Sometimes eating healthy just ain't worth it.

BARLEY CASSEROLE.....

I don't even know why I tried... I mean the name ALONE sounds, quite frankly... disgusting!

But high on the joys of healthy living I decided to attempt it.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.

Well, unfortunately, I forgot to take one and the ones I googled looked nothing like the one I made, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

I should have known after chopping up all the veggies that it was going to be a downer. Instead I looked at the nutritional label and felt inspired that I was making such a healthy feast for my husband and I. Plus one of the ingredients were water chestnuts...who doesn't like water chestnuts?!

I put it all in the casserole dish and as I placed it in the refrigerator where it would stay until tez could heat it up before I came home from work I thought to myself:

HHHHmmm, this is supposed to be a vegetarians dish?! so I'm supposed to eat THIS instead of meat?... I don't know if this will be enough for tez... better put out some fish.

Six o' clock I get a call from Tezar that goes a little something like this:

Hey babe?

-Yea, what's up?

Ummm is the casserole you were talking about in the refrigerator?

-Yup, the one with the blue cover

So you want me to remove the cover and put aluminum foil on it and then put it in the oven

-Yup

Are you sure this is the casserole

-Uh huh

But... it's... all.... vegetables

-Yea its one of those healthy one's I was going to try out

UUUmm ok, so I'll just put these "delicious vegetables" in the oven now...

I get home to see Tezar eyeing the casserole as if it's a stranger in the house...

I notice that the nice green vegetables now resemble some sort of brown mush...

I tell myself, once again, that this will be better than it looks until Tez thwarts me into reality by saying........

"Please don't make me eat that"

I start to laugh...the mirage vanished

We then proceeded to eat the fish and then get some Ben and Jerry's ice cream for dessert

Well, you win some you loose some.

Top Two Tuesday!

(got this from my friend Laura)

Top two things I've enjoyed this summer:

ONE:

That's right. I just posted that picture up there. PRISION BREAK.... in lieu of Tez and i having an old school tv and me not knowing how/ not taking the time to set up our converter thing we decided to take advantage of this free series on netflix and i must say: I LOVED IT!

I mean not enough to do stuff like this:

But still LOVED it nonetheless...

Plus there's a PUERTO RICAN character in the series:

and i gots to support my people.

The first two seasons GREAT... the next two... a little crazy... but whip out that suspension of disbelief and your in for a fun summer series.

TWO:

My Book Club.

I've always wanted to be a part of one. And seeing as I was lit major in college and got to discuss tons of books at length and no longer had that outlet i got so excited when i was asked to join one.

(It also saves my poor husband the agony of me telling him about the book i'm reading/ having to endure long passages read aloud to him only to have the whole plot of the story explained after that for another 30 minutes just to fill him in on the basis of the quote)

We meet once a month at someone in the group's house (plus it's so fun seeing everyone's home how their character matches the house)

It's full of finger food, stimulating conversation and FUN.

Last month we read:

Pulitzer Prize winner. Very interesting commentary on Chinese culture and BOY did it make me thankful for GROCERY STORES.

Next month i host book club at my house... I'm a little nervous because i have never hosted an event like this at my own house before but i am SUPER EXCITED. I told myself that this year i was going to invite more people over. I just get intimidated by having to entertain people but that's the great thing about book club, it's the book that does most of the entertaining.

Maybe I'll post pics... but don't get your hopes up ;)

the bread chronicles.....

It's here. ..it's mine....all mine...... Myyyyyy PPPPRREEECCCIIIOOOOUUUSSSSS...

I was SOOOO excited the day my grain mill was supposed to come in. I said a little prayer that it would come before i left for work that day and, of course, when i arrived home FROM work- there it was...

I was dancing and singing and screaming and so excited when i brought it in the house but Tezar just laid there taking an eveing nap...

I picked up the grain mill and did my very own musical dance similar to what you would see from Broadways Beauty and the Beast when the dishes are dancing BE MY GUEST BE MY GUEST...Tez still laid there sleeping peacefully...

so i then proceeded to sing in a tone Mariah Cary herself would be jealous of until Tez finally woke up, asking me what my problems was...

to which i exclaimed that "The best way to share Grain Mill cheer is to sing loudly for all to hear!"....

to which he promptly asked me for a divorce... I KIDD...but he really did not share my enthusiasm about the arrival of the grain mill AKA good health...

ah well to each his own...

ANYWAYS i got SOOO excited about the mill that i had to whip up a batch of bread although we were due to meet my family at Texas Roadhouse in mere minutes...I quickly did what i needed to do

Add wheat to grain machine

Scooped out some flour
Ok i won't go into details about the rest of the ingredients (for that check out the pioneer woman blog) That was just the fun part

Now for the final product:

It was a dudd :( i don't know if you can tell but it was ALLL WRONG... didn't mix well not firm like bread did not hold together.... BOOOO.

This is Tezar trying to act excited about it:

So then after some more Internet research i whipped up another loaf:
This one turned out MUCH BETTER!
YEA! Tezar loves it!
I, on the other hand, don't know what i like more... The bread or the man (isn't he so cute in the new shirt i bought him?!)

THE END

SO last weekend i did exactly what i did last weekend....

and the weekend before that....

I went to a WEDDING

tis the season, my friends

Let me tell you i feel as if i can genuinely appreciate weddings now that mine is over and done with b/c, firstly, now i pay much more attention to the little details that go into wedding decor (once you've been on the other side of it you realize there is a lot more going on than meets the eye... and i ask myself... did those little brown boxes i spent approximately 37 hours straight folding REALLY add that much romance to the table setting?! DANG YOU BRIDAL MAGAZINES!!!!)

Secondly, because I am not the one having to execute all those little details (Praise the LORD!) i can PURELY enjoy them for all their worth...

Anyways here's to the lovely couples and some some fun tidbits i liked about their weddings these last three weekends:

The Moore's:

If Beau's white tux doesn't set the tone of the wedding i don't know what else will.... even down to the preacher's dissertation on how "this is the point of the ceremony where we precede with the kissing of the bride and groom. What a great time in the ceremony for the happy couple...most people look forward to this moment for all their lives etc etc" for about 5 minutes until FINALLY allowing them to have their moment.... quite humorous

The Catalano's:

There's is a sweet story... Dating previously, breaking up... trusting God and after about a year apart getting back together. God's story of redemption in their relationship is so beautiful the wedding was surely a picture of that. And can i just say that they had a KILLER reception... to which the photographer asked me : "Are we in an episode of She's All That?!".... let's just say there was quite a bit of group choreographed dancing... what can i say? college kids....

The Wilson's:

Emily was one of my very best friends in High School. It as so sweet to see her and her family.

Emily married Matt. Matt has a 4 year old daughter and as a part of the ceremony as Matt and Emily lit the unity candle they invited the little girl up and gave her her very own ring to wear. It was so precious and Matt's girl was so excited about her ring showing it off to everyone around.

Well that was my weekend. Hope everyone else's was fun filled! I get my grain mill tomorrow... UPS tracking is da bomb!

just call me the bread maker....

I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why? you ask....Well in 5 to 10 business days:

Will be mine!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLL MMMMMMIIIIIIINNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!


What is this? you ask.


Well, let me begin the explanation with this:


Fall 2008 i moved into a house with 5 other girls....FIVE OTHER GIRLS?! you say.
Yes.
There were six of it in all, and despite it being a little crowded and (the May flea incident) i ABSOLUTELY LOVED living at the house.


There was always someone around to watch tv with, talk about life with, or just BE with.
And we were all so different and learning totally different things about life that we actually learned A LOT from each other.



These were the girls:

Emilie
she's my bestie/ roomie- she is like my sister. What can i say...actually what can i NOT say... were i to tell you it all that would be a WHOLE nother blog post...to sum it up we just GET each other. There is no one i would rather share a room with (other than TEZAR of course!!!). From her I learned to try to be considerate of others more than myself.

Hailey:
Was most similiar to me but on the MORE side. By that i mean more passionate, more outspoken, more loud more adventurous :) in fact she has such an adventurous relationship with God that it was so cool to see what He was doing in her life and where He was leading her to. It was like a roller coaster and while i would be freaking out she just sat back and enjoyed the ride.
Shannon:

A sweet friend who got engaged while we lived together... It was so sweet to see what God was teaching her pertaining to marriage and little did i know a lot of what she learned and was telling me would come in handy when i, suprisingly, got engaged after her. It was fun to have someone to relate to on that level. All of the advice, good book recommendations etc from her came in handy. Plus, she's downright silly.

Karly:
Was the one person in the whole house who was a lot different than me so i loved talking with her about things and getting her perspective. She helped me to see the value of cleaning up after myself...i shudder thinking about how i left things lying around everywhere and why my friends put up with me... she also helped me see the value of viewing things through the other persons eyes and not my own. She is also the most fun person to dance with and would tell you like it was if you asked her for the truth. Our random conversations were awesome.



Brooke
Was the newest girl to the house, actually to MEMPHIS... She came from out of town and was the wild card (aka we hoped she was not a wierdo but she came with good recommendations) and sure enough it turned out to be a beautiful friendship. Brooke is the GREATEST listener. She's more southern than any of us and grew up living down the road from real live AMISH people...Not only that but as a nutritionist she taught me a lot about, well, nutrition....things i never knew or ever even THOUGHT about.
Which brings me to the WHOLE reason of this post: (see i eventually come back full circle)

I am not a health freak... (brooke is not either) but since my chats with Brookie at our house I learned that i know NOTHING about nutrition. So it got me to thinking... and reading... just random things here and there...

THEN a friend told me about this book:

And seeing as Brooke, the nutritionist, sparked an interest of nutrition in me. I bought it and BOY am i glad. ( i also saw that Brooke had this book in her collection... she would!) The tittle can be deceiving it's not about how to make a meal in 15 minutes but how you take 15 minutes a day to read the book and figure out how to plan meals. It's REALLY informative. It explains carbohydrates, fiber, protein, fats, sugars and so much more. How we need them,WHY we need and how to get them. It tells you how to read a food label, what to look for and what not to look for. It's really great but it's not BORING...its interesting and it has short chapters.

It's based on the fact that we, as American's, are feeding our body but starving it nutritionally. She explains different ways to add nutritional food to your life and forgo some of the unhealthy stuff (for example honey or sucana instead of refined sugar ) she's practical and realistic. (AKA eating healthy does not equal eating gross bland food).

Which brings me to my next point:

SO my friend Jen mill's her own flour. She uses an electric flour mill and while they're pretty pricey the more i have looked into it the more i see how wheat has SO MANY natural vitamins and minerals... but the thing is flour loses about 90% of its nutrients within three days. So flour that has been on the shelf for longer than three days only keeps 10% of its nutrients...crazy, right?! Don't even get me started on bleached flour... So i've been doing some research and while i still had a $100 bed bath and beyond wedding gift certificate i had been hoarding for the last 8 months I saw that BB&B carried a mill and decided it was time to use the last wedding remnant i had.

SO there you have it...I bought it.... and I am SUPER EXCITED about this purchase!!!!!!

I'll keep you posted on how it goes.... I plan using my own flour for everything... baking, pancakes, waffles, dinner rolls, bread crumbs...i plan on making my own bread (thanks to my mom lending me her bread machine...indefinitely (hopefully...), pizza crust, tortillas... it'll take some planning but i think it will be well worth it...

until then you KNOW i'll be stalking my neighborhood mailman!