This will change your life...

...if you wear eye make-up.

I am hooked on this eye make-up remover from Target! It is their store brand, Up & up, and it costs less than $5.00 Takes off all eye make-up, without tugging at the delicate skin in that area. Rinses easily with water, but really, you should be washing your whole face anyway.

After you wash your face (and stay tuned, I am searching for a good cleanser) this is great for the eye area:

Worth every penny! And you can get a HUGE sample just by asking!

I wish someone had made me start using an eye cream at age 20. Now I can only play catch-up.

Minestrone!

I just made a pretty freakin' sweet soup!

I am not good at taking pictures of food, although I do try, so here is the photo of Better Minestrone from Cook's Illustrated!

P-Funk got a subscription to the amazing magazine from my parent's for his birthday. So far we have both enjoyed recipes from the issues! You can check out the recipe in the link below.

http://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipes/article.asp?docid=21480

Today was my day off, and I had been planning on making this Minestrone for awhile. It was a grey, slushy day in Chicago, and this soup was the perfect antidote. (That and the airbrush tan I got today!) I think I could have soaked the beans for longer, although they did get about 18 hours in salted water, and when I simmered them tonight for an hour, I probably could have had the heat higher. I have to be honest, I love the trial and error aspect of cooking.

This week is going to be hectic at work, for a number of reasons I won't go into detail about here. I need to carve out time to write, and more importantly, to work out. I was supposed to go join the gym today. I have been saying that for months! At this point, I am the biggest obstacle to my own success. Hopefully acknowledging that will inspire me to shut up and just do something!

Well, here is to a mostly successful day off, and to finally getting back to blogging. Now, I just need to get back to Pilates and that good ol' treadmill.