After weeks of researching “how to blog,” “what makes a good blog,” and frankly “what IS a blog,” I’ve decided to join the land of the living and start one of my very own. Why now, you ask? I’m at a transition period in my life, and while it is certainly confusing at times, I’m learning a lot about myself, and I want to remember what it was like! (Plus, let’s be honest, I love to hear myself talk…)
For those of you that know me, you know that my name is Blair, I’m 28 years old, and I live in St. Louis, Missouri. For those of you that don’t know me, it’s nice to meet you! I live with my wonderful fiancé, Dan, and our amazing tabby dog cat, Miley.
I wasn’t entirely sure how to start this blog. I referenced some of my favorite blogs to see how they started, and to be honest, the majority of them just started writing, so that’s what I’m going to do here. Just start writing.
I finally had a day off on Sunday. I was so excited that Dan and I were going to be able to spend a weekend day together. I had the whole day planned: I was going to head the gym in the morning, then come home to cook, clean, and spend some quality time with my fiancé clearing out our DVR. Sounds like a delightful Sunday, yes? Only part of my plan actually worked out. Me being me and not really caring about the NFL (I’m a bandwagon Rams fan, occasionally a Redskins fan as D.C. was, at one point, my adopted city) I thought nothing of it being two weeks before the Superbowl. I mean, really, who cares, right?
Dan cares, that’s who.
Dan had his own plan for Sunday and the plan did NOT include me (rude). After endless hours (okay maybe one hour, tops) of trying to drag me out of bed, Dan went to the gym. Alone. (Sidenote: that’s not to say that I hadn’t been every other day last week! I’m kind of, sort of training for the St. Louis GO! Half Marathon. I say kind of, sort of only because I haven’t officially registered yet, so as of now, I still see it as a bit of a pipe dream, and technically, Sunday is my day “off” according to my training schedule. Also, Friday was technically supposed to be a day “off,” too, but I didn’t take that day off. So there! I needed it.) Anyway, after Dan went to the gym, alone, he came home, showered, and let me know that he was going to be leaving shortly and wouldn’t be home until 9 p.m. EXCUSE ME? You’re ABANDONING me on what was going to be a perfect Sunday? And seriously, I was going to cook dinner and everything! Apparently, the “division finals” were on, deciding which teams go to the stupid Superbowl. For whatever reason this meant he had already planned to meet his friends at 1 p.m. to “watch the game(s)” only to come home to his lonely, abandoned, lovely, charming, and adoring fiancee…EIGHT HOURS LATER. So Dan went with his friends and I decided to make what I could of the day.
I went on, as planned…cooking, cleaning, and clearing out the DVR. I made a huge batch of black bean quinoa, baked a delicious spinach and artichoke ziti, and topped it all off with some made-from-scratch mint chocolate biscotti. So, yeah, I kept myself busy all day.
I can’t even begin to tell you how OBSESSED I am with this black bean quinoa. On a whim, I bought a bag of organic white quinoa from Trader Joe’s and some black bean and corn roasted salsa.
And I mixed them. Together. Just like that! Amazing. I froze a good portion of it and kept some out for lunches (and dinners) this week. Yesterday, I added fat free feta cheese to a bowl I had for lunch (and now I’m salivating…) and it may have been even better than the first bowl. So that was a new thing for me.
I also made this recipe that I’ve been dying to try since I first saw it on Pinterest. A real crowd Dan-pleaser! I’m not entirely sure if he’s been eating it for every meal since I made it because I made enough for an army, or because he really does like it (maybe a little bit of both), but either way, I’m happy to say we haven’t had a frozen Lean Cuisine for dinner in a whole two days! Sad, but true, something else new: home cooked meals. (That’s not to say I can’t cook. I am a great cook. I just don’t have the time! But having home cooked meals is a priority of mine this year. I swear. I’m really going to make dinner on most nights.)
I also tried making biscotti for the first time. I used a recipe for double chocolate walnut biscotti that I found while browsing a favorite blog of mine and replaced the semi-sweet chocolate chips and walnuts with a bag of milk chocolate and mint chips. I never knew biscotti was so easy to make! And it turned out delicious!
Having Dan abandon me hang out with his friends like a normal person for the whole day ended up being better than I thought! I tried three new recipes and put on 5 lbs. of water weight from snacking all day (k, maybe not so good…)
I could get used to having Sundays off.
Freckled & Fit 
Hi there, We noticed you made our Baked Ziti and wanted to come over and say thanks 🙂 Congratulations on your blog, we hope you enjoy blogging/writing as much as we do! All the best, Joanne (from Inspired Taste)
[…] I’ve been debating whether or not to register for the past few weeks. I’ve had my training schedule hanging up on our refrigerator for two weeks and have been following it almost religiously…until last night. I had the day off, so I did what I do on every other day off: went to the gym, straightened up the house, and baked ANOTHER batch of biscotti (white chocolate cranberry – may be better than the first batch!) […]