My Purse: Then and Now

As I was riffling through my purse yesterday I thought about how I have always carried a really messy purse. What has changed is what I keep in my purse. When I was in high school and early college I carried a different mess of stuff than what I carry these days.

Then:

• Gum - spearmint not peppermint and lots of it!
• My 'trusty' credit card
• My beeper
• Change for the pay phone - do they have pay phones now? (if they do - how much do they cost??)
• Lots of readmits for when I 'missed' a class
• Movie tickets and notes from friends
  

Now:

• Never gum - I out grew gum - eww!
• Cash
• My old school cell phone (for now - I have a fancy one on the way)
• Medicine for most illnesses
• Paper and a pen - I can entertain myself for a good hour making lists
• Old lists, snacks, bank envelopes, coupons and other clear signs that I am nearing 30!

Spicy Ranch

On a short trip to Publix we sampled the apron's meal and it was so yummy we immediately bought the stuff to make black bean corn salad. The only catch was that the dressing called for is spicy ranch and they only sold a full fat version. I was confident I could find a recipe online to spice up low fat ranch. After looking at several recipes and seeing what we had on hand I made my own version. This stuff is so good I think we have gone through 5 heads of Romain since Saturday. This is a must try!

Spicy Ranch
One bottle of low fat ranch dressing (we like Hidden Valley)
1 T hot sauce (I used Louisiana)
heaping 1/2 t cayenne pepper
1/2 t chili powder

I poured the bottle of dressing into my 4 cup Pyrex and added the spices, whisked good then poured back into the bottle. Yum!

What! I'm not 12 anymore?

Also know as the day I found out I can't cross the monkey bars anymore.

We stopped by a local park on the way back from our usual bike ride, because the park has different stations to do exercises. I was very excited to head to the monkey bars, because I remember loving to cross them on the playground. I grabbed right on ready to glide across when I felt every muscle in my arms stretch for dear life and I fell halfway through. Disappoint, but not deterred I tried again only to discover I cannot cross the monkey bars. When I expressed my confusion to my husband he lovingly reminded me I haven't attempted this since I was 12, and apparently I have no upper body strength. I will leave you to guess what happened on the pull up bar, but I am pretty sure I am going to be s-o-r-e tomorrow.

Spring is here!

I have seriously neglected this blog. I have tons of photos stored of things I planned on blogging about - cooking, projects, gardening - but I never get around to it. I am going to make a much better effort to post. After finally getting settled into our new house I should have plenty of time.

We have been so busy working in our garden. We ripped out bushes and replaced them, as well as adding lots of trees and flowers. Here are a few of my favorites:




This rose is in an old Listerine bottle I found at my grandparents lake.

Lots of Changes

I've had some big changes come my way the last couple of month. I have been left slightly unsettled, but I am finally getting things back together.

We have bought our first house and are anxiously awaiting closing! I have been spending lots of time in home improvement and furniture stores. I can't wait to have a place of my own to decorate and a kitchen to cook in again.

Stir Fry Wraps

After a while away from the kitchen, I have started cooking again this week. My husband asked for something inside a lettuce wrap. I made my mom's super easy stir fry and served it inside lettuce leaves.

The verdict? Super yummy. And so healthy it caused my non-dessert eating husband to declare "what's for dessert?" (stay tuned...)

Stir Fry Wraps

chicken cubed (you can stretch the chicken a lot, I used one large breast)
garlic
brocoli slaw veggie mix (I found this on sale at Publix for $1)
stir fry sauce
rice
hearts of romain

Put the rice on to cook. I use boil in a bag brown rice because I have never had success with regular rice. Cook the chicken with garlic until cooked through. Then add veggies and cook until soft. Trust me - you want these nice and soft. Sometimes I add some water to help them cook down. Add about 1/2 of the bottle of stir fry sauce. Cook through. I usually just serve this mix over the rice.

Mix some rice with the stir fry and spoon into clean lettuce leafs. Enjoy!

Do you know where you'll be

June 20th, 2010?

I do! I'll be at the final round of the US Open Pebble Beach. We bought our tickets today!