no bake cookies!

Ingredients

• 2 cups white sugar
• 3 tablespoons cocoa
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 stick butter
• 3 tablespoons peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 cups uncooked old fashioned oats

Directions

1. Mix sugar, cocoa, milk, vanilla, and butter. Stir ingredients to prevent scorching burning.
2. Boil for one minute
3. Add peanut butter. Mix.
4. Add oatmeal. Mix.
5. Drop by the tablespoon on waxed paper.
6. Allow to cool or eat with a spoon if you can't stand it.

PRINTABLE

Recipe adapted from one of my mom's old family cookbooks.

Super Easy Chicken Fajitas

Today, I was ready for a new quick & easy lunch that didn't involve anything from a can, box, etc. But I wanted it to be easy. 

I caught a glance at some tortillas sitting on our food shelf and thought, "What about fajitas? I bet those would be easy." 

I knew we had some frozen chicken in the freezer that would be perfect. See below. The box I had actually said "thinly sliced chicken breast" but it's the exact same thing, with the same picture. Actually, "Philly style chicken breast" describes it a lot better...

This was super cheap at walmart. Besides this, I used chile powder, salt, ground cumin, onion powder, garlic powder, cornstarch, and olive oil to cook the chicken. I ate my fajitas with diced tomatoes, lettuce, and mozzarella cheese. Optional: sour cream, green pepper, onion, salsa.

My recipe was adapted from this awesome recipe apparently created by an eight-year-old, which is pretty awesome. By adapted, I mean "I omitted the things I didn't like and also forgot to add the lime juice." Check out the original version and feel free to try my onion & pepper-free version.

Ingredients:

• Philly-style chicken breasts
• 1 teaspoon chile powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• tortillas
• cheese
• lettuce
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• tomatoes

Optional Upgrades:

• Lime juice, lime slices
• salsa
• one onion
• one green pepper
• pico de gallo
• sour cream

Directions:

Mix seasonings together in a ziploc baggie. 

Put two tablespoons of olive oil on a plate and sprinkle seasoning in oil. Coat chicken in oil/seasoning. Put chicken in pre-heated skillet that has been sprayed with cooking spray. If you choose to include the green pepper and onion, slice both into slivers (after coring and seeding the green pepper), and cook along with the chicken. I don't like peppers & onions, so I just omitted them. 

Begin cooking chicken. Cook for about one minute. Add one tablespoon olive oil. Add additional seasoning if desired.

Flip chicken. Continue cooking. Use spatula to break up chicken into pieces. 

Cook chicken until the internal temperature reaches 165° in several places. At this point, I taste one piece of chicken to see if I like the amount of seasoning. If not, add more! 

Cook until chicken is nice and golden.

Finished yummy chicken!

Prepare fajitas with tortillas, salsa, sour cream....as so desired. Your meal can be super duper quick or a little slower, depending on your choice. I opened a can of diced tomatoes (partially because we didn't have any fresh, partially because it was quick), used mozzarella cheese (what was on hand) and some butter lettuce for my fajitas. Fix how you like! 

Enjoy!

PRINTABLE VERSION

microwave chocolate lava cake

I found a recipe for a Chocolate Lava Cake on the internet and here is my slightly tweaked recipe. It can probably still use a little tweaking, but this is great.

You could split this recipe for two or you could eat this all yourself! 

Ingredients

• 1 Tablespoon flour
• 1.5 tablespoons confectioner's sugar
• 1.5 teaspoons cocoa powder
• 4 tablespoons milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• a dash of salt
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons melted butter
• 1 ounce/ 1 square semi-sweet baking chocolate

Instructions

1. Mix flour, sugar, and cocoa powder
2. Mix in salt, baking soda, and baking powder.
3. Melt butter and mix
4. Add vanilla
5. Add milk in three additions to get a smooth batter.
6. Pour into microwave safe mug/cup/bowl. Put the chocolate square in the middle of the batter. Make sure it's covered by the batter.
7. Microwave for 1:15. Note: Microwave time varies.
8. Let sit to cool for a couple of minutes. It will be HOT.

cupcakes for four & icing for four

I found this wonderful recipe on Pinterest for cupcakes for two from How Sweet Eats. 

I actually doubled this recipe so there would be a cupcake for everyone: me, my mom, my dad, and Nicholas.

I also baked my cupcakes in a mini cupcake pan, so they would last longer. I ended up with 12 very full mini cupcakes. 

They didn't, however, have a recipe for frosting for two. I found one and modified it quite a bit.

Holly's Super Vanilla-y Buttercream for Four Cupcakes

• 1/4 cup softened butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 teaspoons milk
• 2 cups powdered sugar

Mix together the softened butter, vanilla, and milk. I used a whisk since it was such a small amount and I didn't want to drag out my mixer. Add in the powdered sugar.

If you are not a big fan of vanilla, try halving the vanilla and see if that is enough for you. I thought 1 teaspoon was great but Nicholas thought it was a bit much. 

I also did another little mixing to convert some of the frosting to chocolate buttercream for my mom's cupcake:

1/4 cup buttercream + 1 teaspoon cocoa powder = 1/4 cup chocolate buttercream. 

Vegetable Soup

After I made that chicken noodle soup, I was just dying for more soup.

What was on the list after chicken noodle? Vegetable, of course.

I scoured my favorite recipe website, allrecipes.com, and settled upon this recipe. 

The recipe called for:

• Two stalks celery, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 2 cups beef broth
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can peeled and diced tomatoes with juice
• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can tomato-vegetable juice cocktail
• 1/3 cup uncooked alphabet pasta
• 1/3 cup quick-cooking barley
• 2 (15 ounce) cans mixed vegetables, with liquid
• 1 (11.5 ounce) can baby kernel corn, with liquid
• salt and pepper to taste.

And here's what I ended up doing:

• two stalks celery, chopped
• 1/4 cup dehydrated onion flakes (approx. 1 medium onion, chopped)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 8 cups chicken broth
• 4 cups beef broth
• 1 14.5 ounce cup peeled & diced tomatoes + juice
• 1 1/2 cup tomato-vegetable juice cocktail (equivalent to 14.5 ounce)
• 2 cups fiori noodles
• 1/3 cup quick-cooking barley
• 2 (15 ounce) cans mixed vegetables, with liquid
• 1 can (14/5 ounces) corn, with liquid
• 1 can diced potatoes, drained
• salt and pepper
• 1 tablespoon parsley flakes
• 1/4 teaspoon oregano

Explanation for the changes: Nicholas picked out out fiori noodles....

Barilla brand
fiori noodle

He thought they were awesome. So we went with fiori noodles. I just thought that 1/3 of a cup was too little. We really like pasta. So I put in two cups of noodles.

I also like potatoes. So I put in an extra can of potatoes. 

I decided that it needed a little more "spice," so I copied the spices from the chicken noodle soup that I made last week. 

Everything looked fine and dandy....

Until later that night....

Oops. I hadn't expected the noodles to suck up so much of the broth.

I will admit that I am a beginning cook. I'm just teaching myself as I go.

So I added (actually my mom added this, with my approval, because I was at work) four more cups of chicken broth and two more cups of beef broth, doubling the amount of broth in the soup.

I thought it turned out pretty good.

Nicholas loved it. He loves lots of noodles and veggies and just very little broth.

My mom would've preferred less noodles. She's on weight watchers and says that noodles have a lot of points.

All in all, I believe I'll definitely make this one again. If I'm making it for me and Nicholas, I'll probably keep the modified recipe. If it's for my mom, I may cut the noodles in half or something of the sort....

Not a "miracle"

I don't know if you, like me, have seen things on Pinterest that claim that there is a miracle cleaner out there.

Source: Pinterest. Linked to nothing.....

Like that. 

But I have read Pinstrosity, so I know that a lot of things on Pinterest are actually flukes or things that have been mis-captioned by people who haven't actually read the article. 

So I was curious to try out this hydrogen peroxide + baking soda miracle cleaner.

I was really intrigued when I read that it could get the nasty gunk off your straightener. I don't have any nasty gunk on my straightener because I rarely use hairspray when straightening my hair. My curling iron, however, is another story.

So here goes my trial:

I started out with some GV baking soda, age-old hydrogen peroxide, a cup to mix with, and a gunky curling iron.

Some close ups on the gunk.

I mixed some peroxide and baking soda together and came up with this consistency.

I decided I didn't really like that consistency, so I added more baking soda.

I liked this consistency a little better. I let it sit for like 5 minutes.

It didn't do much, but it did do some! [This was with the help of quite a bit of rubbing.]

I then decided to affix a system so I could have my paste around my entire iron at the same time. I tried to spread it out on a paper towel, then wrapped the towel around my iron and secured it with some rubber bands.

This didn't work hardly at all.

However, I did notice that it was a lot easier to scrape off the gunk with my fingernail.

So I moved the project to the bathroom.

I got me a nice sponge with a little scratchy side to really work hard with my curling iron....

You'll notice that this is really grey....

The gunk is brown.

So I'm wondering....did I take a coat of ceramic off my curling iron?

I hope not.

Certainly not perfect, but a lot better.

Side view.

Ugh.....gross stuff everywhere!!

When I decided I was done, it was so hard to get the paste off my iron. I wasn't sure if I was getting off extra paste or just more hairspray residue.

I wiped my straightener down with some disinfectant wipes to try to get the paste off...it was everywhere.

The final product.

My verdict? Meh.

It worked okay with a ton of scrubbing. But it wasn't the miracle I had heard of. "Just put it on and the gunk falls off!"

Maybe this was because my peroxide was old? This totally could be the culprit.

But I also really hated cleaning the paste up afterward.

And I despised the smell.

Maybe it's just me, but that smell really got to me. Ew. Afterward, I kept washing my hands with scented soaps and it didn't help!

All in all, it worked decently. But it was not a "miracle."

work out

Ah. So it's that time of the year again.

What am I going to do this year?

This year, I'm going to work out more.

So far, I'm doing splendidly. Me and Nicholas are both trying to work out. I happen to work at a gym, which is convenient for me. Also, one of the members is kinda training me, so that makes it a lot easier to be motivated.

I have gotten a lot of cool work-out gear to celebrate my new working-out lifestyle.

Bionic gloves so I don't get manly callouses
while lifting weights

Old Navy workout top

old navy workout top

brooks kids running shoes (I can wear kids haha)

chilly towel thingy. 

And I love all of these things. The towel is actually chilly. The shoes are awesome, the gloves are padded and so great....