HTML is killing me!

It has been a whirlwind past couple of days. Filled with lots of green monsters to go on the way to babysitting.
And snacks before/ during/ or after. Freeze dried apples
And real apples, with cheddar!
On Monday I worked just in the morning so I roasted up some egg plant for lunch when I came home and made a wrap with the eggplant, tomatoes, parsley, cheddar and swiss and microwaved it until the cheese was gooey.
For dinner I had my first raw pasta experience!!!!!!! I don't have a spiralizer so I used my box grater on the side closest to a "pasta" to grate half a zucchini.

Then I mixed up a sauce based very loosely on this Raw Tahini Pad Thai Recipe. I really have no idea what I put in it, it was things that I had and I kept adding spices and tasting it until it tasted good. I then dumped it all onto my "pasta" but too late realized that it was entirely too much sauce. I would have grated up more zucchini except I only managed to steal half of one before my mom cooked them all. So all in all I think I like the raw pasta but this sauce wasn't my favorite thing and I'm excited to try it again with other sauces (I am dying to put some pesto on it!).
Oh I also had some potato salad and watermelon (with a very few blueberries on the side because they got dropped all over the floor and the dog promptly ate them all.)Yesterday was excited because I found my Mighty Maple Peanut Butter & Co peanut butter at Giant!!!!!!! When I got home I immediately had a spoonful. I also stalked up on apples and beats because my juicer should be here tomorrow! yay!
My sister and brother went to lunch at Lion & Bull- a new restaurant that just opened in Haymarket and where my sister works. I had been craving calamari so my sister brought some home for me. For dinner I topped a salad with the calamari and had some crab dip. We had extra crab leftover from the weekend so of course we made some crab dip (the recipe was posted when I made it for my sister's graduation party). The calamari was pretty good, it is hard to tell exactly how it is at the restaurant because it had been in the fridge and warmed up in the oven. However nothing compares to the awesomeness that is the calamari at 3 Monkeys in Richmond. I am really missing my Richmond restaurants.
Today I didn't have to work until 3 so I got to sleep in, which was wonderful! For breakfast I had some vanilla Chobini with cranberry coconut granola. It was delicious!
Then I mostly lounged around until lunch. I made an open faced crab sandwich inspired by my favorite dish at Strawberry Street Cafe in Richmond. (seriously this post is making me miss Richmond like crazy!) It was basically toasted bread smeared with crab dip and topped with campari tomatoes.
Then I babysat and came home for a new Annie Chun's to try for dinner! The Korean Sweet Chili bowl. It was amazing, slightly spicy but not too much. This is my new favorite Annie Chun's! I also noticed on the box it has a spice o'meter lol. I don't know if this is a new thing or if I just noticed it lol, but I think its a great idea! I think the medium spicyness like this dish is perfect, less spicy is a little too bland but more spicy is a little too much for me.
After dinner I made cookies. We had a bag of peanut butter chips and my mom has been bugging me to make cookies for a while. They were so good, super chocolaty because I added extra cocoa powder!
Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies
1 1/4 cups butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
1 bag peanut butter chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350
2. Beat the butter and sugar until fluffy
3. Add the eggs and sugar and mix until well combined
4. Add the cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt and mix together
5. Slowly add the flour and then stir in the peanut butter chips.
6. Drop by rounded tablespoons on a cookie sheet and bake for 8 minutes.
7. Cool on wire rack or parchment paper.


So as I said a couple of days ago I've been trying to update the layout of my blog. I've been working and working and cannot get it. Does anyone know anything about html because it is driving me crazy? The things I've been trying to do are make a 3 column layout and tabs at the top that can go to a recipe and about me section. I even downloaded a thing that helped me make the tabs I wanted and gave me an html code but when I put it into my blog it did nothing. And I followed directions on a couple websites for the 3 column layout and I can get my blog to 3 columns but the far right column is at the bottom of the page instead of the top and I have no idea why or what to do to fix it. I don't want to change to a new template because I love the one I have, and most of the 3 column templates that I've tried do weird things to my header. So if you have any advice then please let me know!

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!