South of the Border

We went south of the border tonight and had Mexican!! I made Taco Bake with a side of boxed Spanish rice. This recipe was beyond simple and turned out to be amazing and so filling!

Taco Bake:

Ingredients:

• 2 or 3 8 inch flour tortillas
• 1 lb. ground beef
• one bag shredded taco or Mexican cheese
• 1/2 cup salsa con queso
• 1 packet taco seasoning
• sour cream

Directions:

1. Brown meat and drain excess grease. Mix in taco seasoning packet and water as stated on package. Follow directions on packet. Once done mix in 1/2 cup salsa con queso and stir.
2. Preheat oven to 350°.
3. Spray pan with nonstick cooking spray or spread a small amount of cooking oil in pan. Place tortilla in pan. Cover tortilla with a couple spoonfuls of meat - enough to cover most of the tortilla. 
4. Sprinkle shredded cheese over meat. Use as little or as much cheese as you feel is necessary.
5. Place another tortilla on top of the cheese. Repeat process with more meat and then cheese.
6. If you still have meat left over, you can do another layer of meat and then cheese.
7. Bake in oven for 15-20 minutes or until cheese is melted.
8. Serve with sour cream and diced tomatoes if you like.

I was very wary of this recipe. It just did not seem like it was going to be a lot of food. I ended up making a three layer taco bake and cutting it up like a pizza. One piece with a side of rice had me completely full. Not to mention, it was so, so good!

This is something cheap and easy to throw together last minute that I will definitely be making again. :)

Chicken Parmesan Casserole & Homemade Garlic Bread

Mhmm, mhmm, mhmm! 

That describes this dinner perfectly!

 


Chicken Parmesan Casserole

Ingredients:

• chicken breasts
• marinara sauce
• olive oil
• one clove of garlic, minced
• parmesan cheese
• mozzarella cheese
• croutons, crushed

Directions:

1. A dollop or so of oil olive poured into pan to coat the bottom. Toss in minced garlic clove and put in chicken breasts.
2. Cover chicken breasts with as much marinara sauce as you deem necessary.
3. Spread parmesan and mozzarella cheese over marinara sauce. 
4. Pour crushed croutons over cheese.
5. Spread more parmesan and mozzarella cheese over croutons.
6. Bake on 400°F for one hour and ten minutes, roughly for frozen chicken breasts. Cook for less time if using fresh chicken.

I used 2 8 oz. bags of mozzarella and 2 6 oz. bags of parmesan for this recipe. You can use less if you'd like. We're a cheese family, so the cheesier the better.

This was absolutely delicious and so, so simple! I will definitely be making this again - it was a hit!

Homemade Garlic Bread

Ingredients:

• Fresh baked bread
• butter
• clove of garlic, chopped
• dill weed

Directions:

1. Slice bread. For ten slices, I used 4 tbsp of melted butter and mixed in the chopped gloves of garlic.
2. Spread butter and garlic mixture onto both sides of bread.
3. Sprinkle dill weed on both sides of bread.
4. Bake on 400º for about 20 minutes or a little less, depending on how crunchy you like your garlic bread.

This was an incredibly simple dinner and I am so happy with the way it turned out. I was a bit worried, because I was cooking for someone who's favorite meal is chicken parmesan. This one was a hit with him, so you can be sure that it'll be a hit with anyone!

Enjoy!

What's for dinner?

If you read my post yesterday you know that I'm going to be doing weekly meals from scratch. If you want to find out what brought this you can read all about that here. 

So, for the first of many dinners I made homemade sirloin steaks with a gravy sauce and optional kaiser bun with a side of fresh, steamed broccoli and a tropical fruit salad. For dessert, I made homemade apple and cinnamon muffins. Everything was delicious and pleased my dinner guests. ;)

If you're interested in trying these recipes as well they'll be posted down below along with photos of the food.

Main Course:

Homemade Salisbury Steaks
Serve 6-7

Ingredients: 

• 2 yellow onions (optional)
• 3-4 pounds of ground beef
• Kaiser buns, Texas toast, or ciabatta loaf (optional)
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Season beef to taste with salt and pepper, then shape into 8 patties. I also used an all-purpose season on both sides of the patty. I cooked mine on the grill or you could cook them in a skillet. Cook to liking.
2. I also grilled the onions on the grill as well as steamed some in a foil basket.
3. Remove patties and onions from grill, serve on kaiser bun or not. It's optional and tastes good both ways. I served mine with a beef gravy on top and it complimented the salisbury steaks perfectly.

Tropical Fruit Salad

Serves 6-7

Ingredients:

• 2 ripe mangoes
• 2 small cans of mandarin oranges
• 1 pineapple (grapefruit can be substituted if preferred)
• 1 lime (lime rind and lime juice)
• shredded coconut

Directions:

1. Chunk the mangoes and pineapple. Combine those in a bowl with the mandarin oranges. You can include in the mandarin juice if you wish,  I did. Mix.
2. Grate the lime to get the lime rind in the bowl with the fruit. Then, squeeze the lime to get the juice. Mix.
3. Coconut can be added now or when served to individual liking.

Dessert:

Apple & Cinnamon Muffins

Makes 2 dozen

Ingredients:

• 2 1/3 cup white all-purpose flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 apples (peeled, cored, and finely chopped)
• 1 cup milk
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 8 tbsp butter, melted

Topping:

• brown sugar 
• ground cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Line muffin pan with paper cups.
2. Whisk flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl. Stir in sugar and chopped apples. In a separate bowl, mix together the milk, eggs and butter. Then, gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry.
3. Place the batter into the paper cups. 
4. To make the topping take a few lumps of brown sugar and mix it with about a tsp of ground cinnamon. More of less of both can be added depending on taste and how much topping you want on your muffins.
5. Sprinkle the topping on the muffins and then bake them in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until they are golden and have risen. 
6. These can be served warm or cold and are delicious both ways.

Come back next week and see what's cooking!

Adult Life

I graduated from college. Now what? Well, now I play the game where you send your resume and applications to employers and you wait for an answer. It's not a very fun game, but I hear a lot of people are playing it so that must mean something right? ;)
Anyway, in the meantime while I wait to become an official, official adult by getting a permanent job I decided to do something else to make myself feel like a grown up. I've decided to cook one meal & dessert once a week from scratch. If you know me you know I'm not a cooker, at all, so this is huge. It'll make me feel productive and teach me life lessons that I can use forever - double score!
I'll start tomorrow and I plan to post photos of the foods I make along with the recipes so you can follow me on this exciting life journey I'm taking and maybe make some of the recipes too, if you want.
It'll be fun and hopefully tasty. So, stay tuned to this blog because this is where the deliciousness will be posted weekly.

Oh, fun fact: to celebrate my graduation I bought myself a bunny. She's adorable and does those adorable little nose twitches that rabbits do. 

Sydney, rabbit extraordinaire  

Some creative writing for your late night reading

It's Saturday, technically Sunday morning and I feel like writing! So, I'm going to go to Slacker and play a random "new & trending" song and use that as inspiration to do a little creative writing. Here we go...

*Song: Gone, Gone, Gone by Phillip Phillips

I yelled, "Just go!"

His back turned toward me I could see him let out a sigh. He shoulders relaxed under his tight gray shirt. I could see him raise a hand up to his face. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he turns towards me. Looking me in the eyes he says, "You know I can't do that."

"Can't or won't? 'Cause we both know that you sure as hell can walk out that door and never come back. So, why? Why won't you leave Jacob?" He shakes his ever so slightly and gives me the saddest look. It pierces my heart and for a split second I don't want him to leave. I want him to wrap me in his arms and tell me everything is going to be okay and that it will all go back to how it used to be. I want to wake up in the morning with his scent on the pillow. I want to breathe him in like I'm drowning and he's the only thing giving me oxygen. I want him more than my next breathe. I look back up at his eyes that used to warm me with their chocolate gaze and realize it's not sadness that he's looking at me with. It's sympathy. He feels sorry for me.

"Babe." I can't. I just...I don't understand where things went wrong. We were perfect yesterday and today I just can't do it.

"No, don't 'babe' me. You need to leave. I just..."

"I know. I'm sorry. I love you, Trace." He walks toward me, arms extended ready to wrap me in the muscular arms that have always eased my pain before. Now, I'm looking at him with sadness clouding my vision. Tears blur and I can no longer see his face clearly. The grayness keeps coming and soon it's all I see as I sob into his chest.

He envelops me in warmness, but I can feel the hurt. It's in the way his arms don't hold me as tight. It's in the way he's slowly rubbing circles on my back trying to soothe me.  It's the way he softly kisses my hair and murmurs, "It's okay," when really it's not okay. It will never be okay again. We will never be okay and neither will I.

I rest my head on his chest and let the tears fall. I try to remember every detail about him, every little thing that I love about him. I don't want to forget any of it. I don't want any of the good memories tainted by this. What we had was real and it'll always be there.

When I smell coffee I'll always think of him and how he would wake up every morning and give me a kiss before hopping out of bed to start the pot. When I see a rose, I'll remember how he would surprise me with them every month just to give me something to really smile about that day. It didn't matter what kind of day I was having he always knew what to do or say to make it all better. The simplest smile could make my heart beat faster and fill me with a joyous love I've never known possible. My whole body would feel warm, from my toes all the way to my heart, warmth would radiate just because he smiled at me.

It's all over now. There's no more warmth. There's only pain. I can feel the hurt in every part of my body. I ache all over. That's how strong my love for him is. I'm crushed. I don't know if the pieces will every fit back together again.

I lift my head and slowly break the hold he has on me. I can't even look up at him.

"If you won't leave, then I guess I will." I take a full step away, hold out my hand and he takes the letter that arrived today out of it.

It's so silent. I think I hear his heart break as he takes the letter. He looks down at the envelope addressed to him.

"I'm sorry. If this is what you need, I'll give it to you. I made you a promise that I would love you forever. I'm not breaking that, but if you need me to go, then I will."

He folds the letter and puts it in his back pocket. He looks back up and I can see the heartache. He kisses me softly on the cheek and walks out the room and out of my life.

Failure and the art of getting back up

Mostly everyone is afraid of failing at one thing or another. We're afraid because it's looked down upon to fail. "Oh, you didn't get this." or "Oh, you failed." "You must be no good."

No. Stop. 

This stigma that failing or not getting something means you aren't good at whatever it is needs to stop. It's not true and it's hurtful. It leads to people giving up their dreams.

You can do it. Believe in yourself!

Nobody but you needs to believe.

If you fall get right back up. Show the world and yourself that you are strong and can do this! Failing isn't a sign of failure. Giving up is. 

Don't give up. 

If you never put yourself out there, you can never get ahead. It's okay to stumble. We start life out falling, so why when we fall later in life is it not okay? Be brave. If you have a passion, go after it. Don't hold anything back. Whatever you hold back turns into regret later.

Live with no regrets. 

Be the best you that you can be. Don't let others bring you down. Lift yourself up. You have the potential to be the strongest person you know. If you never try, you never know.

Be strong.

Don't be afraid to fail, fall, be rejected etc. 

It's a part of life. 

If you don't experience it how can you get to where you're supposed to end up?

Maybe Someday Book Review

I read this book in one sitting and don't regret staying up until the sun was shining through my window. It's a piece of writing that will stick with me for a very long time.

Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover

Amazon Paperback: 

http://amzn.com/1476753164

Amazon Kindle: 

http://amzn.com/B00DPM7RJW

Barnes & Noble Paperback: 

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/maybe-someday-colleen-hoover/1115884686?ean=9781476753164&itm=1&usri=maybe+someday

Barnes & Noble Nook: 

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/maybe-someday-colleen-hoover/1115884686?ean=9781476753171&itm=1&usri=maybe+someday

PURCHASE THIS BOOK. PURCHASE THE MUSIC. FALL IN LOVE!

Review: 

This novel is like nothing I’ve ever experienced. The combination of a novel with original music to go with the scenes was so creative and the outcome was something I won’t forget. It enhanced the emotions of the story and brought it to life. It’s a part of the book that can become a part of your life, too.

This novel centers on Sydney and Ridge. Sydney hits a rough patch in life and Ridge gives her a place to stay in exchange for the song lyrics she writes for his music. A beautiful friendship and musical relationship is born. Ridge is unlike any male character I’ve ever read about. He’s different and you soon find out what makes him so different shortly after the novel begins.

Making music with someone can be complicated but Sydney and Ridge completely understand each other and really vibe off one another. They’re musically attracted to each other, but those feelings run deeper. That’s a problem because Ridge has a very serious girlfriend. They’re both mature adults, though, and find a way to continue their friendship and still make music.

How do you stop your feelings for someone when you need those feelings to write a song? You can’t and that’s the problem Sydney and Ridge run into. They’re feelings for each other are in their song writing and that’s something that can’t be ignore no matter how hard they try.

I literally could not put this book down. My legs went numb because I sat so long in one spot without moving. This is a book that I think anybody could relate to. We’ve all had those feelings for someone we know we shouldn’t, but what do you do when you just can’t fight them anymore? Maybe Someday is a beautiful story with even more beautiful characters. Colleen Hoover continues to amaze me with the original stories she comes up and the characters that you can’t help but fall in love with. Even her supporting characters are so interweaved in the story that you feel like you know them just as well as Sydney and Ridge. I highly recommend you read this and you HAVE to listen to the songs as they appear in the story. It’s a must. The music adds that perfect addition to the story and involves more of your senses making the story feel that much more real.

This post might suck or maybe not.

You know what sucks?! I'll tell you what sucks.

1. When you miss your train/bus and see it pulling away.
2. When your pants rip or your shirt gets a hole in it.
3. When you forget something's due at the library and end up owing money.
4. When your dog goes to the bathroom in the house.
1. When you step in it.
2. In your bare feet.
5. When you forget how to spell a word that is beyond simple and one you've seen a million times.
6. When you sneeze while you're eating.
7. When your glasses get smudges on them.
8. When you drop your phone.
1. The few seconds of panic before you get the courage to look at the screen.
9. When your favorite pen runs out of ink.
10. When your nose is super itchy and it won't go away and you end up looking like a crack addict.

Those things suck.

You know what doesn't suck?

1. Venting about everything that does suck.
2. When you stretch and get something to crack.
1. That amazing feeling that follows.
3. When your dog wakes you up with good morning kisses.
4. When your dog doesn't go to the bathroom in the house and goes outside.
5. When you get an A on a paper/test.
6. When your favorite book/movie/music album gets released.
7. When you wake up in the morning and feel completely refreshed.
8. The night that you get to catch up on all your TV shows.
9. Having a board game night.
10. Being able to write about all the good things you don't normally think about during the day.

Those things definitely don't suck.

I feel better. I'm smiling. 

Always start with the negatives and end with the positives. The positives are always better and by the end you forget what the negatives even were. :)

Fun Friday

It's FRIDAY! CHEERS TO THE FREAKING WEEKEND! :) I may have gotten a little out of hand right there. I apologize. Okay, I'm composed now. So, for today I thought I'd just post some photos from www.stumbleupon.com I'm going to "stumble" on to four pages and I'll post those four photos. Let's hope they're goods ones. Who's feeling lucky?!

Check out all those books! Holy moly. 

Trippy!

And the last one is.....

Those weren't half bad! Joking, of course, they're awesome photos and I think I got super lucky. I could have gotten some weird stuff. So, if you're ever bored and don't know what to look at online stumbleupon is a great site to help you find something new and interesting. :)

Zombie

It's Throwback Thursday! I decided to do it a little differently and throw it back to some music I grew up with. This was one of my favorites as a youngster. I knew the song was sad. I could feel that even though I had no idea what the song was talking about. This song has stuck with me over the years and I'd have to say it's still one of my favorites. It's different. It tells a story and has a message.

Zombie by The Cranberries

Isn't that powerful? It's definitely an anti-war song. It speaks about how war and violence affects people and how it's seen through different perspectives. I encourage you to watch the video and then listen again with the lyrics open. It's a strong song. 

I think this song will always stick with me. The words are haunting if you really think about them. Even though they are said to be talking about the Irish Republican Army's bombing of Warrington, Chessire in 1993 I think the main points of this song could be related to any time in which there is heavy war or violence happening.

It's a deep. 

I just made this a very somber Throwback Thursday, but not everything is rainbows and butterflies. It helps to have a reminder of that every now and then. 

Hump Day

It's Wednesday. Hump Day. It sounds like it should be really exciting. Mine wasn't. It was actually rather dull and filled with too much work to do. So, to cheer up my "hump day" I thought I'd post photos to make myself smile. If they make you smile, well I guess that's just an added bonus right?

Today's photos come direct to you from www.zooborns.com! A truly fantastic website that announces the births of animals in zoos from all over. :)

 Cougar cub

Lion cubs with Mom & Pop

Baby Tapir (squeeeee, so cute!)

Okapi calf (one of my newest favorite animals)

Giraffe calf (that I had the actual pleasure to meet!)

Well, that's all folks! I hope you had a great time looking at these photos and maybe have found a new website to stalk for cuteness?! I know my day feels so much better after looking at this cuties. 

The Fault in Our Stars

I finished The Fault in Our Stars by John Green the other day. I had heard really good things about it from several book groups and authors. It's also coming out as a movie later this year. I like to read the books before I see a movie, so I gave this one a shot. I loved it. It's such a unique piece of fiction. I can't say that I've read anything like it up to this point in my life. I've written a review for it and will post it here. Maybe it'll inspire you to pick it up. If not, I think you should pick it up anyway and give it a chance. It might surprise you.

(http://collider.com/fault-in-our-stars-movie-scott-neustadter-michael-h-weber/)

Synopsis:

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.

My review: 5 stars

This book was really different than my norm for books. It was an excellent book, though. It made me laugh and smile. It had me pondering life itself. John Green presents so many things about our world that we don’t think about or that we take for granted. It was a huge eye opener to see the world through a completely new perspective. A perspective, I think, that will stay with me for quite some time. I fell in love with the characters. They’re quite obviously flawed. Aside from their physical disabilities they are extremely unique people with a way of thinking that is just, for like of better words, odd. They had such odd banter back and forth, but it totally worked for them and the story. I found myself thinking, “What?” just as their parents would give them weird looks as well.

It has a tragic twist that teaches us things are never certain. The odds may be in your favor but that doesn’t mean they’ll work out. The number of things that can happen or not happen are infinite. One quote I loved is “Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.” There are so many great quotes from this book that really make you think. For a Young Adult book I didn’t expect it to have this much effect on me. I highly recommend this book. Even if you aren’t into Young Adult just give it a chance. It may surprise you. It may make you think about something in a different light. Hazel, Augustus, and Isaac are going to stick around for a while. They won’t drift away into the unknown. They may be fictional characters but what they represent and how John Green has made them perceive a world that has not always treated them the best is something that can most definitely be taken away from this book and applied to everyday life.

Waiting

Waiting sucks. Everyone has experienced it. Waiting to get the news of something exciting is the worst. You sit at your computer or phone waiting and waiting and waiting some more. You're thinking when are you going to notify me?! What is taking so long? You said today is the day it will be announced, so announce! Announce away by all means. It's mid afternoon when are you planning to hit submit?

Ugh.

I'll be here waiting.

(http://quotes-lover.com/picture-quote/i-hate-it-when-youre-waiting-for-that-person-to-text-you-you-get-a-text-get-excited-but-its-not-even-them/)

That's how I feel, except I'm not waiting for a text. I'm waiting for an email. People stop emailing me. You're getting my hopes up. I will let you know when it is safe to email again. Thanks for your cooperation.

The first of (hopefully) many

I'm not big on New Year's resolutions. I never have been. I've always thought if I wanted to change something about my life why wait until the beginning of the year when I can start tomorrow. So, I didn't come up with one for this year, until now. Well, actually I'm not going to call it a resolution. It's just something I decided to do on a whim and if I continue with it then cool and if not it's no biggie. I'm talking about this blog people. I realized I wasn't too clear there.
I'm pretty much going to talk about whatever I want when I post. It might be a book review or something book related. It could be a song I heard, TV show or movie I watched, or something random I saw that day. Heck, I might just post cute pictures of puppies all day. I'd follow that blog. I might even crack a joke here and there!
Really, my end game here is just to write. I don't care what I'm writing as long as I'm writing and expressing some sort of though. So hop on the bandwagon and get random with me. It's sure to be a hell of a time.

Till next time :)

Wad up?! It's a puppy and a bunny! I thought I'd start things off with a bang.