butta'

Spread on bread. Used instead of mayo. In the pan for almost anything I cook. That would be butter.

I seem to have a love affair with this creamy, smooth, extra delicious substance. The health effects may not escape me in the future, but this substance only well defined as buttery is a little too delectable to ignore. I may sound like the next Paula Dean, but I’d rather refer to myself as the next Julia Child who like any good French cook knows…more butter is never an issue.

So when I saw this as I reached for my favorite healthier butter spread, Earth Balance, I couldn't resist. Mendon Creamery Butter in Roasted Garlic hand churned from fresh sweet cream, roasted garlic and sea salt. My mouth may have dropped a little bit. Followed by a bit of drool as I saw they also had cinnamon sugar butter. 

And here it is in all it's glory and adorable packaging from Whole Foods sitting in my fridge. And I can tell you, I've already come up with about 100 new recipes (or maybe 3) that require a few tablespoons of this delightful butta'.

food, faith & fitness

So for the past three weeks I planned on writing my guidelines for 31 days of ideal living. My whole idea was not to overwhelm myself throughout the year with unattainable New Year resolutions and to wholly live healthier. 

Well, I'd agree I have lived healthier. Yet each time, I'd set out to write the guidelines I was keeping oh so carefully in my head they didn't seem eloquent enough in writing or description. I actually overwhelmed myself by my own writing standards. Slightly ridiculous. So without further ado, here are the guidelines I set — simply stated with no eloquence or detailed descriptions. If you'd like more of an explanation I have significant reasoning behind each of the following.  

food

- Avoid Fast Food
- Cook fresh, organic meals whenever possible 
- Drink one bottle of water a day (actually a stretch for me)

faith

- Spend time talking to God daily and giving each part of me and my day to Him.

fitness

- Work out three times per week.

And lastly, no T.V. I can watch movies, however, I'm trying to avoid watching them by myself as an escape as generally watching T.V. is a negative influence in my life and time-waster. I've already seen positive improvements in my life because of this. 

And some photos from this lovely rainy week: 

Again, impressed by the iPhone camera. 

this morning

I pulled into my parking spot at work, stepped out and saw this.

Not bad for my iPhone camera.

Happy day.

life giving

Creativity is how I live. How I get through a day. How I manage life. When I don't exercise my creative mind, I become dull, tired, restless. Someone told me recently that after a day is over, I should ask myself "What in my day was life giving?" and "What in my day was life draining?"

I have two answers for today concerning the latter. Facebook and T.V. Facebook can offer a connection with friends, but once stared at for longer than ten minutes looking through friends of friends Facebook albums for no apparent reason, I call that life draining. Television can offer an escape, but also cause lethargy and possibly apathy. Despite the good TV can sometimes prompt, it is mostly life draining.

What is life giving? For me, creativity, writing, doing something well. If I'm using the right side of my brain, I usually have a more productive, happy day. Eating a good meal, talking with friends and making things are life giving to me. So tonight, when my brain was tired and my body was exhausted, I sat down to eat dinner, opened to Facebook and my eyes glazed over. My roommate turned on House and after being sucked into two episodes, I wanted to go to bed. Life draining. Entertaining, but very life draining.

Now, obviously for others this is not the case and the fact that I'm still getting over a cold and overwhelmed with homework could contribute to me being tired, but the fact is this is what happens when I allow myself to be sucked into life draining activities, I feel the effects. So as decided a week ago, TV is off limits — a part of my 31 days of ideal living. I obviously ruined my streak of following my guidelines and was tempted to not admit I had slipped up on here, but in all honesty, where else will my accountability be and I want to be honest about my experience. So now you know and with that, finally, I will post my guidelines for 31 days of ideal living tomorrow.

Now, I'm off to find a creative outlet and spark some neurons.

old testament

I have three more weeks to read the entire Old Testament, read a commentary and write a 15-20 page research paper for my Survey of Genesis-Malachi interterm class. Thus far, I actually don't mind the 8 hour Saturday lectures and with having one complete, I am technically a quarter of the way through the class, however, I am here...

...at Deuteronomy. I think my point is visually demonstrated, soo...

Goodbye blog, helloo Old Testament.

my resolution theory

This may not be revolutionary and it may very likely appear in one of the many self-help books published each year, but it hasn't been encouraged in my life to re-think New Year Resolutions, so to me, this is a grand new idea. 

Coming quickly to the age of 24, shouldn't I be able to keep a resolution by now? Shouldn't I be able to set a goal and meet it? Why yes, I should...at least that is what I tell myself. But the truth of the matter is, a New Year Resolution is often made to only be forgotten a few months into the year. And although it is for the hopeful who wish to reform and change their lives with the inspiration of a new journey, a life transformation can occur at anytime. And really, the new year often isn't inspiration past January. Not to say, people don't or can't keep a resolution, but the majority of the time our human nature squeezes into our lives and to-do lists and resolutions become burdens and the guilt pushes us to give up whether it be conscience or not. 

So I have a theory. A New Year Resolution is too overwhelming. A year encapsulates 12 months, 4 seasons and a whole lot of life. I have no idea what my circumstances will be in 11 months from now, let alone two weeks. Life moves fast and either our resolution can't keep up with us or we simply can't keep up with it. Or neither. You pick. 

Therefore, I have decided to not make year-long specific resolutions, not to say I don't think goals are important. Last year, I even tried to give myself a few general resolutions in hopes of grace that I'd be able to fulfill them (some I did, others not so much). This year, I have decided to live a healthy, balanced life in the month of January. 

You may be thinking a healthy, balanced life is extremely general. Well, it is, but I do have specific goals within them which I will outline. Here is my thought process, 30 days is much more manageable than 365. Once more, they say it takes approximately 21 days to create a habit. And resolutions usually are surrounded by living a healthier life, such as to work out more, quit smoking, follow a diet, etc. So I set a number of goals for myself which result in the ideal healthy, balanced life I wish I could follow throughout the year, but often lose amidst my busy life style. At the end of the month, I will reevaluate my resolutions, decide what is reasonable to continue on with and hopefully will come away with a few healthy habits, and a good sense of what I truly am capable of. Because in the end, it's more likely that breaking resolutions is not about how we simply can't keep a commitment or that we are not disciplined, it may be that we overwhelm ourselves with too many pressures to really commit to even one. 

In my next post, I'll outline my resolution breakdown.

dressed up brussel sprouts

My new year resolutions post will have to wait until tomorrow. I broke ground today and must share the news — brussel sprouts aren't that bad. 

By the age of four I had a distaste for the small green rounds known as brussel sprouts. And if ever offered them, I politely have said no since...until tonight. I couldn't resist when I went grocery shopping this evening. They were all sitting there piled high and looking cute in their perfect circular green jackets. And on top of that Deb from Smitten Kitchen has posted numerous recipes for brussel sprouts in the past few months which seemed to de-mask them as awful. 

So I did what any good cook would do and bought 2. Yes, only 2. I didn't want a lot of them lying around if I really didn't like them. I adapted a recipe from Smitten Kitchen and they actually made a wonderful addition to my dinner. 

In case you too have had a fear of the little greens, this recipe is quite easy and delicious. (I only made two so you will need to significantly increase the recipe if you make more.) 

Dressed Up Brussel Sprouts

1 tb bread crumbs 

1/2 tsp thyme leaves

butter

extra virgin olive oil

1 tb minced shallot

garlic powder

salt, pepper

Mix bread crumbs, thyme and 1 tb of evoo in a small bowl. Spread mixture out on a cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 min. at 350 degrees. Melt 1 tb butter with a tb of evoo in a small pan. When melted, toss in the brussel sprouts, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and saute for approximately 10 minutes. Add in shallots and a tad bit of garlic powder. Saute for another three to five minutes. Remove from heat. Place in bowl and sprinkle with toasted bread crumbs. 

Bon Appetit!

happy new year

Happy January 1, 2010. Two thousand ten seemed to sneak up on me. Not that I didn't realize last night was New Year's Eve or that it obviously comes a few days after the more prominent Christmas, but I was a little shocked when I woke this morning and realized it's 2010. Perhaps it is because I made it through 2009 easier than expected or truly, I may have just been too preoccupied with life to contemplate a new year. 

However, there is one thing I've been thinking about in terms of the new year the past few weeks and that is the concept of New Year resolutions. I spent today thinking about resolutions whilst early "spring cleaning" my life and home. Tomorrow, I'll update you with an exciting (hopefully) new theory on New Year Resolutions. Until then...

You may be asking what on earth is this a photograph of? However, what it is lacks importance...the importance of the photos lies in the hopeful, white slate image edged with warmth and hope. At least, that's what I see it as...and light is pretty.