Today seems like it's been all about food.

At 7am this morning, my neighbor R and I picked up our order from Bountiful Baskets. We both bought the organic fruit and veggie basket. We received: apples, pear, blueberries, strawberries, 2 heads of lettuce, avocados, celery, beets (yay!), rainbow chard and, gosh- just a whole bunch of fresh produce. I also bought the Asian pack, which had bok choy, napa cabbage, a coconut, cilantro... and yeah, a bunch of other stuff. I love when we get the co-op baskets; you never know what you're going to get, but you know it's going to be good so it's like the best kind of Christmas. When I got home, researched some recipes I wanted to use some of these items with (more on that below).

Around 10am, DH and I headed for the Downtown Phoenix Coffeebar Potluck which I had read about on Arizona Coffee yesterday. The event was only about 1/4 mile from my office and Daniel hasn't spent much time in downtown Phoenix, so this seemed like a great opportunity to show his the neighborhood where I work. I was surprised to see that the coffee shops were offering full-size "samples" of their desserts and treats. Here's a picture of some of things we got:

Now, I have to say I showed great restraint with these sweets- I only had a bite each of the oatmeal cookie sandwich and the Hostess-looking cupcake from Lux (the filling of the sandwich was similar to Cannoli filling) and a brownie from Lola. Three bites is pretty good considering what is sitting on that table. DH didn't each much of it either, so most of it is in our kitchen right now.

We went to Matt's Big Breakfast to have our "real" breakfast. This is a TINY building on 1st Street & McKinley downtown that either makes everything on site or buys it from local sellers, including the bacon and homemade preserves for the made-from-scratch sourdough bread. If you haven't been there, I recommend it although I can't say for sure why there is always such a long wait (we got ours to go and ate in my office a couple blocks away).

The Downtown Phoenix Public Market is within walking distance of Matt's Big Breakfast so we went there while the restaurant was making our order. We purchased some cheese and raw honey and plan to go back next week to check it out a little more thoroughly. I definitely will purchase some heirloom tomato seedlings for my garden!

Once home, I started making DH's favorite meal: Chicken Tikka Masala. I always make at least a quadruple recipe of this (once I octupled the recipe-never again, that was too much work at once!) and freeze the many leftovers in vacuum-seal bags for later. At the same time, I made Naan and two new dishes I've never tried (I'm trying to get a good stock of frozen lunches to take to work): Spicy Lentil & Chickpea Stew and Rainbow Chard & Roasted Beet Fettuccine.

Here is the Chicken Tikka Masala:So yummy! I didn't chop up cilantro for a topping this time like I usually do because I just got a quick small bowl for myself and DH hates cilantro. When you make this, definitely top with the cilantro!

And the Rainbow Chard & Roasted Beet Fettuccine:This was pretty good, though I think it would have been better with the red onion and Dijon mustard the recipe called for rather than the white onion and yellow mustard I substituted since that's what I had on hand. I think it's hilarious that it's pink because of the beets! I feel like I'm eating Barbie doll food, haha!

The Spicy Lentil & Chickpea Stew:This recipe was kind..eh. Really not spicy at all, so I'm going to add some jalapeno to it before I freeze it. Hmmm... maybe some of the jalapeno tomato salsa I made the other day, that'll spice things up!

DH has requested peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, so I'll be making that tomorrow.

I'm barefoot.

I'm in the kitchen a lot.

BUT I'm not pregnant, lol!

OK.. so I've set myself a mini-goal of losing 20 pounds by May 31st and here I am making this goal public, which we all know is a good way of making yourself accountable.

I went to tickerfactory.com to make myself a little goal tracker:



How I plan to reach my goal:

1. Eat healthier- basically follow the tenets of the South Beach diet and watch portion sizes.
2. Exercise- starting with 3 half-hour sessions a week of whatever exercise I choose. I will probably go between riding my bike, walking/jogging around the neighborhood and using my Wii Fit.
3. Hiking with Daniel on the weekends.
4. Drink more water than coffee :) This actually won't be too hard for me because those are the two main beverages I drink throughout the day and I usually stop the coffee after a few cups.
5. If it's within 3 miles, walk or ride the bike. This includes the park, the community center and the library. I need to go to the library tomorrow, so I will drive home, park the car, change clothes and then ride the bike there and back. The library is about 2.5 miles from my door so that will be 5 miles round-trip.
6. Jumping rope. Daniel and I started a jump rope challenge a few weeks ago, but we haven't followed through on it much. Basically, however many jump ropes I do, Daniel has to do twice that. That's pretty easy for Daniel though so I may have to change his side of the challenge to three times what I do!
7. No more random snacking! This is my biggest downfall.
8. I will no longer accept treats and snacks from friends and family members just because they offer it to me- I am not obligated to make other people happy by accepting unwanted calories. Since I'm making this public, anyone who is reading this should know that if you want to give me something, it should not include sugar or high-fat- how about a veggie tray instead? :)
9. I will choose an item of clothing from my closet that's just a little tight and try it on once a week so I can really tell what my progress is. Pounds lost don't mean as much as inches lost.
10. I have a referral from my doctor to get my blood sugar tested. I will go this Wednesday morning to get that done.

What you should do:

1. Ask me how I'm doing with my goal.
2. Not offer me high-fat, high-sugar treats or foods - Or understand I don't mean anything against you when I turn them down.
3. Join me! Come hiking with me, eat a healthy lunch with me.. whatever!

So there it is- I've declared myself publicly! I'll keep posting updates regularly so you know how I'm doing. If I haven't posted in a while or you want to check up on me, leave a comment or send me an email.