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Posts Tagged winter

Too Much White and Not Enough Green

Feb 6

Posted by Shari B. in Uncategorized | 9 Comments

Hi blog buds!

If you are a Colorado resident, hope you enjoyed the snow day on Friday.  For those of you not in CO, we had a solid snowstorm, dropping about 2 FEET of snow on most of us along the outskirts of Denver.  (I heard Blackhawk got FOUR feet!)

Views from our windows:

Not sure if this happens to other people, but there is something about a blizzard that makes me LAZY.  I didn’t work out all weekend and I ate a lot of starchy comfort food.

I do blame part of the food on having received this as a birthday gift:

Excitement just doesn’t cut it!  I’ve always wanted a stand mixer.  Now I finally have one!   (Thank you to my sweet husband for adding to my kitchen gadget arsenal!)

So of course I had to make stuff!  Almond cake, two different batches of dark chocolate chunk cookies, a loaf of yeast-free bread.

This mixer might be bad for my waistline!  ;)

But now that the ‘birthday blizzard weekend of gluttony’ is over and it’s MONDAY, that means my year of “Fit & Fine at 39” commences!  2012 in general has been off to a really great start with fitness and food – now I plan to dial it in even a little further.

The first item on the menu today?  A green juice!

And as I write this I am drinking a multi-green kombucha.  The color tone I plan to set for this year is GREEN.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!  And if you have sunshine near you, please send it our way so we can melt off some of this white stuff!

– Shari B. =)

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Autumn Beauty and Pumpkin Envy

Oct 28

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 5 Comments

Hey blog buds!  It’s FRIDAY EVE!  Wahooo!

So first I want to say thanks for the interest in sea vegetables!  I loved reading your comments, about how you want to learn more about how to use them, so I’ll definitely let you in on any recipes I try (or create).  You all wanted the agar agar “jell-o” recipe too!  OK, twist my arm!  ;)   I’ve updated the original Sea Veggies post so if you go back to that page and scroll to the bottom the instructions are there!  I can’t wait to hear what you think after you give it a try!

It’s been a really great and hectic week, so I’m thankful that last week, MSP and I were able to take some time to just tool around in the car to see some of the fall colors before they all blow away.  Here are a few of the pics from our drive.

The mountains got hit really hard with a lot of snow early this week (which was after the photo taken above), but so far “down here” at 6,000 feet of elevation we’re still having amazing autumn weather.  While the mornings are getting cold (in the 20s), we’re going to see mid-70s tomorrow and Saturday!  Thank you, Mother Nature, for granting my wish for a late start to winter weather this year.  I can’t complain!

And on the way to school the other morning, I had this gorgeous sight!

Yes, I’m snapping photos at 70 mph through my car windshield.  Shhh – don’t tell anyone!  ;)

Well I’m off to the kitchen to cook a school recipe that we sampled yesterday:  Braised Tempeh in Coconut Curry Sauce.  I’m going to pair it with Cauliflower “Couscous”.  And later, we’ll be carving pumpkins because we are actually going to open our door to trick-or-treaters this year (gasp) instead of retreating to our basement like we usually do.  I’m blaming this on Allison from One Day at a Time ;) because her awesome jack-o-lanterns inspired me.   You have to go take a look – they did a great job on theirs!

Do you have any fun and exciting plans for Halloween weekend?

Have a fabulous day, friends!

– Shari B. =)

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Winter Outside, Spring Inside

Jan 6

Posted by Shari B. in Handy Kitchen Tools | 6 Comments

Hi friends,

We have another crazy cold front moving in – tonight’s forecast is for temps of minus five – so yesterday afternoon MSP and I spent a good long time working on that ice issue out front again.   The pictures just don’t do it justice.

We are sore puppies today.  We got a good low back and upper body workout!

I think we are starting to understand why the previous owners decided to sell!  ;)

But luckily I have a little sunshine going on indoors!  Things are growing in my kitchen!

My awesome brother-in-law had my name in our gift exchange and he knew I was wanting to start looking into gardening and growing some herbs.  So he sent me an AeroGarden! Here’s a closer look on the day we set it up:

And here is a look at how they’ve grown:

Right now I have basil, chives and thyme growing.  It’s so fun to have a little feel of spring in the kitchen when it has been dreary and cold outside.

The AeroGarden website has a lot of different ‘pods’ you can purchase to grow besides just herbs.  They also have quite the variety of veggies and flowers.   I have no idea how long it will be before I can start harvesting my herbs, but I’m very excited to use them.  I have plenty of ideas of things to do with basil, but not so much for thyme and chives (well, outside of a baked potato that is!)

If you have a favorite recipe that uses thyme or chives that you’d be willing to share I’d LOVE to give it a try! Have you ever used an AeroGarden to grow your own herbs or veggies?  We’d love to hear your experience with it – drop a comment!

As much fun as I think it would be to grow flowers, I think I’ll stick with herbs for now (I love cilantro so that will be next) and maybe some veggies after that!

What a perfect gift idea for someone who feels like she has trouble keeping plants alive – something to keep in mind for those ‘hard to buy for’ people.

Hope that your Wednesday has been fabulous!

– Shari B. =)

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