That's right, this AM before I began working, I baked a cookie the size of a pizza. Why? Because today is my hubby's birthday! I blogged about celebrating his turning 26 a few days ago, but today is Adam's actual birthday. My, how far we've come since our first birthdays together... New York City, 2007: Since our birthdays are only 6 days apart (yep, mine is next week!), the first summer we were dating, we went skydiving together to celebrate both of 'em: It was so much fun, I'd do it again in a heartbeat! On the menu for tonight: Dinner: my spaghetti squash casserole + fresh bread Wine: A bottle of Mark West Pinor Noir (<-- pretty cool website!), which I actually broke out our wine chiller for to set it to the ideal temp. Their wine is near ... [Read More]
Archives for July 2012
Zucchini Cakes
Let me start off this post on a totally random note. Yesterday at the dog park, I got peed on...yeaaaaahhh. A dog just walked up to me, lifted his leg, and started peeing on my leg and foot. Hmm, what? Has this happened to anyone out there? Was he marking me as his territory? All I know is that it was definitely my strange moment of the day! Moving onto a more pleasant subject, on the menu for dinner tonight were these bad boys: What some people refer to as vegetarian crab cakes - zucchini cakes! This recipe from The Vegan Table is pretty simple and quick. I served mine with light sour cream and cocktail sauce. Zucchini Cakes Serves 4 What you need: 4 medium zucchini (mine measured out to 5 cups grated) 2 TBSP (dairy free) butter, melted 1 c seasoned ... [Read More]
Kayaking & Beer
Hope everyone is having a great weekend! Yesterday I planned a day of fun for Adam's birthday, which is coming up on Tuesday. I made up these mildly corny but funny little poems that were clues as to what activities we would be doing and what his presents were. Oh yes, I'm quite the poet! ;-) First up, I rented us a kayak in La Jolla. We paddled around near the caves there and checked out the seals, who were mostly just hanging out basking in the sun as usual. One seal was swimming around us just a few feet from our kayak, which was pretty cool. The birthday boy: Though we got kind of crushed by a wave heading out, we managed to not tip over getting back to shore on the choppy waters. WOOHOO! After kayaking, we hung out on the beach, ate lunch and relaxed. Next, we headed to a local ... [Read More]
Broccoli Mac & Cheese: Take 2
Happy weekend! I'm excited for this weekend for a few reasons - 1.) The Olympics are about to begin any minute now! 2.) Adam's birthday is in a couple of days, and tomorrow we're celebrating it. I have a few surprises up my sleeve for his pre-bday day of fun! More on that later, but now onto food... Last week, I blogged about my failed mac & cheese attempt. As I mentioned then, I was eager to buy more ingredients to give it another try, and tonight I did just that. Macaroni & cheese is such a classic dish, but there are so many ways you can jazz it up a bit. Pasta, cheese, butter, and breadcrumbs obviously make for an indulgent dish, but I wanted to lighten it up a bit for a few reasons: #1 - so that I didn't feel guilty about eating a dinner with a ton of calories and ... [Read More]
Balsamic Portobello & Mozzarella Pizza
As some of you may guessed by now, I'm a big fan of pizza. But not just any old pizza, delicious pizza. If I'm going to indulge in pizza, which I do probably every other week, it's got to be good. The best way to ensure that the pizza I'm eating isn't full of grease and extra calories is to make it myself - hence, homemade pizza night happens pretty often around here. The "classic" pie in this house is one loaded with veggies (most often zucchini, tomato, and spinach), mozzarella, and marinara (like the one I posted about here), but I do veer away from that sometimes to experiment with other combos -- such as this goat cheese & arugula pesto pizza. And then there's my most recent pizza creation... Balsamic Portobello Mozzarella Pizza Makes 8 slices 1 whole wheat pizza ... [Read More]
Do You Date Yourself?
Today's post is a topic I've wanted to write about for awhile -- dating yourself. Out of all the important relationships in your life, the one you have with yourself is the most significant of them all. This idea is central to healthy living, because if you don't have a good relationship with yourself, it makes it difficult to have meaningful, strong bonds with others. Having positive friendships and connections is pivotal to being your best self. A few months back, my friend and I were talking about her recent therapy session. They had talked about whether my friend makes an effort to do enjoyable things on her own to help strengthen her mental, physical, and emotional health - what her therapist deemed as ''dating yourself." I had never heard it coined that way before, but when I ... [Read More]