Being Healthier

Meal Of the Day!

Lunch, yep a random creation from the mind of bhealthier.

I grilled extra firm tofu that I had cut into triangles.  I steamed veggies underneath while it was grilling and I threw together a quick spinach-artichoke dip. All I did was microwave frozen spinach and artichokes, remove excess water, then reheat with nonfat greek yogurt and some parmesean cheese, s& p. It was awesome. I used the tofu triangles as “pita” sections to eat my dip. Up close… and….

I also had an organic red delicious with some Valencia Peanut Butter ala Trader Joes.

Snack

Roasted Cinnamon Garbanzo’s

I’ve had this can of garbanzo’s in my cupboard for-ever it seems! I intended to make hummus with it but then never did and wanted to do something fun with it. So I took my can of garbanzo’s and rinsed them, threw them onto my toaster oven baking sheet. Drizzled a teeny bit of olive oil ( Newman’s Own Organic) and then drenched in cinnamon before baking for 35 minute at 400.

I took em out and sprinkled Sugar in The Raw over top and then downed a whole bunch! I was surprised at how much I loved the sweet/ salty /spicy contrast!! I should have baked them longer to make them more dried out but they were awesome! I almost ate all of them they were so good!

Dinner:
We were invited over to our super close friend’s Andrea and Nate’s house for dinner tonight. Nate grilled “country spare ribs” and Andrea made delicious sides: tomato mozzarella salad, brussel sprouts, rice and beans ! hmmmm so divine!

I snacked on a few hershey’s kisses and a couple small glasses of wine while we caught up on our crazy lives.

Body:
Rest… well… sort of.. my leg is very bothersome however, I knew I would feel worse if I didn’t get some form of exercise- so I walked (at an easy pace) for about 3 miles.  It felt fine- the leg wasn’t awesome but it was more of a stress-relieving activity that wasn’t super strenous. Plus fresh oxygen from outdoors is always refreshing!

Thanks for all your well-wishes!

Mind:
Class- We go our exams back! We are allowed to do test corrections on our exam as an extra assignment- woohoo! I did not do as bad as I feared for missing what in real semester time would be over 1 month- but I didn’t get what I usually do in most classes. I am fine with it though!

I turned in another job application AND I followed up with a previous application and got semi-good news! Yippee! The lady replied back with a hopeful response ( not a “we definitely want you” but it seemed very pleasant. I feel like if I didn’t have a chance, she would have just said sorry but we have already chosen our interview candidates…etc ). She said to expect to hear from them in the next two weeks- fingers crossed.

Soul:
Oh I love dinners with Nate and Andrea!

While I won’t discuss this on the blog, I did have alot of stressful things come about today and recently more so. The walk really helped out and chatting with my friends helped too.

ah and i almost forgot that breakfast was a HUGE orange and a half of an apple with peanut butter and an oikos! nice and fast!

My last day of golfing for this trip was sunday and we decided to head home afterwards to hopefully have a productive monday at home!

I started out my sunday with a fantastic bowl of Kashi Go Lean Crunchy, but spilled over during cooking!  I filled my bowl with a little Marmalade French Toast and added fresh blueberries and kiwi to my breakfast!

Last Day of Golfing:

For Lunch/Snacking I had packed our stuff up when we got back so no photos- but it was some Almonds, an Orange and an Oikos Vanilla in the car on the way home.

On our way home we drove directly through where my sister lives so we had planned to stop in and say hello or visit or grab a bite to eat. We ended up grabbing dinner at UNO’s in Bethesda, MD but I would highly recommend NOT going there! My sister warned me that the service sucked there but I had never gone so I wanted to try it!

I had a side salad to start because I was really missing my vegetables this weekend so I was craving fresh!

My sister, Jeff and I split a 2-3 person deep dish with chicken, pepperoni and mushrooms.
It was a great combo and well-put together pizza but it was COLD in some spots and warm in others.  blech- the waitress had clearly left it sitting forever because it took forever to come out! She also never re-filled our drinks or ever came back to check on our pizza, if she had, we would have told her it was cold!

But we just wanted to enjoy our visit and our food and we did that! Off it was to another 5 hour drive. Phew. That was rough after a long day of golfing- we were both exhausted by the time we pulled in our driveway. We unpacked the car super quickly and went straight to bed!

Body:
4 hours of golf! I wore my heart rate monitor for fun and found that my heart rate stayed at about 45 % of its max most of the time. I burned 610 kcal but knew the previous days were more strenous so it was a hefty bit of exercise!

I was slightly sad that I didn’t get in a good run at all but I also felt like all the travelling and golfing was enough of a tax on my bod.

Mind:
Studied Archaea and now all I have left is Eukaryotes and Viruses to study for the exam tomorrow.

Soul:
It was awesome to golf again and to see Jeff’s family and my sister!

Home sweet home indeed!

Day 2 of golfing was even better than day 1!!!!

I started out for breakfast with a delicious bowl of Kashi Instant Oats! After golf yesterday we had to run to a store to get milk and charcoal, while there I found this specific variety up here in PA that I have been SEARCHING for since trying it in buffalo last september!

It is Kashi Go Lean Hearty vs. Creamy. I have seen the creamy vanilla flavor but not this crunchy type anywhere in NC. So I grabbe d as many boxes as I could to take home. I was too excited to try it so I had a bowl instead of the Pemael Bacon Canadian Sandwiches that were suppposed to be for breakfast!

I did have a bite of Jeff’s though- The paemael bacon is actually very much like lean ham but only available in canada as I’m told. It was actually very tasty but I was super happy with my oats and fruit!

We went to another Golf Course today, right across from our house:

Afternoon Snacking:

A small oikos vanilla that I found at the same place- they had packs of 4 for $3 but they were slightly smaller containers than the 5.3 oz singles usually available. Each were about 80 kcal and 12 g of protein ( nonfat) and perfect! I had some with leftover mango ….

I also had a few whole wheat crackers and 3 year aged Cheddar

And I tried a dip someone had made ( salsa, sour cream) with carrots

A Sprite zero in my koozie ( my nickname is L-Mo, Jeff’s is Mo). Our friends Nate and Andrea made our koozies and gave me my nickname!

Dinner:
Steak ( Porterhouse), Baked beans and hash brown casserole

Body:
Another 4.5 hours of golf, horseshoe games, washer games, and more card games (Euchre and Mexican Train)!

Mind:
Studied another two sections of material for the exam!

Soul:
Another gorgeous day of golfing! Ahhh…

my sub-shop, roadside salad: lettuce, tomato, red onion, green pepper, cucumber, olives, pepperocinni, pickles and a dash of cheese. I didn’t use any of that dressing (Ranch- the packet was 230kcal of mostly saturated fat!!) more because the vinegar from the pickles and olives and pepperocinni gave it enough flavor for me!

I also had a ThinkThin bar  (white chocolate crunch) for some protein. I really liked the first bite and the second but then after that it had a funny protein taste. Overall not bad.

Check out my Biscuit Sausage Pies recipe-
For the first day of breakfast, I had made these on thursday hoping they would fair well the next morning. They totally did!! These were AWESOME!!

Whole wheat pizza dough in muffin pans , filled with lowfat sausage, lowfat cheese, mine were egg whites ( the others were whole eggs), and bell peppers. On the side, Mango ( times two)

Golf Course:

Lunch-ish: A Brownie Crunch Think Thin

Same as the white chocolate but I think a little better tasting.

Trail mix snackies

Day  1 Score:

Not too shabby!
In the afternoon we had some DELICIOUS cheese- Some canadian friends brought this gouda with caraway seeds. Oh my goodness , delicious! My cabernet went perfect with it!

Dinner:
Chili! Jeff’s aunt made this and it was fantastic!

Dessert:
Another canadian treat ( this one is available in the US!) Maple Cookies.

They are shaped like maple leafs, maple flavored shortbread with maple cream in the middle! This guy is 100 kcal, but definitely a yummy treat!

Body:
4.5 Hours of Golf! Phew! We also threw horseshoes when we came home so my shoulders/arm is feeling it!

Mind:
I actually studied quite a bit . I am doing little sections by section so I retain the information more than if I would just try studying all or most of the material in one sitting…

Soul:
I LOVE golfing! Oh it was so fun to be back on the course even if it took me several holes to warm up! We played ladies vs. men and a captain’s choice/ best ball. In case you don’t know what that means, we all take a drive and then whereever the best ball lands, we all take our second shot from there, etc. till we get it in the hole. It was such a relaxing, breezy, sunny, fresh-air and exercise filled day!

We played horseshoes and cards and just had a fantastic day!

I saw Rachel Ray do a recipe for Biscuit Sausage Pie with that Pillsbury refridgerated dough and then just browned sausage with some veggies, cheese and eggs. I thought it was a great idea for this golf outing since Jeff and I were in charge of two days of breakfast.

I thought making individual pies would be even better than whole pies also. Jeff had said most of the time the guys just grab a muffin or bagel etc. so it would be nice and quick to grab and eat!

So instead of making them while here ( because we weren’t sure of golf times and cook ware etc. in the house we were renting) I wanted to make them ahead so they would be ready to go!

Ingredients ( feeds 8-12 +)
1 roll sausage ( I used reduced fat Gualtney pork)
1 bag of Whole Wheat Pizza dough, stretched and cut into 24 sections
6 eggs
1/2 cup milk (1%)
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup bell pepper mix ( I thawed frozen and squeezed out water)

Directions:
Grease or spray muffin tin. Brown sausage in skillet, allow to cool sufficiently. While browning, roll, slice, and stretch out pizza dough. Lay sections of dough into each muffin cup. Sprinkle with cheese (optional). Spoon in sausage, I used two spoonfulls per cup. Fill each muffin cup with 1/4 cup of egg batter and sprinkle of peppers.

Chef Photos and Notes:
I bought Trader Joes whole wheat pizza dough because I figured it would be healthier than the pillsbury, feed more with it, and I like the taste of it so darn much!

I had to be resourceful with this because I tried rolling out the pizza dough really thin and cutting circles to fit inside the muffin cup. Unfortunately, that didn’t work because pizza dough stretches and just resorts back to a little ball essentially.
So instead of making dough “cups” ( to fill entire tin, see bottom far left vs. bottom far right) I decided to try out layiing small sections at the bottom of each muffin cup, then laying another small section around it.

It took awhile, but once I got the hang of it, it was much easier the second muffin sheet!

While I was fooling around with this dough, I was also letting a roll of reduced fat sausage brown in the skillet.

In to the oven…

Out of the oven…

Ready for transport: 

EVERYONE LOVED THEM!

Before we got the party started, I managed to… 

Body:
Run 12 miles!  I got ready to run outside but then rain started down-pouring! I quickly decided to head to the gym and knew I really wanted to run far today.

It took me 1 hour 34 minutes! I felt fantastic the whole time and the rest of the day too! I was worried about my glycogen stores depleting completely but they were great!

I have been so excited using my heart rate monitor to help me train! I realized that I can last for a much longer distance when I keep my heart rate closer to 180- which is still very difficult but I now have a good feeling when my heart is pushing too hard for longer mileage. I also like it because it helps push me when I’m doing cross training, i.e on the elliptical! I had no idea my HR was so low when doing the elliptical! I was only burning about 50% of the kcal I thought I was and my HR only gets to around 120! So it has helped me step it up a notch in cross training AND it also helps me with kcal! I was not eating enough on longer runs but then sometimes I would eat too much on cross training days etc. I wasn’t much concerned with weight loss or with gain but I was concerned with how I was feeling. For awhile (esp. in October/November) I would run in the morning then by class in the afternoon , I could literally feel my blood glucose drop and I would get nauseated, dizzy, sleepy etc. ! It has definitely been a great tool all around for my training!

Mind:
Pig Pickin’ Celebration- no thinking, just enjoying and catching up with many great people!

Soul:
Great Friends, Great Family, Great Food and Great Drinks!

I started out my day with a gorgeous bowl of Steel Cut Oats with Ground Flax, Blueberries and All Natural Peanut Butter AND leftover whip-cream frosting from the pig pickin cake !!!!
 

Approx.
1.5 servings of Whole Grains, 1 serving of fruit
385-400 kcal

Run Fuel:

I forgot the shot blocks but I did have newly purchased bags of Kids’ Sharkies Sport Chews that did the trick- 1/2 the pack at mile 6 and 7 then the other 1/2 immediately after finishing 12!

Lunch:

Big bowl of Kashi Go Lean cereal, it was high in fiber, protein and whole grains so it was replacing AND helping fuel me for the rest of the day!  I also had  a banana and extra soy milk aside from what was in the bowl.

Pig Pick 2009
 

Pickers on a mission…. Watch out, Pregnant Lady with Beer!

Our friends The Tefts brought over extra beer because we ran out- There was approximately 40 of our closest friends and family! There was a brief game of flip cup, lots of talking and beer drinking, a washer game, and many rounds of horseshoes. ( That is our friend Nate and my future-brother-in-laws new girlfriend Chanda! She is awesome and a creative writer- Here is her blog. Hi Chanda!)

Here’s the line up of the FABULOUS SIDES:

 
Start of the “Buffet” if you will:
 
From the top left (Left to Right):
Brownie Bites, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Timmy Smith’s Cornbread, Momma Mo’s Potato Salad
Next Row: My cake! , Under Cake: Andrea’s Deviled Eggs, Next to Cake: Dave’s Hummus, To the right: Caroline’s Mac and Cheese ( divine!), Pasta Salad

Middle of Buffet:

Top Left to Top Right: Momma Mo’s potato salad, Timmy Smith’s Potato Salad, Nick O’s Creamsicle Salad
Bottom Row Left: Momma Mo’s Coleslaw, Momma Mo’s Cornbread Pudding, Green Bean Casserole

End of Buffet:

Top Left: Donna & Stewarts Hush Puppies, Cheesecake Variety, Watermelon
Momma Mo’s Baked Beans ( homemade!) and more Green Bean Casserole
and our nephew’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle to wish all happy eating apparently. 

My dinner included a tasting of almost everything~

I didn’t quite finish this plate but I did manage most of it! I really had a bite size portion of everything except a larger amount of beans and meat! I like to look at everything having something to offer that is “worthwhile”- the mac n cheese, the cornbread and hushpuppies were all delicious treats as in -I don’t usually eat all of those with one meal because they all offer the same thing- refined carbs and saturated fat. Don’t get me wrong, they are delicious but I prefer balancing the unhealthy with healthy and getting the most out of what I consume. There were healthy aspects to everything such as the veggies …. tomatoes in the pasta salad, cabbage in the coleslaw, corn in the cornbread pudding, and bell peppers in the beans. Fiber in the beans, lean protein…You get the idea!  I think it is funny when people see me eating th
ings like this and ask me or joke about how “bad” it all is. Sometimes no one can believe that I eat it or eat that much! I usually just say that this is a once in awhile kinda meal. I taste and enjoy a bit of everything I really want and I stop when I’m full! For example, I didn’t get any green bean casserole because I don’t really like it other than at thanksgiving! I eat healthy all the time which makes a meal like this a really enjoyable experience!

Dessert:

A tasting of my cake ( it was actually a small sliver), I only had a piece of that cookie (unfortunately because I couldn’t fit anymore in me!) Everyone LOVED the cake so I was extremely happy with how it came out!

I also tasted some of “Creamsicle Pudding” our friend Nick O made.

As far as my drinking, I had one glass of miller lite ( Jeff bought a keg) but since I’m not a huge fan, I used it for my round in flip cup! After that, I sipped on a vodka water.  Much later into the evening, I had some wine.  This was an all day event, so three drinks across the span of the day left me hangover-free and feeling awesome the entire time!

( those flowers were for Momma Mo from our friend Tuddy, such a sweetheart!)
 
For those that are interested, my estimate for intake today was 2,440 kcal – my output from the run was 1,186 kcal!

*Vegans and/or those sensitive to seeing meat being cooked- I would not read any further so I inserted this post break!

continue reading…

Yesterday was the annual Pig Pickin at my future in-laws and it was absolutely a celebration of every sort! We celebrated Jeff’s stepdads’ retirement, my future- brother-in-laws graduation from college, Jeff’s birthday and our engagement! I made the traditional cake to serve at a Pig Pickin, “The Pig Pickin Cake”
 
My 1st Pig Pickin experience:
Hopefully as I continue my blogging adventures, you will get a look into the “Southern Pig Pickin” summer traditions. Pre-blog summer, Jeff and I had gone to over 5 Pig Pickins  ( in 3 months!) but had to miss a few on top of that! It’s huge down here. It was really the first thing Jeff and I did together after meeting too! He asked me to go to a pig pickin ( I had no idea what it was) but said yes because I had a crush on him & thought he was adorable.  Little did I know, I was going to his parent’s house, meeting his sisters, brothers, neice and nephew, aunts and uncles,  and all his family friends the first time we did anything! We didn’t even know if we were “dating”! A family friend jokingly instigated something like ” You two should be dating if you aren’t already (?) ” and we both looked at each other in that super awkward “we don’t know” sorta way. I think we both said at first, “oh no we are just friends”. We kissed at the end of the night, in the rain, outside, (NOT knowing his whole family was spying on us! Yes ( Momma Mo, Preston, Butta Bean & PJ)  I said SPYING! ) Thus, it began.

Anyway, usually every year Momma Mo and Preston ( Mo is Jeff) have a pig pickin.  For those that don’t know what a Pig Pickin is…. Here is a little history
from about.com :
” A Pig Pickin is a ritual in the South — particularly in the Carolinas and Georgia– whereby a whole pig is roasted over wood coals for hours until done. When the meat falls off the bones, folks just gather round and “pick off the meat”, thus it is called a “pig pickin” , which is in “northern talk” a pig roast. We take our barbeque as seriously as Texans — knowing everything about a “pig pickin” is almost a religion to us, and this cake became synonmous with the event because it was the perfect ending to “a mess” of barbeque, hush puppies, corn sticks, coleslaw and all the fixins. Banana Pudding is also acceptable as the grand finale…” But the true dessert hit, is the Pig Pickin cake originating in the 70’s !

Ingredients

1 (3.5 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix

In the past I used the Splenda version of the fruit ( canned pineapple and canned mandarins with splenda) and the sugar free fat free pudding.
This year, I just did the SFFF pudding because I felt like it wouldn’t impact flavor that much but balance a little bit of the sugar ( from the fruit and cake and whip topping etc.). I searched recipes online and basically just gathered what to do from several recipes! Allrecipes.com has the closest version to mine!
 

Directions:
1. Grease & Flour three, 8 inch cake pans. ( I only have 2 9 inch cake pans and 1 9 inch springform pan. I had to keep in mind when pouring the batter because I wanted to make three thin layers instead of two thick layers (It’s easier frosting 3 thin layers!).

2. Mix together Cake Mix, Oranges, Eggs, and Oil with electric beater on medium speed for about 3 minutes. Pour batter into three pans evenly.

3. Bake at 350 * F  for approx. 30 minutes.  Cool completely on wire racks ( or something that can allow air to cool underneath the cake evenly)

Frosting:

Mix whipped topping, crushed pineapple and pudding mix with beaters on med-low. Set in refrigerator until cake has completely cooled!

4. Frost layers when cakes have completely cooled.

 

 

Let there be cake!

Body

  Rest! Leg not feeling awesome but really I notice because your hip flexor is involved in any movement you make so blech .

Mind

Oh goodness.
Fiasco, literally. I found out that the summer course started this past monday NOT the coming monday as I thought it did. ALSO , financial aid never put a package together for me because for some reason I was not registered for the course- DESPITE getting a bill and showing up as registered for it prior to ending spring classes. I have no idea what is next.

I did get an application for GNC, which sells supplements and all kinds of nutrition products. I think it would be alright except that my degree is all about how WHOLE foods really give you what you need. I feel like the dark child of the American Dietetic Assoc. sometimes because I like functional foods and supplements in certain cases. Take for example, Omega 3 supplements. DHA and EPA are crucial at helping reduce inflammation, build up cell membranes and can act as antioxidant barriers. If you can’t afford that nice wild salmon or say fresh mahi mahi, what is a gal to do? What if you are allergic to certain fish like me? I think supplements are great additions to diets in general but not necessarily the best or only way we should consume nutrients.
Anyhow, I am hoping to still hear back from one great position working with Local Foods on a state level but not sure. Keep your fingers crossed!

Soul

I MADE CAKE! A Pig Pickin Cake. For tomorrow’s annual Pig Pickin at my future-in-laws! Recipe to follow this post!

and…I had coffee this morning with my brother at Starbucks but a funny story goes with why I didn’t pay for it!

You see, I walk in to the Starbucks and see three barista’s (1,2,3) behind the counter chatting.I stood at the register, no one came, I moved to the side, they looked at me but said nothing. Then two other customers walk in behind me and I hear “what can I get for you today?”. Assuming the man is talking to me because I had waited for several minutes at that point, I say “A grande of the drip coffee please” at the SAME time as the customer that had just walked in ordered something. I realize as I turned to the barista #1 that he wasn’t talking to me but #1 acknowledges me and says ” Oh you can get that from him, gesturing to #2″. I repeat my order to Barista #2. He does not say anything. The customers that had walked in behind me pay for there order as Barista #3 steps out and assists them. Barista #3 asks my brother what he ordered so he can pay her. She looks at me and says Would you like anything?

You might have had to be there to understand that not only did none of them pay attention to me while I was waiting to order initially, but then they didn’t even bother to ask me my order instead asked the customers that walked in after I did! On top of that, I placed my order to #1 and then again to #2 – both of whom started making drinks for the customers who walked in after me.  In most situations, I just let things go because I tend to not really care in the overall scheme of things.  I just said back to her, “I told both him(#1) and him (#2) what I ordered and neither of them got it so I really don’t even want it anymore”.

Honestly I didn’t care because I didn’t feel like giving them business at that point. My brother and I found a table outside and shortly after, #2 comes up with a grande drip and apologized saying “Even if you really don’t want it any longer, I need to do this for my sake”.

So at least I could help him feel better about himself. And I got my coffee for free. But, the best part was having a really great conversation with my brother that helped me de-stressify and catch up with him.

Breakfast:

Steel Cut Oats, Blueberries, PB

Provides:
150 kcal Oatmeal with Water
70 kcal 1 cup blueberries
80 kcal 1 Tb Peanut Butter
300 kcal total
12 g protein
1 servings of fruit, 1 whole grain

A really great Lunch: 

Peanut Butter and Jelly French Toast

Oh yea. I wanted a peanut butter and jelly sammy again but I also wanted french toast b/c I haven’t made it in awhile. Hence, pb&j french toast is born.

I made the pb&j on whole wheat (stuck it together) and made a batter of soy milk and egg whites with cinnamon.

Dipped in the sammy and put into a hot skillet. DELICIOUS!

I amaze myself sometimes.

I had it with a chobani plain

that I mixed in some of the jelly since it was out to add sweetness, 1/2 organic fuji apple, and also a serving of steamed veggies.

Provides:
285 kcal
22 g protein ( 5 g from egg whites, 6 g from bread, 3 g peanut butter, 8g 1/2 chobani )
1 serving of veggies, 2 Whole grains, 1/2 serving of fruit

Dinner Was Out at The Durham Bulls’ Game!

We had Terrace Box seating with a waiter and little table area ! A vendor at Jeff’s work was in town wheeling and dealing,so they took out a few employees to the game. I was excited because it was a few of the people I actually know quite well after attending many of his work parties and functions.

I ordered the grilled chicken sammy…. It wasn’t anything spectacular but it was the best out of the choices we had and it was free!
I ordered Merlot but they were out. lnstead I had a glass of Pinot Grigio

 
I would not recommend Barefoot for pinot grigio but it fit the bill.

Fireworks, a  perfect ending!
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Body

Thanks to all that wished my leg better! I decided to try out walking/running on the treadmill and as soon as I hopped on, the pain went away! I did a very hard, very sweat-filled 7 mile run with no leg pain!
Unfortunately, it started bothering me again as soon as I stopped. In case you just tuned in, my hip flexor has been sore and annoying but not “painful” really until the other day. So I will be resting every other day to see if it helps!

Stats:
Max HR 193
Min HR 157
Kcal 596
Time 1:01 minute
Distance: 7.13 miles

Mind

I worked on two more applications and on some issues for summer courses! I was hoping to take microbiology but I’m not quite sure that will work now!

Soul
We went with a few friends to watch the Hurricanes vs. Bruins in Game 7 of the semi-semi-final round at a local sports pub. Hurricanes won 3-2 in Overtime!!! Which means as I predicted, The Hurricanes will now play the Penguins (my hometown team) in the Semi-Finals! The winner of that series will play for the Stanley Cup! Weeee! This is so exciting!

Breakfast:

Steel Cut Oats and Smucker’s All Natural PB and Pineapple

Lunch: 

No Photo ( I had to recharge my battery)
Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich on WW, Soy Milk, and Spinach & Artichokes heated up with ricotta and parm cheese.

Dinner 1:
Vegan Boca Burger with Mustard and Ketchup in a Whole Wheat Tortilla

Dinner 2:
Kashi Go Lean with Soy Milk and an Organic Medjool Date with Smucker’s All Natural PB!

Good question, plan a budget?

Yikes, 15% of the budget goes to photography. I wish I could take the pictures myself, I am sure I will like them and get what I want. If only I could clone myself for tasks like this. Are you dying to know what that tiniest purple section is ( at noon-ish) ??  The grooms’ formal wear rental- 0.9% of the average budget. I get 6.3% for my dress- which is the same % for music.

Okay, budget will have to wait but I have started a spreadsheet and a knot page. We are still thinking about dates, places, etc. but “It’s never too early to shop for the … DRESS!”

This was cool the year before my mom was born (Summer 1955)
 

20 years before that, the year before my Grandmother was born… 1933

So you’re going to be married? I thought this old magazine cover photo was so interesting.
 
Okay so some serious ideas for this year …

I tried looking up this designer ( Mori Lee) but their webpage did not have this style. Very similar styles but not this exact one. 

(I like the lace! That bow is not “me” but I like the dress)

I like this particular detail at the waist and with the rouching.

This ( you can’t really tell) is lace over lay. The bottom has layers of lace. And the “java” colored satin ribbon can be changed for any color under the sun. I would probably choose the same color of the dress instead of a color from the wedding. 

Speaking of wedding colors, today my thoughts are  “Gold and Silver”  ( last week was Navy and Lime Green).