the2beths

It is so telling of my mood when I look at my groceries. I mean, when I look at my groceries after a list free shopping trip.
From the 2 bags of pop chips, the 2 bags of pretzels *1 sourdough, 1 regular*, the bag of some other type of natural chip, and the 2 boxes of popcorn, I think it is safe to say that I am craving snack food. What do you think?

The point of my trip was to pick up a few things to make homemade pizza (by homemade, I mean by a pre-made crust, and put toppings on it), and a giant salad for dinner tonight.
So, now I am home, drinking my husband’s homebrew – a delicious California Common – making dinner.
My husband has been a homebrewer since shortly after we got married and I told him he needed to get a hobby. He loves it. It’s more than a hobby. It’s his passion. I always feel a little badly because I don’t care for the IPA’s that he loves to drink and make, so I rarely drink his homebrew. One of my New Year’s Resolution is to try more beers, and maybe broaden my palate. I mean, it’s right at my house, in my basement, on tap. I should take advantage of this!
So, right now, as I cook, I am enjoying one of his beers.
Well, I better go cook, for real, the hubs is lurking in the kitchen, which means he is hungry.

Hey…Beth WA here…
Tonight I made these Sweet Potato Fries. I used only 1 tbsp of olive oil instead of 2, and only half a teaspoon of salt instead of two teaspoons.
They looked delicious, they smelled delicious, and I think they would be delicious if I hadn’t put so much cayenne pepper in the mix! ay-yay-yay. I had not used cayenne pepper that much in recipes, and so I thought I’d go with the whole half a teaspoon. For most people this might be fine, but for me, it is *too* much. My mouth is burning. So, it was hard for me to taste the other delicious seasonings-which are some of my favorites.

And I burnt the pork chops, so I had to do plan b on those, and made Market Day Naked Chicken Cordon Bleu. It’s actually not bad for a pre-made chicken, but it’s not what I had in mind. The savior to the meal was the salad which I chopped the tomato and cucumber really small (I love when restaurants do that) and added black beans and a pinch of cheddar cheese.
So, I ate the potatoes and the salad, and I am waiting for the chicken.

Does anybody have good sweet potato recipes? I love them so much and am always looking for good ways to use them.

Also, guess what I did yesterday, besides grade my face off? I got all of my magazine recipes in page protectors in one binder!! Now, I just have to organize them in categories. But, just having them not sticking out everywhere and easier to leaf through has relieved some of that stress.

I’ll leave you with a picture of the salad and the potatoes pre-oven…

I’ve read several food bloggers adding chia seeds to things, and so I ordered some and started adding them VERY sparingly to things. I don’t like seeds in things, they get stuck in my teeth and my permanent retainer, or as my 6 year old niece calls is, my container.
And when I saw that people added them to smoothies, I knew that wasn’t for me because I don’t make smoothies with berries for that reason. I hate seeds stuck in my teeth.
Well, as I was watching Dr. Oz this week on my super unproductive Christmas break, I saw WHY chia seeds are recommended. I didn’t realize they expand and make you fuller. I probably read it somewhere, but it didn’t sink in until I saw the Dr. Oz demonstration.
So, I thought I’d give them a fair shot. I added them in my smoothie one morning, and in my cereal the next morning. And they did *not* get annoyingly stuck in my teeth!! In fact, I couldn’t even feel them in the smoothie. In my cereal, I could tell they were there a little bit, but nothing too annoying. However, the most exciting thing is, THEY WORKED. Cereal doesn’t usually fill me up as long as it did yesterday. This is exciting for me. I thought it might be for you, too.
I hope your 2012 is going well. I am about to watch Bridesmaids and do the grading I had planned on doing gradually through break….but instead I have to do it all today. Hooray for procrastination. : /

-Beth WA

I am a wanna be organized person. I have lots of things that are very organized. But usually it is half organized. For instance, my bills and paperwork. All of the bills and paperwork that are filed are organized and very easy to find. But, the last 6 months worth of paperwork and old bills is sitting in a stack and begging to be filed. I had that as a to do list for Christmas break, but as I previously stated, this break was not at all productive on the “to do” list front. I need to do it on a regular basis rather than saving it for one big job.

That brings me to recipes. I am a recipe hoarder. I have cookbooks, magazine cutouts, binders, starred entries in Google Reader, Bookmarked websites, little recipe cards and boxes with recipe cards, and word document folders on my computer. It drives me crazy that they are every where. I want them all in one place. I don’t know why, but I just do. I think that maybe if they are organized I will actually try some of them.
Any suggestions??

Because this isn’t working for me…

-Beth WA

So, every day I drink one cup of coffee. And to be completely honest, I mostly like the creamer that I add to it. That’s why I limit myself to one cup of coffee per day. So, last year my husband got me the Keurig for Christmas. It was the perfect gift because
1. I only drink one cup a day.
2. My flavored coffee won’t ruin his plain black coffee.
3. It limits my cream intake to 1.5 tablespoons

Sounds like a lot of cream, but I’ve truly come a long way. I used to have 2 sweet n low, and about 3 tablespoons of cream. Blech.
I weaned myself mostly off artificial sweeteners. Occasionally, I will add a Splenda.

Now, my normal cup of coffee is the Nantucket blend with 1 tbsp of Bliss Sweet Cream. It’s delicious. I was completely satisfied with this, and didn’t even realize I was missing something…until…
I was reading Becky’s facebook, from Just a Little BS, and she mentioned this little amazing kitchen tool called the Aerolatte. It is AMAZING. It’s a little coiled battery run thing that you immerse in your cream or milk, and it foams it up, so you have a latte like drink rather than just coffee with cream. AND, you can decrease the amount of cream, you use because it bulks it up. It was perfect for me.
EXCEPT, the problem I now I have is that I love it so much, I have been drinking 2-3 cups of coffee per day. Hopefully, once school starts up on Tuesday, this will go back down to one!

And to compound this coffee issue was the Holiday Pack of Keurig that my husband bought me for Christmas. It had three delicious flavors; egg nog, gingerbread, and cinnamon french toast. I am currently addicted to Egg Nog coffee with spiced vanilla rum cream frothed into it with the Aerolatte. Here is a picture of the Aerolatte and my latest cup of cre.. coffee.

I hope everybody has a Happy New Year!! NYE is my dad’s birthday, so we usually celebrate it with him. This year we are just chilling at my ‘rents’ house with my bro-ham and his wife and daughter. In an awesome twist of events my bff who lives in California was supposed to fly back to California today but her flight was canceled, so she and her husband and her delicious baby boy will be spending the evening with us as well.

-Beth WA

Ugh. I have been so lazy this break and I hate it.

Yesterday I reintroduced vegetables into my life. My food groups before then were resembling that of Elf! It’s scary what a downward slope sugar is for me. By the end, vegetables didn’t even sound good, and physical activity was something I couldn’t even envision myself doing. This happened over the course of 8 days.

But, yesterday, for most of the day, I ate normal foods. I incorporated vegetables back in my life and made a delicious dinner that was 60% vegetables. And today, I am starting to feel better. Today is my weigh in day for WW. The damage was 3 lbs. GRRRR.

So, today I am starting the day with beautiful and delicious peanut butter and jelly oatmeal. I had received homemade raspberry jelly as a gift from a student so it seemed to be the perfect way to use it.

I made the oatmeal with banana, skim milk, and splenda brown sugar (1 tsp) mixed in. Then, I topped it with peanut butter chips and white chocolate chips (1 tsp each), chia seeds, sunbutter, and raspberry jelly. It is delicious. There is a picture at the end of this post, but it’s before I remembered to add the chia seeds.

My other goal today is to walk! And to do some floor work. The lady I normally go to gym classes with is with her mother who is ill at the hospital. So, if you are the praying kind, please keep them in your prayers.

-Beth WA

http://www.pbfingers.com/2011/12/23/pumpkin-pie-spiced-pecans/

I am making these pumpkin spiced pecans, and I am so excited about it. I’ve had these pecans for a while, and then I saw this recipe and thought it would be the perfect addition to my family’s Christmas Eve tradition of grazing delicious food all day long, and complaining about how full and uncomfortable we are. Sounds fun, right!? Well, it is. Seriously.
My brother is making a ham in his smoker. My mom is making cheesy scalloped potatoes. There will be shrimp cocktail, buffalo chicken dip, Christmas cookies, and wine.
I hope everybody has a blessed and joyous day.
Here’s a picture of the pecans going in the oven. (I will let you know tomorrow how they tasted going down the hatch.

(I did make one substitution, I had pumpkin spiced butter that I used, so I hope it’s not overkill.)

-Beth WA