Totally Obsessed:

Image from oxo.com

OXO calls it the LiquiSeal travel mug. I call it invincible.  We have two one in pink and one in blue.  I have dropped mine more days than I haven't dropped it.  It never spills, we've had them for at least a year and we haven't broken them yet, which, is pretty miraculous considering how frequently I drop mine. Everyone should have one, ours came from Target. 

Lent Weeks 5 and 6

These two weeks were a little crazy, Bruce was away and I did some serious detoxing. Once Bruce's trip was scheduled I decided it would be the perfect time to give up coffee.  Once I started thinking about no coffee, I decided I should do week one of Whole Living's Detox Challenge.  It was rough, I did four full days of no caffeine, sugar, dairy, gluten or anything processed. On Monday (day 1) the headache was so bad I decided to turn our bathroom into a sauna and sweat everything out. Now that it is over, I feel so much better, particularly I have so much more energy. Bruce got a pass on our Lenten sacrifices because he was traveling out of the country for work.

Bathroom Sauna: (This is not out of focus that is steam!) Fill a very hot bath very slowly with the door closed and the fan off.  Do Not get into very hot tub, add cold water and don't scald yourself. The extra sweating helps eliminate toxins from your system, remember to replenish with lots of water.

What We Ate: (pre-travel/detox)

Wednesday: no idea it was two weeks ago!

Thursday: no idea

Friday: Black Bean Burger I added shredded carrots and used more bread crumbs

Saturday: no idea, possibly we ordered pizza

Sunday: Corned Beef and Cabbage with Beers (for St.Patrick's Day)

What I Ate: (detox)

Breakfast: Smoothies

Lunch: Smoothie and Roasted Corn, Red Pepper Soup

Dinner Monday: Roasted Veggies and a salad

Dinner T- Th: Red Lentil and Sweet Potato Stew

Dinner Friday: Homemade Mac&Cheese with parents

What We Ate: (post-travel/detox)

Saturday: Black Bean Burger same batch, frozen just as good

Sunday: Red Lentil and Sweet Potato Stew

Monday: Black Bean and Avocado Tacos

Tuesday: Eggplant Parm

Recipe: Chocolate Kettle Corn

Over Christmas I had picked up a bag of this chocolate kettle corn.  It was magical.  Two weeks ago I found myself wanting more, but not wanting to leave the house.  I googled around and decided I could make it at home.  I used this Kettle Corn recipe which came out great. So, I added chocolate because like bacon, chocolate makes most things better. It was magical and only took me took about twenty minutes.

Recipe: Fills one gallon zip top bag.
* adapted from savorysweetlife.com 

Ingredients
One batch of Kettle Corn
1/2 Cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

• Make your kettle corn
• Spread kettle corn in one layer on a sheet pan. For easy cleanup line your pan with tin foil.
• Melt chocolate chips.
• Spoon melted chocolate into a small zip top bag, smoosh into one of the bottom corners and twist the bag tight. see photo below
• Snip the chocolate corner and drizzle the chocolate over the kettle corn.
• Try to wait until the chocolate hardens.

Linking at:

Recipe: Ginger Tea

Like I mentioned last week, I've gotten into the habit of having tea every night before bed.  Now, I don't particularly remember where I read this, but, ginger is supposedly very good for your liver.  There are also many other health benefits that you can check out here and here (I liked this one because it was funny and the headline was ME) or by all means google around yourself.  I usually brew up a big batch Monday night and store it in a mason jar in the fridge, microwaving when I want some.  I can tell you that I sleep SO. MUCH. BETTER.

Recipe: 4-5 cups

Ingredients

1 Quart Boiling Water

~2 inches of Ginger Root sliced thin

Instructions

• Slice ginger.
• Steep for minimum of twenty minutes, I let mine go over night. 
• Enjoy with swanky honey, but maple syrup might be fun too.  Play around with your steeping time and how much ginger you use, start slow it can get spicy!  If you don't have fancy steeping apparatus either strain or wait until cool and pick the slices out with your fingers.

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I just signed up for this and I'm so excited.  I use google reader to follow most of my favorite blogs but after the news this week that google is discontinuing this service it was time to find something different and this is it!

Totally Obsessed:

I've gotten into this fantastic bedtime routine.

Ginger tea with this amazing honey.

Slice ginger, steep in hot water, enjoy with honey.

Don't let the bed bugs bite.

Have an excellent weekend!

Lent Week 4

We've reached the half way point!  So technically Lent is seven-ish weeks, so I counted this weekend as the half way mark.  We started out pretty grumpy but after a productive weekend we had both gotten out of the funk.  We weighed in, and have both lost a good amount of weight, which, is a nice perk.

Sunday Night Dessert: Vanilla Tea with Hand-Made SnowCaps

What We Ate:
Wednesday: Roasted beet, rice salad
Thursday: I worked late and had left-overs, Bruce had tomato soup and grilled cheese.
Friday: Eggplant Cacciatore Subs
Saturday: Out for Pepe's Pizza with Tim and Nikki
Sunday: Cheesy Rigatoni with Roasted Potatoes and Cabbage
Monday: Egg and Cheese Sandwiches
Tuesday: Noodle Bowls