Rainy Day Dinner

Is is just me or do rainy days make you want a warm dinner that makes your whole house smell fantastic?

With the chilly, rainy weather outside, Ryan and I decided to make a hot, aromatic dinner of Italian sausage with peppers and onions.

Sausage, Peppers and Onions

Our friends Pete and Merri made this dish at their Super Bowl party this year and Ryan and I loved it.

Thankfully Pete shared his recipe with me today and I was pleased to see that it was super easy. You know I love simple recipes!

All you have to do is cut Italian sausages with scissors (do not use a knife or the meat will come out of the casings) and put the meat into a 2-inch baking dish (sprayed with cooking spray) with sliced onions and peppers. You can then top it all with olive oil, salt and pepper or omit all the spices since the Italian sausage is very flavorful on its own. Easy, right?

We let the sausage and peppers bake at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes, stirring the mixture every once in a while.

Yummy

Our apartment smelled like heaven!

I enjoyed my sausage and veggie mix on a big piece of Joseph’s lavash bread.

Dinner

For dessert I enjoyed a chocolate mint Attune bar. I received a package of these in the mail from the company today and was excited to try the bars. 

Mint Chocolate Attune Bar

Mint Chocolate

It was so stinkin’ delicious! I gave Ryan a bite too and he agreed. 

I’ll do a full review on the bars once I try the various flavors. 🙂

Off to keep warm by cuddlin’ on the couch watching Friends on DVD with Ryan. Good night!

A Pear Through and Through

At the grocery store on Sunday, Ryan picked up a jar of Emeril’s roasted gaaahlic pasta sauce.

Gaaahlic Pasta Sauce

Woo-wee! This pasta sauce is like a garlic explosion in your mouth. It’s so garlicy that it’s almost spicy!

I like it, but I don’t love it and probably wouldn’t buy it again. Still, it added a nice punch of flavor to my pasta bowl for lunch today.

Pasta Bowl

Oh, Hello There, Zucchini

Yummy Noodles

My noodle bowl included:

• Carba Nada egg fettuccine noodles
• Roasted gaaahlic pasta sauce
• Portobello mushrooms
• Roasted zucchini
• Parmesan cheese (of course)

For dessert I enjoyed a cuppa sugar-free strawberry Jello.

Fruitful Bodies

When I purchased by wedding dress on Saturday, I inevitably had to be measured to ensure we ordered the proper size gown.

I’ve always been smaller up top and had a boot-ay and hips (the definition of a “pear” body shape).

My Body, In Fruit-Form

Since I’m such a pear, I wasn’t surprised to find out that I needed a split-size dress… but I didn’t realize just how split the size would be.

My dress size was broken down into three segments: bust, waist and hip size.

I actually have three whole sizes between my bust/waist size and my hip size… And get this: I actually ended up ordering the bottom of my dress in a size size larger than recommended because my dress is more form-fitting and I want it to be more A-line and flowy. I don’t want my dress to cup my booty, so there is a four dress size difference between the top half of my dress and the bottom half. Wow-zaa!

What fruit body shape are you? An apple (carries weight in the middle)? A pear (carries weight in the hips and butt)? A banana (straight up and down)?

Second Place Dress

This morning I took a little extra time to make myself a weekend breakfast on a weekday!

Certain meals I typically save for weekends because they take longer to prepare, but today I was craving my ricotta stuffed French toast from Saturday morning and had to give my body what it wanted.

I dunked a whole wheat sandwich thin into two egg whites mixed with cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice and placed the two bread slices on the griddle to cook.

Spices

Sadie devoured the egg yolks and was a happy camper.

Toasty

While the French toast was cooking, I stirred cinnamon into ricotta cheese and spread the mixture on one half of the sandwich thin when it was done cooking.

Cinnamon Ricotta Filling

I then placed the other sandwich thin on top of the ricotta mixture and doused the stuffed French toast in syrup.

Smothered in Syrup

Sliced Up

This breakfast was oh-so-good! Sometimes the extra effort is sooo worth it!

Workout

My workout today was nothin’ special, but still good. I took my typical 5:45 a.m. BodyPump class and followed it up with 25 minutes on the elliptical with the lastest issue of Fitness magazine.

The issue featured two different half marathon training plans, one for beginners and one for intermediate/advanced athletes. I flagged these plans to reference when I begin training for the Chicago half marathon in June. I really like the simplicity of these plans… That’s also what I liked best about the Hal Higdon training plan I followed when I ran my first half. It’s like a “Running a Half Marathon for Dummies” plan. 😀

Bridesmaid Dresses

Thank you to all of you for your comments on my post about the three bridesmaid dresses I like. So far, my bridesmaids seem to like the third one the best, with the exception of my sister (who will also be my maid of honor) who really likes the first one (that one is actually my favorite, too). I may look into having my sister wear the first one and the other girls in the third one if I like the way they look in person. We’ll see!

I loved all the different points you guys brought up to consider as well:

• Spaghetti straps are often not flattering on certain body types
• Printed patterns may look strange in pictures (My dresses will be all one color: champagne)
• Everyone in the same dress is less distracting in pictures
• Choosing multiples dress styles in the same color allows bridesmaids to feel more confident in the dress they select

It’ll be a fun decision!

Second Place Dress

When I previously went dress shopping, I told you guys that I was between two wedding dresses: one simple, classic dress, and one dress with more of a “WOW” factor. Well, I went with the romantic and classic dress, so I figured I could share pictures of the BIG dress with you now.

This is not the dress I selected, but I absolutely love it. I didn’t like the color though and would have ordered it in ivory, not the coffee color it’s pictured in below. This dress is a Justin Alexander gown which I would have ordered in this color.

The dress I actually picked is pretty much the exact opposite of this dress. It’s so weird how my top two dresses were so different!

Second Place Dress

The Back (Clamped In!)

Justin Alexander Dress

Bodice

Do you like simple wedding dresses or dresses with a big WOW-factor?

I honestly love both types of dresses! I think I am more of a simple person though and ultimately felt more comfortable in a more simple dress. 🙂