Book Review, 4 Miles, My Second Risotto

LOVED hearing about your goals! Maintaining weight, eating salads, more sleep, more time with friends and family, more fruits & vegetables, more water, no more soda - the list goes on. AWESOME goals. And I neglected to mention one of my goals - 10 salads in December! Lisa & Kacy are doing 20! I felt certain that 20 was biting off more than I could chew - but love the idea of a salad challenge to remember to eat more veggies even though this weather makes me want casseroles.... all day long! So salad challenge here we come!

Yesterday was a pretty chill day! So nice to not have to drive in and deal with horrible traffic. Instead, I got to work with fewer interruptions from my home - yesss, although TOM arrived which, as usual, made me absolutely miserable. Sigh. I worked throughout the morning then took my lunch break to walk 4 miles.

These 4 miles were sponsored by 3 InTouch Magazines (thanks, Mom!)

Then I just worked more, hung out with the fam, picked the house up a bit since we have visitors this weekend, bathed Remy and then made three new recipes - 18 servings!!! Well there were until I had one of the risotto servings and Austin had one of the lasagna servings!

Great night! Here's one of the new ones I made!

Chicken and Mushroom Risotto
Adapted from a Taste and Tell Recipe
Makes 6 Servings

Nutritional Information: 403 calories, 43 carbs, 12 fat grams and 24 protein grams.

Review: Creamy and delicious! I'm such a huge risotto fan now. I really like the thick, richness of it, and it makes a great, healthy serving that is very filling. As you can imagine, if you're not a mushroom fan don't go for this recipe (I mean come on - a pound of mushrooms made me smile but if you're meh on them - pass on this). I thought the mushrooms added a lot of flavor, as did the minced garlic. I'll be making this again!

Here's the recipe!

Last but not least, book review time! On the way home from bookclub Wednesday night I finished James Patterson's 8th Confession. I LOVED it. It might have been my favorite out of the Women's Murder Club series. This story followed the same four strong female characters, but it had three solid mysteries going on and all were interesting and one was really creepy. It was told from more perspectives than usual and kept me very interested. There was also a bit of a love triangle that was fun to learn more about too. I just liked this one a lot - it dealt with meth too which is always morbidly interesting. So, good book. I give it a 4/5. It would have been a 5 if one of the mysteries hadn't given away the killer so soon (like openly gave it away by telling the story from the killer's perspective - it was still interesting but it could have been surprising!)

Q: What are you doing this weekend? Tonight i'm getting my haircut (yessss), then maybe going to see Austin's friend's band play, then Teresa and Forrest are in town! Then Saturday is the SEC game - woo! Should be a fun, football- and friend-filled weekend!

Q: Do you ever read magazines when doing cardio? If so, what are your faves to flip through? I find In Touch and STAR to be the best - kind of like picture books. Glamour and People just seem to have too many words for walking and reading! haha I don't really like to read fitness magazines while working out - instead of motivating me it's just kind of like an overload!