a rhythm down.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes...

Or as I did freeze just about all of them. 

Enjoy!