Oh Hello

Really fast I wanted to update y'all. Soooooo.... a lot has happened recently. I got another job... more details on that later but I am still at Lush one day a week. I actually had applied to a school here... for the nursing program. I am in the process of transferring credits and I have to take my generals.. the ones that wont transfer from uaa... but I am very excited. I also am going to take the TEAS nursing entrance exam before June 30th to hopefully get considered into the Spring 2016 program... which I am ok with because I can take those generals this fall, hopefully. Also June 16th I am getting knee surgery.... yep they are doing surgery to remove the cyst as well as to take care of my tendinitis..


A lot happened in a short amount of time, but I am super determined to heal from this surgery ( I wont be able to run for 6-8 months) and I am determined to become a nurse, I really want that self-fulling feeling inside.





Also I had started making vlogs on my youtube channel. Check it out if you want. User name is ohhitsrachael


have a great day.
2 more months until Chris comes home.

Sorry, no posts for awhile.

Hey y'all, I just wanted to let totally know Gibson be posting for a while. I've got a lot going on right now, and honestly I haven't cooked anything new in a while.... so I will be taking a break from my blog.


I'm not sure when I'll be back at it.

Cauliflower Pizza Crust

I have seen these Cauliflower Pizza Crusts all over and have always wanted to try one. I would say mine was slightly successful, but I have ideas on how to improve it for next time, it was delicious, mostly I just need to improve the structure of it.


I started off with half a head of cauliflower, and cut the stems off. I made a personal pizza with this amount. After cutting the cauliflower, I placed it in a blender, and blended to rice size pieces. Preheat your oven to 500 degrees. Once the cauliflower is blended, place in a microwave safe bowl, and microwave for 4 minutes. After this, allow the cauliflower to cool for 10 minutes. DO NOT RUSH this step! I cannot stress that enough. You want all of the moisture to be released from the cauliflower.

Once cooled place on a clean kitchen towel.

Now, fold the towel over the top and squeeze the moisture out. You will be surprised as to how much water is held within cauliflower.

Keep squeezing until you have soaked up as much water as humanly possible! 

Once ready, place into a clean dry bowl, mix in an egg and mozzarella cheese, this is going to be the binder. I should have used half an egg for mine since it wasn't the whole cauliflower head, I added back in too much moisture with the egg.

I had to end up squeezing some the egg out, so it would hold. This is pretty messy, but mixing actually works better with your hands. I also mixed in some salt, pepper, and garlic powder to season it.

I placed mine on a cookie sheet with cornmeal... and it stuck to the tray, I didn't have parchment paper so I tried working with what I could. I just shaped it as you would a dough for a pizza crust.

Place it in the oven and bake for 14 minutes.

Once par baked take it out and add topping of your choice. I just stuck with sauce and cheese.

Now bake until your cheese is melted to your liking or toppings are cooked, I baked mine for about another 10 minutes, keeping an eye on it.

It had an amazing crisp and crunch on the ends.

Hey it looks like a pizza right?!

Next time I would use less egg, and when I bake it I would use parchment paper, as it took me a while to pry it off in one piece with a spatula. The middle wasn't as crispy as I wanted, so next time I will make it thinner as well as place another cookie sheet on top of it while the crust bakes with some sort of weight on top. I think that would help yield a crispier crust all over.

Mushroom Risotto

I am pretty certain I have shared my mushroom risotto before, maybe about a year ago, so I wont really go into making it, risotto is not a particular dish, but a cooking method of cooking rice, so I wont bore you with the details if you already know hoe to make it. However I wanted to share what I added into this batch, of course I added the mushrooms, onions, and garlic as per usual, but I also added some cherry tomatoes to this, asparagus, and carrots, they are difficult to see under all of that Parmesan cheese, but this was my favorite veggie combo that I have done with risotto. I really think this is going to be my go to combination for risotto. Risotto is one of my very favorite things to make.

PB2

I have been obsessed with PB2! I love peanut butter so much, but it can be not as good for you. I mean if you eat a lot of it. Of course peanut butter contains good fats for your body and is a great source of protein.... but if you are like me, and could literally eat half a jar of that stuff! It isn't too great for you. PB2 has 85% less fat, is less than half the calories, and still has that protein and good fat. You can mix it with water to create that peanut butter texture, I actually haven't done that yet, but what I have been doing is making smoothies. This is a delicious morning breakfast smoothie or snack smoothie. All I do is blend a whole banana with two tablespoons of this and 3/4 cup of almond milk and about 5 ice cubes to give it texture. This has been my go to morning smoothie, unless it's after a workout then I usually make a fruit smoothie. Fruit smoothies are more refreshing after workouts, but this one is a really great after dinner snack if you are craving something sweet but you don't want cookies, cake, or icecream. :p

Penne Mushroom Alfredo

Yes you read that right, Penne Mushroom Alfredo. Why penne? Why not penne? Penne is my very favorite kind of pasta. Truth be told, I use to love alfredo, and olive garden sort of ruined that for me, not that it is bad, olive garden has excellent alfredo, I just got tired of being around it so much, and smelling it. Now that I have been gone from there for a good while, I find myself wanting alfredo more so than when I was there. I don't eat it very often though, it is a treat, and isn't something you would eat every day, every now and again is alright though.

I truly love this recipe, and it is one I sort of just threw together with what I had in the refrigerator like usual. Chris and I had an awesome mushroom alfredo ravioli at maggianos before he left, so that was my inspiration. 

I diced onions, mushroom, and garlic, and sauteed those in some butter, until tender and caramelized. Once caramelized, I just turned them down to low heat and left them alone. I seasoned them with pepper, and no salt, because I wanted to make sure this wasn't going to be over salted, as I will be adding Parmesan to the sauce which is pretty salty.

For the sauce, I melted a bit of butter, and added flour to make a roux, don't cook too long, just until you get a slightly thick consistency, I made a white roux which is the easiest and takes the least amount of cook time, this one is good for keeping white sauces white and beautiful, though I could have made a blonde which is a bit of a deeper flavor than whites. I could have made this in retrospect because the mushrooms changed the tone of my sauce.

After making the roux I whisked in 1/2/ cup heavy cream until it thickened, I then added some almond milt to it, to thin it out because it was a bit too thick for me. After this I added in 1/4 cup of sherry wine (this gives the flavor such depth!) and then brought it to a boil, and reduced to a simmer, I allowed it to simmer for about 15 minutes, and then tossed in the sauteed mushrooms, onions, and garlic. At this point I added some Parmesan cheese.  I probably added about 1/8th a cup, gave it a taste, and then seasoned it a bit more with salt and pepper.

I boiled some vegetable penne, and just served the sauce on top of the pasta, and served with some additional Parmesan over the top.

Steak!

I tend to not eat meat that often, but this day... I was just seriously craving meat, and what better way to satisfy that craving than a steak?! This one is huge! I didn't make anything to go along with it, because it was so large. This was actually really simple and delicious.

I started with a rib-eye, I don't have a grill, otherwise if I did it would have beautiful grill marks. I seasoned both sides with pepper, lawrys seasoning salt, and garlic salt. I went easy on both the lawrys and the garlic, since I was using both. I melted a bit of butter in a cast iron skillet, got it to high heat and then put in about a cap full of liquid smoke. I love the grilled smokey taste, and since I don't have one this helps give it that smokey, grilled flavor.

I cooked the steak until golden on both sides, and then tossed the skillet in the oven at 400 to finish cooking to my liking, it only took maybe 3 minutes in the oven. I love medium rare steaks, but you can cook it more or less depending upon how you personally enjoy your steaks.

And well that is it! Another easy yet tasty dinner. You could saute onions or mushrooms to amp it up, or make a lovely sauce to go along the top. I love Bearnaise with steaks, but this day I just wanted a classic grilled/smokey taste.  

Bed Bath and Beyond

Maybe about not more than a year ago Chris and I purchased a nice china set. We purchased a fine bone dinner set. It had taken us so long to purchase a good set, because I am picky! I wanted a white set, because I wanted something classy. In school we plated on white plates, and I just love them, the white allows for the food to be the star and shine. I need to work on my plating more on my blog posts, haha but to be honest, a lot of times I am just so excited to eat and try my creations, that I sort of just slap it on the plate.  

Well we were told these wouldn't break, and I have dropped a plate a few times, and it didn't break.One day last week, I made a bowl of oatmeal, and I didn't have a good grip on the bowl, I dropped it and it broke. I cleaned the broken bowl out, placed it in a bag, and went into bed bath and beyond with it, and a bowl that was unbroken to show them. I wasn't expecting to get a free bowl, I just wanted to see if they sold them individually because it really annoyed me only having three bowls! That is another thing, Chris really wanted deep bowls for cereal and chili. This set is honestly the perfect set! A lot of sets we felt, just didn't feel heavy enough with good quality. It is so difficult finding white sets because to me, a lot of them look cheap and cheesy, not classy, and I am in love with the set we own.

Well, I went in, they looked at the bowl, and looked up the set. They said they only sold it as a set, but told me because they have a 100 percent guarantee policy, that they could give me a bowl from a set, and they did! Bed Bath and Beyond in Hamilton, NJ was absolutely amazing about this! I was really disappointed when they said they didn't sell it individually, because I just really wanted my complete set, but when he said they could do that I was so relieved, I completely would have payed for it, that's why I went there! But they seriously were amazing! I am still just as in love with this set, as when we first purchased it. 

When we were looking for a set, we didn't know if we wanted a square set or a circle set and these are a combination of both! They are just amazing, This is the set we have!

Happy Easter Yall!

Just wanted to wish you all a very Happy Easter!

Some of you may or may not be wondering why I chose the image I did,

Though a lot of people celebrate Eater having to do with Jesus' reincarnation,

I am not religious, but I respect others religions, but

A lot of people are unaware that Easter was a Pegan holiday "before Christ"

It originated from Ēostre a fertility goddess, 

Hense the sign of rabbits,

Just a fun knowledgable fact,

Whatever you believe, or don't believe, Happy Easter

Brussels Sprouts!

I have recently become obsessed over Brussels Sprouts, they are so delicious and easy to cook! I couldn't believe I have never made or had these as an adult, probably because I hated them as a child. I found the base of this from Laura Vitale from Laura in the kitchen, she used lemon zest in hers and I didn't have a lemon when I made them, so I just used lemon juice, from the predone bottle of lemon juice.

I just started with cutting these in half and pealing of the outer layer, and of course rinsed them. 

After cutting them I just tossed them in some salted boiling water, only for three minutes, just enough time to parboil, until they turn bright green. You really do not need to boil them long at all, because we want the end result to be crispy not mushy!

Just strain these into a clean strainer after they are done par boiling. Just allow them to sit while you prep the garlic and olive oil.

I went ahead and sliced two garlic cloves, thinly. Don't mince it, slice it! :) You will get a crisp on the garlic to go along with the sprouts. A normal person would probably only slice one cloves; however, if we have met, you know I just absolutely love garlic! It is funny because before culinary school I hated garlic, onions, and black pepper, crazy right?!

Get a good amount of olive oil really hot in a saute pan. We are using a generous amount because we want to get a nice golden color on these and we want them crispy! Texture makes all the difference in vegetable! I remember in school, my chef had said most likely when people say they don't like vegetables, they have never had them cooked properly, and that is 100 percent true with me when it comes to these sprouts. I have only ever had them mushy, and when you boil the hell out of theses they are mushy, disgusting, and smell like feet, why would you want to eat something like that? So be generous with the olive oil and get it super hot, so you hear these babies sizzle when they hit the pan.

Once the oil is hot, place the Brussels Sprouts cut side down, and reduce the heat from high to medium high after they've been in for about 45 seconds to a minute. 

Allow them to cook on each side about 3-4 minutes, depending on just how crispy you'd like them.

Season to taste with salt, pepper, and lemon zest. (If you don't have zest, you can substitute with lemon juice as I did, though they would be better with zest. Fresh zest is strong and fragrant).

Once they have obtained beautiful color, toss in the sliced garlic, and cook for maybe a minute, stirring the garlic around so it doesn't burn, and turn off the heat immediately.

Finally, enjoy these beautiful veggies, you always hated as a child. This recipe is so simple yet absolutely delicious and divine. I have literally made this five times, and I just cannot get enough of them! A friend of mine told me to bake them as well, that they obtain a great crisp that way as well, so I need to try that out!

Check out Laura in The Kitchen, this is where I obtained her recipe,but I followed my own  feel for ingredient amounts with my own personal taste. 

Whipped Greek Yogurt?!

I had been seeing the commercials for this whipped Greek yogurt for a while, and I have been dying to try it. It was super light when I picked it up at the store, I could only find the blueberry when I was there.

Some difference in this is obviously the whipped texture, but it is only 100 calories versus 140, I cannot remember 100 percent, but I want to say it still contained the same amount of protein. It is interesting to me that they made a whipped Greek yogurt, because I was under the impression that one of the things that made Greek yogurt Greek was because of the thicker texture from the process in which it is made. I could be wrong? But I am about 98 percent sure that's correct.

So the texture is super light, as "whipped" implies, and the flavor was very strong, honestly this reminded me of ice cream! I seriously felt like my breakfast was a decadent dessert. This stuff is amazing and I will be buying more of it! I usually put yogurt in my smoothies, I wouldn't so that with this one though, I feel like that would ruin it. I really want to try this in strawberry!

With everything said, this is absolutely delicious and I would recommend it to everyone! However, it really annoys me that it is referred to as Greek yogurt... because it isn't!

OH!!!!

I leave tomorrow for Louisiana!

:) 

I will try to have prewritten posts to go up during the time I am gone,

but if I don't post, you know why.

I will be returning home April 12th.

Lush Goodies!

I walk into work and this is what I find waiting for me! Lush does these things called staff boxes! These are boxes of the new promotional items for us to try and use for free, so we will know how they work and how we like them, so we can better sell them! How awesome is that? The large box is the Eater box and the small one is the Mother's Day box!  The bag.... contains a shampoo bar, not part of the staff box... but I will get into that.

This shampoo bar is copperhead, it contains red henna and coffee, and yes you use it as you would a bar of soap, kind of. You get it wet, lather it in your hands until you feel you have enough for your hair. I have never used a shampoo bar, but this batch was a crumbly batch, and my floor leader asked if I wanted to take one home, since they were just going to get thrown out. I can't wait to try this out!

Now into the boxes, let's start with the Easter box!

A list of everything in the box, I opened it,.. and this is what I see

A huge, absolutely beautiful golden tin!!

Seriously, just, how beautiful is this golden egg shaped tin? Can we just admire it for a minute? I did before I opened it!

Pot o'Gold was the first Item to catch my eye!

This is a shower Jelly, a shower Jelly is like a shower gel, in actual jelly/jello form. You use this like you would a bar of soap, also you can toss these in the refrigerator or the freezer for a cool refreshing feeling, they also contain aloe vera, so they are soothing to the skin, this smells so amazing! 

This soap is the somewhere over the rainbow soap, it is blue on one side and violet on the other. This soap has Neroli, Mandarin, and Rose oils. One of my co-workers describes it as if it just rained and you're sitting outside next to Dorothy enjoying the air.

These next two are really nice bath bombs, the rabbit is called hipity hopity. It is a lime/lavendar bath bomb and contains rock candies inside of it! The Golden egg is called the Golden egg and it is super glitery and contains cocoa butter and shea butter. It is a bath bomb and a melt together, the melts are super hydrating. I have actually used both of these, I bought the bunny before I got this box actually!

Hipity Hopity:

And the Golden Egg:

The next and last thing in this box was a bubble bar, he is called bubble grub

Isn't he just the cutest?! He is a vanilla bubble bar, you just crumble a small amount, or for however many bubbles you want.

Next up the mother's day promotional items!

I still need to get familiar with these, I don't know too much about them yet, honestly.

This blue thing is a bubble bar... I think it's suppose to be a nun.. I didn't read the box I was too excited, but I probably should! Next to it is a shower gel called yummy mummy. I did try this it is a super relaxing strawberry scented gel!

There was a huge gorgeous Rose scented bath bomb inside, and I feel like there is a special goodie inside of this one! I cannot wait to try it out!

Lastly, it came with the yummy mummy body conditioner! It is essentially like hair conditioner, only for your body, and I have never used one, but I cannot wait to try it. This scent is the same as the shower gel! :) I can imagine these will work wonders together to really soften and brighten your skin, as strawberries is a brightener.