Prepping for the Holidays

Hey guys! I’m finally back in Connecticut for the holidays! Okay fine, I’ve been on vacation for a week… I just haven’t found time between my reading on the couch and enjoying the cardio cinema at the gym to blog. Pathetic, I know.

Yesterday I baked all day for my mother who needed yummy treats to give as gifts. So, for the next few days I’ll be posting recipes that are my favorite for the holiday time! Just wait until I post the andes cream cheese cookies recipe.. soo good. SOOO GOOD. I might have one for breakfast today.

Anyway, something new that I tried this year is peppermint bark. My first attempt was a bit of a failure… I made it too thick, i put the dark chocolate in the fridge too long so the white chocolate didn’t stick to the dark chocolate, and I just put the candy cane pieces on top so they fell off the white chocolate. FAIL. Fortunately, take 2 (yesterday) was a success!!

I didn’t follow any specific recipes… It was more a conglomeration of a billion websites and my own brain. But I don’t think peppermint bark recipes really differ at all anyway. who knows.

I know my pictures are usually bad, but these will be really bad. I forgot my camera in Rochester and we all know i no longer have my iPod for sad reasons.. so I was left with my phone and my computer. ick.

Peppermint Bark

2 cups dark chocolate chips
2 cups white chocolate chips
3/4-1 cup of crushed candy canes + a little extra for sprinkling on top

Melt the dark chocolate chips (I did in the microwave because I don’t have a double boiler – I microwaved them for 30 secs, stirred, then at 15 second intervals, stirring between each).

Pour the dark chocolate on a cookie sheet lined with tinfoil and spread the chocolate so it’s about 1/8 of an inch thick. Put in the fridge for 5-7 minutes (no longer than this, otherwise the white chocolate won’t stick!!)

Melt the white chocolate, then stir in 3/4-1 cup of crushed candy canes.

Take the dark chocolate out of the fridge and pour the white chocolate on top and spread as thinly as possible (to cover all of the dark chocolate). Sprinkle the top with extra crushed candy cane. Make sure you do this quickly before the white chocolate hardens – press the candy canes on top down so that they don’t fall off when you break apart the bark later.

Let sit in the fridge for about an hour. Then take out and break apart into desired size!

Pre-Bark-Breakage

So my pictures after I broke it are TERRIBLE. So bad that I can’t even post them on here. They don’t do the bark justice. so use your imaginations.
It looks something along the lines of this…

Thank you to the person who posted this for your much better photography

I will be back tomorrow.. or the next day.. with more recipes!

What is your favorite holiday treat??

Pumpkin Spice and Everything Nice

ohhhh hello bloggie bloggers!!!! I have missed you all so very much.   There is so much to update you on, I don’t even know where to begin! There’s some good news, some bad news, some happy news, some sad news (do I sound like Dr. Seuss?).  So in an effort to reduce my babbling, let’s get to it -

Remember that time I made October goals? I do.. vaguely.  Have I thought of them before today? Um, no. So let’s see how that went.

Goal 1) Cook something with pumpkin – SUCCESS!!!!! We will completely ignore the fact that I made the cookies yesterday, November 5th.  The recipe will be at the end of this post. and you need to make the cookies. so you need to keep reading and suffer through my slightly still nyquil-drugged thoughts. Or you could scroll to the bottom. but you shouldn’t.

Goal 2) Don’t procrastinate – SUCCESS!! (i’m honestly shocked i’m 2 for 2 right now). Yup, I had no choice but to be on top of things. Life got nuts-o.

Goal 3) Run more than 2 miles. COMPLETE AND UTTER FAILURE.  I wish I could say I even ran one mile. Or 1/2. or .1. But no… the library consumed my life, and I became a lazy bum. My brain got lots of exercise though?  That should count for something. I’ll start tomorrow (if I’m not longer sick).

Goal 4) Meal plan. 92% success.  I did a lot, other times I didn’t. the end.

For not reading my goals since I wrote them.. I’m pretty pleased.  Here is what else happened in October:

Sad news, bad news:

• I’m learning to deal with the occasional B. They’re okay once in a while.. I guess. Ughh. Grad school is hard.
• My iPod got stolen (okay I’m an idiot and left it sitting outside of the office where I work and when I realized it, it was gone. [Sorry Mike...])
• I did not get the flu shot. I work in a kindergarten classroom. I’m sick.

Happy news, good news:

• My sister is getting married!
• All my big tests and projects are over.. for a week or so
• My mom got power back after not having it for a week!
• Decorating for the holidays has commenced!!!!!!!!!

These were on sale…3 for $10! LOVE IT!

I have my Christmas mug. (not that I ever put it away).

I have ridiculous wall decorations.

Alright, now that you’ve all thoroughly enjoyed reading my compelling and life-changing thoughts, here is the recipe that you need to make. right. now.

I got it from here.

Iced Pumpkin Cookies

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Icing:

• 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 1 tablespoon melted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and salt; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup of butter and white sugar. Add pumpkin, egg, and 1 teaspoon vanilla to butter mixture, and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Drop on cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls; flatten slightly.
3. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool cookies, then drizzle glaze with fork.
4. To Make Glaze: Combine confectioners’ sugar, milk, 1 tablespoon melted butter, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add milk as needed, to achieve drizzling consistency.

Clearly my photography skills have not improved. In fact they may have gotten worse. And now I don’t even have my ipod with instagram to make it look like I can take an artsy, decent picture. Whatever. Have a wonderful sunday all <3

It’s a Sad Day…Blogging Hiatus

Dear Bloggies,

The fact that I’m writing this in letter form should be a hint that sad news is coming.  I guess the title of the post may have given it away as well.  Anyway, as my semester is getting under way, I have found that the amount of homework that is piling on is becoming a little, for lack of a better term, ridiculous (seriously, the fact that I have to write a paper/project that is so long that I have to turn it in in a binder is frightening).  Because of this, I’ve decided that I need to spend less time with activities that distract me from my homework.  Sadly, while blogging has become a passion for me, it has also become a major distraction.  I can’t really help that I love ALL of your blogs so much that I’d rather sit and read them all day than do homework, but unfortunately I can’t let this happen.

So, I’ve made the decision to take a little break from the blog world (it’s killing me to type this right now .. so sad).  I don’t think I can give it up completely, so I’ll try to pop in once in a while if I find a really awesome recipe or do a super amazing new workout that you all need to try, and I’ll also try to stop by your blogs as often as I can because.. um.. you guys are great.  I can’t thank you all enough for all of your support and blog-love; you are an amazing group of people who have inspired me in the short time that I’ve been blogging.  I hope that once life stops being so hectic, I can get back into the daily blogging!

xoxo
Meredith

De-stressing Is Stressful

These past few weeks have been full of stress! Unfortunately, it’s only going to get worse. It has been messing with my body and it’s driving me crazy, so today I want to discuss some of the ways that I de-stress and hopefully learn some other strategies from you guys!  My main problem with trying to de-stress is trying to find the time to de-stress (and of course not being able to find time makes me even more stressed)! So here are a couple things that I do when I’m freeeeaking out about the craziness of grad school life!

Let’s be honest… Frazzled Meredith is NOT a good look.

1. GYM. This is kind of a no-brainer for me. Exercising is the best way to clear my mind and get a little break from the insanity.  Unfortunately on days where I go straight from work to do hearing screenings or to study, then to class and home to make dinner, that leaves zero time to do anything in between. Like go to the gym. And going to the gym involves showering after so thats a big chunk of time in my day. So.. unfortunately.. this can’t be a daily occurrence as I’d like it to be.

2. Make lists. It helps me to get organized and layout exactly what I need to do. I have to-do lists all over the place and I love it! Unfortunately I spend so much time making lists that I don’t get around to what I should be doing. Oops.

I have one (or 5) in writing too.. don’t worry.

3. Don’t procrastinate. I know that if I put off work until later that it’ll just stress me out even more. So I do my best to get work done ahead of time and avoid stress altogether. (Way easier said than done!)

So I don’t have anything else to add.  Clearly my de-stressing skills are limited – this wreaks havoc on my body and I have not been enjoying it these past few days/weeks. So please share some tips with me!!

What do you do to de-stress? Any quick de-stressing tips?

Since I have a break…

Well since I have a break between work and class, what better way to avoid doing homework than to blog (if you didn’t read my last post, one of my October goals is to not procrastinate. Fail).

This weekend was too cold to do anything! I woke up on Saturday morning and it was raining and probably around 40 degrees out… so did I go to the market? Of course not.  On Saturday night I was feeling a little tired from my cold.. and it was cold and raining… so did I go out? Of course not.

un.pre.duc.tive.

On Sunday I pretty much sat on the couch all day and did homework (aka retyped my notes from powerpoint to word). But we got spoiled at Mike’s sister’s house with hot turkey, mashed potatoes, and green beans and watched the movie The Rite. It was creepy, but good

Source

But in much more exciting news, I made delicious cookies! And they’re so not good for you but I so don’t care. Everything in moderation I had m&ms lying around that I had to use up!

I got the recipe from here…I made one change… butter instead of shortening

Ingredients:

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 cup unsalted butter

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups m&ms

1. In a large bowl, mix sugar, eggs, butter, and vanilla thoroughly.  Add flour, salt, and baking soda to creamed mixture. Blend well. Add 3/4 cups of m&ms.

2. Drop dough by teaspoonful onto cookie sheet.  Slightly push a few candies on top of each dough ball with remaining candies.

3. Bake at 350 for 9-11 minutes.

Wah lah! Delicious chewy m&m cookies!

What did you do this weekend? Do you like to indulge in delicious cookies every once in a while?

October Goals

Remember in September when I set goals for myself? I suppose I should recap how I did with that!

Goal #1: Keep working out 5 times a week – I did really well with this up until this past week when life got crazy and I got sick! I’m going to go ahead and say I accomplished this goal because not being able to breathe is a valid excuse to skip the gym

Goal #2: Start meal planning – umm well we sort of did this. I have a list on my phone for certain weeks.  But we didn’t always stick to it. I’m considering this goal not accomplished. ugh.

Goal #3: Keep up with readings for class – yup!

Goal #4: Be less of a grandma - I went out more in this past month than I did all last semester, so I’d say I accomplished this goal! How exciting

OCTOBER GOALS

Goal #1: Cook something with pumpkin. Believe it or not, I’ve never cooked with pumpkin. Sad, right?! This should be a main priority

Source

Goal #2: Don’t procrastinate. I have a really busy month coming up. Lots of work, lots of projects, lots of tests.. if I procrastinate, I know I’ll get even more stressed!

Goal #3: Run more than 2 miles. I was running more than 2 a day during the summer, but so far this semester I’ve gotten stuck in a 2 mile rut. I know this sounds minimal to a lot of people, but uh.. 2 is a lot for a ballerina like me

Goal #4: MEAL PLAN. I’m adding this to my list again because last month was a fail.  My grocery bill was under budget but that was because I was eating only what I had in the fridge (which was minimal).  Mike and I got so ridiculously busy at the end of the month that neither of us had time to go grocery shopping or cook dinner. But… eating and eating well is, ya know, kind of important.. so I need to make it more of a priority.

What are your goals for the month?? Did you accomplish your September goals?

I’m Baaack!!!

Hi everybody!!!!!! It has been such a loooong, long week but I finally have time to catch up on blogs and write a post!  Here’s a super quick update on what I’ve been up to:

1) Neuro test.  It was super easy. Or I just studied a lot for it so it seemed super easy.  Whatever. Don’t know what my grade was but I’m pretty sure I reached my 93+ goal.

2) Literature Review. Pain in the booty, but it’s done.

3) Uh… I’m sick. aka I haven’t gone to the gym in like 5 days because I refuse to workout when I can’t breathe. I’m going through withdrawal. But I am lovin’ my nyquil.

4) I left dishes in the sink overnight… this never happens in Meredith-World.

Anyway… now that the craziness is over, I am on to more exciting things! Like blogging! In my absence, Sally Anne and Colleen posted a fun “25 things you didn’t know about me” post.. so obviously I want to join in on the fun.

So here’s 25 things you didn’t know about me!!

1) Before I eat mini wheats, I flip them all over so the icing is on top.

2) I didn’t speak in kindergarten.  It wasn’t because I couldn’t, I just wouldn’t.  Eventually my teacher wrote a note to me on the board and I went up and said something to her.  Now, there are some days where I don’t talk in class and other days where I don’t shut up. It depends on my mood.

3) I have to sleep with a fan on… I need some kind of white noise.  Any kind of noise from outside or from my neighbors keeps me awake (not good considering I live in an apartment building).

4) I love scary movies, but all the ones I’ve seen recently are crap. (Except Mike and I just watched Red Dragon and I really liked it… but it’s not a new one).

5) I’m currently working in a Kindergarten classroom, and the kid who causes the most problems has found a place in my heart. Why does that always happen??

6) I love playing scrabble. and bananagrams. But I don’t like losing.

7) I’ve never played a competitive sport. (I went to a lacrosse “camp” in the summers after 4th and 5th grade.. but that doesn’t really count).

8) I played the piano, clarinet, and sax. I was actually really good at clarinet… but I stopped playing.  Practicing was more of a chore most of the time. But I did like performing.

9) I would never have thought of adding this one, but Sally Anne had the same thing so now I have to put it!.. I (used to) collect tea cups! I have a ton of them at my mom’s house.. I have no room for them at my apartment right now.

10) I went to Jamaica for March break one year.. it was amazing! I learned that I can’t water ski.


11) I flip my pillow to get to the “cold” side.

12) Every morning when I leave my apartment I sing “I locked the door” to a tune of a random song.. if I don’t I’ll forget if I locked it or not and freak out all day.

13) I can watch brain surgery and not get grossed out, but someone throwing up (even in cartoons) makes me cringe.

14) I am embarrassingly obsessed with Family Guy.

Yup, I have Family Guy pint glasses

15) I really wish I could sing, but I can’t carry a tune!

16) To go along with 15… I refuse to sing in front of anyone.  Even at my preschool “graduation” I wouldn’t stand up and sing with everyone.

17) Okay, if you read my blog you know this one… but I am an organization freak! F-R-E-A-K. freak.

18) Remember pogs? I used to have a ton. and I had the coolest glittery slammer in town.

Source

19) I get obsessed with a song and listen to it on repeat.  Currently there are 2 – All That You Are by Goo Goo Dolls (from Transformers hahaha) and Losing My Religion by R.E.M.  Totally random, I know.

20) I love rainy days.

21) I want a pet giraffe. This may be a known fact.

22) My new life goal is to travel to #4 on this list

23) My favorite flowers are sunflowers
24) I text faster than my phone can produce letters. I type a whole text and then have to wait for my phone to catch up.

25) If I could travel anywhere in the world I would go to Egypt.

Tell me something about you. Do we have anything in common?

So Sorry!

My dearest blog friends,

I am so sorry I am not posting a normal post today, but my life looks like this right now:



I have a neuro test on Tuesday and I get pretty into my studying… I don’t settle for anything less than a 93 because… well… I’m a little crazy.  So I apologize for the disappearing act I’ll be pulling for the remainder of the weekend.  I hope you all have an enjoyable fall weekend!

xoxo,
Meredith

What are you doing this weekend?

–and/or–

What are some strengthening moves I can do for my legs (any muscle)… all I’ve been doing is running, weighted squats, and calf raises.

–and/or–

Tell me something that will make me smile I need it!

Recip-easy!

First of all, my witty-ness for the name of this post makes me laugh.

Second, it’s a really versatile dish and I’ve learned that throughout the last week!

Last week I made sloppy Joes and I haven’t had them in FOREVER! So I thought I’d post the recipe today because I ended up making a lot of meals out of it.

Sloppy Joes
I adapted the recipe from Rachael Ray

(Just because my picture was so horrible.. I took the picture from the website)

1 tbsp EVOO
1 1/4 lbs ground beef
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons-1tbsp steak seasoning blend (I didn’t have this so I used [approximately] 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp black pepper, 1/2 tsp onion powder, dried garlic, red pepper flakes, thyme, rosemary)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 jalapeno, diced (take some of the seeds out for less spice)
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 cups tomato sauce
2 tbsp tomato paste
4 rolls!

Directions
“Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add oil and meat to the pan. Spread the meat around the pan and begin to break it up. Combine brown sugar and steak seasoning. Add sugar and spice mixture to the skillet and combine. When the meat has browned, add onion and [jalapeno] peppers to the skillet. Reduce heat to medium and cook onions, peppers, red wine vinegar and Worcestershire sauce with meat for 5 minutes. Add tomato sauce and paste to pan. Stir to combine. Reduce heat to simmer and cook Sloppy Joe mixture 5 minutes longer. Using a large spoon or ice cream scoop, pile sloppy meat onto toasted, buttered bun bottoms and cover with bun tops.”

If you don’t want to use bread, pour the meat onto a sweet potato.

Or… Make stuffed peppers! Mix the sloppy joe mix with 1 cup of cooked white rice. Place the combination into a pepper that has the top chopped off and has been seeded. Pour a little sauce on the bottom of an oven safe pan, place the pepper in the pan, and pour a little sauce over the pepper. Place the pan in a 325 degree oven and cover with tinfoil. Bake for 1 hour.



And there ya go… 3 options for sloppy joes!

Do you like sloppy joes? Have you tried anything besides having it on a bun?

WIAW: Week 4!

This is WIAW week 4! How exciting Thanks for hosting, Jenn!

Breakfast
Leftover pancakes with almond butter and syrup! Uh.. I didn’t eat all of those. They’re just all in the picture.  :)

And an apple.. at least I remembered to take the picture before I ate all of the slices!

Lunch

I got the lettuce wrap idea from Brittany!   I just made tuna salad and put a little spicy mustard on it.  On the side I had pizza goldfish (guilty pleasure) and cottage cheese!


Afternoon Randomness

Dinner

This picture was before I baked it.. obviously. I had leftover sloppy joe and it was about to be bad, so I mixed in some rice and made stuffed peppers!  I drenched it with sauce and devoured it

I had random snacks throughout the day, like almonds and a granola bar. But they went unphotographed.

What did all you lovelies eat Wednesday?