It's Been a While

It's been a long, long time since I've shared my updates on life with you folks. Sorry about that! It's hard enough to keep up with life lately, let alone writing about it.

We moved back to Inver Grove Heights. It's been a bittersweet feeling, to say the least. My parents love it. My sisters and I... well we're still adjusting. The house is... it has a nice deck. And an outdoor clothesline. So that's nice. We're still in the process of unpacking all of our stuff (way too much stuff!). And just trying to feel at home here. I love my room. It's simple, with my posters all up and everything in its place- just how I like it. But everything else is completely chaotic.

I started my new job at Luce. It has great days or horrible days, not much in between. It's really all about who you work with. No matter what the job I'm doing is (hostess, busser, food runner, or cashier), whoever I'm with is what makes or breaks that day. I've met some great people so far though, and always hope they work the same shifts as me! Business has been great though for only being open two weeks. And it's nice to be able to get GF food I can actually eat when I get off my shifts.

I've also begun working with my little cousin that I will be a PCA for starting this fall. I am in love with this little girl, seriously. She's two and has Cri Du Chat Syndrome, and is the most remarkable, intelligent girl ever! I love signing with her and watching her grow and progress in simple things such as playing, eating, and interaction. I'm ecstatic to be able to be with her everyday starting August 27th while my aunt is  away teaching half days at their local school.

I own a car now for the first time. It's been terrible thus far, in that everything that can go wrong- has. But my aunt and uncle gave me a great deal on it, so I'm extremely thankful for that. And it gets me to and from work, and wherever else I'm supposed to be. It's a cute little Honda Civic. My friend Schaubs and I deemed it a boy (little boy) and his name is Fridrich. :)

I haven't been eating healthy lately. And I'm feeling the effects of it, trust me. I'm just too busy at work or wanting to sleep to want to cook at all when I get home. And it doesn't help that our kitchen is like, half the size as our old one. :/ I've been looking at some recipes online that I'd like to try though, so now I just need to get up the motivation to actually DO it. (Which is the hardest part, right?) I've been living off of food from work, water, cereal, and coffee. Blech. Not okay.

Due to Luce, moving, PCA-ing, and just trying to function fully- I've kind of fallen off the map of socializing with people. Yesterday, I read texts and didn't respond, I got missed calls and didn't call them back, I got facebook messages and didn't reply... What the heck? I NEVER do that... I think I just needed a break from people or something. There a select few people who I can tolerate all day everyday (and they know who they are :) !!), but other than them I've just wanted to do my own thing. Which is good to an extent, but I'm sure most people think I hate them or something since I am almost always glued to my phone and social networking. Meh, we'll see how it progresses.

Now that I've written my recent life novel, I am going to the grocery store to pick up some things for a hopefully tasty recipe I found on one of my favorite vegan blogs. :)

Hope all is well with everyone else, and sorry for kind of/ sort of disappearing off the planet for a bit.

Just one

DISCLAIMER: This is probably annoying/ winy to some people, so don't read it if you don't like a hint of complaining and/or boyfriend talk! ;)


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Andrew and I always cook(ed) together, because we both love doing it! It's fun to try new recipes since the same ol' thing gets boring after awhile. Now that he's gone though, it's weird cooking for just me. The meals I make usually have several servings to them, and yea I can use the leftovers- but those only last for so long! (Luckily I have roomies who will eat it though!!)

I find myself cooking less and less now since he's not here... Which I actually didn't notice/realize until today. But I really need to start cooking more because it's so much healthier, and cheaper! Like I said in one of my previous posts, I can't wait to have a bigger kitchen to cook in... But only if I get to share it with someone! ;)

I made a butternut squash and black bean enchilada bake tonight that is super tasty and spicy! But it's in a huge 13 x 9 pan. So yea. Lots of food. Haha. I used vegan cheese instead of dairy cheese, and it turned out great! This was only my second time using squash though... I'm still kind of a noob. :P But I totally understand why most college folk don't cook now. When you're busy studying and such, who wants to take a couple hours out of the night to prep, cook, and clean up after a big meal?!

This girl, apparently.

Since it's hard to read on here, here's the recipe link! :)

hehe. just for fun. :)

Cooking

I am currently hanging out with my amazing friend Sam, and she (and partially her roommates) is cooking a roast and baked veggies and it looks delicious! Then I remembered how much I love cooking. I cannot wait til I have a huge kitchen with lots of cupboards and storage space... Eeep! It will be amazing.

Cooking food is just so much more efficient than going out to eat everyday. It's usually a lot cheaper too since you can make copious amounts of food and have leftovers for the week! How can you go wrong with leftovers, right?!

Lately I've been super lazy though and have had NO motivation to cook. For a while I just got extremely bored with my usual stirfrys and pastas, so cooking seemed to be such a burden. Then my lovely friend Mal suggested a few vegan recipe sites for me to check out, and boy was I glad I did! This blog has been a fantastic help to me because the woman who writes it has sooo many different recipes to try! There are so many kinds that I am dying to try out! My wonderful novio got me a food processor for my birthday since the majority of the recipes call for one to make raw sauces and such. Let me just say, it was $30 VERY well spent! I think I used it everyday straight for two weeks after I first got it! ;)

Unfortunately now in Winona we have a teeny, tiny kitchen and my roommates and I all cook constantly  so it gets to be a bit crowded and stressful. But that doesn't stop us from being healthy and trying to make the best meals we can!

Some of my favorite things to cook are enchiladas, lentil tacos, and alfredo. Oh and I would just like to say how much I love reading food blogs because they open up my variety of g-free/ vegan recipe options! I never thought there could be so many choices!

I also cannot wait to have my own huge garden and grow all my own veggies and fruits. It will be beautiful, I am sure of it. :)

Here are some random pics I found of pretty kitchens that get me excited for when I have a big girl one of my own...

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