E-Mealz!

Kyle and I have been wanting to eat healthier for a while now, but with traveling as much as we have lately, it has been very difficult to plan our meals ahead of time. Along with that, all the recipes I found were delicious but were probably very high in fat and calories. THEN I found out about e-mealz from my friend Amy! It basically is a company that plans your meals for you (5 days a week), and you can sign up for regular family meals, low-fat, low-carb, etc plans that fit just what you/your family needs!

I signed up for the Low-Fat meals for 2, from any store. Every week I download my 2 page pdf, the 1st page containing ingredients and instructions for every meal, and the 2nd page is your grocery list to buy all the ingredients. It. is. AWESOME!

Here is an example of what I was just talking about. You can click the image to enlarge:

Anyways it really is good for portion control and for eating vegetables. I am trying my hardest to like more vegetables, and at least with these recipes I am venturing outside my comfort zone and trying new things!

This was our meal last night... chicken pizza with a spinach salad:

Just in this meal alone we ate more veggies/fruits then we ever have in our dinners... green peppers, onions, tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes, and a spinach salad on the side! WOAH watch out!

OH and if you sign up to buy from a certain store they'll give you the breakdown of how much it all costs... BONUS for all the grocery gamers out there :)

The best part of this is that it's only $5 a month!! What a deal! (When I signed up, I even googled "coupon code" and found a coupon to make it even cheaper!). Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Wordless Wednesday: My secret to cutting onions!

Mothers Day 2010!

This past weekend we headed to Raleigh for many things but most importantly to celebrate Mothers Day! We planned another yard sale/tool sale for my parents for Saturday morning, and it did wonderfully. We are so grateful for everyone who came out and/or helped prepare for these sales! We were all busy "selling" though, so no pictures to share.
Saturday night we celebrated Mothers day with my whole family. Dad is just doing incredibly well, it was so nice to see him STANDING UP and WALKING this visit!! We ordered take out from Texas Road House, and it was awesome not having to cook anything. We had only gotten 4 hours of sleep the night before, so we were all ready to veg. Dad even joined us in the kitchen and ate with us!
After dinner we moved into mom and dad's bedroom so dad could lie down on his hospital bed and watch mom open her gifts. We all went in on 2 bracelets for her. The first one is the multiple myeloma colors (burgundy) with silver balls alternating in between and then a charm with the word "hope" on it. This is so special to all of us, so Tara ordered bracelets for all the girls to wear and support dad with. We also ordered a rainbow colored one for mom that has all the other cancer colors-- but we did this mainly to remember Grandpa (lung cancer - white) and Mrs. Behun (breast cancer - pink). Mom loved them!
Mom we love you more than we can say. You are full of love, selflessness, and faith, handling trials head on. There is no doubt about it that Dad wouldn't be making such huge improvements without you by his side, and it's such a wonderful example for Kyle and I. Love you!!

I also have to include this picture. I think this sums up how everyone in the Baker family feels right now...
Poor Nicky. Thank you for giving everything you possibly have to mom and dad. You are incredible and I'm so honored to call you my brother.

On Sunday morning Kyle and I headed over to Cary to celebrate Mothers Day with Kyle's family! (Please excuse the terrible flash in this picture below!)
When we arrived Mr. G had already made 4 quiches, sausage and bacon. The meal was absolutely delicious! Kerry and Brad joined us for breakfast as well, but Rach and Mike were in Winston Salem with Mike's family. With everything that we have had going on in Raleigh recently we haven't had as much time to spend with the Guenthers so it was nice to be able to relax and catch up with everyone.

Mrs. G knows all too well the struggles of fighting cancer and therefore has been so understanding and supportive of my family and we can't express how much it means. Thank you to Mr. G for such a wonderful meal, and to Mrs. G for being a strong, thoughtful, and loving mom. We love you guys!

Cinco de Mayo with Friends!

For Cinco de Mayo we had some friends over for dinner! The above picture just cracks me up... too bad Matt and Amy had already left and he couldn't join in the fun! Everyone brought items for the dinner and it was delicious-- we had SO much food! (Guacamole, Salsa, Sausage Queso, Chips, Beef, Turkey, Rice, Beans, and all the other toppings!)

I made The Pioneer Woman's "Basic Mexican Rice". It was SO good, I just have to share! (BTW if you haven't become addicted to her blog, check out that link and you will be soon. Photography, Cooking, Ranch stories AND she used to be a Ballerina... I really would like to be friends with her)

Basic Mexican Rice
Ingredients
• 2 Tablespoons Canola Oil
• ½ whole Large Onion, Chopped
• 3 cloves Garlic, Minced
• 2 cups Long Grain Rice
• 1 can Rotel (10 Ounce)
• 1 can Whole Tomatoes (14.5 Ounce)
• 2 cups Low Sodium Chicken Broth (more If Needed)
• 1 teaspoon Cumin (more To Taste)
• 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
• Fresh Cilantro, Chopped

Instructions
Heat oil in a large skillet. Add onions, then cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Reduce heat to low and add rice and garlic. Stir constantly, making sure the rice doesn’t burn. Cook over low heat for 3 minutes. Add Ro-tel and tomatoes. Stir to combine and let cook for 2 minutes. Finally, add broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 10 to 15 additional minutes or until rice is done. Add more liquid as needed; rice shouldn’t be sticky. Just before serving, sprinkle lots of freshly chopped cilantro over the top. Serve immediately.

So there are all of our toppings... it was delicious! I wish I had taken pictures of everything else but I was running around crazy trying to get everything put together! Thanks Jen, Kathleen, Amy, Chris, Matt and Chris for coming over, we need to do it again soon!

Just in case you didn't get a close enough view of Tyson in the first picture:

HAHAHA. Hope you all had wonderful Cinco de Mayo's as well!

Cinco de Mayo with Work!

On Wednesday we had a Cinco de Mayo celebration at work during our lunch hour.... it was really fun. Karen and Laura organized the event, and the whole warehouse was decorated like "Cancun" even with beach towels on the floor and umbrellas set up. They had Willy's Mexican Grill cater which was AMAZING, and Laura made her famous punch... soo good!
In case you want the punch recipe:
1 large can pineapple juice
1 large can pink lemonade concentrate
1 large bottle ginger ale
1 tablespoon almond extract

They also combined in our Chili Cook-off! (I posted about it last year here). We had 9 participants and each chili was SO good!
We played trivia for a little while, had a candy filled piñata, took fun pictures in the "photo booth" and then came the LIMBO CONTEST!
I ended up getting second place-- now I know I should be thrilled, but I've never lost a limbo contest before. Tony from the warehouse was SO flexible in his legs, that's where he got me since I'm only flexible in my back. Either way I represented for the girls and it was really fun watching everyone go through it!

Joe (3rd), Tony (1st), and me (2nd):

Really fun way to kick of Cinco de Mayo! Love working here :)

Top 3 Thursday: Outdoor Activities

This week's Top 3 Thursday is on Outdoor Activities since it's been so pretty outside lately! Here are ours:

#1-- CAMPING! Kyle and I love doing this with Tyson over a weekend. It's great to get into nature where there is no technology and just enjoy each others company. Sitting by a fire is so peaceful to both of us.

#2-- HIKING! We really started doing more then day trips just last year, but love it. Great workout and the scenery is beautiful.

#3-- SNOWBOARDING! There's nothing better then cruising down a run together. We love it and are so thankful we've been able to take so many trips doing just that.

What would your Top 3 Outdoor Activities be?

Wordless Wednesday: Kyle's first tattoo!

(Okay if I don't add words to this post both of our moms will be calling us immediately so let me explain! Kyle went to a Habitat for Humanity build for work in San Antonio last week. The last night they hosted a Harley Davidson party where there was a bunch of fun events, including air brush tattoos!! Nothing like getting a tattoo of guns on the inside of your forearm haha)

Update on Puck

So many of you have asked me about Puck so I thought I'd do an update from the awful accident that we had here. As if that wasn't traumatizing enough, more events happened over the next couple weeks that have just been exhausting.

Stressful situation #2. Since Kyle and I had to go to Raleigh the next weekend after the accident, we brought Puck with us. Kyle leaned over Puck one afternoon to give me a kiss and squished his tail with his hand. Puck went into a crazy adrenaline rush and was foaming at the mouth and screaming. Over the next couple seconds he managed to rip off his entire bandage to get to his wound. Kyle had to leave for the ASU alumni hockey game so my brother, Nick, and I held down Puck and taped the bandage back on... with electrical tape. That was the closest thing we could find and I honestly can't believe Nick was able to get it taped to his tail.

Here's his bandage on his way to Raleigh, before we had to electrical tape another one on:

Stressful situation #3. Kyle and I brought Puck back to the Vet that next week to get the bandage off and get his stitches out. The veterinarian was completely sarcastic and kept giving me a hard time for 1) closing Puck's tail in the door and 2) taping the bandage back on with electrical tape. Now honestly, DO YOU THINK I WANT TO BE MESSED WITH at this point? It is NOT the time for sarcasm buddy.

Puck's tail was rubbed raw from the electrical tape so he said to keep it in open air for a while and it would heal. He was about to leave and we said "well aren't we getting the stitches out today?". With a "sure", he reached in a drawer and got suture scissors out and started to dig out the stitches in Puck's tail. It. Was. Horrible. I get so nauseous when I see blood, so I immediately started shaking trying to hold Puck on the table. Kyle ended up holding his head and shoulders while I held Puck's body. The vet technician held his whipping tail. He finally got the stitches out, Puck stopped bleeding, we paid the bill and then headed home.

Stressful situation #4. We get home, and I carry the pet taxi upstairs. Once there I open up the carrier door and put Puck's Elizabethan collar on him (so he can't lick or irritate the wound). Not one second later Puck whips his tail into the wall and the end of his tail BUSTS open... blood everywhere... on our carpet might I add. I immediately start screaming Kyle's name while trying to catch Pucks tail. Blood is flying everywhere, and my hands are covered. Between Kyle and I we finally corral Puck back into the Pet Taxi and head straight to the vet. You should have seen their faces when we walked in not 5 minutes later with blood all over us.

The vet said that we had 2 options. 1) To bring Puck back home and put him in a room we don't care about and 2) board him there. SERIOUSLY who has a room that can get blood all over it? AND who could ever be okay with their Pet bleeding that much? (p.s. I thought we were going to have to replace our carpet but Kyle googled and found that Hydrogen Peroxide takes it right out!! It's a wonderful trick if you ever need it!)

Stressful situation #5. The vet was open until 9:00 that night, so we went by later to give Puck some loving and drop off his food. He was in a metal cage, completely drugged out (they gave him pain medicine because of everything he went through that day). Brought back so many memories from his 13 days in ICU at Quail Corners. I held it together to pet him a couple times and as soon as we got outside I just LOST IT.

We were leaving that next day for Cory and Mada's wedding in Charleston, SC so we decided to board him until that following Monday (Yes just add it to our tab).

Here's what his tail is looking like now. Noticeably shorter-- hopefully will look better once fur grows!

So if you actually made it to the end of this post now you know what we have been through with Pucky. His tail is healing up, growing back his fur and is back to his normal self. The things you go through for your "babies"...

Braves Game with Friends!

Kyle and I made a last minute decision to stay in Atlanta this weekend, and man was it nice! We quickly booked up our weekend with fun events, surprised?!
Our friend Taylor had some extra Braves tickets for Friday night, so we picked up him and his fiance, Courtney, along with his sister Julia from their house and headed to downtown ATL. We had made sandwiches and brought drinks with us so when we parked we ate dinner outside before heading into the game. It was a very smart decision since the food is so expensive inside the game!

Taylor and Kyle:

The Braves were playing the Astros, and we won 4-2! After wards there was a fireworks show which is always fun to watch! I just love the atmosphere at Braves games!

The girls: (Julia, Courtney and I)

This was my first time meeting Courtney but I've heard so much about her for the past 3 years. Her and Taylor will be having a baby girl in June and we are very excited for them! So glad they just bought a house off the Marietta square so we can hang out more!

Courtney and Taylor:

Thanks again Taylor we had a wonderful time!