Healthy Dinner Ideas

It's the first of the year and everyone is making New Year's Resolutions. Ryan and I decided we needed to start off the new year by eating healthier. So far, so good. I wanted to share some dinner ideas that I have come up with that have been pretty good. However, you are going to have to bare with me...I never measure anything, but I'll try to explain these "recipes" the best I can. Here's the first one. It is really easy and quick. Let me know if you try it out, and what you think, and if you make any changes...how it turns out.


Baked Chicken & Veggies with Sauteed Spinach & Mushrooms:

Boneless chicken breasts (one per person)

Baby Carrots - 2 cups

Yukon Gold Potatoes quartered (6 - 10 depending on how many you are feeding)

Fresh Spinach - 5 cups

Sliced Portobello Mushrooms

1 Diced Onion

3 Minced Garlic Cloves

Olive Oil

Good Balsamic Vinegar - 2 tablespoons

Salt & Pepper

Low Sodium Chicken Broth - 1/4 cup
In a glass baking dish add chicken breasts. Then add baby carrots, half the onion, and the Yukon Gold potatoes around the chicken. Season everything with salt & pepper then drizzle with olive oil. Add a small amount of low sodium chicken broth, just to add some moisture. Cover with foil, and cook at 375 degrees for about an hour. (You can remove the foil towards the end of cooking time to let everything brown up a little, but make sure you do not let the chicken dry out).

In a pan saute the other half of the onion, mushrooms, and garlic until they begin to brown. Then add the fresh spinach and the balsamic vinegar until the spinach wilts down. Season with salt and pepper. ENJOY!

**You can cook a few extra chicken breasts to put over salad the next day or to cut up and put in a stir-fry or soup.

ENJOY!

ManCave MakeOver.

Ryan was in New Hampshire training for his new job for two weeks in December. While he was gone I decided to surprise him and change his office a little bit. I painted the walls IU red (which I don't recommend doing!) Ryan loved all the changes and was totally surprised when he got home. Here are some before and after pictures...

Before

Before

New red walls, lamp, and curtains

Mrs. Quinn made Ryan a quilt with all of his old football shirts & pictures for our wedding

Organized desk

Girly Touch lol

New TV & stand, oh and the St. Ed's State Champs Poster

Marando clock I found

New gaming chair & gaming ottoman, Ry's bowl game jersey is framed and going on this wall.

Gaming ottoman to keep organized : )

A Look Back at 2010

Looking back, I must say, 2010 has been the most exciting year this far! 2010 was extremely eventful, and busy for us, but I wouldn't change a minute of it. We planned a wedding, bought our first house, my sister and Kyle got engaged, we had many wedding showers and bachelor/bachelorette parties, we got to travel, we went to 6 weddings, Ryan had two job changes and is now with Salient Surgical, we got a nephdog, and we got married! That is a lot to squeeze into 2010. Here are some of my favorite pictures of everything we did this past year...

All my bridesmaids in Lafayette for drinks & dresses

St. Patrick's Day

Indy 500

Taylor & I shopping in San Francisco

U.S Open at Pebble Beach

Wedding Shower in Cleveland

Summer Weddings

Taylor & Kyle's Engagement Party
4th of July at Put-n-Bay

4th of July Bar Crawl on the Island

Chicago for my Bachelorette Party

Our Wedding

9.25.2010

Beautiful Bridesmaids

Groomsmen : )

Wedding Reception

Zip Lining through the Jungle in Mexico

Relaxing on our honeymoon

Tailgating at IU Homecoming

Bentley...NephDog

Laker Game

BLESSED!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas...

Christmas is here in 2 weeks!! Ryan is still gone for work training, but my mom came down today and we decorated my house. We had a good time putting different decorations together, and I still have some more to do before Ryan gets home. We didn't get a tree this year : / and probably wont because Ryan wont be back for another week. So I decided to decorate everywhere else to keep in the holiday spirit. I also got our Christmas Cards mailed out this week. Here are some things my mom and I put out today!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

This year I filled some vases I already had with ornaments

Some decorations in the dining room

I put purple & gold ornaments on the stairway for LAKERS of course : )

Our stockings on the mantel

As of Lately...

I haven't posted in a while, other than Bentley pictures. Both our parents came to Indy to celebrate Ryan's birthday. We then had a really good Thanksgiving in Cleveland, and we also had a blast at the IU vs. PU game. The Mays through a wonderful tailgate with plenty of jello shots : )

This weekend we had a dinner at Ruth's Chris because our scouts are in town. Saturday morning Ryan met them all to play basketball at IUPUI, and that night we went to Bonefish, our favorite!! I was a good last weekend with Ryan, before he left for work training. Last night my mom came down and we went to the Nordstrom Card Holder Event. It was really fun, we had wine, dinner, and we did a lot of shopping. We also got to hang out with Taylor. Mom spent the night, and after the event Taylor brought Bentley by to play with us for a little while. We had a ball!!

We got to sit outside for lunch in November!

We had Mexican and really good margaritas for lunch on Ryan's birthday

Taylor and I before Ryan's birthday dinner

IU vs PU game....WE WON!

Best Tailgate with the Mays

Bentley Update!!

My little BentDog is getting soooo big!! Below is a recent picture of Bentley and his new haircut. He loves playing in the snow. Look how much bigger he is in just 5 weeks, compared to the picture taken the first week Taylor and Kyle brought him home.

I got to babysit Bentley for a little bit on Sunday. We learned a new trick...How to "Speak"! Bentley picked this up in about 5 minutes. He is so smart. We also played in the snow, chased tennis balls, and whipped our tails back and fourth!