Hello. I am still in my post-final high. I did a little experiment this semester to see if I can live a semi-normal human life, by doing my homework in the morning, in order to make night time and weekend homework completion minimal. The outcome was quite positive, so let's see how far I can push the slacking this next semester.
I hope that everyone had an amazing holiday full of family, friends, and maybe a little treat or two. I had ten. Almond joys that is. As well as a plethora of delicious Christmas cookies. Here was my list this year for my annual exchange with Steve's Mom:
Chinese noodle cookies (made by the lovely Ms. Molly Reynolds)
Andes mint cookies
Peanut blossoms (even tastier with a dark chocolate hershey kiss, with a little extra crisp from Ms. Cathy Reynolds)
Pretzel rolo bites
White chocolate cinnamon pretzels
We wanted to make more cookies, but who has time for that with all the episodes of Wings to watch, cocktails to dream up, and shopping to finish? I still have another season left in case you were wondering.
My time home was previous as usual. I was also lucky enough to celebrate my cousin's wedding with my whole family. It was a beautiful ceremony, and the reception was full of classic Reynolds shenanigans. ANDDD my other cousin, the gorgeous Emily Reynolds, got ENGAGED on New Year's Eve! I am so thrilled for both her and her fiance. I also had a rather silly New Year's Eve, complete with spraying champagne on the ceiling, escargot, and Big Macs. It has been such an exciting and fun-filled month, so I am just going to pretend that time is not passing. That's healthy right?
I have had many a meal since I last posted, so I am sorting through to try to pick the best ones to share. First, let's go back to a family dinner a few months ago with my Milwaukee bffz Tracie and Caroline.
Caroline and I brought dessert and wine, and Tracie put this delicious trio together herself. She made a cold Asian noodle salad, with crockpot chicken in peanut sauce, and homemade fried rice! I don't have the exact recipe, but peanut sauce you can buy by the bottle and just use (generously in my case) with many different dishes. I did look up a recipe for the salad, because that stuff is like CRACK and I want to eat it all day everyday. Here is a recipe I might try by Guy Fieri: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/guy-fieri/dang-cold-asian-noodle-salad-recipe/index.html
Next was a one dish wonder. I've been trying to reconfigure my weeknight meals, seeing as I usually don't get home until 8:30 most nights, and Steve is about to start his crazy rotations. I'll be doing more research on make ahead meals and freeze ready stuff. So..more to come on that later.
This was pretty perfect for that. Chicken Tetrazzini combines a bunch of my fave ingredients (mostly pasta...and peas). It involved some minor prep work, and then throwing it all in the oven. What could be better? Here's the recipe: http://dailywaffle.com/2012/10/17/comfort-food-dead-ahead-chicken-tetrazzini/
Finally, I am truly spoiling you with this recipe: Chicken and butternut squash stew. It was blow-your-mind, make-again-every-other-week kind of good stuff. Also the recipe made a BOAT LOAD, and it produced several dinners for both Steve and I, as well as some lunches. The stew was CRAZY with flavor, and is perfect for a chilly night. This also might be a good time to stock up on spices that you always wish you had, but don't use enough to invest in, as many of them are called for here. I didn't have any plain yogurt, so we used sour cream, but yogurt would have tasted just as good if not better. Also I totally ignored the preserved lemon aspect of the recipe, as I tend to do. Also, I got an Iphone over Christmas, and downloaded an app called "food on the table". It's an app to help organize recipes, meal plan, and keep track of groceries. I thought this would help my flaws related to not reading recipes all the way and buying the wrong ingredients. Spoiler alert: it doesn't.
Anyways...here is the recipe: http://www.partial-ingredients.com/archives/3764
As for working out....hmm...I did try that once sometime ago...
But seriously I found a great website for at-home workouts with no equipment, for times that I go home for the holiday. This blogger is excellent, plus has a cute blog name. Here is the link to her at home workouts: http://www.pbfingers.com/2012/01/15/at-home-workouts/. I'm also pretty pumped about a cookbook I just got. I'm very picky about my cookbooks, and have only really found one that I use frequently enough that I can honestly say I've made about half of the recipes in the book (the seam is broken and pages are falling out..). So, I was pleasantly surprised to see the new edition of Great Food Fast, Fresh Flavor Fast, at Barnes and Noble the other day. This series offers a variety of simple dishes with a short list of ingredients so it's easy on the wallet, packed with flavor so it's easy on the palette, and relatively healthy (easy on the caboose). I would highly recommend Great Food Fast, and will keep you updated about Fresh Flavor. I've been thumbing through it the past few days, and I can see that it looks like it has great potential.
In 2013, I resolve to continue slacking on my blog posts when I am busy with school work, and to continue watching Wings and eating kit-kats. Speaking of...some peppermint bark is calling my name. I'm going to go take care of that...
Happy eating!
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