Tuesday, December 2, 2008

When on vacation....

I tend to behave badly. I haven't worked out today yet at 6:12 PM and yet I've been home for much of the day. I had a doctor's appointment and then headed to a new beer six pack store at 11 this morning. Couldn't get the thought of new dark beers out of my head. So check out the beautiful beer booty:




The store is called the Brews Brothers, and I'm thrilled to have a place to get beer. We Pennsylvanians can't buy six packs in the store like most normal states. And I refuse to wait in line at a bar, getting hosed at $3-$4 per bottle. But at the same time, we don't drink enough beer to buy a case. I like dark beer, he likes a variety of things. As a matter of fact, the Framboise Lambic is for him. I'm a sucker for limited edition flavors, especially at Christmas, which is the reasoning behind the two Christmas ones. But the rest are dark beers recommended by the owner. Lion Stout is from Sri Lanka. I'm most anxious to try the Heresy beer as it came highly recommended. I'll be trying it out Friday evening.



But I do have good reason for being lax on the working out. I have spent much of the day putting up our Christmas tree and taking things down from the attic. It's been quite a chore. I don't have any ornaments up but three that were in other containers. And I set Mickey Mouse up inside because it was just too darn cute to put out and get dirty. I'm debating on what to do with him. If I had a porch, I'd put him there. Unfortunately we don't have that option.


After working up an appetite running around the house, I tried a new Maple Pecan Pro Bar. There was way more calories and fat in this bar than anticipated, but I was hungry. I was really disappointed. My first bite tasted like what mildew smells like. It was a musty, overpriced, calorie-packed bar. Definitely not pleased with it. Maybe it was old, but I won't be buying any more. Sounded good, packaging was nice, but definitely did not live up to my expectations. The dog, on the other hand, was ready to eat it if I didn't want it.



Monday, December 1, 2008

Parmesan and Root Vegetable Lasagna


My picture doesn't do it justice, but this was a very good recipe. I burned my mouth drinking the sauce while it was too hot, and I ate some of the squash out of the oven. I'm such a pig. I was full before it was even ready from sampling the components of the recipe. I would have done a picture on the plate, but I was in such a rush getting everything on the table. The recipe comes from Cooking Light Magazine, posted here: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1853951
After a day of shopping and cleaning and research for Christmas gifts, I was exhausted, but this wasn't that hard to make. I bought precut squash and sweet potato from Dole in the refrigerated section of the store. So the most time-consuming part of the prep work was eliminated, making this easy. But it still took me from 3:30 until 5:30 from start to finish. It was expensive considering the cost of the precut veggies and all the cheese. But I'd definitely do this again for guests. The only thing I'd change is that it suggests that you just toss the veggies in the olive oil while roasting and place them that way onto the noodles when arranging the lasagna; however, I think some of the chunks were too big. I would like to try mashing the veggies a bit before layering next time. But all in all, a very worthwhile homemade meal.