Relay for Life

Recently I decided to join a Relay for Life Team… some of you might not understand why I’ve been asking for donations or trying to get you to let me babysit your kids for donations only. Any donations given to my relay for life team #7 Hunting for a Cure, go straight to the American Cancer Society. I know we have all been affected by cancer in some way or another. A few of my family members have had cancer and survived due to effective treatment but others have not. I want to make a difference, so I joined a Relay Team. If your one of those people who doesn’t like to give away your cash here are some other ways you as my friend can help me out:

1.       Give me a donation for babysitting your child. I will donate 100% to the American Cancer Society.

2.       If you don’t have a kid, I will pet sit or clean your  house for a donation.

3.       Come to our Dinner at the casino in June…. I know you need to eat.

4.       Donate an item to be auctioned off at the dinner.

5.        Donate your junk to me to sell at my relay garage sale

6.       Come buy stuff from me at my relay garage sale

7.       Volunteer at the event. There are options for everyone.

You can make a difference, even if you don’t have money to donate. Let me know if you have questions about how exactly you can help out, or if you’re interested in any of the following.

For those of you who have donated money or have let me watch your child for a donation, I appreciate your support! Thank you for doing your part to make a difference. :)

Meatless Monday's

I would probably be a vegetarian if it weren’t for my meat loving husband. To try and stay healthier we have agreed upon meatless Monday’s in our house. We started this about 3 weeks ago and I am really enjoying it. This week for dinner we had veggie stir fry with brown rice. My good friend/coworker Kira is vegetarian and shared one of her fabulous cookbooks with me, while flipping through I found a great looking easy stir-fry recipe. After doing some research I found that meatless Monday is actually something that exists and promoted by Peta. Now for those of us who took rhetorical theory we know about Peta…. And no I’m not talking about Pita Pit. J

 I found out that just lowering the amount of meat you eat and going part time vegetarian as some would call it… you can lower your carbon footprint, cholesterol, fat intake, and a whole bunch of other things that should be lowered in all of us.  This made me feel even better about incorporating meatless Monday’s into our lifestyle. It is awesome because Monday’s are always rough for me, and not cooking meat lowers the cooking time of a meal by quite a bit… now only if my rice cooker had a turbo button.

Farm Share 101

Before I moved to Humboldt County I had no idea what in the world a farm share was. Did it mean you share the farm with a bunch of other people? Well kind of. A farm share is where you pay a certain amount and each week during the defined season you get a vast amount of vegetables. So in a way you are getting to take home a share of what the farm produces. After hearing about this and wanting to have a healthier diet, I checked into it a bit more. My friend recommended a little farm in Arcata called "Deep Seeded Community Farm". (http://www.arcatacsa.com/) I checked into it a bit and realized I could get fresh, organic, produce for $24 a week. Below is a picture of what I got during week 1. Note in the summer you also get you pick fresh flowers, strawberry and rasberry patches and fresh herbs.

After pondering a bit I thought about how much I spend at the grocery store on unorganic vegetables and how often we eat canned or frozen vegetables. I made an executive decision to take part in this farm share. The first week of pick up I went with my mom. She was amazed... I dont think they have many farm shares in Florida but maybe we just never knew about them. We actually met the man in charge of the farm that started it out and is responsible for the production of this beautiful food. His name is Eddie Tanner and he was very friendly and informative. He gave us a quick tour of the farm and let us know what was growing where. You then get to go through an essembly type line and pick out which veggies you want to take home according to the quanities defined.

Each week I would go to the farm and pick up my veggies. They are always very fresh and tasted alot better than the store crap I bought at safeway. If you are thinking of participating in a farm share I highly recommend to try and sign up as soon as possible. It is a little too much food for 2 people, if you shared it with another family or have a child it would probably be perfect. Its great to meet the person growing your food.

I feel that I was very lucky to get to actually see my food growing, see it ready for pick up and then consume it! This is a great opportunity. All my Humboldt County people should definitely take advantage. The food not only is delicious but you are also lowering your carbon footprint. This food only traveled about 10 miles to my kitchen. Most of the time our food is sent about 300,000 miles or more! By eating local your carbon footprint is a whole lot smaller. In this case I think it is very fairly priced and will help you eat healthier.

From Farm to..... Kitchen

Thank you Humboldt for having no traffic!!!

I don’t know how I ever attended college and lived in Orlando Florida. I am not sure how I rode with Tim’s mom an hour to my job in Virginia. Both of these places are high traffic areas. I was recently in the Oakland area in California. It took me twice as long to get to my destination as it should have. I was in traffic for 2 hours with the sun in my eyes. Worse… I had never been where I was going before. If it weren’t for my trusty GPS on my car I probably would have paid the $5 bridge toll multiple times instead of once. Living in Humboldt I don’t really deal with traffic. I work 8:30AM-5PM which means I drive in “rush-hour”. I would hardly call what we have here in Humboldt a rush hour. I am not sure what we will do if we end up getting transferred to a city in 2012. I absolutely don’t like traffic. I guess it is something you just have to deal with. But for the next year and a half… I will be thankful that I don’t get stuck in wall to wall cars on my way to work, that my palms aren’t sweating, and that I can make it to my job in the actual amount of time it takes to get there and not double that. I want to give a big thank you to Humboldt county today for not having traffic!

What will they think of next?

My little nephew Hyatt is turning 4 today. I feel like it was just yesterday my sister was pregnant with him at my wedding. She would probably kill me if I put a picture of her pregnant on here... so ill refrain. J

Hyatt is into Star Wars and his cake was pretty amazing, that is his face on it! Although I wasn’t at the birthday party all the way in Florida… I feel like I was a part of it. I mailed him a Coast guard helo, water bottle, and 2 cute tshirts which I am sure that he will love. He knows that Tim and I are from California and likes to tell people he is from California too. Although I haven’t seen him in a year, the use of technology has allowed me to facetime with him and I show him my dogs which I think he loves. I miss him dearly and hope to move closer to him so that I can watch him grow older. In the meantime here is his cake and him. This has to be the coolest cake I have ever seen in my life? What will they think of next? I wonder what his 16^th birthday cake will look like?

Baby shower cookies

I am not a huge cookie person. When I received a baby shower favor a couple of weeks ago… I was very excited. The presentation of all the ingredients made me want to bake the cookies and see how great they would all look when mixed together.

I am working on getting this recipe because they were delightful. Tim was returning from a week long school and I wanted to make him realize how much I missed him. What better way than to make delicious cookies? I really enjoyed this favor vs other favors I have received at parties. It is pretty and useful and yummy! What else do you really need? Thanks to Sarah for hosting my good friend Lupita's baby shower and making these yummy favors.

End result... as my Friend May would say... Have a happy mouth! Check out http://www.maybowser.com/

Easy Pleasy Pasta

Easy Pleasy Pasta

Tim and I loved this! It was easy to make and you could really add any veggies to it. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• ½ whole Red Onion, Diced
• 3 cloves Garlic, Minced
• 1 can (14.5 Ounce) Diced Tomatoes With Juice
• ⅓ cups Assorted Olives, Pitted And Roughly Chopped
• 1 cup fresh spinach
• ⅓ cups White Wine
• 2 whole Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts, Pounded To Even Thickness, I cut these up to have them cook a bit quicker
• Kosher Salt
• Freshly Ground Black Pepper
• 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
• 1 Tablespoon Butter
• Grated Parmesan Cheese
• ½ pounds Linguine, Cooked Al Dente And Drained
• 1 teaspoon Olive Oil

Preparation Instructions

Heat medium skillet over medium-low heat. Add olive oil. When warm add diced red onion and stir. Cook slowly for five minutes, stirring occasionally. Add garlic, then stir and cook for one minute. Pour in diced tomatoes with their juice. Add chopped olives. Stir and cook for a minute or two.

Splash in wine, then stir and simmer over low heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add Spinach and sauté until slightly wilted.

While sauce is cooking, sprinkle salt and freshly ground black pepper over the chicken breasts. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter in a separate skillet. Cook on both sides until golden brown and done. Set aside.

Toss cooked linguine in olive oil and arrange on a small platter. Spoon 3/4 of the sauce over the pasta. Place chicken on top, then spoon remaining sauce over the chicken. Sprinkle on grated Parmesan and serve immediately.

Adapted from Pioneer Woman: