Little Sister is Graduated!!!

My little sister has graduated!!! yay! It has been a super super busy and exhausting last couple of days! Thursday after I blogged last I made a wrap with a Morningstar Mushroom Lovers Veggie Burger, spinach, tomatoes, hummus, and garlic herb cheddar.
I don't even remember what I did the rest of Thursday! I hung out with my cousin and aunt some and I think I helped my sister plan out food and make grocery lists for her party. For dinner I made some pasta. I sauteed up some baby bella mushrooms and then added some garlic a little white wine and milk. Then added some asiago, romano, parmesan mix and a little goat cheese I found in the fridge. Then I stirred in some campari tomatoes and topped it with some more cheese and parsley. It was delicious!

Friday morning I woke up and tried some blueberry Oikos for breakfast. It was pretty good but I think I prefer my Fage and Chobini.
Then my mom and I went to the grocery store with a massive list of everything we needed for my sisters party. When we got back I promptly made a green monster with orange juice, plain 0% Fage, a very ripe banana, and lots and lots of spinach. It was delicious!!!
Then I started cooking! I mixed up dough for chocolate rolled cookies and started chopping tomatoes up for bruschetta Dinner was a quick frozen pizza as I got ready for graduation. I had never had Palermo's before but it was delicious! It came with goat cheese and spinach and I added some mushrooms! Yummm! I ate half the pizza and then remembered to take a picture before putting it away.
Then we set out to graduation. Graduation is at Nissan Pavillion- which is a local concert venue super close to our house. We didn't think graduation would cause as much traffic as a concert but apparently it did. We sat in tons of traffic and saw lots of the seniors getting out of their cars and walking/ running to get there because they were all very late! Finally we got there and found my grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousin!

It was suppose to start at 8 but they came on around 8 and said because of the awful traffic they were going to delay it a little, so it was after 8:30 when it started. The speeches were pretty good, their main speaker was the person who runs Meet The Press on NBC. She was pretty good and to the point, but my favorite was the SCA president who said "I have a mouthful to say- that's what she said" and he got the entire mass of people there to crack up laughing. It was pretty amazing. After the speeches we sat through them calling all 622 names. All in all it was probably a little after 11 when it was finally over. Then we spent forever trying to find my sister, who left her cell phone and everything in the car because they weren't allowed to carry anything with them. Once we found her we took lots of pictures! Here is one with me and my little brother and my sister- the last one to finally finish!
Afterwards we quickly ran to Wegman's to pick up the graduation hat cookie cutter because my sister wanted graduation hat shaped cookies! On the way out I found true love
I finally found this new sparkling tea!!! I've been seeing these commercials everywhere and have been dying to try it! I've looked at Wegman's before and at Giant and Harris Teeter and haven't been able to find it anywhere! We were walking to the check out line when I saw the display! I was so excited and my mom just rolled her eyes, but let me tell you this is the most amazing thing ever. It was everything I imagined and more hahaha. The strawberry kiwi flavor is really good and I'm really not even sure what other flavors there are but I want to try all of them!

When we finally got home, after midnight, we cooked some more! My mom and I cooked until 3 am while my brother and dad set up a new table for the deck. My sister came home from her after grad party at about 2:30ish and was very confused to see us all up! Around 3 am when I finished the graduation hat cookies, rest of the bruschetta topping, and deviled eggs I finally went to bed, only to wake up right before 10 am to start cooking again! I decorated the graduation hat cookies, mixed up crab dip, sliced up tons of baguettes for bruschetta and crab dip, and made chocolate chip and chocolate peanut butter chip cookies.

I took a break around 12:30 for lunch. I had a yummy egg sandwich with cheddar cheese on soft oatmeal bread!
Then it was time for the grad party! Here is her pretty cake from costco!
And here are the chocolate chip cookies- recipe from the back of the Nestle Toll House bag- it never fails!
And the graduation hat cookies! The cookies themselves weren't that great tasting I thought- but they sure were pretty! The recipe is from Taste of Home and I subbed out the butterscotch chips for chocolate chips.
And my personal favorite- chocolate peanut butter chip! The recipe is on the back of the Recess Peanut Butter Chips! These cookies are so good and I don't know why I don't make them more often! They are really chocolaty and gooey and delicious!
And here is the dessert side of the table- all the cookies and cake.
And here is the whole table! Except more things kept getting added so not everything got pictured!
Deviled eggs that I made! I think the recipe has been posted before, probably around Easter

And my crab dip! I honestly don't know where I got this recipe- I printed it offline somewhere. It is 1 pound crab, 2 blocks of cream cheese, 8 oz sour cream, 1/4 cup mayo, 1 cup cheddar, 3 or 4 cloves of garlic, dash of worsteshier sauce, some dried mustard (i think about 1/2 teaspoon) and you mix it all up and cook for about 20 min. Then you stir it up and top it with some more cheddar and paprika and cook it for about 15-20 more minutes until the cheese is all gooey and bubbly! I highly recommend it, it is so good!
Well apparently I missed taking pictures of lots of other things! I also made bruschetta I chopped up tomatoes, onion, garlic, and basil and put it on baguette slices, topped it with some fresh mozzarella and popped it in the oven until the cheese was all melty and gooey! We have some leftovers so maybe I'll take pictures of them later because they were so yummy and pretty! And my mom made mini quiches that were super cute and really good! She also made meatballs with grape jelly and spicy ketchup! And we had a fruit bowl and veggie tray! And I think that is it!

This morning I had a cherry pie larabar on the way to church and then came home and laid out/ floated around the pool all day. We had some leftovers from yesterday for lunch and are about to have others for dinner!

I love me some Casa!!!

So yesterday I went to get coffee with Ashlee. We went to Crossroads which is this cute little coffee shop practically on campus. I got a vanilla chai latte and holy cow it was delicious! The only time I had ever had a chai latte before was from Starbucks and it disappointed me. I think it was partially because I wanted an iced apple chai and they didn't have those at that particular starbucks so I settled on the chai latte and it just wasn't what I wanted at all. I also think it was the addition of the vanilla that made it so amazing! Anyways I hung out and talked with Ashlee for about an hour before she had to head out- she was all done with exams and heading back to Virginia Beach for the summer. After that I started to get sad about leaving. I really don't like Richmond but I'm going to miss all my friends here!

So for dinner I used my last spinach wrap to make a pizza. It had hummus, onions, spinach, mushrooms, asiago, and some white cheddar that I chopped up from a Vermont White Cheddar cheese stick! I also topped it with a little garlic and dried basil. It was good but it was really missing tomatoes but I didn't have any so oh well.Then for dessert a fake samoa cookie- and then maybe another one. And then Megan came home and ate two and now they are all gone haha.
I enjoyed my dinner while watching Desperate Housewives and Brothers and Sisters. Then I did the free 20 minute hip opening flow #2 from Yoga Downloads. Wow- I know I have really tight hips but this felt so amazing/ was so painful at the same time. It also really helped me stretch and relax so I could fall right asleep afterwards. This morning when I woke up I am a little sore but it feels so good and I totally plan on doing it again today- maybe doing the power yoga first and then the hip opening one after if I have time tonight!

Today I woke up to a guy attempting to fix our ac. However it is beyond repair and we need another one so we have to talk to our landlord and then I guess order one. Probably I will be all moved out before they get the ac fixed! Good thing its not too hot today but it is super humid because it keeps randomly raining!

Megan and I met up with Emily at Casa Grande for lunch. Casa has been a VCU staple for me throughout my 5 years and its appropriate to end my VCUness with some Casa. It started out as a Maggie, Rachel, and I thing. Then when Emily and I met we discovered that we both had a fondness for it. I would go with "the Emilys" to Casa a lot and then Megan replaced Emily Reijmers and here we are today! I actually got Casaed out last year and Rachel discovered Viva Mexico which was closer so we started going there last semester quite a bit. However Maggie and I went earlier in the semester and now I went today! I feel like I've come full circle haha! Today I opted for the lunch taquitos because I have never had their taquitos before. It came with 2 beef taquitos lettuce, tomato, sour cream and guacamole all on top of mexican rice of course.
And of course the obligatory chips and salsa that come automatically and the queso dip that Emily always gets- the best queso dip ever!!!
Now I've got a couple things to do here and then I'm off to the computer lab to print out my 20 pages of psyc journals that I have to turn in tomorrow. Then I have to present a 2 page paper about recommendations to principals in my Ethics class. Then I will finally be done with one of the most pointless classes I've ever taken. Then Ashley and I are going to dinner! I'm not sure where we are going yet but I'm sure it will be amazing!

98 Weather + Broken AC= Miserable!!!

Hello!! It is super hot in our house because the ac is broken!! Today is a little better than yesterday but its still really hot! We called the AC guy to get it fixed and we got put on a waiting list and they are going to call us the day before they will be able to come! Apparently everyone broke their AC when they tried to turn it on for the first time in the 97 degree weather this weekend!!! Anyways I really do not have an excuse for not updating yesterday I was really not that busy hahaha! I started off the day with a Raspberry Chocolate Raw Revolution bar! It was pretty tasty but the one thing I did not like was that it was hardcore sticking to my teeth! I would check the mirror and see black spots all over my teeth from it!Then my grandparents came and picked me up and I took them to my church. They really seemed to like it and told me that I had picked a good one haha- too bad I only have one more week left down here but its all good because my church back home is really awesome too! But really how many people can say that they sit in the VIP section of a concert venue while going to church- its pretty cool! So after church we went to Joes for brunch! I got The Most Requested omelet that had feta, tomatoes, and spinach inside with home fries on the side. It was fabulous as Joes always is. My grandma got some huge breakfast combo with 3 ginormous pieces of french toast (of which she ate one), scrambled eggs, bacon, and homefries. My grandpa opted to go not the breakfast way and got the scallops- which was one of the specials of the day. They were both really impressed by everything they got. I love taking people to little places in Richmond like Joes because they are so fun and unique and they have great food!
So after brunch we came back and I gave them the tour of my house, they wanted to see where I've been living the past 2 years before I move out next week! They brought me my new power adapter (Dell sent me a new one because the other one wasn't charging my battery). Well after they left I plugged in the new power adapter and it still didn't work! I got the same start up message about it being plugged in to an unrecognizable adapter. And the battery symbol says its plugged in but not charging. So clearly this is a problem, especially since I only have 20% battery left! I called Dell again and talked to them for forever- the guy told me that it was probably something wrong with my motherboard and he would send a technician to my house and put me on hold. Then he comes back to say that oh no I don't have that kind of warranty so I have to send my computer to them and they'll fix it and I can get it back in about 8 days. I was like ok well I can't send you my computer right now I'm in the middle of finals so is it okay if I wait a week until my finals are all over. So he gave me like a case number and said to call back and give them the number and they'll send me a box to ship my computer to them whenever I'm ready!! ahhhh its such a hassle!!!

So anyways for dinner last night I just had some more leftover risotto. My camera was upstairs and I didn't feel like running up to get it in our 500 degree house just to take a picture of something that was on my last blog post- so see the last post if you want a picture!! Then Kylin, Grace, and I had a nail painting party!! We tried to get a bunch of girls together but everyone was super busy studying for exams and writing final papers and stuff. After Grace left Kylin and I watched 13 Going on 30! Then Megan came home and brought hot Krispy Kreme donuts so I just had to have one (and maybe another one later hahah)
Hot Krispy Kremes are so amazing they just melt in your mouth!!

So this morning we had our tutoring celebration! I had brought a bar to snack on but ended up having 2 juice boxes, fruit snacks, and a rice krispy treat instead hahha. So I've turned in everything and that class is completely done with hooray!!! So I came home and made a fabulous wrap for lunch- spinach wrap with a portabella garden burger, goat cheddar, spinach, tomatoes, and garlic aioli!
And a cookie for dessert!
It was all super delicious! After lunch I pretty much highlighted articles for my sped portfolio until my ethics class! After ethics the roomies and I plus Jonathan went to All Star to get sandwiches! The plan was get them to go and take them to Belle Isle to eat! However my class went over and then the sandwiches took forever to make so we decided we didn't really have enough time to go to Belle Isle before the sun went down :( but we are going to go on Sunday!!

I got the Tredegar sandwich which had balsamic tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and a pesto sauce

Yummm it was soooo good! I've never been here before but they had so many delicious looking sandwiches I'll have to come back!

Jonathan got some kind of steak sandwich.
Kylin got the same thing as me but here she is trying Megan's sandwich which I really am not sure what it was!! haha
I don't know if you can see that but thats the sandwich menu!! Their breakfast sandwiches also looked really good!
Then afterwards we decided to go to Shields Market and get some dessert and go take it and eat it on Jonathan's porch. I got a vegan tiramisu. It was super cute and super delicious.
It was kind of like a cupcake on the outside but the inside was all tiramisu deliciousness!!
So for the rest of tonight I'm probably just going to highlight some more articles for my sped portfolio and maybe go to bed early because I'm so tired. I feel like I haven't gotten much sleep the last few nights because its so hard to fall asleep when its this hot! Tomorrow after my class I might go over to Maggie's to sleep in the ac and also because Wednesday is a reading day and I have nothing to do!!

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!