No not the SNL song by Dana Carvey. I made a nice hearty yet low calorie broccoli soup. It was seriously delicious. I was surprised that it was so hearty tasting, but the ingredients were so light. It's one of the soups from the Whole Living Magazine January 2011 issue. It was pretty good with cheese as well. I just ate it with Brie and it was absolutely delicious. I've been eating tons of dark chocolate lately, so this was a really nice break.
1 head broccoli (1 pound), cut into florets, stems thinly sliced
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 yellow onion, diced
2 garlic cloves put into a garlic press
One 15-ounce can cannellini beans, drained (white ones)
2 1/2 cups low sodium chicken stock
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 ounce shaved Parmesan, for serving
Steam broccoli florets and stems until tender and bright green, about 3 minutes. Let cool slightly. Reserve 1/2 cup florets for garnish. Heat oil in a medium pot over medium heat. Saute onion and garlic until translucent, about 6 minutes. Add beans and stock and bring mixture to a simmer. Remove from heat and add broccoli; puree in batches in a blender until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Garnish and enjoy but don't spill on your pants like I did.
Enjoy,
Mish
Super excited about a bridal clutch that I just got at an excellent price on the J Crew Sale. This adorable nugget above ended up being $24.00. Wanted to share it. Also got a pewter gray/white strapless dress at a bargain price to match with a white necklace for any future bridal events or showers in the summer! Figured it wouldn't go to waste. Thanks for J Crew Aficionada for letting me know the code. Enter MUSTHAVE {30% off sale (no min) & free shipping ($150+); expires 1.16.11}
Ah! I just bought my first cleanse at a new place that opened up right by my house. Exciting stuff! I have almost little to no control over the quantity of food that I eat, so this should certainly be interesting. Green Corner is located right around the corner from my apartment, and they have offered the best deal that I've seen yet as far as a cleanse is concerned. Sorry Blue Print Cleanse, until I'm walking down the aisle, your smoothies are just way too overpriced for me, although I love your branding! I'm super excited to see how this goes. It's only 3 days long and is $107.00 from Gilt Groupe today. Offer expires on January 18th. Very reasonably priced. Description below from the site. Cheers to a healthy start to 2011. By the way, I've made it a WHOLE week and 2 days without drinking (seems like it's been 5 months already because I love wine so much, but hey, I'm only human). I'll let you know how I feel after I'm done with this. I think I'll end up doing it during the last few days of January before the engagement party with my parents. Store is located at 1800 N Damen, and I can't seem to find if they have a site up yet. Looks like a great place though.
"The blends, mostly veggie-based, are designed to deliver all the nutrients you need without adding any unnecessary sugars, fats or other roadblocks to your shape-up plans. They’re also straight up satisfying, mixing in crowd pleasers like ginger and apple to get your taste buds tingling."
Two nights before my trip to Breckenridge to meet up with the future mother and father in law, plus the (fine I'll use this word) fiance and sister in law, the whole couch fiasco happened. The fuse also blew, and nothing was turning on, including the internet. The night before my flight took off, I went to 3 different parties and was pretty wasted when I got home. So I was trying to use an envelope to write down my flight information so I wouldn't forget it, since I, of course, didn't have the chance to print anything out the day before at work because I was too concerned with getting to the first holiday party on time with the bowl my fantastic co-worker (slash full time entertainer/cook) had lent me for my September housewarming party. Phew. What a mess. I made my flight on time & checked in at the airport. Not my style, but it worked.
Thursday and Friday before NYE, I skied. It was -8F without wind chill factor (-30F with the wind chill). You've got to be kidding me. Of course I prefer a beach and a tequila beverage, but I didn't want to be a huge weenie so I just bit the bullet, ignored my snow pants that made my hips look approximately 10 inches wider than they are normally, slapped on a toe warmer pad (lovely photo below of my foot) and did a ski school course & then went out on the slopes with the family. I did just fine. Only two falls in a few days (I've still got bruises to prove it). I was not told that no blue runs existed on the first set of slopes I did on Friday with the Malcolm family! Oh well. Nothing like being told "Mish, we lied to you. There are no blues here, only BLACK DIAMONDS." Oh boy. At least that seemed to be the push I needed to get my skiing groove back. I actually think that I'll like it more in the future than I ever have before. Maybe I'll just stick to spring skiing! Plus, I unfortunately didn't get to wear the barf colored tie die awesome one piece that I intended on wearing, since it was just too cold to fit the necessary layers underneath it. We did the typical "sit in the hot tub in a snow storm" act for a while a few days in a row as well. My toes were completely frozen, so it hurt at first when I sat down! All in all, a great trip. 
Thought I'd share my favorite way to get protein these days. Tofu in my smoothies. I read about this as one of the suggestions from one of my favorite sectors of Martha Stewart's empire: Whole Living magazine & website. Recently, I've made two smoothies using almond milk and tofu in them. Yes, tofu. I know you'd think that sounds absolutely disgusting, but it's really a creamy and wonderful protein addition to any smoothie, nearly making it taste like a milk shake as far as consistency is concerned. My favorite version of this that I'm actually consuming right now is what I'm going to call a Healthy Banana Milkshake. Ingredients below. Seriously try it, you'll love it. Photo from Whole Living.
1 cup vanilla almond milk 1/5 serving size Lite Firm Tofu (mine is from Whole Foods)
1/2 scoop vanilla soy protein
1 banana
1 small handful of ice cubes 1 tiny pinch Truvia sweetener (I think everything is better with this stuff in it, and it's certainly healthier than Splenda, my ex, since it's a good deal more natural ingredient wise)
We just got back from meeting with the band I think that we are going to hire. I realized how important it is to be passionate about what you are doing in life, because everything turns out a greater success if that ingredient is present. Perfect example, David Rothstein. Besides that I felt a solid bond around him because he was your typical Jew (always gives me a nice comfortable feel right off the bat), he was 130% excited about meeting Doug and I this Saturday afternoon, and chatting with us about our upcoming event. This guy has an office out of his warm yet crazily decorated Roscoe Village condo. It was a short drive straight down Damen to get there. Super close, and Doug was able to pick me up right after I finished Dailey Method. Love it. I was impressed by the amount of things this guy had to talk about, examples of the rave reviews that he had been provided by those that had hired him, and the joy that he took in putting together unique, entertaining and ridiculous good times for his clients. I think the band is one of those things that holds a wedding together, it's truly the backbone of the entire event. That having been said, David certainly doesn't come cheap, but hey, he seems like he's worth every penny. During the time that we had spent there, amongst the bad joke telling (yet in a jolly delivery that made it alright) and the drinking of two hot chocolates that he whipped up for us while we sat on his lumpy brown couch, he was asking us a good deal about who Doug and I were as a couple. David Rothstein and his band typically like to weave a special theme personalizing the feel of the entertainment into each wedding they complete, which I love, but I must admit, it was an interesting topic to think about--what Doug and I have in common. Many of the weddings he has worked with have provided insight into their lives and usually end up getting a special gift from David along the lines of new bowling pins, special concert tickets, or matching college football hats for a team they met cheering for. After a little amount of soul searching (which I'm continuing to do today) about who Doug and I are within our relationship, I realized that we are completely different. Sports: He likes the Reds, I like the Cubs, and we give each other dirty looks in the bleachers when the teams play each other. Food: Doug loves sausage, spicy flair, and a good beer; my dream meal would include a fresh cooked cuisine meal incorporating words such as "organic," "vegetarian" and "whole grain" along with a deep Spanish or Argentinian Red Wine. Doug likes to play organized sports to get his exercise for motivation. I can easily wake up at 5:45am in the dead of winter and bike to a Dailey Method class or run outside in the snow on Christmas Day (like I did this year). I could go on for a while about this. Point being, we are completely different, but I think that we have core values that tie us together, rather than "things." We are both very competitive people in most things that we do (one of the things I love about Doug is that he doesn't think I'm crazy when I for example, got really competitive while playing a casual co-ed game of touch football and practically body checked a girl). Next, we love to try new foods at new restaurants and in new locations. Yes I'm a healthier eater, but Doug is better at portions with his food, and we love to experience new restaurants and recipes. We both love to drink (I don't think it would work if we weren't on the same page there given the amount of alcohol that we typically consume). We both like to travel (neither of us is afraid to fly obviously), we are both afraid of heights (I must admit that it's awesome not having a boyfriend/fiance/whatever that is one who'd make me skydive or cliff jump or something ridiculous like that), and both like to have a good time. I think that our differences keep things interesting and unique each day. So that's the long winded answer to where my thoughts are right now. Hope it's not a big deal I'm sharing this on my blog, but I figure that one day I'll look back and remember how lucky I am to find someone who is not super alike me, who compliments me better than most! How do I tell that to the David Rothstein band when we hire him (which I plan to do within the next 24 hours after we chat with our families). I'll figure out the overall feel of our wedding entertainment soon. I'm sure it will come out flawlessly. Just excited about a string quartet while I'm walking down the aisle! Check out his website. Pretty amazing the nice things that people have said about him! I'm really looking forward to this. Cheers,Mish
Our ceiling leaked right before I left for Colorado. Of course, I was watching "Did You Hear about the Morgans" (worst/best movie ever that I unfortunately happen to love, sorry, because it helped me survive the flight coming home from South Africa when I had a swollen ankle that was so terrible, the swelling traveled up to the top of my knee cap). Point being, I was having a very nice relaxing evening thank you, when I thought a bug entered my vision. Nope certainly wasn't a bug. It was a drip of water. From the light fixture above the WHITE couch. I jumped to my feet to realize that it had apparently been dripping for hours, and had leaked through the entire couch already. The only type of this word I like to use is a type of veggie which I boil down and place into a savory soup, not the kind where water pours from your ceiling. Bleh. This had happened once before, but of course, this happened when I was alone in the apartment and Doug was already hitting the slopes where I'd meet him the next day.
I put a large bucket underneath the drip, ripped all the cushions from the couch, and realized that the water dripping was rusted color. Oh CRAP. How to clean? If you have been around me especially at work, you know I'm not a huge fan of West Elm customer service, so of course when I phoned the store, they said "take it to get dry cleaned." No thanks. I don't feel like spending $100 on this if I don't have to. Thank you Google.com for being amazeballs. What to do if you are in a pickle and your cotton light furniture is stained.
Cool Water 1 cup
Dish washing liquid 1/3 cup
2 sponges (clean)
A beater that you use to make cream cheese frosting
Directions: Beat the mixture together until foamy. Wipe off the bubbles from the top of the mixture. Scrub it onto the couch. Use wet sponge to wipe away any residue. Blot with paper towels. Blow dry area if you'd like. Just don't blow a fuse like I did (that's another story for another time)! What a disaster. However, my cushions are spotless!
