Chicken Salad Pita Sandwiches

Super easy, as most of you know, but it was time for a new post. They were very yummy! And healthy, which is something I need to be eating more of. There was plenty of leftover chicken, celery and grapes which is gonna be great for snacks when I don't want to use my meal plan during the week. Not really much to say about these little guys so here's a picture. I'll be posting again tonight or tomorrow sometime.

I need to work on the pretty-ness, but they still tasted yummy! :)

FYI

I probably won't be posting for a little while, about a week or so. I'm finishing up my last couple days at home, spending time packing and playing in the snow because apparently it's not gonna melt for a while. I would cook a little something, however I can't leave my house.

Once all the ice is off the roads, its back to Statesboro for me. Once I get settled in, I'll be making a welcome home dinner for me and my roomie. So don't think I've abandoned all ya'll... just taking some time off!

this is my f avorite picture of my roomie/best friend and myself :)

so much snow!

this was after only about an hour of it snowing.  we ended up getting about 5 inches, with a half inch layer of ice on top!

Cucumber Melon Salad & Red Velvet Cheesecake!

Because you gotta have somethin to counteract the healthy salad ;)

Two days posting in a row for me! This has got to be some kind of a record, okay well it is a record. I'm very proud of myself, even if no one is out there reading. So I found the Cucumber Melon Salad recipe in my lovely "College Cooking" cookbook. The Red Velvet Cheesecake recipe is a Cheesecake Factory recipe, found in my daddy's new cookbook that he got for Christmas. Can you tell we like to cook?

So having to stay away from the middle of the kitchen - dad put up a new ceiling fan and it isn't too steady - while cooking all this is a challenging task. The Cucumber Melon Salad was, once again, quite easy. All you need is a canteloupe, a lime, two cucumbers, a couple tomatoes, sunflower seeds, chives, oil and vinegar. Mix it all together, and there you go! I'm not even a huge fan of salads, but it was great :) It would make for an awesome summer treat, maybe for a pot luck or something?

The Red Velvet Cheesecake however ... much different story. It just started off bad because I somehow lost the red food coloring, had to go all the way back to the store and buy another $2.50 teeny tiny bottle of the damn stuff. Cheesecake in itself is a difficult task, then there's the red velvet cake. Everything was fine until the cutting of the cake... the final product is layered - cheesecake, red velvet, cheesecake, red velvet. So, in turn, I had to cut the stupid red velvet cake in half. (Can you tell I'm frustrated?) Obviously it ended up very uneven, but its just about the taste, right?? I keep trying to tell myself that ... then the cheesecake part was difficult to spread on - once again, I just dug in and used my hands. I find that much easier. Then you have to chill the entire Red Velvet Cheesecake - FOR SEVERAL HOURS. Let's just say I decided to just give up on it for tonight and start back on it tomorrow because I started this whole shin dig at about 6 PM and its already 9:30. Once chilled (or not) then its time for the frosting. Frosting. Really?!? As if this needs to be more fattening. I'll let ya'll know how that goes tomorrow when I make it. Pictures will be posted as well :)

Day 2:
Alright so the cheesecake is finished! It tastes great - kinda chewy, I think. But oh well, I tried my best!! We've got about 6 inches of snow in here in Georgia, yeah GEORGIA! So today has been filled with sledding and snow ball fights. I'm ready for it to be gone now though, bring on the sun!

yummy cucumber melon salad!

not the prettiest thing in the world ... just as long as it tastes good, right?

Chicken Parmesan & Apple Pasties :)

Okay so as you can very well see, I never followed through with the homemade chocolate pudding. It'll get made eventually though...

So I'm leaving to go back to school next Thursday and I'm trying to do something nice tonight and make dinner for my parents. (Sweet, huh?) I got a "College Cooking" cookbook for Christmas and tonight its getting put to work! I've never made either of these before, okay to be honest, I haven't made really anything before. Besides mac and cheese, of course :)

First off is the chicken parmesan ... fairly easy to make, just follow the recipe. Although the egg-cornflake mixture is very messy! The cookbook has spaghetti alongside it, so if you know how to boil water and buy some ragu, that's the easiest thing to make! Ha ha :) After the flour, egg, cornflake messy chicken is baked - all you have to do is add some spaghetti sauce (aka ragu) and the cheeses on top, bake it for 10 more minutes and you're good to go. It smells amazing and oh I wish ya'll could taste this, it's absolutely delicious!

Then the apple pasties. SO EASY! The only part that was even remotely difficult was peeling the apples. But all you need is sour cream, one egg, 3 apples (I'd even do less because I had plenty left over), cinnamon and some pie crusts. At least I think that's it.They were delicious as well! I even had some of the filling left over, which makes for a good afternoon (or midnight) snack!

chicken parmesan & spaghetti!

apple pasties :)

Happy New Year!

Yes, I know... I'm already slacking on this thing and its been less than a month. However, this Christmas/New Year's has been pretty busy - so that's my excuse. I hope everyone had a great Christmas like I did. The only thing that could have made it better was being in Nashville with my entire family, but it was still amazing! I got my first pair of Tom's and I'm in love with them :) a Jason Mraz polaroid book (he's my favorite person in the entire world), movies, a few cd's, a HUGE shopping trip which means new running shorts! And so much more. New Year's Eve was just as amazing. Although I didn't get to bring it in with my best friend, Amanda, I got to be with my twin and some other great people!

Now onto the cooking, I did cook plenty for Christmas ... mac & cheese, dressing, banana pudding and sausage balls. I just didn't take the time to document. My next attempt will be homemade chocolate pudding - can you tell I love chocolate? I'll be doing that today, or tomorrow at some point.

So I haven't abandoned this little project just yet... Happy New Year to you all! :)

Cookie Dough "Troubles"

Okay, honestly they weren't that much of a "trouble" to make. The mixing part was a b*tch though. Or it could have been the fact that I was trying to be a man about it and mix with a wooden spoon, instead of the mixer. Eventually, I moved to the mixer. The mixer just looked ridiculously difficult though, once again, I'm wrong. We just got one of those fancy mixers, the one with the stand. Know what I'm talking about? Anyways, besides mixing being a b*tch... the chocolate was EVERYWHERE. And I mean EVERYWHERE! The stupid recipe said to "dip" the cookie dough balls with a spoon. So I tried it, and couldn't get the hang of it. Then I tried to "drizzle" the chocolate on to the cookie dough balls with a ziploc back. WRONG! The chocolate took on human form, busted out of the bag and went all over my hands. So, I improvised and rolled the cookie dough balls all in my chocolatey hands. It worked, quite well actually... just a teeny mess. Okay, a huge mess. But it was fun, I have to admit.

Anyways... so I'm making these for one of my best friends in the world, Dalton. He's one of the only boys in the whole world I can always count on. I'm seeing him for the first time in a very long time today, way too long if you ask me. He got back from the University of Miami late last night. So i'm bringing all 49 of these - yes, I said 49. They weren't kidding when they said this makes A LOT - to the wrestling match up at my old high school today. I'm sure the wrestlers will steal a few, okay ... more than a few. But its okay, i miss them too. (That rhymed!)

So the truffles weren't a complete disaster, they tasted great! For my first time cooking on my own, I'd have to say this was a success!

The ingredients! (Plus some vanilla and flour)

This is what I was talking about, cookie dough is a b*tch to mix. However, I tackled it!

Some of the FORTY-NINE cookie dough balls

FORTY NINE!

FINISHED PRODUCT!

FINISHED PRODUCT!

the messy, messy chocolate.

Blogging 1101.

Wow, they really should make a class for this. "Blogging" is definitely more complicated than it seems. Just trying to get my profile to look cute is some WORK! Which is exactly what I don't want this to be, work. This blog is something I spontaneously decided to do, hopefully I stick with it. That's been a problem for me in the past. I'm known to buy a journal - or 10 - write in it for a couple days, then give it up. More than likely, this will end up getting ignored, but for now let's stay positive :)

The purpose of doing all of this is to get me cooking. Oh, and trying to make time for it between studying, sleeping and trying to have somewhat of a social life. Should be interesting, huh? I've always had the typical "American Dream" in the back of my mind. Husband, white picket fence, dog barking, 3.5 kids... yep, that whole deal. Hopefully that's quite a few years away... However, when it happens (and I just know it will) I want my kids to say their mom is the BEST cook in the WORLD. I want my house to forever smell like cookies and home-cooked meals (without the help of candles).

So why not start now? If I'm trying to be the best in the world by the time I have those 3.5 kids, I'm  gonna have to get a head start on it. I'll be trying random recipes that I happen to come across, whether it be my Nana's chicken & dumplins recipe (which will be last, because it's nearly impossible to make them as good as her) or some random recipe found online. The random online recipe will be first. I'm going to ATTEMPT making cookie dough truffles. Should be easy enough, don't even have to bake it! That's going to be happening on Wednesday, for now I'll stick to figuring out how to work this thing.