I Can Actually Cook....

This last week I had a goal to cook every night but one (because every night was kind of a stretch!).  This was a pretty hefty goal because I am not a great cook... and usually by the time I get home from work around 6:30 I just want to relax.  If it's up to me to cook dinner I give Nate the options of grilled cheese, soup from a package, or tuna and crackers.  Pretty gourmet.

Two weeks ago Nate cooked most nights (since he's actually a great cook) but it made me feel like I was slacking on my wifely duties so that's why I decided to take matters into my own hands this week!  Last Saturday I got on pinterest (which I basically never do) and looked up some tasty looking, easy, quick meals.  Guys.  I did it!!!  I cooked a real meal every night except for Wednesday when we went and got Mexican with some of my friends.  Here's what I did!

Sunday- Herb and Citrus Oven Roasted Chicken (http://www.thecomfortofcooking.com/2013/04/herb-and-citrus-oven-roasted-chicken.html)
After making this I learned Nate hates chicken thighs...oops.  I knew he didn't like drumsticks so that's why I chose thighs and he then informed me he hates thighs more than drumsticks haha

Monday- Hobo dinners (http://formulamom.com/grilled-hobo-dinners-recipe/)
I didn't take a picture of this one or use an actual recipe but the above recipe is an example.

Tuesday- Spinach Tomato Tortellini Soup (http://damndelicious.net/2014/09/06/spinach-tomato-tortellini-soup/)
Soup-er easy soup!  Highly recommend for those on the run.  It was ready to eat 20 minutes after I started making it.

Thursday- Zucchini Mushroom Pasta (http://damndelicious.net/2014/06/13/one-pot-zucchini-mushroom-pasta/)
This was my very first one pan pasta.  Not my absolute favorite, but pretty good for how easy it was.

Friday- Taquitos Two Ways- Honey Lime and Green Chili (http://reciperunner.com/baked-green-chile-chicken-taquitos/ and http://therecipecritic.com/2015/03/baked-honey-lime-chicken-taquitos/)
I baked the ones on the left as the recipe suggests but Nate wanted to try frying some so the darker ones on the right are fried.  And people, fried is always better.

Everything was delicious and I did it all for like $45!  That's pretty impressive because we spend way too much money on food each week.  I also did sides with most of these but those aren't pictured.  I'm going to attempt to do this again next week but we shall see.  I'm a little cooked out.....

General Conference Weekend

We headed down to Utah again for General Conference.  This time, Nate's family was able to fly out from Ohio as well.  Natasha and Ivan even got to come since they were on spring break.  We drove down on Friday afternoon and met up with Nate's family at the Outlets in Lehi....since we always go to the outlets and spend too much money whenever we are in Utah.  After shopping, we went to Rodizio's for dinner.  It's a Brazilian steakhouse that Nate picked to go to for his birthday dinner.  Honestly, it wasn't as good as Texas de Brazil that we went to at the last conference.  However, the Brazilian lemonades they had were delicious!!!

Natasha, Ivan & Nate (they all have birthdays within a week or so of each other!)

We stayed at the City Creek Marriott, which is where we almost always stay in Salt Lake.  On Saturday we attended the afternoon session of conference.  Nate's parents ran into Nate's mission president at breakfast that morning so we knew he was around the hotel somewhere.  We decided to wait in the hotel lobby after the Saturday afternoon session to see if he would walk in...and he did!  It was really special for Nate to talk to him again as he's from Portugal and came to Salt Lake City just for Conference.  This time we also got a picture with him!

I also ran into my cousin who is serving a mission in Salt Lake City!

They boys had tickets to the Priesthood Session so while they were there, the girls and kids went to the hotel pool for a bit.  The kids even convinced me to get in for a bit.  After they got out we went to Bucca de Bepo's for dinner.  It's a family style Italian restaurant.  We also went with Nate's uncle Tim's family.

Funny story time... After dinner Nate and I were craving something sweet so we went and bought a slice of cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory (Oreo, of course).  When we got back to our hotel room we decided just to order some room-service milk to go with it.  I am the one who ordered and the attendant on the phone was a little hard to understand.  I had to repeat myself at least twice that I wanted two glasses of 2% milk and also a bottle of water.  She asked if I wanted a large and I said yes.  In the rooms, they have these mini water bottles so I assumed a large was just a regular size bottle...Nate got quite a surprise when he answered the door!!  He was like "what the heck did you order?!?!" hahahahaha  The large water really was a LARGE water.  I don't even want to know what we had to pay for that...

On Sunday we went to the morning session, including Music and the Spoken Word.  I ran into one of my best friends, Sarah Pratt and it was so good to catch up with her.  The Sunday afternoon session we watched from Brandon & Sheridan's house in Spanish Fork and then ate dinner at their house.  Since it was Easter, Nate and I hid about 1000 eggs around their yard (okay, maybe like 200...) for the kiddoes to find.  It was hard to leave everyone since we aren't down there too often.  We didn't leave until late that night so I made Nate drive home while I slept in the back of the car.  Even with that, I was still super tired at work the next morning...

A Few Favorite Foods

I've been loving to eat recently (like, the last 22 years) so I thought I'd share some of my favorite foods as of late!

PopSecret Homestyle Popcorn- This stuff is heavenly.  For a while I favored popcorn popped on the stovetop because it was light and didn't make me feel nasty after eating it.  (I do however LOVE movie theater popcorn but only when at the movies.)  This stuff might be better than homemade!!!  It is so great and I can eat an entire bag without blinking an eye.

Broulims Homemade Salsa-  It's to die for.  We eat a whole container in a day...usually less.

Tostitos Cantina Thin & Crispy Chips- These taste just like chips from our favorite Mexican restaurants.  And they go great with the above salsa.

Guittard Chocolate Chips- Once you try these, you will never go back to your old chips.  They are perfect in every way possible for a chocolate chip.

Lipton Noodle Soup- I forget which of my roommates told me to eat this when I was sick one day but it's a cheap and great sick soup.  I like both the straight noodles and the one with chicken (even though it's not exactly fresh...).

Sabra hummus with pretzels- In the past I would buy hummus and then never finish it.  I couldn't find the perfect accompaniment.  Then a friend had some with pretzels and I was hooked.  It's delicious!

Well, that's what I've been eating recently!!!  Nothing too special or fancy...just good :)

Rexburg Beginnings

Off to Rexburg on Wednesday!!!!!

One of the first things we did was go grocery shopping since we had no food.  While at Walmart we stumbled across the following kitchen table and after staring at it for 20 minutes and talking pros and cons we bought it on the spot.  I couldn't be more pleased with it!  We were both a little hesitant to get it because it was Walmart but it's really great.  Solid wood!  I am thankful for a husband who will spend hours putting it all together while I sleep on the couch...

I also ordered some awesome canvas pictures of our wedding and had them sent directly to our apartment so I had yet to see how they turned out.  They are AMAZING.  I found a company called Canvas on Demand and they had a sale going on where the 16X20s were 78% off AND free shipping if you bought at least two.  So I got three prints for $78 instead of $336.  At Walmart I believe it would be $120 for the same thing so it was still a steal of a deal!

We have had some delicious meals on our table in the few days we have had it.  One night we made homemade pizza and it was probably the best homemade pizza I've ever had.  Thanks completely to Nate (of course).  I wasn't a huge fan of the sauce we picked but the stuffed, garlic crust was amazing!

On Sunday we had full intentions to cook a delicious Easter dinner.  We had steak, potatoes and artichokes...yum!  Well we made guacamole after church and had that for "lunch" and then we weren't hungry by 7:00 when we went to a friend's housewarming party.  When we got home from that a little before 9:00 we weren't in the mood to cook a huge meal anymore so we settled on Red Robin frozen french fries, Bobby Flay cooked hot dogs and buffalo hot wings.  Happy Easter!!

Bahama Breeze

Here's a few pictures from our date night a few weeks ago.  We were down in Atlanta for the week after Valentines Day and decided to take a night (or two hours) to ourselves.  One of Nate's favorite restaurants is Bahama Breeze but they don't have them everywhere so when his family is down south that's where they always go.  It's mostly a seafood place but they have burgers and salads and whatnot as well.  Since we went after 9:00 we got half off our appetizer and our waiter gave us a $10 gift certificate as well!

Our appetizer was firecracker shrimp and it was probably the best shrimp I've had.  Not saying a ton since I don't eat shrimp a lot but I couldn't stop eating them!

With my tilapia, asparagus and rice.

Nate's salmon pasta...his usual.

It was fantastic to get out of the house for a while and leave the kids and noise and spend some time with just ourselves.  We also got some pretty fantastic dessert but I don't think we have a picture....

Pizza X2

Last night was a stay at home with a movie and eat pizza kind of night.  If you know anything about us you'll know neither of us are good at making decisions...especially decisions that aren't really that important.  Like what kind of pizza to get, and where to get it from.  So we did what anyone would do...buy two pizzas from two different places.  We got a $5 pepperoni from Broulims and a pineapple and ham pan pizza from Domino's.  We had a coupon for a $4.99 2 topping pan so we got both pizzas for less than the price of one Pizza Hut stuffed crust pizza.  Score.  While we were waiting for the Broulims one to cook we perused the store and found this great ice cream deal so we got two for less than the price of a normal one.  We don't get ice cream very often and $3 for a half gallon isn't too bad.  And that was our Friday night.

Oh yeah, and then our "movie" for the night was The Starving Games, a parody of The Hunger Games.  Can't say I would recommend it, but there were definitely a lot of funny parts.  It was our cheap version of going to the sequel in the theaters.

Date Day, Date Night

As with most Saturday's ours began with sleeping in.

We hadn't gone to the temple in a week so yesterday we decided we needed to go today.  It was really a fantastic experience.  We both were reminded of the covenants we made with each other and with God when we were married.  I am glad for the opportunity to go because in all honesty, I couldn't really remember what was actually said when we were married.  I am thankful there is a temple literally on the same street I live on.  Not many people can say that!

In the afternoon we made a trip to Idaho Falls to run a few errands.  At Target, we found some candy cane oreos and snatched those babies right up.  THEN, at WinCo we walked in and the first isle had my very favorite chocolate chips on a mega sale!  In Rexburg, they cost like$3.89 a bag...here they were $1.88!  Soooooooo I bought like six :)  Oops.  Once we got back home I combined our two purchases and made white chocolate covered candy cane oreos.  Tell me you wish we were friends and lived close to each other.  If you actually fall into this category, hit me up before they're gone.

Dinner was a fancy evening at the Outback Steakhouse.  We had a giftcard so it only made sense.

You can't really tell from the picture but I ordered my steak medium rare and it looked even rarer.  I'm growing up.

This is my husband.  Isn't he handsome?!

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake and Cookies

Today we made Chocolate Chip Cheesecake AND Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies (made from scratch...not the spice-cake-not-as-good recipe).  Sugar overload?  I think yes.  Thankfully, the cheesecake has to cool overnight so we can't eat that until tomorrow.  By then the 4 1/2 dozen cookies I made should be gone :)  But really...we eat those cookies like no one's business.  But really...they will not be gone by morning, don't worry.

We did share a FEW of our cookies with our neighbors.  While we're the newlywed couple, they have three little girls ages 4, 2 and 1.  Today was the primary program at church and I figured they would love a surprise cookie treat for a job well done.

Can we talk about the primary program?  Okay.  So there's like three kids in primary that can actually talk haha  The program consisted of the presidency speaking and the parents of those three kids bearing their testimonies.  Our 4 year old neighbor did say some of the Family Proclamation and the other two kids mumbled some cute things that may or may not have been discernible.  It was fantastic.

Back to food (since that's basically my favorite thing to blog about...).  Here are the pictures so you can all be jealous.  Just don't be jealous of our expanding waistlines...

It's a little dark but we mixed chocolate into it along with putting the chocolate chips on top so it looks perfect to me!  Can't wait to try it tomorrow...maybe I'll have cheesecake for breakfast...

We Love Mexican Food

I tried thinking of a creative title for this post but really, we just love Mexican food.  We eat it at least once a week.  This week, we had it THREE times.  Somehow, a Mexican restaurant opened up in Rexburg at the beginning of the year and we didn't hear about it until this last week!  But we went yesterday for dinner...and then we went again today.  Oops.  I think we may become regulars :)

Today I got a pork taco and cheese enchilada.  Just as a side note, Nate always gets cheese enchiladas from Mexican places and I NEVER like them.  But I loved these ones!  Hence, why I got my own today...

He got two cheese enchiladas and a hard taco.  We also splurged and got chips and salsa.  Sadly, it's not cool enough of a restaurant to serve free chips and salsa...

 

Tomato Bisque and Grilled Cheese

Sunday is usually the day we would have the most time to cook.  But today we went for a simple lunch/ dinner.  Nathaniel has been searching high and low for tomato bisque here in Rexburg.  The only place that we have found to have it is Broulims.  Sadly, every time we are in Broulims, we forget to buy some!  But I saved the day yesterday and remembered.

Honestly, I've never had tomato bisque OR tomato soup.  We never ate it growing up and even if my parents had, I doubt I would have tried it because I hated tomatoes.  Love them now...hated them earlier.  So through some pretty incredible teamwork, I toasted us some grilled cheese sandwiches (using the last of our 5th or 6th large block of cheese since we've been in Rexburg) and he whipped up the tomato bisque throwing in some cream cheese and topping it with croutons and shredded cheese.  

I can't say tomato bisque is my favorite soup...but I'd eat it again.  Especially if my husband makes it!

Honeymooning

After the reception (pictures to come soon) we high tailed it out of there and drove up to Detroit.  We spent the night at the Detroit airport in the hotel there (which was actually SUPER nice).  Our bathroom was so big it took me a while to find the toilet.  Not even joking.  I left the actual bathroom and was even looking in the closets for it!

Our flight left early the next morning for St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands.  It was grand!

After leaving the airport on the island we were immediately thrown a curveball.  They DRIVE ON THE LEFT.  What the what?!?!  No one told us anything...I just happened to see a little itty bitty "remember to drive on the left" on the map we were given.  It was tucked away in a corner and I'm not sure how we were supposed to know to do it!  The cars look like regular cars (steering wheel on the left) so we never would have known!  Thankfully, my husband was an excellent left-hand driver...even if it did take him a bit to figure it out.

Below are a few pictures of the resort we stayed at...A Ritz Carlton!  Let me just put in a good word about the Ritz.  They had THE BEST customer service I have ever experienced.  The people working there were just genuinely friendly people and I just couldn't get enough of it!  After working in customer service for three years I can definitely appreciate when a place does it right.

Ummmmm have you ever seen a gym with screens on EACH machine that are THIS big??  Yeah, we hadn't either.

This looks like I made it B&W but it's just what happened when I took the picture!

Here's a few pictures of our room.  I forgot about taking pictures until we were literally walking out of our room to check out so it's kind of messy....

Most of our week revolved around food.  We have more pictures of what we ate than of ourselves...whoops.  Our days consisted of sleeping in until 10 or 11 (maybe 2 or 3...), going to the beach or pool for a few hours, coming home and showering and getting ready for dinner, going out to eat and then coming home and watching movies until we fell asleep (which was like midnight or earlier...I'm still not sure how we even slept so much!)

Breakfast in bed...yum!

My blackened grouper which was REALLY blackened...

Our huge "appetizer"

The best crab cakes in the entire world.

Some sort of mixed seafood dish and a glass of our favorite "Rum Punch" (minus the rum...duh)

The above picture is me with a ceaser salad I got.  It's probably the sweetest looking salad I've seen in my entire life.  It's like Gordon Ramsay cool looking!  You'll also notice the "champagne" in my hand.  Our hostess brought us champagne because it was my birthday dinner and when we told her we didn't drink she brought us back sparkling cider.  See?  Excellent customer service.  Not to mention that she remembered us from our visit to the restaurant a few days previous to this!

One day we decided to venture off of our Island and take a boat ferry to the neighboring island, St. John.  St. John is actually 2/3 national park so there are a lot less people and resorts and a lot more beautiful, open beaches.  Sadly, my phone died 10 minutes after we got to the island so we only have a few pictures of the day and none of them are of us in our snorkel gear :(

This is a beach similar to what we snorkeled at but my phone died before I got a picture of that one.

WHEW!  What a trip.  It was fantastic.  But it's not over yet :)

After a week in the Virgin Islands, we flew to Orlando where we met up with Nate's family and had ANOTHER week of vacation.  This time, a family vacation.  We stayed at the Marriott which had probably the most incredible pool I've ever seen.  Besides what you can see in the picture below, it also had three full-sized, awesome water slides we raced down many, many times.

Apparently Orlando has the best sushi place in the world so we had to go there for some sushi.  I have been warned though that since my first was the best, other sushi won't ever taste as good.

My very first bite

Complements to my new sisters on my outfit!

We went to Downtown Disney for a few hours one night and just walked around and looked in shops.  Nathaniel made us a cute potato baby but we left it at the store...

I got to crack open my own oyster to get a pearl and found a gray-blue one.  The lady at the stand told me there's a 1 in 50 chance of getting that color so lucky me!

After a few days in FL, we drove up to NC to see his sister's family.  On the way we stopped at Ft. Pulaski, a Civil War fort to learn some of America's history.  Here's us having a little fun at the gift shop...

I fail at taking more pictures in NC or pictures of other people....so it seems like that will be all for now!