What does it all MEAN?

So I've always been fascinated by dream interpretation or dream symbolism. But I don't think I ever really bought into the ideas that by studying the meaning of your dreams you can understand more of your subconscious, or unconscious, or whatever it's called.

But my sleeping patters this week have, quite frankly, been freaking me out.

I have TWICE this week dreamed that I was running away from alligators. The first dream I was surrounded by angry baby alligators, and then last night they were HUGE, like the ones you see on Swamp People. And they were really fast runners... or crawlers, or whatever. I've always been told to run in zigzags if I'm being chased by an alligator on land. Clearly I didn't remember that piece of instruction in my dream, since I woke up when one caught me and chomped down on my arm. That can't translate into anything good...

So I got curious, and looked it up online. Here's what I found from www.dreammoods.com:

"To see an alligator in your dream symbolizes treachery, deceit, and hidden instincts. It may be a signal for you to take on a new perspective on a situation. It may also represent your ability to move between the physical, material world of waking life and the emotional, repressed world of the unconscious.  Alternatively, the alligator represents healing powers and qualities. An alligator also suggests that you are thick-skinned or insensitive. 

To dream that you are running away from the alligator, indicates that you are unwilling to confront some painful and disturbing aspect of your unconscious. There is some potentially destructive emotion that  you are refusing to acknowledge and
owning up to."

Well isn't that nice. Then there's another section that says what it means if you're RAPED by an alligator. I was like OHMYGOSH and closed that web window faster than a lightning bolt.

Anyway, I think I'm going to go with the healing powers an alligator represents. Sure. Sounds good. And maybe now I'll dream about something more pleasant.

Day 2 of the cleanse: We must be crazy

So my husband and I decided to do a 7-day cleanse... or, more accurately, I decided we needed to do a cleanse and he agreed.

Our wedding planner actually posted on Facebook that she was doing it, and it's something I guess she found on Pinterest (where else?). It's called the GM diet, and apparently it was designed back in the 1980s for General Motors employees.

That makes me wonder if GM had a lot of non-cleansed workers during that decade.

Anyway, my last two weekends have consisted of eating like a champ, and I was feeling gross. So I mentioned it to Mike, and he was all for it.

Yesterday. Day 1. Fruits only.

I mean, I like fruit and all, but not for an entire MEAL. Plus, we can only drink water (I miss coffee) and the only other thing we can eat is the GM Wonder Soup. Which, I was thankful for that last night because I couldn't stomach a fruit cup for dinner. However, let me just tell you what's in this soup. 32 ounces of water, a can of diced tomatoes, two green peppers, a head of cabbage, chopped celery and... SIX ONIONS.

I have never chopped so many onions in my life. And I'm not an award-winning vegetable chopper, so by the time I was done there were pieces of onion and green pepper EVERYWHERE... on the microwave, across the kitchen on the floor, stuck to the wall...

So. It was good after it simmered for awhile, and we were both relatively satisfied. Then we both passed out on the couch at 8.

Today. Day 2. Veggies only.

And we had to start the day with a baked potato. For breakfast. That actually didn't bother me, but that bag of steamed vegetables with no seasoning I ate for lunch nearly pushed me over the edge. Plus, I had to go to an event at lunchtime for work, and about 10 people were telling me to help myself at the food table. I stayed strong.

Tomorrow is Day 3, which is a combination of fruit, veggies and the soup.

Day 4: Bananas and milk and soup (we can't have bananas for the first three days... no clue why)

Day 5: Beef and tomatoes

Day 6: Beef and vegetables

Day 7: Brown rice, veggies and fruit juice.

Is it Day 8 yet?

Home improvement... sort of

Let me just say this. My husband and I are not gifted when it comes to home improvement projects.

And that's putting it mildly. A more truthful statement would be: We are AWFUL at home improvement projects.

Case in point: When we moved into our townhouse, there was no ceiling fan in the master bedroom. That was simply not going to fly, since I despise sleeping when it's hot. And my husband knew he'd probably be pretty miserable if I couldn't sleep, so off to Lowe's we went.

Since we had no clue what we needed to purchase, we came home with the cheapest ceiling fan we could find. It was a little rinky-dink $15 fan, but I figured, hey, aren't all ceiling fans the same? We didn't need a super-posh one with metal accents, or stained glass, or cool-looking leaf-shaped propellers. We just needed something basic that would do the trick.

We looked at hooking it up for about five minutes, and quickly realized we were screwed.

Luckily, a college friend of his, who by himself gutted his own kitchen and built new cabinets, came to the rescue.

I think it took Bob about five seconds to look at our purchase and announce we had gotten the wrong kind of fan. I couldn't tell you why; I think it had something to do with the fact that our bedroom has an angled ceiling.

I wasn't home during the installation, but once the correct fan was purchased, I think he had it operating in 20 minutes.

We haven't done any other projects like that (and you can probably see why) until I decided we HAD to have a mail rack with hooks next to our front door. See, we both lose our keys daily, and we can't ever find that one piece of mail, or the dog leash. So I thought that would be the answer.

Problem was, we had to hang it.

I decided to tackle this one on my own, and in hindsight, I don't know what I was thinking. I can't even hang a picture without either denting the wall or ending up with a very crooked piece of decor.

So I went at it.

Of course, I hit a stud. And then, that little plastic piece you're supposed to insert before the screw broke in half. IN THE WALL.

After digging it out with a screwdriver (and pieces of wall falling to the floor), I started a new hole for the screw, and said heck with the plastic thing. My husband did intervene, especially when I started threatening to chuck the hammer through the front window.

I think it's crooked, but it's up, and surprisingly functional.

And at least now we know where our keys are. 

Good food and a good friend? Yes, please.

I was happy this weekend. Not only did I take a little road trip (the first one since I got married), but I ate some G-R-E-A-T food.

My dear friend Whitney lives in Georgia with her husband and their son, who is almost 2. This was the first time I got to meet the little guy, and that alone made it a wonderful trip.

Whitney shares my love for Pinterest, and she's always liked to cook. So she told me to pick out a recipe for Friday night, which we tackled together.

I will also point out that Whitney shares my love for mushrooms, as well.

I chose this mushroom and ricotta pasta, and Whit made some additions that made the dish TO DIE FOR.

She added spinach (YUM) and heavy cream to the sauce, plus a little more butter. This might have decreased the healthy factor, but man, was it worth it.

The next day, Whitney took me to the Ritz at Reynolds Plantation for lunch. It was right on the lake, apparently where Carrie Underwood got married. 

We decided to cook again that night, and made a chicken dish with a sauce made from golden mushroom soup. With that, Whit whipped up some risotto with... what else? Mushrooms. :)

While that was cooking, I made an appetizer that used to be the only thing I knew how to cook. Stuffed mushrooms with spinach and Parmesan cheese. I don't measure anything, but you just buy a packet of grocery store mushrooms, remove the stems, and stuff it with a spinach mixture. That's basically a package of Stouffer's creamed spinach, bread crumbs, a little butter and Parmesan cheese. Then you bake them on 350-375 for about 10 minutes. 

We weren't really hungry since we had a big lunch, but it was all delicious. 

It was so great to see my friend and her husband, finally meet her precious little boy, eat good food and stay up late talking, just like we used to do. 

Tonight I made a Parmesan baked chicken, but it didn't hold a candle to all the fabulous mushroom dishes I enjoyed over the weekend. 

And in case anyone is wondering how the dog is doing, while I've been writing this post she found a jacket of mine that had a dog biscuit in it, and has proceeded to chew the thing to pieces IN the pocket. So now there's dog biscuit crumbs everywhere. Although if I know my dog, she'll take care of cleaning that up for me. 

Anyone want a beagle?

She's really cute. But take this warning: Whenever you think you've succeeded at the whole house training thing, she'll pee in puppy class and embarrass you.

Seriously. This dog did GREAT for the first 40 minutes of class last night. The teacher had her doing agility drills, so she was running through tunnels, leaping through hoops (well, she was scared of the hoop so I don't think she ever mastered that) and jumping up onto a platform with a pillow on top. I mean, I was even thinking we should start looking into dog shows.

Well, then my husband excuses himself to go to the restroom. He hadn't been gone five seconds when Cooper looked at me, jumped up on the pillow and peed. It was like Niagara Falls. I couldn't believe it since she'd gone to the bathroom THREE TIMES before class! Sigh.

I looked at Betsy, and without a word she handed me a roll of paper towels. So then I got to clean up an ocean of pee.

This was the third consecutive week that she's peed in class. 

After that, we walked around the store (the class meets in PetSmart) with Cooper on the leash, so we could prove to Betsy that walking her in our neighborhood is a nightmare since she drags us the entire time. I lost interest when we passed by the cats up for adoption, and let the others go ahead while I cooed at a 4-month old named Thumper.

I pretty much ignored Cooper for the rest of the class. Even when she did a few tricks in front of the goldfish. I acted like I didn't care.

But then on the way home, she fell asleep on my lap, and all was forgiven.

So no, you can't really have my dog.

A plate full of goodness

I feel like I haven't really cooked in awhile, so last night I went a little crazy at the grocery store. Not only did I purchase ingredients for TWO different dishes for last night's dinner, I went ahead and bought everything needed for a crockpot recipe for tonight (and almost forgot to start cooking it this morning).

So last night was the garlic and brown sugar baked chicken, which I served with Parmesan baked zucchini slices and a box of Publix-brand chicken-flavored rice (hey, the box of rice was 89 cents).

It. Was. Delicious.

I wasn't sure about the zucchini, since it looked more crispy in the photo from the recipe. And when I pulled the pan out of the oven, my slices looked rather flimsy. But they tasted amazing.

The chicken was also good, although I didn't want to take a picture of my baking dish since it looked like a bomb exploded. You're supposed to cook it for 15-30 minutes, which is a pretty big range, and I opted for the longest possible cooking time since the massive chicken breasts I was dealing with seemed to come from some very healthy chickens.

And the rice... I mean, you can't go wrong with boxed rice. Especially when it's 89 cents.

My husband, who is not usually a fan of leftovers, took the remaining chicken and rice to work today. And, I've received confirmation that he actually ate it, so that's got to be a good sign.

Today's attempt is another Pinterest find that doesn't really have a title. It's some kind of cream cheese/chicken/rotel crockpot creation, and you can find the recipe here. The good news is, the author calls it "the easiest dinner ever." Sounds good to me.

Y to the UM

Ok, so my husband and I have been doing pretty good on Weight Watchers. At least, we're good during the week. On the weekends we tend to fall apart and indulge a little more than the plan allows. But our Friday night binge was soooooo worth it.

I can't even remember what we had for dinner, because all that sticks out in my mind is dessert. Now, we rarely eat dessert, and if we do, it's like, a Weight Watchers 2-point cake (which is seriously like a tiny cube of cake). Well, I decided to explore a new culinary masterpiece that looked easy and quick, which are two words to live by in the kitchen as far as I'm concerned.

I found a recipe for grilled banana s'mores, where you slit a banana, fill it with chocolate chips, marshmallows and cinnamon toast crunch, wrap it up in tinfoil and throw it on the grill. (Find the original recipe here.)

I altered it a little.

First of all, I ruled out the grill. We have a little tiny Weber charcoal grill that I'm pretty sure was designed for camping. Since I doubt either one of us would survive a night in the wild, we just put it on our back porch at our condo.

And let me just tell you how funny it looks next to all of the big gas grills owned by just about every neighbor we have.

Anyway, so I ruled out the ghetto grill, and preheated the oven.

I still slit the banana and wrapped it in foil, but I put my own favorite fillings: chocolate chips and... wait for it... PEANUT BUTTER CHIPS.

If you know me, you know I have somewhat of a problem with peanut butter. The problem being, I can't stop eating it once I start. So I will plead the fifth if anyone asks how many mouthfuls of peanut butter chips I scarfed down while waiting for the bananas to cook.

After only eight minutes, we dug in. The photo doesn't do it justice.

Actually, it looks sort of gross in the picture. But trust me, it was like a big, gooey slice of heaven. But next time I will definitely put more peanut butter chips in there, and possible top it off with cool whip.

Delish. But now I'm out of peanut butter chips. And, come to think of it, peanut butter...