High Five for Friday

I had a great week this week.  I apologize for all of the food pictures in this post! I guess we did a lot of home cooking/eating this week!

1.  Danny and I netflixed a few documentaries on healthy eating this week.  Now that its been 4 months after the wedding, we needed a push to get back into the healthy lifestyle that we had before the wedding.  One of my favorite documentaries is Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead which follows a man on his journey of going on a "Juice Fast" for 60 days.  This was Danny's first time watching the documentary and now we are beginning our Juice Journey.  We're not going crazy or anything like a juice fast, but we want to try incorporating it into our daily diet.  On Wednesday, Danny grabbed a juice for a snack, it was juiced carrots and apples.

2.  Continuing on with the theme, I made pasta with sun dried tomatoes and asparagus (I added chicken for Danny's).  It was my first time cooking and eating asparagus and I really enjoyed it.

3. I packed my lunch a lot this week and a favorite is this salad.  It had spinach and something new for me, chick peas! I've discovered chick peas more recently for salads because I used to eat them as falafel, but I never really had them raw.  They are very good, although I have to limit my intake since they still carry calories (darn).

4. We headed to puppy class this week as our 6 and final week! He learned so much and we are very proud of puppy especially when he didn't make Mommy and Daddy look like fools in class!  We are so happy he graduated and got his own certificate!  It's hanging on our fridge now! (Can you blame us? We don't have children.)

5.  I had dinner with my friend, Kara this week! Her husband Chad is in Colorado for work so we had a great Mexican dinner and of course margaritas at one of my favorite local restaurants.

Hope everyone had a good week!  I'm linking up with Lauren Elizabeth for High Five for Friday.

High Five For Friday

Happy Friday! I am currently at home packing for our weekend at the lake! I can't wait to bring Yogi up to the lake to spend time with us, his Grandparents as well as his aunt and uncle doggies.  Yogi loves playing with other dogs even when they don't want to play with him!  Now onto High Five for Friday!

1. On Sunday, Danny and I went to our friend's place for a WWE paperview.  My friend, Kara's husband and Danny love to watch wrestling.  I'm relieved that Danny has found someone to watch wrestling with besides me! And I love seeing Kara and spending time with her and her husband, Chad.  On Sunday, Kara cooked so many yummy goodies for the paperview.  One of these yummy treats was Oreo Truffles! They were so good, I need to get the recipe!
2. I came home from work on Monday to find our dog like this.  His crate is usually in the dining room which as you can see is a whole 15 feet from where I found him.  We've figured out that Yogi likes to try and "hulk" out of his crate and since it's on the laminate floors, he usually travels. Silly puppy!
3. We spent a lot of time outside after work this week.  I snapped this photo on Tuesday of the light coming through the trees in the evening.  I love spending evenings in the backyard, unless its 90 degrees outside!
4. Speaking of spending time outside this week, Danny and I enjoyed a nice meal outside since we just received our new outdoor tables.  I had a glass table top from our apartment and my dad gave us the great idea of putting it on our deck (since our deck is pretty small).  It worked out perfectly for just the two of us on a weekday night!
5. I had a doctors appointment this week near downtown.  Parking was ridicolous so I had to park on the top of the parking garage.  As soon as I got out of my car, I saw the Cleveland skyline.  I love the skyline and this view made me smile.

I'm linking up with Lauren for High Five For Friday!

Photo Challenge: Barbecue (Chicken) Pizza

I discovered a photo challenge on Pinterest this week and decided to give it a try.  Every Tuesday I will blog the next subject on the list. The photo challenge is listed below:

This Tuesday (Day 1) is Favorite Food.  One of my favorite foods is Barbecue (Chicken) Pizza.  It's a great meal for both Danny and I because it has a fruit and a vegetable and I can make it with or without chicken.  I, of course like it without chicken.

Since this pizza is so easy to make, it is one of our go-to meals during the week.  Below is the recipe.

To make one pizza you will need:

1 whole wheat pita

sliced red onion

pineapple chunks

cheddar cheese

barbecue sauce

chicken (optional)

Spread barbecue sauce on pita.  Add pineapple and onions.  Next add cheese.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until pizza is hot and cheese is melted.

Happy Tuesday!

Photo Challenge:

Happy Birthday America!

Happy fourth of July to all my friends and family! Today we are celebrating with a barbecue and pool party at our house with some of our closest friends.  Since I don't have any patriotic photographs yet, I wanted to share one of my favorite recipes that is Independence Day inspired.  I made it last year for me and Danny for breakfast.  I wish I could have made it this year too, but with all the grocery trips for the party, I forgot to get the ingredients for it.

Patriotic Toast

Take a piece of wheat toast and spread cream cheese on it.  Then add blueberries in the upper left corner for the background of the stars.  The rest of the toast should be spread with strawberry jam and then slice up a banana and place them in straight lines to resemble the stripes.  Not only does this breakfast represent our country's flag, it is downright delicious!

Happy Fourth! Its a good day to be an American!

Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal

Today I made an apple cinnamon oatmeal for brunch. It was another eat-yourself-skinny recipe that I had been wanting to try. This dish had a lot of ingredients, but most of them I had in my cupboard or in my fridge. Also, this dish took an hour cook in the oven which i wasn't expecting. For the first time in a long time, I slept in until 11 am today and Danny was waiting for the dish since I told him that I was cooking breakfast, hence why it became a "brunch" dish. After mixing all the ingredients and baking for an hour, this dish turned out delicious. The apples were my favorite part, they gave a good crunch to the dish. I would definitely make this again especially since it is only 3 pointsplus per serving.

Spicy Shrimp and Pinterest craft night

Today marks day two of the eat-yourself-skinny.com recipes. I decided to make Spicy Shrimp with Cilantro and Lime. This recipe was only 4 pointsplus per serving (1/2 lbs of shrimp). Danny agreed that this was a lot of food for the amount of points which is always the best recipes when counting points since they keep you fuller, longer. Instead of shrimp, I grilled tofu on the foreman grill which is always one of my favorite meals. Cooking shrimp is something new to me. Even though I'm a vegetarian, I still cook all kinds of meat for Danny. I also lucked out for the fact that Danny is very picky about the type of meat he eats so he usually only eats ground beef or chicken, making it easier on me. Danny does like shrimp though. I have only tried cooking shrimp for him once and it didn't turn out so well, so tonight I was up for the challenge. This recipe was so easy to follow and turned out well. I served it over rice, but you could easily just eat it on its own too.

I also put together a Pinterest craft tonight. I had pinned this craft awhile ago, but just now got around to putting it together. It is a weekly food chart to plan the different meals we will eat. Since joining Weight Watchers, we learned quickly that half the struggle is planning your meals out. Since I still work second shift and we only spend three nights together for dinner, I wanted to make sure I had this craft ready to go when I do go to a normal schedule in a few weeks. It's important to me and Danny to continue this tradition when we have a family to provide some stability and organization for dinner time. To see the actual Pinterest craft, click here.

Sun Dried Tomato Penne

Danny and I continued our Weight Watchers Lifestyle for dinner tonight. Last week on Pinterest, I stumbled across a blog called Eat Yourself Skinny. This is an amazing blog for Weight Watchers recipes. The blogger, Kelly creates delicious-sounding recipes and she tracks old and new Weight Watchers points while including colorful pictures of each dish. Since tonight is my weekend and I am home, I chose one of her recipes listed on her site for Danny and I to try. Originally she cooked this recipe with tuna, but since I'm vegetarian and Danny doesn't eat tuna, I made Danny's plate with chicken and mine just straight vegetarian. I love sun dried tomatoes, but I had never tried cooking with them, but it turned out delicious. This dish is something that we will definitely try again. To check out the original recipe click here.

Danny and I finished the night with a happy hour drink at our favorite local restaurant/bar and came home to a relaxing night with the kitties. I cherish these comfortable nights at home with our little family. It lets me de-stress from the troubles of the "big day" in our future.

S'mores Popcorm Mix

This year for Christmas, things were a little different.  Since this is our first christmas together, Danny and I split the holidays with our families.  Ever since I started dating Danny, I heard about the famous Christmas Eve nights spent with his cousins playing song games, eating finger foods, and exchanging Christmas presents with his mom's sister's family.  This year, I wasn't sure if I would be able to make it, realizing that I would have to work until 10 pm on Christmas Eve, however, my coworker came to my rescue and decided to work the holiday shift for me.

I wanted to do something special since this was my first Christmas with the Brickner's.  I looked up on pinterest recipes that I could make and I came across a blog for holiday popcorn mixes.  If its one thing this family loves, its popcorn.  When I met Danny and first went to his apartment, I remember vividly he had a case of beer in the fridge, 10 boxes of popcorn and a bag of animal crackers in the cupboard.

I wanted to make a recipe that everyone could eat so I tried the S'mores popcorn.  The ingredients are just popcorn, Golden Grahams cereal, mini marshmellows, and chocolate chips.

This recipe was so easy to make.  You simply pop the popcorn, mix all three ingredients together (popcorn, Golden Grahams, and mini marshmellows) in a large bowl and then spread mixture evenly on a cookie sheet.  Then you melt the chocolate chips in the microwave and drizzle over the mixture.  After the cholocate dries, the mixture is complete.  I put the popcorn mixture into Christmas tins I found at JoAnn's.  They make a great package and keep the popcorn fresh.  Check out the popcorn blog for this recipe and other great holiday popcorn recipes (Danny wanted to try them all!).  Merry Christmas friends!

Butternut squash soup

Today I woke up feeling horrible. My throat was sore, I was coughing and sneezing, and my nose has been running all day. I had to get up early today so I could meet with my manager at 7 am this morning. I went to training class today, my training is Microsoft Lync and Exchange. The class is interesting so far, however I am not feeling well today. Luckily at lunch, I decided to get my most favorite Butternut Squash soup from Breuggers bagels. This made my day :) here's to hoping I feel better just in time for Christmas!

Veggie Chili Day

Today has been a good day.  I got up this morning and made Weight Watchers 15 minute Vegetarian Chili for lunch today and for the rest of the week.  I made it last month and it turned out surprisingly good and easy to make which is a plus in my book! I am looking forward to fall so much that I've even started cooking like it! I love eating soup any time of year, but I will definitely keep this recipe handy for football Sundays and chilly days in the fall!

I have a big weigh in tomorrow morning and I'm hoping that everything I've done in the last two days has made up for this past weekend.  Eating on the weekends seems to be my number one challenge right now and it is stopping me from achieving my weight loss goals. Here's to hoping tomorrow goes well or it may be a hard day at the gym!