Last time we will see the ground for a while

Our first snowstorm of the year came yesterday, so I scooted outside to get one last photo on the patio that morning just for you guys. Hello, flamingos!



I am in a sparkly top, yes. One of my co-workers is leaving, and we decided to wear sparkly tops as a group today to say farewell. We're having a few too many of these tributes lately; mergers bring on all kinds of changes, good and bad. We're moving offices too, so I've been dressing as comfortably and casually as possible while we purge through everything and pack up what's left. I think the move will be good for all of us. I just wish it was over already!

My plan for extra cooking on Sunday worked; I have made it all the way to the end of the week with some food to spare! I am already planning next week's menu.  One of the things that always bugged me about WW was their Vegetable Soup recipe. It was always full of veggies that I don't like, like zucchini and tomatoes and peas and yuck. Veggie soups in general like that always bored me, and probably contributed to the idea for years that I didn't like vegetables.

So I've been on a mission to find other vegetable soup recipes, without being Cream Of soups, that I like. The butternut squash and carrot soups of the last few weeks have been perfect solutions in my quest, but I want to try more than just squash soups. I got a great local cookbook called Soup & Bread for Christmas, and I've decided to work my way through it this winter and use all the recipes that interest me.

First one up: pickle soup.

Yes, that is a real thing. It is apparently a Polish tradition, but I've never had it. We first heard of it a couple of weeks ago on a Food Channel show about Polish foods served in restaurants in Hamtramck, Michigan. We've been to Hamtramck many times on our Detroit trip, but have somehow missed this fascinating concoction. Then I saw it in my new cookbook, and I knew I had to try it. This recipe looks good, although the one in my recipe is a little different. I will take plenty of pictures this weekend, and report back!

The veggie soups have been perfect for lunches, so then it's just a matter of adding a sandwich or leftovers from dinner, and I'm set. Pickle soup needs a strong counterpart, so this week is probably sloppy joes, burgers for Hubby, and maybe some roast beef for sandwiches. I'm a little tired of chicken after a week of my amazing chicken salad. :)

P. S. I removed the capcha requirement for commenting. Sheila, I was having the same trouble with posting using Firefox on my Mac, so I understand your frustration. I actually forgot I had that set up, so I removed it. I never want to make it hard for anyone to comment!

Optical Illusion

I don't have much to say about this one, I just really liked this outfit from Wednesday.



On the days that I've been skipping (see: Tuesday), my outfits have pretty much been like the one above: straight-leg pant, long cardigan, heeled bootie, layering top and either a long pendant necklace or a scarf. It's a look that covers all the parts I want covered, and gives the optical illusion of making me look leaner than I am right now.

In contrast, we have the outfit I wore on Thursday.



I finally managed to wear the button-down under a dress! (Hrm, the collar appears be tucked under more than it should have been.) I've worn this dress before, but most of the pattern was covered up under a cardigan. I am really in love with the pattern -- up close, the top part makes my shoulder line look stronger than it is -- but looking at the whole thing like gives me pause. Maybe that wasn't the right belt?



On the plus side, it had some really nice flow, and I loved the grey tights and black Vince Camuto boots with it. On the minus side, it is not nearly as slimming as Wednesday's grey pants and gold cardigan combo.

I am trying to make my peace with that -- do all outfits need to be optical illusions, or can I live with the fact that sometimes I just look heavy? I don't know the answer. I see other bloggers wearing their curves and shapes with pride, and I am torn between envying them their freedom, and silently re-dressing them so they look slimmer in the camera. ("Oh, that would be perfect if you lost the belt!") It's a vicious circle; as confident as I am about who I am, I feel more comfortable in my clothes when I think I am fooling the world in an optical illusion outfit. Then I feel bad for copping out like that, that I should be proud of myself no matter what size I am. But I'm not, and I don't want to be this size. So I change back into an optical illusion outfit, and I stop beating myself up.

See what I mean by a vicious circle? Oh, the terrible things we do to ourselves with negative self-talk sometimes!

Anyway, I worked another optical illusion to my advantage yesterday. This was dinner:




We ordered salads and pizza, our weekly too-tired-to-cook meal.  (How do I know it's weekly? The delivery guy complimented the way we redecorated the living room. He has been to our house enough times that he noticed the change. Yep!) So I dumped the salad out of the container and put in a nice big bowl, and I put the pizza on a smaller plate. And it worked; I ate the half the amount of pizza I normally would!

It also occurred that I probably need to stop fighting the weekly pizza ritual so much, and find ways to work it into the Foodstyle so it is a regular indulgence instead. Repeating the trick above will be a good start, and replacing the salad with a healthier one will be a second. I don't like their salad anyway. I bet if I mix up a bag of chopped lettuce and veggies the day before, when I have cooking energy, I could dump it into a bowl just like I would if I bought the bag at the store. Hmmm, that would work!

What tricks do you have for including unbreakable habits into your meals? Any optical illusion outfits you like to wear?

Snow Bunny

Not that we have anything more than a dusting of snow. I just think I bundled up like a (business casual, kinda dressy) snow bunny.



Cream heathered turtleneck sweater, Old Navy
Black ponte skirt, Macys
Cognac open-weave belt, Walmart
Black Assets tights, Target
mushroom Franco Sarto fitted boots, Zappos
mess of double-strand pearls, brown string necklace and tiger's-eye necklace from Shopping Friend

I don't know what is going on with my red face. I have had a terrible rash for days. I am switching face washes, from Aveeno Calming to Cetaphil, too see if that helps. Aveeno has done me well for years, but maybe it's not enough anymore. Dunno,

Another hibernating bear look. I swear, it is much cuter in person!



Cinnamon chunky knit sweater, Old Navy
White layering tee, Old Navy
Brown studded belt, Walmart
Lucite statement necklace, LOFT
Brown NYDJ ponte skinnies, Nordstrom
Brown suede BOC clogs, DSW

Then it was the weekend, and I cooked. Two soups were on the agenda, and both I made from scratch.

The first was a smoky black bean soup that I have been making for years from an old WW Core recipe. It's Hubby's favorite and was a personal request. But it's so easy I decided to challenge myself and made the beans from scratch too, instead of from a can. !! Really, it's very easy to do.

Start with a bag of beans.



Pour them onto a jelly-roll pan and pick through any discolored or wrinkled ones, and check for any pebbles. (I was going to not even mention the pebbles because it's so rare when I find one, then I DID find one in this bag. So there you go -- check for pebbles!)

Rinse the beans and put them in a pot with a lot of water. Like, a couple of inches above the beans at least. Bring to a boil, then skim off any foam from the top. Turn down to a simmer and add a tsp of kosher salt for every cup of beans. (I added that and some smoky flavoring to it. Dunno if it did any good.) Let actively simmer for 60-90 minutes, checking at the 30-minute mark and every 15 minutes after that. Add more water if necessary.

You will end up with almost twice as much cooked beans than raw, and they freeze easily. So make the whole bag, and then freeze it in 2-cup portions -- which is a can from the store. Easy as pie, and much less sodium! :) I think I did 4 cups raw and ended up with 8 cups cooked.



Once they had cooled (and it was late enough in the day that it was time for supper), I made them into soup, starting with sauteed onions, garlic and 2 chopped red peppers in a pot. Add the beans, some chopped bacon or Canadian bacon, add 1 tsp cumin and 1/2 tsp of chipotle and stir 30 seconds until fragrant, add 4 cups chicken stock and bring to boil. Season with salt and more smoky seasoning if desired, then let actively simmer for about 30 minutes. Use the immersion blender to chop it up.

For me, I loved that butternut squash soup so much last week I made it again. But this time I did some hardcore roasting; I cut up into chunks 2 small butternut squash, 2 small onions, 2-3 carrots, a Yukon Gold potato, and tossed it all with olive oil, kosher salt and Northwoods seasoning. Then I cut off the top of a garlic clove and nestled it in the middle of the pan.





I baked it at 400 degrees for 45 minutes, just until everything was super-soft and just starting to brown. It took a lot of willpower not to inhale it all right then! But I squeezed the garlic out of the papery skin, and let it all cool for the afternoon.



For the soup, I followed the same recipe as last week; I even though there was onion and carrot in the roasted veggies, I still diced up a small onion, couple of celery stalks and some carrots as the base of the soup, and sauteed them in a pot with olive oil. I also pulled out as much of the onion as I could from the veggies and chopped those into smaller pieces. Once everything was softened, I added all the veggies and about 4-6 cups of chicken stock (low-sodium, I like to control the salt I use with just pinches of kosher salt). Bring to a boil, simmer for 20 minutes, then use the immersion blender to mix it all up.

The finished products.





I have to tell you, roasting all the vegetables together with seasoning was a brilliant addition to the squash recipe. I can't describe it well, but the soup tastes like "roasted", especially the sweet garlic depth. I am so glad I made practically a double-batch; I will be eating it like crazy this week. Hubby also loved the black bean soup, whew! He likes things with more heat than I do, and this had a lot of heat and smokiness.

I also have plans for a quiche with sun-dried tomatoes, leeks, and goat cheese, but I wasn't in the mood to make it yesterday so I will save it for later in the week. Hubby is off today, so he is making the long-awaited BBQ portabello mushroom quesadillas we have been dying to try for dinner tonight for us.

Hunh, we sure do eat well on the Foodstyle! Probably better than when we are wimping out and ordering pizza. :)

Team Straight Leg

Follow-up on my last post:
1. Hurray for the resounding approval of my new bag! As you will soon see, it has already been put into rotation, so I guess it's a keeper. :)
2. I am still laughing at RoseAG's comment: Isn't that gunmetal jacket the one with documented color-coordination issues? Ha! Spoken like a true fellow IT project nerd. :) And yes, yes it is. I should know better by now, but I keep trying with that one!

 Monday was rather a boring day, sartorial-wise. I did some closet rearranging, and am making a concerted effort to remix my new pieces with my older ones as much as possible. I feel like this summer it was all new, new, new, probably because it was all new dresses and my awesome sandal collection. This season I'm trying for more of a balanced approach. For now.



I am officially in love with this cozy knit long sweater from Old Navy. I remixed the white sleeveless tank with the bow, also from Old Navy, but this time swapped in a black stretch belt instead of the self-belt. The grey pants are Ashley Stewart, which I bought last spring but never really cottoned to, and the shoes are my grey tweed Ann Taylor Outlet flats.

I like being able to work in rarely-worn pieces like the pants and shoes, and I love when they work together.




I think I need to re-evaluate the hem on those pants, though. I'd rather be able to wear them with heels than flats. Hmm.

The best part of the outfit, of course, was the new Coach bag!








Yeah, it's a keeper.

Tuesday was another remix, and the debut of my new True Straight Leg pants from Gap. I wish I could wear these pants every day. Oh. My. God.




This was another version of a cream top (my Lauren Conrad tee with embellished horizontal lines) with the cream Gap sweater, then adding a sweet pink and brown floral infinity scarf (a Christmas gift from my mother-in-law) to break it up at my face. The shoes are brown suede BOC heeled clogs from DSW, a favorite find from last fall and available at DSW again this year. I guess clogs aren't totally done yet!

But the real star of the outfit are these new pants. Angie asked yesterday if readers were Team Wide Leg or Team Bootcut, and my answer is that I am Team Straight Leg. It is hands-down the style that looks best on my body shape. I'm not a small woman, in any way, and my legs are my best asset; the larger I get, the more pronounced my pear shape gets at my hips, but then it quickly thins out from my knee down. So a bootcut tends to look like a mermaid-shape on me, and makes my hips even bigger. And a wide leg...well, it looks like Monday's shots. Kind of shapeless and everything is the same size as my thighs and hips. Not my best look.

Skinnies, too, pose their own problems; their streamlined shape is actually too pronounced for my legs, and I look like an ice cream cone. But straight legs have all the virtues of a skinny (highlights my lower legs) but in a less pronounced way.







Truthfully, all of my "skinnies" are really straight legs: the NYDJ ponte pants, my old Kut from the Cloth jeans, etc. But these new ones are really the best of the bunch. The fabric is a great heavy stretch, which keeps its shape but still has some nice give to it. They feel exactly like Banana Republic's Martin Fit pants did a couple of years ago. I am IN LOVE.

Lastly, in case you were worried I have been going way too neutral lately:



I am still me!

Saturday Switcheroo

I love that you guys are not total enablers. When you don't like something, you say so, and without sugar-coating it. I appreciate that! I confess, I did stop over at Nordstrom to check the fur coats in person anyway, and they were, as my sister noted, fugly. The obsession is over, alas. (Mostly. I am still going to see if I can work some fur some way into my winter coat.)

But I did find some great purchases this weekend:

These Clark Artisan Vermont Vistas, in a fabulous olive suede. I've liked the look of the Clarks Indigo Water Row bootie for the last couple of seasons, but the arch was too high, and the look just a little too desert-boot. This one works much better for me. Hubby is waterproofing them as we speak! Eeee!

I also got this Coach purse (without Shopping Friend's recommendation or discount, yikes!). I'm on the fence about it; I really want a structured medium-sized bag, and I am in love with the color. The shoulder strap does fit really well under my arm, even with my trench coat on, and I think it will look amazing with suits and dressier outfits. My only worry: is it too boring?

What's your verdict, internet?

I ended up not getting that Cole Haan blue bag, for two reasons.
1. When I cleaned out my bags last month, I discovered that every bag I had bought for a "pop of color" was blue. I had turquoise, sky blue, and cobalt...and the cobalt was the only one that got any use at all, and only in the summer. The rest of my bags are black, brown and grey, which makes sense for me; I use a lot of color in my outfits, so the bag actually tones it down in many cases.
2. I then looked through my fall/winter coat closet, and realized that the most-used "pop of color" there is red or purple.
Given what I already had, the blue bag made no sense at all, and the lovely grey one above makes more sense.


The last purchase can't be found online so you'll have to wait a bit. Ooooh, suspense!

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After a week of no photos, I did make myself take one on Friday.





I liked all the pieces of this, but I'm not sure it gelled together as a cohesive outfit.





The shirt is a yellow gingham Old Navy one; I bought it three colors on impulse (and on mega-sale) but I rarely wear any of them. I had the grey gingham on first, and that might have worked better in the end. The jacket is a Loft gunmetal gray, the pants are black NYDJ ponte skinnies, and the shoes are my BOC suede clogs from last year. Maybe the problem was going with brown, black, and grey. Hmm.


Saturday was more inspired. This particular inspiration that I saw in Lucky Magazine on Friday.

Source: luckymag.com via LowFatDressing on Pinterest

I was completely enamored.

First I started with a base: dark jeans and a white button down shirt. This is a tuxedo-front one from Old Navy that still has some life to it.




Boring, but it's a good base. Then I added the killer elements.







I loved it. I will definitely be wearing variations on it again. It served me well most of the day, but after my haircut the weather started to warm up, and it was just too heavy. I came home and changed into my new jacket, so Hubby could take me and my new sleek haircut out to dinner. (I love when my stylist flat-irons it the first day.)




LOVE this new jacket. This was the mysterious third purchase of the day, on the sale rack at Nordstrom. It's a Tahari Woman, with a great ruffled neck, with a fitted ruching at the waist. It's animal print, but not gaudily so. Close up, it looks even better.






I paired it with an Old Navy layering tee, and the same dark wash Old Navy jeans and brown patent croc print Me Too flats. I will be bereft when these shoes bite the dust!




Sunday has been a lazy day. Forgot to take a photo, but I did some food prep for the week. Made a great smoky black bean soup recipe (an old one from Weight Watchers), roasted butternut squash, and a fabulous (nonhealthy) item called, as my friend J calls it, "Tater Tot and Blue Cheese Hot Dish". Holy smokes, was it good!

And that's what I have been up to. How was your weekend?

Earning My Weekend

I just posted on Facebook that this was a week in which I really earned my weekend. You know those rough ones, where you have no idea how you are going to get to the end of it? That was my week. But I made it! And after work tonight, Hubby and I are headed downtown for a luxurious weekend staying at a swanky hotel in one of the ritziest areas of the city. Our fifteenth anniversary (15! It still blows me away) is next week, so we squeezed in some time to ourselves to celebrate.

Well, ourselves, and my trusty camera so I can share it with the internet. And the thousands of tourists. Yay, alone time! :) :)

Anyway, throughout the week, I did get dressed, and I did take pictures most days! This was Monday:





Ignore the dorky smile. The next one is better, but the pose isn't as good.




I liked this outfit; I finally managed to make this new cream Gap sweater work. Instead of going for contrast with a dark piece underneath, I wore a complementary lighter top, also from Gap. But that much cream is not good for my complexion, so the teal scarf broke it up nicely. Heh, now that I think about it, the skinny black pants are Gap too, and the pewter mesh cuff and lariat necklace are Banana Republic. I really do put that Gap card to use! The only non-Gap/BR items in this one are the grey Vera Wang flats from Kohls.




Look at "Bruiser" back there watching the photo shoot. She's the best.


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Tuesday was completely insane. I don't even remember what I wore! But Wednesday was another long sweater/skinny pant combo; I am rather enjoying this new (to me) flop-proof formula this season. It's probably not trendy at all, but if I am wearing skinny pants I have to wear a long sweater over my dupa. I have tried a million tunic tops, and they are just not flattering. This works much better for my short-waist, long-legged, pear-hips self.







I absolutely LOVE this new Old Navy sweater (I wore it with a white undertop last week). It is ridiculously comfortable, and so cozy. The temps have been relatively warm this week, and unfortunately this particular day we went on a ghost tour after work, so I was a little warm in it. But the t-shirt underneath was wearable without a sweater, and by the end of the night I had the sweater back on as it cooled. So it all worked out!




This was fun, pairing up dark blues and black. The sweater is a marled combo of the two colors, and the top was from Marshalls this summer while shopping with my mom. The NYDJ skinnies came out for this, and the Clarks open-toed booties kept me cool when the temps rose. (Good thing I have a dark polish on my toes right now; it's perfect for fall wearing of open-toed shoes.) To keep it a little light, I wore two long necklaces, one with clear lucite stones, and the other with light green and light blue beach-glass stones. Plus my turquoise glasses, of course. I've been wearing them almost every day lately.

Here's a spooky picture I took on the ghost tour. We didn't see any ghosts, alas, but I made a bunch of us line up and recreate in shadows the St Valentine's Day massacre at the original site. The light really was that orangey-red behind us. Like the blood of the victims....spooky!





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Friday was...an adventure in photography.




Um...forget something?





Um...forget something else? Focus, ding-dong!

Unfortunately I did not notice until I downloaded the pics this morning, so that's the best shot of it I have. But it is the cropped Old Navy denim jacket, the Target red peacock-pattern dress, black leggings and black pointed toe flats from DSW from last year.

I did get a clean shot of the bracelet combination I put together. Several are from the Hive and Honey set from Piperlime, and the two shinier silver ones with purple and green-yellow stones are from Charming Charlie's. A new store opened up a couple of towns over. I have a couple of necklaces I can't get to work so will be returning, but I loved these bracelets. They looked way more expensive than they were!





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Have a great weekend, everyone! I will try to catch up on my blogs when I get back; I have many sitting in my tabs on Firefox. :)

Back in the (Daily Food Tracker) Saddle

Oh my gosh, this week is crazy busy at work, plus I just started an anatomy and medical terminology class in the evenings two days a week for the next six weeks. Which coincides with the deadline for my major project almost exactly. GREAT. So if I am scarce for a while, my apologies. I can't do daily posts, but I will do some group ones, promise!

Last Friday:




Did I tell you guys I WON a JMS belt giveaway from Kimberly's Fab Finds Under $50 blog? I did, and here it is making its LFD debut. Thank you Kimberly, JMS and KMart for doing this giveaway; I love my new belt! it goes very well with this edgier look I have been sporting lately. I have several more ideas for it too.

This was semi-casual at the desk on Friday, so I went with pointed black flats from DSW, my Gap skinny pants, the ON "Breezy" blouse in grey dots, a taupe ON ruched V-neck long-sleeved tee worn backwards, and a triple-strand black bead necklace. It's one of those necklaces that I never seem to wear but when I do I wonder why I keep avoiding it.



Emily seemed to like it.

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Monday was cold and rainy, the kind of day where you want to snuggle into a cozy sweater and drink tea. I did the former, at least; unlike my sister, I am not a tea drinker. :)



This was the new sweater I got from Old Navy this weekend; it's a great thick knit, very soft. I kept the self belt this time but I can easily swap out my new rocker belt for a less-cozy look. I paired it with another new ON top (sleeveless with a sweet chiffon bow at the neckline), my NYDJ ponte skinnies, pewter mesh cuff from Banana Republic (Shopping Friend, do you still have yours in the silver version?) and an old pair of tweed flats I got from the Ann Taylor Factory store for about $10 several years ago. Again, another item that gets limited wear -- tweed flats are only wearable for about 3 weeks a year -- but when I wear them, they are just right for the occasion. Hard to let them go when they keep working, you know?



I am usually not a fan of black pants/white top/colored sweater, but the blue-purple is very understated in the sweater, and something about this just really clicked for me. It would not have had the same warmth for my skin tone with a colored or print top.

AND! I made lunch! In yet another lunch box that I own, LOL. (I have 3 types that I rotate depending on the foodstuffs. Or I just use a paper bag on the days I am on the run.)







Daily Food Tracker: Monday
Breakfast: Don't remember, LOL
Lunch: turkey sandwich with cheddar cheese and olive muffaletta on wheat
Snacks throughout the day: yogurt and blackberries and strawberries, homemade trail mix combo, fudgy brownie (the woman who passing them out had made them for celebrating finishing her radiation treatments. Please tell me how you would turn that down.)
Dinner: reheated lazy lasagna with turkey meatballs

That poor orange; I packed it two days in a row and never ate it. Oranges are hard to eat when you are in a conference room or someone else's office; they're so messy!

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Tuesday: Another rainy day, but I was at work from 8am-8pm so it was time to bust out my new leopard shoes!



The whole outfit was designed to highlight the shoes. And I got tons of compliments on them, as you can imagine. The ON cropped collarless denim jacket (now on sale at stores, grab it while you can!), cream Caslon camisole, black Target dress, black Vera Wang for Kohls leggings, and of course the Payless leopard wedges with red bows. I added the gold-brown long knotted necklace to bookend the color of the shoes, so they didn't get lost in a sea of black and kind of tied it all together.



Surprisingly, my feet were in pretty good shape by the end of the day, but they definitely aren't as comfortable as some of my other shoes. I think the black ones will be returned too, and I will keep looking for a different fall shoes. But the leopards are a keeper, for sure!


Daily Food Tracker: Tuesday
Breakfast: english muffin with light cream cheese and apple jelly
Lunch: spaghetti squash with homemade sauce and turkey meatballs, pomegranate yogurt
Dinner: Panera Pick Two: turkey artichoke panini and broccoli cheddar soup
Snack: toffee nut cookie from Panera

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I've got another early start today, so I am off. Before I do, here is a question for my readers: has anyone ever done a fall/winter CSA? (Especially anyone who lives in the snowy north.) Good experience, bad, so-so? I love fall veggies way more than summer ones, so this post has me thinking...I will check some of my local ones out. Might be worth it! And fall veggies do keep better, so there's no pressure to get it all eaten before they wilt...