There's no place like home...

Hey there!!

Wow, what a lazy blogger I am these days! Actually I have just been gone a lot. Two days after the chicago trip, I turned right around and drove 9 HOURS by myself to Biloxi to see my sweet husband who's at Keesler AFB right now for training. :(

*sigh* I miss him.

I have also missed all of my fellow bloggie friends! I don't know why, but when I am neglecting my poor little blog, I also neglect to read and comment on everyone else's which makes no sense. So next on the agenda is to catch up on what everyone else has been up to!

So the Chicago trip was kind of a bust. I am not even going to dignify it with a recap, LOL. Nothing against Chi town, just a lot of bad circumstances that added up to one bad trip!


However, our hotel was super fabulous and filled with art. So I did get to check out some pretty fun eye candy. Above is one of my favorites pieces. It was huge and spanned a whole wall.


One highlight was finding a Lucy store, LOVE this place. I got two super super cute yoga tops there on sale!!

Biloxi was less than impressive too, but I really was just going to see my hubby because I missed him terribly, he's been gone for SO long! There's not much to do there in Biloxi, so we drove to New Orleans twice during my trip, by the third day, he was like "please, don't tell me you want to go to New Orleans again!!" LOL.

One of my favorite things was Cafe du Monde, pretty much all they serve there is their world famous Chicory Coffee and Beignets, so he had the beignets and I had the coffee, naturally, since the fried donuts didn't exactly fit into my GF lifestyle!


I've had this brand of coffee before and hated it, but decided to try the real deal at the real place, and LOVED it!! SO good! And the hubby was quite impressed with the beignets also.


Good lordy look at the mounds of powdered sugar on those bad boys. I wasn't even tempted in the slightest. I think I got a little contact high from being close to all of that powdery sweetness, lol.

I also bought the mug for a little souvenir. I'm not much of a souvenir kind of gal, but I really thought this place was cool and wanted a little reminder.

One thing I have learned to appreciate during my travels, however is the comforts of home. Nothing can replace those things. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE to travel and experience new places, but nothing really beats just being in my own routine and having all of my own food options at my fingertips, not having to worry about if there are going to be decent options where I'm staying, etc. I was so relieved to return home and get back to my little kitchen! The only thing that will make things complete is when Kermit gets home in approx. 8 days! I cannot wait!!

One of the first things I made was ratatouille (based loosely on this recipe) I was craving warm cooked veggies and lots of them! I've been reading about the way yogis eat and ayurvedic diets, etc. And this led me to stumble upon lots of interesting reading about "balancing your dosha" basically your dosha is determined by your body type, energy level and somewhat by your personality. You can take a test here to find out what yours is. Mine is Vata. And apparently I should shy away from the raw foods and salads and stick to warm comforting foods. Um, yes please! I can live with that! However, there are very few absolutes in my diet, so I just consider this a good guideline, it's not like I'm never going to eat a salad again! :)


Which brings me to a new favorite condiment of mine that is a huge part of most ayurvedic diets...

Ghee!


I have seen this stuff in the international market before and was kind of scared of it, LoL. But when I found out what it actually was, I was intrigued and had to buy some. It's clarified butter made from bringing the butter to a boil and letting the impurities rise to the top and then those are skimmed off, leaving the purest part of the butter. My favorite thing about ghee, is that is tastes just like browned butter since it's been boiled. It's absolutely delicious and it's only 45 calories for a tbsp. and I have yet to use a whole tbsp. at a time, it usually only takes a half to add lots of flavor and richness to a dish. YUM!!


I also made a second batch of the ratatouille yesterday and this time topped it off with some avocado and marinara, who says avocado can't go with Italian food?


The fresh mozzarella I had in the fridge for a few weeks did not pass the sniff test LOL, and I was really wanting something cool and creamy to top my dish, so avocado fit the bill and it was delicious!! What a great sub for cheese since I'm trying to curb my dairy consumption!


And last but not least, I have to make mention of one of my new favorite treats. Sofia wine, it comes in these cute little pink cans with little pink bendy straws. It's a sparkling white that basically tastes like a semi sweet champagne. It's such a fun little drink! I took a 4 pack to our friends' house for dinner on Saturday and they were a hit! I LOVE these!

I will see you all very soon!

P.S. does anybody watch that show on TLC called "I didn't know I was pregnant"? LOL, I am watching it now, and the particular episode I'm watching is titled "Is that a baby in your pants?" LMAO, too funny.