Cooking for One: Warm Beet Spinach

I've been trying eat more diverse and healthier food. I know beets are very good for you and a good source of potassium and antioxidants.

World Healthiest Foods

Typically I add some chopped beet to a green/fruit smoothie so that you can't really taste it. 

I decided to try a warm beet salad.  What do you know? It was awesome.

Recipe for One: Warm Beet Salad

Salad:

A couple of handfuls of spinach/spring mix/beet greens
1 beet peeled and chopped
1/2 an avocado chopped
4 Marzano tomatoes sliced
1 tbsp red onion chopped
Pepper
(Feta and chopped nuts- optional - I just didn't have these ingredients on-hand.)

Dressing:

1/2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tbsp Balsamic vinegar
A dab of mustard

Put the chopped beet in a glass bowl with a couple of tablespoons of water and lightly cover. Microwave for 8-10 minutes and drain.

Put greens in a bowl. Top with avocado, tomatoes, and onions. Mix the olive oil, Balsamic vinegar, and mustard. Put the beets on salad and pour on dressing and add some pepper.

I don't know how long this salad will stick with me. I think this would be really good with chicken or shrimp added.

I always print out recipes or put them on stickys. Oh, and I never follow a recipe completely. It is typically a mix of multiple recipes or just using what I happen to have on hand. After I make the recipe, I decide whether or not to throw it in the trash (like my zucchini noodle chicken pad thai recipe...yuck). This recipe gets to stay. 

Love me some Texas weather. We have 100+ degree weather coming up soon and a high of 108. Thank goodness for pools and air conditioning. It is hot enough that I have given up golf for a bit.

Cooking for One: Zucchini Pasta and Meatballs

Cool tool and a boring zucchini

I love to cook and I'm trying to eat healthier. I'm not fond of leftovers and if I do eat leftovers I only want it once.....not for the next 3 days. I bought a new cooking tool at Bed Bath and Beyond. It's one of those "As Seen on TV" products. It's a really cool vegetable peeler. I used it to make pasta out of a zucchini.

Ingredients for ONE person:

1 small zucchini

4 ounces of ground beef (I section 16 oz packages into four baggies and freeze until I need it)

1/2 an egg (yes you can do it or your meatballs will be runny and fall apart)

1/4 c breadcrumbs

Spices you like (My faves: basil, thyme, oregano, pepper)

Roasted tomatoes or spaghetti sauce
Your favorite wine
Preheat oven to 400 degrees

1. Rinse the zucchini and put it in the new cool tool or use a vegetable peeler or knife to make your pasta noodles. I also put the noodles on paper towels to sop up the water.
2. Mix the ground beef, egg, breadcrumbs and spices and roll into balls. I made 4.
3. Pop meatballs into the oven on a baking pan. Total cooking time is about 20 minutes. I turn them once half way through so they are evenly browned on the outside.
4. While meatballs are cooking, have a glass of wine and contemplate what you are grateful for - for exactly 15 minutes and then sautee your noodles in olive oil and garlic for about 4-5 minutes depending on how you like your noodles. I like mine more al dente so I only cook 4 minutes.
5. Put the noodles on a plate. Use same pan (less cleaning) and add tomato sauce or spaghetti sauce. Add the cooked meatballs and heat up the sauce.
6. When the sauce is warm, serve over pasta noodles. If noodles aren't warm, you can pop them in microwave briefly. Eat.

I would love to have some homemade bread with this, but I am a horrible baker and I don't really need the bread. I attempted to make a coconut flour bread recently. My daughter laughed. It was a big pile of flat, stinky, goo. She told me she has no idea why I keep trying to bake. 

The Colosseum Tour - Walks of Italy

We decided to upgrade from a Colosseum Tour to the Underground Tour. It was worth it. 

Walks of Italy Colosseum Underground Tour

We got to go down to the VIP section. This tour was a lot of walking. It took approximately 4 hours or more. 

Standing around outside waiting for the tour.

I don't remember what this was. Oops.

Nick made fun of me for having two sets of glasses, but they were both prescription and we would go from inside to outside a lot, so both were nice to have.

Pedestal system for lowering elephants, tigers, and other large animals in their crates.

This is where the Gladiators entered for most likely their last few minutes alive.

We saw Palantine Hill, the Roman Forum, the Temple and gardens of the Vestal Virgins and we got to go down inside of the Colsseum to see where the gladiators and large animals entered the arena. This tour is not for the weak. 

We walked for hours and up and down the steps of the Colosseum. It is fairly fast paced. Angela, our guide was wonderful. An archealogist and very knowledgeable.

Nick and I took hundreds of pictures, but I will not post them all here. He was always getting behind the tour and I was getting worried and made it a point to tell him. He said not to worry. He just looked for the bright pink hat and could easily catch back up.

The Papal Address, Vatican, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica

I would like to say that 'skip the line' tours are awesome. We used three different tour guides in Rome and all were wonderful. Second day in Rome was Vatican day for us. We got up early and saw the Pope. He rode his Popemobile around twice and kissed all the babies. We know this because they have big screens that show Pope Francis making his rounds. We had a close up shot of Pope Francis.

The Pope and his associates repeat the Papal Address in every language of the people in attendance. Your name and address goes to the Vatican a week before your visit so they can track everyone. It was hot and we listened to the same address in about 10-12 languages, but he blessed all of us there speaking English and all of our friends and loved ones. So most likely if you are reading this, you were blessed by the Pope on May 13th, 2015. 

So back to the room for a brief rest and food. Next up....we are back at the Vatican and some ladies talk us into the Vatican tour. A little unorganized at first, but what a great tour. I took about 300 pictures in the Vatican. From there, we went to the Sistine Chapel (not allowed to take pictures) and then on St. Peter's Basilica. What a moving experience. There is nothing like being there and going to the Prayer Room to pray for friends and family. I'm going to post a few pictures from the hundreds I took.

The paintings on the hallway just before the Sistine Chapel.

Laocoon and His Sons Antiphas and Thymbraeus being

crushed by sea serpents.

No pictures of Sistine Chapel which was amazing. Next on to St. Peter's Basilica. Everything was so beautiful and it was just a moving experience to be there.

This is a painting done to look 3D.

Relais Navona 71 in Rome's Piazza Navona

Nick and I left Isle of Capri fairly early in the morning. Our Australian friends gave us some hints about Rome. Buy a hat and a selfie stick right away so you won't be hassled the entire trip. We got to Naples and realized the train that we took down from Rome doesn't leave for three hours. Naples is not on the 'favorites' list, so three hours in Naples was not where we wanted to be. 

We found another train Italio that didn't go to Roma Termini, but went to Roma Tiburtina that left right away. We barely got our tickets and bolted to the platform. This train cost more, but it included drink service and free Wifi. Oh, and we get to Roma Tiburtina and it was so much nicer than Roma Termini, but a little further away from hotel. Found a cab and was quickly at Piazza Navona which is where we stayed. Piazza Navona was built in 1000 AD. That is old. 

The hotel is hidden. I'm including pictures at the bottom of the page in case someone else decides to stay there. We stayed at Relais Navonna 71, which 71 is the address. It is located between two restaurants.

Piazza Navona. I could upload pics of fountains for the next week or so if I wanted...I don't.

Day one in Rome. Decided to just walk around. We went to Pantheon.

Pantheon

Next up, buy a selfie stick. Decided to venture to the Spanish Steps.  I used to think I could follow a map. I never got my bearings in Rome. The street signs are missing and all roads somehow lead all squiggly back to Rome. So after asking no less than 20 persons for help, we found the Spanish Steps. We found we could get around Rome by only knowing the following Italian and this is probably wrong, but at least it worked.

• Quanti Euros? (How many Euros?)
• Dove e.. insert well known place here? (Where is Colosseum?). If they do not know English, they point. So basically we had to ask at each intersection so someone could point for us.
• For cabs, Quanto a airport? Quanto a colesseum?

So here is me NOT figuring out how to use the selfie stick. Nicky figured it out and did a very fine job of it. The stick is not supposed to show. I will say that having my camera on this stick did not stop the hassles. Now men try to sell me a SECOND selfie stick.

After a long day of walking, back to Piazza Navonna.

You can't even tell Nick is holding the selfie stick.

Look for this black door between two restaurants for Relais Navona 71. You will see the address 71 in upper right corner above door. Ring bell to get buzzed in. The room was fine, but the location is superb.

Add caption

Mount Solaro, Villa San Michele, and Del Faro on Isle of Capri

Last day on Isle of Capri. Decided to walk from Hotel Carmencita to the chairlift that goes up Mount Solaro. It was very peaceful and tranquil. I had to laugh when one guy passing me on his way down answered his cellphone.

It could  have been rough or windy, but it was actually quiet, smooth, and peaceful. It takes about 30 minutes around trip.

I don't like to shop and I took one small carry on so my shopping was limited. I bought two small dipping bowls for olive oil, an apron, and a wine stopper.

For 7 Euros we decided to stop in at Villa St. Michele. Awesome. It was absolutely beautiful and an interesting story.

Rubbing the sphinx for luck

Headed to the beach in the evening for sunset, seafood, and cocktails. We went to Del Faro which is beautiful.

Isle of Capri and Hotel Carmencita

The Isle of Capri is beautiful. This was the laid back part of our  trip. Our room at Hotel Carmencita (Anacapri) was perfect. It was close to the bus stop, the city square, and the family that ran the hotel are wonderful. See photos below.

Our 2nd day in this beautiful city, we decided to take a boat tour. It was only about an hour or so long. We bought the tickets at the hotel. We went around the entire island and stopped at the grottos. The famous blue grotto was packed to the gills with tourists boats so we were not able to go inside. Well we could have, if we wanted to sit in a boat and wait for three hours. We were fine with viewing the Internet photos and having the three hours to ride the Funicular and have a nice lunch.

The bus ride anywhere on the island is approximately $2 USD each.

This is the Arch of Love. We made sure and kissed as we went through the arch.

Funicular

 Hotel Carmencita

We did not buy a selfie stick until we got to Rome....so this is the old fashioned kind of selfie.

Rome to Naples to Capri

Our Italy trip was the yen and yang of trips. The relaxing beautiful waters of Capri followed by running around Rome chasing 25-year old archaeologists/tour guides for 8 hours a day. The first part of the trip was to Capri.


We arrived in Rome from London about midnight. There were no shuttles, cabs or hardly any people at the airport. Five of us jumped into a 'gypsy' cab. Nick and I alone paid $35 for a five minute ride, but we felt like if we didn't take this cab, we might be stuck at the airport overnight.

We stayed at the Hilton Rome Airport. The room was fine and we had free breakfast in the morning. After breakfast, we hopped in a cab to go to Roma Termini (train station). London had Audis, BMWs, Mercedes. Rome has tiny clown cars and there is a reason for that. Traffic is terrible. Nicky and I had a conversation about what would it take to get a traffic ticket in this country. We are pretty sure they don't have them. All the cars are dented and crashed. This was quite the ride. It seemed we were going about 90 mph on the highway and our driver was tailgating other clown cars. However, in Rome, they are polite about it. When someone is tailgating, the lead driver pulls into the middle lane and lets the tailgater pass. What a concept. I would love to see that happen on the Bush.

View out train window

Roma Termini is crowded and lots of beggars. We paid a woman $10 to show us how to get train tickets and find our platform. I think this train was about $100 for the both of us and no frills. This was the Frecciarossa train. The ride was a little over an hour. You get assigned seats in a specific car. Each train ride we had to walk a mile as our cars were always at the end.

We got to Naples. The traffic is scarier here than Rome. We took a cab to the port. I'm wearing my capris for Capri. Plus, I heard Jacqueline Kennedy always wore her capris in Capri with her custom-made sandals. I'm wearing my super comfortable Skechers with memory foam that are washable. I bought two pairs just for this trip and that was a great investment, but not real cute.

The large boat that says SNAV is the fast ferry.

Next was the high speed ferry to Anacapri which took about 45 minutes. This ferry had a bar onboard. The one on the way back did not. 




We arrived in Capri. We had no working phones.....or so we thought. We needed to call for the hotel shuttle, but instead we stopped at Limoncello Cafe where we had Limoncellos and connected to their Wifi.

My man with a smile on his face

Italian lemons are HUGE

So I'm sitting there and I hear a familiar sound. Bruno Mars. It's my ring tone. I answer the phone and its my son wishing me a Happy Mother's day. My phone was accepting Wifi calls in Italy. We decided to just take a cab because we were too challenged to make a European phone call. When we told the cab driver where we were staying, he called the hotel shuttle for us and wouldn't take our money. Everyone was super friendly and nice in the Isle of Capri.

Shuttle ride to hotel

For dinner, we went to Materita. It is on the square by the church. The church bells go off every 15 minutes. Kids, dogs, babies everywhere in the square. Kids run around chasing pigeons. Me and Nick joked the entire trip that we were going to "kick a pigeon". No worries. No animals were injured or kicked on this trip.  Nick had  Margherita pizza and I had pasta with shrimp. The pasta in Italy is very al dente which was okay with me. So the shocker here. I've only had pickled olives out of a jar. Here I had a 'real' olive not pickled and it was awesome.