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| it's finally perfect shorts weather! |
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| This weekend our city's annual basketball tourney is going on. Soooo excited |
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| Yes, I've been baking. This week it was oatmeal wheat biscuits...yum |
xoxo <3
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Weekly Tidbits
This weekend was pretty much perfect followed by what has been so far a great week. Spent plenty of time with the boyfriend, he couldn't make me happier :] and I had lots of spare time for quality hangout sessions with my roomie and some other friends. Now it's back to work, but the weather is finally starting to feel like summer! It's been beautiful and hot out everyday this week and hopefully it'll stay nice through the weekend because I have big plans!
It feels so nice to finally have summer vibes going around. I'm secretly planning on taking an afternoon trip to the lake or making an afternoon of downtown window shopping that either my boyfriend or my roomie will accompany me on. I need a good excuse to wear cute summer dresses since my office job requires more professional attire ;P.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Some recipes from my Mommy
From the Goldammer kitchen Easter, 2010 1 ¼ lbs. ground beef 2 (16 oz.) cans stewed tomatoes 1 (6oz.) can tomato paste 1 clove garlic ½ tsp. salt ¼ tsp. pepper 8 oz. wide egg noodles or linguine noodles 1 c. sour cream 8 oz. cream cheese, softened 1 tsp. oregano & basil 3-4 green onions with tops, diced 1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese Sliced olives Cook ground beef in nonstick skillet. Drain excess fat. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, garlic, and spices. Cook and stir over med. heat for 20 min. or so. Cook and drain noodles according to package directions. Add sour cream, cream cheese, and onions to warm noodles. |
Dinner tonight...
Well it wasn't supposed to rain today, but as I'm sitting at my boring office assistant job with nothing to work on except my lovely blog (which is in desperate need of some TLC), I'm looking out the window to nothing but gray skies. It's been a VERY mild summer so far with only a handful of real summery days, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that by this evening thunderstorms are in the forecast with gloom and doom all day.... even though there was supposed to be sun till 3 pm. I checked and the weatherman lied! Humph!
Oh well, I like rain; the way it smells, the way it sounds, and the chill it puts in the air that makes you want to get warm and cozy. It's like the feeling you get when Autumn starts to come around and you get excited that Halloween is around the corner, and that it's sweater season again, and that soon all the leaves will change. It's one of my favorite feelings in the world! With all this rambling about the weather out of my system, I have decided that, although it's summer, it doesn't look or feel like summer which completely justifies making something delicious and warm for dinner. Think soup. Soup with hearty chunks of veggies and maybe some fresh crusty bread on the side for dunking. (Now I bet all you nice people in hot places are jealous... :])
I found this recipe on Enlightened Cooking. This website I discovered in the last couple weeks and have fallen in love with the nutritious whole foods Camilla uses. I haven't actually tried very many of her recipes yet, but she cooks with ingredients I'm usually familiar with and already have. ** side note here: And it begins, hello rain** Anyways here is her recipe straight off her site:
Smoked Paprika Chickpea & Sausage Stew (from Camilla Saulsbury's website Enlightened Cooking)
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 of a 16-ounce package reduced fat smoked sausage, halved lengthwise, then cut into thin slices (e.g., Hillshire Farms)
1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes (if you can find the fire-roasted kind--e.g. Muir Glen--use them!)
1 and 3/4 cups low sodium fat-free chicken broth
1 and 1/4 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon hot smoked paprika (or use 1 teaspoon regular paprika plus 1/4 teaspoon cayenne)
4 ounces thinly sliced kale, chard, spinach, or other greens (about 2 packed cups)
1 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained
Heat the olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add the sausage and cook and stir until nicely browned. Remove to paper towel to drain.
In a medium saucepan set over medium-high heat, heat the tomatoes, broth, cumin and paprika. Bring to a boil, then add the greens. Stir well, cover and reduce heat to low; simmer about 6 minutes until the greens are just tender (this will only take a minute or so if using spinach). Stir in the sausage and heat 1 minute longer. Ladle into bowls and eat with crusty bread (or, if you are Cheez Nips crazy, some Cheez Nips). Makes 4 servings.
Hopefully I will have the energy/time tonight after work between working out and going on my movie date with the boyfriend (it's dollar night at our old theater in town!) to make something yummy, aka this recipe. I'll let ya know how it goes maybe, or maybe not. :]
Oh well, I like rain; the way it smells, the way it sounds, and the chill it puts in the air that makes you want to get warm and cozy. It's like the feeling you get when Autumn starts to come around and you get excited that Halloween is around the corner, and that it's sweater season again, and that soon all the leaves will change. It's one of my favorite feelings in the world! With all this rambling about the weather out of my system, I have decided that, although it's summer, it doesn't look or feel like summer which completely justifies making something delicious and warm for dinner. Think soup. Soup with hearty chunks of veggies and maybe some fresh crusty bread on the side for dunking. (Now I bet all you nice people in hot places are jealous... :])
I found this recipe on Enlightened Cooking. This website I discovered in the last couple weeks and have fallen in love with the nutritious whole foods Camilla uses. I haven't actually tried very many of her recipes yet, but she cooks with ingredients I'm usually familiar with and already have. ** side note here: And it begins, hello rain** Anyways here is her recipe straight off her site:
Smoked Paprika Chickpea & Sausage Stew (from Camilla Saulsbury's website Enlightened Cooking)
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 of a 16-ounce package reduced fat smoked sausage, halved lengthwise, then cut into thin slices (e.g., Hillshire Farms)
1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes (if you can find the fire-roasted kind--e.g. Muir Glen--use them!)
1 and 3/4 cups low sodium fat-free chicken broth
1 and 1/4 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon hot smoked paprika (or use 1 teaspoon regular paprika plus 1/4 teaspoon cayenne)
4 ounces thinly sliced kale, chard, spinach, or other greens (about 2 packed cups)
1 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained
Heat the olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add the sausage and cook and stir until nicely browned. Remove to paper towel to drain.
In a medium saucepan set over medium-high heat, heat the tomatoes, broth, cumin and paprika. Bring to a boil, then add the greens. Stir well, cover and reduce heat to low; simmer about 6 minutes until the greens are just tender (this will only take a minute or so if using spinach). Stir in the sausage and heat 1 minute longer. Ladle into bowls and eat with crusty bread (or, if you are Cheez Nips crazy, some Cheez Nips). Makes 4 servings.
Hopefully I will have the energy/time tonight after work between working out and going on my movie date with the boyfriend (it's dollar night at our old theater in town!) to make something yummy, aka this recipe. I'll let ya know how it goes maybe, or maybe not. :]
Monday, June 13, 2011
coconut craving!
This weekend I've been in a terribly obsessive baking mood. I've spent hours scouring the internet for recipes searching for that perfect look and taste. I found this picture on Eat Drink Garden with Valerie and I can't get over how perfectly beautiful and delicious this cake looks.
Ever since I fell in love with this picture my brain's been scrambling to find the perfect marriage of yummy and pretty and healthy... for during the summer my not so lovely love handles seem to grow a tad and it makes me very sad that my cooking can't just be delicious without adding extra calories... No matter soon I'll discover a perfect blend of the two or I'll give in and treat myself to the full on temptation.
Right now I'm experimenting with a combination of several vegan, low calorie recipes and am thinking of trying to include tofu. (scary I know) but I haven't had time to search for it in the market yet and i'm having a problem finding unsweetened coconut. so for now i guess my waist is safe and I'll have to be content just looking at the fluffy goodness.
Right now I'm experimenting with a combination of several vegan, low calorie recipes and am thinking of trying to include tofu. (scary I know) but I haven't had time to search for it in the market yet and i'm having a problem finding unsweetened coconut. so for now i guess my waist is safe and I'll have to be content just looking at the fluffy goodness.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Greetings!!!
Hello Blogging World! I'm sorry for the state of this site so far. I'm a newbie to blogging and I find it all very confusing right now. I promise it'll look better soon. It'll be a slow process since my computer is broken and I'm basically working on this blog in my free time at work. Buuuut, there's lots of stuff i hope to eventually share on here so if you're patient with me hopefully I'll have some cool posts soon. Anyways i just wanted to write my first post since my pages look so empty. . Any suggestions on how to use this site and make my blog nicer would be much appreciated!
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