More good recipes

Here are some links to some good recipes that we have recently tried out.

Crispy Yogurt Chicken

• Really good & different way to eat chicken.
• It takes a while to cook, so plan ahead.
• We served it with oven-roasted broccoli. Yummy!

Ravioli with Balsamic Brown Butter

• Vegetarian
  
• It's pretty simple to make, and it's a crowd pleaser.
• We served it with garlic bread, and roasted asparagus.

Good News

I had an interview yesterday, and it ended with me accepting a job. I haven't signed a contract yet, though, so nothing is set in stone. Still, it sounds like a great opportunity and like I will learn a lot. There is also room for growth. I will just need to figure out how to balance working and prepping for the bar exam. I will not be expected to work a lot of hours while I am studying for the bar, so that is good. I am really excited and hope that everything works out with this position :) I also hope that I pass the bar exam :)

Spinach-Artichoke Dip

E & I have a mini crockpot (The Little Dipper) and it is perfect for making this dip. It has a 16 oz. capacity. Yesterday I was craving Spinach-Artichoke Dip; I think it was the weather. Here is what I came up with:

Ingredients:

• ½ of an 8 oz. pckg of cream cheese (cubed)
• ½ box of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
• 1 clove of garlic, chopped
• ½ can of artichoke hearts, drained & chopped
• ½ cup of shredded cheese (either use Parmesan OR we used a 3-cheese Italian blend)
• 1/3 cup of mayonnaise

Directions:
1) Combine all ingredients in the Little Dipper.
2) Cover and heat. Stir after ½ hour (if you’re around)
3) You can leave it on for about 3 hours (or I did, at least).
4) Serve with crackers, chips, bread, or veggies.

NOTE: I left mine on for 3 hours while I was at class, and came home to some WONDERFUL spinach artichoke dip. We also have some leftovers: ½ a pckg of cream cheese, ½ can of artichoke hearts and ½ box of frozen spinach, so it looks like I will be making this again soon. Sounds good to me :)

A Few More Recipes

Spicy Ranch Oven Fried Potato Wedges and Boneless Buffalo Chicken Tenders

• This was a pretty easy meal to make. The blog from which I got the recipe gives instructions on how to make both of them at the same time :)
• The only thing that I would change about the potato wedges is that I would use sweet paprika instead of smoked paprika. I'm not really a fan of the flavor of smoked paprika. Also we got the ranch seasoning from Penzey's instead of using Hidden Valley.
  
• The buffalo chicken tenders were really good. E & I love buffalo wings, but they aren't very healthy for you. These are at least baked, and not fried. They tasted really good fresh out of the oven, but the next day (as leftovers) they were kind of soggy. But I still ate them :)

Beef Stew

• We followed this recipe, except for one thing: we didn't add celery. We had all of the ingredients (except for the beef) at our house, so it was a good recipe for us to use to clean out our pantry.
  
• It turned out really good, and while it was cooking, RatDog became obsessed with sniffing the air and walking over into the kitchen by the crockpot. When I ate it as a leftover the next day, RatDog ran all the way from the bedroom into the kitchen and started jumping and begging for it :) It was pretty cute.
  

Southwestern Chicken Wontons

• These were good (something different), although E had to make them by himself because I had a lot of homework. He said that dealing with the wonton wrappers was a big pain.
  
• He used a little less cilantro than the recipe called for.
  
• I ate mine with ranch dressing :)
  

Yellow cupcakes with chocolate icing

• A couple of weeks ago, during a very boring class, I got a MAJOR craving for cupcakes. I found this recipe and decided to try it out when I got home.
• The batter itself was delicious, but something went wrong when I baked them. They turned out super dense and were just blah. I am guessing that I messed something up, but I won't be using this recipe again.
• The chocolate icing turned out delicious. It was E's favorite part :) Once I find a better cupcake recipe, I will probably use the icing recipe again :)
  

Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken with Green Beans

E & I made this for dinner last night after pseudo-running our first 5K. It was pretty easy to make, and it was delicious!

We started on the green beans first, because they have to bake in the oven. Once the green beans were in the oven, we started on the chicken. We timed it pretty well. The green beans were done about 3 or 4 minutes before the chicken. Not too bad :)

E's Green Beans:

Ingredients

• Fresh green beans (rinsed and trimmed)
• Sea salt
• Olive oil

Directions
1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2) Place green beans on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Stir/shake so all of the green beans are coated.
3) Add sea salt, and stir/shake again.
4) Bake for about 20 minutes. After they have been in the oven for about 10 minutes, shake/stir them.

Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken

Ingredients

• 4 tsp of brown sugar
• 12 oz of boneless, skinless chicken breasts (probably about 4 breasts)
• 1 or 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 TBSP of salted butter
• Salt (to taste)
• Pepper (to taste)
• 1/2 cup of chicken broth

Directions
1) Melt the butter in a pan (we used a non non-stick pan - if that makes sense)
2) Brown the garlic in the butter
3) Add chicken breasts to garlic and butter and cook thoroughly, adding salt and pepper.
4) When chicken is fully cooked, add chicken broth and then scrape up the brown bits.
5) Add brown sugar on top of each breast (1 tsp per breast)
6) Allow the brown sugar to melt into the chicken (about 5 minutes)
7) Serve with green beans

Long time, no update

I'm feeling a little flakey right now. Lots of projects/end of the year stuff to finish up, and not a lot of time. My somewhat decent eating habits have gone down the drain. I've eaten a couple boxes of Girl Scout cookies on my own in the past week. Drinking too much coffee. But at least I'm taking a multivitamin.

I have some good recipes to post, but it probably won't happen for a few more days.

I've been on a few job interviews in the past 2 weeks. I think that one firm was probably looking for a 2L instead of a 3L, so I don't think I will be getting that job. Oh well, interviewing is good practice. They also wanted someone to work for them 40 hours/wk this summer, and that wouldn't be very doable while studying for the bar, so it's probably for the best.

I have another job lead, but have been playing phone tag with the possible employer, so I don't know if it's a good lead or not. Hopefully I will find out more today.

I've also interviewed with a couple legal temp agencies so that way I'm at the top of their list after the bar exam. At least if I'm working somewhere and making money (any money), I will be able to hold out longer while looking for a permanent job. I've been told that it could take between 6-12 months to find a law firm job in this economic climate. There are too many law schools in this area (which I already knew). So I definitely need to find a way to bring in some income while looking for that job. Especially once the student loans come due in December. *gulp!*

E has changed his plan for going to school. As of Fall 2009, he will probably be taking 11 credits/semester at a local university that has a more friendly night-class schedule for working adults. For the amount of money and time that he is spending at the Giant Bureaucracy University, he will be able to earn 11 credits at the Working-Adult-Friendly University. He has to switch his major from Engineering to a double major in Accounting and Math. But he is going to try it out for a year, and then after Spring 2010, we will have a better idea of whether an Engineering major will be possible. Since there are no more night classes available in his major at Giant Bureaucracy University, and because he gets tuition reimbursement, there is really nothing for him to lose by trying this out. He took a Myers Brigg test, and Accounting came up as a top career choice for him, so it's not a totally crazy idea.

E & I also found a church in our suburbia to join, so I am going to New Member Classes (E can't make it, because it's during his lab). It is making me feel more like I "belong" in our suburbia land. It's good to meet some of our neighbors.

Alright, I think that's all for now. I need to miraculously write a paper on Saturday. I woke up at 4:30 this morning and have been working on it until a few minutes ago, so I think it's possible that I will finish it tomorrow. Cross your fingers for me :)

Avocado Dip

When I planned out my lunches for last week, I decided I would have avocado and provolone sandwiches (like a vegetarian sandwich that I usually eat at a sandwich shop). Unfortunately my version of the sandwich was blah! I hated to see my avocados go to waste, so I made a dip out of them. It's very good; even E likes it, and he doesn't always like chips and dip.

Ingredients:

• 2 ripe avocados (peeled and take the core out)
• 1 cup of sour cream (more or less)
  
• Juice from one lime
  
• salt
• tortilla chips

Directions
1) Smash the avocados up in a bowl.
2) Add the sour cream and stir.
3) Add the lime juice and salt (to taste). Stir.

KK's Spaghetti Sauce

My stepmom makes really good spaghetti sauce and pesto. She gave me her recipe for both, and on Friday I tried out the spaghetti sauce. I mostly followed her recipe and it turned out really yummy :)

Here is my version of her recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1/3 pound of Italian sausage (browned & drained)
• 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes.
• Medium onion, chopped
• 1/2 green pepper, chopped
• 3 cloves of crushed garlic
• 1/4 tsp. of crushed red pepper (she uses 2-3 whole cayenne peppers, but I didn't have any at home, and I was too lazy to run out)
• 2 bay leaves (remove after cooking)
• about 2 TBSP. dried basil
• 1 tsp. dried oregano (she uses 2 TBSP, but oregano isn't my favorite so I cut down on this one)
• 2 tsp. ground fennel seed (easy to grind up in the Cuisinart or food processor)
• 1 TBSP. sugar
• 1 tsp. ground pepper
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup red cooking wine
• olive oil - 1 or 2 TBSP.
  

Directions:
1. Heat olive oil in saucepan.
2. Saute onions and peppers for a few minutes.
3. Add garlic and saute for about a minute (be careful because this burns easily)
4. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer all ingredients until sauce slightly thickens (20-30 minutes).
5. Don't forget to remove the bay leaves (and whole cayenne peppers if you used them).
6. Serve with fresh grated Parmesan cheese.

Mom's Minestrone Soup

I made a double batch of this soup today, using my mom's recipe. It made 16 servings of soup. E & I are eating 2 servings for dinner and freezing the rest in individual serving size containers. I added up the cost per serving, and it comes to 81 cents; I'd say that's a good deal. My calculation doesn't include the olive oil, salt & pepper, and any cheese that you serve it with, but it's still very thrifty and will be nice around finals time :)

Here is the recipe for one batch (about 8 servings)

Ingredients

• 2 TBSP. olive oil
• 1 med. onion, chopped
• 2 medium carrots (peeled), sliced or chopped
• 1 medium-size zucchini, peeled and diced
• 6 c. vegetable broth or chicken broth (you can use bouillon; we used pre-made broth because the lower-sodium canned broth was on sale this week)
• 2 c. water - or a little more if needed
• 1 (14.5 oz.) can of Italian diced tomatoes with basil, oregano, and garlic
• 1 c. uncooked pasta (elbow or spiral or whatever is in your cupboard)
• 1 can (15 oz.) dark red kidney beans, drained
  
• 1 ½ c. frozen green beans
• salt & pepper
  

Directions:
1. Heat oil in large pot, add onions, sauté for 3 minutes.
2. Add carrots and zucchini; sauté for 3 minutes.
3. Add rest of ingredients. Bring to a boil, turn down after a couple of minutes and simmer until veggies are tender (about an hour). Stir occasionally.
4. Sprinkle with fresh grated Parmesan cheese after dishing it up in a bowl.

Weather changes & headaches

This week's weather has wreaked havoc on my head. I've had headaches on Tuesday, Friday, and another one today. I'm pretty sure that it's because of the schizo-weather. Snow on Tuesday, warm and sunny (like it should be) on Friday, and today the weather is changing again. Yowzers! It makes it hard for me to get my homework done.

I hate to admit that I still get headaches after having surgery. It makes me feel guilty for having surgery and spending lots of money on my shunt.

But these weather change headaches are different than some of the awful headaches that I had pre-shunt, so maybe the shunt wasn't pointless?