Cooking for One

Recently, I've gone through a breakup. I moved out of my exes and in to my own, one bedroom condo. I like my place, but I've found that I'm cooking a LOT less.

Don't get me wrong, I still LOVE to cook (& eat!). But, now I cook for fun and not for a chore. I no longer feel like I have to have dinner on the table every night or so many nights a week. If I want to have snacks and wine for dinner then I do it.

I still very much so value a nice, family dinner. But, for now, I more so value my independence and the ability to listen to my body. I eat when I'm hungry. I don't eat (or cook) because it is dinner time. This is having such a positive affect on my body weight, feelings and life. Rethink dinner some time!

Cheater, Cheater EVERYTHING Eater

How do you handle cheat days? The research that I've read suggest having 1 cheat day after 30 days of diet to prevent your body from going into starvation mode from low calories. Basically, eating a low calorie diet causes your body to think it is starving and save everything as fat. After thirty days, it is suggested to allow yourself one cheat day a week.

My first cheat day was on Super Bowl Sunday. It was glorious...on Sunday. I've regretted my decisions all week. It is Wednesday and I finally feel normal/semi-healthy again.

Curious to know how others handle cheat days. Does the guilt go away? After your first cheat day, are the rest not so outrageous? Does it make you more strict during the week? Do you ever skip a cheat day?

Anyway, here is my cheat day summary:

1. Woke up hung over so didn't have a breakfast (whoops!). I started the day at lunch with Sweet Tea and Homemade Shrimp Alfredo:

I love pasta; especially, creamy, bad for you pasta. This is a simple, bad, delicious recipe:

• Boil your pasta of choice. I prefer, thin spaghetti or angel hair noodles.
• While that is boiling, saute onions, tomatoes and shrimp covered in blackening seasoning in a skillet with butter on med-low heat. I start with the onions since they take a little longer. While they're cooking, I chop the other ingredients and cover the shrimp in Old Bay blackening seasoning. Shrimp and tomatoes do not take long at all.
• After the shrimp are cooked and the onions are translucent, I add in equal parts of the cream sauce ingredients: cream cheese and sour cream. DON'T JUDGE. I turn the skillet to low and allow for everything to melt.
• At this time, your noodles should be done. I drain them and add them to the skillet to guarantee everything is mixed well together.

After lunch, we headed to a Super Bowl party. For the party, I made a delicious, FAT, shrimp dip:

This recipe is also super easy and bad, but delicious!:

• I soaked 1lb of shrimp in hot sauce and Old Bay's blackening seasoning. I cooked them in a skillet with butter.
• After the shrimp were cooked, I diced all except for two in really small pieces. These two would later be used as decoration. (See photo above.)
• I mixed the chopped shrimp with 1/2 a thing of cream cheese, 1 cup of shredded, mozzarella cheese, 3/4 cup of Buffalo Wild Wings Blazin' Sauce and 3/4 cups of Hidden Valley Buttermilk Ranch Dressing.
• Once it is all mixed, bake it in the oven for 20 minutes.
• Top with chives and two shrimp as decoration. Serve with Frito Scoops.

For the rest of the party, I enjoyed a few adult beverages, some Reece Cups and some bean and cheese burrito bites.  Next Saturday/Sunday, my cheat day will involve a lot less alcohol and bad decisions....hopefully.

DIY Holiday Hit

I just returned to Texas from Vermont last night. We visited my boyfriend's family for Christmas and was able to stay a full week with them. Since I was on vacation, I spent little time on the computer aka no blogging. Now that I'm home and slowly getting back in to my routine I wanted to share this awesome holiday party hit!  I'm a big fan of DIY, but don't always think the projects are worth the time. If they don't seem time consuming, then often I think they look cheap; or, my favorite, they're a total flop! You know, the Martha Stewart expert project that looks like a 1st grader did it. Well, here's a quick (under 30 minutes) project that my boyfriend's parents did and EVERYONE loved:

 

These cute little penguins were made with only three ingedients:

• Black Olives (One Can or Small Jar)
• Cream Cheese (One Small Container or Package)
• Carrots (One Carrot)

You will also need toothpicks (less than 30). All they did was split two black olives and stuff one with the cream cheese and the other with the carrot nose. Here's step by step instructions with more pointers:

1. They assembled the carrot feet on the toothpick first by cutting circles then removing one pie slice. (Read step three prior to discarding removed pie slice).
2. Next, they added the cream cheese stuffed black olive.
3. Last, they added the carrot stuffed black olive. This carrot nose was the pie piece they removed from the circle in the first step.

Thought I'd share this fun and easy DIY holiday hit that is both easy to make and quite tasty. Enjoy and Happy Holidays!