Hello friends! I hope that you had a fab weekend! I must say that the time change caught me a little off guard this week.  I knew it was happening, but losing an hour is sort of throwing my schedule off just a bit so far.

Sunday, I woke up to this lovely message on the fridge.  Awww!  Sunday was my birthday! And since we celebrate birthdays at OHC for an entire week, all of last week meant that Scott and I were having mini celebrations. It was a nice treat to an otherwise very busy and hectic week.

On Sunday I decided to take what I call Slacker Days.  This is different than “Me Days”.  Slacker Days are days where I should have worked out but did not because I actually need that extra time for something else.

It happens to us all!

With how crazy March has been so far, how busy last week was, AND with losing an hour, this lady needed some chill time.  I was also in need of some major Scotty time.  That’s not a euphemism, I mean that I literally needed some downtime spent with my husband who I barely saw last week except for a few minutes before bed time.

That does not make for a happy Andrea!

Anyway, moving along! Since it was early-ish and I knew Scott would still be asleep for a while, I made myself a wee pre-breakfast breakfast.

Steaming cup of my favorite coffee, Extra Dark French Roast from Whole Foods, and a small yogurt bowl.

• 2% Fage
• Homemade Granola
• Chocolate Chips
• Unsweetened Coconut

And a homemade birthday card!

Slacker day continued with me busting around the kitchen getting things ready for a huge Sunday Breakfast.  I also got busy getting some laundry done.  The above ingredients went being prepped for some homemade salsa.

Scott got up, well I woke him up before he slept the day away, and I was able to get breakfast officially started.

Breakfast enchiladas!  Our favorite diner has the most amazing breakfast burritos. There’s no way I would even try to replicate them but I can use them for inspiration!  I had been dreaming about making these babies all week long.

They were filled with scrambled eggs and beans, topped with homemade salsa and baked until just warmed through.  Scott’s version had cheese on top.  Sweet potato homefries on the side with more coffee and OJ.

The blankets and couch covers had just finished up in the dryer and I brought those out before sitting down to eat.  There is nothing my dog loves more than fresh blankets right out of the dryer.  He quickly made himself comfy as Scott and I enjoyed our big Sunday Breakfast.  After we were done and cleaned up the kitchen, it was time to head outside for some fresh air and to let Rocky stretch his legs a bit.

It wasn’t the greatest of days, gloomy with a damp cold to it but it was still nice to get outside and get some air in our lungs.  Mmmm! Spring is on the way, I can smell it!

When we got back, all I did was plop down on the couch and sat with Scott doing nothing but sitting there.  I almost fell asleep!  This is how comforting and soothing his energy is for me.  When I say that he’s a grounding force for me, I literally mean it.  I need his energy to keep mine in check.  He’s very laid back and easy going, where I’m not.  He keeps me balanced and sane.

To be able to sit there with him and just hang out was probably the best thing about my day.  Eventually we had to get up and do regular life stuff.  Oh life!

Then my stomach was growling and I was ready for dinner.

Shredded beef tacos!  I had some beef leftover from a roast made earlier, so I thawed out the leftovers and we used them for tacos.  Homemade salsa, sour cream (2% Fage), and homemade guacamole for toppings.  We had really simple salads on the side for veg.  Both of us wanted to focus more on the tacos and a super easy salad on the side was the best way to get in fresh veggies with dinner.  Not the greatest of pictures, sorry but I wanted to EAT.

I had three tacos, thank you!

Scott only beat me by one taco!

Quick playtime with Rocks! His favorite toy in the world is a paper towel roll.  He likes to tear and shred things and for whatever reason he especially loves the paper towel roll.  He likes to chase it and have you bop him with it.  He then shreds it to pieces.  Thankfully he isn’t one to eat or ingest things, he rips, spits it out, and rips some more.

And he wants to tug and play and roll around!

After playtime, we settled in for a cozy evening.

Wait, what’s that?!

Oooo excitement friends! Excitement! You’ll have to stay tuned to see what it is later this week!

I finished the evening off with a Pens game (they won!), a glass of my favorite kind of white wine, Vinho Verde, and some popcorn.  All combined with some snugs on the couch! It was a great end to a crazy week.

How was your weekend? Did you get to do anything exciting or eat anything fabulous?

Yesterday was such a gloomy and chilly day.  Winter came back for a visit bringing with it freezing rain.  Lovely, no? Once it started it continued like that all day long.  Into the night the freezing rain changed over to regular rain and it’s been raining since then.

Welcome to spring! Where we get a heck ton of rain here in Columbus.  Thankfully it only lasts a few weeks!

Yesterday after my run, I was looking forward to coffee the most.  In our huge Sunday mugs with plenty of creamer to go around!  We use vanilla soymilk as our creamer of choice and if we’re treating ourselves, then it’s Snowville Half and Half.  That’s for special occasions!

I decided to make my typical recovery yogurt bowl a little more fun with a crumbled up PB cookie on top! In the wee bowl was:

• 2% Fage
• Homemade Granola
• Dark Chocolate Chips
• Crumbled up homemade PB cookie

Oh heaven! So stinkin’ good especially if I was lucky enough to get a bite of cookie and chocolate! I settled down on the couch with my pre-breakfast and chilled out with some Food TV.  I watched Giada tolerate cooking with her aunt who seemed particularly full of corrections that episode.

I have to say that Giada, of all the cooks, seems to have the most excitement about food and the things she creates.  Everyone else just seems very reserved like they can’t get excited over food because maybe it doesn’t look professional.

If it was me, I’d be dancing and clapping too because food is fun! And yummy!

The great thing about making pancakes is that I make a bunch of them at one time.  I freeze them and they are ready to go when I need them.  Yesterday, I didn’t feel like making a new batch and creating a mess in the kitchen.  I pulled out some frozen pancakes and plopped them in the toaster oven to heat up and get a bit crisp.  This week we revisited some pumpkin molasses pancakes.  Very similar to gingerbread in taste.

Mine were topped with butter and maple syrup along with more coffee and some fresh fruit.  I also had some chicken sausage that I stole off of Scott’s plate.

Our Sunday could be summed up just like this.  We did nothing and it was fab.  Well I did more “nothing” than Scott did because he worked on my computer.  To just briefly dork out on you, he switched it and put in a quad-core chip for me along with stripping out Mint and installing Ubuntu proper.  Mint, I have discovered is a huge (HUGE) resource hog and on the suggestion of a twitter friend, I switched out to Ubuntu.  Still in the testing phase, we’ll see how it goes.

I read and putzed around the house taking a much needed unplug day.  Since Scott was working on the desktop, I decided to avoid technology all together save for a few email checks.

I got dinner started in the oven and chatted with my mom for a bit.  Eventually it was time to eat and watch the Pens game that we taped.

I had some turkey legs that I pulled out and roasted along with some carrots and parsnips.  We also had stuffing and homemade gravy.  I added some white wine to the roasting pan for the turkey legs so I used some of that same wine in the stuffing mix.  Excellent!

Aside from the turkey, dinner was fab.  I realize that sounds crazy but the turkey didn’t turn out like I hoped.  It was dry and very tough.  The legs have a lot of “stuff” in them that you have to work around to get to the meat making it more frustrating than enjoyable.  I would not purchase legs that big again because it did not work out.  I mostly ate veggies and stuffing dipped in glorious gravy.

The Pens game was also a bust.  They weren’t playing so well.

Wine (and chocolate, not pictured) helped somewhat but not enough to bring about a win.  Ah well.

Even though I slept in and didn’t do much around the house, I was exhausted and headed to bed early, another weekend in the books.

How was your weekend? How’s your weather, are you still experiencing “winter” like conditions?

This post is part of the Homespun Sunday series.

Hi gang! How is everyone doing? OHC has had a pretty busy weekend friends and I’m still trying to get caught up on things. Saturday was a girl’s afternoon out with a couple of twitter friends for some picture taking.  We walked downtown in an area called The Short North, chatting, taking pictures and stopping in a few shops.  We walked for hours and I’m not sure how far we walked but it was a decent amount!

I did my long run on Saturday before hand so I was feeling pretty well exercised by the time the adventure was over.

A quick run home to change and get freshened up and then it was off to Jim and Emily’s for some good food and good company.  There was wine and cheese, along with laughter to accompany Jim’s amazing bouillabaisse that he made.

I have been looking up recipes ever since so I can make some because now it’s stuck in my head.

Sunday was full of all of my favorite things.  Coffee in our Sunday Mugs with my favorite Extra Dark French Roast. I want coffee like how I want my beer and men, dark and smooth…..

These mugs are a new addition to the kitchen and they are great for special occasions.  I consider Sunday lounging a special occasion indeed!  Scotty got up early on Sunday morning and that meant I could get started on breakfast earlier!

Combine these three ingredients and what do you get?

Peanut butter pancakes with bananas and chocolate chips! OH YEAH!

These take a little time to make and you have to be gentle with them but it is so worth the extra attention.

Someone was curious as to what exactly mama was making.

The banana slices and the chocolate chips get all melty gooey with a hint of peanut butter in the background.

I had mine drizzled with yogurt and maple syrup and then I went back in for seconds!  We also had some clementines for some fruit power.

The rest of the day was spent in bed and laying on the couch reading a book.  I’m reading a Dan Brown novel called Deception Point and it’s great! Nothing too intellectual, a total popcorn book. It’s just fun and ridiculous and action packed. I love it!

Then I told Scott we had to get started on Friday’s Pens game because rumor had it that it was out of control.

They were not lying. That game was full on Crazy. Like I can’t even wrap my head around all that happened crazy.

While watching the game I munched on some kale salad with beets and beans.  I made this for our Saturday dinner get-together and there was a bit of leftovers. It made the perfect mid-afternoon snack!

We finally finished the game which took a lot time because there were so many penalties and things that needed addressed. Seriously, it was unreal. We worked up quite the appetite!

Dinner was glorious! Cider brined pork chops with sauteed apples and onions along with roasted brussel sprouts. Amazing! I fully cleaned my plate too.

After dinner it was more hockey action. The Pen’s played a lot of games last week!  We watched hockey and got our popcorn on.

Mmm popcorn! Wine for the evening was a Coppola pinot grigio and I have to say that it was just okay.  Normally we like this wine a lot but this one was a little on the sweet side.  Ick.  I’m not a sweet wine girl.  It was alright and fully drinkable just not something I was very impressed with.

Then I headed back up to bed to read a little bit more!

How was your weekend? Did you do anything fun?

Sunday was cold and slightly breezy. Normally this wouldn’t be much of an issue however then that breeze causes negative wind-chill, well when things start getting tricksy.  I decided to stay home and I pulled a complete rest day, snug day, me day or whatever you want to call it.  I slept in and enjoyed the most of my comfy bed as possible.

I did some stuff around the house and then I woke up Scotty.  Since I didn’t run, I was able to jump right into making Sunday Breakfast.  Good thing too because I was hungry.  I presented Scott with two choices and he picked French Toast.

We haven’t had French Toast in what seemed like ages so I was pleased to be whipping some up.  Ezek bread dipped in a gingerbread custard for Gingerbread French Toast.

Easy to put together and more delicious to eat!

Topped with:

• Stonyfield French Vanilla Yogurt
• Homemade Cranberry Sauce
• Crushed Pecans
• Maple Syrup

Some chicken breakfast sausage and clementines to round out breakfast.

Sadly this weekend did have to be a work weekend for the both of us.  I actually really needed to do some bloggy maintenance type things.  I only got so far before I started cursing my little netbook.  It’s a pain in the behind and as much as I love having a chance to sit in a different room, getting out of the office, I end up more frustrated than when I started.

I left the netbook in the dust and started working on some pictures for the new blog design and header that Scott and I are working on.  Taking pictures for a header is a pain in the butt!  I think I’ve got one though but crikey what a process to go through.

I am so not a food stylist!

After a brief chat with my mom, whom I had to catch before she got too wrapped up in the Steelers game, it was time to get started on dinner.  Once again Scotty was presented with options and he chose the best one.

NACHOS!

All nachos should be accompanied with guacamole.  Super easy to make!  I call mine Quick and Dirty Guacamole and we will discuss that at another time.  Such the tease!

People tend to think that if you eat healthy you are eating nasty tasting food. Or that you can’t have fun food anymore.  I say PPPPFFTTTT to that!

Look at that cheesy goodness! Who wouldn’t want to eat that?!

Exactly.

I didn’t waste time digging in.

Sometimes people give off the impression that they think I don’t eat or I don’t eat much.

Please.

Clearly they don’t know me very well, because this sister LOVES food and I get pretty excited when I get to eat some fantastically yummy things.  I also have no problems pulling this move in public.  You’ve been warned.

We watched Saturday’s Pens game while we ate some fab game food.  Sorry Steelers, we like hockey more.  I heard you won though, so congrats!

The Pens game was just alright and they sort of pulled that win out their butts.  I dunno how the rest of the season is going to play out.  I’m kinda nervous about it.

After the game it was still early in the evening so we were able to watch a movie.  We watched an old film noir movie called, Kansas City Confidential.  I don’t recommend it.  It was odd and really sort of ridiculous. We have a soft spot in our hearts though for film noir style so I can’t knock it too much.

I had a most lovely glass of red while watching the movie.  Leftover wine from Pizza Thursday and it was still good!

Then I busted out something I haven’t had in months, ice cream!  SO Delicious chocolate.  Mmmm My very favorite ice cream!

I stayed up way too late watching TV and chatting with Scott.  Monday morning came much too early for my liking!

How was your weekend? Was it relaxing or did you have to get some work done?

Yesterday was full of nothing and that’s pretty much how I wanted it to be.  Last week was loonnnggg. Classes started for school and I was still trying to work my way through some of the fundamental classes that they encourage you to go through first.

There are 14 of them. Complete with additional reading, handouts, and assignments. Good lord. They also stress taking your time and doing them when you can but when it is also stressed that you do them before classes start well then you can imagine my highly overwhelmed feeling.

Thankfully a lot of these classes were focused on things I’ve already done in my personal life like reflecting on how foods make you feel, introducing new food items into rotation, and creating healthy recipes.

OHC has that down!

Saturday was glorious in that I got to sleep in and it was an extra rest day! Booyah! It was too windy out for a run and my bod was sore already from school stress and lots of weight work earlier in the week.  I also didn’t have to even get out of my jammies! Rocks was a little under the weather (he’s 10, it happens) and therefore no walkies for anyone.

I planted my butt on the couch and cranked out the rest of my fundamental classes.  Now I just have to get all my notes typed up!

Sunday I got a chance to run and it felt glorious! I was cranky because I didn’t sleep well the night before so my start time was later and I knew that a long run wasn’t happening.  Once I was outside and had a chance to get some sun on my face, all was right with my world.  I was able to push out a good five miles and something is better than nothing.  I’ll take it!

Once I got home and showered, I was starving! I quickly stuffed my face with some:

• 2% Fage
• Homemade Granola x2 (two diff kinds)
• Chocolate Chips

Who says you can’t start your morning off with chocolate?  Not this sister!

After eating the yogurt, I headed into the kitchen to get supper going in the crockpot.  I can not even tell you how excited I was for dinner! Beef stew was on the menu and we had not had any in ages!  While I was prepping ingredients, Scotty woke up and headed into the kitchen full of bedhead and cute.

I didn’t take a pic because I don’t want to embarrass him (today) and because he needs a haircut and shave like now.  He looks like mountain crazy.  Sleepy bedhead boys are my favorite though!

Once the stew was going in the crockpot it was time to make Sunday Breakfast!

I made pancakes even though I didn’t really feel like pancakes.  I know, very hard to believe.  Blueberry buckwheat pancakes with fresh squeezed OJ and some clementines.  I had a ton of oranges that needed used up. They were not good for eating so I decided to juice them.  Well I had Scott juice them.  Would you believe 10 oranges only gave us 2C of juice. We each had a small glass, it was tasty but way too much work.

We headed out for a short walk, it was a tad breezy so it was best not to stay out too long.  The sun was still out and shining, such a nice change!  Of course more winter weather is headed our way so we have to soak it up while we can.

Literally the rest of the day was spent with me on the couch not doing a darn thing.  After our walk, I changed back into my jammies and stayed that way the whole time!

This stuff smelled glorious all day long.  Scott kept walking over to the crockpot and sniffing at it.  Ha!  It’s loaded down with veggies, lentils, and local beef.  Plus some red wine for good measure.  Both of us had heaping bowl fulls!

We finished off Saturday’s Pens game while we ate.  Horrible game but at least they won.

Wine for the evening was a Campo Viejo Tempranillo.  New to us and very delicious! Super fruity tasting and smelling plus it wasn’t too dry. It was a lovely lighter red wine.

We spent the rest of the evening watching Inception.  We don’t do movies at the theater, I would much rather have a nice dinner out than spend that kind of money on something that will probably not be very good.  Anyway Inception was alright.  The ending isn’t a final ending, it is left for the viewer to interpret which irritates me.  I know some people like that but I do not.  I didn’t invest all that time into watching or reading something only to be left hanging, thanks.

Also? You do not have to see this on the big screen, don’t let folks fool you.  It’s totally fine to watch on TV.  Though, IMO, there aren’t many movies that warrant needing a huge screen to watch them on.

Whoa! Sorry to sound like such a movie hater! I swear I’m not, I’m just super picky about what I like and what I don’t like.  Sadly, most times I end up not liking something, especially if everyone else likes it.

After that I headed up to bed and called it a night. I was wiped out!

How did you spend your weekend? Was it relaxing or productive? Or both?

Hi gang! We haven’t had a chance to chat about life and I miss you terribly!  So let’s fix that and discuss!

Scott and I had a really busy weekend and by Sunday I was spent and ready for some me time and to lay low.  I was craving some me time and down time so much that I almost cut my run short on Sunday morning.  However the weather was nice (hey 16F IS nice compared to 8F with a negative windchill, ya know?) and I decided to take advantage of it as much as possible and busted out 8 miles for my “long” run.  I had some yogurt with homemade granola and homemade chocolate peanut butter (oh yes I did) for some post workout fuel as evidenced by that not so attractive picture.

I still had some nice “me” time in the morning where I watched some Food TV and snuggled on the couch with Rocks.  They switched out some shows and in their place showed The Best Thing I Ever Ate instead.

Really?

Who likes that show? Come on, seriously. I want to watch people cook, not watch people reminisce about eating something at a restaurant. Because I’m Klassy and because I wanted to keep up a happier relaxed vibe, I watched 80s videos instead.

You do what you gotta do.

Time after time….

I eventually pried myself up off of the couch and headed into the kitchen to get Sunday Breakfast started and to get the last of my Christmas baking done.    More importantly, we needed to eat!

Guess who had some leftover Maple Bacon Pancakes in the freezer?

You know it! I toasted those bad boys up in the freezer.  Extra bacon for good measure, banana, and clementines for fruit action.

Then it was time to finish holiday baking! I made some candy and some more Chex Mix (that is not staying here thank goodness!), and some spiced mixed nuts.

No one can rock a homemade double-boiler like this sister right here. Sexy!

“Are you seriously taking a picture of me melting chocolate?”

Also makeup on Sundays? Not happening here at the HQ unless the president is coming over.  Okay so that’s the case on most days. Putting on makeup takes up precious time that could be spent recipe developing, tweeting, or blog reading.  Priorities people!

The rest of the day was spent taking a bubble bath and deciding how to play out the next two days before vacation starts.  What do we want to do and how do we want to do it?  That stuff.  Anyone else plan out things like that? We do it with our weekends too.  Time is precious and we need to figure out the best way to spend it!

I have to tell you that both of us were looking forward to dinner so very much! It was cooking away in the crockpot all day long.  Mmmmm

Beef short ribs! This girl needed some meat like you cannot even imagine. Protein please!  It warrants a discussion all on it’s own but my body was lacking.  I feel much more balanced out now that I have some good protein flowing through.  The ribs were cooked in some broth and merlot providing a lovely base for gravy.  We also had some roasted carrots, and mashed potatoes with gravy.  YUM!

Scott cleaned up the kitchen which was so helpful! And then it was wine time!

Wine for the evening was Chateau St. Jean merlot from California.  It was our first time having this wine and it was lovely!  Totally perfect red in my opinion.  It was deep but not overly dry or intense.  Very smooth and almost refreshing. Yes this picture was taken during the day as I opened this early so I could use it for the ribs.

“Oh hai, it’s me!”

We watched an old Sherlock Holmes movie and then watched some Mike Holmes making it a double Holmes kind of night.  There was snacking on vegan sugar cookies but sadly no pictures because I wasn’t thinking properly I guess.  Then I headed up to bed and put the weekend behind me.

Did you all have a good weekend? Was it busy or laid back? Are you in the midst of holiday prep or is everything ready to go?

Sunday was an odd day in that nothing really happened the way it was planned out to happen.  I was supposed to race Sunday morning but I woke up to pouring rain.  It had been raining since Saturday evening and I knew that it wasn’t going to stop anytime soon.  The weather was supposed to switch over to snow by early afternoon.

It was already cold outside and running in the freezing pouring rain isn’t really all that fun.

I totally bailed and went back to bed.  Running in the rain risking freezing and catching a cold was not worth it to me for just a four mile run.  Bed was a lot warmer and this decision proved to be the best one.

I was up again by 9ish and it was still pouring rain outside.  You could see that it was starting to switch over a bit to heavier freezing rain.  I did some morning yoga in my jammies and that was glorious! I know that there are so many choices but Gentle Hatha Number 1 on yogadownload.com is my favorite.  Full of calm, peace, and slow stretching which is what I enjoy with yoga.  By 9:30 it was snowing pretty hard.

Scott and I had a holiday party to attend later that day for our stick fighting school.  I was the one who organized and put together the event so it was my call on whether to keep the party on or not. By 11am I pulled the plug and cancelled the party.  The weather was horrible and I didn’t want anyone out driving in that.  Best to stay home and stay snug!

We stayed snug with some new pancakes.  Maple Bacon Pancakes, to be exact.

Oh.My.Word. I am in love with these little guys! Okay they weren’t so little but they were fab! A little butter on top and extra maple syrup made these babies taste like heaven. Because if there is a heaven, it’s gotta have bacon! (At least my heaven will be full of pig.)

Some clementines for some fruit action rounded out the meal.

We ventured out into the cold to walk Rocky who was overjoyed with all the snow that fell. Remember, my not-made-for-winter dog loves the cold and the snow.  He gets so hip-hoppity and then runs around the house when he gets back home.

After we did that, both Scott and I decided we were a little hungry.  Time to bust out some leftovers!

We ordered sushi on Saturday evening for a late dinner.  We have been missing our sushi Fridays because of other obligations and we felt like there was a hole in our bellies.  Normally this wouldn’t even show up on a Homespun Sunday but since I didn’t really have meals planned out because I thought we were going to be at a party, this was easy to bust out.

I had a avocado roll with cucumber and carrot and brown rice.

We also had bowls of ramen to warm us back up.  Yum! Ramen is so tasty and excellent.

The rest of the afternoon was spent moving Christmas decorations around and getting things into their final place. Vacuuming and such had to be done but I was pleased with the outcome.  Now our stockings are hung, a few presents are placed under the tree and all is well in the OHC house.

Dinner was easy! Since we had two larger meals already in the day, both of us really just wanted something light and to pick at.  Cue the snackie plate!

We had lots of yummy treats to pick at while we watched a movie.

Cheese plate had:

• Irish Cheddar
• Manchego
• Beemster

I am a hard cheese kind of gal.  I don’t really like soft cheeses and I don’t like stinky cheeses at all.  No blue cheese please! I can handle a touch of Gorgonzola but small amounts.

The crackers were various kinds of wheat crackers.

The veggie plate had

• Green apple
• Broccoli
• Yellow and green pepper
• Carrot sticks

And in the first picture you can see some chicken sausage and some crab dip.  Admittedly the crab dip wasn’t very good so I didn’t have much of that at all.  Sorry Whole Foods, but I can make better crab dip!

Wine for the evening was a Barefoot Pinot Grigio which is very tasty! It’s a cheap wine, and you can usually find it on sale for $5.99.  For a wine that is under $10, I don’t think it’s bad at all!

While we ate dinner we watched, You Don’t Mess With The Zohan.  Lord what a horrible movie. Oh my gosh so not funny.  It had potential but sadly it really bombed.

After that we watched Season 3 of The Guild. Anyone else watch? Any readers closet gamers?

Then it was late and I had to crawl my way up to bed because I was so tired.  How was your Sunday? Anything exciting happen over the weekend?

Yesterday was the perfect day to stay all bundled up inside.  Even today is the perfect day for that! It’s blustery cold and snowing.  After my workout yesterday, which was not running, but an exercise DVD, I took a lovely and looonnggg hot shower. Then it was time to refuel with some coffee and yogurt! You can bet your hiney that this week I made sure to have some granola on hand!

• 2% Fage Greek Yogurt
• Homemade granola
• Chocolate chips
• And for fun, shredded coconut (unsweetened)

Along with smooth delicious coffee!  I’m looking for holiday mugs that don’t cost a fortune, any suggestions on where to look?  I want something festive and fun!

I snuggled up on the couch with the good blanket, which is a warm fuzzy blanket that is also referred to as The Blanket of Sleeping, because the minute Rocky touches it, he falls asleep.  I did some blog work and watched it snow and blow outside.

The birdies are still coming around for food though, so I try and make sure that I get some out there.  Thanks to the squirrels, food dwindles at a very quick pace.

Eventually Scott got up, and I’m pretty sure the telemarketer who called yesterday morning was to blame.  Seriously, can we take a day off?!  We even get calls at 9pm at night.  Not cool!  We chatted for a while and I headed into the kitchen.  I got things prepped for dinner, made some more cranberry sauce, and got started on Sunday Breakfast.

Yum! Drizzled with the usual toppings:

• Butter
• Yogurt
• Maple Syrup
• Fresh cranberry sauce

I totally went back in for a third pancake!  Fresh fruit was pineapple that ended up being horrible.  It wasn’t sweet or juicy or tender, it was so icky! I’m guessing they are out of season.  No more till summer.  Booo! I had an apple later because I needed some fruit in my system stat!

We braved the elements and got Rocky walked.  It was chilly so he had to wear his big boy jacket which he totally pranced around in showing off.  Silly fella!  After that we found ourselves with a few spare hours that we could spend gaming.

Joy!

A little more Uncharted 2 to round out the day.  After some phone calls to family, it was time to get some supper in our bellies.

Monster veggie burgers! I loaded them up too:

• Chickpeas
• Walnuts
• Pumpkin seeds
• Oats

With various veggies and spices.  They were delicious and totally hit the spot! I think chickpeas make the best burgers.  There was:

• Lettuce
• Tomato
• Red Onion
• Irish Cheddar
• BBQ Sauce

On top which made this one messy burger! Heaven! I love messy food.

On the side was baked sweet potato puffs!

We watched a touch of Harry Potter while we ate.

Dinner over and the kitchen cleaned up, we kicked it with an old movie.

We watched House of Wax (Vincent Price version) and sipped on this new wine.  It was a blush Vinho Verde and it was amazing! Crisp, bubbly, and dry.  Some blushes can be sweet and this was not at all. Such a fun wine!

I nibbled on some mint M&Ms and then crashed out in bed by 10:30. I was exhausted do to two nights in a row of crappy sleep.

How was your weekend friends? Anything exciting happen?  Are you decorated for the holidays?

Yesterday was all about breaking the rules and living in the moment.  Well sort of.  Yesterday was the last day of Thanksgiving holiday vacation and I had the Sunday blues like you could not believe.

We had a great Thanksgiving!  It didn’t go quite according to the plan in my head but at the end of the day who cares?  I have nothing to complain about other than I didn’t want it to end.  I am eagerly counting down the days until we are on Christmas vacation!

Yesterday I almost didn’t run.  Almost.  I was tired, it was the last day of vacation, I wanted to spend more time with Scott, insert any excuse here.

Finally I nutted up, braved the 20F cold and headed out.  It was glorious!  I was warm and the sun was out so the temperature wasn’t all that horrible.  I compromised and did 6 miles since I did want to have some morning to myself and spend extra time with Scott.  It worked out well!

We were out of granola and I was HUNGRY so I didn’t have the time to make more.  I settled for yogurt combined with some dry cereal.  Definitely not the same and I was missing the granola in a big way. Umph.

I did some shopping and worked on the blog a bit before Scotty got up and it was time to kick it with some real breakfast.

I was pretty hungry and ready to get some eats on.  I wanted homefries but since we were coming off of Thanksgiving which had a bunch of mashed potatoes, I wanted another option.

Insert the sweet potato!  We did have sweet potatoes over Thanksgiving as well but in the form of a lovely pie.  Therefore having a savory sweet potato was the perfect solution!  Roasted in the oven with some peppers and onions made for a great side dish.

Breakfast was some scrambled eggs, chicken sausage, sweet potato homefries, and an Ezek English muffin along with some fruit in the middle.  YUM!!

The rest of the day was spent with me putting up Christmas decorations and Scott wrestling with some siding outside the house.   A piece of siding fell off up near the top of the house.  We had to order a ladder to be delivered so that Scott could fix it.  We finally got the ladder so the situation was able to be addressed.  It took him longer than he thought it was going to take and I was bummed since I didn’t get to spend as much time with him as I would have liked on our last day of vacation.

When it came time for dinner, he wanted something quick and we decided on the easy way out, Take-Out.

Pad Thai!  It’s veggie Pad Thai which didn’t have nearly enough veggies for me causing me to add in more carrot and broccoli.  There were also some crab rangoons in the mix just for kicks.  The Pad Thai was alright.  This place used to make great Pad Thai but the last few times I’ve gotten it, it hasn’t been stellar.  I need to figure out how to make it on my own.  I keep trying but I can’t get the sauce down right.

Wine for the evening was a new to us white, Louis Jadot Macon-Villages.  I’ve always wanted to try it but it is a tad expensive.  I personally do not like spending a lot of money on wine, I find it unnecessary.  However this wine has been calling out to me and it was on sale so I bought some.  It wasn’t bad.  Would I drink it again? Yeah, if it was on sale again.

We sipped and watched an old Nick and Nora movie, The Thin Man Goes Home.  Not nearly as good as the previous movies!

How was your weekend?  Did you have the Sunday blues as well?  Did you have a great Thanksgiving?

Hi gang!  How was everyone’s weekend?  Mine was jam packed! :o

Friday night Scott and I went out to dinner because it was Restaurant Week!  We headed to a local establishment for amazing food and great conversation.  On Saturday we had errands to run, of the shopping variety.  Scott needs a new desk and I wanted to look at Christmas decorations.  What?  It is the holidays!

First we headed over to Garden Ridge, do you have one of those?  They are amazing!  It’s like an Big Lots (or Odd Lots depending on where you live) but uh, bigger and with way better stuff.  I got a lot of tree decorations from there.  I put up a bunch of trees for Christmas, but “bunch” I mean like over five.  I need more decorations for the trees and Garden Ridge had some lovely glass bulbs in some amazing colors.

Then it was off to my next favorite store, World Market!  Sadly they didn’t have the desk Scott wanted any longer but we were able to find a nice piece of furniture for our entry way that we will also be able to use as storage.  Score!  And I bought more Christmas decorations and we stocked up on wine.  Now the wine rack is full and ready for the holidays.  YaY!

Sunday started early as we got up and headed over to a race!  For me, not for Scott.  Scott did the dutiful runner spouse job of taking pictures and standing around waiting for me to finish.  He’s such an amazing guy to do all that for me as I run all these races!

After the race we came home to a much needed hot shower for me, and plenty of coffee for us both.  I also got busy making Sunday Breakfast which thankfully took almost no effort on my part because I basically just had to heat everything up.

When I make pancakes, I make a big batch and then freeze the leftovers.  This way I just have to pop them in the toaster oven and heat them up when I want a quick breakfast.  Yesterday, the most taxing thing was peeling the clementines and I had Scott do that!  I would have done it but I cut my thumb about a week ago and it’s still healing.  The cut is such that I can use my thumb to press on things just yet and that includes peeling fruit.

Along with some sausage that got heated up in the oven, breakfast was complete!  I topped my pancakes with:

• Butter
• Yogurt
• Maple Syrup

I know how to do it up right!

After breakfast was eaten and the kitchen was cleaned up, we headed out to the grocery store.  You know I was desperate for some groceries if I go to the store over the weekend.  We hit up two places, Sam’s and Meijer (grocery store).  Sam’s is starting to get their holiday stuff out including their wine and cheeses.  *squee*

Meijer I spent the most time in because I needed loads of produce.  We were out of just about everything and I was slowly losing my mind every time I opened the fridge and saw its bareness.  I bought a lot of stuff.  Some of it in anticipation of next week’s BIG dinner.  The upside is that we got to see our favorite cashier who then promptly asked me how many people are in our family.

Uh, just us.  Then I explained that all this food lasts us for a little over two weeks.  I hope he knew what I meant!  He also assumed we were vegetarians because of all the produce I had.  I didn’t correct him but you all know that OHC just loves their veggies.

I did buy some pomegranates!  This is the first I’ve seen them out and the first time I bought them.  What should I do with it, any fun suggestions?

Back home and got all my lovely groceries unloaded and put away.  I started dinner and while that roasted, I chatted with my mom and cleaned up around the house.  Dinner was also easy to put together.

Everything went in the oven!  We had some chicken thighs that I roasted in the oven and halfway through topped with some BBQ sauce.  Mmmm!  Veggies were roasted baby potatoes and roasted green beans.  The potatoes were different styles including yellow, blue, and red.  Some of the red potatoes had pink swirls on the inside, so pretty!

We finished Saturday’s Pens game while we ate dinner.  We typically eat at the table on Sundays but this time we just wanted to zone out and enjoy the game.  They won, thank goodness!

Wine for the evening was Santa Julia Cabernet Sauvignon which was alright.  This was the second day it was open and it was a tad on the acidic side.  The first day was nice with a lovely deep dry finish.  Yesterday it was tart.  Once it got some air it was alright but I don’t know if I’d get it again.

My dessert was some peppermint chocolate AND one of these…

Goat milk caramels!!  When I was sick a few weeks ago, Scott bought these for me as a surprise.  Of course I couldn’t eat them till now and they are fantastic!  Make with goat milk and goat butter, these have a rich creamy toffee like taste.  So good and since they are so rich, one is the perfect amount.

Then I crashed out in bed!

How was your weekend?  Eventful or relaxing?

This post was part of OHC’s Homespun Sunday series.