Working out!

I've been going on my morning walks now for a few days, my friend Mikey who lives at our complex goes with us along with her puppy Willow! Since the walks are getting too easy for me and my back hasn't been hurting I figured I was good to try the gym. The base gym's aren't close to us so I'm not sure when I'll be able to go next, but I will continue my walks and adding more to it. So the gym... it was amazing to get back after 6 MONTHS!! Anyone who is a gym addict, not being able to work out for 6 months is killer! Over the last month in a half I have been going crazy wanting to get back into the gym, but my back was still hurting so it wasn't possible. I was so excited today ha. I didn't do much, just ran for 5 minutes, did a few crunches ((on the machine of course! my tailbone can't take the floor)), did some arms and that was it. My back was kinda starting to hurt after that so I decided to stop after 40 minutes. I was fine with that though, and I can't wait till I can get back in the gym again. Oh and Nick that certain base gym I went to lets you bring guests, you just have to pay $3.00. I'm not sure about the other base gyms though, I'm hoping to check them out.

Catching up

I haven't been able to update this in a while because we have a virus on our computer. We've tried everything, but are going to have to take the computer in to get fixed by the pros... ugh. Anyways today I had nothing to do and was about to sit down to continue one of our many Friends marathons. I really didn't feel like sitting on my butt for half the day, so I got up the courage to take the dogs for a walk. We live on a busy road and I don't feel comfortable walking on it. Well, I realized that we can go for walks without having to walk on the busy road. There is a really nice neighborhood with very nice houses just above us, so we walk through there wishing of what we can have one day ha!
Now for the food ha I know some people are waiting for this part. Tonight for dinner I made myself spinach manicotti and grilled chicken with mustard-tarragon sauce. Frank loved it!! I tried the sauce and it was pretty good. In the sauce she calls for sugar, but I decided to leave it out I didn't think Frank needed sugar with his dinner. You can check out the recipe here... http://fortheloveofcooking-recipes.blogspot.com/search/label/Chicken


I've been wanting to try a healthy cheesecake. I found a few recipes in the south beach diet cookbook. Well the other day I finally made the dessert.... and it's something that should stay unhealthy! It wasn't very good at all. I ended up just throwing the whole thing away. Sad times. Now I want to try making a good-unhealthy cheesecake. I have something saved for the week of Halloween =]
I found this recipe bow tie pasta with cherry tomatoes, capers and basil at cookinglight.com. I left out the cherry tomatoes since Frank doesn't like tomatoes and I don't care for cherry tomatoes, and I left out the capers since I didn't have any. This would have been really good if we left out the red pepper... or used just a dash, because it was hot!!! Neither of us could eat it. I really want to try it again since it had potential. It was also super easy and hardly any dirty dishes to make it, I like that part! You can check out the recipe here... http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=222291

MMMHHHHH this was good!! I love cooking for the seasons, and even though it's in the low 70's here I still wanted to make a chowder. I found this corn and potato chowder here... http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1142037. So good!!

South Beach

Last month I checked out the 'South Beach diet recipe book' from the library so I could get some new ideas. We've gotten really lucky and have found some very good meals from the book. Tonight I tried the Sweet Potato Salad and Broiled Salmon with creamy lemon sauce. They both turned out yummy =} Frank even liked them!

Sweet Potato Salad

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds Sweet Potatoes

1 large apple, peeled, cored and cubed

1 large rib celery chopped

1 tablespoon orange juice

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon sugar

Directions

Place the sweet potatoes in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil over medium heat and cook for 30 minutes, or until tender. Drain and cool. Peel and cut into cubes. In a large bowl, combine the sweet potatoes, apple and celery. In a small bowl, whisk together the orange juice, oil, vinegar and sugar. Pour the mixture over the potato mixture and toss to coat.

Broiled Salmon with Creamy Lemon Sauce

Ingredients
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons capers
1 teaspoon lemon-pepper seasoning
1/2 cup fat-free sour cream
1 1/2 pounds salmon fillet
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat baking sheet with cooking spray. Heat oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Reduce heat to low. Stir in the lemon juice, capers, and lemon-pepper and cook for 5 minutes. Add sour cream and for 5 minutes, or until heated through. Meanwhile, place the salmon on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the fish is just opaque. Serve with the sauce.

Banana Bread

I haven't made Banana Bread in years, so when i decided that I was going to make a loaf I wanted one that was simply amazing! And this one definitely was. I found the recipe at 'For the love of cooking'. I should have read the first paragraph she wrote about making this, because she said that the loaf turned out small and that she would have to double the ingredients next time. Well I didn't read that part and was a little sad the loaf was small ha. I only let myself have two small slices... oh the temptation is hard! It's so good =} I'm sending it off with Frank tomorrow for the guys at his shop to enjoy... they love my baking!! ha It makes me feel special. I wanted to make another loaf to take to my upstairs neighbor, but I only have 1 banana left and it's for the banana cinnamon pancakes I'm making.


Ingredients
1 cup of flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
a dash of salt
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a loaf pan. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl and mix thoroughly, set aside.
2 ripe bananas
1 egg
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup walnut pieces [[I left out]]
Directions
In another bowl mash bananas, egg, sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, melted butter and vanilla together and mix thoroughly. Slowly add dry ingredients into wet ingredients and mix well. Once batter is well combine add walnuts and stir [[if using]]. Pour ingredients into prepared loaf pan. Bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool a few minutes before cutting. Serve while it's warm with butter. Enjoy!... and you will =]

So Sweet...

I saw this story on the Yahoo homepage... The picture pretty much speaks for itself...

Four-year old Paige didn't want to say goodbye to her daddy before he was shipped off to Iraq.

A family photo that shows a little girl beside her father and his fellow soldiers in uniform as they prepare to go to war has resonated well beyond the tight knit Bennethum clan.

Four-year-old Paige Bennethum really, really didn't want her daddy to go to Iraq.

So much so, that when Army Reservist Staff Sgt. Brett Bennethum lined up in formation at his deployment this july, she couldn't let go.

No one had the heart to pull her away.

The commanding officer allowed Paige to say goodbye as her dad prepared to ship off from Fort Dix.

Paige's mom Abby captured the moment on her camera and her aunt passed the image along to a Berks County, Pa. newspaper.

"I've had stranger's looking me up online, sending me messages that they are touched by it... offering alot of  support," Abby Bennethum told NBCPhiladelphia.

The picture took on a life of its own online this week. Abby say's that suddenly, people were knocking on her door. "Literlly overnight, there's all these people that just want to do anything they can," she says. Though she says her husband hasn't seen any stories about his family yet, he expects to.

For her part, Paige still remembers how she felt that day in July. Looking at that picture of herself- her dad now overseas- Paige remembers, "I didn't want to let go of him."

She calls the work  he does transporting supplies across the Iraqi border, "just nice."

But that doens't change her feelings.

"I just miss my daddy right now," she says.

Sgt. Bennethum, 30, is expected home next July. Until then, Paige plans to help her mom take care of her little sister and a new baby that's on the way. 

Dog Park Continued...

Dog Park

October 1st...

It's crazy to think it's already October! This has been a busy year for us and it just flew by. i'm kinda excited for the holiday's this year, cause i'm interested to see what they do for them around La Mesa and San Diego. We missed the car show they do in La Mesa over the summer cause we just kept forgetting to go, so I want to make sure to check out October fest at the village!
On another note today is payday, meaning I have the car so I can run around with many things to get done. And all I want to do is go to the beach with the dogs!! I know they wouldn't mind ha I have pictures from the dog park the other day I need to put up, i'll try to get around to that tonight....