Hello again!

I don't have a recipe to share, just giving an update from the last time we spoke. I just finished up my first semester of school and I'm so excited! I did well, not as good as I wanted but I'll get that 4.0GPA sooner than later. I'm looking forward to having some relax time. No worries about class, no worries about homework or studying. I can enjoy my holidays and time to cook and blog. I will hopefully have some yummy looking recipes and sweets coming up soon. Let's face it, once the holidays come around I'm eating like a pig. I need to cut down on the sweets I consume once Christmas is over. Here are some pictures to hold you over in the mean time.

 these humans got me these silly antlers (Louie we're sorry they were free and we had to try them out)

 My most recent half marathon. The first one I wanted to die, this one went well and I really enjoy running with my Mom over at Town and Country Living. Have you seen her recent posts? All about Christmas and her house looks amazing.

 This is my new winter coat that I don't enjoy but it's cold and I should wear it :) Not to mention how cute I look in it!

One of my favorite ornaments of all times :) I have a very specific way I like to decorate my tree. My inspiration comes from my Mom. I've always loved her tree, the ornaments the bows the beads, all of it. I have grown up with a certain decorated tree so that's what I'm used to! I'll have to take more photos of my tree and update later! Thanks for coming around! Excited to get back into blogging for a few weeks until school starts up again! Merry Christmas everyone!

Warm Rice Salad with Green Sauce

Doesn't sound too appetizing does it? Oh, but it is!!! I haven't had a lot of time to cook lately with school and homework and all, but I need to get back into eating healthy again. I need my veggies daily! So I browsed through my Pinterest board again for something tasty. I figured I'd give this recipe a go. I didn't have all the ingredients so I revised it myself. Now you have my version and the original version. While I was making this I thought to myself, "There's no way this is going to be good." My mind changed after that first bite hit my tongue. "Wow! This was good." I said to myself. I should've made Zac try it. I feel like I have to start getting him to eat better and taking care of his body better. Anyways, go get off your couch and make this. It's truly delicious and packed with flavor! I would have loved to use quinoa, accept I couldn't find mine, so I used my rice instead.

Adapted from: Oh She Glows
Warm Rice Salad with Green Sauce

Salad:
1/2C  brown rice
1tsp evoo (extra virgin olive oil)
1/2C cherry tomatoes halved
1/4C to 1/2C frozen corn
1/4C frozen edamame
1tsp ground cumin
1tstp chili pepper
salt and pepper to taste

Green Sauce:
3 cloves garlic
1/2 C basil
1/4 C cilantro
1/4 C yellow tomato
3 tblsp evoo
2 limes juiced
2tsp ground cumin
salt and pepper to taste


For the Salad:
Cook rice according to package or directions. Heat saute pan and olive oil over medium heat. Once heated add, frozen corn and edamame. Once the frozen items have cooked for a couple minutes add the halved cherry tomatoes and cook for about 5 minutes. Season to taste.

For the Green Sauce:
Mince garlic in blender or food processor. Add basil and process again. Add the liquids and continue to process. Drizzle in the oil. Add the lime juice and seasonings to taste. You will have to scrape the sides several times. You want to have a liquid sauce so if you need to add more oil or lime juice go ahead. Honestly I just threw mine all together in no particular order! I was happy to find I had a yellow tomato from my garden that I could use. Oh She Glows recommends the yellow tomato because it adds liquid with out adding a ton of oil. She also says it keeps the sauce green! I hope you all enjoy this as much as I did!

 Does that not look delicious and fresh? Soooo good!!!

Linking up to: The Girl Creative
Made by you Monday
What's in the Gunny Sack?
Keeping it Simple
Healthy 2Day Wednesdays 

Monday Ramblings

This weekend was a really good one. I did a lot, but I also relaxed, which was much needed! I had my first day of clinicals as a CNA student. :) I went to breakfast with the hubby, although it wasn't very good and also not good for my 8 mile run that day. The run was amazing though even though I wasn't feeling the greatest and my legs were just very tired. My Mom and I always do our long runs on Sunday. We meet at a trail, the trail was so pretty yesterday, even though it was cold, rainy and windy. The trees were full of fall leaves. Yellow, green, red, and orange. I can't even describe it. Their were leaves all over the trail, and on the way back it was windy enough that it was snowing leaves. I love fall, and this was such a cool thing to see/experience. Next week we'll be running ten miles! :) My favorite thing to do after a long run is drink my chocolate soy milk and take a nice relaxing bubble bath. Zac and I hung our Halloween lights, now that we are renting a house we can be more festive. We spent some time at Home Depot, we didn't buy anything too fun..but it's nice to run errands on the weekend. I don't know what it is about it, but I enjoy it. Now it's a new start to the week, full of school and homework, and of course work. I'm looking forward to the holidays. I hope you all had a good weekend too!

 Yes this pic is super blurry, but my Mom was taking photos of the awesome trail..this picture doesn't do it justice

Louie watching Mom and Dad put up the lights, do you love his new sweater?

New Feelings

I just recently read a post on my Mom's blog The Early Face of Fall, which led me to want to talk about it too. I'm talking about my grandma. She is suffering from Alzheimer's, which is a memory disease. She has good days and bad, but last week was different. Grandma wasn't her usual sweet little self. She was very confused, and even angry. I remember getting in the car with my sister and just crying because I didn't know how it got like that so fast. I was sad for her and my Grandpa. I have many memories of her, and she is such an important person to me. So many of my child hood memories come from her. My mom was a single mother and worked full time, so I remember many days hanging out with Grandma. Especially when I was sick. I'd lay on her couch, watch cartoons all day and she would make me my favorite chicken noodle soup. I remember playing outside in her big backyard with my brother, fielding through pine cones and crunchy fall leaves. I remember the best bubble baths, and so much more. Every time I make toast with cinnamon sugar it always reminds me of her. I am so thankful for all the memories we created and that I can remember forever. Even if she isn't the same grandma I used to remember, she is still hanging around. She is a tough little lady.  Not many people are as lucky as I am to have their grandparents in their lives still, so I have to remember to be thankful for all the amazing memories I have of her. Seeing her joy erases any bad day or pain anyone could have. Even if she isn't so joyous anymore, I have to love her for who she has become. I will always love you Grandma, and you will always have a special place in my heart. I will always remember her being at my wedding, even if she doesn't remember it.

Love you Grandma and Grandpa

Happy Anniversary!

Today is Zac and I's one year anniversary. It's crazy how fast the first year went. We've almost been together six years, but the first year of marriage flew by! I feel like yesterday I just got engaged. I miss my wedding, and all the fun we had with our friends and family. I miss getting ready, walking down the aisle, my brother's amazing ceremony skills, dancing the night away and so much more. I miss driving off in my Mom's tiny red yaris to the hotel room. I miss having Zac hold my dress so I could go pee for the first time that night! No joke :) I miss going to bed with him and waking up and going to Arby's. Yea, that's weird but I miss it and I'll always remember that. I even miss cleaning the barn the next day..something about seeing how it had just been celebrated and dirtied the night before. Thanks to Mom for all the help with cleaning up and everything else she did. My wedding was so amazing thanks to her. Thanks to everyone else who came and celebrated our special day with us. Thanks to all our friends who helped us out! My friend Brittany, made our cake. A friend from school catered our wedding, and another friend did my flowers for me. My Mom decorated and created so much amazing decorations for us. She really brought everything together and helped me so much. Another friend photographed our wedding. We had so much inside help and everything was so personal, I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. Everyone that's been married knows planning a wedding isn't always the funnest, and it can be pretty stressful.  We all just have to remember to take a breath and realize why we are getting married. Two years ago we got engaged a week before Christmas Eve. I remember just getting off work and Zac kept asking when I was going to be home. Not so unusual sometimes he asks, but this seemed a little persistent. I figured he was just missing me. I got home and he was acting kind of weird. Hugging me a lot and kissing me more than usual..I knew something was up. (We had talked about getting engaged for awhile now). He brought me over to the Christmas tree, and told me he had bought a new ornament...I'm searching and searching. Finally, I see the new ornament. It's of a guy proposing. The next thing I do is turn around and smile, and he's already on one knee asking me to marry him. Obviously I said yes. I was very happy. So that's our engagement story...I'm so happy I met him almost six years ago. We have gone through a lot and I know there are a lot of more tough times and struggles to come. I can't wait to start a family and buy our first home together. We have so much to look forward to. I love you Zac, and I love that you support me and help me as much as you can.

 I love this pic, you can see all the pretty details on my dress

 We had sunflowers and rafia as decorations

 We lined the aisle with sunflowers and rafia as well

 My Mom created all of this

 My adorable niece was the "flower girl" she couldn't walk yet so big brother walked her down the aisle in a red rustic wagon.

 I LOVE this pic of my Mom...speechless

 Me n Dad walking down the aisle

 I love my hair! This is my brother, he was our officiant. It was such a cool experience having him do this for us. It was personal, and very good and funny!

 We wrote our own vows

 More decorations. I got our wine glasses and forks off Etsy.

 My amazing wedding cake my friend made.

 Our first dance. We danced to Brad Paisley's "Then"

 Again my Mom made all our burlap signs :)

 This is my favorite picture from our wedding!

One of my Mom's friends (who happens to be the sweetest lady i think I've ever met in my life, and she's awesome!) with the flower girl, my niece...isn't she the cutest!?

You can see more photos from our barn wedding here:Our Wedding
More wedding pics

Another Pinterest Recipe for the books

Lately, the way I get my meals is through Pinterest of course. Hey, it has tons and tons of healthy, and not so healthy meals. From quick to not so quick. Not to mention most of them are reliable and delicious. I finally had a night off school and thought I'd make dinner for Zac and I. As I'm about to throw the pasta in the heavily, heavily salted water pot he asks if I'm ready to walk the dog. So I turn the pot off and save it for later. Louie, our new pup has been afraid or not so keen on taking walks all of a sudden. Not sure why...anyways towards the end of the walk he was just fine..which is the usual case. As I got back home I returned to my dinner. The whole kitchen smelled of garlic. :) This dish was pretty simple, quick and delicious. Sometimes simple and quick is just what you need. The original source for this recipe can be found here: Goddess Of Scrumptiousness

Adapted from: Goddess of Scrumptiousness
Spaghetti in Garlic Gravy with Herbs and Cherry Tomatoes

8oz or half box/bag of spaghetti noodles
For the Garlic Gravy (Garlic Gravy?! How delicious does that sound?)
1/2 stick of unsalted butter
1 tblsp evoo (extra virgin olive oil)
4 large garlic cloves, minced
1 tblsp AP flour
1 1/4 c vegetable stock
1 tblsp fresh basil (unfortunately I only had dry)
salt and pepper to taste
1/8 c parsley
1/4 grated parmesean cheese
1 c whole or halved cherry tomatoes


Boil a pot with heavily salted water. (With all my pasta, I've learned to salt the water so much it literally tastes like salt water) Just a little tip I learned from the pro's over at Bon Apetit. You can use this water later to add a little more flavor to your pasta dish. Once, your water has boiled cook noodles until al dente. While noodles are cooking heat large saute pan over medium high heat. Add oil and butter, once the butter is melted add the minced garlic and saute until fragrant. Add in flour and cook for one minute. Add vegetable stock and boil until thickened. This is when I added all my spices. I never measure my spices I just season to taste. I added about 1/8 cup of salted pasta water. Drain pasta and add to saute pan. Cook an extra two minutes and let the pasta absorb the garlic gravy. Top with cheese and tomatoes, and voila you have one tasty pasta dish. Zac raved about this, he really enjoyed it. I hope you do too! It's a perfect cold weather meal.

Of course my pictures look nothing like the original! I was too excited and in a rush to take pictures, not to mention it was dark out when we got back from our walk! 

 Just looking at it makes me wish I had some right now

Linking up to: Lady Behind the Curtain

Vegetarian Taco Salad

It's been awhile since I've posted a recipe, therefore posted anything at all. I miss blogging, but it takes up a lot of my time. Time that I don't currently have anymore. School is now taking over my life. I've decided to go back to school to become a midwife. I have to get my Master's degree for that. Which equals a lot of hard work, studying, and a lot of school. I'm currently getting my CNA, where I'll move on to my RN. I'll have to transfer to get my master's and be certified as a midwife. So, that's why I haven't been blogging so much! I've also lost a lot of followers due to me switching my blog name over, and since I transitioned to eating healthier. I just need to find the right crowd again! It's hard to join linky parties, because I'm usually studying. I miss the blogging community though. My Mom started blogging after me and has more time and has reached the right crowd. She has almost 700 followers!!!! Visit her blog here: Town and Country Living, it's all about DIY and the country life. I still have a couple followers that have followed me from the very beginning and they are awesome for continuing to show me support. Of course I threw this together as fast as I could, and realized I didn't have my camera. So, it's with my cell phone..but it was too yummy not to share! Anyways, I've been missing out on cooking a lot too, because of school. So I've been trying to find faster recipes! This one is quick and delicious.

Vegetarian Taco Salad
Handful or two of mixed baby greens (or lettuce of your choice)
1 tsp evoo
1/4 C corn
1/4 C black beans
1/2 C cooked rice
1 jalepeno
1/4 C grape or cherry tomatoes
1 tsp chipotle pepper powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt
tortilla chips of your choice
cheese of your choice
salsa of your choice
cilantro

Heat olive oil over medium high heat, add corn/rice/beans/tomatoes/jalepeno pepper. Add seasonings to taste. Cook until heated through. Arrange salad greens on a plate, top with crushed tortilla chips and rice and bean mixture. Grate cheese of your choice over the top and garnish with cilantro and salsa! This is another one of my versatile recipes. You can really add or take anything away that you'd like. It was super fast and super delicious!

Yum! Enjoy! Now I'm craving something sweet (no surprise there!)

I did it!!!

This past Sunday was my first half marathon. I wasn't planning on running it, due to a foot injury I got. I was pretty bummed out about it. I convinced my Mom to let me run a few miles of it with her. We decided I'd run about three miles in the beginning and then stop. I kept debating on just running the whole thing and saying forget my foot, or we'll see how it feels...I ended up crossing the finish line!!!! :)  I hadn't been keeping up with my training, due to the injury so it had been about 6-8 weeks since I ran long distance. I never expected the run to be so difficult. I knew it would probably be hard, but I didn't know it would be that hard! I was starting to get tired about half way through the race. I was getting really bad cramps, so bad it was hard to breathe, and it hurt. It hurt so bad, and I felt like I was struggling so much, I wanted to cry.  We ended up walking for a bit and that helped. After that my legs really started hurting, it felt like my legs were made of metal. They didn't want to move. I felt like I was running so slow. Towards mile 9 and 10 I just wanted to be done. I couldn't wait for it to be over. Every mile felt like an eternity. My Mom kept telling me to focus on something else, I tried and it was really hard..all I wanted to do was walk. There were a few inclines through out the race towards the end and I felt like I was dying. I kept pushing through all the way to the end. Once I turned the corner to the finish line was something I can never explain. It was the greatest feeling. Everyone cheering you on, seeing the finish line..the music, everyone screaming. I had an adrenaline rush and ran as fast as I could through the finish. My body hurt so bad when I was done. Thankfully my Mom massaged me. I felt so awesome after I finished, even though I hadn't finished as fast as I'd like. I am so proud of myself for accomplishing this after not training for such a long time. My Mom took care of me the whole way and stuck by my side the entire time. I'm so thankful for her. I had so much fun running this race with her even though I felt horrible most of the way. Words can't even explain how thankful I am for her, and how much I appreciate what she did for me that day. I really enjoy running with my Mom. I look forward to our morning runs together. As tough as this race was, I can't wait to do it again (and feel good). I know next time it won't be nearly as hard. Hopefully one day I will even run a full marathon with her!

A special note to my Mom:
Mom, you are amazing in so many ways. :)  You are so inspiring, and such a strong person. I am forever thankful for how much you helped me. I'm not sure I could have made it with out you. I've really enjoyed running together, and hope we can run many more races together. It's so awesome to experience something like that with you. I appreciate all the help and support you gave me that day. I will never forget that day! You were there for me when I needed you. You helped me cross that finish line, and you were with me every step of the way. You ran extremely slow with me, when I needed to. I know this was so hard due to my lack of training, but I did it anyways because you were there to help me. Words can't describe how happy I was to have you there. I can't wait to run many more races with you. It's such a cool bonding experience. Thank you again so much for everything you did for me that day.

I finally got my pictures from race day, unfortunately I have to order them in order to use them. I have some cell phone pics so we'll use those instead!

 I got this awesome picture to display, that I am very proud of :)

 Happy to be finished!

 This picture reminds me why I hate my legs so much..chicken legs!!!

 I think this was mile 3 or 4 when I was still happy :)

 Getting close to the finish, Zac hopped in and ran for a bit with me. So happy for his support this day

 Can you guess which one is my Mom? She is short like me!

I had to walk quite a lot due to pain and being tired, but all that matters is that I finished!

We have a new addition!

We have a new addition to the family!!! No, we're not pregnant, but it's fun to tease ;) His name is Louie, and although you've kind of already met him, I decided to dedicate this post to him! We adopted Louie about 3 weeks ago. We've been looking to adopt a pup for awhile, and we finally found our perfect match. He's a good little pup, although he needs to go to puppy school for some obedience and training. :) He loves to cuddle and follow mommy and daddy around. He also loves to chase his brother Frank (our cat). Frank usually ignores him, but every once in a while he fights back. I always tell Frank he should show Louie who's boss. Frank will always be the King in our house. :) Sorry Louie.

 Daddy and I love paying catch in the yard

 Although, I'm not the best at returning the ball :)

 I love when Daddy rubs my belly, it's my favorite

 Catch me if you can, I bet you can't!

 Don't you just think I'm so cute? I know you do.

 I may be little, but I'm sneaky and fast

My big brother likes to watch me from the window. I think he's mad because he can't come outside and play. Mom and Dad get mad because he tries to escape all the time. I don't get it, why don't they just let him come out and play.

Another few things that I enjoy, is giving kisses to my mom and dad, I love my kong, and my pigs ears. I especially like to hide them in the couch where Mom and Dad can't find them. :)

We love you Louie, and of course you too Frank.