Last weekend, while at the Farmer’s Market, Beth commented that she hasn’t been brave enough to cook her own artichokes.  I grew up on artichokes-we always used to FIGHT over the heart and my Dad would cut it up into little slivers for us.  They’re actually quite easy to make! Beth this is for you!

1. Get some artichokes!

2. Cut the stems off.

3. Cut the tops off.

4. Rip the little leaves off the bottom:

5. Trim the tips of the leaves with scissors.

6. Put about 1.5 inches of water into a pan with a steam insert.

7. Rub artichokes with lemon, place into insert-base of artichoke down, and squeeze lemon juice over the artichokes. Then add lemons in with the artichokes.

8. Cover, bring to a boil, and then simmer for 30-45 minutes. Make sure your pan has enough water throughout (I’ve ruined a pan making artichokes with not enough water). At 30 minutes, test for doneness.  Test by trying to remove a leaf-if it comes easily, taste it-if it’s the right consistency (not tough) it’s done.  If it’s still tough, cover and check every 5 minutes until it is the right consistency. 

9. Remove from pan and let cool.

10. Enjoy! I serve mine with mayo and reduced balsamic vinegar.

Lu liked them!

*Warning-pictures of meat-raw and cooked.  If meat grosses you out, read no further.*

I cook a MEAN steak.  My secret weapon?

McCormick Montreal Steak Seasoning. I get it at Costco and use it on almost all of my grilled meats.  It does have one evil ingredient:

PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED SOYBEAN OIL *shudder* It’s worth it.  This stuff is amazing.  I cover the steak on all sides with the seasoning.

Meanwhile, I have a clean grill heating up, on high. Once the grill hits between 600-700 degrees, I throw the steaks on with my handy dandy temperature probe:

After about 6 minutes I flip the steak.  Then I wait for the probe to hit the desired temp (130 for medium-rare, 140 for medium, 155 for medium well, 160 for well).  If you don’t have a temperature probe total cooking times vary depending on the thickness of your meat but a good guide is: 10 minutes total cooking time for medium-rare, 15 for medium, 20 minutes for well done.  A medium-rare steak is soft, a medium steak is firm but yielding, and a well done steak (ick) will be firm.

Remove it from the grill and then let your steak rest for 5 minutes-it’ll continue to cook and will rise about 5 degrees.

I cooked Lu’s medium:

Shaun and I like ours medium-rare. YOM.

So I haven’t really eaten much today.  I’m just not hungry-make sense since yesterday was so food-erific.  Plus I’m hanging out with Lu (who is SO NOT sick) and trying to get work done.  Multi-tasking anyone?

I started the day with a bowl of cereal with Lu:

I had a meeting at 9 and she did REALLY well while I was on it-until 9:45.  I may or may not have given her some animal crackers… 🙂

We’ve been hanging out too-reading books, playing with puzzles, coloring-all that fun stuff!

This sequence of pictures CRACK ME UP.  She’s funny.

She’s putting my lens on my camera.  Isn’t she smart?  Now we’re sitting down for lunch.

Hers:

And, mine:

I’m ready for something different tonight.  Steak, brussel sprouts, artichokes and quinoa-CAN’T WAIT!

Anyone have any exciting plans for the weekend?

I got a call today that Lu had a 102* temp.  100.4 and above is considered a temperature is wee ones and that’s when daycare has you come get them.  I went to pick her up and she did have a temperature but she was acting FINE.  I couldn’t figure it out. UNTIL…I noticed the swollen gum and bit of white poking through her gum.  She’s getting her left upper eye tooth!  Poor thing. 

It doesn’t seem to be bothering her:

She’s trying to chew the necklace!

She finally got it!

I also took video of her eating Greek Casserole.  I took 9 minutes of film and edited it down to 4.  Don’t feel like you need to watch but if you want to see the mad eater in action-this is for you!

After Shaun got home from spin, we had some Mexican Pasta.  Here’s Shaun’s (yes he really ate all that sour cream):

And mine:

I have to stay home tomorrow with my “sick” kid-they can’t come in within 24 hours of having a fever.

Off to go watch something with my honey!

I feel pretty stuffed right now but I bet in about half an hour I feel ravenous again.  Maybe it’s because I’m not very busy?  Hmmm. 

I’ll let my pictures do the talking.

My lunch of Greek Pasta at 10:15-yes 10:15-thanks Starbucks oatmeal for NOTHING:

Salad (minus the sprouts) at 12:30:

Including the bread (no butter) :

Followed by chocolate at 12:45:

And then a pear at 1:

And yogurt with granola at 1:45:

That’s a ridiculous amount of food today.  I think it’s boredom. Ugh.  I’m full now, let’s hope it sticks.

My new phone, that is.  I can’t believe how much faster it is than the iPhone 3G-WOWZERS.  I’ll admit that some of the apps aren’t as pretty but overall I’m really impressed. Plus? ZERO calls have dropped and I’ve received all my calls and my phone has full coverage in my house.  I’m one happy camper.  Verizon for the win!

I got up today for boot camp and had half a nanner with PB:

I have a question for y’all.  I get up an hour before Shaun, when my alarm went off this morning, he popped out of bed and ran to the bathroom.  Isn’t that against the rules?  Shouldn’t the person who is getting up get to go to the bathroom first because that’s what you do when you wake up? I got all pissy with him (it was 5:30 in the morning) and he completely did not understand my reasoning.  What do you think?  We do have 2 bathrooms but one of them is too close to Lucy to use in the morning.  We don’t want to wake her up. So I sat there, mad, while Shaun bogarted my bathroom time.

Completely off subject, but I was reminded by my banana picture up there.  Last night Lu said what sounded like “More banana please” while signing “more” and “please” and pointing at the bananas.  It was INSANE and maybe I’m making it up but I’m 99% sure I heard that.

Back to today 🙂 After I dropped Lu off I had a coupon for a free oatmeal at Starbucks (thanks Stacy!!!!).  I got some oatmeal and a soy vanilla roobios latte.

The bag has all the goodies for the oatmeal:

Dried fruit, brown sugar, and nuts.  It was okay.  Not nearly as good as Jamba oatmeal but it got the job done and it was FREE!

Again, I ordered a tall drink and they filled my 16 ounce cup to the top (and gave me 2 tea bags!):

I don’t know why but I was HUNGRY today.  This afternoon I had my last 2 mandarins-these weren’t as good as the others I’ve had this week.

I also had a Lemon Bar Larabar.  Not my favorite flavor, but not the worst either.

I got home today and it literally took me 20 minutes to put together dinner.  Mexican Pasta is so easy and yummy! I added black beans this time.

Topped with some vegan cheese (I can’t wait until I’m out of this stuff), some vegan sour cream (which I like), and Tapatio-actually Cholula which isn’t nearly as good as Tapatio.

Lu LOVED it.  She had 2 servings.

I normally go to knitting on Wednesday night but I’m seriously beat and I’m going to stay home and cuddle with my honey tonight.

I got the…

Moto DROID!

LOVE IT.  Like really do.  It’s great. YAY.  I’m happy 🙂 (The screen portector looks dirty in that picture, sorry)

For lunch I had leftovers of my Greek Casserole:

Better today!  For “dessert” I had a vanilla coconut yogurt with granola (unpictured).

I also got a VERY FUN package in the mail:

I am SO NOT a traditional Ugg girl.  I’ve had a pair since I was 14 that I would wear after swim practice and my current pair is worn while camping. They are not a fashion statement in my eyes-I really don’t like them. I don’t wear them in public. 

Well THESE are not traditional Uggs.  They are from their new “Duck” line and are ADORABLE.  Yay winter/rain boots:

And now this girl needs to STOP spending money. 😉

Yesterday kinda sucked BUT there is a silver lining.  Thankfully my meeting went really well and I got home safe-and that’s all that REALLY matters, right?

The day started off with me getting to the airport to discover that my corporate travel agent had booked my flight for the WRONG DAY.  I thankfully got that all settled and was able to get on my original flights for a $125 change fee.  Lesson learned-check my itinerary VERY closely.

The business trip part of the day was fine-the meeting went really well and it was nice to be on campus with the 40,000 other people that work up there.

Then I get to the airport and discover that I LOST MY PHONE. ARGH.  Come to fine out, I’m a little addicted to my iPhone.  What bums me out is that there are pictures on that phone that I don’t think I have saved anywhere.  I do have Lucy’s VERY first picture EVER saved (thankfully):

Awww, look at this one:

Or her first time in a carseat,right before we went home:

Okay, sorry, I got distracted.  Anyway, it’s been awhile since I last backed up my phone so there are a few pictures that are lost 🙁

The good news? I HATE AT&T and have been counting down the days until I could get back on Verizon.  I don’t have reception IN MY HOUSE. ARGH.  And I don’t even really use my phone for apps.  I use it for directions, Facebook, Twitter, mail, and the internet.  Come to find out, my AT&T cancellation price + the price to get a Droid is LESS than it would be to get a used iPhone or even a NEW iPhone with a 2 year contract (which you couldn’t pay me to do).  SO-I’m getting a new phone!  YIPPEE!!!  Silver lining, right?

As for today, other than being bereft without my phone, has been good.  I slept in since I (STUPIDLY) drank caffeine yesterday and didn’t fall asleep until after 1.  NO MORE CAFFEINE EVER.

Lucy was so excited to see me this morning and that was fun.  I guess last night she went looking around the house calling out “Mama?” “Mama?” “MAMA?”  Awwwww.  I hate not seeing her :(  I have many more LONGER business trips coming up and I am NOT excited.

After dropping the munchkin off at daycare I got my $1 oatmeal from Jamba:

This is their new Berry Cherry Pecan Oatmeal and it doesn’t hold a candle to the traditional fresh bananers.  It was good and I’m full-but I missed my naners.

Alright, next time you see me, I’ll be the owner of a NEW PHONE!

That would be this little lady:

We went out to dinner and she wanted to walk home.  She walked the entire way.  It was .382 miles!!!  That’s really far for her little legs!!!

Let’s back up to earlier in the day.  I found my new favorite Starbucks drink-Vanilla Roobios Soy Latte with no syrup:

Holy yum.  Roobios is herbal tea, so no caffeine-just warm goodness.

For my snack I tried a Plain Coconut Yogurt:

With an interesting tidbit:

Who knew?

I topped it with my Mom’s granola:

And ended up needing to add some agave.  The plain was VERY plain.  No tang or coconut flavor at all.  I won’t be getting it again.

Dinner was supposed to be steak, roasted brussel sprouts and mushrooms, artichokes, and quinoa. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Unfortunately my 4 o’clock meeting that was supposed to end at 5 didn’t end until well after 5 and I didn’t get home until 6:10.  Shaun, knowing that I wasn’t going to get to see Lu tomorrow, suggested that we go pick something up so that I could hang out with my munchkin.  We’ve been out a lot in the last few days, but that’s life :) 

We went to Jeffrey’s-a local, yummy, hamburger joint.  I started with a bowl of chili:

I ate less than half of that and Lu helped me out with the other half. It was too sweet.

I got a mushroom burger:

I added my chili to it and just had a chili mushroom burger-no other condiments.

Shaun got a double cheeseburger:

And Lu got chicken fingers and fries that I didn’t get a picture of.  She ate one piece of chicken, no fries but munched on crackers (from my chili), tomatoes (from the condiment bar), and my chili.  That kid loves tomatoes! So strange-but I’m not complaining.

I will admit to having 3 of her fries 🙂

As I mentioned above, I don’t get to see Lucy tomorrow :(  I have to fly to Seattle for the day.  I have to get to the airport by 6 and I don’t get home until 9. Boo.  I have no clue if I’ll be able to post tomorrow so you may not hear from me.  I’m off-that 5 am alarm is going to be TOO soon.