I love taboule! Anyone else? If you don’t know what it is, it is basically a very herbacious (just made that up) mixture of parsley, garlic, lemon juice, bulgar wheat, tomato, and magic.

Do you spell it “tabouli” or “taboule”? Or even “tabouleh”? I don’t know which to use! I bought my mix in bulk so that is unhelpful as it has neither a name nor instructions on how to prepare it.

Instead of making it to eat as a dip, I opted to make just a little bit of it to mix into some ground turkey. Turkey breast is, let’s face it, kind of flavorless on its own. But something as flavorful as taboule really punched it up.

If you’ve never had taboule/i/eh, I recommend you go to your local Mediterranean restaurant which likely has it on the appetizer menu. It is great with crackers or pita, and I really like to mix a heaping spoonful into my salads to give them extra flavor. You can also buy it in its prepared form or in dried mixes where you simply add some amount of water, olive oil, lemon juice, and diced tomato and mix to make good things happen. The mixes are widely available, check the part of your grocery store with boxed rice dishes and couscous!

Unrelated side note: do not slice your finger open with an apple slicer while these burgers cook. No bueno. But the Dora the Explorer band-aid is a-okay.

Taboule Turkey Burgers (makes 4 or 5 patties)
2 T dried taboule mix
1 T olive oil
1 T water
1/2 cup diced tomato (remove the seeds if you prefer)
1 1/4 lb lean ground turkey breast
1 egg white
salt & pepper to taste
In a small mixing bowl, combine the dried taboule mix with water and olive oil. Allow to sit for a few minutes while the bulgar wheat soaks up the liquid. Dice your tomato and stir it into the taboule mix. It is important to taste this mixture and possibly add salt and pepper — my mix wasn’t very salty so I added a healthy pinch of both salt and pepper! In a large mixing bowl combine the ground turkey breast, egg white, taboule, and (optional) salt and pepper. Mix well but don’t over mix. Divide the mixture into 4 or 5 equal parts and gently form into patties. You can cook them in a pan or bake them (like I did) at 375* for 25 minutes. They will be juicy and perfectly cooked! Remove them from the baking sheet immediately so any excess fat doesn’t re-coagulate on them. Serve on a bun with plenty of ketchup

I’m back in Austin after a month on the East Coast, where I visited with family for the holidays and stayed with Rahul in DC for 2 weeks. It was so nice to relax and especially to be with Rahul for so long, but I had to return to Texas eventually. And now we’re in the home stretch of my Master’s degree and it will be May sooner than I know!

While hanging out in DC, I cooked for Rahul but nothing blogworthy. In fact, I made this, this, and this recipe because they’re easy and make for lots of leftovers! I know them by heart. And so should you.

However, now that I am back in my own kitchen and a need to have food on hand to pack lunches, I got to cooking a bit yesterday and made a really simple pasta salad. Have I ever told you how much I love pasta salad? I really, really love pasta salad. And this one is simple, healthy, and contains one of my favorite condiments: barbecue sauce.

Note: this dinner seemed a little beige so I added some broccoli on the side at the last minute. Next time, I’d probably add it to the actual pasta salad, but that is your judgement call.

BBQ Chicken & Orzo Salad (serves 4-5)
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup barbecue sauce (of choice), divided
1/2 cup orzo, uncooked
1 1/2 cup corn
1/3 cup plain, non-fat yogurt
1 tsp garlic powder
salt & pepper to taste
In a bowl, marinate chicken breasts in 3 T of barbecue sauce for 20-30 minutes. Bake chicken at 375* for 30 minutes or until fully cooked. Using two forks, shred the chicken breasts and set aside in a mixing bowl to cool. Boil and drain the orzo, adding it to the bowl with the shredded chicken. Drain the corn (if using canned corn) and add to mixing bowl. In a small bowl, combine 1 T barbecue sauce with yogurt and garlic powder. If you use Greek yogurt, your mixture will be too thick so you may want to thin it out with a touch of water. Pour the yogurt mixture over the chicken, orzo, and corn and mix thoroughly. Add salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate at least 2-3 hours and serve chilled.

Yep, 3 years ago today I started to change my life on my own terms. As I’ve written about before, my dad died in November of 2008. Here is a picture of me from my mom’s wedding, just a day after his funeral:

Shortly after this, I finished my semester and had about a month of winter break to process things. Slowly, the wheels of change started to spin in my brain and I found blogs about healthy living and weight loss. I investigated my choices. I invested in myself. I started Weight Watchers on January 12, 2009.

I learned about making smarter choices with my food. I liked the burn I felt in my muscles when I exercised. I knew that I had to do something proactive to become a happier person and turn things around for myself. It all started to click.

I started on the elliptical, moved to running (using the Couch to 5k program!), and ran my first 5k! I then ran a 10k and a handful of other 5k’s. I got back into swimming, my childhood sport and first love. I took spin classes. I was healthy.

Over the next year and a half, I lost 80 lbs. I was happy. I was a new person.

In the 1.5 years since I’ve moved to Texas, I gained 10-12 lbs back (depending on what day you asked me). I got a little disheartened after falling out of some new habits and back into some old habits. But since August I’ve been trying to pick myself back up by my bootstraps (because I actually have bootstraps now) and I’ve gotten back on the bandwagon and lost the “moving-weight”. Now, I’m looking forward to getting rid of the final 15 lbs I want to shed. Full disclosure: I’m using Weight Watchers again and have been since November.

So why am I sharing all this with you? I wanted to write it out for myself as some positive reinforcement and motivation for me, as well as anyone out there looking at the calendar and wondering if this year is the year. It is! I did it. And not to sound like one of those tv commercials but… if I can do it, so can you. It wasn’t always easy, and it certainly wasn’t always pretty, but I did it.

My advice: pick some small things you can change and go from there. One change will snowball into another. You’ll be amazed at what you continue to accomplish. Find yourself a mantra (the one I’m using these days was 100% stolen from the Minute Maid orange juice slogan, but it works): “Put good in, get good out.”

Are you using this January to change things up? Are you looking for ways to get healthier? Did you already find a better lifestyle? I want to hear everyone’s stories! I need the motivation and I know other people want it, too!

Do you believe in ghosts? I’ve always been a firm believer in ghosts. I grew up in a very historic and haunted area of Virginia, where supposedly many ghosts from Colonial times up to the present reside. I’ve taken a ghost tour of Colonial Williamsburg, driven on Elbow Road in Virginia Beach, and been too chicken to hang out on the old battlefields late at night.

I don’t normally give my belief in ghosts that much thought, but on New Year’s Eve I was in Richmond, where I went to college, and a friend and I decided to visit the Edgar Allen Poe House Museum (which, by the way, is totally worth $5).

Before going, there was some general discussion among my friends about how ghosts supposedly appear in the windows of the courtyard at the museum. I started asking everyone about their belief in ghosts and then I busted out some knowledge: ghosts appear as orbs in photographs. You can Google it.

Well, I have proof of this. You see, my mom’s wedding was held the day after my dad’s funeral. (Yes, you read that right. They were divorced and his death was, obviously, unexpected).  So anyways, there is a picture of me from the wedding with a floating orb which appears in no other photo from my camera or from that room. I 100% believe it was my dad’s spirit.

You can’t miss it! (Nor can you miss how fat I was. Wow.)

Okay so there’s part 1 of your proof. Ready for the second? At the Edgar Allen Poe House, I snapped tons of pictures of windows hoping to see the elusive ghosts. On first glance, I didn’t see them on my camera. But after putting the photos in iPhoto, I can totally see them! There are TWO orbs in this picture, can you see them, too??

It isn’t quite a clear as the one from my mom’s wedding, but there they are! (On the right side, for those playing along at home).

So after all that, do you believe in ghosts? Or do you think I’m crazy and have decided to never read this blog again?

So January 2012 is just moments away and resolution fever has hit the blogosphere and the TV commercial airwaves like wildfire.

Last year, I posted my resolutions on here for y’all to see. I think I did pretty well, having gotten better at flossing my teeth and I did manage to lose 10 lbs, which puts me back at my pre-Texas weight. However, without real access to a grill, I did not master the open flame. I also did not post a how-to video, but only because I learned that WordPress charges obscene amounts of money for videos. And I’m too cool for YouTube, let’s be honest.

So what are my new New Year Resolutions?

1. Stop correcting people for putting the apostrophe-s on “New Year’s”, as in “Happy New Year’s”.

2. Complete my first half marathon (planned for February 19th!) and run the Army 10-miler in October in DC, for my brother!

3. Lose another 15 lbs and finally finish what I started 3 years ago.

4. Continue to floss teeth more regularly.

5. Increase savings account by 50%, despite another cross-country move (in May) and no employment over the coming summer.

What are your resolutions for 2012? Anything interesting or different? 

And now, I shall leave you with a picture of me + Zack Efron hanging out at my family’s White Elephant gift exchange.

Too much work.

Plus, my mom is verbally not looking forward to the holidays since my brother Hunter is deployed. Last year he was deployed in Korea, this year in Afghanistan. And apparently I’m chopped liver. I kid, I kid.

Well yesterday I made an attempt at being spirited and finally made the sugar cookies my mom had been begging me to make. The pictures are a little sparse because a) I forgot to take them and b) I got distracted and went skiing halfway through making them (no joke).

I’d like to thank my best friend Tiffany’s husband, Johnny, for lending me an extra jacket!

But here they are, in all of their sorta holiday glory! Get out your butter!

Peppermint Sugar Cookies (makes 15-20 cookies)
For cookies:
1 stick butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
1 egg
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/3 cup flour
For icing:
1 stick butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1-2 T heavy whipping cream
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
1-2 drops green food coloring (optional)
In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. When well combined, mix in the vanilla, peppermint, and egg. In another mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mixing slowly, incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet until a dough has formed. Roll the dough into balls (smaller or larger to suit your taste, but I recommend ping-pong size) and place onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350* for 10-12 minutes until edges are just brown. Remove from oven and cool on a cookie sheet. They will be nice a chewy! After the cookies have completely cooled, beat together butter, powdered sugar, and peppermint extract for the icing, drizzling in heavy whipping cream to give it the perfect icing consistency. Once satisfied with the texture, add in the food coloring (optional) and mix well. Spread icing on cookies — lay it on thick! Enjoy!

Here are the rules:

• Nominate 10-15 fellow bloggers
• Inform the bloggers of their nomination
• Share 7 random things about yourself
• Thank the blogger who nominated you (that’s right, suck up to me)
• Add the VBA picture/badge to your blog posts:

Without further ado, here are my nominations: Cely, Carla, Ben (another college friend), Angry Runner, Rachel, Alicia, Bess, Laura, Kendra, and Sarah (another college friend!)… Some I know in person, some I know via other blog projects, some I babysit for, and some I just find hysterical and blog-stalk.

7 things about me you may or may not know (and may or may not want to know):

1. This summer, when Rahul moved to DC, I started teaching myself Hindi. You’d be surprised what you can find on the Internet for free! And being the total language nerd that I am (I speak 3 foreign languages — Spanish, French, and Portuguese), I got really excited for verb conjugations. Once I learned enough and practiced the script, I wrote Rahul a short letter as a surprise! He was pretty impressed.

2. The following situations give me incredible anxiety: the dentist, taking off and landing in a plane, stepping onto an escalator, the parking lot at the Austin Whole Foods, and using Saran wrap.

3. For several years, I was convinced that the lyrics of TLC’s “Waterfalls” song went something like this… “Don’t go, Jason Waterfalls. Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you’re used to.” Jason Waterfalls. Recently, Rahul & I discovered we both misunderstood the lyric as Jason Waterfalls in our youths! I thought this was common so I asked some friends and they think that we’re absolutely stupid for thinking that. I guess that makes it true love?

4. I need to eat breakfast almost immediately when I wake up, and have been this way ever since I was a baby. There is an old family joke about how one of my first words was “braffix” which I would scream from my crib until I was fed. I’m still pretty unintelligible within the first hour of the day if I don’t eat, even if it is just a piece of fruit.

5. I love pickles. Love, love, love them. I have a giant jar of dill spears in my fridge right now… a flavor I’ve only recently started to like. Bread and butter will always and forever be my true pickle love.

6. I’m up to 9.5 miles in my half marathon training (group run). I’ve already developed a really attractive dance to “Pumped Up Kicks” that I like to do when I run. I also have one that I do for “Fly Like Paper, Get High Like Planes” that was developed with my friend Megan while cruising the streets of Richmond in college on the prowl for men Thai food.

7. I am terrible (TERRIBLE) at video games! I have zero hand-eye coordination and I get really frustrated in high-anxiety situations. I make my brother beat all the bosses in games and I just make my character frolic around collecting money and slashing grass with swords.

And what does any other emotionally (un)stable woman in her 20′s do when in need of cookies? Why, she bakes ninjabread men and constructs battle scenes on her dining room table while eating their heads.

Normal, right?

(FYI, these epic ninjabread men cookie cutters were a gift for Rahul and he handed them down to me for my own enjoyment. But you can find them here!)

Ninjabread Men (Gingerbread cookies) — makes 24-36 cookies
1 egg
3/4 cup blackstrap molasses
1 stick butter, softened to room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
1 T cinnamon
1 T baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp ground ginger
2 3/4 cup white flour
In a mixing bowl, combine softened butter, egg, brown sugar, and molasses. When well combined, add in the spices, baking powder, and baking soda. Mix well. Slowly beat in the flour until a thick dough forms. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour until chilled and firm. (I divided the dough in 2 and froze the other half to use later). When dough has been chilling for at least 1 hour, preheat the oven to 375*. Roll out the dough on a well floured surface with a floured rolling pin and use cookie cutters to cut into desired shape. Bake for 10 minutes for softer cookies, 12 for crispier cookies. Decorate as desired.

Tuesday I flew out to DC to spend my Thanksgiving break with Rahul. After several hours stuck in traffic, he finally got to the airport and whisked me away and since then, I’ve been deeply involved in cooking preparations, folding his laundry, and planning our (failed) Black Friday plan of attack.

We had a Living Social deal for Whole Foods and spent way too much money on a Thanksgiving feast for 2 people, but it was so much fun to cook Thanksgiving for him! If you read me regularly, you’ll know that Rahul is from India, so I made several un-PC jokes about pilgrims and Indians.

My Thanksgiving feast last year was for 8 people and very busy so making a simple turkey breast (with this recipe — I definitely recommend it!!) and traditional sides was really enjoyable. And the DC weather was so great that we went for a run pre-cooking and ended up taking our stuff outside for a picnic.

I hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving as well! I am currently spending my last couple days in DC soaking up the vacation bliss — semester finals are coming up and I’m trying to not think of them. I’ll be back next week with some kind of food. If I ever find room in my stomach again.

For the past 3 years, I have cried nearly every day. Sometimes, there were happy tears upon remembering a stupid joke my dad told. Sometimes, there were big, heaving sobs of pure grief and sadness. But in the past 3 years there’s been one feeling that has stayed with me: guilt.

I have felt incredibly and inexplicably guilty for my father’s death. The day I found out that he had willingly ended his own life, I started to believe it was my fault. I started regretting all the things I could have done, all the signs I had ignored. I was miserable knowing that he had been so miserable and I had done nothing to help.

In the past year, I’ve come a long way with accepting his death and releasing myself from guilt. Sure, I still have days where I cry about what has happened and fail to understand why it did. But most of the time, I am happy knowing my dad is at peace at last and is smiling down on me, cheering me on with everything I do. I bet he really likes Rahul, even though he’ll never get to meet him. I bet he thinks I’m crazy for running a half marathon. I bet he’s so proud of me for going to graduate school.

3 years ago today, when I was told that my dad was dead, I was on the way to DC, a weekend trip to visit the National Zoo and some museums. Tomorrow, I leave on a plane to go to DC and visit the man who I am desperately in love with. He lives 3 blocks from the National Zoo. Life is funny, isn’t it?

Tomorrow I touch down in DC and complete what I was incapable of doing 3 years ago. Today I forgive my father and myself. Today I take another step further in a life I now have to live without my father. Today I try to be happy and remember what an amazing man he was. 

Rest in peace Daddy. I will always love you.

<3 Christopher Arthur Gleason 2/10/63 — 11/21/08