dinner, fridays favorites, vote

It’s Friday!

Happy Friday Everyone!
Last night Marc was at a meeting then a poker game so I was home alone last night. I turned on my Jazz, made some dinner, filled out my voter’s ballet for our county then hit the hay!

I made some boxed risotto, brussel sprouts and had a nice refreshing beer.

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Marc picked me up some products the other day, and one of them was this box of gluten free risotto. You know me, I really try to stay away from boxed foods – BUT I was feeling a tad lazy and was craving something smooth and savory.

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It was very simple to make and the ingredient list was actually pretty good! I was impressed!

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I sauteed the rice in a tad of EVOO before adding the water and dried sauce. It only took about 15 – 20 minutes to cook. I had to add more water than what it stated because I wanted my risotto to be nice and creamy! Mmmmm… It really hit the “carb” spot!

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I also toasted some pine nuts – I snacked on these as I was waiting. I actually think I had too many because I wasn’t able to finish my dinner! Oops! But they went so well with my beer! 😉

Look how beautiful they look!

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I loved the dark brown ones – a lot of crunch and flavor!

After I cleaned up I sat down and went through my voter’s pamphlet to decide on the new city council, school board directors, judges and so on. This is my first time voting, actually. Before I never really cared who was running because I never was in one place long enough for me to really care. But now that we bought our house and we have a child I figured I would start to actually look and make an impact. I felt good about sealing the envelope and hopefully I will be making a difference!

Do you vote for your own county/city elections?

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Today’s theme is MUSIC! What is your fave band, or song, or artist, or instrument? Want to play? Grab my button and post on your blog!


Not only are the Beatles my favorite band but the album Abbey Road is my all time number one! I have loved the Beatles for as long as I can remember. My dad got me into them at a young age and they just stuck with me. I can remember staying up all night either painting, sewing, writing or just relaxing, and they were always playing in the background. I don’t listen to their first songs too often, it’s the more refined sounds of their later creations.
Who is my favorite Beatle? I have always been partial to Paul 🙂 xoxoxo Did you know he is a vegetarian?
Also, drummer Pete Best was the original drummer until Ringo stepped in – not too many people are aware of this!
My fave Beatles song : Here Comes the Sun

A close second is Nine Inch Nails. Just like the Beatles, I fell in love with their ability to stand out from the rest, sounding like nothing I had ever heard before. Trent is a poetical genius, making the average listener think he is nuts, but for those that listen deeper, it is a treat for the ears.
After taking some years off, NIN reunited selling two new albums. They also started touring again – I happened to go to their Seattle show and it was off the charts! I was so close to the stage, Trent could have spit and it would have hit me!

Ahem, just look at him! :swoon:

And I must not forget Tool. I have only been listening to Tool for the past 5-6 years but I was hooked from the first listen. James Maynard is the lead vocalist and his voice is beautiful and mysterious. Most of the time he sings low and hard but there are few times where he raises the bar and sings high – I have never heard anything like it. He has also done other projects, like A Perfect Circle and he now has his own wine.
I have all of Tool’s albums and I love them all.

Happy Friday everyone!

book, dinner, fridays favorites, house, jordan, lunch, product review

All crammed into one

Hey guys! Hope everyone had a pleasant evening! Marc was busy researching our fantasy football team so I ended up going to bed early. ( I didn’t get much sleep last night so if I sound a little dazed in my post then that’s why!)

It ended up being a beautiful day! This is rare for Seattle weather this time of year.

Book

My night was uneventful but relaxing. I was drooling over all of the raw food recipes in my new cook book and picked out at least a dozen to try! The main concept that I love about Ani’s book is the ingredient list is simple, and most of them I already have on hand! I think people are intimidated by the raw food concept because they think “special” food is required. Nope, quite the opposite really. So now I am all prepped and planned for Wednesday’s Raw Food challenge! You will probably see a few of these recipes this weekend though. 😉 They really do look and sound quite delicious!

House
We have made a lot of progress on our house since we moved in July. The home was move in ready but we love the idea of customizing the look and feel to really make it our own. My uncle Don is a general contractor and has helped us turn our vision into reality. From painting to shelving units, his work is amazing!

Recently we had him repaint the entire outside of the house. This is what it looked like before:

We really did not care for the yellow and white. Too bland and did nothing for how the house really is inside, elegant. We saw our exact same house in another part of the neighborhood and fell in love with the color scheme they had! So Marc went and asked them for a sample. We had my mom copy the colors, as she is a paint manager, and came up with this:

I love it! The contrasting color is gorgeous and if you notice the second tier above the garage is now painted the trim color, as well. The one thing we still don’t like are the vertical stripes on the very top of the house. My uncle said it would be easy to change those back to horizontal siding. I think we will tackle that one next spring.
We also changed out our front lights for something more modern:

And had our door repainted. There were chips and scratches all in it and it looks like a brand new door now!

And no more soliciting! I can’t even count how many times solicitors have rang the doorbell to sell something to me. It makes Lilly bark, scares Jordan and he starts wailing. Not fun. Hopefully this will put an end to it!

Lunch, dinner and product reviews

Let’s just jump right into yesterday’s eats.

Lunch:

I was craving melted cheese all morning so I new a nice hot sammy was in order. And this is really weird for me because I hardly ever eat cheese!

Max Flax sprouted bread, cheddar, tomato, basil leaves, tempeh slices and shredded parm/mozz mix. It really hit the spot!

I paired it with some juicy green grapes
I was stuffed afterwords! You may notice that I don’t eat a lot of sandwiches and when I do it’s like it just swells in my belly.

I bought some tempeh at the store the other day – first time trying it! Honestly though… I have no idea how I am supposed to fix it. Is it supposed to be warm? Cold? By it’s self? As the main meal? So I did the least intimidating thing I could think of – slather it with melted cheese and hope for the best! It was seedy and hearty… but I really couldn’t taste it. lol I do like the ingredient list, though.

Simple, just how I like it.

Now to dinner:

  • Spring mix and romain
  • quinoa
  • chicken
  • gorganzola – I forgot how much I really enjoy this cheese!
  • tomato
  • basil
  • sesame seeds
  • a lot of s & p
  • home made balsamic dressing
  • and some pita chips on the side

I think I am done with the balsamic dressings. I am not a fan if vinegar as it’s too acidic for my palate. I love my salads with fresh herbs and a drizzle of EVOO. The pita chips were yummy and added a great crunch on the side.

And for dessert?! Coconut ice cream!

I even gave Jordan some bites and he loved it too! Of course he never eats anything sweetened so it was a real treat for him. 🙂
If you have never tried this, please do! It tastes like the real deal!

At about 9:30 I was starving! Weird since I never eat late but I fixed a small bowl of Chobani with trail mix and granola.

Jordan

I FINALLY was able to snap a picture of Jordan standing. Little stinker is so quick, as soon as he sees my camera he gets down and starts crawling to me.

He still has not taken any steps on his own. We are waiting and waiting but nothing. He can walk if he is holding onto something but he’s still not 100% sure of himself. Come on Baby J – you can do it!
His party is almost here! Wow, I am soon going to be a mother to a toddler – must. prepare.

New idea

Since Wednesday’s are so much fun around here I thought I would share the love with Friday’s! I am now featuring Fridays Favorites! The idea is to share your favorite items, feelings, smells, foods… anything! I will either have a theme to go by or a free for all for you to post random favorites.

Today is a free for all! These are my current favorite items:


Organique Intensive Moisturizing FootCare Cream
. I have very dry feet and I slather a healthy amount on before bed, put a pair of socks on and I wake up with supple feet! Amazing cream! It has a nice scent of patchouli and coriander but it is strong. With healing ingredients of beeswax, honey and sesame oil, your cracked feet will love you!
I picked it up at our local health food store for only 10 bucks – the website offers it for 20. Strange.
It is oily so if you can’t wear socks to bed try it during the day instead. You really don’t want to be soiling your sheets with this stuff.

My pumpkin spice candle. Nothing compares to the scent of pumpkin, spice and everything nice in my home. After a day of errands it so warming to open my door and automatically smell autumn. I love this time of year!

If you would like to participate in Fridays Favorites please take my badge, leave a comment and post on your blog linking to me – it’s simple as that! I am looking for suggestions for upcoming Fridays – any ideas?

So that concludes my random post – have a great day!