Even-More-Successful Success!!!!

The best thing I've cooked so far!!!!! Also the first thing I've cooked that I would actually serve to someone else!


You know how I came up with this recipe? I just copied what I always saw the Centenary caf workers do at the pasta station! And I'm not even joking. Hahaha.

First I sautéed the zucchini (sliced more thinly this time), then I threw in the vegan hot dog slices. Once those items were cooked I threw in some canned Prego spaghetti sauce and some cooked spaghetti, and voila! Perfection. Seriously, that shit was good.

Tonight I am tackling something a bit more difficult, so I'll let you know how it goes!

Success!!!!

I finally made something delicious! It wasn't perfect, but I liked it a lot.

Alright, I know it looks weird, and it kind of was. I just grabbed a bunch of ingredients I felt like eating and sautéed them together. This concoction contained leftover quinoa, sliced baby carrots, sliced zucchini, and a sliced vegan hot dog. (I'm completely serious.)

I was shocked by how well the quinoa and veggie dog went together. Seriously, that combination was fantastic. The actual veggies went pretty well in the mix too, but I should've cooked them a little longer. I didn't get the cooking order right - I should've put the veggies in the pan first, then the "meat," then the quinoa. (Note to self: just because it looks like meat doesn't mean it cooks like meat.) I also could've cut the veggies into thinner slices.

Oh, and the secret to my sauté success? Just Pam. Hahaha. For reals!

Not sure what I was thinking.

I don't have much of an excuse for this shenanigan of a meal.


I cooked some quinoa on the stove, mixed in some leftover lentils, and somehow thought I could pull it all together with a bit of balsamic vinaigrette. I found a recipe online for a warm quinoa and lentil salad, but I didn't want to go shop for all the vegetables and spices. So instead I just, you know, cut out all of the ingredients that were intended to go well with the vinaigrette. It also didn't help that the dressing poured out of the bottle way too quickly, so my meal was sort of drowned in a balsamic sea.

Verdict: Well, it tasted like quinoa and lentils covered in balsamic vinaigrette. Not much else to say about that.

I've discovered that cooking random ingredients isn't so hard: it's putting them together in an flavorful and appetizing arrangement that gives me trouble. Like, I can cook the quinoa no problem, but then what do I do with it? I should reemphasize my unwillingness to go back to the grocery store. I was just there yesterday.

On a side note, I'm becoming quite fond of lentils. And asparagus. God, I love me some asparagus. I just wish it didn't make my pee smell so weird.

In other news, I'm about 30 pages from the end of The Fault in Our Stars, and I'm going to see John and Hank tomorrow!!!

I'm Learning to Cook

It's been a long time (long time). I shouldn't have left you (left you)
Without a dope beat to step to (step to, step-step to, step to, step to).

Alright, enough lyrically-relevant 90's jams. I haven't blogged in forever, and I'm not sure I'm going to try to catch up. I think I'll just start with right now and only provide backstory if it serves the blog.

So what am I up to right now? Well, today I slept 'til noon, went for a run around the LSU lakes (I love to run now!), and then I got groceries and cooked myself dinner. And THAT'S what I'm talkin' 'bout.

I decided today that I want to learn to cook for real. No more Lean Cuisine, no more pasta and canned veggies for every meal. It's going to be a trial-and-error process for sure, and it may not make the most interesting blogging. But if you'd like to follow me on this journey, you are more than welcome.

Tonight I started with something fairly simple: basmati rice with lentils.

(The asparagus came from a frozen steamer bag, so they don't count. And yes, I need to work on my portion control. One thing at a time!)

I cooked the rice and lentils in two separate pots. I was surprised at how easy it was to cook rice on the stove. I don't have a rice cooker at the moment, so I had to make do. I let them both cook for about 15 minutes, and then I just combined them on the plate and added a tiny bit of soy sauce.

Verdict: Not bad. Pretty tasty, very filling. I didn't quite mix the soy sauce evenly, so parts of it were a little dry. The parts with more soy sauce were great, though!

I want to explore new ways to cook this meal. Soy sauce is pretty heavy on the sodium, so I'd like to find a way around that. Next time I might try sautéing the cooked rice and lentils together with some olive oil and maybe some onions. I bet that would be fantastic.

So that's meal #1. This should be fun for me. For you, maybe not so much. We shall see.

In other news, I'm going to see John and Hank Green in New Orleans on Wednesday!!!! I'm pretty psyched. I'm about 2/3 of the way through The Fault in Our Stars, and I love it so much. I'm going to do my best to finish it before the event, so you may not hear from me again in the next few days. If you happen to be at the NOLA event, please find me and say hi!

Day 30: Tomorrow is the Month of Maying

Well, here we are. The last day of BEDA. And I'm quite alright with that.

It's safe to say that I pretty much failed yet again at blogging every day, but at least I tried (again)! I tend to need the pressure of a goal or deadline to force myself to write. I've been this way all my life. Writing papers in college was always a dramatic ordeal.

I'm currently watching a replay of the royal wedding with my mom. I did manage to wake up at 5 AM to catch the ceremony live, and I'm so glad I did. It was all so beautiful and exciting. In the days prior to the wedding I wasn't obsessed with the media coverage; in fact, I think I mentioned in my last blog post that I didn't really care about it. But when I saw it happen I changed my mind. It was impossible not to get caught up in such happy and historic occasion.

Hah, I just saw the moment when Kate got to the altar and Harry totally checked her out. He definitely wanted some of that. Chelsy who?

The ceremony music made me so giddy. It was one of those times when I love being a music nerd. I was sitting alone in my friend Ben's living room as I watched it, so I had no one to shout my reactions to but Twitter. Such tweets ranged from moments of excitement ("I Was Glad"!!! I KNOW that song!!!!) to awe (the John Rutter piece was beautiful) to occasional shameful ignorance ("God Save the Queen" is the same tune as "My Country, 'Tis of Thee"? Who knew?). I loved it all.

But where there is excitement there always must be haters. So many people had to just rant and rant about how annoyed they were at everyone's excitement. "It's just two people getting married! What's the big deal?!" Well, you know what? If you don't want to celebrate with us, don't celebrate. But you don't have to rain on our collective parade just to be contrary. Let us have our fun and be excited! It's certainly not going to hurt anyone.

Well, that's all I have for you now. I'm going to finish watching this replay. (Gosh, that dress is gorgeous! I even love the sleeves!)

It's been another fun BEDA, and I hope I can keep blogging more often. I'll definitely update soon to give you my list of reasons why I hate the south! :-)

Goodnight!

Day 28: Why I Like the South

I'm about to drive to Shreveport for the weekend, so I might as well blog now before I go.

I've been thinking a lot lately about one particular thing: the south. It's all around me. I can't escape.

However, I'm going to try to stay positive today. I now present to you:

A LIST OF REASONS WHY I LIKE THE SOUTH
1. crawfish
It is delicious. You get it from basically the same place you get shrimp, but it's so much more delicious. Crawfish boils (basically redneck clam bakes) are my favorite southern pastime.

2. the word "y'all"
The dictionary may not recognize it as an official word, but it is a perfectly acceptable contraction of the words "you" and "all." It's cute. It's a delightful word to say. Most of us don't get obnoxious with it. Your average "y'all"-saying southerner doesn't sound half as bad as any given northerner who tries to make fun of the word.

3. New Orleans
It's just a really cool city. Considering how badly my own city sucks, I'm lucky to live only an hour away from New Orleans.
Also: Austin, TX. Another really cool city.

4. your hair grows faster here
It's true.

And that concludes my list of things I like about the south. Next time I will give you my (much longer) list of reasons why I hate the south. Get excited.

So now I'm going to Shreveport to see my friends and visit the kids I student-taught. Meanwhile, although I have decided I don't really care about the royal wedding, I may try to get up and watch it anyway.

Cheers!

P.S. This is post #100! HOORAY!

Day 27: Cheating

This particular post will take a while to complete because I'm typing it little by little as I take breaks from texting in votes for Haley Reinhart. American Idol is important, y'all. WE GOTS TO KEEP THE GIRLS ALIVE.

But I have other important news, and this important news is this: I broke my vegetarian streak last night. I'm a terrible person. I feel ignominy and disgrace being heaped upon me by an invisible force.

Ok, I actually have good reasons and a logical course of action for my vegetarian future.

My problem with trying to be a vegetarian right now is that my mom does the food shopping 'round these parts. And she keeps buying turkey and seafood products just for me. I haven't exactly mentioned the full vegetarianism thing to the family yet.

And WHY haven't I mentioned the full vegetarian thing to the family yet? WELL, hypothetical audience, I haven't mentioned it to the family yet because the family tends to make fun of me for everything I do or think. Seriously. They make fun of my liberalism, my apathy toward all sports, my disdain for America, my desire to live in Europe for at least one year before I turn 30, the things I watch on television, every opinion I express that they don't agree with, and so much more. So why give them one more thing?

But I do realize I'm going to have to tell them. So I will. I'm going to tell them I want to be a vegetarian. I will eat up everything turkey- and seafood-related in the house, and then I will stop eating all meat. And I'm excited about it.

Yep. That's where I stand now. So I'm going to go vote for Haley until the polls close.

Bye!

Days Without Meat: 0 (Sad. Must start over.)