Pinterest Recipe Fails

I have had my fair share of Pinterest fails (if I'm honest the ratio is probably 2:1 lol) and this weekend I had not one but two... 

Like most Pinners I have a snack board and finally decided to try a couple of the "healthy" snacks. Both were failures.

Up first were the Garlic Parmesan Roasted Chickpeas.

I promise I followed the recipe. I let the chickpeas dry for about three times longer than suggested and they still didn't work. I baked them at 400 and first checked them after 25 minutes (as per another recipe) and they were not done so I put them back in for a total of 40 minutes. The Parmesan cheese clumped together and although the chickpeas were crispy on the outside, the inside felt like sawdust in my mouth.

The result:

As I was on the healthy snack roll and had the oven on a 400 I also attempted to make Parmesan Garlic Edamame. We only had frozen edamame still in the shell so I thawed and shelled all the beans. Which didn't end up being more than a cup but still, I shelled allll the beans.

Again, I followed the recipe and these ones actually tasted good when they came out of the oven. And then I ruined them. I put them in a ziploc container... And the next day they were mush.  So that was totally on me - maybe I should have left them in a bowl on the counter?

I genuinely wanted to make healthy snacks. And I might try the edamame again but do any of you have a foolproof recipe I can try? I am considering making fruit leather from this pin but if I can't roast chickpeas then can I really make fruit leather??

     

My Weekend in Instagram

And here we go into the start of another week... Can you believe we're already in the last half of January?? Plain craziness I tell you, life just goes by too fast these days. Too bad I can't survive on 4-5 hours of sleep so I can enjoy more hours in the day... but I love my bed and sleeping way too much!

Another weekend has come and gone but I managed to document some of it on good 'ol Instagram. 

Friday night we picked up dinner and curled up at home in our pjs and caught up on Hawaii 5-0. I got some cuddles in with our grumpy-faced Jinx, such a good snuggler.

Saturday morning I had my first official workout on the treadmill! I am starting off slow, after a 5 minute warm up I did 30 minutes on an incline at a brisk pace followed by a 5 minute cool down. It felt really good to break a sweat and I watched an episode of White Collar. Having the show to keep my mind preoccupied was perfect, I really think this has a chance of working well for me!

P.S. S'well bottles are AMAZING!! I need more. 

After getting errands and other boring stuff out of the way the hubby and I hit up our local driving range. Initially I was in a foul mood and kept whining about not wanting to be out in the cold but it turned out to be fun. I think I just needed to get out and into the fresh air. 

Our next stop was a local pub for an appy and couple drinks. We had not been to this pub since I first met my father-in-law five years ago! It has changed hands a couple times since then and the latest menu looks pretty good. We had nachos and get did not disappoint - there was cheese in all the chip layers. First time I've had corn on nachos and I didn't hate it... I didn't love it but every once in a while it was ok. 

Sunday we were actually up pretty early and I made us a quick breakfast (scrambled eggs, hash browns and fried garlic sausage, sausage was a little dry) before hubby went back to bed. He had a late night hanging out at his buddy's shop which meant a night at home for me catching up on all my shows. I also curled up in bed at a decent hour and woke up sans hangover! #winning

At noon on Sunday I was thoroughly enjoying Scandal and a delicious cup of coffee :)

The day took a bit of a turn when I realized that I completely forgot to get fruit and veggies for the week. I did a bit of grocery shopping while I was in the US for work last week so kind of convinced myself I had gotten that out of the way. Not so much. This resulted in a trip to the grocery store and thankfully I was in and out pretty quick. 

And here we have it, my weekend in photos. Like I told our server at the pub, married life is predictable and boring but I wouldn't trade it for anything. 

Now to read about people with exciting lives so I can live vicariously through them... While curled up in my pjs passing time until it's acceptable to crawl back into bed. Is 8:30pm too early? 

 

Linking up with these lovely ladies:

Manic Monday, Mingle Monday, Weekend Recap

   

No More Excuses

We bit the bullet and bought a treadmill this weekend.  We drove out to my coworkers place as she was kind enough to sell us hers (according to her husband it had about 3 minutes use on it)... I didn't want to shell out a bunch of money on a brand new one because who knows if we will even like it?  This way we spent a little bit of money on a brand I was able to research and if we eventually need to buy another one then at least we will be making a conscious investment. 

 

At this point all I care about is that it has a place for my water bottle and my iPad so I can watch Netflix.  I am going to need to be entertained!

 

 



I haven't actually tested it out more than a few minutes because as soon as we got the treadmill home I had to clean out our spare room so we had somewhere to put it.  I spent the next 3 hours sorting through boxes and bags of stuff organizing between storage in our crawl space, the dump, recycling, and sell/give away.  I will admit it felt awesome to purge everything but I was exhausted by the time I was done. 

 

I am not exactly sure how to start so I think I am going to follow this learn to run schedule and see how I do:

 

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Any suggestions or other recommendations for treadmill programs?  How do you fit at home exercise into your schedule?

  

 

Linking up with these lovely ladies:

Manic Monday, Mingle Monday, Weekend Recap

   

Oh Hey Friday: Project 365

In addition to the health, fitness and personal growth resolutions I have every year, I added something new to the mix this year - a 365 Day Picture Project (also know as Project 365).  Take a picture every day for one year.  I have a couple reasons for doing this... I like to think I am creative and it would be so cool to make an album next January with the photos that literally document my life in 2014 (although they will mostly be of Milo and food) plus as I said here, I wish I could take better photos and am hoping this will help me learn my camera.  

Now I just need to starting using my DSLR instead of my iPhone...
 

Small steps. I have 356 days to work on it.

 

Here is my first week of Project 365:
 

Sunday: Milo after a face plant in the snow - love his expression!
 

Monday: the most delicious homemade pizza yet, recipe here
 

Tuesday: morning snuggles with Jinx wrapped up in our quilt

 

 

Wednesday: some of the last Christmas lights in the city

 



Thursday: this guy curled up between us, not feeling too well :(

I think my weekend pictures are my favourite but I also think I need to put more effort in.  Have any of you done a Project 365?  Did you have a plan or just take random photos during the day?

Cheers to Friday!

  Friday Parties:  

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Currently

You may recall that one of my resolutions in giving this little space of mine a bit more attention and in helping me keep that resolution, I have decided to jump on the bandwagon and join in on my first ever Currently linkup… let’s see how 2015 is working out for me so far.
 

planning: one work trip next week (not far, I am heading to one of our sister company offices in Washington for a couple days) and also a vacation!  Hubby and I are doing another Las Vegas/Palm Springs trip at the beginning of February before his works gets busy again.  From March through October I will only be able to get him away on short cabin trips (not that I’m complaining in any way about cabin trips).
 

hoping: to get a new blog design by the spring. I want to make a couple changes and I might as well do a complete overhaul... including pictures because I'm pretty sure I'm no longer a newlywed. 
 

baking: I have been on a bit of a baking hiatus since I finished Christmas baking but just found this recipe on Pinterest and really want to try it out.  I made a pinwheel cookie before and I loved the fact that it turned out and looked really cool… and the bonus is I can bring the cookies to work and they will disappear in minutes!
 

wearing: I have been living in leggings… I tell myself it’s because they are so comfortable but it’s really because nothing else fits me.
 

resolving: see above re. leggings… I have no choice but to lose some weight because my clothes literally don't fit. How do people stay on track??

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  Linking up with Anne and Jenna.   

Recipe: Homemade Pizza

Something pretty great happened last night. Not only did I save dinner, I also proved my husband wrong. It was awesome. We make pizza at home fairly often, usually in the oven on Turkish flat bread or pizza shells, but for christmas we got a pizza stone that you use on the BBQ and it's supposed to make delicious pizza. Well when we were at Trader Joe's last week we got some of their fresh pizza dough and decided we were going to try it tonight. 

 

So the pizza stone came with a paddle which was to be used to put the place the pizza on the stone after the stone has warmed up on the BBQ. So hubby rolled out the dough while I prepared all the toppings, I dressed the pizza and then he said he would be in charge of cooking it. Worked for me. It all went downhill from there. 

 

The corn meal he put on the pizza stone started to burn and then when he was trying to get the pizza off the paddle it wouldn't slide very easily and he panicked, almost folding the thing over into a giant calzone. Not the most patient man, dinner was declared, BBQ shut off and out of the kitchen he stomped. 

 

Well I was hungry and had pizza in the brain.

 

So I turned on the oven to 400 F, grabbed a cookie sheet and spread a bit of corn meal onto it and then used two spatulas to loosen the dough from the paddle and slid the pizza onto a cookie sheet. When he realized what I was doing, my husband told me I was crazy and it would be gross, the pizza wouldn't cook on the cookie sheet (we always cook pizza shells/flat bread directly on the rack). 

The pizza was delicious! So. Good.

So good that he told me it was better than delivery. 

 

Our pizzas are always really good but this one really was tastier than normal. I think it was the dough. Needless to say we will be stocking up!  We will also try the grill stone again but I think I will be the one doing the transfer. 

 

Below I have included directions on making homemade pizza in your oven... for those days you're craving pizza or when you have to save dinner :)

 

Ingredients

- 1 large cooked chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces

- 1 cup sliced mushrooms 

- 0.5 can chopped artichoke hearts (4-5 hearts)

- 0.5 cup chopped green peppers

- 1.5 cup shredded mozzarella (or however much you want really)

- 4 tbsp pizza sauce 

- 1 tsp EVOO 

- 1 package Trader Joe's fresh pizza dough 

- Approximately 1 tsp corn meal

 

Directions

1) Get cookie sheet or pizza tray and spread the corn meal on top

2) Roll out pizza dough and then brush with EVOO - do this, it makes a big difference!

3) Spread pizza sauce all over and then 0.5 cup mozzarella 

4) Distribute the rest of the toppings (chicken, mushrooms, artichokes and green peppers)

5) Top with the rest of the mozzarella 

6) Cook at 425 F for 15 minutes (watch after 10 minutes to see how crispy you want your crust)

 


Getting the dough ready for toppings: EVOO, pizza sauce and some of cheese




Add all the toppings and then spread the remaining cheese all over 



Pizza's ready!

 

ENJOY!!

 

Linking up with: Lisa's Do Tell Tuesday and Tuesday's Table 

Weekend Recap: Snow Day!

Good thing one of my resolutions wasn’t to publish blog posts early because we’re only 5 days in and I would have failed!  I had the best of intentions to write this post yesterday afternoon but something inside me decided to start cleaning out my closet.  It was time, I was attempting to put away clean laundry and there wasn’t anywhere for most of it to go… and I looked at all the summer dresses and shorts and piles of unknown clothing balled up on the floor and said to myself, something needs to change.  So I started pulling things out, packing away for summer and making a donation pile… I took a break for dinner and then was right back to it until I decided I should get some shut eye.  Our room looks like a bomb went off but I promised my husband that it will look better when I’m done.
 

Long story short – I started cleaning out my closet and lost track of time and went to bed instead of blogging about our weekend.
 

Maybe it’s because our weekend was so good and I didn't want Sunday to end. It really was, I was off work for four days and we had a lot of fun doing nothing much.

In a nutshell we...

Thursday: we spent the day packing up Christmas inside and out.  I was sad that it was over but I was actually thrilled to de-clutter… we don’t have a lot of space in our living room and kitchen areas so it was nice to breathe. I even got crazy and cleaned out the lazy susan in the kitchen… another nightmare cupboard will be done this coming weekend.

 

Friday: we got up early and crossed the border into Bellingham, WA to visit some of my favourite stores: Target (the US ones are so. much. better.), Marshall’s and Trader Joes.  Hubby found a new store that sells every thing a man (or woman who enjoys that stuff) could want to build a house, fix a car, buy power tools… he bought some new equipment for his landscaping business and we learned how to import commercial goods into Canada.  Shockingly, it wasn’t that difficult once we got a customs officer who was willing to tell us the steps we needed to take and now that we know how to do it, it’s not that scary. Pretty sure this means more US shopping trips for me! #winning

 

Saturday: the ‘weather experts’ were predicting a big winter storm for our area starting Saturday night so I took the dog out to burn off some energy and picked up a couple things we might want if we were stuck at home for 24 hours: booze and grapefruit.  An odd combination I know but I have been loving grapefruit so I stocked up.

 

It didn’t snow.  Hubby was very sad. It has now been raining since Saturday afternoon.

 

Sunday: after a sleep in for me, we headed up the mountain to take Milo to play in the snow.  It is so much fun to watch him hop around in a foot of snow, he loves it!  He couldn’t get enough and I got some funny photos of him face-planting right into fresh powder. 

 

 

Completely exhausted!

 

We are also going back to our weekly meal plans – we eat so much better and I am more relaxed when we know prepare what we are going to eat for the week.
    

     Sunday: BBQ chicken breast, mushroom risotto and roasted green beans
     Monday: homemade pizza (dough from Trader Joe’s) with turkey pepperoni, mushrooms,

                    green peppers and tomatoes.
     Tuesday: Roasted pork tenderloin (trying this recipe from the Barefoot Contessa), wild  

                     rice and veggies.
     Wednesday: Leftovers (the pork tenderloin is huge!)
     Thursday: Breakfast for Dinner (vegetable omelettes)
     Friday: Greek take-out (we have a gift certificate we keep forgetting to use)
 

And now it’s Monday and we’re back to work. Everyone is all excited about the start of a new year but I’m like, it’s still Monday. Cheers to this week flying by!

 

How was your first weekend of 2015?  

 

Linking up with these lovely ladies:

Funday Munday, Manic Monday, Mingle Monday, Weekend Recap

   

2015 Resolutions

Better late than never right?  I had this post written last night but the Blogger iPad app sucks and won't let me format anything. There must be a better app so please enlighten me if you can.  Hubby and I got up at the crack of dawn (actually a couple hours before that even) at 5:30am and headed south across the border for some shopping.  They have opened Target here in Canada but it's not the same at all.  It's the product selection people!!  Anyway, I got my fix today and we made a few other stops (hello Trader Joes when are you heading up here??) and hence the late publish.
Enjoy your Friday friends! 
1. Better Health. I will get the obvious one out of the way first (show me someone who makes resolutions that doesn't have this on their list!), I need to get my shit together. Or rather I need to get off my fat ass (actually I have no ass because I carry my weight in my stomach and it would be nice if people didn't think I was 4 months preggo) and lose some weight. I also need to eat much healthier. But I am doing something different this year! I need to accept the fact that I am lazy and addicted to Netflix so we are getting a treadmill. This way I will literally have no excuse but to get moving and I will be able to lose myself in a show for the duration. I know myself and I need to make it easy beavered I am lazy. Acceptance is half the battle right?
Pssst... @Netflix, this is perfect time to put me on the #StreamTeam!!
2. Meal Plans. This goes with better health above... We were killing it with the meal plans and life was good and then all of a sudden we stopped. I guess I stopped. The usual excuses, basically life got in the way. But it makes life EASIER. And healthier. So meal plans are back starting this Sunday.    3. Read More Books. I love being in a book club because I have always loved reading but when I discovered Netflix I basically stopped reading except for when I was at the lake or by the pool. When I was a kid I used to hide under the covers with a flashlight and devour a book when I was supposed to be sleeping. So not only is the book club awesome because I have met amazing women, but I have also read some really great books. And I really want to read more. I love getting lost in a book. My favourite book in 2014 was the Night Circus - if you haven't read it, do it.

4. 365 Day Picture Project. I can't even count how many times I whine on Instagram or this blog that I don't know how to use my DSLR or even apologize for the fuzzy iPhone pics I post, and then yesterday I came across this post and it sounded like such a cool idea!  I can't imagine that there are many days when I don't take a photo but the thought of turning it into an actual project makes me excited.  And maybe I will finally learn how to use my camera.  Oh and does this officially give me an excuse to buy a selfie stick??

 

5. Baby Dreams.  I wish and hope and pray that we get pregnant this year. I am terrified to actually write this down because it's now officially out there, we are officially trying and not just the two of us know and I am scared. I'm terrified. I have no clue why but I am so scared that it's not going to happen and admitting this here makes me worry that I have just jinxed it.  It's true, we just started trying only a few months ago after receiving news we had been waiting for but every month that goes by aches just a little bit more. Fingers crossed that 2015 is our year! 

How do you stick to your resolutions?

 

First Friday linkups of 2015!

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Welcome 2015!

Happy New Year! Shockingly I did not just crawl out of bed but in fact have had quite a busy day with barely any trace of a hangover. This is quite the New Years Day miracle for me and hopefully bodes well for what is to come.  We went out for dinner with a couple friends and were home by 11:15 and stayed up just long enough for the countdown to midnight, then passed out happy. After getting up this morning at 9:30am I met and chatted with our new tenants for a bit and then tackled the Christmas decor. I packed up everything inside and then we headed outside to take down all the lights out front.  Christmas is officially over for another year.  After hubby cooked us up a yummy late lunch (cheese tortellini in a four cheese tomato sauce) we took Milo for a walk along the water. The sun was out in full glory but it was cooooold. It was a nice way to end the day. Well the afternoon because now we're home in pjs and snuggled in blankets watching E's Kardashian marathon. I can't remember the last time I watched commercials... has anyone else noticed that they are all about getting pregnant?? I have seen the Clear Blue early detection pregnancy tests and ovulation kits at least100 times. I hope you all had an amazing NYE celebrating however you chose to (or if you chose to do nothing at all) followed by a wonderful day. 
Check back tomorrow to see my 5 resolutions for this new year... do you have any?
Here are some photos from last night and our day today:

He doesn't join us for family walks but we can't forget to include Jinx:

Best wishes for a happy and prosperous 2015!