Bad News Bears … never seen the movie but, it’s a cut phrase & fitting for today’s post.

i had been doing quite well after joining the new gym. i spent at least an hour there 4 or 5 times per week. i felt good. i felt like i was going back into the right direction with my weight loss. hit a snag though. somehow, i strained, or sprained or pulled a muscle in my calf and walking was unbearable. i haven’t been able to work out on it and do not know when i will feel comfortable putting full pressure on it.

i made the mistake of overdoing it yesterday by going downtown to see the National Geographic terracotta exhibit. (aaaahmazing exhibit, btw. seriously awesome.) i had wanted to travel to china to see them in the pits/watch them being excavated but, when i found out they were transporting 15 of them to Nat Geo, i reserved tickets immediately. seriously amazing to see, and i still want to go to china they had a little kit in the gift shop where you can “excavate” your own warrior. i bought one and am pretty darn psyched to work on it!

(source)

the story surrounding the warriors, their purpose, the emperor and his death fascinates me and i was so happy to see that exhibit. definitely worth the money!

my eats have been a bit boring lately. although we did stop at Cafe Asia, a restaurant that was within walking distance from the museum, and my order of pad thai was fit for three. i got my lunch that day, my dinner, and brendan’s dinner out of one serving. and it was delicious.

i’ve been eating one of these for breakfast every day as i run out the door….

not the most complete meal, i know … but it satisfied the hunger pains when i was in a rush..

i did however, feed my belly well when arriving to work..

.

best mid morning snack, ever.

strawbs, strawberry yogs, and quaker granola.

serious party in my mouth right there..i could eat it every day and not get sick of it. amaze.

hope you all are having a fabulous weekend! it’s raining and gloomy here which i suppose is not so bad when i’m couch bound for the rest of the day.

hopefully tomorrow, the leg will be better & i can venture out.

toodles!

OH, you muuust (well actually, don’t because i REALLY want to win this one ) check out Janetha’s awesomeeee jewelry giveaway here!

xoxoxo <3

Hello beauties!

My apologies – I was supposed to announce this last night & failed to blog at all! So exhausted! Anyways, let’s get riiight down to business!

It appears a whopping FOUR of you entered (yes, Jenny, I included you in this to make myself feel about the numbers, haha)

Via random.org (which I can’t figure out how to imbed the actual generator thingie into this post…anyone know how??) The winnter of my first giveaway everrrr is…

True Random Number Generator Min: Max: Result: 4 Powered by RANDOM.ORG

JANETHA B!

Congratulations girlie! Send me your addy (ally (dot) eckhart (at) gmail (dot) com) so I can pass along the info to Progesso!

Hope you all have a grand and glorious friday! It’d 50 degrees here today! Feels like SPRING!

OH, if you’re interested in a little Valentine’s secret bloggie action, check out Janetha’s post here!

<3

Happy Tuesday lovepies!

Just poppin in for a quick post of an update on our new home. Unforuntaley, everytime our place is neat & tidy, it’s usually because we are having company & i never have time/remember? to snap some photos before it’s no longer very neat. ( I swear we’re not slobs, just not the most organized all the times…;0) )

With that said (i’ve forwarned you all), all I have are some crappy quality iphone photos from B’s phone of when our apartment was tidy right before our “apartment warming” party. (only one week after moving in, too!) For now, they’re gonna have to do.

Our closet-sized kitchen. Thankfully, as a one bedroom apartment, there are only two of us. However, I would enjoy more cabinet space and/or a pantry. Since this photo was taken, a few things have changed to make it seem more “homey” and welcoming as well as help out with the function of our kitchen. We’ve put up a shelving unit on one wall to house appliances, recycle bins, pots, pans, cookbooks, and more :0) .

The kitchen opens up into our living room/office space.

The boy’s “baby”, his projector, is mounted on wall & the Caps game is on in the background! The L – shaped sofa as well as the IKEA chair (adore IKEA) fit well in the space. Since the photo, we’ve added a dining area in the left corner of this photo (it doesn’t look as though there is much room for it, but there’s more space than the picture shows) as well as some floor length white curtains (that are usually tied back) in the space between the living room and office space. (In the mornings/afternoons, the sun is VERY bright in our apartment and we end up losing sight of the projection when trying to watch TV. The curtains block most of the light so that we can actually see what’s going on)

To the right of this photo is a wall that B has used to display his collection of old cameras, his other “babies.”

(sincerely apologize for the poor quality photos)

Some IKEA shelving, and boatloads of old cameras later … ta da! I think it’s neat & love that he can display all of his finds. Since this photo, we’ve added some artwork to the adjacent wall. For his senior project in college, B created 4 huge images of an old camera. The first in the series is completely drawn out in graphite. The second, has most of the image drawn out in graphit and about 1/3 of it is in dot form. The third has about 2/3 in dots and 1/3 drawn and the fourth image is soley dots. When the images are posted in row, and you stand from a distance, they all look the same & form the complete image of the camera. (you can’t tell that dots are even involved at all until looking closely.)

(click to enlarge)

These pics are from his senior exhibition.

Since there’s obviously only one adjacent wall, we could only put up one of the drawings but our goal for when we move, is to have enough space somewhere to hang all four of them.

Off the living room is the sunroom/our new office space … or as B has claimed it, his ‘man cave.’

He has since added a flat screen monitor on the other side of his IMac and has his PS3 hooked up to it. Boys and their toys….He absolutely loves that space.

Off the living room and next to do the shelving of cameras, is the door to our bedroom…

dun dun dun

Where the magic happens …

There are two doors that lead out of bedroom …

….and straight into our walk in closet! Hallelujah!

It’s rather humorous though, B actually has the majority of the walk-in because I think that his dresser is too ugly to put in the bedroom, so it lives in the closet. Priorities.

The closed door you see leads into our bathroom…

B calls this the place where the magic happens. I know what goes on in there, and none of it is magical.

It’s a pretty generic bathroom, but I’m just happy it’s not closet – sized, and there’s a tub.

That’s all of our 807 sq. feet humble abode. We love it and are very happy we decided on this building. While my commute to work is not ideal (45 minutes there, an hour home), its very much worth it. Trying to get any closer to the city, or in the city for that matter, would put us into crazy debt. Washington, DC is nottttt cheap!

I am however, quite happy with the proximity of our apartment to our new gym. I was happily at the gym for almost 2 hours tonight and reveled in the fact that it only took me 3 minutes to get home. Ah. Maz. Ing.

Hope you all are having a fabulous start to the work week, we’re almost halfway through!

If you haven’t already, don’t forget to enter my Souper You Giveaway! It ends tomorrow at 9:00 pm!

XoXo!

<3

Happy Sunday!

I’m currently watching Platinum Weddings on We and these people are nuts! Goooodness GRACIOUS these weddings are extravagant! Wowza.

Back on track though, it’s finalllly time to announce my first giveaway! Does the title of my post give it away??

dun dun dun…

PROGESSO SOUP SOUPER YOU PRIZE PACK!(woooo!)

MyBlogSpark teamed up with Progresso and was kind enough to send me a sampling of their light and 100 calorie soups to try!

Along with the soups, they send a oversized soup mug and digital jump rope (which also counts your jumps, but also, the calories burned)

Normally, I’m not a huge fan of the high sodium content in canned soup. However, during these super cold months, and because many of these soups have reduced sodium, I decided that making them every once in a while, paired with a side that doesn’t include much sodium at all, it would be a warming and delicious meal. Wow, major run-on sentence there. Forgive me.

Tonight, after spending a cold afternoon traveling down to U Street for lunch and picture taking at Ben’s Chili Bowl (more on that later), I decided a nice warm bowl of soup and fresh, crisp salad would be a fabulous (and easy-peasy) dinner.

I chose the Progresso Reduced-Sodium Chicken Noodle. What I really love about these cans, are the fact that they do not require a can opener. (especially because we don’t even own one yet, oops!) They have the easy pop tops for can opener challenged people such as me.

I love how soup requires minimal preparation. Pour in a pot, place on the stove, heat & eat.

While the soup was heating up, I assembled my hugh jass.

Romaine, Cucs, Maters, Pistachios and a drizzle of balsamic.

I adore the soup and salad combination. Filling, delicious, and healthy.

New soup mug! It even has an indent in the handle for your thumb!

Annnnnnd, all together now!

The soup tasted fantastic. I can usually taste that canned soups have too much sodium in them and this one definitely didn’t have that taste. I didn’t have to feel bad about eating the entire can, and it it warmed me right up after our frigid adventure.

Now, here’s where you beauties come in!

MyBlogSpark and Progresso have teamed up to give one lucky reader two cans of Progresso Soup, the Progesso Soup Mug, and the Digital Jump Rope.

Here’s how to enter:

1. Leave a comment letting me know your favorite food/drink to warm up with on a cold day.

For extra entries (please leave a separate comment for each entry):

1. Add me to your blogroll/google reader. (extra entry)

2. Link back to this post on your blog. (extra entry)

3. If someone posts that they found out about this contest through your blog post, gain an extra 2 entries!

This contest ends on Wenesday, January 13 at 9:00p.m., and I will announce the winner on Thursday.

Good luck loves!

Hope you all had an amazing weekend! (wish it was not almost over..) and stay tuned for a post about our trip to Ben’s, and a tour of our new home!

xoxo

<3

Hello loves!

First off, I want to give a little warning, this post is about two months worth of pictures (well, okay …not THAT many) that I uploaded from my DSLR. For some reason my macbook doesn’t want to connect to our new router & my wonderrrrful boyfriend has been working on it for over an hour to no avail. Thank goodness he has an ethernet cord …

Anywho, I wanted to show you some of the things we have been enjoying in our new apartment (apartment photo tour to come – for some reason my point and shoot decided to wipe out ALL of the pictures I took of our place while it was clean and tidy, and now … well, it has a 24 year old man living in it, it doesn’t stay tidy for more than 24 hours. Promise to get it tidy ASAP and snap some photos soon though!)

Warning: some of these pictures are from BEFORE Christmas. I apologize for bringing us back to such a fun time when cold weather was warranted, snow was wished for, and holiday cheer seemed to follow wherever we went. Whereas now, cold weather stinks, snow stinks even worse, and the only holiday cheer we have to look forward to is Valentine’s Day.

I went to starbeezy’s to pick up some holiday mugs (such a sucker for anything holiday related. seriously) and came away with a few other goodies! Apparently the manager of my store decided that since I was buying two $6 mugs, I deserved some freebies, and I certainly was not going to argue with him.

holiday mugs, double chocolate chip cookies, and “sucres” aka sugar cookies

I adore using the tall red mug as my tea mug. For some reason I like sipping my peppermint candy cane lane tea out of a taller mug. Call me odd.

One of B’s favorite new bloggie inspired side dish that I’ve made for him, are chu chu chu cheetahs! He legit buys pounds of sweet potatoes, for the sole purpose of making baked sweet potato fries with them. Our first night in the apartment, when we did not have our furniture set up (other than the bed) I made me these babies as a snack. We happily ate them on the floor, in PJ’s and B asked if we could have them “everyday.” Let’s just say, we are always fully stocked with sweet taters. I even attempted “twice baked” sweet taters; however, i think we’ll stick with cheetahs.

beautiful cheetahs on a penguin plate. obvi, the best way to eat them.

He even helps me cut the monstorous potatoes!

adore him. and his lack of ability to take a “normal” photo.

His other fav? Hummus. Can you believe this growing boy had never had hummus before I brought this beaut home?

TJ’s Triple Layer Hummus is legit a gasm in yo mouf.

What’s your favorite hummus flavor?

He now eats it by the TON. With Stacy’s, naturally.

The one thing I really was excited to be able to make on my own, was chicken. (I know sounds easy, right?) But I’m always worried about buying meat and then not cooking it before it goes bad. However, after one Costco trip, and a huge bag of frozen, skinless/boneless chicken breasts, my prayers for home cooked chicken were answered. Now, I’m not a huge meat fan other than chicken. I do like an occasional burger or pasta with meat sauce but, all other forms of meat? I could do without em. The only thing I really couldn’t do without, would be chicken. It’s so versatile, lean, and delicious.

Costco frozen chicken breasts seasoned with salt, pepper, and thyme.

Since I do eat a lot of chicken, and it can get rather boring for *ahem* the other *ahem* person living in this apartment, I try to make it different ways…

Throw it into pasta, cut it up into a sandwhich, stir fry it with vegetables over brown rice … I mean, the possibilities are really endless..

MMM, chicken, broccoli, peppers, and cherry tomatoes tossed sauteed with pasta sauce and thrown over TJ’s brown rice pasta.

Now, so as to not leave you all in the dark anymore, I’ll reveal what was in the pretty blue box that B got me for Christmas. We were on a budget this year (new apartment expenses, etc) and I think he did amazingly. I absolutely adore my gift (I may have also thrown some hints at him for what I wanted…)

The Tiffany’s aquamarine bracelet.

I love that it’s not bulky (I have another bracelet I got in high school from my mom that is so thick and bulky that everytime I wore it at work, it would bang into the keyboard or desk anytime I tried to type). It’s dainty and gorg while not being extravagant! Perfect gift, B :0) Unfortunately, my gift to him isn’t here yet. While I technically ordered it a month before Christmas, some customizations that have been added are taking a bit longer. As soon as we get it (in the next couple of weeks, hopefully) I’ll give y’all the big reveal.

B is currently talking with verizon to get our issue straightened out. Hopefully, it’s just something wrong with the connection, and not my computer…

I hope y’all had a fabulous hump day as well as a fabulous night <3

What’s your favorite bloggie inspired meal? I have to say, if it weren’t for blogs, I would have never understood the greatness of oats. It is by far my favorite breakfast.

P.S. Be on the lookout, in the next few posts, for my very first giveaway (so excited!) and a tour of our new home!

xoxox

Hello lovelies!

I know I have been seriously MIA for the past few weeks couple of months and I deeply apologize. Between the move & the holidays, I feel as if these past two months have gone by faster than I had time to blink.

I have, however, been keeping up with your fabulous lives! I’m jealous of all y’all who are still sittin’ pretty a 65-75 degrees while I’m freeeeezing at 30. (Yes, I’m a cold wuss.) Although, I know one girl who must be used to that freezing cold weather.

I also know another girl who loooves that white stuff (TWSS?) that falls from the sky …

JANETHA B! Aren’t She, Marshall, Penny, and Randy the cutest little family ever?! Such cute pups! I keep telling the boy I want a puppy (I even have a name picked out – such nerd status, I know) but, sadly, our apartment doesn’t allow pets. I think that’s good enough reason to move. Dont you? I thought so. I call the area where Janetha’s card sits, the “celebrity corner.” Janetha’s card sits next to another “celebrity” card. Can you see who is in the the picture to the right of Marshall? No? Here’s a closer look at the whole card…

I’ll give you a hint … the “celebrity” is in the bottom right corner, and she’s on an MTV reality series….still can’t make it out?

Hello Lo from the hills! Okay, I don’t know Lo personally, but… the boy happens to know her father. Not gonna lie, I was a little thirteen year old girl teeny boppery when we got the card.

So here’s the sad news. Even though I hadn’t been posting, I was still taking photos of my food. However, my camera decided to erase my entire memory card before I could upload them to this computer. Not to fret, I still have some other entertaining photos for your enjoyment and regular food blogging will resume shortly!

The good news? The boy bought himself a Canon 50D which is 234252 times more amazing than my Canon Rebel Xti. I was super jeal the day he came home with that, buuuuut I’m sure he’ll let me fuss around with it. He’s the cutest & has completely gotten himself hooked on old cameras and photography. He even put up shelving in our new apartment to display the 30+ old cameras and video cameras he has aquired. I’m glad he’s found a new hobby that I happen to love as well & we can enjoy it together.

In light of the holidays, the boy & I hosted an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party in which you must, and I repeat, must, wear an ugly christmas sweater and/or tacky christmas memorabilia.

I wish I had gotten a picture of the boy’s socks. They were huge ugly sweater socks with two huuuge Santa’s on them.

Rachels is pregnant and wore an guly sweater with an ugly baby sweater attached to it. Ten halfway through the party, when we decided to watch Elf, she changed into this and came out into the room saying, “Did I hear there was gonna be a movie??” I was on the floor laughing as she came out and modeled her outfit.

Our tree (terribly fuzzy photo, I apologize!) I always had a real christmas tree growing up but, being the apartment this year, we decided on an extremely cheap (walmart, what! what!) pre- lit tree & bought some fun ornaments for it (including some Maryland themed crab ornaments that I adore). I was surprised at how well the tree turned out this year. It looked really nice all lit up at night, and I didn’t really miss real tree I was so used to having.

Are you a real tree or a fake tree kind of person?

Christmas with my family was amazing! I went to my parents house on Christmas Eve and spent the night there, helping my dad wrap presents, listening to christmas carols & going to sleep early to make sure Santa would come!

How were your Holidays? Any fabulous noteworthy gifts?!

My mom got me a fabulous mini food processor (which I cannot WAIT to test out by making my FIRST green monster!), and some fabulous kitchen utensil items that I was hoping for!

I’ll give you all a little hint of what Brendan got me for Christmas…

You’ll have to wait until my next post to find out what was in the box!

Hope you all are enjoying the restful time off (I took off on monday & today but unfortunately, go back to work tomorrow), and time with family and friends!

xoxoxo

<3

I have been failing miserably as a blogger who posts on a consistent basis! With all this moving stuff, doctors appointments and birthday’s (4 of my bestest  friends’ bdays + mine are ALL in one week! ahh), I haven’t had a chance to breathe!

A proper post is to come in the next few days after our move-in on Saturday SO EXCITED! I’ve definitely been reading & catching up on all your lovely lives! Hope you all have amazing weekends!!

 

xoxoxo <3

I’m a doofus because …

I had put a bunch of links to fun giveaways in a draft on friday & then completely forgot to use it for my post Sunday night! So here they are…

dun…dun…dun…

A Few FABOOSH giveaways to check out from a few of my favorite bloggers:

Jenny from PB and Jenny is giving away some great FiberOne muffins!

Lo from HoneyNutLo has quite possibly THE most fun/creative giveaway here!

Amanda from Another Prior Fat Girl is having a SHAPE giveaway!

xoxo, gossip girl

Happy Sunday Funday!

I am seriously obssessed with these oats. So filling & delicious. One bowl keeps me full for 4 hours!

Meet: Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Oats

drizzle honey + a pinch a couple pinches brown sugar + handful of raisins + dash of cinnamon = a party in your mouf.

Seriously amazin’ w/ a glass of good ol’ skim milk!

Our kitchen is dark & the wallpaper (yes, i said wallpaper) transports you back to the 70s. I’m used to it because it’s all I’ve ever known..

buuut, I’ll be happy to move into the nice, new apartment w/ an updated kitchen

B, being the sweetheart that he is, sent me flowers at work on our Anniversary Day. So gorgeous! And such a sweet thought since he knew we would not be seeing each other that night.

j’adore flowers.

I hadn’t brought a lunch to work and was a little worried about what I would grab to eat.

Luckily, Karen, had made lasagna the night before and brought in a TON for the both of us!

So deliciously cheesey. Definitely an indulgence, but oh-so-worth-it!

As part of B’s anniversary present from me, I bought a half dozen of Georgetown Cupcake Cupcakes. These cupcakes are so delish and popular, there’s ALWAYS a line out the door and around the corner for them. Luckily, I had pre-ordered my batch for the boy and could walk right in. They have 3 seasonal cupcakes every month and I was so excited about this month’s flavors.

Pumpkin Spice, Halloween, and Orange Chocolate.

I was so curious about the Pumpkin Spice, I might have bought a couple extra to try out with Karen…

I think they’re packaging is adorbs

Hellllloooo beautiful! I mean really, how could one resist this beauty??

close-up action of that delicious mapley-sweet icing.

SO amazing. Pumpkin flavored cake + maple-y delicious icing. The cake is super moist flavorful.

I might be in love.

When I finally got to B’s place, we did our gift exchange and voila! He knew I was worried about moving into the new place and not having a crockpot to cook my oats in, so he bought me one as part of my anniversary gift! He’s such a keeper! He certainly knows the way to my heart! (He also knows, that he will reap the benefits of my cooking )

Not only is this baby an amazing crock pot, but it’s a DOUBLE! I can use one side for my oats in the morning while the other side cooks all day long for dinner!

Such a fabulous gift! I love it!

After exchanging the rest of our gifts, it was time to dig in to those cupcakes! They were amazing and he loved them! I think I’ll pat myself on the back for that one.

Hope you all have been having a great weekend and continue to have a fabulous Sunday!

xoxoxo

<3

Good evening lovelies!

I have an amazing announcement.

I am in love with steel cut oats.

Yes, I am. I am not going to lie, I have never been a fan of oatmeal so I had my reservations about oats. Yet, when my mom brought home this guy…

I had to try it. Especially when she explained a fabulously easy way to cook them!

Goodgollymissmolly, I cannot believe I have been missing out on oats this whole time! They were seriously AH-MAZING. I now understand why all of you love them so much!!

Not only are they fantastically creamy, but they’re so simply delicious with just a pinch of brown sugar & a drizzle of honey. (Soon, I will get more adventurous with my oats creations)

My mom let me in on her secret to easy-peasy “stovetop” oats, without the stovetop.

My mom puts the oats in a crockpot every night & by morning there are magically delicious oats waiting for me!

For time-saving, creamy, absolutely amazing (okay, i’ll stop) oats:

1. Add oats & water to a bowl that is microwaveale (this is 1/2 cup dry oats, 2 cups water)

2. Put the bowl in the middle of the crockpot, and add water around the outside to create a “double boiler” effect.

3. Turn crockpot on LOW 8 hours before you need to eat your oats.

4. Sleep peacefully knowing that your breakfast will be ready and waiting for you, without ANY time in front of the stove.

The amount of water around the bowl should match the water line IN the bowl.

Creamy oats at 7:30 am! WITH NO STOVE PREP

A dash of brown sugar & drizzle of honey and I was in some serious foodie heaven.

I’m thinking I need to branch out & add other delicious mix-ins to my oats.

What do you recommend?

Lunch was a typical spread from the hot bar at the Canal Cafe near work.

Salad, some rice, a little chicken pasta salad & some fruit.

I’m pretty excited because tomorrow is the boyf’s and I’s one year anniversary!

Unfortunately, he has a volleyball tournament, so we won’t be celebrating tomorrow but, we have a fun day in downtown DC planned for Saturday.

I did however, decide to use him as my guinea pig to try out Caitlin’s Egg in a Basket (that Meghan was raving about!) considering it was my first time attempting it.

Toasted some multi-grain bread, popped a whole out the middle, cracked an egg in the center & crossed my fingers.

I added some shredded mozzarella to melt, for a little more flavor.

The verdict? This is really good. My egg didnt stay intact but, I think that actually made it taste even better.

In fact, boyf liked it so much, he asked if I would make him another one.

Boys and their appetites.

As for now, we’re just relaxin, watchin a little Property Virgins (seriously, NEW obssession!!) and being lazy for the time being

Hope you are all having a good night & seriously, if you’re an oats lover & have a crockpot, TRY that method!

<3<3<3<3