This Process Sucks

Y’all wanna hear a funny story? I think I forgot to mention it on Friday, but Dar and I submitted our first offer on our THIRD house that afternoon and we heard back from the sellers last night.  Their counter-offer was… amusing.  Not only did they barely come down from their list price (which was way too high for what they’re selling and leaves us 20k apart) but they wanted some bizarro stipulation that we agree to buy the house even if the inspection turns something up. Um, no.  Needless to say, we are countering their counter by raising our offer slightly and agreeing to most of their crazy conditions, except the inspection one.  We’ll see what happens. Also, house buying sucks.

Anyway, for a Monday, yesterday absolutely flew by and before I knew it I was heading out of the office for yoga.  It was once again lovely, even the part where my feet slipped causing me to fall much deeper into a pose than I intended.  That one only stung for a minute.

Since it has felt like early summer here in VA for the past two weeks, I have wanted meals that usually don’t appear until much later in the season.  Last night it was turkey burgers and roasted zucchini; yeah it pretty much looked exactly like this meal.  I also added some Panko breadcrumbs to the mixture to hold everything together.

I didn’t exactly use our grill, the whole charcoal thing is a pain, but I did break out our griddle thingy and it worked just fine.  The rest of the evening was spent relaxing in my bedroom watching TV and hunting spiders.  A few weeks ago, just as I turned off my light, Pumpkin launched herself at my wall.  I looked over, saw something scurry across it, and immediately turned on my light and was encountered with a GIANT black spider.  I killed the mother effer immediately, but then couldn’t fall asleep, because ya know, spiders.  Last night the same thing happened.  These things are seriously disgustingly huge.  If I see one more, I’m moving.

Happy first day of Spring!

Grillin’ Season

Good news!  I remembered my purse this morning, and I no longer feel like death.  I spent the majority of yesterday trying to figure out if I was going to throw up on my desk and freezing.  No bueno.  I hightailed it home after work and immediately crawled into my bed and stayed there until my alarm went off at 7:15 this morning, and now I’m feeling much better.  My stomach still feels a little off though, I don’t know, whatever.

With this weekend being Memorial Day and all and the official start of summer weekends and bbqs let’s chat about your favorite summer bbq foods!  Sunday I’m heading to a “Crab Fest” bbq and while our gracious host is providing the main dish, she’s asked us all to supply the sides.

One of my favorite summer dishes is this amazing Black Bean and Corn Salsa.  I made it for the first time last summer, and it is always a huge hit.  Minus the cilantro, I don’t really like cilantro.  This is what I’m bringing on Sunday.

And what’s a bbq without a delicious summertime cocktail?  This Sangria is always a crowd pleaser with both those who like red and white wines, plus it has rum, which is always a nice surprise :).

Now don’t get me wrong, I dig a nice juicy cheeseburger as much as the next person, but sometimes an amazingly seasoned Turkey burger is more up my alley.  These Turkey burgs, combine peppers, onions, garlic and Worcestershire all in the patty, which fills every bite with flavor.

Finally, it’s not unusual to find mayo loaded pasta and potato salads at every bbq, but I personally prefer a version that includes tortellini and Italian dressing.  Season it with McCormick’s Pasta Salad Seasoning and you’re good to go.  I also make a version of this with Riggatoni, cucumber, and carrots.

So there you have it, some of my favorite summer time bbq staples.  What are your go-to recipes when you’re asked to bring something to a bbq?  Go ahead, share some recipes, I need some new ideas for this summer!

Just Call Me Grillmaster

I tried something new yesterday after work.  Because of the heat, it was in the 90s, and my extreme lack of interest in my gym lately I didn’t run outside or hit the pool.  Instead I browsed exercise TV for the Brooklyn Decker workout videos my sister was telling me about.  Apparently she recently partnered with ELLE Magazine and created a “Make Better” line of exercise videos.  The videos are found under the bikini revolution section of exercise TV.  Last night I did two of the videos, the Cardio Body and Beauty Sculpt.  Like Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred video, these videos are a 21 day workout routine.  You can even download a workout plan that is designed to accompany the videos.

BikiniRev_STORE

The videos seem pretty decent, I am definitely feeling it in my back today and I was really sweating by the end of the Cardio Burn.  I’m probably going to try to integrate these videos into my workout routines for the next couple of weeks before I hit the beach for my week-long vacation, so I’ll keep you posted on how it’s going.

After my sweat sesh, I got to making dinner. On the menu last night were Turkey Burgers and roasted zucchini and squash.  To season the ground turkey, I cut up some red pepper, green pepper, orange pepper, yellow pepper, and onion and threw them all into the food processor.  After they were combined and chopped, I added the mixture to the meat.

I then added some garlic powder, McCormick’s Montreal Steak Grill Mates seasoning, and a few tsps of Worcestershire sauce.  I mixed everything together to form the burger patties.

While the grill was heating up, I prepared the vegetables.

Yellow squash seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder on a piece of tin foil sprayed with olive oil non-stick spray.

Zucchini seasoned the exact same way.  Then it was time for everything to hit the grill.  The burgers cooked for about 8 minutes on each side (I make thick burgers) and the veggies just cooked while the burgers were.

With a yummy, melty slice of American cheese and some lettuce.

The veggies

All together now

Soooo good.  I love how the veggies are in every single bite.  There are four more burgers left for use this weekend, and I cannot wait!  My sister went and saw Sex and the City 2 last night at midnight so I am anxiously waiting for her to wake up so I can see what she thought!

Happy Thursday kids, one day closer to the holiday weekend!