Running, a love/hate relationship and my commitment

I decided to accept a challenge that through my busiest time of year I will commit to running at least one mile a day from Thanksgiving until Christmas. I got a late start but yesterday I ran 1.35 miles and the day before, 2 miles. So this is yet another public forum that I am stating this in so that I can be adamantly held to it!!! I ran outside yesterday and used an app on my phone called "Charity Miles". It donates to a charity of your choice for every mile you run. Why not?! Just putting it out there in the rare case that a runner will read this and start using it that was unaware of its existence :) Speaking of which I am about to go get dressed for the gym! 2 miles today!!!

Vegetarian "Beef" Stew

My favorite winter comfort food has always been beef stew. Warm, thick, meaty...does it get any better on a chilly Michigan day? I used to come home from school and make Dinty Moore beef stew, straight out of the can... ew. Now of course I pretty much cut out all processed food and don't even eat meat anymore, except on special occasions. So this is my solution... Portabella Stew!

2 redskin potatoes
2 portabella mushrooms
1/2 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 cup frozen peas (thawed)
4 cups organic vegetable stock
2 Tbs butter
1/2 yellow onion
3 garlic cloves
2 Tbs whole wheat flour
1 tsp dried bay leaves
1/4 cut balsamic vinegar (not pictured)
1 Tbs garlic powder (also not pictured)
Salt and pepper to taste

Chop everything up into chunks as pictured, and also cut up portabellas. Melt butter in a large pot, add in onions and celery, cook until softened, add garlic and stir. Add bay leaves and pour in the vegetable stock and add potatoes. Bring to a boil and cook until potatoes are softened. Add in the balsamic vinegar and garlic powder. Reduce heat, and in a small cup combine flour with a little water, enough so that its incorporated together completely and pour into the pot. Let it thicken just a bit. Add in the mushrooms and cook until they are tender. Add the peas in the cook until they are thoroughly heated. Let simmer, salt and pepper to taste and serve hot. Mmmmm

Nothing compares to the original but this at least comes close and makes me feel wayyyy healthier :) Enjoy!

Egg Sammie 215 Calories

I like to make things that I enjoyed as a child before I knew what calories and preservatives were. Hence my egg sammie, just like a breakfast muffin from the golden arches, just minus all the extra salt and pretty much just grossness that they add. 215 calories and takes maybe 5 minutes to make :)

Coat the coffee mug with a finger swipe of the olive oil to make sure it just slides out. Break eggs into your prepared mug, I used 2 whites and 1 whole organic brown egg. Stick that in the microwave for 1.5 minutes. Cut the whole wheat bread in half and put in the toaster while the egg cooks. I used Sargento thin slices in swiss, you could use cheddar for more taste, this is just what I already had. Arrange Accordingly.

Make sure your egg doesn't have too much jiggle and is just barely pulled away from the mug. Assemble and enjoy!

Mobile on the breakfast that's easy, healthy and a great way to start your day :)

My best.friend.

Finally got to spend time with my greatly missed best friend Julia and our friend Shelly. They put me at ease whenever we hang out. This is the type of friendship that I don't even need to speak because they instantly know what I want to say, where I want to go, or when to cut someone off who is pushing my buttons.

Rarely in life do you find people who you can get a long with under any circumstances. Julia and I have been friends at this point since we were 15... 12 years!!! I don't really remember ever having a friend that I felt like was my equal and not judging me until I met her. Granted we had some fights, as every friendship does, esp after 12 years and beauty school, but we have always stuck together. If I were to have a sister I would imagine it would be just like this. I couldn't ask for more.

She's always been there for me, we've been through a lot of really heavy stuff. We lost a really close friend suddenly to a drug overdose when we were 20. I found out sitting on Julia's couch at her dads house, which ironically was the last place we saw him, at my birthday party a week earlier. Julia's sister Sara, married my brother Mike 7 years ago and friends then became family. We also became aunts for the first time together, to our nephew Nick. She was my only friend at my secret wedding, and threw me a "don't be sad we made you a cake" party the day of my divorce. I cannot tell the difference between my mother and Julia's mother when they are on the other end of a phone call, and her mom has become a part of our family as well. Getting to spend all our holidays together has made my best friend my absolute most cherished friendship because we inevitably will always be involved in eachothers lives and famililes lives. Losing both of my grandmothers before I was half way through high school Julia's Grandma became one of my favorite older women to spend time with and Julia was always willing to share. I've hung out at every place shes ever lived and done my best to help her when I can, even though my paint skills are questionable, and her house always feels like home to me. When it comes down to it, she feels like home to me. When all else fails and my life is up in the air, there she is, always willing to put me in her passenger seat and take me to Redford Grill in the middle of the night for coffee, dessert, and endless comfort.

We've dicussed how things are going to change as we get older. We are going to go through another round of weddings... at some point. We will hopefully experience our children growing up together. We will most likely end up taking care of our parents around the same time and make decisions about their health and well being. We will watch Nick grow up, get a car, a girlfriend, graduate high school, go away to college, get married, and have kids of his own some day. We will end up being grandmas together. More than anything else, any other relationship, any man or friend that may come along, I look forward to a future with the love of my best friend.

Xoxo

First Annual FriendsGiving :)

Today was an amazing day, absolutely blessed and couldn't be more thankful for everyone and everything in my life :)

Breakfast with the boys, and a trip to Costco to start the day. The boys finally convinced me to try out my skills at video games, which I'm pleased to say I actually enjoyed and wasn't completely horrible at. Met up with a good friend Ed, and went to see the new Lincoln movie, which was slow and absolutely draining. I've seen better documentaries on PBS to be quite frank, but enjoyable because of the company non the less. All to come home to a dinner made by the least suspecting person, Chris.

I don't think I've ever been made a meal by a friend, who wasn't obligated by it being their job. Walking in the door and it smelled just like Thanksgiving. Chris made his first turkey, complete with cheesy potatoes and wine. We all just sat around and feasted and drank and truly enjoyed being together. What a sweet gesture. Ending the night with kicking off the first of the holiday movie in the stash with my favorite Christmas movie, Elf. We all laughed the munched our way through.

Ending the night cuddled up, snoozing, and completely content. Completely content... mmmm :) Doesn't happen often. I am going to savor every second of it and look forward to continuing the warm and fuzzies with the rest of the Christmas DVD stash in waiting.

I'm so old...

I create things on an almost daily basis. I'm a busy body, I don't use proper grammar or spelling.  I am not very good at technology so this is a new task for me but I figure if I don't start trying to use it I'm going to end up very behind.

I am a fiercely passionate person about almost every aspect of my life. I'm an avid pintrest-er and kept wondering where all these original posts came from, blogs? Guess I better start blogging because Ive got one hell of a crazy life and I constantly think I can improve my own and other peoples lives if given the chance.

My friends, always tell me that I make the most amazing "health" food so I figure I'll blog about that among other things. I'll talk about my crazy nephew and crazy things he says, always making me laugh. My insanely large Maltese family that likes to get in each others business and is constantly evolving. I'll tell you about my crazy job and why I love, and hate it. If nothing else that will probably tell you what NOT to do if you wanna remain on your stylists good side. I am a pretty thrifty person (thanks mom) and have all sorts of little tidbits that save pennys mostly but eventually lead to dollars! I am a runner and work out enthusiast when time allows. It really is more for my mental health that anything else. I am a "not strict" vegetarian and avoid all meat except fish generally, but I use things with chicken stock and whatnot, which is why I say "not strict".
I don't do it for the animals I just try to stay away from anything that I don't know what type of processing went into it or additives are in it.

So today I create my blog. Hopefully I will actually remember to post in it :)