041 - Reds

We had recently moved our offices and I am still adjusting to waking up earlier. My drive used to be 4 minutes... now, it's 20 minutes at least! The earlier wake-up is making me tired earlier, thus making me less inspired to make anything crazy for dinner and pack a cool looking lunch. I still try to stick to bringing lunch to: 1. save money and 2. eat healthier (vs. fast food and such). My go-to recipe when I feel lazy is pasta, specifically linguini with homemade spaghetti sauce. =) Here she is, all packed for lunch with a side of organic baby carrots.

040 - Yes Chef!

I have been hooked on watching Hell's Kitchen! If you haven't watched it before, it is pretty vulgar but very entertaining. No, I do not get joy from watching these people get ripped to pieces (... well, maybe some) but watching the tasks they have to do just make me want to try! Tonight was bf's turn to make dinner, which means I'm his sous chef. I prep/chop all the ingredients into individual bowls, put all the necessary pots/pans onto the stove top and take out all the necessary cooking utensils. As he works through each ingredient, I put it into the dishwasher... and he thinks its funny that I say "Yes, Chef!" every time he asks for something. Ok, I do play along but it makes it more fun that way. Here's his famous meat sauce over linguini. The broccoli was steamed, last minute, in the microwave since I need veggies for dinner. I use a generic seasoning for all my steamed veggies: salt, pepper, garlic powder, and spritz of olive oil. Yum!
They say practice makes perfect, and so did my cake instructor! I baked a batch of white-cake cupcakes and made some plain-o vanilla frosting (from scratch!), then practiced my star tip piping. These are going to work with my bf since my co-workers already polished off a cake two days ago.