I am my own worst enemy

I have recently lost ALL motivation to work out, I literally havent been to the gym in like two weeks. The scale is most definitely reflecting that, right in the middle of summer. I mean who wants to see Godzilla in a swimsuit? (Yes I'm referring to myself as godzilla) Thank goodness things havent reached Code RED and that is only because of the amazing fresh fruits and vegetables that I have been keeping stocked in our house. If this was the winter, I would highly resemble an umpa lumpa by now. 

I've even stooped so low as to involve Stephen. This morning I was too lazy busy to workout (but I had a salad for lunch, go me!), so I begged Stephen not to go the gym after work. I dont know if its just to make myself feel better, or if I'm hoping he'll try and convince us to go tonight, either way I guess I win. I'm not a horrible person I promise, because I obviously feel guilt over my obesity :0)

Introducing Tasty Tuesday

In order to motivate myself to post more regularly I am going to institute Tasty Tuesday. Every tuesday I will come to you with a new recipe I'm going to try out that night. I love cooking, it truly is a huge passion of mine. I would love to end up a famous chef in a beautiful restaurant (preferably NYC, a girl can dream right?), with my handsome hubby by my side. In case yall didnt know, Stephen grew up working in restaurants and is an AMAZING cook. Like truly fabulous, thus my love weight that I've gained. He also knows how to make dishes look as amazing as they taste, I havent quite perfected that skill yet. Anyways, I digress. So in case you need some culinary inspiration, you know where to turn every Tuesday.

Today, I'm taking Stephen to PF Changs to celebrate starting STE school. I'm going to leave you one of their fabulous recipes, and my personal favorite.


Lettuce Wraps

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons oil
• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1 cup water chestnuts
• 2/3 cup mushrooms
• 3 tablespoons chopped onions
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 4 -5 leaves iceberg lettuce

Special Sauce

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/8 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon hot mustard
• 2 teaspoons water
• 1 -2 teaspoon garlic and red chile paste

Stir Fry Sauce

• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon rice wine vinegar

Directions

1. Make the special sauce by dissolving the sugar in water in a small bowl.
2. Add soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ketchup, lemon juice and sesame oil.
3. Mix well and refrigerate this sauce until you're ready to serve.
4. Combine the hot water with the hot mustard and set this aside as well.
5. Eventually add your desired measurement of mustard and garlic chili sauce to the special sauce mixture to pour over the wraps.
6. Bring oil to high heat in a wok or large frying pan.
7. Saute chicken breasts for 4 to 5 minutes per side or done.
8. Remove chicken from the pan and cool.
9. Keep oil in the pan, keep hot.
10. As chicken cools mince water chestnuts and mushrooms to about the size of small peas.
11. Prepare the stir fry sauce by mixing the soy sauce, brown sugar, and rice vinegar together in a small bowl.
12. When chicken is cool, mince it as the mushrooms and water chestnuts are.
13. With the pan still on high heat, add another Tbsp of vegetable oil.
14. Add chicken, garlic, onions, water chestnuts and mushrooms to the pan.
15. Add the stir fry sauce to the pan and saute the mixture for a couple minutes then serve it in the lettuce"cups". 
16. Top with"Special Sauce"

 Enjoy!

 

Dancing in the Moonlight

Chick flicks are an unavoidable part of life, and with chick flicks comes the really mushy romantic scene. They can range from meeting on top of the Empire State Building to kissing in the rain. This past weekend Stephen & I had our very own chick flick moment. We went to the Rascal Flatts concert on Sunday, it was beyond amazing, and we slow danced under the stars. I've always wanted to dance outside with my hubby, and we've been to many concerts before where we danced, but this one was different. I don't know if it was the music, or the fact that we're married now, but it was truly magical. The whole night was perfect, not a single thing went wrong.

We had amazing company

We took cute pictures

We laughed

And of course we danced....

A Perfect Storm

Yesterday Stephen and I had the most amazing Saturday together. We woke up and made breakfast smoothies together, went to Toys R Us to buy little Gabe a present, partied with the family to celebrate Gabe's 5th birthday, and then we headed out to HarborFest for a little fun. HarborFest is truly amazing, mainly because it is my inner fatty's total paradise. They have sweet tea, butterfly fries, gyros, fried oreos, funnel cakes, hell they even have oysters. I look like a little kid at Disney standing there staring at the lane of fun food trying to decide what I want, people might even think my hubby starves me I get so excited (which we all know isnt true because it's a public fact that my man loves food as much as I do). This time I got a huge bottle of water (their sweet tea consisted of a man pouring two tablespoons of sugar into the glass and shaking it, true story) and a gyro. While they werent as good as the street carts in NYC, it was pretty delicious. After enjoying our evening strolling (hand in hand of course) around & enjoying the shops, we finally managed to snag a comfy chair in perfect view of the "fireworks". We're sitting there chatting w/ Kevin & Eric, and the next thing we know the Perfect Storm rolls in. Lightning was everywhere so we did the smart thing and headed inside a tent full of metal poles, duh, and then the rain began. This was no simple rain, this was the Big Daddy of rain. The power went out in all the tents, everyone was running to seek shelter, and it was really coming down out there. Two drinks later, and the rain didnt let up. So Stephen and I decided to make a dash for it, a 2 mile dash to our car. In.pouring.rain. We're jogging down the street, about halfway there, and I kid you not a man started playing a saxophone. It couldnt have been better planned. Stephen and I just looked at eachother and laughed. It was actually kind of romantic. Since we were already drenched, we took full advantage of all the puddles on the way back and laughed the whole way. This is the product of the monsoon

I'm truly so lucky to be married to my best friend. After 3 hours in the heat and the 2 mile run, I was hungry again. Dietfail. So we ended our night with some PF Changs and a movie on the couch :0)

I Wanna Throw A Party

I love summer! Really whats not to love? Bikinis, Beach weather, booze, concerts, tons of family birthdays, and this summer I blessed to have TONS of time with my hubby! It makes me feel like I need to celebrate, I just have so much to be thankful for. So I wanna throw a party, a no reason other than to celebrate life kind of party! I'm thinking it will have to be the first weekend in August, 1) because my family has about 85 birthdays that fall in the month of June and 2) The hubby starts STE school at the end of June (so proud of him) so we have to see how things go with balancing work/school/possible overtime and 3) it gives me time to do some crafty items for the partay! Maybe we'll have some more home updates before then as well. So now I just have to decide what the theme is for the party so that I can start designing the invites, etc.

Mark your calendars ladies and gents, it's (almost) time to party!

Red, White, and Babies All Over

Three day weekends are pure heaven, especially now that my hubs is on a regular work shift and actually gets to enjoy the weekend off with me. This past holiday weekend I was fortunate enough to have a four day weekend, and I was a total beach bum. Stephen and I really enjoyed our fun fun weekend. There were lots of laughs, and plenty of cuddles. I do have to say that my husband is super hilarious, he is truly one of the funniest people that I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. He is definitely going to keep me youthful with all of the laughing that we do!

This weekend my new little brother was born, and Sebastian is super precious! Plus I think that he is already in love with his big sister :0) And I cant wait to see him again this week. I leave you with pictures

So I just got caught up on the Bachelorette and I have to say that I despise Bentley. I mean WTF? Why dont they kick him off this show already? Who says things like that about other people? My favorites are:
-Ryan P.
-J.P.
-Ben C.
-West
-Mickey

and I was sad to see Ryan M. go home.

til the next time...

Campapalooza 2011

I survived Campapalooza 2011 New Kent version 1.0. Get excited! This weekend Stephen and I went camping for the first time, and it was fantastic! We only went for one night, but I can definitely say that I would go again. We had a spot right next to the lake, our tent went up easily (thanks to the  living room tutorial that I received from my camping pro), dinner was great from the fire, and I mastered wake boarding on Saturday. We did have a brief encounter with a monstrous creature from the Chickahominy Lake. The creature also made off like a bandit with a full loaf of bread, after breathing heavily and scaring the crap out of me in the middle of night. I kept having visions of every Jason movie that I've ever seen, blurred as they might have been through the cracks of my fingers in the middle of the afternoon (What? I dont do scary movies). I survived though, and that's whats important :0) I didnt even complain!
By the time that we got home on Saturday we were extremely exhausted, and ordered pizza and fell asleep before midnight! Yesterday was a fantastic day at the beach full of Doc Taylors breakfast, Blue Moon by the ocean, and finished up with a trip to Skinny Dip. Now we have a full work week and a three day weekend :0) Stay tuned...