Jittery

 I’m a jittery person. Most of the time I’m on edge due to the amount of caffeine I take in during the day and kind of like the shaky feeling I get with it. But today, I’m a different kind of jittery and not in a good way.

I ran a bunch of errands this morning and was about five minutes from my house when I was driving on the loop around the city-277. I merged and when I did, the car in front of me came to a fast break and Iwasthisclose to hitting him. I quickly swerved left through two lanes and was fish-tailing around. Thank God when doing so, no one was behind me but I thought I was going to wreck or even worse, die. I’ve never had a driving experience like that before and am still shaky, four hours after the fact. I quickly got off the loop at the next exit and felt sick to my stomach, I couldn’t believe what had just happened. I came home, couldn’t sit down or even process what had just happened and couldn’t concentrate. I am still in shock of what happened and am very on edge right now.

I went to the gym about an hour after I went home and tried to work out but my mind was not all about that. I did 10 minutes on the Precor AMT and couldn’t stop shaking and all looking around me as if something bad were going to happen. I did some strength training afterwards but was still jittery-I spilt water all over one of the machines and ran smack dab into a guy while walking upstairs. I did another 10 minutes on the Precor Crossramp but that was a struggle to even do that. I had a decent work out but my heart wasn’t in and I just felt nervous the entire time.

I drove to CVS after that and broke down crying in my car in the parking lot. I just couldn’t believe that had happened earlier and how lucky I was to be ok and ahem, alive. I guess it just put things in perspective for me, how quickly something or someone can be taken away from you.

Just a bunch of rambling going on here but I just had to put down what happened this morning, more for my peace of mind than anything. If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading.

Now back to some normal Simply Shaka blog stuff.

FOOD & FUN!

I’m getting back on track with my meal planning and this past week was a great week! I tried Rachael Ray’s Chipotle BBQ Chicken recipe that I saw in her magazine. I don’t really cook with chicken thighs too often but it was fun to mix it up with the thighs this time around plus you get so much more flavor with bone in chicken.

Chipotles cooking with garlic and onion

I let the chicken cook for a few minutes in the sauce to brown them a bit

Then transferred to a baking dish and let cook about 35 minutes. The recipe calls for 30 minutes but I don’t have a meat thermometer and get skeeved out by the thought of chicken not being cooked all the way.

I heart beautiful poultry!

I made some mashed potatoes when the chicken was cooking and they turned out, um, pink?

Nothing wrong with pink potatoes right? The plan was definitely not for them to turn out pink but when I was mashing them, I realized that I had red food dye on the masher and forgot to wash it off, oops. Oh well, they were festive and tasty! Instead of cream, I added a Laughing Cow wedge to the potatoes along with butter and pepper.

I made banana bread so I could have a quick breakfast throughout the week. I saw Christina make it on Hungry Meets Healthy awhile back so I decided to copy her and also leave out the chocolate.

I love that the recipe didn’t call for oil but used yogurt instead and egg whites. It is absolute perfection and I think I’m going to make another loaf this upcoming week!

On Wednesday night, I got home from work and was about to start cooking chicken but then I remembered it was Ash Wednesday! I’m such a horrible Catholic. I was quick to look through my cupboards to find something veggie friendly and settled on a refried black bean cheesy salsa tortilla bake.

I spread the refried black beans, salsa and cheese on a tortilla then topped with another tortilla and repeat

Baked at 400 for 15 minutes and there you have it-a deliciously cheesy meal!

Seriously, I don’t even know the name of what I made it was absolutely tasty and perfect for a Mexican meal in a pinch!

Thursday night, I attended a Yelpy Hour at Bask on Seaboard–they provided a spread of appetizers and drink specials.

 Offer free food and I am there! Offer free food and discounted drinks and you have my heart.

(source)

Jalapeno Poppers and Pita Chips with Black Bean Hummus

The poppers weren’t the best I’ve ever had-they lacked flavor and spice but the black bean hummus was off the hook. I would definitely go back for that alone. What I like about Bask is that they offer simple, classic dishes with a mix of comfort at affordable rates. Not like Denny’s rates or anything but reasonably priced for the quality of ingredients they offer. Their menu isn’t huge but just the right size and they offer medium and large-sized platters.

Random question of the day-Anyone go from a WordPress blog to being self hosted? How big of a pain in the butt is it? I’m thinking of getting my own domain!

PS-If you won my I Love My Dog giveaway-I sent out almost all the bumper stickers today. Sorry for the hold up, I really didn’t forget about you all! I have been working almost 50 hours a week, so that with social events factored in things get hectic and busy–thanks for your patience!