No More Cereal

I am not sure how well you know me but if you are reading this then I would suspect that you know me to some extent. You might know that I really love a little variety in my breakfasts. In the recent weeks I have been eating an extraordinary amount of Frosted Flakes, which I do really enjoy. However, I am at the end of the amount of frosted flakes that I want to eat for a while.

In order to get a little variety in my breakfast I tend to bake a little something for a few days of reprieve, I have made banana bread or muffins, blueberry scones, pancakes, french toast and a million other things. I have shared my recipe for scones and I am really looking forward to making those again soon but for now I had to make something out of what I have in my cabinet. This week I decided to make blueberry muffins.

I really love the moments when a plan comes together, this morning I was able to make the muffins and get to work relatively on time. It was a really glorious morning and one of the last songs that I heard was Genie in a Bottle by Christina Aguilara. It was an amazing morning and it put my day off on the right foot. I had one of those rare days where things just went well and I loved it.

Super yummy muffins with lots of blueberries!

If you come back tomorrow I will tell you about my muffins and give you the recipe and you can see if you like them. I am pretty impressed with my pinterest find, these are pretty good muffins. I may have added too much cinnamon but that is a story for tomorrow.

Road Trips

On our way!!

About a week ago Lily and I took off on our very first weekend away from Dallas, we took off on Friday afternoon and headed down I-35 toward San Antonio. I know perhaps not the most exciting destination but the people there are the reason that I got on the road. I was on my way to see my college roomie, Stacee!

Lily looks pretty excited about this.

I took a few photos on the road and then realized that was a horrible idea mainly because I did not want to die on the way to hang out with my friends.

Only in Texas will you see an oil derek on the side of the road for a restaurant 

You may not recognize the sign, but I saw the Miller plant... smelled like St. Louis!

Lily tends to travel really really well. She mainly sits in the backseat looking at me and wondering how much longer. On our usual trips she sleeps in the back but this time she was curious about where we were off to. I am going to chalk that up to being a little nervous since we just moved down here and she is always nervous when we go anywhere these days.

Looking at me wondering if we are getting close

Our road trip was very uneventful and there wasn't a whole lot to look at on the way there but I was very excited about getting to see Stacee.

So excited to hang out with Stacee and family

I totally meant to take lots and lots of pics but I mainly just spent time with the gang. I wish I had more pics to share but I will say that I just love being close enough to get together with my friends from college. I am sure that many more weekend trips will be coming up and I am starting to try and figure out where I want to go to next. I am looking forward to being able to take trips with the dog, she is my favorite traveling companion these days.

Happy Mornings

So most mornings I roll out of bed and immediately start my day, when you have a dog there isn't a whole lot of gently waking up. What happens is, your dog patiently waits until you rustle around in the bed and then promptly sticks their cold nose in your face as if checking for vital signs. So I hop out of bed and we head outside for our morning potty break, on the way back to my bedroom I turn on the coffee and head to the shower. I am not really a whole person until I have made it through my first cup of coffee, who knows it might take more than one some mornings. While I get ready these are a few great shots of what Lily likes to do in the morning while I fix my hair and get dressed.

She lays her head on the blanket as a pillow...

She is just relaxing while I get ready

I find it very ironic that she demands that I jump out of the bed as soon as she is ready but is ready to go back to bed once we go out for a potty break. But when she looks this cute every morning I definitely have spent a few extra minutes giving her extra snuggles because who could resist her face I certainly can't most of the time, but I do love her even when she makes me get up on time because she has to pee.

Chicken and bean burritos

I love to eat, a lot. My love of eating means that I often get to cook for myself, again I like this but sometimes I don't want to eat an entire casserole or even all of the tacos. So I always love when I find, or create, a recipe that stands up to the freezer. I also love mexican food, so these burritos are fantastic. I thought I would share these with you. I have adapted several different recipes to make these so unfortunately I don't have a link to the original but I am sure if you have pin boards you have seen these.

Chicken and Bean Burritos

Ingredients:
2 cups shredded chicken
1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup mexican cheese
1/2 cup of raw rice, cooked (about 1 cup when cooked)
Southwest Cooking Cream (Philladelphia Cream Cheese Brand)
Tortillas (I used the small ones, maybe 6 inches)

1: Shred the chicken, I used a roasted chicken from Target because I didn't feel like cooking. This would also be a great use for leftover chicken.
2: Toss the remaining ingredients together leaving the cooking cream for last.
3: Add the cooking cream until it is the consistency that you like, mine looked like this.

All mixed up, I like mine pretty creamy

4: Plop a few scoops in the middle of a tortilla

5: Roll up the tortilla and put it seam down on the cooking sheet, if you want the tortilla to be more pliable you can heat it up in the microwave for a few seconds 10-15.

6: Once they are all rolled up you have two choices, 400 for 15-20 minutes  OR you can freeze them. I turn mine once about 10 minutes into the cooking. If you freeze them cook for the full 20 minutes.

They will not be this brown after but they are done when the edges are brown

You might notice that these are really brown, I tried to cook them in a skillet. That was a major failure as they were super crispy on the outside and cold on the inside. I don't really recommend that unless everything is already hot and you just want to crisp up the outside.

I love the way all of the cheese melted together, so yummy.

I tend to eat mine with salsa and sour cream and most likely with a side of refried beans or something else. The frozen ones were really really good, these will definitely become a regular part of my cooking routine since you can freeze them and eat them on the nights when I am just too tired to make a full meal. Also feel free to add whatever else might be good, I have made them without the rice before and they were still very very good.

The olympics

Sorry I have been a little MIA recently it has been a little nuts around the house. This insinuates that there has been lots of activity in recent days but that would be a little misleading since the majority of my activity has been sitting on the couch watch the olympics and jumping up and down cheering team USA on to victory. I promise that my whit is coming back soon and hopefully there will be lots of good things to hear about my life soon. But for the time being I leave you this beautiful picture...

There are no words to describe this beauty... God Bless America

I really think we should go back to speedos for competitive swimming, I mean really I would love to watch even more swimming if this was the uniform of choice.

Go Team USA!!!!

A few life lessons

Over the last several weeks I have learned some key life lessons, things that make sense and I just don't know that I ever really thought of them. So I am going to share them with you, I am sure you already know this but I didn't know...

-When the coffee pot is totally full and you want to pour a cup without spilling, lift the lid with your thumb and all of the coffee goes into the cup and not on the counter. Who knew that was what the lid was for?!?!

-If you buy cheap bacon it is going to be gross, half burnt and half still chewy. I will only be buying Oscar Mayer bacon, it is sooo much better.

-Working from home takes more discipline that I have most days.

-If you love your job it doesn't really feel like work.

-If you smile while you are doing something that you don't enjoy, when the end comes you will find that you did enjoy yourself just a little.

-I feel like a baller every time I see my name in print.

-Apartment hunting is horrible

-When you live in the big city, everywhere you go you have to drive, at least 30 minutes.

-When you order fajitas for two, I tip the waiter extra if there are four tortillas in the container. I don't understand the desire to only send three... really this is for two people and now one person has to wait to have another. But if the waiter is on top of it then they add more tortillas.

Uptown Part Two

Yesterday I told you about what I wore to the bar and how I felt totally underdressed but today I thought I would share with you some of the beautiful things that I saw and in many ways really enjoyed seeing. I do very much enjoy hanging out with these people but it is always interesting to learn what makes a new group of friends tick.

-I kid you not it was like hearing the LMFAO song, SHOTS, all night long. I don't remember taking that many shots in a single night once I got out of college, I abstained from them that night because I had to drive. That and taking shots with strangers is asking for bad things to happen.

-I loved that the bar/club played awesome dance music that the majority of us danced to all night. I didn't not love the fact that I was super sweaty when we walked out but a glance in the mirror told me that I was not a total disaster.

-I met a girl, while waiting in line for a drink, that told me everyone made her feel old because she was 25 going on 35. In many ways I feel as if she and I could have been friends, but since you don't usually meet your soulmate in a bar you definitely don't meet your bff in the bar either. But she would have been fun. Also, she had one a super cute dress and an amazing necklace.

-I enjoyed watching this group of people get just ridiculous and realized they would all be suffering on Sunday and I was able to watch the olympics and go to work and really enjoy the whole day. I think that is why I didn't take shots, I wanted a Sunday.

-But my most favorite part of the night was the moment when the married couple got into a fight. I have witnessed this fight in the majority of my married friends when we go out: they both get drunk and the wife decides something needs to happen and the hubby ignores her because he is drunk. I enjoy this fight mainly because I too have had this fight (not married of course) and as I told the girl on Saturday night maybe the make up sex will be worth it. I just loved watching this all play out and being able to enjoy it for what it was, crazy.

I am sure there were many more great moments that I missed but at the same time it was nice to go out with new friends and see a new part of my home town. I am pretty sure that I do not want to live in that area and definitely not be close enough to walk to a bar, that is for college kids. I am looking forward to the next time that I get to see these new friends and hang out, who knows maybe I will take them up on their offer to join their softball team (yeah right I don't do sports but I do enjoy watching them occasionally).