Ole Ole Ole

I am not a very creative person. I struggle and I fight with the things that whirl in my brain - I will most likely never have a best seller or be remembered for doing anything extraordinary. But even I relate to this speech. It is by Elizabeth Gilbert of Eat Love Pray fame. How does she deal with the anxiety and fear of following up her best seller? She realizes she might never have another best seller but she is writing still and she shows up and does her best. For everyone who is frustrated and living with anxiety spend 20 minutes listening, always do you best and then OLE OLE OLE!

Pumpkin Oatmeal

Growing up with my mom, I developed a love of pumpkin. She makes the best pumpkin pie (although she attributes that to Grandma making her test taste all the pies that she made). We also had dinner in a pumpkin, pumpkin and oreo shakes, pumpkin and chocolate chip bread. I could list more but I want to get to my new love of pumpkin oatmeal. Since January 1st I have been trying to eat breakfast. I have never been a big breakfast eater but by lunch I have been so ravenous that I would attack everything including people's candy dishes. Yeah that was NOT good. So on to my breakfast journey. I decided in my breakfast goal that if I was going to incorporate breakfast I was going to do it healthy and at the same time I discovered Kath's Tribute to Oatmeal. I never knew oatmeal could be made so many ways and it really opened by eyes. I know Oatmeal is a great breakfast but only when I made the Pumpkin Oatmeal did I realize how totally satisfying it really is. YUMMY! Here is my Pumpkin Oatmeal picture:

1/2 c Old Fashioned Oats

1/2 c Skim Milk

1/2 c water

1/2 banana

Put in pot over medium high heat, stir once and then let it go until it starts to boil then start stirring (use a spatula for best consistency). Stir and cook until oatmeal reaches it desired consistency. I like mine thick so it takes me about 5 minutes. At the end, I stir in 1/4 cup of Libby's canned plain pumpkin, 1/2 tsp vanilla, and 1/2 to 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice. (Remove from heat first or else the vanilla will evaporate and you lose the flavor) After mixing all together, pour into a bowl and top with chopped walnuts (I heat mine for a minute in the microwave to get maximum flavor). Enjoy!

Kath even has a video of how to make the Oatmeal so if you are feeling inspired you can watch her every move.

This one goes out to the one I love.

To all I love and love me,
Thank you for your support and encouragement. Through the last year as I finally made up my mind to go back to school and chase the dream of getting my MBA - I couldn't have done this with out you. I know the next two years will be hard and sometimes I will wonder why I started this journey. If I do, will please remind me that I don't want to be a staff accountant for the rest of my life? That I do want to make a difference and have the chance to change something for the better.

Thank you for listening to me especially when I repeat myself or my choices over and over again. I am a Libra and we weigh our choices very carefully. I make lists of pros and cons and although it can come across as wishy washy when I do finally make up my mind I stick with it.

Mostly thank you for letting me share in your lives.

Now just a quick shout out to my man Bruce. Thank you for pushing me and my stubborness even if I don't want to be pushed. Thank you for your patience. Thank you for picking up my slack in the last month as I study - I can't count how many dishes of mine, stinky cat litter or other house cleaning you have done. But I do notice and I do appreciate it. Thank you for letting me be a part of your life and for sharing your dreams and deepest desires for me. Together we will make them all happen.

I love you! Happy Valentines Day!

February already?

I can't believe how fast 2009 is going. I made it through the first week of February and I am very proud of it. My schedule at work the first week of the month is always the hardest because I am closing 15 stores and doing financial statements for all 15 of them. It is a lot of work but there were a lot of things that went right this month to make it smoother. So instead of pulling 14 hours days for 5 days, I only had to pull 12 hours 2 days and then 10 hours 2 days and a simple 8 hours the last day. Of course most of those days I then had to come home and do homework but it really wasn't so bad. I am now studying finance on my saturday classes till February the 14th and then I change subjects again. The nice thing about this class is that although there are 7 quizzes and 7 tests, I get to take them at home in my PJ's with an open book. The first two chapters were really boring to me but on the third chapter we started applying it more to business and I am finding it interesting so it is much easier. I am done with four of the quizzes and tests and right now my average is 85 so I just have three more to go and I am done.
On Friday, Bruce and I went to Roy's for sushi. I had this craving for it and Bruce had taken me to work so that he could use my car to go to a business meeting. Since he had to come over to Tampa to pick me up we decided to turn it into a date night. We decided to eat at the sushi bar so that we could watch the kitchen.
Yesterday was filled with school, homework and catching up on Top Chef, Scrubs and finally getting to watch Loving Leah (Mike thanks so much for letting me know about it, of course I cried with in the first five minutes! You are truly the best brother. Now you can roll your eyes. Don't worry I didn't make Bruce watch it. He fell asleep on the couch while we were watching something else and so while he slept I enjoyed it.)
Today it is more homework, housework, grocery shopping and then preparing some meals for the week. I am going to try a sweet potato and garlic soup so if it turns out good I will be sharing that!

Tortilla Soup

I made this soup last Sunday and it was the perfect lunch! I got the idea for the soup out of Cleaning eating magazine but I modified it so it was simpler to make.

1 1/2 cups leftover turkey breast or you could use chicken
4 cups reduced sodium chicken broth
1 yellow onion chopped
2 cans rotel tomatoes (if you don't like spicy you might want to try the mild or do one can just tomotoes or if you like it extra spicy add more peppers/chiles to taste)
1/2 cup frozen corn (I added 1 cup because I love corn)
Cilantro
Avocado
Tortilla Strips
Shredded cheese

In a 3 qt saucepan heat chicken broth and onion for 10 minutes. Add tomatoes, corn and turkey breast to soup, heat for another 5 minutes. Serve with your favorite toppings- cilantro, avocado, tortilla strips or cheese. This makes appr 4 1 cup servings. I put in bowls and took for lunch by Thursday it was quite spicy and adding the cold avocado after heating cut the spice so my lips wouldn't burn off. This was very filling and a lot less sodium then soup from a can.

For the tortilla strips I used 1 whole grain tortilla cut into 1/2 inch strips, spray with cooking spray and place on strips on skillet. Tossing and turning them frequently till brown and crisp appr 5 minutes.

Thank you Burger King

About a month ago Burger King had a promotion on facebook that if you sacrificed 10 of your friends they would send you a free whopper. So I sacrificed people that I added to play a game and was suprised today to receive my free whopper in the mail. Facebook shut this promotion down because the application notified users that you sacrificed their friendship. I hope that other promotions happen. I love free stuff especially when it has to do with food!

I passed accounting

I finished my 3 hour accounting test yesterday and my grades were just posted. I got a 99% on the financial accounting section with the class average of 79.16%. On the managerial accounting section I got 95% with the class average of 82.42%. I am very happy. Guess it is a good thing that I am an accountant and I must be good at it!