Sorry...

So busy with preparing for this huge life change, very little time for blogging. Or for cooking/baking, for that matter! Trying to just eat as much from my fridge/freezer as humanly possible, so it won't go to waste.
But once I'm settled in DC, I'll be back in full-effect. Get excited. :)

A New Chapter

I can finally talk about this, since it's been made official (aka I gave my notice at work). I have accepted a position with PETA!! I will be their new Advertising Manager. It's a new position, so I think it will be a great opportunity for me to help shape my role, but they of course also know where their needs are and what they'll need me to step in on.

I am SO excited about this. I can combine my knowledge and education in advertising with my absolute passion for animal advocacy. It's such a blessing. I also hope I can help some of my friends and family see that PETA is such a great organization that gives a voice to so many animals in need. Yes, they have some extreme viewpoints, but sometimes the quiet voice gets lost in the crowd.

It also means picking up my life in Minneapolis and moving it out to Washington DC! I am going to miss my friends and family here like crazy. (Although, I will be back for some weddings and the TLOV animal advocacy conference this summer!) But I am moving to a city that has plenty of other friends...and a little bit of family. A lot of my friends from Syracuse have settled in DC. And my brother and his fiance are living there, as well! I certainly won't be lonely. I've already gotten my friend Kristen to look at a few apartments for me...I'm hoping the place she's checking out today is the winner, as I'm running out of time!

I'm done at Carmichael Lynch (my current ad agency) on March 20th and am giving myself a week to move, then starting at PETA on March 30th. I will of course keep you up to date on the progress, but as of right now I have A LOT to get done. I'm still not over my illness, so it's been hard to get motivated. I'm hoping to make a lot of progress in the way of Salvation Army drop-offs this weekend. I want to use this opportunity as a chance to purge my life of some unnecessary belongings....especially clothes! And lighten my load for the drive across country. (Which reminds me, I still need to secure movers....ah!)

Anyhow, so that's my big news. Can't wait for all that is in store for me. :)

Reconnecting With Maury

What a week! I finally caught the cold that has been floating around my office. I figured it was a matter of time, but was hoping my immune system would be able to stand up to it. No luck. I was out of the office on Thursday and Friday, home sick. So aggravating, because all I can think about is all the things I'm NOT getting done while I'm laying on the couch watching trashy daytime TV. Although, Jakers and Mabel love, love, love sick days. Their favorite hobbies include sleeping, eating and cuddling. Check, check check. So at least they were happy.

I was glad that I made a large pasta dish on Wednesday night, so I had some easy lunch options while I was feeling crappy. I'll post the recipe at the bottom of this post. Beware, though -- expect your house to smell like garlic after preparing this one!

Last night I had to suck it up, though. My good friend, Emily, was home from Chicago for the weekend and so five of us had dinner plans. I loaded up on some Sudafed and Mucinex (despite the horrendous commercials, it works) and out we went. We had dinner at Azia in the "Eat Street" section of Minneapolis. So tasty! We shared some edamame and vegetable potstickers and I ordered Vietnamese Coconut Curry with tofu. SO GOOD. Then we went to 508, a bar downtown, and grabbed a drink and caught up with another high school friend who bartends there. (I stuck with water, since my poor body was doing it's best to get better!) I had a great time and was glad that I went.
Stay healthy!!

Tomato & Mushroom Pasta w/ Garlic

• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
  
• 2 or 3 portabella mushroom caps (or 5 or 6 baby bella caps), thinly sliced
  
• 1-2 tomatoes, diced (dependant on size)
  
• 1-2 cups (uncooked) rotini pasta...or any pasta will work
• 1 tbsp dried basil
  
• Shredded vegan mozzarella, optional

Prepare pasta in large pot. In a large saute pan, heat olive oil over med-high heat. Add mushrooms and garlic and cook ~7 minutes, until mushrooms soften. Reduce heat, add chopped tomatoes and juices from tomato. Allow to simmer for a few minutes. Drain pasta, combine with olive oil mixture. Toss with basil and serve with mozzarella sprinkled over the top. Keeps well in the fridge for a couple of days -- garlic flavor tends to intensify.

Kale's Getting The Spotlight It Deserves

My friend, Charlotte, from college (actually a sorority sister of the great Phi Sigma Sigma!) sent me an email today with a link to this New York Times article. YAY KALE! :) This article goes into all the health benefits to kale, as well. Vitamins, calcium, iron, fiber...it's really a power food.

Ya know, I never think of just eating kale simply sauteed. I love this, because it has such a great flavor, no need to put it in soup, right?? So I will definitely be giving this a whirl sometime soon.

This sounds especially tasty:

Pan-Cooked Kale With Garlic and Olive Oil

2 large bunches kale (about 1 1/4 pounds total)

Salt, preferably kosher salt

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

Freshly ground pepper

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil while you stem the kale and wash the leaves in two rinses of water. Fill a bowl with ice water. When the water comes to a boil, add a generous amount of salt and the kale. Blanch for four minutes, until the kale is tender. Transfer immediately to the ice water, then drain and squeeze the water from the leaves. Chop coarsely or cut in strips.

2. Heat the oil over medium heat in a large, heavy nonstick skillet. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, until the garlic is fragrant, 30 to 60 seconds. Stir in the kale. Stir for a couple of minutes, until the kale is nicely seasoned with garlic and oil. Add salt and pepper to taste. Remove from the heat and serve.

Yield: Serves four

Thanks, Charlotte!! :)

Tracking The Numbers

I have fallen in love with this new tool I found online. Well, it's probably not new, but it's new to me. It's a part of the LIVESTRONG.com site, called The Daily Plate. It allows you to search thousands of food items to find what you have eaten and it tracks all your nutritional info. You can also enter in your fitness level for the day and it will calculate that, as well, to give you an accurate snapshot of your health.

My brother is getting married in May, and I want to trim down a bit for the bridesmaid dress. I have recently read in several places that nutritionists and scientists say to stop counting carbs and doing the fad diets -- that hands-down, it's all about the calories you're taking in. I was actually wanting to start counting calories on my own, thinking I would just read packages and keep a notebook, but this is WAY easier. I can just enter my meals as I go.

It also shows you the breakout of your food intake of carbs vs protein vs fats. I'm not entirely sure how this breakdown should be, but I'm concerned with how many carbs vs protein I'm consuming, and so I'm working to address that. I would have never known this without this awesome tool.

I'll throw some screenshots in, so you can see what I'm talking about -- the example shows what I had for breakfast this morning and then my activity so far (a brisk walk with Jakers, of course!). But once I hit the gym tonight, it puts a solid dent in my calories, so I can eat more than the 1,700 I've been "assigned" when I set up my account. It asks if you want to maintain your weight, lose 1 lb/week, lose 2 lbs/week or more. I selected 2 lbs/week and it gave me the amount of calories based on my height and weight.

Even if you don't need to worry about weight, this also calculates things like cholesterol, so it's just a great overall health tool. (Although I don't eat ANYTHING with cholesterol, being vegan yet have very high cholesterol. I obviously blame my genes.)

Anyhow, check it out yourself and see if it's something that could help you. Anything to simplify my life AND help me lose weight -- I'm on board. :)

Have a great day!

Time For A Good Laugh

What a lazy weekend! I seriously did very little this weekend beyond laundry, groceries and napping. But it was nice. I think ya need a mindless, lazy weekend every once in awhile. Although, now going into the work week, I feel like I have extra on my to-do list BECAUSE so little got accomplished on Saturday and Sunday.

Oh, I almost forgot - I went with a few of my girlfriends to see Joel McHale at The State Theater here in glorious Minneapolis. SO FUNNY. It was such a great show. I mean, we all know how brilliant he is on The Soup on E! every week...but I wasn't sure what to expect of him without the teleprompter. But he did not disappoint. His spiel about meeting the Kardashian sisters made me honestly laugh for abotu 10 minutes straight. And a bit on Dick Clark/Ryan Seacrest...too funny. (Had to be there...I'm clearly not going to try and re-tell any jokes.)

Although, his opening act of K.P. Anderson left a lot to be desired. He apparently is a producer & writer on The Soup (and a Mpls native), but maybe he should stick to that producing role. He was super raunchy -- and I'm no prude! But just really vulgar and topics that will never be OK in stand-up (ie Columbine and Lacey Peterson). I don't think I'm alone on that one.

Anyhow, I have a recipe to post, so I need to somehow segue into avocado corn salsa. This is going to be awkward:
You know what else is funny? Avocado corn salsa....hilarious!

Let's just move on. I made a batch of this on Sunday morning and turned it into both lunch and dinner. Of course, as per usual, the salsa is super healthy, but I downed a half a bag of Multi-Grand Tostitos along with it. Zapped up my calories for the day in no time! Oh well. That's what Sundays are for, right? This recipe is really easy, just chopping some things up and mixing everything together. I originally found it on Cooks.com, I believe, but I've changed a few things to simplify (I wasn't going to cook/slice an ear of corn, so went with canned corn). Super tasty...and will be a hit at parties. Or simply a wonderful way to take care of your lunch and dinner menu if you're like me. :)

Enjoy!

Avocado Corn Salsa

2 avocados, sliced into ~1" pieces
1 can corn kernels, drained & rinsed (I like the yellow & white Green Giant Niblets)
lime juice to taste
1 medium tomato or a handful of grape tomatoes
1 jalepeno, chopped
1/4 c chopped cilantro
1 scallions, chopped

First put the avocados and corn into a bowl, adding lime juiec to coat (and preventing oxidation of the avocado). Then simply toss in the rest, stirring well. I like to let it sit in the fridge for an hour or so, to get nice and cold and allow the flavors to marinade. Depending on how ripe your avocados are, they may kind of blend in with everything else, otherwise a less ripe avocado will remain sturdy in the chunks you sliced. No worries either way -- it all tastes pretty darn good! :)