Toys for Tots!

I have many blessings in my life. I have a wonderful husband who loves me and can provide for me while I'm in school and not able to work as much. I have amazing family and friends who I know would be able to help me out if needed. I feel so blessed to have everything that I do and can't help but think of those who are less fortunate.

That's why I put on my list #84: Buy a Christmas present for someone in need from the tree at our gym. Our gym puts up a Christmas tree each year and decorates it with cut-out paper ornaments with the ages of boys or girls on them. We can take an ornament, or two, or three, or however many you want, and buy a present that would go with the age and gender on it and then bring in your present and put it under the tree. Usually there's so many presents that they start taking over the spaces by the workout machines! I have to admit that I've been working out at my gym for about 4 years and have never taken the time to get an ornament before. So I made sure to get one right away this year.

I grabbed one that said 'girl, 6 years old'. That seemed like a pretty easy age to buy for. Not having kids--I have no idea at what age kids play with certain toys. But 6 seemed a little easier than the rest.

I went out and was looking at some toys and other things, and then I saw it. One of my favorite games when I was little (If only I could find a Head-to-Head Perfection game--I would've gotten that instead). The game of MEMORY. But of course this one was way cooler than the memory game I had when I was little. This one was 'Dora the Explorer' edition. I think around 6 years old is when I started playing that game. I even also bought the 'Go Diego Go' edition as well because I loved them so much, and I'll go find an ornament for a little boy to give that one too.

I hope these gifts are enjoyed by whomever receives them!





And because I'm super busy in the upcoming weeks, and this may very well be my one and only blog this month, Josh and I wish you a Merry Christmas!! We just put up our Christmas tree, so I was excited to take this picture. :-)

Just as I promised!

A picture of the Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken!

Yummmmm. I made it again last week, and it was good as always! If you haven't tried it yet, you should!

16 weeks of training for 22 minutes and 37 seconds

And I am happy with that. For the most part. I started a 5k training program through www.runnersworld.com 16 weeks ago. This is the second consecutive training program I've done through that website. The first program I started last spring for a 5k I did in July. At that 5k in July, I got my best time that I had ever gotten for a 5k: 23 minutes and 35 seconds. Since I did so well at that 5k, I decided to set up another program. I didn't have a particular 5k in mind to train for, so I set the program for the maximum number of weeks that I could, and that was 16 weeks. I stuck with this program the best I could for the past 16 weeks. I got up early to fit in my run, when I normally would've been able to sleep in. I did miss one week when Josh was in the hospital, but I bounced back quickly from that. I ran sprints I didn't think I could run. I ran up to 11 miles at a time on my long run days. It was hard, but I guess that's what I get for putting the answer "very hard" to the question "how hard do you want to train?" when I set up the program.

And it paid off. I didn't have an actual 5k to run yesterday, so I went to www.mapmyrun.com to map out 3.1 miles around my neighborhood. And then I timed myself. My training program said that with all the training I've done, I should get a time of 22:07, which is a pace of 7:07 per mile. I'm a little sad that I didn't quite meet that goal. I got 22:37, which is a pace of 7:18 per mile. But, I am very happy that I beat my last 5k time of almost a full minute! That's good enough for me.

I will be taking this week off from running, and I have my next 5k training program set up to start next Monday. This new program says that in 16 weeks when I run my next 5k, I should be able to do it in 21:15, which is a pace of 6:50 per mile. Check back in after February 28th to see if I did that.

Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken

It's been a busy week for me! I've tried a few new recipes for dinner and have been waiting to see how they all turned out before I chose one to write about. And it was not hard to choose a winner! This Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken recipe I made last night was sooooooo good. It had so much flavor to it; it could even be my most favorite chicken recipe EVER. You should definitely try it!

But before I give you the recipe, I'll at least tell you about the other 2 recipes I tried out in case you want to give them a try too.

Monday night we had Beer Battered Tilapia
I don't really like fish, but I thought it was pretty good. We ate it with some tarter sauce, brown rice, and a vegetable.

Tuesday night we had Almond Chicken with Rice
This was also a good recipe, but I thought there could've been more flavor. I got this recipe from sparkrecipes.com, so it's healthy at least! Also, I accidentally bought cashews instead of almonds, so that might've changed the taste a little, but I don't think that would've affected it too much.

And lastly, last night we had Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken
This was also from sparkrecipes.com, so it's another healthy one! If you click on the link, it'll take you to the website so you can see the nutrition info.

And this was definitely good! I don't have any pictures because we were so hungry and ate it right away, haha. But I plan on making this again next week, so I'll try to remember to take one then.

Ingredients
Brown sugar, 4 tsp. unpacked
3-4 Chicken breasts, no skin (I made 3)
Garlic, 1 clove (I used minced garlic, like I use for everything that calls for garlic)
Butter, salted, 2 tbsp. (I just used 2 tbsp. of "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" because that's what I had)
Salt, 1 tsp.
Dash of pepper

Directions
1. Melt butter in a frying pan
2. Brown the garlic in the butter
3. Add chicken breasts to garlic and butter and cook thoroughly, adding salt and pepper as you like
4. When chicken is fully cooked, add brown sugar on top of each chicken breast
5. Allow the brown sugar to melt into the chicken (about 5 minutes)

I just can't believe how much flavor was in the chicken! And it was so easy to make. Try it!

Yesss, I kept the appointment

I have now kind-of-successfully completed #78: Go to the eye doctor for a check-up. I say "kind-of" successfully, because let's face it--I'm probably not the most-liked patient there. I get so freaked out by anything that has to do with the eyes. It took the guy 4 tries to do the puff thing in my eye for me to actually keep my eye open while he did it! It really wasn't that bad, but just the thought of it is making my eyes hurt again!

But I made it through. They even put the drops in to dilate (sp?) my eyes. I hate eye drops too. So that wasn't fun. But I'm alive.

And now here's the verdict: I need glasses again, but just for things like reading the board in class, and driving, etc. Stuff like that. Not for every day life, which is good. My left is is perfectly fine, and will need no prescription at all. But my right eye is the one that brings everything down, I guess.

I didn't pick out any glasses yet. I need to bring Josh with me for that. We'll probably go sometime in the next few weeks. I'm in no hurry to go back to that place.

This is what I get for going to the mall!

I had time to kill before work last Friday, so I decided to walk around the mall since it'd been a while since I've been there. I walked past the glasses/eye exam place and saw they were having special for eye exams. Before I knew what I was doing, I was in the store making myself an eye exam appointment! It's not until Wednesday, so I still have two days to cancel. :-) I did ask the guy if anything would be touching my eyes in any way, and he assured me that if I didn't want that, they wouldn't have to do it. So, I'm hoping the actual eye doctor is that nice. We'll seeee I guess! And we'll also see if I keep this appointment! :-)

Better than Auntie Anne's!

Or whatever that pretzel shop is at the mall. I made homemade soft pretzels, and they were gooood!

I feel like all I've been writing about lately is food and new recipes. For some reason, I've been really into baking and cooking lately. I even have 4 new dinner recipes I want to try next week! Don't worry, though, I'm not forgetting about the other stuff on my list, but I just feel like it's not as fun to write about.

But just to let you know...I have completed #36: Apply for Financial Aid for School. I have also completed #48: Buy a new door for our bedroom. And also part of #77: Get my hair highlighted once a year. But what else can I say about those, you know?

Also, I have been taking my multivitamin every day. I still go to the gym at least 3 times a week, but with this running program I've been doing, it's more like 6 days a week. Etc. etc. etc.

So now for something more fun, I made homemade soft pretzels!

Seeeeee.

They're so pretty.

I put sea salt on half of them:

And a cinnamon-sugar mixture on the other half:

I found this recipe online, and realized that I already had all the ingredients at home already! That's always nice. So, I went home and made the dough right away!

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups flour

4 tbsp. brown sugar

2 tsp. salt (sea salt preferably)

1 tbsp. yeast-dissolved in water

1 cup water--warm, but not hot

1 tbsp. baking soda mixed with 1 cup of boiling water

1 egg beaten with 1 tsp. water

Directions:

Mix water, yeast, brown sugar, and salt in a mixing bowl. Add flour until dough is smooth. If the dough is sticky, add more flour.

If you can, let the dough sit overnight in the fridge.

Then, take the dough, and divide it into pieces. I divided mine into 9 pieces, and the pretzels were a good size I though. If you want them bigger, you can divide the dough into less pieces. If you want them smaller, you can divide the dough into more pieces.

Roll each piece into a thing rope. I had trouble with this step, and I felt my ropes weren't too thing, and my pretzels still turned out fine. So, if you're worried your ropes of dough aren't 'thin' enough, don't worry!

Then, shape the dough into an upside-down U shape on your surface, twist the ends and bring them down to the bottom of the pretzel. (Hope that makes sense!)

Place the pretzels on a greased cookie sheet, and let rise for 30 minutes.

Next, either brush each pretzel with the baking soda-water mixture. However, if you want a chewier crust, put 2 tbsp. baking soda in 4 cups of boiling water and drop the pretzel in that mixture for a few seconds and then take it out with a pancake-turner thing with slots in it, so the water can drain out. I did this option, because I wanted chewier crust.

Then, brush each pretzel with the egg-water mixture. This will put a nice shiny glaze on the pretzel.

Sprinkle each pretzel with sea salt, or whatever you want to top them with. (I did half sea salt and half cinnamon-sugar) and bake in the oven at 425 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Or until browned.

And enjoy! Yum!

And because tomorrow is Halloween, I'll leave you with some pictures of the Halloween-shaped shortbread cookies I made last week!

Andddd we have a winner! (bread related)

It seems that we have found a great bread recipe, after trying a few! This one did everything we wanted it to--it rose well, without sinking in at the top, it didn't get the bread-kneader thing stuck in it when I took it out of the pan, it made nice BIG slices, and most importantly, it tastes good!

Here is the wonderful recipe:

Ingredients:
1 cup warm water
1 packet yeast (I think that's 2 1/4 tsp?)
2 tbsp honey
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups bread flour
1/4 cup flaxseed meal
1 1/2 tsp. salt

Directions:
Place water and yeast in bread pan and let it sit for 10 minutes.
Then, add the rest of the ingredients in the order listed.
Set bread machine to Basic bread; light crust setting.

Here's a couple things this recipe does differently, which I think makes the bread turn out better. First, it has me add the yeast directly to the water. I'm not an expert at bread baking, but I think a lot of recipes tell you not to let the yeast touch the wet ingredients. So I thought this step was weird, but it definitely worked! This recipe also had me adding more salt--which helps the bread rise more. And lastly, even though it's technically wheat bread, I should set my bread machine to the basic bread setting, not the wheat bread setting. The basic bread setting doesn't bake it as long as the wheat bread, which makes the crust not as hard.

Now, here's some side-by-side pictures for your comparison to my last recipe:


See how the top actually rises? :) And here, it's sunken in. :(



These pieces look normal. And these pieces don't. And the
kneader is stuck in there.




So there you have it. Good sandwich, and toasting bread.

Stay tuned...I will soon be posting aout my homemade soft pretzels I recently made and my Halloween shortbread cookies!

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies

I was making these cookies for Josh to bring to a church group that he's in. It turns out, however, that it wasn't actually his turn to bring the snack this week. Soooo, now we have a ton of cookies to eat ourselves. Not only did I make these cookies, but I also made some shortbread cookies for him to bring as well. That's for another post though. :)

I got this recipe from Krystal, who always has a ton of good recipes on her blog! I don't ever make cookies from scratch. Usually I just buy the dough and bake it. But I had some time on my hands, so I gave it a try. And it was very easy. And I got to use my big mixer!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter = 1 stick of butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup peanut butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I actually bought chocolate chunk pieces. You can also do 1/2 cup chocolate chips and 1/2 cup mini peanut butter cups)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, & sugars until smooth. Stir in the peanut butter, vanilla, and egg until well blended.

3. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt and mix well. Stir into the batter until moistened.

4. Mix in the oats and fold the chocolate & peanut butter chips until evenly distributed. Using my cookie scooper by the tablespoon onto the cookie sheet.

5. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the oven, until the edges start to brown. Cool on cookie sheets for about 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Yield: 3 dozen cookies

I think the most amazing part may be that I actually made exactly 3 dozen cookies! Usually recipes say that it makes a certain # of cookies, and I get maybe 2/3 of that. But I actually got the right amount this time.

Enjoy!

Bread Change-of-Heart

Sooooo, the morning after, the bread is a little better consistency. I think if I cut it thinner, it could be ok for sandwiches. And I think I could actually achieve cutting it thinner if I let it cool for a longer time before trying to cut it. I tried to cut it right away last night, mostly because I wanted to get that kneading thing out of it. But I think if I left it for a while, it would be easier to cut; therefore I could cut it thinner and possibly use it for sandwiches.

Andddd Josh really liked it as well! We had some for toast this morning and it was very good. It didn't crumble as much.

So the new plan is to try to make another loaf today. Let it sit before cutting it. And go from there.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

Breadmaker Bread

I've had my breadmaker for a while. But haven't used it in years. I decided to give making my own bread a try for a few reasons: to try and save money on bread, and because I love how my house smells while it's baking. I found a recipe that I liked and then went out and bought the ingredients. I even calculated how many loaves of this recipe (assuming I liked it) I could get from my ingredients to calculate my cost savings on bread.

Here's the breakdown:

King Arthur 100% Whole Wheat Flour $4.04--can get 12.67 loaves

King Arthur Bread Flour $4.04--can get 15.2 loaves

Flaxseed Meal $3.45--can get 17 loaves

Yeast--$.50 per packet--1 packet per loaf


That's all the stuff I had to buy. The recipe also called for honey, butter, water, and salt. But I had those ingredients so I did not include those in my costs.

I bought the 'King Arthur' brand of flour because I heard it was good for baking bread and it was on sale. (It's usually $6.50!). If I buy the Pillbury brand of flours (which I'd probably do next time)-- those were $2.55 each, so my cost saving would be more.

I took the amount I spend on ingredients minus the yeast--11.53--and divided it by the lowest number of loaves I'd get using up these ingredients--12--and it comes out to about $.96 per loaf. Add the yeast packet to that and it comes to $1.46 per loaf.

The bread I usually buy from the grocery store is the 100% Honey Whole Wheat by Sara Lee. That usually runs me about $3.30 a loaf. So, my cost savings per loaf is $1.84. I'd say that's pretttttty good.

But now let's get to the bread. I found this recipe online. I chose one with flaxseed because it adds more protein, fiber, and other gooood stuff.

Honey Whole Wheat and Flaxseed Bread

1 1/8 cups warm water (110 degrees)
1/4 cup honey, warmed in microwave
3/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/4 cups bread flour
1/4 cup flaxseed meal
2 tbsp. melted butter
2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast (1 packet)

Add ingredients to bread machine in the order written. Wheat cycle, light color setting. On my bread machine, the wheat setting takes 3 hours and 40 minutes.
And now here's my finished product.

Here's my first problem. Is the top of the bread supposed to be sunken in like that?




Here's the side view.



Here's the handy dandy bread machine bread cutter thing and electric knife, courtesy of the mother a long long time ago. Fortunately, I didn't throw either of these out, even though I'm sure I've thought about it before, as they take up room in my little cabinet space.



Here we are to problem #2. The thing inside the bread maker that kneads the dough and all that came out into my bread when I took my bread out. Does this always happen? It make it awfully difficult to cut once I got to this part.




And here is the sliced finished product. Even with the handy dandy bread machine bread cutter thing, it was a little difficult to slice the bread evenly.



And my one last complaint. I thought the crust of the bread was a little hard. Is it always like this? I feel that this bread wouldn't be good for sandwiches, which is what Josh and I use bread for the most. The crust is hard, and the inside is kind of crumbly. Therefore, my cost savings making bread over buying it might not come into play as I might have to go out and buy some bread now.

If you make bread--can you tell me if I did something wrong, or if this is what bread maker bread is usually like?

I did already eat a piece and it was definitely good, just not what I thought it was going to be.

It's amazing...I can see!

I found my old glasses today. I haven't worn them in probably about 6 or 7 years or so. I got them around the time of my freshman or sophomore year in college. I wore them for a while, but eventually stopped. The thing is that I don't remember them making that much of a difference. Well, I put them on today for fun, and OH MY GOSH. Everything was soooo much more clear! It was crazy. I don't remember that happening when I first got them. Maybe this means my eyes have gotten worse in the last 6 or 7 years. I'm not sure if I've even been to the eye doctor since I first got the glasses. Eye doctors scare me. I hate eyes and anything to do with the eyes, so I tend to stay away. But now, I suppose I'm going to have to go back. Which would complete #78: Go to the eye doctor again. I was secretly hoping that was going to be one item I didn't complete. But it was amazing how much clearer everything was with the glasses. I can't go back to normal now. I just need cooler frames. I think mine are a little outdated. That's what Josh says anyway.

Here is me without glasses (I feel this picture makes my face look kind of blotchy--it's not really like that!)


And here's me with the glasses.


I'm thinking of getting some glasses with the wider frames when I get some. Let me know what you think.

A clean house is a happy house. I guess.

I was going to write about this new shrimp and rice recipe I just tried. But it was not good at all, so I will not be telling you about it.

Therefore, I will take this time to tell you about my new cleaning schedule I made up for myself. I've been keeping up with it for 2 weeks already, which is good for me! Usually Josh and I will do most of our cleaning right before company comes over. And that's about it. Even though our place is small, it just seemed so overwhelming. So, I figured if I do something little each day, it won't take up too much of my time, but will pay off in the long run.

Here is my schedule:

Mondays: dust tables, shelves, etc. Windex mirrors and windows

Tuesdays: Swiffer all pergo floors (which is all the floors but the kitchen and bathroom; we have no carpeting)

Wednesdays: Swiffer and mop bathroom floors

Thursdays: Swiffer and mop kitchen floors; remove everything from kitchen counters and wipe them down completely, clean kitchen sink

Friday: Vacuum rugs, couch, and fabric on chairs

Weekend: pick up misc. stuff laying around; clean bathroom sink, toilet, and bathtub

And then there's stuff I've made a list of to do once or twice a month:

Once a month:
Clean coffee maker
Clean kitchen drain
Clean inside of the microwave
Clean out pantry

Twice a month:
Clean out fridge/expired foods in there
Wash sheets (this may not seem like a lot, but I'm no good at remembering to do this)

Let me know if there's something you think I should put on my list. I may not add it, because let's face it, I hate cleaning. But if it's something essential that I missed, I'll think hard about it. :-)

Well, at least it was edible..

I tried a new recipe, again, last night. I think I'm just getting bored with our normal food. And as I said in my title, at least it was edible.. I think that's all it had going for it. My one tip for you after making this recipe: make sure you have all your ingredients before you start! I realized that I didn't have some of the ingredients that I could've sworn I had, as I was making each part, so it was too late. I improvised without them, and it just wasn't the same.

The recipe I tried was actually a few recipes I put together--fettucine alfredo with chicken and sauteed spinach.

Because I'm feeling lazy right now, I'm just going to link to where I got the recipes from instead of type them all out. I apologize in advance.

Alfredo Sauce

My problem with this is that I only had HALF of the amount of parmesan cheese I was supposed to. Therefore, the sauce didn't quite thicken enough. I find that to be a problem. Alfredo sauce is supposed to be thick. But like I said, it was still edible.

Sauteed Spinach

And my problem with the sauteed spinach is that I didn't have any garlic. I usually use minced garlic whenever a recipe calls for garlic. And I guess that was my problem--I always use it. Therefore, I didn't have any like I thought I did. So I sauteed it without garlic. It was still pretty good, but I'm sure it wasn't the same.

I am happy to say that the chicken and fettucine noodles were very good. :-) I have to say that I am liking chicken thighs wayyyy more than chicken breasts lately. Next time I make this, I will make sure I have all my ingedients first.

Here's my non-professional picture of the meal.

Crock Pot Baked Potato Soup!

I've already made my 3rd new recipe of the month--Crock Pot Baked Potato Soup. And it was very good! I guess I have a lot of time on my hands now that I'm just working part-time. :-) This recipe had a little more prep work that I would normally like for a crock pot meal, but, it was definitely worth it.

Just one tip--the recipe says to bake the potatoes for 45 min. to 1 hour, however, I found that I had to bake them about 1 hour and 20 minutes in order for them to be fully baked. Different ovens may vary I guess, though. Here's the recipe!

Ingredients

4 large baking potatoes

2/3 cup butter or margarine

2/3 cup flour

6 cups milk

3/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

4 chopped green onions

12 slices cooked and crumbled bacon

1 1/4 coups shredded cheddar cheese

8 oz. light sour cream

1 1/2 tsp. chicken bouillon granules

additional cooked bacon (optional)

Preparation

1. Wash potatoes and prick several times with a fork.

2. Bake in foil in a preheated oven (I put mine in at 375 degrees--the recipe didn't say specifically) for 45 min. - 1 hour (or longer)

3. Let cool.

4. Cut potatoes into cubes.

5. Melt butter in a heavy sauce pan over low heat (med. to large sized sauce pan)

6. Add flour, stirring until smooth.

7. Cook 1 minutes, stirring constantly

8. Gradually add milk

9. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture is bubbly.

10. Pour into crock pot and then add potato cubes, salt, pepper, green onions, crumbled bacon, cheddar cheese, and chicken granules.

11. Cook on high for 4 hours.

12. Stir in the sour cream right before serving.

13. If soup is too thick, add a little milk at a time until desired thickness is achieved.

14. Garnish with additional sour cream, bacon, and/or cheese.

The recipe says this makes 6 servings. However, I think it makes a lot more. I guess it depends on how much you eat! There were 4 of us who ate this for dinner the night that I made it. And there was definitely more than 2 servings left! Josh and I then ate some leftovers for dinner the next night, and there was still a good amount left over that I am freezing it to eat at a later date. Maybe we just don't eat much, I don't know. ..

Good serving suggestion--go to Panera Bread and buy some sourdough bread bowls and serve the soup in that! But I am big on Panera bread bowls. :-)

Here is my picture of the soup. I feel this doesn't make it look tooo appetizing, however, it is good. Trust me.

And now I guess I have a 4th new recipe that I made this weekend as well. It's the one thing that Josh said he wanted when he got out of the hospital. Cheesecake. I have made cheesecake before, however, but not this kind.

This was a New York Style Cheesecake. I added my own touch to it though, and topped the cheesecake with Ganache Glaze that I wrote about in a previous blog.

Ingredients for Cheesecake

4 packages cream cheese, softened

1 can condensed milk

1/3 coup flour

4 eggs @ room temperature

1 tbsp. vanilla

Ingredients for Graham Cracker Crust

1 1/4 coups crushed graham cracker crumbs

1/4 cups granulated sugar

5 tbsp. melted butter

Preparation

Crust:

Combine all ingredients and press firmly into a 9" spring form pan

Cheesecake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Beat cream cheese with electric mixer

Greadually beat in milk

Add eggs one at a time

Add flour and vanilla and mix together

Pour in crust

Wrap botton of the pan with foil and put in a shallow baking pan

Add 2 cups of hot water in the shallow baking pan

Bake 1 hour or until lightly browned

My favorite Taco Bell food--homemade!

Getting my new recipe for September over with already! Actually, there's 2 recipes here. And I am planning on making homemade baked potato soup tomorrow for another new recipe. Stay tuned for that one. :-)

First, let me say that I haven't eaten Taco Bell in probably 10 years. But my favorite food there that I used to eat was the Mexican Pizza. Yummmm. I decided to give it a try myself, hoping I don't feel as 'gross' after I eat it, like I did with Taco Bell. And the results: it was very good! Here's the recipe I used:

1 1/3 pounds ground turkey
1 package taco seasoning
1/3 cup water
6 (10-inch) flour tortillas
cooking spray
3 tablespoons chopped green onions
8 oz. refried beans
1 1/2 cups diced tomato (about 1 medium tomato)
3/4 cup taco sauce
1 1/2 cups shredded cheese (I used cheddar, but you could also probably use the Mexican cheese as well)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Heat a large skillet over medium heat and cook the ground turkey until brown. Drain.
Return to the heat and add the taco seasoning and water. Continue to cook for several minutes, stirring often.

Spray both sides of each tortilla with cooking spray and place directly on the middle oven rack. Bake for 6 minutes, turning halfway through, until golden brown and crispy. Watch carefully so they do not burn. Remove from the oven and place on a baking sheet.

Then turn oven to 400 degrees.

Microwave the refried beans 30-60 seconds, or until spreadable.

Lay 3 tortillas out on baking sheets (I could fit 1-2 per sheet). Top each tortilla with 1/3 of the beans, 1/3 of the ground turkey mixture, and 1/4 cup cheese.

Top with another tortilla and press down lightly. Top the second tortilla with 1/4 cup taco sauce, 1/2 cup diced tomatos, 1/4 cup cheese and 1 tbsp. green onions.

Bake for 5-10 minutes or until cheese is melted. Cut into wedges. Can serve with sour cream or salsa if desired.

Here's the top of the pizza.



And here is my attempt to take a picture of the middle. Just trust me, it'd good.



We were having some company over for this, so to add another dish, I decided to give some Mexican Rice a try. I debated just going out a buying boxed Mexican Rice, but decided to give it a try on my own. And I'm glad I did! It was super easy and very good. Here's that recipe:

3 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 cup uncookd long-grain rice
1 tsp. garlic salt
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup tomato sauce
2 cups chicken broth

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat and add rice. Cook, stirring constantly, until puffed and golden. While rice is cooking, sprinkle with salt and cumin.

Stir in onions and cook until tender. Stir in tomato sauce and chicken broth; bring to a boil. Reduce to low heat, cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes. Fluff with a fork.

Brewers, Sushi, Museums--DC!

It's been crazy lately, but I'm finally finding the time to write about our Washington, DC trip. We went last weekend for about 3 days and I got a chance to complete a few things on my list!

First off, I completed half of #21: See the Brewers play in two other stadiums. We specifically went to DC this weekend to see them play there! We almost didn't get to see them play, as we only had tickets to the Saturday night game, and there as an hour and a half rain delay. But they ended up playing after all. And they won! I can't remember the score, but all you need to know is that they won. yay!

Here we are with the Presidents. :)

Next, I also completed #39: Eat Sushi again. We had sushi while we were in DC. It was good. However, it could've been a cause to Josh's recent gall bladder/stomach problems that ended him up in the hospital. Sooo, maybe it wasn't that good.

Yummmm.

Lastly, we went to a few museums while we were there, which completes #3: Go to a Musum with Josh. It's so nice that all the museums are free of charge. It makes it easier to see more of them! We went to the Smithsonian Museum of Air and Space...or something like that. The National Gallery of Art. And also the Holocaust Museum. My favorite might've been the Holocaust. It's unreal the stuff we saw in there.

Here's Josh in the Air and Space Museum.

I've decided not to count this trip as our 'anniversary trip' like I was going to. While we did plan it to kind of celebrate our anniversary, our anniversary was 4 months ago, which I think is too long to count this. But that's ok. I realize I'm not going to check off everything on my list. Stuff happens. :-)

In other news, I started Respiratory Therapy school this past week! I've only been to 2 classes, but I like it already!

Alllll about me!

I've been reading over my list of 101 things to see if I did anything recently that I could blog about. But, alas, I did not. At least nothing that would be interesting, unless you want me to tell you about my workout yesterday. :-) We are going to Washington, DC this coming weekend though, so I'm sure I'll have some fun stuff to tell you after that. But until that happens, I've got nothing.

So, to pass your time, since I know you just looove reading my blogs, I'll tell you some things about ME. 'Tis exciting. This went around facebook a little while ago, and I never did one. Until now.

25 Things About Me!

1. I have what is called Oral Allergy Syndrome. Yessss, mother I do have it. Taken from Wikipedia, OAS is a type of food allergy typified by a cluster of allergic reactions in the mouth in response to eating (usually fresh) fruits, nuts, and vegetables that typically develops in adult hay fever sufferers. So basically, this can often in occur with people who are also allergic to pollen, etc. Which I am. I started this when I was little. Eating fruit and some veggies would often cause my 'throat to itch'. Sometimes my lips would feel numb. My family just thought I was making up excuses to not have to eat fruit. It wasn't until I was in college that I found out that what I had actually had a name and it was in fact, an allergy! Apples are the worst for me. Along with cherries, raspberries, sometimes carrots, pears, etc.. I'm sure there's a lot more, but I just don't eat much fruit anymore to figure it out.

2. I'm very weird about sleeping. I LOVE to sleep, but I need to have the 'perfect' conditions to do so. It has to be completely dark and completely quiet. I sleep with ear plugs in every night just to make sure it is quiet. Even when I lived by myself, I'd sleep with ear plugs in, because the clock ticking or refridgerator running would bother me. When I was in high school, I'd make my parents turn down the t.v. in the living room to a volume so low they couldn't hear it; yet, I could hear it in my bedroom. Maybe I have super-ears that can hear noise when there's no noise at all.

3. I married Josh in April of 2008 and that was one of the best days of my life. We met at a Brewers game in 2005--at the birthday party of a mutual friend. The game was against the New York Mets. It was Ben Sheets Bobblehead Day. I barely remembered his name because him and just about all of his friends have names that start with 'J'. We talked over french fries at the Gyro place while everyone else went into the dance club next door. The whole time I thought he was already dating someone else because that someone else told me that they were dating. But they were not. I win. Twas fun. :-)

4. I love love love the Milwaukee Brewers. And not only for the cute players and all the players with the nice teeth. But I just love the game of baseball. I grew up with it. B.J. Surhoff was my first favorite player. I even invited him to my birthday party when I was little. He wrote me back and said he'd love to come, but they'd be out of town for a game that day. I actually believed that he would've come too. Even if we move out of Wisconsin some day, I'll always love my Brewers.

5. I also love love love squirrels. This love started in the first grade or so. My best friend, Marisa, and I would collect acorns for the squirrels so they wouldn't have to look so hard for some food for themselves. Ever since then, the squirrels have always loved me too, I'm sure. It sure helps that they're just so popular these days, that I can find anything with squirrels on it. I have a squirrel pillow, squirrel pajama pants, squirrel salt and pepper shakers. Josh loves it.

6. I had 6 wisdom teeth. I got them all removed on the same day. That was not fun. I like to think I'm a little more 'wise' for it.

7. Here is a list of foods I could live off of: cereal (any kind), candy (mostly any kind) and chips and dip. Maybe a margarita in there too.

8. I love to run, and work out in general. Josh and I usually go to the gym at least 4 days a week. We're currently doing a 5k training program to get faster times in 5k's. I also lift weights 3 days a week. It's fun. Really, it is!

9. I'm going back to school for Respiratory Therapy. My classes start in about a week and a half. I'm a little nervous for this new adventure, but mostly excited. It's a big change for me. I'm done with my job this week, which is a big change in itself. But it'll be good. I'm excited.

10. My best friend, Marisa, has been my best friend since the first grade. She used to think I was weird because I wore dresses to school a lot, but I know she was just jealous. She currently has a house with her husband that's just a few blocks from mine!

11. I am left-handed. I do everything left-handed except I use scissors with my right hand and I play tennis right handed. Let me tell you--that playing tennis right-handed when you're actually left-handed gives you a great back-hand!

12. I like dogs, but they all seem to hate me. I must give off a come-attack-me-vibe. Here's a funny story (although it may just be funny to me..) We were at a party in someone's backyard. It was a huge backyard with a big hill. There were a lot of people standing at the bottom of the hill. LOTS of people. We were just standing there talking to some friends, and the family's dog ran out into the backyard and ran down the hill. It dodged through people left and right--it ran through the whole group of people. Until it got to me. It ran towards me, jumped up on me almost knocking me over, and then dodged right back through the people back up the hill. I just don't get it.

13. I hate to say it--but I may possibly be starting to like kids a little more. Just a little more.

14. I hate showering. If I could get away with not showering every day, I would. It's a chore to me.

15. The one TV show I rearrange my night for: THE BIGGEST LOSER. I just love that show. Sometimes I would skip the gym just to stay home and watch it, which seems like just the opposite of what I should be doing when watching that show.

16. I love my family! Even though I don't live tooo close to any of them, they're always there for me when I neeeeed them.

17. Josh and I live in the smallest condo ever known. It's about 650 sq. ft. It's amazing we still get along. :) But I like how it forces us to spend time together every night, because we have no where else to go to get away for a minute.

18. I'm a big planner. I like to know what I'm doing next, big or small. Therefore, it's driving me crazy not know what my next job will be after this.

19. It kills me to be late for anything. I'd rather be an hour early, than a minute late!

20. I absolutely hate snow. Every winter I say that we should move to warmer state before the next winter. But we never do. Someday, we will. I don't think I can take this for the rest of my life.

21. I have never gotten a speeding ticket, broken a bone, or been stung by a bee. Maybe I'm too careful.

22. I'm not a big jewelry-wearer. I only wear my wedding rings. If it's a special occasion, I might put on some earrings. But that might be pushing it.

23. My favorite band of all time is Matchbox 20. I'm not too into music, but I did have all of their albums.

24. There was a period of time in high school when everything I said would be in Spanish. My parents probably hated it. If I didn't know a certain word in Spanish, I'd make it up. I didn't even have to think about it--someone would ask me a question or something and I'd just reply in Spanish. I kind of wish I still knew as many words as I did so I could start this back up again.

25. I believe in the power of prayer. It's amazing what it can do. God is good!

I was wrong :(

Looking back at a blog post I made on May 30th, I predicted that I would be done with the last 2 Twilight books by the end of July. Alas, it is August 7th, and I have just started the 4th book. I was wrong in my prediction, but it's been a busy summer! And I've been super tired lately, and just want to go to sleep instead of reading before bed. Now I'm hoping I can finish this 4th book before school starts in a few weeks, because then I definitely won't have as much time for it!

Only 2 more weeks until our weekend trip to DC to see the Brewers! yay!

Dirt Cake!

Getting my new recipe of the month out of the way early--I made Dirt Cake for Josh's birthday yesterday! We tried it last night, and it was good! Yay me.


Here's the recipe: (courtesy of my mother!)

1. Crush one large pack of oreo cookies in blender. Set aside.
2. Cream together: 1/2 stick margarine, 8 oz. softened cream cheese, and 1/2 cup powdered sugar.
3. In another bowl, mix well: 3 cups milk, 2 packages instant french vanilla pudding, 12 oz. cool whip
4. Combine #2 and #3 together and mix well.
5. In a plastic pot (8 inches or so) layer crushed oreo cookies and pudding mixture, ending with the cookies on top.
6. Put in gummy worms or gummy squirrels as you desire.


Side note: Cover the hole at the bottom of the pot with tin foil if there is a hole!


And here are my pictures:







And in a completely unrelated to anything note: Cake Boss is my new favorite show! :-)

My complaint for the day

This has nothing to do with my list, but I'm feeling very annoyed right now, so I thought I'd take the time to complain about it here, where probably no one cares but it makes me feel better anyway. I did just listen to one of those motivational speaker-life is awesome-people for a work event last week. And he did say something that I thought long and hard about before deciding to write my complaint in a blog. He said something along the lines (I can't remember the exact wording) that you shouldn't complain to other people because 80% of the people you're complaining to don't care, and the other 20% are happy that their life is better than yours. :-) Which I think is true. Sometimes when people complain to me, I can't help but think that I am soooo happy that I'm not going through that, or that didn't happen to me, etc. But obviously I didn't take all that much away from the motivational speaker, because I'm still going to complain about this:

Contacting your health insurance is probably the most annoying/troublesome/frustrating thing ever. Maybe not EVER, but pretty close to ever. All I wanted to do this morning was call my health insurance provider to make sure I did not need a referral to see a specialist doctor. I called the 800 number, and got an automated "person" at first. Which I expected. But here's what I don't understand--how in the world do they think it's better to have me 'say' my ID number and, and my name, and my date of birth, and everything else they want to know about me into the phone, so this automated "person" can try and decipher what I"m saying to transfer me to the right person. Personally, I think it'd be 100x more efficient to simply have to TYPE my ID number and date of birth and whatever information into the phone than try and say it in a way this automated system would understand. After 5, yes 5, tries, I finally got them to understand my birthdate. And after about 15 minutes of 'saying' everything they needed to know, I was transferred to an actual person, who just asked me these quetions again. Frustrating.

Anyway, now after all this has happened, I'm left wondering if I had just typed a zero into the phone right away, would I have just been trasferred to an actual person right away? No one answer that for me, because if that is true, I will probably become annoyed all over again. :-)

That is my complaint for the day. You can all go ahead now not caring or knowing that your life was better than mine for a half hour this morning. :)

Guacamole!! And a good run. :-)

I made my new recipe for the month thanks to my good friend, Sarah. (See previous blog...that's her). She's a great cook and gave me her recipe for guacamole. Usually I just buy guacamole, because let's face it...that's just easier. But I figured I could give it a shot. And it was easy. And very goooood.

Here's the recipe:

2 avocados
1/2 tomato, diced (the recipe actually calls for 1 roma tomato, but I'm not going to lie--I don't know what I roma tomato is.)
1/2 onion, diced
1 serrano pepper (when cut in half length-wise, remove half the seeds and membrane)
diced handful of cilantro (decorates the top of the guacamole when it's all mixed)
Course salt to taste (sea salt or kosher)

To prepare it, pretty much just mix everything and put the cilantro on top. :-)





Here is my picture of the ingredients:




And here is the finished product:




Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmm.



And then to work off allll the guacamole I ate on Saturday, I ran in my 3rd 5k of the summer on Sunday morning! This completes #68 for this year, anyway, of running 3 5k's a year. We still might do more, to get some more practice and try to improve our times, but at least I know that if I don't, I have satisfied this item for this year!

This race was for my work. My work is having it's big 'Annual Meeting' this week, where people from all over the country come to Milwaukee, where my company is headquartered. Every year there is a 5k/10k run, and this year, there were a record number of about 8200 people that signed up! That's a lot of people to try to dodge while you're running, so I tried to start in the front of the pack. And that strategy pretty much worked--I only had to dodge a few slow people in the beginning. And most importantly--I GOT MY BEST TIME EVER FOR A 5K! My official time was 23:32. Or a pace of 7:35 per mile. I was very very very very happy.

I started out doing realllly well--the first mile I ran in 7 minutes, the second mile I ran in 7:25, but that last mile was tough. The last quarter mile of the race is just about allll up hill. This is the 5th time I've run this race, so I should know that hill is coming in the end, but it still catches me by surprise and definitely slows me down. Oh well, I still got a good time, and am happy for that.

Here's my official time, thanks to http://www.onlineraceresults.com/, just in case you don't believe me. :-)


bib number: 1874
age: 26
gender: F
overall place: 188 out of 1498
division place: 6 out of 81
gender place: 19 out of 449
time: 23:32
pace: 7:35

Sometimes, I really can golf! And Wii disc golf..

I have completed #18: Visit Sarah and Scott in Sheboygan. Josh and I went up to Sheboygan this past weekend to see Sarah and Scott and their new house! And I just looove their house! Especially the kitchen. And given that Sarah is just about the best cook ever, she definitely deserves that kitchen. I met Sarah about 5-ish years ago when we both were interns for the same company. She also went to my same college and we also just happened to live on the same floor of the same apartment building! Crazy. And we've been friends ever since! And then to add on to the crazines--I met Josh through Sarah at her 21st birthday party. Sarah went to high school with Josh. And that's how our family tree is completed. :-)

Since Sarah and Scot live about an hour away, we don't get to see them as much as I'd like. But it's always a fun time when we do get together! It was such a nice day out this past Saturday, so we went golfing. This was the first time I had been golfing this summer so far, and I will have to say, that I did quite well considering how badly I normally golf. I was hitting the ball up in the air, instead of having it skid against the grass. And I was hitting them far--for me. Not far for anyone else, but I felt quite accomplished! Now I feel that I have to golfing more and more this summer to keep up my good work. Josh and I might go again this weekend, actually!

After golfing, we went back to Sarah and Scott's new house and made dinner. Sarah showed off her wonderful cooking skills and made some guacamole, which I LOVE. And then we had tacos. Such a gooood dinner! We then had a fire in their backyard, and after that went out and the bugs started to show up, we went inside to play their new Tiger Woods golf game for the Wii. However, Josh and I ended up playing the disc golf game on there instead. And I DOMINATED at that. Well, at least against Josh. That just realllly made me feel good because in real life, Josh would be the one dominating in disc golf and I'd be in the forest looking for my lost discs that barely went 10 yards. I think that's my new favorite Wii game. :-)

I had such a great weekend! I can't wait to see Sarah and Scott again!

Here's a picture of me, Sarah, and Josh. (sorry Scott, but you must've been somewhere else!) (And also sorry that your eye is cut off Sarah--blame Josh--he took the picture!)

Storm the Bastille!

I ran my 2nd 5k of the season last night to help with #68: Run at least 3 5k's per year. I did the 'Storm the Bastille' race at 9 p.m. in downtown Milwaukee. There were a TON of people that run this race, so it's hard to actually 'run' it. The first half of it is more like a light jog trying to get around people so I can actually start running. But it was fun! Josh and I crossed the finish line at 27 minutes, but we didn't actually cross the starting line until it was already more than a minute into the race. And considering the first half was pretty slow, I think we did great!

We didn't stay too much after the race to actually enjoy the Bastille Days festival because I'm boring and like to sleep so I'm not toooo tired at work the next day. :-) But the race was still fun!

Our next 5k is next Sunday the 19th for my work's annual meeting! I can't wait!

A really happy birthday to me!

Good thing it was my birthday last week! That helped me accomplish a few more things on my list that I would've definitely put off.

Let's start with #54: Get a fire extinguisher. Now, you might start to wonder if I've been having a lot of fires in our condo or something. I have not. However, sometimes I get so paranoid that our stove top is just going to burst up in flames when I use it, that my mind can now be at ease with a fire extinguisher. This was one of the things Josh got me for my birthday! And it's one of my favorite presents! He even got the 'kitchen' version in white. It's so classy.

I bet you want one of your own now.

Josh also helped me accomplish #57: Plant flowers on my porch. Also for my birthday, not only did he buy me some flowers to plant, but he actually planted them himself!! He's so nice. I didn't take a picture, but they're purple and kind of look like gerbera daisies to me, but I think they have another name. And they definitely spice up our small, kind of ugly porch! Thanks Josh!

And lastly, thanks to my birthday again, I was able to accomplish #97: Complete our dishes set. Yay! Now we have 12 sets of dishes and are alllll ready to have a dinner party. If only our small condo could accomodate 12 people. Someday, someday.. I didn't receive dishes as a birthday gift from anyone. However, my mother was in town visiting and wanted to take me shopping for my birthday. I decided I wanted to go to the Prime Outlet Mall in Kenosha, so that's where we went. At this outlet mall, there is a Corelle outlet store. Corelle just happens to be the brand of our dishes. (I love Corelle--they don't break even if you drop them, which is definitely a plus to me!). I wasn't exactly looking to buy more sets of our dishes, but decided to go into the Corelle store to look at them anyway. However, I couldn't find our set on the loooong wall of dishes. I was a little bummed I didn't get to see them, but didn't care that much. I mean, they are just dishes. BUT, on our way out of the store, I saw them. They were sitting there all lonely on the table of discontinued items!!! Sadly, our dishes are being discontinued. I make a split second decision and decided to purchase 2 of the boxes to complete our set. But the gooood part was--they were on sale because they are discontinued! Yay!

Just so you're not thinking that we must've picked out super ugly dishes--dishes so ugly that they have to discontinue them--here is what they look like:

They're not that bad, right?

And there you have it. 3 items accomplished all because I had a birthday. Maybe my birthday should come around more than once a year? I think so.

A Whole Bunch of Stuffff

This is going to be an update post. As I said in my last blog, I've been super busy lately and haven't had time to update too much. I guess that's what summer does to you! But here are a few things that have been going on:

I made a couple new 'recipes' this week. They're not realllllly recipes, but they're new meals for that I haven't made before (even though they're super easy), so I'm going to count them! The first one is chicken and cheese quesadillas! Yummmmm. I even made some extras of these to eat as leftovers for lunch. All you need is chicken, shredded cheese, and some tortillas and you're good to go. I made them on my griddle and they turned out just fine. I supppose you can use an actual quesadilla maker, but I see no need for it. To make them even better, dip them in sour cream and/or guacamole and your meal is complete!

The second new 'recipe' I made this week is marinated chicken. Why didn't I think of this before!?! Wayyyy better than regular grilled chicken. I just bought a marinade in a bottle from the grocery store and poured it into a big baggie, put a few chicken breasts in, and let it sit in my fridge overnight. The next night for dinner, I grilled them on our George Foreman grill and they were very lemon-peppery! :) I wanted to make them on an actual grill, but Josh didn't come home from work until later, and I was too nervous to attach the propone to the grill myself. I would probably blow everything up. :)

On to update #2. I have now finished the second Twilight book: 'New Moon.' It was as good as the first, and now I can start on book #3! On a related note--Josh and I rented the Twilight movie on our Apple TV last night. I do have to say that I was not as impressed with the movie as the books. We didn't even finish the whole thing. I thought the acting and lines were pretty choppy and they just stared at each other a lot. I might have to try watching the rest of the movie by myself tonight to see if it gets better.

If you've seen the movie and read the books--what do you think?

And lastly, I have now completed #87: Volunteer for something with Josh. We volunteered in the beer tent at Fiesta Waukesha--which is put on by La Casa de Esperanza. It was a very nice day for it and it looked like there was a decent turn out for the event yesterday.

Here's a picture of Josh in the coooool t-shirt we got:

Campinggggg

I'm back! No, I'm not dead. I've just been sick and really busy lately, and haven't had time to blog. The good news is that when I'm really busy, I'm probably checking at least one item off of my list!

Let's start with #5: Go camping with Josh. We successfully completed that this past weekend. We went camping at Governor Dodge State Park in Dodgeville, WI. It was a very nice and big park! There were hiking trails and beaches and dog beaches. We didn't hike at all or go to the beach, BUT we did make it to the dog beach. Which, by the way, wasn't all that exciting. It was very small and neither dog liked the water. But it was worth a shot. We thought it'd be more fun to spend our days having washers tournaments and playing beer pong anyway. :-)

Rather than spend more time talking about our fun weekend, I'll just show you some pictures.


This first picture of Josh and me making S'MORES! I was looking forward to this the most on this trip. The first night we were there it rained, and I was disappointed I didn't get to have one. But the 2nd night was very nice and made the s'mores well worth the wait.


Here is me and my old two college roommates playing beer pong. I am 25, almost 26; I've lived at college for 4 years, and have never played beer pong before. Until now. It was fun. However, I have a strong dislike for beer. I ended up filling up 1/3 of the cups with my yummy wine coolers so I could last until the end of the games.



This is me, with my friends' dog Reeses. She hated me at first, but then warmed up to me nicely. Probably because I taste salty.


Here are the college roommates again with our much needed coffee in the morning! Thank goodness for camping stoves and perculators (don't know if I spelled that right!), that allow us to make coffee even without coffee makers.



And here is our family picture. Apparently, we had to borrow a dog to complete our family.



This camping trip has also allowed me to cross another item off my list! #96: Don't watch t.v. for one whole day. Saturday, June 13th, 2009, would be that day. There were no t.v.'s on our campsite, therefore, I couldn't watch it. One campsite we came across while walking around, though, did have a Direct TV satellite on it. I guess that family couldn't go one whole day without watching t.v. Maybe they should make a list like this and make that one of their items.

And lastly, I haven't done this one yet, but, Josh and I have signed up to volunteer at 'Fiesta Waukesha' next weekend--June 26-28th. After we do that, I can then cross off #87: Volunteer for something with Josh off my list. A friend of mine works for the organization that puts together 'Fiesta Waukesha' and is need of volunteers. So, we signed up for a shift! Our choices of work stations were: parking attendants, face-painting for kids, beer tents, or soda tents. I definitely said no-thank-you to the face-painting area. Kids and art are not two of my strong points. It looks like we'll be in either a soda tent or a beer tent. Yay! If you're free that weekend, come out to Fiesta Waukesha, by the Fox River, and get a beer or soda. :-) There'll be music, food, drinks, etc...pretty much just like any other festival. But we'll be there, so that make it just that much more fun!

No running for me :(

Well...I didn't go to my race today, sadly. I've felt 'weird' ever since this past Wednesday night. I'm not feeling as 'weird' anymore, but I've had this lingering headache ever since. It just won't go away! Not even for a minute! And it's nothing like the headaches I'm used to having. I get migraines a lot, and it's nothing like that. With migraines, I can't deal with noise or light. Basically, I have to go to sleep in a dark, quiet room in order to get rid of it. This 'headache' is way different. It doesn't really bother my day to day routines, but I get these sharp pains in my head whenever I turn my head or move my eyes. So, if I'm driving and turn to look in my blind spot, my head hurts. Or if I move my eyes in any direction or raise my eyebrows, my head hurts. No medicine has really worked for it yet, so I guess I'm just waiting it out. But that means I did not get to go to my run this morning.

The next 5k we were planning on doing is July 9th, so hopefully I will be able to run that one! And hopefully these headaches go away so I can go campingggggg next weekend!!

Smiiiiiile Miiiiiile

I just signed up for my 2nd 5k of the summer, and it just so happens to be this coming Saturday. It's called Laura's Smile Mile and it's down on the lakefront. This race benefits Ovarian Cancer. We ran this same race last year and Josh and I each got 2nd place in our age division. This year, we're the next age division up, which happens to be a more competitive age group. Let's see if I can keep up the tradition of getting a medal.


One difference between this year's race and last year's race is the TEMPERATURE. I vividly remember that it was over 90 degrees at this race last year. It was HOT. I had to lay down at the end of the race because I thought I was going to pass out! I felt very dizzzzy. The temperatures have been well below average so far this summer, so it'll be lucky if we even get to 70 degrees at the hottest part of the day on Saturday. This should make for much more comfortable running conditions.


Come cheer me on!!!!

Edward is mine again

I finalllly got the second Twilight book, 'New Moon'. And my sister gave me her copies of the third and fourth books, so I am good to go! Let's see how long it'll take me to read all three. I'm going to guess that I'll be done with them by the end of July! Which may seem like a long time to some, but I can't remember the last time I read three books in that amount of time. And I also can't remember the last time I read a 700-something page book..if ever! This just might be a new record for me. Now...Edward is waiting...so I must go.

Well, now I need a new plan to retire when I'm 26

Josh and I didn't win the lottery. :( But, I have now completed #34: Play the lottery once. We bought 4 Powerball tickets yesterday. Why only 4, you may ask yourself? Because that's how much cash we had left after getting gas. :) I've never really bought a lottery ticket before (not including the ones we bought as favors for our wedding..I don't count that) and the jackpot was reallllly high yesterday, so we figured we'd give it a try. I was very excited--thinking of things we could do with our winnings. Like buy a squirrel farm. Josh really liked that idea too. But sadly, we did not win. I don't even think we matched up a single number on all 4 tickets. Oh well. Maybe next time. Until then, here's a picture of me with our non-winning ticket.





And because pictures are coooool, here's a picture of Josh and me at the Brewers game on Monday. We were happy because the Brewers won!!!!!!!

I made THREE new recipes this week!

And now I will tell you about them. All were good! Two were very good, and one was just plain old good. But I think with some trial and error, that plain old good recipe can be made into very good.

Because I'm lazy, and so this blog post doesn't become toooo long, I'm just going to post links to the actual recipes, instead of typing them all out on here. Same thing anyway. You are in luck, however, because I did remember to take pictures of all three!

Let's start with the one I made first. I made this as a dessert to bring to Josh's family's get together. While it didn't quite look like the picture, it was still VERY good and I didn't have any leftovers to bring home...always a good sign!

Layered Strawberry Cheesecake Bowl

Link: http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf/recipes/layered-strawberry-cheesecake-bowl-112585.aspx

These are all the ingredients used:

Here's what it looks like after the strawberries are added:

And now here's where I encountered my first problem. I realized the bowl I used was bigger than the bowl that is recommended, therefore, my top layer of filled didn't quite cover up the strawberries and pound cake like it should've. Oh well, it still tasted great. Looks aren't everything.

And here is where I encountered my second problem! I was supposed to melt the chocolate and 'drizzle' it over the filling. Yeahhhh right. That chocolate showed no signes of drizzing. Therefore, it was dropped on in clumps. Doesn't make it pretty, but it still was good.

And apparently, I forgot to take a picture of the final product. You can look at it in the link up above, or I can just tell you that you put some whipped cream over this and then add some chocolate covered strawberries on top of that. And walla. It's done.

Caesar Pockets

Link:http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf/recipes/caesar-pockets-112871.aspx

Here are the ingredients used:

The picture turned out kind of weird, but here is everything mixed up in the bowl:

And finally, here are the finished pita pockets!

This is my just 'plain old good' recipe. Everything was good, however, I think for my taste, they could use a littttle LESS caesar dressing. I put same amount in as the recipe calls for, but I feel like all I could taste was the caesar dressing. Next time, there will be less! There have been took to take for lunches to work to mix up my usual, boring turkey sandwiches. :)

Creamy Parmesan Mashed Potatoes

Link: http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf/recipes/creamy-parmesan-mashed-potatoes-112898.aspx

Josh just got his wisdom teeth out today! I made these for him to eat in the next few days when he can't have any hard foods. I tried a bite before I put them in the fridge for him, and they were very good! Definitely creamy!

Here's a picture of all the ingredients used:

Here are the potatoes boiling in the broth:

And here is my final product:

And there you have it. I probably won't be doing this much cooking again for another month at least. It's a lot of work!

If you happen to make any of these recipes, let me know how you like them!!