Perth, Australia

Hi friends! It's been a while since I've been on my little space of the internet. And it's been far too long since I've read my daily blogs (I'm missing your lives Cassie, Aubrey, Christa etc-but I'll catch up when I'm home).
Anyway, we're now in Singapore but I'm recapping our time in Perth. I still can't believe we were lucky enough to have traveled to Australia! It was a fun week with perfect weather and honestly I enjoyed my time exploring on my own.

{Dave and I with part of the Perth skyline}

{me taking the train (metro) out to Fremantle}

{no matter where in the world I am, I'm happiest by his side}

{kangaroo at the zoo!}

{venison, gator, kangaroo, wild boar}

We went out to this cool restaurant that served a game platter on hot lava stone. The brought out the steaming hot platter and you had to cook your own meat. I really wanted to try kangaroo and I'm glad I had the chance. I wanted to try emu as well but couldn't find it on any menu. However, I did find emu jerky at the airport right before flying out, so I bought that and ate it. I crossed both things I wanted to try off my list! Kangaroo was really good and as for the emu jerky, it tasted basically like regular jerky.

{Dave after his dip}

It was a little chilly but Dave and his co-worker decided they wanted to get in the water anyway. We all wanted to go to Penguin Island (behind us) but when we got there we were told there were no ferry's going over because it's their mating season. So close. It would have been neat to see the penguins that call Australia their home year round.

Meat pies are also a big food in Australia so I may have had 3 of them during my stay! It was a great week and I'm glad I've checked off Australia on my world travel bucket list.

4th with family and friends

This weekend was so.much.fun. It's just what I needed. There's something to be said about being around old friends and family. It's natural, you don't have to try. They can nap on the couch while you do laundry and watch an episode of a show they think is boring. My friend Nicole and her boyfriend flew down last week and stayed with us. It was tons of fun. We ate well, bowled, played tennis, the men folk golfed, and had a lot of pool time at my parents.

For the 4th of July, my parents hosted a pool party/cookout. Everything was delicious and it was a blast to be together. Everyone pitched in with making things and we were all super full by the end of the day.

{me and my momma}

{my sister put this as my iphone wallpaper....it's staying like that}

A lot of us spent most of our time in the pool. We played our own version of horse with the pool basketball hoop. We played USA because it's more patriotic and shorter. Everyone got really creative on how to make their shots. It makes it more difficult that the basketball hoop floats and can go anywhere in the pool.

We were home early enough to shower and relax and take care of Finley. Nicole bought some bottle rockets and sparklers and we had fun setting them off. We saw some fireworks that were set off around our neighborhood but not a massive show of them. It was a great weekend and I'm so thankful for the freedoms we have in our country because of the brave men and women that serve to protect them.

7.4.14

Dear DAD, yay for you being in town!!!! Dear Nicole, I'm so glad you're here! Dear Spaz and Nate, So excited you guys are in town too. Can't wait to hug on ya! Dear Momma, thanks for sitting at our house multiple times this week. You're the best. Dear Best Friend Megan, I'm sad we won't be spending the fourth together this year but I hope you're ready for our tradition of a flag cake. I really brought it this year! Dear Aubrey, I'm so proud of you for starting your personal blog back up. You're amazing and funny and I can't wait to read every day. Dear Friends, you should check out my friend Aubrey's blog The Found Life. She's crazy funny, a talented photographer, and has such a big heart. You'll love her, I swear.Dear friends, I'm doing ok. I still really struggle with our miscarriage and sometimes it hurts so much I don't know what to do. But Dave and I are so strong and so good that I know I can get through this. Just an update that I'm doing much better and the sadness is kept at bay most of the time. I just don't like thinking that people think we're fine and healed, because it's far from the truth, but we're ok. Dear Nicole, I loved sitting in my closet among all my pretty clothes and talking till midnight the other night.

spiced up date night

Date night for us is typically dinner and a movie-usually redbox and we pick up pizza or Chinese, so it's always fun to mix it up. Cinebistro has reinvented the typical "date night" dinner and movie by combing the two together. It was fun to be served at our seats and enjoy dinner in the theater. My only issue was feeling a little rushed to eat my meal before the start of the movie. The food however, was delicious (albeit expensive) so this will most likely be an every once in a while date night.

{Not the best picture of us-but it'll have to do}

We saw 22 Jump Street and it was hilarious. I don't know how Channing Tatum is so funny-but he is. I never saw 21 Jump Street but wasn't lost with this movie. It was laugh out loud funny and a great Summer Flick.

Guest Post: Meal Prep

Morning friends, Today one of my best friends is taking over my space. I will definitely be trying out some of her tips and tricks. Thanks for being here today T.

{picking my own green beans... apparently they do grow vegetables in Arizona!}

Hello! I'm Tera and today I will be talking to you all about meal prep and planning. A big thanks to Lauren for letting me take over her blog for today. When she asked me a while ago if I wanted to guest post I was super excited but felt I didn't have anything to write about. I got to thinking and realized I love reading blog posts about meal planning and prep and I've learned a lot about it in the past year, so why not write about that?

{grocery list for the week}

A little over a year ago I moved from just outside of DC where I was a half mile from a grocery store, a mile from my office and a 5 minute drive from almost everything else I needed on a daily basis to a small town in Arizona with just a Walgreens and a Dairy Queen. In addition to that I also commute 60 miles one way to and from work. Somehow in that hour commute I don't even pass a grocery store. If I forget something for dinner one night (unless it is a lime - the gas station I pass carries those) I'm pretty much out of luck without adding an hour or so on to my drive home. I love eating healthy and being active but having so much less time was making that difficult. Between that and having less time in the mornings and evening to make meals I pretty quickly came to the realization that planning out my meals for the week and grocery shopping really efficiently on Sundays is what needed to happen.

Now I have a good routine that helps me pack my breakfasts and lunches to eat at work and get dinner on the table every night at a reasonable time. The routine is pretty basic but it seems to work for us. I read blogs and browse Pinterest regularly for meal ideas and always try to use fresh ingredients and keep processed foods to a minimum. Having staple meals and a few new ones each week handy is helpful when planning out our week. It all starts with my CSA farm box (a weekly box of fruits and veggies I get from a local farm). By Wednesday at midnight I need to have my order placed. The produce isn't necessarily the same every week so I order what looks good to me and use that as the basis for our weekly meal plan. Based on what I know I have coming in the farm box I start to put together a meal plan for the week and a grocery list on my iPhone usually on Thursday but definitely by Sunday when I go to the grocery store.

Some typical meals we have are chicken and bean bake, tacos, spaghetti squash or a crockpot meal. We also throw in a night or two of going out and usually I try one new dish a week. Once I have the list in place I look through the recipes to see what I can prep on Sunday once I get home from the grocery store. I always make hard boiled eggs for snacks at work, homemade almond milk for my oatmeal and try and prep other items for lunches and dinners ahead of time. For example, with the chicken and bean bake I can get everything chopped and seasoned and put it in the refrigerator in a baking dish covered with plastic wrap so I just need to throw it in the oven when I get home from work. I can usually also prepare a crockpot meal in the crockpot dish and put that in the refrigerator. Spaghetti squash and other veggies (like sweet potatoes or beets!) can also be baked in advance since those take 45 minutes to an hour to bake. Some other things I have made ahead are: brown rice or quinoa, baking muffins for the hubby's breakfast, putting together fruits and veggies in individual baggies for smoothies, chopping up veggies or making salads and homemade dressing for the week, making homemade nut butter or whole wheat pizza dough, baking chicken or making soup.

{making salads for lunch for the week}

{super easy homemade salad dressing}

Making your own dressing is so quick, is usually healthier than bottled dressings AND tastes fresh and delicious. The basic recipe is just an acid and a fat of some sort. In this case equal parts lemon juice & olive oil. I just put the ingredients in a tupperware or mason jar and shake before using. I added dijon mustard and dill to kick it up a notch this time. You can also use balsamic vinegar instead of lemon juice and easily make healthy creamy dressings like ranch using greek yogurt. Try this recipe for a simple honey mustard!

pancakes the size of your face....no, really.

One of my favorite things we did while in Tucson was go to BoBo's. If you know me and my friends we really just focus our reunions/trips/outings around food. This quaint breakfast place had such a small town feel to it and was really good. We all commented on how surprised we were that it hasn't been on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives-it was that good.

The hit of breakfast were the pancakes. They were insanely huge! I got a chocolate chip pancake and my friend Melissa (Tera's MOH) got blueberry. I like to think I made a good dent in mine, but I also was eating bacon, Tera's omelet, and her potatoes, which were amazing.

{My obligatory mouth open smile-just means I'm REALLY excited!}

I wanted to eat at a couple other places that my Arizona friends recommended but after BoBo's breakfast that just wasn't happening.

Yummy Strawberry Filling

I'm not a big sweets person, but I do like to make them for people and this recipe right here has been raved over, if I do say so myself. Typically {all the time} when I make cupcakes they come from a box and I use store bought icing but since that can be so boring I try to doctor it up a bit. Nicole and I have made ones with peanut butter filling, ganache icing, and fudge filling but with the warmer weather and fresh strawberries readily available I wanted to try a strawberry filling.

Ingredients:

1 cup water

3 tbsp cornstarch (I never have cornstarch on hand so you can substitute 2tbsp all-purpose flour for 1 tbsp cornstarch)

2 1/2 cup strawberries cut into small pieces

3/4 cup sugar

squeeze of lemon juice

Directions:

1. Add water to large saucepan over medium heat, add cornstarch (or flour) and whisk together

2.Add strawberries and sugar, mix. Add a squeeze of lemon juice.

3. Cook strawberry mixture over medium heat, continuously stirring for about 8 minutes or until mixture is pink.

4. Cool before using.

{The process......the last one is what your jelly should look like}

Granted, the filling doesn't look so pretty but it tastes yummy and will be hidden inside a cupcake! I like to cut a hole in the cupcakes add the filling and cover it back up. Once I've added the top back on the cupcake the frosting can hide any imperfections. Top with cut up strawberries and you're all set.

I promise they'll be a hit at any social gathering...but be careful if you're going anywhere in the heat as my pretty little cupcakes melted in the car this past Saturday. Strawberries slid off the icing and were everywhere! Thank goodness my co-worker is laid back and loves these so much (his request that I bring them for the bbq) that he just put the entire holder in the fridge until dessert time. They were still good even if they weren't as pretty as I had hoped.

Enjoy and let me know how they turn out when YOU try it.

Crepes

This past weekend I had some girlfriends over for brunch before a day of shopping. I made my go to breakfast casserole which is always a hit, but wanted to try something else as well. I decided to try my hand at crepes. Growing up in Germany I fell in love with crepes fill with Nutella and they always looked pretty simple to make. Thankfully I found a simple recipe at allrecipes.com.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp melted butter

Directions:

1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour and the eggs. Gradually add in the milk and water, stirring to combine. Add the salt and butter; beat until smooth.
2. Heat a lightly oiled  pan over medium heat. Using a ladle, scoop the batter into the pan. Tilt the pan with a circular motion so that the batter coats the surface evenly.
3. Cook the crepe for about 2 minutes or until the bottom is light brown. Loosen with a spatula, turn and cook the other side. Spread Nutella on one half and then fold over. Cook and flip, the fold in half again. Serve hot. 

I also put a bowl of confectioners sugar, whipped cream, and strawberries on the table to add to the crepes. Thankfully my first attempt was a major success and the girls (and I) loved them. I think this will be my new sweet go to for brunch with friends or desert.

I hope that you'll try this recipe, you won't be disappointed! 

green beans

I love vegetables. But lately I seem to prepare them the same way, and while I believe that my age old methods are far superior (ok not really) I'm willing to try something new. I'm craving a different taste. For now I'm starting with green beans since I'm not willing ready to improve my asparagus. While pinterest is helpful I could use some assistance.

Last week I blanched some green beans and then with my friend Tera's suggestion made a, I guess it'd be a sauce, to coat them in. Basically I mixed red vinegar, a little yellow mustard, a dash of lemon juice, and some honey together and then tossed them in with the beans. I liked that they had a little zest to them and was something different than what I'm used to. But now I could use your help....

Any suggestions on green beans as a side dish? I'm going to try this one next.

Mini Apple Pies

Usually when I attempt a Pinterest recipe it ends in an epic fail but this one was fantastic. Not only was it delicious (seriously people raved about it at work), but it was so easy to make. I'm all about simple recipes especially when it comes to baking.

I found this recipe on Pinterest that was originally from the blog Little Bit Funky. For step by step instructions click the link.

Mini Apple Pie

Start by cutting up eight cups of apples into small 1/2in bits.

Mix the apples with:
12 tablespoons of flour
1 1/2c of sugar
4 heaping teaspoons of cinnamon

You will also need: 
4 tablespoons of chilled butter cut into 24 equal portions.  
two boxes of pilsbury pie crusts 

Unroll your first pie crust and cut several circles out, make enough for your cupcake pan. To make the circles I just used a cup. Line each cup of your muffin tin with a tiny pie crust. Gently fill the crusts with your apple mixture so that they are slightly mounded. Then add the butter to each mini pie. After that use the excess dough and add them to the top. I personally like to add as much dough as I can because the crust is my favorite part. Then brush melted butter before putting them in the oven.

Bake at 400 for about 20 minutes. I would check them at 2-4 minute intervals after about 16 minutes in the oven. The crust will be a little browned on the top. Let cool before using a knife around the edges to get them out. I tend to have problems getting food out in perfect pieces when they're in muffin pans but honestly if you pam the pan beforehand and let them cool you'll have no problem. They come out in great shape and make perfect little bite size treats.

Enjoy!

Gobble

Our Thanksgiving weekend started with a football game at Dave's work. Officers vs enlisted, and again the Officers took the trophy for the fourth year in a row. It was great to meet some of Dave's co-workers and to support him during the game.

me and my stud

The football game was the only thing we had to do before we could get on the road to Dave's hometown of Rochester, NY. We got in in time to go get me a garbage plate before going to his mom's house. Below is what they call a garbage plate, and although it doesn't look so appetizing at first, it's delicious. Home fries, macaroni salad, hamburger, onions, hot sauce, mustard. What's not to love?

Thanksgiving day was spent at Dave's aunt's house with all his aunt's, brother, cousin, girlfriends and some extended family. The  meal was delicious and we're always so happy to be able to spend time with family. It was a quick trip so we could come back home to see one of Dave's best friends and his 14 month old that he had yet to meet. It worked out because we got to see The Harrises twice and they were able to come to our house for dinner. Coming home early allowed us to be able to see my best friend Megan and her husband as well. She's so cute with her pregnant belly! Dave and I also had the time to decorate our house for Christmas....but I'll save that for tomorrow.

 I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving weekend with family and friends.

Nutty

I've already started listening to the Christmas station on Pandora radio. The other day I baked some banana nut bread to take to Rochester when we go for Thanksgiving. I love the way our house smells when it's baking in the oven, such a homey smell.
Sometimes I still can't believe that this is my life and I get overwhelmed with the love I feel for it. I have bad days, as we all do, but I hope I'm not taking things for granted and I'm living for the moment and showing the people in my life how much I love and cherish them.

COMET

This past weekend when we had friends in town we tried out a new restaurant in DC. Chris and Andrea like to look up places that Guy Fieri (remember him here) and his show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives go to. We found such a place in DC and decided to try it after watching the episode online. After our day in DC we stopped in at Comet to get some amazing pizza.

The restaurant had a really cool vibe to it. All the tables were made to look like ping pong tables, there were people playing ping pong in the back of the restaurant and it had a kind of grungy look to it that was cool. We started off with the wings to share between the four of us. I'm a fan of wings but these things were amazing. If you go and just get the wings you won't be disappointed.

Chris got the stromboli which he said was amazing. Dave ate his bacon pizza right up and Andrea enjoyed hers as well. I wasn't the biggest fan of mine (can't remember what I got off the top of my head right now) but it was a fun place and I would go back to try something else. Also if you go save room for the tiramisu because Andrea LOVED hers and is apparently quite picky when it comes to tiramisu. So go check it out!