I Hate to Exercise But Love to Cook

I love being married.  Lots of people say it is hard.  For me it hasn't been.  I think because I got married in my mid thirties, I am more appreciative of Lance and what he is in my life.  As with anything in life, there are always little annoying things you have to put up with.  The little annoying thing in my marriage that I have to put up with is growing.  It is that I have gained weight.  I hate to admit that I have gained 20 lbs since I got married.  So I am working on getting it off.

Recently, my friend Kelly introduced me to My Fitness Pal.  I have used Daily Burn in the past, but wasn't able to put my recipes in it.  And since we rarely eat out or eat premade food, it just didn't work for me.  My Fitness Pal allows me to put in the recipe and then enter the serving size I ate.  When you start your account, they ask you all kinds of questions and determine how many calories you need to eat per day.  They gave me 1200 calories.  Yikes!  Although burning calories gives you more to eat.  Whoo hoo.  And cooking burns calories!  Double whoo hoo.  I hate to exercise but love to cook.

While trying to balance out my calorie intake for the day, I went looking for a smoothie recipe.   I had purchased 32 lbs of strawberries and split with my mother.  I froze 8 lbs to make smoothies with.  So the smoothie recipe had to be strawberry and since I do not like bananas, it could not contain bananas.  I found a smoothie recipe that I added my touch to and now love.  I took 2 recipes and combined them.  I needed something that would tide me over until lunch.  So the ingredient I used from the second recipe was oatmeal. I put the oatmeal in the blender first and blended it so it was more like flour.  Then I added all the other ingredients.  It gives it a little odd texture but is filling.

Strawberry Pineapple Oatmeal Smoothie
1/4 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup frozen strawberries
3 oz milk
3 oz pineapple juice
1/4 cup vanilla yogurt
1 Tbsp sugar
3 ice cubes

Put oatmeal in blender and blend until fine.  Add the rest of the ingredients and chop ice (pulse) until completely chopped.  Then blend for 30 seconds - a minute.  Pour and drink.

I Should Have Tied My Hair Up

I finally got my tomatoes in the ground.  Actually not finally.  I know I am behind most people, but I really don't like to put my plants in the ground until after the 12th of June.  And I know it isn't the 12th yet but we are close.  Why the 12th, you ask?  June 12th is the average last freeze date for Pocatello.  And I don't really like running out a couple times a week at night and covering all my plants.  So I wait.  I usually start most of the vegetables from seed in the house, but this year that didn't really work out for me.  I will be buying plants when they go on sale, and the store just wants to get rid of them.

One of Lance's employees gives me tomato plants so I don't have to worry about those.  I accidently bought one too many tomato cages and so I headed off to the farmer's market today to pick up another tomato plant.  The kind man that gives me tomato plants sold me one more.  While I was there I picked up some strawberry plants and a basil plant.  Let's see if I can keep the basil alive this year.  The wind was so bad today, that's about all the farmer's market I could stand.  I really should have tied my hair up before I went.  I was hoping to get some blueberries from Oregon also, but I didn't see any.


After coming home and tying my hair, I planted the last tomato and the strawberries.  My plan was to get the basil in a pot, but it started hailing.  I had to laugh while being hailed on because my friends will post pictures of large hail.  I think this was the world's smallest hail.  While it continued to hail on my I looked for a pot to put the basil in.  I didn't have an appropriate pot, so I just brought it in.  I will probably just plant it with the tomatoes later.

You may not be able to see but I've ended up with 7 tomato plants and only one is cherry tomatoes.  Come this fall, I'm going to have a lot of tomatoes.  I have a couple of recipes that call for tomatoes and one that Lance and I love.  But I'm going to have to can a bunch and find a lot more recipes.  The recipe that Lance and I love is Baked Ziti.  I currently 2 halves of it in the freezer for when I don't feel like cooking.  But I'm sure we could stand some more.

Baked Ziti
1 lb dry ziti pasta (I actually use penne)
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced (I use a garlic press)
1 lb ground beef
52 ounces pasta sauce
6 ozs provolone cheese, sliced
1 1/2 cups sour cream
6 ounce mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 350. Boil pasta according to package directions for al dente.  Brown ground beef with onions and garlic. Add pasta sauce to meat.  After pasta and meat are done, you will begin layering in a 9 x 13 pan. Layer as follows:
1/2 of the pasta
provolone cheese
sour cream
1/2 of the meat sauce
the other 1/2 of the pasta
mozzarella
the other 1/2 of the meat sauce
parmesan cheese

 Bake for 30 minutes.
Allow to rest for 10 - 15 minutes and serve.

Another Month, Another Plan

I'm running behind this month and it's only the 3rd.  I did some catch up today, and hopefully I can be ahead of the game.  We had a BBQ this weekend and I spent most of the week planning for it.  We hosted about 16 people in our tiny yard all day Saturday.  I was up at 7:30 in the morning setting up and for those of you who know me well or even just a little know that I don't do mornings.  Lance was chosen by Crowdtap to host a McCormick Grill Mates party.  (see my other blog for details about Crowdtap and the party)  I tried two new recipes for the party.  I really liked both, but from the feedback I think the punch was a hit.  Click here for those recipes.

This morning I spent working in the coffee bar at church and finally was able to work on my meal plan for the month this afternoon.  I love the summer months because I grill a lot more and can eat lighter.  Yet I can still throw in a few hearty meals here and there.  So for this month our menu is as follows

June 4 - 8
Tacos (I needed something easy after a big weekend and being late in planning)
BBQ Chicken Salad - I just grill chicken, brush with bbq sauce, shred, and put in a salad.
BLT's
Skillet Lasagna 
Burgers

June 11-15
French Dip Sandwiches
Fresh Take Cheese & Breadcrumb Chicken - this is a Kraft product to bread chicken with.
Skillet Sausage & Rice
Chicken Pasta in Garlic Butter Sauce
Pizza

June 18 - 22
Chicken Fried Steak & Mashed Potatoes
Chicken BLT Taco Salad
Creamy Chicken Bacon Pockets
Tortellini & Alfredo Sauce - I'm just going to buy frozen or refrigerated
Burgers

June 25 - 29
Steak & Sweet Potatoes
Honey Lime Grilled Chicken
Grilled Pork Chops with Garlic Lime Sauce
Grilled Chicken Pesto Farfalle
Pizza

BBQ Recipes

Because the other blog seemed long, I'm putting the recipes from our BBQ in this blog.  These were super easy!  And the fruit salad doesn't have to stay cold which is great for an outdoor party.

Pineapple Punch

1 -12 oz can Pineapple juice frozen concentrate

1/2 -12 oz can Limeade frozen concentrate

4 cups water

1 liter lemon lime soda

Optional: Strawberries hulled to float in punch

Mix all together.  (I quadrupled this recipe)

Fruit Salad

1 lb Strawberries, quartered

1 cup blueberries

1 - 20 oz can pineapple tidbits with juice

1 - 5.1oz box vanilla pudding mix

Mix pudding mix and pineapple with juice until pudding is well mixed in.  Fold in strawberries and blueberries. Chill and serve.