Monday, November 26, 2012

Dinners for the Week(s)

Still have this miserable cold! (going on a month) I'm on antibiotics now but they don't seem to be helping much so I'll talk to the doctor about it at my appointment this Friday. Meanwhile we are still making lots of simple meals not worth mentioning (frozen stuff, grilled cheese, etc.), but we've made a few 'real' meals this week & last.

Paella

Perfect Paella (pictured above, 2 dinners) - this one takes a little while but it is soooo worth it!

► Cheesy grits with Kielbasa, Roasted Brussels Sprouts - The grits were loosely based on this recipe. Pretty good but a work in progress! For some reason our 2 year old wouldn't touch the grits or 'hot dog' but wolfed down the veggies!

Polynesian Chicken (pictured below, two dinners)

Polynesian Chicken, 2

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Color Club "Wild at Heart"

After a few weeks of naked nails I finally sat down and painted them. No nail art, just a solid color, and I really only put that on because I was doing nails with a friend (we stamped a few butterflies on hers). So sad!

For this plain manicure I pulled out Color Club "Wild at Heart", wanting to give it another try.

Color Club "Wild at Heart", sun

This polish looks so pretty in photos but in person I was once again disappointed. You do get a lovely rainbow shimmer in the brightest sun, but in the shade or indoors you end up with a non-shimmery, rather bland purple. This is more like what I usually see ~

Color Club "Wild at Heart", shade

Now that I know a little more about holo polishes I can understand why. They always look better in the sun, and only the strongest ones will still show the rainbow shimmer indoors. The pigment used to create the holo effect also lightens colors, so the strongest holos are always silver, gold, or a pastel (anything dark is going to be rather subtle). I see a lot of girls that are crazy for holos, but as someone who spends most of her time indoors, I'm just not that interested in something that is going to occasionally look nice.

The good news? It is a nice, thick polish that works well for stamping. Holos chips easily, so I don't know how often I'll use it as a base color but for now it's sadly the best purple I've got! Every dark purple I've bought recently has been so sheer I can still see my nail line after 4 coats. Time to hunt around online for something nice.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Dinners for the Week(s)

I can't seem to shake this bad cold, still feeling miserable, so we've made more easy dinners lately (like a frozen breakfast egg scramble, or rotisserie chicken with veggies from the freezer). For breakfast & lunch I've been mostly living on cup-o-soups, ramen, anything with lots of broth! But we've also managed to cook a few recipes, which makes me happy. Last week we made...

Chinese "Drop-in" Soup

Sausage, Kale, & Lentil Stew (2 dinners)

Asian Drop-in Soup (pictured above)



And this week...

Chicken Tetrazzini

► (Frozen) Pot Stickers and Miso Soup - For the soup I follow the recommended ratios of dashi, water, & miso on my dashi mix (basically Japanese bouillon) and toss in some cubed tofu & sliced green onions. Bring the water nearly to a boil then remove from heat before adding the miso (boiling kills some of the healthy enzymes).

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Gradient Stamping

My nails have been naked for over 2 weeks now - it's craziness! I was planning on doing something simple to match my costume for Halloween but wanted to wait until I was done making the costume first so I wouldn't mess up the polish with spray paint, Sharpie, glue, etc. Of course I was working on the costume until the last minute so that never happened! Now I'm just sick & nauseous & don't feel like doing *anything*. It's a shame too, because I have new nail plates to try out! Maybe next week.

Red, Purple, Blue Gradient (Bundle Monster)

Meanwhile, here is an old manicure that got bumped by Halloween goodness. The base is Wet N Wild "Silvivor" with a gradient stamp using Color Club "Cold Metal" (blue), Color Club "Wild at Heart" (purple), and No Miss "Palmdale Paprika" (red) with Bundle Monster plate BM-212. To create the gradient you just place a dot of each color along the side of the plate & drag it across. Next time I'll probably try blending the dots together a little first with a toothpick to see if it helps the colors transition better.

After two nails I decided I wasn't really loving the color combos & didn't finish the others. I'll have to find a better base for the lovely blue, purple, and red next time. Now I at least have some nail wheels so I can test these things out beforehand!

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Dinners for the Week(s)

Asian Lettuce Wraps

Asian Lettuce Wraps (pictured above, 2 dinners)

Chicken Tikka Masala (2 dinners) - Great recipe, but you only need about 2 tsp of salt total. This time I tried adding some green peas to the rice, inspired by this version, but I didn't think it was quite as good.


Dinner has been all over the place lately! We cooked these meals leading up to our Halloween party, which we also did a ton of cooking for, and after that my husband demanded a week of easy meals! Leftovers, chicken nuggets, I don't even remember what all we made. This week I have a bad cold & not much sounds appetizing, so we are going simple again - grilled cheese with soup, rotisserie chicken, and a frozen lasagna.

This is the last week of my first trimester and I'm hoping the nausea will be over soon. It actually hasn't been too bad over all (and seemed to be mostly gone before I caught this cold), but my weak stomach has been choosing most of the dinners lately.