Baked Pasta

A big bowl of pasta smothered in sauce and cheese is what this woman who was feeling cold, with a cold needed last night. So that is exactly what I made. I forgot to get a picture of the deliciousness so I snagged one off of Google images that looked like what I made! I'll try and remember not to deconstruct my food before taking a picture next time! So you say you'd like the recipe? I just so happen to have that right here:

12oz pasta (I used whole wheat rotini)
4 cups of your favorite pasta sauce (I used left over all day sauce)
1 cup mozzarella cheese, divided

1)Preheat oven 350.
2)Boil pasta according to package directions, drain.
3)Add pasta sauce and 1/2 cup of the cheese. Mix well and place in an 8x11 baking pan (that is what I had on hand)
4) top with remaining cheese. Cover with foil.
5) bake for 20 min. Remove the foil and bake for another 10 min or until cheese is lightly browned.
6) Let stand 10 min, then cut, serve and enjoy!

This can be doubled with one pan frozen and cooked later! Do steps 2-4. When you plan on baking it, preheat oven to 350 and bake for 50 min then remove the foil and bake for an additional 10. Let stand for 10 min before serving.

Pets

I love animals. We saved a bunch of kittens (5 of them!) early this year and are down to 2 brothers. Diagonally and Princess Buttercup (don't laugh, we thought he was a girl!) are both orange and white cats. Buttercup was chosen to be ours when he was able to put up with Drake picking him up and carrying him around like a baby. Diagonally is just so pretty, that we couldn't say no. Plus they have each other to play with when we are asleep at night. Boy do they ever play when we are asleep at night!

Over the weekend we acquired a male Beta Fish thanks to my Mother in Law. The Hubs is stoked about this! He's a beautiful shade of red and I instantly thought "I need a nail polish to match him!"... anyway I ended up getting an email from The Hubs on how to care for a Beta. I thought they were just kept in covered containers because they are jumping fish and said containers were cleaned about once a week. Boy was I wrong! These little fish are much higher maintenance! So, that is the job of The Hubs. I take care of the cats, he takes care of the fish.

When we move to a place with a yard I would love to get a Labradoodle for Drake. I think a dog would be a great companion for a little boy (and his momma and daddy hehe) and would teach him a little responsibility. I hope to accomplish this by his 7th birthday. We'll see :)

Overall, pets are great to have around. They provide hours of entertainment and company. Now, if only I could keep Diagonally from plotting against the fish....

Holidays!

Starting around Halloween I get the itch to start baking and cooking for others. The weather cools (finally!) and I find myself just daydreaming about seeing happy faces and sharing my talent with others. So far I have made a Greek Pasta Salad for my husband's Halloween potluck at work, a dinner of beef stroganoff and fresh green beans with roasted red peppers for my in-laws and 2 butterfinger ice cream pies. This phase doesn't end until Easter.

I love the holidays! 

Brandyisms: Vacation Planning

I love to go out of town on mini-vacations. I reeeeaaaallly love it. I also love to plan the vacation. So much so, that I over plan. I like to get the most out of each trip and often forget that just relaxing can be a very important part of said vacation.

The hubby and I have a mini-vacation planned for this weekend in Las Vegas to celebrate our anniversary. The plan started out looking a little something like this:

7:30am Leave home
10am: Drop Drake off @ Auntie's
12pm: Lunch
3pm: Arrive @ Hotel
4pm: Early dinner via Room Service (which takes an hour to deliver)
6pm: Get ready for Clubbing
8pm: Drive to Club
12am: Leave club
12:30am: Gamble @ Hotel
2am: Back to room for sleep
7am: Buffet at the hotel for brunch
etc etc
Every second was planned out. Hubby looks at the list and asks if I plan on scheduling in the time for restroom breaks and just plain old fun.  Oops! So now, we have loose plans. We might go to the club and order room service, then again we might not. Who cares. It's a vacation!

Brandyisms: Ironing

I love ironing. I love it so much that even though I do not have to, I do it almost every day. I even do it on vacation.

I have a ritual when it comes to ironing. I pull out my board and smooth down the fabric. I then untwist the cord for the iron, fill it with fresh filtered water and a splash of linen spray then plug it in and set it for the proper temperature. Then the fun part: I iron the clothing for the day. Most often it is just my husband's work clothing and maybe a shirt of mine and my son's. It takes a mere 5-10 minutes of my day but it's enough to center myself for the rest of that day.

You see, I use the time I spend ironing to meditate. With each pass of the iron over the clothing I envision any anger, frustration and doubt coming out with the wrinkles. I breathe deeply and concentrate on nothing but the wrinkles in the clothing and in my head and heart coming out.Sometimes I can work out only one issue. Other times it seems as though I am working out as many issues as I am wrinkles.

As I lay out the clothing for the day, I usually find myself smiling and feeling much better. As I put away my iron and board, I also put away negative feelings for the day. They can be worked out tomorrow, just like the wrinkles in the clothes.

New Segment!

I've decided to start a new segment on my blog. I am going to call it Brandyisms. Every Wednesday, I'm going to make a point to post one of my random thoughts on life.  They are often quirky and sometimes utterly ridiculous; mostly optimistic with a dose of realistic and a smidgen idealistic. Letting people step inside my head for a little bit should be fun. Just don't be too loud while you're in there, I don't want to start complaining about the voices in my head!

The Gym: The Wonder Drug

Since I started working out on Friday, I've noticed a few things. I've had more energy, I'm sleeping better, I'm in a better mood and I've not noticed some stuff too.

You may be asking yourself, what does that mean?

Here is what that means: In the short amount of time since I've started working out and the small amount of time I put in (30 min a day 6 days a week)  I've managed to do away with most of the symptoms of PMDD. For those of you who do not know what that is, it's an extreme version of PMS. The only "cure" for it is birth control pills and I happen to be allergic. So nearly every month I would get extreme hunger that caused binge eating, migraines, digestion issues, fatigue, mood swings, and flu like symptoms that includes a fever and body aches. I had 10 days of dealing with that before my period even started and that is a whole different issue on it's own.

This month however, I was surprised by my period. I had almost no symptoms. I craved chocolate over the weekend and had a mild headache 2 days before. That was it. That was all. I wasn't crawling into bed the day before with what felt like the flu. I wasn't eating so much the week before that my stomach would become hard to the touch, I didn't cry and then get angry at the drop of a hat and I wasn't falling asleep whenever I sat still. This is amazing to me. This makes getting up at 4:45 am completely worth it on it's own.

It's like my body is thanking me. I like that feeling. I'm going to keep that feeling going as long as I can. Weightless takes a back seat to this. Now, it's just a side effect and that my friends is something worth writing about.

The Gym and Yummy Lunch

I finally started back at the gym on Friday. 2 days in and my legs are burning! Right now I am only doing 30 min on the bike so that I can start building endurance. Friday I used the recumbent bicycle and managed to do over 20 miles an hour. Today I decided to try the other bike. What a mistake that was. I was so uncomfortable that I had to get off of it after 13 min. Because of my discomfort it cut my pace down drastically from 20ish mph to 14! Okay... so, here we are with a lesson learned! Recumbent bike is the way to go for me from now on. I plan on adding 5 more min next Friday and 5 the Friday after that and then another 5 after that. After I get the 45 min of cardio going I will add in weight lifting.

So today when I came home I was sore. I wasn't hungry yet thanks to the low fat chocolate milk I drink right after my work-out but I already knew what I wanted for lunch when the hunger did hit. I wanted a grilled cheese sandwich, grapes and tomato bisque soup. So at 11:30 when the hunger hit I was ready! My sandwich was made on 12 grain bread with 2 slices of American cheese. It was made in my sandwich maker so there is no need for butter. The soup is made with 1 can of condensed tomato soup, 4 oz fat free evaporated milk and 4 oz water and lots of black pepper. The soup comes out thick and creamy and perfect for dunking your sandwich in. It was truly something delicious.

Now, I'm  off to do some research on weight lifting!

A Serious Weight Loss Goal

I joined a gym on Saturday and yet, I still haven't gone. I am aware it's now Tuesday. I have been planning on waking up at 5am and going. Both Monday and today were stopped short by hubby's work schedule. I have a goal in mind and I want to reach it by the 22nd of October. That is when my husband and I head to Las Vegas for the weekend to celebrate our 8th anniversary! I want to lose 10 pounds by then, so I can give myself a buffer around my goal weight of 250. This way I can eat without worry. To accomplish this, I need to work out and drink more water! I am aware this gives me just over 3 weeks to accomplish this. However, because I have only been working out about 30 min a day 3 days a week at home doing mostly pilates the gym based cardio should kick my behind into weight loss overdrive!

So... Here's to the 10 pound countdown! 

Food Reactions Post Gallbladder Surgery

I'm 30 years old, and relearning how to eat. Certain foods cause much stomach distress. Others I can finally eat without an issue..Let me explain:

I suffered for many years with what I thought was Acid Reflux. It was so bad that once I made a tear in my esophagus from all the acid and vomit. It wasn't fun. A few months ago we found out my gallbladder was full of stones and it had to come out asap. So out it came and let me tell you, I felt so much better.

So now my digestive system works pretty well. No more waiting for 5 days for the urge to use the restroom to hit. No more Acid Reflux when I eat meat or spicy foods. For the first time in years I went more than a month without indigestion or super painful gas. However, I am starting to find what my stomach doesn't like for real.

I had my first bout of indigestion 2 days ago and it knocked me on my butt. I was unprepared and became very ill. The culprit? Diner style chili cheese fries. The grease and the rich meats mixed with spicy peppers, onions and cheese just didn't go over well. I'm actually gagging right now thinking about it. So needless to say I am going to avoid eating that. If I find myself craving chili cheese fries I can make a chili stuffed potato at home using my own ingredients and save myself a lot of pain.

Potato chips have caused stomach upset as well. it just feels like they aren't being digested and are sitting there like a rock in my stomach. Tortilla chips on the other hand, are just fine. French fries, tater tots and fried potatoes don't go over well unless eaten in small portions. Baked and mashed potatoes are just fine though. Bacon causes my hands and feet to swell, even when ingested in small portions. Lunch meat does the same as bacon unless had in very small portions.

I'm still testing things out. Lately my favorite things to eat have been oatmeal and yogurt. Both have been easy on my stomach and leave me satisfied. Before, oatmeal would often cause indigestion. It's so nice to be able to eat foods that I couldn't before. It's a trade-off but it seems like my body is rejecting bad for me stuff anyway, and I won't complain about that! ;)

Mindfulness in a chaotic world.

I am practicing becoming more mindful in all aspects of my life. Dictionary.com defines mindful as attentive, aware, or careful. That sounds about right. 

My 20's were spent acting on impulse after so many years of living under other people's rules. I wasn't reckless or a rebel in the classic idea of the terms. I just wanted to find me. What I found was about 150 extra pounds, a bunch of debt and thankfully, my saving grace: My family. So lesson learned: Impulsiveness is not for me. Making decisions based on emotion alone has left me in a place that I can grow from. I am thankful for that. 


Back to being mindful. I am trying to think before doing most everything. It helps me to not regret my actions. It also helps me to find and be 'me'. I am excited to find me :)

Blogging: It's for me!

I've tried blogging before. It's never gone very well. I get an idea in my head and decide that my blog should be about that ONE thing, and nothing else. Come to find out: I'm not so great at making rules or placing restrictions on myself. I wonder if that is why every diet I have ever done has failed, every to do list gets thrown away, every workout plan goes to the back-burner and the list goes on and on.

For this blog, I have some loose goals in mind. I want to write about things that help me to grow. I hope that as people join and start reading that some of my own findings might help them grow as well. This won't be about anything specific although, there will likely be trends! I won't spoil the surprise (mostly because when I try and write a list of what I love I start feeling like I have to write about only those things...) so just keep an eye out :)

XOXO