OM NOM NOM - 1st Savory Saturday

This here is a picture of what I made for dinner tonight. I would like to note first that the prep took FOREVER. I got the recipe from this cookbook that I love, Cooking Light. I love Cooking Light because several months ago, August 12th, acutally, I joined a site called MyFitnessPal in order to lose some weight I had hanging around. (Haha.) Since then, I have lost eight pounds through diet and exercise (although some came back during the holidays). MyFitnessPal calculates your weight, how much you want to lose, and how often you plan to work out and then gives you a calorie limit for each day. I have found it effective.

To do this, I cook low calorie meals and do exercise videos. I have a particular brand that I'm in love with: Ten Minute Solutions. They allow you to create workouts based on ten minute sessions. So, you can do one session, or do like me and put together three sessions for a thirty minute workout. I like it a lot and it lets me exercise without paying a membership fee for something.

Back to the dinner, which is what this post was supposed to be about. Here is the recipe, should you wish to try it out, 'cause this Cooking Light recipe only has 276 calories for one serving. Sweet.

Chicken and Broccoli Casserole - From Cooking Light: "The Best of Cooking Light Everyday Favorites"

3 quarts water
1 (12 oz.) package broccoli florets
4 (6 oz.) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1 (12 oz.) can evaporated fat-free milk
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper (fresh)
Dash of nutmeg
1 cup fat-free mayonnaise
1/2 cup fat-free sour cream
1/4 cup dry sherry
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 (10.75 oz) can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup grated fresh Parmesan cheese, divided
Cooking Spray

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Bring water to a boil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add broccoli; cook 5 minutes or until crisp-tender. Transfer broccoli to a large bowl with a slotted spoon. Add chicken to boiling water; reduce heat, and simmer for 15 minutes or until done. Transfer chicken to a cutting board, cool slightly. Cut chicken into bite sized pieces; add chicken to bowl with broccoli.
3. Combine evaporated milk, flour salt, pepper, and nutmeg in a saucepan, stirring with a whisk until smooth. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add mayonnaise, sour cream, sherry, Worcestershire sauce, soup, and 1/2 cup cheese, stirring until well combined. Add mayonnaise mixture to broccoli mixture; stir gently until combined.
4. Spoon mixture in a 13x9 inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup cheese. Bake at 400 for 50 minutes or until mixture bubbles at edges and cheese begins to brown.
Yield: 8 servings (Serving size 1 cup)

Note to all those that make this: Make sure you use mayonnaise and not Miracle Whip. Miracle Whip is mostly just miraculous for sandwiches. It's ok, but definitely off for casseroles. Also, make sure you have Parmesan cheese, and not 4 blend Mexican style cheese. That throws it off a little as well. One last thing, this takes forever long to prep and cook. Weekends are the best idea if you are in a rush.

Overall, I give this recipe a 3 out of 5, with a possibility for a 4 when I cook it correctly. I was thinking that the blog could have recipes on Saturday or Sunday and pictures of what I have cooked. We can call it...Savory Saturday or Savory Sunday! ALLITERATION.
I dub this day, the 8th of January, our first Savory Saturday! Huzzah!

Go eat some cookies. Loves.

The Verizon Center

So here's where I was today; the Verizon Center. It's basically a civic center, but way better than the one back home. There is more stuff inside, not just walls and a stage. Often, friends of mine and Matt's will round up everyone for a Happy Hour at a bar inside the Verizon Center (it's a giant building) called Bar Louie. The food is good and the drinks are pretty decent during their happy hour specials.

In the Verizon Center, the Washington Wizards (Men's Basketball), Mystics (Women's Basketball), and the Capitals play. I have been to see a Wizard's game and my next goal is a Cap's game, cause I would love to see our hockey team live. I have been told that they are the only team that wins much in DC.

There's also a movie theater in there, which is where I saw the last Twilight movie to come out. (Eclipse, right?) This is also the site where I promised myself I would not go see the next two in the series.
In the basement is a GIANT Bath and Body Works, there is a good thai place, the movie theater, a sushi/tapas place, Bar Louie, and a Haagan Dazs. That's just one area, there a bunch of other places connected to the building but with entrances only from the street, such a Dunkin Donut and McDonalds. Classy places, you know?

The Verizon Center is also the site of many musical acts to come through the capital. It is another goal of mine to sell a kidney so I'll have enough money to buy a ticket to see Lady Gaga there. I think last year I saw that Rhianna played there, as did Usher.

The steps you see are the steps to one of the many museums in the city, I think it might be the Portrait Gallery. I might be wrong, however. If you know, do let me know and I'll be sure to double check next time I'm in town for a happy hour.

A New Life for the Blog

For a long time I have not had a purpose for this blog, which made it hard to do anything with it. Like many of creative writing things, without a goal in mind, it fell to the wayside. However, yesterday I was playing around on a site called 43 Things which is a site for listing your goals and sharing them with others. This supposedly makes you more likely to work towards and accomplish what you want. So, I'm looking through others' resolution and stuff and I find one that says, "Take a picture every day for a year."
I found this a wonderful idea! I live in Washington DC, there are tons of things to see and I have not taken that many pictures! I know a lot of people do picture blogs and they're beautiful...mine will not be like that. But, I thought that would be a fun goal, and it will give me something to write about. It doesn't even have to be that long! Which would be great, as I suck at writing lots of stuff sometimes.
However, I did forget my camera this morning, so the picture for today is a picture of me I took with my new webcam. The goal was to look as insane as possible.
Mission accomplished.


Let's just see where the blog goes from here, but at least I have a general idea. *Salutes* General Idea, get it?
Hilarious.

Nerdery

So last night was an interesting night for me. (Get your heads out of the gutters.) I went to a lecture held at the grad school I attend to see Colin S. Gray speak. I don't know if you know who Professor Gray is, so I provide this link here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_S._Gray ) to Wikipedia, the source of all knowledge. The paragraph there doesn't really do him justice, the man is a poli sci legend.


That dude up there. He is British, which made the lecture all the better.


The lecture was on morals and ethics in the context of war and warfare. Basically, the idea, as I understand it, is that morals and ethics are situational. It's like saying, "I am an American, I don't believe in torture. I would never torture someone." But then you have exceptions to that rule. "I would never torture someone...unless they had the information I needed to save millions of American lives." Once you throw in a situation, it becomes difficult to uphold your morals and the ethics. He did not mean that people shouldn't try, because war is an "ugly ugly business". It is a means to an ends and it uses violence to get to that end. It is very hard to apply ethics and morals to nuclear weapons, which was a large part of the lecture. It was interesting. There were cookies afterwards.

The reason I know this guy is because I have read some of his work on strategic culture. Dudes, I am all about strategic culture. I believe it is also referred to as "strategic studies" but I may be outside my mind. Anyway, the man is some sort of genius that spouts out acres of knowledge for strategic culture, grand strategy, nuclear stuff....Amazon has many of his books for cheaps. I suggest it, if you're into that sort of thing.

I also got to talk to one of my first professors, Dr. Kartchner. (His name is difficult for me to spell sometimes.) I have this idea for a thesis, stemming from one of the books I have to read right now for a totally different class. But, his class (Strategic Culture) rocked my world and I want to do culture studies for the rest of my life. So, as I was reading this one book for a different class (Nuclear Logics, pictured to the right) I happened upon a sentence which gave me the idea for my thesis. The writer asked why the Middle East and East Asia had such different nuclear paths. The Middle East has a bunch of little buggers with the desire to acquire the nuclear bomb and East Asia (with the exception of North Korea) has gone without. (They have considered, but never actually had the bomb.) The writer asked the reader, why is this so? I'm pretty sure she/he/it also gave an answer, but I wasn't paying attention, because I was busy saying to myself, "Self, I bet it's cultural." And then I pooped my pants. (Not really.)

So, for a thesis, I was thinking, how wonderful, I can do a strategic culture analysis on two cultures (one in the middle east, one in east Asia) and compare them, hopefully with the idea that I can find cultural reasons why one group has chosen to go nuclear and why another abstains.


I'm really excited about it. Nerd out.

Shit MacGregor!

Recently read some books by a woman named Sarah Mason. Her publications are based in England, so I got to read with a British accent. That was super fun. I like it when writers give people crazy family, and the mother in this particular story was hilarious. She said "shit macgregor!" often, which was sure to make me giggle. I'm not sure if that has to do with how random the phrase is or if I am like a 4 year old who is easily amused by poo words. What is it that is so funny about poo words? Poop.

I'm looking for some good not-serious books to read. I did the ones there by Sarah Mason; I usually read fantasy or something. I also like to read Nora Roberts because I don't have to think real hard. I just get to enjoy the story. So I'm looking for some new stuff to get into. I need light and funny stories. I am having to do a lot of reading for my master's courses right now and they're, shall we say, oppressive. Excellent for learning, crap for feeling good about life. So, if you know of anything good, light, and funny, send it my way.
Like this, for example: www.readvessel.com

I've almost been married for a year. Saturday is the big day. Looking back, I don't think it was as hard as people make marriage out to be. Yeah, there are some challenges, and he irritates me from time to time, but so do most people. I just live with him. I remember someone talking to me about how marriage can be hard, maybe it was my mom, but they said something about how the other person squeezes the toothpaste can be an issue. I've no idea why that stuck with me. I looked at the toothpaste tube today and found myself thinking, "Why can't he just squeeze this from the bottom? Toothpaste is being wasted here." Thankfully, I don't think the toothpaste issue will lead me to divorce my husband.

My obsession with Japanese pop music continues. I squealed out loud when I heard my favorite band is putting out a new CD. I'm very excited about this. I might have just boughtitonebaybutdon'ttellMatt.

Grad classes start back for me tonight. I am trying to figure out how I can feed myself before 9:30 p.m. when I get home. There is not that much time between me leaving work and arriving at school, it would be tough to slide eating in there. Crackers. I'm going to have to start bringing crackers to sustain myself. I already bring lunch to work...I am going to need a larger lunch box.
But anyway, school today. It's either going to rock, or suck. I'll get back to you on that.
Cheers.

My Life is Not Boring

Whoa, February! That is the last time I posted! Whoa!

I guess I've been busy. Either that or I haven't felt like writing. I would pin it on the not writing part. I blame that part of my brain. Shame on you, writing brain widget, shame. (I'm not sure if widget may used in this context. This is my blog, I'll do what I want. Dammit.)

So, I am going to be busy soon. Grad school starts back up for me in the next week. I have never seen so many reading assignments in my life. I've already started reading, but I haven't been as hard core about it as I had originally hoped. I am just thankful that the first book I picked up to read wasn't amazingly boring, so I have been able to get some stuff done.

I started piddling with my book again. AGAIN. I think I have a good start this time. If I could just find my notes, I would remember what I'm writing to get to and could probably fill in the rest pretty well. It's hard to get motivated to write that too. I can act it out so well in my head, but when it comes to putting it on paper, (or in the computer, whatever) I seem to lose all steam. That's fine though, I'm totally pimping Tominda's work anyway. (http://www.readvessel.com/) She's really good, I think. (http://www.readvessel.com/) I can't wait to have her book in my hands. Heck, I'll take two and FRAME one of them. (http://www.readvessel.com/) Pimppimppimp.

Started being more serious about weight loss. I joined myfitnesspal.com, where I am able to track my calories (that's weird to get used to, by the way) and how many calories I burn when I exercise (I'm actually running, it's some sort of Christmas miracle). I recommend it, actually. It's only my first week using the site and I feel a little better about myself. (I am aware that I am not fat, but I am pushing my luck and would like to be more healthy and lose a few pounds. Then buy new clothes.) The idea is to enter in how much you weigh, how much you want to weigh, and how often you plan to work out. The program then calculates how many calories you should take in and how many you should burn. It makes it super easy to plan your day. If you know you are going to eat out and are worried about the calories, plan to eat less at lunch. You can see it, so it's neat. (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/) if you want. (http://www.readvessel.com/)

One of my roommates from college moved to Chicago last year to finish up her graduate degree. She asked me maybe two days ago if I wanted to do an Iron Man Sprint (triathlon) with her next summer. Dudes, I hate running. I love to swim and I like bike rides. I'm seriously considering this crap. She showed me a website that will help you get a schedule for training, but I don't know how I could do this with school coming up. I would also have to find another pool, the one at my apartment building will close in Sept. But that would be sorta neat, right? I could actually say, "I did a triathlon." I would have to get a bike. And start running. (ohgawd, the running.)
At least I would be in shape. I also found a Jazzercise class that I think I want to get into. I need fitness! And happy people! And dancing around!

I think I'm getting a social life too. Crazy, I know. I go to happy hours with people Matt works with, I'm thinking about getting DC United half-season tickets (soccer), I get to hang out with my friend J*rock. Maybe I would make more friends at the Jazzercise thing. Or maybe they are all old.

http://www.readvessel.com/
Pimp.

I think I need a kick scooter to get from school to the metro on Wed. and Thurs. Ridiculous, right? I kinda like the idea. (Of course you do, you nut.)

I am super glad Diet Coke doesn't have calories or anything. That would be devastating.

I think I'll start making a list of things I have done, for those moments when I feel like I haven't done anything. Also, if you love lists and have goals, I highly recommend: http://www.43things.com/ I'm there, of course.

Till next time!

P.S. - http://www.readvessel.com/

OLYMPUS!

Rather, the Olympics, the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver. I am obsessed with them right now. I found myself actually chanting "USA!" while Apolo Ohno was racing. I have been watching the pair skaters on the edge of my seat. I have come to terms with the fact that the Americans will not be standing on the podium so I am rooting for the Chinese team Shen/Zhao. I watched the men's Alpine skiing today. Boy, that made me anxious. Have you seen how they hurl themselves down that mountain? Breathtakingly scary. Seriously. Watched some of the snowboarding stuff too, that was pretty neat. So really, the point of my rambling paragraph is to convey to you how much I love the Olympics.

In fact, as I type this, I'm watching the pair skating competition, I really want to see who gets to stand on the podium. I would like to share with you a phenomena that happens when you watch the Olympics. Suddenly, you are a judge of a sport that you hardly ever see. Ask my friends Elizabeth and Jaclyn, I have made comments such as, "I think their program is a little flat." "This music is pretty lame, don't you think?", "That costume is ridiculous."

I have never had any sort of experience in pairs figure skating. But when I watch the Olympics, I know what is best. I was pissed the other night when one of the Russian men absolutely bit it. And then, somehow, placed higher than one of the American teams. I was talking to the TV like the judges would hear my protests. The announcers didn't seem to find this abnormal, but I was outraged.

That's the funny thing about the Olympics. The nationalist pride that rises out of no where is surprising. And fun, I think. After having spent months watching the debate over health care and other important issues, you get to the point where you're sick of the United States. But the Olympics can quickly foster your nationalist pride back. I like cheering for American athletes and hearing the national anthem when one of them wins the gold. I have a lot of fun with the games and I miss them when their gone.

This is not to say that I only cheer for my fellow country men. If I can't spot an American, I pick another country to cheer for. It's fun. It's a "we are the world" sort of feeling. I like how the Olympics seem to be about a peaceful competition. That sounds like an oxymoron, doesn't it? Peaceful competition. I'll tell you how I hear it in my head.

American competitor: "HA! We're gonna kick your @$$! Oh, let's shake on it."

British competitor: "Bullocks! I'm going to win you ninny! Hugs, good job. "

Something like that.

It's also been really fun to watch my husband freak out about the pairs skating. He keeps flinching when he sees their blades get close to one another. Like when they do their spinning thing, he freaks. It's hilarious.

Anyway. I love the Olympics.

P.S. - Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief was a really bad movie. Avoid.