Pre Birthday Bash

Today is the day before Matt's 27th birthday.  Since we have volleyball on his acutal birthday, I decided to make him a special dinner tonight to celebrate.  The whole meal I found on Pinterest of course! The main dish was Key West Grilled Chicken.  Matt and I got engaged in Key West so this caught my eye right away.  My plan originally was to grill it, but it was raining, so I ended up cooking it on the stove and adding some brown rice to soak up the yummy sauce. 

Recipe:

3 tbsp low sodium soy sauce

2 tbsp honey

1 tbsp vegetable oil

2 tbsp lime juice

1 tsp minced garlic

chicken

Cut chicken into small peices and marinate for at least 30 minutes.  Cook whichever way is most convenient.

Nice and tangy. 

For a side I made these sweet potato skins.  I didn't follow the recipe exactly because I didn't have all the ingredients, but I did base my recipe off of it.  I started off by baking the potatoes for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.  Then I scooped out the flesh and transferred it to a bowl.  I added some black beans and corn to the mix along with a spoonfull of light sour cream and light cream cheese.  Then I put the mixture back into the skins, topped with a sprinkle of cheese and stuck it back in the oven until the cheese melted. 

Umm hello how good does that look?? Super filling too. 

Matt loved his meal. He devoured it, always a good sign.  I tried to devour mine, but it was way to much lol.  I'll be having the leftovers later this week.

And of course for any birthday there has to be cake right?? Well not this one.  Matt's not a huge fan of cake but he sure loves him some rice crispies.  He's such a cheap date lol.  I whipped up a batch and put my own spin on it.

I have talent, I know.

Doesn't look to happy about turning 27 now does he?? But he sure loved eating it. The entire 27 was eaten while we watched Smash from last night haha. 

I pretty much took the day off from working out today. My thighs and shoulders are hurting from yesterday, but I did sneak in about 15 minutes of ab work after dinner, which almost made me hurll...oops. 

In wedding news: Matt and I went yesterday and got our marriage license!! Just another thing that we cannot forget on the wedding day!  Today we also sent in our final guest count (124) and table chart to our venue.  The last big thing we have to do is make our escort cards.  We're going to tackle this task this weekend.  Then it's smooth sailing...I think.  Can't wait!!



Our Tree Is Finally Up!!

I started off my day with a trip to the gym...much needed after yesterday's cookie consumption lol.  Then I headed home and played with the pup a bit.

The rest of the day passed by quick with some cooking for the week and cleaning the house. Then we put our tree up!!! Just a couple of weeks before Christmas and our tree is finally up!

We went with a smaller tree this year to make our lives a little easier. It was the prefect size.  We decorated it after dinner while listening to some Christmas tunes.

Stockings for everyone

We had quite the collection of ornaments on our tree including some pretty sweet ones made by yours truly around the age of 8. Here are some of my favorites:

Champ's first family Christmas

Oh yea!! Looking good!

UD mascot front and center...with Bella and Edward creeping in on the pic haha!

My mom gives each of us an ornament each year. So I pretty much have one of every sport I've ever played.  Love this one.  I've kept the tradition going. Champ's ornament is new and we also got a running ornament.

Dinner was simple tonight. We hadn't had fresh fish in a while so I picked up some tilapia filets and cooked some sweet potato's for our side along with some vegetables

I cooked the fish on in a pan with some salt, pepper and olive oil. I sliced the sweet potato thin and mixed them with some salt and cinnamon, then baked them at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

Do you have any favorite Christmas ornaments?

Do you still put up ornaments that you made when you were a kid?

A Different Kind of Christmas

This year for Christmas, my family decided not to do gifts.  I will admit we can go a tad overboard with the gifts sometimes, but who doesn't.  I was a little hesitant at first, but man does it take a lot of stress out of the holidays.  But I think I've realized that I'm having trouble realizing that Christmas is right around the corner because I don't have to worry about shopping and wrapping gifts.  I guess for me Christmas = stress haha. We still don't have our tree but we are hoping to take care of that next weekend. I think once we do our decorating I will start to get more in the Christmas spirit.  In honor of the approaching holiday I decided to do a Christmas Survey I found online:

What is your favorite Christmas song?
There's no Place Like Home for the Holidays by Perry Como

What is your favorite Christmas movie?
The Christmas Story obviously!!

What do you look forward to most on Christmas?
Seeing my family, especially my brother and sister who live out of town.  I also love seeing my sister's kids open their gifts!

Do you take part in secret santa?
I have 4 best friends from college and we usually do secret santa, but this year we've decided to give money to a cherity instead. 

Do you go to any Christmas parties?
Yes! This year I'll be going to my company Christmas party on the 16th and I just got invited to a cookie exchange party on the 17th. I cannot wait!

What is your favorite food at Christmas?
Peppermint bark is by far my favorite food. I can't stay away from the stuff.

My mouth is watering just looking at this picture. 

I spent my day today cooking my meals for the week. It took me about 2 hours but I'm glad to have it out of the way and not to have to worry about it during the week.  I started out my day with a trip to they gym.  I was ready for a longer workout.  I got in 40 minutes of weight training and 45 minutes of cardio split between the stationary bike (on random level 8) and the eliptical (aslo on random level 8). 
Dinner was easy tonight. I cooked a pot roast in the slow cooker all day and made some sweet potato cakes to have on the side.

All I did for the sweet potato cakes was microwave a large sweet potatoe for 5 minutes on each side.  Then I cut it in half and removed the insides. To the potato I added 1/2 tsp of brown sugar,  1/8 tsp of cinnamon, 1 tsp of whole wheat flour and 1 tbsp egg whites.  Then I formed 4 small cakes and cooked them in an oiled pan for 4 minutes per side.  Delish!

Amazing Pizza

Today was the perfect Sunday.  We didn't have too much planned after yesterday's marathon of events.  I woke up early and grabbed some breakfast....overnight oats of course. 

I had it with some coconut water.  I usually try to drink some of this on days that I know I'll be doing a longer run.  It's a good replacent for me for a sports drink.  I really am not a fan of gatorade type drinks.  Just too much added sugar and I don't like the taste.  Coconut water is delicious! And it has a lot of natural electrolytes.

I headed over to Glasgow Park for a practice 10k.  The race is coming up in less than 2 weeks and I am getting really excited to run it!

I ran around a 9.16 pace.  It was a really good run and my foot didn't bother me at all which made my day!  And I'm finally starting to get used to running in the cold.  When I got home I was ravenous.  I had some of my leftover lunch from friday with an apple and some veggies.

The rest of the day was spent cooking for the week.  If I can, I try to cook most of my meals on Sunday for the week so that they just have to be warmed up on the day that we actually eat them.  If I go to the gym right after work I don't get home until around 5:15 and I really do like to eat before 6....I'm weird I know.  So while I was at it I worked on our dinner for tonight Whole Wheat Sweet Potato Pizza Dough which I got from Meals and Miles.

Ingredients:

1tsp dry yeast

3/4 cup all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 sweet potato mashed (I cooked mine in the microwave for about 10 minutes)

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup hot water

Mix together the hot water and yeast until yeast dissolves. Leave the bowl in a warm place until a froth forms on the top.

Mix together the dry ingredients and then add the sweet potato and mix until crumbly.  When the yeast is ready, make a well in the dry ingredients and mix it in.  Knead to make a smooth dough.

Wrap the dough in a greased peice of plastic wrap and let it sit in a warm place for at least an hour. I put mine in the microwave.  Then I just used my hands to for a round(ish) shape. We don't have a pizza stone so I just put some cornmeal down on a baking sheet.

Cook the dough for 5 minutes @ 425 degrees, add your toppings, and then bake for 5 more minutes.

I topped mine with some pesto sauce, some squash and zucchini that I had cooked previously, and some cheese. Matt topped his half (or 2/3) with chopped garlic, tomatoe sauce, grilled chicken and cheese.

We both had our pizza with side salad.  I will definitely be making this again.  It was sooo good!

Hope everyone had a good weekend!!