Oomienoomies!

I have had a growing fondness of cooking; it yields such an accomplished feeling and is actually really fun. In the last couple months, I have found some delicious looking recipes on Pinterest and have been writing them down on note cards to collect in a little recipe box. I am going to share two recipes that I decided to try out today!


Crock Pot Mac n' Cheese 

• 1 (16 oz.) pkg. macaroni
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 (13 oz.) can evaporated milk
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup melted butter

Grease bottom and sides of 3 1/2 to 5-quart crockpot. Toss uncooked macaroni in slow cooker with the vegetable oil then add all remaining ingredients. Stir gently to combine then cover and cook on LOW for 3 to 4 hours, stirring occasionally.


** I used about 4.5 cups of cheese and added a can of creamy cheese soup. I also stirred it very frequently and added a splash of milk every time to keep it creamy. I bumped up the heat to high for about 20 minutes, stirred about every 5 and added milk as needed. Then I turned the heat to low for about 2 hours, stirred frequently and added milk as needed (of course I taste tested it several times!). Once it tasted delish, I turned the cooker off and kept the lid on. Here is a link to the recipe; this paragraph includes the changes I made.

It turned out SO delicious!

Avocado Eggrolls with Sweet Cilantro Sauce

These are the eggrolls before being baked.

Egg Rolls

1 large avocado, peeled, pitted, & diced
1 tablespoon finely chopped red onions
1/2 teaspoon fresh cilantro, chopped
1 dash salt
4 egg roll wraps (can also use won ton wraps)
1 egg, beaten
Oil for deep-frying

Dipping Sauce

1/4 cup olive oil

Sweet cilantro sauce. MMM.

4 teaspoons white vinegar
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup honey (I use slightly less)
1 pinch turmeric
1/2 cup chopped cashews
2/3 cup fresh cilantro
2 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin 

** This is the recipe. You will see what items I decided to leave out due to taste conflicts, but really you can add whatever you like. I just mixed everything for the eggrolls together in one bowl and everything for the sauce together in another bowl. The eggroll wrapper will show you how to wrap them (it's not hard), and I baked them at 400 degrees for 12 minutes on a slightly greased cookie sheet.

Let me know if you guys try these out. They both turned out amazing for me!

Learning To Deal

Most of us know, and loathe, the stresses that come with being a student, whether it be in high school or college. For the sake of relevancy, I'm going to focus on college stress. Stress comes with the student territory, but that doesn't mean that we can't effectively manage it. Now that I'm in my third year of college, I think I have finally caught on to how to cope with the tug-of-war for my time.

Here are some tips that I've learned and try my best to follow:

1) When scheduling your classes, try to make sure to leave enough time for work, rest, boyfriend, or whatever else you will have to juggle. For example, I scheduled my classes so I go in at a decent time in the morning and get done early in the afternoon on most days. This way, I have flexibility for work and studying.

2) Don't be in a hurry to graduate. I know people who have/are taking 17, 18, 19 credit hours, work full-time, and struggle because of that. Their grades are suffering because they're taking on too much at a time. The way I see it is, if you take a reasonable number of credit hours it's easier to focus on getting good grades in all of your classes. Yes, you may be in school for a little longer, but at least you tried your absolute hardest and made your transcript look amazing.

3) Don't have unreasonable expectations of yourself. If you're tired, then take a nap and resume studying later and don't feel guilty! You need to be well rested in order to perform your best. If you're hungry, take a break and eat. If you just want to hang out for a little bit, then do it. If I'm feeling sick or tired, I sit up in my bed and read or study in between commercials. Some people don't like this, but it works for me.

4) Make your surroundings as relaxing as possible. I like to burn lots of candles and incense while I'm studying or doing homework, the mixture of scents really get my creative juices flowing and allow me to focus more. I also have to have my room clean before I sit down and study, otherwise I focus on how I need to clean other than study.

5) Instead of waiting until the last day or two to study for a test, study a little bit every day. I know this is constantly pounded into our heads, and it took me a while to realize this, but it does work. If you make notecards to study, make the corresponding notecards for each chapter as you finish a chapter. Same thing for study guides. When you do it this way, you have so much extra time the last few days to actually study from the notecards or study guide instead of filling everything out.

That's what I have for now, but if you have any suggestions please leave a comment. I really hope this helps!

Good Reads

If there is anything good on this green Earth, it's books; reading is educational and fun at the same time. I love recommending a good read to someone; the majority of the books my mom reads come from my bookshelf. Here I'll post a list of books that I have read over the past couple years, that is if I can remember them all. A couple are even text books! These are in no particular order, except in order that I remember them.

1) Lucky - Alice Sebold

2) The Almost Moon - Alice Sebold

3) The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

4) Sookie Stackhouse series (13 books) - Charlaine Harris, this series is what True Blood is based on - AWESOME!!

5) A World Without Us - Alan Weisman**

6) Harper Connelly Mysteries (4 books) - Charlaine Harris**

8) Songs of a Humpback Whale - Jodi Picoult

9) The Pact - Jodi Picoult

10) Perfect Match - Jodi Picoult

11) Change of Heart - Jodi Picoult

12) Nineteen Minutes - Jodi Picoult

13) Lone Wolf - Jodi Picoult

14) My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult

15) Handle With Care - Jodi Picoult

16) The Tenth Circle - Jodi Piccoult

17) A New Environmental Ethics - Holmes Rolston II*

18) Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins

19)  Women's Voices, Feminist Visions: Classic and Contemporary Readings - Susan Shaw & Janet Lee*

20) The Glass Castle - Jeanette Walls

21) His Dark Materials (3 books) - Phillip Pullman
22) The Hot Zone - Richard Preston 

23) Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert
24) Lord of the Flies - William Golding
25) The Virgin Suicides - Jeffrey Eugenides
26) The Death of Innocents - Sister Helen Prejean
27) Dead Man Walking - Sister Helen Prejean
28) Into The Wild - Jon Krakauer
29) The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
30) Interview With A Vampire - Anne Rice
31) Christine - Stephen King
32) Cell - Stephen King
33) Salem's Lot - Stephen King
34) The Shining - Stephen King

** = Currently reading

* = textbook

Whew, I think I got most of them covered!

Bargains

Most of the girls that I know love, or at least like, to shop, myself definitely included. The only problem with this is that I'm cheap, probably because I have a minimum wage job (boo). This past Summer, though, I started going to more thrift/second hand stores and flea markets with Carli. For sure can't forget the Dollar Store. Looking back, I'm pretty astonished at how much crap I found.

Here is a list of things that I found at places this Summer:

- 2 bread machines that are actually really nice and they work!
- a pair of adorable flower button earrings
- a silver and red box canister that currently holds my extra pieces of fabric, gems, glue, things like that
- a metal canister with brown and yellow flowers that holds my spray paint cans
- a beer stein for my boyfriend (it's not an antique, but he still loves it)
- cute glass jars/vases that I painted
- a Kirkland's reed diffuser set, all the pieces included!
- a huge book on interior design (great condition)
- a book on easy ways to be "green" (great condition)
- a free retro couch (this was from a friend at work, but it was still a frickin' bargain!)
- a free small kitchen table with two chairs (this was also from a friend at work, but still awesome)
- a free desk (the purple one that i posted a picture of, from my neighbor across the street)
- a Phillips radio alarm clock that is basically new
- a BUNCH of awesome clothes from Savers (I spent $65 there once and walked out with a cart full of clothes and other stuff)

None of this is including stuff from the Dollar Store. The Dollar Stores that I've been to lately have really stepped up their game. They have pretty decent school supplies, a surprisingly awesome selection of candle scents and items (Scentsy wax, tea-lights, jar candles, stick candles), an awesome selection of cleaning supplies, a decent selection of home-goods (kitchen utensils, plates, cups, etc.), name-brand makeup, and a bunch of stuff for bubble baths. They even have four-packs of Phillips batteries and 8-packs of Sunbeam batteries; I got my boyfriend a bunch of these as part of his birthday gift for his xbox controllers. Some stores even have a frozen food section. Granted, I would rather go to Kroger or Meijer for these items and other food, but for snacks the selection is great.

As you all can see, I have found some AWESOME stuff while bargain shopping, and I think you get my point that bargain shopping is easy! If you're hesitant about buying second hand clothes, that's fine. I was too at first. But I got over it once I realized how much more I could buy. For example, I found a J.Crew dress at Savers for $13! THIRTEEN BUCKS! And a Daisy Fuentes dress for NINE DOLLARS! That's just amazing. Just throw the clothes in the washer and add a little more detergent.

Hope you guys found this helpful/interesting and decide to go thrifting and find some awesome stuff!

Noodle

Hey, all. This time I think I'll share some of my favorite things (in no particular order) to get idears for future posts.I'll include my favorite everything (food, movies, books, activities, etc) since that's what my blog is going to be about: everything! I titled this blog "Noodle" 'cause it's hard for me to think of a bunch of things that I like, or about myself in general, right on the spot, so I have to use my noodle...haha...yeah :D

Here goes...

1) Snuggling my puppies! Floyd doesn't like to be held much.
2) Reading a good book while relaxing.
3) Learning. This is why I really enjoy college.
4) Watching a good movie.
5) Constantly commentating on bad movies with Katey.
6) Crafting sleepovers with Carli.
7) Playing outside.
8) Finding sweet sites on the internet.
9) Bargain shopping. I LOVE finding awesome stuff at second-hand, antique, and thrift stores!
10) Burning lots of candles simultaneously.
11) Really good incense.
12) The sound of a fan or air vent at night.
13) Sleeping with two+ pillows, having a part of my blanket between my knees, and having one fit sticking out all night.
14) Collecting meaningful things throughout time.
15) Writing letters to people. It's the only way I feel that I can properly express my thoughts/feelings about them.
16) Helping people.
17) Rearranging my bedroom once every year or so.
18) Eating chocolate when I'm on my period.
19) Cooking for Jack and I. And even myself!
20) Eating carbs: pasta, bread, cereal, EVERYTHING!
21)Eating cheese.
22) Finding cool artwork to put on my walls.
23) Gardening. Already thinkin' about next year's!
24) Reminiscing. Though it does make me sad sometimes.
25) Hanging out with my Jack.
26) True Blood and Supernatural. Yes, I'm dorky.

 Floyd! Isn't he sooo cute?!

 All my darlings in one place. Obviously Jack is the human. Waldo is the dude with the pointy ears. He's deaf and so facking adorable. Onyx is the big black one. And Sundae is the one in the middle. MY BEBES!

 Result of a fantastic craft sleepover with Carli (they're binders for school). We also painted/decorated a bunch of mason jars!

 This is me and my girl friend Hannah. We've been good friends since kindergarten. We were 17 in this picture. Holy crap do we look young.

 Another project that Carli helped me with (I needed her spray painting skills). I love it, feels like my own little office nook.

Oh dear. This is my best girl Katey. I'm sure you can figure out why I love this picture so much. I wanna say that we were 17 in this picture, no responsibilities besides high school (HAH!) and jobs. This was on a week night, too ;D

 In my first post, I talked about the service learning class that I took Spring 2011. On the Friday night that we were there, we decided to go to Times Square and start a Free Hugs Campaign; this campaign was all started in London by a dude named Juan Mann. We walked around every nook and cranny of Times Square for at least two hours just hugging everyone who would accept us. I think I hugged more than 50 people; cops, drag queens, homeless people, random bystanders, Spiderman (yes, seriously). Me and two of my friends got a picture with a model who was in the middle of a photo-shoot. It was SO MUCH FUN! And yes, I know my face looks creepy ahah.



One of the harvests from our garden!









I'll update this as I think of more stuff or find more pictures!

Noob

Cheers to my first post! I'm not sure what I should blog about right now; I guess I can tell ya'll what's going on at school so far? Yeah, I'll do that.

As I said in my "biography", I'm studying environmental studies at UT. I haven't really participated in anything yet, like clubs and stuff. I just don't have time for that, you know? Last year I took a service learning class that focused on enhancing leadership skills, thought it sounded cool so I signed up for it. For spring break, 20 of us went to NYC and 10 went to Washington DC to volunteer at various places in the city. Basically, it was absolutely amazing; I made so many friends, I even got super close with the instructors. The volunteer experiences were phenomenal; we volunteered at 2 soup kitchens, a clothing bank, and a daycare, all were located in 4 of the 5 boroughs. Like I said, amazing.

Anyway, other than that I haven't really done anything "extracurricular". Currently, I'm working on undergrad research with Dr. Jorgensen, who is a very well-known chemistry professor who has done a plethora of research on climate change. He gives lectures all around the country and is a member of several organizations and foundations that address climate change. Our project is extensively researching a specific topic having to do with the effects of climate change, like disease from water pollution (another girl is researching this), with the goal of either writing a scholarly article or designing an educational tool (like an interactive game, a syllabus, or something like that) and then getting it published on the websites that we're using, CAMEL and Encyclopaedia of Earth (EOE), of which he is the associate-editor of. Like I said, this man is VERY knowledgeable on the subject of climate change, he's a chemistry professor. At first I wanted to research food security, since that's a very relevant issue in our current worldly society. I wrote a 10 page paper for my environmental ethics class on this issue, but that was more about the effects of over-population on the climate, which in turn has an effect on food security. Dr. J wants us to research the direct effects of climate change on a certain aspect of the world. Plus I couldn't really find enough articles on food security that directly pertained with climate change that would enable me to write at least a 10 page paper. Now I'm researching ocean acidification. It's very complex, with all of the heavy chemistry involved, but I think that'll be a good thing for the sake of my paper. This is for one credit, so it's essential that I fulfill Dr. J's expectations and requirements. If you have any pointers that you'd like to shoot my way, that'd be great!

As for the rest of my classes, I'm taking ecology/lab, intro to environmental studies, computer apps for environmental science, and world history from 1500. I'm really enjoying all of them so far, especially since I've been able to better manage my time with studying and all that jazz. Have you ever had a professor/teacher that you find super attractive and, well, sexy? Yeah, that's my environmental studies professor. I won't go on a tangent about him 'cause that'll just make me sound like a creeper (tehe), but you get the idear.

Alrighty, I think that's it for now. How did I do? I hope this is a good intro to what my future blogs will be like. I won't blog just about what's going on with my classes, I'll try to give some advice about how I deal with all the stresses of juggling work, school, friends, n' all that too. I'll also try to blog about a range of things and post links and pictures. Speaking of links, here are the links to those websites we're using for our research project. Check them out, forreal. They're very easy to navigate and they're very educational. CAMEL: www.camelclimatechange.org

and EOE: www.eoearth.org

Thanks guys!