Day 8 - How Am I So Bad at This?

Posted by Chelsie on Monday, March 14, 2011. Filed under:
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Maybe I'm just lazy but getting up earlier than usual is really hard for me. Especially when something throws off my schedule. You know, like daylight saving time...

Last night, I had a Home Tour meeting that lasted until midnight so I was up a little later than usual. Couple that with the time change and I may have accidentally turned off my alarm instead of pushing snooze.





Yup. That's right. I got up 47 minutes late today. But, I still got to work (almost) on time.

Spring Forward!

Posted by Chelsie on Saturday, March 12, 2011.
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Tomorrow is my second-to-least favorite day of the year. My very least favorite day of the year is actually the day after tomorrow. That'll be the first day that every fiber of my being will protest getting up an hour earlier than it's accustomed to. Already dreading it.

In all fairness, "springing forward" isn't all bad. At least it won't be dark when I get home from work!

Don't forget to set your clocks forward one hour before you go to sleep tonight!

Making Up for Lost Time

Posted by Chelsie on Friday, March 11, 2011. Filed under:
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I actually took a screen shot yesterday but neglected to post it. You know, because of the busy. And today, I get a hall pass because my office is closed so it's technically not a "work day." At least I'm not at work. I have, however, been doing plenty of stuff around the house!


Coming up: Office remodel (really, just replacing the ugly, old carpet with wood floors) and the reorganization that comes with it. By the way, did you guys know I had that much stuff in my home office/guest room? No? Because, if you did, you really should have warned me before I tried to fit it all back in there.

Day 7 - Getting the Hang of It

Posted by Chelsie on Wednesday, March 9, 2011. Filed under:
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Last night was spent tossing and turning, counting sheep and trying not to watch the clock. Even though getting up was the very last thing on the planet that I wanted to do when my alarm went off, I limited myself to one snooze. OK, so I may have hit snooze a second time simply as a precautionary measure but I didn't end up needing it because it only took me 60 seconds to find the motivation to drag myself out of bed:


I have to be honest: while I'm doing a decent job of getting up 20 minutes early, I'm having trouble translating it into getting out the door 20 minutes early. Baby steps.

Day 6

Posted by Chelsie on Tuesday, March 8, 2011. Filed under:
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Remember how I said that posting a screen shot of my cell phone would keep me honest? Well, it didn't. At least not this morning. When my alarm went off (for the second time) today, I reluctantly rolled out of bed, grabbed my phone and took my daily screen shot:


However, before I made it even three steps away from my bed, I did a 180 and fell right back under the covers. So if this screen shot were an accurate representation of when I got up, it would actually read "6:30" instead of "6:25."

At least we all know now that if a screen shot doesn't keep me honest, my conscience will.

Best. Tacos. Evah.

Posted by Chelsie on Monday, March 7, 2011. Filed under: ,
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Last week was insane with daily after-work commitments for both me and the hubby. So I deemed it "Week of the Crock Pot." Every morning but Friday I used my extra 20 minutes to throw a little something in the slow cooker. Even though it was a super crazy few days, I took the opportunity to try out a couple of new recipes, one of which was a variation of a Real Simple recipe for Chipotle Beef Tacos.

So let's be honest: I love tacos and could probably eat them daily. Over the years, I've made countless taco recipes, including a few in the slow cooker. But last week I experienced shredded beef tacos the way they were meant to be: both easy and delicious. Seriously, these tacos were so good that, even though we just had them last Thursday, I made them again today. Since we had the leftovers for lunch on on Friday, it's only been three days since we last ate this dish. I'll let that sink in.

Chipotle Beef Tacos

Ingredients:
1.5 - 2 pound flat iron steak cut into two inch pieces (I enjoyed this cut - it's lean but still really tender. Also, my grocer was running a special.)
1 small onion, roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 can chipotles in adobo sauce (I used about 3-4 of the peppers, chopped, and about 4 teaspoons of the adobo sauce - but get as crazy as want!)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 bay leaves
1 teasppon salt
12 corn tortillas (I like using the small ones and doubling up on them street taco-style)

Optional toppings:
small bag of pre-shredded cabbage (one of the shortcuts I've mentioned loving)
diced onion
chopped fresh cilantro
lime wedges
jalapeno relish (if you're lucky, you have a neighbor who makes killer jalapeno relish like mine does)

Directions:
1. In a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker, toss together the beef, onion, garlic, chopped chipotles, adobo sauce, oregano, bay leaves, and salt
2. Cover and cook until the beef is very tender, on low for 7 to 8 hours or on high for 3 ½ to 4 hours (personally, I set my Crock Pot to cook on low for 4 hours, after which it switched to "Keep Warm" for another eight or so hours before I made it home)

When it's time to eat:

1. Transfer beef mixture to a medium bowl and shred (leave behind excess "juice," unless you're into that sort of thing)
2. Heat tortillas
3. Spoon beef mixture into warm tortillas and add toppings of your choice

Serves 4. Makes good leftovers. (I may have even said to KT that they were better the second time around...)


FYI - To streamline my morning, I chopped the onion, garlic and beef last night and stored them in plastic bags in the refrigerator. I set out the can of chipotles and dried spices before I went to bed, leaving only the chopping of the chipotles for this morning. It seriously took me less than 5 minutes to get everything into the crock pot and get on with my routine.

I encourage you to make this super simple taco recipe right this very minute. You'll be enjoying it in mere hours. Go ahead. I'll wait. Tell me what you think.


P.S. Are you sick of my use of parentheses yet? After this post, I am. Almost.

Day 5 and I Really Could Have Used a Few More Minutes of Sleep...

Posted by Chelsie Filed under:
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I didn't go to bed all that late last night but 6:25 seemed to come rather early this morning. It's definitely a Monday.



Also, I'm not sure how I managed to get up 20 minutes early but still get to work ten minutes late. The math just doesn't add up there. Apparently I'm quite easily distracted when I think I have extra time in the morning.

Day 4

Posted by Chelsie on Friday, March 4, 2011. Filed under:
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Offending White Chocolate Mocha Lovers Everywhere

Posted by Chelsie on Thursday, March 3, 2011. Filed under:
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I was at the grocery store Monday evening, which was odd because I always go to the grocery store on Sunday afternoons. The experience was made even more strange because I went to a different grocery store than I normally go to. Look at me stepping out of my comfort zone!

Anyway, about mid-way through my shopping trip, I reached the dairy display and - horror of horrors! - they were out of my usual coffee creamer. You see, I may or may not be slightly addicted to coffee...to the tune of about 40 ounces daily before lunch. And, for as long as I can remember, I've used sugar-free Coffee-Mate French Vanilla creamer. If the grocer happens to be out of the sugar free variety, I can be tempted by fat-free but that's about as crazy as I get. Usually. 

I digress. Crouched in front of the dairy case, in the way of other shoppers and unable to find any French Vanilla creamer, I made a split-second decision to try the oh-so-yummy-sounding International Delights White Chocolate Mocha creamer:


Folks, excuse the brevity of my "review" but International Delights White Chocolate Mocha creamer is anything but "yummy." I honestly can't believe this product made it past the taste testers and onto the shelves. I'd describe the flavor in detail but I'm afraid there simply aren't words. "Ass" is about all I can come up with.


Day 3

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Success. Finally.

Day 2 - Get Up Early Fail

Posted by Chelsie on Wednesday, March 2, 2011. Filed under:
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An explanation - not an excuse:

Each Tuesday night, I meet up with a group of fun-loving geeks to drink beer and answer pop culture and general knowledge trivia questions. Naturally, I tend to be up a bit later on Tuesday nights than the other nights of the week. But last night, I was determined to wrap up our festivities early so I could get a good night's sleep and wake up at 6:25, refreshed and ready for my day. 

That didn't quite happen.

Though I'm pretty sure I was asleep by 11:00 (yay!), at about 2:30 I was roused from my slumber by a dog situation that demanded my immediate and focused attention. After a good half hour of half-asleep-situation-rectifying, I was finally back in bed. 

Fast forward a few hours.

I awoke suddenly, fearing that I'd slept through my alarm! For the life of me, I couldn't remember hearing it go off. I looked at my phone and, sure enough, it was already 38 minutes past the hour! I quickly got out of bed, let the dogs out, and started a pot of coffee. "Wow, I'm exhausted this morning," I thought as I went through the first steps of my normal morning routine.

I happened to glance at the clock on the microwave. It took me a moment to process what I was seeing. I double-checked the morning's screen shot just to be sure:


Five? Not six??? I felt cheated! I was owed another 47 minutes of sleep! I would get another 47 minutes of sleep. I turned out the kitchen lights, returned to my bedroom, and crawled back under my nice, warm, comfy covers. A little while - and possibly a couple hits of the snooze button - later, I woke up to find this:


This 20 for 20 challenge just might be more difficult than I initially thought.

Day 1

Posted by Chelsie on Tuesday, March 1, 2011. Filed under:
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Each weekday, my alarm starts going off at 6:15 but, in all honestly, I'm not typically up and functioning until between 6:45 and 6:50. My goal this morning was to be up by 6:25 but the snooze went off at 6:24, giving me an extra minute to lie there (which turned into six extra minutes to lie there...).  Oops.


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