Fooducate

Happy Monday! This has turned out to be probably the single-most productive weekend of my adult life. My stress levels about the wedding have really gone down, so I'm just going to take a moment and pat myself on the back for conquering my to-do list. If we had any cookies in the house I would also reward myself with one... but alas, no cookies. I'm planning on dedicating a post to talk about all of the wedding preparations and what they've entailed for me. For as many wedding planning guides and magazines as I've read, I can't claim to have stuck to any particular timeline so I thought it might be useful for my friends who have weddings in their not-so distant futures to hear some suggestions and learn from my mistakes. Stay tuned for that!

In the meantime, I wanted to tell everyone about Fooducate. Carl and I have gotten hooked using this really cool iPhone app (it may be available for all smart phones, I don't know for sure). What it does is scan the bar code on your food item and gives it a grade (A, A-, B, etc) based on its ingredients and nutritional value. It will also give you information on "mystery" ingredients that are commonly found on food labels. We spent about a half an hour yesterday scanning every product in our cupboard and refrigerator. Sadly, most of our foods fell somewhere in the B and C range, many of which were labelled as healthy or natural products. For example, I bought a Kashi lunch meal that got a C+. Kashi is expensive but I'm willing to pay for it, given that it's providing me with a nutritious, well-rounded meal. I was disappointed when it only got a C, and probably won't continue to buy their lunch entrees. The app has made us a lot more aware of what we're eating (and it's made us wonder how our bodies are still functioning with all the junk we put in them), and I know it will motivate us to eat a little better. I highly recommend it, and would love to hear about the good food that people have found using it- or foods that we all assumed were good for us but turned out not to be.

Today I am working on cleaning the house from top to bottom one last time before the wedding. We'll see how far I get before I lose my gusto. As early wedding gifts arrive, our house has become filled with boxes and tissue paper, not to mention the arts and crafts explosion that has taken over the entire kitchen. I've really got my work cut out for me, but coming home to a clean house always helps me to stay unstressed. 

And look- we got pumpkins!

We haven't carved them quite yet... I wasn't sure of the shelf life of a carved pumpkin and didn't want them to rot before Halloween. That cute little bench they're sitting on was handmade by Carl's dad, Ernie. There are two pipes coming out of the siding that were really an eyesore (you can just see the bottoms of them here), so this was the perfect solution. 

Hope everyone has a great Columbus Day, and my condolences if you did not get the day off. I'm off to continue my cleaning frenzy!

Cheesecake Factory

Wednesday night a group of us from my training class went to the Cheesecake Factory in Charlotte. I have sort of a love affair going on with CF and am confused as to why there isn't one in Charleston. In my spare time I will write them a letter. I was the weirdo taking pictures of my meal the whole time so that I could share them on here and one day use them to persuade friends and loved ones to eat there with me.

 This little beauty was delicious. The Georgia Peach was its name, I believe. Because we all know that every 3000 calorie meal needs a frou-frou drink to go with it. 

Keeping with the fall theme, I decided on the carrot cake cheesecake. A digression: is carrot cake actually a fall dessert? I guess the spices in it are similar to other members of the fall dessert family (i.e. pumpkin pie) and so I've always thought of it as one. Anyways, this was quite possibly the hardest decision I've ever had to make. I think that they should offer a cheesecake sampler for indecisive dessert-loving customers like me. 

I'm salivating a little as I revisit these... Apparently I neglected to take pictures of the meal itself- you can really tell what I value most in a meal! I ordered the mozzarella and tomato pizzette and a spicy shrimp appetizer, both delicious.

Does anybody have any big plans for the 3 day weekend? My goal is to finish assembling our wedding favors, which is going to be no small feat. I only got 30 done last weekend. Carl was sweet and attempted to help, but arts and crafts doesn't exactly fall into his skill set. I've decided not to post pictures yet and keep everybody in suspense in an effort to maximize the 'ooh' and 'ahh' factor once the wedding comes. Not to toot my own horn or anything but they are 200 times cuter than I imagined them being. On that note, I'm off to be productive. Expect some pumpkin pictures soon!

Recipe Thursday: Fall Chili

As I embark on this blog post, it is already 11:56, and something tells me that I won't quite finish in four minutes... so I guess that means that this is technically Recipe Friday. On the way back from Charlotte this evening we got stuck in one of those epic traffic jams where you don't even have the option to exit the highway, and two hours goes by and you've only moved a half a mile. Everyone's favorite! I made it home a lot later than expected, but was determined not to miss Recipe Thursday because I actually cooked something this past weekend. Once the weather starts to cool off I find myself constantly in the mood for soups, so I decided to make chili. What I love most about chili is the fact that you can take all this:

From left to right: Kidney Beans, Tomato Paste, Garlic, Vegetable Broth, Jalapenos, Pinto Beans, Red and Green Bell Peppers, Crushed Tomatoes, and Chili Powder. Not Pictured: Cumin, Oregano, and Hot Sauce

... and throw it in a pot for an afternoon, and get this:

Another lovely food photo... it really was delicious!

... not to mention all kinds of leftovers! I like to freeze half and then thaw it out on a night when I'm feeling particularly lazy. This recipe is loosely based off of the one that came included in the instruction manual for my crock pot. I always improvise a little, depending on what we already have and what I can find at the grocery store. No two batches are ever the same, but no matter how creative I get with my substitutions, I don't think that you can really ruin chili.

Actually, I take that back. A long long time ago, when I was not such a big fan of chili  (which, looking back, probably stemmed from my hatred of all things ground beef), I plotted to ruin my mom's recipe. Chili night was a dreaded night for me- one that usually meant staying at the table for an extended period of time while everybody else got to watch Wheel of Fortune and other fun evening activities. Oh, the misery! My mom had this trick with her chili, where she would add a little bit of Hershey's syrup at the very end to cut through some of the acidity of the tomatoes. In an effort to make the meal slightly more palatable I came up with the plan to sneak in more than a healthy dose of syrup while nobody was looking, working under the assumption that more chocolate = better food. The meal was served and everybody dove in, including me. I was disappointed when I found that it was just as nasty as always and quickly fell back into my normal chili sulking routine. The boys were really good sports about it, though. I have to give my dad some props for not saying anything about the overly chocolatey chili until my mom brought it up. Needless to say the jig was up for me, and I received some form of mild punishment for sabotaging the meal. This just goes to show that taste buds can grow up, and people can sometimes end up liking the foods they were force-fed as children.

Steve Jobs

I had another post planned out for tonight, but in light of recent news I'll save it for another time. It's so hard to believe that Steve Jobs died. What a profound impact one person can have on the world. May we all be inspired by his creativity, vision, and motivation.

Hello, October!

This little cookie made my day today. After eating lunch at Panera for the second day in a row, I decided that I deserved a cookie. A pumpkin-shaped cookie. There's something about fall-themed anything that just makes me feel good about the world. Maybe we all need a little more pumpkin in our lives! With that said, I'm making a point to go out and buy- perhaps even carve(!)- some pumpkins this weekend. I'd also like to visit the corn maze at Boone Hall Farms in Mount Pleasant. And maybe go to Scarowinds... too bad we can't take a field trip while I'm here in Charlotte. And if anyone would like to take over wedding planning while I pretend I'm 7, please feel free!

My Two Cents on Debit Card Fees

Here it is: my first current event-related blog post! Normally I'm not a very opinionated person, at least not to the point that I'll argue with someone about it. This media circus that has been going on about every single thing Bank of America does has gotten to be a little ridiculous, though. If you asked me what I like least about my job at the bank I would tell you a) mean people, and b) responding- or trying to bite my tongue- when customers come in and recite whatever it is they have heard on the news about us. If I had a nickel for every time someone asked me if my job was in jeopardy, or made a sarcastic comment about the bailout money, or blamed any fee related to their account on the mortgage issues... well, I'd probably have about $7.65. That's 153 nickels!

With regards to the latest news about the debit card fees, I have to say I was just as shocked and outraged as every other customer when I initially found out about it. However, today in my training my teacher- who is absolutely awesome, by the way- explained it really well. After the conversation was over I felt a lot better about it, and ready to face a stampede of disgruntled customers. Apparently the passing of the Dodd-Frank Act, which was put in place to regulate debit transactions, is the culprit. NOT mortgage issues carrying over into consumer banking or whatever else the media will have you believe. As part of the act, a cap was put in place to limit the amount that merchants would have to pay to banks (only those that have over a certain amount of money on deposit. Read: big banks) whenever a debit card is used. Prior to this, banks like BOA received between $1.40 and $1.70 per swipe. The cap will drop that number down to about 40 cents. In an effort to recoup the lost revenue the bank is now imposing a monthly fee for those customers who choose to use debit cards for purchases (not at the ATM or within the bank). Makes sense, right? In theory, the merchants will now be able to lower their costs because they're not paying so much to banks, so as consumers we should see that money coming back to us. We'll see if that actually happens- wishful thinking never hurt.

Another thing my teacher pointed out was the fact that banks have more or less shot themselves in the foot by being the only business to lead customers to believe that its products and services are worthless. There's now this expectation that all accounts and other services should be completely free, otherwise it's highway robbery. In any other industry it's perfectly acceptable and normal to pay for goods, but for some reason banks can't catch enough grief for trying to run a profitable business. It's absolutely ludicrous that people will spend $5 a day on their morning latte or $4.99 for an app on their phone, but a $5 monthly fee for something that helps you access, manage, and protect your money seems to be starting riots. Get it together, folks.  

Workout Success!

I'm happy to report that yesterday I finished the last Firm Express video! These workouts were really awesome, and I plan on cycling through them one more time before the wedding. What I liked about them most was that they were only 20 minutes long (hence the name 'Express'). On days when I was feeling less than motivated it was easy enough to talk myself into doing one, knowing that it wouldn’t eat up a bunch of my time. And even though they were tough, I feel like I can do anything for 20 minutes without it killing me. Each of the 12 workouts was completely different, which was both good and bad. It didn’t get boring because they weren’t doing the same routines over and over again, but on the other hand, it was challenging trying to keep up. Once I got the moves down they were already moving on to the next thing. Hopefully this won’t be as much of an issue my second time through. I did not lose the promised 15 pounds, but let’s face it; I wasn’t really expecting to drop that much weight. The good news: I’m starting to tell a real difference! I feel like I’m a lot stronger and toned, which is exactly what I was hoping for. Who knows- at this rate I might even grow my first ab. 


In other news, I'm headed to Charlotte this week for some training for work. That's right folks, my first "business trip!" I have no idea what it's going to be like, but am hoping that they don't make us work too hard and that I make some new friends. It could be a long week if I have to eat all my meals alone. On that note, I'm off to pack and get some shut-eye so that eye can be on my A- game this week.