HELLO THERE BOYFRIEND!

Hi honey!  This post is entirely for you, as you are perhaps my only reader.  With your suggestion I'm back on the blogging bandwagon!  Tonight I was feeling like combining two of my faves....Italian and Asian.  Not wanting them particularly TOGETHER I decided on a caprese sandwich (the basil is in my windowsill, I cant get enough of it!!) and an Asian sesame ginger dressing.

Caprese sandwich=mozz, tomato, basil, italian seeded bread and EVOO.
Asian=baby greens topped with chow mein noodles, mandarin oranges, Marzetti's sesame ginger dressing and a small bit of hot pepper.

DELISH!  I'm doing pretty ok with my salad a day adventure, hopefully I'll keep up with the healthy-ish dinners!  Hooray!  xoxo < 3

Suggestions?  Recipes?  Keep 'em coming!

see why I'd fail at Proj 365?

oh goodness my friends I'm a terrible every day for a month blogger, I apologize!  Its been nearly two weeks, and as my lovely boyfriend Ryan just pointed out, I stink at keeping this up.

I'll try MUCH harder in April, I pinky promise.

I honestly have been trying to incorporate more fruits and veggies into my diet!  Its so friggen expensive!  I sincerely believe that it should be cheaper and easier to eat healthy!  Part of the reason why the nation is getting larger, I suppose...but thats for another day.  Oh, politics!

For lunch I had a Caprese salad:  (fresh!  as in, growing in my windowsill!!!) basil, tomato and mozzarella cheese dices.  YUM. 

I also attempted making my own viniagrette.....hmm not so yummy.

Photos and more tomorrow to appease my wonderful guy...xoxo Ry!

IDES OF MARCH!

oh hi there,  you were expecting a photo?  pffft!  See why Proj 365 would have never worked for me?!  Its only day 3 ad I already forgot to photograph something today!  But fear not, my friends, I DID eat some deliciousness TWICE!  AND I MADE A DRESSING!  I was feeling quite ambitious (and it was payday...)

For lunch I diced up some mozz cheese, added in fresh basil (yessssssssssss its growing in my window yessssssssssssssssssssssssssssss)  tomatos, and pepperoni chunks.  oh, and croutons!  (hi boyfriend!)

While pondering what Iwas going to have for lunch, I was also chatting with m BFF (hi ash!) and she suggested something called "balsamic reduction"  on top...  now this is the woman Ionce searched LITERALLY my whole house including the couch for 3 bucks to buy canned sauce and premade garlic bread with.  Clearly her tastes have improved with age.  And by age I mean 3 years.

Too afraid to do this craziness of heating the vinegar  (seriously?!) but not wanting to deny a challenge, I grabbed my glass mixer bottle things (I'm sure it has a name.  I cant remember this name right now, so from herein it shall be known as Charlie)

Charlie seemed to tell me to mix in olive oil, balsamic vi egar, and an assortement of spices from my rack.  I'm not entirely sure what I added, but it seemed to look nice.

I'm not so sure this concoction should have gone over my caprese, but alas I did make the attempt.


I'll end it here in hopes that tomorrow will give me some enlightenment and another new salad to enjoy!

Day 2: A Lesson Learned

So I had some leftover mandarin oranges and walnuts from yesterday.  Decided to go a little crazy and try some "Imported from Argentina Reggianito-Parmesan" on top. (this usually wouldnt EVER be in my fridge, but it was on sale PLUS I had a coupon..score)  I tried my new Raspberry Walnut Vinaigrette on top since, well, it seemed to pair well with the walnuts....and of course, as my lovely boyfriend would say "cruotons.  lots and lots of croutons."

Please remind me never to pair a cheese with a sweet dressing again.  Or let me know how its supposed to be done.  I didn't completely fail, but it wasnt the most delicious salad either.  Ya win some ya lose some.

What would you pair with this Raspberry Walnut Vinaigrette?  Have a recipe I should try?  Bring it on!

See ya tomorrow,
-RFB

Day 1-Mandarin Onion Poppyseed Salad

I had to throw together tonight's salad with ingredients I had around my house so I was limited to what I could fix...or so I thought.  With a little moving around of the the cabinets I found a few hidden gems (aka a bag of walnuts and a can of mandarin oranges) and with that I was off!

I've had mandarin orange salad before, but never with this lovely little arrangement I have here!  I'd love to say I picked up some greens at my local farmers market...but in reality the leafy wonders in my salad were from Dole's Baby Garden Mix.  It lists: Baby Lettuces (green romaine, red romaine, red oak, green oak, tango, lolla rossa, red leaf, green leaf), Baby Greens (mizuna, arugula, tatsol, mache, red chard, green chard.....I have no clue how to pronounce most of these)  I toasted the walnuts in the microwave with about half a dash of olive oil.  I'm not sure WHY I did this, but I remember reading somewhere that walnuts should be toasted that way.  I topped my deliciousness with a cheap-o brand of oranges, sliced red onion, some amazingly delish croutons, and Marzetti's Poppyseed dressing.  (hey its day one...I'm not making my own dressing, cut me some slack!) 

AND MMMMMMMMMMM MMMMMMMMMMM it was tasty!  And beautiful.  My dad made fun of me for taking a picture of my meal, but I think he was a bit jealous since he chowed on a frozen one!  ha!

What a lovely meal!  I dont tend to drink beverages with carbonation, but this Raspberry Blackberry sparkling water from Price Chopper is delicious and I actually really enjoy it when I'm looking for something flavored.

My tortoise, Garrett, got a bit of the delicious salad too.  (minus anything non-leafy)  Yum yummmm

and my enormous pup, Shelby, snuck a little taste too! 

This was absolutely delicious and a great way to start my (1/2) month-long goal!  Feel free to comment and suggest salads, ask questions, or just tell me I'm insane for taking on this challenge!

Until tomorrow my friends!
-RFB

so it's the middle of March

Hi I'm Rachel and today I decided I needed a new hobby. In the past few years I've dabbled in handmade paper arts, tried knitting, taken exactly one pottery class that resulted in a clay mess resembling a 4 year old's play-dough creation, and tried, very very hard to enjoy photography.

The thing with me and trying to develop a new hobby is, I bore easily and tend to be distracted by shiny, matte, cuddly, tasty, commercial on televisiony.....things. Even this paragraph has taken me a crazy long time to write because I'm currently talking to my best friend, painting my nails lime green in honor of St. Patrick's Day and trying to hush my incredibly loud purring cat, Yahtzee.

I've known many people who participate in http://365project.org/ and always say I'm going to do it one year...but never do. I get to about February 12th with full speed ahead and then drop off around the 13th with little left to inspire me. I partly blame my life for being ridiculously boring and completely unworthy of photographing and partly blame myself because I'm certain I could not commit to taking a photo every day for a year.

So, in an attempt to participate in a year long challenge as well as try new and interesting things, I, Rachel Foramonth-Blogger, as I shall now be known, will attempt to complete a month-long "Project 28/30/31" and blog about my daily quest and the musings and lessons that go along with it. Whoa. I'm feeling ambitious!

While I realize this new hobby/challenge/ambition is more of a new year's resolution and should have properly been started in January, I think resolutions are so 2.5 months ago and thus allow myself to begin today. March 13, 2010. And, for the rest of this month, every single day of the 18 days left in March, I'm going to attempt..........drum roll please......

MARCHING INTO SPRING SALAD!
(aka preparing and enjoying a delicious helping of spring garden fruits and veggies, salad style!)

Thats right, folks. Leafy, delicious, fantastic, iron-rich greens topped with an assortment of dressings, cheeses, breads and meats depending on my mood and whatever looks delicious on Google images. I've been chowing on not-so-great-for-me-foods all winter and am really craving some springtime yummies!

I'm making it my hobby this month to enjoy a new and different salad every day.

Have a salad recipe you'd like to share? Know of a delicious dressing and want me to try it? Want to suggest a monthly theme? Question my sanity and/or attention span? Leave a comment and let me know!

I'm off to research (Google) the salad I should make tonight!

-Rachel Foramonth-Blogger