Monkey Mind

What is Monkey Mind?  Steve explained to our friends and I one night a few months back that we were all living in this state of mind.  To sum it up, it is a Buddhist term meaning "unsettled; restless; capricious; whimsical; fanciful; inconstant; confused; indecisive; uncontrollable".   I researched this term and there are blogs and books and sorts of stuff about "Taming the Monkey Mind". 

Every time the four of us get together, which is pretty often we tend to go in several directions from the perfect place to live, house ideas, future vacations, the past and overall discussions about anything other than what is happening right now.

The idea of a Monkey Mind is to not have one.  If you are thinking about the past not just in a fond memory but in a regretful way of how things were, rosy and sunshine or you are thinking of the future in a wistful way, all rosy and sunshine, you aren't living for today.

We decided we would try to live in the moment.  Appreciate today and all it has to offer.  Needless to say, that lasted all of a few hours.  We now joke that we are having a Monkey Mind moment and it is our new term for our discussions.

I don't think I look back and have regrets, but I am definitely in a constantt state of tomorrow.  Aren't we all.

I do regret this hair though from my childhood.  Seriously, in 7th grade today, girls look much more put together. I think I cut my own bangs and burnt my forehead curling them.  Crazy look.

For the rest of today, I am going to think about today.  It is baby steps.   Off to cook dinner and think about just dinner, then just the evening walk, and then just the book I will read, and just my shower.  See I am already in the future.  There is something to be said for slowing down and smelling the roses. 

Lazy Sunday and Weekly Menu

Happy Sunday, and for those living in SoCal it is a clean and fresh after a great day of rain.  Yesterday we stayed inside since the weather was crazy with heavy winds and rain throughout the day. 

So today after being couped up Steve and I went for a short drive out to Ventura and back, stopped at a few fruit stands and enjoyed the scenery.

This is the historic Faulkner House barn.  Love it!  It was closed today but has beautiful gardens and a historic Victorian home on the property. 

This week we are going pretty stream lined with our food.    Last night we got a jump start and Steve made homemade pinto beans, I made Tortilla Soup and Sweet Corn Bread. 

Sunday: Grilled Chicken with a citrus and jalapeno marinade, grilled veggies, penne in cream sauce (a double dish from a few weeks ago, made 2 and froze one) and fresh strawberries/oranges

Monday: Gouda and tomato panini with tortilla soup
Tuesday: Pork burritos with homemade pinto beans and spanish rice
Wednesday: Chicken pesto ravioli, homemade french or soda bread (I haven't decided) and fresh spinach
Thursday: Broccoli Beef and thai noodles



Last week I made the Tempura chicken recipe and again it was a hit.  Definitely adding to my regular list of items.

Have a great week

Gnocchi

So I couldn't wait till next week to post this.  I made the Gnocchi just like they showed in the Food Network magazine.  Great step by step photos that made it easy to follow.  I have to say, after doing it I was surprised it was as easy as they said.  I only had 1 large potato so I reduced the floor some and looked for the smallest egg I could find. 

The results were great!  They really came out as moist pillows of yummy goodness. Steve was surprised that for as much as I love Gnocchi, I haven't tried to make them before now.  Now that I have, me too.  I have tried homemade pasta but that was a little more time consuming and I think I assumed this would be the same.  I was a bit rushed so after 30 minutes in the oven, I finished the potato in the microwave so I would have them ready in time for dinner. 

The Food Network recipe has the sauce as a Brown Butter and herb.  I opted to just do butter, an olive and grape seed oil combo, fresh crushed garlic and parsley.  I added the freshly grated Parmesan and Asiago cheese on top and it was so so  tasty.  Elijah really liked them as well which is always a bonus.   

Here is the link again for the recipe.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/marc-forgione/gnocchi-with-brown-butter-and-sage-recipe/index.html

Clearly their picture is much more appealing then mine.  But the flavor of the garlic, oil and butter is well worth it.

Will have to make these for my nephew Keith who loves potatoes and make a larger batch so I can freeze them for future as well.  Also the ricer that they use in the recipe really helped get a good texture of the potato vs. straight mashing.

I really need to figure out how to take better pictures though. 

Looking forward to a great week.  Enjoy it.

Weekly Menu

Another week has gone by.  This was a little crazy, hence the ZERO updating to the blog.  I did a Beauty Society Party,  check out my web site if you are curious.  www.mybeautysociety.com/gabrielle and on Thursday I accompanied Nikki on a mini road trip for her work to Fresno Ca.   It was a long day, 3 hours each way, but a lot of fun. 

Below are some pictures of what was on last weeks menu. 

This week we are changing it up some and straying from our normal routine.  Doing a few more "sandwich" type meals.

Sunday:  Roasted Chicken Breasts with homemade Gnocchi, (1st try for me so crossing fingers.) and grilled asparagus.
Monday: Croissant Sandwiches with Avocado and Tomato, Yum!
Tuesday: Philly Cheese Steak with grilled garlic potato wedges, see the recipe posted on http://www.food.com/recipe/garlic-potato-wedges-475132  (Just need to post a pic!)
Wednesday: Homemade Pizza

Thursday: Oven fried Chicken with Pasta
Friday: FEND, woo hoo!  Love the day off.

Last week I made Orange Chicken.  Used a recipe I found on Plain Chicken Blog and they came out really good.  Elijah loved them and ate the leftovers that I hadn't mixed into the sauce.  The sauce was a combo of homemade spice, sweet and sour with a little of Trader Joe's General Chicken sauce added in.

Also last week, I originally had homemade french bread set and opted to make these pull apart (Monkey bread style) Garlic rolls that I had pinned from http://life-as-a-lofthouse.blogspot.com/2012/02/mini-garlic-monkey-breads.html instead.  They came out so good, garlic and buttery heaven, definitely a family hit and will make them again soon. 

I am off to try my hat at Gnocchi.  Wish me luck and have a great week.

Weekly Menu

I have finally come up with what I am going to make this week.  We have changed our shopping time to Friday nights instead of Sunday mornings to open up the weekend and it is wrecking havoc on my brain.  Totally changed the schedule so when we shopped I had no idea what we were going to eat.  Needless to say, we probably bought more "junk" food than we needed and a mishmash of items that I was hoping I could piece together with things from the pantry and freezer.

Today I went through what I had bought and what I had on hand and came up with this weeks menu.  (It helped that 2 of the nights were "Guys Nights" since I will be gone.)

Awhile back I pinned on how we "organize" our weekly meals so we maintain specific themes each night and change up the meal.  This makes is a little easier to create the menu instead of starting from scratch each week.  Also helps with the teenage son who, even though the menu is on the fridge, he still asks "Whats for dinner?" But at least he has an idea of what may be coming.

This weeks menu:
Sunday: Homemade Orange Chicken with steamed rice, pot stickers and broccoli  (I found a recipe from the Plain Chicken blog for Tempura Chicken which I think will work well with this.
Monday (Soup/Salad and Sandwich Night): BLT Sandwiches and Albondigas (Meatball) Soup
Tuesday (Mexican):  Sausage Ravioli w/red sauce, grilled asparagus and homemade french bread (Normally it is mexican night but Saturday Steve made Chicken Enchiladas so we are changing it up.

Wed and Thur is Guy's Night, WooHoo!!!

Today was also spent sitting outside and enjoying the Southern California weather, which I am doing right now. 

I made a few items I had previously pinned on Pinterest and will post those tomorrow.