We did it. Well, actually I did it. I've been obsessing over one of these for the better part of 2 years......

Disclaimer: Please ignore my
hideous/no makeup/very tired face!

Yup. That's right. The big daddy of blenders, the Vitamix. I strolled (or as mom said, skipped) through Costco with a wad of cash ready to buy the basic Vitamix. But, when I saw the new version demo, I knew I had to have the latest and greatest. Preset timer settings for smoothies, ice treats, and soups? Gotta have it. No question. After some internal debating and a phone call to the hubster, (and of course his usual response "get whatever you want my love") the Vitamix 6300 was in the cart. If you wanna look this bad boy up - just know I did NOT pay the amount on the website. I did get a deal. The purchase at the end was upwards of $500, but I don't care. My mom thinks I'm insane, as does my husband but he wants to make me happy. ;-) 

In honor of my new purchase and the multiple people who have asked me what would possess me to buy a blender this expensive, I'll post a new series on my blog - The 7 Days of Vitamix. I'll share recipes I've either made up myself and/or out of one of the many recipe books/websites available.  Of course, nothing short of driving to your house and firing it up in your house will truly show how awesome this thing is, but I'll give it a try anyways!

Microwave Chocolate Cake!

]I was being totally lazy today while the hubster was out with his buddy. I wanted chocolate cake pretty badly, and a store bought cake didn't sound great and neither did making a whole cake (well because eventually I'd be the one eating it by myself). I had been playing around on pinterest and found a whole ton of microwaveable "cakes" in a mug.

It was super easy, and in less than 3 minutes, I had a steaming mug full of brownie/chocolate cake! Here's the recipe::

 

Steady downhill grade!

I started a smoothie "diet" plan, which I kind of made up myself with the help of the documentary I mentioned in this post. I have a veggie/fruit smoothie for breakfast, a healthy lunch, and then another large smoothie for dinner.

In 3 days I've lost 6.4 pounds!

I am excited because not only is this really easy to do, but I can definitely see myself doing smoothies for a least 1 meal a day for a VERY long time. It's more of a lifestyle change and I am getting all the vitamins I need so it's quite healthy! I don't have a countdown on when I am going to stop this phase, just going until I get sick of it or I reach my goal, which is 80 lbs (big number I know). Whew!

Spicy Stuffed Bell Peppers

Ricky and I go out to eat too much. As a result, money is being thrown down the tube. I made a deal with myself that every night for the next two weeks I was going to attempt to make a homemade dinner for us without resorting to store bought/prepared dinners. Nothing wrong with those, I was just out to prove to myself I do have time after work and I can cook decent edible meals with what we have in the house.

My first attempt was steak fajitas, but it wasn't very fantastic was gross. Failure. Last night, Try # 2 was my own twist on stuffed bell peppers.

 In our house we rarely cook with ground beef anymore. We switched to ground turkey for the lower fat content, and if you cook it right, you don't really taste the difference! I actually started cooking with ground turkey well before I ever told Ricky what I was doing. I started out in spaghetti, and then after 3 or 4 times of him telling me how delicious it was ... I let out my secret. He was somewhat resistant to the idea at first because men eat beef, but now we don't cook with beef except for homemade hamburgers.

Crock Pot Friday!

After much talk and lusting after food that is not in any way healthy for us, everyone in the office decided to start "Crock Pot Friday". It could be whatever you wanted, it just had to be cooked in a crock pot.


What we came up with ::

Pictured from the top clockwise -  mac & cheese,  pulled pork, pizza dip (with chips), caesar salad,  beef enchiladas, and sweet and sour meatballs.