"Girl's Night"

Okay, so this post is nothing seriously exciting, but I have been "planning" to blog for a while now - in keeping with my New Year's resolution to post at least once a week. But, every time I think of writing something I feel like I dont have enough time for a well written & exciting post.

But, this is a blog, not my submission to a literary magazine and like my high school English teacher said - if nothing really inspiring is just flowing from my pen I should just start writing whatever is there...

So here is whats up in the Kelly Home tonight:

Drew is on call until 11pm. He had not been on call for a while, which was AWESOME because we were able to have dinner together and hang out at night. In an effort not to feel sad and lonely and instead make use of this alone time I decided to have a girls night...by myself. :)

Before you start feeling sorry for me consider that I am an introvert, but extrovert ALOT for my job. I love meeting new students and having conversations with people, but after a week of that I really need some me-time.  Although, I do love having actual Girl's Nights with other people.

This had all the highlights of a GN for me, sans girlfriends... excessive baking, eating my weight in junk food, and a feel-good chic flick.

I made my take on The Pioneer Woman's "Best Coffee Cake. Ever" I added blueberries and substituted a 1/3 of the all-purpose flour for whole wheat. So you know, I got some fruit and fiber. Who says my excessive baking and junk food cant be healthy? Because you know whole wheat flour and blueberries (along with 3 sticks of butter and 3 cups of varied sugars) is good for your health. :) I will probably regret my choice to make this tomorrow seeing as how the cake is larger than an 9x13 pan...what would that be a 10x14?

Not wanting to be totally self-absorbed I also baked some pumpkin cranberry muffins, which I have been meaning to bake all week. Poor Drew has been subsisting off of HEB flour tortillas and yogurt for breakfast all week and gets hungry 2 hours after that.

I rented Easy A from Redbox when I went grocery shopping earlier today. I love having a Redbox right outside my grocery store. I really liked it. It was the perfect light-hearted and intelligently funny film I was hoping for tonight.

Drew finished his call as I was writing this, so he is home now...singing in the shower actually. :) I really enjoyed my Girls Night, but I am really glad to have my handsome husband home.

Pea Pesto!

I am a huge fan of hiding vegetables.

I know I sound weird. We are supposed to consume 2.5-3 cups of veggies a day. I dont know about you, but that is generally pretty hard for me to do on any given day. Fruit I can do. Fruit I really love - I can have it raw, bake into a muffin or scone, blend it into a delicious smoothy, or make a salad. Veggies are harder for me to consume by themselves.

So I have taken to doing for myself what many moms do for their kids - I hide it. I know its in there, but its jazzed up a bit, and therefore far more satisfying. :)

Dinner last night is a great example.

I made a recipe for Sausage and Tortellini soup, but added half a bunch of kale chopped up. It was tasty, an added serving of veggies, and cheap! (Kale is super inexpensive and filling at the same time).

But this was not enough for me, oh no, I was watching Giada De Laurentiis on Food network while I was at the gym last week and saw this little jewel of a recipe. Pea Pesto Crostini. I thought immediately, "that is a perfect recipe for us." I am sorry I didn't take a picture, but I will tomorrow (there are leftovers for lunch!). I piled our toasted ciabatta bread high with pea pesto for another serving of green veggie. What better way to down 1/2 cup of peas than with ciabatta, parmesan cheese, and olive oil?

I highly suggest hiding your vegetables if you are wanting to up your daily intake. :)

Blueberry Muffins Part II

Just thought you might want to know, the Blueberry Muffins turned out great. So great in fact that they are all gone! I will definitely be making more soon.

Here is my recipe if you would like to make them, its a variation on this one

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
2-3 tsp. orange zest (whatever you get from a small orange)
2 tsp. baking powder (I like them fluffy)
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries (dont forget, lol!)

1 stick butter, softened (this is the worst part, everything else is healthy)
3/4 cup sugar (I am going to try just 1/2 cup next time, they were plenty sweet with the blueberries)
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
sugar, ground flaxseed, or granola

Stir all dry ingredients together, except blueberries. Gently add blueberries to dry ingredients (unless they are frozen, like mine, and you can be more firm). Preheat oven to 350. Cream together butter and sugar. Add one egg at a time until thoroughly combined. Add milk to wet mixture. Add wet mix to dry and gently fold together. Spray muffin tin and distribute batter evenly. Top each with your choice of sugar, flaxseed (good source of protein and omega-3), granola or whatever else you think you might like. Bake for 25-30min. Turn out to cool 2-3 minutes after removing from oven.

Blonde Moment

I was just making up a batch of Blueberry Muffins in the kitchen and had a real blonde moment. I was trying a new recipe (I have yet to find a blueberry muffin recipe I really like that is not from a box and uses real blueberries) and talking to Drew while he was working out (don't we sound like an over-achiever couple? sorry).

I got distracted and forgot to put in one ingredient...I bet you can guess what it is.










The Blueberries.


I would like to chalk it up to being totally distracted by my husband's rippling muscles flexing as he lifted weights...he is pretty hunky. ok sorry, but really, it was me having a blonde moment. I gave him a real scare when 5 minutes after putting the muffins in the oven and cleaning up the dishes I gasped in realization of what I had done. He thought the oven was on fire. :)

I quickly took them out and tried to stuff some blueberries into the individual muffin tins. I put them back in the oven and had a good laugh about it, until 15 minutes later when my REALLY blonde moment occurred to me. I had turned off the oven when I took the pan out to add the blueberries, set the timer, but forgot to turn the oven back on.

So, here is a pic of how they turned out. I have not tasted them yet (they are for breakfast tomorrow). However they taste I think, to be fair, I will have to try this recipe again.

Hope youre keeping it as honest as I am (but maybe a little less blonde). ;)

At Home

As much as I like to think of myself as a really great multitasker, I am really more of a work-hard-get-one-big-project-done-at-a-time kind of a gal.

So, I have been saving up a bunch of posts on cooking and baking. While I had some time at home over Christmas and New Years I enjoyed being able to cook and bake at a leisurely pace. It really is one of my favorite things. And I had several new cookbooks to try out. Drew had to rein me in around the second week when I was getting ready to try my hand at shortbread cookies, gingerbread men, and mexican wedding cookies (snowballs).

Men.

They just dont understand the fairer sex's obsession with sugary baked goods...and a close second, feeding people.

He is concerned with things like health and weight management. Bah!

No, really I am glad that my husband really enjoys my cooking AND helps me make wise, healthy food decisions. To be fair, I had already made two desserts the week before and we had just returned from Christmas with family (can you say Coconut Cream pie? how about Cinnamon Rolls?)

Anyway, expect to see a few recipe reviews, dinner suggestions, baked goodies, and the like on here the next few days. I hope they inspire you to make something new or just enjoy being in the kitchen. I know I need a pick me up every once in awhile.

What the?!?

What the heck! I come back home from an InterVarsity staff conference in St. Louis expecting to find some more reasonable weather and  my Google homepage says its currently 18F outside!! Darn it!!!

I drove Drew to the hospital at 8am this morning and it was NOT pleasant. Even inside, where I have been working on a few things here at home (planning retreats, Bible studies, and prayer meetings) I am wearing 4 layers to remain in working order. Think

I dont particularly enjoying sweating all through the summer months in Texas, and I do enjoy when it gets cold enough to dig my scarves and mittens out of the back of the closet, but seriously the teens?

I dont think I can handle this much longer. Please pray for it to warm up...or dont expect me to move out from under my blanket and Weezer snuggie or go anywhere outside the apartment. Drew might just have to find himself a way home this afternoon, because I definitely do not want to go out again.

;) Just kidding, you know I wouldn't leave him there by himself...but it might require this kind of preparation:

Hope you are warmer than I am.

Christmas Traditions

Since we are a young family (going on 2.5 years!) we think often about the traditions and routines we want to start and what value/meaning they have. Christmas is definitely a season I think a great deal about what traditions to adopt and what to say no to. There is just so much to consume even on this level during this season! Its hard to know what to accept, what to adopt, and what to reject.

This year we got an artificial Christmas tree (thank you Grandma Judy!) which is beautiful and doesn't cause Drew to sneeze. :) After learning more about the traditional Christian liturgical year and holidays (Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, etc) reading Living the Christian Year by Bobby Gross (IVP) there was one tradition in particular I wanted to adopt.

You see, Christmas is actually preceded by Advent - traditionally a season of waiting & hopeful expectancy. Advent was often commemorated by fasting, simple living, and definitely no celebratory parties or decorations.

So I decided that at home we would celebrate Advent by putting up our Christmas tree, but waiting to decorate it until Christmas Day. Christmas is not just one day, but a season of 12 days (hence the song) lasting until January 6th. Having our Nativity scene figurines out and a bare Christmas tree was a great reminder of what was coming, but not yet here.

This might seem sad, but it really changed my perspective. As Christmas neared more and more decorations went up around us, the frenzy to buy more increased, and seeing all this my expectation was not heightened but halted, consumed even. There were few places outside my own home where I felt I could find that quiet.

I think, as a well-off well-educated 21st century American I often rob myself of waiting, expectancy, and quiet. I can have or get anything I want at anytime - even Christmas...even the Savior?

There is good reason Jesus made himself in the form of man and moved into our neighborhood as a babe. He had to take the same 9 month journey in his mother's womb that we all do. Mary and Joseph had to wait for this promised child. Israel had to wait for him for hundred's of years.

I think of how often people lement missing that "childish" feeling of expectancy on Christmas morning because the magic of Santa is gone or we know what is under the tree or we know there are no more surprises. But what if the magic is still there? what if there were surprise gifts for each of us under the tree each and every year?

I think there are. I think the magic is in Jesus' birth, the fact that the most powerful being in all the universe chose to become a lowly infant to Middle Eastern parents who would soon be refugees so that we might know how vast his love is. And I think there is a gift for us each year, each day, that no one can change - God loves you.

I think too often I let my desire, my want, and greed to take away my own opportunity to wait. And that is when the surprise is lost. I lose out on the opportunity for the Lord to speak to me anew, to reveal his love for me, in his way, in his time.

Thanks for Advent Lord. Thank you for knowing I need to wait on you.

Here is our celebration, and offering of thanks to the Lord on Christmas Day 2010: