Friday and Food!

I told ya'll that I've been enjoying cooking again, however, I've also, since the holidays, been a little lax in watching my diet. Not that I've gone overboard mind you, or have gained any real weight, but I can tell by how my body is feeling that I've not been conscientious about putting healthy things into it! Too many cookies, candies, chips and dips and glasses of wine..oy! LOL!

I have been feeling out of sorts for a little while now and decided, yesterday in fact, finally, that I needed to get back to my regular way of eating, of eating regularly and healthy (skipped one to many meals these past couple months and that doesn't make for a good metabolism) and of cooking better foods. I want Mandi to start eating better as well, if she adopts these healthier habits now, it will save her health and life in her adult years.

So, I think I'll start a "feature" if you will, on my blog about my adventures into healthier cooking. I would like to update this feature every Friday (trying to think of a name to call it..LOL), even if I cook something on a Wednesday, I'll share with ya'll on Fridays...today being my first day! Yay!! Some of these recipes will be my own creations, others will be ones I find and test out and like! I have a little of both for you today!

First, I'll just share with ya'll what I had for breakfast, which is a regular item on my breakfast menu at my house. I made myself a yogurt parfait. I take a container of Weight Watchers Vanilla Yogurt (seriously, it's really good and the bonus is totally low cal!), then I mix in 1/4 cup of fruit (this morning it was blueberries..LOVE blueberries) and I added about 7 raw almonds that I coarsely chopped. YUM! Paired it with my cup of decaf coffee while I played on the internet!

Lunch today is another regular menu item. First, let me just say that a little over a year ago I purchased myself a panini grill, which, is my FAVORITE appliance right now! Seriously, this thing rocks! Mine is by Cuisinart and it has griddle plates as well as the panini type plates. Yesterdays pancakes were made using the griddle plates, made it a cinch!



Okay, back to lunch...I used my panini grill for this one. I took about 3/4 of a small zucchini and sliced it up (cut the slices in half too), about 3/4 of a yellow, crookneck squash, sliced the same, and a handful (maybe 1/3 cup) of mushrooms. Put them all into my saute pan that I had sprayed with a little olive oil, added some garlic salt and cracked black pepper..don't get me started on my love of cracked black pepper...what a flavor, and then sauted them all up.



When they were almost done I then took a whole wheat, low carb, high fiber tortilla (mine are from La Tortilla Factory) and heated it in my panini grill (which was already preheated and waiting to go!)...this takes just a minute or two. I then filled my tortilla with the veggie mixture, topped it with a pinch of reduced fat, shredded cheese and viola! A veggie taco! Added to my lunch as a 1/4 cup of low-fat cottage cheese (I use a 1% milk cottage cheese) into which I added another 1/4 cup of blueberries! Yum..and what is nice is that you have a few veggies left over to nosh on if the taco isn't enough to fill you up! Totally healthy lunch, providing you with fiber, vitamins, veggies, fruit and dairy and hardly any fat at all!



While surfing food sites and healthy eating sites this morning I came upon a yummy sounding recipe for Lemon Raspberry Muffins. Made with whole wheat flour as well as all-purpose flour (I try to keep my white flour type foods to a bare minimum). I picked up some really phat raspberries today at the grocery store...



and turned them into these: Lemon-Raspberry Muffins



I let Mandi be my taste tester and her verdict was a thumbs up! I admit, I took a small bite, I mean a cook has to try her creations right? LOL..and they are really tasty! Not too sweet and a nice tangy bite to them from the lemon and raspberry combination! Added bonus is that one muffin is under 200 calories! Score!! I'm hoping my girlfriends Cathy and Amy will enjoy them tomorrow as I am bringing some to our scrapbooking day at Cathy's!

I'm looking forward to sharing my kitchen adventures with you all and hope that if you see something you like and give it a try you'll let me know what ya think! Now to start thinking about dinner tonight...hummmmm!

Until next time,
blessings!

Randomness...

I had thought that starting with the first of the year, or actually the day of my divorce, that it would be a perfect time for me to make a commitment to blogging more frequently. Yep, seems like that isn't happening. I can say, though, that it is simply because I have less time and am having more fun time with my honey, Todd!

So, I figured this post will just be about some randomness from me, you know, stuff that I've been up to.

Cooking! yep, feels great to cook again, and to have more than just Mandi to cook for! LOL! Since becoming a vegetarian it has become more difficult to find joy in fixing meals because, quite frankly, most meals make much more than Mandi can or should eat, and I don't eat most of the meals Mandi eats and vice versa. I kinda fell into a pattern of taking her out for more meals and thus my love of cooking (I used to want to go to culinary school) faded into the great abyss! I've become a bit more conscientious of my money these days and decided that we needed to spend more time at home eating, after all, I can cook much healthier than we could ever get at a restaurant, plus, having Todd to cook for makes it just that much more fun and enjoyable for me. Even if I don't indulge in everything I fix, I enjoy the process and the smells that fill my house. Seeing Mandi eat more well balanced and healthier meals makes it all worth it too! In the past week I've made Beef Stew, Chicken Pot Pie, Italian Beef for sandwiches, Vegetarian Taco Soup, and today I have homemade Chicken Noodle Soup going (Mandi has a bad cold). Tomorrow is meatloaf and mashed potatoes! I've also enjoyed a bit of baking and have made cheesecake and chocolate chip cookies, and I have something special up my sleeve for Valentine's Day but I'm not "dishing" on that right now!

As for the crafty side of me, not been doing a whole lot of that since making Todd his South Beach album. Today, however I am working on making cards! Got a movie going in the dvd player, some Black Cherry Kool-aid in a glass (been craving this for a couple days now and I'm indulging today), and paper and inks are flying! Should have some creativeness to share soon...

For pictures, I thought I'd share a couple taken on New Years Eve this year. Seems like it was ages ago...




It was so nice to spend New Years Eve with Mandi and Todd. My mom came over and we cooked food, hung out and had a really nice evening. Todd and I got so involved with the computer that Mandi had to come tell us that it was now 4 minutes after midnight! LOL!

That's about it...have been watching the Bears and was hoping with every fiber of my being that we'd see them go to the Super Bowl this year, alas, last Sunday was a disaster and my beloved Bears will not be going...hanging out, watching the game with my girl and my guy was the best though, couldn't have asked for a better time! Have one last picture to share...from my warped sense of humor...we were sitting on the couch watching the game and Todd looked over at my jersey and said "we are upside down" because he had a number "6" on his for Jay Cutler, the quarterback and I had a number "9" on mine for the kicker, Robbie Gould...well, you can imagine, my first thought was...6....9...um...69!! Yep, had to have a picture of "our" nice number! LOL!!

With that, I'll leave you with our picture!


Until next time,
blessings!

South Beach 2010...getting my scrap on!

In December Todd and I took a little vacation to South Beach! Being fans of the MTV show, The Jersey Shore, we thought it would be fun to visit the places that Snookie, The Sitch, Pauly D and the rest of the gang hung out at. Todd had been to South Beach before so it was perfect, he knew all the places to go and have fun. The weather was terrific...a couple days it was a bit cooler but still, blue skies and sunshine! We spent our days laying on the beach, soaking up some sun, walking the strip, eating and drinking, taking late afternoon naps to recharge our batteries so that we could "fist pump" all night long at Mangos, Tantra and Clevelander's! I had, seriously, the best time of my life....it definitely is a vacation that will never be re-created!

For Christmas I made Todd a mini album of our trip. I used a technique that I learned from Carol Wingert and took an old book and re-purposed it for this mini. Taking out the original book pages and sewing in my own signatures using patterned papers from My Mind's Eye and Bazzill. I embellished the pages with the same papers and different odds and ends I had in my stash. I had such a terrific time making this mini, it brought back each wonderful moment as I created the pages, and it definitely brought back some of my creative mojo that I had lost during this past year.

My next project is to create some vintage themed Valentine's Day cards...I can't even believe it's coming that fast, however, that means winter is moving along here in Chicago and there will be light at the end of this cold and icky tunnel!

Until next time,
Blessings!

He makes my heart smile!

I wanted to share someone with you. This someone makes my heart smile. This someone came out of nowhere and has brought me such happiness. This someone brings a smile to my face each and every time I think about him. This someone is Todd.

I met Todd a few months ago, a few months after Roger and I made the decision to divorce, and we have been going strong ever since our first, crazy meeting. I don't know what the future will hold, right now I'm focused on enjoying the moment with this cutie. I've learned that I don't have control over my life, ultimately it is in God's hands, it was His hands that brought me this sweet man.

This is my favorite picture of us together. Seriously, each time I look at it my heart smiles wide.....feels good!

Living my life out loud!!

The date is April 27, 1982. I have been set up on a blind date and just a little nervous as I stood in the bathroom of my parent's house getting ready. "He likes preppy girls" my friend told me, so there I was, all dolled up in what would have made Lisa Birnbach, author of "The Official Preppy Handbook" proud. I walked into an unknown apartment in Roger's Park, Illinois (a section of the city of Chicago) to meet a cute 16 year old with a mouth full of braces, a beautiful head of light brown, curly hair and a fabulous smile, complete with dimples. This young man would steal my heart. This young man and I would spend the next 8 years of our lives tied to the hips, spending as much time as we possibly could with each other, until 8 years, 1 month and 6 days later we would be wed at my church in front of our friends, family and God. 20 years, 7 months and 8 days later we would be officially divorced and ending our more than 28 and a half years of life together. Yes, Roger and I are now divorced.

There, I said it out loud for the first time, and even though, as I will tell you, it is a good thing, those words still stick in my throat. Will I ever get used to hearing them? Will I ever get used to knowing that I am a "divorcee"? I don't know. What I will tell you is that I am full of mixed emotions today. I am sad. Sad that we couldn't make the long haul and that I truly believed I would stay married to Roger for the rest of my life, growing old with him by my side, but I am happy. I am happier than I have been in a very long time and that feels great.

I tried. I tried and tried for what feels almost like an eternity to "fix" us. I prayed. I prayed and prayed for hours, through tears, through anger, through unbelievable grief to my God to "please, just let me be happy with Roger" until one day I finally realized (or was it the voice of God that I finally listened to) that in order for me to be happy, to have the life I wanted and all the beautiful things in it I was dreaming of, I needed to walk away. To start new. To begin to live. To be reborn in a sense. Today is my birthday, not the day I was divorced. I will tell you too, that Roger and I are better "friends" now than we have been in a long time...funny, isn't it? He did fix us.

It's an interesting thing, faith and God and all that entails. Here I was, begging and pleading and thinking that He wasn't answering me, when in fact, all he was saying to me, and all that I was resistant to hear and believe was, have faith. I know that God was waiting for me to take my leap of faith in Him. He was going to provide all that I needed and be my soft ground to land on if I just trusted enough in the fact that maybe, just maybe what I had planned for my life was not what He was planning. That He would give me my hearts desire if I had enough faith in Him to provide it. It took me a very long time but I finally realized that in order for me to have it all, I need to let go of it all. Just as He promises, He took care of me. The strength and happiness I felt, as soon as I made the decision to walk away from Roger and to a new life is something I can never put into words. I am filled with such power and contentment that I am ashamed I waited and hesitated so long. Trust me when I say that I will never doubt again. I place all of my life into His hands for I know that "I can do all things through Him who gives me strength." He never failed me. He fixed "us", just not in the way I imagined....

So, today I say goodbye. Not goodbye to Roger. I'll always hold a special place in my heart for him. He is the father of my child and for that alone, I will always care about him. I spent over half of my life (to date) with him in it, and I refuse to ruin all of those years by holding onto anger and bitterness. I don't want to hate. I refuse to hate. I also refuse to focus on the bad (gosh knows we have certainly had our share of the bad), but to focus on the many wonderful memories of my life with him. I would not be the person I am today were it not for Roger in my life. I will always be grateful for having him. I will always look back in fondness on the years I spent with him and all that he gave to me and that I gave to him. My wish for my life is that he and I will remain friends, that we will always be able to talk to each other, remember all the good times shared and smile for those moments. So, thank you Roger. Thank you for the life we shared and the goodness we had.

It's taken a long time for me to "announce" to the world what was going on with me. I have changed (recently) my blog to reflect my intention for the rest of my life. Like I said, today is my birthday! Today is the day that I begin to "Live my life out loud", today is the gift I unwrapped from God and grabbed onto with both hands.....ready to face the world and my life full on!

I've have also received some amazing blessings and I'll be happy to share them here soon. But for now, let me just say goodbye, and also, let me say hello. Hello Vicki, your life is waiting for you, come, take ahold and enjoy!

Until next time,
blessings!

Happy 2011!!!

Happy New Year! It's 2011...wow!

Don't have much time to write, but I wanted to wish all my friends and family who still visit this lowly little blog of mine a very Happy New Year. I know that this past year I failed to be a good blogger, my 2010 had a few bumps along the way but way back in January my friend, Keriann, told me that 2010 would be my year. She was right! While 2010 proved to be a very good year for me in many ways, I know that 2011 is going to be my best one yet!

I hope that you will come back and visit me. I have so much to share with you all, just need to get through this next week of commitments and stuff and then, my plan is to be a full-on blogger...at least one post a week (well, that's my goal anyway)..

Figure I'll leave this post with a pic...took this one today of my girl as we had lunch. Used my iPhone and the Hipstamatic app, BlacKeys UltraChrome....



Until next time,
Blessings!