Lauren O'cheater pants

That's right. I did it. I strayed from the strict veg regimen I was to be on for the duration of Lent. Today. My Birthday. I had two scallops. The restaurant wasn't so veg friendly, and I had them take the bacon grease out of the sauce (which yes sounds gross, and yes, also sounds like it might be wickedly delicious). I have been pretty good about being only veg and have truley been enjoying it... but a girl only turns 26 once... right?? Today I was working at a trade show all day, and though my co-workers fussed over me (cards, singing, excessive mentioning of it being my birthday.... all of which i LOVED), it just wasn't the same as the usual love-fest, reunion, green beer binging days of my youth. Join me, in reminiscing the good 'ol parade debauchery days. Please note, the following pictures are to be browsed whilst singing (or humming) 'Through the Years' by Kenny Rogers: I can't remember when you weren't there

When I didn't care for anyone but you

I swear we've been through everything there is

Can't imagine anything we've missedCan't imagine anything the two of us can't do

Through the years, you've never let me down

You turned my life around, the sweetest days I've found

I've found with you ... Through the yearsI've never been afraid,

I've loved the life we've made

And I'm so glad I've stayed, right here with you

Through the

I can't remember what I used to do
Who I trusted, who I listened to before
I swear you taught me everything I know
Can't imagine needing someone soBut through the years it seems to me
I need you more and more


Through the years, through all the good and bad
I KNOW how much we had, I've always been so glad
To be with you ... Through the yearsIt's better every day, you've kissed my tears away
As long as it's okay, I'll stay with you
Through the years

OH St Patrick's Day... you complete me. I hope everyone had a fabulous day!

Woe is I : Chi town part one

I heart St. Pat's. No really. For the past 25 glorious years I've revelled in my partial Irish ancestry, love of parades/boozing/flair, and told anyone and everyone that would listen that the greatest part of March 17 is that the world comes together in all it's Green fabulousness to commemorate the anniversary of my birth. Yes, my mom, aunt/godmother Sheila, uncle bill, and self have ST PATRICK'S DAY BIRTHDAYS! I am also lucky enough to have wonderful friends who have a history of taking the day off work and heading to the KC parade with me and having a gay 'ol birthday/green party fun. THIS year I have to work on St Pat's. I'm in Chicago for a conference and flew down early to set everything up. Life's cruel joke is that Chicago is a BIG st pat's town and heading from the airport to my downtown hotel (yes, a block of the parade route) I saw thousands of people bedecked in green, lining the river, streets, and my very own hotel lobby with their loud and fun-having st patrick's day selves. Because I was headed straigh to the convention center for a day of angst and manual labor, and NO participating in the festivities (not to mention non of my friends there to celebrate like we've always done) It was like I was at a party I wasn't invited to. SO SAD. I just wanted to yell, St pat's isn't until Tuesday!' (my mom told me to get over it... i know, i know) This is the view from my hotel room: the green river. I'm loving being in a fun city that I seemingly never get to explore (other than frequent stops to Midway) I'm planning to see both high school and college friends while in town. Not to mention wearing a cute new green sweater with my suit on Tuesday. That helps, right?

Before I left I tried to make mashed potatoes out of cauliflower. Whoever said that this was an awesome sub for potatoes was high. It was good (maybe i needed more cauliflower? that stuff is not quote as dense as potatoes and a whole head generated just a cup of mashed-ness) i pureed it with a bit of almond milk, threw in some peas and corn and shaved some sharp cheddar cheese on top. It was veggie goodness. Loved it.

I also roasted some vegetables (yay, my favorite) tossed with EVOO and sea salt and roasted at 400 for 30 minutes? or something like that. I had red peppers, asparagus, sweet potato and a little cauliflower (note to self, it shriveled up and burned, next time no cauliflower). I put the finished vegetables on angel hair pasta that had been sprinkled with goat cheese. Complete heaven. I did try to save some of the roasted vegetables and then microwave them later. They were a soggy mess. I'm thinking next time either eat them immediately or bake/grill them to reheat.

So I will be in Chicago until a week from tomorrow. That's a lot of eating out (lord help me to have vegetarian/no fish options at company steak house dinners!) and zero home cooking..... in other words, not so much to discuss on this page. However I did make a HUGE bag of granola, dried fruit, nuts and cliff bars stashed for travel food emergencies. Other than that I'm planning on making it through the week until NEXT WEEKEND when some of my besties will be joining me in Chicago to paint the town red....er.... green as we celebrate my bday a bit after the fact and in general have a girls weekend in a new city. How fun will that be? All the credit in the world goes to my old roomie Steph whose idea this was in the first place!

Negative Nancy

Really more like 'worrying... er... wendy' but i've never heard of that one. So this week is midterms, I will be MIA next week for work (note to self: step up the planning, packing, angst), it's freezing, my to-do list is out of control and Greenlee has been killed off of All My Children. Suffice it to say... I've had a lot going on. Not to worry, I have been eating (where was I sunday? Studying for last night's test? or spending two hours trolling the aisles of the grocery store and blissfully selecting fruit, reading ingredient lists, and familiarizing myself with gourmet cheeses)

So new combos. Before said grocery trip (total therapy.. is it like that for anyone else?) I raided the contents of my fridge and tried to find a way to use the goat cheese before it went bad. Do I mind? heck no, I love that stuff.

• new potatoes
• evoo
• misc. seasonings (basil & chives?)
• goat cheese
• lemon juice

boiled then baked. deeeeeeeeeelish.

Post grocery store, in my overload of veggie euphoria (and procrastination of school work, obviously) I decided to make a veggie lasagna. Now, I have made lasagna before, and it seemed fairly intuitive, right?

• whole wheat lasagna noodles
• cottage cheese
• mozzarella cheese
• spaghetti sauce (i like the organic store brand)
• spinach
• red peppers
• cauliflower
• yellow & green zucchini
• asparagus
• roma tomatoes

(there might've been more veggies, I was throwing a lot of stuff in) I boiled the noodles first because i was nervous that they would be undercooked.

Oops... I had lasagna soup. Where the heck did all of this water come from?? granted, the veggies had juices, the sauce was saucy, the cottage cheese a runnier option than ricotta. I blame myself. Note to self: liberally pat dry the noodles or put in pan dry and hope they turn out right. *sigh* .... On the other hand I have discovered that any veg/cheese/whole grain combination is my favorite type of meal. No seriously, it categorizes nearly all of my bookmarked recipes. So lacking presentation/on-the-fork-convenience aside, it was still delicious. This last weekend was a lot of fun though. We went to a fun new swanky bar, met up with friends, saw my ALMA MATTER basketball team take their conference tournament championship (3 games won in OT... GO MULES!), and got to finally see Gran Terino (so good, no really).

Hope your week is smooth sailing so far, and I'll pretty much hope that for myself too. One bright spot is that Hayden Arthur, My friend Jessica's beautiful baby boy is finally here! YAY :)

Can we talk about this?

It is GORGEOUS outside. Less than a week ago I was driving in a blizzard and nearly drove into a semi truck on the interstate due to the overnight 1/2 foot of snow packed on ground and several more inches in the sky at that very moment. And yet here we are creeping up on 79 degrees today. How badly do I not want to be working? Seriously... senioritus/laziness/spring fever has it's grips on me and is sure to lower my GPA make me the worlds least productive employee. Today I am pencil skirt, bare legs, and some old sunny stripey pumps about things (and yes, this is the third picture I took of my feet/legs, all of which were not so flattering from this angle.. whatev). Hello spring. I've missed you. Spring makes me think of fabulous spring dresses, which makes me think of laying out at the pool, which makes me think maybe I should excersize more than doing yoga once a week (which let's be honest, includes about 10 minutes of meditation/nap time)...... gym, eh? eh? Enter this blog(oh she glows)/contest to win a DVD addressesing my laziness/spring fever/etc.

I hope everyone is out enjoying this amazingness. Also Mizzou won last night and KU lost.... so what a great day it is indeed :)

Eating while driving = trouble

So last night after Yoga I picked up dinner for John and headed to his apartment. It was a hefty drive. I was starving. I ate while driving. Unfortunately Planet Sub is now among the list of places I'm not supposed to eat while I'm driving. Seriously, adorable when it's babies with their food all over their face/chest/hair/clothes, embarassing when it's someone who is old enough to be getting a discount on drivers insurance. My delicious sandwich had salsa on it, which was probably my first problem, because it was the wettest sandwich ever made. And it was dark outside, and I was exiting off lanes and trying to listen intently to NPR so I could finally come to some sort of understanding of the banking system. Fifteen minutes later my black work-out pants looked like I had been homeless or sifting through debris/third-world-country rubble before I got to his place. Gross. Salsa sandwich + holding vertical for eating + driving + not remembering to get napkins at sub shop = trouble and embarassing wet pants/seat situation.
I now have resolved to resist the urge to bag and drag. Further motivation was how amazingly delicous Monday night's post-class quick meal was.

Stuffed Red Pepper (adapted from epiciurious)

• red pepper
• goat cheeses
• zucchini & yellow squash
• cherry tomatoes
• couscous
• seasoning

SO good, but totally messy. I also will not be eating this in the car.

Both recipes called for chickpeas, but it was late, I was in the mood for something light and I had already reached my protein minimum for the day, and didn't feel the need to load on more. For a full meal or for feeding more people it would be a fabulous option. I will be making/experimenting with this again.

I also made this risotto-y thing. FABULOUS. How great is it that asparagus and red peppers (3 x the vitamin C of oranges!) are on sale now. I feel like it's opening a whole new world to me. So I used brown rice, barely stirred, and otherwise cut corners with this... but man, it was still delilcious. The night I made this I actually left my laptop at work, so in winging it (danger, danger) I omitted quite a few things.

Mock Risotto

• brown rice
• garlic
• vegetable broth
• peas
• asparagus
• red pepper
• low fat cream cheese
• chives

I also went to Emily's after I got home from class on Wednesday. I thought she was making dinner, she thought I was making dinner. Who's on first? Anyway we raided her fridge and came up with a potato cook off with hearty salads for our veg dinner. Mine were the super unhealthy queso/sour cream potatoes (they were boiled then broiled with toppings) hers had EVOO, rosemary and garlic. I think we both know who won.

Even Mary Anne liked mine best.

The next night I was determined to use the butternut squash that had been hanging out for a week, and obviously my asparagus steamer that had been hanging out even longer (summer? eh, who knows). Look how tall and amazing it is.... don't you just love those super specific kitchen gadgets?

So I topped my butternut squash soup with tomatoes, goat cheese, and S&P. Um..... the soup tasted like babyfood so I kept adding Almond Milk to it to give it sweetness and make it more soupy and less pasty. Um... still kind of baby-ish. I simmered the squash cubes with a bit of ground red pepper and vegetable broth so it was simple but still had some other flavors. I HAD heavy cream in the refridgerator, but resisted. It probably needed it. Despite the wholesome yummy veggy feeling after the meal, I was only in like with this.

Did I tell you about the weekend? I met in Des Moines with a bunch of my aunts, grandma, cousin, momma, and sister. We saw legally blonde, caught up, and in general had a blast. Here we are at the art center cafe (not to be confused with a mental institution... er... because of the white padded wall)

Legally Blonde the musical! :)

I hope everyone is having a fabulous hump day!

Dear Concerned Reader:

From my college roomie this afternoon:

Are you the new 90210 cast member? Because I'm concerned that you haven't eaten since Monday. Blog post please.

Well I've eaten. I've also cooked, taken pictures, attempted to upload them this morning when I realized that i LEFT my camera in yesterday's purse. Then I wondered how much energy I could save a day If I didn't switch purses so often. And then I thought as much as I love being lazy, I truly dislike mismatching/clashing (not to mention i kind of live to accessorize). And then I chastised myself for being so out of shape that I was considering trying to save energy by matching less. Get off the couch already lauren, Sheesh.... even J.Lo ran a marathon.. after twins.

Where was I? oh, right. [soon-to-be-but-not-pictured-at-the-moment] This week I made this risotto thing that didn't include the right kind of rice, wine, stirring, or parm. Do I love short cuts or what? I also made butternut squash soup, which was seriously a lot like baby food. I pureed and added spices and things, but minus adding a wheel of cheese or something unhealthy and/or with 'wham' factor.... total baby food. Well, I guess it's been 25 plus years since I've probably eaten baby food, so what do I know. However, it did make me think I should have been eating it with a rubber spoon. food for thought.

What else is new? I'm glad that you asked. I'm going VEGETARIAN for lent this year. What's so novel about that you say? Well although I've done it for several years now, I've always done the 'catholic' thing and eaten fish. So basically it means I get to eat a lot more sushi. Everyone wins, right? This year I'm being a little more hard core. That also means no fish and no hungover hamburgers on my birthday. No really (friends, please hold me to this, don't let me be all 'don't tell god' while I pick the day after st. pat's green confetti out of my hair).

I'm actually paying lots of attention to my protein intake daily and trying to be as healthy as possible (instead of ... oh... say eating cheese pizzas every day for several weeks, not that that has happened in the past. okay yes it has). So stay tuned for healthy things, which may or may not be impossible in my 1.5 weeks traveling for work.

This weekend will be SO MUCH FUN. I am headed to Iowa again for a girls weekend of art, theater and excessive amounts of estrogen. What could be better?

Happy weekend!

See, my damie, Pootie Tang don't wa-da-tah to the shama cow... 'cause thats a cama cama leepa-chaiii, dig?

Pootie tang might be the stupidest movie I've ever watched (or watched for a few minutes, channel surfed, made several comments about how surprised I was that Bob Costas was in this movie, and how UNsurprised I am that Wanda is Sikes is in it).. Anyway if you're unfamiliar it's the classic story about a guy who has mojo, loses mojo, gains it back and makes the world a better place while being shirtless and NOT SPEAKING ENGLISH. Seriously it was just hilarious jibberish. example: Baby, I'm going to sine your pitty on the runny kine!


Awesome. The marathon do-nothing session was fueled by celebrating the big wins with all three college basketball games that we attended on Saturday. Two for my Alma Matter and one for his team. woohoo! His sister announced her engagement that day too, so what else would we do but head to the dive bowling alley for frosty coors light pitchers and creeping out middle schoolers? (or maybe they were the ones creeping us out, they were in twilight/vampire shirts... is that what the kids are up to these days?) These kids, in the lane next to ours, called john 'Sir' and didn't laugh at my jokes (what is WRONG with them????) ... we then proceeded to make a lot of jokes about W-2's and being grown ups.


I then proceeded to have only strikes and gutter balls. Heavy on the gutter balls. I am the most uneven bowler ever.

My victory dance was a Beyonce 'All the Single Ladies' running-man type dance. It was awesome... until I fell... with my bowling ball. and got bruises. and john told me to quit being such a drama queen. except that HE kept doing this.

John got lots of X's (strikes).................. but I was so excited at my freak victory (the other two games i bowled under 50. ouch.) I obviously took a picture.

Because I did nothing but eat food at basketball games (which..... would you believe... is not health friendly)... i thought I would share a hearty yummy dish I made last week. When I was in Iowa for My grandma's party, My aunt Anne (hi food aunt!) let me take a hy-vee magazine/cookbook/publication that focused on healthy and natural meals (look at you hy-vee, nice work). They had an easy slow cooker recipe for chicken pot pie which sounded AMAZING!

HyVee Chicken Pot Pie Easy Amazingness

• carrots
• onion
• celery
• chicken
• chicken broth
• thyme
• bay leaf
• S&P
• flour

SO easy. In fact I came home over lunch and threw the ingredients in. My slow cooker is kind of small (which is oh-so-nice for cooking for one) and doesn't have high/low designations so I had no idea if after 5 hours my meal would be over/under cooked.

Cut to after work when I'm hauling myself and my ten million bags (laptop, school books, purse with usually 10 kinds of lip glosses and a change of shoes and some sort of breakfast/lunch/snack bag) I notice the most heavenly smell wafting through the hallways. I think to myself 'someone is cooking something good'.... much to my delight when I opened my door it was coming from MY apartment (obviously I then felt like an idiot for not remembering).... this dish was SO good. I made homemade whole wheat biscuits (they didn't use milk or butter and they were kind of not my everything).... but from scratch amazingness.


So my refrigerator has been smelling weird for a little while (after tossing stuff, cleaning it, and loading it up with baking soda it STILL smells like a too-old forgotten bean dish of last month) and consequently I've been trying to use up what's in there as opposed to whipping up new fabulous things. Easier... but not so great for the look-what-i-just-made blog o mine. Don't hate. I'll check in soon :) Hope you had an AMAZING weekend! :)