Thursday Threes.

One.

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Okay, this totally spits in the face of last night's healthy dinner post. Last Sunday, my brother offered us a slice of Red Velvet Cake Cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory that he had leftover from a party. I thought "I don't really like cheesecake but, okay, Lee and I can take a few bites and then toss it out." People, I licked the plate clean. Thank the Lord we only had one slice. It was without a doubt one of the best desserts I've ever had.  I think I've discovered the dessert I need to help numb the pain celebrate my 40th birthday. Here's the kicker and it will make you laugh and cry at the same time...a single slice of the Ultimate Red Velvet Cake Cheesecake contains 1250 calories. Leaves you speechless, doesn't it?!

Two.

 

Eric is also responsible for #2 and, thank goodness, this one doesn't add cellulite to your thighs like #1. For years he's been talking about Mint.com and how it's a great website for keeping track of your finances. I finally gave it a whirl this week and was very impressed with the ease of pulling all of our credit cards and banking information onto one secure website. Now we can see where we spend the bulk of our money (Gas! Groceries!!). For future budgeting, Mint.com is going to be super helpful. Since I'm a bookkeeper, this stuff gets me all giddy (almost as giddy as I was with the cheesecake).

Three.

I'm starving for a little feedback. Please leave comments on my blog. It's no fun talking to myself. Don't know how to leave a comment? Easy -- at the bottom of each posting, it says"no comments" or "1 comment." Click on those words and a window will pop up. Follow the directions in the window - they're fairly self-explanatory. A girl can get real lonely here in cyberland....sniff sniff.

Tonight's Dinner Was a Winner

I've been cooking more than usual lately. The recipes I've picked out have been a little out of my comfort zone (usually "drop pasta in boiling water") and have generally been healthier. My expectations for tonight's dinner were pretty low -- it was a recipe I pulled out of Good Housekeeping Magazine. So imagine my surprise when it turned out to be pretty great. "I want to eat this once a week," Lee said. Okay, that's a great sign! The ingredients may sound boring or unappealing but the flavor was truly fabulous; the dish also comes together easily. Just so you know, I don't like olives and only eat raw cauliflower dipped in ranch dressing (ha!) but I really, really liked this dish. I think I've said that enough so onto the recipe:

Chicken with Carmelized Cauliflower & Green Olives

1 head cauliflower (2.5-3 lbs.), trimmed and cut into 1.5-inch chunks

2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper

1.5 lbs. chicken breast tenders, cut into 1.5-inch chunks

1 tsp. freshly grated lemon peel

1/4 c. slivered almonds

1/3 c. pitted green olives, rinsed well

1/4 c. packed fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped, plus additional for garnish

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In 18" by 12" jellyroll pan, combine cauliflower, 2 teaspoons oil, 1/8 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper until well mixed. Spread cauliflower in single layer on pan. Roast 20 to 25 minutes or until cauliflower is golden brown.

2. While cauliflower roasts, in large bowl, combine chicken, lemon peel, 1 teaspoon oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper. Push cauliflower to one side of pan and arrange chicken in single layer on other side. Roast 10 minutes longer or until chicken just loses its pink color throughout.

3. Meanwhile, in food processor with knife blade attached, pulse almonds until finely ground. Add olives and parsley and pulse until almost smooth. With machine running, add remaining 1 tablespoon oil until it's fully incorporated, scraping sides of bowl as needed. Add mixture to pan with hot chicken and cauliflower and stir until well combined. Transfer to serving plates and garnish with additional parsley. 


Lame photo (I was hungry and in a hurry to eat):

(No, I did not serve this to Nate -- I wanted to test it out first. He'll be getting it for dinner soon. The taste was mild enough that I think kids would like it. And see that paper in the upper left corner of the photo? That would be my jury duty summons. Doh!!!)

Serves 4. Each serving: 360 calories, 45 g protein, 12 g carbohydrate, 15 g total fat, 6 g fiber, 99 mg cholesterol, 660 mg sodium

Thursday Threes.

One.

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I think every American woman in the early 1990s owned a bottle of White Diamonds or Passion and that's mainly what I associate Elizabeth Taylor with. But I do love some of her films too -- so mark April 10th down on your calendar because Turner Classic Movies will be having a Liz Movie Marathon. I plan on setting my DVR for Father of the Bride and National Velvet.

Two.

Gotta send out some love to Fresh & Easy's "day old" section because I bought a loaf of Il Fornaio sourdough bread this week for 94 cents. I can't put into words how much I love sourdough toast and Il Fornaio really does make fabulous bread.

Three.

Expectations // Illustration from Cross Point Church on Vimeo.

I've become a huge fan of Pete Wilson and Cross Point Church, based in Nashville. Both Lee and I watch Pete's sermons via podcast on iTunes (Lee wants to be Pete's new BFF). He recently started a new sermon series on relationships. This video of Pete and his wife Brandi is honest, funny, and clever. I think you'll find it enjoyable and I hope it encourages you to check out the rest of the series here.

Cruel, Cruel!

A few weeks ago, I was walking to my car after leaving the office and I had one of those moments -- maybe you've had them too -- where you just feel really content and thankful. The afternoon breeze and the other people on the street added to the electricity. Things just felt good. If I had been wearing a hat, I would have done this:

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(If you don't know who that is, you might want to stop reading because the rest of this post won't really mean anything to you). Anyway, I felt good about myself -- working mom, balancing all the balls in the air, feeling youthful, yadda yadda.

Then I get home and check the mail. If I could insert a sound effect in this post it would be right here and it would sound like a record needle scratching to a halt because this is what was waiting for me in the mailbox:

As We Change -- a mail order catalog for maturing women. As I've mentioned before, I'll be turning 40 in 2011. BUT do I really need to start shopping in this type of catalog? And who came up with that name?? It should be called "You're About to go Through THE Change." I was no longer feeling youthful after looking at this catalog. Lee thought it was hysterical rather funny and I eventually laughed with him. So I scanned the catalog cover and thought I  would share it on my blog. But I forgot about it....until this arrived on Saturday:

Oh come on!!! This is not good for my self-esteem.  Sigh. The post office hates me. Or I'm on a really weird mailing list. I expect to see an AARP magazine in my mailbox on April 1st.

Fabric Love

I bought fabric this week to make some new pillows for our bedroom. Our room is severely lacking in style...it's the final resting place of mismatched furniture. So, I'm making minor changes to spruce it up. I'll share more details soon...

Thursday Threes.

One. Two. Three.

Only one thing needs to be shared this week...

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Earthquake relief donations can be made to World Vision here and to Unicef here.

Batteries Not Required (or Wanted)

Dear Santa,

Heads-up, 9 months in advance: don't bother bringing fancy toys to our house. We prefer the basics...

Signed,

Nate's Mom & Dad

Mom Tip: Clothespins

I keep a stash of these in my car now:

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Why are clothespins in my car? Well, if you have a young child who likes balloons, they're the perfect "weight" to keep a balloon from flying away. When we're out doing errands, Nate will occasionally be given a balloon at Trader Joe's, etc. Once we're back at the car, I can grab a clothespin from my stash and quickly tie the string to it (I guess if I was SuperMom I'd keep a clothespin in my purse but I'm not, so that's not going to happen). Once we get home, it's fun to play outside with our weighted balloon in the front yard too. It stays just enough above the ground to float around but won't blow away.

Chicken Spaghetti

We cooked the Pioneer Woman's chicken spaghetti over the weekend. You can find the recipe in her cookbook and here. The final product looked like this (PW's picture on her website looks WAY better than this):

It serves 6-8 but it felt like we ended up with a ton of food. I've been serving it for leftovers now for a couple days....we're ready to move onto something else. Overall, I'd say it wasn't the best dish I've ever had but it was pretty good and one I'll keep in rotation. I'll end with this little story: the recipe calls for a fryer chicken that's  been cut up but I didn't pay attention to the "cut up" part and wrote "fryer chicken" on my shopping list, thus I had to cut it up myself (I'm not smart). I've never done that before and was tempted to become a vegetarian after doing so. "You've never cut up a whole chicken??" Lee asked me with astonishment when I told him about my disturbing experience with a large knife and a chicken carcass. I guess I've always bought chicken in its respected parts -- a package of breasts or a package of legs. Judging by Lee's face and response, this is weird. Maybe it's a California thing...