Oct 29, 2015

Thoughtful Thursday

Hi all, this week has been super busy and a little stressful. Here are some quotes for today:






Everyone have a great rest of your Thursday!!!!

Oct 27, 2015

Pumpkin Spice recipes

As most you who have been reading for a hot minute have figured out already: I love to cook. This time of year is all about pumpkin and pumpkin flavored items. I decided to post some Pumpkin Spice recipes from Kraft. Now I have to admit, I like pumpkin foods but not that latte stuff everyone start going crazy about this time of year (could be because I really don't drink coffee that much. 
Here are some of the ones that I liked and would consider making (maybe for Thanksgiving):

Spiced Pumpkin cheesecake (one of my personal favorites and with the pecan halves)


Creamy Pumpkin Spiced Milkshake


No-bake Pumpkin spice Layered Dessert

Most likely, I will make all of these (and post about them of course). I know which one I am probably going to try making first. Does anyone have any pumpkin recipes that they like besides Pumpkin Pie or which recipe you would recommend me making?

Oct 22, 2015

Thoughtful Thursday

Hope everyone has had a great week so far. Mine has been the usual: school and more school. Trying to stay positive about all of it. Here are some quotes for this Thursday:










Thank goodness the week is almost over so I can finally catch up on some things outside of school (blogging being one of them).
Everyone have a fantastic Thursday and stay positive. 

Oct 20, 2015

Creamy Pork Chops and Mushrooms

Last week I wrote about getting some pork chops and some of the ideas that I had for them. I was going to post this yesterday but I got busy i.e. Organic Chemistry and Biometry. I actually tried making one of the recipes last Tuesday. The recipe that I made was the Creamy Pork Chops and Mushrooms (here is the link to the recipe).

Of course I made it my own by adding and taking away some ingredients. This is the recipe as I made it:
1 cup mashed potatoes
2 tbsp unsalted butter
8 center cut pork chops medallions
1/2 tsp salt
1/ 2 tsp pepper
1 tbsp baby dill
1 small onion (used a purple one)
1/4 cup white wine (used Pinot Grigio)
1 1/2 chicken stock
Onion powder, garlic powder (to ones liking)


1.
Season pork chops with salt and pepper on each side. Then, I cooked them on my George Foreman grill (since I was short on time) for about 3 minutes. Once done, remove from grill.

2.
While the pork chops cooked, I melted butter in a skillet and cooked the mushrooms, onion, and baby dill over medium heat.


3.
After the vegetables where done cooking, I sprinkled flour in the skillet making sure all of the ingredients in the skillet were coated.


4.
Once the all are vegetables are coated, I added the white wine and chicken stock.

5.
Add the pork chops to the sauce. Cover and simmer for up to 8-10 minutes. Remove cover, letting sauce cook for 2 more minutes. Remove from heat and stir in sour cream.


6.
I then plated the pork chops and sauce over mashed potatoes.


Next time I'm going to try this with a different meat and sauce to see if I like it.
Anyone have any ideas of some pork dishes I should try??

Oct 15, 2015

Thoughtful Thursday

Hello, Thursday!!!! This week has been busy with school (midterms) but I feel like I am finally getting my footing back. Here are some thought for this Thursday:

 :

True!:


"The more you believe in your own ability to succeed, the more likely it is that you will." — Shawn Achor:

 :

Great things take time!:

//Don't ever be afraid to show who you really are, because as long as you are happy with yourself, no one else's opinion matters.:

One thing that I am finding is that the more positive I think, the easier difficult situations whether in my personal life or things happening with school become. I hope everyone thinks positively today and have great Thursday!!! 

Oct 13, 2015

Game Day Floral arrangements

So, a weekend and a half ago my friend and I hosted a Game Day party at her house. I think it was the first time I can say that there was too much food in one place. One of the things that I did that was not food related was getting flowers. I love flowers and decided that I wanted to try my hand at making some arrangements. There was certain colors I wanted for the flowers so I ended up going to a floral wholesaler to go buy some.
Theses are some of the finished arrangements:



Now, the reason they are in Red solo cups is because I ended up giving some away and did not have vases.

They were originally in a shot glass and a dessert glass like these:



I ended up using some the dessert glasses (she had four of them), a shot glass, and some taster soup glasses she had.




The carnations were .49 each. If you are on a budget I would say to make sure to decided before you go how many you want for your arrangements. I knew that I wanted to do a few small ones so I guessed at how many flowers I needed.

It was a pretty good trail run for this being the first time I have ever attempted doing arrangements.
Does anyone have suggestion on what flowers I should use next time?

Oct 12, 2015

Pork Chop Ideas

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Hopefully this week, I will be putting up the pictures I took from the party that I helped hosted. Me being me, I lost "misplaced" my card for my camera and just found it yesterday.  Be on the lookout for those sometime this week. 

 Anywho, I had bought them Saturday and decided to go ahead and cook them yesterday. Now, I only eat pork every blue moon now ( I mainly eat fish and chicken and red meat every now and then) but when I do it's usually a pork tenderloin in a slow-cooker. 

I have been trying to find a new recipe to do beside the slow cooker, frying them (which isn't the best for you), or pan cooking them. I decided to go onto cooking.com and cooking light to see what recipes they had. Here are some of the ones that I am thinking about trying out:

Smoked Pork Chops Stuffed with Gruyere and Mustard



Pork Chops Stuffed with Feta and Spinach Recipe



Breaded Pork Chops (Pork Wiener Schnitzel)



 Creamy Pork Chops and Mushrooms


Juicy Buttermilk Pork Chops



Chipotle Glazed Pork Chops with Southwestern Corn

I'm not totally sure which one I am going to try making tonight. After that the next issue is going to be which side to do. Mashed potatoes is always an easy one but since I am trying to not eat any bread after a certain time of day (usually around 5:30/6pm) that one maybe out,

Does anyone have any side ideas that would go with pork chops for the next time around?

Oct 8, 2015

Thoughtful Thursday

Happy Thursday all!!!

Its' time for another Thoughtful Thursday. This is up later than usual but here are some thoughts for today:

#levoinspired:

Inspirational Quotes To Get You Through The Week:

On+this+page,+you+will+find+some+good+quotes+about+strength.+Bringing+out+the+mental+strength+required+to+overcome+setbacks+and+struggles+isn't...:

21 Inspirational Quotes From Pinterest to Help You Get Over a Breakup -Cosmopolitan.com:

My favorite quote, ever:

Tomorrow I am going to start posting about some of the things that I made for the gameday party that I co-hosted last Saturday. I hope everyone have a great rest of their Thursday. 

Oct 2, 2015

Liquor Drinks: Vodka

I have been super duper busy lately trying to not have a come-a-part over my two least favorite subjects ever (for those who have been reading , you know which two they are). At this point if I'm not at school or work, you can usually find me having a drink with friends or making drinks for friends. I don't want to sound like a lush or anything but I love a good drink. 

 When I do drink, if I'm not drinking champagne, I'm usually drinking vodka. I like vodka because it's a universal mixer (you can mix it with pretty much any mixer from my experience).

Since it is finally the weekend (YAY!!!!) here are some recipes for Vodka from Liquor.com and The Bar.com I'm going to try my hand at making:


Grey Goose Oaks Lily

Cîroc Peach Bellini
Ciroc Peach Bellini


Hanalei Sun

100 Proof Mini Wallbanger
100 Proof Wallbanger

Boot, Scoot & Boogie
Boot, Scoot, & Boogie

Nightwatch
Nightwatch

I know which ones I'm making this weekend and be on the lookout next week for pictures of the Georgia/Alabama party that I'm throwing with one of  my friends tomorrow. Everyone have a great weekend!!!!