A M A N D A

last week i decided to make my own headbands so i went and bought a few things then started making them. i've decided i cannot pull them off, at all. i look like a loony toon to illustrate that point:

I'm having issues with stupid blogger. i used a template for my last layout instead of just a background like i usually do. well it messed EVERYTHING UP! i'm so frustrated. i've had these terrible head splitting headaches for the last 2 weeks so i'm not going to figure it out right now. i'll try to fix it later for now i'll just have a dumb blog set up. DON'T download and use your own templates it sucks to figure out how to fix it later on. uggggggggggg i might just go take a 16 hour nap now. maybe even 22 hours if i can get away with it :\ ya right.

I love blogs. I go to blogs way too much. I'm always searching for new ones and today I feel like i hit the JACKPOT! seriously. i was looking for DIY headband ideas so michelle and i can make our own. i came across this blog, Kotori and found an idea for ribbon headbands, not exactly what i was looking for. so i closed out of it and searched again. Well i happened to click back to that site a little later and saw the same thing but this time i started looking around. Let's just say i spent the last 1.5 hours looking through all her posts back to jan. 09....ridiculous. she posts A LOT. recipes, jewelery ideas, DIY projects galore everything from sewing, home decorating just EVERYTHING you could want in a blog. ahhhhh i've added her to my blog list and intend to go a little further into her archives (creepy? weird?). there are so many things i've found that i want to do i'll have to make a list. i'll be making her whole wheat lasagna with spinach at some point soon.

go to her blog please. it's amazing.

i thought i'd write a little bit about my "wellness challenge" (aka diet) we call it the WC b/c it makes it a little easier..? maybe not. probably not. defiantly not. anyways these are NOT the type of jeans i'm talking about:

i'm not much for the emo-esque vibe i get from skinny jeans but, skinnier jeans is what i'm after. i started the Prism diet the week of Halloween. perfect. awesome time to start a diet. halloween, thanksgiving and christmas all within 2 months, please wait until january to start this madness. it will make your life easier. looking back though i'm so glad i started when i did. i ws loosing weight while everyone else was gaining it (hypothetically). i figure if i could skip eating all the junk at those three major holidays i could do it on a day to day basis. (basics of prism: 1st 6 weeks, no white or wheat flour, no sugar, no potatoes 1000 cals a day. next 6 weeks: add in 3 portions of potatoes a week, 2 slices of whole wheat bread a day and 3 sugar free desserts a week. next 6 weeks: add in whole wheat pasta still staying within the 1000 cal range)

i'm happy to say, i didn't cheat once...until christmas eve when i had a piece of bread the pratt's brought over. i thought one little piece of it wouldn't hurt. welllll i was up a large portion of the night feeling like i had a stone lodged in my intestine (sorry if that's a poor image) it was terrible i promised i wouldn't cheat again if it was going to make me feel like that. the next day we had family over for ham and company potatoes, i did eat a lot and the potatoes i ate had stuff i probably shouldn't have had so i made friends with the big box of alkaseltzer. so i've made my final decision: it's not worth it! if something that i was eating every day can cause me to feel like that, it's probably not the best thing to eat. someone told me one time that they used white flour to make glue when she was younger i've decided even though i want a flaky melt in my mouth croissant, i DON'T want it sticking to my insides.

since the end of october i've lost about 35 lbs. i haven't checked in about two weeks so hopefully i'm still on the right track. i really wasn't able to tell, still can't really but i'm down a size in jeans and a size in shirts(or more). none of my old pants fit right anymore they hang off and i walk around like erkel all day when i wear them. anyways this was more of an update for me to keep me motivated. i have a ways to go still but i'm glad i'm finally acting on something i've talked about for a few years. if i can do it, YOU can do it. trust me. i loved me some bread and sweets believe me! no more though. it's a happy and sad thing but more happy.
Operation Skinny (but not in the ankle skinny) Jeans can continue.

this weekend i babysat friday-monday. i've been babysitting for this family for a VERY long time. the oldest is 9 going to be 10 and i think i've babysat since he was one or two. wow i'm old. anyways their parents went on a fun trip and left me with the kids. it was actually one of the better weekends i've watched them. everyone behaved for the most part and we had lots of fun. i didn't start documenting our adventure until saturday night though. i forgot i had my camera.
so friday night after camreee got home we read some books and hung out then it was already time for bed.
saturday morning we woke up (at 5:45 haha) and had breakfast, got dressed and they practiced and did their chores then we left for swim lessons. after swim we went home and ate lunch then had quiet time- reading, board games etc..., then paino lessons for all three and violin lessons for one. by the time lessons were done and they had each practiced one more time it was time for dinner so we went to subway got a footlong for them to share and went to my house to play the wii for a little bit. they played wii resort and mario kart. after wii it was time to go home and that's when our pictures start:
they wanted dessert so i promised them a small mug of hot chocolate with whipped cream and sprinkles when we got home:



he was trying to make it levitate

if your name is Anita, do no proceed :) jk you can if you want...
i was going to take photos of the making of this dish but forgot so i borrowed the pic. the only thing i didn't use in mine was the pasta. pasta has flour and i can't have whole wheat pasta for a few more weeks :( but i thought it was marvelous without the pasta anyways.
anyways. i've made this recipe several times in the past and since i've been on this diet i've had a rough time figuring out healthy GOOD flavorful meals to eat. i can't believe i didn't think of this one sooner!
i didn't calculate it out but without the pasta i don't think it has hardly any calories at all and it's so filling. here's the recipe:

2 heads cauliflower
1 medium onion
4 cloves garlic
1 pound whole-wheat pasta
Extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 pinch red pepper flakes
White wine vinegar
1/2 lemon
1/2 cup toasted walnuts
4 ounces ricotta salata or feta cheese
Put a large pot of water on to boil. Cut the cauliflower into small flowerets. Peel the onion and slice it very thin. Peel and finely chop the garlic. Put the pasta on to cook.
Saute the cauliflower in olive oil in a large saute pan. When the cauliflower begins to soften, season with salt and pepper and add the sliced onion and red pepper flakes. Saute over medium to high heat until the vegetables are brown and tender. The cauliflower should still be slightly crunchy and should not taste steamed. Add the garlic and remove from the heat, tossing and stirring so the garlic doesn’t burn; if it starts to brown, add a splash of water. Add a few drops each of vinegar and lemon juice and the toasted walnuts. Taste and correct the seasoning. When the pasta is done, drain and add to the cauliflower, adding enough extra-virgin olive oil to coat the pasta thoroughly, toss together and serve, with the cheese crumbled over the dish.


oh my word this is delicious. actually now that i'm thinking about it i may have already posted this recipe before....i'll check on that but i guess it deserves to be re posted :). it really is so good and i always add a little more than one pinch of red pepper flakes b/c i like it more spicy and we have some really good pepper flakes from teaquent stop here in b'ham.

p.s. please add LOTS of feta. i just love feta. even though it smells like diaper it tastes SOO good. trust me. also i dice my onion very small so i don't know they're in there, i'm not a fan of chunky onions. nosiree.

p.p.s. to toast your walnuts just put them in a dry pan on fairly low heat and keep moving them around so they don't burn. i had a few causalities last night i had to throw away.

thanks smitten kitchen for your always amazing recipes!!

EDIT:

so i went through my archives and realized i am so weird. well that was the first thing i noticed the other thing was i name my blog's weird names so i don't know if i ever posted that recipe before. i vaguely remember writing about it though. hmmm. during my archive adventure i copied some links from old recipes i love and thought i'd post to share the wealth.

fruit flower bouquet- great for babyshowers or other such events

spinach smoothie- be jealous

chicken pizza- 2 different ways

red shredded chicken- yum!

breakfast cookies- favorite "healthy" cookies

chandrans chicken curry- AMAzing!

so there's some homecooking inspiration for you (and for me) i forgot about some of these posts. well now i'm off to grind some whole wheat to make pizza dough for dinner (first time i'll have eaten pizza in 3 months. it won't be like regular pizza but same difference)

So i accomplished one of my goals today. it's hard to classify finishing a goal like this though because it's more of an ongoing thing but i did it for the first time today. i gave money to a lady on the side of the street. it wasn't a significant amount of money but her sign said she was struggling, not homeless. so hopefully it helps a little bit.
it was funny because i had been shopping at target with shelley and we were leaving the mall. i handed shelley the money and rolled her window down to hand it to the lady. after she gave her the money and we were driving away shelley couldn't stop talking about "that woman" she called her. i don't think shelley paid any attention to her sign but she kept saying that woman needs help. she was happy that she gave her money. i thought it was cool that she recognized that she helped someone. well one down 33 more to go.

First off I've decided to say two thousand ten instead of twenty ten...just to get that out of the way haha.
on sunday we learned about goals in young womans. i remember having lessons about goals when i was younger but for some reason this lesson made me want to be serious about my goals this year. maybe it's because I'm older and need to finally get serious about life. i feel like i've been skating by the last few years and i'm not too proud of that. we learned that goals should be smart:
S - specific, significant, stretching
M - measurable, meaningful, motivational
A - agreed upon, attainable, achievable, acceptable, action-oriented
R - realistic, relevant, reasonable, rewarding, results-oriented
T - time-based, timely, tangible, trackable
so when i made up my list of goals i wanted them to fall under these categories and for the most part i think i did a good job i just need to focus on them and maybe if i do focus this year i'll actually have something to show for my life haha.
this might be a pretty boring post but it's more for me anyways and i don't think anyone really reads this anyways.
let's get on to it (these are in no particular order BTW)

a few weeks before christmas we got this little box in the mail...it's from Russia where my aunt and uncle are serving a mission for our church. i was soooooooooo excited and wanted to open it ASAP but wasn't allowed. how rude. so it sat under the tree for awhile then was hidden b/c we kept opening the packaging little by little everyday. we will come back to this box later i'll make it a surprise like it was for me...

the first weekend in december is when we usually go and chop down our tree at the tree farm...it's usually a big ordeal b/c we have opposing opinions on what a christmas tree should look like. i like full bushy trees and others like more sparse layered trees. they won this year. :) p.s. they won b/c it was Sooooooooooo cold nobody wanted to be outside anymore.

after putting the tree up we decorated the rest of the living room. we've had those stockings since we were little and even though i think my mom would like them to be matching red stockings, we hang up our mismatched fun stockings.

christmas eve is always the baking day. we make SO many treats and goodies for friends. we spend the WHOLE day baking. this year was hard b/c usually we taste as we go along to make sure things taste good, this year i couldn't soooo that sucked. but we still made lots.

the finished plates. i think we made probably 10 different items we did way too much this year.


i'm in charge of the pretzel rods dipped in chocolate every year this time we did red chocolate then i drizzled white over it to give it a candy cane look.

finally after a long day of baking, delivering and having dinner at a friends house we skyped with my aunt in uncle in russia and opened our special box holy toledo i LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE russian nesting dolls and they sent us 2 sets and those cute little ornaments!!