Tuesday Secret

Tuesday. It has become a day that I dread and look forward to at the same time.  Dread because I have a class that goes until 8pm. Look forward to because of our tuesday night dinner.  What is this dinner you might ask? Well let me tell you, in the form of a story. (Quite a short story really)

There once was a boy. He met a girl. They fell in love. Now they are married. One night, this boy and this girl were feeling hungry. "What shall we eat?" they both said. In fact, it turned into a chant.
"What shall we eat?"
"What shall we eat?"
"What shall we eat?"

The girl said, "I could make something." The boy said "Nah, that sounds like too much work." So the girl began her search. She looked high and low through a place called Google. Many places she did visit but alas there were too many possibilities!
"What food do you feel like, my love?", The girl inquired.
"Pizza!", The boy responded. (The girl should of known this by now, but alas it had only been a few months!)
And so the search was narrowed. The girl once again searched. This time, going to more specific places such as "Little Caesars" and "Dominos". Fate intervened at this time, for then she looked at "Pizza Hut" There, on the screen so big you couldn't miss it was "It's Tuscani Tuesday, Pasta for 2 $6"  Could this be true? It couldn't be true. It was too good to be true!!! But as they soon came to find out, it was true. A pasta and 5 breadsticks for only $6!!!
They ordered. They waited (10 min). They picked up. They devoured.
Their tummies were full, they were felt exuberant and they couldn't ask for anything more.
The end.

So, as could probably be guessed by this great story, tuesday nights are now our Tuscani Tuesdays. Evan orders at around 7:45 and then when I get home, dinner is served! They even have two options, meaty marinara or creamy chicken alfredo. We switch off every other week.
We think this deal is too good to be true, but its still going so far!
And that is our Tuesday Secret. Enjoy!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!

As I'm writing this post, I'm listening to the song "Changes" by David Bowie. If you haven't heard it, go listen to it right now. Seriously, go. It's good to hear at least once in your life! 
Anyway, the past couple months I've been itching for some change. Which is funny because i've had a lot of change in my life in the past six months.  But the kind of change i've been itching for is with my hair. I've mentioned it to Evan at least once a month since we've been married but it's been more of a joke.  I actually never really thought about coloring my hair because I really like my brown hair. It just seems like me. I've been talking about a cut. A drastic cut!  I guess I have wimped out on that one for now.  The thing that finally motivated me to get into action was looking through a lot of pictures over the years.  As I looked at each year, going back at least five years, I realized I hadn't really changed my hair ONCE. I've had it the same length, give or take a few inches, and the same color, give or take a blonde stripe :), for the entire time! These pictures prove my point:

Left, 2008. Right, 2012 Point PROVEN!
I've been saying to myself, "You have every reason to just do it. You have had the same hairstyle ffffoorreever!" So, this morning I woke up and I made a haircut appointment at some random place because I had a free haircut coupon.  As I continued to get ready, I knew that I just wasn't ready for the hair cut.  My hair grows SO SLOW so when I do decide to cut my hair I need to plan on having it that way for awhile. And, i really do need to be mentally prepared because it isn't the kind of decision that should be impulsive.  Once its cut, its cut.  I have cut my hair before, in fact the good majority of my life its been shoulder length or shorter, and i've loved it! But i think its because it took me so long to get it to this length that I am so resistant.  Anyway, wow i am rambling!
So as I thought about all this, I decided I would just get my hair trimmed. Disappointment ran through my entire body. I wanted change gosh darn it!  Then it hit me, I have never gone blonde. That would be a big change!! I've always wondered if i could pull it off. My sister has gone all sorts of colors and can pull each one off, so maybe i could too.  I am brunette through and through so I haven't ever considered blonde an option.  Especially since it is so damaging! But the nice thing about hair color(and hair in general) is that if you do something and hate it, there is a good possibility that you can get it fixed or that in time it will just go back to the way it was!  So. Blonde it was!
I cancelled my free cut at that random place and called up Suggestions Salon ( I wasn't going to go to just anybody for such a drastic change!) I think that I was meant to go through with it, because Michelle Keddington (my stylist) had an opening within the hour! Nothing was stopping me now. I was nervous pretty much the entire time.Especially when i found out that because my hair was so dark, it wouldn't be all blonde and it wouldn't be very light blonde. it would take a couple times to get the look i was going for. So it would probably initially turn out funny looking.  But I did it anyway. And as it turned out, IT WAS SO WORTH IT and I LOVE IT!

P.s.

Something has gotten into me! I worked out at a gym today for the first time in over a year. It felt great! Can't wait to go back.

Chicken Noodle Soup - great for the sniffles.

Getting ready to be  eaten in a bowl that I colored! :)

On Wednesday Evan woke up feeling extremely sick.  His head hurt, his throat was sore, and he didn't sound good at all.  Luckily, I didn't get called into work so I was able to take care of him and get him whatever he needed.  I had been waiting for a good time to fix my homemade chicken noodle soup and this seemed to be it.  The thing about this meal is that a couple of years ago, I called my mom to ask her how to make chicken noodle soup and she told me roughly how to do it over the phone. It is definitely simple, but every time I make it it turns out slightly different since i'm not using an actual recipe.  This time as I made it I tried to pay more attention so I could write it down, so this is it.  Also, as a side note, although it is SO SIMPLE every time I make it I can't believe how tasty it is! And Evan loves it too. (Although this time he couldn't really taste it :)).  Another nice thing about this recipe is that you can adjust it very easily to make more or less.  For the amounts I used this time, I'd say it could feed around 4 people. 

Ingredients that go into the soup:

Chicken (2 breasts cut into pieces or 1 can chicken breast meat or 1 rotisserie chicken)	Optional:
Potatoes	Celery
Carrots	Any other vegetable you feel inspired to add
Egg Noodles	Marjoram
Salt	Parsley
Pepper	Bay Leaves
Water
Chicken Boullion Cubes

Recipe if using canned or rotiserrie chicken (notes at the bottom for using chicken breasts)

1. To start off, I put 8 cups of water into my pot and bring it to a boil. 

2. While the water is coming to a boil, I wash 4 medium size potatoes and between 1/4 -1/2 of a 32oz bag of baby carrots. (I know that isn't very exact or helpful but I forgot to count! I like a lot of carrots in my soup so I would suggest just adding how much you like)  To make this soup even easier, I have started using unpeeled potatoes in the soup.  I just make sure to wash the outside of the potatoes extra good.  I cut the potatoes into meidumish cubes and then I slice the baby carrots. 

3. Around this time the water is boiling and I add 9 chicken bouillion cubes to the water. Technically it is one bouillion cube to one cup of water, but I want to make sure my soup is always very flavorful! 

4. After the bouillion cubes have dissolved, add the carrots and potatoes.  Also, add some salt and pepper and if you want, a dash of I'd marjoram, parsley and chopped bay leaves.  Set the timer to around 10 minutes. When it goes off, test a couple of the vegetables to see if they are close to being done.

5. When the vegetables are about done (needing just a couple minutes more) add the canned chicken or rotisserie chicken - shred the chicken a little bit - and the egg noodles (a couple of handfuls seems to be perfect).  Let boil for about 3 minutes more and your good to go!

Here is the canned chicken I used. It was my first time using it ( I got the idea from Evan's mom) and it is easy and yummy!

Here are the egg noodles, or at least the package, that I would highly recommend using. They are located close to the other noodles in the grocery store.

And I made some cheese bread to compliment the meal. However, because i'd never used our broiler before I didn't realize how it cooked. Oops!

Surprisingly still yummy though :)

Evan cut his crust off just like an elementary school boy! ha ha.

*HOW TO ADJUST IF YOU ARE USING REGULAR CHICKEN BREASTS*

Cut chicken into bite size pieces.  Add the bouillion to the water and heat until it is dissoved. Add the chicken to the water and SIMMER the chicken until cooked. The key to non-chewy boiled chicken is to SIMMER the chicken, not BOIL.  Then, once the chicken is cooked, remove the chicken from the water and add the vegetables. Continue previous directions and then add chicken at the same spot as above.  This way your chicken doesn't get over cooked and is still good!

Also, if you are like me and just don't like boiled chicken, brown the chicken in a skillet with vegetable oil while boiling the vegetables etc. and then add the chicken in the same spot as above.

Good luck! And be prepared for a great meal! 

Stroganoff. So easy yet so tasty!

One of my favorite meals growing up was Beef Stroganoff.  My mom never understood why we loved it so much because she thought it was too simple. (She's an excellent cook so she likes more challenging things) Well the other day I was thinking about ideas of things to cook, and I realized I hadn't had stroganoff for at least 3 years. What a sad realization!  With this first attempt, I didn't get to ambitious because instead of making it with beef strips I used ground beef but it turned out amazing! And soooo easy. Oh and it didn't take that long, i think approximately 30 minutes. Which are three things i love in a recipe. (yummy, easy, and quick.) :)

Here is the actual recipe:

Ingredients:

1 (12 ounce) package egg noodles, cooked and drained 6 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced 1 onion, chopped 1/4 cup butter

2 pounds lean ground beef 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour 2 cups beef broth 1 cup sour cream salt and black pepper to taste

Directions:

1.	Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook egg noodles in boiling water until done, about 8 minutes. Drain.
2.	Meanwhile, prepare the sauce. In a large skillet, cook mushrooms and onions in 2 tablespoons of butter over medium heat until soft; remove from pan.
3.	Using the same pan, melt remaining butter. Cook ground beef in melted butter until browned. Mix in flour. Stir in beef broth, and cook until slightly thickened. Add mushroom and onion mixture; stir in sour cream. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Continue cooking until sauce is hot, but not boiling. Serve sauce over egg noodles. I did step 1 the same, but steps 2 and 3 I did slightly different because I didn't have any mushrooms on hand.  To be honest, i think the mushrooms would of made it even better but I didn't want to make a trip to the store.  So here is what I did differently...and it was also slightly healthier... I took 1/2 an onion, diced, and about 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil  and sauteed them in my saucepan.  Then I added about 1 lb of ground beef and cooked until browned and then added 1 can of Consomme soup. *Note- I have discovered that Consomme soup is more flavorful and healthy than beef broth.  It is located by all of the other soups in the store. Anyway, after adding the soup i added 1 cup of lite sour cream and 3 tablespoons of flour and then some salt and pepper. At this point I let the mixture simmer for a bit until it looked slighly thickened and I called it good. This is what it looked like: I poured it over the noodles, served with some green beans and me and Evan scarfed it all up. Another success! As a side note, I have started to realize that a good majority of the meals I make call for ground beef.  Buying ground beef by the pound each time can get a little pricey. And i find that using the whole pound is usually a little too much for us.  So... Helpful Hint #6: Buy your groundbeef in larger increments,(like 3 lbs.) divide it up into separate bags when you get home (I usually cut mine in 4ths) and call it good. It may not be an exact lb, but it will end up being perfect! I promise! And it is so much easier just defrosting the exact amount you need.

Resolutions

2012 ?

Ok so this is a little late in the game. I know. But I'm not usually too good at making New Years goals because it seems to end up being this huge list of things that I never end up accomplishing. And it's discouraging! But, this year, without even knowing what was happening, goals started forming around me. And I think they are pretty doable! Here they are so far:

• Take pictures of our adventures EVERY MONTH
• Exercise at least once a week (hopefully more!)
• Do well in school (I guess this is subjective :) )
• Have a happy home
• Make a homemade meal each week
• AND the last one so far is to read every book that has won a Newberry Medal Award.

They seem like goals that will only make me happier so I think I can do it! 

OUR BUCKET
The other day, me and Evan started talking about making a bucket list. I think it started out as more of a joke, but as days went on and things kept coming up as potential "bucket list items" i've decided to make it more official. It's pretty exciting to think about things we can do over the span of a lifetime!

• Go to Hawaii
• Get court side seats to a BYU basketball game (and go to it...)
• Go on a cruise
• Go to March Madness final four championship games
• Swim with dolphins freely (not just petting them)
• Adopt an animal from the pound
• Get a Jeep Wrangler (I don't know if Evan wants this...)
• Go to the four corners and touch all of them at the same time

And I thought we had a lot more than that. To be continued i suppose!

Love Day

I know it's what every girl does on this special day but I have had such a perfect day that I just have to fit the mold!!!
Valentines Day. Love Day. E + E day. It has been great.  This year me and Evan didn't really talk about Valentines. We made no plans, had no talk of getting each other something, nothing. 
As I woke up early to drop off a valentine at Evan's work, I decided that even if Evan didn't do anything, I would be a happy camper.  As I walked into the family room to pack up my back pack a huge grin couldn't be stopped from coming to my face.  This is why:

Yep. Jimmer Valentines! They were put there the night before, and they are printed in color! So this was planned! My day was complete. Evan got me valentines. What a cutey pie. But it wasn't over yet...
I rode my bike to the ASB where Evan works and decided that since I was just quickly dropping off a valentine, I could just park my bike out front. Especially since it was 8:30 in the morning and not a lot of people were out and about. 
As I walked down the hall to where Evan worked, everybody made comments about some lucky person getting my delivery.  One guy even proceeded to follow me where I was going.  I dropped off my delivery (a love balloon, twix, chapstick and a heartfelt card) when the guy that was following me said that Evan wouldn't be in til 3! Luckily, his boss Meldon offered to send him an "trick" email asking him to come in around 11.  I was in luck!
As I was walking out of the office, the guy that was following me introduced himself to me. It turns out his name was Mark, the big boss!  He turned out to be a super friendly guy and led me into his office where we talked for at least 15 minutes.  Unfortanately, I had class at 9 so as soon as I could, I booked it.  When i got outside, my bike was no where to be found.  My heart dropped to me stomach.  My bike had been stolen!!! I was such an idiot! I thought that I would be out in 5 seconds but it turned into at least 20 minutes.  I ran to two bike racks aimlessly hoping that someone had just put my bike away.  Then I called Evan, hoping that he had pulled a prank on me and was hiding it.  To my dismay, this didn't turn out to be the case.   I felt like this:

I ran straight into the campus police department and told them my bike had been stolen.  The girl said that they actually had impounded it! I was SOOO relieved.  I don't think they had ever had someone so excited to find out their bike was impounded.  When they went to get it, they told me it would be 15 bucks.  I was like, whhhaaat? I was just dropping off a Valentine!  Then they told me that the chief was the one who found it and actually wanted to talk to me. Scary! When he came over to talk to me, i explained what had happened. After chatting a bit we found out that he was from the same home stake as me in South Jordan. He let me go with no fee! Boom Bam Baby.  I was so happy with getting my bike back that I hardly cared that I was 45 minutes late to my 9:00 class.  This was a Valentines day that I could not forget. :) This is proof of it all happening! :

 

 Anyway...As I was sitting in class, i had an epiphany that Evan's boss probably would be emailing him at his work email. There is no way that Evan would check his work email outside of work.  After class, I looked at Evan's personal email to be sure and sure enough, no email from work. So I emailed Evan that he should probably check his work email...luckily he pretty much did it with no extra questions.  After he got my surprise, he texted me thank you and I was pretty pumped because now i could tell him my strange bike story.  I asked him if he'd meet me so I could tell him about it. 
When we met up I started rambling about what had happened. I noticed Evan seemed slightly distracted. I asked him if he had enough time to hear the story or if he needed to go to class.  He said "no, we are going to lunch." Matter of factly. As if I knew! I said, "We are?" He said, "Yeah didn't you see the Valentines?" This is what I had missed....

Ha Ha ha . I'm still laughing about it! He had written that note on the back of the Jimmer Valentine. I didn't even think to check the back of it!  We got a pretty good kick out of it because both of our surprise plans got somewhat foiled. I think it made it even cuter :).  So as we walked toward the Wilk, I carried on with my morning events. I was so engrossed in my story, I didn't pay much attention to where we were going. Soon enough we were on an elevator in the Wilk going somewhere. The door opened and we were at... 

The Skyroom! It's basically BYU's version of "The Roof" at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. It's a really fancy buffet.  I was shocked out of my mind! I had always wanted to go there. AAAAND he had a reservation. He had thought this all out. I was more than impressed, and words can't describe how happy i felt. A huge grin couldn't leave my face. I didn't have my camera with me so I didn't get to take a picture of that huge grin, but i'm sure you can imagine it.  It was delicious. Spinach salads, wedge salads, tender beef, mushroom rice, cooked tomatoes with cheese and red velvet cake.  I would definitely recommend it.  The reservation also included a pretty pink and white carnation.  I got to carry that around with me the rest the day remembering my adorable husband.  And by the way, after that I had no desire to go to the rest of my classes. But I was a good girl and went!
I figured that was the end of our Valentine festivities since I had class until 8.  I guess I was just having a day full of being wrong.  I got home and Evan wasn't there quite yet so I changed and cleaned up a bit. The door opened and my man walked in with these:

They are absolutely gorgeous. And I don't know why this is, but i LOVE getting flowers. I know they are expensive. And they die. And everyone seems to get them on V day. But I love them! They make me happy and excited and they are so pretty.  I thought that Evan had the flower thing covered with the carnation from the Sky Room but with these, he exceeded my expectations 100%.  Oh and he also brought home pasta and breadsticks from Pizza Hut and we made it into a candlelite dinner. It was pretty romantic.
After this, Evan had some homework to do so I took a shower. I was just smiling the whole time because I'm a holiday type of gal. I love holidays and I love to celebrate them. Evan isn't into them as much as me, and quite frankly I don't think anybody could be.  But it just makes me so happy that Evan knows me so well and how much I love them.  I didn't have to tell him or hint at him once and he made the day perfect. 
When I went out to sit next to him I had one more surprise waiting for me:

A white chocolate cinammmon covered caramel apple. Seriously can't describe how well Evan knows me. I love caramel apples more than most things. In fact, they are on my top 5 favorite treats.  I jumped for joy and was as happy a girl as I could ever be.
It's true, Valentines day is somewhat of a ridiculous holiday. It may be true that it was made up just for hallmark.  But I don't have any problem with spending a whole day expressing my love to the person I love the most, and getting the same(oh and spoiled) in return. I definitely know Evan loves me. He put so much thought into the whole day and I love him even more for it. And I love him too!
Evan certainly is my night in shining armor.

P.s. It wasn't all about me... Besides the work surprise, I got Evan a custom mouse pad and a ton of love too :) Oh and I made him this:

Homemade Mac N Cheese

So me and Evan are pretty fortunate this semester and get to see each other a whole lot more than I thought we would!  However, today he had a big huge yucky test that he needed to take so unfortunately I looked forward to a day and night by my lonesome.  How depressing.  Just kidding. It's nice to have some girl time.  Today I ventured into watching the show Parks and Recreation and I like it so far!  Tonight I decided I'd explore a new recipe, homemade mac n cheese.  I was very excited to cook this, because a couple months ago when i was at Target i came across a six piece CorningWare bake set that was on sale for $19.99 (thats a great deal if you don't know...:)).  I haven't had an occasion to use it until tonight!! I think everything turned out splendid.  Evan hasn't tried it yet, so i'll get his feedback tomorrow.  Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni 5 tablespoons butter, divided 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 1/2 cups milk 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese 2 ounces processed cheese food (i.e. Velveeta), cubed 2 tablespoons dry bread crumbs

Directions:

1.	Cook macaroni according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a saucepan, melt 4 tablespoons butter over medium heat. Stir in flour, salt and pepper until smooth. Gradually add milk. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Reduce heat. Add the cheeses, stirring until cheese is melted. Drain macaroni.
2.	Transfer macaroni to a greased 1-1/2-qt. baking dish. Pour cheese sauce over macaroni; mix well. Melt the remaining butter; add the bread crumbs. Sprinkle over top. Bake, uncovered, at 375 degrees F for 30 minutes or until heated through and topping is golden brown.

This recipe turned out to be a success, and in all reality it is a very simple recipe, yet I wouldn't consider it "unstressful".  At least for a beginner cook like myself.  To begin with, it is one of those recipes where a lot of things end up going on at once.  But I got through it! And i'll happily make it again.  That's right, it's another 2 thumbs up recipe!
So, to begin with the beginning part of this recipe with butter and flour actually has an official name! It is called roux.  This particular mixture is what makes the base sauce thick.  And it's something we should all get really good at doing because it is involved in a lot of recipes (or at least recipes with sauce and gravy). Come to think of it, I've heard my mom talk about it a lot.  It isn't the easiest thing on the planet to do and it needs to be done right.  It can mess up consistency for a recipe (texture and thickness!)  So here is basically a great way of doing it (mine turned out perfect tonight so I think this is worth sharing)
--Melt the butter in a saucepan on medium heat.  When melted, stir in the flour.  It is better if you have a little more butter than flour (i.e 4 tbs butter to 3 tbs flour).  Stirring constantly is a must!  The next step for this recipe would be to keep stirring for about 2 minutes.  Then remove the saucepan from the heat and pour in lukewarm milk (not hot, not cold)  a little bit at a time while still constantly stirring.  Bring to a boil and cook for 2 minutes, all the while still constantly stirring.  And viola! You have your basic roux.  Luckily, the ingredients are pretty basic so if you mess up you can just start over.  I think the key would be the constant stirring.
Anyway as said before, because of the sensitivity of the roux it gets kind of hectic with needing to add more things and worry about the noodles, etc. all at once. So my next tip would be
Helpful Hint #5:  When making a recipe where a lot can be going on at once, have your ingredients all ready to go and all measured out!
This really saved me because I didn't have to stop stirring when i grabbed the cheese and added it to the mix. I did have to step away quickly to drain my noodles(so they weren't really soggy) but that was A-OK.  I like things cheesy so I used 2 cups of mild cheddar cheese instead of 1.  Oh and breadcrumbs on top is optional.  And that's about it ! Yum yum!