A First Attempt

Tonight I made my first attempt at poached eggs!

While reading Real Simple at the gym this morning, I read that the key to successfully poaching eggs is to add a little bit of white vinegar to the pot of boiling water.

Here are some other tips:

• Poach the egg in milk for a richer taste
• Add a bit of white vinegar to the boiling water (other vinegars may be used as well, but may alter the appearance of a perfectly white poached egg)
• The fresher the egg, the better it poaches
• Crack the egg into a ramekin so it may easily slip into the water
• Spin the water with a spoon before dropping the egg in
• Drop the egg into the middle of the spinning water
• Allow the egg to cook for 3 – 4 minutes
• Remove the egg from the water with a slotted spoon

With all this new knowledge, I was ready to make my first attempt!

The result…

Poached Egg??

Total fail.

Or, in Sadie’s case, complete success!

Sadie + Failed Egg

Sadie earned her failed egg after expending some energy at the dog park before dinner.

"C'mon... Just trrrry to take it!"

I threw in the towel on the poached egg attempt after only one try because Ryan and I were too hungry to waste any more time. 

Any tips out there for making the perfect poached egg?

We enjoyed our non-poached eggs on top of toast and ham steaks.

Ham Steak

Eggs with Ham Steaks and Toast

Dinner is Served

Even though we didn’t get to enjoy poached eggs as planned, dinner was still pretty darn tasty.

The best part? I have a leftover ham steak that’s just screamin’ to be used in a breakfast sandwich tomorrow morning. Yay for leftovers!

TV

For the past two years Ryan and I have lived without television in our apartment.

As of Sunday night, we now officially have TV again.

TV

I should clarify my first statement by saying we did have a television and could watch DVDs, but we did not get any channels (no, not even the basic channels) and couldn’t just “flip on the TV” for two years.

Whenever people found out that we didn’t have TV, the variety of responses were always quite amusing. Many people found it incomprehensible that we didn’t have television. Others thought the idea was fabulous.

What do you think about going TV-free for two years? Could you do it? Would you want to?

Not having television really wasn’t hard for us at all. I am not a huge TV person and only wished I had TV on a couple of occasions (like for the season finale of The Bachelor or during the Olympics). Being the sports fan that he is, the no-TV thing hit Ryan a little harder, but even he didn’t mind it too much.

The times we wished we had TV were when we had friends or company over because many people are used to having TV on in the background or want to be able to catch the end of a big game.

Now that we have TV again, it really feels like a treat! Ryan said that with the World Cup coming up this year and March Madness in full-swing, having TV was something he’d like to try out again.

To be totally honest, I’m excited to take in some wedding-related TV (like Say Yes to the Dress… which I’ve only seen one time at my parents’ house!).

Still, I know myself and I get bored with TV fairly quickly. While I think it will be fun to have TV again, I don’t see myself falling into the TV trap.

TV Facts

According to AC Nielsen Co.:

• The average American watches more than 4 hours of TV each day (or 28 hours a week, or 2 months of nonstop TV-watching per year)
• If the average American lives to be 65, they will have spent 9 years watching TV (Source)

How much TV do you watch every day?

Moving on from TV talk…

Lunch

Lunch today was quite random!

Yesterday a guy was eating a BBQ pulled pork sandwich and baked beans in the break room at lunch time and it smelled phenomenal.

I was determined to include BBQ in my lunch today!

Following a recipe for baked BBQ tofu that I saw on Meghann’s blog, I made myself a BBQ tofu, sweet corn and roasted cauliflower veggie bowl.

This morning while I showered, I roasted the cauliflower and baked the tofu. The house smelled like dinner at 7:30 a.m.!

Roasted Cauliflower

After adding several handfuls of frozen sweet corn kernels to the cauliflower and BBQ tofu bowl and microwaving the mix for about a minute, my lunch was ready for eatin’.

BBQ Tofu Veggie Bowl

This lunch was so easy to make and satisfied my desire for a BBQ-filled lunch. 10 points for PBF! 😀

Breakfast Bagelwich + Giveaway!

This post is chock-full of FUN STUFF!

First, your regularly scheduled morning blogging… 🙂

Workout

Today’s workout was very entertaining. I didn’t get bored once, which is a little rare for 50 minutes of straight cardio.

I started my workout on the treadmill with 35 minutes of incline walking and running… All mixed up!

35 minute alternate incline walking + running workout:

35 Minute Incline Walking/Running Workout

After treadmill time, I hopped on the elliptical with Real Simple magazine and cranked out another 15 minutes of light cardio.

Breakfast

Last night Alternative Bagels were buy one get one free at the grocery store, so I snagged two bags of ’em!

I love the sweet wheat bagels. They’re the perfect size and have only 110 calories with 7 grams of filling fiber. Not too shabby for a bagel, huh?

I topped my toasted bagel with Justin’s maple almond butter and sliced strawberries for a yummy breakfast bagelwich.

Justin's Maple Almond Butter

(Half of this pack went directly into my mouth and didn’t quite make it on top of the bagel. 😉 )

Almond Butter + Strawberries

Tuesday's Breakfast

It was deeeelish!

CSN Stores $40 Giveaway!

I was a lucky little blogger and won my first giveaway ever when Lisa hosted a giveaway for a credit to CSN Stores. (See, it is possible to win a giveaway!)

CSN Stores

After browsing their site (they literally have everything from barstools to kitchen appliances) I used my credit toward a new vacuum.

Now it’s your turn!

To enter this giveaway for a $40 credit to CSN Stores, simply comment on this post stating which product on their site you would like to have. (I have a feeling you guys will be most interested in the products listed on their Cookware.com site.)

I will randomly select a winner tomorrow morning.

Good luck!!!