Putting an end to a ho hum week

Hey World,

So, I wasn't feeling to hot this week.  Nothing major happened I just wasn't sleeping well at all and was feeling pretty blue.  I recognized that I was being pretty pathetic; so with my first Stats test behind me I decided to ditch my night of homework for a night of relaxation.  It was oh so worth it!!!

Oh Carbs, beautiful carbs! This baked potato w/jalapeno bits and melted cheese definitely made for the perfect movie dinner.  College Cuisine may be simple, but that doesn't mean that it has to be bland! 

 What movie did that beautiful potato accompany?  The Royal Tenenbaums (which is one of my Dad's favorites).  I hadn't seen the movie before and it finally came up on my Netflix queue.  I honestly love Netflix and believe it is worth every single penny!  Who cares about that though, back to the movie.  If you enjoy dysfunctional families and great music then this is probably for you.  The characters are all extremely... quirky.  The acting was very well done and did I mention the music?  From Mark Mothersbaugh's original score to wonderful rock features such as Paul Simon's "Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard", Van Morrison's "Everyone", John Lennon's "Look at Me", The Rolling Stones' "She Smiled Sweetly" and "Ruby Tuesday", Bob Dylan's "Wigwam", and many others.  Let's just say that I was a little in love.

Where do the chocolate chip cookies come in to play?  what a silly question.  Chocolate chip cookies need no excuse! I wanted them so I made them and ate them!!! (Before you start thinking I am a greatly obese person I should mention that I went running first and restrained myself to two cookies that night. It was terribly difficult but I am trying to avoid sloth status here). 

So why do I advocate scrapping responsibility for a night of lazying around?  I finally slept people!! I don't know why I needed such a night but I did and sometimes it's just better to give in rather than fight such urges for the sake of productivity.  Now back to the textbook grind... 

Just Another Day...

Hey There,


    So remember when I said I was going to make the BBQ Chicken Pizza?? Me too.  Well, sadly that didn't work out :( My lovely guest chef and I didn't have matching schedules on Sunday.  Quite sad!! Want to see what I had instead???

Holy Cow! Is that cooked carrots? You betcha! Don't worry I know this is the lamest dinner ever.  I just remembered that I had a giant bag of baby carrots and that I haven't used this handy dandy steamer basket yet.  I did throw some butter and brown sugar in the mix but honestly won't be craving this ever.  I did get a lot of amusement out of using the basket but I feel like that may be a one time thing....  I'll definitely use it w/other vegetable dishes and what not but I'm really hoping that the pizza just works out next time.  It looks infinitely more satisfying....sigh.......

Before you run away thinking I consider cooked carrots a worthy dish (it really was about using the basket people), I promise that College Cuisine isn't always this boring!! The next night I had delicious pasta (yummmm).  I've had this artichoke pesto in my fridge and it was just begging to be used! Add in some chicken (marinated in....guess, guess, okay: artichoke pesto!), garlic (which I really need to cook longer next time a little crunchy bleh), and tomatoes.  I was very satisfied.  I will not be using the baby shells again.  I wanted to use pasta other than bowtie (my go to) and it was so uncooperative!  Honestly it was as if my fork repelled the pasta.  Slippery bastards!  Anywho I had it for lunch today and it was still tasty :)  I can't wait to experiment more! I should probably start using recipes.....

dreaming of BBQ chicken pizza....still

-Andrea

A blustery Day!!

BRRRRRRRRRRR (this is an icy color right?)


This is Arizona! I did not dress appropriately for today's weather.  I never quite believe the weather button on my ipod... today I should've (tomorrow I'm probably going to wear this embarrassing, but oh so warm, hat to fight off the chills).   Fortunately I found solace in the kitchen :)

The College Cuisine that warmed me right up... 

• Lemon Lift Hot Tea
• A delicious turkey melt >
• Southwest soup>
• Baked Apple slices 

 Notice the avocado??? Well you should because it made both of these meals TOP NOTCH.  Safeway was kind enough to sell them to me at an amazing price: 2/$1!!!! That's quite the deal for those of you who do not eat avocado (FREAKS!!!)  I love them too much..... Oh well you'll probably see tons of avocado related dishes if I am to remain a happy girl :)

<The Latte I made yesterday and wish I could drink right now... 






The Mini-Music Marathon that warmed my soul... 

• Midnight Coward: Stars
• Red Light: The Strokes
• Does This Mean You're Moving On: The Airborne Toxic Event
• Yes I'm Cold: Chris Bathgate
• Ali In the Jungle: The Hours
• Paranoia in B-Flat Major: The Avett Brothers
• Cameras: Matt & Kim
• You Don't Know Me: Ben Folds Five Featuring Regina Spektor 
• My Body: Young The Giant
• Clark Gable: The Postal Service
• Lovesick Mistake: Erin McCarley
• Smooth Criminal: Alien Ant Farm
• Unknown Brother: The Black Keys
• If I Ever Leave This World Alive: Flogging Molly 
• Ramblin' Man: The Allman Brothers

Gahhhh I wish I could just listen to music curled up in my bed alllllll day long tomorrow....

A girl can dream!!! 

I love tortillas. really. LOVE

Oh and I like LOVE CHEESE (I mean it's okay I guess...)

                                                                                    Dear World,

          < So Breakfast of champions am I right??? I made my roommate some cheesecake cupcakes last night for her birthday (I'll show pics once I get to eat one ...yummmmmm). What does that have to do with a breakfast burrito? Not a lot to be honest. The common denominator: eggs. When I bake I buy the half dozen carton of eggs (I try not to eat eggs too often even though they are wonderful). Well sad news, I open up my little carton and gracefully managed to break two of the six eggs on my trip home (I'm assuming it was me lol). Two of the good eggs went into the cupcake batter and the other two, well the other two momentarily went into my turkey container (the carton was NASTY! not salvageable I promise). In the morning I decided they might as well just go into my belly. Thank goodness I had decided to splurge on an avocado when I was at the store last night, oh and tomatoes. We also happened to have a little onion in the fridge and I had cheese!!! Too bad I used up my mushrooms last night but this was still a stellar breakfast treat. You may notice a little Frank's sauce peeking out in the background, yeah that went all over this burrito. Time to buy some sort of habanero sauce but Frank's does have a great flavor.

  Tasty looking dinner too ehh?>                                         So I am trying to be a healthier person (it really comes and goes but I want to develop good life habits and now is the time right??) which is the reason for my whole wheat tortillas (you thought I was going to talk about the vegetables didn't ya? Come on veggies are delicious!!! Especially mushrooms..and asparagus, and tomatoes <fruit right? w/e you get it...). Well earlier this year I bought some sort of multi grain tortillas. NOT IMPRESSED. I'm sorry, healthy does not mean sacrificing flavor. The texture was off (and I love multigrain bread! I promise) and I was always just a little disappointed with the creations I made using those tortillas. Well I was all ready to get flour tortillas but I decided that I would give whole wheat a chance. SO MUCH BETTER. That is a cheese and pear concoction right there (in case you were curious). I did not sacrifice ANY flavor with this one. Quite the tasty dinner I'd say. Fits right in with College Cuisine.

Fish Taco

Dear World,
    One day long ago (or last week), I decided that I really wanted a delicious creamy sauce to top off my chicken sandwich.  I love sauces I really will never understand how people enjoy eating food as plain as humanly possible.  You are missing out people!!!! Back to my no sauce dilemma.  I had Frank's Sauce which is freaking delicious, but I also wanted something creamy... hmmm what to do what to do? Then my plain greek yogurt jumped out at me and I had an epiphany.  Yes, mixing a little Franks into a little greek yogurt made a DELICIOUS sandwich topping.  I highly recommend it! Unless, you know, you are one of those "I prefer plain people" borrring! You may be asking yourself what this can possible have to do with fish tacos.  Good question world.  Well, as you may have noticed, my fish taco has a partner in crime sitting right next to it.  You guessed it, I decided to give the greek yogurt a second go.  This morning I woke up and marinated my fish in a little lime juice with cilantro and some lemon pepper salt, pretty tasty.  As I said, I like sauces, makes life interesting.  The second half of the lime juice went into a bit of yogurt as did some chopped cilantro.  I was not confident in this concoction (nor was I really eager to taste it after my bowl of oatmeal....).  Into the fridge went my fish and its sauce companion and off I went to school crossing my fingers that I would end up with an edible meal in the evening.  I'm sure you are all pleased to know that the sauce set up a bit more throughout the day and definitely added to my taco (which  just realized totally would've benefitted from a few beans :( next time readers, next time).  I was pretty pleased with this evening's meal and I am glad it was light because I was a lucky girl and went to FREE PIE NIGHT at village inn later on.  What a tough life eh?
                                                            -just a little saucy
                                                             Andrea

College Cuisine!! What's not to love?

Chicken Melt

College Cuisine 
yummmm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Dear World,

             Last year I lived in the dorms (which was a total blast and I believe everyone should take advantage of the experience if possible).  The dorm life does not come along with the most ideal food situation.  As wonderful as late night trips to the dorm market were (and trust me they were), microwave meals and TONS O PROCESSED FOOD gets a bit old.  Just to give you all some perspective I would look forward to going home and eating toast...TOAST!  Don't get me wrong, I love toast but it is not a delicacy;  I just didn't have a toaster in the dorm and really missed it :( (luckily Whataburger helped me curb my toast craving now and again...... delicious).
       I also missed eating chicken and really began to realize what a lucky lady this girl had been for being able to partake in many delicious meals every night for the previous eighteen years.  Thankfully I now live in an apartment with a kitchen.  What a beautiful thing!!  It's my turn at the stove and it can be kinda scary...  I really got into baking this summer and have been making plenty of birthday and holiday goodies (think snickers cheesecake, orange cranberry cornmeal cake, tunnel of fudge cake, cookies galore, etc.)  It is spring semester now and I would like to focus on expanding my cooking horizons.  I am pretty confident when it comes to baking (years of chocolate chip cookie baking as a staple form of entertainment), but my cooking knowledge is extremely lacking.  I've decided to showcase my attempts here for all of you lucky folk!
       Yesterday I was wondering how I could possibly use all of the mushrooms I had purchased before they went bad.  BAM chicken melt!  I was looking forward to making (and devouring) this baby alllllll day long.  I even told my dear friend that I was making a chicken melt for dinner.  She thought I was getting all excited for a chicken malt.  I like trying new things but that is just disgusting!  I still have a lot to learn but I can feed myself (woo!) and it is fun to experiment with the random things I buy each week.

                                                                                  -Friendly Food Fanatic
                                                                                                      Andrea

P.S. Hey mom! I can cook now (sorta) :)