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A Wonderful New Blog (and Giveaway!)

For any of you who love any of the following things:

1. Books/reading
2. Hilarious up-and-coming writers
3. Young Adult literature
4. Shenanigans
5. Free stuff!

One of my good friends, Corey, has started a site called Twin Pigeon.  I lived with Corey in my freshman year of Undergrad in KY and we spent a lot of time goofing around, eating wonderful college food and talking about music/books/movies.  Corey is hilarious…there is really no other way to describe her in a nutshell.  I am always thrilled when I see an email pop up in my inbox from her because it is full of goodness.  She got me hooked on the Twilight series, and I’m not sure if I should thank or curse her for that.  It’s too late now though, so we just spend a lot of time making stupid jokes about how many times the word “chagrin” is used in the series. 

In case you missed the subtle hints above, Corey is big into Young Adult fiction.  I am not as well-versed as she is, but I love it! For me, between semesters in an English BA (followed by more semesters in an English MA) program, something like Twilight is just what I needed.  YA novels tend to suck you in like no other (except maybe Picoult?) and get you to love characters who have a good chance of being ridiculously annoying and will probably make horrible decisions repeatedly throughout the book.  It’s awesome.

Another wonderful thing to know about Corey:  she had a KICKASS wedding…I was a super-helpful bridesmaid, dressed all in red.  We marched up the aisles of the KY theater for a dark and wonderfully romantic ceremony on the stage with a delicious reception full of movie-themed goodies all around.  Yet another reason she is great.  Does this make you want to visit her new blog???

ANYWAY, Twin Pigeon is currently mostly about reviewing YA books…it’s just getting started, so send her some love/suggestions/harsh criticism/knee-slapping jokes about vampires/whatever.  BUT to start things off on a blogger-friendly note, Corey is giving away a book!  A FREE BOOK! This one is a brand new, hardback, just released, fresh off the presses, exciting work of literary wonderment. You all know how contests work, so click your way over and enter Corey’s contest and explore her quickly growing site 🙂

PS.
Corey, WOOO!

Home!

HEY HEY HEY! First things first….get over to Missy’s blog and vote for your favorite salsa recipe in her contest!! I’m #8, in case you have trouble choosing a winner from all the yummy choices! 🙂

One more fair this morning and with a lucky traffic day, I was home around 3:30!! I am EXCITED!  I love being on the road and travelling to new places, but I get so homesick…I wish I could take Matt and Santana along with me whenever I travel! That would be the best!

Green Foodie Arguments

Here is a link to an interesting post that is probably of interest to some of the other foodie bloggers out there.  Anyone into the organic, slow food movement should be familiar with Alice Waters and her restaurant in Berkeley, CA, Chez Panisse. When the roommate and I went to California on a grad school visit/research trip the summer before our senior year, and we made it a point to have lunch at Chez Panisse (dinner was WAY out of our price range). Super delicious and fun to be eating at Alice Waters’ place.  I met her and listened to her speak at The Bale Boone Symposium put on by The Gaines Center at the University of Kentucky in 2005 (I think?).  It was really amazing and wonderful for me at a time when I was still sort of defining who I was as a cook. 

The Jezebel post by Sadie, points to a recent backlash against Waters and her push for organics.  One of the most vociferous, unsurprisingly, is Anthony Bourdain (who I have a bit of a crush on, fyi).  Sadie quotes Bourdain:

Alice Waters annoys the living s%#* out of me. We’re all in the middle of a recession, like we’re all going to start buying expensive organic food and running to the green market. There’s something very Khmer Rouge about Alice Waters that has become unrealistic. I mean I’m not crazy about our obsession with corn or ethanol and all that, but I’m a little uncomfortable with legislating good eating habits.

First of all, he loves to talk about the Khmer Rouge…I have zero statistics or citations to back this up, but I have heard that name come out of his mouth so many times that when I read about Khmer Rouge (even unrelated to Bourdain at all), I hear it in his voice and I picture him ranting. This kind of random association is wonderful…maybe I should choose something to be obscurely connected to.  Whenever you think of Mussolini, you will think of me! Maybe not…

Second, I love Alice Waters, but I have no problem with Bourdain’s ranting…he often goes off on a lot of topics that I don’t agree with, but that is basically his job.  He’s a complainer and a grumper and I think this is why I love him oh so much.  He openly hates on cultures, women, men, children, other chefs, things I would normally be very against  ranting about…but from him, it’s pretty enjoyable.  So I am not bothered by him particularly saying this.  And I don’t think his overall culinary stance eschews the organic, local side of things.  In the essay “The Evildoers,” Bourdain says that you should “try to eat food that comes from somewhere, from somebody,” and I think this applies not only to his signature “Chef’s Tour” mantra of eating the cultural food of wherever you are, but also to the roots of where you get your food…if your veggies, your meat, your dairy comes from somewhere, someone in particular, you are more likely to connect to it and more likely to appreciate and understand its importance.

About the post itself, I have to agree with Sadie…Waters can handle the criticism as someone behind the Green movement and any kind of revolutionary progress needs to be questioned and pulled in different directions as it develops.  Yes, we’re in an economic crisis and a lot of people are having trouble affording the bare basics for their families.  Yes, the cost of organics is often high and going fully green is not necessarily feasible for every family out there.  But I know an increasing amount of people who are not typical of the “elitist” perception that has been tied to organics, especially as I’ve discovered more and more food bloggers who are in super green mode in so many ways.  And I think if more and more people fit local, sustainable, green, organic ways into their lives on a daily basis, at a level that fits their lifestyle and economic means, then it pushes for more and more change towards the positive. 

While the individual families have to make these changes on the small scale, on the larger, more vocal scale, revolutionaries like Waters and critics like Bourdain are necessary to keep pushing ideas forward and honing and refining the ideas that have made it to the mainstream mindset. 

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Ok, that was more rambling than I predicted, but I thought some of the bloggers out there would find this discussion interesting! What are your thoughts on Alice Waters? Anthony Bourdain? Feel free to despise either one, despite my love of them! 🙂

Contest news:

Don’t forget to enter Dori’s Doormat Giveaway, and she has a second one this week for an Always Infinity Gift Pack!

Missy is also having a giveaway for the Always gift bag!

Jackson’s World is not only featuring an adorable pup, but is also having a Spring has Sprung Giveaway! Bring on the spring!

Lucky Taste Buds has a Big S Farms Salsa giveaway! Yum yum yum for Salsa!

The Late Late Post

I haven’t posted since last Thursday! Yikes!! I feel like it has been a crazy few days between work, fun and more work, but there are a few delicious and random things to blog about, so it was all worth it 🙂

As I mentioned before, I am working on an editing project on the side and that is definitely taking up a lot of my time (and the piles of junk around the apartment are evidence of this). I really enjoy editing because it gives me a chance to put to use the organizational side of things…I love to research, write and edit my own papers, but when someone else has done the writing, I can step back and just sort of put together the puzzle and try to untangle the lines of argument and help the writer figure out the best way to organize their ideas. I have spent the last 7 years or so editing papers for some of my best friends, which is tons of fun!! Now that I am getting paid for this particular bunch of editing, it makes it feel like a real job and like I am actually putting my English MA to work! Hooray! It is still time-consuming, especially because it was sprung on me with somewhat short notice, so I spent a lot of time this weekend curled up on the couch with two colored pens, a big quilt, and a puppy sleeping on my lap. I felt like I was back in grad school…and it made me very glad that I was NOT still in grad school. It’s nice to be able to leave work at the end of the day, leave the pile of papers on my desk and not worry about them again until the next morning.

We also managed to get some fun in…we went to the gym on Sunday for some random weight training and swimming. The highlight of our weekend was actually Friday night when we went to the Showbox Downtown to see Blue October. The opening band was mostly annoying, too loud and a little too scream-y for my tastes, but Blue October was AMAZING. If you are a fan of them at all, I definitely would recommend seeing them live…the put on a great show and they played their entire new album which was just released really recently. In my experience, bands have usually played a mix of old and new stuff, but we got a wonderful taste of exactly what the album felt like before the played the older, recognizable songs. It was different for me, but really wonderful…we went out and bought the CD on Sunday!

A note to the two people who randomly met at the show and then proceeded to intensely make out in front of everyone through most of the songs: Was it really necessary to have your hands in each other’s pants in the middle of the concert?? I hope you enjoyed the rest of your evening in whatever way you saw fit, but some of us were facing forward and could not see past your groping. In the future, it would be greatly appreciated if you could relegate yourselves to some shady corner. Thanks!

Our original plans for Saturday included getting up early, heading to the gym, running errands downtown, being super productive. Our actual activities included sleeping in late, watching some Netflix with breakfast, trying to get the pile of dishes down in the sink, spending way too much money at Walgreens and Whole Foods, making dinner (see below), and watching more Netflix on the couch before bed. I also threw in some editing and cuddling with Santana. Not so productive, and definitely less active than originally planned, but we were exhausted so we went with it.

THE FOOD

Friday night, before the show, we went to one of Tom Douglas’s restaurants, Serious Pie. We have had this on our list of places to try ever since Matt moved up here. Serious Pie is basically a fancy pizza place. They have fresh ingredients, just a few pizzas to choose from, and a really small but cute atmosphere. We shared two pizzas—the buffalo mozzarella and san marzano tomato with basil (delicious, perfect thin crust, simple and addicting) and the guanciale (pancetta-type meat made from the cheek of the pig), soft egg, and dandelion greens (same amazing crust, ridiculously fresh-tasting runny egg, addictingly-salty pork product and a really fun treat). We decided it was a fun night on the town and also went for the panna cotta with blood orange for dessert. Panna cotta is one of my favorite desserts because it is smooth and creamy and usually not completely overwhelming. Serious Pie’s was a really great one and the blood orange was a great complement to the sweetness of the cream and sugar. Yum! Thumbs up for Serious Pie!

Saturday morning/early afternoon, when we finally crawled out of bed, I made breakfast burritos!! I am be  coming addicted to these things, so I thought I’d make them at home instead of dragging us out to breakfast since we had all the ingredients on hand. I filled spinach wraps with salsa, sour cream, center cut bacon, soft scrambled eggs, shredded cheddar, and an onion/garlic/pinto bean sauté…perfect breakfast/brunch for a lazy morning.

Since we had such a late breakfast, we skipped lunch and snacked to hold us over until dinner. Since I made a run to Whole Foods, I filled up on samples (chicken sausage, grapefruit, and other random yummies) and we shared some chips and organic fruit snacks while I was editing on the couch.

Saturday night was a semi-repeat of an Indian dish we’ve tried before: Major Grey’s Chicken. This time we had two mangoes on hand so we added those to the chutney to give it a little fresher taste…it worked out really well and made a TON of chicken (leftovers for today’s lunch!).

I have never seen mangoes like this before, but they seemed really similar to the typical ones I normally find and they were really the perfect amount of fresh fruit to add to our chutney.   

  

This time we also avoided any horrible side-dish recipes and just made stir-fried chick peas and onions with curry powder. Simple and yummy if a bit dry…next time maybe we’ll add some stock to steam them off at first. We also used our rice cooker for the first time to make some basmati rice which we added green onions to. I had a mini-breakdown and felt like a complete failure because even with a rice cooker, my rice got destroyed!! We had to make a second batch, and that one was not even close to perfect, but was at least edible. The rice we had in the cupboard was a brown basmati, so I am wondering if the measurements included with the rice cooker threw us off…they had three times listed: soft oriental rice, basmati rice, and brown rice. I had basmati brown rice…I had no idea which to use and flipped out a bit. Next time we’re trying regular white rice…I may be cursed when it comes to rice, just FYI. It was especially frustrating because dinner was running late and it was nearly 9pm by the time we sat down to eat!

It all turned out delicious though, so I am done being frustrated (until the next rice adventure).

Since we were running super late for dinner, we had an adventurous appetizer of steamed artichoke with a butter sauce. Neither of us have had artichoke like this. I love artichoke hearts in pasta dishes or in creamed soups, but I’ve never pulled off the leaves and scraped off the tiny bit of meat at the end. I think I overcooked them, and our butter sauce didn’t turn out very spectacular, but I thought it was fun and didn’t dislike it. I’ll definitely try again and maybe even order it in a restaurant (food is sometimes just more fun if you don’t have to prepare it). Matt wasn’t a very big fan even though he really wanted to enjoy the fun of picking the leaves! I was sad he didn’t enjoy it, but since we had a yummy dinner on the way, it wasn’t that much of a disappointment! Yay for new veggies! Here are some pictures of the artichoke massacre!

Sunday morning we actually got up at a reasonable time and I made ham and cheese omelets! There are no pictures from Sunday…partly because the omelets were a falling-apart (but delicious) mess, and partly because the camera was probably buried under all the piles of junk in our apartment. We had a much more productive day on Sunday, ran some errands, went to the gym, got work done…quite wonderful. For lunch before the gym we made turkey caesar wraps and some chips (which I had bought on a whim because they were on sale at Walgreens the previous day!!). Yummy and a nice not-too-heavy meal before swimming!

For dinner we took a risk and tried a new Chinese restaurant. We have had a hell of a time trying to find a good, cheap, takeout place around here and it is getting pretty frustrating…apparently Seattle has never heard of Lo Mein! The yummy (but a little pricey) place across the street from us has a noodle dish similar to lo mein, but it isn’t called that, and no place else that we’ve tried even comes close. Help!!

Anyway, the last time we tried a new Chinese place, it was the WORST experience of our lives. Most unsatisfying meal ever! Matt joined Yelp just to give this place a bad review.  Since Yen Wor Garden, we have been really hesitant, but last night we went to Szechuan Bistro in Greenwood, based mostly on Yelp reviews and location. Great choice!! Not only was it decently priced, it was really delicious!! We got a standard Sesame Chicken to figure out if this is going to be a good place when we are having late-night Chinese cravings and some fried dumplings because we are suckers. Both really really good…definitely not the best ever, but way better than most of what I’ve tried since moving to Seattle. I especially liked the dumplings because they had very thin wrappers on them instead of the thick doughy dumplings that some places have. Matt prefers the thicker dough, but I like the crispiness and meat to dough proportion of these ones. We planned for leftovers and got a second entrée: Sizzling Plate with Hand Shaven Noodles and Beef. Here’s a list to summarize this dish:

• I love things that sizzle!!
• The wonderful woman serving us brought out a super-hot cast iron pan in the shape of a cow (not a hippo, as I first thought) with sliced onions on it and a bowl of noodles, sauce, veggies, and beef and then the noodle mixture got poured onto the hot plate…SIZZLE!
• The sauce had a really mild flavor but a nice spice. It was a really interesting combo and let the noodles shine.
• The noodles!!! How amazing…hand shaven! This is obviously a huge part of this restaurant because they have it written in big letters on their window to draw people in. And they are yummy!! They are a bit thicker than regular noodles so they have a nice bite to them, but aren’t so thick that they’re gummy or too chewy. Very very satisfying
• The beef was not as good as Chef Liao’s (the place across the street from us), but compared to some other beef I’ve had from Chinese restaurants, not bad! And very flavorful!

All three of the items we ordered were delicious and went well together…plus, it was all ready and served to us in less than 10 minutes…crazy fast. Granted, no one else was in there at the time (I think it’s more of a lunch place), but SO fast! It is definitely a place I’d order take out from (free delivery!) if I was craving Chinese.

Tonight we had Open-Faced Bagel Sandwiches for dinner!  Toasted bagel, one slice of cheese, some super thin and crispy bacon and a runny egg! This was a super satisfying break during all the editing I was doing tonight!

   

We’re still planning butternut squash ravioli and an exciting secret meal that Matt and I invented last year and will be featured as a guest post on Dori’s blog! Stay tuned!

Random thing I just thought of: Stay Tuned is the name of an old movie my brother and I used to watch all the time…this family gets this crazy satellite dish and it turns out it actually sucks people into this world of television where they have to survive and everyone always dies because there’s some evil plot going on, and this couple (whose marriage is failing at the beginning of the movie) beat the system, escape from the tv and reignite the flame of their relationship! Awesome! For some reason I associate it with Mom and Dad Save the World—maybe we had them on the same tape?? Also, no one seems to know of these movies when I mention them!! I miss watching horrible movies with my brother!

Also, enter some contests! It’s fun! And possibly very rewarding!

– Kelly at Every Gym’s Nightmare is giving away a Gaiam Back Support! Wow! This is a super exciting giveaway and I would LOVE one of these to wear during the day…my lower back has always been a trouble spot and I am working on being really conscious of how I sit, stand and move!

– Cover up your Gaiam Back Support with an adorable tshirt from Strawberry Shortstuff. Diana is giving this away to celebrate 100ish blog posts! Hooray Diana!

Me & Food

A Bacon Wrapped Life (previously Lady in Pink)

What started as an outlet for random rambling and general blogging (and a fun surprise from a wonderful boyfriend!) has become primarily a venue for even more enjoyment of food, with a bit of my random life excitement popping in–thus the name change.

Contrary to the beliefs of many friends, I don’t always cook with bacon, cheese, or other random sources of fat (although these are all delicious and often considered!).  I appreciate my increasing ability to cook with lots of different veggies, leave meat out all together sometimes, create healthier versions of old recipes and just generally bring health and wellness intomy life.

All that being said, I love to indulge, to succumb to temptation, to provide temptation, to jump into a giant hypothetical vat of whipped cream and absolutely gorge myself…OK, so this is where all those previously-mentioned misconceptions come from.  Along with my indulging, I also love to exaggerate. 🙂 If I had to identify my “food philosophy,” it would be this: Food makes me happy and I want to use food to make you happy!  I am enthralled not only by the flavors, textures, scents and other sensations of food, but also by the science, history, sociology, psychology of food. Food is a key part of every aspect of life, and in times when more and more people have harmful relationships with the source of nourishment and life and can no longer take enjoyment in the act of eating, I think it is extremely important to recognize and remember the vital role that food plays in our lives.

Indulgence is also not such a stable relationship either, and part of my challenge as a cook and a consumer is to work this indulgence into an overall healthy approach to eating.  My boyfriend, Matt, and I work on this issue together and I am so grateful that we have each other for support and the mental and emotional nourishment that supplements the physical nourishment we get from our food.  We both LOVE to eat, and luckily we both hate mushrooms…it works out nicely.

I recently finished my MA in English, so I’m also just getting past my college mentality towards food–fit in whatever you can, whenever you have time.  I’m currently working as an undergraduate admissions advisor at a small, private, naturual health sciences university.  I love student affairs and am excited to be at this early stage of my professional career with lots of hopeful options down the road.  In this job, I have had the opportunity to expand my advising experience and work with a huge variety of students so far, but I have also been exposed to a community of physicians, students and other faculty/staff members who are very involved in the field of natural health.  This hugely affects my perspective on food at this point in time; in a very short time I have absorbed a ton of amazing information and ideas about whole foods nutrition and overall wellness with an all-vegetarian cafeteria at my fingertips.  When I am at work, it’s very easy for me to push my own boundaries in terms of food knowledge and comfort-levels–something I also plan to be encouraged to do through this blog.  I have been in this job for about 6 months now and I can’t wait to see what else I’ll learn from this healthy community while I’m here!

COMPLETE CHANGE OF TOPIC: Another key thing about my life is my wonderfully adorable dog, Santana.  She’s a beagle-chihuahua mix who was a graduation present from my roommate when we finished our undergraduate work.  Santana moved with me from KY to central NY, and while I was in graduate school she helped me get through the rough patch of readjusting, making new friends in a completely different program and school and dealing with a crazy crazy grad student schedule…sometimes I’d be home all day reading and writing, sometimes I’d be gone from 8am until 2am the following morning and she was as flexible as a puppy could be–and always excited to see me when I got home! I was questioning my choices a lot and finding it hard to make time for relaxation and enjoyable activities, not to mention eating right and generally watching out for my health.  I can’t really explain how vital Santana was to getting through those 2 years.  She moved to Seattle with Matt and me and the three months before she got here were brutal (while I was here early doing some job-hunting).  She is a trouble-maker, and I sort of love her for it.  She fits us, and we love her so much we let her start her own blog. Originally this was Matt’s idea, but yeah, I am that kind of puppy mom…deal with it and just enjoy how adorable she is.  The blog does a great job of portraying her very anthropomorphized personality!  Ok, I’m done raving about her for now, but I figured it was important to me and thus to the blog. I may even include some puppy-friendly recipes at times!

There’s a lot more “about me” that I could ramble about; as an English student, one of my biggest flaws was editing things down!  This blog will likely change as my life continues to shift, but my goal is to be constantly encouraged by the presence of the blog world to continue my quest for healthiness in my happily bacon-wrapped life.

One last important note: I love lists! Love them! If it can be said in a list, say it in a list! Here’s a summary about me and my food, in list form:

• A lot of the recipes I use or create are chock-full of indulgence.
• Every once in a while I have the energy to try to clean up around the edges and make something on the fancy side.
• More and more I celebrate new veggie options and other healthy additions to my food life.
• Always I want a delicious and enjoyable experience in the kitchen and at the table–if I don’t like it, I don’t cook it.
• Exception to the note above: If I really like you, I’ll cook whatever you want! Maybe not that extreme, but I love to feed the people I care about, and the act of cooking for them is just as important as eating the finished product. 

I am excited to dive into the wonderful blogging community and hope that you can find some yummy recipes and fun randomness along the way.  I love feedback and new ideas, so bring on the comments! And the bacon!

Some Past Food and Some Future Fun

***UPDATE: I fixed my giveaway links, which I had COMPLETELY messed up this morning! Plus, soup and quesadilla picture added below! Sorry for my Friday morning absentmindedness!***

First, a couple more contests to note:
– Yet another Mix My Granola Giveaway. I keep noting these because I LOVE the idea for this product/service/website. Even if you aren’t going to enter the contest, look at all the options they have for mix-ins…so many choices!! So fun! Check out  Healthy and Sane for Elina’s Mix My Granola Giveaway!
– Bridget at Yogurt and Berries is giving away some chocolate goodies!! A great way to stay sane if I’ve ever seen one!

I don’t have any new recipes from this week, because we grabbed food on Wednesday and last night we took our leftovers from Monday and turned them into a casserole. There isn’t really a recipe for this…I literally took everything we had leftover, stirred it all together in a casserole dish and baked it for about an hour or so. The beets tinted everything this really pretty pink/red color and the French bread got nice and crunchy. I didn’t use all of the leftover gravy because there was a lot, but I put in just enough to coat everything and keep it moist. I was really pleased because it mellowed out a lot-not a lot of lemon flavor at all. It was a very comforting bowl of dinner and we used up all our leftovers! Hooray! No pictures 🙁

I do have a meal we made a few weeks ago that turned out really yummy and a nice warming dinner during the cold spell we just got over! Plus, I just realized I never posted it, even though I took pictures!

When I was growing up, we had tomato soup (Campbell’s) and grilled cheese all the time. I have known this meal as long as I can remember, and it was probably one of the first things I could make by myself. I went through a lot of grilled cheese and tomato soup stages growing up. No dipping the sandwich, dipping the sandwich before every bite, crushing Ritz crackers into the soup before eating the sandwich, finishing the sandwich before touching the crackers, the soup could only be mixed with milk, the soup could only be made with water, when I started cooking I had to use exactly half milk and half water, Ritz crackers were not good enough and I needed oyster crackers…I’m sure there are some I’m forgetting. I was pretty obsessive about things like this…I would decide there was a “right” way to make or eat it, and I had to do it that way for a while, until I decided there was a new “right” way. When I was little I didn’t want crusts on my grilled cheese (which I think is a pretty common kid request), and I remember babysitting my younger cousin and being really annoyed that he would want me to cut off his grilled cheese crusts! Except that by then I loved the crusts, so after I’d cut them off his sandwich I would dip them in my soup and eat them myself…think grilled cheese sticks instead of sandwiches. One way or another, grilled cheese and tomato soup has always been one of the most satisfying things for me when it’s cold out, and I assumed that everyone identified with this meal in some way.

Several months ago I realized that Matt had NEVER had tomato soup! I was absolutely shocked…how did you go 23 years without ever having Campbell’s tomato soup and grilled cheese? This was nuts! I quickly taught him the ways…with both Campbell’s and also some more organic, boxed brands perked up with fresh basil from our summer herb box and a few other variations. Matt has always loved grilled cheese (what’s not to love?) and he has really enjoyed pairing it with tomato soup, although he is not a fan of the Campbell’s condensed soup…maybe you have to get hooked on that when you’re little enough to not have a sense of what makes a soup “good”?

So we had a few leftover flour tortillas and cheddar cheese from our taco party, a box of Pacific Natural Foods Tomato Soup from Ken’s Market, and a variety of canned goods (I always stock up on tomatoes, beans, etc. when they are on sale). So we made a new grilled cheese and tomato soup variation! Cheese quesadillas (sprayed with cooking spray and cooked in a frying pan) and Mexican tomato soup (1 box PNF soup + 1 can black beans + 1 can diced tomatoes w/ green chilies + some red pepper for spice).

Delicious and SO easy! This obviously made a ton of soup, but I had it for lunch the next two days at work. I am always blown away by how many meals we can get out a few canned goods and some basic ingredients…it makes my thrifty side smile. Think how cheap that is per meal compared to if we had eaten out each time instead of eating that meal! I’d say the entire meal cost less than $10 and we got 2 dinners and 2 lunches out of it! Crazy!

 

Some other fun that will be coming up and I’ll have more info about:
– Blogger Bake Sale, hosted by Meghann. I’m planning to contribute something to go up for sale, so keep an eye out for more info about that! If you’re interested, contact Meghann for more info! 
– Guest post on Dori’s blog
– All new design for this blog!
– A side job doing some editing that will result in a good chunk of income, but will most likely make me super busy for a few weeks and result in a little less posting until it’s finished. Hopefully it will also result in lots to post about once I am finished with the editing!
– We’re getting artichokes in our next CSA box and I have never worked with them before! Excitement and/or chaos should be forthcoming!
– Both Dori and Santana have birthdays TOMORROW, 3/21!!! Happy Birthdays!!!