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!