It's Lunch Time In America

When it’s cold, rainy and wet, for lunch, I want a hot sandwich…the cold turkey is just not going to cut it this time of year. Therefore it is so tempting to walk down to Quiznos’ and drop a whopping $8 on a hot sub. It’s easy to do as long as you don’t care you are breaking the bank and the button on your jeans.
Therefore I have come up with my own version of a hot sandwich and let me tell you, it does the trick and sooner or later, my pants might fit a little better and my bank account might be overflowing! (Ok ok, can’t a girl dream?)

Blain's Lunch Turkey Burger

Start with this:

Jennie-O 95/5 All Natural White Turkey Burgers
Serving Size: 1 burger
Calories: 180
Total Fat: 7g

Add this:

Pepperidge Farm Deli Flats
Serving Size: 1 roll
Calories: 100
Total Fat: 1g

Plus this:

Sargento Deli Style Sliced Mozzarella Cheese
Serving Size: 1 slice
Calories: 60
Total Fat: 4g

Plus this:

Lettuce
Service Size: 1 piece
Calories: 10
Total Fat: 0g

And this:

Tomato
Serving Size: 1 slice
Calories: 4
Total Fat: 0g

And this:

French’s Yellow Mustard
Serving Size: 3 tsp
Calories: 2
Total Fat: 0g

And last but not least, totally optional if you like your co-workers…I could really care less so…

The final touch:

Onion
Serving Size: 1 ounce (a couple slices)
Calories: 11
Total Fat: 0g

All of this for a grand total of:
Total Calories: 367
Total Fat: 12g

That compared to this:

Quiznos' Mesquite Chicken
Serving Size: Regular Sub
Calories: 824
Total Fat: 15g

AND YES, BLAIN'S TURKEY BURGER PLEASE!

If you really wanted your turkey burger to be slightly healthier, you can leave off the cheese and add some more veggies. I propose maybe some sprouts? Avocado? Cucumbers?!

But…I figure if I already saved myself 457 calories and 3 grams of fat…I am having cheese.

Fair enough?

I think so.

It's Been A Fabulous January!

A little re-cap of some activities over the last month:

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Blair and I at home in Kernerville for Christmas. And yes, there is snow on the ground and I have a short sleeve shirt on but it seriously was not that cold outside...Sister was just overdoing it with the scarf to look cute!

I sucked it up and was a good girlfriend and attended the UNC vs. PITT bowl game in Charlotte with "Charleston" and his friends.
Honestly, it was one of the most boring football games I have ever set through and I am not saying that to just be a UNC hater. I was frozen and we were sitting in row ZZZZZ.

At least we were in good company!

Remember the "mini-vacay" I blogged about here in Vilas, NC with "Charleston" and his roomies? Well...here we are!

L to R: Tyler, "Charleston", Matt

We seriously did NOTHING all weekend long. I LOVE not having to put real clothes on or make-up. I also rocked Sister's App State hoodie every night!

We brought back old school style with Pop Rocks. Remember those?!!!

Group Shot in the kitchen!

Me and Erin

Ooops, uploaded the wrong picture, but...why not include it anyways!

This is (from L to R): Lauren, Amy, Michelle, Me

at Second String Santa

might as well add more of Second String while we are at it!

And a ladies shot! I love these girls!

From L to R: Mealine, Lauren, Me, Jenna, Michelle, Amy

(and yes, we are cheap, we stole this from the Internet, hence the white writing on the front!) And we are back to the mountain trip....

a little "moment" in front of the fireplace. Tyler, seriously, what is wrong? You are with three fabulous girls...can't we smile a little!

L to R: Stacia, Me, Lacy, Tyler

The girls....what would those boys do without us?!

I just love me some "Charleston."

and please don't make fun of my hair! i look like one of those babies that has been laying in the crib on their back for way to long!

It was a fabulous weekend.

L to R: Stacia, Carl, Erin, Me

The Case For SETTLING for MR. GOOD ENOUGH

Being a single girl can be very confusing…

Being a married girl can be very confusing…

Crap, for that matter, being a girl can be more confusing no matter what your status…

I have single friends. I have engaged friends. I have married friends. And, as much as I don’t want to say it I am sure one day I will have divorced friends. Ugh, I hate how that sounds.

It’s so hard, in your 20s to figure out the next direction in life….do I date this guy? Do I see myself marrying this guy? Do I break up with this guy? Do we have kids now? Do we enjoy married life a little longer? So many questions with no one giving you straight forward answers.

Last year I read the book "Better Single Than Sorry" and blogged about it here.
Great book and great message! I thought I had found pretty good advice.

Then today I see another book that looks interesting: “Marry Him. The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough.”
Geeze, way to confuse the heck out of a girl.

(FYI: I am not one of these girls that take these books to heart. I do pull bits of information from them but I think any girl would be screwed if she lived by them like the Bible)

I then found a very interesting article on the book that I just have to share. This book sounds like it will definitely get a girl thinking.

Marry Him -- A Look At The Divisive New Book That Urges You To 'Settle'

by: Carrie Sloan

Just in time for Valentine's Day, the world has found its anti-Cupid. Her name is Lori Gottlieb, and she's a pretty, 42-year-old single mom who will be on the Today Show tomorrow. So why is the blogosphere calling for her head!?

She just wrote a book called "Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough," advising you to, among other things, give the online date with bad breath a second chance, and not ix-nay a guy over his unfortunate taste in denim.

In a word, she's urging you to settle, so as not to wind up alone like she did. And when I finished the book, I turned to my brand-new husband (I got married in September) and said: This is the smartest relationship book I've read in years.

I know, I know -- I can hear you going, "But, but, BUT!" I can hear my friend, who went on so many online dates she actually created a spreadsheet to keep track of them all, telling me at brunch on Sunday, "I don't like the word settle. I couldn't will myself to go out with someone again if there was no chemistry."

And she's right. The thing is, the most unsettling part of the book for me was the word "settle," because, despite the title, that's not exactly what Gottlieb's espousing. She's simply suggesting you not walk in the shoes of her younger self: A very particular girl who wrote guys off indiscriminately, for all the wrong reasons, for too long. And, when you are ready to settle down, look for someone who's going to be a good partner, rather than, say, a master sexter with bedroom eyes.

Though those are nice qualities in a guy too, and you needn't trade him in tomorrow.

That's the thing about this book: I think it's got a lot of truth to impart if you're nearing 30, and know that you want the whole enchilada -- marriage, kids, dirty diapers -- but consistently don't date the type of guy who's likely to change them with you.

I also think the message is timely: We're a generation that's been weaned on six seasons of "Sex and the City" and too many romantic comedies. I mean, I'm all for cute sundresses and brunch, but along with that dose of girl power, we've been fed some seriously messed up relationship messages. How long has Big been stringing Carrie along now? And breathless fans take this as proof that it's true love.

Truth is, it's far more acceptable to waltz around town swilling Cosmos in your tu-tu at 22 than 42, and if they're going to, the "Sex and the City" characters should have come with warning labels:

"In real life, Carrie is married with three kids."

Which brings us back to Gottlieb, who's been skewered on blog after blog for the book's following passage:

"It's kind of like the graphic anti-drunk driving public service announcements that show people crashing into poles and getting killed. If they just told you, 'Don't drink and drive,' you might think, 'Yeah, I know, but I can have a couple martinis, right?' It's not until you see people ending up brain-dead, lying in a coma in the hospital and surrounded by beeping monitors, that the message has an impact.

"In the same way, if you don't see how easily people can end up alone by making the dating mistakes I did, you won't be dissuaded from making the same mistakes yourself. I had to show the reality of being single at my age because I used to be like a teenager who thinks he's invulnerable to drunk driving accidents -- it's all in the abstract, something that happens to other people, but would never happen to me. It never occurred to me that I would become another dating casualty. I had to show, in grim detail, the accident that my dating life became so that you could make choices you wouldn't look back on later and regret."

How could she, bloggers spluttered. As one wrote, acidly: "Yes, she just compared being single to being brain-dead after a drunk-driving accident." No. The comparison Gottlieb made -- using as much hyperbole as possible, so people would (ahem) get the message -- is this: If you're not careful, you could wind up like me.

She isn't saying there's anything wrong with being single for the rest of your days, unless that's not how you want to spend them. What she is saying is that she wanted to get married, and have biological kids with a husband, but that's not how her life -- which is still okay, thank you very much -- panned out. And she's writing her book in the hopes that that won't happen to you.

In her twenties, Gottlieb was -- though she doesn't say this outright -- a catch, sure her Mr. Right was around the next corner. She spent the next two decades trying to find him, while, like the rest of us, juggling a career. Then, at 37, she decided to take a break, and instead of signing up for another online dating site, registered to find a sperm donor and have a baby while she still could. Now she has a young son she loves "ecstatically," she writes, but still no man she feels that way about.

What she realizes, too late, is that dating doesn't get easier as you get older. Think speed-dating is the devil now? Try it at 41, when, even if they try to police the age groups by decade, the only dudes who show up to date you are fresh off registering at the AARP. It's not a pretty picture. And that part of the book can be bleak. But I applaud her for telling the truth, and throwing herself under the bus for the rest of us.

Fact: It sounds like Gottlieb was pretty picky in her youth. Nobody's saying you can't blackball a guy for a lot of perfectly good reasons. Though those women with checklists are out there, too: I personally plan to loan my copy of "Marry Him" to my friend who refuses to date anyone with "recessive genes" -- by that she means blonds, redheads and any guy under 6'0.

Mind you, she's 35, and 5' 3."

But if you're 22 or 26, get back on the bar and keep dancing. I, too, dated in a big city for a decade, and there's a time when a guy should be judged by nothing more than his potential to make an excellent post-mortem brunch story.

Maybe, like eye cream, this book will be lost on you until the day you actually need it. And here's hoping you never will.

Until then, just keep this in mind. My friend from brunch, the one with the spreadsheet? She, like me, finally got engaged. At the time, we were both 33.

In my case, I'd finally kicked my twentysomething habit of falling hard for foreign accents and took up with a good guy who only speaks one tongue: English. But he also boasts a wicked sense of humor and the sort of devotion that doesn't need conjugating.

My friend, a film buff with a taste for subtitles and charismatic gay pseudo-boyfriends fell head-over-heels for an Arby's-loving sports nut who happens to think she's the best thing since powdered roast beef. Huh?

"I wouldn't have looked at him in my twenties," she laughed when we were out last Sunday. "I thought I wanted someone who was into foreign films."

I don't think either one of us thinks we've settled. It's more that we grew up. And I think all Gottlieb's urging you to do is use your perch on the bar to scan the room for nice guys you might otherwise overlook -- because you might find they grow on you when the time comes not to settle, but to settle down.

Agree? Disagree? Hate me and Lori Gottlieb, too? That's fine. Tell us why you would or wouldn't "settle."

Happy Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

Today Dad turns 50!

It is crazy because somewhere in my mind my parents will always be 38. Ha ha..funny and scary because if he were only 38 that would have made him 13 when he and mom had me and Sister..ugh. Gross.

Anyway, Happy Birthday to the most amazing Father!

I LOVE YOU!

oh yeah...and dad shares his birthday with Facebook! Facebook turns 6 today!

"Who Do You Think You Are?"

Last night I saw a preview of an upcoming show on NBC, “Who Do You Think You Are” and I will say, I am intrigued and will definitely add it to my weekly round-up!

The show takes a personal look inside the family history of Matthew Broderick, Lisa Kudrow, Spike Lee, Sarah Jessica Parker, Susan Sarandon, Brooke Shields and Emmitt Smith. (I LOVE these people!!!!)

The seven-episode program will lead celebrities on a journey of a self-discovery as they unearth their family trees that reveal surprising, inspiring and even tragic stories that are often linked to crucial events in American History. Each week a celebrity will venture through their past traveling all over the world. The show will lead us through the California Gold Rush, Salem witch trials, beaches of Africa to European aristocracy and from the Civil War to the Holocaust and many other adventures times in history!

I can’t wait to watch and honestly, this might be an adventure I am going to add to my “bucket list.” I would love to dig deeper into my ancestry seeing as how, as sad as it is, I don’t know that much about my family past my grandparents. (I am almost embarrassed to say that!)

Anyway, watch it with me...season premier is on March 5th at 8:00pm on NBC!

Take That Attacker

It’s February 1st and my first day of walking to work – the biggest advantage of my new apartment!

From office chair to apartment door it takes me 10 minutes. MOOONEY!!!!

Yes, at 5:20am it is dark and the city is quiet but the walk is actually nice. It gives me a little “Blain -time” in the morning instead of waking up, rushing to get ready, a 2 minute car ride from my old apartment and at my desk pounding away. Plus, it feels good to actually “move.” Before I was walking to work, I parked right in front of my apartment and parked in the parking deck right behind my office building. I bet I took less than 500 steps a day if I didn’t go to the gym! That’s awful. So….long story short, the walk is kind of refreshing.

But, at 5:20 the quietness can also be a little too quiet for a 25 year old female walking by herself through uptown Charlotte so…Dad bought me this:

2.8p Million Volt Mini Stun Gun

It’s the strongest Stun Gun Sold on EBay. Its only 4” long and 2” wide but strong enough to take you down!

And I got the best advice from Sister: “Once you take them down with your stun gun and they are on the ground, you rob them and run off!” I like where her heads at…I can always use a little extra lunch money ;)

Just Kiddin'

Happy Monday Friends!

Looks Like Wheat

I remember my dreams almost every night and I honestly have no clue where the heck they come from.

Most people say you dream about stuff you thought about before bed . . .or watched on TV . . . or talked about with a friend.

Well last night I watched The Girls Next Door and talked To “Charleston.” Nothing special and nothing out of the ordinary. But I had the STUPIDEST, DUMBEST, IDIOTIC dream I could have imagined.

Therefore, I have to share because I have thought about it and had mental pictures about it all day.

To set the scene:

Me, Sister, Ryan, Sarah, Lauren, Sharon, Leslie and KT Weeg are all at the beach, I guess reliving spring break all over again.

The beach was really narrow and it was very overcast that day. There were people everywhere including old and young.

All of a sudden, this slightly overweight girl comes stumbling up and falls in the sand. She is wasted! This old couple jumps up to help her and she tells them she will be fine if she can just get a Hi-C Drink (I mean WTF? Ha-ha).

Her friend starts pulling her by the ponytail through the sand telling her they are going to Toys’ R Us (again, I don’t know! ha-ha).

The drunken girl ends up in front of us and starts throwing up…but throwing up cookies (maybe she had the munchies! I don’t know!).

It was gross one way or the other. So, I reach over and started helping her while all the rest of the girls are calling for help.

Long story short, the hot lifeguard comes.
The hot lifeguard starts doing CPR (yes, on top of the cookie mess still in her mouth! Ugh) but he keeps wiping something out of his face.
I can’t figure out what he keeps wiping out of his eyes so I pull my legs out from under her head and slide back into my chair and notice that the hair on my legs is so long and looks like wheat!!!!

Kind of like this:
Or like this:

Or even like this:

It was my leg hair that was tickling hot lifeguard's face while he was giving CPR!

The lifeguard was still sitting beside me and I did not want to embarrass myself so I started to pull off the little balls of wheat on the end so he can’t see how really long my leg hair was! UGH Gross!
I don’t know where all this came from and I promise I shave! I swear! Come rub my legs!

Broccoli and Gruyere Gratin

"All the single ladies, All the single ladies

All the single ladies, All the single ladies

All the single ladies, All the single ladies

All the single ladies...

Now put your hands up" - Beyonce

OK, so what is one good thing about being a single lady?....

It's not having to feed a man a meat with every meal! Seriously. Every time poor Sister makes a meal, it is not a meal if she doesn't feed Sammie something with a meat, potato and a side dish.

Me on the other hand, I can do a single veggie or even a simple bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios and be a happy camper. Maybe I should skip the man and move on to the five year old! (jk, SERIOUSLY just kidding, NO THANK YOU! seriously.... NOOOOO THANNNNKKK YOU!)

Anyway, so the other night I made this for dinner; this and only this, just for me! It was my main course and side dish wrapped into one.

Welcome... Broccoli and Gruyere Gratin

Ingredients
2 large bunches broccoli, roughly chopped (about 12 cups)
4 tablespoons butter (1/2 stick)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups whole milk
2 cups grated Gruyere (8 ounces)
kosher salt and black pepper

Directions
1. Heat oven to 375° F. Fill a large saucepan with 1 inch of water and fit with a steamer basket (or fill a large pot with ½ inch of water). Bring to a simmer. Place the broccoli in the steamer basket, cover, and steam until just tender, 3 to 4 minutes; transfer to a large bowl.

2. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes (do not let it darken). Whisk in the milk and simmer until slightly thickened, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in 1 cup of the cheese, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Toss with the broccoli.

3. Transfer the broccoli mixture to a shallow 3-quart baking dish and sprinkle with the remaining cup of cheese. Bake until bubbling and golden brown, 35 to 40 minutes. Let sit 10 minutes before serving.

All the single ladies (or those married ones that want to make this as a side dish for their husbands beef), have a big bowl and snuggle up on the couch with your favorite DVR'd episodes of 'Friends' and enjoy!

Different Restaurants

Opening a new restaurant is risky. 60% of new restaurants close or change ownership within three years. One way to make a restaurant stand out from the crowd is to have a theme, and the wackier the better. It may be as simple as putting costumes on the waiters and decorating the walls, or it may be an entirely new concept, but it probably won’t make the food any better. However, strange themes will get valuable publicity.

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1. Dinner in the Sky
Dinner in the Sky is a Brussels based restaurant that serves dinner for up to 22 people… 150 feet in the air! The specially-designed table and chairs are lifted by a crane. Dinner anywhere in Belgium will set you back almost 8 thousand euros; other locations are also available. Remember, you must wear your seat belt, and don’t drop your fork!

2. In the Toilet

The food at Marton Theme Restaurant in Kaohsiung, Taiwan is in the toilet. Patrons sit on toilets while eating, there are more toilets on the walls, and the food is served in dishes shaped like both eastern and western toilets and urinals. And business couldn’t be better.

3. Food for What Ails You

D.S. Music Restaurant in Taipei, Taiwan is a medical-themed restaurant with crutches on the wall, waitresses dressed a nurses, and drinks served from an IV drip bottle! The owner came up with the idea to express his gratitude for care he received at a local hospital.

4. Pasta You Can’t Refuse

A restaurant situated inside the top security prison Fortezza Medicea in Italy is so popular that officials have since opened more branches.
Serenaded by Bruno, a pianist doing life for murder, the clientele eat inside a deconsecrated chapel set behind the 60ft high walls, watch towers, searchlights and security cameras of the daunting 500-year-old Fortezza Medicea, at Volterra near Pisa.
Under the watchful eye of armed prison warders, a 20-strong team of chefs, kitchen hands and waiters prepares 120 covers for diners who have all undergone strict security checks. Tables are booked up weeks in advance.

5. Safe Sex with Dinner

Cabbages and Condoms is a chain of restaurants in Thailand. There are condoms on the walls and pictures of condoms printed on the carpets. Instead of after-dinner mints, patrons are offered a bowl of condoms at the counter. Profits from the restaurants go to support the Population and Community Development Association (PDA).

6. Under the Sea

Ithaa is the name of the underwater restaurant at the Hilton Maldives Resort & Spa. The walls and roof are a transparent acrylic arch. Its capacity is 14 people, who go down a spiral staircase to a depth of five meters.

7. Revolutionary Culture

Shao Shan Chong Xiang Cai Guan in Nanning, China used the Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976 as a theme. The wait staff dress like Red Guards. Although it’s not an era people recall fondly, the restaurant is doing well. The food must be good.

8. In the Dark

At Dans le Noir ? in Paris and in London, dinner is served in complete darkness to produce a sensory experience completely different from most restaurants. The concept is threefold: 1. you taste your food without visual cues as to what you should expect, 2. you relate to your dinner companion(s) differently when you can’t see them, and 3. the wait staff is blind.

Modest Peach

I'm obsessed.....

The Helen Pendant: $18

The Emily Cuff- Gold: $190

The Jocelyn - Gold: $70

The Sarah Ring: $28

Ummmm...how fabulous are these!

Check out the Modest Peach for some of the cutest new jewels!!!

Can I Make The Adjustment?

Eight 60W light bulbs shine right in my face.

I sometimes walk out looking like this:
And sometimes looking like this:

This has honestly been the hardest thing to adjust to in moving from one apartment to the next.
I can get used to having a bigger room, a bigger closet, a new furniture layout, new sounds and new kitchen appliances but….getting used to a different light in the bathroom is proving to be impossible.

We all have our routines. While living at Eastover Ridge and using the same bathroom for three years, I knew exactly how many brush strokes it took to apply just enough blush. I knew that I needed to apply a little more eye shadow at night for it to show up in the light outside of the bathroom. I knew just how much bronzer to sweep across my forehead and still look like a white girl. I knew exactly what I needed to do in my bathroom light to look OK in the light elsewhere.

Well all this has changed and I came to work the other day and everyone asked me if I was feeling OK. I did not understand until I checked myself out in the work bathroom mirror and I looked like death had come over me. It looked as if I walked right out of the shower and into the office; makeup-less.

The light in my new bathroom is SO bright that even the slightest bit of color makes me look like a stripper on stage. So while in the new bathroom it looks like I am applying enough makeup to be in the Little Miss Perfect pageant, I really walk out looking like a ghost while in the kitchen light. So I go back in and add more and then I have overdone it. Where is the happy medium I used to have at my old apartment!!!

It’s going to be a struggle, but ill survive. Just do me a favor…if you see me in public and I am really washed out or "stripper-like"…tell me to turn around and try again. Only time will tell if I can adjust to the new light in my new bathroom.

Sky's The Limit

This weekend I am headed for a mini-vacay to the mountains of North Carolina. “Charleston” and his roomies have rented a house for them and their “side kicks” in Vilas, NC, just right outside of Boone. The plans for the weekend?...there are none. That’s why I am excited! It feels like since the beginning of the holiday it has been go, go, go and in my “free time” I moved apartments. I can’t wait to sit on the porch with a lovely cocktail in hand and spend some quality time with the b.f. and friends.

A little relaxation at its finest.

Check out the house they rented…it’s perfect! Good job boys!

Welcome to ‘Sky’s The Limit’:

It is a brand new 4 bedroom, 4-1/2 bath cabin with a game room, a workout room, a small in home theater and a hot tub on the wrap around deck. The game room includes a pool table with ping pong top, and a card playing table with chairs.

Now, this is where I am going to spend the weekend ;) - The workout room has a bowflex machine (ha ha ha), a stationary bike (ha ha ha, go Lance Armstrong! Matt Hawks and “Charleston” are going to fight over this piece of equipment!), and a mini trampoline (ok, the 80’s are calling Richard Simmons to Sky’s the Limit!)
Ok, so the workout room isn’t that cool but the owners tried and at least it has something!

Oh well, I’ll leave ya with some pics of the inside of the house!
Happy Thursday Friends!

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