Monthly Archives: August 2011

Real Food

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Yep, it’s true. I made a meal. And wanna know something else?
It was healthy..
And I liked it.

You may pause for a a few minutes and check what blog you are on. I’ll wait here.

Okay, you ready now?

This salad is adapted from Jess over at How Sweet…you really can’t find a gross recipe on there. Even this one, a healthy one, is super delicious.

I think the best part of this salad is the corn and black beans. I’m really not a fan of the mostly lettuce salads…they’re just too..green. Sorry salad, but as Kermit would say, it’s not easy being green.

The corn  and beans and chicken just really turn this salad from a side to a meal. It’s a meal you can enjoy eating for dinner (or lunch) and feel good about. Heck, I even looked forward to having the leftovers the next day!!

Make it! It’s super easy, healthy, and tasty. 3 rare words in one sentence.

Southwest Chicken Salad

(based off of How Sweet’s)

3 c. lettuce, chopped

4-5 oz. grilled chicken

a heaping 1/4 c. black beans, washed and drained

a heaping 1/4 c. sweet corn

about 1/4 c. shredded cheese (I used the taco kind, YUM)

1 ripe avocado, chopped

2 1/2 T. salsa

1/4 c. cherry tomatoes, chopped

  1. Combine all salad ingredients together, topping with grilled chicken. Yep, that was pretty easy. Maybe salads aren’t too bad after all?

Random Fact of the Day: 61,000 people are airborne over the US at any given time.

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Almond Joy Ice Cream

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Ah so I finished my first week of school. It was rough saying bye to summer. I’m pretty sure I’ll miss him more than he will miss me :`(
I would also like to address the fact that this was the first time in three years that I did not get an allergic reaction on the first day of school. Let me also make it clear that this is not just a minor allergic reaction. It’s ugly. Like plastic surgery done by a caveman.

I kinda look like this guy.

Sometimes I even get the top and bottom lip. Or just in one weird little spot like him.

My cheeks usually get pretty swollen too. Which is really quite unfortunate considering I already have chipmunk cheeks.. But I would have to say the worst thing is that the doctors can’t figure out what I’m allergic to!! They think it could just be stress. Which would make sense with the whole first day of school thing…but I’ve also gotten it on extremely non-stressful days. Grr.

On the bright side, I haven’t gotten one in a long time!!! Woohoo (knock on wood). Just watch now, I’m going to get one tomorrow.

Moving on!

I made ice cream :) . And it was really tasty. Sorry for those of you who don’t have an ice cream maker. I know, it’s a sad life. I’ve been there. Till I caved. Wait, no that was my mom. But seriously, get an ice cream maker so we can bond and gossip about ice cream. Who doesn’t love ice cream anyways? You get to make it our own way for crying out loud!! Okay, commercial is now over..sorry.

Back to the ice cream, I decided to make an almond joy ice cream because Almond Joys are one of my parent’s favorite candy’s and I’m just that kind of a daughter…hehe.

But really, it is super tasty with toasted coconut and delicious hot fudge swirled in. Super easy, and scrumptious!!

Almond Joy Ice Cream

3/4 c. milk

1/2 c. plus 1 T. white sugar

1 1/2 c. heavy cream

2 1/2 t. vanilla

1/2 c. sweetened coconut (shredded or flaked)

a little more than 1/4 c. hot fudge

8 mini Almond Joys, chopped**

  1. Whisk milk and sugar together until sugar is dissolved. Mix in vanilla and heavy cream. Pour into ice cream maker and follow manufacturer’s directions.
  2. Meanwhile, toast coconut on stove over medium heat for about 5-7 minutes, constantly stirring to avoid burning. Heat hot fudge to soften.
  3. During last couple minutes, add coconut to ice cream and chopped Almond Joys. When done with ice cream maker, fold in hold fudge. (FYI: mine never gets “swirly”…any tips?) Freeze in freezer for about 4 hours, until solidified.
  4. Enjoy! :-)

** I did not have any Almond Joys in the house…go figure. It was still very tasty without them, but I do think it would definitely add something if they were involved!!

Random Fact of the Day: Ten years ago, only 500 people in China could ski. This year, an estimated 5,000,000 Chinese will visit ski resorts. How do they figure this out..?

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Da Challenge

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Normally I would talk about my first day of school now, since that was yesterday but you know what? I am just tooooo pumped!!! I got linked to that 7 link challenge thing that has been goin’ around!

I almost felt left out before. A loner. Odd blogger out, if you will.

But now I’m one of them. :)

Blue jellybeans pequenas perlas de sabor (woo! What a mouthful) recently made me feel like a total rock star and tagged me. If you’re unfamiliar with the 7 link challenge that’s been going around here in the blog world, this is what it is. You select posts from 7 different categories in your blog, then pass the fun on to another blogger. You gotta link at least 5 other bloggies who haven’t done it yet.

The 7 Categories are..

  1. Most Popular Post
  2. Most Controversial Post
  3. Most Helpful Post
  4. Most Beautiful Post
  5. Most Surprisingly Successful Post
  6. Most Under-Rated Post
  7. Most Proud of Post

Alrighty then, here we go!!

  1. Most Popular Post

    Alright my most popular were “Home Page” with About the Author clost behind…I’m just going to take a wild guess here and assume that I’m not supposed to say those. Next would be Pretzels, Peanut Butter, Dark Chocolate, Oh My!. Quality choice there, bloggies. You make me proud. Those little nuggets were pure heaven in one bite.

    2. Most Controversial Post

    It was kinda hard for me to decide on this one. In the end I decided to go with the Food for Thought post. This was in the first month that I started blogging, but I’m actually pretty happy with this one.
    Some people may thing beggars are just lazy people who just feel like sitting on their booties all day taking people’s money. Trust me, the thought has gone through my little noggin, too.
    Maybe not all beggars are perfect people. Maybe they aren’t all honest or responsible or respectful. But hey, would it really kill some people to give em a buck or two to try and get them back on the right track?
    Choose your battles.
    And may sure you really are doing the right thing. There are some phonies out there. ( Not to contradict everything I’ve just said..)

    3. Most Helpful Post

    I think I’m gonna have to give this one to my wonderful momma. I don’t really feel like I’m super helpful on here or informative. I kinda just give you recipes to get your muffin top on…
    Anyways back to being helpful! When my mom did a wonderful guest post on my blog about a month bag, I was really impressed with the No-Roll Pie Crust. Especially in a crunch this pie crust would be fabulous for any pie. Props to mom!

    4. Most Beautiful Post

    It was REALLY, REALLY hard for me to decide on this one!! I really liked most of my cupcake posts, something about the frosting on top just makes them look so cute and yummy!
    I decided to go with the Funfetti Cake post on this one. How can you go wrong with funfetti?

    5. Most Surprisingly Successful Post

    I was honestly truly shocked by this one. The Hot Milk Cake post, got way more hits than I would’ve thought.
    I didn’t really feel like it would photograph that well and I didn’t think the name sounded too appealing (then again, it has “cake” in it! durr)…but it actually turned out alright!
    I’m super happy you guys liked this one because it really is a yummy thing to wake up to in the morning for breakfast or even just a snack during the day. 

6. Most Under-Rated Post

Brownie Cookies

Seriously, drop everything you are doing right now and make these. This is not a joke. You’re wasting time right now. Just print the recipe and get your toosh out in the kitchen.

These babies stay all gooey inside even after the first day. I honestly can’t tell you what happens after that…they were all long done before the third day.

‘Nuff said.

7. Most Proud of Post

I’m gonna go with two on here. Sorry, I’m a rule breaker. If that really hurts your feelings. I’m sorry.

Moving on.

The first one is kinda a deep post. One that made me cry just reading it and thinking of memories and events and have happened with my family and my friends. The You’re Only Given One post was written when some feelings were still very raw, which can be pretty dangerous. But I really have no regrets on that one. I still think it is a very touching post and I’m thinking about reading it more often to give myself that reminder of how much I have been blessed.

The second one is a recipe post. Really, what else would it be? I have to give this one to the Tagalongs post. These are definitely up there with the Brownie Cookies, both a bit under-rated.

Honestly, the post itself isn’t that spectacular but the recipe is phenomenal!

Tagalongs are my favorite Girl Scout Cookie and it saddens me that they don’t sell them all year long. :( I had to have my Tagalongs. There was no stopping me. These were everything I dreamed of and beyond!!! Don’t be intimidated by the steps!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously, I make a bajillion goofy mistakes all the time in the kitchen. YOU CAN MAKE THESE.

Bad picture, I know. But it was the first couple weeks of the blog! Please don’t discriminate against this lovely cookie.

Well thanks for reading! ;)

Here are the 5 bloggers I’m gonna tag now, hope they haven’t done this yet!:

Keep it Sweet

Our Family Food Adventures

Glitz Glam Granola

Setting the Boulder Course

Sweet Simple Stuff

Random Fact of the Day: If you know a (male) millionaire who happens to be married, the most likely profession of his wife is a teacher

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Banana Bread!

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Am I the only one who feels like they’re typing too many n’s when I spell bananas? I feel like there are way more than 2 n’s in there!!Anyways I decided to make myself some banana bread the other day since we had some super nasty lookin bananas. It ended up looking for like biscotti or something when it was sliced… But hey, it’s healthy and it tastes awesome! Anyways, can you believe summer is like..over? I honestly want to cry. Maybe it doesn’t make that much of a difference to you mature working adults. But for me…for me, I feel like I’m going to prison. I’m not exaggerating. I never do that. But seriously, school stinks. Maybe if there were no tests or homework I could tolerate it. Ugh, why do people have to be smart?Skool is totally overrated.

Banana Bread

(If you want a normal looking banana bread, I recommend doubling this recipe)

(from here)

1/4 c. white sugar

2 T. butter, softened

1 large egg, beaten

1/4 c. applesauce

3 ripe bananas, mashed

3/4 c. all-purpose flour

1/2 c. whole wheat flour

1/2 t. baking soda

1/4 t. salt

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Combine softened butter and sugar, and beat with a mixer at medium speed, until well combined. Add the egg and applesauce, and beat another 2 minutes. Fold in mashed bananas.
  3. Combine the two flours, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl. Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture, 1/2 c. at a time, mixing after each addition until moistened.
  4. Coat one loaf pan with cooking spray. Pour the batter into the loaf pan.
  5. Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.
  6. Allow the bread to cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Remove the bread from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack. 
Random Fact of the Day: One in every 4 Americans has appeared on television.  Have you??
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Gettin’ Wild at the Zoo!

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So for about 2 WHOLE DAYS my entire family was in the house together. So we had to do something all together as a family. So we took a day out in the Windy City to go to Lincoln Park Zoo and go to Twin Acres for dinner after.Isn’t that baby monkey just too cute with his momma?!This guy was too funny, he just kept swimming in circles, coming around to the window to say hi and going around to do it all over again!There were soo many of these adorable little piglets in the barn with their mommy.These meerkats just could NOT have been any cuter!!! I would have never thought of a meerkat as cute animals before but I have converted. They’re freaking adorable. This beaver was obsessed with my brother. He would swim around and then just pop up and stare at him. He was the creepy beaver. I thought they were super cute at first, and then I saw their teeth and they were like all red and bloody. YUCK, turn off..This has just got to be my FAVORITE picture!!! Doesn’t he just look so sweet?We went into this other building that was loaded with a bunch of amazing flowers and plants. My mom was really looking forward to this part of the zoo, but I certainly was not. I was sure that it was really just gonna be a giant snooze. But it was actually awesome in there! There were so many incredible plants in there that really made me feel like I was on vacation in Hawaii or something. Loved it in there!

After wearing ourselves out at a nice long day at the zoo, we headed over to Twin Acres, which is certainly more than what it looks like. It was actually one of Frank Sinatra’s favorite hang outs back in the day (he would tip each waiter $100!!) and several movies have had scenes filmed in the bar. One of the famous movies that have taken place there was The Dark Knight.

It was really quite a successful day! New recipe comin’ at ya in the next couple days!

Random Fact of the Day: Recycling one glass jar saves enough energy to watch TV for 3 hours.

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