Seriously, you guys, this was so easy!

• 2 frozen bananas
• 10 medium strawberries
• 1 cup of skim milk
• 1 handful of ice

Last night,  I threw a bunch of bananas in the freezer (oops, didn’t peel them before freezing, but the Wusthof knives fixed that pretty quickly), and I swear that made the biggest difference in the texture of the smoothies.  I might add a few extra strawberries next time (the color was pink but the taste was overwhelmingly banana – not bad, just really banana), but otherwise it was a nice, sweet after dinner treat.  :)

Zoya was running a promo for 2 free high-end nail polishes (you just had to pay $6 for shipping which was worth it considering each bottle of polish is $8)!  With over 400 colors to choose from, it was a hard decision and even though I got almost identical colors, I love, love, love them and can’t wait to use them!

Oh, and remember that photo contest I was in a few weeks ago?  I won second place, and my prize arrived in the mail yesterday!

The camera is valued at almost $400, and I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it quite yet since I already have a point and shoot camera that I love.  I’m contemplating selling it and putting the money towards a more fancy camera.   Decisions, decisions….

Winning stuff is fun, y’all!  :)

Oh, and can I just tell how pissed disappointed I am that picnik is closing in April.  Devastation.

I’ve made homemade enchiladas before, but I feel like these were a much healthier version.  In that past, I’d stuff flour tortillas with chicken and cheese, smother it in enchilada sauce and then cover with more cheese.  This version was used with whole wheat tortillas, and a mixture of chicken, onion, spinach and tomatoes.  Much better.  :)  The only thing I’d change in the future is maybe adding more tomatoes on top as it’s baking – it looked dry, but really wasn’t because the mixture inside was so juicy, but I’d personally just prefer a little something more on top.  All in all, it was super yummy and filling and it’s going on the list of favs!

On Friday, we headed down to Raleigh bright and early to hang out with my family before heading to the Capitals/Hurricanes game later that night.  We met my cousin, Regan for lunch at a Raleigh tradition, Char-Grill.  Shortly after, my aunt and uncle stopped by and we decided to take Chris out to Duke University since he had never been to the area.  As a sports fan, Chris really just wanted to check out the historic campus, so off to Durham we went.

Obviously if you know me, you know I hate all things Duke.  However, I’m not a liar, so I can’t say the campus is hideous and the people are stupid because it’s simply not true.  The campus is beautiful and just walking around the campus, we knew we were surrounded by people who would really make a difference in the world.

We headed over to Cameron Indoor Stadium and on our way, saw tents already up in Krzyzewskiville!  We talked to a handful of students who told us that they were camping out for the Duke/Carolina game on March 3rd.  Seriously, these kids have to camp for three months to get tickets in the first 1-2 rows of the game.  Crazy, but they loved telling us about their experience.  The school has internet setup so they can study while they’re camping, and during the day, only one person has to be present and accounted for so it doesn’t have an impact on their schedules.  Pretty cool to see in person, I’m not going to lie!

Yep, I'm still a Carolina fan!

After our little detour over to Krzyzewskiville, we thought we’d try to get into Cameron Indoor Stadium, and we lucked out and found an unlocked door.  Literally, within seconds of being in the building (it’s tiny, not like an arena at all), we heard basketballs bouncing and I whispered “no way!”  We ran up the stairs and were presented with the team practicing, with Coach K in the middle of it all.  Unreal.  A few moments after we realized they were in the middle of practicing, we also realized it was a closed practice (no signs until we went around the corner), and were kicked out about 30 seconds later.  Who cares – it was radical, and I got a few pictures before we got caught.  Clearly we were sent from Carolina to spy on them!  :)

Sigh.  Chris was elated, I was in shock and we were all kicked out (nicely, by a ball boy I might add – still have no idea where he came from), but it was pretty great as a sports fan in general.  For the rest of the day, Chris greeted everyone (including the staff at our hotel and the staff at RBC center) with “I saw Coach K today!”  Too funny.

Later that night, we met up with our friends Niki and Karl and Jeff and Kristina to go to the Caps game at the RBC Center.  Our seats were great, the Caps sucked (and lost), but it was still great fun.  I’d definitely go back.

Saturday morning, we had breakfast with the friends and then Chris and I headed east to the coast to visit my family including my grandmother, cousin (and her kiddos) and my uncles.  On the way down, we stopped at a gas station and Chris surprised me with $7 in scratch off lottery tickets and we won $55!  So fun!

We arrived in Carteret County around noon and hung out at the house for a little while before running some errands with Nicole (my cousin) and the kids.  We got Logan (he’s 5) his first lego set and then went back to the house and built it in the kitchen.  It was really fun to see him working on his first legos, even if he didn’t want to follow the step by step instructions.  :)  The finished result seemed to be a hit, though.  He carried it around the house bragging about how he built it, and when he dropped it and it exploded into pieces, he immediately wanted to put it back together.  As a lego lover, I’m so proud.  :)

We visited the beach while we were there, too.  It was super cold and the ocean was furious, but beautiful.

After a pit stop at El’s for dinner, we headed back to Raleigh for the night and said bye to the family til April.

On Sunday, we met up with my cousin Regan and her husband so they could take us out to see Carolina to wrap the weekend up.  Jason, Regan’s husband, graduated from Carolina, so that made them the perfect tour guides.  :)  While nothing nearly as exciting as stumbling across practice in action happened, we did get a pretty good tour.

We saw the new baseball stadium which is beautiful and almost reminiscent of a minor league baseball stadium,  drove through campus, walked alllllllllll the way around the Dean Dome (trying to sneak in again), made our way into the swim + dive center adjacent to the Dean Dome and DID find the practice basketball facility.

We couldn't turn the lights on in the practice facility, so this picture came out dark.

We also drove by the football stadium and when I noticed the gate was unlocked, we hopped out of the car to get a closer view.  But then, I wanted to get closer, so we ran down to the field.  I mean, how often do you get an entire football stadium to yourself to run around?!

After our tour of Chapel Hill, we made our way over to this hole in the wall restaurant that Chris had seen on Man versus Food called “Time Out.”  They’re famous for their “chicken cheddar biscuit,” which Chris inhaled in about 2 seconds flat.  I took a small bite and wasn’t a fan.  Rumor has it, you have to be ridiculously drunk to truly enjoy the sandwich in all of it’s glory.  :)

We finally hit the road to head home around 5pm and got home late last night around 10.  Did I mention it was hard to come home?  I love North Carolina so much.  :)

Hope you all had just as great a weekend as we did!

We had a Cheesy Chicken Rice Bake (sounds really bad for you, but wait til you check out the recipe and see there’s nothing too terrible involved!) and we both really loved it.

Pros:  Easy to make, tasty, and we had enough for leftovers!

Cons:  It needed some more “punch.”  I didn’t use all of the chilies it called for because I feared making it too spicy, but leaving it out made it kind of dull.  Next time I make it I’ll definitely add all of the chilies as well as more salsa.

You can find the recipe here.

And for you visual folks….

Step 2: Toss in a baking pan and top with shredded cheese.

Step 3: Enjoy the yumminess!

Enjoy!

Cajun seasoning on the chicken!

Simmering chicken, sun-dried tomatos and spices.

Add in some whole wheat pasta...

...top it off with some parsely, and you've got dinner!

The thing I love most about this dish is that it weighs in at a ridiculously low 391 calories per serving.  I had about a cup (one serving) and was completely satisfied, so it’s definitely filling without being crazy fattening.  You can find the recipe here!

Last night, Chris noticed a recipe on my friend Kirsten’s blog for a mango-pineapple smoothie, so while he was working today (I had the day off since it’s MLK day), I ran to the store to get the ingredients to surprise him when he got home.  Again, something super easy to make and it was tasty.  I think I need to find a better balance of the amount of protein powder that I should toss in because it definitely had that taste lingering, or maybe I should have blended it longer and am just getting used to my new blender.  I think next time I’ll use a little less protein powder (especially since it’s just a snack, not a full breakfast) and we’ll see how that goes.  Either way, I’m eager to make more smoothies now that we actually have a blender (hint, hint, Kirs)!  You can find the yummy mango-pineapple smoothie recipe here!

All ready to be smoothied!

Tastiness in a glass!

Happy Monday!

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Exhibit C:

Ahhhh, that’s the sound of me exhaling, y’all.  I feel so much better knowing stuff has a place and that I can actually find things now.  Hooray.  Lets just hope it lasts more than a few weeks!

Today, I made Slow Cooked Carnitas and it was delicious.  We got creative in our eating and used some kid sized flat breads in lieu of tortillas, since they were only 50 calories per flatbread as opposed to 100+ for a tortilla.  I followed this recipe exactly, except I used pork chops that we already had in the freezer, but I cut them from the bone and trimmed the fat before tossing them in the crock pot.  The recipe called for a lot of spices I wasn’t familiar with (adobo, chipotle peppers IN adobo), but I figured it would be really good, and it was.  However,  I will say it was pretty spicy.  It’s a hard to describe version of spicy, though.  It wasn’t so spicy that it wasn’t edible, and it wasn’t the kind of spicy that made your eyes water and clear your sinuses out.  Maybe it was just realllllllly flavorful and more of an explosion of spices.  Either way, the pork just fell apart nicely and we topped it with some low cal cheddar cheese and added a spinach salad with cucumber, carrots, fat-free feta and shaved almonds on the side.  It was a very satisfying meal that I’d probably make again, I’d just have to figure out how to lessen the kick.   The calorie count was great with only 236 per flatbread which isn’t bad (I had two and was full).   You can find the recipe here!

Carnitas flatbread tacos + spinach salad

We got some little wire shelf thingys to hang on the back of the pantry door and they make the biggest difference EVER.  Chris hung them in a matter of minutes and once I got all of my spices and baking stuff put away, I felt relief.  I could actually find stuff instead of blindly grabbing from the top shelf of the pantry and hoping for the best.  I love it!

Isn’t it funny how some of the smallest things can make the biggest difference?

Oh, another little bit of organizing that we did today involved more crap from the pantry that we could actually store on the counter!  The half empty bag of flour and sugar and the oversized container of creamer took up a ton of space in the pantry, so we got some canisters to keep on the counter which looks nice, but also saves room.  Again, small fix making a big difference!

The rest of our afternoon was spent watching Moneyball (I actually did not like it – it was slow, and not nearly as interesting as I wanted it to be) and eventually pulling dinner together.  Dinner was delish tonight – recipe and recap coming soon!

The jist of the picadillo is ground beef mixed with a bunch of spices and a tomato base.  It’s served over brown rice so it’s nice and warm and filling without a ton of calories.  160 calories for about a cup (with rice, add another 150 calories which still isn’t bad)!  We used this recipe and have added it to our favs.

If you’re a picture person, here’s our final result:

Not pictured:  the brownie I demolished post-dinner.  Don’t worry, it was tiny.  Oh, and delicious and worth every bite.