Food.

It has been a long time since I have posted a blog. In that time, I have written many blog outlines, none of which have made it to an actual blog yet. In case you weren't familiar, often times I will think of blogs throughout the day, write down the general idea, or the whole blog if given time, and type it up when I find the time. One of the problems now is that I seem to have so little time, what with starting my internship at a high school, trying to spend my remaining time with Mike, and trying to find time to spend with my friends.

Of the many random thoughts that cross my mind throughout a typical day, I often find myself thinking about food. Many of you know I am counting my calories. Not so much in a weight loss sense, since I have already dropped some pounds and continue to work out consistently, but more to keep myself in check from eating too many, and because it helps me to eat healthy overall. When Mike also decided to count calories with me, I had to invent many tasty, low calorie meals that someone so choosy as Mike would appreciate. Here are some of the kitchen adventures we have had:

Hamburgers. My parents bought me a tiny propane grill. As such, Mike and I went through an awesome grilling phase, which will return when the weather stops being deathly cold every day. (Seriously? The high is 38 in Florida? It's like I'm living in Canada.) With said hamburgers, I either ate Kraft Mac and cheese, made with skim milk and much less butter, or Mike ate said Mac and cheese and I invented a green bean sautee, from fresh green beans. Mmmm!

Yellow Rice and Chicken. I invented this in an attempt to recreate Pollo Tropical, one of my favorite fast food restaurants. It offers such healthy food! A classic stir fry of yellow rice, chicken, onions and peppers has become even MORE Cuban with the addition of black beans! So healthy and tasty. Even better when I made this meal at home and Dustin complimented it with fried green plantains, which taste like hash browns, only better.

Fake Asian. This is more like a category than a meal, but it's necessary because Mike and I seem to make lots of fake Asian. When I realized the ABSURDLY high levels of calories in Panda Express (a two-entree plate is easily 2100 calories, more than I can eat in an entire day,) I decided to invent my favorite Panda meal at home: Sweet and Sour chicken. I bought sweet and sour sauce, then used soy sauce, various other fruits and veggies, and a cheat recipe for sticky white rice. While I loved it, Mike only really liked it. So I bought Beijing sauce, his favorite. That meal tasted great! Then, in an attempt to be crazy outgoing, we made Crispy Orange Beef. I learned how to zest an orange, how to peel and grate fresh ginger, how to buy rice vinegar, and how to create an amazing Fake Asian dish! Mike learned how to bread and fry meat to make it crispy, something that all Southern girls learn around age 8. I attempted to make this meal a second time, doubling the recipe so we could take leftovers to work, but it was an utter failure in my mind.

Pasta. Again,vaguely broad categories. Mike has a homemade spaghetti sauce recipe. We recently decided to use ground chicken instead of ground beef, and decided it was a much healthier, yummy spaghetti experience. We also used rotini when we were out of spaghetti. However, we much more recently made said sauce into a lasagna. It. Was. Awesome. I had to call my mom, because, as many times as I have watched her and helped her make lasagna, I for some reason never remember the recipe. However, it turned out quite delightful, and left some tasty leftovers for us to eat for lunch and dinner the next few days, as well as a fun dining experience with our friends, the Wises.

This was my tale of homemade foods of the year. I just realized my last blog was also about breakfast; I am honestly hungry alot. I eat breakfast, a snack, lunch, a snack, another snack, dinner, and a snack. I stay in a decent calorie count, but I eat all the time.

Coming soon: New restaurants I have tried in Tallahassee and New Restaurants I Still Need to Try, Pool and Darts (with Leah), Dustin Sends Me Crazy texts, Black Holes, the Pledge of Allegiance, Mike got Robbed, Liturgical Church Services, and Interning at a High School: Why Did the World do this?