Pita Pizza!

I love Pizza. These homemade Pizza's are so easy to make and Rob and I each get what we like on ours! The Pita gets nice and crispy, and I love that I don't have to put too much cheese on mine!

Directions:
Heat oven to 425
Add sauce, cheese and whatever toppings you want to a pita, heat for eight minutes, and enjoy!

This one is mine from last night, I keep it pretty simple, with tomato sauce, a little bit of cheese, pepperoni and olives.

Rob's looks a little more sophisticated, but the only real difference is a little more cheese and tomatoes instead of olives.

Chicken and Pasta

Chicken and Pasta has always been one of my favorite meals. I love my mom's homemade chicken and fettuccine alfredo, it was my favorite meal growing up. Now I make a similar version for my family as often as I can. I use a much simpler butter sauce and add extra broccoli.


Ingredients:
1/3 lb chicken, cubed
1 bowl steamed broccoli florets
1 stick butter
2 TBSP olive oil
1/2 package fettuccine
1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese


While the water for the pasta is heating up, add 1 TBSP olive oil to a hot pan and cook chicken until it is no longer pink

Steam Broccoli and add to the pan about the time the fettuccine is added to boiling water

Turn pan on low to simmer.
Drain your pasta and use the hot pot to melt butter.

Then add 1 TBSP olive oil, garlic salt, and Italian seasoning. Simmer on low for about 2 minutes

Return pasta to pot and stir in cheese

Transfer broccoli and chicken to pot, mic in with pasta then serve!

This is amazingly simple to make and I always have the ingredients on hand. It's also extra delicious if you use flavored pasta like Trader Joe's Garlic and Basil Linguine!

Meat & Potatoes

When I was in high school I had a Spanish teacher who would describe the days that we would be doing hard work as "Meat & Potatoes" days, because we would be learning the foundations of the language.
Well since I've started working it has been a little harder to create great meals at the end of the day. I have been coming home very tired, throwing something together, then watching a movie or going to sleep. So today I decided I would make a real meal, and I got back to the basics. Meat & Potatoes.

I had a london broil skirt steak and four red potatoes already. I had Rob grill the meat to medium upstairs on the grill, while I made garlic mashed potatoes.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes:
4 red potatoes
4 TBSP butter
1/2 cup milk
1 TSP Garlic Powder
1/4 cup cheese. (I prefer Romano, but Parmesan works well too)

Boil Potatoes then blend all ingredients together. I usually leave mine a little chunky, and I always leave the skins on with red potatoes.

I also made edamame. I had frozen edamame, which needs boiled for 5 minutes. I then drain and saute in a pan with hot Olive Oil, Salt, and Pepper for another five minutes.

Beef & Broccoli Stir-Fry

Today, like most good days, started out with Top Pot Doughnuts. I love Top Pot, and I love that they have their own cookbook so you can make all of their different varieties of doughnuts at home. I don't have the cookbook, but I hope to get it soon.
Then Rob and I walked downtown to the Central Library, which is amazing. We explored the building a little more today, and there are still things I want to see!
Finally we went to Kress IGA for groceries. I really like Kress. It's small, but it has everything you need! Including fresh-baked bread and a deli for fresh meats. It also has a good produce section. I picked the vegetables I needed to make Stir-Fry for dinner tonight. It turned out very well.

Ingredients:
1/2 lb. thin sliced beef, cubed.
1 cup broccoli florets
1/2 cup sliced zucchini
1/4 cup chopped white onion
1 cup water/ corn starch mix
1 Beef Bouillon cube
Soy Sauce

Everything should be cut and prepared before you begin, as this comes together very quickly. After I Cube my meat I put it in a bowl with salt, pepper, and 1 TSP soy sauce while I cut my vegetables. Meat can also be marinated in Teriyaki.

Heat a olive oil or Wok oil in a pan or Wok. Add beef and onions until beef is no longer pink.

Stir in broccoli and zucchini, let simmer for 1-2 minutes.

Add water/corn starch mix and bouillon cube. Simmer for 2 minutes, stirring.

Once everything is set and the sauce is thick, add approx 2 TBSP Soy Sauce to mix and stir for 30 seconds.

Makes two servings, serve over 1 cup white rice, split.

This can also be made with chicken, the only difference being the chicken, and chicken bouillon instead of beef.

Crock Pot Chicken Noodle Soup

I'm not usually a big fan of soups. I find them unfilling and I'm rarely cold enough to warrant eaiting something with steam coming off of it. I'm also very picky and rarely like the ingredients in soups. I'm the kind that picks around all the vegetables until the meat and broth are gone. But I've always liked my mom's chicken noodle, and when I started cooking for my husband, a revamped it to thicken it up and make it even more satisfying.

I make this soup every time I make a Crock Pot chicken. I save the stock and about half of the chicken and make it the next day. I usually look forward to this soup more than whatever I've used the first half of the chicken for. It's amazingly easy and so delicious.

Ingredients:
Chicken stock from crock pot. (I always refrigerate this overnight, then discard the fat that separates on top)
Chicken meat (About half full chicken, using mostly the white meat)
1 Can Chicken Broth
1 Can Cream of Chicken Soup
1 Can cream of Mushroom Soup
1 Cup Water
1 Chicken Bouillon Cube
1 TSP Garlic Salt
Salt and Pepper to taste.
Half package of egg noodles


Add all of the ingredients before the noodles into the Crock Pot and cook on low for 6 hours. Turn the Crock Pot to high and add noodles 30 minutes prior to serving.

This recipe makes about four servings of soup, which for us means leftovers. It comes out very hearty. Like I said, I'm quite picky, so I don't add vegetables, but they can be put in at the beginning  if you are adding them.

Small Living

When Rob and I decided to move to Seattle, we knew finding a good apartment that we could afford was going to be a challenge. The place we lived in in North Carolina was 1000 sq. ft., old, dingy (like, ceiling caving in dingy) and in a very unsafe apartment complex. I hated it. So when we talked about what we wanted in a new place, safety was my number one concern. After that, I was really hoping for some place nice and new, clean, bug-free, that I would enjoy coming home too. We realized that we actually cared least about, and the only thing the old place had going for it, was size.

That's how we came to find our 326 sq. ft. apartment. Our families thought we were kind of insane to think that Rob and I, and our black lab, would fit into an apartment that small. And the fact that we signed the lease sight-unseen while still in North Carolina probably didn't help our case.

But I was sold on it. It had hardwood floors, a kitchen with limestone countertops and stainless-steel appliances.  There was a beautiful roof-top garden and grill area, with it's own fenced in dog space! There was a common lobby with a pool table, couches, and a work-out facility! I knew we would love it.

And we did! The building was everything I had dreamed about, and the apartment, though small, was beautiful. A trip to IKEA, and a very large shipment of boxes from North Carolina, and we were set up.

Rob and I talk a lot about the apartment, and we both love it. I don't feel I could ever go back to having excess space. We have room for everything we need, no more and no less. We dream of owning a home some day, and we talk about how small it's going to be! Small living has changed my perception on almost everything. But most importantly, it makes me so aware of how amazing my little family is. And the truth is, I would never want to be farther than 326 sq. ft. away from them.

Hand Sewn Coasters

Rob and I were going to go to the Fremont Fair today. But then we remembered that we don't really like crowds, and we'd have to pay to get out there, so we stayed home instead! So on my free Saturday afternoon I decided to stop complaining that we don't have any coasters and do something about it!

I wanted to base them off of the quilt we have on our bed, which was made by my grandmother and given to us as a wedding present.

I know, I come from quite the family of crafty ladies! Since my budget for crafts these days is 0, I looked through the box of craft items I brought with me to Seattle, which included some blue fabric I hadn't found a use for, and lots of yarn. Inspiration!

I do have my sewing machine here, but I have no place to set it up. That's alright though since I was in no rush, and it can be extra rewarding to make something entirely by hand.

I started out by hand sewing three sides of two pieces of square blue fabric together with a running stitch.

Then I turned that inside out, ironed it, and closed out the last edge using a whipstitch. 

I got out a large needle, threaded my yarn through, and did a blanket stitch to match the edges of my Grandmother's quilt.

I'm happy with the results, and I will make a whole set eventually.