St Patty’s Observed

Since I wasn’t able to prep the food for the crock pot on Wednesday evening, we are having our St. Patrick’s Day meal this evening. I set it up following a recipe from Allrecipes.com. I did, however, follow one variation that exchanged the water, cider vinegar and sugar mixture for apple juice. Also, I was out of bay leaves. Oops!

Corned Beef and Cabbage Crock Pot Recipe

When Roo checked the Crockpot this afternoon he noticed that there was a large amount of liquid in the pot. I had an inkling that it would produce more liquid than was necessary and I should have cut it down as my instincts told me to do. He caught it and ladled out about a cup or so of liquid for me. What a sweetie.

Let me tell you, I can’t wait to get home and eat this meal!! I also was sent a recipe to my email from Food & Wine for Irish Brown Bread. I wish I had the time to make this as it would have been a fantastic addition to our meal this evening.

Irish Brown Bread Recipe

I am a bit disappointed, as I haven’t come across too many St. Patrick’s Day deals in my neck of the woods. To my rescue in a time of deal draughts, Kraft has sent out another taste test for me. Last week I tried the NEW Philadelphia cooking crème. It’s fantastic, people. I haven’t looked at the calorie content (but I should). I used the Italian Herb and Cheese flavor to create a skillet meal with Chicken, peas, onions, green beans, carrots and noodles. I only used about half of the container on a large amount of food. It’s nice to know that the crème can go a long way.

I’ve been working out regularly for about 9 months now. I have a goal that I am trying to accomplish, even though I know that it is very lofty. Has anyone seen these Jennifer Aniston Smart Water ads?

Her abs are killer! That is my goal. I have been cardio-ing my behind off at the gym while adding in some weights. While I have definitely seen a drop in sizing, I didn’t see it in my weight. I reached my original goal of the smaller size I had picked as my “ideal” size. Yet, I had not yet seen much definition to my shape. It made me a little sad that all that time I have spent wasn’t improving my tone. What’s a girl to do? That is until I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror in the locker room this morning. I have ab muscles! I normally am in such a rush that I don’t look at myself besides to do my hair and makeup. I just am so proud of myself that I can see some sort of ab muscles, albeit not anything like Jennifer’s. All this hard work is paying off and maybe my goal isn’t so lofty anymore.