No, not the color (my favorite color is actually blue)..I love the clothing line “Pink” by Victoria’s Secret. It’s basically comfy cute undies and loungewear in bright colors and cozy fabrics. I have some yoga pants, sweatpants and a couple capri pants..and some undies..all of which I loveeee. I can’t wait till we have paid for our wedding and paid down some debt so I can pick up some more cute outfits from VS. Until then I can just browse the catalog and look forward to when I have some more money to spend! How cute is this?

(inspiration to keep up with working out for summer!)

On another note it’s absolutely frigid here Rochester NY today. The cold front freezing all of Canada and the upper states moved in yesterday and it was around 0 overnight. It’s around 20 right now so that’s manageable..but tomorrow is supposed to be even colder. Ugh. I hate winter! I’m either freezing or breaking my back shoveling our double driveway *growl*. Ryan knows I’d prefer to stay here bundled up in the house so he’s a sweetheart and going to pick up my hair color and some soda on the way home from work so I can stay cozy on the couch with my doggy and blankie..blogging away! I haven;t colored my hair since before October and my roots are bad right now..ick. Hair color will fix that for Ry’s holiday company party on Saturday. Free food + dancing = Score.

So it’s almost 7:30pm and I’m totally falling asleep as I wait for Ryan to get out of the bath so we can have dinner. I shouldn’t be so tired before 8 o’clock..but I stayed up too late last night playing EQ2 and then got up way to early when Ry left for work. Sure, I work from home..I should have napped! Nope. I spent all day keeping up with the day to day housework, jogging for an hour and then working on my multitude of blogs. I am going to sleep sooo well tonight. I’m surprised I managed to jog an hour and not kill myself being as tired as I am!

I have been enjoying playing EQ2 lately since recently restarting my subscription (as can be seen with my lack of sleep, lol). My main is a level 53 (almost 54) conjuror with a sucky pet who can’t hold aggro for the life of me. I named my pet Lamesack to illustrate its complete pointlessness. Ryan and I group up (he has a fury at the same level), so the pets crappiness isn’t too much of a problem unless we are taking on a group of ^^^ heroics. I have to finish questing in the Obelisk of Lost Souls tonight to clear some space in my quest log..if I can keep my eyes open long enough. Eep!

Ravioli tonight with smart balance butter..yum yum.

Well I just finished a big mug of delicious hot cocoa after watching the third Harry Potter movie for the first time. I know..I’m like 4 or 5 years late on watching it. Better late than never right? Movie was good, just like the first two of course 🙂 I told Ryan while watching that I want my own animitronic rat like Ron Weasley had when boarding the train. So cute. Anybody you know sell lifelike -cute- animitronic rats? Probably not..meh! I have to see the next movie now!

Ryan and I watch movies pretty often but we had gotten a bit obsessed with the asian horror genre, complete with subtitles. (The dubbing is corny!) Because of that we kindof fell behind in other movies and movie series we enjoyed before the j-horror/k-horror addiction. We decided his week we needed to finish watching the entire Harry Potter movie series, Pirates of the Caribbean series and Lord of the Ring series. (Which reminds me..When Ryan and I first started dating we rented the first LOTR and he startled me during the movie thinking it’d be funny – so I threw a big cup of water I was holding on him. Let’s just say he doesn’t intentionally startle me anymore. 😉 ) Noting beats cuddling up on the couch with cocoa to watch some rentals on a snowy winter night!

Speaking once again of cocoa..if you love Hot cocoa you should try the Land O Lakes brand if you haven’t already. It’s this good – inaiwefbniaesbnviabinfinNIUYBYVB!!!! We got a big bulk pack of like 10 flavors from Sam’s Club a couple months ago and each flavor is creamy and delicious. My personal favs are the white chocolate and the chocolate raspberry. Drop in a couple mini marshmellows and POOF..heaven. Yep.

Ok. Bed time! *snore*

Mmmn..I just finished eating Snowbird Chicken Platter takeout from Bugaboo Creek..I wait all week as I diet for my Friday night takeout. Scrumptious! Why can’t I make chicken that tastes so delish??

Annnyways..I mentioned in a previous entry how I was going to attempt making some Cheeseburgers (or patty melts) from a recipe I found online. While they didn’t turn out the way I wanted cosmetically (electric stove and lame ass frying pan=broken bread and black spots) they were delicious to eat. So, as promised, here is the recipe! Credit to yumsugar.com for the find! (Pics from Yumsugar, mine just weren’t as pretty as mentioned above!)

Katie Lee Joel’s Award-Winning Burger

• 1 pound ground beef (85 percent lean)
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 medium yellow onion, half grated, the other half thinly sliced (*I used 1/2 white onion chopped in food processor)
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder (*I did without, didn’t have it – still turned out good!)
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 12 slices white bread (*I used whole wheat, I try to avoid bleached bread!)
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened (*I used Smart Balance, cuts some calories 🙂 )
• 12 slices American cheese, optional(*I used 2% american, 1 per burger – once again to cut some calories)

1. In a medium bowl, combine the beef, egg, grated onion, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Mix until combined.
2. Form into thin patties. (Makes 6!)
3. Spread butter on one side of each slice of bread.
4. Heat a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the burgers about 3 minutes on each side. Drain on paper towels. Drain the grease from the skillet.
5. In the same skillet, place six slices of bread, butter side down. Top each with a slice of cheese, if desired, some onions and a burger. Top with remaining slices of cheese, if using, and bread, butter side up.
6. Cook each sandwich until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side.
7. Serve with mustard, ketchup, pickles, or any other desired hamburger toppings.

Ryan and I gobbled them up..they were fantastic! If you are a fan of burgers you’ll have to give these a try 🙂

Just finished biking for an hour! I need to try to fit biking into my “off” days when I get a chance for extra calorie burn. Generally I jog Mon, Wed and Fri for at least an hour..so there need to be more biking on Tuesdays, Thursdays and the weekends. With the holidays I’ve gained a couple pounds so that makes me farther from my wedding weight goal. Wherever I can fit in additional calorie burn..the better! I just have a hard time fitting workouts in lately with all the blogs and work I have to keep up with. Ugh. Why can’t there be more time in a day? And why does it take under a minute to eat a tasty morsel and 10-15 minutes of exercise to burn it off? Meh!

BTW – I found a delicious cheeseburger/patty melt recipe online yesterday and I’m going to try to throw it together for dinner (in as healthy a way as possible!). If it’s good I’ll make sure to share!

I have this thing where during holidays I love picking out some “party” type foods and recipes, going shopping and making my own assortment of yummies for Ryan and I. I’m not into the bar scene and we don’t really know anyone since moving out to Rochester (especially since I work from home), so we throw our own little two-person foodie parties on all the special days. This New Years I made some really delicious Spinach dip for us both. It was really yummy..so I thought I’d share 😀

I found the recipe online, originally trying to find a copycat recipe for the Bugaboo Creek Canadian Cheese Spinach dip I am obsessed with when we eat out. I’m not a big fan of artichokes so I dropped them from the recipe and added additional cheese instead. It’s baked in the oven and comes out warm and creamy…oh so tasty!

Hot Cheese Spinach Dip

• 2 (8 ounce) packages of cream cheese, softened (16 oz total)
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup grated Romano cheese
• 1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 1/2 cup shredded Mozzerella cheese
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 lb. bag frozen spinach, thawed and chopped up (I used my food processor to get it nice and tiny!)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a small baking dish.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together cream cheese, sour cream, Parmesan cheese, Romano cheese, Mozzerella cheese, Monterey Jack cheese, and basil. Gently stir in spinach. (I used my stand mixer, it made it smooth a lot quicker than mixing by hand!)
   
3. Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking dish. Bake in the preheated oven 25 minutes, until bubbly and lightly browned.

That’s it! We dipped tortilla chips in it and it was sooo yummy..and there was enough to save some for the next day. It was just as yummy reheated in the microwave! While it didn’t taste like the Bugaboo Creek recipe I was trying to create it was still really delicious. When I make it again I may tweak it some more and add half cup cheddar and maybe some more Monterey Jack. I’ve seen some recipes adding butter..so I may add that too! I’ll let you know how that goes and if it’s good I’ll share 🙂

My dog Zoe is only 3.8-4 pounds..but she thinks she’s a big girl. She’s a full grown 2 year old maltese who doesn’t realize she’s almost too tiny to even BE a dog by many people’s standards. I personally find that silly..She does everything any other dog does, she just requires less effort and exercise. (She fetches a Nerf football that’s almost the same size as she is for gosh sakes! lol)

We bought a cat perch in April when Totoro (Turkish Van cat) was brought into the family and Zoe took a liking (LOVING) to it. She spent every afternoon basking in the sun on the window perch, sleeping and watching the neighbors. We ended up having to buy an identical second perch for the window nearby so both Zoe and the cat could bask and relax. They are installed on the front big windows of our house so they can watch the day to day “action”.

As she relaxes and peers outside everyday we’ve learned she has a completely unfounded hate for one neighbor who lives across the street. We call him Pat because he introduced himself to us over a snow blower once and that’s what we thought he said..but now we think we misheard him. We have called him Pat for so long though that he’s going to remain “Pat”. Anyways, Zoe hates Pat. Loathes Pat. She even recognizes his red pick up truck and can’t stand it when he drives by. She can’t even stand it when she sees his garage is open and he is nowhere to be seen. (She KNOWS he must be nearby.) She growls and scream barks and stands on the perch with her front paws scratching at the window in anger. Another person can walk by and they may get a small muffled “uff”..but not Pat. Complete disdain for that man.

Poor guy. What makes a tiny dog hate a random male neighbor so very much? I don’t think I’ll ever know.

I can’t believe how quickly time flew the past month and a half! Now the holidays are over and I have to go back to the usual schedule of working on websites and blogs, cleaning the house and my craft business. I must say I am relieved the holidays are over because they are so hectic..but I also hate returning to the day to day life afterwards. I get spoiled by having Ry around more since he gets vacation days for the holidays..and I also have to force myself to go back to being more strict with my diet and exercise. It’s way too easy to splurge and pretend the diet doesn’t exist when everyones eating cookies and turkey dinners. I’m forcing myself to be good now though because yesterday was the 6 month mark to the wedding and I want to be in shape for the  big day! Ugh..I’m gonna miss all the goodies though. Poo!

Well I have 2 blogs to get out today and a cardio workout..and I’d love to get them all done before lunch..so here we go!

I finished the second book in the Twilight series today, New Moon. They conveniently place a chapter or two of the next book at the end of each book so I’ve read the first chapter of Eclipse and ant to keep reading!! I placed a hold on the book at my local library..but I don’t know if I can stand the wait. It’s  so dorky…but I’m obsessed. I can’t wait till the movie of the first book comes to dvd so I can watch it. (I’m not one to go to the theatres for a movie if I know it will probably make me cry. I hate crying in public, especially over a movie :/)

Annnnyways..I hope everyone had a fantastic New Years! I spent the eve with my fiance drinking margaritas and watching the ball drop. I made little personal pan pizzas and we snacked on rye dip and a bread bowl. Yum, yum!

Now I can officially say I get married this year…Scary!

….. <3

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxjNDE2fMjI[/youtube]