Bella Carina is going to get a whole lot more interesting come Fall!

And it was usually right around Christmastime.

For instance, I remember getting the stomach flu while on a skiing trip with my family in Brian Head, Utah I believe…good times trying to sleep on the couch of our cabin.  Or what about the time when I was studying abroad in Rome and my bones were aching so bad that I couldn’t lay on my side.  Ya, having a horrible flu in a foreign country is not my idea of a good time.  And I’m sure my two other roommates (yes, there were three of us in one room on bunk beds) were not exactly thrilled by my sudden illness either.

But I digress.

I decided that the only thing that could help my new husband to a speedy recovery was homemade chicken noodle soup…so that’s exactly what I did.

Now, usually when I share a recipe I do a really good job of taking pictures as I go.  That didn’t happen this time, but since I had requests from my friends to share my recipe, here it is.  I kind of made it up as I went/remembered how my mom does it.  And, even if I do say so myself, it was delicious!

Ingredients:

• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• olive oil
• 2 large carrots, sliced
• 4 celery stalks, sliced
• 1 onion, diced
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• fresh thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 quarts chicken stock
• 8 ounces egg noodles
• fresh flat leaf parsley
• salt & pepper
• ground cumin
• ground thyme

You can really use any kind of shredded chicken for this.  An easy way to get shredded chicken would be to buy one of those already roasted chickens at the store and shred the chicken yourself.  Since I had 8 (!) chicken breasts that have been in the freezer for months and I was trying to clean out the freezer to fit a turkey I decided to make my own.  To start I heated some olive oil in my dutch oven over medium high heat (use the pot that you plan on using to make the soup…something big).  And by the way, I freaking love this pot.  Its home is on top of my stove because I use it so often, there’s really no use in putting away in a cupboard.

Annnd, back to the recipe.  Next, I butterflied my chicken breasts (cut them in half to make them thinner) and placed them in the pot.  I let them cook for three minutes on each side and then took 2 forks (just regular, plain ol’ forks) and began to shred the chicken.  The inside of the chicken was still pink, but it continued to cook as I shredded it.  Once all the chicken was shredded and nothing was pink, I removed it all from the pot with tongs and set it aside.

Next, don’t clean out the pot.  The juices from cooking the chicken will just add to the flavor of the soup.  Add some more olive oil (maybe 2 tablespoons) and saute the onions until translucent.  I used a huge onion, but we are onion loving people.  Use as much onion as your family enjoys.  Next, add the sliced carrots and celery.  Add some salt and pepper.  Once all the veggies are a little soft (maybe 7 minutes) add the minced garlic and stir for a minute.  It will all soften up more as it boils, so no need to be too concerned about how cooked it is at this point.  Also, feel free to get crazy and add other veggies as well.  I think a can of diced tomatoes and some chopped zucchini would be great additions.

Now, add all of the chicken stock.  The easiest way for me to make stock is to microwave 4 cups of water for 3 minutes and then add Better Than Bullion chicken bullion to that until it’s dissolved.  Better Than Bullion is something my mom introduced me to a few years ago.  It’s basically a bullion paste that you keep in the fridge.  I find it to be much more flavorful than bullion cubes.  The beef flavor is also delicious especially for an onion soup base. I add enough bullion for 8 cups of water, which is 8 teaspoons.  But, being totally honest, I just kind of guesstimate.  Then I added 4 more cups of plain water (or more depending on how things are looking.  You want the stock to be at least a few inches above all the veggies).

Toss in the bay leaves and sprigs of thyme (they’re already in in the shot above).  Later, you’ll take out the leaves and what’s left of the sprigs of thyme (most of the thyme will come off on it’s own).  Sprinkle some ground thyme and a pinch of ground cumin into the pot.  Add the chicken back into the soup now.   Bring the soup to a boil and then reduce and simmer for anywhere from 15 minutes to a couple hours (the longer the better!).  Continue to simmer until about 10 minutes before you are ready to eat and then bring the soup to a boil again and stir in the noodles.  The noodles will take about 5 minutes to cook.  I said 8 ounces, which was about half of the bag of noodles.  If you are noodley (real word) people, add more!  Just be sure to have enough stock since they will soak up some of the liquid.  At the very end, add about a quarter cup of chopped parsley to add some color.  Add more salt and pepper to taste.  Remove the bay leaves and any thyme twigs.

And then serve with some crusty bread!

This soup definitely gets better with time.  The next night, I added a few cups more water and brought it to a boil and add more noodles.  Yum, yum!

Considering the fact that Dane is still sick (the doctor diagnosed him with bronchitis. sad face.) I don’t think this is a cure all, but it sure tasted good!  And it’s perfect for these cold fall nights.    Enjoy!

Anyway, when I started this blog almost a year ago (officially anyway…and can I say how crazy it is that it’s been a year!? So much has changed in the last 12 months!) I had big plans. My intention was to blog 4 to 5 days a week. I wanted to fill my blog with DIY projects and tutorials, yummy recipes, quick tips for everyday life, and, of course, photography. The cool thing is that I actually did that for a while…the sad part is that I just couldn’t keep up. And not only could I not keep up (let’s be honest, I probably could have), but blogging became a chore and something I stressed about in my life. That was NOT what I was going for. So, I took some breaks from blogging.

And, I’m ok with that. This blog has evolved and changed and I assume that it will continue to do so as the years go on. I don’t plan on abandoning my blog because when you live an entire county width away from most of the people that you love and adore in your life, a blog can be a great way to share with them.

My sister texted me the other day informing me (like any good sister would) that I hadn’t posted in almost two months. Ugh…I hadn’t realized it had been that long. She thinks I may have lost most of my readers (all 5 of you), but she says she’ll keep reading (like I said, she’s a good sister). My response was that I am awful…I’ve written at least 20 posts in my head and probably taken all of the photos to go along with them, but when it comes to sitting down, editing photos, and writing a post…it just doesn’t happen. But, I’m realizing that it is what it is. I am getting married in less than a month after all and that has all but taken over my life. But I’m ok with that too.

So, all this to say, on this very rainy day in September (and now a Severe Thunderstorm Warning) I want you to know that this blog will change and evolve, but I don’t plan on abandoning it. Luckily, I have my sister to help remind me not to.

And what’s a post without a photo, right? Oh, the pup…

Ready and waiting for belly pets…

Roman wanting to know why I’m taking his picture and wondering if it’s worth the effort to get up and walk over towards me for some pets…this dog lives for pets, people.

I just started editing her session and these were just too cute not to share!

She’s adorable in her pink flamingo bikini.

And the pink flower really brought out her smile.

Can’t wait to finish editing these!

Enjoy!

Today I want to talk about a super food that I personally love, kiwi!

First of all, this post is about kiwi the fruit, not kiwi the bird.  I was recently on a flight home from California back to DC and had the pleasure of sitting next to my new found Kiwi friend, Eva.  It is quite amazing how much I DID NOT know about New Zealanders (aka, kiwis)!  I think we ended up spending most of the flight exchanging information on both of our countries (no, Eva, Red Lobster is not THE place to go for good crab and lobster in America)…(no, Karen, New Zealand is not the same country as Australia…no, Karen, we aren’t called Kiwis because of the little delicious brown fuzzy fruit).  I actually consider myself rather well traveled and worldly…humbled, party of one!  Did you know that you can ski in New Zealand?  In July (their winter season), you can surf in the morning on the coast, and then hit the slopes in the afternoon.  And we discussed how she’s never had a “white Christmas” like she’s always seen in the movies.  I told her that was fine, since I never have either (remember, I from SoCal…75 degrees and sunny is a normal Christmas day for us)!  She was pretty shocked to hear that not ALL of America is covered in snow for Christmas morning.  Needless to say, their was plenty of learning between the two of us in that 5 hour flight.

Anyway, back to kiwi the fruit.  I love kiwi, especially when it is just perfectly ripe and so, so sweet.  The other thing that’s great about kiwi besides the flavor?  It is packed with nutrients!  Many people believe that when they get a cold, a glass of orange juice is the way to go to blast your body with vitamin C.  You may be shocked to learn that kiwi contains TWICE the amount of vitamin C than an orange does!  (apparently, I’m really excited about kiwi…hence all the exclamation points. )  Kiwi also contains a bit of protein, vitamin E and folic acid, which are important in a well rounded diet.  Also, one peeled kiwi will only set you back around 50 calories…well worth it for all the nutrients packed inside.

Kiwi is also considered to have a high level of antioxidants because of the level of vitamin C and lutein it contains (lutein is similar to beta carotene, which is most notably found in carrots and provides them with their orange color and helps with vision disorders).  Lastly, kiwi has a good amount of dietary fiber…and who doesn’t need a little extra fiber, right?

{ Read more about kiwi at http://www.livestrong.com/article/41054-kiwi-nutrition-information/#ixzz21C4UotHe }

So, if you are bored of the same ol’ fruit that you’ve been eating, next time you’re at the store be sure to pick up some of these little delights and feel confident that you are treating your body to quite the super food.

If you aren’t sure how to eat them, I’ll tell you my method.  Give the little guy a quick rinse, cut off the ends and then, with a paring knife, carefully peel all the fuzzy skin off.  From that point, you can eat it just like and apple or cut it into slices like I did above in the photo.  If you are brave enough, the skin is actually also edible!

Happy kiwi eating!

It’s all hardwood floors except for the bottom floor including all of the stairs (and yes, I still owe you all the before pictures…#bloggerfail).  That wasn’t working too well for the pup.  I briefly talked about it back in this post and this post.  Originally, I had hoped that rubbing some Paw Wax on his feet and shaving his paw fur regularly would do the trick, but it left wax residue on our floors and really didn’t help all that much. We even paid the extra $11 to get his nails ground down instead of just clipping them…not enough. Roman was still frightened enough of slipping (after a couple really bad slips) that he would whine at the bottom of the stairs at bedtime until one of us carried all 60 pounds of him up the two flights of stairs to our bedroom. It was quite sad actually.  But, I mean, what wouldn’t you do for this cutie?!  (That’s his, “seriously, you aren’t going to help me?” face.)

We discussed several different options on how to help The Bubbas, as we often call him.  We even considered installing a permanent stair runner, which probably would have been close to $1000!  We would have also had to ask permission of the landlord, of course. We came across websites like this one, that had removable stair treads, but it still came out to $179 for 13 stair treads (ouch!). We would have needed to buy 3 sets to cover all of our stairs, which was way out of our budget. One of our cheaper options that we came up with was to purchase several of the Borris door mats from Ikea and cut them in half so they would fit each stair. At $1.49 a pop, it was an option that was waaay closer to our price range, but I was not a huge fan of the black and navy, made for the outside of your home quality going on.  Just when we thought we had ran out of ideas, we came across these at our local Home Depot.  You’re looking at the stack of rectangular shaped carpet pieces to the left and a price tag of only $9.99.  (Please excuse the awful iPhone pic.)

We were definitely intrigued.  It turns out, these stair treads, called Soft Treads, are pretty much just all the leftovers that they cut into the same shape and package in groups of 13 treads per package.  I got down on my hands and knees (they were on the bottom shelf) and started digging through the pile to try and find three matching packs (we needed 3 to cover all of our stairs).  I ended up pulling them all out in the middle of the aisle…classy, I know, but I was on a mission.  Turns out, they had two packs that were relatively similar (one had vertical stripes, the other was horizontal, but the same carpet none the less) and one pack that was more on the neutral side that we thought might work on the basement stairs without clashing too much with the other sets.  That was as good as we were gonna get.  We asked a nice worker man if you could order 3 packs in the same color, but they are only listed as “multi-colored” on the HD website and even the store only ordered them as “multi” and they just get what they get…literally carpet refuse cut up into rectangles.

Not to be discouraged, we picked the two that were the same-ish and the tan-ish one and then skipped over to the caulk aisle (ok, maybe I skipped, and Dane just walked).  Why the caulk aisle, you ask?  Well, let me tell you!  The back of the treads were just hard plastic, as in slippery, which wasn’t going to help the cause.  I had remembered seeing something on pinterest that mentioned using caulk for a cheap solution to make rugs non-slip.  At around $2 for a tube of caulk, this was definitely the cheapest route to go.  Thank you very much Martha for this awesome tip.  (In case, you aren’t keeping track, this is a $32 solution…yay!)  I couldn’t remember if it was supposed to be just silicone or silicone latex, so we just went with a mix.  (We already own the trigger thingy (technical term) that you need to squeeze out the caulk, but I bet those aren’t too expensive.)

Here’s a better shot of the packaging that I took once we got home.  Notice the awesome mix of blue, grey, and greenish that doesn’t really match anything in our house, but is still kinda neutral.  Is it just me?  Maybe I was feeling a little desperate. 

When we got home, we laid out all of the carpet squares rectangles.  Why they aren’t backed with some sort of rubbery coating, I don’t know, but I am considering writing a sternly worded letter to the company.  (Yes, most of these photos are awful since we did this at night and used my point-and-shoot…please forgive me.)

Next, we got to squeezing!  We took turns…here’s me.

We did all kinds of patterns just to mix it up…I’m sure it has no effect on the non-slipness of the treads.  Dane took a turn and made a loving gesture.  Collective “awwwwe.”

The tube says “paintable in 40 minutes,” but to be safe we let them dry overnight.  And made sure to keep the pup out of the basement, so we didn’t ended up with little caulk paw prints all over the place.

Now, don’t get me wrong, this is not the most beautiful solution to our problem.  But, considering that the more beautiful alternatives were at least hundreds of dollars out of our price range, this is what we went with.  In the end, I don’t think it really turned out all that bad.

We decided to have them run up one side on the stairs so Roman could have a little path (he likes to walk right alongside you).  Here’s that half-stairway I was telling you about.  From afar, they just look kind of grey striped without all the weird extra colors.

And we used the tan set for the basement stairs.

The great thing about them is that they stick really, really well.  Like, we were scared at first when we tried to pull them off, but we’re happy to see that they didn’t leave any residue at all on the wood…hurray!

The other awesome thing is that after a couple days of coaxing Roman up the stairs and training him to walk on the carpet, he is officially an independent dog again!  It’s been a couple months now and he actually will run up and down the stairs again…Mission Accomplished!  It’s so great to have our fun-loving dog back instead of the scaredy cat we were dealing with for the first few weeks.  Sometimes it’s a good reminder that they have personalities and fears, too.

Love this pup.  <3

As guests entered, they were given a beaded necklace and were told that they weren’t allowed to say three words…I’m pretty sure they were Wedding, Bride, and Groom (or something to that affect).  I lost my necklace pretty early on.   Also, Cara was a genius and bought thank you cards to have guests write their name and addresses on to save me time later.

The spread of tapas was a beautiful thing.  And I loved the pretty dark pink gerber daisies in the centerpiece.

Some of my favorites were the cheese platter and my mom’s famous marinated roasted peppers…sooo good!

For favors, Cara painted the bottoms of wine and champagne glasses with chalkboard paint.  Guests were able to write their names on the glass and take it home.  LOVED this idea and I may have to steal it.

I helped myself to a glass of champagne early on.

What’s a good party without dessert?  Jenna made some super yummy (and adorable) cupcakes and a berry trifle.  Emily made yummy mini cheesecakes.  How cute is that cupcake tower!?

We took some time for some outdoor photos, too.  Love my beautiful mom and sister!

And where would I be without my MOHes?  Erica, Jenna, and Cara.  Muah!

Thank you to all of the awesome ladies in my bridal party who were able to make it!  Emily, Erica, Jenna, Cara, Roselie, and Brynn.  We missed you Julie, Blake, and Katie!

I was so excited that my friend Crystal could make it out all the way from Virginia.  Definitely feeling the love!

What’s a shower without some gift opening, right?  I was pretty much smiling the whole time.

I’m not sure what was in this box, but I was obviously pretty happy about it!

Here’s my attempt at looking sexy in my sexy apron…wow…I’m sorry Dane, but you get what you get!  lol  Karen = Dork

I was able to squeeze in a photo with my future sister-in-law, Brynn, and my future mother-in-law, Trish who both made long journeys to make it to my shower.  I’m truly lucky to be marrying into an awesome family!

At the end of the night, the party was crash by my nephew Zachary.  We taught him how to ‘cheers’…gotta get ‘em started young.

Overall, it was an amazing night.  Thanks everyone for making this Bride-to-be feel loved!

When we moved to Ohio, we met lots of new people and were socializing often…read: we drank a lot of alcohol and ate a bunch of bad for your Midwestern food. Hence me gaining about 15 pounds in just a few short months…wow…it’ll really creep up on ya sometimes!

Since last summer I have lost 20 pounds. That’s so crazy to see it written out. I’m not at my goal yet, and this wasn’t even an original goal for me, but when I stepped on the scale and realized that I had reached 20 pounds of weight loss it was a pretty crazy moment. I hadn’t even realized how far I’d come.  It’s important to remember how far you’ve come, because it’s easy to become short-sighted in a weight loss journey.  I am not content where I’m at now, but I have to realize that I’m much better off now than I was a year ago.

Now, the reason that I hadn’t realized it was because the most recent weight loss was only 5 pounds of it. Last summer, I food journaled like a mad woman, staying under 1200 calories a day, and was training for a half marathon…yes, I was still only eating 1200 calories a day and run/walking at least 4 days a week.  I even counted every sip of Gatorade and every GU pack…it was pretty extreme.  That’s when I lost the 15 pounds.  At some point after that weight loss, I decided that I didn’t need to journal anymore and honestly, I really just wanted to eat normal again, so I abandoned my journaling.  I somehow managed to maintain that initial weight loss (give or take a few pounds) over the next 9 months or so, but decided a couple months ago that it was time to get serious again. It’s not like I hadn’t been trying to lose weight still, but I had stopped calorie counting and was just trying to do the whole eat healthy-ish and work out a lot-ish thing.  Some days that worked…most days it didn’t.  I’m glad that I had at least been doing that much, since it probably is the reason I was able to maintain the weight loss. But, I’ve learned that when I want to lose weight that isn’t the way to do it, so back to calorie counting I went.

Currently, I’m using the free app on my iPhone called My Fitness Pal and I love it. It has a cool bar code feature where you can scan the bar code on almost any food item and it automatically tells you the nutrition facts for each serving and can input it right into your diary.  (See the little bar code button to the right of the search box?)

It makes it pretty hard to be lazy about counting when it’s that easy.  There is also a pretty large database of all kinds of foods from varying restaurants and grocery brands, so when there isn’t a bar code available, you can use the search feature.  It also has a social media feature where you can be friends with your real-life friends, which definitely keeps me motivated. It doesn’t tell them every piece of food you put it your mouth, but it tells that if you were under calories and when you’ve lost weight. Kind of like getting a virtual high-five from your friends!

Another thing that I love about it is that I can create my own recipes.  For instance, I make my own pizza dough, so I just input all the ingredients and now I know exactly how many calories a slice of my pizza is (I also measured out the sauce and cheese).  That’s 1,370 calories of pizza dough for an entire pizza btw…not one slice!

This helps take a lot of the guess work out of calorie counting when you are cooking at home.

One of the most important things about calorie counting is measuring.  I hate doing it, but it is a necessary evil if you want to know exactly how many calories you are consuming.  Another good tip is calculating how many calories your body needs to maintain its current weight (Basal Metabolic Rate or BMR).  You can calculate your own at this website.  My current BMR is 1,541 calories a day.  So, at the rate I’m going with eating just at 1200 calories a day, I should be able to lose about a pound every 10 days (burning 3,500 extra calories is equivalent to one pound of weight loss).  But, BMR is based on calories burned without any physical activity like as if all I did was just lay in bed all day long, so probably a pound and a half a week is a little more reasonable.

Here’s my disclaimer…Don’t get me wrong, I have no plans to eat just 1,200 calories a day for the rest of my life, but this is what works for me to lose weight.  When I do anything less drastic, I don’t see fast enough weight loss and it makes me want to give up.  I am also the kind of person that weighs myself everyday.  I know this does not work for everyone, but it keeps me motivated even if I only lose a tenth of a pound.  It is also important to be eating a well rounded diet including fruits, vegetables, and protein.  I also take a multi-vitamin everyday.  The overall goal is to be healthy, not just skinny.  Eating 1,200 calories in chips and soda everyday and nothing else may make you thin, but healthy, it will not.  Besides, you can eat a junk ton of steamed veggies for very little calories! 

Besides healthy eating, Dane and I have made goals to get back to working out on a more regular basis.  Lately, we’ve been mixing in strength training in with cardio…kinda cross-fit-esque without the cross fit craziness (no offense to all my cross fit loving friends!).

I have no intention of turning Bella Carina into a weight loss blog, but I felt that this milestone was note-worthy enough to talk about.  Who knows, maybe I’ll check back in after I lose another ten pounds or so. 

Here’s a recent picture of me with my sister…20 pounds lost.

Has anyone else seen results with calorie counting?  Do you forget how far you’ve come and need a reminder every once in a while?

My awesome brother in law was able to reserve his family’s beach house in Cayucos where we had an awesome family filled weekend. Seriously, is there anything better than good times with your loved ones? Dane and I were there a day early and spent some time walking on the beach and enjoying the town.

If you ever find yourself taking a trip up highway 1 and stop in Cayucos do not miss trying these cookies from the Brown Butter Cookie Co. They are brown sugar and sea salt cookies and they are amazing!

I’m on a quest to figure out this recipe because I was in love.

I was also lucky enough to be showered in love by my dearest friends and family at my bridal shower hosted by my maids of honor and my mom. It was perfect and exactly everything I could have hoped for. We had tapas and wine and yummy desserts too. Once I get around to downloading those pics off my camera I’ll share some.

Since I live afar and coordinating schedules is never easy, we did my bachelorette party the same weekend. The day started off with a cabana by the pool at the Viceroy hotel in Santa Monica where we felt like celebrities.  Mmmmm…mimosas.

A turn of events caused our reservation at BOA Steakhouse to be canceled (a pipe burst at the restaurant!), which led to an awesome dinner at The Misfit Restaurant & Bar right off of the Third Street Promenade also in Santa Monica. I am still raving about their Basil Gimlet and Brussels Sprouts!  I highly recommend!

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel, which turns into a lounge at night. It was perfect.

Isn’t my smaller than me big sister beautiful?

So, after a fun filled week and a half in Cali, I’m back home with my cute pup and handsome fiancé. Maybe someday we’ll even finish our bed (oh, DIY, sometimes you take soo long!).

Our Roma tomato plant is pretty much killin’ it, which is great.  No fruit yet, but I have faith. Remember how tiny this guy was when I planted him?  They grow up so fast…{tear}.

Our patio tomato plant is also doing well.  It even has some budding flowers!  And budding flowers today mean tomatoes tomorrow!

Oddly enough, we are managing to grow some vegetables fungi that we did not intend to. This is a first for us. Cute little guys, but there’s no way I’m eating magic shrooms I found in my garden!

The red bell pepper plant is not doing as well. Poor guy was ruthlessly attacked by some sort of garden pest. I thought I found an aphid under one of the leaves, but after some googling it seems that this might be the work of slugs…eeewww. I bought some organic insecticidal soap from Home Depot and sprayed the heck out of it. I’ve seen some improvement so I hope it works!

I finally got around to planting the basil and cilantro as well. They seem to be doing just fine.

How are your gardens doing?  I know a couple friends that already have some good crops!  Hoping my tomatoes get here soon!