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 I think mine are a little outdated.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!