March 30 Days of Lists: Finished!

So yesterday wrapped up March's 30 Days of Lists! I used an app called Rhonna Designs to create these cool pictures (I think they're cool so :-p). Anyway, I ended up printing them and making a little booklet out of them, but these are the finished pictures/lists.

Mazola® Blog Part 2: The Food!!!!

In an earlier blog, I posted about March's amazing AllStars sponsor: Mazola®. They sent us corn oil, a nifty little measuring spoon with 4 different measurements (I originally posted it had 2 and someone corrected me so thank you, I missed those other two), and an awesome pan that arrived yesterday! Check out the pan below. It's beautiful and heavy duty too!

On to the goodies! We had to use the Mazola® corn oil to create two specific recipes. These can be found here: Sweet and Spicy Salmon with Grapefruit Salsa and here: Pork Carnitas with Cilantro Tomatillo Sauce. Let's discuss the recipes.

Sweet and Spicy Salmon with Grapefruit Salsa

This was my favorite out of the two. I will have to say that I only gave it 4 stars on the website instead of 5 because of the grapefruit. We're not grapefruit people. I honestly don't personally know many people that are grapefruit eaters. Many of them eat it because they must. The flavoring on this salmon however, setting aside the grapefruit was really tasty. It had a smoky sort of flavor to it which you obviously usually don't get unless you smoke it or use liquid smoke. This merely consists of a dry rub and baking it. It would also be great on chicken. Something else about this rub that surprised me is how it covered the fish taste. I don't care what kind of fish you cook, there's always a fish taste if you don't know how to disguise it. Well this does the trick. If anyone is looking for a healthy option but you don't like fish, this will definitely work for you because you can't even tell you're eating fish. However, as I was discussing earlier, the grapefruit didn't really work. It gives it a bitter taste with every bite. I pretty much tried it with the grapefruit and then flicked the grapefruit off. The rest of the salsa however was tasty on the salmon and it paired really well with yellow rice. Next time we eat this I might try pineapples or some other fruit that has a sweet but not over-powering taste. Then again I might just leave the fruit out of it. The rest of the salsa was good.

Pork Carnitas with Cilantro Tomatillo Sauce

Oh how I did not like this recipe, let me count the ways. I'm not really sure about the seasonings to begin with. chipotle chile powder, chili powder and garlic powder? That didn't sound appetizing to begin with but alas we are a family of experimenters (in the kitchen anyway). I will also say that corn tortillas are the devil! Unless you decide to bake them and turn them into friggin' taco shells, they break! I broke like 8 soft shells before getting them to just curl without breaking. Flavor: well... personally, biting into it and having flavor, there was none until I swallowed. Then it felt like I was breathing fire and I still got no flavor! The sauce or what I would consider salsa in this case also wasn't for me. I don't really care for tomatillo. It much like the grapefruit from the first recipe also has a bitter flavor. It was the only thing with flavor. This is probably a recipe I won't repeat. None of the family cared for it too much.

These were interesting recipes to say the least and nothing we would have tried our own. However, as stated, we did enjoy the salmon so that'll be a repeat at some point in the future. I would like to thank Mazola® for the opportunity to try these recipes though and for the goodies they sent!

Disclaimer:

I am an AllRecipes AllStar Brand Ambassador. This is a voluntary position which I am not compensated for.

Mazola® Blog Part 1: The Goodies and Facts

The AllStars are back in action! Oh how I have missed having a preset list of things to cook. Since the AllStars program slowed down and school picked up and my boyfriend ripped my kitchen apart for renovations, I haven’t really been into cooking lately and I basically stopped meal planning. I do indeed miss this. I miss knowing what’s on the menu for dinner every night as well as what I need to be purchasing for said dinner menu. We’ve been eating out a lot! This is made me realize quite a few things. First off, it’s incredibly expensive to dine out, even when eating at the CHEAP joints. I mean, a family of four, even if we all ate the $1 menu from McDonald’s, comes to $12 a day for ONE MEAL or around $360 a month! I can get $600 worth of groceries at the store for that much with coupons and sales, and feed my family for 3 months!!! That’s including breakfast, lunch and dinner!!! It’s also lead me to realize that all of that eating out, even if we eat salads, is unhealthy. Cooking is way better because you can control what goes in the food. You KNOW what you’re putting into it. For those of you going “oh but if you’re buying oils, and canned goods, and food from companies, how do you know it’s healthy still?” READ YOUR LABELS PEOPLE. DO YOUR RESEARCH. If you’re just self-conscience about what you’re buying, you CAN eat healthy.

This month, for ALL of the AllStars, our sponsor was Mazola®. They sent us a 40oz. bottle of Corn Oil and a pretty nifty two sided measuring spoon with two of the most common measurements, 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon. I like it because you don’t have to dirty two spoons or hunt for two spoons if you have a less than perfect kitchen (raising my hand here).

Moving right along to the healthy part of this post!

Being healthy is something that we seriously need in my family. I’m overweight. My boyfriend is overweight. I have a 10-year-old son that I don’t want to be overweight and my father has suffered serious heart attacks and a stroke so clearly, it’s important that we eat healthy. I do try to cook a little healthier these days. I grill or bake more than I used to and I have recently been experimenting with various health conscience foods such as organic, fat free, cholesterol free. Don’t get me wrong. We haven’t gone to eating strictly cardboard, and we do still eat some foods considered unhealthy. I’m trying to promote a more healthy and HAPPY lifestyle in my home. This means eating things we like. What’s the point of eating if we hate the way it tastes??? We can eat healthier and still enjoy the taste of our food. Most cooking oil labels say the same thing. My mom always used canola oil because she said it was better for you but then after my boyfriend moved in he was partial to vegetable oil and after reading the label, there wasn’t much difference so we switched. He claims it tastes better. I can’t tell the difference. However, after receiving this Corn Oil from Mazola®, I read some more labels and did some more research and maybe just maybe I can get my boyfriend to switch to corn oil now. Research has shown that Mazola® Corn Oil lowers cholesterol more than Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO). My father is on pills for cholesterol so this could be a step in reducing some of the meds he has to take. Healthier lifestyle equals less artificial lifestyle (that’s what I think of medication). Corn oil has shown to lower LDL cholesterol by 10.9% compared to EVOOs 3.5%. Mazola® Corn Oil is cholesterol free and 100% pure. Seriously! This is the factoid label!!!

More about the study Mazola® conducted as well as health benefits can be found at Mazola.com (http://www.mazola.com/) and you can also check them out on Facebook here (https://www.facebook.com/MazolaBrand).

For our Mazola® assignments, we had to create, rate, and review two recipes which I have regrettably not been able to do yet, however, they will be done shortly! So stay tuned for Mazola® Blog Post #2 to see all the deliciousness of the recipes!

Disclaimer:

I am an AllRecipes AllStar Brand Ambassador. This is a voluntary position which I am not compensated for.

Plant Pot Makeover

So I have an obsession with making something new out of something old. I also tend to change my mind a lot so I either never finish a project, or if I do finish a project, by the time I’m done, I’ve changed my mind and moved on never utilizing the finished project. That’s why this post comes at least 6 months after the completion of what I’m calling a “plant pot makeover.”

For Mother’s Day 2013, my amazing fiancé bought me an orchid. These are my favorite flowers and are often hard to find as they are seasonal and must be searched and scoured for where we reside. For some reason, someone decided it would be a great idea for Wal-Mart to sell these single potted plants for Mother’s Day (they did the same thing this year for Valentine’s Day). Anyway, he bought me one because he knew I’d love it. I unfortunately do NOT have a green thumb at all. It’s more black and crusted over. I can’t keep anything alive. It’s seriously a wonder my son is still kickin’. It’s probably a good thing he can bathe and feed himself! I am totally kidding but you understand. Anyway, sadly orchids also require specific light, watering, etc. so… it kind of died. It’s a good thing that he realized, that I realized, that it was the thought that counts and I really did love my present. I have pictures of it and I even pressed a petal and laminated it so it would never be completely gone! Yea, I’m sentimental like that. I loved the size of the pot though and didn’t want to throw a perfectly good pot so, I decided to give it a makeover. This was trial and error and while it took forever and so much work for something so simple, I’m still very happy with the outcome.

This was the outside of the pot before I started and the inside after I painted it silver. The inside was already rough so it didn’t require sanding. That’s tape across the top because I didn’t want the inside and the outside the same color. Barriers!

So I didn’t sand it to begin with. I figured I could use the paint that allows you to paint over something without roughing it up. Yea. Didn’t work so well. Paint was runny and drippy and while that can be a cool look, it wasn’t what I was going for. So…alas I had to sand.

and sand some more… don’t hate on my sexy mask and sunglasses. I didn’t have goggles so my shades were the next best thing.

I suppose it paid off though because after I got the outside VERY WELL SANDED, I spray painted it black and one thin coat at a time (that’s the key) and voila. We have this beautiful coat of black paint on the outside.

and the inside again…

Then I took my trusty silver paint pen and drew awesome designs on it. After that, I spray painted it with clear coat, inside and outside and BAM, I have a new pen/pencil cup! I also have a thing for black/white and black/silver. Can't ya tell?

I constantly change my mind about things I want to use but this one’s been going strong since I made it over 6 months ago and I have to say, I STILL LOVE IT! I really do. I change my pens out occasionally to suit whatever I’m feeling (I have a pen box bigger than my boot shoe boxes). This drives my fiancé crazy but oh well!

March 30 Days of Lists: Intro

So I was originally going to create an entirely new blog for 30 Days of Lists since this is my first time blogging it, however since this particular blog is for sharing with the world all of my food stuff, recipes, goodies, and fun, I figured I'd go ahead and just post it here for the world to see (even though I have no followers! lol). This year I said I wanted to be a better writer or at least a more active one. Last year I participated in the 30 Days of List twice, once in September and once in December (yes, December has 31 days but it was quite of an impromptu thing, so I added in a list of my own at the end). I have fallen in love with doing the 30 Days of Lists! The problem is, I find myself lagging in completing it and getting a journal or book together so starting off 2014, I have decided that this year I’m going to blog them. I actually finish the lists, I just like to embellish the pages and make them creative, however, that seems to take forever! After all, I JUST finished all the touches on my December book on February 10! I figure if I do the blog, I’ll get it finished, no embellishments and I can also add in pictures if I want to without having to print, cut and paste them. The beauty of this is that I can also turn it into a Blurb book or I can print it myself and get all creative later. At least this way I can get it done daily! Well here goes nothing!

Update - 3/3/14 - So one of the girls in the listing group posted what I thought was the neatest thing! I asked her about it and apparently it was an app on the phone. So..... I went and downloaded it. What I love about this app is that no matter what you do, you will never perfectly copy someone else's so there's no chance of us posting anything similar. I love that I can take pictures of ANYTHING, put words over it and BAM. Now I know where all those Facebook posts of pretty pictures and words are coming from! lol. Anyway, I decided to use that as the basis for my lists now. PLUS, once I'm done, I can actually take THOSE pictures and make my book. It'll be so much better than a plain book! Here's my cover!!!!