foodie food food

Here's some yummy stuff we've been munching on lately!

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Baked potato soup...yum!  For Christmas, Austin's mom got me a crock pot, and since then I have been searching the depths of the Internet to find some good recipes.  This was my first attempt at a crock pot recipe.  I found it here, and it was scrumptious! 

Cheesy chicken rice bake from The Tasty Kitchen.  I've made this recipe before, and I made it again because it was so good the first time.  The second go at this casserole of rice-y, cheesy, chicken-y goodness was also a success!  

This is something that Austin and I came up with on our own.  Here's how the conversation went:

Austin: "Hey we should make like a caesar salad with blackened chicken on it."

Me: "Ok, well we can just get some chicken breasts and some blackened seasoning, and then use the grill pan to cook the chicken.  While the chicken's cooking I'll chop up some-"

Austin: "Alright, you just do whatever you wanna do...I'll eat it."

I'll post the recipe for this salad soon...it was delicious! 

Chili!  The perfect thing to eat during these cold winter months.  Austin and I came up with our own chili recipe using a collection of other people's chili recipes.  It's SO easy to make, and comes together relatively quickly.  Here's what we do:

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef

1 chopped onion

2 1/2 tablespoons chili powder

1 clove garlic, minced

1 bay leaf

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

2 can diced tomatoes/rotel

1 can tomato paste

1 can chili beans, undrained (optional)

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

In a large saucepan over medium high heat, combine the ground beef and onion.  Sauté for about 5 minutes, until beef is browned.  Drain excess fat.  Add the chili powder, garlic, bay leaf, cumin, tomatoes, tomato sauce and salt/pepper to taste.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 1 ½ hours, stirring occasionally.  Stir in the beans and heat through.  

Herb roasted chicken (using my poultry 3-pack!) I got the recipe for this from a guest blogger on the pioneer woman's website.  My pictures do not look as pretty as his, but this chicken didn't make it from cookie sheet to beautiful platter.  No way that's happening when I had two boys ready to tear into this baby as soon as I pulled it from the oven. 

This salad recipe is also from Ryan, the pioneer woman guest blogger, and it's the one I was telling y'all about in my last post.  It's delicious and very boy friendly (goat cheese and all)!

I'll round this post out with this BBQ chicken pizza from the pioneer woman.  After tasting this pizza, Austin proclaimed that it was "one of the best things I've ever made".  I would definitely recommend this dish, and I'm pretty sure you should make it as soon as possible.

With that delish pizza we had a quick bleu cheese salad.  I chopped up a head of lettuce, two tomatoes, some croutons, and some bleu cheese dressing.  Quick.  Simple.  Yummy!

I would recommend all of the above recipes.  None of them are extremely difficult, and they come together pretty quick!  If I had to pick my fave it would be that BBQ chicken pizza.  That thing was delish.  AND the pizza dough recipe makes 2 pizzas, so anytime I want I can make this baby again, and I already have the dough, yo.

This week I'm planning on making a classic Mexican dish, some comfort food, and another crock pot creation.  Austin and I are also going on a date to a restaurant that is supposed to be great.  I'll be back to tell y'all all about it! 

project 365 vol. 2

 Here are my pics from January 8th through the 14th!

January 8, 2012

On our way home from the lake last weekend, we stopped at exit 164 to visit a place called "Woody's Smokehouse".  Woody's is known for it's smoked meats, cheeses, and jerky, but I chose to purchase this mini pecan pie.  As I've mentioned before, I had never tried pecan pie until this past Thanksgiving.  I can't say enough how mad at myself I am for that.  Pecan pie is my new favorite thing, and when paired with some vanilla ice cream, it was the perfect ending to my weekend.  

January 9, 2012

If you've never had the chips and guacamole from Chipotle alongside your burrito bowl, then you need to go and get some right this instant.  Austin and I ate this amazing combo on Monday night while watching TV, and it was delicious.  A wonderful start to the week!

January 10, 2012

On Tuesday of this past week, I went grocery shopping.  I had planned to make a roasted chicken for dinner at some point during the week, and the recipe I was using called for fresh thyme, rosemary, and sage.  I wasn't really looking forward to spending money on three individual herb packets because I knew most of those packets would end up not being used.  Bummer.  But then, as I was pushing my cart by the cantaloupes, this little guy caught my eye.  A poultry herb 3-pack!  1/3 of the price I was expecting to pay for my chicken herbs, AND none of it went to waste!!  Am I getting too excited about a little box of herbs?  Probably.  Oh well, it's the little things...

January 11, 2012

On Wednesday, I got to sub for the teacher that I did my student teaching with!!! It was so much fun to be back with my 7th graders!  Seriously, if I'm ever having a bad day I am just going to walk into that classroom because those kids make me feel so special.  All day as I was standing in the hallway in between classes, I heard my students yelling out things like, "Miss Chandler!! You're back!!!" or "Where have you been?! We missed you!!!" and "You have to stay here forever!"  I had the best day back in 7th grade again.

January 12, 2012

On Thursday nights we have a tradition.  Our good friend, Zac, comes over and we all eat dinner together while watching some Thursday night TV.  I love coming up with things to feed the three of us.  This week, I roasted a chicken (using my poultry 3-pack!!) and made this salad.  I was a little nervous to feed these two manly men a spinach salad featuring goat cheese, apples, and oranges, with a honey balsamic vinaigrette.  However, they ate it all up, and both declared that it was, "a LOT better than they thought it was going to be".  Victory for this little chef!   

January 13, 2012

My Friday the 13th was anything but unlucky.  I landed my favorite sub job thus far...a dance teacher!  I got to hang out in the Allen "Tallenettes" dance room all day, and got paid for it!  On top of that, the actual dance teacher was popping in and out all day, so I got to talk to her all about my dance background and how I want to be a dance team director one day.  It was a great day!

January 14, 2012

 On Saturday night a group of us went out in Dallas.  The second place that we went to sold these contraptions, known as "beer towers".  Obviously, our table ordered two...

a trip to the lake

Last weekend, we went to the lake.  

It was kind of a spur of the moment trip, but I'm so glad we went.  The group included a handful of us from Dallas, some Houston pals, and even a friend from Austin.  It was so great to see A&M friends that we haven't seen since graduation back in May, and shout out to our friend, Ryan (aka "Cobra"), and the rest of the Gentry family for letting us use their amazing lake house for the weekend.  

Obviously we did not partake in any water activities, but we had a great time all the same.  Everyone got there pretty late on Friday night, so we just hung out for awhile and then called it a night.  On Saturday, we did lots of things that you do while you're at the lake!

Like play washers: 

Grill:

Grillmaster Zac

And feed the deer:

Feeding the deer was probably my favorite part of the trip.  I don't know that I've ever been so close to a deer before, and I liked it!  

Ryan was kind enough to take all of the girls out to our deer feeding adventure while the rest of the boys stayed inside and watched football.  Here's all of us girlies in the golf cart:

So, we drove and drove....

...and finally found some deer to feed!  

Ryan held the bucket, and attempted to get these wild beasts to eat out of his hands.

"Hereeee deery deery deeeeeeer.  I have yummy corn for y'all!"

Ok, he didn't really say that.  But I bet he was thinking it!

Either way, Ryan must have done something right with that bucket o' feed because take a look at this pack of deer that came running up to us when he shook it:

 Wowza.

After we marveled at the majestic animals that roam free in nature, it was time for dinner.

We had: bacon-wrapped, cream cheese filled dove to start, chicken fried venison and grilled venison for the main course, and some pork sausage on the side.  Sorry nature.  Sorry majestic animals.  We were hungry.

We topped the weekend off with a win from those Texans.

What a glorious way to spend the weekend.

I think we'll go back soon.

bird day

Today is Tuesday January 10th.  That means there are 26 days until I turn the big 2-3.  THAT means it's about time I made my bird day wish list.

I've always felt very lucky that my birthday falls where it does.  It's not SO close to Christmas that I get the dreaded combination "Christmas/Bday present" or have my birthday gifts wrapped in red and green, but it's close ENOUGH to Christmas that if there's something I didn't get from Santa/forgot to ask for, I can request it for my birthday, and I don't have to wait until July to receive it! 

**Note: this birthday theory has been years in the making...I've spent many a day/night perfecting the ideas behind it.  Just like Rome, this concept was not built in a day.

Ok, now that you all understand the ideology behind February 5th, 1989, I can start my list. 

1. Shoes

Now that I am out in the "real world" the sperrys, toms, and flip flops that used to grace my tootsies aren't really cutting it anymore.  I own a decent amount of "dress shoes", but they are all high heels.  High heels are fine, and they make my legs look pretty, but they are not necessarily my shoe of choice whilst rangling a bunch of students.  So, college shoes aren't professional and big girl shoes aren't practical.  Whatever is a teacher in training to do?



Flats.  I need flats.  They're dressy enough that my feet don't scream "teenager", and they're comfortable enough that my feet don't scream.  I did own a few pairs of flats, but over the past few months my collection has dwindled for various reasons.  I had a pretty black pair, but those were deemed my "Carrabba's shoes" and discarded aprroximately 12 minutes after my last shift.  I also had a gold pair that looked just like ballerina slippers, but the sole came off sometime last semester in the middle of a lesson on how to write a thesis statement.  I'm sure this had nothing to do with the fact that these shoes were purchased in October of 2004 for my Sophomore year homecoming dance.  Finally, I have a white pair that are still in excellent condition and have both soles intact, but they are wildly uncomfortable.  Bummer.  So, all of that being siad, here are a few pairs of flats that I think would be just dandy to own in size 8 1/2: 

  



Available at: Target.com







Also from: Target.com 




Target.com baby





And you guessed it: Target.com



2. A Bookcase

In our dining room, we have a blank wall that needs something.  Also, I have started to build quite the collection of cookbooks, and I need somewhere to put them.  Solution?  Put a bookcase on the blank wall that can hold my books! 

I like how these are kind of modern and trendy:

Overstock.com

And I just like this one in general:

Target.com

3. Cookbooks

Here are a few that I've got my eye on:

The Gourmet Cookbook

Amazon.com

Make It Fast, Cook It Slow

Amazon.com

Barefoot Contessa at Home

Amazon.com

4. Money/Giftcards

You can never go wrong with these two things, ya know?  I'd love a gift card from the following places:



Kroger

Banana Republic

The Gap

Target

Wal-mart

Alright, there we have it.  The two things I want most are shoes and that bookcase.  That's why they're at the top, yo.  I'll report back after the big day and let y'all know about my loot!

project 365 vol. 1

Project 365 is something that I've always thought would be cool to do.  Basically, you take a picture every day for a year.  Some people do 365 self portraits, but I figured there's only so many ways I could capture my ugly mug until people got tired of seeing it.  So, I decided to take pictures of anything that can describe my entire day, a moment from that day, or just something random.  Here are my shots from week one:

January 1, 2012

Happy new year!  I rang in 2012 with Austin, Austin's best friend, Blake, and his fiance, Terra Laine, at our apartment.  Cheers to 2012!

January 2, 2012

Monday night football with the bf.  I made him a deal: I would watch football if he let me take this cheesy picture of us for my blog.  Cool socks, huh?

January 3, 2012

This was the day that I started working out again!  I worked out a lot this past summer, but I had to take a break during my "working three jobs" period because I was short on that whole time thing.  Now that I'm down to two paychecks every two weeks, I have more time to work it out.

January 4, 2012

My first day as a substitute! Also known as the first time I actually got paid to teach!  I started my professional sub career teaching high school horticulture, aka floral design. High school students are funny.  Some of them were the nicest, coolest kids, and some were just punks.  Teaching these seniors made me miss my sweet little 7th graders :(

January 5, 2012

New year, new license plate!  I guess I'll have to come up with a new nickname for my car... 

(My old license plate was 680 BVY, so I called my car Bevy.  I haven't thought of anything for this newbie plate yet.)

January 6, 2012

My second sub job: Pre-AP Biology.  DNA, RNA, mRNA, tRNA...I think I'll stick to English.

January 7, 2012

Feeding the deer at our friend's lake house.  This was SO cool!

christmas

Well, Christmas is over, and we're back in big D, but I had a wonderful time in Houston for the holidays.  I got to see almost all of my relatives, opened too many presents to count, and ate my weight in pecan pie.  It was a wonderful holiday :)

On the Friday before Christmas, Austin and I made the trek down to Houston.  He went on to his mom's house for Christmas eve, and I hung out with my dad's side of the family.  We had a Mexican feast with fajitas, enchiladas, rice, beans, fried plantains, queso, guacamole, and enough desserts to keep even the half ton man happy.  Here's my plate:

And here's my contribution to the feast:

7 Layer Dip

Oreo Balls and Homemade Peppermint Bark

After dinner we opened presents, played games, and ate more desserts.  On Christmas morning, we had one of my favorite things in the world...cinnamon roll pancakes!!

My sou chef, Jimbo Spice, was a big help...

This was the perfect Christmas breakfast.  The only thing I would've wanted more would probably be pecan pie, but I'd already eaten about half a pie the night before, so I thought I'd lighten it up a bit and just have these pancakes with a big side of bacon...

The holidays are all about moderation, folks.

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes even make Justin smile for the camera! :)

Ok enough about the pancakes.  After breakfast, Riley helped us open presents:

Then it was off to Trinity, TX to see my Nanaw and Peepaw at the lake!

As soon as we arrived, there was a Christmas lunch waiting on the stove, in the oven, on the table, in the fridge...there was food everywhere.  And I'm a Christmas piggy and ate everything up before I could snap any pictures...oops.  I DID get pictures of the unwrapping of presents though!

I love presents.  I love food.  I love family.  I love Christmas.