Parmesan Cheese Puh-lease!

Do you ever create your dinner around one ingredient? I do this all the time. Often a teeny ingredient will inspire my entire dinner.

Tonight that ingredient was Parmesan cheese.

Parmesan Cheese Please!

I’m not sure what spawned this random craving for Parmesan cheese, but I’m blaming the fact that I forgot to put any cheese on my pasta last night. That’s just not like me and it’s been eating away at my soul ever since.

Clearly, I had to make up for it tonight.

I cooked up come Carba Nada egg fettuccine noodles (I’m tellin’ ya, they never get old) and topped them with sauteed spinach, acorn squash, portobello mushrooms and LOTS and LOTS of Parmesan cheese.

Portobello Mushroomies

Veggie Topped Pasta

Parmesan Mountain

Perfect. It hit the spot. The cheese spot, that is… which is almost as big as my sweet spot which controls my cravings for baked goods. It’s huge. Trust me.

All Stirred Up

 

Engaged Girl Experience

I had quite the weird engaged-girl experience today. As I was driving home from work, the song “Amazed” by Lonestar came on the radio (you know the one that starts “Everytime our eyes meet, this feeling inside me, is almost more than I can take”). I’ve heard this song a ba-zillion times, but this time the words really stuck out to me and I got all teary! Who does that!? I swear, country music just gets to me!

I walked in the door ready to give my hubby-to-be a big emotional hug only to find him playing indoor soccer with the dog. I sure do love those two! 🙂

Now I’m off to do a two loads of laundry and pack for St. Pete this weekend. Ryan and I are once again headed to my parent’s house. We’re checking out some more potential wedding venues and meeting with a photographer. Also, I have my very first appointment at a bridal boutique on Saturday… Eeeee! My mom and sister are coming with me for my first attempt at trying on wedding dresses. Exciting stuff!

Enjoy the rest of your Friday Eve! 🙂

Reebok EasyTone

Have you heard the latest commotion surrounding Reebok’s EasyTone sneakers? Apparently these bad boys help tone & tighten your tooshie and legs just by walking. Believe it? Me neither. 😉

(Picture from WhatsHaute.com)

I wrote my Examiner article on the shoes today which includes a link to the scandalous advertisement of the shoes that’s gettin’ lots of publicity right now. Click here to see the article and ad.

Have you ever purchased any weight loss or fitness gimmicks?

Rue La La

Remember when I posted about “boutique sites” that offer awesome discounts on designer clothes? Well I received and email from Rue La La today stating that anyone who signs up automatically gets a $10 credit toward their first purchase.

Don't you feel like this sometimes when you can't find anything to wear?

Not a bad gig, huh? This will basically eliminate the cost of shipping on your order. Woohoo! Click here to get the credit and browse the site.

Acorn Squash Salad

Is a salad a salad without lettuce or leaves? I’m thinking yes because there’s chicken salad, tuna salad, fruit salad… all without lettuce.

Therefore my lunch today merits the term “salad.” 🙂

The base of my salad was a roasted acorn squash. Last night as I was makin’ pasta for dinner, I let the squash roast at 350 degrees face down on a cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray for approximately 30 minutes.

Roasted Acorn Squash

I then cut a grid into the flesh and scooped out cubes of the squash.

I topped my squash with sauteed onions, portobello mushrooms, yellow squash and creamy goat cheese.

Acorn Squash Salad Topped with Goat Cheese

Thursday's Lunch

I also added a big ol’ scoop of cranberry relish to this mix to round out my meal.

Squash Salad with Cranberry Relish

I love leaf-less salads!

What’s your favorite kind of salad?

Pre-Thanksgiving Cranberry Joy

Cranberry sauce is one of my favorite dishes on Thanksgiving. It’s also delicious as a spread on leftover turkey sandwiches with cream cheese (if you’ve never tried this, you must).

What’s your favorite Thanksgiving dish?

This week I impulsively bought a bag of cranberries at the grocery store when a random idea popped in my head. Rather than wait until Thanksgiving to experience the joy of cranberry sauce, I figured I’d make my own cranberry concoction using the berries and only one other ingredient: sugar.

Since I still have my mom’s food processor on loan, I used the nifty lil’ slicer to chop the cranberries into a relish.

Beautiful Berries

All Chopped Up

I then added just enough sugar so the cranberries lost a little bit of their bite. Much better!

This was so good and so easy. I ate a bunch of my sweet cranberry relish last night but managed to save some to stir into my Greek yogurt for breakfast.

Cranberry Relish and Yogurt

I also used a toasted Kashi strawberry flax waffle to dip into the thick mixture.

Thursday's Breakfast

I loooved this breakfast and the homemade cranberry relish really made it extra special. Woohoo!

Jumpy Morning

Do you ever have those mornings where everything makes you jump and you feel completely on edge?

This morning on my walk with Sadie every little drop of an acorn made her jump which, in turn, made me jump. We were two jumpy lil’ ladies. I hope I relax soon! Though I don’t think this cup of coffee I’m drinking will exactly help me calm down… 😉