Moroccan Cous Cous

Today has been a pretty good day! I started my day off with a Green Monster! It had blueberry yogurt, one banana, about 2 cups of spinach, and a few ice cubes.
I dumped it into my waterbottle to drink on the way to church!
After church my mom and I went to Chipoltle while my Dad, brother, and sister went to KFC.
I have to say I was a little disappointed in this new Chipoltle in Gainesville! They don't fill up with as much stuff as other Chipoltle's! My mom got a fajita burrito and they put like 2 slivers of onions and 2 slivers of peppers on her burrito- it was so ridiculous! However because they stuffed it with less stuff I was able to eat it and not feel as stuffed as usual. After lunch I proceeded to lay outside by the pool for most of the day, taking a break to help my dad put away the pool cover and bring out and hose off some more of the pool furniture. I can't believe this is the first time I've got to lay out by the pool- tomorrow (or today I suppose) it is June! This is the latest we have ever opened the pool because our pump kept breaking. And even though I was laying out by the pool it still wasn't swimmable, we are still getting rid of the algae and balancing the chemicals- hopefully by next weekend it will be swimmable!

After a relaxing day by the pool I started cooking dinner- Moroccan Cous Cous inspired by the cous cous I had at Epcot in Morocco during my spring break trip to Disney World!
It was pretty delicious if I do say so myself! I looked up a bunch of recipes online and combine them all together to make my own

Moroccan Cous Cous
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon coriander
1 large onion
zest of one orange
1 cup raisins
juice of half a large orange (or one whole orange if its a small orange)
2 cups beef broth
2 cups cous cous
1/2 cup slivered or sliced almonds

1. Combine the spices in a saucepan and gently heat together for a couple minutes
2. Add half the onion and cook until soft
3. Add the orange zest and 2/3 of the cup of raisins and cook for a couple minutes
4. Add in the orange juice and beef broth and bring the mixture to a boil
5. Add the cous cous, stir to combine, cover and remove from the heat.
6. Let the cous cous sit covered for 5 minutes.
7. While the cous cous cook the onions until they are caramelized
8. To serve the cous cous spoon some on the plate, top with caramelized onions, and sprinkle the extra raisins and almonds on top. (Also if you still have some of your orange leftover you can garnish it with an orange slice).

I really liked it but my carnivore family again complained that there was no meat, so my mom grilled hot dogs for them. Hot dogs and cous cous??? I really don't understand why they think that meat has to be in every single meal. I think we had enough meat to last the entire week in our burritos for lunch!

When my mom and I went to Costco yesterday we picked up one of their ginormous boxes of Ghiradelli Triple Chocolate Brownie mix! Now I'm usually all for making things from scratch and hate box mixes- but these brownies are the exception. These are some of the best brownies ever and yes they come out of a box. I baked them up after dinner and enjoyed mine hot with some So Delicious Coconut Coconut Milk Ice Cream on top! It was definitely delicious, but I think the Vanilla Coconut Milk ice cream would have been a little better because brownies and vanilla ice cream just go perfectly together!
During dessert I watched the MTV Movie Awards with my sister- did anyone else see the New Moon trailer! I'm so excited I can't wait for it to come out!!!

Also I'm excited because Rachel and I are going to The Melting Pot tomorrow! She gets gift cards from her dad's credit card rewards, so every now and then we get to go! I love fondue and expect an update tomorrow filled with mouth watering fondue pictures!

Clean Car

I got my car back yesterday!! It looks awesome! Not only did they fix put in a new tail light they fixed the entire bumper- even though there were some other scratches from other times that they said they would not be able to fix because they weren't caused by the hit and run. And not only did they fix everything they cleaned everything!! The inside of my car was super super dirty and they cleaned out everything and vacuumed up all the dirt and dog hair! It looks awesome, and now that it is actually clean I feel like I can keep it clean!

Before I went to pick up my car I made a tuna sandwich for lunch. The tuna mixture was made with a can of tuna, a couple teaspoons of mayo, green onions, and dill. I put it on the sandwich and then realized I forgot to add mustard into the mixture so I dabbed a little on top. I put just a tiny bit of mustard into my tuna for that extra kick, but I'm not a huge mustard fan so not too much!
Once I got back from getting my car I made a Not So Green Monster. We were out of bananas so I used some fresh strawberries that we picked up in Ohio. The strawberries are okay, they aren't as good as some of the other fresh strawberries we had while we were up in Ohio. I also added some orange juice into it which was a really yummy combo that I'm going to have to use again. So this Not So Green Monster had some strawberry non greek yogurt, orange juice, strawberries, and of course spinach!
Then for dinner we had some frozen Stoffers manicotti along with some frozen snap peas. It was a frozen dinner- enough said. Now that I'm back from Ohio I can go to the store and get some real food!
Then for dessert some Coconut So Delicious coconut milk ice cream! I had never had the straight up coconut flavor and it was just as delicious as all the others! I think the cookie dough flavor is still my favorite though. My mom said that they needed an ice cream bar with this flavor inside instead of the vanilla and dark chocolate on the outside and the it could be like a Mounds bar! And I agree that would be delicious!
Then last night I slept wonderfully because it was raining! This morning I woke up and had a Kashi waffle covered with some vanilla Chobini and fresh strawberries! It was delicious!
I'm so excited because my sister and I are going to Wegmans for lunch! yay! I haven't been to Wegmans since I've been back from Richmond. I'm going to go make a grocery list so that I can have some things to cook this weekend and next week so we don't have to eat any more of these frozen things that always seem to make their way into the freezer when I'm not at home!

Too Hot!!!

So last night I decided to clean instead of bake but clearly I picked the wrong thing. It was 96 degrees today and the gas oven did not help things! Our ac is set to 70 and it is currently 80 in our house and the oven has been off for over 2 hours!

So anyways I started out this morning with a yummy omelet! It had spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, and goat cheddar!!! yummmmm
Then I got to work on writing my final reflection for tutoring. I finished writing that and made some copies of some things for my parent packet and then broke for lunch. I wasn't starving so I just had a little risotto that I pulled out of the freezer yesterday (another freezer find! If I had known I had this food in there I would have waited to go to the grocery store!). It was sundried tomato and mozzarella risotto that I made a while back! It was delicious.
Then for dessert a delicious ice cream sandwich. I think I've decided I like the other ones better. The banana flavor in these is good but I think I prefer it without. Actually I think what would be amazing is if they just had a plain strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla coconut ice cream sandwich. That would be delish!
After lunch I got to work on baking. Since I have no measuring cups I used this glass as my one cup guide!!! I actually found an old disgusting blender that came with out house and poured one full glass of this into it and it was exactly one cup so yay! Then i put that blender far far away because it was really gross.
Then as I was searching for vanilla in my cabinet I discovered a miracle!
I knew I had bought measuring spoons from the dollar section when I bought my hot pink measuring cups! I couldn't find them for the life of me when I was packing up my kitchen stuff but for some reason they were in my cabinet behind all my baking necessities! The only downside to this search was that I had no vanilla so all my cookies had to be sans vanilla.

So first I mixed up my monster cookies! I got nervous about adding the coconut so I baked about half the cookies without the coconut and then added it in to the second half.

Above without coconut and below with it.

I went kind of picture crazy! hahaha so the final verdict is that next time if I add coconut I need to decrease the oats because they were too crumbly, however they were delicious.

So the recipe originally came from my old roommate Vicki, and it is actually her birthday today! The original recipe calls for normal semi sweet choc chips instead of recess pieces but you can really put in whatever you want in monster cookies- m&ms would work too if your not a big peanut butter person.

Monster Cookies
1 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups creamy peanut butter
2 teaspoons baking soda
4 1/2 cups oatmeal
8 oz mini semi sweet chocolate chips
8 oz reeses pieces

Cream together the butter, sugars, and eggs until fluffy. Add the vanilla and peanut butter until its incorporated together. Stir in the oatmeal and baking soda. Then add in your mix ins (choc chips, reeses pieces, m&ms or whatever you want- don't limit yourself to this specific recipe!)

So after baking monster cookies for forever (I only had one cookie sheet!) I started on the White Chocolate Macadamia cookies! White chocolate macadamia are probably my favorite cookie, which is funny because I never make them! I think I've made white chocolate macadamia cookies maybe once in my entire life, but I always get them when I see them somewhere else, especially the ones at Subway! So after searching through All Recipes I settled on White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies IV. Most of the other recipes had brown sugar in them and I really don't think brown sugar belongs in a white chocolate macadamia cookie!

So this recipe was definitely a keeper and exactly what I was looking for!
Some of all of the cookies!
All the sans coconut monster cookies!!
And here are the ones with the coconut!
And the white chocolate macadamia!
Then once the oven was off I took a much needed shower! I have to say I might have been sweating more baking in the 96 degree weather then when I was cleaning yesterday with the ghetto vacuum! Then for dinner I made some pasta. I sauteed up some mushrooms, onions, and garlic and then added some spinach and tomatoes and made a sauce with milk, a little goat cheddar, and asiago.
It was delicious but while I was making it I was thinking I should have skipped cooking tonight because the stove was heating up the kitchen and I was sweating again! I hate hot weather!! The plan for the rest of the night is to finish up my parent packet because tomorrow is church, hanging out with the grandparents, and then nail painting party tomorrow night!

Cleaning for Grandma!

So yesterday when I was unloading my groceries I discovered a frozen enchilada from Trader Joes that I totally had forgotten about! The funny thing is I had searched the freezer a couple days ago to see if I had any hidden food and couldn't find any! So I brought it over to Maggie's to eat during Grey's Anatomy. It was okay- it wasn't bad but it wasn't great and I probably wouldn't buy it again. I was so hungry that I ate half of it before I remembered to take a picture! There were 2 enchiladas and here is the second one haha!
I was still hungry after I ate that so I snacked on some of Maggie's Artisan Wheat Thins

ummm holy cow these were delicious!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had seen them in the stores but the picture on the box didn't look that good so I hadn't bough them before. I can't even explain how delicious they were! Better than the Sundried Tomato Basil one which were my favorite before. I ended up eating the rest of the box of them which Maggie said was okay because she kept eating them constantly and wanted me to help her get rid of them!!

Anyways I woke up this morning and my right eye was killing me!! And I didn't have my glasses with me so I walked around without being able to see for a while. Then I put in my left contact and could half way see. Eventually my eye was not quite as red and painful as it was before so I sucked it up and put in my other contact because I knew I would need it in to drive home! Anyways while I was blind I had a Greens energy bar. I wasn't really sure what to expect and wasn't really expecting it to taste super good but wow it was amazing! Hands down the best tasting bar I've ever had. It was super fruity and covered in yogurty goodness! I will definitely be buying more of these!

Then while I was halfway blind I ate lunch! haahha I had Amy's Chunky Tomato Bisque- my new favorite soup!!! I love love love this soup!
Then for dessert I had this fake cadberry egg that I got at CVS last night on a late night contact solution run!

Ummm the chocolate on these are not that good but the inside was like what cadberry eggs use to be like!! Super runny and not like all thick and dried out like they are now lol. Anyways it made me miss the good old days when I was like 6 and the insides of the cadberry eggs would drip halfway down my arm and get all in my barbie dolls hair!

Then after I was able to see fully again I headed back to my house. After an unsuccessful try with our big real vacuum cleaner I vacuumed the steps and upstairs with the little "broom" vacuum thing. Then I cleaned the bathroom! By that point it was almost 8 so I headed downstairs to make some dinner to eat while I watched Prison Break! I made a delicious wrap with these awesome portabella garden burgers! ummm yummmmm! I've never really had veggie burgers of any kind before but have been wanting to try them. So after studying the selection at whole foods I decided on these ones because I love mushrooms! ummm these were sooooo delicious! I'm not a big hamburger fan and I will for sure be having these around all summer to eat while the rest of my family has hamburgers.Anyways into my spinach wrap went one portabella burger, tomatoes, spinach, goat cheddar, and a little garlic aioli. yummmmm yummmm yummmm. I will definitly be making more of these with the rest of those portabella burgers.
Then for dessert I had one of these yummy So Delicious banana split coconut ice cream sandwiches! These are just as good as the vanilla ones and I can't really decide which ones I like better!
So the plan for the rest of the night is either clean the downstairs or bake some cookies. Right now I'm leaning toward the cookies because I don't feel like cleaning anymore but I'm already gross from cleaning so I might as well finish it now. Whichever doesn't happen tonight will happen tomorrow! Hope everyone has a good weekend

Tornado!!

No there is not actually a tornado but we are under a tornado watch and it is thunderstorming outside! Today has been one of those rainy days where you just don't want to get out of bed! However I drug myself out of bed to go to tutoring this morning even though I just wanted to stay in bed and sleep! I had this cliff nectar bar on the way to the school. It was really good- I love these cliff nectar bars and this dark chocolate walnut was no different!
When I got back to my house after tutoring I was starving! I snacked on a Sargento Vermont White Cheddar Cheese stick while I headed up the other half of my Trader Joes flatbread pizza in the oven.
I ate this and then just chilled out and watched tv for a while. Then I was like why am I sitting down here watching tv when I could be taking a wonderful nap in my bed! So I went upstairs and took an absolutely wonderful nap! Unfortunately I had to wake up and go to my ethics class at 4. I was sitting in class thinking about what I had at home to make for dinner, I am seriously running low on food! Erica said she was making tuna helper and I was like that sounds good I'll make some kind of tuna pasta! So here is my tuna salad pasta!!! (I used the last of my elbow box and then added some bow tie pasta in haha)
I sauteed about 1/3 of an onion and then deglazed the pan with some red wine. Then I added a can of tuna, parmasean, some mustard, and a little sour cream to make it more creamy since once again I don't have milk (I don't drink milk so I really don't buy it, sometimes I fill a water bottle up with milk when I'm at home mostly so I can make pasta lol). Then I added some fresh thyme and dried oregano. yeah it was pretty much any random thing I could find that I thought could work. haha it wasn't the best pasta I've ever made but it was pretty good for what I had to make it with! I ate about half of it and put the rest in the fridge for lunch tomorrow. Then for dessert I had my last coconut ice cream sandwich!
yummm! Now I'm waiting for Kylin to get home and we are going to watch Beverly Hills Chihuahua. I'm pretty excited I've wanted to watch it but nobody would watch it with me! Then it will probably be some yoga and early to bed because I'm pretty tired and I'm not feeling all that great. My allergies have been acting up and although its not as bad as normal I'm pretty congested and my chest and head have been stuffy and achy. Then tomorrow Maggie and I are going to see 17 Again!! hooray- I love me some Zac Efron.

Oh and by the way I really am 22 years old. I just have a love for puppies and High School Musical. And Hannah Montana and all things Disney. ummm this is why I am going to be an Elementary school teacher!