Floating in Cyberspace: Mamavation Monday

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UPDATE 8:18 pm – I am now officially a Mamavation Mom Thanks to everyone who voted for me, posted pleas on their Facebook or Twitter for me, and especially to my partner in crime, Lethal.

Which is not her real name, of course.

 

This post is really hard for me to write (mostly because of the photos). So if you actually KNOW me in “real life”, and you’d like to continue your perception of me as-is and not scarred by the craziest “Before” pictures EVER, then I would suggest that you go read Ali’s blog…especially if you haven’t before.

So I watched Inception last night. And about 1:45 into the movie, I started losing it. I have no idea why, but the floating and the (SPOILER ALERT) “IS IT A DREAM??” and the fall and….I think I was thinking too much and I was all torqued up already about the results of the Mamavation Mom contest….

I had to cover my eyes for about 3 minutes. Yes, I am aware this may make me weird.

I’m just glad we didn’t go see it in the theatres, or my brain would have fallen out of my head, or something equally terrifying.

ANYWAY! So there’s a scene where the world is moving around and the guy is running around trying to keep up with the movement, and I feel like that’s what I’m doing this week.

This is Chuck. She owns my ass. Also, this is my favorite Chuck face EVER.

My world is moving really fast and I’m just frantically trying to make sure that I stay upright so I don’t fall down, or run into walls. Lots of changes this week and I’m maneuvering so I can keep track of all of them, make sure the kids are fed and still fit in my workouts, which have been leaving my muscles SCREAMING.

*deep breath*

SO! Without further ado, here are my “before” measurements & photos for either Move it or Lose it, or the Mamavation Mom campaign. (I won’t know until tonight …by 7pm PST! Watch my twitter feed around then if you’d like to know ) You can find the photos *after* the jump….

A Night in The Kitchen

Was talking with some ladies over on Twitter yesterday after I got home from the farmers’ market (Hi!) and told them I got sunchokes while I was out.

I believe the majority of the responses were “HUH??”

So since I’ve been promising a lot of you some recipes and yesterday promised Sandra I would post the results of the Sunchoke Experiment, here is the very very first Bruises in the Frosting cooking post.

There are TWO recipes, first the sunchoke recipe, and then a pork recipe I

What the finished product looked like...I ate HALF of that pork chop & was full!

messed with from the booklet that came with my p90x kit. Please email me at mia DOT cupcake AT yahoo if you have any questions or concerns; this is my first recipe, so be kind

SUNCHOKES! They’re also known as Jerusalem Artichokes. (I got most of my info from here and here, and the nice lady who sold me a big bag of them at the market Members of the sunflower family (I know, I was pretty stunned too), the roots look a LOT like ginger. They are often recommended to diabetics as a potato substitute (the starch in sunchokes is NOT used by the body for energy like sugar is, and sunchokes actually show indications for ASSISTING in blood sugar control!)…and do have a potato-ish texture to them.

Sunchokes are high in iron, potassium and thiamine, are low-fat and also help feed the lactobacilli in the intestinal tract. (They can make some people sort of…um…FARTY. Just be forewarned.) They apparently also have a ton of Vitamin C. So they’re good for you.

SO! How do you cook sunchokes? There are a ton of good ideas here and a

soup recipe here and I’m sure if I googled more, I could find some other ways, but I wanted to keep it simple and taste them without having to doctor them up.

SO! The lovely lady at Rabbit Fields Farm (without a website sadly, but you can find them at the Bellingham Farmers’ Market…we’re getting a CSA from them!) gave me a flyer on how to cook them and was very helpful with my 9 million questions.

Roasted Jerusalem Artichokes (or SUNCHOKES)….recipe from Rabbit Fields Farm in Everson, WA)

• 1 pound Jerusalem Artichokes, cut into 1″ pieces (I did NOT peel them, but you can give it a shot if you want. Seemed like a lot of work to me, and the peels were a bit crunchy but otherwise delicious.)
• 2 T olive oil (this seemed to be a lot. Add enough to coat.)
• 1/4 t sea salt
• 1/4 t pepper(we use white pepper because The Overlord has something where if she eats black pepper she gets super sick.)
• fresh chopped rosemary (we used enough leaves from one sprig of rosemary. You can use dried, about 2 teaspoons.)

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees
2. Place chopped artichokes into 13×9 pan (I would use a glass pan, if I was you) and toss with other ingredients.
3. Bake, stirring occasionally, until tender and browned (somewhat like roasted potatoes.) Approximately 30-40 minutes.

Island Pork Chops (adapted from a p90x recipe) SERVES 4

• 5 chops (we cut our pork tenderloin into “chops”. You can use regular pork chops too…cooking times may differ)
• 1 t salt
• 3/4 t pepper (again, we use white, but black is perfectly fine.)
• 1 t chile powder (If you like it SUPER spicy, use 1-1/2 t)
• 1-1/2 t ground cumin
• 1-1/2 t cinnamon
• olive oil
• scant 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 t pressed garlic (or finely chopped garlic..FRESH makes all the difference!!)
• 1/4 t sriracha sauce (I can’t eat Tabasco, but you can try it if you want.)

1. preheat your over to 350 degrees
2. in a small bowl, stir together the salt, pepper, cumin, chile powder and cinnamon until combined.
3. Rub the pork chops with the spice rub you just made. I used about 1/2 teaspoon for each side…had some leftover. If you do have leftovers, store them in a plastic baggie or an airtight container.
4. Pour just enough oil into a big skillet to lightly coat the bottom. (You want to brown the chops, not fry them!) Heat over medium-high heat.
5. Brown your pork chops. The colour of the spice rub might fool you, but you want them to get a nice crust. (See “Chef Says” below) Should be ABOUT 2 minutes on each side. (this means don’t answer the phone or wander away from the stove while cooking these!!)
6. Transfer the chops to a roasting pan or a cookie sheet (either one really is fine…I use the stoneware “bar pan” from Pampered Chef). Put in oven for 3 minutes
7. While chops are in oven, mix together brown sugar, garlic and sriracha in a small bowl. After your 3 minutes are up, pat this mixture on top of each chop.
8. Roast the chops until internal temp reaches 145 degrees. (APPROXIMATELY 15 more minutes. Oven temps vary and the only way you can REALLY be sure meat is done is to have a thermometer. You can cut into the chop at the thickest point too.)
9. Let pork rest approximately 8 minutes after removing from oven…serve with favorite veggie!

Chef Says: you brown the pork chops before cooking them in the oven to create a nice seal, so when you put them in the oven to cook a bit more, the juices don’t run out.

Also, when you let the pork chops OR ANY MEAT rest, it allows the juices to redistribute through the meat after cooking so when you cut it, they don’t all run out.

No video today….just one last plea to vote for me here for Mamavation Mom because only two moms get chosen and there are FORTY votes separating 2nd and 3rd!! (I don’t know where I stand, but if I’m at third, another 41 votes couldn’t hurt

Also, my giveaway here ends tomorrow at noon…entries are pretty low!

Party All The Time

Does anyone remember that Eddie Murphy pretended to sing back in the 80′s? Party All The Time? No, just me?

This is my first year “partying” with the Ultimate Blog Party (a virtual party of bloggers thrown by the ladies over at 5 Minutes for Mom), so you’ll have to excuse me if I do this wrong. I tend to toot my own horn.

What is Bruises on the Frosting all about?

It’s about a terribly large list of things. I’m a bit of a dilettante and write a little bit about a lot of things.

Mostly, I write about my life. I’m a mom to two terrific kiddos (Short Stack is 11 and Chuck is 17 mos), so that occupies the majority of my time. I’m engaged to a guy we call Chef…because he is a chef.

Yes, I’m pretty lucky. (He also runs a very successful website for tips and tricks on the Call of Duty video game, so if you or your SO are into that, you should check it out!)

 

Mia Cupcake's the name, pointing and looking serious is my game. Photo courtesy of Axle Adams.

 

I am a non-skating official for roller derby. Short explanation: this means sometimes I get to yell and blow a whistle while girls skate in a circle and hit each other, and sometimes I wear a pink shirt and write stuff down. One of these days, I will explain the long way what I do.

I bake. A lot. A LOT. I don’t eat much of it (Mia Cupcake came from “mea culpa, btw), but I have a lot of very happy friends. And the girls at the coffee stand near my house love me.

Sometimes I do giveaways….and sometimes I do reviews. Mostly I just talk about myself.

I am in the process of a transformation to a healthier me. I’m exercising more, and I’m eating better and I quit smoking and soda and fast food. I’m doing a lot of it with the help of Mamavation….which brings me to my SUPER AWESOME giveaway!

I am in the finals to be a Mamavation Mom, and to be able to inspire other moms out there to make healthier changes for them and for their family. I need your help though.

Go here and vote for me (@miacupcake) to be the next Mamavation Mom BEFORE noon on Monday, April 4th, and then head here and enter my giveaway! Every vote counts….!

And because you made it this far….sometimes I post a video on the bottom that may or may not have something to do with the post. I’m random like that.

In this case, it’s Party All The Time. As proof that Eddie Murphy did attempt singing, around the same time that his career was at its height, with Beverly Hills Cop 1-3.

You’re welcome for that flashback

Running in Circles.

So, I’m new to this whole running thing. I’ve been procrastinating for entirely too long….and now I have a 5k I’m running in 5 weeks. I know the Couch to 5k takes 9 weeks, but I have been working my tuchus off for 3 weeks already, doing a lot of cardio and squats and such.

I am fully aware that this may not be the wisest decision I have ever made.

BUT! I am hell-bent and determined to haul my ass out there and run. Luckily I found a 5k on a route that’s almost COMPLETELY flat terrain, so I’m not too worried. Plus I have one of my BFFs running with me and she just ran a 15k and has no qualms about getting all “drill sergeant” on my ass, so I think I’m golden.

ANOTHER BUT! I am paranoid that I do not have the right tools to begin running, which is why I have not started yet. I have the shoes. I have some pants. I have plenty of teeshirts.

I know I am missing something.

SO! I made a survey and I would pretty much adore you for life if you are a runner, and would take it. This way, I am not pestering my running friend with all of the questions, and I get a better idea of how other people run.

ALSO! My giveaway (read: bribery for voting for me as a Mamavation Mom) has pretty low entries…so if you’ve voted already or are going to vote now….head on over here and comment away!!

 

Related Articles

• How to Start: Running (fitsugar.com)
• #PriorFatPack 5k (krisgetshealthy.com)
• Couch to 5K (girlmeetsbulgaria.wordpress.com)

Who’s That Girl?

I made the finals for Mamavation Mom! I was really worried for a few days that my unique way of handling life was too “much”, and I have been REALLY struggling with not changing myself to make other people like me. (PS – GO HERE for my giveaway And vote for me!)

It’s hard….especially after today, when I had a tough morning at playgroup. You want people to like you, but you have to be true to yourself, right?

I realized something very important this morning: Being fat does not define me. Most of the time (when not coloured by snide comments other people have made), I don’t see a fat girl when I look in the mirror.

You know what I see? I see the funny person who tells jokes when she’s sad. I see the girl who dyed her hair “Bordeaux” in the 10th grade, thinking it would be a nice bright red colour. I see the hardass who still cries when she runs over an animal on the road. I see the dot in my eye from that car accident. I see a great mom and a fantastic fiancée and a wonderful friend.

But the scale tells me something different. Yes, I am down .8 pounds this week, but I am still big. Bigger than I should be. And I can make all sorts of excuses and say it’s a gland issue or whatever is convenient, but I won’t lie to myself anymore.

I’m this big because I chose to sit on the couch rather than getting up. I chose to wallow in my cancer diagnosis and eat until I figured out what to do. I made the decision to be fat.

So now I’m making the decision to be healthy. I honestly don’t care if I get back down to a pre-Short-Stack size 8, I just want to not feel like I am right on the verge of a heart attack. I want to be able to chase my kids around and make them laugh. I want to take them on hikes and go outside.

I could care less about what reality TV stars are doing. I want to live my life, not theirs.

SO! I am making bigger changes now.

• I’ve already knocked out the not-smoking goal. It’s been 3 weeks and I have had 3 cigarettes. Chef is now quitting as well, so that will be even easier. It’s now less work to not smoke, it’s a seldom passing thought. Which is easy to quash.
• Water is also a habit for me now. I always have a bottle with me, and every time I think about it, I take a few swallows. I’m averaging about 75 ounces a day now, so I’m pretty proud of that.
• Junk food is not allowed in my house. Mostly. I don’t buy it. Chef occasionally eats it, but I don’t even bother taking a bite.

1. Moving – This is a recycled goal from the last few weeks, but now I’ve expanded it. I’m doing the Couch to 5k. I’m shooting for the USMAA Boot Camp at least 2x per week. I’m still continuing with the hazings until voting ends.
2. Better food choices. I’ve been choosing healthier foods, but eating maybe too much of them. Smaller portions. Smarter snacking.

Next week, I’m hoping to be down another two pounds. Or to just have been able to make it through boot camp without swearing or puking.

Mamavation question of the week: Where will your feet take you this year? Any plans for a big hike, race, or just a lot of walking?

I am pretty excited because my maid of honor (and one of my BFFs) is going to be accompanying me….on my very first 5k on May 7th. She’s a big time runner, so this is no big deal for her, but she gets that it’s a pretty big deal for me. I’m EXCITED!

This post is sponsored by Earth Footwear, and I wrote it to be entered in a giveaway hosted by Mamavation and sponsored by Earth Footwear. Also, I need new shoes…..

Sore.

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So I’ve applied to be a Mamavation mom (check out my video here) and I’ve been taking part in the “hazing” like it’s my job.

Because it kind of is.

To be clear…by hazing, I do not mean that Bookieboo and crew are circling fat parts of me while I stand on a table in my underpants in front of the whole sorority, or making me drink endless amounts of alcohol until I pass out.

I mean the GOOD kind. I’m doing jumping jacks and pushups and drinking water and eating healthy and doing basically whatever they tell me to.

And I LOVE IT.

I never thought I would have said that…but the “sitting on my butt watching television all the time” thing wasn’t really going well for me. I was so tired all the time, and I was sick a lot and I was eating nothing but expensive fast food and I was smoking….ugh. I felt horrible.

ANYWAY….so I’ve been working on this for almost 3 weeks now? And I’ve been rocking it. Was able to not HAVE to take a nap for the last four days, and was able to play with the kids at the play area at the mall and went for a long walk with Chef and Chuck today….I FEEL SO MUCH BETTER.

ETA: I totally have not weighed myself. Since the doc’s office, almost 2 weeks ago. I should get on that, but I’m afraid my scale is different than the doc’s scale….I’m sucking it up later today

SO! Goals for this week?

1. Keep not smoking. Have been completely smoke free for a week. The smell of cigarette smoke is not tempting me at all right now….in fact it stinks. Chef has even been inspired to work on quitting…I just found his secret stash of Nicotine patches he’s been using
2. More water. I have been falling down on this one. BUT!! I have had ONE CAN OF COKE in a WEEK, so I’m pretty freaking proud of myself.
3. Ignore the junk food. I had a Cinnabon yesterday. I’m totally not proud of that. I don’t have any excuses. But it was totally not delicious. Other than that, have not had fast food in 9 days.
4. Move. With the hazing, this is not hard for me. I get a twice-daily reminder to get up and go, and they tell me what to do. I’ve also been walking or yoga-ing or whatever strikes my fancy in addition…FEELING THE BURN.
5. NEW – Stop late night binging. This is a HUGE issue with me. I am not hungry, I just get bored after the baby goes to sleep, so for some reason, I feel the need to eat. I recognized this last night and had a banana and that was it. So that’s a step in the right direction.

Mamavation Question of the week: What time of day works best for you to be active?  How do you make sure you stick to those planned workouts?

With such an erratic small person in the house, I try not to make any PLANS. I’ve been getting in the majority of my exercise in the morning, so I don’t put it off until after she goes to bed, because then I’m too tired.

Although…now that I think of it, exercising during her nap might make the most sense.

And now, because you made it all the way to the end of my post, a video with the best use of a treadmill. (Other than running on it.)

This post is sponsored by SEARS FitStudio and I’m writing this to be entered into a giveaway hosted by Mamavation and sponsored by Sears.

There’s Something about Derby…

This is how we do it. Also, not entirely sure my helmet fits.

Roller derby makes me feel like it’s ok to wear an outfit like that horrific ensemble to the left there….and that nobody will laugh at me or make me feel like a whale, or point out that my control top pantyhose is TOTALLY SHOWING or tell me that just because Derby Skinz come in a size XXXL doesn’t mean that I should ACTUALLY WEAR THEM.

It allows a girl like me, who is not model skinny and most of the time is hiding in yoga pants and big baggy sweatshirts and hoping to the good Lord that nobody is looking at my VPL or wondering why I don’t brush my hair more often, to feel like it’s ok to wear whatever the hell I want because everyone else is wearing what they want and I can be confident that despite the fact that those shorts are super tiny, they show that I have the balls to WEAR WHAT I WANT, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

I wish real life was like that. On our way home last night, I hadn’t bothered to change out of the outfit before we got in the car…and we stopped at a rest stop.

The girl who was standing at the sink while I was washing my hands looked at me like I had lost my damned mind, and said “Why on earth would you wear that?”

I wish my answer had been “Because I don’t care what anyone else thinks and I do what I like and what makes me feel awesomesauce”, but I just looked at her and walked out.

Why can’t I have derby pride in my regular life? I sound all big and bad sometimes, but honestly when confronted, I’d rather just walk away and crawl back into my hole and cry. I need to have balls more often. (hahaha)

ANYWAY! This weekend was totally awesome, and will merit its own post, because that ish was BANANAS.

But this past Thursday, I heard from the Scary Doctor and I AM ALL CLEAN OF CANCER. I won’t have to ever see her again (barring unforeseen circumstances) and I don’t have to have another person poke my girly parts with sharp things for another 6 months! I AM SO EXCITED.

And I lost 8 pounds (down to 246), but that’s not as exciting

Not changing the goals this week, going to try and work harder on making the first goals HABITS and then add more next week.

HAPPY MONDAY EVERYBODY!

If you don’t love yourself…

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…how the hell you gonna love somebody else? Can I get an amen? ( – RuPaul, at the end of every Drag Race episode)

I think that quote is so true.

And it’s taken me a lotta years to come to grips with the fact that I absolutely HATED myself for a long time. A LONG TIME.

I hated who I was. I hated what I did. I hated who I was with. I hated what kind of parent I was to poor Short Stack.

That’s a lot of hate for one person. It eats you alive, consumes your whole being and causes everything around you to be coloured with a little bit of “WHY AM I DOING THIS??” And it’s probably the worst thing I can admit out loud….that I couldn’t stand my own self for most of my life.

And after a lot of work, a mini-fight with cancer, another baby and a SUPER SUPPORTIVE set of family and friends, I can honestly say I think I’m pretty awesome.

Now I just have to work on the outside to match the inside.

So here I continue on my journey to a healthier me. One that can wear jeans, and chase the kids and coach soccer and not have to take a nap halfway through the day because story time wiped me out.

SO! Goals for this week?

1. Keep not smoking. (I fell down a couple of times on this one in the past few days, but I recognize my triggers and when I’m more susceptible to WANTING to smoke, and am carrying gum. Gum is my secret weapon.
2. More water. (I would like to say I’ve rocked this one, but again, I fell down. I’m picking myself up and dusting myself off, and continuing with this one. 40oz today so far!)
3. Less junk food. (I had McDonald’s on Thursday. It sucked. No more. I’ve been keeping away from junky foods and have been buying more fruits. Even started making myself a morning smoothie! WOOT)
4. NEW - Move. (Even if it’s walking down the street to the mailbox and back, it’s movement. I have the EA Sports and a stationary bike, so 20 minutes daily of walking or exercise video or what have you is my goal.)

Mamavation question of the week:  How do you encourage your children to contribute to your family’s healthy lifestyle?

Chuck (at 16 months) is too tiny to contribute right now. But chasing after her and saving her from breaking the house is keeping me busy.

Short Stack (11yrs) is a little more helpful. He is not a big sweets fan (he just likes Reese’s Pieces and peppermint ice cream) so he’s keeping me honest when I see him. He’s the healthiest one out of anyone in our family – big fan of sports and loves to run around and has a “green smoothie” (with this powder, a banana and some milk) every morning.

So I guess Chuck keeps me moving and Short Stack keeps me on track nutritionally And I hope I can begin to inspire them to not spend a giant chunk of their lives sitting on the couch watching reality television.

This post is sponsored by Mamavation and I’m writing this to be entered into a giveaway.

Not all vegans are jerks.

Image by hisashi_0822 via Flickr

So yesterday, I got a incredibly asshatted nice email from an anonymous source saying that because I wear leather shoes and “don’t care about the animals”, that I am not a vegan. That according to Ellen DeGeneres and her glossary of vegan terms, I am merely a vegetarian. They said (I use “they” because they didn’t sign the email, nor was there gender indication in the email address itself) that saying that I was being vegan “for the health of it” was akin to telling the animals that I was ok with them being slaughtered for their muscles and their wool.

I didn’t know what to say…at first. I honestly sat there, shocked and appalled that a total stranger would take the time out of their day to write such a hurtful email to someone they (may have?) never met.

Then I realized this person is one of the vegans that run around telling everyone that they’re doing everything wrong, and that they are HORRIBLE PEOPLE for wearing leather shoes or wool or eating meat, and will hand you a pamphlet with graphic depictions of cows being slaughtered as you walk out of a burger joint. (We’ll call that type of person a JV = a Judgemental Vegan)

After mulling this over for a bit, and in the interest of finding out how educated my friends/family are about veganism, I asked a couple of friends (via various methods…Facebook and Twitter mostly) to name the first thing that popped into their mind when I said the word vegan and here’s what they said:

• What exactly do you eat? I mean, I know you eat plants and stuff, but really, where do you get your protein?
• That one guy who stands on the corner near my son’s preschool and hands out “meat is murder” leaflets. He always yells at me for wearing leather shoes.
• Omigod, don’t you have to throw out your leather or something? I’ll take your Frye boots if you’re just going to throw them out.
• I met a lady the other day who was vegan, and she was HUGE. I thought all vegans were skinny hippies? No offense.
• Don’t you have to eat tofu all the time? I don’t like tofu. I just couldn’t do it.

I had to break it to that last person that the frosting on the cupcakes I made her the other day had tofu in it.

Conclusion? People are shockingly uneducated (as I was when I first thought about switching) about vegans, veganism and plant-based diets in general.

Anyway – after chatting with a lovely (and totally non-judgemental) fellow vegan, I decided that this person (who thinks sheep get slaughtered for their wool….obviously completely mis-informed) just needs to calm down and that I can ignore them and not take all of their vitriol to heart.

People like my anonymous emailer are what turns people off from listening to vegans and what they have to say. It’s a basic tenet of life: If you’re rude, condescending and judgmental, nobody is going to want to stick around and hear what you have to say.

However, on the flip side, if you’re kind and share with others, you bake vegan goodies for get-togethers or bring a vegan dish to a potluck (if, for no other reason, so YOU have something to eat!), if you address all questions about your lifestyle with kindness and don’t take them as accusations, if you live your life the way you like and with a big dose of kindness, then people will be more open to listening to the “vegan party line.”

In other words Anonymous Emailer? CALM THE FUCK DOWN AND LIVE YOUR OWN LIFE. I’m going to just keep doing me.

Note #1: yes, I am aware that sheep do not die when their wool is sheared. I’m still a “new vegan”, so I’m not entirely sure why we don’t wear wool. If you DON’T shear them, that’s cruel…so I totally don’t understand.

Note #2: I’m not throwing out my leather boots or my jacket. First off, they were all insanely expensive. (I did get rid of 2 leather jackets during The Great Purge.) Second, me throwing them away so they can rot in a landfill doesn’t help ANYONE. Third, I can’t escape wearing wool because I knit and most of the sweaters and socks I knit are wool.

CONCLUSION: If you want to call me a vegetarian, that’s fine. But I still eat vegan food and work hard to make sure I’m not consuming any animal products, so I’m going to keep calling myself a Vegan.

Related Articles

• Not All Vegans Are Out of Their Minds: One Writer’s Story (blisstree.com)
• Worf from ‘Star Trek’ goes vegan (mnn.com)
• Victoria Moran: Veg and the City: The Care and Feeding of Vegetarians (huffingtonpost.com)

I love NyQuil.

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I know NyQuil is probably not vegan, but at this point in this ugly cold, the neti pot is just not touching it.

And for those of you who get grossed out by the idea of the neti pot, you totally need to try it just once. (We have the SinuCleanse brand, both for Chef & I and the baby version for Chuck.) Especially if you get insane sinus pressure like I do and your eyeballs hurt? A couple of minutes of running salt water through your nose will knock that right out.

I apologize for that picture over there, but it cracked me up and I couldn’t help it. That’s pretty much what it looks like when you use a neti pot.

SO! Before the cold meds kick in and I start talking about odd things like the fact that I’m only wearing one sock right now, let’s recap my weekend thus far.

The conveyor belt sushi place we went to on Friday was AMAZING. Needless to say, I told Chef I HAD to sit next to the belt so I could be the person grabbing all of the food. (Now I can see why Short Stack likes to go to the one near their house.)

I spent the first 15 minutes trying to figure out what was on all of the plates, and then I just started grabbing things that looked good. Chef had octopus and eel and I had asparagus rolls and seaweed something-or-other and California rolls. (Before you say anything, I know roe and surimi are not vegan. I did not figure that out before I put it in my mouth though ) We had a blast, and we’ll definitely be going out with the Baker and Baker’s Wife again.

Speaking of baking…yesterday, I made baguettes (from Garden of Vegan, I think) that we used for sandwiches today, and naan & Spicy Veggie Curry for dinner last night. Everyone (including Chef’s BFF Bri & Bri’s momma) ate dinner with me, and judging by the fact that there were 6 very clean plates and no leftovers, I’d say dinner was a hit.

The baguettes were used for monster sandwiches for football-watching today, and despite being slightly doughy (I am not experienced in bread-making quite yet!) they were totally gone as well.

I. Love. Football. LOVE. FOOTBALL. I was born into a family of football players and women who love to watch football. My grandpa was a football coach, and at one point or another, every male in my family (including my sports-averse brother) played football. Short Stack is expected to play football. It’s in our blood.

So when we start getting closer to football season, I start getting antsy. It’s part of me to want to turn on the television on Saturday mornings in the fall and watch football ALL WEEKEND LONG. And most Monday nights, and now some Thursday nights. (For the record, I like watching college better than pro football.)

So now that Chef and I are together, his family has a fantasy football league. Which adds a whole new level to my incoherent hollering at the football.

Now I’m rooting for individuals as well as teams, and if my players are playing each other, I am often screaming at one team to “GO GO GO” and the other team to “HIIIIT HIIIIIIMMM“!!!!!!

I don’t know why my family doesn’t do this fantasy football thing.

Anyhoo, Chef and I are “playing” each other this weekend in our fantasy league, so I’m off to go gloat that I’m winning….while I still can. To geek for a second, Peyton Manning (my QB1) AND my kicker are screwing me with their stats, and Chef’s QB1 (Kolb) is still up to play today…..

Enjoy your Sunday!