I love strawberry smoothies, but they have to be just right to be perfect, in my opinion. I'm like the Goldilocks of strawberry smoothies. The perfect smoothie is frothy with tiny little bubbles chilling on the surface. This also means that it's the perfect consistency, not too thick that you can't suck it up through a straw (which is the only acceptable way to drink a smoothie in my eyes, everything is better when you drink it through a straw!) but not so thin that you might as well be drinking juice. It also has to be smooth (hence being a smoothie), but I mean smoooooth, I don't want chunks of anything.
The base of this recipe is from the chef who works at my company's cafeteria, I've increased the portions of some things to get it to the consistency that I like and played around with it a bit. The real secret here is the yogurt. That is what gets the frothiness to the perfect point. Anyway, here is what you need:
-Fresh or frozen strawberries, about 1 cup, again adjusting to your preferences
- 1/4 cup orange juice to start, you might want to add up to another 1/4 cup to loosen up the smoothie
-1 small container vanilla yogurt
-ice (only if you use fresh strawberries)
There really isn't much to tell you here about what to do. Throw everything in the blender and blend, blend, blend, like walk away, get your cup and straw ready, and then blend some more. Stop the blender and check for consistency and flavor, add anything you might need to get you to your happy place and then pour it in a cup.
1. I saw this sign on Saturday, I don't think there is much more that can be said:
Those who throw dirt, lose ground.
2. Monday I stopped by Chipotle for lunch. I was in the midst of ordering some corn flour tortillas and we (the server and I) got to the point where I picked the meat and I blurted out CHOCOLATE. What the? Chocolate? What the heck is wrong with me? I wasn't even thinking about chocolate, or craving it (confession: I had already had some that day), where did this come from?
I hung my head in shame while the girl looked at me questioningly like I had just broken out of the loony bin. I proceeded to tell her to ignore my absurd request and just give me some chicken, which is what I had wanted all along, contrary to what my mouth said. Regardless, my CHICKEN tortillas were good, while my sanity is still out for questioning. Let's chalk this up under "Nicole-isms". Dave has to deal with them often, much to his amusement, and now you, my dear reader, will as well. Trust me there will be plenty more where that came from, Dave can attest to that.
3. Wednesday was really nice, like 70 degrees and slight breeze nice. I decided to take the opportunity to let Nibbler and Squishee outside, but since I was on my own (Dave was working late), I had to put their harnesses and leashes on them. If not, Squish gets freaked out and then tries to run away and then I have to worry about losing Nibbler as I'm chasing Squish around. So I decided to save myself the heartache and put them in their harnesses. They HATE their harnesses. Squish walks backwards and plops up against everything trying to get it off and Nibbler does a reenactment of swan lake by literally leaping around the house on his hind legs. They freak out until they get outside and then its all "ooooh grass?" and then it doesn't matter if they are in the harness. We enjoyed a few minutes outside and I got this awesome pic:
Squish is on the left, eyeballing Nibs, who I got mid-bite.
I also got this great pic too, which is now my new wallpaper on my phone. I'm not going to tell you how many times a day I push the "on" button to see it....it's shameful.
4. Monday I bought "Laced" by Urban Decay, Tuesday one of my favorite bloggers posted a tutorial that used the eyeshadow. Good timing, right? At first I thought I was going to have to go out and buy another one of the shades, but when I went home I noticed it was already in my Naked 2 palette (which is awesome by the way!!) so I had everything I needed to recreate the look! I love it when things work out like this, when you have something you want to try whether it be a new makeup look or a craft or whatever, and you realize you have all the things you need to do it. Now I just have to get up early enough to actually put makeup on, since I get up twenty minutes before I have to walk out the door most days (I really need to stop doing this) and don't have time for anything less than pulling my hair back and swiping my face with some powder. It's not my best look, but that's what I get for being lazy.
5. I've been obsessed with this song this week. I keep playing it over and over and over, which I do to most songs until I'm sick of them. It's so haunting, I love love love songs like this. It also makes me want to learn to play guitar again (because I've started that three times now, one day, mark my words, I will play guitar--consistently!!!)
Have you ever played a song over and over until you never want to hear another note of it again? What song was it?
I found the recipe for this on Pinterest. I've modified the recipe ever so slightly, though not enough to take credit for it. Click here for the original.
I don't like spicy foods and Dave hates black beans (quite frankly I'm not a fan of most beans myself, pretty much only game for green beans and wax beans) so I left out the rotel and beans. I did add in a small can of corn.
Here is what you need:
-1 pound ground beef (use the leanest you can manage, see below)
-1 can of seamless crescent rolls, again see below for reasoning
-1 packet of taco seasoning, I use the low sodium kind
-1 small can of corn
-2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
-toppings of your choice, I use sour cream and tomatoes, Dave likes lettuce, sour cream and salsa
The first time I cooked this it was a disaster, I used regular crescent rolls and the seams made the braid just fall apart. I also used a fattier ground beef and no matter how much I drained there was grease everywhere. It left my braid a big, greasy pile of mess. I almost didn't make it again, but I figured I'd give it one more shot. This time I used the seamless crescent rolls and a leaner beef (the leanest you can get!) and it turned out goo-ooo-ood.
Here is what you do:
1. Cook ground beef, drain thoroughly. Add taco seasoning, follow directions on packet. Add corn (make sure to drain that too) once the meat is all cooked up and mix everything together.
2. Place parchment paper on a cookie sheet (for easy cleanup) and unroll the crescent rolls. Using a pizza cutter, slice small strips on each side, no more than an inch or two deep.
3. Pile your meat mixture in the middle and top with cheddar cheese. Keep the sides open for your braid. This pile will be heaping, trust me it'll be ok, just push down lightly on the mixture when you have the cheese on top to bring it down a hair.
4. "Braid" your strips in a criss cross fashion (see pic to see how I did it), gently stretching the crescent dough to fit around the top.
5. Bake 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes until the crescent roll is golden brown.
6. Top with some sour cream, salsa, tomatoes, lettuce, whatever your little heart desires and enjoy!
This past Sunday, I was inducted into Alpha Sigma Lambda. It's the honor society for adult students at the university I go to. Becca was also inducted as well, which was pretty awesome to be able to share in this experience with her.
Left to Right: Bob, Becca's fiancee, Becca, Me, Dave
In fact, I was considering not joining the honor society and it was Becs that encouraged me to move forward with it. We got to choose one person who pinned our honor society pin on us, plus three other people who could watch the ceremony. I chose Dave to pin me, of course, and invited my mom, step dad, Brian, and my Aunt Penny to be there with me.We got rope tassels that we will wear with our robes when we graduate, so I have to keep these safe for another year (yikes!).
me and AP (as I affectionately call her)
Aunt Penny, me and Ma
Brian and I
I always end up doing something to mess up a pic, much to my mother's dismay.
Great friends
Walka walka walka
Having the opportunity to be a part of an honor society makes me feel really proud that I've come along as far as I have. As I mentioned before, life hasn't panned out the way I expected it to. And while I would never change it for a second, it hasn't always been easy. Being inducted into this society is my way of proving to myself that although it has been difficult, I'm still strong enough to make it through.
The reason I even got to be a part of anything related to college
In fact, I am pretty sure we all are stronger than we think and it's not until we are tested that we truly learn our strength.
Enough seriousness for now:
I just realized, I'm forever making a butt of myself.
I've noticed since I started writing these Friday posts that sometimes it's really hard to find five things that are "worthy" enough to jot down here. This week, up until Wednesday, that was the case. I really like doing these posts, they help me appreciate the little things in my life, even if it is difficult at times to find things to include in the list. In fact this blog in general has led me to be more positive and it has put me in a good mood. This is definitely a great hobby that I've picked up. Now that I've typed this I realized this is probably roundup #1 for this week. Go me for finding something out of seemingly nothing!
2. I have three classes back to back on Tuesdays. My second, three hour class was cancelled this week so I took the opportunity to catch up on writing final papers, homework, and some future plans I have for school. This also gave me the chance to catch a glimpse into what life would have been like if I had gone to school the "regular" way. I ate lunch in the school's cafeteria, walked halls that I didn't normally walk, and sat among other students and just took in my surroundings. I was thankful to be able to get an idea of what life would have been like--so I wouldn't have to wonder. But as hard as life has been for me at times, I'm glad I chose the path I did.
3. I stopped into the library Wednesday night to pick up books I needed to use for research for papers I have to write. My plan was to get in, say hello, and get out to get started on my work, but I should have known that is never going to happen in a place that I love and adore, and that loves and adores me back. This particular Wednesday there was a teen poetry session and two of my favorite people at the library (the third one was working behind the desk) happened to be part of the poetry event, so I joined in the festivities and had a blast. I left feeling so elated and happy, like I was on cloud nine. There are certain people you meet in this world who will always uplift your spirit and these ladies do that for me, I'm grateful that I was ever given the chance to get to know them.
4. One of my favorite moments of the poetry event was "Spine Label Poetry". What you do is walk around and grab books and use the titles on the spine labels to create mini poems. I chose to be inspired by my longing for Tennessee and put together this nifty little poem:
In this mountain
Where we belong
Heart of the matter
Finding love forever
How awesome is that little ditty? I can't tell you how much fun it was running around finding books that fit my idea of what I wanted to say. It was so creative and inspiring. If I ever get to be an English teacher this is most definitely going to be part of a lesson plan.
Here is another, this is by Hannah, one of my teens from the book club I run. Hannah is incredibly intelligent, funny, and the kind of girl that could be your best friend after 5 minutes, she is, simply put, awesome:
The truth about forever
Where people like us live
The dead and the gone
Keep holding on
Firebirds Rising!
One last thought, this was so much fun, try it out!!!!
5. Speaking of libraries, another local library was having a book sale last Saturday. Sadly the pickings were slim, but I was able to pick up this awesome book for $1. This thing is huge and hopefully I'll get some great recipes out of it. I love the feeling when you hold a humongous book in your hands, and this one you could definitely use to lift weights with!
So that's it for this week, have a great weekend, I hope to see you all on Monday!
