Meal in a Pouch

I caught an Alton Brown show on the food network recently about pouch meals which was fascinating and peaked my interest with how easy it was to do. I decided to recreate his fish and cous cous pouch this week with ingredients that I had on hand. I also was out of parchment paper so I used aluminum foil.

Steamed Tilapia with Cous Cous(just quadruple the recipe for 4)
1 tilapia filet
1/4C Cous Cous
1/3C Chicken or Vege stock (or white wine)
1 clove garlic minced
1/4C sliced red onion
6 cherry or grape tomatoes sliced in half
1/4tsp thyme
lemon juice
dab of butter
salt and pepper (lemon pepper maybe?)

Heat oven to 425 degrees. I had 3 tilapia fillets so I tripled the ingredients and made 3 pouches. First cut a piece of tinfoil about 1 1/2' long. Rinse the cous cous and lay in the middle of the tin foil. Flatten a bit and lightly salt. Lay the tilapia fillet over the top of the cous cous. Lay the tomatoes around the egdes. Cover the fish with the chopped onion and garlic. Sprinkle with salt, pepper (lemon), thyme, a few squirts of lemon juice, and a dab of butter. Seal the aluminum foil so that there are no air holes. I folded it lengthwise and then up the sides. Bake for 20 minutes. Be careful when you open it up because you are going to want to nuzzle your nose in and take in the amazing aroma. However, the steam is super hot.

Oh wait, you wanted a touch of dessert too? Ok, here's a dessert pouch, again based on Alton's Brown recipe. He uses gingersnaps in his.

Fruit Pouch (use peaches, pears, plums, apples, whatever you have on hand)
1 apple (peeled and chopped)
1 pear (peeled and chopped)
2 TBL orange liqueur
1 TBL honey
1 TBL sugar (optional)
1/4tsp cinnamon (we love saigon cinnamon from Savory)
squirt of lemon juice
dollop of butter (I used less than 1/2 a TBL)

Place all the ingredients in a pouch. Hermetically seal your pouch and throw it in the oven while your dinner is cooking. Bake for about 20 minutes. This serves 2. Eat with 1/4C of real vanilla ice cream. Yum and it's only about 250 calories WITH the ice cream.

The Search Goes on

We found out late in the afternoon that we did not get the house. As the woman, I am prepared to let it go and continue shopping. I love to shop. I'll shop all day for houses until I find that perfect fit. As the man, DG wanted to drown his sorrows in a bottle of vodka. He was sad, very sad and a bit more discouraged than me. No tears though, we will find our house, I just know it!

Bidding War

Can't talk now, we're in a bidding war over a house, in Wheat Ridge. *gulp*

David and I saw the house on Sunday and we both immediately had feelings for it. Having seen 26 homes now, the little butterflies in our stomach were telling us something. It has so many positive features, including a remodeled kitchen with stainless steel appliances, maple cabinets and granite counter tops. Also, the front and back yard have been professionally landscaped. One issue is that it only has 3 bedrooms and other is that it is on the border of Denver. We would no longer be Denver residents able to ride our bikes downtown. We're willing to make the sacrifice however.

Oh yeah, and it already has a contract out on it. We are the full price, close in 3 weeks, backup offer.

Triathlon Training

I've hit it hard this week in training. Maybe I'm over zealous, but I hope I can keep it up. I have swam 3 times this week, practicing my counting and breathing. This is going to be my one downfall in the race as I am not a strong or fast swimmer. If I can make it through the swim, it will be all downhill. I think they put the swim first in the triathlon to prevent drowning. Seriously.

I will say though, if anyone has trouble falling asleep at night, try swimming for an hour a day. You'll dream of your bed at night and your sweet precious angel face will fall asleep before your head even hits your 300 thread count pillow.

I've only biked once this week, but you know it's not a good sign when you get tired just pumping air into your bike tires. I'm hoping to do a longer ride this week-end. Bike rides and runs are so great with good music though. Playlists are still forthcoming. Happy week-end!

Last Week's Menus

I noticed in my lastest email installment of Martha Stewart Food, they had a lovely little side panel with a list of fresh healthy meals to make for a week. I'm all about the 5 minute meal (aka Rachel Ray) and I'm reading "The French Don't Diet Plan". Lesson number 1 is DON'T eat fake foods! The grocery store is full of packaged dinners and boxed mixes of human made chemicals created to simulate real food. It started in the 60s with the American LifeStyle of needing it hot, fast and now. We were fooled into thinking that Cool Whip was a fast and easy treat. But it is just chemicals we are putting in our bodies. Take High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) for instance. This was processed in the 60's to simulate sugar. But your body doesn't recognize it as a sugar, and your body has to process it through the liver with the rest of the toxins. HFCS is hard to get away from as it is in everything because it is cheaper for manufacturers to use than sugar. It's in most cereals, snacks, and even ketchup!

Normally we eat pretty close to the food chain, but even this one gets into our diet. I am going to try and be better about not buying anything with HFCS in it anymore.

Here's a sampling of our own quick and easy menus of what we ate last week for dinner:

Tuesday
Skillet chicken
Stuffed Acorn Squash (from The Moosewood)

Wednesday
Baked Salmon with lemon and dill
Roasted Asparagus
1/2 Baked Sweet Potato

Thursday
Homemade Turkey Meatballs (from the Body for Life cookbook)
Tomato Sauce (organic fat free)
Angel Hair Pasta (1 portion only!)

Sunday Special Birthday Dinner
Seared Ahi with Cilantro Dipping Sauce
Cucumber Salad
Udon Noodles with peanut sauce (Sauce recipe from The Enchanted Broccoli Forrest)
Individual Chocolate Truffle Cakes

Swimming, Biking and Running Oh No!

Spring is getting sprung tonight, people are coming out of hibernation and things are getting crazy in the Beehive. From the girl that is the Queen of Mediocrity who won't even run a 5K race with her husband, I impulsively signed up for a mini-triathlon last night.

After running 3 miles yesterday, I met Holly at her local rec center after dinner to swim. I did 15 laps which apparently is roughly 750 meters. I'm no fish, not a strong swimmer by any means, but I've been warming up to the idea of doing a mini-triathlon. After swimming, I half-heartedly suggested we sign up for a Triathlon that I had heard about, and the seed was planted.

Holly called when I got home, and at her urging we signed up online for The Little Foot Triathlon. It is in Morrison, CO near Red Rocks and consists of a 750 meter swim, 15 mile bike ride, and 5K run. ::Gulp:: AND we only have 8 weeks to train. ::nail shards flying everywhere::

I've paid the money, rented the wetsuit, and now I am telling all of you so that I will follow through and not bail. Not that I'm a bailer, buy gaaaa. In my "oh no what have I done?" rationale, I am looking forward to training as a way to shed some of my winter flab. For the next 8 weeks I will have to work out 6 days a week, alternating running, biking, and swimming. I'm going to pull my bike out of the gararge tomorrow, dust it off, put some air in the tires and take it for a spin. Wish me luck.

What's Up This Week?

Spring is here and I am coming out of my winter cocoon. I am typing up several different posts this week that are not ready yet, but here's the rundown.

Music
I have made several music playlists for running that I am going to upload to iTunes. Should all go well, you will be able to download the playlists for yourself OR pick and choose fun songs to add to your music. So far, my playlists include "Eat My Dust Mo Fo" - for the hardcore metal runner; "I'm Hot in my Pink Velour Jog Suit" - for the club crowd; and "I'm serious about my 3 mile jog" for those who like a steady rock beat. Got some better titles? I am open to suggestions.

Diet
Like many women, I have a daily battle of guilt and consumption over the food I put in my body. I am almost ready to boycott the grocery store for selling aisle upon aisle of processed, preservative ridden food. How many products in your pantry have High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) in them? Go check, I dare you! Even though we eat close to the food chain, I am going to go one step further and eradicate this ingredient from our lives. This and a bunch of other ways to try and eat healthier.

Exercise
Walking, Running, Jogging? How about training for a triathlon? These are all things I am considering. Get your sneakers on and join me as we boost our endurance.

Green is Queen

A few weeks ago, while at the mall, I was dragged into the Apple Store. This is usually preceeded by eye rolls, whining, and foot stomping. On this particular day however, I complied as there was a lovely display of all the new colors of the ipod Shuffle. I stared at DG and said, if you know the woman you married at all, you'll know which color she would choose. His finger shook slightly as he started pointing to the hot pink one, then he quickly changed to green. Ding ding ding, winner winner wiener. It was just a fun little game that was short lived as we left to go do some real shopping. Besides, I already have a 20gig iPod.

Earlier this week, the dogs alerted me to the Fed-Ex guy at the front door with a small package. After signing for it, I opened it thinking it was our new kitchen fan. Then I saw the tiny metallic green goodness. Ooops, was I going to get in trouble for opening DGs mail? Upon closer inspection, there was an inscription on the back: C : my love runs long for you. : D

::sigh:: Could he beeeeeee any cuter? Since I've taken up running to train with DG to do a half marathon the ipod on an armband is apparently too heavy to run 4 miles. The ishuffle on the other hand is light weight and perfect, I just love it. I'm tickled green. Though in the future, when out shopping, I will start pointing at diamond tiaras, fancy cars and cases of snickers bars.

Boston RIP

DG already posted about the death of Brad Delp, the lead singer of Boston. He also mentioned that we listened non-stop to Boston for like 48 hours when we found out. Here is the real kicker and a little known fact about me. I know every word to all of their songs. Who knew?

I'm sure it has something to do with Teenage angst and stealing my dad's cassette tapes to listen to them locked in my room while protesting meatloaf for dinner, or something.

This may come in handy for me when I go out to Karaoke this week-end.

Shopping for a new Home

DG and I decided last year that we were going to put our house on the market in the spring. Well spring has almost sprung and so far we've gone out and looked at about 18 houses and have found absolutely nothing we want to buy. Every house has something that is not quite perfect. The house is really nice, but it is across the street from a major church and one block away from a major street; or the neighborhood is great which knocks the price of the house up, but the home hasn't been decorated since 1969 so it means a total gut and redo.

As we entered a house last week, I thought I had stepped into Vegas in the 70s. Every wall was mirrored floor to ceiling and had electric blue carpet throughout. The basement had hot pink carpet with red lighting down the stairs. One room had a parquet dance floor and another room had a built in couch, with mirrored walls, and lighted flower boxes filling the entire wall with fake green shrubbery. This of course was in front of the fully stocked bar with disco lights above it. As I was expecting Frank Sinatra to pour me a drink and start dealing some cards, the Mickey Mouse phone in the room rang.

Needless to say, I was cackling like a hyena when we left. And the search goes on...

Fun with Starbucks

Starbucks has a new fun interactive site where you go pick out your drink and it makes you a logo that you can download as your computer background or an icon. This is my standard drink, and believe me when I tell you that I am completely embarrassed as all get out at the mouthful it is.

Double tall, non-fat, wet, cappuccino. DG has to say it for me because I can never remember it. Sometimes I add one Equal if we are in a drive-thru. Throw a sprinkle of cinnamon on top and mmm, mmm, yum.

Yearning for Yarn

While DG was geeking out on Saturday morning learning CSS with a friend, I went to my new favorite yarn store The Lamb Shoppe. I bought a skein of a beautiful mohair and silk blend (shown here) and a varigated wool to make a fun something for a fun someone who reads the blog. But rats if I can't show you how pretty the pattern is.

I also bought 3 knitting books on Amazon with the word Hip in the title. And as if one yarn store were not enough, later in the afternoon, I had DG drive me to my other favorite yarn store Showers of Flowers because I found out they are selling Vickie Howell's new yarn line that I talked about last week. Vickie did an instore there as well and 175 people showed up! Holy wow. I bought some Buttercup and Wesley from her Love line as that was the color Jen, our winner chose. I am still waiting for the pattern, but hope to make that soon.

My project box is full, now it's time to get cracking and whip up some fun. I want to get these projects done so that I can move on to something bigger and more complex, like a cable knit sweater for the dogs!

Smelly Pirate Hooker

It's been Will Ferrell week here at the Team Gibson house. It started off with Anchorman and then went directly to Talladega Nights. The cast of these movies, along with 40 Year Old Virgin are very similar. Filming those movies, and having that many funny people in a room must make going to work every day difficult on the old cheek muscles.

They each have a laundry list of funny zingers, but my favorite from Anchorman is when Will Ferrell's character is trying to degrade his ex-girlfriend (Christina Applegate) and he calls her a Smelly Pirate Hooker. It's my new favorite term. I plan on using it with abandon to take the place of "no talent ass clown" and now plain old "dirty whore".

Old Brown Socks

DG came home the other day, handed me a pair of brown socks he had found in his car and asked if they were mine? Though it was no bra or lace panties, my first response was, "who was stripping in the back of your car?" said with indignant indifference. Then I realized that when Joy was here, she had mentioned changing her socks in the car. I tossed them in the laundry and figured I'd give them to her when I saw her again.

Until the other night, when I needed a warm pair of socks to wear to bed, and I chose the clean brown ones in my drawer. As I put them on, I wondered what it would be like to walk in Joy's socks. Where had these socks been? Was the spirit of Joy going to be with me when I slept? Was I going to be a more compassionate and caring friend? What made Joy buy these socks? Did she miss them? I know none of these things.

Do you pay to mail socks back? If they are your absolute favorite socks, Joy, I will mail them back!

Table for One

Friday night, after eating sushi, DG and I found ourselves with nothing to do. So we stopped at Cost Plus World Market to roam the aisles in search of things we do not need. This is a fun store with a myriad of ethnic food offerings and home decor. While there, I found this great mini pasta filled with pesto and artichoke sauce. Both are from Italy. I decided it would be a tasty and easy dinner for us (i.e. no slaving over a hot oven). I called up Cyn and asked the family over for dinner and began planning my meal.

I got up early on Sunday and made 2 loaves of my mom's French Bread. Wow, it is eat the whole loaf good. Then I got the phone call that due to sick children they would not be coming over. Later in the afternoon, DG came down with a case of the hurls and stayed in bed.

This did not deter me from eating my meal, so I made it anyway. It was as good as I had hoped and that pasta sauce is some of the best jarred sauce I have ever had. Goodbye Prego.

The Joys of Volunteering

A couple of months ago, David and I joined our Neighborhood Association, also known as the NCPCA which stands for North City Park Civic Association. Upon joining, we found out that the President's wife needed help with the newsletter. Here's where David and I jumped at the chance to do some volunteer work.

The newsletter is 6 pages and runs every month. I project manage it, gather the articles, edit them all, then pass it on to David who does the full layout. I take it back, edit it again, send it to print and have it delivered to the President's house where his wife has a group of volunteers that hand deliver it to 1,400 homes in our neighborhood. Labor intensive? Um yeah. You can view January and February here.

The last time we volunteered was two years ago to pack Baskets of Joy that are delivered to the needy during the Holidays. Unfortunately David had signed us up for this event that started at 7am, the day after our annual holiday party. When we arrived, still drunk from the night before, we were too late to stuff the baskets. Not wanting to leave without helping, we were put to work delivering the baskets in the downtown area. It was a meager 4 hours out of our day, yet the majority of the people loved getting their gifts.

It makes us wish we had more time to get out there and do more for people. What can you do in your city?

And the winner is....

Jen from Denver, emailed me yesterday afternoon with the correct answer: Shelby and Jackson are Julia Roberts and Dylan McDermott from Steel Magnolias (1989). Jen gets to pick any color from Vickie Howell's LOVE collection and I will make her an accessory too! Everyone that wrote in was correct! Thank you for playing.

Vickie Howell the Hottest Chick with Sticks

About a month ago, my mom told me about this group of craft shows on HGTV every morning, one of which included Knitty Gritty hosted by Vickie Howell. I have tivo'd every episode and watch them giddily to learn new knitting techniques and tips. I can't read a pattern, but I would go head first into trying to do a cable having watched it demonstrated on the show.

Through a hottsie in Knit Club, I recently learned that Vickie Howell was going to be at a yarn shop not far from my house last night. Even though we were having a snow storm, I ventured out anyway. You know how I'm a working stay-at-home-dog mom, starved for attention.

I expected to stay for about 30 minutes and meet DG downtown, but I was mesmerized by the glitz and glam of being in the presence of someone on tv. Very similar to the elevator incident with Seth Green. Unfortunately, instead of being the quiet girl in the corner, apparently I opted for loud giddy fan, one step away from scary-stalker-drool-on-your-yarn girl. When I finally got to talk to her, I rambled on in horror as about 100 things came out of my mouth at once.


Despite saying "like oh my gawd I am so going to read your blog every day", she graciously had her picture taken with me.

She's working with South West Trading Company to come out with her own brand of yarn that uses alternative fibers. She has named all of her colors after Rock Stars or Actors, and famous movie couples. Under her brand Love, that is made out of bamboo and silk (super soft), there is a creamy yellow color called Princess Buttercup and Wesley (after The Princess Bride). She's a total punk rock knitter. I ordered a skein of Shelby and Jackson from her Love Brand so that I can make a lacy scarf like accessory. Can you guess where Shelby and Jackson comes from? I'll tell you what. The first person to guess correctly will get a fancy accessory scarf too in the color of your choice from the Love collection.