Recipe: Grilled Sweet Potato Fries.

If you all hunt the web for everything like I do - then you may have already tapped into the weath of food knowledge that can be located on about.com. I've previously shared my obsession with grilling everything from pineapple to burger to side dishes on my grown girl birthday present. But I HAD to share this recipe for homemade grilled sweet potato fries. They are delish, healthy, and easy to make.

I've recently been exploring their steak topper ideas as Auburn and I will be changing up our Christmas dinner tradition and cooking in, instead of going out this year. Auburn is an incredible cook and I want to be like her when I grow up. But I've offered to grill steaks for our dinner this year, so I'm trying to take a page from her book and do it up right. I'm leaning towards a topper that involved blue cheese. Mmm.

Anywho, hope you enjoy my new favorite recipe. Let me know if you give it a try!

Love,
B

This Blog Will Make You Laugh.

Yesterday was my 700th post, how exciting is that? And I'm almost to 40,000 reads. This blog started as a place to document my life once I moved to Florida away from all my friends and family but it has grown to be so much more than that.

I wanted to talk a little today about accountability. I touched on it earlier this week in 'Everyone Needs a Tribe?' which happened to be a really well received post that many of you got in touch with me about after.

I had mentioned here on the blog that after New York, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis I'd worked on my 'life plan' each time I went away and came back with renewed energy to tackle my ultimate to do list, and new ideas for just how to make it ALL work. Most of the areas on that list fall under: spiritual, financial, relational, or physical goals.

Now Rome wasn't built in a day and neither is a successful life for most of us. Each of those areas takes time, discipline, and commitment. I'm working on those aspects as I go. But I have to say the results I've been getting have really helped me stick to the plan. I'm a results motivated person. If I'm reaching goals and seeing changes, I can work hard forever. That's a blessing and a curse in one, because when I don't see the results and changes I want, I get discouraged quick.

This is where the accountability comes in. If you can find that one special someone to share your successes, failures, and changes with, then you've struck gold my loves. I'm a little bit of an overachiever in this area because I basically have one for each category but that's because not all of my friends are really making strides in each of those 4 ways, so that way I have someone who has similar goals in an area to report back too.

I guess my biggest caution in choosing this person is it can't be someone you're competitive with, otherwise you won't be honest when you totally screw it up (and you will, at some point). It has to be someone you can call and say 'I just spend my groceries budget on a Coach wallet and now I'm going to have to eat ramen for 3 weeks which is totally going to wreck my weight loss'. Also key is that the person you chose will A. not judge you but B. tell you what you need to hear. In this case I would expect my friend to respond 'And now you'll march your stilettos right back into that store and return said wallet and go to Publix'.

You're totally wondering right now if these things actually happen to me. The answer is yes. I'm totally quirky with my failures. Last week I ate a giant chocolate cupcake my roommate brought me after lunch because I was having a really rough day. I ate ALL of said cupcake at 3pm and then went to Crossfit at 5:30...um, yeah about that. I actually wished I'd throw up, that's how ecky it made me feel.

I HAVE spent my food budget on clothes before, several times (and that ramen part - that was pretty true also although you can also insert spaghetti there as well). I once even said, out loud, 'well, if I have to eat less because I have no food then the jeans will fit that much better, right?'. This is a bad idea friends. Make your budget and stick to your guns. Clothing and food aren't interchangeable.

So here's a few tidbits of wise advice from someone whos made a great number of mistakes at life:

- Pack your lunches. It will save you time, money, and calories.
- Do NOT eat anything highly chocolate before you're abused, outside, in the summer, in Florida @ Crossfit. Ever.
- Texting is not a replacement for calling. This is a toughie for me. I'm busy AND I hate the phone but guess what people, it's essential to long distance friendships. Pick it up, dial, and talk - your friends are worth it.
- Make life plans, yes. Modify them - often. Don't try to be your parents, at 25.
- Expect the unexpected. This is for things like oil changes, you know it's coming every 3 months but you push it out of your mind til your 2,000 miles over and broke. Oh yeah, and for the record Christmas is the same time every year - expect that it will happen in Decemeber and you'll have to buy gifts.
- If you're having a really stinkin hard time sticking with your diet, write yourself a post it that reads 'Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels'. Or post a picture of someone with a bangin body in a bikini - that might depress you into sticking with it. ; ]

Ah, wisdom to start your workday.

Love,
B

Griddle Griddle Griddle.

I had so much fun flipping flapjacks on a griddle while we were visiting Thomas's family in South Carolina a few weeks ago that I just HAD to rush out and buy myself a griddle. I found a great family sized (you know, for my current family made up of me and my roomie) @ Big Lots for 21 bucks. It's a Black & Decker and I haven't used it yet but Lindsay and Zach borrowed it to cook for a band that was staying with L last week, and they approved it and were delighted by the warming tray. Oh I'm fancy, huh?

So Marta and I have been dreaming on pancakes (and grilled cheese sandwiches) ever since and low and behond I find a blogpost yesterday with these yummy looking red velvet pancakes courtesy of Emily of at The Secret to Success is Support.

I stole her amazing picture to show them off to you but you can find the full blog by Emily here. I think I may have to give these a try this weekend while Thomas's parents are in town for Easter weekend. We'd talked about a Saturday morning pancake party anyways and these look like life-changing. I promise to keep you all posted if I make them with all my thoughts. Until then I will be dreaming in red velvet...yum.

Love,
B

Picture Challenge - Day Seven.

Guess who's learning to cook? This girl. Sporting an apron from my Mom, baking a Santa Fe Chicken Casserole, drinking a diet coke with fresh limes.

The casserole turned out delish and it was easy to make so I also thought I'd share it with you. You can find the recipe here.

I'm actually loving learning to cook lately. Trying new things. Bringing a certain someone food to try. : ] It's been a fun new adventure.

Love,

B

End of the Fast, End of a Rut?

Well, I'm happy to announce the fast is over and life can now return to 'normal', as normal as my life ever is anyway. I'm not sad to say goodbye, to be honest. It was a challenge I'm glad I completed but don't be surprised if this was the one and only time I do this type of fast.

As previously mentioned I didn't feel so hot during this fast. Low energy. Kind of moody. No strength to do weight training. I could tell my body wasn't real happy. A lot of the other girls doing it said they're energy bounced back after a bit, but truthfully, mine never did.

I also had several bad stomach days during the fast (proving yet again that it's not dairy or caffeine that's making me sick) so those were extra frustrating when I wasn't even eating (or drinking) food I like. Wah.

Aside from having to cut back my workouts which I love and not enjoying food for 21 days, the fast had it's fair share of emotional hardships as well. I shared a pretty tough blog entry a week or so ago about the clarity I prayed for, and got. I knew going into the fast that the answers I got to my prayers may not be what I wanted...but man, did I really get some tough wakeup calls.

Life and relationships are hard. I know that. But doesn't it seem like all the tough stuff comes at once? The first couple days of the fast came with some hard realizations and while I was down I felt like life gave me a swift kick in the stomach. I kept reminding myself that A. I asked for it and B. the rainbow comes AFTER the storm. But I'm just going to throw it out there -I hope this ends with the fast. I've had enough ecky discoveries to last me a good while now.

Here's some positives:

- after a tough couple weeks of being broken down, I feel the rebuilding on the horizon. I hope to come back stronger than ever, and I mean that on several levels.

- answers. I prayed and I got some answers. Not always the ones I wanted, but answers none-the-less.

- I lost 5 pounds. Hey, rejoice in victories, right?

- All things, good or bad, come to an end, and end she did.

- It is done and I never have to do it again if I don't want. : ]

Thanks for all your encouragement along the way. I really felt your prayers as well as your love and support. Thank you to my vegetarian and vegan friends who rallied with some good food ideas. Thank you to all who wanted me to succeed. I'm grateful to have people like you in my life.

Love,

B

Valentines Weekend.

Saturday Night. Bern's foyer - it feels like a palace.

Aubs and I with our desserts.

Friday Night.

Tiffany, Auburn, and I.

This is the face I made when we decided to take the night off from fasting.

It was a great night to take off because there was quite a spread of food:

After gabbing and grubbing we finally sat down and watched 'You've Got Mail'.

Overall it was a fabulous weekend full of food, friends, and fun. No complaints here. Hope you all had an equally great Valentines weekend.

Set Up & Gifts I Treasure.

I was cleaning on Sunday afternoon and it was time to clean up my table, which I leave set all the time (since I never eat at it). I took everything off and wiped down the table and decided to reset the table with new place settings comprised of gifts my sisters gave me. My sisters, Rachel and Ruthie are amazing girls. I talk about them from time to time here because they are a huge part of my life. I love having things around the house to remind me of them. An oven mit, a food processor, a cookbook that collects more dust than anything since I don't actually cook.

I closed on the my pad only days before Christmas (the 22nd). Rachel gave me red napkins and pearl napkin rings that first Christmas and I loved them. This Christmas Ruthie gave me dessert plates for when I have people over and black napkins for my table. So I decided to set the table with a combo of the gifts so the table would radiate both my sisters beautiful back to me. So ta da....

The place mats I bought with a gift card I won on Tara's blog a while back. Aren't they darling? If you're new here you may not know that my entire house is done in zebra print and accent colors. I love zebra. So the places pretty much stay as is.

I've been cleaning in prep to have a few ladies over for a dessert night since it's Valentine's weekend. We're going to do a dessert night and watch a chick flick of some sort (still working on which one). I love, love, love to have people over. I treat prepping to entertain like all things and I bask in the set up. When I have somewhere fun to go, like on a date, I spend all week thinking about what I'm going to wear, how I'll do my hair, what shoes...ok, sometimes buying new stuff (don't tell). For entertaining I set up a little everyday so the excitement can mount...

Those are the dessert plates Ruthie got me which I will be using for the first time this weekend, aren't they precious? Every other plate has a red or white background.

Mom made the table as well. She sent me paper napkins with bible verses a while ago and I thought this would be a cute time to use them. There's also black and white ones on the other half of the table. Thanks Ma.

I had to close by showing you this picture because it just shows you a little more of my personality. I have a surprisingly girlie house but somehow football has intertwined itself into my whole home as well. I was giggling about that as I drank from one of my favorite football glasses (I have 8) in front of the TV the other night.

Wish you could all come sample some goodies and hangout with me for a night.

Love,
B