why no photo’s?

Because in one quick shut of the door I managed to ruin  not only my cell phone screen but also my point and shoot.  Yup 50% of anything in my house that has technology was busted just by shutting the car door and the best part is????  I did this on December 31st, the last freaking day of the year. 

Well the phone still works but the camera doesn’t have a view, only an LCD display and that’s ruined so you can’t exactly tell what kind of pictures you are going to get and you can’t tell if the flash is on or what setting the thing is on.  So ever since Dec 31st I’ve been looking for new LCD’s on ebay ( can’t find any that match) and doing research on new Digital SLR cameras.  I found one that I want in my price range ( Nikon d 3000) and one that I really want that’s pretty far out of my price range (Nikon D90).  So my problem is do I get the D3000 now and just get it over with or do I save up for a bit and get the D90.  Decisions decisions.  I am however still going to comb ebay to find a LCD for my point and shoot because a friend said she could get her husband to replace it for beer or a box of GU gels!

February 1 to 5th

Monday: Pigs in a blanket.  I know, totally not gourmet and definitely  not adult but every so often a girl really needs a fat free cheesey turkey dog wrapped in a fat free crescent roll.  Yeah I know what you are thinking… holy over processed lips and bungholes man but really a girl can only gourmet so many meals in one week.

Tuesday:  fettuccine with fresh herbs.  Well as fresh of herbs as you can get the first week in February in Wisconsin.  The pasta was on sale so I did get to splurge a bit with the herbs.  Fresh oregano, Italian parsley and basil, toss on a bit of olive oil and some roasted grape tomatoes and it turns into a fantastic simple meal.

Wed: Stuffed Salmon with a wedge salad and then a truffle bender.  I made 2 different kind of truffles.  The first was the Cookie Dough Truffles from Pioneer Woman’s Tastey Kitchen website.  Those things are like CRACK!!  The 2nd truffle was espresso and dark chocolate, my basic truffle recipe with no embellishments what so ever.  I love basic hand rolled truffles.  The best part of the whole night was I had one of each and then gave them all away to my co-workers!  No leftovers of chocolatey goodness to tempt me at home!  

Thursday:  Sushi Murimoto.  Sigh how I  love my sushi and my gossip sessions with my friend Tanya.

Friday:  Paul Revere’s pizza.  Pizza good, cheese bread horrifically disgusting.

Saturday:  Breakfast:  chocolate covered peanuts and a coke.  Totally not making that up.  It was road trip food because I couldn’t find the damn coffee machine at the gas station on I94.  Seriously a gas station with no visible coffee machine.

Saturday Lunch:  Olive Garden.  I took my nephew out for lunch after his basketball game and the kid piled away a full plate of ravioli while I ate 3 medallions of meat and about 1/10th of my pasta.  I guess he was hungry!!

January 17th to 23rd

on this weeks menu

Monday  chicken prima.

It’s my own recipe and it’s pretty basic but it’s cheap easy and fantastic!!

Tuesday  Left overs!

I have a freezer full of stuff that for some reason I’m not eating for lunches… and after all that was the goal as part of this project!

Wed:  Cheese from cheesers and maybe some ice cream.  Wed  night is knit night and it just so happens to be next to the cheese shop in Stoughton.  I usually get a small bag of cheese curds and a rootbeer and even though it sounds like a weird combination it doesn’t taste that bad!

Thursday:  A sub from Rock’n Rolls.  I have to pack for vacation tomorrow!  Rock’n Rolls has the 2nd best sub rolls around Madison, Milio’s has the first.  I just can’t get enough of that French bread!

Friday:  San Diego is having their restaurant week this week so I made Megan and I reservations at Water Grille.  It had the best menu in the Gas Lamp District so lets hope it lives up to the hype!

Next week I’m in SD for the majority of the week and then it’s Madison’s restaurant week and my birthday so there will be no blogging.  I can’t wait for my mom and dad to try out Samba’s Brazilian Grill!

This week

Beef and broccoli , Sweet and Sour Shrimp and well it was supposed to be sherried tomato soup. 

I got tomato sauce instead of tomato juice so the soups on hold.  The sweet and sour shrimp was fantastic!!  2 suppers and 2 lunches worth thankfully that’s on the list only once because I think I may have od’ed on it.  Up next is beef and broccoli!

The perfet hard boiled egg

I finally did it.  I finally made the perfect hard boiled egg.  I rarely eat eggs,  I don’t like the texture but I love deviled eggs.  For Christmas my mom and I make the best deviled egg with wasabi mayo, Ruffles potato chips and bacon.  Healthy they are not but god are they good!!

Shopping,sushi and a SoHo Sunset

I met up with some friends from high school tonight for a much needed sushi/gossip dinner.  I started by wasting time at REI trying with all my might to spend my gift cards.  I managed to spend one of my giftcards but I still don’t have a winter coat.  The next stop was the book store where I found a book for my up coming flight to San Diego and a $4 cook book!  I pulled out more recipes and now I’m up to 307 in the jar.

I also hit the grocery store on that side of town.  It’s weird shopping at a store you’ve rarely been in.  Nothing’s in the place where it’s supposed to be and it this case quite a bit more expensive than my home town shop.  Oh well live and learn.  I did how ever find a tri tip!  I can’t ever find them when I want them and I was assured by the butcher that they are stocked year round.

Sushi was a shrimp tempura roll and an asparagas roll both yummy but neither are very good for you.  The sushi was fantastic and so was the SoHo Sunset which is lychee vodka and grapefruite juice?  Who knows what it’s made out of but its the first thing I order every time.

Meals have been picked

Week 1 is shrimp and rice, steak fajita’s, eggs and grilled cheese with tomato soup.  Here’s the thing about eggs.  I don’t make them, I rarely eat them but I’m trying to increase my consumption to get a wider variety of protien in my diet.  We’ll see how the hard boiling of the eggs goes.  That’s the first feat of the week. 

It’s nice that this week was the ease in week, nice easy meals it will make this whole project start off on the right foot.

A year of cooking with sticky notes

I am an office product junkie.  I love new pens, new little notebooks full of nothing but the future and I love sticky notes.  I also love to cook.  Last year was my year of lazy.  After graduating in 2 years with 2 MBA’s I was burned out, done, I had nothing left to give, so I took the year off from doing things, for me and for other people.  I managed to crack open a cookbook twice, and I do believe that one of the recipes was an epic fail.  This year is a big year.  I’m training for my first ever Ironman and I figured that seeing as I will be doing a ton of training which will mean I will need fast and nutritious meals I would need to crack open those cook books. My problem is I hate coming home and standing in front of the cupboards and fridge trying to figure out what to make.  By 8 pm I’m ready for bed and STILL trying to figure out what to make so I have toast.  Or ceral or something else that isn’t remotely healthy.  This year I’ve decided to make it easy for myself.  I’m going to make a list of recipes, write them all down on sticky notes and put them in a jar.  Every week I will pick out 4 recipes and that’s going to be dinner and lunches for the next week.  The goal is to make them healthy, easy and fast to cook and to get everything done the weekend before so I don’t have to worry about what I’m going to make for dinner.  It will already be decided.  It’s going to be an interesting year and hopefully I don’t give myself food poisoning or die of starvation ( ha ha)