Friday, April 16, 2010

An easy, relaxing (non-frugal) meal


When I was a kid, every once in a while my family would have a meal of 'finger foods'. Mostly it would be meat, cheese and crackers. I loved that kind of meal. We all used our fingers and shared off of the same big plate in the middle. We seemed to talk more and have more fun. So, I wanted to do that with my husband. We made up the platters and sat on the floor in the living room and watched a movie. It was cute, it was fun, and best of all, no cooking on a busy night.

It's a little bit of an expensive meal because I have this love affair with certain cheeses and just HAVE to have them when I do a thing like this. Namely, smoked gouda. Mmmmm... So good. We got monterrey and colby jack, Laughing Cow spreadable swiss, smoked gouda, and a port and wine cheeseball. Turkey and ham were our meats. I threw in some carrots with the crackers so we'd have some kind of vegetable for this finger-food meal.
Yummy!

We tried Roasted Vegetable Ritz crackers and I LOVED them. I like them a lot better than the original flavor. I just think they have a lot more to offer, flavor-wise.
We also tried these babies. SO good! There's shredded cheese melted on top of the crackers, so they're super tasty. They're a little expensive for how much you get, but if you're treating yourself, why not? They're good!

I hope everyone has at least one fun, easy dinner in their repertoire!

Thursday, April 15, 2010

I need a change

Obviously, I'm doing something wrong with the way I treat myself. I feel like crap. I am constantly hungry, never have any energy, I feel sick all the time, and I am so super lethargic. So, I MUST be doing something wrong. I believe that I'm just putting the wrong things in my body. If I believe the mantras 'You are what you eat' and 'Put good in, get good out' and I am feeling the way I do, then the logical answer to my problems would be that I am putting 'crap' in. When I examine my eating habits and my lifestyle, I can see that that is indeed true. I eat whatever I want, pretty much in whatever quantity I want, don't exercise enough, and don't take care of myself in the way I should. So, what's the solution? Start eating well! All the time! (Or most of the time, at least!) And exercise!

My husband and I so often eat fast food that we almost never get the veggies we need. We blame it on the 'no time' we have, but really, it's just a lie that we use so that we can be lazy. We've got to stop eating out so much, first and foremost. Secondly, we need to eat more vegetables! I started this last night with an AMAZING recipe which I will talk about in my next post. Third, we need to eat more fruit. Fruit is best for breakfast, by itself, because fruit tends to digest rather quickly on its own which means you will get the nutrients, fiber, and vitamins faster. If you eat fruit with other slower-digesting food, you'll have the fruit just sitting there for much longer than needed in your hot stomach. Yuck! Fermenting fruit=so not tasty! So, I want to eat raw fruit for breakfast and wait at least 30 minutes before eating anything else. That way, I'm guaranteed to get the servings of fruit I need. Take, for example, this morning. I ate most of a medium mango, a small kiwi, and 1/4 of a cantaloupe. Took me about 5 minutes to prep and cut up, but I stayed satisfied for a little under 3 hours, which is rather unusual for me (I'm ALWAYS hungry, even if I just ate a huge meal at a buffet.) I know that I started my day off with plenty of vitamins and enzymes and fiber and just... delicious. I should do this every day. See?
I'll post more about the vegetables and recipes I'm going to start adding to our diets soon.