Hi blog buds!

First, a ‘heads up’ that this will be one of those posts with topic jumps!  ;)   It’s random update day!

How was your holiday weekend? Did you relax or were you a busy bee?  We did a little of both.  We finished up the ‘do-over’ on our guest room (baseboards painted, walls painted, dresser painted and added handles, curtain rod & curtains hung, lanterns hung, ‘flameless candles’ purchased, silk plants washed, new bedding purchased, then washed, and bed made, and finally vinyl “dream” quote added to the wall.) Phew!  Nothing like an upcoming house-guest to give you a deadline and the motivation to get things done!  It’s always more fun to do these things when you have a reason.

Do you ever start to look at your home through a different pair of eyes?  What I mean is, MSP and I are pretty clean people and keep a tidy house for the most part – but you know how sometimes your eyes scan right over dust on baseboards, or crumbs in drawers, or refrigerators that seem to have mustard rings, dried almond milk and who knows what else crusted to the shelves?   (Or my insanely messy closet!)  Well sometimes when I consider someone staying our house, all of a sudden I really *SEE* these things and go OH MY GOSH, where did that dirt (or dog hair or streak) come from??!!  :)   I’ll use our sliding glass door as the main example.  I could Windex that thing every day and our dogs would still have nose prints all over it in 2 minutes flat.  So I basically only Windex it now every once in a while or for special occasions.  I just don’t even notice it anymore because it’s a normal sight that my eyes skim right past now.  Then, all of a sudden you *SEE* what you think a house-guest might and you’re horrified because it really is gross!  EWW!  So I did a lot of that kind of cleaning this weekend – my fridge now sparkles, for one thing!

Which was interesting timing, because I then went to the grocery store and have a fridge so full you can’t even notice how clean it is! (I should have thought of that strategy before taking out each individual drawer to wash!)

And on the topic of groceries, I owe you an update on what I’ve been spending on groceries these days.  We planned what we think we’ll need for this upcoming week, with recipes including Summoning Summer Salmon Cakes, Black Bean Brownies, BBQ night (Sunshine Burgers for me, Spicy Turkey burgers for the meat eaters) and Pita Pizzas.  (While MSP’s mom is here she said she wants to try some of the stuff I show on the blog.)  Plus the usual veggie suspects for smoothies and salads.  We stocked up on Larabars which were on sale for $1.00 (SCORE!) as well as Vitamin Water Zero’s which were on sale for 88 cents.  All told the bill was $110.  As we were standing in line, MSP guessed it would be $92 and I guessed $118.  (We do that all the time at the store, because we’re goofballs like that!)

Prior to this I hadn’t made an ‘official’ organized grocery run since the last time I showed you a list.  But that didn’t stop me from zipping in a couple of times to the tune of $33.71, $16.70, and $44.29 since August 23rd.  I’d still like to do better, obviously, but I’m getting there!  We like to make sure we have a houseful of food for guests so we probably go overboard a bit.  Next weekend we probably won’t even have a normal grocery trip, outside of restocking fresh veggies and almond milk.  So it’ll even out.  I’m really interested to see what my grocery bill will be like when I’m in school, since we eat what we cook while we’re there.  Will my bill go UP from ‘homework recipes’ or down from not having to pack lunches & snacks on school days?  We shall see!

Another shopping trip this weekend has me excited for some new spices & ingredients to play with:  refined almond oil (for high heat cooking), fig & orange balsamic vinegar (can’t WAIT to make a reduction out of this), Chinese five spice, garam masala, and herbs de Provence.

I’m already on the lookout for things I can make using these ingredients.  :)

Meanwhile, in the kitchen…

Here are some of the fun things I’ve been making lately:

Spicy Cheeseless “Cheezy” Enchiladas Verde (from my own brain, recipe & instructions will be included in a future post)

Halibut & Cucumber Sandwich (using leftovers) – looks a little boring, but was really tasty:

Vegan Mac-n-Cheese (this too will be discussed further in a future post, stay tuned!)

And as for adventures in fitness lately:

This is an area I realize I’ve not been discussing as much on the blog, since so much has been food based.  Yes, I still workout!   :)   I’ve been getting back to basics in my weight training again, focusing on bigger compound moves like deadlifts, free weight squats, weighted lunges, full push-ups, etc.  For cardio, I’ve only been getting one really decent run in per week outdoors with one of my clients, and the rest of it has been iron yoga or hill walking on the trails by our neighborhood.  Today I did a 4 mile power walk as a “socialcize” session.  Tomorrow will be weight training.  Thursday will be an outdoor hilly interval run.  It’s SO dark in the mornings already – today at 6:00 AM the sun still hadn’t peeked it’s head out yet.  It bums me out because I LOVE to wake up to early sunshine – it makes it so much easier to feel like getting up and getting your workout it.  When it’s dark, my body feels like it’s getting out of bed way before it should and I just don’t feel ‘with it’ until the sun is shining in the sky.

Are you feeling the effects of the shorter days and fall-like weather yet? I think that’s why I’ve been making things like the food you see above… the enchiladas, mac-n-cheese.  Craving healthified versions of good ol’ comfort foods!

Well friends, this was a long one so if you’re still reading :) thanks for making it to the end of the post!  I hope you are having a SUPER day and I’ll see you next time!

– Shari B. =)

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