Pray for me.

I got into the Houston Marathon again this year.

This time I'll do it and not have a stupid shoe injury.

This time I will train without my man.  Kinda scary.

I may even set a time goal

and train consistently

and eat a new diet that will help me make said time goal.

Is this a haiku?

I'm ready for marathon tips/race stories/best practices/bathroom strategies.

And I want to hear if you got in, too!!

Go!

Delicious goat cheese pasta....or IS it?!

Can you tell I'm rusty on thinking of quirky titles?

Sheesh.  Sorry.

Ok, so I get Real Simple magazine every month because I like to:

a. dream about being organized

b. look at pretty things

c. drool over recipes that are WAY too hefty for me to cook.  By hefty I mean awful for me.

But!  This month's issue seems to have toned it way down, and I cooked a meal out of it almost every night last week.

This one called for a short pasta (like penne or something), basil, olive oil, goat cheese, salt and pepper. 

I'm a sucker for goat cheese.  I'm also a sucker for rice krispy treats, but that's irrelevant.

To. die. for.

And if you're a sleuth, you will notice that I didn't use a short pasta.  In fact, I didn't use pasta at all.

May I introduce you to the spaghetti squash?

Cut in half, scoop the seeds out, put in a microwave safe dish with some water in it, cover with wax paper (for steaming), cook about 10 min. in the microwave.  

When it's soft, scrape it out with a fork.  It looks and feels and tastes just like noodles.

But it's a vegetable.

I am obsessed with this cucurbita pepo.

The Barbed Rose

About once a month, I like to take my man on a date.

I plan it. 

I make sure it's full of man things like fire and meat.  Sometimes beer.

I pay.

Usually with his credit card.

He loves himself a good man date.

Something you may not know about Devin: the man can COOK.

So naturally, I took him to a Central Market cooking class.

Side note: huge disappointment to find that in said cooking class, you don't actually get to cook.  

You just watch.  And eat.  Which is sort of lame.  -4 points on the man date cool factor scale.

The head chef of The Barbed Rose in Alvin, TX was our teacher.  The Barbed Rose uses all local produce and meat, which is pretty cool.  He told us all about where he finds all of his goods, including their wine and coffee!  They make every single thing in the restaurant from scratch.  Even ketchup.  They have a fine dining area and a deck that serves burgers and beer.  My kind of place.

So we learned how to make a salad that consisted mostly of cubed bread (?!), some unbelievable flank steak, cripsy potatoes, and a tomato dessert.

We walked away with some sweet recipes and a hungry stomach.  I'm kicking myself for not getting a picture of Devin when they set his plate down in front of him.  Have you ever been to a dinner where they tell you you're having steak and lobster and you get 1/4 of an inch of lobster and one bite of steak and the rest of the plate is drizzled with some goo that you don't even WANT KNOW WHAT IT IS?!

-10 points on the man date cool factor scale.

So after the class, I did what any of you would do to make it up to him.

I suggested we walk 2 blocks to the thai restaurant.

And he ate his heart out.

Family Portrait

This is my new family

We're missing some in there...mostly the boys.

They teach me something new every day

Push me to be the best I can be

And they're cool.  Which is a huge plus.