Recipe: Honey-Poppy Seed Dressing

With Nolan's baptism coming up at the end of July, we had decided we were going to have a reception at our house afterwards for about 30 people.  Sounds easy setting it up a month in advance, right?  Well, the time came to actually plan what we were going to eat and one of the first things that came to mind was a fruit bowl covered in this honey-poppy seed dressing that our sister-in-law, Brooke, had made us one night when we had dinner at their house.  It was absolutely delicious and something I wanted to do for us at home.

Since that dinner, I had made it without the poppy seed and it tastes just as good without the added texture.  I decided to make the full recipe for the reception as it makes the whole bowl of fruit pop with the poppy seeds.  The original recipe found by clicking here, uses apples, grapes, apricots, and pineapple.  Well, I am not a huge fan of apples so I decided to pick a few fruits that we both really like. We chose strawberries, green grapes, and cantelope. 

This dressing isn't just to make the fruit look pretty, but really accentuates the natural sugars in the fruit to make it very sweet and mouthwatering. Even if you aren't fond of fruit, try this dressing on it and you will be changed forever.  The colors of the different fruits that we chose look so fabulous and yummy together, you wouldn't be surprised that there wasn't a single piece of fruit left by the end of the reception.

Ingredients of Our Fruit Medley
2 lbs of strawberries sliced
1 large bunch of green grapes cut in half
1 cantelope chopped in bite size pieces

Honey-Poppy Seed Dressing

1/4	cup vegetable oil
3	tablespoons honey
2	tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2	teaspoons poppy seed

I actually ended up doubling this recipe since we had about double the fruit of the original recipe.  I don't think you can have too much of the dressing so make as much as you want!

(Side note: You have no idea how many times I kept typing poopy instead of poppy.  That will be a dish I make NEXT week!  Silly me.)

Restaurant: Roja Mexican Grill + Margarita Bar

I love Mexican food. Who doesn't.  As you can see, or as I have noticed, every single restaurant I have posted about has been Mexican food and this one is no different!  Wow, we really get quite the variety!

Roja has been one of my favorite Mexican places to go to ever since we have lived in Omaha.  Whenever we are thinking of a place to go some weekend night, Roja will always come up.  My friends and I have frequented this place many times and have had their delicious margaritas. It is great Mexican cuisine with a great atmosphere.  Naturally, when Scott's parents were in town and we were going out to eat with them, Greg, and Brooke, Roja was the choice.

Now of course, I stick to my cheese enchiladas, which are absolutely fantastic.  They have a nice red sauce on them that makes the whole dish pop.  Side that with some delicious refried beans and rice and you got yourself a meal!  We also got the cheese dip which has the correct amount of spices in it that is even friendly for our 4-year old nephew who loved it. The atmosphere is very fun and LOUD.  Apparently so loud, only my child could sleep through it. I felt like we were all yelling at each other while we tried to talk at the table, but it was good time nonetheless! Roja- visit it, love it, eat it up.

Website and menu can be found at- www.rojagrill.com
Photo Courtesy of www.rojagrill.com

Recipe: Tuna Parmesean Linguine with Capers

Yeah, I know I have a lot of pasta dishes, but pasta is so versatile and something we really enjoy!  Plan to see many more!

This one I kinda made up on my own.  I love buying the cheap parmesean angel hair pasta in the box and adding tuna and there is our meal for the night but I thought I would make my own, healthier version with a little spin to it.  It ended up being delicious and created leftovers for days!  It had the perfect amount of parmesean to give it flavor, but not to overpower the rest of the dish.  Along with what you would think would be in a tuna, parmesean pasta, I also added capers which gave it a nice kick and extra flavor to the dish.

Scott always gets upset when I change dishes around or don't include things that are listed on the ingredient list but why not make what we want?  Just because it is a recipe doesn't mean you have to stick to it.  If it is baking, then yes, you need to have the exact ingredients, but if you are cooking, I say- do what you want! And that is what I did here.  I hope you like it!

Ingredients
1 lb of linguine pasta (or whatever pasta your heart desires)
1 cup of shredded parmesean cheese
2 cloves of minced fresh garlic
1 stick of butter or substitute with 1/2 cup of olive oil
1 small can of albacore tuna in oil
2 oz. of capers

Preparation
1. Cook the pasta in boiling water until it is al dente
2. While the pasta is cooking, melt the butter with the garlic in a small pan
3.  When the pasta is cooked, add the butter/garlic mixture, tuna, the cup of parmesean cheese, and the capers into a mixing bowl and toss with tongs
4. Serve and enjoy!

Topic: End of the Cleanse

So I finished up the cleanse, and I have to say I enjoyed it!  It didn't taste the greatest at the beginning, but it gradually tasted better as the week went on.  I only lost a couple lbs., but to me, that was great considering it was only a week.  I feel like it made me feel better and made me select better food choices. I didn't find myself telling Scott to go through a drive-thru on his way home, which is unusual.  I didn't want that ice cream as you had read about earlier. So overall, it was a success!  I feel like it will help me make better choices for the future and was a good jump start to losing weight and getting in shape.  Scott said that he might do it as well so he must have seen the good effect it had on me! Although, Scott could blink and lose 10 lbs....men. I would encourage everyone to try it and to contact Sarah to buy it! (Sarah, you can pay me for the advertising later.)

Recipe: Layered Enchiladas

Part of the inspiration for doing this blog was from my sister-in-law, Brooke, who has her own blog- Brooke the Family Cook.  We have tried many of her recipes and this one in particular (found in a PMHC cookbook) has made its appearance more than once. It is delicious, easy, affordable, and creates leftovers...what more could you ask for!

All that said,  we might be missing the "healthy" aspect.  When faced with this issue, I have two words for you: portion control.  You are going to come across times where the huge cheesy enchilada is going to be staring at you in the face.  Just say no.  These layered enchiladas are the epitome of Mexican cuisine.  You have your taco seasoning, black beans, tortillas, and tons of cheese.  I only ended up eating half of what I normally would eat and substituted with some more refried beans and grapes instead.

This is a meal that is sure to make you happy and sure to be a repeat in your home as well!  ¡Comer feliz!

Ingredients

• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 lg. onion (chopped)
• 2 c. thick and chunky salsa
• 1 (15 0z.) can black beans, drained, rinsed
• 1/4 c. Italian dressing
• 2 T. taco seasoning
• 6 flour tortillas (8 inch)
• 1 c. sour cream
• 1 (8 oz.) pkg. Mexican style shredded cheese

Preparation
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Brown meat with onions in large skillet on medium-high heat; drain. Add salsa, beans, dressing and seasoning mix; mix well. Arrange 3 of the tortillas in a single layer on bottom of 9X13 baking dish; spread half sour cream on tortillas, cover with half of the meat mixture and cheese. Repeat all layers. Cover with foil. Bake, covered, 30 minutes. Remove foil. Bake an additional 10 minutes or until casserole is heated through and cheese is melted. Let stand 5 minutes before cutting to serve.

Recipe: Death by Garlic

How fitting that the next recipe I made is called Death by Garlic after my post about garlic! Not planned at all! The recipe's title, though, may be a little confusing as I just talked about all of the health benefits, but nonetheless...

As I was getting near the end of my pregnancy with Nolan, we were so excited to meet him we hoped we could urge him along with some garlic.  And what a better way than this extreme garlic dish!  I made it and we absolutely fell in love with it!  It is everything that is right with the world.

So here we come upon a Friday night wondering what to do for dinner and I thought about this!  I looked at all the ingredients- which aren't much and we had all of them! Woot!  That never happens!  So I quickly got this going and we enjoyed a lovely meal at home.

Now when you see the ingredient list and see 10 garlic cloves, you are probably like whoa, I'm going to have some sort of death by garlic! Hence, the name.  Well you would be wrong.  It is not overpowering at all as it is balanced out by the olive oil, cheese, and a whole pound of pasta.  This dish is so amazing and easy I might just make it every single week. The combination of the garlic flavor and cheese keeps you coming back for more and if you are only cooking for two, you get to enjoy leftovers the next day!  Gotta try this one. The link to the recipe can be found by clicking here.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 10 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 1 pound dry penne pasta
• 1/3 cup grated Romano cheese

Preparation

1. Cook pasta according to directions
2. In a pan, brown garlic in oil. Add salt, pepper and parsley and remove from heat.
3. Toss penne pasta with garlic mixture and Romano cheese and serve! 

Topic: Garlic

One ingredient that Scott and I absolutely love and could put in every dish is garlic.  Not until recently did we start using fresh garlic and it has made all the difference.

Garlic is said to help with the immune system and decrease heart disease along with many other health benefits.  When you are picking out a piece of fresh garlic, you want to make sure that all of the cloves are very tight and you need to store it at room temperature, preferably in darkened area.  When you are ready to use the garlic, peel the cloves from the head- as many as you need.  There can be anywhere from 10-12 cloves in a good head of garlic.  I had purchased a garlic peeler (see photo) awhile back and it makes peeling the garlic clove that much easier.  You just place the clove inside and roll back and forth. Out will come a clean clove! If you don't have one of these, you can just smash the garlic clove with a knife and peel that way.

I can't believe it took us so long to use it and if you watch the Food Network, they use it in almost every single dish.  It makes everything taste better and it just gives it that much more flavor.  You might as well improve your health a little bit while eating it too!  Makes your breath smell awesome too.

Restaurant: Panchero's Mexican Grill

Scott and I were going to the very funny comedian, Jo Koy, at the Omaha Funny Bone for his birthday with Kyle and Melissa and had only about half an hour to eat beforehand so we picked Panchero's to eat, which is located right next door.  Neither one of us had eaten here before but knew it was like Chipotle, Qdoba, etc. so we knew we might as well try it!  They have basically the same type of menu with tacos, quesedillas, and burritos.  One thing that is different about them is that they make their tortillas fresh, in front of you.  I didn't know how big of a difference that would make until I tried it.

I bit into my burrito made of rice, black beans, cheese, sour cream, etc...you get the hint. I eat the same things all the time.  Apparently twice in one week.  The first thing you notice before you even bite into it is the smell of the freshly made tortilla.  It was so warm and soft and so delicious.  It made the burrito that much better.  Their slogan is even- "It's all about the tortilla", which is so true as that is what sets them apart.  They are a tad more expensive than the other burrito places, but occasionally, I would spend more money just so I could have this tortilla again. Great place to eat if you are ever at Village Pointe and only have about 20 minutes!

Website and menu can be found at www.pancheros.com
Photo courtesy of www.omahafinedining.com


 Jo Koy, by the way, was one of the funniest comedic acts we have ever seen in person, right up there with Brian Regan and Daniel Tosh.  We were laughing hysterically the moment he started talking and didn't stop for the next 2 1/2 hours. He was so great with the crowd that after his last joke, people said they didn't want him to leave, so he talked and told jokes for another 30-45 min.  He tried calling his mom, Jon Lovitz, and finally Chuy, who he got ahold of, and it was hilarious.  He ended up singing a couple songs and he deserves a record deal! If you are unfamiliar with him, he is on Chelsea Lately every Tuesday night so you definitely have to check him out!  We had never seen his stand up until tonight and he didn't disappoint! You can see more about him on his website- www.jokoy.com.

Also, a note about the cleanse, it tasted a bit better today and when we got home from the show, Scott and his dad went to get ice cream and I DIDN'T WANT ANY.  It sounded absolutely horrible to me. I never turn down ice cream. I had a bowl of grapes instead.  A bowl of grapes instead of ice cream. Not because I thought I needed to eat healthy, but because I wanted them and they sounded good. I don't know what this cleanse is doing to me but I'm kinda wishing it was a 365-day one instead of 7.

Recipe: Creamy Garlic Pasta with *Chicken* & Vegetables

This next recipe I found on EatingWell.com because I was looking for recipes that would help us, well, to eat well.  Unfortunately, this recipe reminded me of why we don't like to eat well.  This recipe is actually Creamy Garlic Pasta with Shrimp & Vegetables, but a good pound of shrimp costs about $15 at least.  We might as well as go to Olive Garden and save the dish washing.  We had leftover chicken from the grilled chicken we did earlier in the week so we decided to put chicken in here instead.  Saving money- that's what it's about!  *Tip- grill a bunch of chicken at the beginning of the week so you have some for meals, salads, or to add to pastas.  It will also save you time when you get home from a long day of work.  We eat more chicken than anything else so this works for us. 

So as I was saying, I was looking for recipes and this one got 4 out of 5 stars on the Eating Well site so I thought it would be good!  We got all the ingredients together and it looked really delicious.  We took our first bite and were both like, it's not bad!  As we got eating, we both were like yeah, this is not very good.  We decided that we don't like yogurt as the base of the sauce.  It is of course, a healthier option, but it has a certain flavor to it that we aren't used to when eating pasta.  If you have had yogurt as a base and you like it, I could see you really liking this dish.  It is a bit too sweet for us because as I was eating it, all I wanted was a lovely seasoned, salty piece of chicken.  Basically all I ended up eating was the chicken, but I tried to choke it down as much as possible of the rest.

When you look at the list of ingredients, this is a very healthy meal, so at least we had that going for us. How I made it: Instead of the shrimp, we used one large chicken breast.  When we went to the store, I wasn't impressed with their asparagus so we bought frozen, cooked it in the microwave per its instructions, and drained it well.  We did not include the red bell pepper because we don't like red bell peppers, so why put something in we wouldn't eat!  I also did canned peas and drained them really well instead of the fresh or frozen. We also did not include the optional pine nuts.  So, we changed the recipe a bit to satisfy more of what we like, but it still wasn't the greatest!

Ingredients:

• 6 ounces whole-wheat spaghetti
• 12 ounces peeled and deveined raw shrimp (see Note), cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 bunch asparagus, trimmed and thinly sliced
• 1 large red bell pepper, thinly sliced
• 1 cup fresh or frozen peas
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 1/2 cups nonfat or low-fat plain yogurt
• 1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts (see Tip; optional)

Preparation:

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add spaghetti and cook 2 minutes less than package directions. Add shrimp (or grilled chicken), asparagus, bell pepper and peas and cook until the pasta is tender and the shrimp are cooked, 2 to 4 minutes more. Drain well.
2. Mash garlic and salt in a large bowl until a paste forms. Whisk in yogurt, parsley, lemon juice, oil and pepper. Add the pasta mixture and toss to coat. Serve sprinkled with pine nuts (if using).

Pretty simple recipe to do overall.  The hardest thing about it was mashing the garlic into a paste which I had never done before and it wasn't even that difficult.  Because of all of the vegetables in it, you could probably omit the meat all together for a nice vegetarian dish if you so choose.  Even though it wasn't something we will ever have again, you never know, you just might love it!

Recipe can be found here at EatingWell.com.

Restaurant: Pepperjax Grill

Happy 26th Birthday to my wonderful husband!  We are technically going to celebrate his birthday on Thursday when we go out with Kyle and Melissa but thought we better at least go out for a quick dinner and get some ice cream.  I know, I'm on the cleanse, which by the way tasted a little better today so it is going well, but I wanted ice cream.  Just a tiny bit.

We knew we would be going to Dairy Queen, so I suggested going to Pepperjax Grill and Scott agreed that it was a SPLENDID plan!  Pepperjax Grill is amazing.  You can get philly sandwiches, wraps, rice bowls, or salads.  Scott always gets his standard philly cheesesteak with fries, but he got a salad INSTEAD of fries this time.  Way to go!  I got my usual fresh veggie wrap.  The name is quite deceiving as the only veggies in mine are olives. Although it is gargantuan, I felt it was still a healthy option as it has black beans, rice, salsa, and olives.  I also add in there lots of cheese and sour cream.  I'm human, okay?  Their wraps have the same concept as Chipotle but don't leave you sitting on the toilet for the rest of the night.  They are filled to the max with your choice of meat, beans, veggies, etc.

I do have to say though, out of all the wrap places in Omaha, Qdoba has to be my favorite.  The ingredients always seem a bit healthier and lighter and I prefer their cheese. There is also no beating their chips and cheese either.

So ends another successful trip to Pepperjax Grill which is a great place to go if you want a good, fast, very filling, sit down meal.

Click here for their menu and locations: http://www.pepperjaxgrill.com/
Photo courtesy of: www.kcdealfinder.com

Recipe: Hawaiian Chicken Sandwich

So day one of the cleanse started out with the first sip then a lovely dry heave into the toilet, almost throwing up on Nolan. The stuff looks like motor oil and tastes like soy sauce. Thirty-two ounces for 7 days, not sure if I will be able to do it.  I was told that it would taste better as the week goes on and it did end up tasting a little better as the day went on.  We shall see how this goes....

The first recipe of the week is something that Scott and I have done on occasion- the Hawaiian Chicken Sandwich.  It gets it's name from Bison Witches' Hawaiian.  The first time I ever went to Bison Witches was during rush week my freshman year of college where I ordered The Hawaiian and never looked back. Every time we go there I get the same thing.  Absolutely delicious.

Scott and I like to try and replicate things that we eat at restaurants that we like and this was one that we had to try as it seemed so easy.  There isn't much of a recipe to it as I made it up myself.

Per serving, you need:
1 small grilled chicken breast
2 pieces of sliced pineapple
1 piece of pepperjack cheese
Serve on a gourmet hamburger bun with your choice of BBQ sauce.

You can choose to grill the pineapple if you like, but I like mine juicy, right out of the can.  You can also choose a different cheese if you fancy, we just happen to like the pepperjack contrast with the sweet of the pineapple and BBQ sauce.  To melt the cheese, just add it on to the last minute of grilling the chicken. If you don't want the bun, leave it out and it will taste just as good.  Serve with chips or a nice side salad, which is what we did.

One would think that these flavors together would not taste that great, but they are wonderful! You have both savory and sweet, kind of like your standard chocolate pudding and shredded cheese combo, but with chicken and pineapple.  This is a very easy and pretty healthy must have dish in your home if you are looking to do something a bit different with the everyday ordinary grilled chicken breast. Enjoy!

Topic: Arbonne 7-Day Body Cleanse

As I had mentioned before, we have been eating like absolute crap, and I have been wanting to start eating healthier and start exercising.  I was reading one of the many magazines that get passed through my sisters and I and one girl mentioned doing a cleanse any time she started a diet or wanted to just get healthier.  I thought that this might be the ticket!  Sarah has been selling Arbonne for awhile and both her and Kim have done their 7-Day Cleanse where they lose anywhere from 4-8 lbs in a week.  This cleanse rids your body of all the toxins and cleanses your system.  It also states that it supports liver health, GI health, and internal antioxidant activity. You are still able to eat whatever you want, but mentally it makes you want to eat healthier and you SHOULD eat healthier while doing it.  Sarah said that by the end of one of her cleanses, it made her completely turned off from Amigos- a place she frequented quite often.  We went there at least once a week in college!!  Mmmmm cheese enchilada platter...cheesys....FOCUS.

The thing about cleanses though, is that you will gain all the weight back if you go back to your regular lifestyle after it is over.  You need to eat healthier and maintain a good exercise regimen to keep the pounds off.

So, I contacted Sarah and told her I wanted to do the cleanse, and Scott and I finally made it to the store after 3 weeks of not going. Now I can finally plan out some meals for us and getting this blog a'going! I am going to document how the cleanse goes as well as the meals that we will be eating during it.  Hopefully it will be a success!

Restaurant: Trini's

One restaurant that I have had to hear about almost every single week from Scott is the Mexican Restaurant Trini's and how it is God's gift to man.  He goes about once a week, and he and his co-workers will just walk in, sit down, and their food will be there in 10-15 min with just the acknowledgment of the waitress.  No ordering, no fuss- the staff remembers exactly what they want.  So you would think after all the excitement of this place for the past three years living in Omaha that I would have tried it at least once.  Well, then you would be mistaken.

I don't hardly ever get down to the Old Market as much as a good Omahan should. When Scott mentioned going down to the Farmer's Market this past Saturday, I thought how I've been cooped up in this house all day and he might as well have suggested going to DisneyWorld.  Heck yes we should go! When I worked all the time, all I wanted to do was be at home.  Now that I am home all the time, all I want to do is leave the house.  Just one of those things.

So we will be in the Old Market for the morning, why don't we go to Trini's for lunch??  Perfect suggestion!  So we walked around the Farmer's Market for about two seconds as it was extremely hectic and not easy to maneuver with a stroller, went to Scott's office real quick, and headed to Trini's.

Now this place is located in the underworld and that picture that you see above is below street level.  It is in its own magical city below Omaha with shops that you only have access to down there. We had to take this roundabout way as we had a stroller and I thought we were entering a dungeon.  After slaying the fire breathing dragon and waiting til 11:30 when they opened, we got seated at one of the "outside" tables that you can actually see in the picture.  The ambiance is very dark inside, so it was nice to be outside with a little bit of light especially on an early morning. I knew exactly what I would get as I do not stray from cheese enchiladas and of course Scott knew he wanted (chips and salsa and chicken enchiladas with sour cream) so we ordered and got our food within about 15 min. Now Scott told me to be prepared for my enchiladas to be better than La Hacienda in Holdrege so he was setting the bar pretty high.

I took a bite of the enchiladas and they were absolutely delicious!  You never know what type of cheese you are gonna get when you go to a Mexican restaurant and it was very good. The sauce on top complemented it very well.  I was not a huge fan of the rice as I like mine to be a little bit dry but Scott absolutely loved the more liquidy rice.  It's just personal preference. The refried beans could have used a little more flavor, but they tasted great when I scooped them up with each bite of the enchilada.  I would say La Hacienda still trumps this restaurant but out of all the Mexican places we have been to in Omaha, this has been the best.  Scott would say this is his absolute favorite Mexican place of all time.

Even though Nolan didn't have anything to eat, he ripped a big one so freshly scented that the next table looked over at us. We acted just as surprised at this lovely compliment to the meal so maybe we tricked them into thinking it wasn't us.  Just maybe...but probably not. I just think his body was telling him what is appropriate after eating a nice Mexican dinner.

So the next time you are in the Old Market, you need to check out Trini's Mexican Restaurant.  If anything, just go down there to see this cool little underworld for yourself. 

Click here for the website and menu- www.trinisoldmarket.com

Photo Courtesy of: http://www.trinisoldmarket.com/

Recipe: Berry-Banana Smoothies

When I think of smoothies, I think of a little bit of fruit flavoring, lots of sugar, and some nice whipped topping. MmmmMmmmm.  I have no clue what is actually in them, that was just what they tasted like to me. This strawberry smoothie was my little weekend treat while Scott got his coffee at a place called Mocha Amore just walking distance from our house.  Sadly, we were unable to keep them in business with our couple trips a week and they closed at the beginning of this year. DANG IT.  (Note to self: Never open up a business in Gretna unless you are a chain restaurant or you enjoy packing everything up in a year or so.)

Bring it up to the present: Scott and I went to a yogurt and smoothie place called Red Mango Frozen Yogurt last week and we both got real fresh fruit smoothies for ourselves and they were so good!  I used to hate these type of smoothies because of all the real fruit and freshness of them, but these were excellent!  Maybe my taste buds are maturing beyond a 6 year old.  Since then, Scott has wanted to make some of our own so he made two sets of them with two different recipes. We tried a different recipe today with the same fruit left over along with new ingredients and they were quite delicious.

See the recipe below. We changed the fruit around a bit from the original recipe (click here for original recipe) and obviously you can do that as well. Scott decided to add a cup of ice into the mix as well because the sound of a warm fruit smoothie....well you know...

BERRY-BANANA SMOOTHIE
Makes 2 smoothies. Prep time= 5 minutes. Use a hand-held or stationary blender.
1/2 ripe banana (for more banana flavor use a whole one or more)
10 ripe strawberries
15 raspberries
10 blueberries
½ cup plain yogurt (vanilla, low-fat, no-fat, regular or soy options work too)
1 cup orange juice
1 cup of ice

1) Place all ingredients in blender. Blend and serve.

 Pretty simple, huh?  They were very good!  First off, they are extremely pretty and look like a birthday cake in a glass.  The first thing you notice before you take a drink is the smell of banana.  If you don't like the smell or taste of banana, you might want to skip this fruit as we even reduced the amount of banana to 1/2 and it still dominates.  It does add extra creaminess to the smoothie though. If you can get past that you get to enjoy a very bright and fresh fruit smoothie.  You can feel your rotting insides heal themselves, I promise.

Topic: Pizza

Let's just get the elephant out of the room and discuss how much pizza means to me. A LOT. The most pieces of pizza I have ever eaten in one setting is 8. And I was in 7th grade.  The most days in a row I have eaten pizza is 9 and that was for both lunch AND supper.  It's a pretty big deal.

Growing up in a small town, the only experience with pizza I had ever really had besides frozen, was Pizza Hut.  That said, it is by far my favorite chain restaurant for pizza and you will never see our garbage taken out on a Monday morning without at least one Pizza Hut box in there.  It's delicious.  And I always thought they made it the best in Holdrege until we moved here. Gretna's Pizza Hut is the bee's knee's! The cheese is always cooked perfectly and there is a lot of it. That is all you really need to know.

The one downfall to Pizza Hut though, is the variety.  You get your standard cheese, pepperoni, hamburger, and supreme but not many other variations besides that.  Fortunately, Scott and I have had a chance to experience many different pizza places in Omaha, New York, Chicago, etc. that have helped us see that there is more to life than the standard!  Sometimes we need to go outside the box and outside our comfort zones to try new things and new experiences.  So that is what I would like to do with our eating.

I might need to call Pizza Hut so they don't worry about us.

Let's Get a Pizza: The Lazy Family's Guide to Good Food

As I sit here eating my Chili Cheese Tots from Sonic and finish off my pint of Half-Baked Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, I see pizza boxes to my right ready to be taken out to the garbage from the night before.  Now the only reason we went to Sonic was because McDonald's was too far away. Another few minutes farther and that just wasn't going to cut it tonight.  I will have to get my two cheeseburger meal and Scott his Big Mac meal some other night. Probably tomorrow. 

 While this seemed to work back in college without us gaining any weight, this is not the case anymore. We now have an 8 week old, who at this pace will have to wheel us around and help us lift our fat rolls to go the bathroom by the time we are 30.  I would like to say that most of this is attributed to said 8 week old who doesn't give me any time to plan or make meals so it's just easier if Scott brings something home, but this was nothing short of our lifestyle before him. Something needs to change here and it's gonna happen now!  Scott and I absolutely love food, there is no doubt about that. We love to go out and try new restaurants but rarely like to try and make new things at home for ourselves. We resort to a lot of boxed meals which are easy, but stray away from that whole healthy thing.

While being at home these past two months, I have come to really REALLY appreciate the Food Network and come to the realization that we are selling ourselves short.  There are so many creative, delicious, and healthy foods out there that we have yet to try and I have been so inspired.

This blog is going to be about us making more of an effort to make easy, healthy, and affordable meals at home as well as to share our experiences at restaurants we go to or have gone to in the city in which we live.  (I have to be realistic here as we like to go out way too much for us to have a home cooked meal every night) I could have an entire blog about pizza, but that might get kinda old.  I will just have to throw it in occasionally. :)  I hope to inspire you with some recipes as well as give tips on where to go eat the next time you are in Omaha and other cities we might happen to go to.

There is something about a blog that holds you accountable for your actions.  Others are reading it and you feel so much pressure to write and make new posts that I thought this would be the best way for us to stay on track!  I think our little family will appreciate it in the long run and hopefully it will keep us from saying "let's get a pizza" a little bit less.  Just a little bit. ;)