Greatest Place to Play

Check out these awesome playhouses! The final picture is my actual playhouse from when I was a little girl. My sisters and I loved climbing up on the roof and jumping off. The interior boasted curtains, carpet and cushion. That wonderful little playhouse still sits in my parent's backyard, just waiting for the future generations to claim it as their own. Sigh.

Updating the Family Throne Room

Hubs and I have been doing a lot of work on our one and only bathroom. At this point, we are just about ready to throw paint on the walls. Once the paint goes up, we can put the shelves on the walls, install the TP holder, and throw up some of my hooks (oh happy day). Since the after pics aren't ready yet- I'll share some progress photos with you:

Love from the Hubster

I want to share my stems with you. For Valentine's Day, Hubby bought me some beautiful tulips. I absolutely love flowers. These particular beauties have brought a lot of pizazz to my dining room table. Love, love, love the flowers and my hubby!

I'm a Fan

Mom and Dad came down this past weekend. While they were here, we were able to get some more items checked off our to-do list before the baby shower in April.

Here are some pictures from the weekend. As you can see, we (i.e. Dad and Hubs) got the ceiling fan hung up in the living room. In addition, we got trim put around the new attic access and we secured the staircase spindles. I also included one picture of Judson and his big chihuahua eyes (I couldn't help it).

Frittata, I never knew I loved you!

Last night, Hubby and I made a frittata from skinnytaste.com (a blog I have already talked up shamelessly). To be precise, it was a mushroom and shallot frittata. I was a bit worried that I wouldn't like something with shallots in it. Not to mention the fact that it just sounds pretentious- frittata... like being at a regata or enjoying a musical cantata while sipping champaign.

Anyway, (reigning myself back in now)- we loved it! It is kind of like a flat omelot, started on the stovetop, but finished in the oven. Our frittata turned out really light and fluffy, but had incredible depth of flavor; it was remarkable! In fact, I loved that darn frittata so much that I am going to share the recipe with you right now because you all need to make it immediately:

Mushroom-Shallot Frittata
Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes
Servings: 4 servings • Time: 15 minutes • Points: 3 ww points
Calories: 132.0 • Fat: 7.7 g • Protein: 10.9 g • Carb: 6.0 g • Fiber: 0.8 g

• 4 shallots, finely chopped
• 1/2 lb mushrooms, finely chopped
• 2 tsp fresh chopped parsley
• 1 tsp thyme
  
• 3 eggs
• 5 large egg whites
• 1 tbsp fat free half and half (or milk)
  
• 1/4 cup fresh grated Pecorino Romano
  
• 1 tbsp butter
  
• salt and fresh pepper

Preheat oven to 350°.

Heat butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Stir in shallots and saute until golden, about 5 minutes. Add chopped mushroom, thyme, parsley, salt and pepper.

In a medium bowl whisk eggs, egg whites, parmesan, half and half, salt, and pepper.
Add eggs to the skillet making sure eggs cover all the mushrooms. When the edges begin to set (about 2 minutes) move the skillet to oven. Cook about 15 minutes, or until frittata is completely cooked. Serve warm, cut into 4 equal wedges.

I Love ME

A while back I shared that I want to get healthy this year- not as a New Year's resolution (which I have never managed to keep), but simply because I don't want to be overweight anymore. Well, I've been working really hard and guess what? As of today, I've lost 20 pounds! That is 20 pounds since January 6, 2011.

I am so elated! I feel much more energetic and a lot of my clothes don't fit anymore. I owe a huge thank you to my hubby, who is traveling this journey with me. He helps keep me in line and celebrates with me whenever another pound is dropped.

One of the greatest finds, which has contributed to my success thus far, has been skinnytaste.com. I love this blog!!!! It was started by a wonderful woman, Gina, in 2008 because she couldn't find any good Weight Watcher recipe sites on the internet when she started counting points. In addition, she knew she could improve on what did exist and I agree with her wholeheartedly! What adds to her blog's appeal is her food photography; she makes each dish look mouth-watering in addition to scrumptious- tasting.

Some of my favorites from Gina's blog are:
Her banana nut pancakes
The skinless chicken thighs with shallots in red wine vinegar
The chicken enchiladas (I love Mexican food!)
And last, but definitely not least, the creme brulee french toast!

Seriously, Hubby and I have never eaten this well! Today is obviously Valentine's Day and to celebrate, Hubby and I are making the homemade spinach manicotti and the dark chocolate chunk bread pudding. Aren't you jealous?

Happy Valentine's Day everyone~ from a 20 pounds lighter and super ecstatic, blogger!

Happy Valentine's Day

Weekend Project

Hubby and I have been hard at work getting the house ready for my sister’s baby shower. On Saturday, we tackled a smaller project in our master bedroom. I believe I have mentioned that our bedroom has an interesting awful color scheme. For those who don’t know, the walls are painted a Barney purple with red spongy polka dots all over. All over, that is, except for where there is a window or door, which boasts sage green walls with white, crooked pinstripes. Honestly, I have no idea how we sleep at night with all this color bearing down on us. The real kicker however (can you believe there is more horror?), is the radiator- painted the same awful Barney purple with red splotches.

So on Saturday, we painted the radiator. I like to think we rescued it from utter shame and humiliation, restoring it to its former glory. The crazy thing is that it only took us half an hour to complete the project (i.e. this should have been done a long time ago). We started the project with a trip to my favorite store, Menards. Hubs decided spray paint was the right product to use verses regular paint because it could get into all of the nooks and crannies that would be hard to reach with a brush. We settled on semi-gloss spray paint in tan. I chose tan because I think it will complement the mocha walls nicely (when we get the walls painted).

After we brought the 2 cans of spray paint home (so far, we’ve only used one can), I quickly washed the radiator off and dried it with an old rag. Then, Hubby spread some of his painters plastic over the wood floor and used a flattened cardboard box to protect the wood trim. During the spraying process, we were not worried about getting spray paint on the walls because they need to be skim coated with mud anyway (to get rid of the sponge marks from the red polka dots). Hubby did all of the spraying and I held the spotlight for him, so that he could see where more coverage was needed.

In the beginning, I was worried about the heat given off by the radiator; it was definitely working hard because it was freezing outside. I was concerned that the heat would affect the painting process or that it could be dangerous (I didn’t want to blow up the house!), but Hubs said it would be fine and it was. Also, I should mention that the radiator doesn’t get warm enough to need the special heat-safe spray paint that we examined at Menards (it is for objects that reach very high temperatures like grills).

When Hubs finished the painting, the radiator gleamed like new. The finished product looks amazing. In fact, I hadn’t even realized that there is fancy scrollwork on the body of the radiator because it was hidden by the hideous color scheme. Bonus! Now, we are talking about giving the bathroom radiator a once over just to cover up some white marks I made on it when I was priming the wood paneling. Until then, enjoy the before and after pics from the master bedroom radiator project (you'll have to forgive the after pics because I took them with my laptop):

Blizzard Alert

The weather warning on my desktop keeps blinking to remind me that in the next 24 hours I can expect a blizzard to dump anywhere from 9 inches to 18 inches on top of my house. I cannot even begin to express my excitement! Surprised? I love, love, love snowfalls.

Please, do not get my love of snow confused with a love of cold, blowy weather. I love twinkling snowflakes, not lingering cold/icy weather that causes me to get the winter blues... and post obnoxiously bright and cheerful items for my house and office as a way to combat the dreariness of Jan/Feb. I {heart} beautiful, fluffy, swirling snowflakes and huge snowpiles just right for jumping in. In fact, I was just telling a co-worker this morning that if we get a big enough snow tonight and tomorrow- my porch would be the perfect height for flinging myself off of and into a huge snow pile.

Having mentioned all of this, you probably won't be surprised to know that I am hoping we get the full 18 inches that have been predicted. From the way things are looking out the window right now, there's a great chance I will actually get my wish.

To add to the joy of the snow, the College has announced that everyone will be able to quit working and go home at 3pm instead of 5pm. Tomorrow, work will not start until noon with the possibility of having the whole day off. I love the College and the great work that I get to do, but seriously- how awesome is a snow day?

How am I going to spend my snow time off? Let me drop you some not-so-subtle clues: