About the weekend

We had a busy but fun weekend.

Friday night, wine and tapas celebrating my cousin taking his first vows to be a priest. Also an announcement that my other cousin is going to have a baby! Two brothers are both going to be fathers (ha! the joke of the night!) Lots of family and friends and some good food and wine.

Saturday, woke up at 5:48 am. Yuck! The night before I had heard about a group nearby that meets at 7am by the lake to get some exercise. Since I was up so early I decided to go check it out. I walked to the first water stop (1.5 miles) then on the way back I did the couch to 5k program I have been doing for the last several weeks. It was HOT! but felt really good to get out there and get some exercise. I look forward to making this part of my weekly routine. After the exercise I went to ww, didn't do so good this week. I had had a ton of water and weighed in with my tennis shoes on so I am blaming it on that but back to the grind again this week

Almost as soon as I got home and showered my brother called and he was on his way. Our washer has been broken for a while now and that is what he does when he is not Navying. What do you call it when you are at work and you are in the Navy? I guess Navying will do. It was fun to visit with him and my sil. She is from the Philippines and is shy to have a conversation but she speaks just fine and is very funny when she will actually talk to me.

TC and I went to lunch, picked out father's day cards and went to check out an area of grapevine we would love to live in. We even went to an open house, but the house was so 80's I couldn't get past it. We decided it was time to actually start discussing what are must haves, would like to have, and dislikes. Such an exiting adventure to start. Then home for a nap

As we woke up from our nap we realized it was about time for tc's parents to arrive and sure enough before I was out of bed they were calling to say they were outside. We ended up going to iFratelli, showed them our church, then went to see Indian Jones. Cute movie, stupid ending.

Sunday, we woke up bright and early again. For some reason I told my dad we would go to church with them at 8am! After church we went to brunch at The Culinary School of Ft Worth. It was excellent! I can't wait to go back and try one of their other events. The food was set up in stations so you could try whatever you wanted. They had a fruit/veggie/cheese, pasta, omelet, pancake, ham, dinner, and dessert stations. It was BYOB so my mom and I had plenty of mimosas!!

Too soon after that was over tc and I went to see the Drowsy Chaperone. It was a great show, very funny, best musical we have seen together so far. I think I would like to take in some plays now. We have seen three musicals in the last 4 months and I really prefer the play part of the show to the singing. If anyone has any recommendations let me know.

After all of the driving around we did in all the heat tc and I promised to go home and stay home the rest of the day. Mission Accomplished. About 8:30 I decided to make Bruschetta Chicken Rolls for lunch the next day, I haven't tried them yet but OMG they look so good and the filling was excellent! Recipe and pictures to follow.

Going away party

Our good friends Zach and Leigh are moving to Pensacola. We are sad to see them go but we are very excited to have friends that live on the beach. We can't wait to come and visit.

Here is a picture of the girls that were there to say goodbye and send them off.

Happy Anniversary!!

This weekend we celebrated our first wedding anniversary. It is hard to believe that we are no longer newlyweds!

We started the weekend by going to ww and losing 9lbs between the two of us!! This turned out to be a good thing because we probably gained it all back with the celebrations.

Saturday tc made me dinner, he started about 9am and finished right before we ate about 3:30pm. That is a lot of cooking! While he was doing that I recreated our grooms cake (pictures to come) I am no cake decorator so it wasn’t as beautiful as the originally but it certainly tasted great!

Sunday morning I made breakfast and we went to see Ring of Fire, the Jonny Cash musical. It was pretty good, it started out slow but got better as the show progressed. After the show I surprised tc by taking him to the Grand Hyatt at DFW. Even though we were in town it felt like we got to get away for a little while. It was very relaxing. We ate dinner in their restaurant which was excellent and when we got back to our room there was strawberries and champagne since we were celebrating our anniversary, so nice!! After relaxing for a while we went and worked out in the gym which is on the top floor and overlooks the airport, then we swam in the rooftop pool at sunset.

Sunday morning we ate breakfast at the hotel and after we got over the stick shock we laid in bed the rest of the morning. Piranha was for lunch and Fireside Pies for dinner. Yep, we are definitely going to have to do some serious running to match last week’s weight loss. We had such a fun weekend celebrating, now I can’t wait for our trip next week!!

Here is the cake that I made, I told you I am not a cake decorator!!

Here is the meal that Travis made me, yummy!

Sunday Evening

We had my brother, sister in law and niece over dinner on Sunday evening.

We made a berry cobbler that his aunt had made for us the last time we were at the lake, with our own modifications of course. It still turned out really yummy!

Very Berry Cobbler

1 Box Reduced Fat Vanilla Wafers

2 bags of frozen mixed berries, I used one bag of raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries and on bag of strawberries

1 stick light butter

1 C brown sugar

Butter the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Layer the wafers on the bottom. Top with mixed berries. Melet the butter and mix in brown sugar, pour over the berries. Cook in 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. Serve warm or room temp. We served it with 1 pt fat free ice cream.

There wasn't much left

The best part of the night was not desert however, it was spending the evening with my niece. It is so easy to make her laugh, she is just a joy to be around.

Getting kisses from uncle t

She already has great taste

Love the shirt!

uncle t and ema have a lot to talk about

This is how we got to spend our Sunday evening, doesn't get much better than that.

Wheat Flax Seed Banana Bread

·                                 I know this sounds really weird, but before you turn your nose up, read on.  I started the banana bread recipe from Cooking Light and realized I was out of some of the ingredients they called for so I decided to make a few substitutions and hope for the best.  It says on the side of the flax seed meal box that you can substitute it for any fat in a recipe, and since the only thing I had on had was shortening, I gave it a try. I ended up having to add in a little shortening and some milk because the dough was too dry.  It basically tasted like a sweet wheat bread.  Very good!

·                                  

·                                 1 cup all-purpose flour

·                                 1 cup whole wheat flour

·                                 1/2 tsp baking powder

·                                 1/2 tsp table salt

·                                 1/2 cup sugar

·                                 1 C Sour Cream

·                                 1/4 cup ground flax seed meal

·                                 1 Tbsp shortening

·                                 2 egg whites

·                                 1 egg

·                                 1 cup banana(s)

·                                 Fat free milk, as needed

Mix the first 5 ingredients.  In separate bowl, mix the Sour Cream and next 5 ingredients.  Pour the wet into the dry and mix to combine.  Add milk as necessary to turn mixture into a doughy consistency.  Cook in a 350 degree oven for 60 minutes or until the bread as passed the toothpick test.

 

 

Faux Egg McMuffin

I want everyone to know about this because it is delicious, easy, and so much healthier than the real thing.

 

What you’ll need:
¼ C egg beaters

1 slice 2% America cheese

1 slice Canadian Bacon

1 Light English Muffin

 

Toast the English muffin.  Put the Canadian Bacon and egg beaters into a microwavable cup or bowl (I use either a coffee mug or short glass glass) and cover with plastic wrap.  Microwave for 1 min. Place the cheese over the eggs and put on English muffin.  4 WW points.

*note: in the picture I used egg white and no meat.

Habitat for Humanity

I had the great opportunity of working with Habitat through my job . It is something I have always wanted to do. You get to give back and learn a little something along the way, what a deal! If you look at the picture below, you can see where the wood is covering part of the roof, that is what I did for 8 hours one Saturday. Literally put a roof over some one's head. It was very scary but definitely a learning experience. More than anything I learned to look and see what the tasks are on the days I am signed up and avoid roofing day.I went back a few Saturdays later with my team to help clean up. They are definitely making some good progress.