oscar loves baskets

especially baskets that match his fur.

shhhh... he's sleeping.

I think he wants us to leave him alone.

work it out wednesday!: burpees

work it out?  a new feature on the blog?

you know it.

this is me.

sweaty.

doin' my thing with sweat in my eye.

I've been thinking that since I'm a personal trainer and fitness instructor, I should share some workouts with you.  These will be the types of workouts that I would do with the boot camp class that I teach.  If you move quickly, you can get it done quickly.  And I try to make sure that you don't need a lot of equipment so you can do this stuff at home.  So here's my first workout to share with you.

*if you're not sure what any of these are, Google!

Let's get in shape!!  woo.

(not so) spicy thai noodles

the mister hates spicy food.  it doesn't balance out his fiery personality.

so when I found this recipe, I knew he may put up a fight.

"what are you making?"

"oh just this thai noodle dish"

"is it spicy?"

geez, why does he always ask this question.

I used very few red pepper flakes.

in turn, my noodles were a little bland, but mister was happy and his personality remained balanced.

good flavor combination... recipe here.

Zoe loves toilet paper

It's time to give little sis a chance to love something... so here she is lovin' on some tp.

way to keep your butt clean, Zoe!

Oscar loves that Zoe loves toilet paper.

hand embroidery for baby.

our friends just had a sweet little baby girl and I wanted to do something special for them so I decided to hand embroider some onesies for them.

If you're looking for some cute hand embroidery patterns that are fun and cool, urbanthreads is my favorite site (great for machine embroidery patterns as well!)

bear.

bunny.

chick.

robot.

flowers.

monkey.

all together now.

in a basket with diapers... a great gift!

veggie BLT's

oh, Blogger, acting the fool and messing up my meatless monday post.  

so meatless tuesday it is!

the mister has been lovin' BLT's lately.  I recently introduced him to vegetarian bacon and he just can't get enough.

look at those beautiful tomatoes!

look at 'em!

so good.

he's been eating them every day for about a week now.

oscar loves remote controls

he's in remote control heaven.

no, not this remote control... do you even remember this show?

yes now he can control the lights, fan, cable and tv.

no, oscar, you can't control humans.

...or can you??

granola.

I love granola.  LOVE.

I've been looking for a great granola recipe online and this one I really do love (although I made some modifications)

cranberries, slivered almonds, rolled oats, sunflower seeds, ground flax

isn't it a beaut?

I doubled the liquid part of the recipe because I read that this recipe was really dry, and it was.

even with doubled binding agent.

but still delicious.

crumbs.

did you know you don't have to count the calories when you're eating crumbs?  

it's like a sweet little bonus ;)

taco night!

we love Mexican food.  we love it.

the mister has been wanting to have taco night for a few weeks and we did it.

I found a pin to this recipe for homemade taco seasoning... tastes just like the seasoning you get in the store and you can make a ton of it if you want to keep having taco nights OR just enough for your meal.

tomatoes, cheese, shredded lettuce

yay for toppings!

that's fake meat trying to masquerade as real ground beef.

don't let it fool you, fool.

all together now.

delish.  we inhaled it and decided we should have more taco nights.

Oscar loves pallets

when you get a new neighbor who is completely renovating the house across the street from you, you get to take pallets from their trash pile.

Oscar thinks it's his new relaxing spot.

come on, buddy.  relax down.

there ya go.

he doesn't know we're not leaving a pallet in the middle of the floor for him.

pineapple jalapeño pops!

the mister and I have become quite obsessed with Steel City Pops, our local popsicle shop.

they have many awesome flavors, but one of my faves is Pineapple Jalapeño.

so I attempted to recreate it.

freshly cut pineapple (it's cheaper to buy a pineapple than it is to buy it cut up)

about half of a jalapeño pepper

you also need about 1/2 c sugar and 1/2 c water (I heated the water and dissolved the sugar in it)

blend.

pour.

freeze.

bite.

sweet and spicy.  yeah.

oscar loves Fifty Shades of Grey

what can I say?  he's just a regular old lonely housewife.

he just can't put it down.

next thing you know he's going to ask to see Magic Mike.

*note* Fifty Shades has recently become required reading for work so my boss has someone to girl talk about it.  This is not the kind of book I prefer to read.  thank you and have a wonderful weekend!

artisan bread in my new dutch oven!

isn't it a beaut?!

the mister gave me this sweet enamel covered dutch oven for my birthday.  he knows what I love.

now I can make this recipe as much as I want with many variations!

flour, yeast, salt and water.

yep.

that's it.

look at that pretty pot.

pretty bread.

so very pretty.