My favorite "substitutes"

In this day and age practically everything is bad for us and there's almost always a substitute for it. Over the past couple years really cooking on my own I've been thrown into a world of ingredients. Here's a few of my favorite substitutes that are better than the real thing!

Things I've been loving lately

Via

It certainly has been a while!
Since I last updated I worked on a feature film and an athletic commercial. I've also gained quite a bit of muscle. ;)

Nothing much else has changed so I thought I would update on some of my favorite things lately.

5 years from now

One of the questions I dislike during interviews or just general life is how you see the next five years. Obviously it's going to be tailored to any work goals you think your potential employer sees you doing. No one really thinks of their personal life when they think of "the next 5 years"

Lately, I've been thinking about the next 5 years but not career wise. Rather, thinking of all the places I'll be going. I was lucky to visit Spain, The Netherlands and France this year in March. Ever since then I can only think of when and where I'll be going next!

Germany is in the near future to visit a best friend who will be living there. I'm hoping for May 2017. Thailand may be sooner with a New Years trip on a yacht with some friends in the end of 2016/beginning of 2017.

2018 we're hoping to do a European tour starting in Dublin in March. We got married on St. Patrick's day in 2013 so it would be a perfect way to celebrate our very irish heritage in Dublin on St. Patrick's! From there we want to do London, Paris (where we honeymooned), and maybe a couple other cities from there. I'm leaning towards Italy.

It's fun to imagine where you'll be and what you'll be doing over the next few years that doesn't involve work. Where do you plan on heading next?

New Orleans: Food

I don't have to tell you, the food in New Orleans is amazing. This was my first time going with a group that appreciates food as much as I do (not just the post drunk night pizza slice in the street) and we definitely ate like kings and queens that weekend.
Here are some photos taken along the way.

Surprise!

You may notice the layout of this blog is a little different. You may also notice the name change. Honestly, it took about 5 minutes of brainstorming to come up with today (August 11th) but I have been brainstorming for months looking for the correct name.
My initials are AO and I have been getting into travel and photography lately. I felt it would be the most appropriate name. My own sort of adventures and most of my photography leads me outdoors. So there you have it. I also changed my image to be a little more down to earth than made up like it was before.

Lastly, I feel that though I love cooking and food, this won't be primarily a food blog. More of an everything blog!

As far as posts go, they will be random though I have been trying to keep up with an every couple/few days post to keep consistent. Bear with me!

So there you have it. I hope you like it!

New Orleans: The House

This past weekend some friends, my husband and I headed to New Orleans for Red Dress Weekend and to celebrate not only my husbands birthday but my good friends as well.
We all live in Houston and while driving is more cost efficient, that 6 hour drive back after a weekend of festivities isn't the best to look forward (or dread) towards.

My favorite bloggers to follow: Health and Fitness

I've been following numerous fitness and health blogs for what seems like years. I've followed and unfollowed. I have a particular knack for keeping up with several on their blogs (not just their insta, tumblr, etc.)

Blue Apron: A review

I wanted to preface this that I have not been compensated (lol little ole me?) for this and all opinions are my own!

I was drawn to Blue Apron as many are for, the convenience. It's as easy as signing up and waiting for your box to come to your front door. Let me tell you, I was SO excited when Blue Apron had finally come over to Houston. I had honestly waited a year for it!

So where are you going with this?

Well let me tell you I have still been thinking about what to do with this little ole blog of mine. I've periodically checked in while cringing at not keeping it up. I know, I know.

I think I may have a handle. I love trying recipes so I would really love to review recipes. Maybe adapting some and creating my own as well.

I'm on my second wind, so to speak, of losing some weight again. If you haven't checked out this post  I went into small detail about my weightloss journey. I have definitely falling out of the wagon and off the bridge into the ravine if you catch my drift. Basically, I am back where I was and am tearing myself up.

Fear not! I have got my second wind and am bound and determined to do this again and not fall off the wagon this time. I want to document it to not only keep up with myself and have something to read back on but also help others throughout the journey. I know, I know. There are millions (literally) of other fitness blogs. All I can say is thank you for sticking with me and hold on for the ride!

So where have I been during my inconsistent absence?

I graduated college

I travelled to Madrid, Amsterdam and Paris. Briefly touched on here.

I went to Las Vegas the week after that.

Attended at least 2 weddings.

Spent numerous weekdays outside enjoying our new backyard furniture.

Made new best friends.

Got a production job for a reality TV show.

and a few other things peppered in between.

That leaves me here!

There might be others things for me to display on this little part of the internet. Including a name change. Who knows. As far as I know I'll take it a few days at a time like you do most things. I don't have many followers if any at all, but I wanted to say thank you for reading this. It truly does mean a lot to me for people to read, relate and join me along for the ride.

A year

It's been a year since I've started this little blog of mine. I definitely wanted to post more than I have. I think I got a little discouraged along the way and kinda lost my focus of what I wanted this blog to eventually be.
I love lifestyle blogs, yet I wanted this to be a cooking blog. *Insert gif here of the little girl who shrugs "why not both?"* We'll see how it goes. I definitely want a name change!

I basically am drained every day that I come home, either whip up something like my usual Mexican Ground Turkey Bowls  or snack on things until I'm full.
But I digress.
I'm going to try my hardest to update while still finding where I want to go.

In the meantime here are my plans for this Memorial Day Weekend.

• Wedding in the city my husband and I fell in love
• Crawfish at Boil House, Ice Cream at Fat Cat Creamery and Pitch Perfect 2
• Hopefully trying to cook ribs for the first time
• And S'MORES! I'm hoping I get lucky and convince Patrick to buy us some lawn chairs and a firepit. We've lived in our house two years and still don't have lawn furniture!

Hope you enjoy your long weekend!

I got all my days messed up

I wanted to start posting recipes I tried out recently on a Tuesday, but alas, life happens. When I originally started typing this I thought it was Wednesday. It's Thursday -_- AND by the time I post this it'll be Friday.

Anyway I tried out Smitten Kitchen's Broccoli, Cheddar and Wild Rice Casserole. I must have found it on Pinterest because the recipe was posted over a year ago.

Can I just brag a little bit?! I made a whole gif from scratch just so you could see how damn bubbly goodness this casserole is. *Pats self on back*

Back to business...

I gathered all my ingredients Monday and set out to make it the next day. Let me tell you beforehand you will need some time to make this as it takes 50 minutes just for the rice to cook. It took me a bit longer because instead of prepping and getting the other components of the recipe whipped up, I just drank a beer and chilled out.

Sin City

I'm back from a whirlwind trip in Sin City herself. While Vegas was fun (yet expensive, oof), I'm ready to get back into the routine of everything. Still thinking how I want to channel this blog and what else to name it as the name I did pick is already taken!

I spent Easter here in Vegas to celebrate one of my longest known and dearest friends.

Back from the road

Er, well the air!

I'm back from my 2 week trip to Madrid, Amsterdam and Paris. I cannot wait to share everything with this little corner of the internet and will do so soon once I am able to stay awake past 8pm! I cannot stay awake!

This weekend I'm off for another adventure in the air to Sin City herself. Las Vegas baby! I just wanted to check in and let my whole 2 regular readers know I'm alive and well and ready to cook my little heart away.

I'll post some pictures from my DSLR camera in the next week. For now here's some of my favorites from my phone. Check out my instagram as well for more updates on what's going on in my life.

Amsterdam

Weekend Eats

This weekend was pretty low key but I had some serious eats!

Saturday morning I had such a lovely brunch, my favorite part was the apple cinnamon bacon. So good.

That afternoon I went to get get some crawfish from Boil House here in Houston. To accompany it I got some Shiner Ruby Redbird.

An update

Via

Well I said I was back from the dead, but obviously that wasn't true.

The holidays got in the way, then so on and so on. Here I am now! I had to exchange the camera I got for my graduation (got a slightly better upgraded one, holla!) and I am ready to start cookin'!

That being said, I may transition over to a wordpress, get all professional and get my own domain name. Especially since my URL is a bit too common. I need to shake things up a bit, eh?