Pre Valentine's Day Dinner (Recipe)

Hello World, Monday, and Valentine's Day!

Standard Downtown
Valentine's isn't my favorite holiday but its infectious. I'm sure even the V day haters out there are feeling the buzz of excitement in the air....or maybe its the anticipation of the sugar rush we'll all be feeling later.

The hubs and I celebrated our love by hanging out at home yesterday afternoon and cooking a delicious dinner. We're on a tilapia kick lately and tried out a new recipe last night. We had tilapia over organic jasmine rice from TJs and also enjoyed it with another WW recipe - asparagus with balsamic butter. For dessert we had angel food cake with berries and cool whip along with a couple glasses of pinot grigio while we watched Inception.

If you haven't checked out skinnytaste.com yet you should today!
Gina has done a fantastic job of modifying recipes to be WW friendly.

Broiled Tilapia with Thai Coconut Curry Sauce *We couldn't locate the red curry paste at the regular grocery store so we cheated a bit and used a red curry sauce, it turned out just fine though. Additionally, we skipped the fish sauce.

Servings: 6 • Serving Size: 1 piece fish plus sauce • Old Points: 5 pts • Points+: 6 ptsCalories: 225.2 • Fat: 6.9 g • Protein: 35.5 g • Carb: 5.6 g • Fiber: 1.1 g

1 tsp dark sesame oil, divided
1 tbsp minced peeled fresh ginger
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
1 cup chopped scallions
1 tsp curry powder
2 tsp red curry paste
1/2 tsp ground cumin
4 tsp low-sodium soy sauce
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp Asian fish sauce
1 (14-ounce) can light coconut milk
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
6 (6-ounce) tilapia fillets
salt
Cooking spray preheat broiler. Heat 1/2 teaspoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add ginger and garlic; cook 1 minute. Add pepper and scallions; cook 1 minute. Stir in curry powder, curry paste, and cumin; cook 1 minute. Add soy sauce, sugar, Asian fish sauce, and coconut milk; bring to a simmer (do not boil). Remove from heat; stir in cilantro or basil if using.Brush fish with 1/2 teaspoon oil; sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt. Place fish on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Broil 7 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. Serve fish with sauce, rice, and lime wedges.

Weekend Love + Hollywood Hike

Soooo, the weekend is officially over, but I don't want it to be!! After a long week at work I always struggle with going out on Friday nights. This past Friday was no exception. I rushed home from work though and we headed to Anaheim to celebrate my brother in law Matt's birthday. We went out to eat with his friends and a couple of our cousins at Oggi's Pizza. Hubs and I tried a couple of their "heart healthy" meals - the tilapia and wheat pasta. They were both delicious and I highly recommend them!

Saturday was a day reserved just for me and the hubby, well almost. We haven't spent much one on one time lately other than weeknights, so we wanted to do something fun alone. Mid morning we headed back up to the Hollywood sign for some more hiking action. It was much warmer than when we went last month so we explored some additional trails and got in a great workout!

After the hike we went to church with our cousin Jenn and her daughter Ashley. This church outing wasn't planned but it was most enjoyable. After church we grabbed some Yoshinoya before heading to Disneyland. We've never eaten there before and I don't think we'll be back. It wasn't horrible or anything, just not quite my cup of tea.

Our main reason for going to Disneyland was to see The World of Color. We've been pass holders for about 6 months but wanted to wait until the crowds subsided before attempting to see the show. We weren't able to get fastpass tickets but a cast member informed us we could seek out standby seating a few minutes before the show started. Awesome. We hit up Soarin' Over California before heading to the show area. As we were hanging out a gentlemen offered us his "dining tickets" because he wasn't going to use them. Apparently these tickets are given out at the nicer restaurants throughout the park for the shows later in the evening. These tickets gave us the best seats ever!! Front and center baby!

Let me tell you, this show did not disappoint. If you've seen the Bellagio fountain show but not this one it can be described as the Bellagio fountains on crack but with fire. Literally. Put daft punk, Disney, pixie dust, Pink Floyd and fire in a martini shaker and this is what you'll get. I wish I would have taken more pics but if you haven't seen this show yet go now!!!

Sunday we went to watch the Superbowl with our hommies. I had this grand plan of going for a bike ride around the back bay before the game so I wouldn't feel bad about pigging out. Too bad my feet were sore from the hike and walking around Disneyland on Saturday. Good times all around though. Thanks to Jbone for hosting once again!

We also watched The Kings Speech this weekend. Great movie...go see it now. You'll thank me later.

Shorty Out.

10 Things That Made Me Happy This Week

1. Getting back in the water to swim laps. I haven't swam laps in over a year and it felt great. Still sore from Wednesday night's workout but that is a-OK with me! And the protein shake the hubs made for me after my swimming workout. I was about to pass out from exhaustion and it gave me a much needed pick me up!

2. My mom was recognized as Volunteer of the Year for her involvement with the Main Street Historical Society in her town of Cambridge, Ohio. According to the article explaining her accomplishments for every $1 invested into Main Street $38 of tourism monies are spent on Main Street. Amazing! Way to go mom!

3. Finding a local sprint triathlon in mid April. Thinking about entering as a way to keep my workouts on track.

4. Finishing up a pretty complicated and drawn out project at work. So glad to gave this project off of my plate!

5. Answered prayers!

6. Finding out that the rates we booked for our May Vegas trip at the Venetian have been reduced drastically. From $209 to $169....yeah baby!!

7. Venti unsweetened Iced Green Tea...'nuff said.

8. That my sweet niece Mikayla is being dedicated this weekend.

9. Receiving notice that I'll be traveling to my company's Silicon Valley office in a few weeks for additional training. I'm excited to meet up with some of my San Francisco colleagues that'll be there, in addition to meeting several others I've only met virtually.

10. Daydreaming about the what the future holds.

Crockpot Chicken Tortilla Soup and My Husband the Chef

My husband really spoils me when it comes to all things domestic. Not only does he makes my lunch every morning and also makes dinner 3-4 nights a week. I'm so blessed that my husband is so helpful around the house.

Love you babe!!

Last week we had one of our favorites for dinner - Chicken Tortilla Soup

Crockpot Chicken Tortilla Soup
15oz can tomatoes with juice
1 4oz can green chili's (we use jalapeno)
3 14.5 oz cans chicken broth
2 cloves minced garlic
1 chopped onion
1 can black beans
3 chicken breasts
3 chopped carrots
1 can corn
(frozen can be used but add at the end before shredding chicken)
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1 TB cumin
1 TB chili powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp oregano
1 bay leaf

Combine all ingredients
Cook on low 7 hours
When finished shred chicken with two forks and put back in crock pot

Garnish with your choice of limes, cilantro, sour cream, avocado, tortilla chips, green onion

Enjoy!

If you enjoy crockpot cooking you should really give this recipe a try. This recipe is really simple, healthy and delicious!

This was my first attempt photographing food for blogging and I think the pictures are decent considering I used my camera phone. Next time I think I'll use the regular camera though.

:)

Hollywood Sign Hike

Last weekend the hubs spent 15+ hours studying for the real estate exam. Since we knew we'd be holed up at home for most of the weekend we wanted to break it up by doing something fun and different on Saturday morning....a hike to the Hollywood sign! Upon researching the various trails in the area we decided on the trail that goes up behind the Griffith Observatory. Since admission to the observatory is free we walked through it a bit before heading out for the hike. It was a pretty cloudy day but I managed to get a couple of decent pictures.

View of the sign from the front of the observatory

Views during the hike When we reached the "summit" there was a nice spot to relax and enjoy the view.
The hommie who is sitting on the fence with the hat on is blocking the sign :(
Mt. Hollywood elevation 1619 feet At the top the views of downtown were incredible even for an overcast day.
This was a really fun and not too strenuous hike but it definitely got our hearts pumping and we will be back very soon! It took about an hour and a half round trip and I recommend it to everyone! It was so great to see so many people out workin' on their fitness during the hike. Peeps of all ages, shapes and sizes were out and it was super motivating. I think I've caught the hiking bug! The best part its only 30 minutes from my house (on a Saturday morning with no traffic).

Yesterday we got the news that hubs passed his exam!! Words cannot express how proud I am of him and his dedication to studying for this test. He is now in the process of "broker shopping" and will be up and running very soon. Hubs has worked in real estate for the last ten years as an escrow officer and has a bachelors in communications. With these attributes and continued blessing from God we are crossing our fingers that he'll become the next Donald Trump!

Suite Dreams

Most of my peeps already know this but I am beyond excited about January 14, 2011. Why you ask? I'm going to a Lakers game!! Sure, a Lakers game is pretty exciting, but not really the most earth shattering thing ever. True. However, enjoying the game from my company's luxury suite at Staples center sure is! My colleagues and I are being treated by our office managing partner (aka head honcho) as a thank you for all of our hard work in 2010. I am already extremely pleased with my decision to join this firm and now I'm stoked to be enjoying some of the perks for working for a large company. I pass by the staples center twice a day on the train and my excitement is mounting with each passing day! I'll see you next Friday Kobe, Lamar, and Pao!! Hmm, speaking of Lamar I wonder if any of the Kardashians will be making an appearance? I will definitely be bringing my camera so stay tuned for a recap of the game.

Anything special going on this weekend? This weekend will be pretty low key which is rare for us. The hubs is taking the California real estate exam on Monday so we'll be housebound for most of the weekend as he prepares for the test. More on this later but please keep him in your prayers as he takes his test and launches a new career. We are making a quick trip up to LA on Saturday so he can scout the location of the test. To make it worth the drive I suggested a hike in the area. After some quick research I found an easy hike up to the Hollywood sign from the Griffith Observatory. I admire the sign daily from my desk and I'm really looking forward to checking out the sights from up in the hills and getting my workout on. I'm planning on getting my blog on this weekend as the hubs is studying so be on the lookout for some more funsies.

Have a great weekend everyone!

I finally made it to the blog party!

Ladies, the time has come for me to jump feet first into the world of blogging. That's right, with much prodding and encouragement, I've realized now is the time for me to officially become a blogger!

"What should I expect from this "Shorty" person" you ask?

I'll probably talk about the following things on this blog:

Marriage & Family

Career
Entertaining
(I consider myself THE Hostess with the Mostest) Strange things I see in downtown LA Healthy Eating/Lifestyle
Hobbies
Travel

I'll just leave it at that for now....gotta keep my multitudes of followers hungry for more, right?
Stay tuned for a Christmas party recap that the mister and I hosted recently.