Back from the dead!

Hey y'all!

I wanted to apologize for my extremely long leave of absence. I got caught up with my last semester of college and changing jobs a couple times. I decided after about a couple months with no posts I would wait until I have a better camera and have some time to dedicate to not only learn how to use it but also take time to plan out some posts. I also had little time to cook at all! It was a little sad to not cook for a while but between working full time and college I was exhausted at the end of the day.

But here I am, college graduate and all!

I received a generous gift from my husband of the Canon Rebel T5. I am going to try it out and ultimately decide if I want it, or trade it out for the T5i. There's is a little difference but mainly I wanted the LCD screen to flip out. Mainly, for videos since I will be doing a lot more video work soon.

Thank you for the patience out there while I've been getting my life together.
I have a few things buzzing around in my head including a yearly recipe roundup, which I should finalize before the end of the year.

See y'all very soon!

Recipe Review - Black Pepper Noodles and Cashew Chicken Wraps

I decided that every Wednesday I would go ahead and review a recipe for y'all! I try to try out a new recipe every week so I thought I'd share.

Maple Chia Seed Pudding with Cinnamon Toasted Coconut Flakes

I've had a hankering for a snack that is easy but not so unhealthy for me. I saw a post on instagram for toasted coconut flakes with some cinnamon added to them and thought, "Why not top that on Chia Pudding?"

A lot of recipes asked for greek yogurt added but I am trying to avoid dairy at the moment so I adapted a recipe I found.

This is a fairly simple recipe but the chia seed pudding will take overnight to set up.

How do you cook?

"Teach me how to cook!"
I get this question very often and I've never really had a definite answer to it. To me it was simple I guess. Cooking came naturally to me. I started in high school making spaghetti just browning the meat, boiling the water, and heating up the sauce. From then on I continued to sharpen my cooking skills as often as I could (and wanted).

For me it is easy to cook but still stressful. I think it all boils down to the desire to cook. If you don't want to, well you aren't going to get better. Practice makes perfect right?

Blueberry Cobbler with Streusel Topping

Blueberries have been rampant around my area and I had too many to handle in my fridge and freezer. What a better way to use up some sweet blueberries than a cobbler? I went off searching for the perfect recipe.

My "weight loss journey"

Food is something that has become a passion to me over the years. I started learning to cook when I was in high school, although it was mainly spaghetti, and over the recent years I have really gotten into it.
In college I would be the friend that would roast chickens with potatoes and we would have "family" dinners with all our friends. Though, when my friends weren't looking I would only eat fast food. If I couldn't afford that I my meals throughout the day would be, no breakfast, PB&J with chips or a hot pocket (sometimes a subway sandwich) and maybe a chicken breast with white rice and corn for dinner. (sooo much starch not enough green veggies)
If I was feeling really lazy I would just eat rice.
I never felt like any of this was horrible because that's how I always ate. The lack of exercise and drinking with poor nutrition caught up with me however.

I look back into my college days and realized I had such an unhealthy relationship with food and mainly binge drinking.

I haven't taken a progress pic in a while but I have defined abs and more muscle now

Happy Fourth!

Happy Birthday America! Hope your day is filled with good food, good company, and even better fireworks!

June Food Favorites

Though I am a bit late to the June favorites game I thought I needed to spill nevertheless.
Here in Texas it's been summer for a while but when June works it's way around it's official. Summer is here and it'll be here until late October!

Flank Steak Fajitas

It's been a while y'all. School has been so insane I haven't done proper cooking in a while!

Sunday though I decided to get the grill going and make some fajitas. I randomly bought a flank steak on my Friday grocery trip with no real plans and looked up a recipe Sunday.

I found a recipe from Foodnetwork.com and off I went. There were a few things I didn't have so I headed to Walmart, picked up the ingredients and started marinating the steak.

The recipe calls for a chimichurri marinade so I used some cilantro, parsley, garlic, and some other things. It was effortless to make and most of all it was good.

This recipe is simple yet SO flavorful, I doubted the pepper recipe at the end and man was I wrong. It made the dish.

Eggy Cups with Bacon

It's been quite a while since I've posted. I have been so busy with summer school and I've only just finished my first week.
I have been actively trying new recipes, though not my own creation. I think I want this to be more of a "I'm cooking these recipes blog" rather than recipe creation because I'm not very good at just coming up at things. You might be seeing recipes I "try out" from other blogs and I will definitely mention them, but also give a bit of a review as well.
So there ya go.

Mexican Ground Turkey Bowls

I'm kinda excited about this post, I have pictures and a coordinating video!

This is a meal that I like to make once, sometimes even twice a week. It's just so easy and if I'm really not feeling cooking a big meal this is my go to.
Plus, it's very customizable! You can use any meat you like as well as any vegetables you like.
Basically, it's a throw what you have on hand and let it cook meal. Almost like a wonderpot, minus the soup part, because we like meat right?

What I started with was a pack of ground turkey 1 pound 93/7 ratio as a base meat. What I had on hand veggies wise was shredded carrots, onion, garlic, and shredded red cabbage.

Grocery Haul Video

I decided I would show y'all what I get on a normal basis for my groceries. Usually I am better at meal planning but lately I've been just throwing a bunch of things in a pan and calling it a meal.
It's works for me.
So here is the video of what my husband and I eat on a weekly basis. We have lots of back up meat I got on sale that I usually pull the night before cooking a meal to thaw in the fridge.
I've been on the whole30 lately but my favorite snack to eat is veggies with hummus which I got so I could eat some during my reintroduction.
What's your favorite healthy snack? Comment below and let me know!

Hope you enjoy!

What's in my Pantry Tour

So I bit the bullet and uploaded my first Youtube video. I'm so excited to share with you and it is featuring a tour of my pantry.

It may be strange to some to show off my pantry, but I love looking at other people's pantries and fridge tours so I thought it would be interesting!

Let me know what you think! I will also be doing a 2nd pantry tour (for baking items) and a fridge/freezer tour later on. Today I am filming a grocery haul so exciting stuff for this little blog of mine.

Leftover Pico de Gallo Guacamole

I had some avocados that were getting rather soft and some leftover store bought pico I needed to use up. What better way to use those thing than to make homemade guac!?

Here I have 2 avocados, some leftover pico de gallo from the store and peeled garlic. I used two small garlic cloves

Split avocados in half with knife down middle, remove the pit

A learning experience

In an effort to become a better "home cook" I created this blog to spotlight something I love doing every day.
Cooking!
I got into it around the time I was in fourth grade. I wasn't as serious as I am now, probably because I was too busy playing outside, but I have always had such a passion for food and cooking.
I have not been to school for cooking or baking but I have always dreamed about it, maybe later on in life?
Today, I enjoy teaching myself cooking from recipes out of cookbooks, online, on my always on Food Network on the television and handed to me from friends and family.
My goals are to become a better cook and discover all types of new foods and recipes as well as baking a little!
This blog and my time will be a learning experience in itself so come on in and join me on my journey!