Niki's Neverending Adventure

Hey friends! I hope everyone is having a good start to the new week!! Today marks only 1 more week of my school break :( Next Monday it’s back to school for me! This semester is supposed to be a lot more busy and hard than the last one. I am just hoping it goes by fast because then it will be time for me to get married!! Yay!!

Anyway, I have some new “Big Girl Toys” to share with ya’ll!! I call them “Big Girl Toys” because only adults think that new bowls are super exciting! Ha!! I received a gift card to Kohl's from the fiancé's grandparents, so my mom and I hit up Kohl's the day after Christmas to spend that gift card!! I got lots of kitchen stuff. A new(super sharp) knife, some orange measuring bowls (I use orange as an accent color in my kitchen), and 4 new oatmeal bowls (2 of each bowl)!! Obviously, they can be used for other things besides oats but that’s what I specifically bought them for!!

It looks more yellowish in this picture but it is actually orange!! A huge plus is that the bowls I got are all microwave, dishwasher, and oven safe! Gotta love that!

 

Tested it out yesterday morning and it worked great for my morning oats!!

This is the other bowl I got. Cute right?!! The other side has a moose on it! I thought they were very “wintery”!

I tested it out this morning on my oats. Love both sets of bowls!! I also tried a new PB in my oats this morning. It’s called Dark Chocolate Dreams PB and is wonderful!! But anyway, I will definitely be hitting up Kohl's more often for all their kitchen items!!

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Yesterday I did an easy 3 mile run to test out some new running gear!! Loved my new Under Armor pants and Nike jacket!! I also tested out my new handled water bottle. I had the bottle filled up completely for half of the run and my arm started to get really tired! The bottle plus the water seemed pretty heavy!! So, I dumped half of the water out and that was much easier to carry. I didn’t necessarily like carrying it, but I think it will be very useful for long runs. I did 3 miles in 29:29 at a 9:50 pace. The wind was pretty strong and was freezing cold, which is why I decided to only do 3 miles.

Not sure if I will run today or not. If I don’t, I will be doing a boot camp workout instead. I’m trying to take it easy in case I decide to run the 10k Thursday morning. The only thing that will hold me back from running it is the weather. Yesterday it said it might rain Thursday but this morning, the weather man said no rain Thursday. I plan on making my decision tomorrow so I can still get the early registration price! So far there are only like 35 people signed up! I’ve never done a race that small! Makes me a little nervous that I will be last! Haha :)

I have some extra Christmas money leftover and am thinking about buying a Spibelt to use for long runs also. I want something to carry my IPhone in and don’t want to use an armband thing. Anyone have one? What do you think? I have heard really good things about them!

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In other exciting news, I bought a new point and shoot camera!! I had just enough Christmas/Birthday money from both sets of grandparents to buy the camera and memory card! It was perfect!! I ended up getting the hot pink Sony Cybershot!

It’s 12.1 megapixels with a 4X zoom and a huge LCD screen on the back! It was everything I wanted!! I haven’t been able to use it just yet because the battery is charging! So all these pictures you see on this post are still from my old camera :( Can you believe my old camera is only 5.2 megapixels?!? This new one is more than double! I am so excited about the picture quality!! Hopefully on my next post, y’all will be seeing much better pics from my new camera!!

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I made a yummy recipe last night that I wanted to share!! I got this recipe from IGE a while back! Both the fiancé and I loved it!!

Lemon Tuna Noodle Casserole
1 cup dried pasta
1 1/2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup chopped celery
2 Tablespoons chopped onion
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon hot sauce (or more to taste)
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
dash of garlic powder
salt & pepper
2 Tablespoons flour
1 cup chicken broth
5 oz Canned tuna packed in water
Topping Mixture:
1 Tablespoon butter
3/4 cup crushed oyster crackers
Dash of salt, onion powder & garlic powder

Directions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and set aside.
2. Heat olive oil in a sauce pan over medium low heat. Sauté onions and celery until soft, ~10 minutes.
2. Add mustard through flour to pan and stir until combined. Add chicken broth and whisk until mixture is smooth, thick and bubbly.
3. Add pasta and tuna. Mix until combined and pour into greased casserole dish.
4. Top with oyster crackers that have been toasted in a skillet for about a minute with melted butter, salt, onion and garlic powder.
5. Cover casserole dish and bake for 15 minutes. Remove cover and bake for an additional 5 minutes.
6. ENJOY!

I forgot to take a picture until I had already plated our food! Whoops!!

I served it with Balsamic Green Beans (recipe below). It was a wonderful combination!!

Balsamic Green Beans

All I did was cook whatever amount of green beans you need (I did mine in the microwave). Then sauté about 2 shallots in some EVOO in the skillet for a few minutes. In a bowl, whisk together 1 tsp Dijon Mustard, 2 TBSP Balsamic Vinegar, 1 TBSP brown sugar, salt and pepper. Add to shallots in skillet, combine. Pour over green beans and serve! They are delish!!

I have a lot of cleaning to do today while I wait for the cable man to come hook up cable TV in what will be the fiancé's “MAN ROOM”. Haha. I also have to take down the Christmas decorations. So sad :( Not sure what our New Year’s Eve plans are, we usually keep it pretty low key. What are your plans for NYE??

Posted in: on Monday, December 28, 2009 at at 10:42 AM