Rainbow Ombre Omelet

I was in the mood for springtime and colors and exciting things like planning gardens and weddings, when I spotted my drab little white eggs in their cartons.  Back when we moved to Vashon Island, I took it upon myself to be a creative housewife type.   (Which meant being a messy housewife, but why split hairs?)  And when spring rolled around, I dyed all of the eggs in my refrigerator, and kept them dyed for months. 

Joseph got home after I had dyed my first batch and panicked because he couldn’t believe I would boil all of our eggs.

“I didn’t boil them,” I said, “I just dyed them.  I’m not stupid.” 

Joseph got used to the colored shells, and I loved seeing the confetti-like flakes in our compost pile. 

So I dyed my eggs today.  All of them.  I made a Rainbow Ombre Omelet. 

And as I was dying those eggs, the mail was shoved into my mailbox.  And guess what I got!  Only the Spring 2013 edition of Brides Magazine!  Thanks to my friend and “bridesmaid” Judy, I will have a year of magazine love. 

This is shaping up to be a colorful day!

Sunday Soup

One of my very favorite things about being on the Weight Watchers point system is Sunday Soups!  Joseph makes a big pot of soup on Sunday afternoon, and we eat it throughout the week.  Sometimes we serve it over rice, and sometimes we eat it with bread.  Joseph is a phenomenal cook, and his soups are so good.  And the best part is, the soups are very low in points so you can fill up on a lot of soup and still be well under your daily allotment. 

The soup lasts all week, too, which shaves time off of meal planning and saves a ton of money we would spend on dinners throughout the week.  The recipes come from Joseph’s own head, and in these twelve years together, I've never had the same soup twice.  Every one of them is delicious. 

This week’s Sunday Soup was spicy!  (Joseph, being a little bit Cajun, is a fan of spicy.)  This time, I wrote down the ingredients.  And for your cooking pleasure, I am going to share the recipe with you guys:

Joseph’s Sunday Soup:  Spicy Chicken Bayou 

Onions (sweet is our favorite) x 3

Celery hearts x 2

Green Bell Peppers x 3
12 cups water

¼ cup of Tony Chachere’s Original Creole Seasoning (maybe half of this for my fellow Yankees, I've learned to live with extra spice over the years)

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts x 3 (The size we used were large, but the quantity of chicken can change those points, so weigh it just to be safe)

Rue (See below)

Bay leaves x 5

1 tablespoon dried oregano

2 tablespoons dried basil

3 tablespoons of minced garlic

15 tablespoons of Better than Bouillon Chicken Base

1.        Chop onions, celery hearts, green peppers and simmer on medium heat in a large soup pot (don’t forget to spray the pot with cooking spray).  Cook the vegetables slowly, stirring occasionally until the peppers become tender and the onions start to melt down. 

2.       Add enough water to fill above the 4 quart line and bring to a boil. 

3.       Stir in the Chicken Base, Tony Chachere’s, and Bay leaves.  Add the rue. 

4.       Add Chicken, chopped into sizes that fit your personal tastes.  Allow the soup to come back up to a boil.  Then add the minced garlic. 

5.       Allow the soup to boil down, stirring occasionally until it reduces to a little under 4 quarts (Joseph usually boils it down to our 20 cup mark.)

The Rue:

Now, the biggest secret to Joseph’s soupy success is his rue; he makes amazing rue.  His usual method is to put 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a well-seasoned iron skillet.  He heats the oil up, then whisks in 1/3 of a cup of flour.  He keeps the whisk (or he uses a spoon if he forgets to pull the whisk out) moving constantly while the oil heats the flour.  He browns it to a color similar to brown sugar.  He said people can make it lighter or darker depending on what they like in a rue.  Joseph’s rue has a nutty flavor, like toasted walnuts fresh from the oven.  It always smells like home. 

So, if the soup is boiled down to 20 cups, and you use the same size chicken breasts as we did, you will come up with a soup that is worth 1.3 points per 8 oz. cup.  We charged ourselves 1.5 points per cup so it would fit neatly into our smart phones’ point counters.  When served over a half cup serving of instant rice, it makes a hearty meal for 4.5 points.  It’s very filling and very good. 

Friday’s Totals:

I forgot to post my weigh in total on Friday, so I will post it here:

Weight:  160 lbs

Weight loss:  2.6 lbs

BMI: 23 (down from 23.3!)

Exercise units: I’m working on it. 

Wedding Planner

I have to admit, I thought that the hard part of our wedding was going to be to make it legal.  After that, I kind of felt as though we’d just fade into the marriage ceremony and everything was just a little fuzzy at this point in my fantasy. 

Now that I am actually standing ankle deep in a pool of things I have to do to get this marriage off the ground, I realize that the easy part was waiting for my legal rights.  The hard part is to go from someone who thought he knew what weddings were all about (I am, after all, an avid reader of wedding magazines) to a person who actually has to fill out forms, apply for licenses, add up all the components of name changes, and keep a tangled guest list in order. 

On top of all of this is this nagging crash of words, like the ocean splashing on the shore, that tells me, “Just elope.  Just elope.  Just elope.” 

So now I am actually READING those wedding magazines, not just looking at pictures of the latest way to arrange a bouquet.  And their best advice to help you plan for your wedding is to … wait for it … hire a wedding planner. 

Okay, thanks wedding magazines.  That was completely helpful for a guy who has to plan his day to day meals to conserve money so that rent can be paid.  Here I thought that saving money to rent a venue (which magazines tell me should have been rented four months ago, whoops!) was the priority.  But now I know that I should have had a planner telling me to save that money for the venue.  I am such an amateur. 

I can’t afford that poop!  I think there are a few factors in this that make us not quite typical for wedding planners.  The first is our financial situation.  Joseph and I are adults who have been together for over twelve years.  We have bills and all of those worries married couples already have.  We’d like to buy our own home one day.  We are also too old to go to the parents for money for something the parents never planned on.  My mom and dad have all boys and have kicked their heels together more than once to celebrate the fact that tradition didn’t pin them into paying for weddings.  And, here’s the topper, we’re gay. 

What does a gay wedding look like?  I don’t know.  Do I get to hold a bouquet or wear a boutonniere?  When you search the web for pictures of gay weddings, you get a lot of pictures of cheesy groom and groom wedding cake toppers, happy lesbians in Hawaiian shirts, and guys who look like 1980’s models in matching tuxes.  Joseph and I look more like lesbians in Hawaiian shirts than 1980’s models. 

I’m not the only one worrying about what it will look like.  Very sweet and well-meaning people have approached me to say something to the effect of, “Oh, we have never seen a gay wedding before, this will be something.”  And as nice as this might seem, it feels more like they are saying to me, “Oh, a two-headed giraffe?  We have never seen one of those!  This will be a spectacle we cannot miss!”  And while I deeply care for these people in my life, their well-meant anticipation feels more like they are expecting to see a circus side show rather than a legitimate exchange of love and vows.  And there are also beloved people in my life who would be just as happy to forego the vows and save themselves from  the awkward feeling that comes with witnessing a wedding being made of a relationship they have already made peace with but didn’t actually care to celebrate. 

Am I feeling overwhelmed?  Yeah, just a little bit. 

And those wedding magazines are no help.  When I look through them for inspiration now, I only see a sea of satin and lace, mermaid fits and A-lines and ball gowns.  And there’s model after model looking slightly miffed to have to be seen in a wedding dress with her pissed-off model face.  Shouldn’t models be smiling on their photo-fantasy of a wedding day?  I guess not.  What do I know? 

Joseph is helpful.  He is trying to give me what he thinks I want, and I am trying to want it for his sake. 

What do I want?  Just a warm group of friends sitting together and eating cake.  That’s it!  How do I take that image and make an event out of it?  

Fitness Friday

I feel that I have to be brutally honest with myself.  I jiggle.

I have a slender frame, and most people think of me as a slim person, but like all of America, I am getting chubbier and chubbier.  Since moving to T-town, I have put on literally twenty pounds.  I moved in May, so this is a twenty pound weight gain in eight months.  I felt it coming on.  I went up a pant size.  I can feel the uncomfortable fit of my clothes.  And I smile when my friends say I shouldn’t worry about my weight, but after twenty pounds, I think I should worry now rather than forty pounds from now.  Unlike America, I need to take responsibility for it. 

 

I have a wedding coming up.  I didn’t have the option of getting married ten to twelve years ago when Joseph and I were new, so I have to work extra hard for the cute wedding photos. 

 

So here’s the plan, which is tried and true: Joseph and I will start watching what we eat through the Weight Watchers’ point system.  The reason I love Weight Watchers is because it helps you watch your portion control while shifting you towards making high fiber and low fat decisions.  Joseph and I will also be adding exercise to our regime.  My plan for exercise is to start running again, and work up to a mile a day.  Joseph doesn’t like running, it’s too hard on his back.  So he and I are also looking for work out at home routine.  We are looking for the right video or program on television we can use to work out in the privacy of our own home.  If any of you have suggestions, I am all ears. 

So here are the stats, I will be posting them weekly (or until I lose interest …):

Weight: 162.6 lbs

BMI:  23.3

Exercise units: 0