Traveling Tuesdays...errr Thursday and Moving Update!

Well we are definitely officially in Colorado now and surprisingly somewhat settled in! The movers with our stuff got here on Tuesday bright and early at about 8:05am and left about 12:30pm. Pretty efficient. Once they left Matt and I ate lunch and got to work unpacking. We blew through the dining room, kitchen, and living room by about 10:00pm that night because I was determined. And then the Master bedroom, bathroom, and the other two rooms upstairs were done by Wednesday night. And so far we've only found one thing broken. Which was one of our glass inserts in the china cabinet...not cool. We have been hanging up pictures and figuring out decor and such since then. We also bought two chairs which are now in our sitting room that will also house two bookshelves to make kind of a reading nook type thing. The house is great. The weather is amazing. Despite it being really hot the first day or two we were here, it's been great since. Right now I have the back patio open (with the screen of course since we have two very daring and curious kitties) and the wind is blowing in that awesome Colorado air! We have been in the midst of the fires going on here as well. Not near our house of course, don't panic! But we've been watching it and getting a lot of the smoke if the wind shifts. It's been crazy and sad watching everything unfold and I'm glad that they have it about 50% contained now. Matt and I have gone to the Fort Carson pool a few times since getting here. It's nice to relax. Friday was Matt's birthday so since this week was crazy I decided to make our worldly cuisine dish on Thursday in honor of his birthday. It's a dish from Hawaii! Since he was born there and all. The original recipe calls for it to be baby back ribs, but substitutes chicken for a lower fat and calorie option.

CHICKEN CHAR SIU
Serves 4 (recipe says 9, but I adapted it for Matt and I)

Ingredients

1 tablespoon grated peeled fresh ginger*
2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon honey
1 garlic clove, minced*
1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 18 strips*
Cooking spray
Skewers

Note: I used the crystallized ginger...it's still haunting me. I also used about 3 cloves of garlic because I like garlic. And lastly, I used boneless skinless chicken breasts since that's what I had! :)

Let's get cookin'! 

First thing you do is combine all of the ingredients except for the cooking spray and skewers (obviously), cut up the chicken, and marinate the strips in the mixture for a minimum of two hours.

After the two hours is up (or however long you marinate it), you take each strip and thread it onto the skewers in a zig zag kind of motion. Reserve your marinade. Preheat the broiler. I at first had it on High, but the oven started smoking and I had flashbacks to high school when I was using the broiler for something I was making for dinner and it caught on fire. I called my mom when she was at work while trying to figure out how best to get the animals outside since I was pretty sure the oven was going to blow up...turns out...you just turn the broiler off. :) I say all this to remind you to keep your oven cracked and open a bit while cooking since this too could happen to you!

Spray a broiler pan with cooking spray and put the skewers onto it. Pop everything into the oven and cook about 6-7 minutes then flip the skewers and brush the chicken with the reserved marinade. Put the chicken back into the oven for another 6-7 minutes or until done. Toss out your marinade.



I made a salad and rice while waiting. As well as cleaned up the kitchen a bit, and opened some wine! I love the name of this wine and the picture. :) It was really good too!! It was also about $5 and a screw top. But I will be getting it again. :) Oh and I also made some fresh marinade to use as a sauce if needed.

Pretty tasty in my opinion and it was 108 calories for two skewers! Bargain! :) Matt really liked it and I was happy that I made a tasty Hawaiian dish for him.

This picture has nothing to do with the food, but it made me laugh. Tiggie was sniffing the camera. :) She's silly. And the cutest kitty ever in my opinion.






Here's the recipe link before I forget! Chicken Char Siu

Our last night in Leavenworth

For Matt's birthday we went to On the Border at his request for dinner. We shared fajitas and I had a skinny margarita and he had a big daddy one. We then got ready and went to play pool at the Phantom Brewing Company. It was really fun and I actually beat him fair and square once. :) Saturday we went to an Irish place on the same street as the pool place. They weren't playing Irish music, but some DJ was there and there were dudes break dancing?? Yea. It was interesting. And we saw a guy in a kilt. We decided to go somewhere else and went across the street to this "club" type place and stayed there until we decided to go home. It was pretty fun! And today we bummed around, hung some pictures up, and signed up at a gym that is literally right down the street from us. It's called Villa Sport. Click and tour the gym if you want! Apparently there's also another one in The Woodlands in Texas. It's pretty posh!! We decided to go with it because I have really enjoyed the Les Mills classes and they offer them at great times during the day so when I get a job, I can still keep on my schedule. We looked at the Air Force base, but they didn't really have much and Fort Carson, while the facility is really nice, is too far for working out before work, etc. We are excited though and I will be attending RPM tomorrow morning. I've missed it this past week. We've been just running. Which was a little easier than I thought considering the elevation and stuff. The other day after running two miles, I did feel kind of blek though. So I stopped for a bit and worked out with some weights and went back into running. In any case, I'm looking forward to getting back on the bike and weights for my classes! :) We still have a few things to work on here at the house such as buying some stuff...a desk and chair for the office, bookshelves, and some other things. But it's coming along quite fast! I don't remember it being this fast in Leavenworth. Which I guess is good! :) And we are here for about 2-3 years and not 11 months. Yessssss. Anyway, here are a few pictures of our house. I'm posting more on Facebook soon.

Kitchen

Patio

China cabinet/DR

DR

Entry way

DR looking from kitchen

Kitchen

My vines and such

Entry way looking towards office and LR

Kitchen

LR looking from upstairs

Guest bath upstairs

Master bath

My closet with creepy Maggie

1/2 bath

Meow!

Sitting room

Millie

Chinese Maggie

Maggie on the window sill in sitting room

Well hope you enjoyed the little tease of pics! Can't wait to show you more! I better be going. We are lifting the TV to mount it and it's reallllllyyyyyyy heavy. BODY PUMP!!! Matt says that every time I lift things now since I'm so stronggggg!! haha...anyway...good night!