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By Aimee, October 17, 2010

I just realized that although I uploaded this video of dolphins at The Mirage, I hadn’t yet posted it here!

Dolphins at Play

This was taken on my birthday, and watching the dolphins play was one of the highlights of the day. Highlight of the year even! What I loved was that we could be so close to them. I really wanted to touch them as they swam by, but just knew that we would get in tons of trouble and probably be asked to leave and never come back. We went pretty close to closing, so it was fairly empty. The dolphins were doing what dolphins do, and luckily, I caught some of it on camera.

There was an area where you could go and watch them swim underwater too. I only wish I could say that I took the photo above in the actual water, but someday I do plan to realize the dream of swimming with dolphins. I know that they do offer some sort of swimming with dolphins at The Mirage. Next time we visit Las Vegas, I am going to have to put that on our to do list. Of course, I would ideally like to swim with them in Hawaii.

It’s funny thinking about our trip to Las Vegas. Here we were, in a city that is known for glitz, gambling, and over the top lights and sights. And yet for us, the things that we loved and enjoyed the most were all the amazing “natural wonders”. I put that in quotes because of course the things we love don’t naturally occur in Las Vegas, but here is a list of our favorites.

• The Rainforest Cafe. The food was great, but the aquariums were even better! It was so fun to be seated right next to a giant aquarium, with fish swimming past and playing during our entire meal.
• Lions at the MGM Grand. You can walk through a tunnel right under them. They were snoozing when we were visiting, but it was a lot of fun to see them that close up.
• The aquariums at The Forum Shops. Huge!! When we were there they were doing something (feeding maybe) inside the tank, so there was a scuba diver in it. There was a sting ray that kept coming up to the diver, and the diver would push it away, then it would come back, get pushed again. It looked like it was playing a game that it thought was a lot of fun.
• The Secret Garden at the Mirage. Obviously! With the dolphins, and the tigers, it was amazing.
• The Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay. Also very awesome, with some unique animals, and really cool building to walk through too.
• The gardens at the Flamingo. Yes, of course we had to go and see the real live flamingos! I even considered booking us to stay at The Flamingo, but it was out of our budget for this trip. I mean after all, it’s an entire hotel named after pink flamingos! The garden there is free, and it has some of the biggest koi I have ever seen! We thought this little duckling was going to get eaten by one of the koi, they were that big.

Tell me, what is your favorite wild animal?

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By Aimee, October 14, 2010

I first came across fun bento box foods online through various blogs. They looked like so much fun to make that I just had to get this adorable book called Yum-Yum Bento Box: Fresh Recipes for Adorable Lunches. I haven’t had time to sit down and make anything just yet, but here is just one example of the cuteness in the book:

In addition to the book, I also discovered a wacky little video called Cooking with Dog which shows how to make a fun bento lunch. The woman does it so fast too, but I imagine that creating this edible works of art takes a lot of time and practice. Oh yes, and the poodle is the narrator of the video by the way!

And here is a video that has tons of adorable photos of some seriously creative takes on the bento box!

Have you ever made something like this? Some of them would be too hard to eat, they are just so cute!!

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By Aimee, October 13, 2010

I was very excited to get a review copy of this book. It’s called Eat & Beat Diabetes with Picture Perfect Weight Loss: The Visual Program to Prevent and Control Diabetes, and with Type 2 diabetes on the rise, this is a great book for those who want to avoid it (and those who want to control it if they have it). Of course, diabetes has become an issue that is near and dear to our hearts, since my dad was diagnosed with it recently. I was especially interested in finding helpful information for him.

The book features photos so you can actually see what a smarter choice looks like. It’s a really great way to look at food, since you can see how much more food you can have for the same amount of calories. For example, a scoop (half cup) of full calorie ice cream comes in at 380 calories, or you can eat 17 no added sugar fudge pops and fruit bars. I can’t even imagine eating 17 of those!

Obviously the most important aspect of this book is not just about losing weight, but making healthy choices that support diabetes prevention. The recipes are great (and you will see one at the end of the post), and they even feature recipes from top chefs in the book. My only complaint was that the nutritional information didn’t include the carbohydrate count. For those like my dad who treat their diabetes with insulin, carbohydrate counting is a must. It would have been really nice to have that included.

Overall though, this book is full of great advice, smart choices, and meals that will make anyone happy. You really can eat well and healthy, with out sacrificing taste. Here is an example of the healthy version of a Creole favorite.

Creole-Style Red Bean Soup with Shrimp

1 tablespoon olive oil
6 scallions, thinly sliced
1 medium green bell pepper, chopped
1 rib celery, chopped
2 cups vegetable broth
1 15½-ounce can red kidney beans
1 14-ounce can Italian-style tomatoes, chopped
½ teaspoon marjoram, crushed
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
12 ounces medium shrimp, peeled and deveined, tails left on

1. Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. add the scallions, bell pepper and celery and cook, stirring frequently, for 4 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender, adding some of the broth, 1 tablespoon at a time, if the pan gets dry.

2. Stir in the beans with their liquid, tomatoes with their juice, marjoram, black pepper and the remaining broth. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes, or until the flavors have blended.

3. Add the shrimp and cook, uncovered, stirring frequently, for 2 minutes, or until the shrimp are opaque.

Yield: 4 servings

Per serving: 210 calories, 5 grams fat