My Menu Could be Your Menu.... :)

Alright folks. Here is my menu for this week. These are tried and true and super yummers. So, if you want to join me this week in my cooking venture...here ya go! :)

Monday (Today):

TJ's Orange Chicken with Rice

--You go to TJ's, walk into the frozen isle, pick up the bag, buy it (this is key, they get a little ticked if you don't!), take it home, and cook it. Very complicated. And I love it on a Monday...because who wants to cook on Mondays???!!!)

Tuesday:

Double Broccoli Quinoa

You can find the recipe here.

Wednesday:

Chicken Enchiladas with Tomatillo Chile Salsa (Seriously, the best enchiladas I've ever had)
You can find the recipe here.

Thursday

Homemade Quick-Crust Cheese Pizza with Fresh Basil (perfect quick meal)

You can find the crust recipe here.

**I like to top it with tomato sauce, an absurd "you taste it still the next morning" amount of garlic, mozzarella, and fresh basil. Keepin' it simple but so yum!

Friday

Date Night!

No cooking for me!!!

Saturday

Tempeh Curry (actually, I haven't tried this one yet but I LOVE curry and the site so I have high hopes!)

You can find the recipe here.

Sunday

Chinese Chicken Salad with Red Peanut Chile Dressing (We LOVE salad, and YES...we will eat it as our only dish for dinner...usually with a side of bread or something)

You can find the recipe here.

Here's to eating! Because I'm pretty sure that I have officially become obsessed with food. I know Jason's not complaning, haha.

Our Life Lately...Uncensored! :)

Ok, so uncensored makes it feel a little scandalous. Really though, all I meant is that the pictures I am about to post are all me. Not edited even slightly. It's so easy to make photography look good with programs like Picnik but...that takes time. Of which I have very little of now. So, here are some pictures of our life in all of my horrible picture taking glory. (Seriously, I am a REALLY bad picture taker. I'm the notorious "blurry picture" girl. I can't just push the button. I have to move the whole camera when I do it. Nice. Oh well.)

Ok, so here are a couple of views from our lovely abode in MB. Loving the GREEN hills. This is our back view.

The picture below is a view from another direction, from our balcony actually. We also get a sweet view of some power lines and a weird hotel. hehe. Can't get it all eh?

The picture below is another little view and this is where I look to tell what the surf looks like! SO NICE! In SLO you had to drive to really know. Here, I look out my window. haha.

The picture below is some evidence of our more whole foods diet that we are on....
And here is some MORE evidence of our whole food diet...chocolate's a whole food right? :) (Note: These were the most chocolatey and yummy cookies. They were crisp on the outside and soft and yummy on the inside.)
And HERE is Jason's birthday cake. It was my first go at fondant. The fondant was smooth and cool to use. The recipe was REALLY easy too. The fish I molded from marzipan. My actual cake part was a bit lumpy...so, the fondant didn't lay as smooth as I wanted. REALLY cool to use though! So fun. And it actually DID taste good. Jason loved it. He actually peeled it off just to eat it!

And this is a close up of "Franky"...the fish. I named him. So, it was supposed to be a "fishing cake" but that just got to be too complex so it was a "fish cake" instead. Anyways, can't wait to make my next one.

And now I'm done! The End.

Plans for the Day and Some Stinkin' Cute SuNGlaSsEs...

Today, is overcast :( Tomorrow it's supposed to rain, double :(. But despite that, Jason and I are about to hit the surf. *GASP*. Yeah, I haven't touched a board since I started mountain biking....PATHETIC! It's just too hard to do both. We usually go mountain biking in the morning and normally, you go surfing in the morning. Well, now I'm free to explore other "morning sports". We'll see how I do. haha. Is it a bad sign that my left arm is already sore from me holding a pile of clothes for a long time at the thrift store??? :) Maybe.

Welp, I'm excited to do another sport with The Jas. We haven't had anything to do together (sport wise) in a while. He doesn't really love to run...especially when he could just hop on his bike instead! :) Anyways, kinda stoked. Later this afternoon we are taking a drive up north and hitting a new Vietnamese Restaurant. I'm so excited! I'm going to have a Vietnamese Sandwich. yum!

Finally, I am investing in some absolutely CUTE sunglasses. I have never paid more than $20 for sunglasses. Did you know though that when you buy cheapy sunglasses that the lenses are actually not good for your eyes...that it could hurt them more than they do good. When sunglasses are cheap they use a cheaper material for the lens which in turn has a lower optical quality. Some people are very susceptible to it. It takes me forever to find a pair that I can tolerate because the low optical quality actually makes me feel sick (as if I were to put on an Rx pair of glasses that weren't my own). So, I usually don't wear them. Then one day I put on Jason's mountain biking Oakleys and...perfect. They were just fine. Even if you don't FEEL like they are doing damage...they are. Especially if you have good eyesight! haha. And there's my 2 cents that I learned from working at an Optometry office. So, we got me some glasses and they are SOOooooOO cute. And I definitely didn't pay the $150 retail for them haha. Here they are! My girly aviators! Love them.

A Visit...

Wow, two blogs in one week! Not bad eh? I remember when I was a Bloggin' Queen! Welp, last night Jason got back from a stint in San Fran. He has been gone for two days in S.F. checking out a school. This is the one that offered him the money honey. When he first got home he was too mind numbingly tired to even think about whether the school was a legitimate possibility. The main down sides at this point are the California budget cuts that are affecting all public schools. Because of this they are offering less courses per semester. This may cause for him to finish something that would normally take 2 years in 2.5 year. We aren't in love with that idea. We'll see.

You can definitely be praying for him as we need to make some serious decisions in the next month...um, more like in the next week, haha! Crazy but cool stuff! :) Oh, and Jason also just got an acceptance letter from University of Arizona today. haha. Apparently Obama did the graduation speech for the Master's students last year. I think he went there or something. I don't know. It's a very good school though but it's just a little too "research based" where are we are looking for a more hands on program. Who knows. We will be praying for sure and will fill y'all in when WE know! :) Oh, and I also got a Timbuk2 bag today at the thrift store for $3! Dang darn awesome! :) (If you dont know what a Timbuk2 bag is then...nevermind. It's not worth explaining. If you do know then you will join me in my happiness. The bag is in GREAT condition and has a laptop holder in it. Neat-o bandito! If you want to know what they are then go to their website timbuk2.com :)

Me Gusta mis Zapatos Nuevos!

Yesterday I bought these...because I am running THIS run...

http://www.pctrailruns.com/Montana_de_Oro_Fall.htm

with THIS person...

MY PA! :) Sssh, don't tell him but I'm planning on CREAMIN' him! :) I think he'll leave the guns behind though.

Anyways, we're running the 25k which is about 15.5 miles. It's in about 4 months. I kind of wanted to do the 50 k but my dad said..."that's just not healthy." haha. Yeah, 30 miles is a bit much. I'm thinking too that it's just going to be two loops of the 25k and so it may get a little...boring. Also there's the small fact that I probably couldn't actually COMPLETE a run that long! :) 15.5 miles in Montana de Oro is going to be a lot tougher than 15.5 miles on road. I've rode those trails back there and there are some pretty steep places.

As for the shoes...

So, I am an AVID Asics user. I have some-what narrow feet so for the most part NB's don't work, they are too wide. Nike's are ok but I feel like the sole doesn't last as long. So, I wear Asics. They are great. Recently I have discovered Mizuno. These are also really REALLY nice shoes. I love the support they give, the flexibility and the rigidness...all in a nice neat package. So, as for road shoes I choose those two brands (usually Asics though since on average Mizunos seem to be about $90 where are Asics seem to be about $75.)

Recently though I have moved away from road running and have been trail running. It's better for your joints, it's beautiful, and it's a tad more challenging. When I took up mountain biking I basically abandoned running because it fulfilled those reasons just listed. Well, since mountain biking is out of the picture I've turned to trail running and just LOVE it.

I was looking for a pair of shoes that would work more for trails (my running shoes are about toast). I wanted it to be stiffer. I tried lots of shoes and honestly some of them were so stiff that it felt like I had tied a set of bricks to my feet. So, I ventured out to Salomon which is a great outdoor brand. The best part are the cinches for laces. No more untied shoes while running! :) Honestly these are possibly the most comfy shoes I've ever had and they were worth every penny!

So, in a few months I'll be running that race above. I'm really excited. If I can do that I'd like to do a marathon...but a trail marathon. There is a great one in the Redwoods...we'll see! :)

I love warm weather! :)

Well we just finished up a BEAUtiful weekend. Ugh, it was so warm...so nice...I got a little sun...a great weekend. Yesterday Jason and I basically did a lot of chores around the house. I organized the garage and sorted through everything. I made a "yard sale" pile and also separated and organized our camping stuff. Jason made a ton of kindling for a camp fire and deep cleaned his mountain bike. We were talking about how funny it is that as an adult doing "chores" is kind of nice. It makes you feel accomplished and good. So, we did lots of chores. At the end of the day we rewarded ourselves with BBQ chicken and corn on the cob. Jason is quite the BBQer. The chicken was SO good and moist. Mmmm. Yum.

Today we went to church and later hiked through Montana de Oro. It was beautiful and we saw quite a few pretty wild flowers, including some awesome purple irises. And now we're home and I'm getting ready to go to work tomorrow while Jason is getting ready to enjoy his TWO WEEK spring break. bah. So not fair. Oh well, it gives him the opportunity to go visit SFSU. Jason received an email a couple of days ago that told him what he would receive from SFSU. The first year they are going to pay $6,000 of his $6,800 tuition. AWESOME! All that volunteering paid off last year huh...in more than just personal satisfaction. I guess THAT'S why they wanted a reply so quick. haha. They want to give that money to someone else if Jason doesn't want it. It was nice becuase everyone told us that as a grad student you receive little to no aid or grants. It was a very pleasant surprise that's for sure! :) So, Jason will go up in a week and a half and then we will have a better guess whether or not SF is a viable option. The Lord knows all! :)

Other than that not too much is happening. Next Friday we are going north to Big Sur to go camping and do some ocean kayaking. woohoo. We are both feeling a little...mmm, not sure. Stir crazy? Not sure how to describe it but we figured that a little camping trip would serve us well. And yes...we'll be back in time for Easter...I think :) hehe

Well, have a good week everyone!

"Yes" #2!

What's happening all? Not a whole lot here but life is good! :)

Jason got his SECOND acceptance letter! woohoo! This one is with SFSU. San Francisco! It looks like he will be going up in about a week and a half during his TWO WEEK SPRING BREAK to meet with the profs and sit in some classes. The program seems really good but there is no way to tell but by going. Also, randomly, one of the heads of the department is from Sri Lanka! Weird. You just don't come across people from Sri Lanka very often. One of our BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) involves us one day going back to open an English school! :) We'll see though...the Lord willing of course. hehe.

So, we're waiting on one more school to get back to us. We're still waiting for USC to even OPEN there app process. If they wait too long we may just have to not apply to them. They are appealing because they are a one year intense program. Jason would like to just finish school and get going with life but we'll see. Schools who accept you don't wait around for a long time for an answer. They want a commitment surprisingly fast...or so it seems. Maybe that's just the case with Master's degrees. So, it looks like we're going to have to make a decision pretty soon. Weird to think that it's not just a school that we're choosing but a location where we're going to live, work, etc. I will say though that Jason got pretty excited at the fact that he could dive for abalone in SF. haha. You can do it north of the Golden Gate Bridge. You can't do it any where else in CA!

Welp, plans for today are to RUN in this gorgeous weather. I LOVE Cali....or anywhere warm for that matter! (Hmmm. I think Arizona is warmer than SF). Jason will probably hop on his bike for the first time in a long time. Also, tomorrow Jason's g-ma and cousin are coming over for a little BBQ. I get to plan a meal! yay! Honestly I love hosting little gatherings and cooking for people. So fun!!!

Alright, hope everyone has a great weekend! :)