Yum!

The vegetable panini is one of my favorite ways to eat vegetables.  This panini has yellow squash, zucchini, red pepper, and portobello mushroom mixed with olive oil, vinegar, garlic powder and thyme.  Goat cheese is what really makes this panini tasty, and there are some spinach leaves in there as well.  The vegetables are roasted first, and then the whole panini goes in the oven after everything is put together with a second pan on top to flatten it.  Yum!

Vegetable Panini

I love crepes!  But I had never tried to make one....until today!  Delicious! :)

Crepe with Strawberry, Banana, and Nutella

Garden Progress

We are attempting to grow fruits and vegetables in our back yard for the 2nd year.  Last year, after all of our efforts, we enjoyed eating one green pepper the entire summer.  We are hoping for more edible food this year, but only time will tell!


Our most promising plant so far is the tomato plant, which is off to a good start.

Tomato

Next we have 2 vegetable plants with flowers....cucumber and squash.

Cucumber

Squash

And finally, the strawberry plant.  Something tells me we will not be enjoying any strawberries this year!

Half eaten strawberries

New Food Day

The weekend is a good time to try some new foods.  Banana with peanut butter is great, but today I tried strawberry and banana on peanut butter toast after seeing a similar picture in a magazine.  Can't really say that I liked the strawberry with peanut butter, but it looks pretty.  I will probably stick to strawberry in the form of jam with peanut butter in the future.

I recently found out about roasting my own almond slices.  So easy, and so tasty!  I roasted some for my lunch salad which also had dried cranberry and sunflower seeds in spinach leaves.

new foods for lunch

My very thoughtful relative Judy emailed me some recipes for two (thanks Judy!), and we tried a chicken pasta tonight.  Quite delicious!  As you can see from the bottom picture, our basil plant is growing out of control, so we added some fresh basil to this recipe and it turned out great.

delicious chicken pasta for dinner

need to find some new recipes to use up all of this basil!

5 Years

Exactly 5 years ago, on June 4th, I made my big move from Michigan to Maryland.  I can remember driving myself out here and hoping that I didn't get lost.  I had never driven so far before, and I had no GPS or smart phone to save me.  I actually did have to pull over once after arriving in Baltimore to look at my map and get back on track, but eventually I made it to my new home.

This picture of my empty room was taken June 4, 2006 just before leaving Ann Arbor

Here's the first picture I have of me after moving during a day trip to DC on June 7th

I waited until August 19th before making the first of many trips to NYC!

It didn't snow until January 21st during my first winter in Maryland.  I was so happy to finally see some snow!!!

I met Brandon in May 2007 :)  Here's the first picture I have of us from a wedding we attended June 16th.

Tara moved in with me in August 2007.  Yay!

Brandon and I got engaged July 12th, 2008!

We got married August 2009! :)

We bought our first house in February 2010

And we brought Oakley home in May 2010 :)

Today, 5 years in Maryland

Things have been busy in the last 5 years!  I've enjoyed all of the new experiences that life has brought my way, and I'm looking forward to the next 5 years!

Sunbathing

Earlier today when I asked Oakley if he had to go potty, he gave his yes response by running downstairs to the back door. Instead of his normal sprint to the grass, he plopped right down on the deck and just sat there. Someone was only interested in sunbathing!

It is so nice out here

What?  Did you think I had to go potty?

Tasty Toys

Like many dogs, Oakley seems to love ripping apart and eating his stuffed animal toys.  And no matter how tiny the pieces become, he still enjoys playing with them.  Here are some before and after pictures of his favorite stuffed toys.

Before

After

Please throw my toy

Before

After

It wasn't me who ate the rest of this toy

Vegetables and Fruit

I've been trying to eat more vegetables lately.  A couple months ago, I bought the cookbook If It Makes You Healthy.  Here are a few things I made today.  Yum!

Whole wheat toast with low fat cheese spread (garlic and herb flavored), cucumber, and tomato

I tried making chips by baking whole wheat tortillas.  They were pretty thick and turned out  more like crackers, but they were sturdy enough for the avocado dip that I made.

For dinner I mixed some left over vegetables with whole wheat pasta and mixed in some of the low fat cheese spread that I used on the toast earlier.

Finally, I made a fruit dessert.  It has cantaloupe mixed with a few things and watermelon, kiwi, and mint leaves mixed on top.

So far, I am really liking this cookbook, and I've learned new ways to make vegetables that taste good!