Yum! Let’s celebrate fall with a hot, fresh pizza!
I wish GIFs could be desktop backgrounds.
Penguin selfies, Manta Ray vs. Whale Shark, pregnant Beluga Whale, and Razor Fish. The Atlanta Aquarium was amazing!
I got my Hello Fresh box today! All the ingredients I need for three meals for two adults. You can see what recipes are coming and switch them out if there’s something coming that you don’t like. I love all the choices they sent (or at least on paper, I’ll let you know for sure when I make them all):
Shrimp Jambalya
Chicken Paillard
Tomato-Garlic Ragu
It arrived in a cooler with the meat and cans on one side, and the produce on the other. The produce was divided into three bags depending on the recipe. Also included in the bags were the appropriate spices in tiny little spice packs.
We started with the Shrimp Jambalaya and it couldn’t have been easier. The instructions were laid out in a foolproof manner in the little recipe book I got - I mean you’d have to be drunk to mess this up! It was such a joy to not have to put the thought into dinner like I usually do. Typically, it goes something like this:
What ingredients do I have? Do I need to go to the store? How much should I get? Where’s that recipe? Shoot! I’m out of this spice! Etc. Etc. Etc.
And then it’s 9pm and we’re just sitting down to eat. As opposed to having everything I need at my fingertips, finishing up in 40 minutes, and having plenty for both of us to have for dinner, with leftovers for lunch tomorrow.
I’m going to wait to see how the other two recipes are before I weigh in on the price. We did get a $40 coupon for the first order and every time a friend uses my code, they get $40 off and I get $30 off - so please use!! 4ZWHFA
More to come with the next two recipes!
In honor of the laziest Saturday I’ve had in a long while, which includes sleeping until 11:30am, watching a movie, leaving only to walk the dog, and now to sit and watch football this evening (yes, I"m still in my pajamas) I’m posting a lazy Manny montage. He’s actually surprisingly spry for an 8-year-old bulldog, but boy when he naps, he does it well.
2014 New Year’s Resolutions Recap or Was 2014 a Big Win? Or Huge Fail?
As I finish getting ready to go out to celebrate the close of another year, I went back to see how I did with the goals I set one year ago:
CAREER:
Transition from Lead to Manager.
I’m going to count this one as a win, since my point was to move ahead professionaly. I did get a raise in 2014, as well as an entire new job that I am really happy with.
Increase salary to $XX.
This is a win as well. I increased my salary to the number I wanted PLUS an additional 16%. Go me.
CAR:
Stay within the miles on my lease.
This is a wash as I broke down and bought more miles so I could stay within the limit.
Get it washed at least every 6 weeks.
Ahahahaha, this is a big fail. I don’t know why I was so ambitious with this goal. Not that my car is really dirty, but I will get it washed today to make up for a year of neglect.
Continue to love and care for it as you would your favorite child.
True! I still love that car.
HOME:
Make the basement a cozy, livable space by hanging pictures on the walls, better lighting, and a new sofabed/futon.
This is perhaps the biggest win of all. As you can see from the picture, the basement is now my favorite room in the house. It is warm, cozy, and the perfect spot to work, read and relax. I just love it.
FINANCES:
Pay off credit card with a balance from the wedding.
I’m also going to label this one as neutral. The card is not totally paid off, but I’m very close and will get it done by the end of January.
Pay highest interest rate student loan.
This one is also very close to completion and will be done by January.
Enter 2015 with only the debt from the other two low-interest rate loans.
See above. I’m counting this as an overall win. Yay for entering February of 2015 financially ahead!
HEALTH:
Run two half-marathons and either two 10 milers or 10ks.
With one half-marathon in Nashville, a 5k in November (that I did with Gavin and Becky!), and one 5 miler in December, I think I only did three races total in 2014. This is an area I need to improve upon in 2015 to add at least one more race and increase the distances.
Join a running/hiking group to be more social with your workouts.
I am working out at bootcamp in my neighborhood that I really like, but I haven’t joined a running club yet. This is another big goal for 2015.
Try your hand at Broomball to see if you’re any good.
I was good! I loved it!
Cook healthy dinners at least twice a week (and Matt can cook twice a week too). Leftovers the other nights and only eat out once a week.
Bahahaha, again, I’m hilarious, this was a very lofty goal. I will say I almost never eat out for lunch, dinner is a different story…
Get back into Yoga! You have a Groupon. Use it. (Additional Goal - stop buying Groupons and not using them!)
Yoga and I have gone back and forth this year. However, I have gotten very good at buying only one Groupon at a time!
GENERAL LIFE:
Write down one thing every night that you’re thankful for from that day. This has been proven to help keep your priorities straight and increase your daily happiness.
Nope. I think about it almost every night, but haven’t done it. Let’s try again in 2015.
Your friends have a lot happening in 2014, be there for them because you should, and also because they made 2013 an awesome year for you.
My friends would be better at answering that for me, but I hope that I’ve been able to complete this one.
Visit your nephews at least once a month.
Yes! And if I miss a month, I usually see them twice the following month.
SUMMARY:
Total score is 11 out of 17. Seeing as how I didn’t check back in on these I think that’s pretty good. I feel like 2014 was a productive year and that I’m ahead of where I was a year ago!
I’m going to use this as a jumping off point for 2015 goals. Post coming soon. Have you written yours yet?
My parents have lived in Ohio for their entire lives - over 60 years at this point. That is until they decided to up and move to Williamsburg, VA (NOT the hip neighborhood in Brooklyn) in their retirement. What a gorgeous spot! It wasn’t just the Fall leaves, either, but the awesome history of the place. If you like learning, spiced rum, and really cool old things, then I highly recommend you make this your next vacation destination!
Matt and I tried our first delivery* from OrderUp last week. We typically use Eat24 and are pretty happy with it, but it’s definitely lacking some of our neighborhood favorites. OrderUp has been adding so many places that all of our hot spots are on there now. MyThai is one of those places that is not on Eat24 that is a recommended place on OrderUp. We’ve heard really good things so gave it a try and LOVED IT. Here are all the pros of both Orderup and MyThai:
- Has many spots in our hood that other delivery sites don’t.
- Super simple order process.
- Delivery took 35 minutes on a Friday night, so pretty quick!
- Food was really good, not amazing, but really good.
Pictured above are the chicken lettuce wraps, shrimp summer rolls and chicken pad thai. The lettuce wraps were super messy, kind of spicy and totally good. The shrimp summer rolls were very fresh. Matt is quite the judge of pad thai and deemed this “pretty good,” that’s high praise coming from him.
End result = we’ll definitely use OrderUp and eat MyThai again!
*Full disclosure, we were given a credit to OrderUp in return for a blog post. Despite that, all opinions are my own!
I’m obsessed with the Thai Noodle Soup with Tofu from Noodles! It’s perfect for a cold day or when you’re feeling under the weather and need those sinuses cleared. I decided to create it at home so that I could save a few bucks (Noodles is a lot of things, but cheap is not one of them). So if you love their soup as much as I do…well, this recipe is not exactly it, but I think you’ll still like it! And please let me know what you think might be missing…
This recipe is mostly adapted from The Tasty Kitchen (huge thanks to her for getting the ball rolling with this recipe!), with a few additions from myself noted in the comments:
Ingredients:
- 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
- 3 cloves Garlic, Minced
- 2 Tablespoons Minced Lemon Grass (TK says to replace with more lime juice if you can’t find it…I did this and it tasted too limey. I’m going to find lemongrass next time)
- 1 teaspoon Grated Fresh(or Ground Powder) Ginger
- 3 teaspoons Red Curry Paste (TK called for 2, but I thought it needed more spice)
- 8 cups Chicken Broth (TK wanted 6, but to serve 6 for dinner I needed to make the bowls a little bigger)
- 3 Tablespoons Soy Sauce (TK called for 2, but I couldn’t taste it so added a little more)
- 1 Tablespoon White Sugar
- 1 can (14 Oz. Size) Reduced Fat Coconut Milk (I love saving calories and fat, but I think this might be part of the disconnect with the original taste - I’m pretty sure they use the whole fat version)
- 4 Tablespoons Fresh Lime Juice
- ¼ cups Snipped Cilantro
- 1 1/2 cups Fresh Sliced Mushrooms (TK wanted only ½ cup, but I like a lot of mushrooms)
- 1 bag Baby Spinach Leaves, 6 Ounce Bag
- 1 package firm tofu cubed (this is all me, TK used shrimp, which would probably be really good too)
- 1 roma tomato (my addition here)
Directions:
- Heat the olive oil on medium-high heat.
- Add the lemongrass, ginger and garlic. Constantly stir so that it doesn’t burn. Heat until it starts to smell good, about one minute.
- Then add half the broth and the curry paste. Stir until the paste dissolves - this take a little bit of time and I found a whisk really helped here.
- Add the rest of the broth, soy sauce and sugar. Let simmer for 30 mins (TK says 20, but I didn’t think that let the flavors meld for long enough).
- While that simmers, sear the tofu to give it a nice brown finish and get it hot. I can’t get it as good as Noodles does it, so let me know if you do.
- It should be smelling really good now! Add in the coconut milk, lime juice, and mushrooms. Give it about 5 minutes to let the mushrooms get soft.
- Now add in the spinach and stir for about a minute while the spinach wilts slightly.
- Turn off the heat and ladle the soup into individual bowls that already hold the noodles.
- Add slices of tomato and push down into the hot soup. This will be enough to heat them up and tenderize them.
- Add the tofu (I don’t add it to the simmering soup, tofu just falls apart too easily) and the cilantro - you can take it off the stalk, I just did this for the photo.
We just returned from 8 days in Florence and Rome. For pizza lovers, it was heaven. The crust is thin and crispy, but the outer edges are soft. The sauce is simple, the cheese is flavorful and the bail adds just the right amount of flavor. What really struck us was how fresh it all was. Nothing frozen and nothing fake. Just real. Good. Food.
Someone tried to make fun of us for eating pizza in Italy “because everyone knows pizza was invented in New York.” HA. Nope. Not true. Sure NYC is known for delicious New York Style Pizza today, but invented there? I don’t think so.
Over 1000 years ago the Italians started putting toppings on focaccia bread - an early version of pizza if there ever was one. But what is commonly referred to as the birth of modern-day pizza occurred in Naples in 1889:
Naples of Queen Margherita of Savoy, wife of King Umberto I, chef Raffaele Esposito of Pizzeria Brandi and his wife created a pizza resembling the colors of the Italian flag, red (tomato), white (mozzarella) and green (basil). They named it after the Queen - Pizza Margherita. - Italy Magazine
All that amazing pizza, in addition to the pastas, prosciutto,truffles etc. made for a decadent vacation. Which leads to the next lie we heard - “it doesn’t matter how much you eat there, you walk so much you’ll walk it right off!” Again, HA! You’d have to walk day and night up stairs carrying weights in each hand to even begin to walk off what we ate there. No matter, every single bite was worth it!
10 reasons why swimming is the greatest activity:
1. It lets you appreciate the warmth of summer without sweating.
2. You can get exercise, again, without sweating.
3. Water aerobics.
4. Swimming with a cap on feels oddly amazing.
5. It can be done alone or with friends (but if you’re going alone, at least tell someone. Safety first).
6. The quiet when you’re submerged is peaceful in a way nothing else can be.
7. It works almost all (!) the muscles in the body.
8. It gives your knees a break from all the running, walking and jumping you do.
9. Vitamin D and fresh air.
10. Diversity is the spice of life. I’m sure someone said that. It breaks up your normal workout and life routines. So it’s good for your brain and your body. What better reason can there be than that?!
This summer I had the opportunity to do a lot of swimming - it was the best! These are just some of the public places I was able to go to in addition to all the pools I visited. I’m sorry to see swimming season come to an end (I don’t swim indoors).
Where do you recommend swimming? I’d love to find some new spots!
Anonymous asked:
What is your personal system for productivity that you keep listed on your desk? I'm inspired by your enhanced productivity and would love to hear more about minimizing distractions in the office! Thank you!
Great question! I work as the Social Media Manger for a company (Medifast) that is made up of multiple social channels. So I need to post and respond to all social platforms for three different channels. That is specific to me, but the point is that I have a routine to return to when I get off track, and a set of priorities that I must accomplish every day. I’m betting you can apply this method to your job too.
- Briefly check email to be sure nothing urgent is happening.
- Go through calendar of meetings for the day as well as calendar of postings - add any “to-dos” to my physical list.
- Check all Facebook Pages for notifications and respond to messages/comments.
- Respond to Basecamp notifications to be sure projects are moving forward.
- Now go through email and Delete, File, or Take Action (another productivity tip I learned). Add any more “to-dos” to my physical list.
- Check other social platforms for all accounts and respond appropriately.
- Prioritize “to-do” list and mark what needs accomplished today. Put other items on “to-do” list for tomorrow.
Hope this helps! I’d love any feedback if you try it out and have some tips to improve it.
Hang out privately with BUB, watch a ton of hilarious cat videos, and help raise an insane amount of money for animals in need at Saturday’s Chicago CatVidFest:
http://bit.ly/ChicagoCatVidFest
BUB and I will be hosting the Chicago CatVidFest this Saturday at The Metro. There will also be four 30 minute intimate BUB Meet-and-Greets preceding each screening, each one limited to only 24 people. Tickets to the screenings and Meet and Greets are available at the link above.
The Meet and Greet for this event is unlike any we have ever done before. Rather than stand in line to wait for a quick photo with BUB, you will get to hang out with her in a casual and comfortable environment, for 30 minutes with only 23 other people (and me). You will be able to take photos, pet her tiny head, ask us questions, and may even win the chance to have her sit on your lap. The Meet and Greets alone will raise more than $10,000 in one day, so you can also feel good knowing that treating yourself to some BUB-time also helps many animals in need.
This is a fundraising event, so all proceeds from CatVid tickets and the meet and greets benefit homeless pets.
If only I lived in Chicago!
Summer of Productivity
My BFF Molly and I lamented months ago about how little time we feel like we have, and of that time, we don’t feel like we’re making the most of it. We’re both in our LOW-thirties now, so call it a third-life-crisis - we have so much we want to accomplish and life is passing us by.
And so instead of sitting around complaining, we decided to actually DO something about it. Thus began the summer of productivity. We’re really good at research, which is an uppity way to procrastinate, but in the end, we took away some tidbits that have really helped! Proving that…
1. Make Yourself Uninterruptable Sometimes
I’ve begun putting in headphones when I really need to get shit done. That’s the universal office sign for “do not talk to me under any circumstances! Unless there’s free food in the breakroom, then send me an instant message or an email, and only if I don’t see those, then you can interrupt me.” Sometimes I listen to music, or a podcast I don’t have to concentrate on, or nothing at all. The illusion of not being able to hear really works to keep social butterflies at bay.
2. Learn this secret to getting stuff off your own plate.
The secret is to delegate. For a person like me who has been doing the job of four people as a team of one for quite some time, delegation was tough at first. I knew exactly what I wanted to post, using particular language, at specific times. However, I found I was missing out on trainings, greater strategy planning, and big-picture ideas when I was consumed with all the tiny details. Slowly I learned to let go. It sucked when the person you delegate to makes a mistake, because YOU never would! Yeah, right. But then they come up with a great idea you hadn’t thought of and then YOU come up with a great idea you wouldn’t have had the time to think of and it all becomes worth it.
I now began every day the same. I keep the list of the order of my morning routine by my computer. Before, I would start off great, then get sucked into email, the vortex that is the internet, voicemails and when I’d try to get back on track I’d be lost as to how to do so. I couldn’t remember where I’d left off let alone where to pick back up. Now I just look at my list and get right back into my routine should I happen to stray.
I’ve picked these things because they’ve had the most immediate effect on my day-to-day productivity. The results are now I feel more accomplished and like I’m making better use of my time. It’s not a perfect system yet and I’m still anxious about achieving enough, but overall, I’m getting more shit done and feel better at the end of the day.
library-mermaid-blog
