Lean, Mean Meatloaf

Okay, as mentioned in my Menu Plan Monday post, here is the recipe for:

MONDAY"S recipes

Meatloaf:

Ingredients:
3/4 cup oats
1 red onion, quartered
1 can fire roasted diced tomatoes
2 TBS. Olive oil
1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
1 egg + 1 egg white
salt and pepper
6 TBS. parmesan cheese

-Pulse oats in food processor until they have a crumb-like texture. Set aside in large bowl.
-Place onion in processor and pulse until finely diced.
-Heat oil in skillet over medium heat. Add onions, cook, stirring until soft. About 5 minutes.
-Place diced tomatoes in processor. Pulse until mostly smooth.
-Combine tomatoes (reserving about 1/2 cup), egg, egg white, parmesan, salt and pepper, and ground beef with crumbled oats. Mix very well.
-Add onions to mixture. Combine well.
-Pat into 9x9 baking pan. Top with remaining 1/2 cup tomatoes.
-Bake, at 375 for about 45-50 minutes.

I topped ours with a little mozzerella at about 40 minutes. Let it melt and then placed it in the broiler for a minute to golden brown it. Yum!

Papaya Salad with Honey Lime Dressing:

Ingredients:
-Papaya
-Peaches
-Blueberries
-Blackberries
-Strawberries
-Grapes
2 TBS. honey
Juice from 1/2 of a lime
1 tsp. cinnamon

-Place all fruits in large bowl.
-Mix well.
-In small bowl, combine, lime juice, honey, and cinnamon.
-Pour over fruits and combine well.

Menu Plan Monday

I'm taking my inspiration from THE Mrs. Rachel Ray this week. I'm a subscriber to her magazine (hell, I'm a subscriber to A LOT of magazines) and there were some DELICIOUS looking recipes this week. So, without further ado:

Monday-Lean Mean Meatloaf, Papaya salad with honey lime dressing, Mashed garlicky cauliflower

Tuesday-Tilapia with roasted corn crust, chickpea salad, baked corn fritters

Wednesday-Deconstructed Lasagna, Honey flax bread

Thursday-Swiss Burgers with Baked Zucchini Chips

Friday- Inside out Pizza rolls, Peach and Berry salad

Saturday-Fried Chicken roll-ups, Strawberry salad with honey lime dressing, salsa and whole wheat pitas

Sunday- Greek Chicken Salad and Garlic Cottage Fries

Dealing with the office Bitch

I love my job. For many reasons, one being that it reminds me sooo much of when I was head chef and shift manager at a popular chain restaraunt, we'll call it CB. Of course, what I do now is not even in the same industry as food service. I am an executive assistant to the Human Resource Manager in a major Medical Billing Firm. However, my job is a lot like my shift manager job in that I am well known (in an office of over 100 people, everyone knows me), well liked, and most importantly, well respected and looked up to. Aside from that, I feel like I am very good at what I do. Probably because I like it so much.



But here's the thing. There's this woman, let's call her KB, who I swear not only hates me, but is out to tear my carreer down. She is very condescending and rude. I've tried being rude back, but that's just not in my nature. I can't do that. And I don't want to get that kind of reputation.



I looked up some articles online on dealing with people like this. One in particular had me laughing with it's gentle humor but it also struck true. It's a very good article. It says that (and this is something that my pyscaitrist told me of my mother-in-law) some people simply are not capable of 'normal' socially acceptable behaivor. It goes on to explain why this happens (scary) and how to deal with it.



Personally, I'm thinking of putting my whole dog/personal space theory to the test. Not sure what my boss would think when KB tells on me though. Hmmmm.

Truthfully, I need to handle this professionally, but it's getting out of hand. I'm going to be 29 in about 2 weeks. This woman treats me as if I'm an incompetent 13 year old. I am neither and I'm not willing to take her shit anymore.

Does anyone have any more suggestions?

Are humans really that bad???

In a typical week, I visit our local Dunkin Doughnuts about once or twice. They know me there.... I always order an extra large coffee with extra cream and 7 splendas and either a blueberry cake doughnut (I know so bad for me but it's my once - or twice - a week indulgence) or a bagel.

The man at the window always has a big smile and a "How are you today?" for me. Today I drove through and ordered my usual (coffee and doughnut) and was instructed to pull around, which I did. Unfortunately by the time I'd gotten to the window, I'd uncharacteristically decided I wanted an order of hashbrowns, too. So, after telling the drive-up window guy this and apologizing for being a pain in the ass, he kindly asked me to pull around to wait. I did this of course, thinking "I don't want to hold the line up."

My hashbrowns only took an extra minute or so. One of the other clerks came out to bring them to me and before I could get another "I'm sorry" out, he started apologizing to me. He appologized for asking me to pull around. That got me thinking... are most other people just such jerks that they would have required the apology from this nice man? Would other people have been put out by the fact they were asked to 'pull around'? I mean, it was me being a pain in the ass, so of course I pulled around. I didn't feel like the guy was in the wrong for asking me at all!

It makes me wonder about where the human race is heading. I try so hard to teach my children to be humble, compassionate, and honest people. Am I alone in that? Good god, I hope not.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Free eBook

Hey everyone! I just wrote an eBook. The premise is a month's worth of healthy, easy, DELICIOUS meals all rolled into one book. This book is focused solely on dinner items. My next one will be breakfast, then lunch.

If you're interested in receiving one absolutely free (no strings attached):

-add yourself to my followers list
-email me at amberavon1@yahoo.com

I will send the eBook directly to you, FREE! I'm just trying to get it out there.

Thanks all. ;)

Personal Space

Has anyone ever noticed how dogs have NO sense of personal space???

Take our dog, Violet for example. She'll just come right up to you and stick her big long sausage dog nose right in your face. And leave it there. Or worse, start kissing you. It's nothing for her to try to slip someone the tongue. :)

What if that was socially acceptable human behaivor? I tried it this mornigng on my mom.... she wasn't too happy. But wouldn't that be a good tactic to get on someone's nerves who you couldn't actually tell off but wanted to??? Think of what would happen if I went up to my mother in law and stuck my face under her chin. What would she do? At least she'd have something real to talk about then instead of making stuff up. :)

Well, regardless of personal space or not, we love our Violet-dog. What's not to love? She's happy to see us always, knows to curl up by my legs when I'm reading and never talks bad about us... even if we do stick our nose in her face. :)

Violet Bass

Cranberry Bars

Okay, as promised, here are the delicious Cranberry Bars that I made the other night.

Here's the easy recipe:

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Cranberry 'sauce' ingredients:

1 bag cranberries (fresh)

about 1/4 cup sugar

1 TBS. vanilla extract

2 TBS. water

Directions:

-In medium saucepan, combine 'cranberry sauce ingredients'.

-Bring to a low boil until cranberries begin to pop.

-Physically mash the cranberries a little bit. You should see a sauce starting to form.

-Continue to 'low boil' for a few minutes until sauce is thick and still coarse.

-Remove from heat and let cool.

-In medium bowl, beat butter and sugar until creamy.

-Add egg and vanilla, beating until blended.

-Add flour, beating until JUST blended... it will be crumbly, that's ok.

-Reserving 1 cup dough, press remaining dough firmly into a lightly greased 9"x9" baking pan.

-Spread cranberry sauce on top evenly.

-Sprinkle reserved dough evenly over the top.

-Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 28 minutes or until golden.

-Cool completely on wire rack.

FIVE

I saw this in Sarah's post and couldn't resist reposting it... customized to my taste, of course. This is just too good. :)

These are in no particular order.... Five things I suck at:
1. Accepting Dave's family and ex-wife
2. Saying "no"
3. Focusing on just one thing at a time
4. Making friends
5. Having patience

Five things I'm good at:
1. Cooking
2. Dancing
3. Loving my husband
4. Reading
5. List-making

Five random things about me:
1. I have one brother.
2. I have an extrememly soft heart for dogs.
3. I'm mildly obsessive compulsive (in a good way).
4. I have big plans and not ever enough time to accomplish them all.
5. I've watched the Friends series (the whole thing) 6 times (I own it).

Five things I will not do:
1. Party like a rockstar.
2. Quit trying to 'do it all'.
3. Easily admit when I'm wrong.
4. Give up my love of Georgia.
5. Stop loving my husband.

Five people I have to talk to:
1. Dave
2. Angel
3. Alexis
4. Mom
5. Dad
6. James (yeah, I know.... that's 6)

Five places I'd like to go:
1. Georgia (home, for good)
2. New York
3. Italy
4. Fiji
5. Georgia (haha)

Five celebrity boyfriends:
1. Matthew McConaughey
2. Tim McGraw
3. Brad Pitt
4. Kid Rock
5. Johnny Depp

Five things that annoy me:
1. People who think the wold owes them everything (Dave's family and ex-wife)
2. When you email/call someone and they don't email/call back.
3. Drunks
4. When I clean the house and an hour later it's a disaster again.
5. When I can't figure out what to make for dinner.

Five things that scare me:
1. Flying
2. The thought being without Dave
3. The dark
4. Ghosts
5. German Sheppards

Five things I cannot live without
1. Dave
2. My daughters
3. Pasta
4. Books
5. My computer

Menu Plan Monday

Okay, this is my first 'official' Menu Planning Monday. I actually do this every week, but on paper. I found this great site, Orgjunkie.com that does a link up to like a billion people who do this electronically.

I've not been feeling the greatest today, so I'm only going to post partial info for right now. Tomorrow I will have it completed and with recipe links!!

Monday- (I cheated) Takeout Pizza :(

Tuesday- Bacon, Tomato Bagel Melts (thanks Laura, these sound DELICIOUS!!), kicked up salad, and Homemade Mac n Cheese

Wednesday- Inside out tacos, spanish rice, and sister-in-law dip

Thursday- Black forest Reubens, Homemade potato chips, hummus and grapes

Friday- Pork Chop Balsamico, corn salad, hawaiian rolls, baked potatoes

Saturday- Filet mignon in wine sauce, double baked potatoes, broccoli au gratin

Sunday- Stuffed shells, homemade garlic bread, kicked up salad, white chocolate pudding

I'll post recipe links tomorrow everyone. Check back for them and more posts. I made this AWESOME cranberry bar the other night and just haven't had the energy to post the recipe on here. So that will be up as well as a few more little things. :)

Weeknight Chicken Sammies

Okay I guess it's pretty apparent that we eat chicken. A LOT. :) It's good for you though, and very versatile. So without further ado, I present:

Weeknight Chicken Sammies:

Ingredients:
- 2 large split chicken breast*
- 4 cups water
- 4 TBS. Chicken bullion
- 1/2 jar pasta sauce*
- provolone cheese
- kaiser rolls or buns

Directions:
Boil chicken in water and bullion. I usually cook these in the crockpot overnight, but if you forget to throw them in there, they take about 35 minutes in a pot with water.

Remove and shred. *I always take out half and place in zip top bag. Then I put in the freezer for later use.... chicken and dumplins, etc...*

Toss with warmed pasta sauce (I usually make my own, but storebought is just fine).

Slice rolls open and place cheese on them. Fill with chicken. Oala'!

Enjoy!!

New photos

So if you read my last post about my new camera you'll know how much I love it!! I've been practicing. See my new blog for more photos or you could see my myspace page for even more photos. :)

Calzones

Here's the recipe of our classic Monday night dinner. I like to make this on Mondays because it's super easy and my girls and fiance LOVE it!

Ingredients:
-1 container refrigerated bisquits (I use flaky buttermilk)
-garlic salt/powder
-1 small can pizza sauce
-1/4 pound ground beef*
-shredded cheese
-1 egg white, whipped

Open bisquits and flatten to circles about 2 in. x 2 in.
Sprinkle each with garlic salt/powder

Spread a teaspoonish of pizza sauce on bisquits
Add a spoonful of ground beef (cooked) to one side of the circle
Top with cheese

Fold one side of circle onto the other and seal with fingers
Brush each with egg white

Bake at temperature specified on package until golden brown on top.

*When I make pasta sauce, I always save a little bit of the ground beef for these. Just toss about 1/4 pound of the cooked meat in a ziptop bag and toss in the freezer. Pull out the day before and put in fridge to dethaw. You can do this with taco meat as well. Pepperoni, chicken, or anything of your choosing can be used in place of the ground beef.

Enjoy!!

Chicken Fried

Anyone ever hear this song? It's by the Zach Brown Band. This is such a great song. It completely embodies nearly everything that I love about the South. Sweet Georgia.

It's all chicken fried, a cold beer on a friday night, and a pair of jeans that fit just right.

***sigh***

I know all of my problems won't go away once we move to Georgia. But oh, it will make them seem so much more bearable. Grrr...

My new camera

Yes, I actually got the Canon EOS Rebel for Christmas!!! I soooooo was not expecting it! Dave even through me off by saying that he wasn't going to be able to pull it off and that he got me like 5 other things.... I kept telling him "save away for it, we have three gift giving times between now and when we leave for georiga.... Christmas, My Birthday, and Valentines." I didn't want a bunch of things for all of those. I just wanted the camera. And he shocked the HELL out of me when, after opening two beautiful outfits and a sexy new jacket, I opened (drumroll please) my camera! It's the most wonderful camera ever.

I've shot with the Canon EOS film camera before when I did wedding photography. This digital one, the Rebel blows the doors off of that other one. It's amazing.

Here are a few photos I took, just messing around with it. This is before messing with the aperatures and everything else.

Here are a few I took, messing around with the lighting:

More are definitely going to follow! I can't wait for it to warm up just a little so I can take outside snowy/ice pictures!!

He makes me laugh

Sometimes I can't help but admit how very lucky I am. My fiance, Dave is just an amazing man. He adores me in a way that no one ever has. He's incredibly patient with me, our girls, my family, and just everything else. He's a great cook and can clean the hell outta the house if given the time. He remembers the little things I love. Like for our anniversary, he remembered that I fell in love with these blue and purple glitter dipped roses from Jewel MONTHS ago. Check the beautiful bouquet he brought home for me on our anniversary last month. And he makes me laugh so hard. All the time, about the stupidest little things!!

Of course we have problems sometimes. Every couple does. But I'm lucky enough that we can work them out and they don't turn into big humongous fights most of the time. We are good together. Most days, we are yin and yang in almost all things. But it not only works, but it plays off of one another and enhances our relationship.

He is the one my soul has searched for all these long hard years. Finally, it is at peace.

Easy, Cheesy Chicken Tortilla Soup

So, this store right by our house makes the best Chicken Tortilla Soup....I absolutely LOVE it. But they only make it on Wednesdays (grrrrrr) so I decided to make a big batch for us for dinner and then I'll individul-size freeze the rest for me at a later time.

This soup is my own (easiest in the world) recipe and is jus phenominal!!

Ingredients:

- 2 large split chicken breasts
- 1 jar salsa con queso (I used mild but use whatever you like)
- 2 cups water
- 3 TBS. chicken bullion
- 1 can chili flavored diced tomatoes, drained
- 1 can white hominy
- tortilla chips, corn chips, or homemade tortilla chips

Put all ingredients except hominy and chips in slowcooker. Cook on low overnight. Remove chicken the next day and shred or "chunk". Return to slowcooker and turn to WARM. Let sit another 3-4 hours at least. When ready to serve, saute hominy in sauce pan with 1 TBS butter and a dash of salt and pepper. Add to soup, let sit on warm for another 10 minutes.

Serve with chips on top for crunch and shredded cheese if desired.

All I can say is YUMMY!!

Almond-Raisin Scones

The other day at work, our Managed Care office ordered lunch for a meeting. This is a very common occurence. We at Med3000 LOVE our food. We have a 20 minute meeting and we order lunch. A client is coming in and we order lunch. It's Monday afternoon and we order lunch. It's a beautiful thing. Anyway, the other day we ordered from a local deli/bakery that we use quite often. This particular day we had ordered their scones along with lunch. They were TO DIE FOR!!! So chewy, moist, not too sweet not too dry. Ohhhh, they were perfection with sugar (litterally) on top. So I decided to bake scones. :)

This is a very simple recipe. Even shaping it into the 'dome' was easy enough:

Slicing was easy.....:Looking at the finished product, easy....:

All right all right. Here's the recipe. Not quite what I had from the bakery the other day, but still very good and chewy, not at all dry!!!

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 c. granulated sugar*
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/3 c. butter, softened and chopped
1/2 c. buttermilk
1 Large egg
1/2 c. raisins*
1 tsp. almond extract*

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease and flour a baking sheet.

In a medium bowl, blend flour, sugar, baking powder and baking soda. Mix well. Add chopped butter and using a pastry blender or two knives scissor-fashion, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal.

Add raisins and blend well.

In small bowl, mix the buttermilk, egg, and almond extract. Add to the flour mixture.

Knead dough 12-15 times until well combined and smooth.

Shape into 8-inch dome. Using a serrated knife, score the dough into 8 wedges (don't cut all the way through).

Bake 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven an brush with "icing" while still warm.

Icing: mix 2TBS. OJ and 4TBS. granulated sugar


**A few notes**
This recipe calls for dates instead of raisins. I like raisins better so switched them out. It also calls for only 2 TBS. of sugar in the dough. I increased it to 1/4 of a cup. I like it a little sweeter. It calls for orange peel, but didn't have any oranges on hand so added the almond extract to the buttermilk.

Also, it took much longer than the 15 minutes to cook. I would say at least 25 minutes, but keep a close eye on it.

Enjoy!!

Deep cleaning

Well, to accomodate my New Year's resolution of reducing the clutter in my life, I started deep cleaning my house. We just moved to this big beautiful house (5 bedrooms, huge living room, large kitchen, dining room, etc...) this July. I love it here. We just finished repainting the kitchen and dining room and it's just gorgeous.

So, anyway, we've accumulated some clutter. Nothing major, like you'd see on TV, but still a decent amount. So I took 3 hours yesterday and DEEP cleaned our room. It feels soooo much better in there. Airy and refreshing.

Today I'm going to do the same to the kitchen and dining room.... and also alleviate some of the bottlenecks there. Our garbage is ALWAYS full. Overflowing. However, we still have the tiny 'apartment sized' garbage can we bought when we got our first apartment. So, I'm going to get a larger one. Also, I'm going to rearrange the cabinets to make more sense for the kitchen.

Tomorrow, I'll do the living room and bathroom. Then Monday, I can work on the back bedroom, basement, and the basement bedroom. Then I will do the girls' rooms upstairs.

After I'm done with all of that, I will begin my new organization system for all of my paper crap.

I feel better already. :)

New Year's Resolution part II

So, I've come up with another New Year's Resolution. I'd like to reduce the 'clutter' in my life... namely the paper clutter. It's the worst. No matter what I do, I seem to accumulate more and more of it. So that's my second resolution. To do away (or control) the paper clutter.



Now, on to the "How" of executing my New Year's resolutions.....



The first one, letting go of my anger and all that toward's Dave's family, may be the tougher of the two to execute. The little trick my pyschologist gave me (see the "crazy crazy crazy" sign on www.myspace.com/dreamingofgeorgia and read my 1st new year's post) helps, but it doesn't quite alleviate the problem. What to do? I've already told Dave that I am looking out for my best interests and absolving myself of his family and ex-wife. That was a huge step. I've begun conditioning myself by physically telling myself "NO" as soon as a thought of them creeps into my mind. I am a firm believer in conditioning yourself into a different lifestyle or change. It worked for me when I decided to get healthy and lose weight. Conditioning. I will keep that up and keep referring to my CRAZY CRAZY CRAZY sign.

Now, on to the clutter problem. I know the key is organization and planned execution. A lot of it comes from the girls' school stuff. So, I can try a trick I read about with "inboxes" for each of them. My magazines, I've already solved that problem (I'm a magazineaholic!!!) As soon as I'm done reading them, they get tossed into a milk crate. When it's full, I have a lady who comes and gets them. She and her 5 daughters read them and pass them on. I am really proud of that solution. Now, comes the hard part. The compulsive PRINTING that I do with recipes, coupons, LISTS, and everything else. Do I cold turkey that and give it up? Or find some way of wrangling it all? When I finally came up with my filing system for all of our bills, that REALLY helped. Maybe I can do the same for all of the crap that I print. That will work. Yea!! I'm proud of myself.

:)

Winter wonderland my ass

Ugh! I hate this weather. Winter. It's such a crock. LOL!! I say that like it's a theory or something. Winter in Chicago is utterly preposterous. Bitterly ridiculously cold. Grrrr.... It's winter that I miss the south the most, for the obvious reasons. I mean, don't get me wrong.... this cold is good for something. Snuggling in bed or on the couch with the hubby watching movies. And drinking hot tea. But those things can be enjoyed without freezing cold snow and biting wind outside.

Okay, I'm just grumbling here. But is it really neccessary this weather???

The countdown is on... 10 more years till we can move to Georgia. Sigh.