Wednesday's Wednesday Wisdom

My theory is that I need to practice my yoga practice more if I don't want the cat to be better at it then I am.

Some days she does spend more time on the yoga mat then I do.

You can't have an ego with yoga though so that is ok :)

Ragin' Cajun Sub

The husband and I both enjoy cooking. It's nice to have someone that is willing to share the task of providing food and its also nice to have a common interest and a hobby that we can share together. Coming up with new recipes together, going grocery shopping, watching food shows to get ideas and just learning together.

When it comes to our roles in the kitchen I would have to say that I'm the fast one. If there was every a team challenge on Top Chef I would be tagged in to handle the Quickfire Challenge. I cook fast and I clean up as I work. I'm an efficient chef. The husband is actually the more creative one in the kitchen. Maybe its the science side in him that is curious about what happens when you add "this" with "that". Usually it turns out really well. One example of this is a recipe that I'm going to share with you.

Our Ragin' Cajun Sub

First, you start off with some sub rolls and pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.

Then you take mayo and mix it with some spicy cajun seasoning.





Then you smear the spicy mayo mix on to your sub rolls.


Then you add your meat. We usually use chicken and hard salami sandwich cut meats.


Place it into the oven for 10-15 minutes just to toast everything.

When you take it out of the oven you can add cheese to it if you like and then place it back in the oven for 3-4 minutes, just enough time to melt the cheese.

Once you take it out then you add the Italian dressing and lettuce.


You can add other things to the sandwich also, tomato maybe a pickle.


All done! Time to enjoy!

I this is one of my favorite sandwiches, I'm so glad he decided to some experiments in the kitchen!

Do you have any kitchen experiments that turned out really well? Do you like to experiment in the kitchen or do you stick to your recipes?

Guilty As Charged

Fess up. You know that you do it. You know that you have them. What is it that I'm asking you to confess?

Guilty pleasures.

We all have one or two or as I'm about to reveal at least ten that I consider myself guilty of enjoying. Maybe you share some of mine or maybe I'm just putting myself out on an embarrassing limb. Let's find out, shall we?

10. Real Housewives of (Insert City Name Here)

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It started with Orange County and then I got addicted to the New York City girls and found my future BFF and then there was Atlanta and New Jersey and on and on. And I've totally loved every minute of the watch what happens drama. Except for Washington DC and now Beverly Hills. Never watched either one of those. These girls are amazing one liner machines. I love the crazy and quirky things these women say. "Who gonna check me boo?" "Love love love!" "Holy Cat fight!"

9. Jimmy Buffett

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It all started when we got our current vehicle and it had Sirius radio. And then I discovered Radio Margaritaville. I had heard Jimmy Buffett songs before, I mean how could I not coming from the Gulf Coast of Florida. I had visited the Margaritaville Cafe. I love margaritas. But once I had Jimmy (we have a first name kind of relationship now) crooning to me while I was cruising around St. Louis trying to avoid the potholes and crazy Midwest drivers it seemed like he calmed me in the situations that normally had me turning into Mr. Wheeler. Jimmy sells escapism and I'm totally buying in. He helped me remember and to have a piece of Florida and the Gulf Coast lifestyle that I miss.

8. Lists

I love lists, sometimes my lists have lists. It has gotten to the point where I write down everything that crosses my mind. I' starting to wonder if I'm making my memory muscle weak because of this.

7. Snuggie

Yup, I have a Snuggie. I was gifted my snuggie from my husband last year for Christmas. Bet you didn't know they made a Snuggie covered with an eyeball-less skeleton (aka Jack Skellington). The funny thing is my husband bought the Snuggie and then had to sit through a tirade of me talking about how DUMB Snuggies are and how POINTLESS they seem. Ha. The funny thing is that I love my Snuggie now even though I use it like a blanket and not like some weird cult robe.

6. Word Nerd

I was in the English Honors class, it was the closest I came to being "gifted" so yea I'm going to brag. I like using big words and grammar phrases like "unclear antecedent". It drives me nuts when people say "I could care less". I make jokes with my husband about nouns and verbs. I think this all qualifies me as a word nerd.

5. Laundry

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I love doing laundry. I love how easy it is. You put dirty things in, they come out smelling good and feeling good. Minimal effort on my part. How can you not like that? It's so easy and its hard not to feel efficient when you do laundy too. You start with piles and end up with neat and clean. It totally is feeding the OCD clean freak that lives inside of me.

4. MTV drama, True Life, 16 and Pregnant, etc etc

I don't love MTV. I use to watch all the Real World Somewhere and Real World/ Road Rules Challenge shows. The thing that gets me addicted to MTV now are the more realistic documentary type shows that are basically focused on people with some kind of problem/dilema/ issue in their life and how they deal with it. True Life I'm A Southern Belle is practically memorized at this point. I find Maci on 16 and Pregnant to be really cute. The True Life episode about the couple with trust issues and then he eneded up DYING of a stomach issue had me sobbing and paranoid at the same time. I general I find it really fascinating to watch how people choose to deal with the things that life throws at them.

3. Lolcats

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Wikipedia describes lolcats as “a photo of a cat with a caption characteristically formatted in a sans serif font [...] The caption is intentionally written with deviations from standard English spelling and syntax featuring “strangely-conjugated verbs, but tend to converge to a new set of rules in spelling and grammar.”

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So is there really any question why I find this humorous?

2. Movies that make me cry

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Sometimes it just really feels good to watch a movie that you know is going to have you reaching for the tissues and a shoulder to cuddle with. A good cry can be better then ice cream or cookies and milk. And better for your waistline too. I can only think of one movie that made me cry that wouldn't make for a "good cry" movie and it involves a little yellow lab and rhymes with "Shmarley and be". Yea, no more of that.


1. Cheetos

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"The cheese that goes CRUNCH!" Yup, Cheetos. 0 nutritional value, orange powder left on your fingers to mark your guilty indulgence. But this guilty pleasure gets even better (worse?). I'm not the only one digging the Chester Cheetah. So does Wednesday. You see my guilty pleasure isn't just cheese powder. What do you do after having a few Cheetos and your fingers are all covered in orange? In my case you let the little kitty lick it off. Rough sand paper tongue and little black face now covered with orange dots.

Gross? Maybe. But how do you say NO to a face like this?

And then I wash my hands. :)

So spill it! What kind of guilty pleasures do you have? No judging, we're all friends here.

Wednesday's Wednesday Wisdom

Look who is Pet of the Month in our complex!

And I just KNOW all this celebrity is going to go straight to her head. As if there wasn't enough attitude to deal with already.

Celebrity BFF

Do you ever see an actor/actress or tv or in a music video and just wish that you could be best friends? BFF's. Maybe it would be because they have an awesome wardrobe that you would love to steal borrow from. Or maybe they just have the type of life that you've always wanted. In my case my celebrity BFF is someone that I know that would keep me laughing while also keeping it real.

I want Bethenney Frankel to be my BFF.

For those who may not be as addicted to Bravo as I am, Bethenny is from the reality tv show the Real Housewives of New York City. She became really popular from that show and then launched a whole line of products that related to her career of healthy eating and lifestyle. She also had a spin off show on Bravo called Bethenny Getting Married.

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I've come to find that a lot of people either love her or hate her. She's a strong personality so I can understand that but I think she's hilarious. I love her one liners and her very dry sense of humor. I tend to have a dry sense of sarcasm myself so I find myself repeating her one-liners like a little parrot. Holy Catfight!

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She has her own thriving business which is inspirational to me. I love people that have a passion and go forward with it in full drive. I'm very drawn to people who have big goals and are always moving forward.

I have her yoga DVD which is a really great work out. If only I was able to work out with her in person! Of course I probably would get a lot more work out benefits this way without that distraction.

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I love her sense of style. She always looks put together, doesn't try to hard and more then anything would prefer to be in her pj's. That sounds like my idea of good fashion sense.

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I haven't tried her Skinnygirl margaritas yet but as to date I haven't met a margarita that I didn't like so I foresee only good things when I finally do get my hands on a bottle.

Whip smart come backs, a great healthy perspective on food and exercise and some strong entrepreneurial motivations all sound like things I would look for in a potential BFF. Call me Bethenny!

So who would you want your celebrity BFF to be? Think you have a lot in common or is it an opposites attract situation?

Monday Morning Brain Dump

Just a couple things floating around in my head on a Monday morning

- I can't believe that its Novemeber already. Blows my mind. This year has moved by so quickly.

- I always feel a little let down after Halloween is over. I love the Halloween period of time so much and now its kind of like limbo since I don't put up any new decorations for Thanksgiving and I don't take my Halloween ones down till after Thanksgiving.

- We have a special guest spending Thanksgiving with us this year so I'm really going to want to impress and should probably start thinking about our recipes now. Do you think someone from Jamaica would like Southern cooking?

- We've started our Christmas shopping, have you? Last year we had nearly everything done right after Halloween. It was nice not being stuck in the crazy malls with the tons and tons of people. I'm really not a fan of crowds. Unless its at Disney. Then I put up with just about anything.


Are you ready for the next round of holidays?

A visit to my desk at lunch time

Taking a break from all the Halloween hoop la for a second and focus on another issue.

Yesterday as I was eating lunch at my work desk it kind of dawned on me just how much I have bought into and have changed my eating to a more clean and healthier one.

This is my desk at lunch:



And the break down:



The miracle green juice is my newest healthy food venture and I am so in love with it. It's sooo good. It looks weird, which I kinda like, and it tastes great. I just need to learn how to make it myself. Loving the Larabars too. It sounds like my name and its very simple in ingredients. Plus I won a contest they were having and I got a Larabar prize pack and t-shirt. Yep, that is all it takes to seal my loyalty people. A cute t-shirt.

Pretty healthy lunch there, no? I always ate pretty healthy my whole life. My mom probably hasn't been in a McDonalds for food (besides an occasional fish sandwich during Lent) in well over a decade. Her healthy food perspective kept me away from a lot of junk food. Then there was college where I was stuck with the foods put in front of me from the cafeteria. I'm pretty sure I lost weight during that time instead of gaining the freshman 15 and I think my parents were actually concerned about me being underfed.

And then I graduate and moved out to my own place. And things started to change a bit. I was living near the love of my life and then we got married. And I think I found a little "happy fat" along the way. Life was good and comfortable and so was the food and couch time :)

I'm not trying to shed a crazy amount of weight, I just want to feel healthy. It amazes me how after a hard work out you just don't want junk food at all. It doesn't seem appealing in the slightest bit. Maybe because your body is moving away from that or maybe because you just don't want to imagine how much harder you will have to work to burn it off :)

I have to be careful not to get too extreme since this is a part of my personality that has a tendency to come out in a lot of areas in my life.

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The voice in my head sounds an awful lot like Bravo's Jackie Warner which at times is great but at other times makes me feel like I can't do enough. It's all a balance.

How do you maintain a healthy balance? Are you totally upset that I'm talking about veggies and health foods during the biggest candy week of the year? :)