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Happy 2012!

Posted on January 1, 2012 by kissmybroccoli

Welcome to 2012 everyone!

So sorry about disappearing on you guys last year. To say that the last part of 2011 was a busy one is an understatement, but in a good way…I can’t wait to get a re-cap up on the blog…though it may take a couple of posts.

Yesterday was quite an eventful day for Broccoli Babe and I…we hosted a Christmas lunch at Casa de Broccoli with my mom’s side of the family, sold organs on the internet for hotel reservations*, and drove down to Nashville to bring in the new year in style.

*Please refer to the following facebook status updates:

Surprisingly, we were able to get hotel room after only making 236976 calls…and even more surprising…it was a REALLY nice hotel, read: duvet, feather pillows, and a huge bathroom AND only about 3 blocks from where all the action was happening.

After we secured our reservation and stitched ourselves up after the organ extractions, I got all gussied (yes, I said “gussied”) up!

New Year’s Eve ensemble brought to you by Body Central:

Black dress = $16.80
Silver belt = $9.90
Necklace = $3.90
Ring = $3.90
Black flats from last year’s NYE bash

And the leggings were from Rue 21 on clearance for $1.50!!

Please, would someone cue LMFAO…

I think I was most excited about getting to play with the fake eyelashes I had leftover from Halloween…even though I spent the entire night wanting to scratch my eyes! Lol

Once we got to Nashville, we got settled in our hotel and headed off to dinner…

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Please excuse the quality of the following photos…dark lighting and a camera phone are not friends to nighttime dining…

We ended up sitting in the bar due to the 2 hour wait for a table, but we did end up scoring a nice little booth in the corner. We weren’t exactly famished due to all the holiday treats we enjoyed for lunch, but neither one of us had ever been to Morton’s Steakhouse and we were both pretty curious.

Being the seafood lovers that we are, we started off with an appetizer of oysters on the half shell…

Since it was my first time trying these, I let BB do all the prep work and he presented it to me on a ~~silver platter~~ saltine cracker.

Verdict?

I liked them!! Never in a million years did I think I would!

For our entree, we went with the Baked Seafood Platter for Two:

Clockwise from the top: broiled sea scallops wrapped in bacon, oysters Rockefeller, COLLASAL shrimp Alexander, and THE BEST crab cakes I’ve ever tasted!

Although they seem to think rather highly of their steak selection (um, 50 bucks?!), I was very impressed with the variety of tastes (and prices) in the menu at Morton’s…a little something for everyone.

With our bellies full, we were finally ready to party! We were in the mood for a little karaoke so we decided on Lonnie’s Western Room on Printer’s Alley.

And just our luck, right off the bat, we spotted Elvis!

See him singing his heart out in the background?

And then? We got there just in time for the free NYE loot!

Of course I made sure to equip BB with all the necessities…but at least he was a good sport about it!

And we proceeded to spend the rest of the night singing along to 80’s rock, classic country, and two or three plays of Summer Lovin’ (must be a fave) while taking all the classic NYE self portraits…

Party favors…

Funny faces…

And of course the midnight kiss! 😉

To balance out all of yesterday’s excitement, it’s been a pretty low-key day today. We made it back to Clarksville this afternoon and spent most of the day lounging around in comfy clothes, eating holiday leftovers, and laughing over one of our new favorite websites.

Whether you went out and partied like a rockstar or hung inside in your pj’s, I hope you all had a fantastic New Year’s Eve and a great start to 2012!

Did you go out for New Years?

What has been the best part of 2012 for you so far?

Posted in Holiday | Tagged party | 29 Comments

Midnight Cravings

Posted on December 28, 2011 by kissmybroccoli

Hello loves!

I seriously canNOT believe this is the last WIAW post for the year of 2011! Where did the time go?? I still can’t even believe that I turned 27 on my last birthday…although the 3 gray hairs that I’ve plucked in the last 3 weeks have served as a cruel reminder…

*grumble*

Anywho! Get out your noise makers and party hats…it’s time to go out in style..

Foodie style that is!

Be sure to stop by Peas & Crayons and thank Jenn for such an amazing job hosting WIAW each week in 2011 and gear up for even more delicious link-ups in the new year! If you have a blog and you haven’t joined in on the fun, please PLEASE check out the “how-to” on P&C. It’s so much fun to get new ideas for meals and snacks and/or just sit in front of your computer and drool over everyone’s food (if you happen to be a total food nerd like me anyway)!

Like I mentioned in my Christmas post, I worked the night shift on Christmas night so this is my “24 hour WIAW”

1am is dinnertime on the night shift and the hospital cafeteria was kind enough to give us a complimentary meal for the night…I only wish they had been kind enough to put a little flavor into the food.

The green beans were terrible and the turkey tasted like something out of a microwave meal, but I was totally craving those mashed potatoes once I caught a whiff of them in the cafeteria and had no problem putting away that and the roll slathered in gravy!

Mmmm, carbs!

Around 3am, I needed a little pick-me-up so I helped myself to two little treats from a co-worker (my favorite holiday treat I might add…BUCKEYES) and I also had a cup of unpictured black coffee.

Hit.the.spot!

And I rode the caffeine/sugar high all the way to the end of my shift at 7am! 🙂

After I got off work, I decided to run to the grocery store and pick up some eggs because I thought I was out. And then somehow I found myself in the middle of the “Post Christmas” sale aisle!

Only I can go to the store for eggs and come out with eggs, coconut milk ice cream, and an electric griddle!

In my defense, I had a FREE coupon a So Delicious product (thanks to Jenn’s giveaway a few months ago) and c’mon, just look at the price of that griddle! How could I, a self-proclaimed pancake queen walk away from that??

Back at the house, I discovered that I DID in fact still have 1/2 a carton of eggs. I blame my fuzzy memory on lack of sleep…and yeah, I’m pretty sure some of my brain cells have been plucked along with those gray hairs.

So then, I get this massive craving for French toast…and if there’s one thing I’ve come to realize while working night shifts, it’s that you don’t deny yourself a craving…because you simply don’t have the brain capacity to fight it! 😉

8:30am: 2 egg French toast, bananas, and
peanut flour sauce (2 tbsp peanut flour + 2 tbsp almond milk + 1 tbsp maple syrup)

After I practically licked my plate clean…wait, I did lick my plate clean…I was out like a light for solid 4 hours. May not sound like much but I had to get back on schedule to work days again for the rest of the week.

I woke up feeling a bit zombie-like, but it was nothing that a good cardio sesh couldn’t cure

Thank God for elliptical programs…no thinking required…just sweating!

After a good workout I almost always crave veggies. Luckily I had stuff to put together a little salad that went perfectly with leftover bean and beef enchiladas that I made on Friday.

2pm
Enchilada topped with sharp cheddar and black olives.
Salad topped with Naturally Fresh ranch dressing.

Mmmm!

And I enjoyed it alongside a 1/2 bottle of Sweet Leaf iced tea. I’ve seen this on Christin’s blog before, but this was my first time trying it (couldn’t pass up a 59 cent bottle of tea!)

And the verdict?

Soooo good! Perfectly sweet with a subtle lemon flavor!

My last meal of the day before passing out around 9pm…one can only hang on for so long without coffee…came around 5pm and wasn’t really a meal at all, but that was A-ok with me because there was a particular Christmas leftover in the fridge calling my name:

The last of Evan’s Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Dessert Hummus with a nice big, juicy Honeycrisp apple

I swear, you guys, this stuff is seriously addicting…make it now!

And you know, since my “meal” wasn’t sweet enough, I had to end it on a SUPER sweet note:

All I can say is, it’s a good thing I only had ONE of these in my possession! 😉

What’s the last craving you had? Did you go for it?

Posted in Breakfast, Desserts, Entree, Snacks, What I Ate Wednesday | Tagged apples, chocolate, coffee, French toast, leftovers, pancakes, salad, shopping | 36 Comments

A Finger Food Feast

Posted on December 26, 2011 by kissmybroccoli

Hey guys and dolls!

I was a bit torn while typing up yesterday’s post. I wanted to include more, but I didn’t want to overload the post…especially on Christmas night, but I just can’t go without showing you guys the little dinner that my dad put together for us for Christmas Eve!

We agreed that since my mom was working and wouldn’t get home till right at dinnertime, we would forego a traditional holiday meal and do more of a snack variety…well, apparently I underestimated my father’s talent for piecing together a feast of odds and ends.

Three trips to the grocery store (we Powers’s are notorious for forgetting things) and nearly $1oo later…

And I shall call it The Finger Food Feast of a Lifetime!

After recruiting my sister Tori for opening, slicing, and spreading, my dad put together a nice meat and cheese tray, little smokies in BBQ sauce, two different kinds of chips and two different crackers with multiple dips, salsa, and hummus (brought my me of course), along with a veggie tray with sweet pickles (love), sliced apples and caramel dip, and even a tropical punch made with orange sherbet!

Along with the hummus, my other contributions were Evan’s peanut butter chocolate chip dessert hummus, a massive bowl of fruit salad, and dark chocolate dipped peanut butter “Ritz”

I use the word in quotation marks because I just couldn’t bring myself to buy that traditional red and gold box…have you seen the ingredient list on those things? Sometimes I wish I could forget some of the things I know about nutrition…if someone else makes it, I have no problem, but my health-freak conscious will not let me buy something with an ingredient list full of hydrogenated oils and preservatives out the yahoo!

Luckily, Kroger has just the place for nut-jobs like me (and some of you…I know I’m not alone!)…it’s called the “natural foods” section of the store! And that is where I picked up this box of Back to Nature crackers…a fraction of the size of a package of Ritz for double the cost…ugh!

But seriously, the crackers taste great (maybe a little better than Ritz…or that could be all in my head) and sandwiched with one of my newest peanut butter finds, Wild Squirrel Pretzel Pizazz (there’s actually bits of salted pretzel in it!), and then covered in dark chocolate…mmm, mmm, mmm!

As far as the dessert hummus, I gotta hand it Tori and BB for trying something new…I don’t think they quite understand my obsession with it (maybe if I made it sweeter) but they did say they liked it. My parents on the other hand, wouldn’t even give it a chance :-/

Can’t win ’em all I guess…at least they ate the fruit!

After dinner, we all ~~rolled ourselves~~ retired to the living room to watch the best Christmas movie ever made:

[source]

I know Sarena is with me on this one…no matter how many times I see this movie, it ALWAYS makes me laugh!

Oh and before I go, I just have to show you guys my wrapping job:

Between years and years of watching my mom and my own OCD/perfectionism, every year I can’t resist prettifying each gift with it’s own curly-que ribbon and bow!

And I totally counted this as my cardio workout for the day after I ended up crawling around on the floor for an hour wrapping and RE-wrapping gifts (definitely got my heart rate up)…note to self: do NOT buy brown paper-type wrapping paper.