Healthy and Delicious Vegetable Soup

So, this past weekend I went up to Prescott and then Flagstaff to spend some time with my parents and to go skiing with my Dad. I hadn't gone skiing since I was very little so it was definitely interesting... I got up at 6 am (which is SO early for me... closer to my usual bedtime than the time I usually wake up!) and we got to the Flagstaff Snowbowl around 8. I was pretty unsure of my abilities and was basically downright terrified for the first bit. I could only go across the slope in an ever-so-slight decline (as opposed to going vertically down the slope) at a snail pace... and I was on the bunny hill (which toddlers were learning on!). BUT, we took a two hour lesson from 10-12 and it helped so much! I fell a few times, but after a couple tries I was able to stop myself, turn, speed up and slow down, and actually go down the slope in the direction intended. After the lesson, I was able to go down the entirety of the hill easily and even rode the ski lift to one of the higher starting points and managed to ski from there as well!

Unfortunately during the first half of the day I stupidly forgot to put on sunscreen... even though it was just a few morning hours, my face got SCORCHED! Having never really skied before I didn't know snow sunburn was such a serious thing. Basically you get double sunburn from the sun reflecting off the bright white snow. Anyways, by the next day my face was bright pink (aside from a few attractive pale sections from my hat... ugh) and blistered! The blisters turned to scabs and now for the past couple days my face has been dry, tight, flaky, and still bright red. I can't WAIT for it to heal and for my face to go back to normal. Working the counter at Brooklyn on Sunday and Monday was NOT fun.

That was really the only low of my weekend... the rest of the (short) time was spent with my aunt and uncle in Flagstaff and my parents in Prescott. I don't have the opportunity to come home all that often, but it's nice when I do because it's kind of like being a teenager again. I can sleep in my old (pink) room with all my old things, sit on an actual couch (not a futon!) and watch an actual tv (not a laptop!), and eat from a fridge full of food I didn't have to pay for (or cook!). The last thing is particularly nice because my parents eat very healthfully... and they have the money and skillz to do it right and make it super delicious!  I try to be very health conscious down here in Tucson, but it's expensive.. and between cooking from scratch every day (on top of school, work, and everything else), researching recipes, and meticulously calculating, counting, and recording calories... it is work. When I can open a fridge and have a ton of fresh, healthy stuff already there ready to eat, it makes me happy.

And that's where this vegetable soup comes in. My mom made some last week from a recipe loosely based on the 7 day diet 'wonder soup' (oh gee, another crash diet that has you eat practically no calories in order to lose 10 pounds in a week- miraculous!). This version bulks up the veggies, adds spices, vegetable broth, and tomatoes (and V8, if you like) for flavoring, and comes with no hyperbolic weight loss claims! At 60 calories a cup though, it doesn't really need to.

I ate this with a simple soup for lunch 2 of the 3 days I was out of town... it probably would have been 3 for 3 but I spent one of the days on the slopes! It is SO yummy and filling. I liked it so much that today, 3 days after being back in Tucson, I whipped up a batch for dinner tonight and lunch for the next few days. It was so easy too. If you're looking for a simple, low calorie, nutritious meal you can eat throughout the week, definitely try this one out! It's the perfect thing alongside a salad or sandwich.

I was going to take pictures while I was making this to go with the recipe... I took a picture of the veggies sauteing... and then put my camera down and forgot about it. Oops. I do have a picture of the finished product before I had it at my parents' house.

Simple Vegetable Soup 
Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 large yellow onion, diced
2 large carrots, diced
2 large celery stalks, diced
1 large green bell pepper, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp  fresh ground black pepper
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (omit if you do not like heat)
1 box (4 cups) vegetable broth (I used Safeway O Organics brand)
1 14.5 oz can diced italian stewed tomatoes (regular Safeway brand)
1/2 head cabbage, roughly chopped
2 cups baby spinach
4 cups water (or v8, if desired)

1. Heat olive oil in large pot.
2. Add onion, carrots, celery, and bell pepper. Sautee 5 minutes, or until slightly softened.
3. Add salt, pepper, spices, and garlic. Continue to cook until veggies begin to brown.
4. Add vegetable broth and tomatoes. Bring to a boil.
5. Add cabbage. Cook for 2-3 minutes, or until beginning to soften.
6. Add spinach. Stir to incorporate until spinach has fully wilted.
7. Add water and/or v8 and boil to reach desired broth:veggie ratio. Taste and adjust  seasonings.

That's it!

This recipe (made with water) makes about 9.5 cups with a 1 cup serving equaling about 60 calories.
The total calories for the recipe is only 557! Crazy, right? It will be about 200 more if you use 4 cups of v8 as opposed to water... so then it would be about 80 calories a cup. Still fantastic.

The salad is a mix of spinach, arugula, and kale with cucumber, carrot, cherry tomatoes, onion, celery, and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice for dressing.

This

is my weekend. i'm so, so, so excited. I'm leaving for prescott after I get off work at about 11:30 pm on thursday, so it's going to be crazy but so worth it to get up there and see all my lovemuffins! and then spend a wonderful weekend in jerome.

A Vacation to Winter

In Tucson it's been 80-90 degrees out recently- which I love- although it made me excited to trip up to Prescott for a bit colder weather. Little did we know that colder weather meant several inches of snow! I couldn't have been happier about it, since I haven't gotten to experience snow in about 2 years since it didn't snow in Portland last year and I always just miss it whenever I come to Prescott. So waking up to a fresh blanket of sparkling white on Saturday morning was just what I wanted (although everyone else in Prescott was quite disgruntled with it). It was like taking a vacation to a winter wonderland- a great break to the summer like weather we've been having. Unfortunately I didn't pack for it though- only one pair of jeans, a thin cardigan, and no jacket... good thing I've got a mountain of clothing at my parents' house!

We began our trip at midnight Thursday night, because Stewie was busy doing things until then. We were planning on driving up to Phoenix that night to hang out with Stew's brother, brian, and didn't end up getting there until 2:30 in the morning! Luckily we had warned Brian of our late arrival so he was up when we got there and we ended up staying awake until 7am! It was absurd but so much fun. We slept in until about 2pm and then went to lunch at the pita jungle, which I had been wanting to try for a long time.

 

Excuse the mix of Nikon D40 pics and android pics. I went back and forth the whole trip. Don't Stewart and his brother look so similar though?

Anyways, we drove up to prescott that afternoon and experienced quite a weather change. It was so rainy and cloudy and dark- just the way I like it :)

We hung out with my parents for most of the night, and then moved stewarts car to his mom's so that it wouldn't get stuck in the snow that was predicted for that night. In the morning I was so happy to see 5 or six inches of it coating everything outside my window! Unfortunately snow never lasts long in prescott... by noon much of it had melted. It continued to snow on and off throughout the rest of the day, but no more than another inch stuck around. 

On Saturday we started out the day with chatting with my mom for a bit, and then I decided to make eggs benedict for breakfast. I don't generally like eggs- or breakfast for that matter- but eggs benedict is one dish that I can't turn down. Blame it on the hollandaise sauce- who can refuse something so lemony, buttery, and sinfully delicious? Emphasis on sinfully. It's gotta be like 500 calories a serving! Anyways, instead of using the ham which is typical I sliced up a tomato and sauteed the thick slices in olive oil and herbs. yummy yummy. I I poached the eggs which is always interesting and made the sauce from scratch- it's less of an undertaking than most people assume so if you dig hollandaise like I do I urge you to make it! We didn't have any english muffins (or bread for that matter) so I used a couple of hamburger buns we had lying around. Ridiculous, i know! but I toasted them and you couldn't tell the difference :)

Then we went to share a pot of coconut tea at the wild iris (soo yummy) and had fun just sitting and sipping and chatting.

 red lipstick marks all over my cup!

After that we tried to go to the local college, where my dad's painting had made it into the gallery. unfortunately it was closed... so we'll just have to check it out next time when it's in my house somewhere. I did manage to snap a few pics of a gorgeous cherry blossom tree with a bit of snow on it that was on the campus... so pretty.

After than we drove out to target because I've had a 50$ gift card burning a hole in my wallet for almost a year! I wanted to find boots, but they didn't have a single pair... so I opted for a really cute 20$ romper instead. I also tried on this dress, and I loved it but opted not to buy it.

After that I dropped stewie off at his moms so he could get his car and head to the party. I headed home and watched some tv with my dad, and then we made a fire in the fireplace and the three of us (my parents and myself) hung out and chatted for a while. Eventually we decided to get takeout (spinach enchiladas, nachos, and tortilla soup from casa alvarez- so yummy!) and ate in front of the fire in the living room. We then watched an episode of Harry's Law- a show my parents have been watching lately. After that I had stewart come pick me up and take me to the party, where I chatted with zillions of people and had a lot of fun. It was also incredibly sad, but a good way to send off a dear friend. 

On sunday I napped for a bit in the morning after staying up the whole night, and then watched Stranger than Fiction with my mom. I had never seen it in it's entirety, so it was fun to finally watch the whole thing through! Around 2 o clock stew and I decided to head back to tucson... I slept for a lot of the way which was SUCH a nice alternative to being the one who has to drive the whole 4 hour way. We picked up some chipotle for dinner, watched a few episodes of buffy and angel, and went to sleep. All in all, it was a very busy, very exhausting, but very fun weekend. I'm looking forward to next weekend being nice and quiet with plenty of time to clean up the apartment and start packing my stuff up to head back up north. 

Movie monday coming up tonight!

cleaning out my phone gallery

As a blogger, I have a tendency to take pictures of random things- food mostly, but also good hair days, cute outfits, pretty sunsets, and a whole lot of other stuff in an effort to document my life and build up photo content for this site. This inevitably leaves me with a gallery on my phone that consists of a whole bunch of really random pictures that don't exactly form a coherent post... and so I end up making posts like these, where I just unload a few mismatched pics from the last 3 weeks on you guys. Fun, eh? anyways, here are some things that I've been up to/have caught my eye recently:

Don't you just love how vain bloggers are? We just love to take pictures of ourselves. this is me driving to pick stewie up from school before leaving for phoenix/prescott for spring break

One of my favorite things about going home- my parents always have a ton of delicious, healthy food. This is leftover grilled zucchini from dinner the night before and portobello ravioli all sprinkled with crumbled sheeps milk feta. so yummy. I wish I had a grill... I could seriously live off of smoky, grilled veggies.

Another thing I love about going home- lunch with my mom! We always try to set up a lunch date every time I'm back in prescott for a few days, and I just love it. It's a tradition that goes all the way back to when I was 6 or 7 in elementary school and she would pick me and my sister up on alternating wednesdays and take us out to lunch. My fave place to go back then was fazolis (so sad the one in prescott closed!), but now my tastebuds are a bit more mature. We decided to go to pangaea this time, a wonderful little bakery/lunch place. I got a sandwich with fresh mozzarella, lettuce, tomato, and a balsamic reduction on baguette, and my mom got a super yummy brie and fig sandwich on sourdough. so delicious!

This was my super awesome st paddy's day- george killian's irish red beer and sandwiches made from leftover irish soda bread, colcannon, and vegan corned beef and cabbage out in the beautiful forest outside of prescott. Stew and I went car camping and lots of our friends came along to hang out...we took a hike up the hill to look at the amazing view (I didn't take my camera to catch a pic... oops!) and sat around a campfire having a grand ol time.

Speaking of car camping, stewie and I did a fair amount of it over spring break. I know it looks really haphazard, but it was actually very pleasant. My subaru's back seat fold forward, providing a nice long bed, big enough for two people. stewie had a little trouble cause he's taller, but for me it was perfect and very comfortable. love it!

I've got a fave spot in prescott- a couple actually- that is perfectly hidden away so that you wouldn't really even know it's there unless someone showed you. it's up a long, steep driveway between a gas station and a carwash, and at the top there's a wonderful spot to park your car, open your windows, and gaze over much of prescott. I came up here a couple times over spring break, this time because I had time in between plans and the cleaning ladies were at my house so I needed someplace to go.

While I was up there, I read one of my fave magazines, ReadyMade. It still gets delivered to my parent's house, so every once in a while when I come to visit a new one will be sitting on my desk. It's a wonderful DIY magazine full of projects, recipes, and stories about really awesome people. This was the cover this month, and I think it's such an awesome idea! Inside that camper is a stove, a bed, and some other cool things. My friend and stewie's older brother Brian has a white honda civic, and I totally think he should trick his out like this one.

Whew, gallery cleaned. More posts later! I've got a test this afternoon, so wish me luck :)

<3
Em

Date #3: A Walk to the Bridge

This is one of the ideas on the list of 100 dates stew and i found on the internet:

"36. Find a bridge and walk across it; the view can't be beat."

 Well, there aren't too many bridges in Tucson (unless you count the Interstate overpasses, which aren't really recommended for pedestrians to walk across), but there are one or two in prescott. While we were up there for thanksgiving last weekend, we went to our favorite coffee shop, cuppers, and then walked downtown to the town square and then a couple blocks over to an abandoned railroad bridge that we used to hang out at/longboard to in high school. You have to climb up a dirt hill to get up to the bridge, but it's pretty cool once you're there. I noticed that since the last time I had been there someone had brought up a little bench to sit on. The view from the bridge isn't spectacular, but it's still fun to be up there. Here are some pics!

Most the leaves had already fallen off the trees, but there were a few that still had some beautiful fall color, like the one above. It was reeeeally cold, with lows in the negatives at night time, but I really enjoyed it! The day stew and I went downtown to the bridge was one of the warmer days, and I actually wanted to take off my sweater and scarf to be more comfortable.

All in all, it was another nice, fun and thankfully cheap date :)

<3

A Weekend in Prescott

I already mentioned that I went up to Prescott last weekend, but let me reiterate: It was awesome! Usually when people grow up in one place, they can't wait to get out and aren't too concerned with going back once they have. I have the opposite mentality. It was difficult to leave Prescott and I love going back to visit- and I especially love that I now live close enough to do so! I've even thought seriously about the possibility of someday (after I've traveled the world and stuff) coming back to Prescott to settle down and raise my own family. Speaking from experience, I think it is such a great town for kids to grow up in. It's so quaint and beautiful, has several great areas to go camping, hiking, and swimming, AND it has a lot of the perks of a city- great restaurants, shopping, cafes, etc. Plus, it's pretty centrally located in AZ so it's relatively quick and easy to get to other cities. I love this town :)