Pinterest Post Power!

I love Pinterest. I pin almost daily about foods I want to make, inspirational illustration and graphic design, things I love, future house ideas, and way too many more.

Problem is, I’ll never get to try all these amazing how to’s and ideas if I just keep pinning them. So I’m going to be proactive with my Pinterest. Instead of only drooling over amazing illustrations I come across, I’ve started sketching more. When I’m feeling stuck, I’ll browse through my inspirational pins and find one that is perfect for my mood and use it to jump start the sketch of the day. You can see some of my latest doodles on my instagram or twitter.

I’m also trying to bake, cook, and crockpot my way through the food pins that have been piling up.

Today I started out with a quick Spring Fruit Pudding.

I emptied a cheesecake flavored instant pudding packet into a mixing bowl with a can of pineapple and the juices. I stirred these two together until they were well blended. The mixture started to get thicker, almost like a pudding. Imagine that!

Next, I just added sliced bananas and strawberries and mixed it all up again.

As a final touch, I dashed some cinnamon on top and did a final stir. It has a great texture and the pudding just adds a nice flavor to the fruit. Surprisingly, it isn’t the hero to this dessert. The fruits themselves shine, and the pudding plays a nice supporting roll.

Noms

 

Since I was feeling peppy, I decided to knock out two food ideas today. The second one I crossed off my list was home made granola. You can find the original recipe here. Me being me, I changed the recipe a bit.

I combined 1.25 cups old fashioned rolled oats, a big dash of cinnamon, 4 tablespoons of shredded coconut, and a handful of craisins in one bowl. In a second bowl, I mixed 1/4 cup sugar free syrup and a half cup of cinnamon apple sauce. These two bowls got together, mixed things up, and became the start of some sweet granola.

I spread the mixture out in a pan that had been sprayed with Canola Oil and baked it for 15 minutes at 325. When that was done, I alternated mixing up the granola, breaking up the chunks, and cooking for 5-8 minutes until it was no longer soft and became more like real granola.

It’s going to be hard not to just eat the whole things in one sitting. Will probably at least double the recipe next time I make it.

Spring in Jan

Apparently we are done with winter in Texas. This last weekend was amazing. The weather was beautiful, bright, warm, and breezy. How better to celebrate than try out some water. What? Water…

Yup, lemon/cucumber/mint water. It’s amazing. I found the recipe on this website! and tried it out.

I’ve been working hard on my second round of p90x and drink a ton of water. It does get a little boring and I crazy juice, chocolate milk, anything really. So, make water fun. Problem solved. This mixture also promises to promote healthy benefits, which are a huge plus. Also, you can just keep refilling and use the same fruit over and over until, you know, you replace.

Lemon Water Startin!

I’ve tried this kind of water once before at a dinner with friends. I’m sad it took me this long to get on the bandwagon myself.

With this batch of water, the cucumber is a bit strong for my taste, but only just. If i dilute it a bit, it’s perfect. I might just still be a little burned out on cucumber since we had our mini garden last spring/summer.

Time To Soak

Speaking of gardening, I’m sad to say I might have to take a haitus this summer. I have been excited to try my hand a second year since I feel that I learned so much last year. Sadly, we aren’t sure of our living arrangements and if we end up moving, it would be easiest without plants to relocate. We shall see.

Delicious Thrifting

This past weekend I ventured out with two lovely ladies on a most successful brunch and shopping date.

We started out the day at Cafe Brazil in Deep Ellum. The area has such colorful and vibrant buildings, art, and potential. I know the city has taken great steps to making it a more friendly and interesting place, and it is paying off. I hope more businesses and people come so it can become a mini Austin for us DFW residents to enjoy. Especially local food restaurants.

I’m still day dreaming about my delicious veggie breakfast tacos and sweet potato fries.

That tasty treasure fueled me throughout our entire day of browsing, window shopping, and purchasing. I am almost always overwhelmed at stores and malls, and leave the place exhausted with some crankiness. Not Saturday. I think it was due to the food and company.

We traveled down the street to Lulu B’s store. I had been once before, but saw all new things this time around. If I wasn’t trying to save money for some serious Christmas shopping and trying to de-clutter my junk, I would have left with tons of great finds. Instead, I took some pictures.

Can you tell how much I love mugs? My husband and I have a somewhat goofy and nice collection.

After Lulu B’s, we drove out to the Galleria in Dallas. No photos were taken. Just lots and lots of walking, avoiding the tons of shoppers, and enjoying all the stores that a humongous mall houses.

Delicious day of food, thrifting, and shopping = success

Recent Noms

Cooking has been taking a back burner since we have gotten so busy. I haven’t had the chance to try new recipes as often as I’d like. Here are two things that I did get to try out and was happy with the results.

Dried Strawberries

These were super easy and smelled delicious. All you have to do is cut up strawberries into halves or quarters, depending on size. Then, bake them in the oven for 3 hours at 210 degrees. They practically melt in your mouth (wait for them to cool off!)

Shrimp, Avocado, Asparagus Stir Fry

This was something I just did during a band practice night for myself. I boiled some angel hair pasta while warming up some precooked asparagus in a skillet with some soy sauce. I then added the shrimp and noodles once they were ready. Topped it all off with avocado and feta!

Things are always just so busy. We will see what adventures come out of the more productive oriented schedule.

Green Thumb Aspirations

I have the opposite of green thumbs. I accidentally killed my bamboo plant 4 years ago and have murdered a small cactus, Arthur Dent, is still alive, thank goodness!

I would LOVE to start growing my own flowers and food. I want to grow cucumbers and tomatoes and celery (Nick loves celery) and oranges!

Here is a website I have found that has tips for growing certain citrus plants inside (which is ideal in Texas heat and mosquito clouds).

www.apartmenttherapy.com

(Image: Homes and Garden Journal)

I also want to be more aware of where the meat I buy, cook, and eat comes from. Today I found some great chicken that claims to be all humane and happy and cage free for their chickens! I’m so excited I found it.

And it is pretty darn tasty! I did cook it up in a hurry.

Yesterday I started P90X again, lean plan. I’m all motivated and working hard. I did Cardio today and, by the power of gray-skull … I am so sore, so cooking wasn’t super exciting or high on the list of things to do. Just getting something healthy into my body was the goal. Ugh, muscles I didn’t even know existed hurt.

Randoms and Foods

So my mind has been all over the place lately. Instead of trying to control it, I’ve just let it go wild. I am almost finished with a few projects I’ve been working on, so that is really nice. But I have a growing list of things I really want to do. Being a better artist is top of the list, so I guess that means I need to practice. Come one brain, let’s get it together! Hmm, I’m hungry.

As always, food is comes before anything else…cause I’m usually hungry. This week my stomach got to enjoy home made tomato soup.

Two cans of diced tomatoes (the kind with oregano) with 6 ounces of weight watchers cream cheese-put in a soup pan and simmer. Then, blend it! So good.

Next day was taco salad.

Turkey meat cooked with taco seasoning on spinach, corn, and tomatoes. Nom Nom

And here is a good representation of the workings of my brain lately:

source: http://tumblmedoctor.tumblr.com/post/18314355031

HOORAY!

Realization

So this might be a slightly sappy post, so get over it.

Last night, Nick and I ran. That is saying something because we usually slack off from Friday to Sunday and pig out on the weekends. I didn’t run my best, but we did run. Thursday I even did some sprints after a 2.5 mile run (with only a few breaks). We didn’t even pig out Friday night. No pizza. No queso. Nope.

We had crab meat mixed with a tiny bit of low fat mayo on top of cucumber slices.

And mini crescent rolls filled with spinach mixed with a tiny bit of weight watchers cream cheese.

I’ve realized recently that my life has had a huge shift. Besides the whole getting married and being out on my own in life, my health habits have taken a huge shift. I use to eat fast food half of the time and my veggie intake and fruit eating was…meh. I was never one to be seen as a health nut, or a healthy eater. I wanted to be that kind of person, but didn’t have the drive.

My 3rd year in college I moved into an apartment with my friend Whitney and realized what a healthy person eats. She really inspired me to choose better foods, but not while I was living with her. It took a while to sink in. She also has super amazing ideas with crafts and design. I admit, she had a huge impact on my graphic design career and eating habits. (I never told her this, but now she knows!).

Since Nick proposed in Sept 2010, I’ve done a 180 with my food intake and exercise. It is now a huge aspect of my life. My perspective on both is so different from what it use to be.

My huge realization happened at work a few weeks ago. A coworker showed me a recipe for a delicious sounding soup and said “this sounds too healthy for me, but seems like something you would love.” I then realized that I have become a healthy person. I love it, but it is a battle everyday.

Kitty is, as always, impressed with my decisions.

Cookies!

And hello!

Made breakfast cookies the other night.

Just a combo of 1.5 cups of oats, a cup of applesauce, bananas, craisins, butterscotch chips and cinnamon. Baked to auromatic yummies and done!

Nick and I have been running regularly now. Some nights we even double our distance, and our pace is getting faster as well. I’m finally getting into better shape so I don’t have to take as many breaks. Which is nice. I like to think if the zombie apocalypse happened, I’d have a better chance of running to safety now.

Also, I love this door.

Always makes me think of hobbit doors in Bag End.

Random, but whatever.

Also, short and sweet!

Food, Kitty, and Poems

So the food highlight of the week was salmon!!!

So ya, potato rolls, baked tomato slices with parmessan on top, brown rice with soy sauce, and salmon baked with freshly squeazed lemon juice on top. I felt very accomplished that none of it burned or was undercooked.

Non edible news, kitty has been creeping and loving. He curled up and had some male bonding time with Nick before the super bowl.

Then, he somehow got on top of the medicine cabinet to be creepy and unsettling in general to who ever wandered into the bathroom.

So that was fun.

On a side note, I really love creative people who love the same shows I do. I have been collecting fan art and the like that are for valentine’s day. I have valentine designs saved about Lord of the Rings, DC Superheroes, and Sherlock. Here are some poems for your entertainment about … Sherlock (that I found online on Tumblr and did not write at all! Let me know if you know who wrote these).

“Deduction is great, it requires precision. Forget John and Sherlock, you’re my division.”

“Roses are red. Performance is art. Please love me back, or I’ll burn out your heart.”

“Roses are red, my scarf is so blue, I don’t have friends, I only have you.”

Enchiladas nom

This weekend was one filled with tummies of chicken.

Found a recipe on none other than Pinterest for skinnier enchiladas. How could I resist? I didn’t.

Low carb tortillas, chicken, Greek yogurt to take the place of sour cream, cheese, and salsa. So simple and quick.

Recipe is here: http://she-fit.com/healthy-chicken-enchiladas-recipe

I love replacing sour cream with Greek yogurt. So surprisingly tasty and so few calories. That and yogurt is just plain good for you. Been watching some “Burn Notice” on and off while working on stuff around the house and those spies LOVE their yogurt. Started getting ingrained in my mind.

Oh, and Jaydee was super jealous of all the chicken he wasn’t getting to eat. He might have gotten a tiny bite…

creepy cat