The first of the lasts..

Anyone else having a hard time doing everything you want to do before the end of the semester? I feel like I'm trying to squeeze in everything all at once!

That being said, I've hardly had time to eat anything that isn't PB&J. So, when I have had time to cook something up, I've been making extras so that I can heat it up later. Two meals with one stone, if you will.

This week I tried something new and I have to say that it was one of the best meals I've ever made.  These shrimp quesadillas are SO easy to make and SO delicious!

I didn't have any white onions or peppers on hand, but I added in some green onion and avocado and I think it was just as good as what it would've been. I also baked it for about 5 minutes longer than what the recipe called for. But that's just to my taste!

I paired it with some corn on the cob and a salad. I definitely will be making this again soon. :)

This weekend was also my sorority's date party. We went to the Basket Case, a karaoke bar in Peoria. It's literally a hole in the wall, but so much fun!

Not only that, but this week is also senior week for my sorority. We have little events/bonding throughout the week to celebrate our graduation and all of the work we've done in the last 4 years. I've already cried several times, but that's not surprising.

My best friends.

Anyone got fun weekend plans?! Hopefully you get a chance to go outside today to enjoy the gorgeous weather!

New social media!

Up until this weekend, I was thoroughly confused by this new fad "Vine". It's a new form of social media that allows you to take videos adding up to 20 seconds, for one large but short video montage.

I downloaded it and was definitely doing something wrong right away. My videos can be best described as an epileptic's nightmare. I wasn't holding down my finger for long enough and I thought that since the video was fast, everything happening also had to be fast. The product was not good.

Eventually one of my roommates realized what I was doing wrong and taught me how to make much better videos.

I feel like this trend is normal for social media though. No one really knows what they're doing right away and then you get used to it! It starts to come so easily that you wonder how you ever didn't get it. Know what I mean?

What new social media have you tried lately? Anything worth joining?! Help a sista out!

Happy Monday everyone! Be productive and look forward to the nice weather we're supposed to have this weekend!

The search for the perfect cookie..

You may or may not know this by now, but I really like to bake. My COM 400 group was holding a focus group, so I was first to volunteer to bake for the group.

As much as I love to bake, I'm really picky about what recipes I'll use. My theory is is that if you don't want another piece of whatever you just ate, you didn't make it right. That being said, I've never found a cookie recipe that I was over the moon about.

At the risk of sounding like a housewife, I've been searching for the perfect cookie recipe. I think I found one that will hold me over until that day comes.

I searched via Google for a chocolate chip cookie recipe and stumbled upon the Nestle Tollhouse website. I decided to go with this recipe, apparently known as the Original chocolate chip cookie.

The dough was delicious. It was a little salty, so I was worried that the cookies would come out that way too, but they turned out fine. All I had on hand was mini-chocolate chips, so I added them 1/2 cup at a time. Turns out, 1 1/2 cups of those was just enough, rather than the 2 cups of regular sized chips.

I also decided to omit the nuts that the recipe called for. I was afraid that people would be allergic and have nothing to snack on at the focus group!

The recipe says that it yields 60 cookies, but as you can see from the picture, I tend to make larger cookies that most people. I got 45 cookies out of this recipe, and they were all gone at the end of the focus group!

I hope you all had a great weekend! I know I did. :)

The final stretch.

Graduation is only 1 month and 8 days away. So naturally part of me is panicking, part of me is hysterical, and the other part of me is just going to have as much fun as possible until I find an actual job.

Luckily, there is a ton to look forward to from here until the end of the semester!

This weekend is parent's weekend and I can't wait. My parents are bringing my dog down to Peoria with them and we're going to see my brother's off campus house for next year while they're here. Hopefully it's nice out too, because we were planning on grilling out!

This little girl is making her way to Peoria this weekend!

The following weekend is my boyfriend's fraternity's formal. We're going to Grizzly Jack's Grand Bear Resort in Utica, Illinois. It's the same place we went last year, but we get to spend an extra day and night there this year. The villas are awesome and I can't wait to spend all weekend with a great group of people. 

The rest of the semester includes my sorority's karaoke themed date party, senior send-off activities, senior walk, and of course graduation. I'm really excited and looking forward to everything the rest of the semester has to offer!

On a completely unrelated note, I met up with two of my friends from my floor freshman year. We went to One World Cafe in Peoria and I had some of the best falafel I've ever tried.

When I worked at Subway, we had falafel as a specialty sandwich and they haven't brought it back since then. I've been craving it like CRAZY lately so I was so excited to see this on the menu when we went out to eat! You can get it in a wrap or on pita bread and I chose the pita. It also came with hummus and the cucumber dressing. So. Delicious. It also had a little kick to it, but I like spicy food so it didn't bother me at all.

For those of you that don't know, falafel is a vegetarian patty made up of chick peas, garbanzo beans, and a variety of spices to make a protein-packed, vegetarian delight. I really recommend trying it once, I don't think you'll regret it! I've found a recipe to make my own, but it's definitely a task that needs a lot of preparation and time, which I just don't have at the moment. Hopefully soon, though!

Happy Wednesday! I hope you're all enjoying this great Spring weather!

Weekend Slowdown

Happy Easter to those who celebrate! Eat lots of candy guilt-free today!

Lots of people on Bradley's campus went home for the holiday weekend, so it has seemed like a very slow, chill weekend to me. Yesterday with not much to do, I decided to tackle not one.. not two.. but THREE Pinterest recipes that I've been sitting on for a while. 

I don't think I've mentioned this before on here, but I don't eat red meat. Over the last 2 years I've removed red meat from my diet completely. I never really liked it to begin with, so I've just become more conscious of what I prepare. It's super easy to replace most red meat with leaner white meat and this spicy chicken burger is just one example! 

The recipe is incredibly easy to follow and I already had almost everything I needed for it in my pantry. I decided to halve the recipe, since I was only cooking for 2. I got 4 burgers out of the recipe and they turned out really delicious! I hate the texture of pineapple, so I went without that part of the recipe, but I can imagine if you love pineapple you'll love these burgers with it!

As a side, these no-fry fries really got the job done. They were delicious and SO easy to make! For me, fries are one of those foods that just makes me feel guilty as soon as I eat them. There are definitely other foods that are healthier, but I had these without feeling bad about it, since I knew exactly what had gone into them- which wasn't much!

After making the alfredo sauce from my last post with Greek yogurt, I'm starting to try to find conversions and everyday recipes to use Greek yogurt in. You can't even taste the difference and making it a habit can make dishes a little better for you. I forgot to take a picture of this one, but this altered version of a boxed cake tastes BETTER with Greek yogurt. Instead of following the directions on the box, you just add the cake mix with a cup of vanilla Greek yogurt and a cup of water.

It's THAT easy! And it turned out delicious. One of my roommates had it for breakfast this morning, so I'd call that a testimonial to how Greek yogurt can be your best friend. 

On a completely unrelated note, I'm sitting in the library working on this, and I just downloaded the new OneRepublic album Native. They've been one of my favorite bands for years and I really recommend this one, so far. 

Check it out!

Get out and enjoy this nice weather before we have to get back to the reality of the work week tomorrow! 

Post Spring break blues..

We have officially been back from Spring break for 3 days now and it's safe to say that I'm ready to go back to Florida. The weather was gorgeous, the group I was with was a blast, and at this point anywhere is better than school.

Panama City Beach was beautiful and was by far the most memorable Spring break I've had in college.

This was the view from our hotel room. What's not to like?!

BUT as we all know, time demands that we return to all of our responsibilities and for me that includes trying to figure out what to make myself to eat so that I'm not living off of cereal.

I went grocery shopping yesterday and went with the goal of getting things for a few different recipes.

This broccoli chicken alfredo was pretty good! Definitely worth having again. My sauce didn't thicken quite as much as I expected it to, but once you add the pasta to the mix you can't even tell the difference.

FYI: make sure you read the Greek yogurt label and be sure you get plain, not vanilla. :P

I also was looking to make something that I could snack on between meals. I pinned these strawberry chocolate chip muffins awhile back and I thought I'd try them out this week. They're delicious!

These don't look as fancy as the ones in the pictures on the blog, but they're still really good. And they won't break the calorie bank! At 140 calories they're a guilt-free snack! I had one for breakfast with a banana this morning.

Doing a little cooking helped with the winter blues that we've still got going on here in Illinois, have you tried any new recipes lately that have been a hit?!

Happy Hump Day! :)

Where in the World?

I think I'm starting to go stir crazy.

Lately, I've been itching to travel somewhere new. I realize that there's school, graduation, and ya know.. money that are all stopping me from being able to pick up and leave. That doesn't mean that I can't plan, though!

In winter of 2008 I visited Italy, which is absolutely breathtaking.

Everything is ancient there. It was really weird to realize how young the United States compared to the rest of the world.

In the summer of 2012, I travelled to Spain.

Spain had a much different beauty than Italy. I'm glad I got to be outdoors so much when I was here.

The more I experience other countries, the more I want to see. So, I've just had some ideas in mind whenever the opportunity comes up again for me to travel.

I've always been fascinated by the UK. They speak the same language as we do, but lead such different lifestyles that I can't help but want to experience it. 

The United Kingdom is made up of 4 different countries: England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. All places I would fly to at the drop of a hat. I've never been to another country that had English as a first language, so I think that my experiences in other places would work to my benefit as far as getting around. 

My dream would be to spend a month in the UK, spending enough time in each place to feed my appetite, but I'll settle for 2 weeks split between them all!

London

Scotland

Ireland

Hopefully this dream becomes a reality! I'd like to go before starting a family, so let's hope this job search works out for me! If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go? Where are your favorite places in the world?

Have a great day!