Catching Up on Cooking

I haven't been posting, but I have been cooking! Or at least what I consider cooking....

Over the past 2 weeks, I've made a Greek pasta salad, chicken enchiladas, cream cheese cookie bars (no picture), a sausage cheese roll, and a zesty chicken wrap. The only thing I def really liked were the enchiladas. I have ingredients to make a meatloaf later this week as well. I just wanted everyone to know that I am actually sticking to this goal and making random recipes. hahaha.

Now that I'm looking at these pictures, they all look kinda gross.... hahahaha. They were edible though!!! :0)

My 30 Day Death Sentence

My friend Robyn has this insane idea to follow Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred every day in August. She is determined to do level 1 every day for 10 days, level 2 every day for the next 10 days and then finishing off with level 3 for the last 10 days. For those of you who have never heard of this, consider yourselves lucky. For the rest of us, you understand that my friend must have a fragile state of mind to want to attempt this. I love her dearly, but this seems like a suicide mission. I've barely made it 4 times in one week on level 1! Of course that was 1 time that has never been repeated.

So can someone please tell me why, when Robyn asked me if I wanted to join her quest for a rock solid body, I accepted?! Sure, I want a fit body, but this challenge seems insane! I can't have my friend facing this type of death on her own though. At least we're in it together.

Yesterday was Day 1 (obviously since it was August 1st). I am definitely pretty dang sore right now... though not as sore as the very first time I attempted this workout. Let's hope I can keep it up. Only 29 days to go..... ugh.

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Potluck #1

The mister and I went to a potluck BBQ at the park this weekend with some family. Did anyone else notice that dreaded word - potluck???? Clearly these people don't know me well enough if they expect me to make something edible to share with everyone else. I have no idea what they were thinking.

I pondered and pondered what I could possibly make. I know I said I wanted to learn to cook, but debuting my first dish like this in front of so many people was a little..... overwhelming. It was in the dead of summer so we expected hot weather. A cold pasta salad seems like an appropriate dish right? I googled a few different things and came up with a Greek pasta salad.

After 45 minutes wandering the aisles at the grocery store, I finally made it out of there with pretty much all the ingredients I was going to need. I went home and chopped, sliced, minced (I actually had to look up what it meant to mince - don't judge) until I had what faintly resembled food. All I had to do was refrigerate it and then top it with cheese and fresh oregano leaves. I was quite impressed with myself.

As far as I know, it tasted like food too! I actually don't like pasta salad so I just had a few bites, but it was cleaned out at the potluck. Woo hoo!

Check out the recipe I used here: Greek Pasta Salad

Cooking!

I seriously suck at this. I don't understand why, let alone how, someone would spend their time after work cooking meals. I'm happy when I make it to the fridge to pull out the milk for cereal. I've always been the one who wants food asap. I'm not interested in waiting 20 minutes to cook it. It seems like wasted effort and time to do this when there are simple solutions (mac & cheese, cereal, etc). I eat like a poor college student and I would rather spend the time on something different.

Well I've decided that I want to learn how to cook. Clearly it's no surprise that my skills in the kitchen are minimal if any. I really want to change that. I'm always given recipes from people saying it's really quick and simple, but I feel overwhelmed just looking at it. It seems like a lot of work to me! I want to get to a point where I have recipe success and can pull things outta my mind. I want to feel comfortable with adding a few spices that aren't included in the recipe. I want to learn to cook!!

So here's the thing: I want to try out 3 new recipes a week. That's right. I'm going to cook 3 new dishes EVERY week.

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First things first.... I need to find a cookbook!

Oops

Let's face it: I suck at keeping up with a blog. It baffles my mind that someone can write something interesting everyday. I struggle to update my Facebook status let alone write some awe inspiring narrative about my life. I think that's my problem; I'm wanting everything I say to change lives. Well no wonder I NEVER write anything. Haha.

I know I know... I'm supposed to be training for that marathon. I went for a short jog on Tuesday. Does that count? I'm working on it... give me a break.

I did just recently move so that had taken up a lot of my time. Now I'm in the process of potentially suing my previous landlord (don't ask - long story).

So this is me apologizing for sucking at blogging.

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Goals in Life

In no particular order:


- Raise a family

- Travel to Europe

- Run a marathon

- Write a book

- Reach my goal weight

- Learn to cook

- Finish college

- Be debt free

This is just me thinking outloud and needing to post it somewhere I won't lose. haha.

Hoppity - Hop - Hop

Over the past week or so, the mister and I have been visited by a few extra guests. It started off with just one and then escalated to two and then all of a sudden three, etc.

Our neighborhood has bunnies.

These aren't jackrabbits or wild rabbits or anything like that. These are the type of bunnies you would buy as pets. You know what I'm talking about, right?

One day we went outside and saw a cute white bunny in our yard. Naturally, I was like "WTF?" I mean, what is a random pet bunny doing in my yard? I tried to get closer to it (because I wanted to catch it and keep it and love it forever and ever and ever....), but the little jerk hopped away. Doesn't he know I would make a great mom?! Jeeeeeez.

During the next week, we started seeing 2 white bunnies. Then a random brown bunny showed up in our backyard! We opened the back door to let the doglet out and he kinda freaked out seeing a bunny almost the same size as he is sitting in the garden (btw, this totally explains who has been eating all of the mister's crops). When we tried to approach it, he ran and slid himself through a crack in the fence between our yard and the neighbors yard. It was quite impressive. I could barely fit my hand through that crack and he just squished his whole body through it!

So anyways, this morning the mister calls me after he left for work saying that he saw 5 bunnies! I know bunnies are supposed to multiply like crazy, but these were all big bunnies. Where in the world are they coming from?! They have spread out over the 4 houses now too.

I'm waiting to see little baby bunnies. :o)