Vanilla almond milk and Kahlua don’t fight, and when you add Three Olives triple shot espresso flavored vodka, they all play nice.
The end 
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Category Archives: Food
Hard Core Yoga Sh!t
Sunday night we had friends over for dinner. The kids are away at Camp Grandma, so we invited another couple over for a quiet evening. Brian made tequila lime telapia, and I made white beans and zucchini from this yummy recipe. I hardly used any potatoes – I have to read that Dr. Oz thing about bad, bad white potatoes – and substituted almost 1/2 c red wine and 1/2 c tomato paste for the tomatoes. It was yummy over quinoa and great for lunch as leftovers today (2 days later). The tequila lime telapia sauce livens up the quinoa, but it’s high in sugar. (As Brian said, at least it was raw sugar…)
For some reason I could not sleep that night. Actually, I went to sleep at 11:11pm just fine (I remember saying to Brian, “Hey look, the time is one-one-one-one,” and then falling asleep), but at 2:30 am I woke up feeling fully rested. Very weird! (Sugary dinner? Hormones?) And I had cleaned the house much of the day and ran errands in the heat, so it’s not like I wasn’t tired at bedtime.
I tried all my little get-to-sleep tricks in bed for an hour, then decided to change my environment and read in the living room. At about 5am there was a HUGE CRASH from my daughter’s bedroom that scared me. I was almost too scared to go in and check on it (she’s out of town, remember?) but reason said that if it were a burglar there would have been the sound of glass breaking too.
I tiptoed in her room with a phone in my hand ready to either dial 9-1-1 or find the aquarium glass broken all over the floor. (That happened once while guests were staying in her room and it made 2AM SUCK!) But it was a poster. She has a 6′ framed original movie marquee from Peter Pan from 1969 (I think) that was leaning against the wall because we had not rehung it since we painted. It came crashing down somehow. Thank goodness she wasn’t in there to have the bujeezes scared out of her!
So, meanwhile, that was 5am and now my heart was racing… I did manage to fall back asleep around 6:30 am, but slept through 8:30am Yoga. There went my Monday workout…
But I made up for it with a double dose on Tuesday. Kind of a fluke… I did my usual 8:30am class and stayed late to talk to a woman who was in the class who will have her daughter at my daughters’ school next year. We had a lot in common and a lot to talk about, but after an hour I had to shower and make it to work before lunch. But that night the 6pm class was a special Lululemon trunk show / Yoga class, so I went back for that. I saw friends, saw Lululemon goodies, and got my dog downed. Brian said 2 classes in one day for the 2nd week in a row made me “hard core yoga sh!t’. Meanwhile, Brian was out doing speedwork with the Cross Country kids, so we met back up at home all sweaty for a shower-for-two.
I came home and made quesadillas with Brian for dinner. They were made with ingredients we had left over from other meals, so they were quick and tasty. PLL was on, and I got some emailing/web stuffs done.
About that $600 for textbooks crap… well, it’s not crap, it’s education, but at least I am finding them cheaper all over the web. I might get it down to $500. And we decided to try to sell some vintage Fisher Price Little People to see if that would assist at all. So if you know any toy collectors, or parents who don’t care about recall notices, here is the link. My daughter actually photographed them months ago, but this was the push we need to actually put them online. She already managed to sell her Littlest Pets to her great aunt (for her grandchildren to play with.)
Oh – reading in the living room while having insomnia helped me finish my book: My Name Is Memory. My aunt was reading it when I saw her over July 4th weekend, and she recommended it. I read the back cover and it sounded a bit like The Time Traveler’s Wife, which I have loved dearly for years, so I got it from the library. I was able to skim it and still enjoy it… but that’s all I’ll say.
If you want to run across the state of TN in Nov with me and some other crazy people, we have space left on our Ragnar Relay team! Let me know…
Someone told me today I have an awesome figure! I’ll go to bed now thinking on that…
What’s the best compliment you got this month?
Frosting
Last night we had dinner with friends to see their new baby, Brailee. Alice made cupcakes but did not have time to make her kick butt frosting because she is studying for finals. So I made up a yummy recipe on the fly that was fluffy and delicious, but not at all healthy:
Mocah Buttercream Frosting
- 1 stick unsalted butter (extremely softened)
- 3.25 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 4-6 tsp milk (mine was skim) (to reach desired consistency)
- 2 TB unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1.5 TB instant coffee granuals (I used decaf)
Frosts 2 dozen cupcakes. I blended all of this in my tabletop mixer on med for 2 mins and high for an extra minute. The coffee could have been chopped up a bit more, so throw it in a grinder or slam it with a mallet first.
Friday I had a great morning core yoga class and Sunday I had a Bodypump class with a sore right knee.
Today I am doing a lot of online research for an upcoming solo NYC trip. If you have a favorite NYC restaurant that is not just an expensive tourist trap, please let me know. (eg: I do NOT want an $18 cheeseburger at Serendipity, but I can handle Tuna Tataki with white asparagus, fresh heart of palm, avocado, tatsoi, citrus soy for $15.00 at SushiSamba) I already have some Yoga and Improv comedy lined up.
Meal Plan Monday
Saturday we had friends in from out of town and I spent a little extra on groceries to cook with Cindy, who went to high school with me. We made jambalaya pasta and crustless derby pie. (It was derby day so they cheated on their South Beach diet with our dessert.)
While Wendy and I were visiting with Cindy and Grayson, Brian took Alice to the Middle Division State meet for track and field in Melbourne, FL. 3 kids from her team went – 2 8th graders and a 6th grader. Alice ran a 5:35 in the 1500 (26th place) and 11:58 in the 3000 (16th place). Don’t ask me why they weren’t a 1600 and 3200. ??????
Sunday we did our shopping for the week, partially planned around the fact that Wendy would be at SeaCamp Wed-Fri, and partially based on the seafood in our freezer.
Sunday - Tex/Mex. Crunchy beef tacos with colby-jack for Brian and the kids, leftover enchiladas (homemade on Cinco de Mayo) for me. Black beans for all.
Monday - Kung Pao Chicken made Brian-style with sugar snap peas over rice.
Tues - Shrimp scampi over whole wheat fettucine noodles. Peas or spinach salad.
Wed - Pizza night because we’ll be off in different directions. One meat lovers for Brian and Alice, a flatbread margheritta for me and Alice – I’ll add spinach to it.
Thurs - Tilapia with quinoa. Not sure how Brian will prepare the tilapia. Broccoli.
Fri - salmon and jasmine rice, peas.
Mother’s Day was fun. Wendy was going to sew me a pillow last year, and never did. I guess she remembered at 7am this year and managed to sew it by hand before 9:20am when she brought it to me in bed. Brian made banana-stuffed french toast for breakfast. His trick to awesome french toast is to start with cinnamon-brown sugar bread. No, this is not a healthy meal. Yes, it was delicious with the blend of banana, cream cheese and brown sugar wrapped inside each slice.
Brian and I sent this digital card to our moms.
Wendy and I shopped for a few hours. She wanted a rash guard for snorkeling at Seacamp, her 7th grade class trip. At Forever 21 she found a cute black dress that is the same as the blue one I bought last month, but in black and a size smaller. I told her it would be a perfect basic dress, and its tank style allows you to layer over or under it. She is going to France this summer, and it will pack well, and can be dressed up or down. I promised not to wear my blue one on purpose when she was wearing her black one. It was also $13.80 and she bought it for herself. I had a $10 JCPenney coupon so we found a cute Snoopy tshirt for her that was $12 and got it for $2.
Today I started the work-week with Core Yoga, and my friend Ellen not only came along and loved it, but bought a 20 class pass so she can keep coming with me on Monday mornings. The coolest thing the teacher did – jumping from plank into crow pose.
Wed. night I have rehearsal for the script reading I’m performing in next week. The play is “Five Women Wearing the Same Dress” by Alan Ball. You might not know the name, but you know his work – American Beauty, Six Feet Under, True Blood. When I first was invited to audition by the Director, she suggested I read for Georgeanne. After skimming character sketches on Wikipedia, I read that she was cheating on her husband and drunk. I thought it would be the one character I would NOT want to read for – bad karma and all. But the more I read through the script, the more I grew to like the drama she brought to the play. She has depth and dark humor, and I’ll enjoy being a bad girl for a minute or two. (And I just may have put together that artwork on the left…)
If you are in Tampa Bay, the reading is Mon May 16 at Studio 620 in downtown St Pete.
I am off to finish the laundry I didn’t do on Mother’s Day! Enjoy your evening!
What are you reading this month?
Brownie Bake Off
Warning: this is NOT a healthy post…
Last night in honor of my husband’s up-coming 35th birthday we had some of his buddies over for a Brownie Bake Off. The entrants included:
- Grasshopper brownies: These were made by me. You start with a 9×13 layer of brownies, mine were from a box using the “fudge-like” recipe, not the “cake-like” recipe. They are topped by a mushy mint layer, and then a hard chocolate layer. I left them out to soften so the hard chocolate layer did not make them difficult to eat.
- Turtle Brownies: from-scratch cake-like brownies topped by a chunky layer of pecans and caramel, topped with a thin layer of more brownie.
- Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Brownies
- Ghirardelli dark chocolate brownies
- Gluten free chocolate chip brownies
My mint brownies actually took first prize, but since I bought the prize we gave it to the 2nd place winner – which were the Gluten free brownies! The woman who made these actually needs to maintain a gluten free diet or she has no energy. Just in the past year or so she has discovered recipes she actually likes that also accommodate her body. Her fiance is ultra supportive and cooks gluten free dinners 6 times a week for them (on avg), but she made the brownies – not him. She said they were from a mix, but she added mini chocolate chips to the mix and that’s what made them taste so good. She was shocked that they were a winner – she thought she was getting a sympathy vote!
I voted for the turtle brownies, because I liked the chunky goodness of them.
My workout today was BodyPump at the gym. I love how that class exhausts every muscle group. The Sunday AM dynamic of the gym is quite different from that of the weekday morning feel! Friday I did not work out. That night was the school’s annual gala and I wanted legs that were not sore to support me in heels all night. As it turned out I was stuck at the office printing last minute signage for the gala, so it’s a good thing I went to work early. And I was told that I rocked my black satiny halter dress – luckily the brownies were the day AFTER. Thursday night I went to Yoga Flow class at YogaBlu. The usual teacher was not there, and the sub was my friend Lora. Although I helped Lora put together a day-long Yoga event, I have never actually taken a class from her. She told me later she was terribly nervous, but I could not tell at all. She was funny, reminded us to enjoy ourselves and breathe, she chanted a bit during chavasana – which means she sang in Sanskrit in a room full of strangers. More power to her! The class was great.Tomorrow I hope to run with some moms from school for just under 3 miles.
I was nominated by a friend to be the next Hot and Healthy Mom featured on HotandHealthyMom.com. I think the story runs tomorrow. I’ll keep you posted!