Well lucky me :)

We had my parents over for dinner last night, which we do about once a week now that we live in the same neighborhood, but this particular dinner was more to chat about wedding stuff. Oy. I obviously didn't inherit the bride gene. We're just trying to get married here, is that so hard? Yes, apparently it is.

The orginal plan was that mom was going to bring a few appetizers leftover from their weekend in the mountains (chips & guacamole and brie & crackers - we're eclectic like that), Ty was going to make beefalo burgers and I was going to make homemade french fries in the oven. If we're being honest, my part of this meal wasn't going to get me on the Next Food Network Star or anything. Cut the potatoes into fry-size pieces, lay them on a baking sheet, season and put in the oven. The only hard part aside from not cutting myself while chopping is to not forget that they're in the oven while I'm sipping wine and making fart jokes with my dad. Actually, last night we were making Favre jokes since Ty had the game on :)

Most of that plan happened except mom ended up bringing over what I would call a hobo pack (my summer camp term for anything you wrap up in foil and throw on/in the fire/grill/oven, I'm sure she calls it something much more elegant sounding) filled with sliced potatoes, onions, red & yellow peppers and chopped asparagus. You know what that means? Yummy meal and no cooking for me :)

I still assisted Ty in the preparation of the beefalo burgers by picking out the seasonings to add and slicing a tomato and some white cheddar cheese - I know, tough job! We didn't use a recipe for the burgers, Ty just added 1 egg, my hand picked seasonings - which was really just the seasoning mix I thought smelled the best - and a little of his secret burger sauce. As for mom's hobo pack (she'll have no idea what I'm talking about when she reads this) I know she adds a little butter, seasoning salt and a few other spices then cooks it in the oven at 400 for about 30 minutes total. Around 20 minutes she opens the pack and sticks it back in to brown the veggies up a little. I'm still amazed that my family, and Ty especially, actually like asparagus. Seems like such a fancy vegetable :P

The burgers were good but not quite as good as when our friends made them for us last week (Cristi you'll have to tell us your recipe for next time, we still have one package left!) but I think that's true with most anything - it always tastes better when someone else (meaning anyone but me) cooks it.

Eventually I'm going to get better at taking pictures of our meals before we eat them. Most of the time I'm too hungry/annoyed/proud I made something edible that I rush right into eating without thinking about the picture part.

Mostly I'm just happy to have had a wonderful meal, wine and a little wedding talk with the fam without having to actually cook. But since the point is for ME to do the cooking, I'll get on that this weekend I promise!

New Motivation

After an amazing 11 day vacation (minus the evacuation thanks to Hurricane Earl) I'm once again trying to get back into a routine, which includes cooking dinner at home. This time there is a new motivating factor for me to cook healthy, cheap meals for Ty and I: we're getting married :)

Here is the short version of our engagement: We were in Ocracoke, standing on a pier in the harbor, it was sunset and it was perfect. We couldn't hang around long enough to get a cute, right after the moment picture because we were being devoured by mosquitos, but here is us the next day in front of the pier:

Needless to say we're incredibly excited! We know that over the next year we want to do two things: get in great shape for our wedding and save money to help with wedding/honeymoon expenses (hence our new motivation to eat better and not spend so much). We've gotten out of the habit of planning our meals ahead of time so that's a goal to work on this coming weekend. We haven't had time yet to finish unpacking, doing laundry, etc. and definitely not to put together any sort of grocery list which means we have no food in the house and have been eating out A LOT this week.

I also have a confession to make, although I did eat relatively healthy on vacation, I didn't run at all. Not one step. And considering I'm right in the middle of 1/2 marathon training I have some major making up to do! I even had 2 friends there that are training for a 1/2 at the end of the month who ran almost everyday, I was just enjoying my total relaxation a little too much :) I did learn last year that rest is a big part of training (I had to take the 2 weeks before the race off due to hip issues and actually felt great at the race) so my first run this week went really well in spite of the 12 day break. But I did miss two of my long runs (5 and 6 milers) that I really need to make up.

Tonight we're having my parents over for beefalo burgers and I'm going to try to make my mom's homemade baked fries (they're not rocket science but I think we all know I burn things on the regular.) We got the beefalo on our vacation from our friend Cristi, apparently her dad raises them in Michigan, it tastes very similar to beef but is leaner like bison. She also had beefalo jerky which Ty has mentioned at least once everyday since we've been back!

If you have any recipes you want to share - preferably easy ones :) - let me know!