Body Pump + Sh’Bam = Dead Legs

I sure hope your legs don’t feel as beat up as mine do.

I decided I wanted to up my working out habits just a tinge. I’d like to lose a *little* more weight A) to be healthier & B) to look smokin’ hot on September 2, 2012. But mostly just to feel healthier.

But I knew I didn’t want to go on a diet. I don’t do diets. I try and then…stop trying so that isn’t the best way for me.

So, with that, I decided to go to two classes two days week to amp it up.

And oh boy, my body noticed.

I did my usual Body Pump class on Monday and stayed after to attend my first Sh’Bam class.

According to Les Mills, Sh’Bam…

Featuring simple but seriously hot dance moves, SH’BAM™ is the perfect way to shape up and let out your inner star – even if you’re dance challenged.

Set to a soundtrack of chart-topping popular hits, dance music that is heard in the hottest nightclubs around the world, familiar classics remixed and modernized Latin beats, SH’BAM™ is the ultimate fun and sociable way to exercise. Each 45-minute SH’BAM™ class is vibrant, unique and varied – and like all the LES MILLS™ programs, a new SH’BAM™ release is produced every three months with new music and choreography.

It was so. much. fun. I love that it’s laid back and you don’t even think about it as a workout! Though it didn’t seem  like a workout, it definitely was and taking that after Body Pump made me feel oh so sore.

Tonight I just attended Zumba to take it easy (but still groove it).

And for dinner tonight…

Homemade pizza!

We love homemade pizza and I can’t remember the last time we had it so on the menu it went! My side was loaded up with italian sausage, turkey pepperoni, banana peppers, green olives, goat cheese & shredded cheese.

With a side salad of romaine lettuce, banana peppers, carrots, croutons, cucumbers & balsamic vinaigrette.

Question: What’s your favorite kind of pizza? I’m not picky when it comes to pizza (or really any food) so I’ll eat just about anything!

French Onion Soup Sandwiches

Wait, what?!

How can a soup…be made into a…sandwich? Impossible? No way!

I love Iowa Girl Eats and all of her recipes (and crafts!) that she blogs about. When I saw this recipe  on her blog a couple of months ago, my jaw dropped. I love French Onion soup. And I love sandwiches.

The two together?!

Holy. Cow.

French Onion Soup Sandwiches

Adapted from Iowa Girl Eats

Ingredients:

• 1 large sweet yellow onion
• 1 teaspoon butter
• 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
• 1 bay leaf
• pinch of dried thyme
• salt & pepper
• 1/4-1/3 cup beef broth
• 4 slices good quality bread
• butter for spreading
• 4 slices Munster/Pepperjack Cheese

Her recipe used gruyere/fontina cheese, but I had munster & pepperjack on hand so I used that. Don’t get me wrong though, gruyere is by far the best. cheese. ever. So use it if you have it.

Heat up the butter, EVOO & worcestershire sauce in a skillet.

 

I used Lea & Perrins  brand, but any kind will do.

After 3-4 minutes throw in the onions.

 

Sizzle those babies for 20-25 minutes, making sure they are nice and brown. Pour in splashes of beef broth whenever the onion look like they are crisping up.

Here come the good part. Lather up your bread with some butter. Place butter side down on a griddle and top with cheese & then the onions. Place other piece of bread on top, butter side up.

 

I made two mini sandwiches because I had french bread on hand.

Served with some roasted cauliflower (seasoned with garlic salt & TJ’s 21 seasoning salute).

  

Yum.

Question: What’s your favorite soup & sandwich?

 

Thanksgiving 2011

Welcome back, everyone!

And happy late Thanksgiving!

These past few days have flown by and sadly, it is Monday again tomorrow. Though, now you have no guilt of singing those Christmas tunes out loud (I had no guilt before, but perhaps some of you do).

We decided to go to just Ryan’s parents house for Thanksgiving this year. My hometown is 8 hours away from Milwaukee and…driving that much plus seeing his family too, was just too much. Though my mom did get to come up and meet us!

We drove down Thursday morning with relatively easy traffic. I haven’t been feeling 100% for the past few days so I napped for about half of the drive.

Soon after we arrived it was time to eat! Pretty typical Thanksgiving fair, so I felt no need to take a picture.

The day was spent socializing, playing card games (learned how to play euchre AFTER college…yep), sitting outside by the fire and watching the dogs play (aka Murphy trying to play with Ryan’s parents dog Jota…and Jota ignoring him).

 

Typical.

“I so happpppyyyy”

” I love it here!!!!”

Snarl.

 

 

 

 

Fi-yah.

 

Jota was not excited about having Murphy on her turf.

 

ATTACK!!!!!

We drove back up on Saturday to Purdue to make it to the basketball game (which they won!).

Today has been a typical lazy Sunday and it has been great. Though I am ready to get back into a somewhat normal routine!

Question: How was your Thanksgiving break?

Let’s Talk About Wine

Hola amigos!

How’s everyone doing? Good? Great.

Today…we got a special delivery…

of…

Oliver wine!!!

We are a part of the Oliver Wine club and we get a shipment of wine twice a year. The Oliver Winery is located in Bloomington, IN and is not offered in Wisconsin, hence why we are a part of the club. Though most of what you see in stores in Indiana is the cheaper wine that Oliver offers, they also offer a variety of wines online.

These ones were a surprise! They are differently flavors of cider (regular, strawberry, peach & raspberry) and we actually planned on purchasing them separately but we were surprised to see them in our shipment! Score!

Then we got the big boys…Strawberry, Sangria, Port (!!!!), Soft White Wine & Creekbend. So excited to try the Port.

Another shipment we received is…

Our Charlie Brown Christmas tree!!! Hahaha. We’re trying to save as much money as possible right now (ahem, wedding costs add up…) but we still felt like we needed to get a tree. So here it is, in all its glory!

Other than the exciting packages, nothing much else going on. Went to spin class, came back and had dinner.

Which consisted of spaghetti squash, mixed veggies, zucchini, shredded cheese & parmesan cheese & marinara sauce.

With a side of garlic toast (butter & garlic salt, baby).

Now I’ve got this face to stare at until I go to bed!

Night!

Question: Do you drink wine? What’s your favorite kind?

Spicy Goat Cheese & Chicken Enchiladas

Ya know, I’ve never actually made enchiladas.

Don’t get me wrong, I like them but it always seemed like too much effort.

I mean, I have to stuff tortillas with chicken, cheese, any other desired toppings, roll it together and make sure none of it falls out?!

I’ll leave that to the mexican restaurants.

Until today.

I saw this recipe on Savvy Eats a few weeks ago for Spicy Cream Cheese & Chicken Enchiladas.

Seemed easy enough and I had all of the ingredients except for a jalapeno.

As I assembled the enchiladas, I got out the cream cheese and lo and behold…fuzz.

Fuzz had taken over my cream cheese! What was I to do?!

Goat cheese, once again, saves the day.

Spicy Goat Cheese & Chicken Enchiladas

Makes 5 enchiladas, adapted from Savvy Eats

• 1 jalapeno pepper
• 4 oz of goat cheese
• 5 tortillas
• 1.5 chicken breasts
• 1 cup of salsa
• 1.5 cups of shredded Mexican cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees & grease 9X13 baking pan.

Dice jalapeno pepper and place into small bowl. Mix with goat cheese.

Lay tortilla flat out and top with 2 oz (just eyeball) of chicken, desired amount of salsa & cheese. Roll up and place seam side down in baking pan. Repeat with all tortillas.

Top enchiladas with goat cheese & jalapeno mixture. Add the rest of the shredded cheese to the top as well.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until cheesy is melty & bubbly. Let rest for 5 minutes before devouring.

Question: Have you ever made enchiladas? What kind is your favorite?

Admirals Hockey

Long time, no talk!

It’s been a busy week, so excuse the lack of posting.

Moving on!

Last night I took Ryan out on a date night. Yep, the girl took the guy out. No biggie.

We try to have specific date nights at least once a month because it’s easy to get caught up in working, house cleaning,  laundry and the typical weekday night tasks and we like to set aside at least one day to go out and do something fun.

We trade up every other month and since October was a bit too packed I had to move mine to November.

I like to pick something different than what we would normally do…so when a Groupon came out for a Admirals hockey game…I jumped on it.

Two 200 level tickets for $19? Sure, why not!

First, we ate dinner ate Water Street Brewery. We were both starving so food was a must.

Him hungry.

I ordered the house salad to start with

…which I have no picture of because I was literally ate it in 15 seconds flat.

For my entree, I ordered the Portabella Mushroom sandwich which was marinated and grilled with tomato, red onion, mixed greens on toasted ciabatta bread with roasted red pepper aioli and a side of house potato chips, which included yam, sweet potato & regular chips.

It was delicious! The ciabatta bread wasn’t actually toasted though, so I think it would have been better if it was.

Usually we don’t order desserts at restaurants but we were both feeling it. We decided on a brownie w/ vanilla ice cream on top. Simple, but very tasty.

Off to the hockey game we went! Only 45 minutes late…but no biggie.

We got there just in time for the second period to begin. The hockey crowd is a lively crew if you’ve never been to a game. There were all sorts of cheers that we had no idea how they went but it was fun to witness.

Blimp that dropped coupons…I didn’t get any

Fight, fight, fight!

It was neat that neither of us had been to a hockey game. I definitely believe it is a lot more fun to watch in person than on tv (you can see the puck a lot better…) and the fights seemed more intense!

Though hockey might not be our new sport I would definitely go again!

Question: Have you ever been to a hockey game? 

Chicago Trip

Annnd we’re back! Actually we arrived Saturday afternoon, but pretty much crashed from 3:30pm-7:30pm. Yep…a  4 hour nap was necessary after staying up until 5 am the night before. I just can’t roll like I used to in college anymore, this girl needs her sleep!

We went to several places in Wrigleyville. Lots of fun was had and it was nice to catch up with some friends.

Beer tower with not so stellar beer at Red Ivy. And a creepy looking college friend.

Typical.

Long lost friend! Or…friend I saw 3 weeks ago…

Wind blown and blurry. Just the way I like it.

Super typical.

I’m gonna decide to be kind to my friends (and myself) and not upload the rest

Question: How’s your Monday been? How was the weekend?

Billiards

Tonight Ryan & I (and Murphy) are venturing to Chicago to visit one of his fraternity brothers. Chicago is only an hour and half from Milwaukee, but with traffic (and it being Friday traffic….) it will probably take closer to 2 hours.

I’ve been to Chicago a handful of times but I still don’t really know the city that well. I like it enough, but it’s not my favorite. Basically because of traffic. And because if you want to “go out” you pretty much have to take a taxi everywhere and I hate wasting money on stupid stuff like that.

Either way it should be a good time, I just hope Murphy doesn’t freak out like he did last time we travelled somewhere. He whined literally the ENTIRE night therefore we got no sleep (well, I did because I can pass out easily). He’s usually pretty good at other places so it was strange.

Side note: The title of this post…is an inside joke. The guy we are visiting came up here during the summer and Ryan, him and another friend were grilling for my friend and me. Ryan specifically pointed out the guys and was like, “Guys, let’s go watch the grill and sit outside.” I asked, “Why did you only point out the guys? Why can’t we watch the grill to?” (Not like I really see any point in watching a grill….but that’s besides the point). He said it was because we’re girls and we don’t watch grills, guys do. I had mentioned to the friend that we are visiting this weekend how it wasn’t fair and how probably later that night they are gonna go play pool or something without us. He turned into billiards and all of the guys were cracking up at me (they aren’t pool/billiards playing people at all).

Random story that you don’t care about is now….over.

And here is the song I keep playing, oh…pretty much everywhere- in my car, at the gym (or at least singing it in my head at the gym), while I get ready….

LMFAO gets me everytime.

Question: What are you folks up to this weekend? Any fun plans?

 

Steak n’ Potatoes

Tonight’s RPM class wasn’t the best for me. I actually think I like RPM better than just cycling (seems more hardcore, at least to me) but today was just not my day. I had a Clif bar before class and for some reason it did not sit well in my stomach at all. Thankfully what I thought was an hour class was only 45 minutes so I made it thru. Believe me, I bolted out of there to get into my warm car and drive home.

Dinner

We’ve had these filets in our freezer for a while and I knew I wanted to use them up. We’re trying our best to use items out of our fridge that has been neglected so it doesn’t get all freezy burnt.

I rarely eat steak, but when I do I remember why I like it so much. I hate to pay the extra at restaurants for steaks but I enjoy a home cooked steak every once in while, especially if it’s filet mignon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alongside some roasted potatoes!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tossed with some italian seasoning, pepper and sea salt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yum-o! Off to watch more Dexter!

(I’m behind the times and am only on season 4)

Question: Are you a steak & potatoes type of person? Why or why not?

Baked Polenta, Goat Cheese & Mushrooms

I tried Body Flow for the first time tonight. Don’t know what Body Flow is?

According to http://www.lesmills.com, BODYFLOW™ is the Yoga, Tai Chi, Pilates workout that builds flexibility and strength and leaves you feeling centered and calm. Controlled breathing, concentration and a carefully structured series of stretches, moves and poses to music create a holistic workout that brings the body into a state of harmony and balance. Like all the LES MILLS™ programs, a new BODYFLOW™ class is released every three months with new music and choreography. 

I went into the class thinking it was just Yoga & Pilates (note to self: research new class before going) and was at first nervous. I mean…I was supposed to do this?!

Source

Okay, okay…so I didn’t have to do that. But it was very fast paced in the beginning and I wasn’t sure what I got myself into.

Once the class progressed, I really started getting into the poses and stretching as far as I could. The instructor noted that it takes about 3 classes to fully “get” Body Flow so I’m excited to give it another go some time soon! We also ended class on one of my favorite Imogen Heap songs…

So good. So soothing.

I’m really trying to to give each class a shot and see which ones I like best. Plus, I like to spice it up with some variety!

Dinner

Another first tonight…polenta! I used Eat Live Run’s recipe  but switched out gorgonzola cheese for goat cheese. Gosh I love goat cheese. It’s just so…good. And creamy. And delicious. And how did I live my life without it before?

Alongside some steamed baby carrots. Not bad for the first time! Next time I’ll probably try to make it from scratch (used it from a tube from Trader Joes…) and more marinara. Delicious!

Question: Have you tried polenta? What’s your favorite way to eat it?