New Orleans 2010

Patrick and I belatedly celebrated our Anniversary by going to NOLA (both our First time) in December! We had a wonderfully crazy time.

We left H-town on Friday afternoon and arrived in NOLA an hour later.

We checked into our fab Hotel - The Royal Sonesta, which happened to be right on Bourbon St. It was decorated for Christmas with a Teddy Bear theme, and it looked absolutely beautiful inside. The hotel itself had a very french quarter feel to it. The rooms weren't huge but quaint, and it was very well kept! Not to mention the convenience of it being in the French Quarter, on Bourbon Street.





This is one of the Hallways lined with Trees with Teddy Bears as ornaments!

 After we checked in and got settled, we ventured out onto Bourbon Street. I won't go into much detail here, but we had a great time people watching, drinking Hurricanes, and listening to live Blues Music!



At Pat O'Briens!

  

At a Live Blues Bar.

On Saturday we had brunch at a restaurant in the Quarter, and then began discovering the Quarter. We walked a bunch, and went to see the Cathedral, which was beautiful.



The Cathedral and Me.



 We ended up taking a carriage ride around the Quarter. And I'm glad we did. We got to see a lot more than we otherwise would have!

We even ended up seeing a Wedding procession. The entire wedding walks all around the Cathedral Square, very New Orleans!

That night we had a romantical dinner at Broussard's, which came highly recommended by a co-worker of Patricks. It did not disappoint! We spent the rest of the night hanging out on Bourbon St.!

It was a GREAT trip and I really enjoyed the quality time with Patrick (he was CRAZY busy at work in Novemeber..and it continued into December, and now into January, but what's new :) ).



Us at Dinner (excuse the pale face - it happens in winter time).



It was a GREAT time and I can't wait to go back!

Monday Menu Madness (on a Tuesday)

Last week's meals were a success! The Stew was delicious (I'll post recipe later this week), the Rice meal was simple and tasty, and well I didn't make the pork meal.

This week is pretty busy so I'll only be making one meal tonight. And probably eating leftovers/Lean Cuisine/takeout the rest of the week.

So - the whopping ONE meal for this week is...drumroll please...

Mexican Chicken Casserole (from Cooking Light). I'm making it tonight, and using canned salsa and rotisserie chicken (taking the easy road).

Monday Menu Madness

I promise one of these days I'll post about something that doesn't involve food. I'm just dragging on getting pics uploaded....

This week's menu:

Sunday: Took Subway up to the boyfriend who was at work (yes, on a sunday).

Monday: Parmesan Rice and Chicken (Cooking Light), yes I have made this before, and really only a few weeks ago, but I really liked it and it is easy and this time i'm going to try to use less wine because the last time I made it, while good, tasted really heavy on wine.

Tuesday: Leftover or Sandwiches.

Wednesday: Bistro Beef Stew - Slow Cooker addition (from the slow cooker cookbook Alisa got me for Christmas).

Thursday: Pork Cutlets with marinara and penne pasta (WW recipe).


Last week:

I managed to make everything! Which is the first time, ha.

The Sun Dried Tomato Stuffed Chicken Breasts were delish! I strayed from the recipe a little bit though. For one, I didn't have sun dried tomatos, which I thought I did and so I didn't buy them at the store. After a search through every cupboard, the elusive sun-dried tomatoes did not turn up. So, instead I used a bit of this Sun dried tomato and basil soup mix that I had gotten in Fredericksburg, like not more than 1/2 a teaspoon, and mixed that in with the goat cheese, and it was great! And instead of "stuffing" the chicken breasts, I made roll ups. But overall I was really pleased with the recipe. I served it over brown rice which sopped up the leftover sauce.

The Chicken Tortilla Soup did not disappoint either - although I will add some black beans and some other stuff to give it more substance, but overall nice flavor and SPICY!

The meatloaf was good. It took longer to cook in the oven then the recipe said but it had a good flavor when I took it out after 1.2 hours. Not my favorite ever, but a good healthy option.

Lover of Books

I love to read. I always have. Atleast that's what my mom tells me. In law school, when I was reading boring law books, I found that reading a good non-law book before bed relaxed my mind. That still holds true now, even though I'm generally not reading law books any more (only at work). In any case, here is the 2010 list of the books I read this past year, I enjoyed most of them:

• Her Fearful Symmetry (by Audrey Niffenegger)
• Naked in Death (by J.D. Robb)
• The Girl Who Played with Fire (by Steig Larsson)
• In the Woods (by Tana French)
• The Monster of Florence (by Douglas Preston)
• The Carrie Diaries (by Candace Bushnel)
• Little Bee (by Chris Cleave)
• A Space Between Us (by Thrity Umbrigar)
• The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Next (by Steig Larsson)
• Just Don't Call me Ma'am (by Anna Mitchael)
• Commencement (by J. Courtney Sullivan)
• The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (by Aimee Bender)
• The Art of Racing in the Rain (by Garth Stein)
• One Day (by David Nicholls)
• Outlander (by Diana Gabaldon)
• Dragonfly in Amber (by Diana Gabaldon)
• Voyager (by Diana Gabaldon)
• The Hunger Games (by Suzanne Collins)
• Catching Fire (by Suzanne Collins)
• The Mocking Jay (by Suzanna Collins)
• In Cold Blood (by Truman Capote)
• The Choice (by Nicholas Sparks) - Audio CD
• The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance (by Elna Baker)

So, I read 23 books this year! You might be asking yourself where I find time to do this, well I generally read at night, while wathing t.v. Or, I read a lot on vacations (atleast 5 of those books were read on various trips I took this year).

I look forward to 2011 and many many more books to explore!! Already on the list are:

• Harry Potter books (I've in fact only read one - the last one, and I read it after I saw the 6th movie because I wanted to know how it ended and didn't want to wait till 2010).
• I'm currently reading - the 4th Outlander book, and Jane Eyre.
• More classics (they are cheap cheap to buy on the Kindle).

There ya go! If you have any recommendations for a good book, let me know!

Monday Menu Madness Returns!

Hello blog world - well I've been a bit MIA the past few weeks. The holidays caught up to me, but after spending 11 wonderful days not at work I have returned to every day living. One of my resolutions this year is to cook more at home and stop eating out so much. I know I've said this same thing over and over again, but I really mean it this time. ha. But, seriously, I need to eat healthier and one way to do that is to be the one who makes the food. So, without further ado, here is my first MMM of 2011, 51 more MMM's to come!

Monday: Sun-dried Tomato Stuffed Chicken Breasts (c/o WW), w/ broccoli (garlicy) and brown rice.

Tuesday: Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup w/ side salad (c/o Tasty Kitchen) (I bought myself a slow cooker over the holidays, very domestic).

Wednesday: Leftovers.

Thursday: Mom's Turkey Meatloaf with green beans (c/o Ellie Krieger) (I grew up eating meat loaf, so I'm not scared of it like some people, a.k.a. my boyfriend).

Here's to the first planned menu week of the year!

I promise much more thrilling posts to come. I have about a bajillion photos to upload from the past three months.

Monday Menu Madness

Last weeks recap:

Monday - Parmesan chicken and rice. Muy delicioso. I think I used too much wine when I made it, so it had a strong taste of my box white wine that I have in my fridge. Other than that, it was easy, and the mushrooms carried a nice flavor in it.

Tuesday - Parmesan and sage crusted pork chops with roated brussel sprouts. True story - up until last August I had not in fact ever tried a brussel sprout. I loathed them but I had never actually tasted them. Bad reputation. In any case, I tried my first roasted brussel sprout at Alisa's house, and man, I was sold. Delicious. So I attempted to make my own this week. They were good. Not as good as hers, I don't think I roasted them long enough, but the balsamic tasted really good on them. I'll definitely try them again. The pork chops were easy peasy. Just had one bowl of flour, one bowl a bread crumb plus parmesan plus sage concoction, and one bowl a mustard + egg white concoction. I dipped each pork chop in each bowl and then pan fried them in canola oil (I'm not sure how this falls under "cooking light", but in any case they were pretty tasty.

Wed. - Had Freebirds with the boyfriend instead of cooking.

THIS WEEK:


Monday: Baked Lemon Pasta - a la Pioneer Woman - with salad.



Tuesday: Leftovers.

Wednesday: Roasted Butternut Squash Soup - From Tasty Kitchen (i'm really into soups right now - I think its the coldness outside); most likely serve with bread on the side, and a salad.


Thursday: Dinner with friends.

I'll let ya know how it goes!

Monday Menu Madness

I should grocery shop on Sundays, but a lot of the time I end up not going. Which has its benefits because well, Sunday at the grocery store is chaotic. I've started going to the grocery store on Monday nights after work, and it is a lot less crowded. So, to hop on the bandwagon of posting menus to your blog for the week, I'll start posting what I'm making for the week on Mondays! I eat out way way way too much. way too much. I started putting in the money spent on eating out into a spread sheet and it was mind bending. So, following Elaine's lead - I'm going to try to cook more at home, and eat out less (on week days atleast, weekends are for eating out). I'll also let y'all know which food I liked the best from the week!

This week's menu:

Sunday night: Just got back from NOLA.

Monday night: Parmesan Chicken and Rice (from Cooking Light)

Tuesday night: Quick Beef and Pinto Bean Chili - because baby its cold outside... (from Weight Watchers online)

Wednesday night: Parmesan and Sage-crusted Pork Chops (Cooking Light) with Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Toasted Almonds (WW online)

Thursday night: Christmas show.

I'll let you know how my first week of menu planning goes!!


P.S. - PT and I had a FAB time in NOLA this past weekend, blog post to come!