What's for Dinner: Roasted Chicken & Potatoes

Last night, I kind of freestyled dinner again. I'm declaring it "Freezer February" and in an effort to keep our grocery shopping to a minimum, we are going to try to eat down some of the stuff that's in our freezer. We had a chicken in the freezer, so I cooked that last night, with some sliced up red potatoes and red onion. We had homemade bread on the side, and green bean casserole (I went with the recipe on the French's fried onions can for that).

Roasted Chicken and Potatoes:

1 chicken, mine was cut apart, but you could obviously roast it whole!

Red potatoes, halved/quartered (they varied in size)

1/2 giant red onion, chopped

A few shakes of the following:

Thyme

Rosemary

Basil

Salt

Pepper

A few tablespoons of the following:

Olive Oil

Lemon Juice

and a bay leaf

I mixed all of the spices and olive oil in a large bowl and tossed the potatoes and onion in the mixture. I spread the same mixture all over the chicken. Roast in oven, uncovered, for about 1 hour, 20 minutes at 400 degrees. *

*I googled and read that you should cook chicken to an internal temperature of 180 degrees, but in the end, we were starving and growing impatient and our chicken's internal temperature was only 160 degrees. It was done, and juicy and we are both still happy and healthy!

Funny side note: When we first moved into our apartment, I swear our smoke detector could SMELL. Seriously! Every time I would cook anything on the stove or in the oven and it created a scent, not smoke, just a scent! the thing would start beeping. We got maintenance to come out and they installed a newer, less sensitive, but still somewhat easily offended smoke alarm. Occasionally, it will still go off when I'm cooking. The funny thing is, Brokaw is so conditioned... to think that if I turn on the overhead fan.. that the alarm will go off. So, every time I turn on the fan over the stove, he completely freaks out!! He paces all over the apartment with his tail down between his legs and hides under Michael's wheelchair! Guess that's his "safe spot."

Leadership Retreat Reflections

Hi everyone. I am taking a break from swimming in the details of President Obama's proposed budget for FY2011. My brain hurts. I figure a quick blog about nothing of national attention, and also that doesn't include ANY numbers, would be a nice little getaway.

An update on us... it snowed AGAIN! I think this may be like the 4th time it's snowed this season, and that's just craziness! They were only calling for an inch or so, but we got wallopped again... I'd say about 4 or 5 inches! Michael and I were driving home from the Leadership Retreat Saturday night and were shocked to see the Beltway and Interstate 66 hadn't even been touched by the snow plows and salt trucks!

We had an AMAZING weekend, though. Such an honor to be a part of National Community Church. Our staff clearly has their eyes, ears and hearts tuned into what God has in store for 2010 and beyond, and we're just honored to get to be a part of it. You can read Michael's twitter updates from the weekend here.

My own personal reflections... well, I haven't totally digested them yet, but I will tell you that as we sang and prayed, I kept feeling this urge to think on the words "In Your Name...." I know I need to do a better job of praying in, hoping in, and trusting in His name. As a church, we are committing to reading through the Bible in a year. I'm excited for, and secretly intimidated by this goal. It'll start in Lent! I was also challenged in the leadership role we play in the Prayer Ministry at NCC. I want to be a better, more focused, more encouraging leader. I want to see people and love them and care about them like Jesus does.

Michael and I committed to each other that during this first year of our marriage, we would be 100% focused on our relationship and not take on any additional ministry responsibilities. I thought of this during the retreat. My marriage and my love and service to my husband is my #1 priority. Hands down. But, I definitely haven't thought of it as a "ministry."

I tend, by nature of a coping mechanism, I believe, to compartmentalize a lot. I like to keep my work stuff at work, my home stuff at home. My friend stuff where it belongs. Family stuff in its own place. But, boy!! Has marriage really stirred the pot up! No matter how hard I try, I can't keep all of my hats on their own hooks. You know, the wife hat, the nurse hat, the chef hat, the maid hat, the driver hat. And sometimes, juggling all of my new hats, in addition to the ones I had before I got married, you know... the daugher hat, the friend hat, the sister hat, the TV news producer hat, the blogger hat... I often feel overwhelmed. Or, as we jokingly say around our house "all the whelmed."

I am reminded of a simple truth that I often lose sight of. Colossians 3:17: "... whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

Now, if I can just remember that!
Oh, how I do have this deep desire to really fall in love with the Word of God. To really have it written on my heart. I know that would help me, would center me, would calm the storms of worry and anxiety in my heart. I know this, in part, because sometimes, late at night (figuratively speaking, since we often go to bed before 8pm!) when I'm laying there... sometimes in tears because the day that's ending, or the one that we'll face tomorrow is full of uphill battles or to do lists or lots of hat switching... my dear husband will gently whisper God's word into my ears... and it. always. calms me down.

Someday... I do see us "in ministry." But, we are now, too. In our marriage. I am now re-framing... re-focusing... trying to really think of my role as a wife as a ministry role.

Somewhere Over The...

Rainbow. Check out what I saw on my way home from work yesterday. Pretty cool, eh?

What's For Dinner: Greek-ish Beef Tortillas

I am making this stuff up as I go, can you tell?

Confession: I am a chronic pantry/freezer builder-upper. I love to STOCK UP. I buy stuff all the time with the idea that I am "stocking up." Stocking up for what? I don't know. Because every time I pull a pound of chicken or beef out of the freezer, or we use a bag of frozen vegetables or a can of something, I immediately put it on the list because I like to have a certain amount of EVERYTHING on hand. I pride myself in the fact that we almost never actually run out of anything :)

This week, we were going to try to live off of what we have, which of course is uber-plenty! I say "were" because it turns out I have to run to the grocery store tonight to pick up a prescription... so you know what that means... I can take my LIST, yay!! :)

Back to the point... We didn't really have a plan for dinner last night. I pulled a pound of stew beef down from the freezer to thaw. Didn't really know exactly what we would do with it... that was slightly stressing me out, but we made it up as we went along and actually came up with a pretty tasty meal!

Greek-ish Beef Tortillas

1 pound stew beef

flour tortillas

chopped romaine lettuce

frozen vegetables (we used Wegman's "Spring Mix" which included onions, red peppers, yellow squash and green beans)

olive oil

worcestershire sauce

salt

pepper

season-all (that's the name of the stuff, I swear by it)

Feta cheese

1. Heat up some olive oil and worcestershire sauce in a skillet.

2. Throw the beef in there, season with salt, pepper & season-all. Cook until pretty much done.

3. Mix in the frozen veggies, cover and simmer until your house smells like a restaurant

4. Place the tortillas in the pan over the meat/veggie mix one at a time. I made this step up, should have taken a picture... maybe I'll remember to do that next time? Anyway, this is a good thing to do because it softens up your tortilla and makes it much easier to roll.

5. Place a bed of lettuce on your warm tortilla.

6. Top with beef/veggie mixture.

7. Add lots of feta cheese.

8. Roll up.

9. ENJOY!

His and Hers

From our date night to Borders... a tale of his and hers. This is such a true portrait of how different we can be. Michael is so soak it in, take it easy, absorb every morsel of information. I am like a skimming, speed reading, surface scratching machine. Just look at the reading material we piled up. Haha!!

His:
Hers:

What's For Dinner: Fake Homemade Spaghetti & Meatballs

I'm on a roll this morning! I even have a "What's for Dinner" post! This one is kind of cheating. It's kind of like fake-homemade. Not even semi-homemade, I'm no Sandra Lee or anything!

Fake-Homemade Spaghetti & Meatballs:
1 box spaghetti noodles
1 jar store-bought spaghetti sauce
1 green pepper
1 onion
1 red pepper
salt
pepper
olive oil
Frozen meatballs (I don't remember how many I used, these were leftovers from our Ugly Christmas Sweater Party)

I like to serve spaghetti with salad and garlic bread on the side. Natch.
Chop up your peppers and onion, these are essential to making your store-bought spaghetti sauce look, taste and feel "homemade."

Boil your noodles with a little salt, according to the package.*

*Please do not judge me by the spots on my dishes. I blame the dishwasher, and I lack the time and follow-up effort to combat the spots.

Get the meatballs going in a pan with some olive oil, salt & pepper. I like to cook them until they look more like edible meatballs, and less like snowballs.

Then, mix in the freshly chopped vegetables and the jar of sauce. Let it simmer for about 5 minutes, covered. During this time, you can drain your noodles, and pop some bread + garlic salt + butter in the toaster oven. = Garlic Bread!

I get bonus points here for using the last of some sub rolls we had in the pantry. We are trying not to waste food. :)

Toss up a salad to your liking. Serve your sauce and meatballs over the pasta with fresh parmasean cheese (so much better than the shake stuff) and you will have............. drum roll please................

One. Happy. Husband. At least I did. Try it, it really is worth the 10 minutes it adds to just having jar sauce and noodles, and it will really take your meal up a notch!
The leftovers are yummy, too. Even cold. Cheers!

iPhones!

After researching prices for cell phone plans, we decided to take the plunge and got iPhones over the weekend!

We are both in love! (yes, of course, with each other, but also with our new little friends)

If you make a list, it's not hard at all to justify going to the iPhone. You get an iPod, a GPS, a camera, a phone... and the list goes on and on...

We got them Friday night, then had dinner at Chipotle (during which we talked to each other minimally and both spent time setting up our phones). Then, we went to Borders to read magazines and books and drink Very Large Coffees. It was another awesome date night. :) I'm so glad we are equally yoked as far as the nerdiness goes.

Free Tastes Better

I know I preached about this on my personal blog, but this is a new place, so let me tell it on this mountain top.

IF YOU HAVE A STARBUCKS GIFT CARD... GO ONLINE AND REGISTER IT!!

Yes, I screamed that at you. Because it's that important. You will get free stuff. What could possibly taste better than a freshly brewed tall cup of Christmas Blend and a Perfect Oatmeal from Starbucks? A free coffee and oatmeal, that's what.

Last week, I had breakfast totally on the house! I had a coupon for a free oatmeal that I got in my email (because my card is registered) and a free coffee because we finished a pound of Morning Joe blend and I took my empty bag in for my free tall coffee.

Visitors!

One of the best things about living in the Washington, DC area is that every now and then... family and/or friends are in town. Whether they are stopping by for a long airport layover... or going to a work or church conference, it's always nice to get to see people who we otherwise would have to make a trip to see :) Recently, we've been blessed by two of these cases.

We got to spend an entire afternoon with my (Dana) little brother, Chris. He was re-routed on his way back to join his Army Unit in Germany after his leave for Christmas. It was awesome, because we found out he was staying like 7 miles from our house... so we went and picked him up, and did a drive-thru tour of DC, had dinner at Macaroni Grill and saw him off at the airport! Of course, I cried as i saw him walk away...

And this week, Michael's cousins, Kathy and Ronnie, were in town for a tourism conference at the Gaylord Hotel over at National Harbor, MD. Michael and Ronnie did the walking tour of DC while I worked and Kathy attended the conference, then we were all able to meet up for dinner at the end of the day.

It's always such a blessing to see family and friends when they're in town! If you're planning a visit, definitely let us know! :)

Time to Update

I have faced my computer screen at work for the past week feeling guilty for not updating this blog. So, now I'm just going to do it.

I cannot guarantee that this will be a particularly informative or inspirational post, I am literally just writing something to fill the space.

I'd love to show off something I've cooked recently, but other than a few loaves of Banana Nut Bread (one of which I gave away) there hasn't been much REAL cooking going on at our house lately. Well, I did make an impressive Roasted Pork with Apples & Sauerkraut and some homemade oatmeal dinner rolls a couple of weekends ago when we had a friend over. But, alas... no pictures.

Last weekend, I went to Richmond to cover Gov. Bob McDonnell's inauguration. I brought Michael along. And after I stopped freaking out worrying over his every move, it was a great time.

As you can see... we pretty much had the best seats in the house! Virginia does inaugurations right! It was full of pomp & circumstance! I think there were about three moments where I almost teared up: When the Governor's daughter sang the Star Spangled Banner, when the jets flew over (always gets me) and one other moment that I don't remember at this point. :)

It was a busy work day, but I'm so blessed to have a job that I absolutely love and that often gives me a front row seat to history! This is my third Virginia Gubernatorial inauguration. Good stuff!

The night before inauguration, we met up with some of my old WSLS friends. That's the first TV station I worked at right after college, in Roanoke. It was so much fun, so refreshing to hang out with Jay, he's like a big news brother. It totally took me back to who I used to be. That 20 year old producer with dreams and goals as big as the sky. It was fun to look back, a little scary to look within, but again, it's all good.

One of the hardest things for me to manage since getting married is finding that work/home "balance." I've always heard women talk about this, but always in the case of balancing work and KIDS... not work and a husband. Does that make me weak? Call me crazy, but throwing a husband into my world, which up until this point was pretty much 100% revolving around the news business... has been a bit challenging. And sometimes I feel guilt from all angles. Guilt that I want to leave work "on time" to get home to my husband. Guilt that when I get home I'm constantly checking my work e-mail, or listening to him with one ear, while listening to a press conference or a newscast with the other.

I decided it's not a balancing act. It's more of a juggling act. Something is always up in the air. And it has to be... or that means something has fallen to the ground, right? Maybe I will get better at juggling as the years go by. I don't know. Right now, I'm just on the basic level, and I have to be okay with that.