Tag Archives: Cooking

My Adventures in Blueberries!

Good evening!

Last week, I had gotten a phone call from my girlfriend BobbieJo to see if we wanted to go pick blueberries with her! Jason and I immediately jumped at the chance, and the date was set for Monday evening to get together and go have some fun gathering our berries!

We went out to this awesome little farm out in Keizer! The farm worked on an honor system. They provide buckets so that you can fill them, weigh them, and then you drop the appropriate amount of money into a locked box!! It was so SA-WHEET!!!

This was my first time going blueberry picking! I was really so excited to learn how to choose the right berries and get started! BobbieJo and Jason were old pros at it, having picked all sorts of berries ever since they were really young! Someday when Jason and I have our little farm, we will get all sorts of experience picking all sorts of fruits and veggies – I can’t wait, but I realize I am digressing! Back to that evening! 🙂

By the way… I was told that this is the PERFECT blueberry!! I know it sure was pretty and it DEFINITELY tasted perfect!!! Matter-of-fact, I ended up eating so many blueberries that I was worried I wouldn’t be able to fill my bucket! SOOOO YUMMY!!!! 😉

I was so proud of my bucket of berries, until I look at BobbieJo’s and Jason’s buckets! I guess I hadn’t realized that all blueberries should actually be BLUE!! As you can see I had quite a number of reddish berries in my bucket! Oopsie!! Oh well, I still thought they tasted good!! 😉

Jason picked soooo many blueberries! He filled up his own bucket and then helped me fill up the rest of my bucket! Thanks, Babe! 🙂

Here is BobbieJo busily, and happily “clean picking a bush”! She was single-mindedly determined to get this little bush cleaned of all of it’s ripe berries!! She has way more determination than I do! I think I actually got bored with this bush after about 1/2 an hour! I am sure my flitting from bush to bush must have driven poor Miss BobbieJo crazy!! 🙂

I had to take a picture of a couple of the slugs out there! There were so many out, and the later it got the more there seemed to be. My theory was to watch carefully where I stepped, and to just keep moving so no one would get any funny ideas to slither up onto my foot! *SHUDDER!*

Here is BobbieJo and I showing off some of our bounty for the evening! ok, so I realize it doesn’t look like much, but this was a newer bucket! 🙂 Jason and I ended up going home with two large bowls chocked full of these little blueberries of goodness, and I think BobbieJo had a large bowl all of her own too!!

Well, it was getting late, so BobbieJo and I then made a date to finish the blueberry prep at her place in a few days! Well, that new date was today!

After enjoying lunch and some really great stories and chatting with some friends, Jody, Julie, Marty, BobbieJo, Ashley, and Mark, it was time to get busy in the kitchen taking care of our blueberries!

BobbieJo found this great low-sugar recipe in this really cool Taste of Home book!! YEAH!!!

This is BobbieJo in teacher mode, which is kind of fitting because she does happen to run a daycare!! and I figure if she can handle kids, she could definitely handle us!! 😉

Here is our stack of supplies! Thankfully BobbieJo has ever single kind of ingredient on hand in her UBER-ORGANIZED kitchen!! So she was able to help us fill in the blanks!! 😉

Julie and I spent most of our time sorting blueberries!! She is so cool, and has been a lot of fun to get to know!! It is amazing how much she and I have in common, actually it is kind of a little spooky! In the BEST POSSIBLE WAY!! 😉

The fabulous Miss BobbieJo did all of the pureeing and cooking, and if you take a peek behind her, you will see just a glimpse in her cupboard of the aforementioned UBER-ORGANIZED kitchen!! 😉

Here is my sweetie, enjoying watching the progress! He is just happy since the blueberry jelly we made is really low in sugar!

Here we are, Julie, myself, and BobbieJo!! I know that all three of us had such a fun day getting to know each other better, and making goodies in the kitchen, that we already have plans to do this all over again, but this time with blackberries!! I seriously cannot wait!!!

Until then…

Here is to a FABULOUS evening! 😉

 If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!

Getting Back to the Artist Within!

Good evening!

I am having the best kind of quiet evening at home!! 😉 My sweetie picked me up from work, and as soon as I got home, I got busy cooking a healthy dinner for the two of us. It was a new little ditty that I kind of dreamed up, thinking that the combo sounded really veggie-sentric, filling, but still very delicious!! For my sis,Alex, who I know will be reading this and will want to know EXACTLY what I made, this is for you!!

  • Prepare 2 servings of whole wheat angel hair pasta – enough for each person to have about 1 cup of cooked pasta!
  • Next steam about 1 1/2 cups of diced broccoli – leaving it a little on the crunchy side (just a little though!)
  • Slice 1 1/2 cups of cherry tomatoes in half
  • Cube two boneless skinless chicken breasts
  • and dice about a third of a large sweet onion

Here comes the fun part! The putting it all together!!! 😉

In a medium-sized saute pan, pour 1 or 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and heat over low to medium heat. Once heated, add 1/2 of the diced onions and sautee them until they are clear. Next add one chicken breast worth of the chunked chicken, and cover with lid, while stirring frequently to brown chicken. Keep an eye on it at this point, so you don’t accidentally dry out your chicken.

Once your chicken has cooked through, add 1/2 of the steamed broccoli, and 1/2 of the slice cherry tomatoes. Heat thoroughly. Then add 1 cup of pasta, and toss until all ingredients have been warmed back up. Add 1/2 a cup of your favorite store-bought Alfredo white sauce (we used Bertolli’s – YUMMY!!) Toss a few times to coat all ingredients!!

Serve immediately with some freshly sliced French bread, that has been sprinkled with some good olive oil and sprinkled with some fresh cracked pepper.

Let me tell you, it was ABSOLUTELY DELISH!!! 😉

This meal was TOTALLY healthy, very Weight Watchers friendly, and my sweetie LOVED it too!! Here is the kicker though, I wasn’t able to get a picture of the dish – my camera should be here within 2 weeks, I really can’t wait!! and when I make it again, I will make sure to share a pic then!! 😉

As for this evening, I am going to continue my night of flexing my creativity muscles by spending the evening up in my art studio – something I haven’t done in literally MONTHS!! and play! Play! PLAY!!

I will make sure to keep you posted!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening! :-)

“If you want to have a different life, live differently!”

The Great Croissant Bake!!

Good evening!

My sweetie and I have just finished enjoying a few of the lovely croissants that I have made today! I paired them with some sugar free strawberry preserves as a nice dessert to go with an early grilled dinner. This picture is actually a picture of my end results. They really did turn out much better than I could have hope for.

That is one more thing crossed off of My Life List!! YEAH!!

These croissants were flaky, buttery, and delicious! They were quite time consuming and I made quite a mess in the kitchen making these, but I could definitely see doing these again for a special holiday like Easter, Thanksgiving, or Christmas. I am still a firm believer that I don’t like baking – I am not sure I have the patience for it, but I am very thankful that I had taken the time and energy to make these!! 😉

I have spent part of the evening watching the British mini series Daniel Deronda. It is such a great movie, and Daniel Deronda is simply a charming gentleman!! Great story. I am on episode 3 of 4, I can’t wait to see how it ends.

I really don’t have any extravagant plans for this evening. I think I going to spend some quality time with my sweetie this evening, and we may still yet go swimming, which will be fun. Other than that, I am going to enjoy a quiet evening doing some reading and getting ready for another work week. 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

The Perfect Sunday!

Good evening!

I have quite a lovely Sunday, matter-of-fact it has been a dang-near-perfect Sunday!

I got to sleep in, then immediately continued reading this REALLY good book, “The Discovery of Witches”, until I finished it. WHOO! HOO!!

“The Discovery of Witches” is about a well known historian, Diane Bishop, who because of the murder of her parents when she was young has turned her back on her heritage and doesn’t want to have anything to do with the fact that she comes from a long line of powerful witches. Not to mention the fact that she could have the potential to be a very powerful witch herself. Things change when she discovers a very old, magically bound book in Oxford University’s library, and unknowingly uses magic to open it. In opening this mysterious book, which has been missing for over the last century, she has inadvertently drawn attention to herself from every whitch, vampire, and daemon who will stop at nothing to figure out what powers she posses to be able to open this sacred text, only she doesn’t know how she did it herself. There is only one who can help her discover who she truly is, and that is a dark, brooding, 1500 year old vampire named, Matthew, but how can a witch and vampire coexist? Only determination of our hero and heroine, the help of some unlikely sources, and time will tell.

This book had the passion of the Twilight series, the mystery of the Harry Potter series, and even though this book did have a couple of slow spots, for the most part I remained on the edge of my seat wanting to see what happens next. There were a lot of ironic twists, and every time you were sure that all of the book’s secrets have been divulged, it would throw something new at you to absorb! FANTASTIC!!! I can not wait for the next book to come out.

After my morning of reading, I decided it was time to do something productive and I don’t get the opportunity to cook a lot, it is my husband’s kitchen after all, but today I just felt like I needed to get the desire to create something yummy out of my system! So, I put together, in our crock pot, a homemade chili recipe that I invented, which I was able to use some leftover grilled steak we had on hand. The chili has been cooking for a couple of hours and the house smells of grilled onions, chili, and honey cornbread now. Everything should be ready to eat in about a half an hour. Thank you, Baby for letting me dirty up your kitchen. I know that he is happy to have the night off!! 😉

Anyway, this evening I am going to get all of my laundry put away and see what I can do about clearing out some of my closet. After my shopping trip to Torrid yesterday, it just feels like the natural thing to do next!! One thing in, one thing out!

After that, if there is still some time left in our day, I am going to pull out my crochet and see if I can get back into working on some squares that I had been learning how to make and I am sure that my sweetie and I will watch the next episode of Bones.

I wish all weekends could be this productive and still this peaceful!! BLISS!!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening!!!

Note to Chunky Dunkers: Look for ways to slim down some of your favorite recipes. Swap full fat ingredients for lower fat substitutes, decrease the amount of salt you add to your food, try switching apple sauce for oils when baking, exchange white flour products for wheat, add pureed veggies into your soups. All of these little tricks will getting you eating healthier without you having to sacrifice any of your favorites. GO CHUNKY DUNKERS!!! 😉

Happy Quick Monday Morning!!

Good morning!

I have an early AM meeting this morning, and I am running a little behind, so I am going to make this post quick!! 😉

I had the opportunity to make my FAVORITE go-to, healthy soup yesterday, and I thought I would share my recipe with you, in a step-by-step pictorial:

Start by sauteeing 1/2 a large sweet onion, diced, over medium heat.

Add two large bell peppers, diced. Any color bell pepper would work, but I found some green ones at a great price.

Add one can of black beans, drained and rinsed.

Next add one can of any type of spaghetti sauce. I personally like Hunt’s Traditional. You could also use regular tomato sauce and tomato paste here, but the spaghetti sauce already has seasonings – so it saves time! 🙂

For more flavor, I next add about a cup of chunky salsa, whatever is your favorite will work. Also add 1 package of taco seasoning (chili or fajita seasoning can also work here, depending on what you have on hand).

Turn burner down to low, and cover pot with a lid.

Set your timer for 30 minutes, and let soup just simmer away!

After the timer has gone off, remove lid, and then I stir in about 2 cups of leftover steamed rice. You can also use dried pasta, this works well too!

Yep, you guessed it, let simmer for 30 more minutes.

and VIOLA! There you have it!! EASY-PEASY, and SUPER-DELICIOUS!!! 😉

To serve, just dish out a bowl, top with cheese, place under the broiler, if so desired, add a dollop of sour cream and you are good to go!! You can also add diced up tortilla, eat with tortilla chips, or serve over a bed of crisp lettuce – HMMMM – ALWAYS GOOD!!!

I hope you enjoyed this little recipe. If you do, please let me know in the comments up above, and I will see if I can cook up (HAHAHA – pun intended) to share with you next week!!

Have a FABULOUS day!! 😉

Sunday of Bliss!

Today has DEFINITELY been a Sunday of BLISS!! I knew when I woke up after sleeping in, next to my best friend, which I am blessed to be able to do every morning, that today was going to be a FABULOUS day!!!

While waiting for my sweetie to wake up, I got busy finishing the  book, The Lost Symbol, which I did. That book was very interesting – probably Dan Brown’s most controversial book to date. Nothing I have ever read of his have ever caused me to change my beliefs, and of course his books are works of fiction, but Dan Brown writes in such a way that you are forced to think about what your reality and what you believe.

By the time I finished reading, my sweetie was also awake, and was too reading the same book himself. Next, we headed to the office, so that I could do some crafting, and Jason started looking for pictures for his vision board. Apparently the success that my sis and I had last week in creating our own vision board has inspired my sweetie to create a vision board of his own! That makes me EXTREMELY happy!!! I think visualizing your future is a very healthy thing, and ESSENTIAL to making your dreams come true!!!

Jason made us a delicious Italian dinner this evening, and he is TOTALLY in his ZONE cooking, baking and trying out new recipes!! I really LOVE that man!!! 😉

Right now, I am watching a documentary about dreams, as in sleeping and dreams. Apparently 2 Nobel Prizes, and countless medical breakthroughs have come from things that people dreamed about while sleeping. It is rather fascinating! I didn’t realize that when you are in the stages of REM sleep, all of your muscles are absolutely relaxed, almost putting your body in something like a paralytic state, I never knew that! This documentary has inspired me to put a journal next to my bed so I can start writing my dreams down.

As for what is to come this week, I know I am going to be really busy this week at work. My co-worker and I are facing the 11th hour right before a very large 2 week go-live right now, and we have A LOT OF WORK TO DO BEFORE next Monday, which is the big go-live day!!! and I just remembered that I have a meeting tomorrow morning at 7:30 am, so I had better make sure I get to bed early tonight!!! 😉

As for now, I am going to spend the rest of my evening spending time with my sweetie and continuing on with my Sunday of bliss!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

Monday Night Book Night!

Tonight is book review night, and the book that I chose to review is called, Nesting it’s a Chick Thing. This book is such a fun read, and I highly recommend it anyone who wants to laugh, cry, and just learn more about living a FABULOUS life! Trust me on this, pick this book up!! It is like reading a creatively chic blog in paperback!!! FUN! FUN! FUN!!!

But why listen to me? Here is an editorial review from Publishers Weekly:

While Beanland and Terry do care about having a nice home, throwing fantastic parties and whipping up fabulous dinners, they have better things to do than polish the silver. The coauthors of It’s a Chick Thing: Celebrating the Wild Side of Women’s Friendships throw Martha Stewart-esque caution to the wind in this lifestyle guide with attitude, irreverently addressing the “four pillars of nesting”: decorating, entertaining, cooking and gardening. In each section, they give a basic overview of how to approach the task at hand, and then delve into the nitty-gritty, with sidebars, lists, pull-out quotes from celebrities and quirky clip art, all with a can-do, girl power mind-set, evident in the inclusion of such lines as “I am a marvelous housekeeper. Every time I leave a man, I keep his house” (from Zsa Zsa Gabor). Among other tidbits, readers will find cocktail recipes, flea market shopping tips, party invitation ideas, suggestions for creating a garden that suits their personality and reasons to give Martha some credit (“the chick can carve a pumpkin 200 ways and make 65 recipes from the seeds alone!”).

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Have a FABULOUS evening!