Simply Creative

In keeping with the “change it up” trend I mentioned in “Routine Adjustment,” I opted out of eating some normal foods and got simply creative on Wednesday. I say simple, because it was, well, simple! I am notorious for making meals out of whatever happens to be in the refrigerator. Luckily, it’s springtime, which means we are getting mounds of greens from the local organic garden. Healthy and delicious. I went to bed thinking about hot liquid thanks to my Biff and a mutual friend, and decided that for lunch, I was craving some sort of soup concoction. 

Voila!

Kitchen Sink Soup

This soup contains:

• 1/2 cup beef broth
• 1 ½ cups water
• 1 cup cooked butternut squash
• ¼ cup leeks, chopped
• 2 stalks celery
• 2 handfuls curly kale
• 5 large Swiss chard leaves
• 1 carrot
• 1 cup precooked macaroni noodles
• Italian seasoning
• Pepper
• Garlic salt

This soup was super easy. Blend ½ of the squash with the broth, water, and seasoning. Bring to a boil. Add the leaks and celery and cook at a slow boil for 3 minutes. If you like the stems of the greens, add them now and cook for 3 more minutes. Add carrots and cook until tender. Finally, add greens and cooked noodles and simmer until the leaves are wilted and tender. Enjoy!! I know I did.

About an hour after I ate this phenomenally tasty and healthy soup, I was feeling charitable. So I concocted another understated masterpiece for Mons’ lunch.

Partially demolished Easy Mac

  Easy Mac

• 2 cups cooked macaroni noodles
• 1 tbsp Italian dressing
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Italian seasoning
• Garlic salt
• ¼-½ cup shredded cheese of your choice

Seriously, this is so quick and so easy, a five yr old cold make it. But please, don't let your small children near hot kitchen appliances...

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat up the noodles in a sauce pan with Italian dressing, olive oil, and seasoning. Once its sizzling, add ½ of the cheese and stir it all up. Transfer the mixture to a small baking dish. Top with remaining and sprinkle a little more Italian seasoning on top. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Devour and enjoy.

Making delicious foods do not have to be hard to make, expensive, or unhealthy. All you have to do is get a little creative, but remember to keep it simple. 

Want Some Cheese with that Whine?

Hello fellow food lovers! On Thursday, I was not able to update the bloggity, which I attribute to my lack of time and a computer (My computer went ka-put. It sucks.). So over the past three weeks, I have been periodically stealing whatever free laptop I see lying around and using it to do my blogging business.

Thursday night, I just couldn’t seem to make it happen. I had a super busy day. Two classes, lunch with Biff, one class, and a trip to Flo-Rida’s. 

In between scooping poop and mopping floors, my aged bestie gave me a large chunk of gourmet cheese.

Prima Donna cheese

I was lurrrving it. I have never tried this particular type of cheese. I would attribute it to a mix between mozzarella and parmesan. Super smooth taste and hard texture. It was Heaven, even with the dog germs. It was a precursor to what was to come.

After spending time with the poopers, I ran to Biff’s app (apartment) and made a quick change (good thing no one got close enough to smell me). Then I hopped over the basketball game to sing the National Anthem. I was paid in restaurant gift certificates. They know me well. Vouchers in hand, I happily trotted back to the app to wash off the dog grime and spruce up for our evening escapades.

My weekly routine is as follows: Thursday nights, I stay with the Biff, and we usually go out and do something fun and fantastico. Ok, that is complete and total lie. We always PLAN on doing something fun and fantastico and go into the night with high expectations that get demolished about 95% of the time. The following day is usually full of whining and complaining about how horrible everything was the night before.

This week, Biff and I were invited to a house-warming party for some of our friends, and when I heard it would be a semi-formal wine tasting event, I didn’t ask any more questions. Biff and I beautified and headed out.

Greetings out of the way, we snapped a few cutesy shots and got to the eating business. 

Sabs, me, Biff. Cutesy.

More cuteness.

I felt so adult, sipping my wine, eating our cheese (specifically Brie which is my absolute favorite) and fruit, and discussing politics and the stock market, all in a dress and heels. 

The spread. More cheese was laid out eventually.

My plate of cheese and chocolatey goodness. 

Ok, so maybe there was no political or financial talk involved. But surprisingly, our hopes and dreams of having a good night were not dashed. Instead, we had a great time with good friends and good food. Wine without the whine. Perf.

On Friday, Biff and I decided to go to the local coffee shop that everyone loves. We had a gift card which made it that much better. Again with the free food. I love it. We ordered Mocha Mint Latte (me) and Yankee Doddle (Biff) and waited for the goodness to arrive. To my disdain, my Mocha Mint showed up with half melted whipped cream. 

Melted whip. 

I overlooked it and took a sip. It was lukewarm at best. "Kid’s temp", as Biff would say. I promptly sent it back to be heated. Biff took a sip of her iced Yankee and made her crazy tongue-out face. I knew something was terribly wrong. Being the tard that I am, I volunteered my taste buds for review of the product. It was basically syrup on ice. Disgusting.

When my coffee returned, it was probably 5 degrees warmer than it was when it was initialed served. Gah. After about 5 minutes of being polite, my anger could no longer be contained. I called the waiter and told him that our drinks were horrible. To my further disappointment, the waiter in his high-pitched, shaky voice, did not offer to get us new drinks or any type of compensation. We walked out drink-less and certificate-less. I proceeded to grumble, complain, and whine the whole way back to the app, unhappy with the experience (understatement). After that, my day seemed completely lack luster. All I could think about was bad customer service and horrible coffee.

I have yet to speak to my parents about Friday's disappointment. In a matter of minutes, I will be whining about my day to them. I need to find some cheese to go with it.

What's your favorite type of wine? Favorite cheese?