Beauty Tip # 18.

I read this in my May 2010 Allure magazine and wanted to do a short blog about it. The article is called: 22 Reasons to Look Better Naked.

"It's obvious that feeling good in your own skin requires that you take it easy on that creature looking back at you in the mirror. Less obvious: being kind to other women. 'There's nothing positive or attractive about criticizing another woman's appearance,' says self-esteem coach Laure Redmond. 'Even sitting around with your friends talking about how fat a certain celebrity looks or calling women 'cougar' is destructive- and it certainly doesn't make you feel any better about yourself.'"

I say this because there are a LOT of girls- yes I have certain ones in mind- that criticize girls for their hair, their weight, their life, etc. And you know what I think? That they are so miserable in their own life that they have to talk about other girls to make themselves feel better. But you know what?? You have to love yourself before you can attempt to love anyone else.

Chicken Fettuccine...

Anyone that knows me knows that I'm a Food Network Junkie.. I love watching people mix ingredients together to produce this awesome dish- whether it's sweet or savory. This morning I was watching Rachel Ray, and she made a wonderful looking dish called Fettuccine with Garden Vegetables and Greens. The dish calls for eggplant and a type of lettuce on top of the pasta-- both of which are weird to me, so I left them out. This is what I did:

1 zucchini- cut into matchsticks or cubed
1 small onion- cut very thin
1 red pepper- cut into matchsticks or cubed
5 small cloves of garlic- if your cloves are big, only use 2-3
2 T of extra virgin olive oil
salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes
1 lb chicken breasts or tenders
12 ounce of fettuccine
Kraft Italian 5 Cheese Blend
Handful of basil leaves, julienned or shredded.

Boil and salt (2 tablespoons of salt in the water is fine) your water for the pasta. The recipe says to cook shy of al dente, but this didn't work for me-- so just cook it al dente (for fettuccine, it's about 12-13 minutes).

While your pasta is boiling, cook your chicken until cooked through and then remove. Use the oil leftover from the chicken and put all your veggies in a pan to saute them until they're tender, for about 12 minutes. Cook the veggies over a medium-low or medium heat. Add more oil IF you need to. Add your salt, pepper, and red peppers flakes to the veggies. Once the veggies are tender, add the chicken and warm through.

Once the pasta is done, reserve about a cup of the pasta water and drain the pasta. Add the pasta to the veggies and toss everything together, adding your pasta water. From there, add your basil leaves and your cheese. Continue tossing until the cheese is just melted and the basil have started to wilt.

Transfer to another bowl (if you want to, I just left mine in the pot) and finish topping with cheese and maybe a sprinkle more of extra virgin olive oil... and voila.

Some other ingredients you may add to the dish: mushrooms or alfredo sauce to be tossed until everything is lightly, evenly coated.

This dish, I thought, was really yummy... and thinking back now, I wish I would have taken pictures of it... but my stomach out-ruled my mind, and I didn't think about it. Take my word for it, though, it looked just as good as it tasted.

Bon Appetit!!!

This is the shortest blog ever, but...

What do you aspire to be?

Do you want to be better or do you want to be the same?

Do you want to change the world to make it better, or are you perfectly happy sitting at the same old 8-5 or 8-8 job??


Me-- I aspire to be a writer who learns and gets better everyday. I never want to stop learning. I want to make a difference in the world by writing something so great and wonderful that it leaves an impression. And if you give me a choice between being successful in ophthalmology versus struggling in writing.. I will choose struggling in writing.

Sorry-- I do not get up every morning thinking, "I love my job." There are some mornings I get up and pray and wish that I would break my leg, so I wouldn't have to go in there. But just about every morning I get up and think, "I want to write or want to spend the day reading about writing.. how to perfect my writing."

So again, on an ending note:

What do you aspire to be?

LMAO...

My in-laws are in town this weekend, and we decided to go up to the mountains today. So on the way back down the mountain, we all noticed that there was a cell phone tower in the valley of the mountain. Of course we all questioned why there was a tower in the valley of the mountain versus the top of the mountain.

Then my brother-in-law innocently asked, "How do they get down there?"

Husband, "Roads."

After we all cracked up by this response, my brother-in-law tells my husband, "Asshole."

More laughter.

Then the response of, "You're so stilly." (the combination word of stupid and silly).

Life With Paisley...

Life with a 5 1/2 month old Harlequin Great Dane female has been an interesting ride so far. Besides the obvious- being tall and strong and majestic- she's also silly and sweet and beautiful-- and ALL DANE. So this is what I've learned from my beautiful sweet girl...

1. She leans- which all Danes do, it's a sign of affection. She especially does this when you pat her side. And if you move when she is leaning, she will stumble over.

2. She hates her vet. All dogs are a great judge of character, and if they don't like you- they're not going to give you the time of day and they're especially not going to let you touch them. Paisley sees whoever is available at her vet, and we have found that there is one vet she really doesn't like. The vet was trying to exam her and give her a shot, and Paisley was unruly and squirmy. They vet proceeded to lecture us for ten minutes about socializing her with other people and messing with her ears and nose and mouth and feet. Josh wanted to say, "Maybe she just doesn't like you." We exam her nose and ears and teeth, as well as her paws when Josh is clipping her nails-- and she gives us no problems. We socialize her as much as we can and does well with other people and dogs, so maybe it's the vet she doesn't like. There is one other vet that Paisley likes b/c the vet gets down on her level and plays with her and loves on her. PLUS if she's getting a shot, do you really think she's going to just sit there and let you do it? She's just like a human child in that aspect.

3. She loves to be in competition with herself. Give her a toy and watch as she picks it up, lays in the middle of the floor, and runs back and forth as hard as she can to pick it up. Sometimes she succeeds and sometimes she doesn't. It's the funniest thing to watch her do.

4. She LOVES to be scratched behind her ears. Scratch back there and watch the eyes get sleepier and sleepier.

5. She can sit and stay before feeding or while getting weighed. She can give you High Five, and she's learning not to bark at other people (which is a process). We're trying to teach her not to pull, which again is a process when she sees something she wants, but we're getting there.

6. If she sits on it, it's hers. This can range from her chair, to the couch, to me or Josh. She's so tall that it's nothing for her to walk by something and sit her on a chair or the couch while her front paws are still on the floor. Josh was winding down, getting ready to go to sleep. Paisley was on the bed and down went her butt on top of Josh, totally oblivious that he was laying there. Yesterday she plopped down on Branson, as if to say, "I want to sit here, so you can move or I can sit on you."

7. She gets really silly when it snows or when the weather is warm outside-- self explanatory.

8. She gives the greatest hugs and kisses.

9. When she sits down, her head is at my hip bone. I still realize that I'm vertically challenged so everything is bigger to me than it really is, but still I love that she's so tall. And yes I realize she will be bigger than me and will feel the need to pull me everywhere, but that's why we're teaching her the things we're teaching her.

10. And last but not least, she was destined to be our dog. Getting Paisley has been an issue with certain people ever since we got her. They think we're not fit or responsible or "rich" enough to have her. Here's my issue with that.. while we may live in an apartment and not be as well-off as others, there is nothing we wouldn't do for any of our dogs. We do whatever it takes to make sure our dogs are happy and healthy. And most importantly, we love our dogs unconditionally.. so with all due respect, if THAT makes us unfit as parents, then maybe that's your own insecurity and not ours. And again with all due respect while we may not have human children, we do have four-legged children, and we worry about them and love them just the same. We raise them to be decent adult dogs in public and at home. We worry when they get sick or have surgery. We have to potty-train them and teach them manners.

I'm So Silly..

Shows how silly I really am...

Josh, "How do they build a snow pipe?"

Me, "I don't know... I've always wondered how they build a Luger."

Josh, "You mean an ice luge?"

Me, "Oh yeah.. a Luger is one of those people in New Orleans that steal stuff after it floods."

Josh, "No those are looters."

A brief moment of silence, and then Josh, "A Luger is a pistol."

LOL!!!!!

Creamy Tomato Crockpot Italian Chicken

I don't know if I have ever mentioned this before, but I love trying new recipes ESPECIALLY when mushrooms are involved. So in an effort to eat semi-healthy, I searched through Sparkpeople's website and came across an interesting recipe that I had to try. While this recipe came from Spark, I had to add my own flare to it and found some stuff out while trying this recipe that, in the future, will make this recipe mine.

1 package of mushrooms, sliced

1 6 ounce bag of baby spinach

3 chicken breasts

1 8 ounce package of cream cheese (full fat, 1/3 less fat, or no fat is fine), cubed

1/2 red onion, sliced or chopped

1 package of Slow Cooker Chicken Italian Seasoning (I could not find it, so I used a package of Grill Mates Garlic and Basil for chicken)

2 cans of tomatoes

You're going to layer everything in the crockpot- so layer your mushrooms, spinach, chicken, red onion, and cream cheese. In a bowl mix the tomatoes and the seasoning packet together-- now I used 1 complete can of tomatoes and drained the other one, so the sauce itself wouldn't be too thin, but do it however you like. Put the tomato mixture on top of everything in the crock pot.

Cook on low heat for about 6 hours or on high heat for 4 hours. After an hour or so has passed, mix everything together and continue to let it cook. One thing I did find out with this recipe, after cooking the chicken for this long in the crockpot, it turned out dry. So a suggestion would be to broil or fry the chicken, and add it at the last minute to prevent it from drying out.

Serve it over pasta and b/c I'm such a cheese over pasta person, I sprinkled some Parmesan over it. Surprisingly, this was a really good recipe and is definitely one that I'll be trying and eating again.