Turkey Meatloaf

Another one of Gina's fabulous recipes... I finally ordered the mini loaf pan to make the most adorable mini loaves!

Servings: 4 mini loaves Serving Size: 1 loaf • Time: 45 minutes • Points: 4.5 ww points

• 1/2 small onion, minced
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1.3 lb 99% lean ground turkey
• 1/2 cup oatmeal
• 1/4 cup ketchup + 2 tbsp
• 2 tsp wosterchire sauce
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp marjoram
• salt

Preheat the oven to 350°. Saute olive oil and onion on low until translucent.
In a medium bowl mix turkey, onion, breadcrumbs, egg, ketchup, salt and marjoram. Divide into four equal loafs and place each loaf into a non stick mini loaf pan or shape into small loafs on an un-greased nonstick baking pan.

In a small cup mix remaining 2 tbsp ketchup with wosterchire sauce and brush onto each loaf to give it a nice glaze.

Bake uncovered for about 40 minutes at 350°. After baking let it sit for 5 minutes serving.

Hello World!

I haven't been to active on the internet lately what with 90 million things going on lately, most notably WEDDING SEASON! Not only do I have the pleasure of working with numerous brides through Classic Affairs, but my own cousin and good friend are also taking the plunge. My cousin Christina was married last weekend at the Red Fish Grill and the wedding was beautiful. The weather could not have been more perfect for a beach wedding. Having suffered a monsoon on my own wedding day, I was very nervous for her until I woke up in the morning and looked outside. The day before her wedding, my friend since Elementary School (!!!) and who lived 2 blocks away from me for most of my life, also had her bridal shower. It was great to see Shirley again, since it seems like lately it takes a wedding for me to see any of my old friends. After the bridal shower, I headed over to Christina and Alex's rehearsal and dinner, which was definitely a great time. I think the older I am, the more excited I get for family events. Maybe it's because the fearsome foursome of cousins that were never apart growing up now are living in Gainesville, the Carribbean island of St. Vincent (another !!!), Homestead, and Hollywood. Anyhow, when we get together it is always exciting. I felt pretty terrible that I couldn't stay the night with all the girls before the wedding at the gorgeous Mayfair hotel, but my nasty cold got the better of me and I decided to be nice and not infect everyone else. Also, I decided to sleep early so I could attempt to be a lively bridesmaid in the morning.

Although I eventually stopped posting the Love Dares every day, I did follow them religiously and I think it made a big difference in my relationship with my husband, although the benefits would have been amplified if he had been following it as well and reciprocating (just sayin'.) I cannot believe our first wedding anniversary is drawing near and that we won't really be newlyweds anymore. We are achieving some big things right now though and it feels great to move on to other stages of our lives together. Continue reading on for the newest happenings...

There are some goals that have been met on the 101 list I am happy to report, specifically the PAYING OFF OF ALL CREDIT CARDS! This was very exciting for me, since it has been awhile since I have been carrying a zero balance. It wasn't years or anything, but being someone who has always tried my hardest to pay everything off at the end of the month, somehow the tail end of 2009 caught me by surprise and it took a few months to catch up. There were several certifiable reasons for this, so I don't feel too bad. It takes a lot to start up your own business and between my husband and I, we have 3 of them, so there is a big ripple effect. Combined with our North Carolina trip, Christmas, and switching jobs, I am happy it only took until the end of February to fix. My new spending philosophy is to take money out of the ATM, and only use cash. I actually went to Super Target today and bought groceries, spent over a hundred bucks, and paid for my purchase with my green. That is something I have probably never done, but it certainly made me think twice about picking up impulse purchases, although I couldn't resist picking up this adorable dress. It was on clearance, so whatever.

My in-laws also treated us to a wonderful evening at the Rusty Pelican to celebrate my sister in law's engagement, complete with a limousine and tickets to see Alfred Hitchcock's 39 Steps at Parker Playhouse. Seeing a live production was another goal on my list which I didn't even remember was on there until I updated the list, but it still counts! It was great to see Mary and her fiance and of course, the Rusty Pelican does not disappoint. For a few minutes during dinner, it rained so hard that the view of the city disappeared and water started leaking in the window and onto our table. I do not mean a few drops of water either, it was literally raining on our table. Very odd and amusing to us.

In other news, I decided to share what my cryptic announcement on facebook was, since so many people have thought I was pregnant because of it. This is not the case. But we are in the process of becoming homeowners, which is just as exciting for us. Good news was the bank accepted an offer on a home we fell in love with, and we were supposed to close quickly on March 3. The bad news is, that date has come and gone with no closing in sight. We just found out the bank owes 6 figures in fines (a third !!!) to the city of Tamarac, so they need to go to court and pay the fines, bring the house up to code, and then allow us to purchase it. The new proposed closing date is May 5, so we have the option of continuing to look at other houses or stay put with this house and wait it out. We will probably stick to this house because we love it so much, but we will keep our options open just in case an even better opportunity comes along. It's a waiting game that I hate playing, since we are halfway packed and already picking out kitchen appliances, color schemes, and furniture.

I haven't had too much time to play around in the kitchen lately and come up with new recipes and ideas to share, especially since we have been eating mostly grilled chicken, BBQ chicken, roasted chicken, turkey meat loafs, chicken meat loafs, turkey burgers, pasta, and all variations of without cooking any meat or pork. I did break down and had a beef entree at an event lately, but I will not start my "no red meat" pact all over again since it was a special event and I didn't really have another option. I savored it, enjoyed myself, and moved on, and since I made my own rules for my goal list, who really cares? I have also been logging about 50 hours a week at work the past few weeks with weddings on the weekends, so way too busy to experiment in the kitchen like I want to. On the plus side, at my new job I am kicking ass and taking names, and I am number 1 in my department so I really can't complain about all the hours. It was worth it to me to put in the extra time and prove my worth to my new coworkers and supervisors, all of whom I respect and appreciate. I love doing something I can take pride in and with 300 students to account for at all times, there is never a dull moment.

I am very glad so many things are going on right now and keeping me busy. Everything has been keeping my mind off the passing of someone I had grown pretty close to, and I still think of her everyday. She would have been one of my May brides and I should be putting the finishing touches on her wedding projects, but none of that is happening anymore. I hope her family and her husband are doing better, and that she is enjoying her view from above.

Nutella Buttercream Cake

I came across this idea from a fellow nestie Heather who made a Nutella butter cream cake in her blog. It looked amazing, and we had a huge jar of Nutella from Costco, so I decided to try it out. I was also anxious to play with my new cake decorating tools, so I had fun with it. My cake came from a box unlike Heather's, so I will only post the recipe for the butter cream. Super yummy and the picture speaks for itself!
Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

3 cups sifted powdered sugar

2 tablespoons milk

1 cup Nutella

Directions:

Mix butter until smooth and creamy. Add in Nutella and mix until nice and fluffy.

Add sugar 1 cup at a time until smooth. This will take about 3 to 5 minutes to get the desired consistency.

Hermide's Story

Today I said good bye to a dear friend of mine, Hermide. It was the first memorial service I had been to where I was older than the deceased. Her death hit me pretty hard even though I know how sick she was and that it would happen sometime soon. The one thing I will always remember is how spunky and full of life she always was. Her Yulee Hall antics, our AIM chats, and her wedding day plans are all swirling in my head and that is how I would like to remember her. I was born the week before her and I was married the week before her. I will always think of her when I celebrate these milestones for the rest of my life. I think this was one reason her passing was so devastating to me; I was faced with my own mortality. The other was knowing the excruciating pain she had been in for the last days of her life.

Hermide's love for her husband Robin was beautiful and profound. I would like to share this story she wrote about their journey together and how hopeful and amazing her spirit was.

On Christmas Eve of 2003 I was home on break from college, and met Robin Toussaint on a popular singles website for young people. He wrote me a note expressing how he enjoyed reading my profile and wanted to learn more about me. I replied to his note and later we exchanged phone numbers. We spoke on the phone for what seemed like hours on end and met in person a month later. When we met we immediately clicked and began to date...we were inseparable! Robin and I dated for two years, he moved to California and we broke up while he was there for two years. During our break up I dated 2 guys both for short periods of times but the relationships always went down hill and no one could make me happy like Robin did. I stayed single for the remaining time in college and decided that when I ran into Robin again, I would express to him how I truly felt. When I graduated college, he moved back to South Florida and we reconnected when he called me up one night. After a short while we began dating again and two years later we began talking about marriage.

Robin and I talked about everything, so we didn't have the typical down on one knee proposal that every girl dreams about. Instead, he told me that he was in the process of paying for a ring that he picked out for me. I was just as excited because I had played in my head for years what it would be like to exchange wedding vows with the only man who made me truly happy. We began to formulate invite lists, perspective wedding venues and reception sites, caterers, brides maids, wedding colors...etc! Around this time however, I started feeling really bad pains in my lower back that I somehow couldn't shake no matter what I tried. Finally I went to my primary doctor and she wrote me a script to get an X-Ray done. The results from the X-Ray were not as clear as she wanted so she ordered a CT scan and ultra sound which revealed the most shocking news a 24 year old could ever find out in her life. Immediately I thought to myself, no more wedding planning...no more happy endings, I'm going to die.

On May 19, 2009 I was diagnosed with stage 4 Renal Medullary Carcinoma-Kidney Cancer. This type of cancer is found primarily in young African Americans with sickle cell or sickle cell trait. I have sickle cell trait. This cancer has no cure and is so rare that no real studies have been done to help fight it...the survival rate is said to be 2%. When the doctor delivered the news of my cancer, he also stated that there was nothing he could do at that point, and that chemo wouldn't be responsive, and surgery wouldn't work in my case because the cancer had already began to metastasize to the lymph nodes surrounding my kidney. Finally I asked the doctor was I going to die, and he looked at me with cold eyes and said "I'm sorry" and shook his head. I left the doctors office that day without a shred of hope inside and kept thinking to myself, I'm only 24 years old...why me???? Being the computer nut that I am, I began to google this cancer and tried to find the cure for what had invaded my body...surely there had to be someone out there that had faced what I'm now facing and could live to tell the story. However, nothing came up to put my mind at ease. Site after site revealed no knowing survivors of this cancer...not one.

My boyfriend began to comfort me and assured me that as long as he had life in his body, he would do all that he possibly could to find a doctor that was willing to fight for me. I began to think that maybe he wouldn't want to be with me anymore for fear that I might die soon. It's almost as if he could read my mind because he began to suggest that we still get married but do a court house style wedding instead because our finances would begin to take us on a roller coaster ride due to medical bills. Thus, this is what we did...On May 31, 2009, we were married in the presence of 5 of my dear friends. Our parents weren't able to make it in such short notice so we proceeded anyway and prayed that the future would allow us to put together a dream wedding someday.

Like any dedicated husband he searched day after day until finally he came across MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston Texas. They requested my biopsy labs, and immediately started working on a plan for me to come to Texas. On June 2, 2009 I met with Dr. Tannir who looked me in my eyes and told me that he was going to fight for my life and I should NOT give up especially not on his watch!

Dr. Tannir started me on an oral chemo pill sutent that began to make me feel awful but I had to take it for one month and return to Texas for testing. Just shy of that four week period, I fell ill and was admitted into the hospital for pneumonia. I stopped taking the pills and was hospitalized for about four days while receiving respiratory treatment for the fluid in my lungs. After being released from the hospital, I returned to Texas only to find that the oral chemo pills weren't working as much as they'd hoped. Without delay Dr. Tannir scheduled me to start chemo treatment and my first round of chemo was administered on July 4, 2009.

As of September 29, 2009 I have completed 7 chemotherapy treatments. I have lost all of my hair, I've been on every pain pill imaginable, I’ve experienced horrifying symptoms, but I have not lost hope. On August 18, 2009 after completing another set of CT scans, the doctor advised that the cancer is indeed shrinking and that I was to continue treatment and I would be able to do chemo back home in Florida. Finally!!! The delivery of good news!! I wasn't going to die anymore!!! I could finally go to bed at night and know that I would wake the next morning. I could even possibly start planning my dream wedding, and have my grandfather walk me down the a isle. Life could and would go on for me!

Words cannot begin to express the true gratitude I have for those who have helped me along this chapter in my life. Even though it wasn't at all how I planned it, I still had a chance to marry my true love who has stood by my side despite hearing bad news after bad news after bad news! Even though the doctor said that I would never be able to have children, God has blessed me with a beautiful 3 year old step daughter that I love dearly and am in the process of adopting. People at my job have donated over 600 hours of sick leave to ensure that I have enough time to recover from my treatments; but most importantly the hope that the doctor took away from me when I was diagnosed on May 19, 2009 has been restored. I count my blessings each and everyday, I’m thankful for second chances, and although I'm not in remission yet, and my medical bills are through the roof...I consider myself very lucky. I'm lucky because most people don't have the support system that I have. And NO ONE has the husband that I do! He loves me through my small spurts of depression, my bald head, my weak fragile moments, and holds me tight every single night and tells me that he loves me and only me and lets me know how beautiful I am.

Hermide Pierre Toussaint

7/30/1984- 1/25/2010

Lemon Herb Chicken in the crockpot

I did something different with this recipe. I decided to try out plastic liners for slow cookers. I haven't used them before because they are pretty expensive for what they are, but the large crockpot can be quite a hassle to clean, plus when you make a whole chicken there is usually some fat and bones left over and we could just toss it out.

This chicken did not come out as flavorful as Stephanie said hers came out on her blog. She raved about the flavor and I couldn't say the same. Next time I will dump on the seasoning. It looks like she used more lemon slices, although the recipe calls for 2 lemons which is also what I used. We ate this chicken for days on end, about 3 meals each and then I used the last of it to make a chicken pot pie which we ate for another 2 meals each, so 10 meals total.

Ingredients:
One thawed and skinned whole chicken
A head of garlic
2 lemons (next time I will use 3 or 4)
salt and pepper
fresh rosemary (i used dried, maybe it makes a difference)

Directions
Place skinned chicken in crockpot, rub down with salt and pepper, place garlic inside the cavity and around the outside, cover with lemon slices and top with rosemary. Cook on low about 7-8 hours or more. Super simple!

This is also WW friendly, serves about 8 at 3 points per person (depends on size of the chicken)

Woot, I also completed task 48 on the 101 list, recording everything I ate for the month of January. The result was losing about 7 pounds this month, not terrible considering I didn't work out really. Another $10 to savings!

Day 28: Love makes sacrifices

Today’s Dare

What is one of the greatest needs in your spouse’s life right now? Is there a need you could lift from their shoulders today by a daring act of sacrifice on your part? Whether the need is big or small, purpose to do what you can to meet the need.

Day 27: Love encourages

Today’s Dare

Eliminate the poison of unrealistic expectations in your home. Think of one area where your spouse has told you you’re expecting too much, and tell them you’re sorry for being so hard on them about it. Promise them you’ll seek to understand, and assure them of your unconditional love.

This dare has already been completed several times over across this whole journey. On a side note, yesterday I completed task 66 on the 101 list, blogging everyday for a month! And $10 goes into savings for it!