New Puppeh!

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As of January 1st, my husband and I now have 2 dogs! We have been thinking about getting a new furry family member for a while now and I have been watching petfinder.com for the perfect brother for our dog Tex. I immediately fell in love with a Border Collie mix named Ash when I saw him online. He was listed through a rescue group that had a fairly long application process, but after a month or so we were able to meet him! He and Tex immediately got along and it seemed like a perfect fit. After heading back to Michigan to celebrate Christmas with our families, we were able to pick him up on New Year’s day. He is one and a half and came to us already house trained! I have since taught him to “shake” and to “lay down”. Since he spent quite a lot of time in a shelter, he has some strange quirks. He is afraid of anything moving above him. He checks that the ceiling fans are not moving before he will go into different rooms and when I take him for walks through our neighborhood, he steers clear of basketball hoops on the edge of the street. I also took him to the vet for the first time and he was not a fan…. it took me a good 5 minutes to get him on the scale!

Ash

Time to Get Back At It!

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So, I know I missed the whole ‘New Year’s Resolution’ mark, but today starts my 30 Day Clean Eating Challenge.  Many people make ridiculous fitness and health regimens after the first of the year only to be let down come February.  My friend and I chose this date to start our challenge to give people a few weeks to realize they may need some guidance in their fitness journeys.

The Clean Eating Challenge isn’t a diet plan that come pre-packaged and frozen at your door step.  This Challenge is NOT a diet, rather it is a lifestyle, habit forming change.  Every week there is a shopping list and a meal guide.  That way you don’t even have the excuse of “oh crap, I forgot about dinner, better pick up a pizza”! The recipes are consist of REAL food that is available at every grocery store.

I myself began the challenge last week and already made some observations in my eating habits… I felt much fuller, sooner.  This is because everything that is entering your body is nutrient filled, and is absorbed and used right away.  Your body doesn’t have to work as hard to filter out the junk.

I (surprisingly) had very little sugar/salt cravings.  When a sugar craving does ensue, I look at my list and there are several sweet options to curb the craving such as, yogurt with berries or celery and peanut butter.The other part of the Challenge, which also helps sugar cravings, is to drink Shakeology everyday.  This is NOT a requirement for the group, but it definitely helps jump start any workout program. (If you want info on Shakeology, get at me)!  

Long Time, No… Write?

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I don’t believe I’m alone when I say I suffer from post-holiday blues… Which is why I probably haven’t blogged in quite some time. My apologies.

Anyway, a lot has happened in the past 3-4 weeks! 

There was Christmas, New Years, oh and I got engaged! (Thanks, Joanne)!!!

So I am supposed to really excited, right? And don’t get me wrong, I am THRILLED! But, it is quite overwhelming…

So far, the biggest obstacle we have come across is the venue.  My fiance and I live in West Virginia, but are from the Detroit, Michigan area and are planning this wedding from afar.  We have narrowed it down to about 4 venues, but we still need to visit in person.  We will be home for our friends wedding at the end of January and are visit all 4 venues that weekend. 

I guess I always imagined wedding planning to be full of friendly visits and lunch/coffee dates with my Mom, soon-to-be Mother-in-Law, and my bridesmaids the reality is, it is a “hurry up and wait” game with vendors, and my bridesmaids are spread across the continental U.S.

Once the venue is set, I am hoping the excitement level with amplify… But for now I am taking my Fish Oil supplements, Vitamin D and yoga to cope with this SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder).

Until Next Time (Which I promise will be sooner than last time),

Housewife-to-Be Julia

YAYYYYY

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This post goes out to my girl JULIA… CONGRATULATIONS on gettin’ engaged! YO GOOOO GIRLLL!!!!!!

 

Now we can all live vicariously to Julia’s planning! (future for me, past for jessica!) So excited! 

 

TELL THE WORLD YOUR STORY JULIA!

Our First “Friendsgiving”

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My husband and I had planned to have Thanksgiving with his brother, sister-in-law and their 1.5 year old daughter this year….but being that they found out they were moving to Michigan for a career opportunity in October, they had to rebook their trip for a later date. So, we ended up having Thanksgiving at our neighbors house this year! They have a daughter who is around my age that has recently become my “workout-buddy” and they also have two sons in their early 30’s. I was in charge of the appetizers and although everything turned out to be delicious, it was the bacon wrapped asparagus that really sealed the deal (the “deal” being that I am pretty much an amazing cook!)<ha! This is the recipe I found on Pinterest:

Wrap 3 to 4 asparagus spears in uncooked bacon and put in a pan.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Combine 1 stick of butter, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 tbsp of garlic powder, 1/2 tbsp black pepper and 1 tbsp of soy sauce in a pan. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.

Pour the mixture over the bacon wrapped asparagus and cook for 30-40 minutes or until the bacon is “done”….we broiled it on high for about 2 minutes at the end to really brown it up!

I got asked by multiple people at the party for the recipe, so I thought I should share it here too.

Overall, we had a really good time and the food was delicious. There is nothing like having Thanksgiving with your own family though, so maybe next year!

Gobble Gobble

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Beluga Lentil, Quinoa, Persimmon, Voodoo Vinaigrette 

1/2 C Lentils 
1 small onion, halved
1 carrot, chunks
1/2 C Quinoa
2 Cs Veggi broth
1/2 Garbonzo beans,drained
1 fuyu persimmon (they taste like apples, they are awesome and currently in season) 
2 ripe tomatoes or handful of cherrubs cut 
1/4-1/2 C mushrooms
1/2 C basil
voodoo vin (recipe follows)

Lentils:
Combine lentils with onion, carrot, and celery and add 1 C of broth. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for approx. 15-20 minutes until lentils are just tender. drain and discard veggi’s

Quinoa:
Combine quinoa, 1 C veggi broth, and a pinch of salt; bring to a boil, cover, reduce eat to low and cook approx 15, until the water is absorbed and quinoa fluffs up. Remove from heat. Fluff with a fork. Add mushrooms, cover, and let cool. 
Meanwhile…
Make Voodoo Vin. 
I always add less oil than recipes call for and more of the ingredients I know I love (for example, mustard, basil, garlic, and shallot in the recipes may have gotten a little more than called for =)) so, feel free to make this your own recipe! 
In a blender, combine the following:
2 tbl brown mustard seeds, toasted
2 tbl curry (french) powder 
2 tlb ground cumin 
1 1/2 tbl tumeric (don’t be scared of this spice due to its’ bright yellow appearance. It is actually pretty flavorless and tremendously good for you) 
1 C fresh cilantro
1/2 C Basil leaves
Juice of 2 lemons (1/4 C)
2 tbl Mirin (Jap. Sweet rice wine. No mirin? Use rice wine but add a pinch or two of sugar or extra teaspoon of honey to the dressing)
2 tbl honey or agave
1 shallot, chopped
2 garlic cloves, smashed (*admit if you are a freakazoid and allergic to one of god’s smelliest and greatest flavors he has blessed us with) 
salt & peppa
1 C oil (recipe calls for canola but I used EVOO and only about 2-3 tbls. because its a much more potent flavor. You want to think about how dominate your oil’s flavors are before you go ahead and add a cup of it. Avacado, flax seed, coconut, walnut, etc .. scale way back. those are powerful. ALSO DO NOT ADMIT THE OIL. Contrary to popular belief. Oils can/are good for you. Good fats are ESSENTIAL, I repeat. ESSENTIAL, to our body’s functionality =)) 
To Prepare:
In a blender mix all ingredients except oil. slowly pour in oil on a low spend until dressing is emulsified. 
Back to the grains:

Mix quinoa, lentils, persimmon, tomatoes, garbanzo, salt, pepper, fresh basil, and voodoo together and YUM wholesome goodess has arrived!!  

 

Too Much HGTV…

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For the past two weeks, I have been off of my normal routine which usually consists of 6-8 hours of sleep, healthy meals, and 25-45 minutes of exercise.

For the past two weeks, I have spent every free minute of my time painting the walls of our house.

My boyfriend, Taylor, and I bought our very first house about 7 months ago.  It’s a nice – 3 br 2 bath – house that doesn’t need too much TLC.  As it started getting cold outside and dark so early, we decided we needed an indoor project, which lead us to painting.

Neither of us had any “real” skill or experience painting, so we decided that we should go to our local Sherwin Williams store, hoping they would be able to provide more time and explanation to the inexperienced, more so than a hardware store. We found this to be true, the folks at SW were incredibly helpful describing the different types of available paint, brushes and techniques.

I’m pretty sure all of the employees recognized me after a few days, and eventually had to “draw straws” to see who would have to deal with me that day.  Not that I’m a tough customer, I just had a lot of questions, especially since we were spending a sh*t ton of money for this crap.

So our painting journey began two weeks ago, and I am SO happy to say that two weeks, lots of bruises, a little blood, and a few arguments later, we are DONE!

After the last strip of tape was removed, and all the plastic tarp was thrown away, I walked outside in my paint covered leggings as if I had been locked up in a deep, dark dungeon for centuries and saw sunshine for the first time… “It’s over…. It’s done…”

-I’m totally exaggerating, it wasn’t that painful and our house looks “amaaaazing” (I sang that).

Our house finally feels more like a home!

And as a gift to ourselves, we bought one of those fake fire places, but I promise it doesn’t look as cheesy as it sounds!

Living Room Before:

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Living Room After: (Woo Woooooooo!)

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Our colors were SW Versatile Grey and SW Turkish Coffee! Swanky…