One step back

I've been doing so good with my back lately so I thought that ment I was finally getting better. Yesterday after I did my stretches I was hurting and had a hard time sleeping because of it. Just a little bit ago I went to put the dogs in there cage, I was bent over just slightly [[knees bent of course]] and it felt like something slipped and is pinching my nervous... uhhh i'm so pissed!!! I layed down and started doing some stretches, but nothing is working =[ I hate this I thought I was over all this pain. I liked having the use of my left leg, things better get better cause this is making me depressed.

Fruit Fly's

I can't get rid of these things!! We've had them for awhile now and I can't get them to go away. I make sure to throw fruit out as soon as possible as well as meats... anything they would be attracted to really. I found this do-it-yourself concoction to get rid of them and everyone that had tried it said it worked right away. So while I was making this.. thing... the fruit fly's started attracting to it immediatly. When I finished and set up the "trap" about 10 fruit fly's were swarming around it. Well apparently we have the smart fruit fly's because they wouldn't go into it!! I put it up last night and so far only 1 has gone in. If anyone knows of any other way's to get rid of these pesky things please let me know, I am taking an advice.

Pasta! oh so full...

Tonight's dinner menu was steak for Frank, then salad and pasta.. lots of salad for me since I had nothing else. Anyways I tried this recipe from my favorite cookbook, I know you all must know which one that is ha 'In the Kitchen THE COSTCO WAY'. It turned out good! Which I was very happy about since the other few times i'd tried making pasta it turned out like crap. I was very happy when this was good. It was kinda rich though so we didn't eat much of..oh well ha. Anyways you can go here to see a picture of it then here for the recipe.

More Pictures!!

This was right after Molly got her bath, Ellie was laying in the tub getting all clean =]

After they get a bath they go CRAZY!! It's really weird ha

I couldn't believe Ellie closed her eyes!! I guess she didn't want a picture.

We're so nice, we put the treats infront of them but they can't get to them.

Sitting pretty!

This has to be THE BEST picture ever ha Molly the flying dog.

JUMP! JUMP!

Ellie was just standing there pretty much the whole time on her back legs

Ellie doing what she does best... shake...

Now if only Molly would shake! Ellie was shaking my hand while I was shaking Molly's ha

If you look at there paws, they have treats on them. They are doing "leave".

Ellie doing roll over.

Pictures

The pictures inside are from yesterday, and the ones at the dog park are from tonight. Enjoy! Let me know what you think =}

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Oh yes they were sooo good!!! I'm making Frank take them to work tomorrow so I wont eat them all. [[There were a few not pictured]] I've already had 2 and trying to stop myself from having a third ha.

Ingredients

1 Cup sugar

1 Egg

1/2 Cup butter

1 Cup mashed banana

3 Tablespoons milk

1 Cup whole wheat flour

1 Cup white flour

1 Teaspoon baking powder

1/2 Teaspoon baking soda

1/4 Teaspoon salt

1 Cup chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a bowl combine butter and sugar; beat until blended. Add the rest of the ingredients and beat at low until dry ingredients are moistened. Turn to high and beat until smooth. Bake for 15-17 minutes. ENJOY!

I thought i'd share a picture of Molly and Ellie in bed with Frank. They get to lay in bed for about an hour at night with Frank and then a couple of hours in the morning with me, it's there favorite time of day! ha Normally they don't get to lay under the covers, but Molly like's to move the covers and make her way under. And this night Ellie for once decided to join her. It was a snapshot moment =}

glee

I am in LOVE with this show!!! I seriously can't get enough of it, I was almost in tears laughing so hard at tonight's episode. If you haven't seen it you should watch the first couple episodes at hulu.com. I really hope this show lasts for a long time cause it's a good one =]. It's on Wednesday's at 9:00PM on FOX.. well in San Diego at least ha make sure to check your local listings!

Cinnamon Apples

One of the few cookbooks I have is '1,000 Lowfat Recipes', it's gigantic! ha One of the recipes i've been wanting to try for about a year now is the Cinnamon Apples. It's insanly easy to make I just never had enough apples for the dish. When we went shopping last week I told Frank to get enough apples so I could finally try this. The dish is pretty good, I should have sauted them longer though. They taste like softer apples with some flavor to them. We gave a little to the dogs and they LOVED them! ha They've been sitting in front of the counter for the last 10 minutes waiting for more. If you love apples and cinnamon you should try this =]

Ingredients

4 Granny Smith apples

1 tablespoon sugar

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon[[I love cinnamon so I use lots!!]]

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

2 teaspoons oil

Directions

Core and peel the apples. Cut each apple into about 10 wedges [[I ended up cutting each apple into 16 wedges]]. Toss with the sugar, cinnamon, and thyme. They call for salt but I don't add it, so if you'd like you would add it in right now. Heat the oil in a skillet, then saute the apples over medium-high heat for 7-10 minutes, until the apples soften but still retain their shape. Add 2 tablespoons water if softer apples are desired.

Old Town

This afternoon Frank and I went to Old Town to see what it was all about. It was okay, it was nice since it was Sunday and kinda dead there. I wouldn't mind going back again though, today I was just blah and not in the mood to do much. Hope everyone had a good weekend =]

Pizza Pizza

Who doesn't love pizza!?? I love making my own rather than buying it cause... it's just better ha. Making it yourself it's never greasy and you can make it healthier =] yay

This is what I put on our pizza and how I make it, but you can obviously do whatever you want with it.

Ingredients

Pizza crust

Mozzarella cheese

Parmesan cheese

Feta cheese

Oregano

Pineapple

Pepperoni

BBQ Sauce

Directions

I just put on however much cheese I think looks good, always more mozzarella than anything. After the mozzarella and parmesan I put on some oregano then the pineapple and pepperoni, top it with very little feta then the bbq sauce. ENJOY!!

Dinner and Dessert!

Ohhh what a good night for dinner and dessert!! I decided a while ago to get a library card and just check out cookbooks since I don't have the money to buy them. I checked out 'The South Beach Diet Cookbook' and found a lot of good recipes. Tonight I tried lettuce wrappers with shrimp, they turned out so good!! You can easily switch up the shrimp for tofu or chicken like they do at P.F. Changs.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon oil

1 pound large shrimp, peeled, and chopped [[I just used small frozen shrimp so I didn't have to chop them]]

1/2 cup finely chopped celery

1/4 cup water chestnuts, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 teaspoon ginger

1 tablespoon hoisin sauce

1 tablespoon light soy sauce

1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

8 large leaves Boston lettuce [[I used 6, 3 for each of us and it was more than enough]]

Directions

Heat the oil in a wok or large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the shrimp and stir-fry until they are opaque. Remove the shrimp to a bowl and set aside. Add the celery, water chestnuts, garlic, and ginger, and stir-fry until the vegetables are crisp-tender. Return the shrimp to the wok and add the hoisin sauce, soy sauce, and vinegar. Cook for 1 minute, or until heated through. Evenly divide the shrimp mixture among the lettuce leaves.

For dessert I made Chocolate Caramel Brownies. I tried making these months before but didn't have the right size dish, and it just turned out like crap. I knew for sure I was going to try making this again... and it turned out awesome!! It's really rich and nowhere near being good for you like our dinner was ha. I make stuff like this so I can have just a little bit then have Frank take the rest to work.

Ingredients

14 ounces caramels

1/2 cup evaporated milk

1 package chocolate cake mix

1/3 cup evaporated milk

3/4 cup butter, melted

2 cups milk chocolate chips

Directions

Peel caramels and place in a microwave bowl. Stir in 1/2 cup evaporated milk. Heat and stir until all caramels are melted. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, grease a 9x13 pan. In a large bowl, mix together cake mix, melted butter. Place 1/2 of the batter in the baking pan. Bake 8 minutes. Place the remaining batter into the fridge. Remove brownies from oven and sprinkle with chocolate chips on top. Drizzle caramel sauce over the chocolate chips. Remove brownie mix from the fridge. Using a teaspoon , make small balls with the batter and smash flat. Very carefully place on top of the caramel sauce until covered. Bake for another 30 minutes.

Lasagna take 2

Since we don't have the money to go out for our anniversary, I wanted to make something Frank would like. So I decided to try making Lasagna again. I'm not sure what recipe I used for the first one, but this one worked great and was delecious!!

I've made this salad before but Frank didn't like it the first time cause you're suppose to make it with spinach. I also didn't use as much vinager as they say to use so it wasn't so sour. I added in raspberry's which was good since the more fruit the better =] I of course got the recipe from 'In the Kitchen THE COSTCO WAY' you can check it out here.

Happy 2nd Anniversary to me and Frank!!!

Today is mine and Frank's two year wedding anniversary. It is also the first year we spent the whole year together =] This last year was crazy busy! And this last month has been a very trying time for us money wise [[we've been getting bills from nowhere that some we shouldn't even be getting. it's crazy]]. I'm really excited to see what this next year brings us!! YAY <3

5 pounds down and a doctors visit!

Today is Monday, meaning it's Nick update time ha! These pictures I used as recent are from last week and he's lost 5 pounds since then. He was pretty excited cause this was the first time he's worn jeans in years! And he now fits into his first pair of goal jeans that are a size 38. This last week he changed up his diet and saw a good result out of it with the 5 pound loss. WAY TO GO NICK!

In other news I finally had my appointment for my back. I was worried that I wasn't going to get much out of the visit and that I wasn't going to like the doctor.. yadda yadda. Anyways, I really liked the doctor so I will continue to see him while we are here in San Diego. I also figured out what is wrong, sciatic nerve. No this wasn't a suprise to me or anyone really, but I wasn't 100% sure since i'm not a doctor or anything. He actually told me I should start doing yoga to help [[my mom LOVED that! haha]] and gave me a packet of stretches to do and other info. My mom was hoping he would send me to physical therepy but it might be cause at the moment i'm doing okay with the pain. I'll go back in 2 months for a check up to see how i'm progressing and if nothing is happening then i'll ask to go to physcial therepy. One thing I really liked about him, is that he didn't push medications on me. I've been to doctors who would rather give me pills than lets say take yoga! So i'm pretty happy =)
Let's see... my ankle still hurts, but I just got to deal since tomorrow is PAYDAY!! And I have a million things to get done. YAY for having money to pay all the bills!!!!

Veggie Quiche and Apple German Pancake!!

If you read my blog then you know that I LOVE my 'In the Kitchen THE COSTCO WAY' cookbook. One of the really easy recipes I use when i'm being lazy about cooking is Veggie Quiche. I wasn't going to post it, but my picture of the Quiche made it look even better ha!

Since I got the 'In the Kitchen THE COSTCO WAY' cookbook i've been wanting to make the German Apple Pancake recipe. Today I finally got around to making it. Oh my it was soooo good!! Again it's easy so I was all about that. I spent the most amount of time peeling and cutting up the apples.

We liked it! ha

September 11th

With today being the eight year since 9-11 I thought i'd share some picture's from ground zero. Nicole and I went to New York in March, and one of our stops was ground zero. You actually can't see much with all the fences up, but the big open spaces is all you really need to see. The pictures that were taken inside, were in a little church that is right next to the World Trade Centers. When the attack happened all the buildings around the towers were hit in some way, this little church was left untouched. Our tour guide said it was as if there was a bubbly surrounding the church. This church become the center for people to post pictures of loved ones that were missing or for firefighters to take a nap. Over the years it became a small memorial for September 11th. I wasn't connected personally to the attackes, but going into the church it was full of emotion. Reading what families wrote to there missing loved one was something you never want to go through. On this day I hope everyone remembers to keep there loved ones close, even if it's just in thought. Say a small pray or moment of silent's for those who lost there lives for our country...

E.R. visit

Last night Frank and I had a fun night in the E.R.! Just before 9:00 last night we were taking the dogs out to go to the bathroom before we went to bed, I had asked Frank to go with me because there is an area we have to go down that had no light. I was a little bit ahead of Frank with Ellie and went to walk down the stairs [[which is the area that is in the dark.]], there are only 3 stairs but I missed the 3rd stair and rolled my right ankle. As soon as I fell I heard a really loud pop follwed by a small pop. Frank had to carry me back to the apartment, which was scaring me cause he was trying to speed walk and I was holding the dog leashes. I was freaking out that the dogs would trip Frank and we both would go down ha. I had Frank take the dogs out to go to the bathroom really quick then we put them in there cage for the night and headed to the E.R. Of course when we got there it was so crowed there were hardly any seats. Frank was a little suprised, I wasn't ha it was just after 9:00 so the busy time was starting to slow down. I got back to Triage in an hour then they put me in these insanly large wheelchairs, I felt like everyone was looking at me ha. After Triage is when I was starting to get pissy. There were 2 people that came in after me both needing X-rays but they both went back HOURS before to get X-rays. After 4 hours of waiting for X-ray's they called me back to sit in the hall.. the chairs were comfy and we didn't have to listen to people complain. So someone came over and said they would be looking at my X-ray's soon and figure out what's wrong. I was like "I haven't even had X-ray's yet" the nurse was a little suprised, but I got in for them not too long after that. I felt really bad for Frank because he had been up since 5 something in the morning and by this time it was around 2:30-3:00. There was a guy that had come in got back to Triage and then went to the back pretty quick [[it was slowing down at this point]] then I overheard the nurse say "warrant officer how can I help you?" I looked at Frank and said he needed to become an officer so we can get through lines faster haha. During all of this I know Frank wanted to leave cause we both new my ankle probably wasn't broken, but with what i've been through this year with injures and not getting them checked out for months I thought i'd do the right thing for once! I also didn't want to have to deal with more pain if something was wrong and I hadn't of gotten it checked. It was only a bad sprain, I got it wrapped and got crutches.. which I can't not walk in! i'm sure i'll end up back in the E.R. from falling with these things. They gave me some pills to help with the pain but i'm sure i'll only take a few of them. We finally got home after 4:00 in the morning. I woke up at 10:00 and Frank was still home, he had called one of his instructors around 6:00 and they let him stay home and sleep. I think they only let him since today was there last day of class so all they were doing were cleaning. He talked to a guy he goes to school with and he said they were only there for 2 hours, so i'm glad he didn't have to waste gas. At 11:00 we went back to bed till 2:30, so i'd say we're all caught up on our sleep =] Fun times for us ha!

Sorry if there are missed spelled words, i'm watching Ellen while writing this!

Manicotti!

Tonight I made Manicotti for the first time! It turned out great, Frank loved it =] It was suppose to be spinach manicotti, but I forgot to defrost the spinach. It still turned out awesome... and a salad went superb with it!

Ingredients

9 Manicotti noodles

2 cups low fat ricotta cheese

1/2 cup minced onions [[NO!ha]]

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

2 cups tomato or spaghetti sauce
1/4 cup shredded reduced-fat mozzarella cheese

Directions

Cook the manicotti noodles in a large pot of boiling water until flexible and cooked through but not soft. When ready, lift out of the boiling water and lay on a clean cloth kitchen towel. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Have a 9x13-inch pan on hand, either nonstick or a coated with nonstick spray.

Combine the ricotta, onions, salt, pepper, and Parmesan.

Spoon the filling into the manicotti noodles. Place the manicotti in the baking pan in one layer, touching each other but not crowed together. Pour the tomato sauce over the noodles, then distribute the mozzarella on top.

Bake for 30-35 minutes until bubble.

Stir-Fry

Stir-Fry was on the menu for dinner tonight =] We haven't had it in forever for some reason so I was really happy to have it tonight. I of course didn't realize that I didn't have everything I needed [[which you'll notice in the picture. I do add in carrots which they do not]] It was still yummy though. It's yet another recipe I got from 'In the Kitchen THE COSTCO WAY'. I freakin love that cookbook ha

It's so simple to make... as to why it's a favorite of mine!

Ingredients
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 cup of any of the following: beef strips, chicken chunks, shrimp or tofu chunks (mixing and matching is always good!)
2 cups chopped romaine hearts
1 cup chopped broccoli
1 cup chopped broccoli rabe
1/2 cup chopped cauliflower
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped zucchini (optional)
2 tablespoons each soy sauce and rice vinegar, or 4 tablespoons hoisin sauce
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
Cooked rice

Directions

Heat a wok (or heavy fry pan) over medium-high heat. Add oil. Add beef and stir-fry for 2 minutes (5-10 for shrimp, chicken, and tofu), or until fully cooked.
Add all of the veggies. Toss vigorously, adding either soy sauce and rice vinegar or hoisin sauce.
Continue tossing until the veggies soften to desired tenderness, about 2-3 minutes.
Turn off the heat and mix in garlic and lemon peel.
serve over rice.
ENJOY!!

Labor Day weekend

I hope everyone had a good Labor Day weekend! Frank's cousin Ricky came down from Pendelton for the weekend, it was nice having him down for a few day. I told him he needs to come back down when we have money and can actually do something! ha The dogs and I haven't been out of the house in about a week in a half, so we were more than ready to get out. I had planned a full day for the dogs to be able to get all there energy out and get some excercise on Saturday, but it didn't turn out as planned. We were able to show Ricky Sunset Cliffs... I think he liked it? We did attened 2 BBQ's on Sunday and I got to meet some of the people Frank is in school with. The first BBQ we went to was out in JAMUL!! This guy has a huge house with a huge backyard, but there is no way I could live that far away from base. It's about 30-35 minutes away, and i'm sure more if there is traffic. After our first BBQ we made our way to Ashley and Tony's for our second feast =] So all in all it was an okay day. Tonight we went with Ashley, Tony and Ricky to see Inglorious Bastards [[we had free tickets from my mom =)]]. I knew it was going to be a gory movie.. which it was, but I was happy that it wasn't too bad. It was a great movie! Brad Pitt was hilarious, the acting was awesome from all the actors. I say it's a must see.

So for a Nick update.. I forgot to update last week because it seemed to slip past me. This last week he only lost .6 pounds which his is lowest week yet. He does know that the liquor he drank on Friday didn't help [[I say he deserved to have fun, he doesn't drink.. it's been I think over a year since he last drank??]] and he did add in more calories this week so his body still needs to get used to it. Seeing the .6 gave him more motivation to work out really hard today! If you want to follow his blog to see how he's doing you can check it out here.

Egg Cassarole

One of our favorite dishes to make is the Hearty Egg Cassarole from 'In the Kitchen The COSTCO WAY' ironically we've never had it for breakfast ha. I took a picture but forgot to put the memory card in, so you can go here to check it out. What I love about this is that it's so simple to make, and you could easily add your own ingrediants. The best part, it makes LOTS of leftovers =] yum!

Ingrediants

Cooking Spray

1 28-ounce package frozen Southern-style hash potatoes, about 6 cups [[I use the whole bag]]

1 8-ounce package shredded sharp Chedder cheese (2 cups)

10 eggs, well beaten [[I use just under 2 cups of liquid egg whites]]

1 cup reduced-fat sour cream

1 cup skim or low-fat milk [[I always cook with Soy milk]]

2 tablespoons honey Dijon mustard (optional)

1 teaspoon salt [[I try not to cook with salt! ick]]

1/4 teaspoon ground pepper

Sliced red onion (optional)

Parsley sprig (optional)

Mixed greens (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Evenly coat a 13-by-9-inch (3 quart) glass baking dish with cooking spray.

Evenly spread potatoes in the dish. Sprinkly with cheese.

In a large bowl, beat together eggs, sour cream, milk, mustard, salt and pepper until throughly blended. Pour over the potatoes.

Bake until puffed and browned and no visible liquid egg remains, about 45 minutes.

Garnish with onion and parsley, sevre with mixed greens (if desired).

Apartment

I realized that some people [[mostly my mom]] probably wanted to see our apartment now that we have been here for awhile and have it furnished... for the most part. After I uploaded all these pictures, I realized that I should have just made a video. Would have been MUCH easier! ha. I also realized that after I uploaded these I somehow got a few pictures out of order. Whoops! So here's our little home...