What's Hanging?

The TV!!!

I can't wait for the Lion King to be out on Bluray!

It was a chore. It consumed our entire Friday night. We had to take the TV down a couple of times to hide wires or reposition the TV... but I can confidently say that we are now

 TV Hanging Professionals.

We got the wallmount from Monoprice.com for only 24 bucks w/shipping! Eat that Walmart.

We also cut the cord on cable when we bought the new place. 

Cable prices were getting out of control, plus, I can watch anything online or Netflix, and we got an HD antenna for Danny's Chief's games so it is hard to justify paying for cable.

Honestly, I don't miss cable at all

It makes me be more imaginative with my time, and not a couch potato.

BTW Antennas are awesome. we have 22 channels, ALL in HD, they don't have embarrassing bunny ears. In fact, you can't even see the antenna unless you look behind the TV.

So the break down.

I can watch all of my TV shows

The Chief's Games

I am more active

pay no cable bill.

yea. it's a no brainer.

Now I need to build a Mantle for the fireplace... because let's face it, it looks blah.

Danny and I will be cut off from the world next week.

We are visiting my family in Upstate NY and Sprint has no love for Upstate NY.

notice how far the airport is from my family. yea that's a 4 hour drive.

I am looking forward to seeing my grandparent Hazeltons and celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, while seeing all of my mom's side of the family at my cousin's wedding. and enjoying NY in the fall time.

While I am away I will leave you with some Food Porn

bow-chicka-bow-wow. oh yes I did just go there.

I made these a few weeks ago

Slowcooker pulled BBQ Chicken Sandwiches

Put chicken of your choice in the slow cooker, pour your favorite BBQ sauce over chicken and season with whatever your heart desires. Turn the slow cooker on low for 8 hours then shred the chicken with a fork and ta-da! BBQ chicken sandwiches!!

I know.. you must be thinking "that is the most complicated recipe you have ever shown us!"
What can I say, I like a challenge =)

I like to top my sandwiches with home-made slaw

So when you are feeling lazy about dinner, throw something in the slowcooker, it never fails.

Have a happy two weeks!

Color Me... ANYTHING!

In order to wake up from my beige nightmare, we had to paint and decorate.

At first we were going to do our living room in light blue, white and natural wood.

The result was "eh" 

I'm not afraid of color... sooo let's add

Burnt Orange

But let me tell you.. Burnt Orange + Light Blue is so hard to find! I guess I made this color combination up in my head, because it I can't find it anywhere.
So this leads me to making my own artwork, and finding crazy fun curtains.

and since the curtains have every color under the rainbow, I was able to add more color to the living room!

this is the result thus far.

 

 I still need to frame my artwork... maybe me dad can help me build it this weekend =)

Am I anywhere close to being done? HA. but we are slowly getting there. 

*Notice our TV missing from the shots... yea, that's because it is chilling in front of the fireplace, instead of hanging over it... so guess what our next project is?*

Moving on....

Since we now have a patio to play on, we decided it was time for danny to have a big boy Grill.

 

So we have been grilling all summer

Which is great because I have a fear of using my oven... more on that in another blog.

So since it is grilling season I thought I would share one of my favorite Grilling Recipes 

It's light, easy, and delicious!

And to continue on with my sporadic blog update...

Happy 51st Birthday to my MOM!

 

Shes the one at the top =) 

Welcome to the Swamp.

I am infatuated with this show ( thanks NETFLIX!). 

I want to go down to Louisiana and shoot a gator.

I don't know if it is the thrill of watching these country men catching a gator.

Or listening to their funny Cajun accents

Maybe it is that fact that these men remind me of my dad.

My dad is a hunter. The man will shoot anything-- deer, pheasants, quail, in fact Danny and I just finished up all of the wild boar meat my dad graciously gave us during our last visit home.

Here is a video of my parents house ( yes the boys are playing Just Dance) in the background you can see some of the animals my dad has... umm... shot.

 Doesn't he look like a fun guy?

So seeing these men hunt makes me think of my dad.. plus I can't understand a darn thing they say... just like my dad.

So dad... I know you are reading this because mom showed it to you... go shoot a gator, I think it would be pretty cool.

moving on.

Quinoa ( pronounces Keen-wah... not quin-oh-uh...like I once thought...)

It is my ultimate replacement for rice. It has a nutty taste to it, and you can cook it in almost any dish!

Stir fry, salads, burgers, mixed veggies, stuffed peppers, lettuce wraps, I can go on and on!

The nuitrition in this new super food is amazing!

Look at the protein and fiber. You will not find this in white... or even brown rice! mmm-kay?

So give it a shot. If I can get my rice addicted boyfriend to like this stuff then I am sure you will too =)

I buy mine online at Nuts Online







So earlier in my blog I mentioned my goal of riding my bike to work ( which is roughly 10 miles away) by June... I'm putting this to the test on Friday! Cross your fingers and wish me luck!

slump

I am in a workout slump. I just can't seem to motivate myself to get to the gym.

I usually go 4 times a week.. these past two weeks I have only gone 2-3 times. I am blaming Sookie Stackhouse. 

I read while I am at the gym. I rush through my weight exercises, then I move onto cardio, which I find much more enjoyable. I prop my nook on the Elliptical and do my interval training, then I lay the nook on the exercise mats and read while I do the plank for 2 mins. Then I'll go back to the bikes and read for another 15 mins. But this 11th Sookie Stackhouse book, Dead Reckoning, is so awful that I cut my workouts short do to boredom. Thanks a lot Sookie... don't you know it's bathing suit season?

Now I know I should have just given up Sookie, and picked up another, much enjoyable, book but come on! It's book 11. I would feel like I was missing something, and I have already invested so much time and energy in the series. Not to mention that the darn ebook was 15 bucks! So I am a sucker and stuck it out. 

Thank goodness I finished the book today, so now I can move onto a book I have been looking forward to all month, and maybe I will get some better workouts in.

I'll review it at the end of this blog... but you can already tell I do not think too highly of it.

What do you do when you hate a book? Do you stop reading it? Or do you feel like you owe it to the author to finish it out?

Journey has been doing her job fantastically. I took pictures of Danny's Family last week, and I love the pictures and how they turned out =)

I also took pictures of my lil man

can't you tell he loves his bunny.

I am in love with how clear the images are.

However this is turning into a dangerous hobby... I constantly find myself wanting to buy new lenses!

and food pictures!! they look A-MAZE-ING

Danny made this dish for me. He's becoming quite the chef. Here is the recipe he used.

Memorial Day weekend was jammed packed with celebrations. We had a surprise party for Danny's Parent's 35th anniversary, a graduation party for Danny's cousin Lya, and we made a stop at baby Olivia's one month party. 

Thank goodness we had Monday off.. otherwise my boss would have to deal with sleep deprived monster.

Speaking of work..... we finally hired someone!!!! ekkkk!!! I am wicked excited, Now I won't be stressed out trying to do three jobs at once. And I will get off earlier!

ok. onto Sookie Stackhouse.

Dead Reckoning

By Charlaine Harris

• Pub. Date: May 2011
• Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
• Sold By: Penguin Group
• Format: NOOK Book (eBook) , 336pp

Synopsis 

With her knack for being in trouble's way, Sookie witnesses the firebombing of Merlotte's, the bar where she works. Since Sam Merlotte is now known to be two-natured, suspicion falls immediately on the anti-shifters in the area. Sookie suspects otherwise, but her attention is divided when she realizes that her lover Eric Northman and his "child" Pam are plotting to kill the vampire who is now their master. Gradually, Sookie is drawn into the plot-which is much more complicated than she knows...

Review:

I have such admiration for Charlaine Harris. She has created a world that is fun, fresh, and captivated millions of people both in the literary world and television. However, she is losing her spark. The entire book was slow paced, boring, and redundant. We read more about her cleaning her attic and decorating for a baby shower then we did with actual plot development. Once the main climax happened, I scratched my head thinking " really... that's it?"

Harris seemed to have trouble with continuity in this book. Many story-lines did not add up with previous books ( Niall and Eric' relationship/understanding). Also the tone of this book did not sound right. Many characters were acting...odd ( Bill in the crawl space, Eric biting Sookie, Alcide in bed) and Sookie sounded so lifeless. I don't know what happened to Harris... but it seems like she didn't even write this book. I think Harris is setting up the end of Sookie for us. It's painfully obvious who Harris has planned to be Sookie's Happily Ever After, but I don't agree with how Harris is trying to make the audience hate Eric in order to move him aside. I wish she would set it up differently, or at least try and make it a surprise, but I guess she just wants to rip the band aid off, just like the rest of us.

I can't wrap up this review without acknowledging that Sookie makes some great new discoveries about her family history. And we finally know where her telepathy comes from ( although the storyline doesn't fit with the past books) We have resolution on the main story arc, but the relationship issues are left hanging in a most frustrating way. I just didn't feel like the book was cohesive, and it ultimately could have been condensed with another book, at least then the readers would feel like they got their moneys worth.

If you are a Sookie fan, check this book out at a library. I will continue to read the series hoping to find a happy ending, but I will not be jumping out of my seat to purchase it. 

 ok onto a new book! I love this husband/wife writing team. Hopefully they can lift me out of my slump.

Vietnamese.

That's what the boyfriend is. 

I, on the other hand, am not.

Hence my pale skin that freckles far too easily, and my eyes that change colors between blue and green.

I have always had a large group of asian friends. Yes, I was that girl in high school. But I never fully embraced their culture.Ok maybe i did embrace their culture, but not their food, until I met Danny.

And let me tell you
Vietnamese food is the bomb dot com!

It also doesn't hurt that his mom is an amazing cook.

But, we can't go to his mom's house and eat every time we craved something Vietnamese. 

So this would leave us with driving all the way to Missouri for a decent bowl of Pho, or having my white-self try and cook something up in the kitchen (which I am practicing people!)

What's in your Lunch Box?

Thanks TLC, for introducing me to the crazy world of couponing.

When I first watched the show I was disgusted. These people would buy $100's worth of food, and only pay $2.50, all because of coupons. The bulk of their food would be dozens of boxes of pasta, cereal and candy bars, which astounds me... who needs 152 boxes of pasta!?Then they would take their load of food and store it in a massive bedroom-sized pantry and start planning their next shopping trip.
But then I got to thinking, why don't I coupon?
I would not be crazy and buy 12432 boxes of pasta, but if I could save 50 cents something I would already buy then whats the harm?

 

 

Welcome to My Roller-Coaster

Let me tell you why I wanted to have a blog section on eating healthy and why I try and offer healthier recipes that anyone can muster up in the kitchen.
Up. Down. Up. Down.UP

My ride never ends.

 I have struggled with weight since I hit my final growth spurt in 5th grade. Yes. I have practically been the same height ever sense. Sucks. I was suppose to keep growing and be a world famous model or something. However no one told me I was done growing, so I continued eating like a little kid, without a care in the world. Thus I blew up.

I have been a yo-yo dieter ever since then.
Remember Atkins? Yea my family was hardcore with that one. Then I became a devoted calorie counter, I worked at job were I was constantly on the move and that seemed to keep me fit.

Then I moved to KC after graduation. and met a boy.

look how cute and young we were. ah. to be a teenager again.

Blend in with Rango! But Leave the Wee-Little Ones at Home

\

Who's in it?

Johnny Depp as Rango / Lars 
Isla Fisher as Beans (voice) 
Abigail Breslin as Priscilla (voice) 
Ned Beatty as Mayor (voice) 

Rating: PG for violence, language, humor, smoking and drinking. Parents be warned, content of the movie might be best suited for children 7 or older.


Synopsis of the film:
Rango starts with a humorous monologe from our main actor Lars/Rango. While travelng across the Mohave desert with his human owners when suddenly an accident on a highway occurs and our household pet , aspiring actor , chameleon , Lars finds himself stranded. After he  speaks with a spiritual armadillo, he sets toward the town of Dirt to find water to survive. After a few run-ins with the preying hawk,  he eventually runs into the quirky rancher, Beans, who offers him  a ride into town. It doesn't take long for Lars to figure out that in this new town... he can be anybody he wanted. and thus, Rango is created.

Rango puts on a show of strength bravery and toughness that would earn him an Oscar as he tries to win over the town with his dangerous past of saving danzles in distress and killing 7 men with one bullet.  As the towns people are in awe with him, the deadly hawk attacks the town and Rango luckily kills him, with one bullet. The town of Dirt declares him a Hero and he is offered the job of sheriff.  Rango accepts and thus the journey begins. Will Rango discover what is happening to the town water supply, or will the townspeople expose him as the fraud he is?


My Thoughts:
The animation was spot on. Each character was unique and distinctive. The scales, feathers and fur were life like and inspiring. I admire that Director, Gore Verbinski, opted out of making this film in 3-D. It is so well designed that the gimmicky 3-D was a mute option.  Johnny Depp did a stellar job making Rango come to life. It was almost like he squeezed himself into a tiny lizard costume and walked into a western film set. Isla Fisher's character, Beans, didn't fair well in my book. I didn't laugh at the jokes and did not connect well with her. I am blaming her thick western accent as the cause of her jokes failing. I could only understand half of the words she spoke.  The overall storyline was unoriginal, we all know who the bad guy is so it's not a huge surprise when it all unfolds, but the entire movie was unique. It transforms from being in a glass cage with Hawaiian shirts, and broken plastic dolls, to the rough Mohave Desert and animal sized old western towns with gun slinging inhabitants. There were a number of parts where I found myself laughing, however, the humor was crude. It's classified as a family movie, but the word "Hell" was very popular, I was shocked by the scene in which our four narrators simulate being hanged in the town prison, and it surprised me how many of the characters were really killed off. Most kids will be distracted by the funny animals to take notice of all of the innuendoes, but parents be for-warned!

Frugal and Fabulous: A Clothing Swap Party

Random Elishia Fact: I RARELY buy clothing at full price.

So when an opportunity arises to get FREE new clothes, I'm all for it!!

My fabulous friend, Lynda, hosted a clothing exchange party this past weekend and it was a complete success.

The concept is simple, you take a look at your closet, evaluate what clothing pieces you no longer wear, bag them up and meet up with your girlfriends ( and cross your fingers that the cute top you saw your friend wearing 6 months ago is at the party). The results are outstanding since you essentially leave with brand new pieces for your wardrobe.... all for free!

Of course you have to throw food into the mix, and maybe drinks, this is a social event after all!

Blog recipe!

Growing up in the Hazelton household, lasagna was THE most requested dish. We love our Italian food, so this isn't so surprising. But as I grew older I would start helping my mom make the delicious dish, then as time progressed we would start having a friendly competition to see who made the better lasagna, which my dad was the judge ( I won too!). Now that I am out in the world on my own.. and striving to live a healthier life style... I discovered how UNHEALTHY my family lasagna was! Between the gluttonous ricotta cheese, and the white noodles and the copious amounts of various cheeses... i set out to find a healthier, but just as tasty alternative... which bring me to, "Zucchini Lasagna"! The concept is simple you sub out the noodles for Zucchini, and use cottage cheese.
So with no further delay.. the recipe

2 1/2 cups zucchini, sliced 1/4 inch thick (about 3 medium)
1/2 lb lean ground turkey meat (I use 1 lb.)
1/4 cup onion, chopped
1 jar of tomato sauce ( I use sugar free and season it with spices)
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 cup water
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 egg
3/4 cup low fat cottage cheese
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded (I use 8 oz. divided)
1 tbs of flour
4 no boil noodles

Directions

1.Brush Zucchini with olive oil and broil in oven until tender, and set aside. Fry meat and onions until meat is brown and onions are tender; drain fat. Add tomato sauce and spices, let boil.
2. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered 10 minutes or until reduced to 2 cups.
3. In small bowl slightly beat egg.
4. Add cottage cheese, half of shredded cheese and flour.
5. In a baking pan arrange half of the meat mixture. I use one layer of no boil noddles so the the bottom of my lasagna is no soggy, then do a layer of cheese, then layer of meat sauce, zucchini, then cheese finished with combination until you are out of ingredients!
6. Bake uncovered at 375 degrees F for 30 minutes.
7. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake 10 minutes longer.
8. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. And you're done! Enjoy =)

Currently Reading
Iron Crowned by Richelle Meade

Quick rundown of the book:

Shaman-for-hire Eugenie Markham is the best at banishing entities trespassing in the mortal realm. But as the Thorn Land’s queen, she’s fast running out of ways to end the brutal war devastating her kingdom. Her only hope: the Iron Crown, a legendary object even the most powerful gentry fear…

Who Eugenie can trust is the hardest part. Fairy king Dorian has his own agenda for aiding her search. And Kiyo, her shape-shifter ex-boyfriend, has every reason to betray her along the way. To control the Crown’s ever-consuming powers, Eugenie will have to confront an unimaginable temptation,one that will put her soul and the fate of two worlds in mortal peril…



Going to watch Rango tomorrow. Look for my review on Friday! Have a great week!




P.S. Who watched the Oscars last night? I thought they had a couple of good "laugh out loud moments" but i grew tiresome of Anne Hatheway... she totally became a "Whoo" girl by the end!! it was so frustrating. And the questions of the night.. where in the world was James Franco!?