2011 Goals

I’m going to keep them short and sweet:

• Read more books (maybe buy a Kindle to help with this goal?).
• Meal plan. Use my cookbooks to be more creative.
• Bake more. Use my new toy, the Kitchen Aid mixer!
• Be more calm & positive at work.
• Take a photography class. I love photography, but want to learn how to do more with our Canon DSLR Rebel XS. I want Craig to join me so he knows how to use the camera when we are on vacation, etc.
• Do yoga more often. Aim for 2 times per week. I find that yoga is so good for my body and for dealing with stress.
• Train and run a 10K: Summerfest 10K on July 10, 2011. In the past, I have completed two half marathons and a couple of 5k’s, an 8 mile race in California, but never a 10K. I have a love/hate relationship with running. Hurdling in high school left me with bad knees. Let’s hope if I train properly, I can do this 6 mile run and accomplish my goal!
• Attend a blog conference. I want to go to the Healthy Living Summit in 2011, no matter where it is.

Conquering tofu

I conquered my fear of making tofu! I like tofu and have had it several times in restaurants. I just had a fear of pressing the water out of it properly and cooking it. With the help of Emily from The Daily Garnish, I was able to easily follow her directions and make my own yummy tofu for lunch. She has a How To: A Tofu Tutorial posted on her blog, but I was having trouble posting the exact link, so you can search her site if you are interested in her detailed instructions.

Pressing the tofu with heavy books.

I spiced it up with Penzey’s black pepper, Mural of Flavor and Old World seasonings.

I paired it with Green Giant valley fresh steamers veggies.

Dessert was a chocolate chip cookie, naturally.

Breakfast today was greek yogurt with chia seeds, honey and almonds.

Angie and I had fun at the gym this morning. We did 23 minutes on the elliptical & a full circuit of weights.

When I got home from the gym, I was hungry! I snacked on a few (well maybe it was more than a few) of these addictive “Food Should Taste Good” Sweet Potato tortilla chips. Through a Facebook promotion, I was able to get a coupon for a free bag via snail mail.

I ran a bunch of errands in the afternoon, but accomplished a lot, so that felt good. One of my biggest accomplishments was picking up three framed pictures from Target to put above our couch. Craig and I have been searching for something to replace a very 1970′s brown picture with (I detest this picture, as it’s just depressing in appearance and so 70′s). I saw these pictures at Target yesterday and took photos of them to show Craig. At last, we both agreed on a style of a picture we liked!

I brought them home and my sister-in-law was over at our house. She took one look at them and said they were very much our style. They kind of have an Indian style to them and we love all things India.

I also picked up a lot around the house, organized, etc. because that is one of my goals for the new year. I am generally a very clean person, but organization is sometimes a problem for me.

Time to work on writing my goals out a little more. I am taking my time, as I figure they didn’t need to be posted today and could wait until later this weekend.

Tomorrow, I am going to do my usual Sunday paper and CBS Sunday Morning thing, then go to Body Pump with Angie for the new release! Can’t wait to see what the new music is!

Happy 2011!

Good morning and happy first day of 2011! I still have to list my goals for the year. I have a draft started, but need to sit down and complete it later today.

Here is the recap of New Year’s eve afternoon/evening.

I got home from Target yesterday afternoon and enjoyed some Breyer’s heath bar ice cream.

We headed out to dinner and faced what we figured–a long wait at the restaurant we originally planned to go to. After running an errand to Kohl’s that took a lot longer than we thought, we were starving. We just decided to go to Noodles & Co. in the end, because it was around 7 p.m. and we needed to eat. I never really eat at Noodles, but the dish I had was good. It was the Indonesian Peanut Saute.

I cleaned my plate and was left with a very spicy mouth!

I had even added a tiny bit of Sriracha to try it out.

Craig had the Wisconsin Mac & Cheese. I tried a little and it was good.

We headed home after dinner and because it was so warm out, Craig suggested we take a walk.

Look at this well lit house in our neighborhood!

Once home, I decided to get the Kitchen Aid out of the box, wash the parts and bake chocolate chip cookies!

Loved using the Kitchen Aid for the first time! The dough ended up so well mixed.

Cookies and milk, the perfect New Years Eve snack.

The cookies turned out so good. I think they are the best I have ever made.

My alcoholic beverage of choice was Crispin natural hard cider from Whole Foods.

I liked the flavor a lot. The honey was more apparent as an after taste.

As you can see, we like to celebrate our New Years eve in a more low key way. Did you do anything special to celebrate the evening?

Time to get going to the gym! I am meeting Angie there for some time with the weights and cardio machines.

Have a good Saturday!