[009] Rehired by Geoffrey

Guess who recently became employed? Me! Rehired through my last place of employment. I didn't even have to interview, which is great. My mind goes half-dumb when potential employers ask me questions.

Two more days until I make the switch to vegetarianism. I'm making steak tonight.

I'll be in Vermont this weekend for a wedding in Shawno's mother's side of the family. We're leaving from his Mom's at 7am. Good news is, I get to sleep if I need to. :D I'll be bringing two books, yarn and knitting needles, and my DS to keep me occupied if I can't sleep.

Should be a nice weekend. :]

[008] Yogurt Fruit Smoothies

I made yogurt fruit smoothies!

1 cup of yogurt (any flavor, but I used vanilla)
1 cup of fruit (fresh or frozen)
1 cup of juice (we keep peach orchard punch, berry punch, and cherry limeade on hand)
2 cups of ice

Blend, serve, drink.

I made them super ridiculously thick. Mine still had fruit chunks in it. I love sipping smoothies and getting a chunk of fruit sipped through the straw. Yummy!

You can top it with whipped cream if you'd like. I'm not a huge fan of the stuff. Maybe a little granola on top if you make it super thick and eat it with a spoon. It all sounds yummy to me.

[007] Sun burns and Tubing

I finally tried the raspberry chipotle bbq sauce I bought. It's so freaking delicious and the spice is so mild it doesn't bother me at all. I had it on my nachos last night. I'm planning on cooking some sweet potatoes for lunch, so I'll put a little on those.

Unrelated to food... Shawno and I went to his aunt's yesterday. Her house is right on the lake. So we swam for hours. Eventually, I got the balls to go tubing for the first time. Shawno went with me the first time around. Then his mom went with me on my second time around. My arms started to give out on the second run I fell off the first time when his aunt took a sharp turn. I got back on and we went almost completely around again but my arms completely gave out and I was about to let go when I hit a rough spot and went flying, I did a front flip in the water and nearly completely lost my bottoms. So, my skin is super burnt. The skin from the front of my thighs to my shins is sore. My whole upper body is sore. I had a blast.

6 days.

[006] Burritos

Sauteed up some yellow squash and zucchini squash to go with my burritos tonight.
-left over refried beans
-yellow squash
-zucchini squash
-sour cream
-monterey cheddar and colby jack shredded cheese
-leaves of romaine lettuce
(There was a little ground beef. I'm not entirely a fan of beef on my burritos. Some of the beef was already in the leftover refried beans.)

Delicious dinner.

[005] Sweet Baby Ray's and Kittens

Yesterday's grocery shopping went way more smooth than I thought it would.

We walked in and I went straight for the produce. Yukon gold potatoes, sweet potatoes, yellow squash, zucchini squash, carrots, and I picked up a bag of frozen okra. Pretty sure those veggies are going to end up in some sort of stir fry or just plain grilled.

I picked up a bottle of that Sweet Baby Ray's Raspberry Chipotle someone recommended. I'm not a fan of spice, but I'm willing to try things out. I'll be putting a little bit of that on my sweet potatoes.

In other news, one of the apartment cats had four kittens recently. I first saw them down by the tennis courts playing one late afternoon while Shawno and I were reloading our laundry card at the leasing center. Turns out, they live right outside our building. I named their mom, Ursula, because she gave me a mean look when she was feeding her kittens. Moely is the gray tiger stipped one. Carl Winslow is the all black kitten. There are two that are black and white, one has more white on his face. I think we named that one Danny Tanner, and the other one is Kevin.

Well, Moely, Danny, and Carl were hanging out outside my patio yesterday afternoon. Moely and Danny decided it would be a good idea to jump down into my patio and play around. (Our apartment is half underground.) Then they got stuck, haha. The walls were too high for them. I didn't have anything for them to climb to get out. So basically I scared the hell out of them so they could get themselves to jump out. And really, all I did was open the door slightly. They ended up coming back and layed under the bush outside the patio. And again after we came home from grocery shopping.

Shawno said two kittens were trying to climb the tree outside our spare bedroom, and one was tight-rope-walking the window sill outside the bedroom. Haha, cute kittens. I wish they would entertain me all day with their shananigans.

[004] Sleep and Grocery Lists

I cannot even begin to explain how great it felt to sleep in my own bed last night. The family reunion was a blast. Everyone liked Shawno. :]

Tonight we're staying in. I was going to see Eclipse, but it had to be rescheduled. Dear John should be sitting in my mail box right now. Pretty exciting! Tomorrow is grocery shopping day. We ate all the food that was going to expire over the weekend, and I used all the vegetables in my lumpia. Soooo, we have just about nothing in the fridge and cabinets. I haven't even tried to eat breakfast yet.

I've got to make a grocery list. I hope the walmart we shop at has a good selection out on Tuesday. Eggplant, zuchinni, and squash sounds yummy right now. Hmmm, I taste a stir fry of deliciousness in my future.

[003] Hitting the road with PB&J's

I'm hitting the road!

Shawno and I are making a twelve hour drive to Claytor Lake State Park in Dublin, VA. Here's the fun part; we're taking his car. Not fun enough? It's a Honda Civic. Still not fun? It's a standard. There's the fun! As my family and close friends know, I drive an automatic. (A Pontiac Grand AM to be exact.) But Shawnson has been taking me out to gain skill in the world of manual shifting.

What does this have to do with vegetarianism? Nothing really.

Since we are leaving within the hour of him getting home from work (6:00p-7:00p EST), I don't have time to make dinner. Peanut butter and jellies will suffice! And for all you non-vegs out there, I made ground beef lumpia with carrots and celery in them. Yummm!

Anyway. This is me letting you, the reader, know that I will not be at my computer until Sunday night. I'm going to try this whole posting by text message thing. (I didn't have the battery life to try to post. Boooo.)

Ms. Young, signing off. See yaaaaa!

[002] Grilling Veggies

Veggies should be grilled more often.

In preparation for VegTownUSA, I'm practicing my hand at making veggie dishes. Last night I made grilled sweet potatoes... on the stove. Same thing. Top that with some Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce and you've got yourself a delicious masterpiece of yummy. I've found it hard to go wrong when it comes to grilling vegetables. Mmm mmm mmm.

[001] Going Vegetarian

I am challenging myself to explore the world of vegetarianism. There are hundreds of meatless meals out there just waiting to be consumed by me. If not completely meatless, I'll accept a delicious fish dish. Pescatarian anyone?

You might be asking yourself, "If she wants to go meatless, why isn't she dropping fish off the menu?" Because I can't afford to buy supplements in pill form. Those fish oils are good for you. Did I mention I love sushi? Yum. Let me reassure you, I won't be dining on fish every night. That will ultimately cause me to lose my love for the taste of fish. Which brings me to my next point...

One reason I am taking on a vegetarian (or pescatarian) diet; so I can enjoy the taste of beef more so than I do now. Through out my junior high and high school years, I often preferred the taste of chicken to beef. It wasn't until I was working for a KFC - Taco Bell that my preference for chicken started to decrease. I cannot tell you how delicious a cheeseburger tasted after eating so much chicken.

The second reason I'm going veg? Health reasons. No, not because I think being a vegetarian will automatically make me some sort of health nut. I'm curious to see if a change in my diet will some how effect my eczema. I've seen some vegetarians use a mushrooms as the "meat" of their dish. Unfortunately, I can't do that. I came across an article while doing research on eczema and what foods, chemicals, and environments/weather cause breakouts.

The article stated high fungus, dairy, and sugar diets can cause an increase in eczema breakouts. I've had mushrooms cut from my diet for about a year now. I love a variety of dairy products. Sugars... I can cut down on those, easy. That means 1 freeze-pop every couple days, right? Shucksss.

This diet goes into full effect starting August 1st, 2010.

What am I looking for? RECIPE'S GALORE! I have a brand new notebook (with a cute owl on the cover) ready and waiting to be filled with veg-friendly recipe's. So please, start sending them my way!