Wow. Never in my life have I ever been in such pain as I was yesterday. By some miracle (aka Tylenol 3) I survived.

Without getting into the gory details… My employers medical insurance sucks. A prescription I’ve been able to get between $10-$20 at SOE was now $40 here. After a year of that, or $480 dollars later, I decided to switch to something else that was cheaper. $200 bucks and lasts for 5 years, feel free to guess what it is if you’d like. Anyways, I cannot believe how much that freaking hurt to do. I felt nauseous the rest of the day. In fact I almost pulled over while I was driving back to work because I felt so sick. I ended up just grabbing my stuff and going home. Miserable I tell you.

I have a super high pain tolerance too I think. I mean if it’s pierce-able, I’ve pierced it. Nearly my entire back is tattooed. Only took one Vicodin after getting my wisdom teeth out and that was just because they highly suggested me to take it. Never took anything for the surgery on my shoulder. Had to take a little bit of whatever they gave me after I got my ear drained last year. In general tho, things don’t hurt me… more just minor irritations.

So with all these things I’ve had done and never taking the medication I had a lot stored up. Thank god I did because it came in handy yesterday. Advil wasn’t cutting it.

I feel mostly human again today so I’m gonna try and run at lunch. I’m disappointed I didn’t get a workout in yesterday but I guess it’s just one of those unavoidable things.

Now just to make it through today and then a nice long 3 day weekend! No idea what we are gonna do yet. It’s Valentine’s Day on Sunday so I made some goodies for Brandon . Not the goodies I wanted to make because I felt too horrible last night but I think these turned out ok and he should like them. I have no idea if he reads this blog or not, so Brandon if you read this… expect to get goodies.

Let’s get this day moving!

So that’s the name of their large ice cream anyways. But have you tried this?!

If not, you must go grab yourself a Coldstone Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich! It is AWESOME!

Funny that this post comes right after the post where I was wondering if I should sign up for a gym? HAHA.

But this is how amazing Brandon is. Showing up announced at my place at 7:30pm bearing creamy ice cream between soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies. It was the perfect-ist little surprise ever.

There are 2 more awaiting their fate in the freezer but they’ll at least survive until the weekend.

Just roughly 32 hours ’til the WEEKEND! Friday night I am taking Brandon to dinner to celebrate captain-hood. We’re going here:

to eat:

It has some great reviews on Yelp. I’m pretty sure we are going to have a great time! I can’t wait!

Since this post seems to predominantly be about food here’s an interesting thing I noticed the other night… Every time I cook some form of turkey, last night was a turkey burger, the tortoise wakes from his deep slumber and sits in his dark habitat looking out at me. Doesn’t do it with salmon or the jambalaya I made the other night. It’s happened 3 times now though with turkey burgers and turkey meatloaf.

What does this mean? He’s a herbivore. Nevertheless, it’s pretty cute. He’s all curious about what’s going on so I give him some more of his food and then he goes back to sleep. He’s not getting my turkey damn it.

And now for the last thing about food. Tonight I’m making a yummy Maple Salmon for dinner as my attempt to get fish in my diet at least twice a week. I actually remembered to take it out of the freezer before I left for work.

Things are good!

I like tracking, it gives me something consistent to work on.

Last night I made Almond Maple Salmon. I was tentative to cook salmon myself but I was assured it was easy enough. One little 3 oz. fillet drizzled with a maple syrup/orange juice/lemon juice/soy sauce mixture and topped with chopped almonds. Quite yummy. Fish has been the other thing I’ve been trying to incorporate into my week somewhere. I guess I can’t live on turkey forever!

Here is the recipe:

servings: 4
ingredients

preparation

Obviously I cut that down to make just 1 serving which is easy with my awesome FoodSaver.

Interesting….

It did it’s job. I actually only made it thru 40 minutes instead of the full 60ish… Tho I think a lot of that had to do with me not being able to start until 9:30 and I was mentally tired from the day. Still got rid of 300 calories and again I didn’t push myself probably hard enough. Actually the percentage of fat was much higher than I have burned ever running (which is should be with this kinda workout) so it’s kinda nice to A) see the workout is doing the right thing and B) that my heart-rate monitor works too!

Decorating class was also intersting… I’ll definitely learn stuff in it which I am excited about. The instructor has like decades of experience, but she certainly seemed like a complained… Like how your grandma complains about aches and pains, which just struck me as odd but whatever. I have to go out this weekend and get some more tools for the class. I like tools.

Actually I am quite excited about my homework for the next class. Make a cake, fill, crumb coat, and frost. She definitely showed the more professional way of getting a nice smooth looking cake. I see much cake in the future of both work and cute guy’s life!

My eyes are feeling mostly ok at this point. A little blurry at times because they dry out still but only been like 4.5 days since they *zap*. Looking forward to the weekend tho of not having to stare at a computer because that totally wears them out. Hopefully I’ll get to do something fun this weekend with the cute guy.

Man, I so badly want to go to Bed Bath and Beyond and Great News! and have a field day in their baking sections. Same with the places I am taking a class since they sell several things… The only thing I don’t care for is the recipes they are having us use. I like real buttercream and we are making our frostings w/o butter. I know it’s to keep longer and that makes sense, but since I have no intention of making wedding cakes I would like to use the real thing. Especially since Crisco doesn’t work well anymore and I need to buy a special shortening to replace that out that still contains trans-fat. Bummer.

Man I got up early, already ate and finished this blog. Time to chill out a bit before I go to work!

Got to use the cast iron skillet today. Easily makes enough for 2 but I’m only one! Not really half-able unless I get a smaller skillet but now I just don’t have to eat lunch!

I want to get one of those laptop minis today… I keep looking at them… I should just do it. I want one for the kitchen so I can easily have access to my recipes and quickly look shit up. Sucks running over to the larger laptop all the time and I don’t want to take that over there because I need the space free.

I’ve changed up my running some. I’m back on the treadmill doing more of an interval type thing. The weather is too frustrating for me right now to be outside and it’s easier for me to push myself at certain speeds on the treadmill. I also have decided not to push past 6 miles. I really just wanna have a good cardio for about 40-50 minutes. Seems like that’s the best range for me to keep cardio going well and burn fat/keep metabolism up.

Oh the irony of my athletic life and my baking pasttime.

Now I need to go make my cake layers for freezing so I can fondant them later. Hopefully I’ll have some left over so I can try to make a bee or two!

I guess we can call this successful considering it IS covering the cake. It was much greasier and fragile than I wanted but hey, it’s a learning process… or something.

2 layer Devil’s Foodcake with Chocolate Malt Frosting, covered in Pink Fondant , and topped with Chocolate Ganache.

Perhaps there might be too much going on in this cake but I wanted to try all these thing and I am impatient.

Since I took so many liberties on the recipes I tried a piece of it to make sure it was edible. It was… I have totally lost my taste for sweets but at least I can have fun making them. The most desserty thing I like right now it a nice Oreo Malt from Cheeburger.

Ganache is pretty tho isn’t it? The recipe software I use has the ability to do nutritional content of what I make, I haven’t set it up to do so yet… I’m scared! I think it’s best to not know!

Running tonight! And sending in the cancellation for L.A. Fitness. Can you believe they make me send something in by mail, so I have to waste a fucking stamp to quit. Man, I have always hated that gym. I need to stop signing up there!

MG where are you….

Ok, this is pretty fucking yummy. I had some left over batter from the s’mores cupcakes I made the other day so it made a thin 2 layer cake. I mostly wanted to try out this frosting recipe, chocolate buttercream. There is about equal amounts of cake to frosting, hehe. I love the frosting, it’s so damn yummy. I just threw some milk chocolate morsels on it for decorations. This frosting would be awesome tho with some fresh raspberries or strawberries. That just was too expensive for this thin little cake, hehe. This is the first slice of cake that I’ve ever tried from my own little kitchen.

My computer at work died. So I’m sitting here contemplating life. Not really a ton I can do without my comp. They were talking about setting me up on a visitor one but honestly I still can’t do shit. So hopefully they fix my stuff fast.

I went running last night. First time in over a week. took it REAL slow. I walked a ton. I am so not the runner that even apparently after a week I lose a lot of endurance, or well maybe more just body endurance, I wasn’t near out of breath. But my hip aches a bit today and I figured it would. Friday will be much better tho. I was still snotty yesterday too. Congestion usually sticks around for awhile with me.

I think I will go quit L.A. Fitness tonight. Save $30 a month. I’m quite happy with the running and I should do some weights but my apartment gym is perfect for that. I just can’t keep being forced to get to the gym 45 minutes early just so I can sign up for a class. Waste of time…. I’m 3/4 of the way thru a run in that time and with more calories burned. Even my shitty little run from last night burned equal calories to what I do at the gym.

CHEEBURGER!!!!!!! That’s where I’m going for lunch. It’s a splurge day, I’ve been doing so good lately. The real test will be Friday night tho, I need to cut that night back a little, haha. I must figure out something yummy to get that isn’t like a ton of food. So no pizza night Friday. Maybe McDonalds! I haven’t been there in like 4 months.

This weekend is fondant weekend. Time to try it. This chocolate cake I made the other day is dense enough for me to be comfortable with as a first attempt to cover a cake. So I’ll go to Michaels probably Friday night or sometime Saturday and get all the ingredients to make it from scratch. I should get a rolling board, I only have little ones. The bank account it a bit thin this weekend from getting my hair dyed and a bunch of long term baking items I purchased. But whatever, I am very excited to try this out so it will be worth it!

Oh, cooked 2 thing today! I make a lot of pasta so time to add something new to it. Turned out pretty ok I think and this is basically my first attempt ever at cooking aminal! Yes I typoed that on purpose. You can find the recipe here.

Was yum yum.

Pretty tasty and came under what I thought it would on the calories. I don’t mind the extra little bit of fat in it since I probably don’t eat enough of that anyways. No pictures of the final product this time since I need to work on presentation, LOL.

Basically was one tortilla, 1/3 cup egg beaters, little under 1/4 cup shredded cheese, 1/2 cup hash browns, and a tbsp of salsa. I did use a bit of oil for the hash-browns which may add like an additional 20 calories as I kept it to a minimum. I used their spicey salsa which has the same content. Took maybe about 15 minutes to make which was fine because I was making coffee and such while it was cooking. And not too bad cleanup. I can see myself making this during the week and not just on weekends. 

And as compared to what I normall eat for breakfast:

The oatmeal is a bit healthier and will probably stay the primary meal but I think I’ll throw the burrito in 2-3 times a week just for variations. Maybe on the 6mi days.

I just don’t love you anymore. Even if you are free every Friday morning. Drinks and dinner are just much more appealing  than your doughy and unsocial goodness.

Goodbye old friend. Maybe I’ll see you on a weekend once and awhile.

I really love Southland. I’m watching it on DVR right now. I haven’t been excited about a program for some time now. Good shit! Watch it so it doesn’t get cancelled!

Horrible feeling run today… somehow it ended up being one of my fastest paces… Not sure how that happened. Tomorrow I’m debating going for a 6 mile run (where probably half of it will be walking) or maybe just 4 miles. I kinda wanna go mountain biking in the AM so that will factor into my choice. I had a hard time with the wind, kept getting out of breath.

Lots to do tomorrow. Need to hit Hallmark or Target and get some wrapping paper and a card. Maybe some socks too! Want to go exchange a dress I don’t like for some cute tanks I saw at Tilly’s. Gonna hit VS and get something cute !   Have I mentioned the MG is hot as hell? Tho that is secondary to his just awesome personality. I swear I think I’m happier than I’ve been since I was like 21.

I just had pizza for the first time in months. It was good. Now I feel like I need to run again tho, haha. Domino’s pepperoni and pineapple *drool*.

I’m feeling creative, I think it’s time to setup new smilies on this blog!