Tilapia and asparagus packets

I had seen this recipe a month or two ago and finally got around to making them. Super simple, healthy and delicious. It would be perfect for entertaining because they are quick to make and minimal clean up...more time with your guests.

Adapted from Woman's Day magazine:

4 cups baby spinach**
4 tilapia fillets (6 to 7 oz each)
8 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
8 oz thin asparagus, trimmed and cut into lengths about 2 in. long
4 tsp each capers and minced shallots**
2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
8 to 12 thin slices lemon

**I didn't have any spinach or shallots so I just left them out and they still turned out fabulous.

Heat oven to 425ºF. You’ll need a rimmed baking pan and 4 pieces of parchment paper or nonstick foil. I used foil because I couldn't find my parchment paper...until the day after I made them.

To make each packet: Place 1 cup spinach in center of parchment(again, I didn't do this). Top with a tilapia fillet. Brush fish with 1 tsp of the olive oil. Scatter 1/2 cup of the asparagus on and around fish. Scatter 1 tsp each of the shallots and capers, and 1/2 tsp of the thyme over top. Drizzle with another tsp of the oil; sprinkle with 1⁄4 tsp of the salt and 1/8 tsp of the pepper. Top fish with 2 or 3 slices of the lemon.(I also didn't' brush the top of the tilapia with olive oil, I just drizzled it over the top and they were plenty moist and delicious.)

Bring long ends of paper/foil together and fold down 3 times to make a seam. Place on baking pan and tuck ends underneath. Repeat with remaining ingredients to make 4 packets.

Bake 15 minutes until packets are puffed. Open 1 packet to test doneness. If fish isn’t opaque at center, reseal packet and return to oven. Check again after 5 minutes.

Progress

As I updated my facebook status to say that I really, really, really wanted an iPhone 4, I got a comment that made me think.

It's true. I would give up my cell phone if no one ever died of thirst again.

Thought provoking article:

http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/2010/03/progress.html

Party in my mouth

If forced to decide, I would have to say that original Starburst candies are my favorite candy. Recently, Mars Incorporated came out with a new line of Starburst.

FaveREDs.

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. The package only includes four flavors: watermelon, cherry, strawberry and fruit punch.They are all amazing except for the fruit punch. I developed an aversion to anything fruit punch flavored after my dentist made me do fruit punch flavored fluoride trays as a child. ICK!

I'm sure they won't be around long so indulge yourself now.

I also have an obsessive love for anything coconut flavored. Well, M&M's hit the mark with their new Coconut M&M's. But again, they won't be around for long and they are so delicious I'm sure they are flying off the shelves like they have might have a Willy Wonka golden ticket inside.

Another "year"...

Every year on March 22, I start a new "year of"...

I started this in 2006 when my roommate Jenne encouraged me to read the book, The Year of Yes and we both participated. I was left exhausted after completeing the Year of Yes, so 2007 became the Year of (mostly) HELL NO. Then, came the Year of Balls to the Wall(again, sorry for the name, mom) and then last year was the Year of Respect. A highly successful year in my book.

Last year I feel like I really got a lot of toxins out of my life and figured out what I wanted and how that was going to happen. I put myself out there and took some risks...and I'm happy that I did. I didn't do it all on my own though. I've been fortunate to have amazing mentors in my life that have always taught me what is important, even if I was too young to understand what they were talking about at the time. As I've gotten older(and I hope more mature), I've often reflected back on the time spent with these people and had several "a-ha" moments.

I'm one day into my new year and I still haven't chosen a title or finalized the details. I know that I want to become a more productive member of society and have better balanace in my life. My priorities need to change a little...and I'm ok with that.

So, until I come up with a catchy name, my "year of" shall remain nameless.

Did you know?

I've been tagged a bajillion times to write varying amounts of random facts about myself. I've started lists a few times, but have always abandoned them. The last post I was tagged in only required me to divulge 16 things about myself. Not too daunting of a task...

1. I got held in almost daily from recess in kindergarten because I would finish my coloring sheets too quickly so I could go out to recess. They were always a disaster of coloring outside the lines. I had to stay in and redo them. I now have ill feelings towards coloring.

2. I have worn the same size shoe since 7th grade and have been relentlessly teased about my large feet ever since...mostly by my brother.

3. Fountain pop is amazingly delicious to me. My favorite part of road trips is finding the biggest fountain pop machine with the most selections. McDonald's has the best fountain Diet Coke out of anywhere.

4. My taste in music is highly questionable. I either like a song because I can relate to it in some way OR it makes me want to shake my ass(affectionately called "ass shakers"). That's pretty much it.

5. People think I'm spontaneous. I'm not. I almost always have a plan. And 5 back up plans. I like plans and structure. And I like mapping out plans. Trip itineraries...I'm your girl. I probably should have been a travel agent or an event planner.

6. I realized years ago that I don't have any unattractive friends. I don't know why this is. I have nothing against unattractive people that are nice. It just so happens that all my friends are above average in the appearance category.

7. I love salads. I think they are one of the most delicious things on the planet and there are so many options and combinations. I was once on vacation with friends and ordered a salad at every meal. Finally, on the last day, my one friend said to me, "If you order another goddamned salad, I'm going to make a scene." I got by with ordering a sandwich and a side salad.

8. I also love soup and sandwiches. I love them so much that I could eat them everyday...and often do.

9. I don't wear clothes with large brand names printed on them. I refuse to pay to be a walking billboard for a company.

10. Some of the best summers of my life were spent working at a camp. There was little electricity or plumbing. The first three summers I worked there I lived in tents, tree houses and cabins. The last two were spent in an 8'x10' tar paper shanty that I shared. The floor was giving out and we would often wake up in the middle of the night to a woodchuck attacking our home. It has since been torn down and replaces with a fancy new building. It was there that I really figured out who I was and what I wanted in life. My boss was and is one of the most influential people in my life.

11. Flip flops are my footwear of choice. Anytime of the year.

12. Strong peppermint flavors make me sneeze. Achoo!

13. I've never understood women's obsession with jewelry. I'm not a fan of Tiffany's. I think large engagement rings are ridiculous and get severely annoyed with girls that demand large rocks. If there was some scale that determined the bigger the diamond, the more solid the relationship, I would be all for it. But there's not, so I remained disappointed in the vanity and show of it all.

14. I love water. I love to drink it and I love to be in it. I like playing in the rain and jumping in puddles. I love swimming and frolicking in bodies of water. I really like being under water. Showers and baths...they are great too. My mom couldn't get me out of the tub or pool as a child.

15. My two favorite beauty products are mascara and lip balm/gloss.

16. People think I wear colored contacts. I don't. This is my natural color. Some days they are more blue. Others more green. Some days they are brighter than others. They are usually the brightest after I laugh so hard that I cry.

..........and I'm done.

Sundance comes to Chicago :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Movies

Sundance comes to Chicago :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Movies

Ughhhhhhhhhhhh! I wish I could go, but alas I'm working! Booooooooo!

The year of the panting dog

Every month(well, almost every month) I make some sort of health goal. It's my personal opinion that if you make too big of goals or too long term that you have a higher chance of failure. If you make shorter term goals, higher chance of success and increased likelihood that this new practice will become a habit.

I'm bad at remembering to take multivitamins. Really bad. So the obvious choice was to conquer the multivitamin. So far I have taken it 20 out of 22 days in January. The two days I didn't take it, I was out of town and forgot to pack the little beast. No worries though, I supplemented with emergen-c.

The new year also brought the excitement of being able to work out again. Mono coupled with massive tonsils left me exhausted and with difficulty breathing, making working out a near imposibility. I stopped running in October and had pretty much been on my dead ass since. Fortunately, Emily introduced me to bikram yoga. I'm addicted. It's a series of 26 poses that are done over 90 minutes in a room heated to 105 degrees. Shortly after my first class I got a text from my friend Katie asking if I'd ever done bikram. Well, now she's hooked too. Before going into her first class she joked that she was going to nickname every downward pose "panting dog" because that's what she'd look like. It's an intense work out that burns upward of 1000 calories in one session. If that isn't motivation enough, you feel amazing afterwards. On days I dont go, I crave it. The only drawback is that between getting there, staking out a prime mat space on the cooler side of the room and not under the vent, going to the class and getting home is over a three hour ordeal....and then I still have to shower when I get home. That's 4 hours a day, but I love it so much that I try to work my schedule around going to a class. That or I'm going to have to become independently employed(prostitution) so that I can go to yoga every day and work on my own schedule. So, if you see me working the corner in the near future, don't be alarmed. It's for my better health.

I've also got to get back to running. My brother proposed that our family do the Susan G Koman 5K together in June. So, Josh, Jill and I will be running it and (I assume) mom and dad will walk it. Sounds like a great weekend...seeing my family and supporting breast cancer research.

Happy New Year!

I fully intended to blog again before 2010 and I can't even say I didn't have the time, it just didn't happen. In December I had 12 glorious days off of work filled with fun and drugs. Ok, so it wasn't all fun and the drugs were a necessity. I had my tonsils out following months of tonsil related illnesses. Let me tell you, not a fun or pleasant experience. It makes your throat feel very angry afterwards. 10 days on a liquid diet wasn't that great either. There are only so many flavors of Gatorade and so much broth you can eat before "eating" becomes an unpleasant experience.

I was lucky enough to have my mom come in town after my surgery to take care of me. Nothing like a mother's TLC. After staying in town for the required 5 days post op, we headed back to Iowa to continue my R&R. There, I inhabited my parents couch for another 5 days and watched obscene amounts of TV and movies. I also got chauffeured around anywhere I wanted to go as I couldn't drive because of the medicine. Talk about living the life!

Another reason I love being at home is that my parents have a great kitchen and I love to cook. What better time to cook than the holidays and when I can't eat? And cook I did. My dad and I made an amazing batch of baked potato soup. I also made(with assistance from various family members) chicken taco soup, homemade mac and cheese, a spinach and feta quiche, Ann Sather's cinnamon rolls, homemade pizzas, cheddar jalapeño cornbread and a bourbon and pecan tart. We had ridiculous amounts of food left over and I'm sure that my parents were stuck eating them for the following week. Oh well, it was fun and gave me an excuse to make a trip or two or three to Hy-Vee! Recipes to come soon!