Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Portobello Mushroom "Burger" with Peppers and Fresh Mozz!

Served with a baked sweet potato
Meatless Mondays.  It's a thing.  And for a gal who would rather eat veggies, it's a great excuse to have some fun with vegetable main dishes.

This is what we had for dinner last night, and I'm so glad I saw those mushroom caps at the grocery store on Sunday!  All said, this took about 30 minutes to make, and most of that was waiting for the peppers and onions to cook down and caramelize.

Portobello Mushroom "Burger" 
Serves 3

3 portobello Mushroom Caps
1 red pepper (med/large), finely chopped
1/2 white onion, finely chopped
1 cup baby arugula
3 English muffins, toasted
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
3 slices fresh mozzarella (1/4 thick)
Olive Oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Lay mushrooms stem side up on a plate.  Drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Set aside.

Heat pan over medium heat.  Add a tablespoon of olive oil, peppers, and onions when pan is hot.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper, cover.  Cook for 10-15 minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until they begin to caramelize.  Move from pan into bowl; set aside.

Put mushrooms in pan, stem side down, with balsamic vinegar over medium heat.  Cover and cook for 5-7 minutes.  Flip mushrooms, cover, and cook for an additional 3-5 minutes until tender.

In the pan, spoon peppers and onions on the stem side of mushroom.  Top with cheese, and cover until cheese melts slightly.

Serve on a toasted bun (or English muffin) with 1/3 cup of baby arugula.

Friday, May 8, 2015

I'm on Pinterest!

When we had Little Man, we knew we were on a 5-year countdown to the suburbs.  Once Little Lady arrived, a fire was lit, and we got really busy looking for a place.  After more than 6 months of serious searching, hard-core cleaning, and a few months of storage unit rentals, I am happy to announce that our Philadelphia house will be sold in late June and that our future home in the suburbs will likely be ours a week before that.

Now comes the fun part of figuring out how to decorate the new place!

I've finally joined the rest of the world (and even my mother!) on Pinterest to help me organize and keep track of the furnishings and ideas that I'm interested in pursuing.  It's organized by room, and I'm just starting to accumulate ideas so it's a little sparse at the moment.

Frankly, I can't believe I didn't do this before!  All of the awesome sewing inspirations I've come across totally should have gotten their own pins to a board of mine YEARS ago.  Then I'd be able to remember them!

Let me know if you have any great ways of using Pinterest.  I'm new to this, and I'd love to hear any ideas or tips!

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Making some (April) progress

Wow.  March and April went by in a flash.  Between work, getting our house listed and now under contract with a buyer, and trying to find a place for us to move to, life has been pretty hectic.  FUN! But hectic.

And amazingly, in April, I was able to actually put in some serious work towards my goals.

Here they are in case you forgot:
1. Sew one garment a month
2. Post an article a month
3. Run at least 2 5K races
4. Exercise 3 times a week
5. Have one date with my husband a month
6. Become better at expressing my curiosity.
7. Read 10 books

1.  No sewing happened--sewing stuff is all packed up in a storage unit.  I did download a few fun patterns though, including the Prefontaine Shorts and some Go-To baby leggings (which is a free patern, BTW).
2. Only my March goals re-cap, though I started another article at the end of March which I've been plugging away at...Maybe this month?
3. I ran the Temple University Alumni Weekend 5K...well part of it.  I had on way too many layers at the start (it was like 40 degrees and I naively didn't realize that running would make me hot--I know...) so I stopped after the first mile.  I ran a mile under 12 minutes, so I'm pretty excited about that.  Now to find one in the fall to register for!
4. I've been making a concerted effort to reach the 10K steps that my FitBit wants me to take each day, but I've been REALLY bad at making time to exercise.
5. We actually had two dates--and both were out of the house!  It was kind of awesome, and we did a really good job of not talking about just work and kids the whole time.
6. Bad job on the personal side here this month: I was able to offend at least 3 of my friends by not successfully expressing my surprise that they have grey hair--they're just so incredibly good looking and have such great hair that I never would have suspected there's a stylist behind that.  Because they're that awesome!  Nonetheless, I didn't say that...and pissed them off.  Sorry again, gals.  You're just so good looking...!
7.  I finally finished reading the same GD book I've been reading since September.  So 1 down, 9 to go.  I'm on to "The End of Your Life Book Club", and so far so good.  I may need some suggestions on quick reads if I'm going to make the most of these last seven months, though.

So...Progress on 4 1/2 out 7 overall.  I'll call that a win.