Why do I love food SOOO Much??

Seriously,  I would be like 100lbs if it wasn't for the fact that I am a foodie.  Well maybe not 100lbs I'm way to curvy for that but you get the point. I am always buying cookbooks and cooking magazines and searching the Internet for new recipes to try out.  AND I'm addicted to any type of cooking show, whether on the Food Network, Bravo or whatever.  In my defense I try to cook as healthy as possible so we are not 200lbs but food that isn't as good for you just always seems to taste better :)

My mom always makes fun of me because I remember every vacation by what I ate :)  Good thing I married someone who feels the same way!

I mentioned a recipe blog that I have been trying call http://www.skinnytaste.com/ so far I have made the Asian Meatballs,  Skinny Wheat Quesdillas and Monday night I made Skinny Sheperd's Pie.  It was delicious! Next up is Skinny Chicken Cordon Blue.. I love trying new things and getting my Bountiful Basket has definitely broadened my horizon to cooking,  I use so many more fresh herbs and ingredients and play with flavor's.  I am really enjoying some of the creations I have made.  I would like to try to set up a monthly thing with friends where we rotate houses and kind of do a cooking class while making a meal for our husbands.  I think it would be fun!

About a month ago Ryan's sister and her family were in Vegas and we went over to Renae's house to eat dinner with them.  We had Salmon and I kept expecting the "kid meal" like Mac N Cheese or something  to come out seeing as how they have a 5yr old, 3yr old and a almost 2 year old, but each one of those kids ate a helping of salmon and rice and vegetables,  I was SO impressed and said to Ryan on the way home that's how I want it to be in our house,  start them young :)  Kaimana, the 3yr old ate as much as I did and LOVED it!

And speaking of cooking shows,  Ryan and I watch the Next Great American Restaurant on Sunday nights.  It is a show about 4 investors who have cooking experience trying to find the next fast casual dining restaurant.    One of the things I really like about this show is that they are trying to really focus on being healthy.  One of the guys concept is Soul Food and he never thought about being healthy at all, mainly just serving chicken and waffles and things until being on this show and it is giving him a whole new take on cooking.   I personally am rooting for a guy that is cooking Indian food,  I think American's as a whole need to broaden their palates and eat more Indian, Thai, Asian, Greek foods etc, they are healthy options to a burger and fries. The only thing I do not like about this show is Steve Ellis the Founder of Chipotle who is one of the investors,  that is how he introduces himself EVERY time he meets someone on the show.  He is SO annoying and Ryan and I are boycotting Chipotle because of him.  :)

Easter 2011 is in the bag!

The hunny do list is getting shorter!  We worked really hard this weekend on the back yard and it looks better than it has in a while.  We are filling the pool back up and hopefully will be ready for some swimming and a BBQ here in a few weeks if the weather will get hotter a little bit.  It felt really good to be home and get things accomplished.  I was so sore on Saturday night,  we just vegged out it was so nice and my sunburned thanked me too. :)

Luckily on Friday night we were able to have a date night,  we met up with Ethan and Megan who are also newlyweds and moved into our ward about 6 months ago.  Ethan works with our friend Matt and we met them at a fight night a month or two ago and decided they were people we definitely wanted to get to know better.   We met up at Yard House and since it was good Friday the waitress recommended the fish and since the Sea Bass is my favorite thing on the menu I went with it! We had a great meal and got to know them alot better!  I didn't think about my outfit choice very well I wore this dress with tights and some boots and so when it came to something to do after dinner we went bowling and I ended up looking like this :

LOVELY!!  Oh well it was fun!  Next time I think we are going miniature golfing.

Yesterday was Easter Sunday,   Ryan and I started it off at church.  I think I have mentioned before but we teach a class of 12, 10year olds.  Its pretty crazy but they are good kids.   Ryan and I normally switch teaching the lesson every other week.  This week was my turn to teach about the resurrection.  I use Sugar Doodle (which is a website with teaching aids for LDS classes) alot to help find interesting ways to get the lesson across to the kids,  and I found a Easter Egg Hunt lesson that then would have clues and scriptures to teach the lesson.  It had 11 clues and we have normally 10 kids so I thought it would be perfect,   except for this week we only had 3 kids!  Made for a longer lesson,  but we got through it and each kid learned a little more about the resurrection and got 2 treats (rice krispie treats with Robin Eggs in them)  so I think they were happy!

For Sunday dinner we were able to go over to my parents since they are home now,  and we invited Ryan's parents so we could have both sides of our families for Easter dinner, it was so nice and I love the fact that our families are so close and we can be one big family.   We didn't go the traditional Ham route,  we had homemade Cafe Rio pork salads which were SOOO good.   I made the Cilantro Lime Rice,  my mom made the Pork and the tomatillo dressing, Matt brought tortilla's and the beans and Renae made these fabulous brownies and brought fruit.  It was so good to just be back at my parents house and have our whole family (minus Josh who I missed terribly) there to celebrate the Atonement and Resurrection of our Savior.  I really felt the spirit all day yesterday and was just so grateful for where my family is today.  I am lucky to be able to share this holiday with my them and will never take for granted again the time I get to spend with them. 

For those curious my dad's tentative find out where he stands appointment is on the 14th of May so we really won't know anything until then.  He is not on any medication right now and he looks great and I think he feels pretty good.  He is an amazing man who is so strong and has handled all the drugs and treatments they have thrown at him,  I really hope this is the last of it for a long while and he can get back to doing what he loves (golfing, travelling with my mom, working on his car etc) and just be able to live his life again.  I pray every day for my dad to be healed and hope the Lord hears me and answers my prayer!

I hope everyone had an amazing Easter and remembered that is not just about the bunnies and candy! 

Until next time...

So busy April's almost over!

My last post was the end of March and the next thing I know I turn around and we are over half way through April!  Time flies when you are incredibly busy!

I was reading over my last post and all the things I wanted to get done around the house in April,  yeah we have done MAYBE half of what we should have done so far.  We just haven't had time.  We are finishing up the pool this weekend and re-filling it and then I am going to concentrate on the inside for a while,  do the painting and the picture wall and call it good.  I'll get around to the rest later on this summer when it is too hot for me to go outside.  The pool is looking good, we just need to finish getting the water calcium spots off the jacuzzi and give the whole pool and deck a good power wash and we will be ready for a BBQ!  We plan to be home most of the summer because  Ryan is taking all 3 semesters of summer school and frankly we spent our vacation money in New York and between our water heater breaking,  filling the pool and the rise of gas prices we have no money :)  We do have one more trip planned at the end of May but that is basically free because my Uncle Bill and Aunt Ruthann gave us their timeshare for our wedding present and we are going to cash it in 9 months later in San Diego :)

For all those that check out my dad's blog which can be found here probably know that he has been given the okay to come back to Vegas.  They have to make a couple stops along the way so probably won't make it back to Vegas until next week,  but we are so happy to have them home.   The weather is alot cooler in Utah I think it is going to be a shock to them to come back to Vegas :)  I am ecstatic to have them home,  I must admit though I am going to miss Salt Lake I really like that city alot.

I posted on my facebook a website sent to me by my brother and my mom,   I have now made 2 meals off it it,  the chicken quesdilla's and the Asian turkey meatballs and have loved both.  I am making the skinny sheperds' pie this week and going to try to tackle the banana cream pie for Easter dinner.  It's called Gina's Skinny Recipes and is located here.  I love that it gives you serving sizes and calories etc..  Matt and Ryan are always subject to my concoctions and hope they all turn out.  I think I'll try out a recipe for my In-laws soon also my MIL loves to eat healthy so this might be a website she would like.

Here is a picture of the Asian meatballs,  mine looked exactly the same (without that small bowl)!  I love when that happens :)

And just for kicks here is a picture of a hamburger my husband sent to me the other day that him and our friend Mike went and ate at Hash House a Go Go.  He sent me the picture with the caption..."I killed it"  Doesn't it just look gross :)

MEN LOL....

Looking forward to May and getting back to normal,  having my parents just down the street :)

Oh and dont' stop praying yet people,  we don't find out for another 30 days if the transplant worked as well as we wanted to so we are not out of the woods yet.   We are VERY hopeful!

Love to all,  I'll be back to a regular blogging schedule now.  I think I will talk about TV next time, I watch alot of stupid shows I want to talk about :)