Today, I am

Hey all! Happy Monday.

here

Today, I'm:

Grateful for: my lovely bridesmaids. For visiting me in South Bend, for organizing my bachelorette party (with basically no help from me, I'm hopeless!), and committing to traveling all over the country to share in these special moments with me. Ladies, you rock!

Proud of: myself - for getting started on 2 big projects last night! Spray painted my trash-find bistro set for the patio and recovered 2 of 4 seats on our trash-find dining room chairs. Yay for diy and my compliant fiance! Now on to the taxes and my grad school application . . .

Struggling with: committing to the dresses for those lovely bridesmaids! This shouldn't be so hard!! Oh, and keeping up with my ever-lengthening to do list. Sigh. Thank God I found out about gmail tasks.

Excited about: yogurt making! No, that's not some weird euphemism. Everyone in my department is making their own yogurt at home - and it's surprisingly easy! Of course, the results are great too - cheap, creamy yogurt! I'll post all the details one of these days for anyone who'd like to play along.

Loving: Vietnamese food! Matt and I went for Pho Friday night and holy moly!! What have we been waiting for? He had a bowl of the house special Pho (all the tripe you want, no added charge!) and I had a Vietnamese crepe (think a mix of a dhosa, a french crepe and a coconut - yum!). It was such a sweet place - the owner sent us home with a box full of thai basil.  'benders, check out Bowl of Pho.

Cooking: speaking of food, it's been fun trying new recipes that fit with our healthy eating plan, like sweet potato hashbrowns, buffalo chicken salad, and Thai turkey meatballs.

Glad for: so, so glad for the sunshine. I forget how much I need it and then begrudgingly realize each spring that life is not the same without it.

Hope you all have a fabulous week!!
xo,
E.

Holiday Recipe Recap

The holidays are all about deciding how exactly is the best way to cram untold loads of butter and sugar into one's body. Below, I have reviewed a few of the ways Matt and I have chosen to do so. Attempt at your own risk.

Chocolate Chip Nutella Candy Cane Cookies from Oh Joy!

These were fun to make, particularly because they necessitated us buying Nutella (2 for one special? OK!) and crushing up candy canes with a rolling pin (a really good holiday stress reliever). Unlike my joke that the dust from candy canes is probably what elves snort instead of cocaine (badum-ching!) these were pretty darn good! That is, after the first batch where I forgot to add half the flour ....

We also made a few batches of regular chocolate chip cookies for Matt - he's a purist.

Peanut Butter Cup Bars by Key Ingredient

These were exceptional ... IF you can get over the sight of mixing cups upon cups of powdered sugar into boiling, bubbling melted butter. Which I can. What a trooper. These taste like Reese's cups, only better. If you mix in some dark chocolate for the topping, you're really swinging for the trees. 

Cookie Dough Truffles (last made here, originally from Eat. Drink. Smile)

Yummy, from here.

These were a huge hit when I posted about them last time, and they're still delicious. I forgot the mini chocolate chips this year, but with the heavy duty chocolate coating, it was no real loss. These are adorable and taste just like cookie dough, without the salmonella.

And finally, lest you think I'm a domestic goddess, I'll share with you one utter failure.

Peppermint Ice Cream Punch from Better Homes and Gardens

I can't really attribute this mess of a cocktail to BHG because I didn't really use their recipe. Instead, like a fool, I believed the pinner before me who wrote "Peppermint Punch: Add peppermint ice cream to ginger ale and Bailey's. Stir with a peppermint stick. This sounds amazing!"  Uh, NOT amazing. Yes, chemistry friends, ginger ale + milk + alcohol = curdled cocktail. There was some gagging in the house. To be fair, if you just stir it up a bunch the weird curdled milk texture goes away and the mixture tastes good. But as the crisis was occurring I remember (drunkenly) screaming to Matt "Get me the Pinterest!" The lovely man that he is, he whipped out his iPhone, called up Pinterest and found me the recipe. When we navigated over to BGH, we find that the cocktail is meant to consist of eggnog, peppermint ice cream and ginger ale. I'm not sure how much better that would be, but the moral of the story (well, there are two) is: never trust your fellow pinners and Baileys and peppermint ice cream doesn't need anything else. Duh.

What are you baking or drinking? Or drinking while baking, either works.

A Pinch and a Dash

Me, cooking.

I'm no cook. If you follow me on Pinterest, you'll know I collect recipes on a board called "If I cooked..."

But I have to eat, and I'm not interested in eating out every night so I do, in fact, cook. Mostly boring things -- and a lot of microwaving --- but I do have to say that I've made a few exiting discoveries in the kitchen, basically from throwing in a little bit of this and a bunch of that. And best of all, they're all really easy and quick :) Here are some of my quick and dirty favs:

Tuna

Tuna is the best. I make so many things with it - burgers, salads, sandwiches. For dinner, I love stir-frying packaged tuna with a packet of microwave rice. And to really make it good, add a dollop of ranch dressing and a scoop of salsa. 

Dinner = done.

For burgers, combine a pack of tuna with one egg, breadcrumbs, and ranch dressing. Mix and then form into patties; fry in a pan. Serve over spinach salad!

Lentils

Lentils are an easy and cheap way to get protein and healthy carbs. You can buy a pack of dry lentils, rinse them and simply cook them on the stove with some water in about 20-30 minutes. They're great on a salad (I love an herb blend) with chopped avocado, cucumber and homemade dressing (olive oil, vinegar and lemon juice.)

Curried Cauliflower and Lentil Soup: Or, if you like spice, cook up some cauliflower in a separate pan while the lentils are cooking. Cook with olive oil, white pepper, cumin and curry powder. When the cauliflower is done, combine with the lentils - setting some aside. Blend the remaining cauliflower in a food processor  (Magic Bullet rocks, y'all) with some coconut milk and dump in with the mixture -- this will make your soup creamy. Add a can of diced tomatoes and spices to taste. Let the soup heat to meld the flavors (can put in a crock pot or leave on the stove) and you're done!

Chili

  There are a million ways to make chili, and they're all good but they're not all easy. Mine is. Brown some ground turkey or chicken with garlic and add to the crock pot. Top with one can of tomato paste, one can of diced tomatoes, a can of white beans and a can of spinach (trust me, you can't taste it and it's good for you), and one jar of salsa at your desired spiciness. Then add in red pepper, white pepper, cumin, garlic, and a touch of cinnamon. Cook on low all day or on high for an hour or two. Right before eating, stir in some pasta and let it cook for a few minutes. Serve and enjoy!

Images from here, here and here.