Spring and Summer Days!

I love spring and summer. Like seriously I can’t get enough of soaking up the sun! This weekend was practically perfect… Well except for Friday night!

One of my friends asked me to go to a mid-singles (31+) dance with her Friday night. I’m not going to lie I REALLY didn’t want to go! I don’t like dancing, I haven’t been to a dance since high school, and I figured it would just be pretty dumb. However I LOVE HER so I decided I would take one for the team. After getting dolled up (not really but sort of) we started the trek to Orem, yep you read that right we went to Utah County!

We arrived at the church and the parking lot was packed and I figured most people carpool to stuff like that so I actually thought “oh maybe this won’t be THAT bad..” Welp my friends I was wrong! As we were walking in we started noticing that people were a tad older than us. Once we got in we realized that everyone was WAY more than a tad older than us… I mean they were a good 25 years older than us. There were walkers, and canes and creepers, OH MY!! So we ran but we couldn’t help to notice all the older ladies glaring our direction, they wanted us young ladies GONE! We got back to my car and had the giggles. We decided to grab a bite at a local place but we were mad that we didn’t get any pictures at the dance. So we loaded up in my car and went back. I tried to be sneaky and take pictures but most of them didn’t turn out. My friend Brandi was forced to dance with a weirdo while her sister Holli and I ran out of the room to hide in the bathroom, good friends right?!  

All in all it was a hilarious night full of laughs and memories so you can’t go wrong.

Saturday I went to one of my besties baby showers. It was held at the Grand America Hotel where we had tea time. It was adorable! The girls who planned it did an excellent job. I won a bib decorating contest (WHAT, WHAT!) The baby momma looked so amazing and I can’t wait to meet baby “Z” she is going to be so loved by her parents and HUGE family!

That night I celebrated the birth of one of my long-time friends, Missy. We had a nice sushi dinner with plans to go bar hoping after. However he license had just expired so she couldn’t do that part. So it’s on hold for Birthday Madness Part 2 when she gets a new id. So instead I met up with my best buddy Adam and hit some fun bars and possibly had a little too much to drink.

Yesterday was SUPERB! I love Sunday brunch, it might be my favorite meal of the week! Seriously though, I’m not kidding. After brunch I spent the WHOLE SUNNY DAY at the pool. Yes, I might be a tad sunburnt but tomorrow it will be a tan! After a long day in the sun Adam and I hit up El Chihuahua because it was Cinco De Mayo so we figured it was the right thing to do.

I think ALL weekends should be filled with friends, food, sun and fun! I could get used to this!

JAMMIN!!

Well hello little lovies in blog land! I thought I’d give you a treat today. I’ve been an ass kicking fat kid lately (have you seen Run Ronnie Run? No? Then you wouldn’t understand that) and working my tush off at the gym. So I thought I’d share some of my favorite tunes jam to while I work it out. Don’t judge me for my poor taste in music and I won’t (this is not a promise) judge yours! Let me just say that a lot of this is music I wouldn’t listen to when I’m not working out, but these all have high energy beats! Also there are a lot of repeated artists, that’s a hint that it’s good stuff.  So add some of these to your playlist and hit shuffle! Oh and feel free to leave me more ideas!

Almost anything by DJ Girl Talk - I have so much of this that I didn't bother listing every track. 

Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff – Deadmaus5 (Nero Remix)

Promises – Skrillex & Nero

Feel So Close – Calvin Harris (Nero Remix)

No Love – Hooray for Earth

True Lovers – Hooray for Earth

Jesus Walks – Kanye West

Heartless –Kanye West

Stronger – Kanye West

Beat Goes On – Madonna

Good Life – Kanye West

Pressure – Lupe Fiasco feat. Jay-Z

Crazy in Love – Beyonce feat. Jay-Z

99 Problems – Jay-Z

Brush Your Shoulders Off – Jay-Z

Can I Get A – Jay-Z

Ni**as in Paris – Jay-Z and Kanye West

Blow – Kesha

Take It Off – Kesha

Starships – Nicki Minaj

Super Bass – Nicki Minaj

Turn Me One – David Guetta feat. Nicki Minaj

That’s Not My Name – Ting Tings

Shut Up and Let Me Go – Ting Tings

Fruit Machine – Ting Tings

Circus – Britney Spears

Womanizer – Britney Spears

I’m a Slave For You – Britney Spears

Raiser Your Glass – Pink

So What – Pink (I just love her)

Funhouse – Pink

Push It – Salt-n-Pepa

Whatta Man – Salt-n-Pepa

None of Your Business – Salt-n-Pepa

Stay Gold – The Big Pink

The Best – Tina Turner

Buttons – Pussycat Dolls

Don’t Cha – Pussycat Dolls

Enter Galactic – Kid Cudi

Up Up 7 Away – Kid Cudi

The Beautiful People – Marilyn Manson

Tainted Love – Marilyn Manson

The Dope Show – Marilyn Manson

Take it to Da House – Trick Daddy

Single Ladies – Beyonce

Ring the Alarm – Beyonce

Naughty Girl – Beyonce

Run the World (Girls) – Beyonce

SexyBack – Justin Timberlake

Rock Your Body – Justin Timberlake

Wait a Minute – Pussycat Dolls

The Way I Are – Timbaland

Promiscuous – Nelly Furtado

Disturbia – Rihanna

Don’t Stop the Music – Rihanna

Rockstar 101 – Rihanna

S&M – Rihanna

The Show Goes On – Lupe Fiasco

Go Go Gadget Flow – Lupe Fiasco (MY FAVORITE WORK OUT SONG)

Just Dance – Lady Gaga

The Edge of Glory – Lady Gaga

Wanksta – 50 Cent

In Da Club – 50 cent

We Are Young – Fun.

Disparate Youth – Santigold

Nightcall – Kavinsky

A Real Hero – College & Electric Youth

Zero Dark Thirty – Aesop Rock

Gucci Gucci – Keayshawn

Lights – Ellie Goulding

Sail – AWOLNATION

I Need A Dollar – Aloe Blacc

Pardon Me – Incubus

Number 1 – Goldfrapp

Right Hand Man – Joan Osborne

Don’t Stop Believin’ – Journey

Good Feeling – Flo Rida

Back In Time – Pitbull

Lip Gloss – Lil Mama

Satisfaction – Benni Binossa

Bad Girl – Danity Kane

Fergalicious – Fergie

London Bridge – Fergie

Regulate – Warren G

Call Me Up – Chromeo

Can’t Get You Out of My Head – Kylie Minogue

Air War – Crystal Castles

Dirrty – Christina Aguilera

Hindi Sad Diamonds – Nicole Kidman

Scream – Usher

Everytime We Touch – Cascada

The Fighter – Gym Class Heroes

Some Nights – Fun.

Tongue Tied – Grouplove

Madness – Muse

Revenge of the Nerds – KJ-52

Welcome to my kitchen!

Welcome to my kitchen!

People never believe me when I tell them my kitchen is tiny. So let me show you…

 

 

That’s it!! There are no secret crevices or nooks. What you see, is what you get. Granted compared to some apartments in New York City this might be considered a deluxe kitchen. But let’s face it I don’t live in New York City, I live in Salt Lake City, which is a small to medium sized city. You know, the kind of city where cooking and baking is very important. Plus I love cooking, but my 18” of counter/prep/dry my dishes space has just not been cutting it lately.

 

In addition to my actual kitchen I do have a ‘breakfast’ space but I don’t eat there I’ve turned it into a small office and craft space. See my previous post on this makeover from January 24, 2012 or just look that these pics as a little refresher.

 

Why am I telling you all of this? Well because I’m basically a genius! I decided that the storage bench needed to go, well not go, go it just needed to be moved into a different room. Then I hit the stores looking for a small kitchen island/cooking space, and guess what suckas I found one! So basically I doubled my prep/counter space and added some great storage too! Onh yes and I don't think I ever posted my giant attempted art project so I guess you might notice that too hahaha.

 

Of course I wanted to start cooking right away. So I hit the store and bought some yummy stuff to make a few new recipes. The first one is a honey soy tilapia. Let me start by saying that I’ve never even tried tilapia before, but I’m trying to eat more fish. So I basically said what the hell let’s try it. I found this recipe at allrecipes.com Here’s the recipe.

Ingredients

2tbsp honey

3 tbsp soy sauce

3 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp garlic powder

2 (3 oz) tilapia fillets

Cooking spray

1 tsp black cracked black pepper

Directions:

Mix the honey, soy sauce, vinegar and garlic all together in a bowl. Place the fillets into the mixture and put in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Preheat the oven at 350. Spray a baking dish with cooking spray. Once the tilapia has marinated place it in the baking dish add some pepper and cook for 15-20 minutes.

I’m shocked with how much I loved this recipe. It was super good. I served it with steamed veggies.

Here are some pictures of the process.

Prep

mix

marinate

Bake/Eat the goodness

 

Next I made a Chinese Chicken Stir Fry which I found on Eat Yourself Skinny! blog although I made a few small changes (just omitted a couple of things) here’s my version below….

Ingredients:

3 chicken breasts

1 red bell pepper, sliced thin

1 stick of celery, chopped

3 skinned carrots

½ white onion, diced

2 tbsp light soy sauce

3 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp olive oil

Dash of salt and pepper

Pinch of cayenne pepper

Chop up all of the veggies and cut up the chicken breasts into cubes, season the top with some salt and pepper. Set aside. Grab a small bowl, mug or something and mix soy sauce, lemon juice and cayenne peppers, set aside. Heat up a skillet on medium heat and add some olive oil. Add your veggies to skillet and sauté for about 3-5 minutes then add the chicken and flavor mixtures to the skillet and cook for about 15 minutes, a bit longer if the chicken isn’t done yet. YUM!

Here are my pictures.

Prep

more prep

saute your veggies

add your chicken and cook until you can eat it!

 

Now with this I would typically serve over rice, but I’ve been cutting unhealthy carbs out of my daily routine. In some ways I’ve been attempting to eat Paleo. But I’m not perfect so these recipes aren’t full Paleo but they are fairly closish. ANYWHO so instead of rice I picked up some Shirataki noodles. Which basically are made from roots of plants or something, some of them are made with soy (tofu) but not the ones I bought. I heard about these a few years ago and tried them basically because I love pasta and they are 0 calories and 0 carbs. However I had a horrible experience, they were disgusting! It turns out I was just dumb and had no clue how to properly prepare them.

Well I figured it out.

So what I did was get my colander over the sink. I cut the package open and dumped the noodles straight into it. I already had my cold water running. Because these noodles stink like fish, and I’m not a fan of fishy smelling things.

So I rinsed them for 1-2 minutes in the cold water.

Then I simmered them for 2-3 minutes.

Rinsed again in cold water and guess what they didn’t smell like fish anymore! Yahoo!!! Then I just cut them up a little bit because the noodles are kind of long.

Then since I’m eating them with my stir fry I decided to flavor them with a little soy sauce.

Now if you’re going to try these noodles you need to know a few things. Like they are not like pasta, in fact I think they would taste gross with most pasta sauces, I’ll let you know in the future. The texture isn’t like pasta either it’s kind of like a firm gelatin. Also when cleaned properly they are basically flavorless so I kind of think I might cook some, add flavoring and just eat with some steamed veggies and maybe a protein.

I hope you found something you’ve enjoyed in this massive post!

Cheers friend!