Food, glorious food!

For starters the title to my post is a song from Oliver, which is a total throwback to my high school theatre days. There aren't many songs with lyrics about food in them which I find is rather unfortunate. I don't always use song lyrics, sometimes it's quotes, but I tend to try and make my blog titles relate in some way or another to what I am going to be discussing. So, I had to really put my thinking cap on for this one. But I digress ... The point of this post is to bring you up to speed with some of the recipes I have been trying. I have been on a total cooking/baking spree lately and I figured it was the least I could do to inform the blog community of how things are turning out. 

* Let me preface this with saying that none of these are my own recipes; I am not that talented. If you click on the name of each it will take you to the link where I obtained the recipe in the first place. Without further ado, in no particular order, here are five recipes I have attempted in the past month or so ...

Texas Governors Mansion Cowboy Cookies: Holy cow. There may actually be a reason that these are listed first because they are by far the best cookies I may have ever tasted. They are chalked full of all of my favorite things, nuts, coconut, cinnamon, etc. The best thing about these is that you can add or remove any sort of ingredients you want and they are still going to be delicious. If you are allergic to nuts omit them and add more chocolate chips. Or in my case throw some walnuts in too instead of just pecans. They were awesome and the dough might have been even better. A big hit at the Memorial Day gathering I went to, I will be keeping this recipe on file for further use hands down. 

Banana Oatmeal Cups with Chocolate Chips: These are a healthy take on a cupcake, that I think is more like a muffin, that can be eaten for breakfast or just as a snack throughout the day. I ran out of chocolate chips so I added some coconut into mine but besides that I followed the recipe pretty much verbatim. I ended up having more mixture than it said I would so I was able to make 18 instead of just 15 but they all turned out very tasty. I love that they are only about 130 calories per muffin; it makes for a great grab and go snack for myself.

Oven Dried Strawberries: I was not a fan of these at all. I had such high hopes going in to this endeavor; I followed the recipe that was given on the website word for word and they just didn't turn out right. My strawberries never really became fully dried. The edges had hardened the way they were supposed to but the inner part was mushy like a strawberry that had gone bad. I left them in the oven overnight, because I was too tired and disappointed to do anything else with them, and they dried out a little bit over the next 12 hour period. But they just weren't what I was expecting. Hopefully one of my friends will perfect this recipe and give me some insight on how to make it work!

Copycat Chipotle's Cilantro Lime Rice: I cant take the credit for this one at all ... Tyler made this last night for dinner to accompany our meal and I thought it was wonderful. I hate cilantro but love lime and Chipotle has always done great at balancing out the two flavors in their dishes perfectly. We just kinda went out on a limb last night and threw some stuff in but I think it was just as good if not better than what I pay for. He also added some carrots and onions to the rice in addition to the lime and cilantro and it all just meshed so well together. This is a recipe that definitely lives up to the copycat name.

Zucchini Basil Pesto Pasta: This recipe combines all of my favorite things; I love each of the ingredients so much that I could eat each by itself or on a regular basis. Maybe that is why this recipe was such a hit with me but I think it is just because it is flat out great. I had some yellow squash that was going to go bad so I added it as well instead of just the zucchini and I think it was a great addition to the plate. The whole thing was really easy to make and didn't take much time, which is always a plus for me; I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for something different and delicious.

Hopefully I will get to try out some more new recipes in the near future - I just can't get enough food - and I will update the blogosphere on how they tasted when the time comes. Tonight or tomorrow I think I may take my first crack at a quinoa dish ... wish me luck!

got a lot of catching up to do ...

It has been FOR EV ER since I last wrote on this thing. Stuff has been super overwhelming with trying to get my life situated. But now that summer is near I am hoping to update more often. In trying to catch up on the craziness that has been my life lately I am going to make this blog probably longer than necessary. Oops. 

Ty and I ran a Warrior Dash over the St. Patricks Day weekend. I couldn't have been more proud of the two of us. He stuck with me the entire time and definitely helped me get through it all. We finished together which was a great feeling so I guess during our adrenaline rush we decided we would take on 6.2 miles. So we signed up for a 10K over the weekend of Easter. And we kicked some butt. For real. He ran the whole thing in under and hour and I was just a few minutes behind him. We are now in the process of training for a half marathon. Next week we are up to 8 miles for our long runs. And I can see both of us progressing. It is an awesome feeling to be getting more in shape and reaching goals we never thought we would together. 

Substitute teaching has basically taken over my life. If I am not up at the high school I am babysitting. Both of which I very much enjoy but golly, am I tired. These next two months are going to be a nice break. Although I am hoping to get some sort of a summer job. Either way teaching is still on my agenda. I am [fingers crossed] going to have some sort of teaching job next year. Who knows how it is going to work out. But as long as I finish my alternative certification stuff I should be golden. It is nuts right now. Trying to understand everything they want from me; every website says something different! Oak Ridge is my ultimate goal though so that is what I am going to keep working towards. 

Easter was a ton of fun. My mom was sick so my dad and I spent the morning at church together without her and skipped all the usual fun festivities to make sure she felt alright. Then later that afternoon I got to spend some time with Tyler's family. They are a blast. There was tons of food, games ... he even got me to play croquet ... and it was just a nice little gathering. I am so blessed to have found such a wonderful guy who has such a warm, welcoming, loving family.

Norah and Claire turned 1 and 2 respectively at the beginning of April. A few weekends later was their party. I couldn't have been more honored to get to help participate in all of that. Those two little girls have my heart. I have been so lucky to get to babysit them and watch them grow up over the past 9 months. They bring such joy to my life! The theme of the party was "thing one and thing two" from Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss. Everything was done so perfectly and it was a precious celebration for two precious girls. 

I finally got to head back up to my beloved Aggieland for the weekend of Muster. Seeing College Station again kind of brought me back home; I love it there. And I got to see some of my friends who are still going to school which was a nice treat. Muster was amazing as always. I am so proud to be part of the best university in the world. Honoring those of us who have passed in the previous year just shows how much spirit we have and how much we really are a family, not just a school. 

Ty turned 24, WHOOP, and graduated from UTSA with his MS in Psych just a week ago. I am so incredibly proud of him. He has put in a ton of work over the past two years and it is finally all paying off. Sometimes I wonder if he knows how much I look up to him ... he has such a drive and determination to reach his goals and I envy that. He really does inspire me to do more with my life and be better than I am. I mean he is going to get his PhD. That just blows my mind. I don't know how he does it sometimes. 

Tyler's Grandfather passed away on the 8th of May. He had been very sick, for quite some time, so it was a blessing that the Lord finally took him out of his pain. But that doesn't make it any easier. Also, one of my close friends had a brother pass away in March. That was unexpected and incredibly painful. I see God taking the young and the old in so many different situations and I still constantly ask myself why. It never feels like you have had long enough with them and it never hurts any less. 

I have made a few trips to San Antonio since I last wrote. It is nice sometimes to just get away and be by ourselves for a while. He is going to get to keep his apartment over the summer so hopefully we will get a chance to head up there and actually get to look like silly tourists at least once. I really want to go to Sea World and visit the Alamo - cause I don't remember it at all, which is slightly ironic. 

Umm ... I do believe this leaves me pretty caught up. Till next time.