A whole new world

Hello, lovelies! 

I've been a little absent lately, and I apologize. My brain has been absolutely monopolized by a story idea that has finally become so strong and loud I am compelled to write it down. 

You see, I've had story ideas come to me over the years that play cat and mouse with me, teasing me with character bios, and initial plot points that get me excited. Nothing has ever been strong enough for me to write more than a few pages, or move past the general idea that first got me intrigued though. I have a plot problem, usually, as the characters are boisterous and friendly, making me want to write about them, but I have no idea what world they live in or how their story should unfold. 

Well, a story came to me a few weeks back that I marinated on, and generally just thought about for a bit. I never get coherent, good thinking done when I'm running, but this story wouldn't leave me alone, chasing me as I literally ran from it. So last week I had enough, and sat down at my laptop and banged out 10k words in one sitting. Um, where the heck did that come from? The plot is fully alive for me, and I can see where I want my characters to go, what crap they have to overcome, and how I want it to end, but they still surprise me with how they are getting there. 

It's a new adult romance, which is one of my favorite genres to read. It features a sweet, business saavy heroine and a flawed former MMA fighter turned gym owner who literally saves her from a bad situation. Chemistry commences, and the fireworks begin...then are cut off when the past keeps them apart. Intrigued, yet? If you said yes, then you are experiencing just a fraction of what has me itching to sit down at my computer day after day, making pages appear so I can see what my characters do next. 56 pages, and 32k words, and I am still going strong. This is unheard of for me! So I probably will be a little scarce while I play with my imaginary friends a bit longer. 

I have even created a playlist for the story so far. I keep adding to it as I write because new scenes call for the proper background music, so I hope to have a full playlist when this writing binge is over. For now, enjoy the first 13 songs ;) When I played a few for Billy, he told me they were slow and sultry, which apparently is what I like in music lately.

tasty Tuesday: Mahi Mahi tacos

Woo hoo it's the best day of the week, Tasty Tuesday! As always, go show my girl Cassie some love and see what she's got cooking. 

Now, I have to admit something, and it shames me to do so. I haven't done much real cooking lately. Well, I have made my breakfast tacos and smoothies a few times, but that's just scrambled eggs and sauteed veggies scooped up in a tortilla, or frozen fruit whirled together in a blender. Not much effort. As for dinners and baking? Hmmm, I've been lazy. I blame all of the books I have been obsessed with reading, the TV shows and movies I have to watch to stay current, and the running and biking I have to do to train for a half marathon. Oh, and working at the salon, doing hair and makeup for weddings, and taking a ton of babysitting jobs too. Cooking hasn't really been on my mind. I did however make these awesome tacos for the kids I babysat for last week, and they loved them! I actually can't believe I haven't shared this super easy peasy recipe with you yet, I was inspired by Rubio's habanero mango mahi mahi tacos, and I've been making it every other week or so because I love it so much. 

Mahi Mahi tacos

serves 4, or two really hungry people

Ingredients

1 pkg of 3 frozen Mahi Mahi fillets, Trader Joe's brand are awesome

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp Mrs. Dash Fiesta Lime seasoning

2 tbsp lime juice

1/2 cup mango salsa, I used the TJ's fresh fire roasted papaya mango salsa and it's divine

8 small corn tortillas, I like the TJ's De Mi Abuela corn and wheat tortillas

1/2 cup slaw type shredded veggies, I like TJ's broccoli slaw

1 avocado, sliced

optional add ons: black beans, cheese, sour cream, rice, etc.

Directions: 

Heat oven to 375F. Line a rimmed baking dish with foil, and coat with non-stick spray. Remove Mahi fillets from package and place in the baking dish. Drizzle olive oil over the fillets, then season with Mrs. Dash on both side, and baste with lime juice. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until fish is opaque and flakes easily. Allow to cool, then use your fork to separate the fish into large flaked pieces. Heat your tortillas according to package directions. Top each tortilla with a bit of fish, salsa, slaw, avocado, and any other toppings you like. I keep it simple with the first 4. Dig in and be amazed at how this easy to put together meal tastes. 

Seriously, Mahi Mahi and mango salsa were born to go together. It's a ridiculous combination that brings out the spicy sweetness of the salsa, and the mild buttery-ness of the fish. Perfection. A good corn tortilla doesn't hurt, and the slaw gives a much needed crunch to the rest of the soft taco, while creamy avocado is just the cherry on top for this special treat. Give it a try next time you are in a crunch and have only a short while to get a delicious dinner ready. I especially love that the fish cooks from frozen so quickly! Being able to cook frozen meat beats the heck out of defrosting something. 

Where did the week go

Wait, what day is it, and how did the week fly by so quickly? I feel like I was just writing my Monday post, and here it is Thursday evening and I've skipped a bunch of days. 

Guess it was just one of those weeks, ya feel me? 

Any who, we can all be thankful that it is, indeed, almost Friday, and the weekend is here! I've had something planned every day this week, whether is was the salon, babysitting jobs, hair and makeup for a San Francisco elopement, or massive errands to run that took me out of bed early in the morning. So it's safe to say I took Friday off of everything for myself. I turned down two babysitting jobs and made no plans so I can sleep in, get a run in, and then have a nice leisurely day ending with a BBQ dinner out with Billy. I just need a "me" day with all of the craziness.

Other than generally being very busy, I have nothing too exciting to report on, so I will keep this short and sweet, and wish you all a wonderful weekend! 

Monday recommendations

Happy day after Drinko Cinco de Mayo! Hopefully you are not nursing a tequila hangover and are happily saluting a brand new week on this lovely Monday :) No fun Cinco plans were had on my part, I was busily working from 8:30am-7pm at the salon, but I did hear all sorts of celebrating going on at the awesome Mexican restaurant, El Guapos, next door. Drunk people are funny, dude. They're also loud. Anyway... 

Hope your weekend was fantastic and Monday is treating you well.

Today, I wanted to talk about something that is going on in my life. Something that is relatively new, and is taking over. 

I'm talking about Amazon one click buying of $.99 Kindle books! 

You didn't think something was up, did you? 

Thanks to other bloggers, particularly my friends who love reading and like sharing the giveaways they enter, I have stumbled upon some awesome book bloggers who do giveaways all the time. I've been entering every one I find like a madwoman, and if you follow me on twitter, you have probably seen my myriad posts for this and that giveaway. The giveaways are cool, but that's not where my problem lies. Those same book bloggers who offer cool giveaways for free stuff are constantly updating me on the newest Amazon markdowns for books that are $.99, and I have been buying them. 

Like all of them. 

16 books in the last month. That starts to add up, but it's not really an issue to buy $16 worth of books when in a hardback form each of those books could be $12-20. The problem is my inability to ignore these bloggers posting to Facebook about ANOTHER book that I just need to buy. It's like a compulsion. "So and so's book is now $.99!!!" their posts scream, and I immediately click through to Amazon and hit the one click purchase button. 

It's bad, you guys. I don't even read the descriptions anymore. I just know it will probably be a sexy new adult romance and I will love it. So here I am to share some of my favorites I have bought and read lately, because sharing is caring. And I can't be alone in my fevered purchasing. 

The Voice, by Jennifer Anne Davis was my first purchase made from the recommendation of a book blogger and a giveaway I entered. I was so intrigued by the snippet I read through the giveaway I decided to just buy the book for myself, and it is still $.99!

Off Sides, by Sawyer Bennett was my next purchase and I really loved this one! It's currently $2.99, but I would still buy it.

Give me Something, by Elizabeth Lee was a pretty decent read with an interesting premise, but wasn't amazing in my mind. I did like some of the writing catches though, so it's worth a shot, and still just $.99!

Real, by Katy Evans. OMG you guys will LOVE Remy! This alpha male fighter is ridiculous. And feral enough he likes to lick. Weird, but read it and find out what I mean. I liked the strong female lead, Brooke, and enjoyed reading her story as much as the love story that develops throughout. Now it's $3.99, but absolutely worth it.

If you want a little witchy supernatural action with a fantastic heroine, pick up Escaped by Rachel Robinson for only $3.99! Rachel is a blog friend of mine who is really on a roll with her writing. Escaped is the first in a trilogy I believe, and I know she has more stories on the way. 

Lover at Last, a Black Dagger Brotherhood series book by J.R. Ward $14.99. I gladly bought this awesome book and read it with relish, because I love the BDB series! Quinn's story breaks my heart, and finally seeing his and Blay's story come together was awesome! Male-male sex scenes in this one, just fyi in case that freaks you out. The rest of the Black Dagger Brotherhood series is typical male-female love stories though.

Books I have bought, but haven't read yet: 

Rock the Heart Michelle A. Valentine $.99

Rock the Band Michelle A Valentine $.99

Billionaire Novelist Mimi Strong 4 book series $3.99

Scrap Metal Harper Fox free!

Deceived Eve Carter free!

Beauty from Pain Georgia Cates $3.99

Take me as I am Stephanie L. Williams $4.99

Happy reading my loves! 

Stop by Meg's to do a little mingling! It's been awhile since I linked up, but thought, why not?!

No Sugar for us

It's a semi-sad day for Billy and I. 

We got a call early this morning letting us know that Billy did not get a job he was applying for. 

Semi because nothing was fixed or certain, but sad nonetheless because we had been thinking and dreaming of getting the Optical manager position at the brand new Sugar Land Costco that is being built. 

What really pissed Billy off is that he didn't even get a phone interview, just the call to say they were no longer accepting transfer requests. We later found out they had hired the optical manager from the Rockwall store, just outside of Dallas. Can you guess where Billy is applying next? Yup, Rockwall ;)

So now I am doing my research and already obsessing about this new town. I am on Zip Realty searching houses. I am Googling salons and pricing for the area. For all intents and purposes, I have moved on. 

Strangely, it hardly even affected me! I heard Billy answer the phone, and from his side of the short conversation, I figured it was Costco, and negative. He confirmed, and then proceeded to feel bummed out. I went for a run. 

I expected to be extremely disappointed by anything other than "you're hired!" but I'm not. I immediately told Billy not to worry, there are tons more stores opening in Texas, and other departments that will need a manager, so we will get out there one way or another. And I absolutely believe this. Maybe if he has received 5 or 10 negative responses will I feel defeated, but right now, there are options available, and I am optimistic. 

Tasty Tuesday: Breakfast options

Hello and welcome to another edition of Tasty Tuesdays! 

I am joining my friend Cassie in sharing some of my favorite recipes. I am just about ready to create a link up for her already, it's just so much fun to have a day to share some of the yummy things I've made lately ;)

Today I wanted to share a few breakfast recipes that are my go-to options for busy and leisurely mornings alike. Like many of my recipes, you can add to and alter these recipes to fit your preferences, but this combination seems to do it for me more often than not.

Breakfast tacos 

Because really, who doesn't like tacos? This is such a satiating and filling recipe, with great protein, carbs and good fats, so you won't feel hungry for hours.

Ingredients:

2 small tortillas, my favorites are Trader Joe's corn and flour tortillas

1 egg white, 1 whole egg

1/4 cup chopped sweet potato

1/4 cup chopped zucchini

1/4 cup chopped red bell pepper

2-4 chopped cherry tomatoes

1/2 an avocado

a sprinkle of crumbled goat cheese

cooking spray, I used Trader Joe's coconut oil cooking spray, which was fantastic!

Directions:

Heat a small skillet to medium heat. Coat with cooking spray, then add your chopped sweet potato and zucchini, stirring occasionally for 2 minutes. Add your red bell pepper and cook 1 minute. Add you tomato. In a small bowl, whisk together your egg white and whole egg, then add to the skillet, using a spatula to scramble everything together until done. Place egg and veggie mixture in a bowl, and top with goat cheese and chopped avocado. Heat your tortillas according to package, and then fill with egg mixture to make tacos.  

Pb&j milkshake

I woke up craving a peanut butter and jelly sandwich recently, and was sad to discover that I do not have a naturally sweetened jam on hand, so I made this healthy milkshake to beat my craving without giving in to processed sugar.

Ingredients:

1 banana, can be fresh or frozen

1 cup sliced strawberries, fresh or frozen

2 tbsp PB2 powdered peanut butter {you may also use regular peanut butter, but know the calories will be higher}

1 cup milk of your choice

1 scoop protein powder,  {I used chocolate, but strawberry or peanut butter flavors would be perfect}

1 tbsp chia seeds

1 tbsp ground flaxseed

1 cup ice if using fresh fruit

Directions: 

Add all of your ingredients to a blender, blending until smooth and frothy. Pour into a big glass and enjoy a quick breakfast! 

Friday's letters 4.26.13

Joining Ashley for Friday's letters!

Dear Carlos Arredondo {in the cowboy hat}, you are a hero for jumping in to help save victims of the Boston Marathon bombings. Pinching shut the severed artery in Jeff Bauman's right leg helped ensure he would live. Without any medical knowledge, you did this! A follow up story can be read here. 

Image via Concord Monitor

Dear Costco family, thank you for taking care of your employees and fellow staff. Jeff Bauman works for Costco, and so does my hubby Billy. Billy told me yesterday that Costco employees all over the country are wanting to donate their vacation hours to Jeff, ensuring he can receive payment even when he isn't working. Right now we aren't sure if all of the donated hours are going into one big pool to help everyone affected by the bombings, or just Jeff, but if everyone who works for Costco donated one hour, there would be something like 50+ years of vacation donated, and that is crazy awesome! 

Dear half marathon training week 1, I got this! I am loving being active 5 days in a row, and the energy I get from the workouts. We shall see in a few weeks time how I feel about longer runs, but I am feeling great right now. 

Dear Billy, I love you. Thanks for making me laugh and being such a good friend.

Dear Sadie, you are not going to be able to run with me for most of my runs from now on, and that makes me sad. I had to carry you the last half mile of our hike yesterday, which is really out of the ordinary for your hardy little ways. The heat and more frequent activity is taking it out of you, and I can't put you in the position to get heat stroke or hurt yourself. I know you hate me when I leave you at home, but it's for your own good. Mommy loves you baby dog!

Dear weekend, bring it on! A wedding, two wedding trials, salon meeting, and about 32 hours of work total in 3 days. I can do this. Pray for me!

Dear blog friends, I love you! Thanks being supportive, and for creating friendships I never would have had the chance to experience! I appreciate you so much, love reading your blogs, and enjoy staying up to date with you on social networking :) You can follow me on Twitter, IG, FB etc. by clicking the cute icons by my profile picture :)

Expensive hobbies

One thing I have really come to notice as I have aged is that I have cultivated expensive hobbies.

My chosen profession means I am constantly buying new hair and makeup products, which add up quickly, but I can write those expenses off at tax time, so I don't even bat an eye when I am run up at Sephora anymore. 

Actually, I am talking about a whole other string of hobbies that are expensive, but mainly fitness. I am just grateful that I have the means to have expensive hobbies to begin with. Total first world problems, y'all.

Don't get me wrong, you don't have to spend a lot of money to work out, but I do. Here are some of the ways I have made fitness expensive:

I have a penchant for buying workout DVDs. I particularly like Jillian Michaels and Bob Harper workouts, even if I rarely ever use them. Thank goodness for Amazon, as you can find them very cheap there.

My gym membership is paid every month, regardless of if I go regularly or not. Some months I just make a "donation", and don't even use my membership. Sad, right? My membership allows me to get into any 24 hour fitness in the country, has a boat load of awesome classes to choose from, and large amounts of equipment to use any time of the day or night. I should use it more, but most of my workouts are outside on my bike or running. I do have to make better use of my $40 a month though!

I buy new running shoes every 6 months, which adds up to a few hundred dollars a year. This year in particular has been ridiculous in that department as I have tried in vain to find a new shoe replacement. You can do the math on 4 pairs of shoes in 3 months. Thank goodness my latest pair, Asics gel-Lyte 33, are proving to be wonderful, and giving me the idea that that I won't need to buy more shoes for awhile.

Yup, I totally got the men's version, as the women's doesn't come in wide width, but the men's standard width is a women's wide! They are still a really pretty blue color, and comfy as all get out, so I like them.

On top of shoes, I buy workout wear! Shorts, tanks, sports bras, tights, and long sleeved shirts make their way into my shopping cart more often than I care to admit, and it's actually quite needed as workout clothes get so stinky. I am so very thankful I am not a devotee to Lululemon, because that ish is expensive. My Under Armour outlet clothes, and my finds at the local running stores and places like Marshalls and Target are as expensive as I want to get, thank you.

However, yesterday I dipped into more expensive territory, and bought something bigger than my shoes, my gym membership, and the clothes. 

I bought a new bike! 

My favorite bike store is having their annual mega sale, and I knew I wanted a new helmet and maybe a few accessories while they were on sale. It wasn't until I went on a mt bike ride on Tuesday that I decided I needed my own mt bike. Yes, I am impulsive.

Needed should be taken lightly here; I didn't actually need anything, but of course that didn't stop me. Billy and I have been sharing his Specialized Hardrock for two and a half years, the last two years I was exclusively riding my Cannondale road bike and leaving the mt bike alone. We are lucky that we can actually share a bike. Billy may be 3 inches taller than me, but he's all torso, while I am all limbs, so we can make good use of the same bike with small tweaks to seat height and not being bothered by the rest. Knowing I have to put the seat post all the way to the top, which can ruin the post, made having my very own bike made with women's specific geometry sound marvelous. I did quick research of some entry level mt bikes, picked the brain of my friend Matt who eats sleeps and breathes bikes, and then headed down to Mike's Bikes to test ride some bikes. 

credit

I ended up special ordering the Specialized Myka sport disc 29er in white, as the shop only had the model in red, and let's be honest, red just isn't my color! It means I have to wait two weeks for delivery, but I can hang!

There are all sorts of fancy components, nice hydraulic disc breaks, and things I don't even know about on this bike. I went with a 29er {29 inch tires} instead of the standard 26 inch tires because the larger tires make you faster, the ride smoother, and the climbing easier. Um, why would I want anything less? The disc brakes were a must have, as I need to be able to stop quickly if I plan on venturing out on the trails which can be quite sketchy terrain wise. Everything else was just bonus, especially the pretty color scheme. Oh yes, I did just say a bike was pretty, and that was a major part of my decision making process. 

Now I just have to be patient and wait for my bike to come in so I can take it out for a spin! I will have to come up with a fun name for the new bike too, as I really like referring to my Cannondale CAAD10 road bike as The Cupcake!  

Do you have any expensive hobbies? I would love to hear about them!

Names, high temps, and following a routine

Welcome to my fancy blog with it's very own domain! You can now find me at www.thehappygirlblog.com

Of course my blogspot url will direct you right where you need to be if you forget. 

You should know there was a lot of thought, deliberation, polling of both blog friends and Facebook friends, and then an annoying amount of trouble shooting and Googling and calling into go daddy customer support to make the new domain and blogger work together. 

But hey, it's all good now!

I had some hesitancy about changing the url from happy girls are pretty girls, but I think simpler is better, and shorter is sweeter. The happy girl blog says it all, and I can still keep the title as Happy Girls are the Prettiest Girls ;)

Now, let's talk about that half marathon I signed up for last week. I put my big girl panties on and created a training plan, and actually followed through both Monday and Tuesday, with a run scheduled today. This is a nice step in the right direction from where I have been with fitness. Well, actually, I have been rather lack luster about working out, so this is great to have two days in a row to start me off. Monday I ran in all new gear, and for once I actually kinda enjoyed it. I have mentioned my sad shoe saga, and how my favorite shoes are discontinued, so it was nice to be in a new pair of shoes that didn't suck. However, the 80 degree weather was something else. 

Oh hey, did I mention it's practically summer over here in NorCal already? Friday-Sunday temps were in the 80's, Monday it was 88, Tuesday it was 85, and today is supposed to be in the high 70's. Oh what was that Midwest? You have SNOW still?! I am sending you lots of extra warm thoughts to melt the jealousy snow away.

Tuesday I did something that I haven't done in two years; I took my mt bike out for a ride, and actually went through some of my favorite hiking trails. I was a scaredy cat and avoided the extra rocky and steep switch back trail, but I did sack up enough to have some sketchy descents that had my tires skidding and my brakes squeaking! All in all I biked nearly 17 miles and got a great workout. Oh, and a sunburn, even though I wore sunscreen. My gloves made for a nice white hand and obvious line at my wrist hah!

I have started posting photos to Instagram {follow me!} during my workouts because the photos will show up on Strava {follow me there, too!} where I track my workouts, so basically it's like I am taking you along for the ride. Letting people live vicariously through my workouts since 2013...

On a completely unrelated note, I signed up to be a secret restaurant evaluator last night! I did this once before about 5 years back and loved checking out new restaurants, but had a hard time balancing work, life, and the evaluations. I am hoping this time around I can make it work, because it would be nice to have my dining out count for something. 

And that about catches you up on my current situation! How has life been for you? Do you approve of my new domain? {if not, let's pretend you do, as it's too late!} Have you ever done evaluations before? 

Tasty Tuesday: Cheesy chicken chimichangas

Happy Tasty Tuesday! My girl Cassie started this little recipe day way back when, and even without a link up I just love participating so I can share my newest recipes with you. 

I shared with you all last week that I am a fully converted lover of spice and Mexican food, so it's no surprise that when I happened upon a chimichanga recipe with cheesy in the title, I had to make it. Like last week's pork enchiladas recipe, I shortened the active cooking time by using my crock pot and fudging the ingredients to suit my tastes and desires. 

Cheesy chicken chimichangas

Ingredients:

1 lb chicken, I used breast tenders

1/2 jar salsa verde

2 tbsp taco seasoning

8oz shredded pepper jack cheese

8oz package neufchatel cream cheese

8 flour tortillas

Directions:

1. place chicken in a crock pot and cover with salsa verde. Cook on high for 4 hours, or low for 8 hours. 
2. preheat oven to 350F. Line a pan with foil and spray with non-stick spray.
3. Shred chicken, add in taco seasoning, cream cheese and pepper jack cheese.
4. divide chicken mixture between the tortillas, fold the sides in and place seam down on baking pan. Spray with cooking spray, and bake for 15 minutes. Turn oven to broil, and cook 3 more minutes to get the chimichangas good and browned.
5. serve with your favorite fixings, like cheddar cheese, sour cream, and green onions!