Bookworm

I'm back from a tiny little blogging hiatus. Mom's birthday tore me up a bit, as did preparing her favorite dinner in honor of her.

After dinner Thursday night, we headed up to Ormond, had a bit of a scare on the road when Bettie decided to hydroplane in a puddle, spinning us around I-95 for several hair-raising minutes. Thank goodness Beren knew how to handle the car, there was no traffic near us at the moment, and we were not near a guardrail or surely we would have been hit, or slammed into the rail. Oh, and Beren also says we could've flipped as well. Thanks for that reminder, hon. Anyway, he regained control of the car, we pulled over and composed ourselves, a kind-hearted lady in a car who witnessed it pulled over to check on us. She was pretty freaked out which leads me to believe it was almost as scary to watch as it was to experience. But, we were ok, Bettie didn't have a scratch on her, and we cautiously made our way home. Needless to say, after all of that emotional upheaval, I needed some time to lick my wounds.

So, yesterday we ran a couple of errands, picked up a stack of books at the library and mostly hibernated. Other than taking Loki to the dog park, we entertained ourselves safely at home. Cooked dinner, read a novel straight through, went to bed early.

This morning I'm feeling much better, up & at 'em and ready to enjoy the weekend! I logged onto my Sparkpage to find a friend request, always a nice way to start the day! You all have to check out this lovely lady, she is amazing! I am honored to be her "buddy" and know that you'll find her as inspiring as I do. If she can lose that amount of weight with clean eating and exercise, I certainly can!

I promised you guys some recipes, here's what I'm making for dinner tonight, courtesy of The George Foreman Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grilling Machine Cookbook:

Vietnamese Lettuce-Wrapped Shrimp

16 large uncooked shrimp, peeled, deveined, tails removed
1/2 teaspoon Asian chile oil
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablesppon sesame oil
1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce
24 leaves of butter lettuce, rinsed
2 cups carrots, grated
2 cups bean sproufs, rinsed and cut into 1 inch pieces
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
4 8-inch wooden skewers, soaked in water and drained nonfat cooking spray

Thread the shrimp onto the skewers.
Lightly coat the grill with cooking spray and preheat for 5 minutes.
Combine the chile oil, pepper, sesame oil and soy sauce.
Place the skewers in the grill widthwise (horizontally) and brush with the oil and pepper sauce.
Grill the shrimp for 1 1/2-2 1/2 minutes.
To serve, place equal portions of lettuce, carrots and bean sprouts on individual plates.
Remove the shrimp from the skewers and add to each plate.
Place a tablespoon of hoisin sauce on each plate.
To assemble, place shrimp, carrots and bean sprouts on a lettuce leaf and roll up, tucking in the ends.
Dip the lettuce wraps in the hoisin sauce as desired.

Serves 4. Calories: 169; Total Fat: 8g; Protein: 9g;

Enjoy, and have a Beauty-Full Day,