mexican fiesta

Greg ended up leaving for simulator training on Monday after all :(  What a mess the company made of that whole situation.  He was supposed to get first pick of schedule being senior in his class, and had told them he wanted to go as late as possible and have time off, as he doesn't need to build flight time like many of the young guys in his class.  Things didn't work out as planned though due to some kind of mix up with their scheduling office and his supposed long break turned into a total of 5 days, two of which were spent heavily engrossed in studying aviation once he realized he was heading out again this week.  Oh well.  I'm glad I had him home for 5 days, even if it did go by quick and didn't go quite as planned.   
Last night Kelly came over for dinner.  We had originally planned to meet up at Earthfare in South Park for dinner and bring the dogs and eat outside.  The plan was foiled by weather though as it was pouring rain and chilly outside and we decided on plan B, being dinner at my house.  I decided to go ahead and make mexican stuffed peppers for us, since I had some leftover black bean/onion/tomato/veggie protein (with mexican seasoning) crumbles

left over from mexican salad I'd made for Greg and I the other night.  I poached (microwaved in water) three halved peppers in the microwave for about 5 minutes.  Once done, I drained all the water out and mixed cheddar cheese and a little salsa in with other mixture and stuffed the peppers, adding a little more salsa and cheese on top.  Baked in the oven for about 25 minutes until bubbly on top.
I was debating a side and ended up deciding to make chicken tortilla soup (with no chicken) since it was a good night for soup.  In my Le Creuset dutch oven (if you cooks out there don't have one, you so need to get one, they ROCK), I sauteed garlic, onion, a little red and yellow pepper and some baby portabella mushrooms I had.  I added cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper, and this adobo salsa that I always use in mexican or chili when I make it.  I then added a can of chopped tomato (with the juice), can of black beans (drained/rinsed), and a couple cups of chicken stock.  I have also added corn to this when I have it (zuchinni is good too), but didn't have any on hand.  I let it all simmer for about 15-20 minutes and added a bunch of spinach and cilantro right at the end until wilted in.
Meanwhile Kelly was making us fresh guacamole.  We had our soup topped with a little cheddar and plain non-fat yogurt and each had one and a half stuffed peppers and chips and guac.  It was perfect for a chilly rainy night.  After dinner the rain had let up and we took the doggies for a walk around my neighborhood.  Well attempted to take them for a walk.  Rascal makes Clyde all sorts of hyper (yeah, he pretty much wouldn't leave him alone the whole time they were there), so we had to walk behind him and Kelly.  If we walked in front, Clyde would just stop every couple seconds to turn around and see where Rascal was.  It was not the most successful of walks...  Also right before we headed out the door I rammed my toe into a pillar in our living room and heard a nasty cracking noise.  It's still not right and I fear I might have fractured it slightly.  It's not too bad, but definitely beyond a bruise.  We'll see how that impacts running...ugh (I iced it for a while last night).
Kelly also brought me my bridesmaid dress for her wedding, which is this summer.  I had ordered it on my way up to VA back in February at this place near Greensboro, and the dresses came in recently, so Kelly picked them up last weekend while on a trip that was up that way.  Here is my dress:

It's a little big and needs to be taken up a tad, because the dress falls longer on me than in this picture, being the shorty 5' 3" that I am.  The bust will also probably need to be taken in a little.  It fits pretty well overall though and it's a pretty cute dress.  We all got to pick whatever tea length chiffon dresses we wanted in this brand/color (Mori Lee).  Nice job picking the dresses Kel!