Veggie Quiche and Apple German Pancake!!

If you read my blog then you know that I LOVE my 'In the Kitchen THE COSTCO WAY' cookbook. One of the really easy recipes I use when i'm being lazy about cooking is Veggie Quiche. I wasn't going to post it, but my picture of the Quiche made it look even better ha!

Since I got the 'In the Kitchen THE COSTCO WAY' cookbook i've been wanting to make the German Apple Pancake recipe. Today I finally got around to making it. Oh my it was soooo good!! Again it's easy so I was all about that. I spent the most amount of time peeling and cutting up the apples.

We liked it! ha

September 11th

With today being the eight year since 9-11 I thought i'd share some picture's from ground zero. Nicole and I went to New York in March, and one of our stops was ground zero. You actually can't see much with all the fences up, but the big open spaces is all you really need to see. The pictures that were taken inside, were in a little church that is right next to the World Trade Centers. When the attack happened all the buildings around the towers were hit in some way, this little church was left untouched. Our tour guide said it was as if there was a bubbly surrounding the church. This church become the center for people to post pictures of loved ones that were missing or for firefighters to take a nap. Over the years it became a small memorial for September 11th. I wasn't connected personally to the attackes, but going into the church it was full of emotion. Reading what families wrote to there missing loved one was something you never want to go through. On this day I hope everyone remembers to keep there loved ones close, even if it's just in thought. Say a small pray or moment of silent's for those who lost there lives for our country...

E.R. visit

Last night Frank and I had a fun night in the E.R.! Just before 9:00 last night we were taking the dogs out to go to the bathroom before we went to bed, I had asked Frank to go with me because there is an area we have to go down that had no light. I was a little bit ahead of Frank with Ellie and went to walk down the stairs [[which is the area that is in the dark.]], there are only 3 stairs but I missed the 3rd stair and rolled my right ankle. As soon as I fell I heard a really loud pop follwed by a small pop. Frank had to carry me back to the apartment, which was scaring me cause he was trying to speed walk and I was holding the dog leashes. I was freaking out that the dogs would trip Frank and we both would go down ha. I had Frank take the dogs out to go to the bathroom really quick then we put them in there cage for the night and headed to the E.R. Of course when we got there it was so crowed there were hardly any seats. Frank was a little suprised, I wasn't ha it was just after 9:00 so the busy time was starting to slow down. I got back to Triage in an hour then they put me in these insanly large wheelchairs, I felt like everyone was looking at me ha. After Triage is when I was starting to get pissy. There were 2 people that came in after me both needing X-rays but they both went back HOURS before to get X-rays. After 4 hours of waiting for X-ray's they called me back to sit in the hall.. the chairs were comfy and we didn't have to listen to people complain. So someone came over and said they would be looking at my X-ray's soon and figure out what's wrong. I was like "I haven't even had X-ray's yet" the nurse was a little suprised, but I got in for them not too long after that. I felt really bad for Frank because he had been up since 5 something in the morning and by this time it was around 2:30-3:00. There was a guy that had come in got back to Triage and then went to the back pretty quick [[it was slowing down at this point]] then I overheard the nurse say "warrant officer how can I help you?" I looked at Frank and said he needed to become an officer so we can get through lines faster haha. During all of this I know Frank wanted to leave cause we both new my ankle probably wasn't broken, but with what i've been through this year with injures and not getting them checked out for months I thought i'd do the right thing for once! I also didn't want to have to deal with more pain if something was wrong and I hadn't of gotten it checked. It was only a bad sprain, I got it wrapped and got crutches.. which I can't not walk in! i'm sure i'll end up back in the E.R. from falling with these things. They gave me some pills to help with the pain but i'm sure i'll only take a few of them. We finally got home after 4:00 in the morning. I woke up at 10:00 and Frank was still home, he had called one of his instructors around 6:00 and they let him stay home and sleep. I think they only let him since today was there last day of class so all they were doing were cleaning. He talked to a guy he goes to school with and he said they were only there for 2 hours, so i'm glad he didn't have to waste gas. At 11:00 we went back to bed till 2:30, so i'd say we're all caught up on our sleep =] Fun times for us ha!

Sorry if there are missed spelled words, i'm watching Ellen while writing this!

Manicotti!

Tonight I made Manicotti for the first time! It turned out great, Frank loved it =] It was suppose to be spinach manicotti, but I forgot to defrost the spinach. It still turned out awesome... and a salad went superb with it!

Ingredients

9 Manicotti noodles

2 cups low fat ricotta cheese

1/2 cup minced onions [[NO!ha]]

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

2 cups tomato or spaghetti sauce
1/4 cup shredded reduced-fat mozzarella cheese

Directions

Cook the manicotti noodles in a large pot of boiling water until flexible and cooked through but not soft. When ready, lift out of the boiling water and lay on a clean cloth kitchen towel. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Have a 9x13-inch pan on hand, either nonstick or a coated with nonstick spray.

Combine the ricotta, onions, salt, pepper, and Parmesan.

Spoon the filling into the manicotti noodles. Place the manicotti in the baking pan in one layer, touching each other but not crowed together. Pour the tomato sauce over the noodles, then distribute the mozzarella on top.

Bake for 30-35 minutes until bubble.

Stir-Fry

Stir-Fry was on the menu for dinner tonight =] We haven't had it in forever for some reason so I was really happy to have it tonight. I of course didn't realize that I didn't have everything I needed [[which you'll notice in the picture. I do add in carrots which they do not]] It was still yummy though. It's yet another recipe I got from 'In the Kitchen THE COSTCO WAY'. I freakin love that cookbook ha

It's so simple to make... as to why it's a favorite of mine!

Ingredients
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 cup of any of the following: beef strips, chicken chunks, shrimp or tofu chunks (mixing and matching is always good!)
2 cups chopped romaine hearts
1 cup chopped broccoli
1 cup chopped broccoli rabe
1/2 cup chopped cauliflower
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped zucchini (optional)
2 tablespoons each soy sauce and rice vinegar, or 4 tablespoons hoisin sauce
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
Cooked rice

Directions

Heat a wok (or heavy fry pan) over medium-high heat. Add oil. Add beef and stir-fry for 2 minutes (5-10 for shrimp, chicken, and tofu), or until fully cooked.
Add all of the veggies. Toss vigorously, adding either soy sauce and rice vinegar or hoisin sauce.
Continue tossing until the veggies soften to desired tenderness, about 2-3 minutes.
Turn off the heat and mix in garlic and lemon peel.
serve over rice.
ENJOY!!

Labor Day weekend

I hope everyone had a good Labor Day weekend! Frank's cousin Ricky came down from Pendelton for the weekend, it was nice having him down for a few day. I told him he needs to come back down when we have money and can actually do something! ha The dogs and I haven't been out of the house in about a week in a half, so we were more than ready to get out. I had planned a full day for the dogs to be able to get all there energy out and get some excercise on Saturday, but it didn't turn out as planned. We were able to show Ricky Sunset Cliffs... I think he liked it? We did attened 2 BBQ's on Sunday and I got to meet some of the people Frank is in school with. The first BBQ we went to was out in JAMUL!! This guy has a huge house with a huge backyard, but there is no way I could live that far away from base. It's about 30-35 minutes away, and i'm sure more if there is traffic. After our first BBQ we made our way to Ashley and Tony's for our second feast =] So all in all it was an okay day. Tonight we went with Ashley, Tony and Ricky to see Inglorious Bastards [[we had free tickets from my mom =)]]. I knew it was going to be a gory movie.. which it was, but I was happy that it wasn't too bad. It was a great movie! Brad Pitt was hilarious, the acting was awesome from all the actors. I say it's a must see.

So for a Nick update.. I forgot to update last week because it seemed to slip past me. This last week he only lost .6 pounds which his is lowest week yet. He does know that the liquor he drank on Friday didn't help [[I say he deserved to have fun, he doesn't drink.. it's been I think over a year since he last drank??]] and he did add in more calories this week so his body still needs to get used to it. Seeing the .6 gave him more motivation to work out really hard today! If you want to follow his blog to see how he's doing you can check it out here.

Egg Cassarole

One of our favorite dishes to make is the Hearty Egg Cassarole from 'In the Kitchen The COSTCO WAY' ironically we've never had it for breakfast ha. I took a picture but forgot to put the memory card in, so you can go here to check it out. What I love about this is that it's so simple to make, and you could easily add your own ingrediants. The best part, it makes LOTS of leftovers =] yum!

Ingrediants

Cooking Spray

1 28-ounce package frozen Southern-style hash potatoes, about 6 cups [[I use the whole bag]]

1 8-ounce package shredded sharp Chedder cheese (2 cups)

10 eggs, well beaten [[I use just under 2 cups of liquid egg whites]]

1 cup reduced-fat sour cream

1 cup skim or low-fat milk [[I always cook with Soy milk]]

2 tablespoons honey Dijon mustard (optional)

1 teaspoon salt [[I try not to cook with salt! ick]]

1/4 teaspoon ground pepper

Sliced red onion (optional)

Parsley sprig (optional)

Mixed greens (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Evenly coat a 13-by-9-inch (3 quart) glass baking dish with cooking spray.

Evenly spread potatoes in the dish. Sprinkly with cheese.

In a large bowl, beat together eggs, sour cream, milk, mustard, salt and pepper until throughly blended. Pour over the potatoes.

Bake until puffed and browned and no visible liquid egg remains, about 45 minutes.

Garnish with onion and parsley, sevre with mixed greens (if desired).

Apartment

I realized that some people [[mostly my mom]] probably wanted to see our apartment now that we have been here for awhile and have it furnished... for the most part. After I uploaded all these pictures, I realized that I should have just made a video. Would have been MUCH easier! ha. I also realized that after I uploaded these I somehow got a few pictures out of order. Whoops! So here's our little home...