glee

I am in LOVE with this show!!! I seriously can't get enough of it, I was almost in tears laughing so hard at tonight's episode. If you haven't seen it you should watch the first couple episodes at hulu.com. I really hope this show lasts for a long time cause it's a good one =]. It's on Wednesday's at 9:00PM on FOX.. well in San Diego at least ha make sure to check your local listings!

Cinnamon Apples

One of the few cookbooks I have is '1,000 Lowfat Recipes', it's gigantic! ha One of the recipes i've been wanting to try for about a year now is the Cinnamon Apples. It's insanly easy to make I just never had enough apples for the dish. When we went shopping last week I told Frank to get enough apples so I could finally try this. The dish is pretty good, I should have sauted them longer though. They taste like softer apples with some flavor to them. We gave a little to the dogs and they LOVED them! ha They've been sitting in front of the counter for the last 10 minutes waiting for more. If you love apples and cinnamon you should try this =]

Ingredients

4 Granny Smith apples

1 tablespoon sugar

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon[[I love cinnamon so I use lots!!]]

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

2 teaspoons oil

Directions

Core and peel the apples. Cut each apple into about 10 wedges [[I ended up cutting each apple into 16 wedges]]. Toss with the sugar, cinnamon, and thyme. They call for salt but I don't add it, so if you'd like you would add it in right now. Heat the oil in a skillet, then saute the apples over medium-high heat for 7-10 minutes, until the apples soften but still retain their shape. Add 2 tablespoons water if softer apples are desired.

Old Town

This afternoon Frank and I went to Old Town to see what it was all about. It was okay, it was nice since it was Sunday and kinda dead there. I wouldn't mind going back again though, today I was just blah and not in the mood to do much. Hope everyone had a good weekend =]

Pizza Pizza

Who doesn't love pizza!?? I love making my own rather than buying it cause... it's just better ha. Making it yourself it's never greasy and you can make it healthier =] yay

This is what I put on our pizza and how I make it, but you can obviously do whatever you want with it.

Ingredients

Pizza crust

Mozzarella cheese

Parmesan cheese

Feta cheese

Oregano

Pineapple

Pepperoni

BBQ Sauce

Directions

I just put on however much cheese I think looks good, always more mozzarella than anything. After the mozzarella and parmesan I put on some oregano then the pineapple and pepperoni, top it with very little feta then the bbq sauce. ENJOY!!

Dinner and Dessert!

Ohhh what a good night for dinner and dessert!! I decided a while ago to get a library card and just check out cookbooks since I don't have the money to buy them. I checked out 'The South Beach Diet Cookbook' and found a lot of good recipes. Tonight I tried lettuce wrappers with shrimp, they turned out so good!! You can easily switch up the shrimp for tofu or chicken like they do at P.F. Changs.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon oil

1 pound large shrimp, peeled, and chopped [[I just used small frozen shrimp so I didn't have to chop them]]

1/2 cup finely chopped celery

1/4 cup water chestnuts, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 teaspoon ginger

1 tablespoon hoisin sauce

1 tablespoon light soy sauce

1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

8 large leaves Boston lettuce [[I used 6, 3 for each of us and it was more than enough]]

Directions

Heat the oil in a wok or large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the shrimp and stir-fry until they are opaque. Remove the shrimp to a bowl and set aside. Add the celery, water chestnuts, garlic, and ginger, and stir-fry until the vegetables are crisp-tender. Return the shrimp to the wok and add the hoisin sauce, soy sauce, and vinegar. Cook for 1 minute, or until heated through. Evenly divide the shrimp mixture among the lettuce leaves.

For dessert I made Chocolate Caramel Brownies. I tried making these months before but didn't have the right size dish, and it just turned out like crap. I knew for sure I was going to try making this again... and it turned out awesome!! It's really rich and nowhere near being good for you like our dinner was ha. I make stuff like this so I can have just a little bit then have Frank take the rest to work.

Ingredients

14 ounces caramels

1/2 cup evaporated milk

1 package chocolate cake mix

1/3 cup evaporated milk

3/4 cup butter, melted

2 cups milk chocolate chips

Directions

Peel caramels and place in a microwave bowl. Stir in 1/2 cup evaporated milk. Heat and stir until all caramels are melted. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, grease a 9x13 pan. In a large bowl, mix together cake mix, melted butter. Place 1/2 of the batter in the baking pan. Bake 8 minutes. Place the remaining batter into the fridge. Remove brownies from oven and sprinkle with chocolate chips on top. Drizzle caramel sauce over the chocolate chips. Remove brownie mix from the fridge. Using a teaspoon , make small balls with the batter and smash flat. Very carefully place on top of the caramel sauce until covered. Bake for another 30 minutes.

Lasagna take 2

Since we don't have the money to go out for our anniversary, I wanted to make something Frank would like. So I decided to try making Lasagna again. I'm not sure what recipe I used for the first one, but this one worked great and was delecious!!

I've made this salad before but Frank didn't like it the first time cause you're suppose to make it with spinach. I also didn't use as much vinager as they say to use so it wasn't so sour. I added in raspberry's which was good since the more fruit the better =] I of course got the recipe from 'In the Kitchen THE COSTCO WAY' you can check it out here.

Happy 2nd Anniversary to me and Frank!!!

Today is mine and Frank's two year wedding anniversary. It is also the first year we spent the whole year together =] This last year was crazy busy! And this last month has been a very trying time for us money wise [[we've been getting bills from nowhere that some we shouldn't even be getting. it's crazy]]. I'm really excited to see what this next year brings us!! YAY <3

5 pounds down and a doctors visit!

Today is Monday, meaning it's Nick update time ha! These pictures I used as recent are from last week and he's lost 5 pounds since then. He was pretty excited cause this was the first time he's worn jeans in years! And he now fits into his first pair of goal jeans that are a size 38. This last week he changed up his diet and saw a good result out of it with the 5 pound loss. WAY TO GO NICK!

In other news I finally had my appointment for my back. I was worried that I wasn't going to get much out of the visit and that I wasn't going to like the doctor.. yadda yadda. Anyways, I really liked the doctor so I will continue to see him while we are here in San Diego. I also figured out what is wrong, sciatic nerve. No this wasn't a suprise to me or anyone really, but I wasn't 100% sure since i'm not a doctor or anything. He actually told me I should start doing yoga to help [[my mom LOVED that! haha]] and gave me a packet of stretches to do and other info. My mom was hoping he would send me to physical therepy but it might be cause at the moment i'm doing okay with the pain. I'll go back in 2 months for a check up to see how i'm progressing and if nothing is happening then i'll ask to go to physcial therepy. One thing I really liked about him, is that he didn't push medications on me. I've been to doctors who would rather give me pills than lets say take yoga! So i'm pretty happy =)
Let's see... my ankle still hurts, but I just got to deal since tomorrow is PAYDAY!! And I have a million things to get done. YAY for having money to pay all the bills!!!!