Good Eats

Last week, I asked on Twitter if anyone had done the South Beach Diet or knew anyone and what they thought. The responses were very mixed. Some said they had done it or someone they knew had with great results. Others were vehemently against it, or any type of “diet”.

However, my mom has started this and it has done some wonders. She doesn’t follow it 100%, but in two weeks she’s already gone down a pants size and her energy level has gone through the roof. This is the woman who would want to go to bed at 7:30 each night and still not really want to wake up each morning. She now wakes up early and is active all day and doesn’t go to bed till 10 or 11. She seems happier and is looking much better.

So, this is what I’m doing. I’m going to follow the first two weeks 100%. This means no bread, potatoes, rice, sugars, etc. I’ll be having lots of salads and turkey wraps and tuna in various forms and such. Then, after two weeks, I can start introducing some of those things back into my diet.

I know I know. I should just eat healthier and move on. But you don’t understand how atrocious my eating habits can be. My mother, who had the metabolism of a racehorse until she reached the age of 45, could eat anything she wanted, no matter the fat or butter or salt or sugar content and she wouldn’t gain a pound. This then became how she let my brother and I eat. Only, my brother inherited her metabolism and was athletic, and I did not. I had all of her sisters’ genes which means I gain weight super easily.

And I’ve been working on my eating habits and working out, but french fries and pizza and chocolate call my name on a daily basis. And telling myself to just eat better isn’t cutting it.

Also, my mom has said that after the first few days, she hasn’t craved sugar or carbs at all. She doesn’t put sugar in her coffee anymore and she doesn’t crave bread and pasta like she used to.

Umm….if I can quit having these cravings, then after these two weeks, eating better will be a million times easier. This is also forcing me to figure out healthy alternatives and how to make the food delicious for me. I am not planning on sticking to the SBD after these two weeks, but eating more vegetables and fresh foods and less processed crap and insane amounts of sugars. The book has some good recipes and I have no problem making those and using some of it’s tips, but I don’t want to feel tied to a diet for the rest of my life. I want to learn to eat better and to enjoy the foods I’m eating.

So that’s where we are. Yesterday was day one of this cleansing, as I’m calling it.

Mr. A is going to try to do this with me, but with his stomach issues he will have to be careful about what he decides to completely eliminate from his diet. Yesterday he ate a sandwich on white bread and I just wanted to steal his sandwich and eat it. White bread is yummy. Haha

But to help me, he cute up all the vegetables for me in snack sizes so if I’m hungry, I can go grab some red pepper strips or cucumbers or celery.

I even put all my vegetables and healthy things up front in my fridge so when I’m browsing for food, I see those things instead of pudding or something else I shouldn’t eat. And yes, that is a box of wine, but the Bota Box is delicious. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.

However, seeing as I’ve had one day, I’ve made some pretty delicious things.

For lunch, I made delicious lettuce wraps with smoked turkey, low-fat shredded mozzarella, red peppers, and a tiny bit of dill dip spread.

Ummm…holy crap these things were yummy. You wouldn’t believe how delicious and a tiny bit of dill dip goes a long way since it’s so flavorful. I made two and had some green pepper strips and celery on the side. I also added a handful of pistachios for a little salt and crunch to my meal.

I mean, if all the healthy stuff is going to taste this good, then I shouldn’t have any problems.

Tonight, I’m making red peppers stuffed with tuna salad with very little mayo, diced up peppers and onions and celery and a spinach salad. There is a restaurant where we went to school and they have the BEST salad dressing and all it contains is olive oil, lemon juice, and garlic. Mr. A is going to make a batch tonight and then I will have ready to go salad dressing for the week.

Also, this week:

Tuesday: steak salads with seared steak strips and low-fat bleu cheese crumbles

Wednesday: Sarah’s homemade tomato basil soup

Thursday: Roasted chicken with cauliflower mashed “potatoes” and sautéed asparagus

Friday: Turkey bratwurst and salads

Saturday: Omelets with veggies and turkey sausage

Not sure about everything else yet, but I have some delicious snacks to keep my hunger down and I’m still working out. I’m actually pretty excited about this and ready to see some changes, not only in my pants size, but also in my food mentality and desires.

I sure do love food

(Source)

I wish I could be a food critic, but there are certain foods and types of food that I just won’t eat, so there goes that job.

Last week or so I cut back on new recipes. I was getting a little burnt out and things were hectic and I didn’t feel like spending hours on new recipes or anything.

Basically, I was being lazy. Oh well.

This week isn’t all new stuff, but I have a TON of baking to do for my little family trip this weekend and I didn’t feel like baking all day Wednesday and Thursday and then still having to try a new recipe.

Cooking is hard.

But, here’s a little rundown of what’s to come.

Tonight (Sunday) we had our FAVORITE spicy turkey sloppy joes. If you have not tried them, you must. I know sloppy joes sounds like crap food, but these are spicy and smoky and pure awesomeness. Go make them. Now. You won’t regret it.

I also made this cannoli dip. Umm….delicious. A friend had made something like this for our Superbowl party and it was so yummy. We dipped teddy grahams and pecan halves in it. Yum yum yum.

Monday, we are having slow cooker cheese steaks. They sound delicious and super easy. But since they take 4 hours, I hope I remember to put it in around 4 so we’re not eating at midnight.

Tuesday we’ll probably have little smokies wrapped in crescent rolls and soup of some kind. Mr. A LOVES the little smokies this way, and since I’m leaving him all weekend, I’m trying to make up for it.

Wednesday we’ll probably have leftovers or a hodgepodge of stuff. Wednesday I will be making chocolate chip pumpkin cupcakes and peaches and cream cupcakes for the weekend. The pumpkin ones I won’t be using their frosting or making them look like witches, but they reviews rave about them, so I hope they turn out well.

For this weekend, everyone gets assigned food to bring and somehow I got put on the list for cupcakes and either cinnamon rolls or cinnamon bread. I have the greatest homemade cinnamon roll recipe, but they’re kind of tedious and it’s easier for me to transport homemade cinnamon swirl bread, so that’s what I’m going to make Thursday.

Thursday night we will probably go out to eat since I’ll be leaving Friday.

Looking at this, I make a lot of sweets and not a lot of real food. I promise we don’t only eat cakes. Promise.

Thursday I will also be making Sarah in the City’s super easy chocolate pie for Mr. A since I’m making all these yummy things and he can’t enjoy them.

Next week, because I promised Mr. A I would, I’m also making Sarah’s homemade basil tomato soup and homemade pimento cheese sandwiches. I personally can’t stand pimento cheese, but it’s one of his favorites and he can take the leftovers for lunch, so I’ll go for it.

What are you making this week? Any new recipes I should try?

Monday Randoms

It’s Monday. We spent the weekend out of town. I so didn’t get enough sleep. My brain is foggy. So I’ll give a brief rundown and expand tomorrow or later this week.

– I have been debating about whether to post a blog post I wrote or not. I can’t decide if I want to post something so personal. It’s not directly about me, but about family. I’m not worried about anyone finding the blog. Maybe I secretly hope she will because I’m not brave enough to face her in person. Eh. Need to decide where my blogging rules fall.

– We went home this weekend. We went to the big restaurant fair downtown with my brother. After breaking up with his long time girlfriend, I think he’s lonely and having a hard time. He’s 30 and his sister that is 7 years younger just got married. He loves Mr. A and they get along great, but I can’t escape feeling a little guilty. But, we had a ton of fun and I think we cheered him up. My brother is a riot. We share the same sarcastic and sometimes dry sense of humor. He also love his cat. A lot. It’s rather amusing. Especially when they wrestle and she claws the crap out of him.

– Mr. A’s laptop died, or is about to. I think he can still use Word, but it won’t connect to internet and is over heating. It is a 6.5 year old Mac, so I guess we should have expected it. I was just hoping finances would be more stable when it happened. We were looking around at Best Buy yesterday and the prices made me nauseous. We considered buying a netbook, but he will need this for the next 3 years, and it needs to have enough space and such to hold everything he needs. Also, I’ve heard people needing to buy 2 in a year. So, I think we’re going to get a laptop. We’d love to buy a new macbook, but we just can’t afford it. I so wish it would have lasted at least until Christmas.

– I’m super antsy. A few friends are moving to Chicago for new jobs and it makes me jealous. I want to move to a big city and be the 23 year old that I am. Not sit in this apartment that is becoming more and more claustrophobic.

– I AM excited for the new cooler temperatures. It was 32 degrees when Mr. A went to school this morning. I’m going to have to dig out all my winter clothes. If only I knew where they were….

-With colder temperatures comes hoodies. I love hoodies. I want to buy one from Mr. A’s school or my alma mater. I need some new ones and they are just so freaking comfortable.

– I’m going on a trip in two weeks. My dad and a couple life long family friends go to a place that has a bunch of cabins and they have a concert in the lodge on Saturday night. They’ve done this for several years now. My brother is going, but he had an extra ticket since his ex will obviously not be going. Mr. A is going to have the guys from the wedding come here and go to a football game and have a guys weekend and I’m going on the trip. I’m kind of excited. As I’ve gotten older, my dad and I have been getting along better and I love hanging out with my brother and the family friends, so it should be a fun and relaxing weekend. I will miss Mr. A, but he probably needs to boys weekend.

– Also, I’m supposed to make cupcakes for this little getaway. I think I might make peaches and cream cupcakes because they look yummy and I love peach things. Does anyone have a recipe for a chocolate chip pumpkin cupcake? I’ve seen chocolate chip pumpkin bread, so I’m hoping I can find one. Hoping the chocolate chips cancel out some of the pumpkin flavor since it’s not my favorite.

– My husband made the MOST delicious chicken and rice recipe last week. So delicious. I’ll get the recipe and post it this week. 

Look at that! Tastes glorious. Now I want some…

 

I hope you are all having a great Monday. I’ll get out of this fog soon, I hope.

Told Ya

I told you I would be back to my chipper self in no time.

Not everything is fixed or better, but I can’t obsess over them or things will just get worse. I did it when I had to go to school at home for a year and I added more pounds than I’ll admit on the internet and all self esteem went out the window.

Must. Stay. Positive.

So, on that note, I give you some things that make me so ridiculously happy. Probably more than they should, but whatever.

1. GLEE. I know you already know this. I LOVE GLEE. So wonderful. No, not all the acting is great and some episodes are better than others, but being a huge theater fan and the fact that I love swing choir (my high school version of GLEE club minus the competing), GLEE is wonderful. I love the music and the dancing and the bizarre plot lines. I was so happy tonight with the premier. Mr. A even watched with me and it was wonderful. He even ordered the entire 1st season for me. (He had an Amazon gift card AND it was on sale, NEW, on Amazon tonight. He’s super.)

2. Duoly Noted’s bruschetta. People. You don’t understand how truly fantastic this is. I also made her linguine with clam sauce and it was also amazing, but the bruschetta. I almost wished my husband wasn’t eating so I could have had it all to myself. I learned I loved bruschetta in Chicago at one of the famous pizza places. I’ve tried to make it myself and it would turn out okay, but nothing great. Tonight it was mouthwatering and better than the restaurant. No exaggeration. Husband thought the same. Probably going to have an entire meal of it next week. And I don’t like tomatoes. So if you don’t like tomatoes either, try this recipe. It will change your life.

3. Puppies. I already wrote a ridiculously long post about this, so I’ll leave it at that.

4. Wine. We went to a wine festival here a couple weekends ago and we found some local wines that we LOVE. We bought a couple bottles and I could drink them all by myself. I love white wine that isn’t too dry. We found a Vignoles that is so yummy with just about any meal you put in front of me.

5. Hunger Games. I know I’m late to this party and pretty much all of you have already read the entire series, but it is so good! I’m about 90 pages in and I’m hooked. I would have spent all night reading if it hadn’t been the premiere of GLEE and then Biggest Loser. I can’t wait to read all of them and I hope Catching Fire and Mockingjay are just as involving. **Sidenote: I am DREADING when the games start because I’ve already fallen in love with Peeta and how the heck am I supposed to cheer for Katniss to kill him?? I must read more tonight.

6. Bubble Baths. I love them. More than an adult should love a bubble bath. a couple times a week I take one and read whatever book I’m on at the time. I usually have to re-warm the water because I’m in there long enough for the water to cool. In This Wonderful Life is hosting a “Keep Calm and…” giveaway. I was looking at the possible prints and they have a “Keep Calm and Soak On” print with a bathtub on it. I’m so hoping I win so I can get it. It will fit in our bathroom so well and it fits me perfectly! Probably going to go take a bubble bath and read as soon as I finish this.

7. Jillian Michaels. Not really. I really more hate her. And her perfect abs. And the other girls’ perfect legs. I want to watch other out of shape people struggle through the workout like I do, not girls who wish the video would end so they can get to their real workouts. BUT I can tell it’s doing something. Actually, it worked SO well yesterday, that I couldn’t hardly walk today. Or move. Or bend. Or breathe. I found 3 positions that were comfortable and didn’t make me want to cut off my legs. It goes without saying that I couldn’t do the workout today, but I have every intention of doing it tomorrow. Even if I can’t do everything or all the reps, I WILL workout again tomorrow. Jillian knows what she’s doing and I love that. I might have a chance to lose the weight I want. If I can eat better, smaller portions, and keep with this workout, I hope I can get there.

8. That my husband doesn’t freak out when I tell him I chose the wrong career path. He even TRULY thinks I should go back to school now and we’ll live off loans. All to make me happy and get the career I want. He’s a doll sometimes. This will be it’s own blog post, but it’s good to know that he will support me should I choose that path because my parents might try to commit me. Not even kidding.

9. Blogging. All of you who read and comment and give advice and encouragement and tell me you’ve been there and it will get better. I love the blogs and I love Twitter for connecting me to bloggers. We tweet about shows and celebrities. We ask questions. Vent about whatever is going on. Tell funny stories. Share pictures that are in the moment. I love this community I have found. YOU have helped me in more ways that you probably know. You’ve gotten me through this very difficult and stressful time with your humor and sarcasm and dry senses of humor. Snarky blogs? One of my favorites. Thanks for sticking with me and keep the comments coming. They make my day.

10. I’m doing this for Life of a Doctor’s Wife. She has to end lists at 10. Figure if I keep her OCD calm, she’ll keep reading.

This New Hobby

With all this time on my hand, I decided that I needed to find a hobby that would benefit the husband and I.

I have started scrapbooking, but that is more for me and the husband doesn’t get so much out of it.

So I’ve been working on my previous lack of skill in the kitchen. I had started this little endeavor a while ago, but I would only make like one thing new and the rest came from a box or Mr. A made it.

My new favorite thing? Meal planning.

It makes everything so much easier.

I used to go to the grocery store and just buy random stuff with no clear meals in mind. By Wednesday, we were out of main course food and just had a lot of side dishes and snack food. I love mashed potatoes as much as anyone, but I can’t shouldn’t live off of them.

So now, during the week, I start looking online for new recipes to try. It has been so much fun to find either new things to eat or recipes for meals I already like.

My favorite places to look are The Pioneer Woman and Tasty Kitchen. I just love the Pioneer Woman’s sense of humor and love her pictures that go along with her amazing recipes. I have also found a lot of recipes from other blogs. You guys sure are crafty in the kitchen!

From last week’s meals:

Sunday: Grilled chicken

             Spinach salad with dried cranberries, pecans, and strawberry vinaigrette

             Brie and peach biscuit bites from ARealLifeWIfe

***I think I just don’t like grilled chicken by itself. The salad was amazing, as were the biscuits, but the chicken was just blah. Anyone know a good grilled chicken recipe?

Monday: Turkey sloppy joes (spicy)

             Leftover salad

****Amazing! I got the recipe here. They were so yummy and definitely not the blah sloppy joes you had as a kid.

Tuesday: Stuffed crab

               Baked rice

****The stuffed crab we buy at our grocery store and it is so delicious. The rice? For being as simple as it is, it was yummy. It was full of flavor and I could have eaten it every night.

Wednesday: Frozen lasagna from MIL and garlic bread

Thursday: Turkey Chili

****I got the recipe for this here. One of the best chili I have ever had. I didn’t follow the directions exactly. I added a pinch more heat to it and a whole can of corn, a huge onion, and instead of the smelly juice from the canned beans, I used some chicken stock and some water for the liquid. It was spicy and delicious. Add some shredded cheese and sour cream and you’re set!

Friday: Leftovers or go out to eat

Last week’s meals all turned out pretty amazing and better yet, no one got sick!

So this week, this is what’s ahead:

Sunday: Use leftover chili to make chili-mac and I made The Bread

Monday: Borrowing a couple recipes from Duoly Noted. We’ll be having her bruschetta and her linguine with clam sauce that is apparently “to die for”.

Tuesday: Fried round steak and mashed potatoes and green beans.

Wednesday: Hot dogs and homemade mac and cheese. Nothing fancy but Wednesday is usually Mr. A’s late night, so this should be easy and can be made whenever he makes it home.

Thursday: Outback’s coconut shrimp with spicy orange sauce, grilled vegetables, and fingerling potatoes. We received a cookbook with restaurant “secret” recipes and I have been craving coconut shrimp for a while.

 

These meals are a little less healthy, but I have been working out more, so I’ll go for it.

I’m also planning on making a derby pie tomorrow. This is a chocolate nut pie with some bourbon. Mr. A loves bourbon and being from the state he’s from hopefully he will love the derby pie. I have a recipe that I’m not crazy about, but if you have one, please share!

I’m pretty excited about these upcoming meals. I hope everything turns out well, especially the shrimp. I can’t believe I have to wait until Thursday!

A Little of This…

…a little of that…

I’ve felt a little lost for blog content, but I want to take The Pioneer Woman’s advice and make sure to blog at least everyday.

So, here I am.

• I’ve been reading this book. Several of you told me it was one of your favorites. Reading the summary, it looked like a story I would love. Are you sensing my hesitation?? The book…it’s dragging. I have about 40 pages left and I will finish it, but it’s been tedious. The story as a whole: yes. It’s intriguing. But I thought this was more about a woman who entered the White House as the President’s wife, but didn’t really want to. Didn’t fit in. As someone who answered that I would love to be Michelle Obama for a day to see what it’s really like to live in the White House, I was so excited about this. But, (and if you are planning to read this, maybe skip to my next bullet) only the last section is about her time in the White House. Also, the first 3 sections are fairly sequential. They will mention past events or give a little anecdote to supplement what is happening, but mostly it’s in order. The last section? Bounces all over. You never see what it was like during the campaign. The time is 2008, but most of the last section spends its time in the previous years. Throwing in tidbits that are important to the story, but apparently not important enough to actually be in the story. It just frustrates me. I feel she knew she wanted this story to include time in the White House, but she let the rest of the story go on too long, so it got shoved into the end of the book. Maybe the last 40 pages will save it? Maybe?

 

• I made these sloppy joes tonight. AhMahZing. I mean, you think sloppy joes and think, eh. No no. Not these bad boys. They are a little spicy, but not too much. The spice adds flavor and isn’t hot just to be hot. We didn’t dice our onions or red peppers to small, so they were chunky and so absolutely wonderful. Put on a whole wheat bun-yummm. I had extras even though I was already stuffed. I was planning on doing a recipe recap next week after I make all the meals listed in my food post, but these were so good, they deserve two mention.

 

• I’ve been pretty good about going to the gym everyday and doing 30-45 minutes on the elliptical. I’ve realized I can go longer and do more on the elliptical than the treadmill. While this is great, especially for this lazy couch potato, I know it’s not enough to lose the weight I want to. However, the workout machines and weights aren’t my cup of tea. There’s the “meat house”- the older machines, bench presses, huge free weights. And I have yet to see a girl in there. When I walked in to find Mr. A the other day, everyone stared and looked at me like I wasn’t supposed to be there. The other area is set up awkwardly, they have machines I’ve never seen before, but always too many people around for me to feel comfortable to try and test them out. Also, the only set of freeweights that I could use, meaning the pretty colored less heavy ones, are in a room that I haven’t figured out if I’m allowed in. It’s where you can sign up for personal training, get metabolic and fitness tests run, and those types of things. I just want to use their weights.  So, after hearing about Sarah in the Big City using Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred, I decided to try it out. However, I have learned to do my cardio AFTER the video. I tried it the other way around today and I couldn’t get through the first 5 minutes because I was so tired already from the gym. I’ll let you know if I decide I hate Jillian Michaels or not.

 

• Mr. A’s best friend’s surprise birthday party is this weekend. Kind of excited to see them again since we haven’t seen them since we moved. Not sure if or what to get him as a birthday present. This is the kid that has more money than anyone I’ve ever heard of. Also, they’re boys, so they don’t usually exchange gifts, but because there’s a party, do we get something anyways?

 

• The lack of cable in our sweet little apartment meant that I couldn’t watch the VMAs. I was rather sad about this, especially after the fun I had watching and tweeting about the Emmy’s. MTV should have it on their website soon so I can catch up and understand what happened with the Kanye/Taylor drama and to see the amazing opener I heard about with Eminem. (I actually really do like him. Why? No clue. But I do.)

 

• I’ve also found this song I like. Now, before I let you guys watch it, I will give a warning that since the name of it “F**K You” there are curse words fairly frequently. you’re all adults, but thought I’d give a warning before you jump into thinking it’s a fun Miley Cyrus song.

I found this song when a girl from home did a cover of it. I actually like her version better, but this video is more entertaining.

 

• Also a HUGE congratulations to Melissa over at Duoly Noted. They have found a house after all their renting drama. I know she was very worried about this situation, so I thought a congratulations was in order. And wine. I’m celebrating for her with my own glass right now!

 

Everyone have a wonderful week. Enjoy your football, if you’re into that sort of thing.

So I Love Food

I’ve had some free time.

Lots of it. Enough to share.

I’ll give it to you. For free. Just give me something to do.

But since no one seems to be offering time consuming activities, I have taken on the hobby of cooking.

I feel like I’m falling into the stereotype of the new wife presenting her husband with burned food and he eating it just to make her happy. This might be more true than I want to admit.

I’ve dabbled in a couple “real food” recipes, but my favorite thing to look for is desserts. I love desserts. Always have. (Why didn’t I inherit my mother’s super genes and triathlon metabolism? My brother gets all the luck.)

A few weeks ago, I made this beauty:

Blackberry Cheesecake courtesy of The Pioneer Woman. Delicious. And blackberry is Mr. A’s favorite. He’s so spoiled.

I also made her cinnamon roll bread.

Homemade people. Not in a bread maker. Completely from scratch. I know you don’t know me personally, but this is insanely impressive for the girl who used to only make things that came in a box with directions on the side. I added raisins, per Mr. A’s request. Toast is and add a little butter….yummmmmmm. Almost makes all the trouble it took worth it to make this weekend. Almost.

And then……

Root Beer Float Cupcakes.

For starters. I love root beer. Add ice cream to this and it’s just heaven in a frosty glass. Now that I can drink caffeinated sodas, diet root beer is pretty much my only way to get my soda fix.

So I figured these would be amazing.

Not so much. At least not in my opinion.

For one, I think I goofed on the amount of root beer flavoring. The recipe called for root beer extract, and after searching and seeing that Hobby Lobby had root beer candy flavoring, I went and bought it. I didn’t, however, see that it said “4 times stronger than extracts.” So the 2 teaspoons of extract I needed? I did the same amount of flavoring. Which I think was too much. Also, I didn’t make the frosting the recipe calls for because Mr. A and I don’t really care for whip cream frosting.

Mr. A loved them and I sent them with him to school today. He claims the others loved them as well, but he would say that to me anyways. So who knows.

And then the cake pops.

 

These are actually Bakerella’s cake pops, but I followed Beach Bum and Baby’s directions. I have seen other people blog about these and how they only got like 6 to turn out correctly. I was nervous, especially after I didn’t like the cupcakes, so I went into this little project today having realistic expectations. I figured most would crumble or something wouldn’t go as planned, but I was pleasantly surprised.

I only had 2 fall apart. And this made about 30 or so pops. Delicious cake on a stick covered in chocolate. How can you NOT like these?

I do have a couple tips for these.

1. You are supposed to grease the bottom of the cake pan. While letting my cake cool overnight, I left it in the pan I cooked it in. The greasy pan. This made the bottom of the cake moist and when I was crumbling it into the finest pieces possible, some wanted to clump together because of the moisture.

2. Mix the cake and frosting together by hand. Yes, it’s messy. But I couldn’t get it all to mix with a spoon or spatula. My hands, however, did a great job.

3. My cake pops wanted to crack a little. (This was after the stick was in, before dipping in chocolate.) I have no clue if this was due to not enough/too much frosting, temperature, or what. If someone figures this out, let me know.

4. I had to re-melt my chocolate about halfway through. It started to get thick, so I just put over heat again. Also, use Beach Bum’s tip of adding a little vegetable oil to thin it out if necessary. It helped a ton and didn’t change the flavor, at least as far as I could tell.

I’m planning on making these for Mr. A’s family Thanksgiving. Being from KY and all, they seemed to be easily awed. Haha. (Nothing against them. I love them. They just don’t branch out much…)

Another tip, Hobby Lobby has melts in EVERY color. And most are just vanilla flavored. Mr. A doesn’t like the flavor of white chocolate ( I have no idea what is wrong with him) so the vanilla flavor was perfect. Also, with the colors, you can make them more decorative, swirl color, make for any occasion.

Unfortunately, we can’t live off sweets.

So i also attacked the project of meal planning. Having NO experience in this, it was a little difficult at first. But thanks to some fellow bloggers, I have all the meals planned for next week. I found all sorts of fun and yummy recipes, and mostly (fairly) healthy. Hopefully neither of us get food poisoning next week.

Sunday: Grilled chicken

             Spinach salad with dried cranberries, pecans, and strawberry vinaigrette

             Brie and peach biscuit bites from ARealLifeWIfe

Monday: Turkey sloppy joes (spicy)

             Leftover salad

Tuesday: Stuffed crab

               Baked rice

Wednesday: Frozen lasagna from MIL and garlic bread

Thursday: Turkey Chili

Friday: Left overs or go out to eat

 

I hope it all turns out well. I’ll keep you updated.

Culinarily Inept

Well, I’m not that bad. I do know that a salad doesn’t belong in or near the oven. Right?

I love my mother. She’s great. But there are somethings I never learned from her. Such as, how to french braid hair or do makeup. I had to learn the makeup thing from friends and YouTube.

She did cook. And it was definitely edible. Somethings are still my favorite meals. Her pork chops? Delicious. Her biscuits and gravy? I dream about them.

My mom’s real skill, however, lie in baking. She could bake like none other. Cookies. Pies. Brownies. Cakes. All yummy.

Now, from reading my favorite things my mom made, can you see my food issues? My mom has the metabolism of a race horse. She gained 55 lbs. when she was pregnant with both me and my brother and lost it all to go back to being a size 4. She can eat anything. If she wasn’t my mom, I would be mad.

Also, I didn’t pick up the hobby of “let’s help mom in the kitchen and learn how she does this stuff.” I decided that it would be more fun to annoy my older brother and to play with my friends.

So here I am. Newly married to the man of my dreams and he is, by far, much more domestic than I am. He cleans better than I, can decorate (at times) better than I, and cooks better. I know I’ve mentioned that he worked in a bakery for several years and seriously considered going to culinary school. It’s a little embarrassing. The man in this relationship can do all the house stuff better than I can. I mean, I’m the new wife. I should be making dinners for him and making our little two bedroom apartment our new little home.

And I have gotten bit by, albeit a very small, bug and I want our place to not look like a glorified dorm room. Putting pictures up. Getting bookshelves and all that.

But in the kitchen? Other than making it look nice, the actual cooking is an issue.

I mean, I DO know how to boil water. I could survive on my own. It would just involve a lot of microwaving and food that comes in boxes with directions. I’m a champ with mac n’ cheese.

But I’ve been working on it. Even coming up with recipes in my head.

I made us orange chicken with veggies over brown rice the other night. It was good. Could have used a little more sauce. And I burnt the snot out of my hand when the oil popped. Who knew you weren’t supposed to put water on hot oil? I was just trying to cool down the pan….. (Please don’t tell me if everyone knew this. Husband acted like I had come from another planet when he heard the cussing and the insane bubbling/steaming noise.)

I even made a dessert after I saw it on the menu at our new favorite thai restaurant. It was banana, nutella, and peanut butter “egg roll”. Basically those 3 things wrapped in a wonton wrapper and pan fried. They were actually pretty darn good. If you like those things. Did I mention how much I love chocolate and banana?

So tonight I’m making jambalaya. Yes. The rice comes from a box with directions, but I have to cut up and cook the kielbasa on my own. That counts, maybe?

So what are some of your favorite recipes? What were some of your first recipes? I would love to find some new recipes that aren’t insanely complicated. Because that’s another problem. I find recipes, but they have about 943,382 ingredients and they have twice as many steps. That’s too much for a rookie to the culinary arts.

Off to attempt this jambalaya. I promise not to burn down the apartment. I have a fire extinguisher on hand, just in case.

Let me explain

I don’t think I fully explained my current job situation, and as it will end next week, I feel I should clarify.

I graduated in December with a bachelor’s in Secondary English Education. Basically, I want to be a high school English teacher. Gag. I know. But it’s been a love of mine for years, and I hope I can at least get students to appreciate it. We shall see.

Well, due to the economy falling into the 7th circle of hell (Dante reference??), many schools in the area are not hiring. While it is difficult to find a teaching job in December anyways, all the people that graduated the previous year in December had found jobs. So, it was a little upsetting not to find anything.

So, I decided to be a substitute teacher. As a certified teacher, a sub can make decent money, and I figured if I was on the lists in enough school districts, I would be able to work everyday.

Well, January 4th, I get called from a school district. They have a teacher going on maternity leave, and they needed a sub. For January 6th. Yes. 2 days notice.

Being the broke college student adult that I was, I happily accepted. Basically 3 months of a for-sure job sounded glorious. I wasn’t thrilled of not knowing whether I would work from day to day. I mean, who really wants to go to bed at 9pm if they don’t have to???

Fast forward 3 months. I am in my last week and a half with the long-term sub position, and I am not sure what to think. After days like today, I couldn’t be happier to leave. But then I realize that I will miss some of the kids and I love the team I work with. I work with people who truly love their job and want to help their children.I have truly enjoyed my time there and I have learned sooo much. Good and bad. But this is probably the best learning experience ever.

Working with teachers like that makes it more enjoyable for me, as a new teacher, who is feeling a little jaded already due to extreme testing standards and the fact that so many states are cutting education budgets by BILLIONS of dollars. BILLIONS!

How can you justify cutting so much money from an already struggling sector, but still want our children to compete with Japan and China?? it’s. not. possible.

They demand more from teachers, yet expect them to do it all for less pay. What other profession would people do this??? NONE! Yes, there are teachers unions, but who really pays the price when teachers strike?? The students. Their education is already suffering due to the fact that teachers are losing their want/desire/ability for creativity because we have so many standards and content to teach to make sure our students perform well on tests.

I digress. I could literally talk about this for hours. But I won’t. It’s one thing I am very passionate about and it just upsets me that politicians aren’t listening. Why is education one of the first things that money is cut from??

Ahhhhhhhh.

Well, I will step off my soapbox now and go on to lighter things.

Such as, the greatest dinner ever. Well, not ever, but it is rather tasty and fairly cheap and healthy.

Tortilla pizza

It is a tortilla. I put a little olive oil on it and put it in the oven at 400 degrees for like 3 minutes, just to crisp up the tortilla. I then put spaghetti sauce on it, then some low fat ricotta, fat free mozzarella, and a little Parmesan. Put back in the oven for about 5 minutes, sprinkle with just a dash of pizza seasoning or basil, and Voila! It may sound goofy, but it is soooo good. Fiance puts artichokes or onions or other things on his, but I keep mine simple. Yummmmmy.

Also, if trying to eat a little better, but have a salt addiction like myself:

The Best Pringles Ever

They are truly addicting. And yummy. Just a suggestion.

I hope you all have a good evening. I must find a way to teach clauses in a way that my students don’t die of boredom. Wish me luck.

New Teacher. New Wife.