It's Not Delivery, It's Mark and Megan's

I know every post I say that meal is the best, but this may have really been the best. Mark and I have been talking about making homemade pizza for awhile, so we finally busted out the big guns tonight. We bought a whole grain pizza crust at Whole Foods yesterday and just to spice things up a bit, decided to divide the pie in half and make our own creations on each side. Being obsessed with vegetables, I naturally decided to go with a veggie pizza. I may have gone a bit overboard on my veg purchase (as seen below). However, I was able to be more than generous with my toppings.

I cut up green peppers, cherry tomatoes, jalapenos, onions and mushrooms for my veggie pizza. I also used part-skim mozzarella cheese and the leftover mushroom spaghetti sauce from our turkey spaghetti. Mark went with the classic margherita style pizza. He cut fresh mozzarella, basil and tomatoes and put it on top of the spaghetti sauce we used as our base.

All in all, we were more than happy with the results. The crust was much better than either of us expected, and we only ate half of this giant pizza... which means leftovers (aww yeah)!

More posts to come :)

M&m

Lets Put Another Shrimp On the Barbie

Tonight Mark and I got back in the kitchen and created what I believe to be our best dinner yet, shrimp kabobs. As I type this, I have a belly full of kabob.

After work we went to Whole Foods to pick up our ingredients for dinner. I may or may not have fallen prey to every single samp they offered while we were there (it's my weakness, sue me).

We decided to go with shrimp, cherry tomatoes, pineapples, onions, mushrooms, zucchini and squash on our kabobs. 

We also ventured down a path we'd never been before: quinoa. Being the avid food blog reader that I am, I've heard a lot about quinoa and we'd been wanting to try it for awhile, so we decided tonight was the night. It turns out, quinoa is basically just a healthier version of rice.

On a completely unrelated note, I got to play in a softball game last night. My friend Alycia asked me to play for a team she's been on all season. They needed girls to play and I love softball so I said yes. It was fun to be out on the field again. I took the liberty of throwing in this video that Mark so lovingly filmed while I was at bat.

We won our game.

More posts to come :)

M&m

Four Months and Counting

This weekend Mark and I celebrated four months of dating. To celebrate, he took me out to dinner and then we went to visit my friend Tara at Rockfish. It's always so good to catch up with old friends. :)

Stole a candid of Mark at dinner ;)

Saturday night we cooked dinner at home. Chicken on the grill with broccoli and rice, mmm.

Today my sister played in a Chili's softball tournament, so Mark, my mom and I went to watch her final game of the day. In true Duron fashion, she got a base hit.

It's crazy to me that we have been dating for four months. Given the circumstances at the beginning of our relationship, there has never been one day where I've questioned whether or not Mark was meant to be in my life. It's still amazing to me the way God timed everything out in our relationship. Everyday I thank God for placing this relationship in my life when I needed it the most. It's amazing what patience will give you.

More posts to come :)

M&m

Dad

As most of you know, my dad passed away three months ago. It was not only sudden, but a complete shock to anyone who knew my dad. My dad was both healthy and young… two things that don’t typically foreshadow a heart attack. While my dad was never a fan of sharing information online, writing is one of my biggest releases and the best way I can express myself. Sorry, Dad.

You always hear “you never know what you have until it’s gone.” I never fully understood that statement until the last few months. The little things that I always took for granted are now the things I want the most. I want to hear my dad coming home from work and my mom cooking dinner, I want to walk upstairs and see my dad passed out on our couch watching whatever sports game was on TV that day, I want to roll my eyes again as my dad feeds our dogs table scraps, I want to see that look on my dad's face when you could tell a joke was coming and more than anything I want to ask my dad advice and have him kiss the top of my head like he’s done millions of times before.

I had a lot more typed out after this, but I decided to erase it and let the pictures speak for themselves. These pictures show exactly what a devoted dad and loving husband my dad was. He was a spiritual leader to our family and a giver to anyone in need. His generosity and humility is a constant goal for me, although I know I will never achieve what he did. His sense of humor still makes me laugh. He was my "twin" and my best friend and I am so thankful for every trait of his I was given.

As my mom, sister and I said last night... he really was the best dad and husband. I could not be more proud or thankful for the 24 years I had with him, but I am so glad to know where he is now. I love you and miss you every single day, Dad.

I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. Philippians 1:3

M&m

Spaghetti, spaghetti and more spaghetti

Last night was a lot of fun in a relaxing, stay-at-home kind of way. Mark and I successfully attempted our first spaghetti dinner. We had two turkey burger patties left over from our turkey burger dinner, so we racked our brains to find a meal that would incorporate the turkey meat when... voila!.. spaghetti with turkey meat in the sauce.

In an attempt to make this mound of carbs somewhat more nutritious, we used whole wheat spaghetti to cash in on the extra fiber. Plus, we both really like whole wheat pasta anyway. While I kept watch over the whole wheat pasta, Mark cooked the turkey meat in a pan pre-sprayed with Pam. After the noodles were soft enough to cut easily with a fork, we added the most amazing Prego mushroom tomato sauce to our pasta then let it cook a little bit longer in the pot so the sauce could heat up. Since I didn't want very much meat in my sauce, I scooped my noodles and sauce into my bowl and grabbed a little turkey meat to throw on top while Mark dumped the rest of the meat into his sauce. In retrospect, his way was probably better because the meat was able to mix in with the sauce instead of lay on top like mine. You live and learn.

We also made a salad to go with our pasta. We less "made" the salad than poured a pre-made salad into a bowl and chopped up tomatoes to add to it. The nonfat balsamic vinaigrette we used was one of the best dressings I've ever had though!

All in all I'd say our first attempt at a spaghetti dinner was a complete success. The whole wheat pasta is so filling we couldn't even finish our bowls and the salad was amazing.

After our carboload, we ran for an hour in an attempt to run off all of the pasta we had just eaten. It's always difficult to run after you've taken a few days off, but once you're back in the game, it makes the next run so much easier! This morning Mark proved his title as "Best Boyfriend Ever" by bringing me chicken minis and fruit from Chick Fil A, my favorite breakfast ever. So now, I'm blogging in a chicken coma and thinking I may need another one of those runs tonight.

More posts to come :)

M&m

Spaghetti Dinner Recipe:

-4 Oz. Whole Wheat Pasta
-1 Cup of Prego Mushroom Sauce
-1 Package of Prewashed Salad Mix
-Nonfat Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing
-2 Tomatoes
-Pam or Other Cooking Spray
-Salt

1. Fill pot with 2 quarts of water and 2 tsp. of salt until water comes to a boil.
2. Add 4 oz. of whole wheat pasta.
3. Spray pan with Pam and add turkey meat. Keep meat moving so it doesn't stick to the pan.
4. Pour salad mix into a bowl and add sliced tomatoes.
5. Once noodles are limp, drain water and add 1 cup of mushroom sauce.
6. Stir noodles and sauce. Add turkey meat.
7. Enjoy!

A Twofer

So I’m going to combine what would have been two separate blog posts because I got too lazy to blog yesterday. And by too lazy I mean too distracted by the Home Run Derby.

This past weekend was one of my favorite weekends so far. It was so relaxing and yet filled with so many activities. On Friday, two movies came out that Mark and I have been dying to see: Horrible Bosses and Zookeeper (okay, this one is more me… but that gorilla gets me every time). So we decided to do a classic dinner and a movie date night. After work we went to my apartment workout room and ran for an hour before we began the night’s festivities. It always feels so good to get a run in! After our run Mark and I went to Fireside Pies at Legacy. We love this place. Typically we will go with the Burrata pizza which consists of oven-dried tomatoes and basil pesto; however, we had wanted to try their famous Balsamic Roasted Chicken pie which is covered in spinach, blue cheese, and tomatoes. It was good, but it turns out blue cheese isn’t that great on pizza. I guess sometimes it’s best to stick with what you know.

Once we’d finished dinner we had some time to kill before the movie so we went to the patio at Gingerman Pub right by my apartment to grab a beer. With the sun down, it was such a nice summer night to enjoy some time together on a patio… one of our favorite activities. Spoiled by our Alamo Draft House experience in Austin, Mark and I had decided we wanted a drink to enjoy during our movie, so we saw Horrible Bosses at Movie Studio Grill in Plano. Unfortunately, by that time, we were hungry for second dinner (yikes) so we also tried some chicken nachos and sweet potato fries with the movie. They were both delicious, although second dinner probably isn’t the healthiest habit.

On Saturday morning Mark and I surprised my mom by bringing her (and ourselves... we are only human) a Chick Fil A breakfast and then doing the yard for her. My mom is such an amazing woman that she mows and “weed eats” the front and back yard by herself nearly every week, so we really wanted to help her out. It was so much fun being able to spend time with my mom and help her at the same time. I was even able to snap this great shot of Mark mowing my mom’s front yard.

After the yard work was done, we were all pretty exhausted, so Mark and I went back to Plano to rest for awhile. Always the creative date-planner that he is, Mark suggested we go to dinner and then go bowling Saturday night. It was an absolute blast, one of my favorite dates so far. We enjoyed Rock Fish for dinner and then drove to 300 in Addison where we played three games of bowling (I don’t win and tell, but I’ll let you guess who won).

The bowling alley had giant televisions above the lanes too, so we were able to watch the Ranger game while we bowled. By the time we finished bowling, the game was in the seventh inning, so we decided to stop by Stan’s Grill, a sports bar in Plano, on the way home to watch the end of the game. It turns out, we couldn’t have picked a better game to watch. In the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs, down 6-5, Josh Hamilton hit a walk-off home run to win the game. What a deserving home run for him and a great win for the Rangers.

Sunday was relaxing, as most Sundays are. Mark and I went to church with my mom and then out to lunch, something that has become the highlight of every week. This week Erin was in Oklahoma, so we jumped at the opportunity to eat Mexican food at Mi Cocina. Of course, those fajitas never disappoint. Some Sunday shopping filled up our afternoon until we came back to my apartment where we got to enjoy our favorite time of the week: Cold Stone Sunday. Every single Sunday Mark and I go to the Cold Stone Creamery right outside of my apartment. We are both huge ice cream lovers and it’s fun to try a new combination of mix-ins each week. We finished our weekend up with some grocery shopping (still one of my favorite things to do together) and dinner at Café Express.

Last night Mark and I returned to the kitchen to try our hand at another homemade meal. This time, however, the “kitchen” was at Mark’s apartment. We had decided to make grilled barbecue chicken and since Mark has a great grill on his apartment patio, we wanted to take advantage of this to make legitimate grilled chicken (sorry, George Foreman).

We used the leftover chicken from our California Grilled Chicken Sandwich since we got twice as much as we needed in the first place. Naturally Mark was in charge of manning the grill while I stuck to what I know best: the veggies. We had chosen green beans and then also decided to try out corn on the cob for the first time.

Mark covered my chicken with seasoning since I didn’t want to fully commit to the sauce and then covered his piece of chicken in the barbecue sauce he’d bought (I can’t remember what it was called). While Mark was grilling the chicken, I washed and cut the stems off of the green beans then put them into a pot of boiling water to cook. I was a little scared to make the corn on the cob because we’ve never made it before, but I placed it in boiling water to soften it then Mark covered it in cooking spray and marinade then grilled it. The result was nothing short of amazing.

More posts to come :)

M&m

Grilled Chicken Dinner Recipe:

-2 4-oz. Chicken Breasts
-1/2 Pound of Green Beans
-2 Ears of Corn
-Cayenne Pepper
-BBQ Sauce
-Cooking Spray (Pam works)

1. Cover chicken in BBQ sauce and place on grill
2. Wash green beans and cut off the ends. Place in a pot of boiling water.
3. Green beans will cook until the rest of the meal is finished.
4. Peel husks off the corn and place in a pot of boiling water.
5. Boil corn for 3-5 minutes. Spray with Pam then cover with seasoning of your choice.
6. Place corn on grill and cook until chicken is done.

The Undefeated Season Continues

Mark and I are undefeated when it comes to Rangers games. We have been to five games this season and the Rangers have won all five of those games. You might say we're something of a good luck charm. I wouldn't mind being painted with that brush.

A couple of months ago I bought Mark and I tickets to a day game against the Oakland A's. It was a sporadic purchase, but I figured we can always use an excuse to take a vacation day from work and attend a Rangers game. Unfortunately, as with most of the dates I plan, there was a bump in the road. The game was rain delayed for almost two hours and eventually canceled. After hovering under the roofing at the ballpark for hours, we eventually had to make a run for it in the pouring rain. Needless to say, by the time we made it to the car we were both soaked. Also, Mark had left his car window open so his car was soaked as well. But that's neither here nor there.

Last night's weather was much better than the previous attempt. It seemed a little less hot than the past few days and since we were right by home plate, our seats were already shaded by the time we got to the game. Because we've had bad ballpark food experiences in the past (never order the BBQ chicken sandwich at the ballpark... trust me, I'm doing you a favor), we ate at On the Border before the game last night. There is something about chips and guacamole that make any meal 100 times better. The food was delicious and we were right on time for the game.

Since it was a make-up game, there was a less-than-usual crowd at this game.

Derek Holland pitched his third career complete game shutout which was fun to see.

The weather was great and the night was all around perfect. Sports games have been a huge part of our relationship, so it's always fun when we get to go to any sporting event.

As I mentioned earlier, our ballpark attendance has proven the Rangers undefeated. Personally, I wouldn't mind them paying us to attend games... just so they can keep the streak alive.

However, as I'm sure everyone has read by now, there was a horrific tragedy that happened during the second inning of the game last night. After a foul ball hit by an Oakland A ricocheted back onto the field, Josh Hamilton tossed the ball up toward the left field stands were a fan reached out to grab the ball and was unable to keep from falling over the stands and behind the scoreboard. The gasp throughout the stadium was chilling. It wasn't until after the game that the Rangers released a statement saying the man, father to a six-year-old boy who was with him at the game, had passed away.

Just typing that makes my stomach turn. That poor boy was at his first baseball game ever, sporting Rangers attire from head to toe. Things like that just shouldn't happen. A time that is supposed to be so precious and so memorable has turned into a life-changing moment for that young boy and his family. It makes me sick to know that boy, only six years old, will spend the rest of his life without his dad. He won't have his dad cheering him on at his own baseball games or be able to ask his dad life advice. I feel robbed having my dad taken away after 24 years and this reminds me how lucky I am to have all 24 of those years with him. It's hard when something like this happens because it was no one's fault, yet it makes it no less hard. I hope that family gets showered with love and prayer because that's what gets us through times like that.

More posts to come :)

M&m