GGX Launch Party

‘Ello amigos!

I started today with finishing up some IIN work. It was nice to finish some work before 9 am!

Morning coffee was essential.

Alongside an egg sandwich with cherry butter. Sounds strange, but try it! It’s delicious.

Today is a good day because it’s GGX Launch party at my gym!!! My gym offers most of the Les Mills classes, which launches new tracks every 3 months. Brand new songs, brand new moves, brand new muscles being worked!

I really wanted to get into the Body Pump class, but alas I was too late to sign up. It was full within 12 hours of the sign up sheet being posted!

Oh well, I will just have to wait until Monday to try it out.

Since I couldn’t get into that class, I figured it would be a good time to try a new-to-me class, Body Combat! I’m *slightly* nervous, but the instructors kept saying how the Launch party is a great time to try a new class since all of the moves are new to everyone.

I also signed up for Body Flow (not Body Vive…) and Sh’Bam. I’ve only been to Body Flow once, but I definitely loved it so I wanted to try again. I need some stretching in my life.

And of course, I always love Sh’Bam. I’m glad they are ending on a fun class.

Time to fuel up before an afternoon of workouts!

Question: Have you ever taken Body Combat, Body Flow or Sh’Bam? Or any gym classes? Did you like them?

Single Lady Livin’

Yep. I’ve been by my lonesome for the past 3 days while Ryan travels for work. He comes home tonight or else I wouldn’t be telling you this (crazy creepers, beware!).

Life has been pretty boring this week, I won’t lie. I attended Body Pump on Monday and haven’t been back to the gym since. I tend to feel guilty about leaving Murphy when it’s just me at home so I’ve been taking him on extra long walks to get my exercise in as well as his.

He’s been really curious this week. Aka stopping & sniffing every 4 feet.

I’m not exaggerating.

Can you tell I’m obsessed with Instragram? Yeah…it’ll prolly wear off. Hopefully.

“Mom!!! I’m thirsty!!!”

“I’m sweepy.”

Other than that, I’ve been watching Gossip Girl on Netflix, eating super random meals & getting ahead on schoolwork.

I don’t know how to live like a single lady anymore.

Chicken Sausage Pasta w/ Balsamic Vinegar Glaze

The title makes this recipe sound fancy…but don’t be scared! It’s easy peasy, lemon squeezy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve seen this “balsamic reduction” on several different blogs before, but always assumed it was too time consuming or too difficult.

Boy, was I wrong! And if you were curious, this was, in fact, the first time I’ve ever been wrong. Yep, it’s true.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The balsamic glaze is seriously, the bomb diggity. It’s sweet, syrupy and tastes like it should be a lot worse for you than it actually is. And it gives such a flavor pop! Paired with goat cheese…these two were made for each other!

Chicken Sausage Pasta w/ Balsamic Vinegar Glaze

Ingredients:

• 6 servings of pasta (I used a mix of egg noodle & penne)
• 3 chicken sausages, sliced and cooked
• Baby portabella mushrooms, sliced
• Red onion, sliced
• 1 cup balsamic vinegar
• 3 cups raw spinach
• 3 oz goat cheese

Cook pasta according to box. Saute mushrooms & onions in a medium sized skillet. I didn’t give an amount for the mushrooms & red onion because it can really be however much you want of either. Feel free to add in other veggies too!

Reduce balsamic vinegar in small sauce pan for about 6 minutes.

Place raw spinach in bottom of a colander. Pour cooked pasta over spinach to drain (neatest trick ever!).

Combine pasta, spinach, chicken sausage & vegetables together in pasta pot. Top with goat or feta cheese & balsamic reduction.

Scenes From The Weekend

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(this actually wasn’t from this weekend, but felt the need to share )

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Murphy’s report card after his first day at doggie day camp. 5 tail wags!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bloody Mary @ Horny Goat Hideaway

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Free monkey bread while waiting @ Horny Goat Hideaway

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eggs Benedict (forgot to ask for the hollandaise on the side… womp)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pre bike ride, post eggs benny.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Testing out the new Camelbak I got as an early birthday present!

 

Turkey taco boats, courtesy of Ryan T. 

Question: How was your weekend?

Wedding Wednesday: Shoes

Shoes. OMG shoes.

Let’s get some shoes. Let’s party.

If you have no idea what I’m referring to, please watch here.

And stop living under a rock.

Annnnyways.

Shoes. I suppose I should get some for the wedding, eh? I go back and forth between loving looking for shoes and loathing it. I mean, no one will see them, right? And I’ll end up just taking them off halfway through the reception, right?

But I want to have blue shoes! So I want everyone to see them! So I will wear them all night! (Yeah right)

Here are a couple I’ve been looking at:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A few ideas. I like the first one the best, but…they are $100. Soo…there’s that.

All of these I found via etsy. Does anyone else have any other ideas of where I can find cute, affordable blue (non suede ) shoes? Help!

Caramelized Onion, Broccoli & Green Pepper Quiche

Quiche.

Doesn’t it just sound intimidating? I always thought you has to be some sort of master chef to be able to conquer the beast that is quiche (rhyme fully intended).

As a matter of a fact, you can be an amateur cook like myself and your quiche will turn out fine!

Wonderful, even!

This delectable meal take a bit of time to bake, but it is well worth the wait! Ryan & I kept saying “Oh my gosh, this meal is so good! I can’t believe how good this tastes!” over and over again.

And one thing that I love about quiche is that it is so versatile! Don’t have green pepper? Who cares! Have tons of cauliflower in your drawer that’s on it’s last leg? Use it up in the quiche!

So what are you waiting for?! Make this NOW!

Caramelized Onion, Broccoli & Green Pepper Quiche

Recipe adapted from Picky Palate

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 onion, thinly sliced
• Half a head of broccoli, chopped
• 1/2 green pepper, chopped
• Handful of spinach
• 2 oz cream cheese
• 8 eggs
• 3/4 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 9-inch pie crust
• Pepper, salt & dried parsley

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat large skillet to medium heat with olive oil. Saute green pepper, broccoli & onion until tender (around 15 minutes).

Poke pie crust with fork and partially bake pie crust for 10 minutes.

Add milk, eggs, salt, pepper & dried parsley in large bowl, whisking until combined. Layer cooked onions, broccoli,green pepper & spinach on bottom of pie crust. Scatter cream cheese pieces over vegetable mixture. Pour egg mixture over pie crust. Top with shredded cheese & desired amount of parsley.

Bake for 40 minutes, or until eggs are set & golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes before slicing.

Spinach Turkey Burgers

My oh my, have I got the recipe for your dinner tonight! It’s time to break out the grill (if you haven’t already!) because this recipe screams “GRILL ME!”

I had turkey burgers on the menu this for this week and planned on getting a pound of it at the grocery store. Well, lo & behold I found ground turkey at Costco! Organic ground turkey. Cheaper than the grocery store, organic, ground turkey. Obviously, I had to purchase it! Except for one thing.

It came in 4, one pound packages. Yes, I bought 4 pounds of turkey…because I wanted to make TWO turkey burgers.

Whatevs, it will freeze well! And now we won’t have to buy ground turkey for a very, very long time.

Getting back to that recipe…

Spinach Turkey Burgers 

recipe adapted from Eat Live Run

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground turkey
• 1 cup chopped spinach (you can also use frozen, de-thawed spinach too)
• 1 tsp italian seasoning
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/4 cup goat cheese
• 1/4 cup feta cheese
• salt & pepper

Directions:

Mix all ingredients, except for cheeses, with your hands. Split mixture in half and add goat cheese to one mixture and feta to the other mixture & form into 6 patties (3 of each cheese). Grill burgers for 20-25 minutes. Serve on whole wheat bun with sliced red onion, lettuce, hot sauce, ketchup & mustard.

Question: What is your favorite type of burger?

Furniture, Costco & A Date Night

Well, us party animals were out all day & night yesterday!

Ha. Just kidding. Ryan golfed all day while I got some major housework/IIN work/workout/wedding work/play with Murphy time in. It was probably one of the most productive Saturdays I’ve had in awhile. Speaking of accomplishing tasks…I updated some pages on the ole blog too! Be sure to check out my updated recipes & wedding pages when you get a chance!

Like I mentioned yesterday, it was Ryan’s turn for date night this month. We could only do part 1 of our date night (the second part is a distillery tour!) but that was fine with me since it included food!

We headed to Asiana which is located in Pewaukee, WI, which is an asian cuisine steakhouse with a hibachi grill section. Ryan had been here before for a work meeting & kept raving about it so I was pumped to check it out.

I have never experience a hibachi grill so I was interested to see how it works. Apparently, they give you free saki shots via a squirt bottle…but that’s besides the point

Our dinner started with the miso soup & traditional salad.

I pretty much inhaled this. I was starving!

Then our chef came out and started with his tricks. How do begin to practice something like this? Do you just practice and…drop things until you finally figure it out? Someone teach me!

I ordered the shrimp & scallop combo dinner. Gah, I heart seafood.

A kid in our section refused to eat any of his vegetables because “they are disgusting.” I almost leaned over to steal his plate. Almost.

Everything was so delicious. How do Asian restaurants make their stir frys so good? HOW?! I wish I could make a dish at home taste this good!

We came home to watch American Idol & The Office since Ryan has been gone all week. The Office just isn’t the same anymore, is it?

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Today’s adventures included a trip to American Furniture to look at bed sets. Another round of feeling like a grown up, for sure. We think we found a set we like, now we just need to grow a money tree to pay for it!

(The believed winner!)

With the dresser & mirror. Plus 2 night stands & an additional tall dresser. Ah, if we only made the big bucks.

After schmoozing with the furniture salesmen, it was time to head to the best place on earth. In other words, Costco.

Our food loot:

Sweet potato fries (my splurge), Multi-grain crackers, black beans, plain greek yogurt, almond milk (yup, 3 1/2 gallons…), Kashi Go Lean cereal & grapefruit cups (Ryan’s splurge).

Avocados (less than a $1 each!), 24 farm fresh, organic eggs (swoon), bananas, baby portabellas, blackberries, cuties, spinach (I forsee lots of smoothies in my future…) & the clorox wipes. Again.

And then a bunch of non fun items like tissues, drain-o, lightbulbs, dishwashing liquid (to last like, the rest of our lives) etc.

All in all a great weekend, especially since the weather is SO NICE. I’m sorry, I have to keep saying it. Tonight on the menu, Turkey burgers!

Question: Did you do any grocery shopping this weekend? What did ya get?

Saturday Mornin’

Ever heard of the song Saturday Morning by the Eels? I always think of this song when it’s a bright & sunny Saturday morning. If this weather never ends, I’d be a happy camper.

Today started out with this face jumping on my head:

He’s a real peach.

After getting up, I headed to an eye doctor appointment. It was as fun as it sounds. I need new contacts and  glasses any my insurance only covers one. Womp. Glasses aren’t too expensive, so looks like I’ll be buying those. Just call me four eyes!

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Strangest picture ever.

After that I headed to the gym for a sweaty treadmill & arm sesh! Felt good to move after not being able to make it to the gym much this week.

Then I took the monster for a walk.

 

 

 

 

 

Obviously, he loved it.

Now I’m watching Gossip Girl on Netflix (don’t judge) and plan on doing some homework for IIN! Tonight is date night & it’s Ryan’s turn…can’t wait!

Question: How do you like to spend your Saturday mornings?

Wedding Wednesday: Cupcakes!

It’s cake time. Well, more like cupcake time.

Yep, we’re doing cupcakes instead of cake and it will be amazing.

We had our appointment at Milwaukee Cupcake Company this past Saturday and…well it was by far my favorite appointment so far!!!

Eeee! Excitement face!

The menu. Well, one menu. They have 80 some cupcake flavors ranging from a simple vanilla bean to a cookie dough flavor! We were able to try every cupcake that they had made for that day.

Yes. We had 14 cupcakes. 14 CUPCAKES.

SO MANY CUPCAKES!

We were most excited about the red velvet cupcake. It did not disappoint! Love that cream cheese frosting.

Thumbs up for an empty wrapper!

Next favorite: Strawberry cupcake with strawberry icing. I am usually a chocolate feign, but holy cow this was sooo good!

So many cupcakes, so little time.

The cupcake above was a dark chocolate cake with a dark chocolate frosting. I liked it, but didn’t love it.

So full.

But there were more cupcakes to be had.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And done. We got to box up the leftovers and take them home. Granted, I didn’t want to see another cupcake until the wedding day because I was on such a sugar high. I immediately crashed once we got home. Hard.

Anywho, the flavors we picked were (drumroll, please):

– Salted Caramel

– Red Velvet Cake

– Grasshopper (like the alcoholic drink-vanilla cake with broken up Andes mints, & mint icing)

– Carrot Cake

– Reese’s Peanut Buttercup

– Strawberry w/ Strawberry Icing

Now to decide which one we will share on our wedding day….

Question: What’s your favorite flavor of cupcake?