Looking Back...

I've been blogging for years. I started on Myspace (gosh, that sounds embarassing), then moved to Livejournal and stayed there for a good chunk of time. I bounced around a bit until I finally settled here with this totally public blog. Seeing as I started back at 17, when I first started dating Jeff, things have changed a little! Every once in a while, I like looking back and remembering. I don't have Myspace anymore and most of my blogs have long been deleted, but I do still have some entries saved at Livejournal solely for the purpose of remembering.

Anyways. I'm sharing a little walk down memory lane, because I can.





I posted this sentence for Christmas 2009, along with a picture of my little family.

I hope 2010 is much better than 2009. I've got big plans and big changes.

I may have had big plans, but life threw bigger plans my way. I never expected to graduate and move out of our house before Thanksgiving, then spend Christmas at home with family before we started the new year in Japan. If 2010 took me by surprise, I have no doubt 2011 will too.





This has always been one of my favorite pictures of Guinness and me. This was in October 2009, and we were "helping" Jeff cook pasta for a work potluck.

Speaking of October, I also wrote this: Sometimes I just can't believe how lucky I am that I found Jeff so early in life.

Aww, lovey. But really. We drive each other crazy and we're always debating about something or other, but he makes me so happy. Even if he doesn't understand how books always trump their movie adaptations and everything tastes better with garlic.



I posted at some point in October 2009 about a conversation Jeff and I had...
"What do you want to do tomorrow?"
"I don't know, I have class all day."
"Well, what do you want to do this weekend?"
"Homework."
"After you finish homework?"
"Sleep."
"And after that?"
"More homework."
"There's no way you can have that much homework!"

Oh, I really don't miss that life. I think I'll need to erase things like this from my memory before I go back for my master's.



My early days of grilling and cooking:

You know you have a husband who loves you when you burn the shit out of a steak dinner and he still eats it without complaint, then compliments your cooking after.

I've gotten much better with cooking and grilling, and he still compliments my cooking :)





I was just telling my mom today how Fi used to chase shadows. She chases everything.


And one more, just because she was the cutest kitten. July 2009.





I need to go find something to make for dinner, so I should stop drowning in old memories!

Cooking with Spinach

I've never been a big vegetable person. I'm a bread and potatoes kind of girl. Give me one of those covered in garlic? Even better.

The one vegetable I love and have at nearly every meal is tomatoes. Which technically aren't a real vegetable, so I really can't win. Since I've been trying to cook and eat healthier, I've been trying to incorporate more veggies into my diet. One of those good for you veggies I've been working with lately is spinach.







_{Found on Google}

One way I've always loved spinach is fresh, mixed into a big bowl of salad. When we have salad, we load it with all sorts of different veggies, including fresh spinach. But since it's winter (because it sure doesn't look like spring!), most of those delicious veggies are less than fresh at the grocery store so a salad isn't that appealing right now. In a month or two, we'll be having salads left and right. Especially if they're served next to some grilled food. I'm impatiently waiting for warmer weather so we can assemble and start cooking on our grill.




_{Found on Google}

I recently tried my first green monster. It's basically a fruit smoothie with some spinach blended in, hence the "green". Her recipes usually call for milk, but I've had some V8 Fusion juice sitting in my fridge, so I've been using that to get an added kick of fruit and veggie servings. It's cold and filling and fruity, and it gives a boost of energy in the morning. I've always been a fan of smoothies, and these are no different. Try one, you'll love it!




_{Found on Google}

I read this tip somewhere online, but tonight I made spaghetti. Usually I brown some ground beef or turkey and add the pasta sauce and some seasonings. Today, I chopped up some fresh spinach and added it with the sauce and seasonings. I used a cup, maybe a little more, because I didn't know how it'd turn out. It was great--you couldn't taste the spinach at all. It added some fresh green color to the sauce, and it blended so perfectly. I waited until Jeff finished a plateful, than asked if he liked the spinach. He looked at me and said "What spinach?" Perfect! Next time I'll try adding some more, and we'll get a good chunk of veggies in our dinner, since the jarred pasta sauce also has a veggie serving or two. And since I paired it with a salad, tonight was pretty healthy! Until I toasted some bread and topped it with a garlic and basil butter spread I mixed...and then ate too many pieces. At least it was "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Light"?

You can't change a bread and potatoes girl overnight!

What's Cooking In Our Kitchen

Since we moved out here, I've been doing tons of cooking. I actually have time on my hands (a little too much at the moment!), and I've been enjoying using it to cook good meals at home rather than buying greasy fast food or mediocre restaurant meals. I've been trying a new recipe or two every week. Some are flops, some need tweaking, and some come out delicious. So I figured I'd start sharing.

This is the first recipe I've tried from Weight Watchers, and both Jeff and I love it. It's simple and quick and has delicious flavor without being overpowering. We pair it with a bag of steamed veggies for a super healthy dinner. Oh, and I don't have fresh herbs right now, so I use dried. It still gives a great flavor, but I'm looking forward to using fresh in the future.






PointsPlus™ Value: 3
Servings: 4
Preparation Time: 10 min
Cooking Time: 35 min

1 spray(s) cooking spray
1 pound(s) uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breast, four 4 oz halves
1/2 tsp table salt
1/4 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
1 tsp olive oil
2 tsp fresh lemon juice, or more to taste
2 tsp rosemary, fresh, chopped
2 tsp parsley, fresh, chopped
1/4 cup(s) canned chicken broth
1/2 medium lemon(s), quartered (for garnish)

Preheat oven to 400ºF. Coat a small, shallow roasting pan with cooking spray.

Season both sides of chicken with salt and pepper. Transfer chicken to prepared pan and drizzle with oil; sprinkle with lemon juice, rosemary and parsley. Pour broth around chicken to coat bottom of pan.

Bake until chicken is cooked through, about 30 to 35 minutes. Garnish with fresh lemon and serve. Yields 1 chicken breast half per serving.




Pioneer Woman's Beef Stew with Beer and Paprika. This is my favorite new recipe I've tried the past couple months. It took some tweaking to get it the way I wanted it, but once I did, it was a delicious beef stew that Jeff and I inhaled for days. The recipes on her website, so I'll just let you jump over there for it.

The first time I made it, I followed her recipe exactly and it was okay. Next time I tweaked. I realized I added too much liquid because I used beef stock and water on accident, rather than one or the other. I simmered the beef for about 4 hours before I added anything else, and by that time the beef was shredding and falling apart on its own. Jeff and I both liked that consistency a lot more than chunks of meat. I used light beer because it's what I had, and the broth didn't thicken like she described for me. So I added a flour and water mixture until the sauce was as thick as I wanted it. I loaded the stew with potatoes, carrots, and celery. With more veggies, it stretched longer and we had tons of leftovers to freeze or enjoy for lunches. I made it on a cold snowy day and it was just perfect. I kind of want to make another batch soon!



I tried my hand at homemade pizza dough recently. I ran out of olive oil the day I planned to cook the pizza, and without the oil the crust just didn't crisp and brown like we wanted it to. It was still loads better than a refrigerated pizza crust, but not quite *there* yet. I've got the other half of the dough (her recipes yields two crusts) hanging out in the freezer, so I'm going to attempt another pizza again soon. Jeff's a big fan of my homemade pizzas. I feel better since I load them with healthier things like turkey pepperoni and tomatoes. It's one of the few meals that he actually enjoys my tendency to overuse garlic! Although he doesn't enjoy my black olive love... We've been having pizzas about once a week, and he'll compare and contrast my different attempts. It's cute. We're working our way towards a pizza we both love.



Last night, I tried my hand at Annie's Eats' Orange Chicken. It was okay, but not my favorite. Next time I make it, I plan to tweak the sauce a little. It wasn't the mild, sweet flavor we envisioned when we sat down for orange chicken, but it was still good. I looked over the recipe again trying to figure out if I mis-measured something, but as far as I can tell it just needs tweaking for our personal tastes. Eventually we'll get the orange chicken we want!



This weekend, I'm getting ambitious and trying chicken gyros, with homemade pita bread! Jeff and I both love gyros, especially with lamb, but since we can't find lamb here and can't thinly slice it like our favorite restaurants back home, I jumped at the idea of using chicken breasts, which I always have around. We've tried a recipe for gyro lookalikes made with pork before; Jeff loved it and I was so-so about the pork. But chicken is always good.

I'll let you know how it turns out!


I never thought I would enjoy home cooking so much. I'm getting to the point where I can guestimate measurements and add seasonings I think will pair well with some confidence, instead of worriedly trying to follow the exact recipe. And I'm trying things I never thought I'd care about like making my own bread and salsa. The quality of food is SO much better than what we could get at a fast food place or even frozen. And since cooking with grease and fat and all that generally grosses me out, I cook much healthier. Like in the orange chicken recipe that calls for fried chicken bits, I just used a small amount of oil and browned rather than submerging the pieces in oil. A small change, but it makes a difference!


My lovely husband also appreciates my home cooking. He even accepts and encourages my healthy alternatives, urging me just to not tell him what's different or changed. The only time he's ever gotten frustrated with my healthy habits was when I tried to feed him veggie sausage patties. I thought they were delicious!