Finding our way

Woaaah it’s been a while hasn’t it?

September has been a long, stressful month. I pretty much had to put everything aside to go in “survival mode”. I cleaned up my finances, figured out where I stand, made new goals for myself and now I’m ready to get going.

I’ve found that I really need those “wait a minute” moments where I can just step back and rethink where I’m going and how I’m going to get there.

Now that I’ve got my brain in gear, I’m back to the daily grind. You know what though? All of a sudden, we’re having fun again!


Sunday is the first day of my work week, so everything starts on Sunday! That night we had tilapia fish thawed out and I decided to make a stew out of it.I made it up on the spot and it was delicious!

Here’s what it looked like:


I looked around in my fridge to see what I had to work with. I had all sorts of leftover cut veggies so I used those.

I sautéed 1/2 cup chopped onion, for 2-3 minutes. Then I added 2 garlic cloves (minced) and one red hot pepper, seeded and minced, cooked for about 1 minute.

I then added about 1 cup diced zucchini, cooked 2 minutes, threw in 3/4 cup of small red bell pepper sticks cooked 2 more minutes.

When the veggies were tender crisp, I added salt, pepper and 8 oz of raw tilapia cut in chunks. I cooked that 2 minutes covered, then I turned the fish pieces, added 1 cup diced fresh tomatoes (I quartered small ones that were on the vine), 2 TBSP (more or less) fresh basil in strips and 1 tsp capers. I cooked that about 2-3 minutes, or until the fish was done.

Et voila, fish soup/stew. The fish was still slightly frozen when I started so be careful not to overcook!


Yesterday I made bentos in the morning and was planning on cooking chicken for dinner but a stomach ache kept me out of the kitchen so we had canned soup. I had the healthy Choice chicken and noodle soup.


It was okay… not very tasty at all though. If you like very tasty/spicy food you will need to doctor it up. Next time I will add spices to it.

It's a good base to start with though if you want quick and easy "save me from the drive through" solution and are out of frozen meals.


I'm also enjoying my trusty smoothie every morning. I ran out for a while, and really missed it.


This has been my coffee every morning, 1 packet of the Weight Watchers Creamy Chocolate Smoothie in 2 cups (more or less) of hot coffee. It starts my day the right way.


So we are still eating right, and enjoying it. I’m also working out regularly again which makes a world of difference!

I actually slept all the way through the night last night. Finally! Our kitten has been waking us up on regular basis.

We finally found him a name: Leopold, Leo for short. He is still climbing everywhere, but we’re getting used to him and fortunately he seems to have learned to get lost at night.

Look at him, so cute!


So that’s what’s going on with us. We’re moving ahead, slowly but surely. My husband was looking very good this morning for some reason, very slim. This girl ain’t complaining one bit! ;o)

Be good n stuff!

Tuesday's picnic

Last Tuesday we went for a day at the beach. We went to Doran Beach in Bodega Bay. It's a beautiful beach at which, for a few dollars, you can park, use the restroom, even take a shower if you need to.

We fell in love with the place, only problem being that I sunburned pretty badly. So we spent the rest of the week mostly indoors. Oh well.

For that day we had prepared a picnic: two deli meat sandwich on dutch crunch bread, and a tabbouleh. We also had yogurt, and bananas!


I had fun packing up the food, unfortunately the camera didn't cooperate that well. Here's what I salvaged:

Here's the two sandwich with the tabbouleh.

The Tabbouleh is the most simple I've ever made, and actually the most tasty!

I soaked Bulgar, then chopped a big bunch of parsley, chopped tomatoes, cucumber, put in chick peas, lemon juice salt and pepper.

That's it! It was delicious, and it was fresh. Yum! I put it in my glass Lock and lock. With lemon juice, I didn't want to use plastic.

I packed the sandwich in a layer of plastic wrap, but that was ugly, so I wrapped them in a bento cloth just to make them pretty!

So that was our picnic or what I could get out of the camera about it!

I packed the whole thing in my picnic basket, and off we went. We had a totally relaxing day. We brought the dog along, on leash, and though she wasn't used to being on leash at the beach, she did pretty darn good.

We're planning many Saturdays there I think. I'm also looking into a "season pass" for next summer!

Be good n stuff!

A newcomer in my house!

So, I wanted to introduce a newcomer in my family: Monsieur Sans-Nom. Which is a temporary name until I come up with something.

Monsieur Sans-Nom is from the Sonoma County Shelter, and is around 3 months old (that we know of). He's a male short haired tabby kitty with a white belly and white "tips". He's adorable and LOADED with energy.

He's already won over my husband:


Grace, our dog:

And myself of course! I'm just in love with the little guy.

Gaya, our older female cat is less than impressed with him, but for a first meeting it didn't go too bad. He kinda goofed by running straight in her face... TWICE!

He has also explored the whole downstairs.

The Shoe rack:


Under the furniture:


In the trash can:


And of course, the curtains (which he has tried to climb a few times already):


So, Monsieur Sans-Nom has been here about 3 hours, if that, and has already completely overtaken the house. I'm in loooooooooooove isn't he the cutest?


Be good n stuff!