Recipe Roundup and a Run

Posted on June 20, 2012 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll notice that I did not pull through on my promise to post a couple of delicious recipes last night. Why? Because I had a sudden urge to find the most perfect Save the Date cards, followed by the urge to eat a bag of skittles (cringe) then jump around with my dog for 10 minutes before heading to the gym to run for 49 minutes. 49 minutes? Yeah, it just worked out that way.

Working backwards, my treadmill workout looked like this:

And for some reason, my boobs decided to get REAL sweaty.

No wonder people were looking at me. I thought it was because I was all awesome on the treadmill. Not the case.

My face was extremely red because

I just ran 4.25 miles
I’m an old lady and had to stretch my lower back after running and the blood rushed to my face
Both 1&2

The correct answer is #3

On to the recipes!

Recipe Numero Uno: Apricot Salsa

How fresh and colorful and awesome does that look? The recipe was easy: roasted red peppers that I roasted myself, cilantro, apricots, cucumber, jalepeno, red onion, lime juice. Cut that shizzz up, and mix it all together!

And if you want to get all fancy-like, do what I did and plate it as such:

However. DO NOT do what I did and accidentally add 4x the amount of jalepeno. That salsa was HOT. I was en fuego. Muy caliente. And the worst part? Because I decided to chop all that crap up sans hand-protection, my hands are now on FIRE. That’s right- 16 hours post prep and my digits are still burning. Oh jalepeno, you done me wrong kid.

Recipe Numero Dos: Macaroni Salad (no pics!)

This is no ordinary macaroni salad. No. This is The Pioneer Woman’s Macaroni Salad. AKA: The blog lady that I have been following for years and just now made a recipe of hers. For the first time. I have had my eye on those cinnamon rolls though. Those will happen. Soon.

Recipe Numero Tres: Gooey Cinnamon Muffins

I saw this recipe come up on my Google Reader from cookies and cups yesterday morning, and the timing couldn’t have been any more perfect.

Layla thought so too. As you can tell, after laboring tirelessly to get these puppies made, I enjoyed them suckers in bed. Because I can do that. Don’t worry I was multi-tasking by ~~watching What Not to Wear~~ doing homework.

And I kept trying to get a shot sans the dog, but it didn’t happen

Guess that’s the price you pay for eating at her level. (NOT meant to be a metaphor!)

And that’s all she wrote. For now!

Single Arm Hang Snatch…that exercise name just makes me laugh

Posted on June 18, 2012 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Today was CRAZY busy. As crazy busy as it can get for an unemployed immigrant such as myself.

I cleaned
I cooked
I cleaned some more
I did homework
I searched for wedding venues
I called American insurance billing companies because my former employer in the states still hasn’t fixed my claims
I worked out
I played with the dog
I cleaned even more

Let’s get in to more detail: I cleaned the bathrooms and almost threw up. I rearranged the bed in our room and found KitKat wrappers and a bra under the bed. Weird. I read about Consumer Behavior (as if I haven’t taken enough courses on this topic in Undergrad). I sent tons of emails to venues to see if they’re available for the date we want. I got put on hold on my long distance phone calls, only to have no resolution. I did a killer sweaty workout. I smacked the dog around a bit (and by ‘smacked’ I mean I pet her and played with her toy and carried her around like a baby). I mopped the kitchen floor.

There.

Lemme fill you in on this killer workout.

I started like this:

Layla and I were ready to get our sweat on. And get our sweat on we did.

The exercises:

5 pushups
10 tuck jumps
15 situps
20 squats

Repeat 10 times through for time.

My time:

And I ended up looking like this

And since I felt obligated to work it a little more, I did this:

12 bicep curls
12 lateral raises
12 hammer curls
12 single arm hang snatch (for each arm)—-> seriously, I chuckled for a good 5 min when I typed this
12 dumbbell punches (L+R=1)

And now it is time to shower and situate myself on the stability ball for a little ab action while watching The Bachelorette!

*Note: I hate the show, and I really don’t care for the actual Bachelorette, but I love to watch how chee-ee-eesy those boys can get. Does anyone else get really bothered by Emily’s mouth? Her teeth are weird.

Back to school blues

Posted on June 18, 2012 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Who loves farmers markets?
Jen loves farmers markets.
Is it true?
I do I do I do-oo-oo!

I picked up lots of sweet goodies.
A bag full of apricots

A jug of real Canadian maple syrup (unREAL!!!)

And some local creamed honey

Since I obviously tasted everything at the market, I had to counter the sweet with something savory. So I made pizzas. I got the dough ready while I ran to the store for a couple of things.

Tyler’s pizza: pepperoni, chicken, green olives and red peppers.

My pizza: bacon, portobello mushrooms and sliced apricots.

They turned out delicious!

It was silent for about 15 minutes while we were both devouring our meals

There is a TON left over. Aka: my lunches for the next week or so. My ‘happy for pizza’ face

Layla’s ‘happy for anything’ face

And now it’s time for Jen’s Craft Corner!

Ok, not really. But I noticed that my flowers were droopy yesterday so I cut the stems and made them floating centerpieces

Not too shabby, eh?! At least it will extend their life for a few more days. Notice the textbook in the background. Barf.

And that’s the end of Jen’s Craft Corner.

Lame sauce.

The evening ended with a little bit of Paris, courtesy of Tyler Candle Company

Lots to do. Can I get a collective groan for grad school starting back up today?! Wah-wuh.

Weekend living

Posted on June 17, 2012 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Yesterday, I went down to Okotoks to watch the parade an hang out with some gals.

I obvs got a pic of the mini horsies

And then some bigger ones

When the parade was over, we visited the tiny market fair, where I scored a few purchases:
From Epicure Selections:

Then, from a local boutique:

A few wonderful smelling Tyler candles

My friend Nicole spotted these because they are made in Texas where she used to live! We agreed its always exciting to make American/hometown discoveries here in Canada- it makes us feel closer to home! 🙂

I can’t wait to burn these and have the house filled with pretty smells!

On the way home, I had to snap this pic because it made me laugh

Haha, C-Train. Is anyone else laughing at this? A chuckle, perhaps?

This AM, I enjoyed some pancakes in bed while watching some shows on my iPad. Both the dog and the dude were sleeping.

This is the life.

…and I’m headin out to go live some more of it!

Ps: we had tequilas and tacos for dins last night- our fave.

Pps: Tyler bought me clubs yesterday while I was out! How awesome is that?!

Ppps: happy father’s day, dad!

Pppps: Layla is currently molesting what’s left in the sunflower butter jar. It’s kind of hilarious. Hope it doesn’t result in some ranky toots!

Yesterday..

Posted on June 16, 2012 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

-I did Athena’s circuit workout. Contrary to the name of the workout, my butt does not hate me. But I was sweaty as hell gettin’ er done (hamstring still tight as a tiger)

-I ate this