back in action!

After being on hiatus while at home where instead of cooking the majority of meals, I got to sit back and relax and be catered to by my wonderful, wonderful parents. Who not only cooked delicious meals, they let me pick out all my favorites I had been missing at school that I'm daring enough to make or just taste that much better when they are made my them.

Being an anal retentive planner (thank you mother) I dove right back into playing mom here at the apartment and planned the whole weeks menu and hung it on the fridge so there is no questions as to what we are having and to reassure my lovely roommates they will in fact be eating a real meal each night and not cereal (which is usually the case when I do not make dinner, they have cereal and any one who knows me knows breakfast is not my ideal meal and cereal is definitely not a meal of choice.)

The menu for this week:
Sunday: Chicken Mac and Cheese

Monday: Beef Barley Stew

Tuesday: Chicken sausage with roasted red peppers and sun dried tomatoes with peppers and onions and a salad

Wednesday: Slow- cooker spicy buffalo chicken sandwiches from Everyday Food

Thursday: Greens and Beans (Maria's personal fav)

Fridays in our house are usually take out nights just because we made it through the week and deserve a treat!

Sunday:
I'm not a huge fan of mac and cheese but I came across this recipe and thought it looked delicious, and that it was, it exceeded expectations. Emily helped make dinner and although it was a bit chaotic it was full of laughter and hoovering from Miss Mariah.

 
Taking a little break for some left over Chinese.

 

 

You simply layer the cooked shells, chicken and bacon then peppers and onions and finally add the cheese sauce which is a mixture of Gruyere, Parmesan and Cheddar and repeat and bake for 20 minutes and you are ready to eat!

Monday: Before I left my mom cleaned house on the pantry at home to stock up the pantry here and gave us one of those jars with all the contents to make beef barley stew which I had planned for Monday because it was our first day before school so it seemed like a Sunday and Sunday is soup day. Good thing I planned on that because I had acquired a rather unsightly rash on tops both my arms over Christmas break and I figured it was from using a new soap, which wouldn't surprise me since I am allergic to everything under the sun. I woke up Monday to see that it had spread so I sent my mother pictures and she scheduled my an appointment to see the Doctor at 1:30, so I had to leave at noon, it was 11 at this point so I hopped in the shower and figured I could make the stew quick since it had to cook for a few hours. It was so simple, just had to brown the stew, add the contents of the jar and water and let it simmer for a few hours. I didn't know what time I would be back either so if I wasn't home for dinner they could eat without me, all they had to do was serve themselves.

Since beef barley stew isn't the most eye appealing thing, here's a picture of my lovely rash!

 
Have no fear, despite not only my doctor but another doctor at the office not knowing what it was (eczema was ruled out, because although I've had eczema for as long as I can remember) these bad boys do not itch or hurt one bit. They decided to treat it like eczema though and it seems to be working. I have to take Prednizone 3x a day for 6 days and lotion 2x a day. They are looking better, not as red and fading slowly but surely.

Tuesday:
First day of classes, wahh, can't believe it is starting again! Tuesdays I'm done at 3:20 which gives me enough time to go to the gym and have dinner ready by 6-6:30 which works out nicely. Ever since I introduced Maria to buffalo chicken sausage she has been a fan, so when my mother brought us regular pork sausage with mushrooms and artichokes we were broadening her pallet some more. I personally am not a huge fan of Italian sausage, I prefer chicken sausage much more so when I went to Skip's to load up on goodies I found chicken sausage with roasted red peppers and sun-dried tomatoes. We sauted up some peppers and onions and had a salad. So simple, yet so good.

Wednesday:
Mondays and Wednesdays are my dreaded 8 am days. I had an 8 am on Mondays last semester, but twice a week this semester?! Treacherous. On a positive note, we got to class today and my professor decided that from Monday on out class would begin at 8:15 instead of 8, hello and extra 20 more minutes of sleep! My second class at 10:35 got canceled so I could come back before my third class at 11:40. This worked out swell because I had already gone to class, prepared everything for the chicken, got it in the crock pot to cook for the 4 hours it needed, did the dishes, made my bed and cleaned the bathroom all before 10:30, it was glorious. 

I have a weakness for anything buffalo chicken flavored, I could eat it for every meal if I could. When I came across this recipe over break at home I was so excited to try.

 The recipe was really simple, I cut it in half because we have a little baby crock pot plus there's only us 3 and we don't really eat that much.

 All I wanted for Christmas as a garlic press, low and behold half way through my stocking I unwrapped a garlic press, Christmas could have been over and I would of been as happy as a clam!

 The sauce consisted of these guys, it looks like kind of an odd concoction, I was a little nervous at first.

You put the mixture in for 4 hours then shred up the chicken and serve on a bun, how simple!

This is our baby crock pot my mom found at Walmart for $3 and Jill picked it up on black Friday, it's perfect size for us.

 As I stirred it basically shred on its own so I didn't have to do much.

 Not very good quality it was taken from my phone, but these were great. We had them on whole wheat buns with blue cheese, sweet potato fries and broccoli, YUM!









Thursday:
I know, it hasn't happened yet but there has already been pictures of greens and beans already so need for duplicates.

 As I have been writing this throughout the day, so much free time on my hands this week (better enjoy it while it lasts!) we have been solidifying our plans for Saturday because it is the big Villanova- Syracuse game which obviously we will be attending. Given the fact that it as at noon and activities at the dome start at 9, yikes!, and our love for entertaining, we figured we would have some friends over for some breakfast and drinks orange juice before we head off to the game. Mariah was watching Paula Deen one day where she made omelets in a bag and we thought it would be a great idea for Saturday morning because everyone gets their own individual baggie and can put whatever they want inside. I was SO perplexed by this i just had to watch a video of just how this works. It's pretty darn cool, I'm excited to try! Another task I wanted to tackle is homemade bagels, my grandma used to make them all the time when we were young and they were so good, I wanted to be able to make my own. So after searching I found one so we'll see how it goes! That adventure will surely be blogged about, also with pictures of the game, they are expecting over 30,000 again. Oh Syracuse basketball, how I adore you.

Impromtu Bake Sesh:
I have wanted to make homemade granola for the longest time because most granola has some sort of nuts in it, making myself incapable of consuming, lame. I came across a few recipes and we decided that since we only had quick oats we'd make granola bars that i found here.

 
It called for 3/4 cups of craisins but we substituted 1/4 cup with chocolate chips to add a sweet treat! These were also a winner.