Buffets aren’t good for doggies

Lily visited her sister this weekend, it was a blast. Our little bundle of joy weighs in at 23lbs at 18 weeks of age…a moderate number when compared to her sister of 28lbs. Only 5lbs difference, right? Really, though, that would be an added 22% of body weight packed on our wrinkle butt. The difference is that Tammy Faye, Lily’s sister, has her food left out 24/7 while we feed Lily the recommended 1 ½-2 cups each day. And let’s be honest, it’s more like 2 cups…always.


When the puppies were playing, Lily was always in charge. Bigger isn’t better even in puppy play. Additionally, Lily gets 3 walks a day most days of the week. Nothing long and excessive in the Oklahoma heat, but she’s active none-the-less. She’s got quite the bull baby physique and it’s helping Mark and I get out and walk more, as well. Remember that article I reviewed a few weeks back about dog ownership increasing activity? It’s definitely true…plus it’s given me the opportunity to meet a lot of our neighbors! Go figure! Anyone else a dog owner and find their activity heightened due to their fur baby?

Admittedly, she’s still a piglet. When we arrived yesterday for the play date, Lily proceeded to inhale both bowls of food left out for her sister and mom. So much for a dainty appetite – psh.

Tonight at our household was chicken fajitas! Yumm! Look at those delicious, colorful bell peppers!

And my favorite ingredient...ONION!

Delicious! We went sans the tortillas because 1) we didn't have them, 2) I didn't want to stop to get any (grocery store at 5pm...I'll pass), and 3) you just don't need them! Salsa and light sour cream go great!

Back from holidays! Budapest: day 1 and 2.

Hi there everyone!

It's been a while since my last actualization, but yes, I've been on holidays for two weeks! I was back home last saturday and today I started to work again.

I've been at Barcelona and Budapest, or the Sziget Festival, at Óbuda island. It was wonderful and great! I can't understand why in Spain the music festival are so expensive and bad organized and outside here everything is gorgeous.

I've got more than 1500 photos, but I'll show you only the best (almost all of them are from concerts!).

We arrived on monday morning after almost 35 hour travelling by bus... yes, by bus! We couldn't find cheap tickets for a plane, so we buy an special offer with the bus trip... it was HELL!! The only good thing was that we see lovely places like Slovenia or Nice, a city that I must visit on the future.

This picture was taken at Monaco, where we stopped just for having lunch.

Well, the Óbuda Island was perfect, I mean, I have never imagine a better place for a music festival. The baths were cleaned every hour, the food and the drink were very cheap, cool people, good music...



The first day I ate langos, it was delicious and I really enjoyed it! Then we had some mojitos at the Chuck Norris bar (yes, it's true and I leave you a picture to prove it XD) and went to our tent just for sleep.



The second day I ate kürstoskalac, which is a typical sweet from Hungary and you can have it in different flavours, as vanilla (the one I ate) or cinnamon.


Then we leave the Óbuda Island and explored Budapest, wich is a gorgeous city! I must come back and visit it again, without concerts and that kind of stuff... here are some pictures!

We came back to the island and went to sleep, because the next day there were concerts... the music start!! But I'll talk about it tomorrow.

No I'm going out with my friend María, who is a little bit sad; and when I come back I'll upload more photoso from the concerts to my Flickr account; have a look at it!

Tomorrow I promise I would answer all the commets and have a look to all your blogs, I must read them all!!

Have a good night!

Whipped out the crock pot!

Oklahoma has had some cool(ish) weather lately...leading me to believe summer is ending and the season of football and crock pots is on it's way in. I love fall! So in light of all that excitement, I whipped out the ole crock pot last night for it's first use of the season (and in Oklahoma). The delight: Cheesy Artichoke Chicken and Pasta. While I cannot credit this as a "new" recipe we're trying, it's been a long time. Last time, I made it in Chicago for Kristen...who gave it a big thumbs up. Mark and I give it a big thumbs up, as well. Super easy, SUPER cheesy. Enjoy!

Crock pot has been cookin' away on low for 6 hours. Boiling whole wheat egg noodles now...


There's the cheesy deliciousness


Italian wine ready to go : )


Add 4 cups of hot cooked pasta and stir.

Voila!

Cheesy Artichoke Chicken and Pasta

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts -- cubed (1 to 1 1/2)

4 oz roasted red peppers -- chopped (4 to 6)

15 ounces artichoke hearts -- quartered

8 oz fat-free American cheese

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1 can 98% fat-free cream of mushroom soup

2 cups fat-free shredded cheddar cheese

4 cups hot cooked pasta (I used whole wheat egg noodles)

to taste salt and pepper

In a 3 1/2-quart or larger crock pot combine chicken, peppers, artichokes, American cheese, Worcestershire sauce, and soup in the crock pot. Cover and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. About 15 minutes before serving, add shredded Cheddar cheese and hot cooked pasta. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.

Serves 5.

Per Serving*: 479 Calories; 2g Fat; 48g Protein; 67g Carbohydrate; 6g Dietary Fiber; 51mg

Cholesterol; 809mg Sodium.

*Nutrition Facts not verified.

Leftovers today for lunch : ) Have a wonderful day!

P.S. We won both our hockey games yesterday - woot!

This Makes All the Difference

Last year my 30th birthday was celebrated with the theme, "30 is the new 16!", complete with princess birthday hats, pink balloons and a fairy presiding over the food spread.

Those phyllo triangles in the front right corner - I made those, despite how I feel about phyllo. They were filled with mushrooms and cheese. I was told not to make anything for the party, but I insisted. That's how I roll.

This year, 31, wasn't quite worthy of the same level of celebration. It was, however, worthy of a cake. Earlier this summer, as I stood in line at Marshall's, I was unexpectedly wooed by a cookbook perched by the checkout. The title of the book was Great Cakes. Now I don't consider myself a cake person, but when a cookbook costs only $6 and boasts 250+ cake recipes, it's a no-brainer.

And now that I owned it, I decided I was making a cake for my birthday. Some people say I shouldn't make a cake for my own birthday, but I see no problem with it. It's not like I won't make a cake for yours! In fact, I would love to. Would you like Swiss Chocolate Silk or Black Bottom Mint Cheesecake? Graham Cracker Cake or Raspberry Ribbons? Holiday Honey Cake or Lemon Velvet Squares? There are over 250 to choose from.

I went with a cake called Double Trouble Fudge Cake, a two layer cake with a chocolaty nutty filling which I switched out for a raspberry filling instead. The cake itself was as good as any chocolate cake, but I what I want to tell you about here is the frosting and filling. Those two things can turn an average chocolate cake into a winner. It's like regular old "you" with a good haircut and clothes that fit well. Anyone who has seen an episode of What Not to Wear knows this makes all the difference.


The filling is easily made with frozen raspberries (1 1/2 cups), sugar (1/4 cup), lemon juice (2 T), and cornstarch (1 T) cooked briefly to combine and dissolve the sugar and cornstarch. The frosting is something like a chocolate ganache in its taste and texture. I swear it was just an ordinary cake underneath, but it was praised like no other. Or maybe that's just because it was free dessert.

Chocolate Custard Frosting
(yields about 3 cups, enough to fill and frost 2 9-inch layers, 3 8-inch layers, the top and sides of a 9X13X2 pan or a 10-inch tube cake.)

2 oz unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 oz semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon ground coffee
1/2 cup boiling water
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup half-and-half
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

In a small heavy saucepan, combine the chocolates, coffee, and boiling water. Stir until the chocolate is completely melted and the coffee dissolved. In a separate small bowl, combine the sugar, cornstarch, and salt and add to chocolate mixture, stirring until blended. Slowly add the half-and-half, whisking gently until well combined.

Bring to a boil over low heat, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon. Cook gently about 1 minute longer, stirring occasionally, then remove from the heat. Off the heat, blend in the butter and vanilla. To cool quickly, set saucepan in cold water. Stir gently, do not beat, until icing is thick enough to spread. This will only take a few minutes.

Exercise won't make you thin.

I can recall sitting in an undergrad nutrition class (who I believe was taught by the yummiest of professors) and having it explained how much more effective controlling diet for weight loss was than increasing exercise alone. Because really, weight loss is just simple math. To lose one pound, you need to create a deficit of 3,500 calories which can be done through the diet, exercise, or ideally, a combination of the two. With exercise alone, an average-sized adult owes the gym 35 hours of moderate-to-intense exercise, or approximately 35 miles of walking/running. Now that's not exact science, but it gets the point across: exercise alone will probably lead to osteoarthritis before it gets you to your weight loss goal (half jokingly). Needless to say, that yummy professor solidified my thoughts on proper nutrition -- it's important stuff, especially in regards to weight loss.

So TIME put out this article on August 9th explaining why exercise won't make you thin. In addition to the information above, the article explains that some believe exercise to increase their appetite, causing them to eat more and negate the work of their exercise. Some exercisers just make poor decisions because they exercise, likely overestimating the calories they expend during exercise [1].

The article states that there are more than 45 million Americans who belong to a gym, up from 23 million in 1993. Of course, that doesn't mean that people actually GO to the gym (unfortunately a membership alone does not qualify you as physically active). A study performed by the Minnesota Heart Survey found that more people say they exercise than the number who actually do. The 20-year survey found that the number of individuals saying they exercise rose from 47% in 1980 to 57% in 2000 [1].

Until recently, exercise was deemed an integral part of weight loss, when in fact, its role is largely over-stated. Exercise does, however, play an essential role in fighting chronic disease and in particular, heart disease...as well as cancer and diabetes [1]. So it's not to say exercise isn't hugely important...just maybe not so for weight-loss endeavors.

A recent study lead by Dr. Timothy Church randomized 464 overweight, sedentary women into 4 groups. The groups were asked to workout with a trainer for 72 minutes, 136 minutes, and 194 minutes per week for six months, with the last group being a control group. The women were asked to change nothing diet-related and to fill out monthly medical-symptom questionnaires. The results? On average, all the women lost weight. The three groups meeting with the trainer for varying lengths of time did not lose significantly more weight than the control group, however. Some women in each of the four groups actually gained weight -- some more than 10 lbs! What happened? Some of the exercising women ate more because the worked out. Some "rewarded" hard work at the gym with an extra treat. Some moved less when they got home because they worked out [1].

Current 2007 recommendations for exercise put out by the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association include 60 to 90 minutes most days of the week for weight loss. That's quite a lot for the average Joe [1].

A quote from the article:
"According to calculations published in the journal Obesity Research by a Columbia University team in 2001, a pound of muscle burns approximately six calories a day in a resting body, compared with the two calories that a pound of fat burns. Which means that after you work out hard enough to convert, say, 10 lb. of fat to muscle — a major achievement — you would be able to eat only an extra 40 calories per day, about the amount in a teaspoon of butter, before beginning to gain weight. Good luck with that."

So today during my TWO hockey games (makes me tired just thinking about it!), I will opt for water in place of my G2 (Gatorade's low-sugar option). While even I was thinking, "It's just 100 calories...I'm burning WAY more than that"...I am reminded of otherwise. Thanks, TIME.

[1]. Cloud, John. Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin. TIME. August 9, 2009.