Long Live the King

I woke up this morning wishing it was winter so I could ceremoniously wear one glove in memorium. I might've bedazzled it too. I loved that Michael loved bedazzlement. *sigh*

This further makes me vow that we WILL learn the thriller dance this summer. In college my good friend Amanda would ALWAYS lead the crowd/dance floor, knowing every single move. She was amazing. However in desperate need of-but without the guidance of the brilliant Amanda, we instead looked up the thriller youtube video and stopped/started it while we tried to learn it backwards (micheal facing the camera, us facing micheal) over a few bottles of wine. Cut to the next weekend on a dance floor when thriller was played and --not surprisingly -- when 1 1/2 eight counts into the dance when we crashed into one and other we asked the DJ to stop and start it again (he didn't)... it was SO FUN though. Here's to you Micheal, and moonwalking your way into our hearts and group dance aspirations. In other news, I had a FANTASTIC and creative meal planned, I promise. However, game time, one of the star pieces of produce in said meal was peeled and discovered to be BAD. that's right. dead. old news. finito. checked out. swimming with the fishes (okay that one just didn't make sense). gone to Avocado heaven (mexico? could be). Anyway Instead I decided to make an impromptu big 'ole salad based on inspiration from the following article:

Animals on drugs: Australian crop circles created by 'high' wallabies
That's right. Apparently a bunch of wallabies (by the way, what IS the difference between kangaroos and wallabies?) anyway, they got into some poppy fields and got HIGH and spun around a bunch of times until they crashed, ruining crops and causing all kinds of problems for farmers, animal control, and of course causing hilarity.


Then I got to thinking how poppy seed dressing sounded SOOOooo good. I searched my calendar for upcoming drug tests:
But since I'm not a MLB player, have a parole officer, or on Seinfeld, I'm pretty much able to have all the poppy seed I want :)

My Salad was DEE LISH

• Spinach
• Iceberg Lettuce
• Red peppers
• Roma tomatoes
• Carrot shreds
• Cucumber slices
• shelled edamame (YUM)
• PLENTY of poppyseed dressing

For more protein/good measure I had a little cup of lowfat cottage cheese and some fig newtons.


What did I do LAST weekend you ask? Well, John and I saw UP in 3D :) It was AWESOME. Totally adorable story line, and really cool to see things in 3D (check out our cool glasses!)

Also my friend Jessica (the first to have offspring) came into town and I got to have my second date with her completely adorable son. Not surprisingly, this rang no bells, clocks or timers. As much as this kid was trying to crawl away from me most of the time he was there, I was happy to live vicariously through his momma. :)

He IS cute though isn't he?

In other news the CHIRO says I need to have a more active spine at work. Hence forth, My regular spinning chair has been replaced by this guy:

Abs of steel in like ... what... two? three weeks? Too bad I spend most of the day with my elbows on the desk typing/moving hte mouse. I guess it will take more like a month for a six pack then, huh? :)

Hope everyone is has a FABULOUS weekend!

Salad and lots of dorky dancing

Because I have champagne taste on a beer budget (as mom would say), I had to slash the grocery list from lofty goals and ingredients like goat cheese, salmon, and nori.............. to PB&J... which is what I have actually been eating all week (although delicous, not necessarily blog-innovation worthy, even on my remedial level). My shifting of priorities was for a good cause, I promise. Multiple Chriopractor visits this month so I can turn my head to the left (and dance the robot out of choice and not necessity in the future), a SUPER fabulous bday party weekend out of town with some old sorority peeps, and some new summer threads (don't judge... the banana boat has gone to my head and caused poor fiscal summer-related decisions). So behold, yesterday's lunch combo that impressed myself and my low standards.

Feta/Watermelon Salad:

• Watermelon
• Feta
• Spinach
• Balsalmic Vinagar

And finally, because all I do recap weekends on here anyway, a photo summary of my very favorite weekend of June '09 (too early to say that?) Starting with a trip to see my H.S. BFF -- seriously the funniest person I've ever known. It was good times. She acts/speaks/thinks just like Liz Lemon. Further reinforcing my thoughts that Tina Fey and I would be BFF in real life.

Saturday was a Birthday party and night out with old friends in a random college town that was not our own. A few girls live in KC and a few live in the STL, so we decided to meet in the middle for a birthday bonanza. It did not dissapoint.With some besties.... Heart them big time! (Nin I know you're reading this ;) They even indulged in my LOVE of headband that evening and request to be called Blair Waldorf.After making a spectacle at a number of establishments, and making the cab/van driver take us through the drive thru (i was good, minus the handful of onion rings I stole) obviously we came home and put on our favorite sorority songs. Good thing I have a playlist entitled: 'delta zeta' which has every girl's favorite madonna, whitney, cindy lauper, pat benettar, britney, etc. tunes.

.... DANCE PARTAY!

Hilarious.

In very exciting, non-weekend-related news.... word on the street is that my favorite food aunt is further guiding me along the light and way of the cooking world by supplying me with the following:

How great would THAT be? Hope everyone's Thursday is BANANAS (you know, in a good way).

Flo Rida... Holla!

Goood morrow my peoples! Flo Rida.... the location (as opposed to the rapper, and yes i totally spelled it that way on purpose) is where i have been hiding out all week/weekend. Despite the fact that I am mostly all work and little play... behold the BEAUTEOUS view from out the window:


Which obviously leads to this... (high SPF? check and check)


Though I obviously couldn't cook, I sure was eating... HEY OH. The most healthful and food blog related eats were when I tracked down this beauty of a restaurant I had heard so much about (okay actually it was only 2 miles from my hotel, but still, i was determined). This place is AMAZING!

• All seasonal and fresh foods (hence, the name)
• Everything is under 500 calories
• There are no fryers in the entire restaurant and they don't use butter (i'm not sure how that works with their completely delicious shot glass size desserts, but kudos restaurant)
• hands down the best place i went all week (including local buttery seafood places where the taste of the food was crazy delicious.... a la red vines and mr. pibb)

My companion for dinner was a friend from college, then we went to a dive bar on the beach... LOVED it! Early flight though, so it was fun... with time and drink limitations.

Before I left KC, in addition to a super fun rehearsal dinner that john was in (well he was in the wedding too, but i had to miss that to travel :( Anyway one of my besties flew in from Denver, and we.... OBVIOUSLY... had a dance party. The caption to this beauty below might read something like.... oh no... walk out the door... don't come around here.. you're not welcome anymore..

A more composed pic:

AHHH love. Can't wait to GET BACK! I have the best girls weekend in history happening, school starts tomorrow (okay okay, can totally put that off longer)..

by the way: did anyone hear Al Roker's HILARIOUS joke just now about coffee and all the single lattes? (beyonce style). Total highlight of my morning. Well, that and having an A boarding pass.

Tood-le-loo

And I'm Spent..

This weekend was fabulous. Emily and I had plans to spend the day trolling for treasures at flea markets, etc. .... until we realized it was going to be 90+ degrees and sunny. Pool-side margaritas trumped anything else we could think of (we did stop at a garage sale as we got lost on the way to the pool... so that counts.. right?)
Too bad I'm Irish and invariably end up looking like this:

Many hours later........ DANCE PARTY (and no emily and john are not getting sucked into a sci-fi black hole in space or morphed into anything.... my hands were just shaking and i was too lazy to get out the real camera, and instead used the low res iphone camera)

Sunday John and I watched Milk.... loved it. How lucky is my generation to have not been really (i mean really) persecuted? Deep thoughts.

Also we won tickets to a comedy club nearby to see hanging with Mr. Cooper (ironically, john and i had seen him there a few years ago)... i heart comedy.

So last night I felt it was my blog duty to make some things I hadn't yet made. So.... I tried my hand at Granola

• rolled oats


• sesame seed


• almonds


• brown sugar


• salt


• cinnamon


• ginger


• applesauce


• honey


• canola oil

My entire apartment smelled like baking applesauce.... yum.

The lumpy mass below is my attempt at a hot pocket feast. After my failed martha attempt a few weeks ago, I decided it would be fun to try making different kinds of hot pockets. I've been asking my OH-SO knowledgeable food aunt Anne dough questions so I can make my own healthy whole grain stuff from scratch. However..... because this is an all around new attempt (however simple in its nature) I thought I would remove potential for it to fail on the first time (let's be real here). So... pillsbury pizza dough it is. BTW, how annoying is it they don't have a multigrain option? The uber processed was less desirable, admittedly, but... here we are.

My first attempt was a 'veggie' pizza HP (hp = hot pocket, not harry potter.. or hewlett packer) anyway i added spaghetti sauce with peppers, mushrooms and part skim mozz cheese shreds.

the next one was cheddar cheese with broccoli and cauliflower.

Then tex-mex-ish (yeehaw!) and had corn, peppers, black beans and cheddar

Then swiss with chopped turkey and spinach.

All together now (ignore the one on the bottom left, it's ugly and was a scrap one). So what IS the difference between a Lean/Hot pocket and a Calzone and a Pizzone? Marketing? Square versus half-circle shape? Can I call these Lauren Pockets? I do really like pockets.

So I baked these according to the dough directions (10-15 min?) and hope to be eating these bad boys all week.

Jerry's Thoughts:

• get a rolling pin. (What is it that is so difficult about dough? It's a sticky, unmanageable concoction that is impossible to spread without poking fingerholes).... the dough was way too thick, and I'm guessing the famed kitchen tool would be helpful in the future


• do NOT use spaghetti sauce. For all things spaghetti/marinara spag. sauce has always worked (a tomato is a tomato is a tomato, right?... wrong). This time it was leaking out corners and pretty much dissolved during baking. TOMATO PASTE is where it's at next time people, tomato paste


• just make the homemade stuff.... all of that carby processed stuff finds plenty of other ways into my diet (re: margarita weekends), when I'm home cooking and experimenting the least I can do opt for the fresher/healthier stuff.


• That Heidi and Spencer make me want to gouge my eyes out. That if i'm a celebrity get me out of here' is on every monday night all summer, then I'm throwing my TV out the window.... onto the street... from the fourth floor. OI.

Special shout out to Anne/Grandma/Mom who went to the most FABULOUS little artist's colony in Wisconsin where yours truly was born. So Jealous... want to go back. Hope you ladies had a wonderful road trip!!

More shout outs (what is this a radio station?) HAPPY 18th Birthday to my SEESTER! She totally doesn't read this blog, but she is SO wonderful.

Hope everyone is having a FANTASTIC week thus far!