Coming Home.

So it's only taken me a month to post about coming home...not bad, right?

My sweet husband decorated our bedroom for me. How cute is he?

That weekend we had a Sushi date.

So fun.

Paul is a professional.

We got fortune cookies and the last 4 fortunes I have gotten have decided that I am going to be rich. Still waiting for that to come true :)

Paul is playing on an indoor soccer team.

They went undefeated in the regular season! Tournament starts this week.

I love watching him play.

Since I've had a lot of time on my hands, I've been cooking quite a bit.

We have had some very tasty dinners, including these lettuce wraps. I got the recipe from my awesome cousin. I loved them.

I love being home!!

Luv, Lindsay

Better than Takeout!

I've had a few requests for the recipe for Sweet and Sour Chicken that I made the other day so here it is!

 (This recipe made a lot. The chicken breasts I had were pretty huge. It could probably feed about 6 people)

SWEET and SOUR CHICKEN
INGREDIENTS:
3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Salt and pepper
1 cup cornstarch
2-3 large eggs, beaten
1/4 cup oil

Sauce:
1.5 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup ketchup
1 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoon soy sauce
2 teaspoon garlic salt

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

DIRECTIONS:

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. While the oil is heating, cut the chicken breasts into 1-inch pieces. Season with salt and pepper. Coat the chicken with cornstarch. (You can do this in a shallow dish or gallon sized ziploc.)  Whisk the eggs together in a shallow dish. (Depending on the amount of chicken, you can adjust how many eggs/how much cornstarch you need) Dip the cornstarch-coated chicken pieces in the egg and place them in a single layer in the hot skillet. Cook for 1-2 minutes and then flip each piece over to cook on the other side until nicely golden but not all the way cooked through. Place in a single layer in a baking dish and repeat with the remaining chicken pieces.

Mix the sauce ingredients together in a medium sauce pan and simmer until the mixture thickens and all of the ingredients are dissolved. Pour half over the chicken in the baking dish. Bake for one hour, turning the chicken once or twice while cooking to coat evenly with sauce. Serve over hot, steamed rice.

Use remaining sauce on the rice or I like to fry up some vegetables in it. Onions and peppers work very nicely. Or you can half the sauce and just use it on the chicken.

Adapted from Mel's Kitchen Cafe

Enjoy!

Can you believe it's December and getting up to 80? Loving it :) Hoping for a white Christmas in Utah though!

Luv, Lindsay

just some pics.

Happy Halloween! Here are some random pictures of life lately in Utah.

Campaign pictures to come...post campaign :)

Fruit roll-ups. Delicious.

In one of my many, many places of work.

Some days just end up in slacks and flip-flops. 

Don't judge. It happens.

Red Vines keep me going some days.

One morning, this was just a necessity. 

And so worth every calorie.

I love not being part of the bouquet toss anymore.

Natalie was a beautiful bride! What a fun night.

Fortune cookies want me to be rich soon.

This boy is so grown up. Can't even believe it.

Luckily we still like to goof off.

CakeBites. So delicious.

I love how so many of these pictures involve food..and not the healthy kind..

Favorites. And yes, these pictures may have been taken at church. Oops.

Luv, Lindsay

nights like tonight.

Happy Lemon Juice Day!

We love cooking with lemon juice. Salmon, chicken..let it soak for a few hours and BAM. You have a wonderful dish.

We stayed in bed until around 11 today. Typically that would never happen in our house - I can hardly ever stay in bed that long. But it was relaxing and lovely. After some pancakes and Netflix I had a job interview for a job I don't think I want. They could probably tell in the interview.

It is really frustrating not being able to find something you want to do but going crazy not having something to do. Still pushing through!

Guess what. My dad is the coolest. He is at the Republican Convention right now and he was on TV! They showed him like 5 different times and didn't say anything about him but he's the speech writer/coach guy. What a rock star.

Click here to see it (he shows up around 1:00)

We had some birthday certificates from the beginning of the month so we got Benihana for both of us for around $9.

What a steal! And then buy one get one free Cold Stone. What a wonderful night of food.

Now we just have Friends and America's Got Talent to top it all off.

I love nights like tonight with just me and my hubby!

Luv, Lindsay

relax

Happy National Relaxation Day!

And let me tell you..we sure relaxed.

Because of this celebration, I let my hubby sleep in as long as he wanted. That is really hard for me, especially when we're not working, because I get bored and want him to keep me entertained. But I let him sleep and I'm sure he was very grateful.

And then..we relaxed. All day.

Ate leftovers, worked on our new puzzle, watched Netflix..it was a very relaxing day. Got a call for an interview and made another successful dinner. Stuffed peppers. Very easy.

 Cut off the tops and take out the insides..

 Cook some rice while heating up peppers, corn, and beans..

 Add salsa...mix with rice..

 Boil peppers for 3 minutes and then fill with rice mixture..

 Bake at 350 for 20 minutes..top with cheese and cook another 5 minutes..

 Top with lettuce and anything else you like and serve!

How did you relax today?

Luv, Lindsay

Home all day.

With a completed internship and no job, Paul waiting to start his internship, and 100+ weather, we have spent the last couple of days inside. Working out, watching Netflix, working on puzzles, applying for jobs, and best of all, eating!

Tonight we decided to cook something special. Partially because cooking gives me a self-confidence boost when it turns out good, something I really needed today, and because we had time and food that needs to be eaten.

So after we finished all of the animal crackers..

We started working on our feast. The menu today? Broiled salmon that was marinated in Italian dressing, grilled pineapple, and roasted asparagus with Parmesan cheese. So delicious.

Ahh so good..and I can't wait to have the rest of it tomorrow.

And for dessert..we celebrated.

Happy Creamsicle Day! Now unfortunately at our local shopping center there were no traditional orange creamsicles..so we got chocolate. They were still amazing.

All things considered, it's been a fine day. Food always has a way of making hard days better.

Luv, Lindsay

it's a texture thing.

Happy National Rice Pudding Day!

Now, I don't actually like rice pudding. It's one of those texture things that I'm weird about. Grits, tapioca, oatmeal, rice pudding..all the same. No bueno. So we just pretended like it was just rice day, even though there is one of those, and had Hawaiian haystacks for dinner. One of my favorite meals. I just love how many different things you can put on them and they still taste delicious.

Good news - my car is now all Texan! We finally got the front plate off and replaced it with the Texas one..hoping it doesn't fall off. The screws weren't the most cooperative.

We got our official drivers' licenses today. It only took a week.

It doesn't say "under 21" on it anymore :) What a happy thing. Took almost less time to get it in the mail than standing in line. Ridiculous. Apparently they're trying to fix the line problem and it's going to take millions of dollars. Lovely.

Luv, Lindsay

substitutions

Happy Zucchini Day!

I'm not the biggest zucchini fan. It's a texture thing. So I decided to try something new.

Zucchini Brownies.

I'm not the biggest fan of substitutions in recipes. They say you can't ever taste it, but I usually can. It might just be because I know it's there but I really think I can taste it. I just usually like the good, old fashioned, full fat, full calorie versions.


But here was my attempt. Thanks to Mommy I'm Hungry for the recipe.
(Pictures are mine though :) )

Frosted Zucchini Brownies 
½ cup vegetable oil (I used canola oil)
1 ½ cups white sugar
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups zucchini (shredded)
½ cup chopped walnuts (I left out)

Chocolate Frosting-

6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

¼ cup margarine (I used butter)
2 cups confectioners sugar
½ cup milk
½ teaspoon vanilla extract 

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9×13 inch baking dish. (I lined with parchment)
In a large bowl mix together oil, sugar and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract until well blended. In another bowl combine the flour, ½ cup cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. A little at a time stir into the sugar mixture. Fold in zucchini and walnuts. The batter will be dry and crumbly, don't worry. Spread the mixture evenly into the prepared baking dish.

Place into the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes until the brownies spring back when gently touched. Remove from the oven and allow them to cool.

To make the frosting- In a small saucepan over low heat melt together the cocoa powder and margarine. Set aside to cool. In a medium bowl blend confectioner’s sugar, milk, and ½ teaspoon vanilla extract. Stir in the margarine/cocoa mixture. Spread over cooled brownies and cut into squares.

 They were good, but again, I am just a fan of the regular, boring, not-trying-to-be-healthy-in-any-way brownies. But it was a good way to celebrate and feel a tiny bit better about it.

Luv, Lindsay

Move Along

(This post is from August 3..for some reason it didn't actually get published..)

I have this thing where I'm really paranoid about using the same blog post title twice. Not  that anyone would notice..

Happy National Watermelon Day!

I love watermelon. But I am super picky about the texture. It doesn't have to be super sweet for me to like it..it just has to have a solid, firm texture. And be cold. Good watermelon can make any day great.

After my late night chatting with Beth and Holly, I slept in until around 9 (shocking). I actually woke up at around 6 thinking I had missed my alarm but really that was just the time I usually go to work in Texas. So I went back to bed. 

We got up and got ready and got some delicious food at Zupas. More talking, catching up, and agreeing to stay caught up followed.

I love Zupas so much. And it's something you can't get in Texas so I had to!

I love this girl so very very much!

I got to attend my cousin's wedding and see a lot of family - it was so fun to see everyone! Seeing family is the greatest, and being far away makes it so much sweeter. It was especially fun since no one knew I was coming so it was a little surprise. 

In high school I was a Studentbody Officer and today there was a party for Mrs. Sheen, our adviser who is now retiring from that position. It was so good to see her. I had an awesome time in student council and Sheen taught me a lot. It was definitely a party. We had 7/10 officers there! The other 3 are still on missions. It was so fun seeing them, most of them I haven't seen since graduation over 3 years ago. I'm the only one who is out of Utah! I guess that makes sense since everyone is still in school.

It was another situation where no one knew I was coming and it was fun to see the look on their faces when I walked up. After Sheen's celebration they were having a birthday party and were kind enough to invite me! It was so much fun. We had fake margaritas (21st birthdays being celebrated - we had to go a little crazy) and birthday cake.

It was so much fun. But I have a hard time revisiting high school. It doesn't bring back a lot of happy for me. Driving around American Fork can be a little painful sometimes. It really makes me appreciate my Paul. He's so wonderful and makes me so happy. This is definitely the best chapter of my life, and it's only getting better from here :) I'm in love.

Luv, Lindsay