Memorial Day Weekend

Dutch and I had a great long weekend together. We were both off on Monday so we had lots of time to enjoy. Our cable had been out all week (so boring) so Saturday was full of naps, and wild wings! We ended the night in our usual springtime manner of enjoying our deck and ring toss!

Sunday we went to WAHO (our weekend tradition) and then to the braves game with the bro and SIL. We tailgated from 3-8 and enjoyed hot dogs, fruit salsa, baked lays, beers, and brats! The Braves won which always makes things even more fun. Also, ESPN baseball tonight was there all day broadcasting. That was pretty cool to see. Dutch even high-fived one of the newscasters/announcers/ESPN guy. He is an old Phillie's baseball player. Dutch thought it was pretty cool. Sine I had/have no idea who the guy is I was only mildly impressed. The worst part of the night was the huge bugs raining down on us. *note to self, do not sit in section right below stadium lights. Bugs will fly into lights and rain down on you. In Dutch's case, one fell right into his beer can. Pretty precise.

Monday we went down to my Bro/SIL house in newnan. I made some crescent roll pigs in a blanket. Yumm. Chris smoked a brisket and Kathryn had a huge spread of potato salad, broccoli salad, fruit, etc. We were sooo stuffed after leaving. *another note to self.... its week 3 of C25K..... stop avoiding it .... lol

Here are a few pics of our shenanigans. Sorry there aren't more of the cookout! : ( I guess I documented the most important part. LOL

Dutch maning the grill

Our set up

Tailgating zone

ESPN

The high five

Post high five (creeped out guy)

Atlanta sky line

Free Braves hat!

Bugs

HBF 6.0 recap

Hottie Beach Fest (HBF) 6.0 (Our 6th year OMG) was another success. Fun was had by all. The water was beyond beautiful. So clear.  You could see your toes! We were greated by a pack/school ? of Dolphins one day which was fun. We called them Hottie Dolphins of course.

We did our usual routine of dinner groups. Night 1 half of the girls made dinner for everyone (a white chicken lasagna) and the other night the other half cooked (grilled quesadillas).

The third night we went out to a new place (to us) called 790 on the Gulf. They had a great happy hour. $2.00 mimosas yummm and we had an amazing crab,shrimp,lobster dip. The portions were huge and the fried shrimp and crab cakes were out of this world. I defiantly recommend it if you are in the destin area.

We had the tradition of hottie bags, swag bags, that everyone donated 1 item to. This year they were filled with things such as water bottles, handmade soaps, beach balls, custom tie dye shirts : ) , luggage tags (designed with this years logo of course) and more!

We were able to take lots of group shots thanks to my new trusty tripod I got for xmas this year! Thanks Dad!!

It also came in handy on the beach!

Overall we had an amazing time. I only got sun burned the first day...ugh.... but the weekend was filled with good food, laughter, relaxation, waffle house x 2 and lots of memories! Cant wait for HBF 7.0!

Tie Dye!

So tie dye is pretty much the coolest trend for this summer. I am happy to participate! We had a hottie tie dye party a few weeks ago to make shirts for HBF. It was soooo easy! I want to have a cookout/tie dye party soon to create some more things.

If you could bring anything to a tie dye party what would it be? Boxers, sheets, napkins, onesies, pillow case etc?

New Food Favs

So while Ive been on this diet I am always looking for new foods, snacks, recipes etc that are super yummy and a lot better for me than what I previously ate.

I came across Boar's Head Everroast Chicken Breast and it is sooo good. I eat it just plain, not on a sandi. Just slices of it, sometimes rolled up with a small piece of cheese along side fruit or carrot sticks. Another way I like to eat it is in a "quesadilla" I grill a tortilla on the stove with a few piecs of the chicken lunch meat and 1/4 cup shreaded cheese. It gets all hot a gooey like a grilled cheese but with the crunch of a grilled tortilla. It actually won better homes and gardens best new product award. Check it out here Its certified by the american heart association due to its low saturated fat and cholesteral.  Give it try next time your at the deli!

One of my new favorite snacks is pepperidge farm cracker chips. They are multi-grain crackers that are super crunchy like a chip an have lots of yummy cheesy flavor. A serving size of 27 chips was plenty for me. I found mine for a good price at Target. They also have them in wheat flavor probably like wheat thins. Super Yummy.

HBF 6.0

This week is our annual Hottie Beach Fest in Destin Florida. I started this trip 6 years ago with my best friend. Its a long weekend of relaxing, being silly and girly, getting tan, floating in the pool and just having fun. My friends and I spend all year anticipating the next years trip and planning all of the details. I cant believe its only a few days away!!! And my bestie Alicia flew in from NYC to be here! Here are some of my favorite pictures from years past.

Crawfish Festival - Wild Wings

Yesterday Dutch and a bunch of our good friends went up to the crawfish festival at wild wings. I was so much fun! They had live music all day, good food, beer specials, and lots of laughs. Here are some of my fav pics from the afternoon.

River!

Dutch and I have been walking/running/dog walking at the river the past week weekends and its beautiful! We park at the end of columns drive and walk along the river to powers ferry. We can watch the kayakers (while dreaming of our own kayaking future). The path is really wide and paved and covered most of the way by amazing canopies. We love it! Come walk with us!

WW Stuffed Shells

OMG these are amazing........

I have been dying to share this recipe for stuffed shells. They are 5 points+ on WW.

1 cup(s) part-skim ricotta cheese
1 cup(s) fat-free cottage cheese
1 tsp table salt
1 tsp garlic powder, or to taste
1/2 Tbsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 jar pasta sauce (I used Chunky Ragu Mamas special garden sauce) I think a lot of the flavor comes from this so I cant comment on recipes used with different sauces)
1 pound(s) cooked pasta, jumbo shells, approximately 24 shells
1 box frozed chopped spinach (thawed/drained)



Instructions
Preheat oven to 375°F.
Boil Shells, drain, cool.
Mix together cheeses, salt, garlic powder, oregano, pepper, and spinach. (for a slightly more sinfull dish add 1/4 cup shreadded mozz or your other fav italian cheeses)
Spread a few spoonfuls of tomato sauce on bottom of a 9- x 13-inch baking dish.
When cooked shells are cool enough to handle, fill each shell with cheese mixture and place in baking dish. (approx 1 heaping spoonfull) When all shells are in dish, spoon remaining tomato sauce over shells. Cover pan and bake for 20 minutes. Yields about 4 shells per serving. (could also sprinkle more shreaded italian cheese)
4 Shells was perfect for me. Dutch ate 5 and was full. Great paired with a small salad. Dutch LOVES these and they are so low fat. Im making them this week before I got out of town for him to eat off but will add 1 lb. of ground chicken to the cheese mixture. I assume it will increase the filling qty to a point where I can make the entire box of pasta which is about 36 shells.

C25K

*not an actual photo of me running lol

So I decided to jump on the C25K bandwagon after being inspired by my amazing SIL here .

C25k stands for Couch to 5k. It claims it can take almost anyone and have them running by the end of 9 weeks. Each week you alternate running and walking to gradually build yourself up to run 30 mins straight (a 5k)

Well it has its work cut out for it with me. I told Dutch I think I haven't ran in 10 years! lol. We "ran" in P.E. in high school but even then it was more of a run/walk while gossipping with your friends. Since high school I have ran if I was trying to get away from something like a snake or dutch with a hose lol.

This week was week 1 for me. Here's my thoughts for the week.

W1R1 (5min warm up, run 60 walk 90 x 8 times then walk 5 mins)
Monday night after work I was really motivated and had downloaded all of the running podcasts for the program from here. Basically someone has created playlists for each week that have great running music and when it is time to run she says run and then walk etc. Super easy.

So the music stared and it was amazing. Hip hop music by T.I, black eye peas, LL Cool J, P.Diddy, Kanye west etc. The music is what got me through the work out. When I felt I could do another 60 sec. run, Kanye would sing/rap (that doesn't kill me, only makes me stronger/work it faster, harder stronger) and it totally reved me up. However the first ten minutes I spent being too cocky and jamming out to the music too much that half way through I realized it was harder than I expected! Thank goodness suz said this is your second to last run or I would have almost pooped out. After I got off the treadmill I felt great and was pretty jazzed for this entire program.

W1R2 (5min warm up, run 60 walk 90 x 8 times then walk 5 mins)

I did this run Wednesday night after work at about 9pm on our treadmill. It was just as good as the run before. I tried to jam out to the music less to save my energy lol. Pretty much feel like a bad ass after the workout.

W1R3 (5min warm up, run 60 walk 90 x 8 times then walk 5 mins)

This run was Saturday late morning but should have been Friday night. Unfortunately, I decided Id rather have a glass of wine and work on my HBF packing. So Saturday it was so cool outside I thought this would be perfect to run outside! What was I thinking! The sun came out within the first 5 mins and it was HOT. Also, our neighborhood is SOOOO hilly. Killer. I had a hard time keeping a pace. I would run too fast and then walk too slow. I had to call it quits a little more than half way through the work out. I came inside and did the work out on the treadmill with much better results. Its going to take some time to get used to running outside. Still enjoyed the playlists but am ready for the next weeks music just to change it up. Next week we do 90 seconds of running and 2 minutes of walking for 6 times. Wish me luck!!!

my new weakness!!

Chick-fil-A | May 13 is Free Sweet Potato FryDay!

WW Crock Pot Lasagna

As some of you may know I started WW the end of March (after our brisket filled ten day extravaganza in Dallas and Austin) Not because I think I am huge, but I know its easier to loose weight when you are younger instead of putting it off. Id like to loose 20 lbs and have already lost 7.8. Boo ya. I really enjoy just being healthier and more fit. I have been trying a lot of new recipes that are healthier and this is one of our favorites.

Check it out.

1 lb ground chicken

1 onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

1 (28 ounce) can tomatoes, crushed

1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese

1 1/2 cups lowfat mozzarella cheese,

6 lasagna noodles

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded

box frozen chopped spinach thawed, drained, etc.

In a large skillet over medium high heat cook onion and garlic.

Then add in ground chicken and cook together.

 Stir in tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes, spices,  Meanwhile in a small bowl combine ricotta, and 1 cup of the mozzarella. You can add spinach to cheese mix or sauce mix.

Spoon 1/3 of the tomato/beef mixture into crock pot. Break 3 lasagna noodles in half and arrange on top of tomato/beef mixture and top with half of the ricotta mixture. Repeat with second layer. Finish with the remaining 1/3 of the meat mixture.

 Cover and cook on low for 4 hours

 In a small bowl combine remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Sprinkle over meat mixture and set aside for 10 minutes or until cheese melts and lasagna is firm (10 minutes or so).

ENJOY!!!

Sorry I didn't get a finished product pic... you will just have to make it to see. : )