Our First WIAW

This past weekend, Ashley, Matt, and I decided to do a New Recipe Night.  So...we figured why not go for it and jump in to Jen's awesome What I Ate Wednesday Party over at Peas and Crayons!

Amy's Breakfast

7:45 am

On weekends (we logged our meals from Sunday), I like to take my time with breakfast.  So, I made some Brown Rice Porridge from a recipe I found on Newest Obsession.  The recipe is actually for Cherry Vanilla Brown Rice Porridge, but I replaced the cherries with mixed berries, since it's what I had, and I replaced the protein powder with PB (yum!).  It was a fun switch from oatmeal!  Of course, iced coffee followed.

Ashley's Breakfast

8:00 am

The breakfast I'd vote the "BESTfast" lately is Multi-Grain Cheerios!! Just plain, no milk, Yes I know thats weird and even my husband says i'm weird.

Ashley's Lunch

11:30 am

I totally forgot to take a picture of the finished product but I had some rice for lunch.



Amy's Lunch

12:15 pm

 

 I am all about egg sandwiches lately, so this one is made up of egg, ham, and spinach (there's my green, if you can see it!) on whole wheat bread.  On the side I had some butternut squash (bought a huge package of it at Costco) with cinnamon and a little maple syrup.  When I was finished, I was still a little hungry, so I dipped into the quinoa bread (found on Clean Eating Chelsey's awesome blog) I made for later with a little pumpkin butter.

 Amy's Snack

2:30 pm

I didn't want to be too hungry before heading over to Ashley and Matt's for Selection Sunday, so I went for my gigantic bag of pears (I rocked my Costco trip) and a rice cake.  Before the show, we had some edamame, but forgot to take a picture (we WOULD miss the picture of the green!).  Had to toss my cutting board in there, because it's just too cute!

Ashley's Snack

2:30 pm

 My first time trying this snack mix, and I give it two thumbs up!

Dinner

5:30 pm

 It was Matt's turn to pick for New Recipe Night, and he went with White Chicken Chili.  Ashley and I decided on this recipe that we found on Sweet Treats & More.  It was delish!  I have been loving the leftovers!

Amy's Dessert

8:00 pm

I have a slight addiction to sweets before bed, so I went the healthy route and made a green smoothie with spinach, mango, coconut milk, and banana topped with some Multi-Grain Cheerios...good stuff!

The Past Year!

So, we have already done a survey about how the year 2011 was for us, but this one takes a different approach for recapping the year...and like we've said, we love a good survey!

1. What did you do in 2011 that you’d never done before?
Amy: Ran a half marathon
Ashley:  Got Married!

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for 2012?
Amy: Yep...my resolution was to run 20 miles a month.  I made a bunch, as we discussed in our new year's post.
Ashley:  My resolution was to work out every day... I failed to keep it, but I did try.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Amy:  Two of my cousins had babies.
Ashley: Yes!  One of my best friends gave birth to my little godson!

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Amy: Unfortunately, yes.  But I believe she is in a better place.
Ashley: Unfortunately Yes.  Our step-grandma passed away  = (

5. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?
Amy: More appreciation for what I have.
Ashley:  I'm going to have to give the generic answer 'money" because 2011 was full of wedding expenses. 

6. What dates from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Amy: Probably my sister's and friend's wedding days.
Ashley: 7/15/2011 A very special little boy was born,  9.17.11- My wedding day

7. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Amy: If I had to pick one I'd say buying my house...it was the biggest leap of faith I think I've ever taken.
Ashley: Planning my wedding and having it go glitch free,  moving into our first home! And a silly achievement I want to add... Taking Matt to the airport for a business trip AND picking him up, tollway driving+airport confusion is NOT my thing, but I did it!

8. What was your biggest failure?
Amy: Walking too close to the finish line at my 5k in March and missing my goal time by 12 seconds.
Ashley:  Not going back to school like I wanted to.

9. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Amy: Minor battle with shin splints, but nothing I couldn't conquer.
Ashley: Just a bad case of Strep Throat.  Otherwise I was healthy this year... hope to keep up the good immune system for years to come!

10. What was the best thing you bought?
Amy: Definitely my house.
Ashley:  oh goodness... I'd have to say our house even though we closed on it just before 2011.

11. Where did most of your money go?
Amy: Those fun mortgage payments.
Ashley: Wedding and mortgage

12. What did you get really excited about?
Amy: Buying my house, moving into my house, decorating my house...lol...Amanda's wedding, Ashley's wedding, my NYC trip, my first half, and finishing my masters!
Ashley:  My bridal shower, bachelorette party, wedding day, honeymoon, the holidays, Amy's 1st Half Marathon!

13. What song will always remind you of 2011?
Amy: Lol...first one to pop into my head isn't one I can blog about...
Ashley:  Way too many to count this year!

14. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder?
Amy: Definitely happier
Ashley: Happier
b) thinner or fatter?
Amy: Um...probably about the same
Ashley:  I actually maintained give or take.
c) richer or poorer?
Amy: Probably about the same
Ashley: Richer - in more ways than one!

15. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Amy: Spent time with friends I don't see much.
Ashley: Exercise.

16. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Amy: Worrying about things I can't control.
Ashley:  Being lazy and complaining.

17. How did you spend Christmas?
Amy: With my family at Matt and Ashley's house.
Ashley: Matt and I hosted it at our house this year.

18. What was your favorite TV program?
Amy: Glee!
Ashley:  Grey's Anatomy, The Bachelorette, Dancing With the Stars.

19. What was the best book you read?
Amy: Divergent by Veronica Roth.  OMG. Amazing.
Ashley: I'd have to say the last book of the Twilight series was pretty good. 

20. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Amy: Hm...just random songs I guess.
Ashley:  The Michael Buble Christmas CD!

21. What did you want and get?
Amy: Kindle!  Woot!
Ashley:  A new camera.

22. What did you want and not get?
Amy: A boyfriend, lol.
Ashley:  I think I was pretty fortunate this year.

23. What was your favorite film of this year?
Amy: The Help.  Actually liked it better than the book, which SO does not happen in my world!
Ashley: Bridesmaids was definately a great comedy.

24. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Amy: Went to lunch and to the flea market.  Pretty low key, but lovely for the big 2-7.
Ashley:  Celebrated with Matt and Amy and had a new recipe night and then craft day with Amy a few days later!  Such a fun gift.

25. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Amy: This year was a pretty satisfying one...I don't think I would change it.
Ashley: Going back to school.

26. What kept you sane?
Amy: Running.  Hands down.
Ashley: Trying to keep organized, taking time to relax when needed and my family.

27. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011.
Amy: To believe in myself, because we are capable of more than we could ever imagine.
Ashley:  If you can't change it, then just stop worrying about it.

Sisters: New Recipe Night- Amy's Choice!

Tonight it was Amy's turn to choose a recipe for New Recipe Night.  Since the weather is getting cooler, she decided to try something we haven't done before.  We made a black bean and butternut squash soup from Clean Eating Chelsey that we agree was very good.  It was a little bit spicy while being a little bit sweet at the same time.  Definitely two thumbs up!

The hardest part was peeling and cubing the squash...and waiting for it to be done! :)

The rest of the vegetables cooking in the pot before we added the beans and squash.

The finished product!  (excuse the blurry picture)

We approve!  If you can't tell...Amy is blowing on her soup, not simply making strange faces.

Today, Ashley is Thankful for Scotch Blue Painters tape!  Without it, painting my bathroom today would have proven to be much more difficult.  The post about the painting to follow!


Amy's Turn: Today I am thankful for New Recipe Night!  It is always something special to look forward to.  :)

Sisters: 2 New Recipes

Ashley here!  I'll start off by catching you all up on our recent NEW RECIPE NIGHTS!   On Amy's last turn she picked Barbecue Chicken Burgers.

Amy doesn't like to have her hands in raw meat (or anything raw) yet had no choice when it came to mixing up the chicken for our burgers.

I'd have to admit they looked GREAT on the grill and tasted pretty good too.

                              As with most of our meals, we paired it with a salad and enjoyed!

Next up was my turn to pick a new recipe.  I didn't want to make anything in "burger" form so I picked a baked Macaroni and Cheese dish.   It was a "healthy-ish" recipe, and we added some shredded chicken for a little added protein. 

**Amy here!  I'm adding pictures for the post and must make a mental note to start putting on some makeup before NRN...especially when I know we'll blog about it!  Good thing I have a pretty sister! :)

The finished product burned just a little (we were probably watching football and forgot about it, haha) but was still delish!

Next Up.... Matt's turn to pick a reciepe for NRN!

Summer Recap

Well...it's September 1st.  Although lots of good things come in September, the big bummer about it is that summer is pretty much over.  So, before I get too sad about the end of the best season of the year, I'm going to highlight some awesome things that happened this summer!

1. Summer started with a fantastic sister-date to a comedy club.

2. I bowled it up with some friends...although I could never get a strike when I needed it!

3. I had a great time at my cousin's wedding.

4. We celebrated for Ashley's bridal shower.

5. I did all kinds of fun crafts (like this one) with one of my favorite people on Earth.

6. I met one of my running goals--a 5K with no walking!  (Not sure if I'm ready for the world to see the hot mess I was after this one...so no picture for now, haha)  And...decided to make my next goal a half marathon.

7. I played some softball, got quite dirty, and laughed...a lot!  First place season!

8. We did a whole bunch of cooking (New Recipe Night rocks!)...and sometimes the failures were the most fun!

9. We celebrated some more wedding stuff with Ashley's bachelorette party.

Wow...that was a busy three months!  Now, the final weekend of summer is upon us.  Make it a great one!  I know I will...

If at First you dont Succeed...try again!

Hello to our readers!

    Here is an update on our lives and what we like to call New Recipe Night.  We have been taking turns picking which recipe we would like to try and this weeks recipe was my fiance Matt's choice.  He picked Grill Pizza so we thought we would give it a shot.  We originally tried earlier this week using our brand new gas grill.  However the directions told us to use dough like Pillsbury Pizza Dough and as we placed the dough on the grill it cooked way faster than we expected... resulting in this

We all agreed that it just wasn't going to work for us that night.  Our quote at the first NRN was "if it doesn't taste good we will just make something else"  We made that quote come alive and used the ingredients we already had ready to top the pizza to make salads.  It all ended up working OK by tossing some fresh vegetables together with some chicken we had pre-cooked.  

We just weren't happy with this failed attempt at Grilled pizza so we decided we weren't going to give up, we were going to give it a second try and we did just that.  We brainstormed ideas to avoid the result shown above and figured we would just watch the crust closely and let the grill cool off a little before topping our pizzas and placing them back on to melt the cheese.  

Matt and Amy took care of the grill while I chopped vegetables and cooked chicken in the house. 

The dough turned into a beautifully golden pizza crust and we had success at that point!!

We decided to make BBQ chicken pizza.

  Bar-be-Que sauce base topped with...

   Shredded chicken, vegetables and cheese

    It turned out to be one that we will make again (albeit VERY carefully!)
      Grilled Pizza was a fantastic, paired with a side salad - all 3 of us agree it was definitely a very successful New Recipe Night re-try!

~ Ashley~

New Recipe Night

Since both of us now have our own kitchen to cook in, we have been trying to think outside the box and step away from cooking the same 'ol dinners night after night.  We both wanted to try new recipes, so we came up with New Recipe night.  We go through recipes until we discover something we would like to try.  Last weeks new recipe night was a Greek dish called Chicken Souvlaki which is a spiced chicken cubed and put onto a skewer to make into a ka-bob.  After some time on the grill, we added a side salad to the meal and voted it a winner, we will make it again. 

This weeks New Recipe night was also a chicken dish but more on the Italian side.  This week we made Crunchy Garlic Chicken.  This was an easy recipe using common ingredients that most people have in their house.  The garlic breading was formed using a food processor crushed saltine crackers, butter, garlic, Parsley (we substituted with Italian seasoning) and a pinch of salt and pepper.  The chicken was coated in all purpose flour and dipped in egg before being breaded with the cracker mix.  We baked the chicken in the oven at 475 for about 15 minutes.    I chopped up my chicken and added it to a salad but it was also good by itself.  Once again a recipe voted a winner and will be made again.