Fall Friend Fun/Fabulous Freezer Fare

Hello friends!  I've been pretty neglectful of the old blog recently.  That's primarily from lack of time, but not having much time because of work and school also means that I don't have a heck of a lot to say.  At least not anything you'd want to read about...Snoozefest.

We have had some fun over the last several weekends that mainly revolves around the football teams in our lives.  One is doing great (Go Colts!) and the other one is not being mentioned around our house at this time. 

Here are some pics from the Notre Dame game...

Lindsay, Craig, Lana, Justin, and us

Dog the Bounty Hunter.  It seemed like a good idea to pose with him at the time, but in hindsight, he was pretty sweaty and kinda scary. 

Sunday Night Football with the Sinders' -

ceeee-ute!

Brent and Sir Charles

Here's our little terrier-ist this fall...trying not to "fall" off the couch!

I'm still on that kick to make freezer meals on the weekends and did lasagna, burritos, chili, and bow-tie pasta this weekend.  I think I have enough for about ten meals.  I cannot say enough how handy these things are - it's great to come home from work and be able to workout while your meal cooks with no prep needed.  Here's a recipe for Chicken and Bows - we had half tonight and will enjoy the other half next week.  It is healthy and tasty!

Chicken and Bows - variation of a Taste of Home recipe

1 package (16 ounces) bow tie pasta
2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips (I used 2 cans of Swanson chicken breast)
1 cup chopped sweet red pepper
1 cup chopped celery (my addition because I had some in the fridge)
1/4 cup butter, cubed
2 cans (10-3/4 ounces each) 98% fat-free condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
2 cups frozen peas
1-1/2 cups milk
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese


Directions:

Cook pasta according to package directions.  Meanwhile, in a Dutch oven, cook chicken and red pepper in butter over medium heat for 5-6 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink. (I did this even though the chicken is pre-cooked, but it's probably better to saute red pepper and celery first and add the chicken after a few minutes.)  Stir in the soup, peas, milk, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 1-2 minutes or until heated through. Stir in Parmesan cheese. Drain pasta; add to chicken mixture and toss to coat.  Serve half of the mixture immediately.  Cool remaining mixture; transfer to a freezer container. Cover and freeze for up to 3 months.


To use frozen casserole: Thaw in the refrigerator overnight. Transfer to an ungreased shallow 3-qt. microwave-safe dish. Cover and microwave on high for 8-10 minutes or until heated through, stirring once. (I'm probably going to heat on the stove.) Yield: 2 casseroles (6 servings each).

Come One, Come All - Be a Loser!
Last but not least, I would like to announce a call-out for Biggest Loser - Fall 2009 Edition.  There's a little group of us that usually gets this going in January, but I want to start now because, well...I need to.  My pants are tight and there is a pair of Citizens jeans calling my name at Von Maur.

Here's how it works: we will pick a weigh-in day that everyone agrees to and start this week.  Next week, you weigh in on your honor and then email the entire group to report your loss.  We never divulge actual weight (unless you really want to for some reason) but you do keep track of your percent lost yourself, just like on the show.  We've tried different incentives - cash, a group trip if you meet your goal, etc...but I don't know what we'll do this year.  Leave a comment or shoot me an email lindseypillers@hotmail.com if you want in on the fun!  All you have to do is think of a realistic weight loss goal and make sure you have a scale (and eat right and workout - that's the hard part, right?)! 

Touring and Learning - continued

Sorry for the blog tease earlier in the week.  This is the real post - the second and final.  Thanks for suffering through more of our vacations pictures!

Day 5 - We took a lazy day on Sunday after leaving Eugene and leisurely made our way up the Oregon coast. Our first stop was a few more wineries in the Wilamette Valley - LaVelle Vineyards and Sweet Cheeks Winery. These were my two favorite wineries of the trip, and we were given a little tour of Sweet Cheeks because they weren't busy.

 Yes, please.

Sea lions!

 

Heceta Head Lighthouse

We stayed in Newport at Nye Beach that night at the Sylvia Beach Hotel. We found this in the 1,000 Places to Visit book and also read about it online. It is the book lovers' paradise - no tvs or phones, only common areas filled with books and board games. Each room is named after an author - we stayed in the F. Scott Fitzgerald room on the 3rd floor. A restaurant in the basement, called Table of Content, served a big breakfast each morning. It sounds pretty cool, right? That's what we I thought...but honestly, it was just a little weird.

There were two big cats who lived in the inn, and the first thing you noticed upon walking in the front door was the smell of their kitty litter setting in the corner of the "lobby". (Not that I don't like cats, Emily! :) Just wouldn't put their litter by the front door of my business.) The rooms themselves were kind of dirty, and walking by the common bathrooms while people were showering just made me feel like I was in a college dorm again...with weird strangers.

The most hilarious thing about this experience was Brent's reaction. He was pretty hesitant about the no TV/no phone thing (especially since it was the first Sunday of NFL games), but it was around the time I made him do a jigsaw puzzle with me all evening that he was really suffering. And while we were doing said puzzle, these really weird people sat down at the table with us and asked a million questions, and made weird comments like "We're staying in the Charles Manson room". It was also during this time that a woman corrected me on the identification of a bug - I guess they are not called Giant Mosquitoes, but rather should be properly identified as Crane Flies.

What, we're leaving so soon??? 

 After we left the next morning, I realized that the guests of the inn were all 50-60 year-old women, Brent, and that German exchange student we ate breakfast with who had just hitch-hiked his way across Canada. An interesting experience to say the least, but one we probably won't do again. We like our Hiltons...ya always know what you're gonna get.

I digress.

Day 6 - The Oregon Coast and Astoria.  We had about 200 more miles to go before we made it all the way up the coast, so it was another day filled with driving and stopping, driving and stopping.  We hit the Tilamook Cheese Factory and took in some sites in Astoria, the oldest town in the west.  Or something like that...I'm too lazy tonight to look it up. 

I like cheese.

Cannon Beach

A house in Astoria - the name is escaping me right now.  It was the home of a successful merchant...he made his money in the import/export business.  And his name wasn't Art Van de Lay.

Bridge from Astoria to Washington.  It's the longest bridge in North America...or something like that.  At this point in the trip we were maybe just touring and not learning... 

We stayed in the cutest B&B in St. Helens, Oregon on Monday night.  It's called the Nob Hill Riverview B&B, and there are only three rooms.  We were the only guests and stayed upstairs in the Paris Apartment.  So nice...we loved this place.  The owner made us a yummy breakfast and served us these delightful little bear claws and sticky buns from Damma's Pastry Shop.  They were so good we drove over there and bought more on our way out of town.

Day 7 - Mt. Hood and Portland.  This was our last day of the trip and we really couldn't decide what to do.  We ended up briefly stopping at the Public Gardens in Portland and then driving an hour out to Mt. Hood for some hiking.  I'll confess - I wasn't a very good hiking sport.  I just wasn't into it...and needless to say we didn't last very long.  After another stop at a winery we went back to our hotel to just relax and pack for our flight home.

Mount Hood

Thanks for touring and learning with us!  If you ever get the chance to go to Washington/Oregon, do it!  Gorgeous.

Go West, Young Man! (the post otherwise known as "Touring and Learning")

We love to travel. We've kinda been doing it a lot lately, since we're pretty unattached (besides Bonnie the Barbarian). Why not head west to Oregon and Washington this fall? Okay!

Day 1 - We flew into Portland and made a pit-stop at Mount St. Helens on our way to Seattle. We were debating between Helens or Mount Rainier, but this was a little more accessible.

When the volcano erupted in 1980, the top pretty much blew right off on the northwest/west side. We watched a video about it in the visitors' center, so ask me anything.

Our first night in Seattle found us at The Crab Pot of Man vs. Food fame. We shared the Pacific Clambake seafood feast. It's basically a seafood boil with clams, mussels, oysters, crab legs, potatoes, and corn. So good!

Heavy on the mussels...Brent ate 15 of them before wanting to puke. We had to leave a few of these behind. This is his best attempt at a "waaaa-waaaaa" face. We're working on it.

This plaster couple enjoyed the mussels a whole lot more than we did.

Day 2 - Heavy Seattle touristy day. We of course went to the top of the Space Needle, visited Pike Place Market, and perused the shelves at Elliott Bay Book Company for a bit. We wanted to do a tour of Safeco Field where the Mariners play, but there was something going on in the stadium. At first we thought it might be a U2 concert, because we heard a U2 jam and people SCREAMING, and I got pretty excited. I've always wanted to see U2 in concert, so what were the odds??? I was all set to go grab tickets from a scalper and help myself to a lucky concert. However, when we realized that it was 3:00 in the afternoon, it wasn't really adding up. Come to find out Microsoft was having a convention. Pretty lucky employees, I'd say. I don't recall ever screaming with delight at one of my work conferences.

Artsy-fartsy stuff in the Olympic Sculpture Park (a Bill Gates' creation). We went because it was free and on the way to the Space Needle, but I wouldn't go again.

Obligatory shot of the Space Needle. Did you know that the Space Needle stands at 615 feet, which is almost identical in height to the Arch? Did you also know that the Arch was a monument for Thomas Jefferson? (Which made more sense to me as we moved along Lewis and Clark's route...) I think the theme of this vacation might be "Touring and Learning".

Mount Rainier

Pike Place Fish Market is a classic business school model of how to be successful - give your employees ownership, have a solid and known vision, make it fun, yada yada. I've watched so many videos and heard about this place so many times in the last two years that I was really looking forward to seeing it myself. When someone orders a fish, the guys who work the floor throw it back up to the counter. It's almost like they're putting on a little show. Very cool!

There was a string attached to this nasty fish, and when people would approach it a guy behind the counter would make it flop.

Coffee at the original Starbucks...the mothership. My non-fat, no whip Grande Peppermint Mocha never tasted so good.

That evening we boarded one of the Washington State Ferries and made our way across the Puget Sound to Bainbridge Island for dinner. Here is my waaaa-waaaa face after I dumped a huge glass of ice water in my lap.

Views from the ferry

Day 3 - The Columbia River Gorge. Otherwise known to me as The Most Beautiful Place on Earth. Seriously. We drove on historic highway 30 and got lots of great views of the Gorge from the Oregon side, and eventually crossed into Washington and stayed at a random place in Stevenson. As of 5 o'clock we still didn't know where we were sleeping that night, which is pretty out there for us. Why not stay in Stevenson? We visited a few wineries along the way. Fact - Oregon makes some great wine!

Gorgeous Gorge.

The View Top Inn near Corbett. We lunched there and found some Purdue friends who were exactly our age and who grew up in Columbia City. Our waiter there was a native of Elkhart.

Multnomah Falls

Cathedral Ridge Winery in Hood River

Day 4 - To Eugene for the Main Event - Purdue vs. Oregon. Their facilities - stunning. This isn't surprising based on Phil Knight and Nike's connection with the University. The game was great despite the outcome, and Oregon fans know how to create a raucous night-game environment. Great atmosphere!

On our way to Eugene, we stopped in Portland for breakfast and to go to the Saturday market along the river. We didn't quite find the market, but we did eat breakfast at Stepping Stone Cafe, which was also recently featured on Man vs. Food. Here's Brent with his Man Cakes.

That's about all she wrote, folks...

Westies on Parade

While we were eating breakfast, we kept seeing Westies walking by the shop. And on our way to the car, more Westies. Finally, at sighting #13, we thought something was strange. We asked someone if it was a popular dog in Portland and found out that there is an annual walk to raise money for fill_in_the_blank, and that 260 Westies were registered for it this year.

On our way out of town we stopped by Widmer Brothers brewery for a pre-noon beer and a tour. Hey, it was vacation and we were on Pacific time!

Kettle corn at the stadium??? Yes, please!




Touchdown! One more would have been perfect.


Phil Knight on the sidelines in the latest Nike prototype

Phew, that's enough blogging for me. I'm missing great football...not! All that's on TV here is the Bears/Steelers game. Not exactly an offensive explosion, but I would appreciate a few interceptions and sacks from the Steelers' defense since they're on my fantasy team.

Stay tuned for part deux later this week!