A Taste of Life: January 2010

This was from my most recent Cooking Light magazine and it really took no time to put together. This is a great weeknight meal that I'm going to add to our rotation.

Servings: 6
(Source: Cooking Light)

2 cups of water
1 (32 oz) carton fat-free, less sodium chicken broth (I used a little more than called for)
1 tbsp. olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1 medium carrot, chopped
6 oz. fusilli pasta (I used mini fusilli)
2 1/2 c. shredded skinless, boneless rotisserie chicken breast
2 tbsp. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Combine 2 cups of water and chicken broth and heat on medium until hot. While broth mixture heats, heat a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add onion, celery, salt, pepper, and carrot, saute 3 minutes or until almost tender, stirring frequently.

Add vegetables and pasta to hot broth mixture and bring to a boil. Cook 7 minutes or until pasta is almost al dente. Stir in chicken; cook 1 minute or until thoroughly heated. Stir in parsley.

Calories: 237
Fat: 4.8g
Protein: 22.9g
Carb: 23.9g
Fiber: 1.7g
Chol: 50mg
Iron 1.8mg
Sodium: 589mg
Calc: 28mg

I thought I would start with a few Christmas pictures that I managed to take.

Case and Tuck on Christmas morning at my parent's house. We stay there Christmas Eve and then get up to head to Casey's parent's house first thing that morning and then we head back to my house. We go back and forth a little but we're lucky that they're only about 5 minutes apart.

All of us in our pjs and ready to go.

Casey and Tuck at his parent's house. Tuck does like us despite his poses in these pictures.

My mother-in-law and father-in-law on Christmas morning :)

Then we headed back to my house to open presents with my family. That's my mom, dad, Casey, my sister, and my brother-in-law and Lil is in the middle somewhere.

I managed to get this picture as Casey was opening his blu-ray player. I told him we weren't getting one for awhile.. and I lied :)

Miss Lillian who was more interested in bubble wrap and opening other people's presents. We got her the turtleneck and little wool skirt she is wearing. She did have a better understanding of things this year so that was fun to experience and we even got to do a craft with her on Christmas Eve. It's actually the same one that Heather posted about a few days ago but we didn't get any pictures b/c we were all covered in paint.

For New Years we ended up having people over at the last minute and ordering pizza for a pajama party... what better way to ring in the New Year!

All of the girls rocking our pjs. Our husbands/significant others were there but I realized I didn't get any pictures of them or me and Casey. Hm.

But I did manage to get a picture of me with one of the boys, of course.

I took a look at my blog to see what I was doing this time last year and what my resolutions were. I thought I wrote a big list of resolutions but it turns out it was just to make bigger progress on an issue that tends to sneak up on my life. I'm proud to say that I only ever make progress on said issue so I can say that I kicked that resolution in the face BAH BAH.

I also saw irony in the form of garlic knots. I haven't made them in awhile and it turns out that the last time I made them was around this time last year and what do you know, we had garlic knots tonight. That wasn't really relevant to anything, but there it is.

It's weird to look back and see that I was really curious about what 2009 was going to bring b/c 2008 was such a hectic year. We didn't really have a hectic year honestly. We purchased our first home together and that will be the biggest and fondest memory that I have of this year but otherwise it was just a year of working on our home and honestly just enjoying being married and hanging out with each other and our family and friends. It really was a calm and content year.

Sooo... resolutions for this year.

1. Continue enjoying this content feeling that I have with my life, my marriage, and our home.

2. Continue to make this home our own by making a dent in some of the home improvement projects that we have on our list.

3. Travel more! We didn't do any traveling at all in 2008. We didn't have much time off from the wedding and then it was into save mode for the home and then afterwards for all of the fun little stuff that pops up when you have a home (like a snow shovel when there's 18 inches of snow outside).

I think all of these are obtainable goals and I really do try to set 'resolutions' that can be met. Weight loss is never on there but I do always kick myself around the first to get back into shape. It's not that I let myself go over the course of the year, it's that I let myself go during the months of November/December. I have carrots and cauliflower pre-packaged for snacks this week and Cooking Light oatmeal in tupperware for breakfast every morning. No more of the binging on fun food for weeks at a time. It's back to just the weekends for that.

I should make a resolution to blog more but I know how sporadic I am and I know that if I don't have a lot going on then I don't blog so we'll see how interesting my life is. The hoseband and I are attending a tiling class next Saturday to attempt redoing our guest bathroom so I'm sure there will be posts once we get started on that.

I hope everyone had a great holiday and a good New Year!

Oh! Oh! Oh!

I forgot to introduce you to someone.

She's real pretty isn't she. She's just something special. My husband thought I needed one for Christmas after asking for the past 2 years and he was right! I made the above mentioned garlic knots with her today and I've also made chocolate chip cookies and a birthday cake so far.

Ok, that's all now.