smokin' salmon cream cheese roll up

It's been a while since my last post, but hey - I completed one of my resolutions! Jeff and I got married on March 10th, and just got back from our honeymoon last Saturday. Needless to say, the last month has been quite busy, so I'm trying to get back in the swing of things here.

The next recipe from the Hungry Girl cookbook was the "smokin' salmon cream cheese roll up." I actually made this one quite a while ago, but forgot to write about it...oops! This one was actually really tasty. My only complaints were that the fat-free cream cheese had a strange texture, and smoked salmon is freakin' expensive. I might make this one again, but definitely not very often.

Next up is an oatmeal recipe. I have all the ingredients for it, but we got a blender as a wedding gift and I've been making smoothies lately so it may be a while before I get around to the oatmeal.

super-duper veggie scramble

This is the next recipe from Hungry Girl. This one was goooood and giant! I think I like this one better than the breakfast burrito. I may have put more vegetables in than the recipe called for since I didn't really measure, but I figure more veggies can't hurt! The one thing I need to get used to is adding some seasoning to these recipes, my first try always comes out bland. I think I've gotten the hang of cooking the fake eggs too, no more watery mess!

This morning, since we don't have any of the ingredients left except the veggie patty, I made the veggie patty with a fried egg on top. I'm sure it wasn't as healthy as the original recipe, but it made a pretty good breakfast too!

Next up is a smoked salmon scramble. I love salmon so I'm already drooling over that one.

Did Target read my blog?

I'm pretty sure this is what happened with Li'l Scoopia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd2kJS8QoMw

Li'l Scoopia

Jeff and I have two cats in our little apartment. One is a giant named Professor Marvel (bonus points if you know what that's from!) who goes by Marv, the other is a normal sized cat named Livia.

                                                          Marv is the black one

I got Marv when I was teaching on the Pine Ridge reservation. I picked him out from the Humane Society, but really, he chose me. While I was trying to decide which cat to look at first in the cat room, Marv stuck out his paw to tap my arm. When I got him out he immediately nuzzled into my neck - how could I say no! Since I've gotten him, the poor guy has suffered through tapeworm, round worm (maybe? I don't remember), and now asthma. I've just started giving him an inhaler twice daily...probably a post on that to follow.

Livia we got after we moved to Lincoln. The first year I had Marv my roommate also had a cat, and I figured he was lonely now. A month or so after moving, I finally convinced Jeff to just go look at some cats at the Humane Society here...just so we could think about getting one! Of course we ended up with Livia that same day. Little did we know she has a slight heart problem, but nothing major.

Needless to say, they provide us with endless amusement. They love to run, jump, cuddle, and burrow under the blankets. In fact I'm typing this now with Marv on my lap and his head covering the keyboard. We of course have many many nicknames for them - Marvy, Marvejandro, Marvecito, Barfy, Poopies, Poopia, Biteya. Livia got her nickname Li'l Scoopia after an interesting morning a few weeks ago...

I have a fountain for our cats and Livia LOVES that thing. Every time I fill it up, no matter where she is in the house, she will come running up to sit and watch. Afterward she'll sit there, watching the fountain, occasionally batting at it, sticking her paws in the bowl. She does this a lot.

One morning I was sort of half awake, but the alarm hadn't gone off yet so I was still in bed. I could hear Livia enthusiastically splashing in the fountain, but I didn't think much of it. My alarm goes off and there's Livia, in my face, paws soaking wet. I get up to feed the poopies and follow Livia into the kitchen. Now, I know she's just a cat, but I swear she looked so proud, prancing around, looking back at me...but why? I walk into the kitchen to find the floor covered in water. It seemed like it was flooded. My first thought was the kitchen sink, since we'd had an issue with that before, but it wasn't that. I look over to the cat fountain to see it's completely empty. Practically dry. And there was Li'l Scoopia was just standing there, looking up at me, so proud. "Meow??" She had spent the morning scooping every last drop of water out of that fountain.

Thankfully it hasn't happened since.

Breakfast biurrito

First up from the Hungry Girl cookbook was the "yumtastic breakfast burrito". I already had to make a substitution here - regular bacon instead of turkey bacon - because the turkey bacon I bought the other day at the store has mysteriously disappeared. I'm hoping I just didn't end up getting it...otherwise it's been sitting in Jeff's car for a few days.

I was pretty pleased with this recipe, but next time I will definitely make a few changes. I will NOT be using American cheese again (I'll try to use up what we have, but after that, no more!). I really didn't think it would make much of a difference but I could definitely taste it, and I still don't like it. I was a little skeptical about the egg substitute, as this was my first time working with it. I like it though, and I had a realization...is this what restaurants use??? I've never been able to make scrambled eggs that look like the ones you get at restaurants, but these actually did! Next time I need to remember to add some salt and pepper, and even though they looked like they were cooked, I think they needed to go a little longer because my burrito turned out a bit liquidy...

Overall though, I would definitely make this recipe again. It was indeed yumtastic, and although it looked kind of small, it was surprisingly filling!

A resolution update

And another post right away because I got excited.

I've gotten the ball rolling on going back to school this summer! I'm in the process of setting up a meeting with a faculty adviser...I'm so excited!

Trying to cook...

So, I'm not really much of a cook. I love baking, but cooking has just never really interested me. Of course, that's never stopped me from buying cook books! I don't have that many, but I do have a few that I've collected over the years, and Jeff's grandma gave us a cookbook of family recipes for Christmas.

I've decided I'm going to start cooking my way through all my cookbooks. I don't want to go too crazy and say I'll do a recipe a day, or even a recipe a week. But I think I'm going to just pick a book start with and work my way through each recipe. I will most likely have to skip some given that we don't have most of the more specialized/unusual cookware, but I'll do what I can.

My first book is Hungry Girl by Lisa Lillien. The recipes in this book are mostly single serving and are all low-cal, low-fat. I've made a few things from this book and they were delicious, so I'm excited to try out the rest. I'm going to try and stick with the ingredients listed (yes, even American cheese) since the whole point of the book is to reduce the amount of calories/fat, but I'm sure I'll end up making some substitutions based on what's available at the grocery store here.

We're going to the store this weekend, so I'll hopefully be trying out the first recipe in a few days!