And the Winner Is. . .

Thanks to everyone who entered my Blog’s 5th Birthday Giveaway!  I loved seeing where you all live!  The winner is. . .

Min: 1  Max:  99   Result:56

Brooke: Not on a Diet

Happy Blog Birthday to you! How awesome! It’s fun to look back and see how it all started and how horrible the posts were.

I’m from Illinois (which you knew) and side note, I’m going to be up your way next weekend. I’m not 100% sure of my agenda, but maybe there can be a beer or two shared between us.

Congratulations Brooke!  I will email you later today!

And speaking about numbers. . . I got the results back from my last diabetes blood draw.  My A1C is . . .  5.9 and my cholesterol, triglycerides and HDL are all . . . NORMAL!   Needless to say, my doctor was pleased and so am I.   While it sucks to have the sugars, it is a manageable disease, it just takes dedication.

I feel like I could have used an extra day today just to sleep.  I did sleep in Saturday morning – 10:00 a.m.  I had a few errands to run and since my store didn’t have a sale flyer in the newspaper, I went to pick up something just for dinner on Saturday night and planned to menu plan yesterday.  Um, no sale paper.  They said “you’ll just have to see what’s on sale when you walk around the store.”

Huh.  That’s not how I shop – I base my meals on what meat is on sale.  So I took a look when I picked up our sirloin tip roast and made some notes.  They also had tomatillos on sale for .39 cents a pound.  This salsa is a winner – TONS of cilantro!

Tomatillo Salsa

• 1 pound of tomatillos, husks removed
• 1 cup of cilantro
• juice of 2 limes
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 to 1 jalapeno – depending on how hot you want it
• that’s it

I grill the tomatillos and jalapeno just like the baja fresh salsa.   Then just throw everyone into the food processor pool and whirl away.

Holy yum.  I brought this to Tony to show him how green it was and he said “it smells like the devil’s farts.”  Our neighbor came over while we were grilling so I brought the homemade chips and salsa out and after one bite he said “this is outstanding.”  Tony just turned his nose up to It – too much cilantro for him!

I took a 50 minute walk on Saturday – it was a beautiful day, and just starting to get cloudy on my way back home.

While I was walking, Tony went to pick me up . . . pumpkin beer.  I’ve been seeing it everywhere on Instagram and Facebook!  This one is a winner, which isn’t a big surprise because I love their Fat Tire beer.  This one has cranberry notes too – so I wouldn’t say it’s very pumpkiny, but it is a delicious fall beer.

It was dark out by the time our roast was done – it’s getting dark so early!  It was delicious – just garlic, salt and pepper.

I had a work event last night, so I had to make cookies to wrap up as a thank you give away at the end of the event.  I am not much of a baker, so when I saw Martha Stewart’s Mexican Hot Chocolate cookies – I was sold.  Well, that and the two sticks of butter per batch of cookies!

They turned out great – slightly chewy in the middle but a bit of a crunch.  The only think I left off was the cayenne pepper that they called for in the cinnamon sugar mix – while I loves the spicy shit, I know not everyone does.  See how nice I am?

And since Tony had to accompany me to my work event, um, let’s just say he was a bit bummed that it interfered with his beloved football Sunday.  At least the Bears played at noon, but I guess they kind of sucked ass.  I actually picked the Lions to win because I didn’t think they could go 4-0.  Anywho – football food was my choice because Tony didn’t care what I made.

Pig’s in a blanket!  So simple.  Heat oven to 375.  Unroll the crescent rolls.  Put half a slice of American cheese and half a hot dog and roll it up.  I made an egg wash of 1 yolk with a teaspoon of water.  Brushed the tops with the egg wash, then sprinkled with poppy seeds.  Bake for 10-12 minutes until browned and serve with mustard.

I kind of have to remember that there are only two of us at home.   Maybe Tony might reheat the leftovers for lunch this week?

And before I knew it, I had to get ready for the work event – THIRD WEEKEND IN A ROW that I’ve put on makeup and had my hair down.  That is truly a record I think.

We didn’t get home until almost ten last night, so I feel like I could sleep a bit more because I got a second wind when we got home.  Oh well, hopefully the day will go by fast.

I have week 3 of my strength training – today is legs.  I need to pick up the intensity of my night time workouts, it felt last week that a couple days I was just going through the motions.  And wine crept back into my week so I have to ditch that this week.  150 is my goal to weigh on December 31 and drinking wine isn’t going to get me there.

Alright, off to pack my gym bag and throw my food together – new recipe tomorrow – black bean and barley chili!   Make it a great day!