Birthday Girl

I still haven’t edited all our pics from California yet but I’m working on it! I forgot I had these cute pics from Steph’s birthday last week. We went to Texas Roadhouse and she got to ride on the saddle while they sang to her. My little sis is 21!

Isn’t my husband so cute??

Dan looks a little tired or drunk here…

Happy Birthday Stephie! I love you! (Remember when we sorta hated each other and fought every day when we were little? Hahahahahaa!)

Awesome.

I love to read. I always have. I started reading when I was really young and I went through all the Baby Sitter’s Club, Goosebumps, Boxcar Children, Chronicles of Narnia, Little House on the Prairie and much more. I’m so happy that I gained a love for reading from a young age because I think it has taught me a lot and I still love it!

I can sit down and read for hours and not even notice the time passing because I’m so engrossed in my book. It takes over my life and I think about the story and I have to keep reading!

I hope I don’t offend anyone here, but I’ve always felt like the Harry Potter and Twilight books are a bit overrated. They’re good books and I read them and enjoyed them a whole bunch, but I’ve read TONS of books that I absolutely love. A lot of people think that those are about the only good books out there and that drives me nuts!            Anyway, I have read just about all the James Patterson, John Grisham, Nicholas Sparks, and Patricia Cornwell books and I’ve enjoyed them, but this book was much different. It was so amazing and definitely one of the very best books I’ve ever read. I dare say it is a life changing book (for me at least). My sister recommended it to me and it was a pretty long read considering that I usually finish books in a few days. But wow, it was a beautiful, moving and inspirational story. Good enough that I had to post about it!

I’m sure that some people think I’m exaggerating or don’t think it’s as good as I did, but that’s okay; hopefully you can find a book that moved you like this book did me. I wanted to share one passage that I couldn’t stop thinking about after I read it:

“Funny things, roses. Folks tend to think they’re delicate, fragile. But some of them are right tough little [things]. Give them bad soil, bad conditions, they still grow. Insects, spot, drought-doesn’t stop them. Prune them down and they’ll come back at you twice as hard. Some roses are real fighters. Roses like that ought to be encouraged, I’d say.”

This passage defines the book for me and especially the main character, Fiona Finnegan. I highly recommend reading The Tea Rose by Jennifer Donnelly. I hope you are touched by it as much as I was. If you have any other great reads, let me know!

**Disclaimer: This book has some swearing and a few heated love scenes. Just FYI**

Vegas baby

Steph and I went to Vegas last weekend and even though it was a quick trip, it was really fun! I drove to Cedar on Friday and we made dinner and stayed at her house. Then we got up and drove to Vegas on Saturday. We stayed at an awesome hotel/resort (it was half price!). We laid out at the amazing pool, went shopping, out to eat and soaked in the hot tub. It was tons of fun and I’m so lucky to have a sister and a best friend in one!

We had a little too much fun in our hotel…I promise we weren’t drinking…

 

This is our sweet hotel. The pool was amazing, and we just wish it was a little warmer! The wind was blowing and it was chilly so we jumped in the hot tub!

We ate a delish dinner at California Pizza Kitchen.

We shopped til’ we dropped! We got a ton of cute stuff and we got to go to H&M! Love that place!

We had a blast together and I just love my little sis!

Dan, Steph and I went to Stockton, CA to visit my mom’s side of the family and we just got back last night. We had a great time (except for Steph getting deathly ill and barfing 12 times) and I’ll post pics of that great trip soon!

Nothin’ matters but the weekend…

Going here:

With her:

Staying here:

Shopping here:

Can’t wait!

P.S. I went to bed at 9:30 last night. Loved it.

P.P.S. I bought self tanner.

Thai Love.

We went to dinner with Dustin and Kaley last weekend and it was really fun and realllllly good! Dustin’s dad is the king of food so he recommended this place called Sawadee Thai. He asked a Thai guy at Sam’s Club and he told him here! Haha, I love it. The place was really cool and we got there right before a huge rush which was nice. It was really crowded and noisy, but I liked it a lot and the food was delish! Dustin ordered for us and he did great. The prices were also really reasonable for the amount of food we got. We went back to their place after dinner and watched the Olympics, discussed LOST, reminisced on high school days, and ate pizzookie! YUM!

P.S. Have I mentioned that I love food? Luckily Dan does too so it works out. :)

Yummy food!

I really like to cook and bake and obviously EAT. I love having a sweet big kitchen to cook in and I also love not being in school so I have a little more time on my hands! Yay!

Anyway, kevinandamanda.com has a great recipe section with some awesome foods. I recently made this grilled chicken pasta in a tomato cream sauce and it was DELICIOUS! I loved it and I will definitely make it again. You can see how she made it here.

I have always wondered why cooks pound chicken to make it flat, but I realized why when I made this. It’s to make the chicken cook faster on the stove! It cooks much faster when it’s thin, so I would recommend pounding your chicken like Amanda says if you want to save some time :).

I also made some home made granola this weekend and it was amazing! We love it and it’s a great healthy snack. I will definitely be making it in bulk so we can have it to snack on and to eat with yogurt. Here is the recipe I used:

3 ¼ cups Oats (Old Fashioned or Quick—any combination)
1 ¼ cup white wheat flour-freshly ground if possible
¼ cup flax seed (optional)
1 cup or more coarsely chopped almonds and/or pecans
1 cup brown sugar
1 stick butter
1/3 cup water
½ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
½ tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 300. In a large mixing bowl combine the oats, flour, flax seed, coconut and nuts. Set aside. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine brown sugar, butter, and water and heat until the butter has melted and the mixture is bubbly. Using a wooden spoon, stir the mixture together until smooth, and then stir in the salt, vanilla and spices. Pour mixture over the oats mixture and stir well to coat. Let stand for about 10 minutes. Spread mixture on a large baking sheet, separating it into irregular clumps with your fingers, and allowing space between clumps for the hot air to circulate. Slide it into the middle of the oven and bake until the top is golden brown, about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and stir to break up the mixture into medium sized clumps. Return to the oven and bake again for 15 minutes before stirring again. Bake for another 15 minutes or until the granola is uniform golden brown and completely dry—this usually takes me about 45 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack; store in an air tight container.

Here are a few other recipes I make a lot and absolutely LOVE:

Skillet Baked Ziti (recipe is here):

Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas (recipe is here):

Homemade Mac & Cheese (recipe is here):

I love to bake and make treats and I will try any treat (as long as it doesn’t take all day to make!) I just love being in the kitchen and cooking up something yummy to eat. It’s such a great feeling and I never thought I would be the girl to enjoy cooking and baking.

When I studied abroad in the Netherlands, I really started cooking a lot because no one ate out there and there weren’t a lot of options. Plus I didn’t want to spend money! All the other international exchange students that I lived with whipped up these amazing meals every night. So I started finding new recipes and trying new things and by the time I came home, I was a bit of a food snob. I didn’t (and still don’t) like cheap fast food or hamburgers (gasp). I always had fresh bread, fruits and vegetables from the market and I loved it! When I got home and moved back to school, I started cooking a lot more. It was always simple but I was really in the habit of eating an “official” dinner almost every night. I like having a main course and veggie or fruit if I can. So since we’ve been married, I’ve really cooked a lot and I love it. It saves a lot of money (we still love to eat out!), and it’s delish!

I have a lot of recipes I still want to try including:

Bacon Cheeseburger Chicken (can you say fattening?)

Garlic Chicken Farfalle

Do you guys have any great recipes that you love and make a lot? Please share!! Post on your blog and let me know if you do…

Gimp Love

If you don’t know, Gimp is the free version of Photoshop and I love it! I have very little experience ever using Photoshop, but I use Gimp a ton and it’s great. I had some fun whitening teeth and brightening eyes of pictures I have taken.

In this pic, I whitened Hilary’s teeth. Much nicer right?

                     In this picture, I brightened my nephew’s eyes. It’s a subtle difference, but I think it looks cool.                      In this pic of myself, I brightened my eyes and whitened my teeth. Pretty cool!                        If anyone is interested in how I did this, let me know and I will post the links to the tutorials I referred to.