Thursday, August 2, 2012

Homemade Bisquick

Before I get to the recipe, I just noticed that I have 2001 page views!  Where are all you people coming from? If you are not someone that I have met in-person, I would love it if you left a comment and introduce yourself!

Onto the recipe.
Growing up, my mom always made this Homemade Bisquick Recipe that she found in a Taste of Home magazine. Bisquick is pretty expensive, and this is a pretty cheap alternative.  One batch absolutely lasts longer than a box of Bisquick and the biscuits are just as tasty. Probably healthier too, but that is just an educated guess.

Homemade Bisquick:
9 cups of all purpose flour
1/3 cup of baking powder
1/4 cup of sugar
3 teaspoons of salt
1 teaspoon of cream of tartar
2 cups of butter flavored shortening (I am pretty sure my mom just used regular old Crisco...)

In LARGE bowl, combine dry ingredients. Cut in shortening until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Store in an airtight container, in a cool, dry place for up to 6 months.

And here is a biscuit recipe that uses the homemade biscuit mix:

3 cups of biscuit mix
2/3 cup of milk

Mix ingredients together until combined. Turn out dough onto a floured surface and knead 10-15 times. Use a biscuit cutter (or a drinking glass!) to cut out biscuits that are 1/2 an inch thick.
Cook at 425 degrees for 12-14 minutes.
You can also add 1/2 a cup of sharp cheddar cheese for cheddar biscuits. Cook for the same amount of time, and when they are done, brush with a mixture of garlic salt and melted butter. SO GOOD. :)

Enjoy!

Friday, July 6, 2012

Moving...

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am switching back to my old blog - kenzieandgarrett.blogspot.com.

I haven't posted there in over a year, but if you would like to read about how I planned a wedding in less than 4 months, hop on over there. I'll hopefully have a more recent post up there within the next day or two.

There will still be posts about cooking and crafts, but more posts about real life.
Please come and follow me there!

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Peach Scones

It was brought to my attention today by my best friend Megan, that I haven't posted a blog post in awhile.  Ever feel like you don't have anything to blog about? That's about where I am. I go to work, come home and watch TV with my best friend. Every day. See? Not much to write about. Luckily, this week one of my favorite bloggers, Joy the Baker posted a recipe that I knew best friend and I would both love!  Peaches are best friend's favorite fruit. In the summer, we go to the local Farmer's Market almost every Saturday and stock up on peaches for the week. We went this morning, despite the fact that it was already baking outside. We found a booth with ready-to-eat peaches that were perfect for this recipe!  I love it when best friend and I can bake something together. I enjoy baking all the time, and he always makes me laugh, and I like teaching him different things about baking.  These peach scones are delicious!  They would make a great breakfast, or they would be delicious with some vanilla ice cream. Check out the original recipe at www.joythebaker.com.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
In large bowl, mix together 3 cups of flour, 1/4 cup of sugar, 3 Tablespoons of baking powder, and 1/2 a teaspoon of baking soda. Add in 1/2 a cup of cold, cubed butter, and 1/2 a cup of shortening. Incorporate with a fork, breaking down the big chunks of butter as much as you can. 




In a separate bowl, mix together one beaten egg, 3/4 of a cup of buttermilk, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla.


Pour the bowl of wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix well. Put dough on floured cutting board, form into a disk shape, and roll out until the dough it 1/2 an inch thick. It's ok if the dough is flaky!


Pour 1/4 of a cup of buttermilk into a small bowl, and mix together 2 Tablespoons of sugar with 3/4 of a teaspoon of cinnamon into another bowl. Brush some buttermilk over half of the rolled out dough. Top with one thinly sliced peach. Sprinkle 1/2 of the cinnamon/sugar mixture over the peaches.  Fold the remaining dough over the peaches, and push the dough together to seal the edges. 


Slice the dough into 8 equal (ish) pieces and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush remaining buttermilk over each piece, and sprinkle cinnamon/sugar mixture on top.  Cook for 15-18 minutes. 


They expand quite a bit in the oven, so make sure to put them a good distance apart from one another. 


Mmmm...enjoy! 



Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Our Love Story

Lately, I have been noticing a growing trend in the blogs I follow. Many of them have a page that tells their love story.  I always love reading other people's stories, so I decided to post our love story on my blog!
Enjoy!

The story starts with a conversation between me and my good friend Grace. We had been friends since the first semester of our freshman year of college. She and her husband Tim had been really good friends to me and had always been around through good times and bad. I mentioned to her that I really wanted to go to Alpha's (a club at OC) banquet to a medevial fair, because a lot of my friends were going and I thought it would be fun. She pretty much went on a mission to find me a date. She worked with Garrett in the IT department and decided that he was the guy!  She bugged him for WEEKS ... but he kept saying that he wasn't interested in dating, or going to banquet, or anything. So, I didn't get to go to that banquet. It was ok though, because Grace didn't give up. In May of 2009, she told me that Garrett had to go on a blind date with me. I knew who Garrett was because I was always getting my computer fixed and had done a lot of activities with his club, but we hadn't even spoken to each other, and he had no clue who I was.  We went on a double date with Tim and Grace on Memorial Day to see Terminator Salvation and then went to dinner at Cracker Barrel. I thought he was nice, but he and Tim talked about video games basically the entire time, so I didn't get much information out of him except his name and his major.

Later that summer, I posted on Facebook something about never having seen the Star Wars movies. He responded to my post asking if he could lend me his copies of the movies.  We planned a time for him to come over and drop them off. I told my roommate Josh about it, and he insisted that I HAD to invite Garrett to stay and watch the first one with me. I remember feeling really nervous, which I thought was weird because at that point we had only met once and I didn't know enough about him to really have any feelings for him yet. He stayed and watched the first one with me, and I honestly think that we talked most of the time because I don't really remember the movie.  We hung out in a group setting one other time that summer. School started and a bunch of us had made plans to go see a movie called District 9. At that point, I had a crush on Garrett which is pretty much the only reason I agreed to go. The day we went to the movie all our friends bailed and it ended up just being the 2 of us. (Turns out that was the plan all along.) After going to see the movie and talking for awhile afterward I knew I definitely liked him. After that, we started hanging out almost every night. He had a bunch of tv shows that I had never heard of, so we would meet in the library every night and watch a couple episodes, and then he would walk me back to my apartment. Every night my roommates would say, "Did he ask you yet?!"
FINALLY  after an ETERNITY - ok maybe a month and a half - we went to a movie and dinner on a Saturday evening. After we got back, we went on a long walk around campus, and he finally asked me to be his girlfriend. When I got back to my apartment my roommate Meredeth screamed ... which was followed by a text from Garrett asking if she knew that he could hear her from outside. That was October 25th, 2009.

That Christmas, I got snowed into Oklahoma, and spent Christmas Eve night at his house. I had a blast with his family and I thought it would be fun to get to spend lots of future Christmases with them. (Later I found out that Garrett knew he wanted to marry me when he woke up to me at his house Christmas morning....awww....)

After Christmas, we really started talking about getting married. On April 4th, we decided to tell his parents that we were going to be getting engaged soon.  We ended up not telling them on that day, because his brother called during lunch to tell his parents that he was engaged!  It was very exciting!!  We ended up telling them a couple days later. We got engaged on April 24th at a lake on OC's property. It was perfect!!

We got married August 20, 2010. So, if you are doing the math - we got married 10 months after we started dating. It was CRAZY - but we were in love and couldn't wait to be together. Our wedding was perfect, our honeymoon in Chicago was perfect, and he has made everyday since then perfect! I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with him. :)

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Relay For Life!!

Hello Everyone!

Garrett and I will be participating in Relay for Life this coming May.  We are doing it in honor of Garrett's sister-in-law's sister Rebecca, who passed away in March at the age of 20 from cancer. Relay for Life is a "relay" that starts early evening and goes until sunrise because "cancer never sleeps."  Part of being on a Relay for Life team is raising money for the American Cancer Society. If you would like to donate, you can do so by going to relayforlife.com

Once you are one the home page, you will see a purple box that say "Sign up or Donate by Finding an Event." In the box below, type the zip code 73013.
Our event is the first one listed on the next page - it's May 10th at University of Central Oklahoma. Click the "donate" button underneath our event. 
On the NEXT page that loads, there is a purple box on the right side of the screen with the option to donate to support a participant or to support a team.  You can search for Mackenzie Keck or Garrett Keck - or you can search for Purple Warriors (our team name.)
Hopefully that is not too confusing! Let me know if you have any questions!

Thanks,
Kenz and Garrett

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

The Un-American Diet

Today I started and finished reading "French Women Don't Get Fat" by Mireille Guiliano. In the book, the author, who was born and raised in France, points out that even though French women eat 2 or 3 course meals 1 or 2 times a day, they never seem to gain weight. The author was a skinny woman herself, until she did a one year exchange program in high school and lived in Boston. During that time she gained 20 pounds and was embarrassed to come home. She now lives in America, but still manages to practice a French diet. The book is geared towards people who need to lose up to 30 pounds, and not for emergency medical reasons.

The first thing that the author mentions is that the American diets obviously don't work. Once you have quickly lost weight, it is easy to gain back. Her French "diet" is a lifestyle change and more of a "slow and steady" diet. It works because it is not "one size fits all" like many American diets, and it doesn't contradict itself!  One minute there is an American diet book out about how carbs are bad, and it is quickly followed up by a diet book that says that all you should eat are carbs.

She encourages the reader to start off their new lifestyle change by keeping a diary of everything that they eat, including where and when.  When she did this, she found that she was eating a lot in the middle of the day, while she was walking to and from class, because she would pass several pastry shops or bistros along the way. The scent of the French food would always get to her, and she would order a pastry. While she was looking at her food diary, she was able to pick out "problem" foods.  For her, the problems were sweets.  After you have kept the food diary for 3 weeks, you spend 3 months resetting your body's cravings for food.  She starts you off by drinking leek soup broth for 2 days, which sounds pretty disgusting to me, but I think maybe you could skip that part.
Anyways, for 3 months, you find different ways to cut the problem foods out of your diet. She suggests doing one "treat" on Saturdays. She suggests different things like never eating standing up, never eating out of the carton, and really considering how much one "portion" weighs (about as much as an apple.) For example, if you are eating 1/2 a pound of meat with your meal, that is TOO MUCH.  Apparently, after a few bites of a food, your taste buds basically "tune out" so your portion really only does need to be a few bites, and you should eat one thing on your plate at a time so that you can fully appreciate the full flavor of the foods that you are eating.

After 3 months has passed, you should be half-way to your goal weight.  If so, you can slowly start to give yourself more "treats," but she says that you will often find that you no longer desire them. She suggests that if sweets are your weakness, you could maybe have a small piece of good quality dark chocolate as a little treat in between lunch and dinner.  If you haven't reached the half-way mark yet, look for more ways to take the problem foods out of your diet.

There are so many other things I could say about this book, but I don't want this to turn into a novel.  You should read the book!  It's an easy and quick read. I am definitely going to try out the diet concepts that are talked about.

Monday, March 12, 2012

Tested

This blog post is going to take the more personal route, and it's a little long-winded, but I think it's important to share.

One thing that I know I have always wanted to be is a mom.  My mom wasn't the perfect mother, but I always admired her. Well, not really in high school, but let's skip that part. My mom started home daycare when I was born. When I was in 6th grade, she quit that and started homeschooling me and my siblings. We had home cooked meals EVERY MEAL. Never ate cereal for breakfast, except on Sundays. She had dinner on the table every night when my dad walked in from work. She never missed a night (thank goodness, because I think my dad can only make eggs.) Made us elaborate, homemade cakes for ever birthday.  I swear that woman could make a cake for every theme we came up with. I wanted to be her.  Still do.

I love my jobs, but I don't necessarily feel committed to them because they aren't actually what I want to be doing. Even before I met Garrett, I always knew that I wanted to start having kids as soon as my future husband was ready.  Garrett and I met on a blind date, and I instantly fell for him. I didn't know how he felt, but I knew I wanted to be more than friends. It took awhile to get there, but after awhile I knew he liked me too, and after what seemed like an eternity (but was actually only 3 months) he asked me to be his girlfriend. 6 months later we were engaged, and 2 months before our 1 year dating anniversary we got married. It was fast. People gave me funny looks. My parents were happy I found someone, and they loved Garrett, but they still thought we should wait. They had only met him once, and they didn't meet his family until the wedding. But I knew it was right and I have yet to regret the decision.

Well, Garrett and I can't have kids naturally. When I found out, it was hard. I knew that being a mom was something that I always wanted to do. Obviously, there are other options, but I had no idea how expensive those other options were. Let me just say - EXPENSIVE.   Some people might say that the inability to have children would be a deal breaker for them. But not me - I knew Garrett was the right guy and that God would provide for us. Don't get me wrong - even knowing about it, it's still hard to believe that we can't.  I was hoping the doctor was wrong. But 19 months later, it's pretty obvious that he wasn't. Sometimes I get jealous of other people who are having babies. I know A LOT of pregnant people, and as excited as I am for them, I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little jealous.

Recently we found a grant for in-vitro that we could apply for, and I threw myself into getting all the paperwork together. Having to rely on other people to get the paperwork we need SUCKS. I think I am more of a control freak than I realized, and we aren't exactly working with the world's fastest people. The application is due this week and we are still waiting on some paperwork. At first, it really pissed me off that people weren't getting things to us as quickly as a wanted. And maybe we won't get all the paperwork in time and maybe we will have to wait until next year to apply for the grant again. At first, that really upset me. Then this weekend happened.

Garrett and I were both not feeling well Thursday and Friday, and so we took the days off work and had a 4 day weekend. It was GLORIOUS. It was just what we needed. We watched all 8 Harry Potter movies, because, well...when else are we going to have the time to do that? We left the house a few times, but mostly stayed home. IT. WAS. PERFECT.

Many times, I have only wanted my identity to be found in being a good, Christian wife and mother. Now, I'm thinking that I could be happy without that mother part. Obviously, I still want to try and have a kid. But, spending the rest of my life with someone who I am head over heels in love with would be a pretty awesome life. I am really happy that God lead me to that realization this weekend. I am so much less stressed about getting the application in, and just more laid back about having kids in general. If it happens, it happens. And I will be ecstatic. And if it doesn't, it doesn't ... and I will spend the rest of my life traveling the world or spending weekends having movie marathons with my best friend - and I will be the happiest woman alive.

All this just to say, that God knows what He is doing. I think He is using Garrett to show me that I am not in control. I had "a plan" for my life, and I am starting to see that God's plan is a little different than mine. I love Garrett so much and I can't wait to see where God takes us.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Make Your Own Sushi

For the longest time, I could never get best friend to take me out for sushi.  He couldn't remember if he had ever tried it, thought it sounded weird, etc. I finally convinced him to go with me to a little hole-in-the-wall sushi restaurant in Edmond. He found a roll that was just salmon and rice, and he liked it! YAY!  We have been there a couple more times, but last night I wanted to try and make some on our own. 

First, we cooked up some edamame to eat while we were making the sushi. I just bought one of the Steamables bags. Then I sprinkled some sea salt all over it, and ... YUM.  I love this stuff.


For sushi, you will need:
A sushi rolling mat - optional, but helpful
A couple sheets of Nori (seaweed)
3 cups of short grain rice, cooked
1/3 cup of rice vinegar
3 Tablespoons of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
Whatever you like in your sushi!

We made a trek out to a super sketchy Asian market in Del City to get the seaweed and rice vinegar. They didn't have any veggies at the market, so we just went to our local grocery store - (where they also had seaweed and rice vinegar ... now we know.)

First you need to make the rice. We cooked ours in a rice cooker that we borrowed from a friend, but the package should have cooking directions on the back.  While it is cooking, combine the rice vinegar, salt, and sugar in a small saucepan. Cook on low, stirring until the sugar and salt have dissolved.  When the rice is done cooking scrape all of it but the bottom layer into a bowl. The bottom layer will be cooked a little more than the rest and will give your sushi a weird texture. Pour the rice vinegar mixture over the rice, and combine well.  Set aside to cool.

Put one piece of Nori, cut in half, on your sushi mat. Cover with sticky rice, except for the very edge.

Then, put your sushi fillings in the center of the roll.

Here are our fillings: crab, cucumber, and avacado for me, and salmon for best friend:

Then, with the help of your sushi rolling mat, roll up your sushi!


With an extremely sharp knife, cut each roll into 6 pieces. Enjoy!



Saturday, February 25, 2012

Failure ...

Well, one of the things on my 25 before 25 list was to not buy clothes for 6 months. I started that on February 1st, and purchased an article of clothing on February 4th - so that didn't last very long. Garrett and I went to Tulsa that week to be with family after my grandpa passed away.  We stayed there for several days, and on the day that we went there it was nice and sunny.  The next day it was FREEZING.  So we headed up to the mall to get me a sweatshirt at Aeropostale. At least I got a good deal on it - 20 bucks for a hoodie that was originally 60.  Then I realized that I had not brought the undershirt for the dress that I was planning on wearing to the funeral, so the next day I stopped at Target with the intention of buying a tanktop and walked out with a new dress. Then, at the funeral I noticed that my black cardigan had a hole - so the next time I was at Target I picked up a new one.  I'm going to try again starting March 1st.  By the way, I bought more clothes this month than I usually do in 3 months combined. I'm really not that much of a shopper. The whole point of the 6 month clothes buying fast is to quit buying clothes that I am hoping don't fit me after too much longer.

One thing that has not been a failure is our wedding scrapbook!  It is looking awesome!  I'm really proud of it. I'm hoping to finish it up this weekend.

Monday, February 20, 2012

25 List Revised

Well, anything on my 25 Before 25 list that costs extreme amounts of money has been thrown out the window. Best friend and I have decided to save up for bigger things than just vacations ... kids, house, etc.

But, in an attempt to save money, we did start on something on my list over the weekend. Cleaning out the house. We started with the extra bedroom. We bagged up 7 bags of books and took a trip over to Half Price Books.  We walked out with over 100 bucks thanks to some old accounting and programming text books.  After getting some sushi at our new favorite sushi place, we put the rest in the bank. I am also looking through our house trying to find stuff to sell.  So far all I have come up with is a bookshelf, a desk, and a queen sized comforter/bed skirt/pillow cases.  We do have someone interested in the bookshelf!  Whoot.

I am looking into opening an Etsy shop, which is something else that was on my 25 before 25 list.  If any of my readers know anything about this, please give me some info!  I have heard that you have to pay Etsy for each item that is in your shop, but wasn't sure how much?  Any information would be helpful.

I am also looking into possibly selling Scentsy.  We'll see about that.

Well, that's about it for now!  Have a great Monday.  If you have today off work, I envy you.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Lesson Learned

Today I made Chocolate Molten Lava Cakes from the Cook Yourself Thin Cookbook.  The picture of them looked like something any chocolate lover would enjoy. I was surprised when the recipe called for 6oz of bittersweet chocolate and only 1/3 of a cup of sugar, but I went with it in the spirit of eating desert and losing weight. When they were done cooking, I arranged them nicely on a plate, topped with powdered sugar and homemade whipped cream. They were ... gross. Even 2 dark chocolate lovers like me and Garrett could only swallow one bite.  No amount of whipped cream was able to salvage the bitter taste of the cake. I guess the small amount of sugar is how the cake is in a healthy eating cook book.  Luckily I was able to clean out the bitter taste in my mouth with a couple bite sized Dark Chocolate Milky Way left over from Valentine's Day. :)

I am reluctant to try the other dessert recipes in this cookbook, but I probably will.  I do want to cook through the whole thing, but I HATE wasting ingredients. I guess we'll just see when the time comes.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Valentine's Day Crack

Here is a quick and easy idea for a Valentine's Day snack.

You will need:
pretezels (the ones that look like square grids)
Hersey's hugs
M&M's (preferably Valentine's Day colored)

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.
Lay out a piece of parchment paper on a rectangle cookie sheet. Line the pretzels up on top of the paper.  Place one hug on top of each pretzel.

Bake for 4-6 minutes.  The hugs should maintain their shape. Put one M&M on top of each hug and press down so that you are smashing the chocolate to cover up the entire pretzel.  When you are done they should look like this:


They are the perfect combination of a sweet and salty treat!  Try not to eat them all in one sitting.u

Friday, February 3, 2012

Update

I promise I'm still here and hard at work on my 25 before 25 list.

So far I have made 5 recipes out of the Cook Yourself Thin Cookbook. All were well received by best friend except for the ricotta cheese pizza.  He kept saying he was disappointed there wasn't any red sauce on it.  He really liked the fish and chips.  Instead of being fried, you dip them in an egg mixture, flour, and then roll them in crushed Corn Flakes cereal.  Yummy!

I am sloooooowly working on my wedding scrapbook. I have a few pages done that I really like. Lately we have been spending weekends at a hospital in Tulsa visiting my grandpa so I haven't had much time to work on it.

I am also working on losing weight, although it seems to be fairly ineffective. I've been doing pilates and yoga for weight loss for about a week and a half, along with trying to eat healthier in general. I make some type of smoothie every morning for breakfast and haven't gone to Starbucks yet.  I did crack and have a milkshake last night, but that was only because my throat hurt so badly I could barely swallow and it was the only thing that would help.
Haven't lost any weight yet, but I know it takes longer when you aren't doing hardly any cardio stuff.

Today marks the start of not buying clothes for 6 months, which was another thing on my list.  What's the point in spending money on clothes that I'm hoping won't fit next year?

Besides that, the only thing going on is my car exploding. We were in Tulsa last weekend and the car overheated.  We pulled over and nothing was smoking, so we drove the mile left to my grandparent's house.  The second Garrett turned the car off, orange fluid and smoke started spewing out of the cracks in the hood. I mean SPEWING. The driveway was covered within seconds.  We took it to the closest place we could find, and Garrett's dad came to get us and bring us back to Edmond. On Tuesday I went to go and get it, and they had replaced the radiator which apparently had a hole. (Hence the spewing of orange goo.)  I drove to the hospital to see my mom and grandparents and on the way there, the heat gauge was going nutso and said 3 different times that the car was over heating. So, I took the car in to another branch of the same place that had "fixed" it before. Apparently this place was more like a Jiffy Lube place than an actual car repair shop.  They looked at it and temporarily fixed it (for free!) but said that one of the gaskets had blown.  The man was really nice and said that I could probably drive it back to Edmond and only have to refill the antifreeze a couple times.  I just laughed. (Well actually I cried because I knew Garrett was going to have to come get me from Edmond and that we weren't going to get home until super late, and I had to work really early the next morning.) While Garrett was driving down to bring me back, my mom and I took it to a different place.  They fixed some stuff and we are going to get it sometime today. Hopefully it will be all the way fixed. :P







Thursday, January 12, 2012

Re-purposed shirt

The other day I was browsing Pinterest and found a tutorial for how to turn a long-sleeved shirt into a cute short-sleeved shirt. I have several shirts that have sleeves that are too short for my long arms, so I decided to give the tutorial a try.  

Start with a long-sleeved t-shirt.

Cut off the sleeves!

Cut the cuff off of the sleeve and cut the sleeve down the seam.

Starting at the "shoulder," scrunch up the sleeve.

When you are done making the bow, wrap the cuff around the middle to keep it together.

Sew the bow onto the top of the shirt!  I just did several random stitches until I felt like it was well attached!

That's it!  I also put some anti-fray stuff on the arm holes just in case.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Working on My 25 List

I am slowly starting to accomplish things on my 25 before 25 list, and also slowly starting to realize that some of the things on there are pretty unrealistic. If money were no object, maybe I would see New York City and the Atlantic Ocean in the next 13 months, but it is. My wonderful friend Kirsten is getting married in August and I would love to go to her wedding, which is in Portland. A trip to the East Coast might have to wait a little bit longer.

But onto the things I have already accomplished ...

I made a skirt. With a sewing machine. I amaze myself sometimes.  I used the easiest tutorial I could find, but I was still skeptical that the piece of fabric would look like a skirt when I was done.  A few tears were shed, but it is finished, it is cute, it fits, and it HAS POCKETS. I wore it on our date last night and I love it! I can't post any pictures because I'm currently using a netbook - so there's no photo storage, but I will try to get one on the blog soon.

I am slowly starting to make a wedding scrapbook.  I have all the supplies purchased.  I have done one page. (Hey, slow and steady wins the race, right?)

I am also slowly starting to get back to pre-wedding weight. I bought a "skinny" cookbook and so far I love the recipes in it. The hardest part is exercising. I have time to exercise, but I tend to get migraines really easily. Today Garrett and I went on a 30 minute/1 mile walk, and I had a migraine 1/2 way through it. Not sure how I'm going to lose weight burning 90 calories a day. I kind of feel like I'm out of ideas. I have tried the "Couch to 5k" program, but shooting pain going through my knees is not my idea of a fun time. Has anyone tried Yoga for Weight Loss? I have seen a couple videos, but can you really lose weight doing some weird stretches?

One last thing. Apparently people read this blog! AAHH. I found the "stats" page on blogger.  I have 12 followers and 30 posts, so I figured that when I looked under the "pageviews" stats that I would have around 350. HOW ABOUT 1,099?!!!  Who the heck is reading this thing?  Whoever you are, thank you!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Cook Yourself Thin Faster

Look at me go!  3 posts in 3 days.

If you read my "25 Before 25" list, you might have noticed that one of the things that I want to do is to cook through a cookbook.  Yes, I got this idea from the movie Julie and Julia.  I checked out Juila Child's cookbook and all the French food honestly scared me. I had no idea what most of it even was, not to mention where I would buy it.  I was also worried that if I was able to find the food, that it would be too expensive for our grocery budget.

So, last night I scoured the cookbook section at Half Price Books and found a cookbook called "Cook Yourself Thin Faster."  This brings me to the assumption that there is a "Cook Yourself Thin" cookbook out there somewhere, and that this one is the sequel.  Another one of the things on my 25 list is to get back to pre-wedding weight, so I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone by cooking through a healthy eating cookbook.

Starting this weekend I will start cooking through the "Cook Yourself Thin Faster" cookbook. I will be cheating slightly by not cooking every recipe in this cookbook.  I'm not going to spend money on ingredients for a meal that I know neither of us will like.  On the menu for the first week is Fish and Chips, White Pizza with Roasted Mushrooms, Pork with Apples, Fettuccine con Funghi, mini blueberry muffins for breakfast Saturday morning, and blueberry/pomegranate smoothies for breakfast throughout the week.

Wish us luck!

Monday, January 2, 2012

Homemade Laundry Detergent

This past weekend, we made our own laundry detergent.  I found the recipe online, and it claimed that it makes enough for over a year of laundry for only 12 dollars.  That's a deal I couldn't pass up!  The detergent smells good and cleans well. I miss the fruity scent of our old detergent, but that's something I'm willing to live without!

If you want to make a batch of detergent for yourself, here is the recipe:

1 4lb box of Borax
1 4lb box of  Arm & Hammer Baking Soda
1 4lb box of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
1 30oz top of OxyClean or Sun Oxygen cleaner
3 5oz bars of Fels Naptha soap
(All these ingredients are right next to each other in the laundry aisle at Wal-Mart.)

You will also need a large container to put it in.  I think it needs to be at least 3 gallons.  We ended up buying a 15 quart storage box because it was the cheapest thing we could find.

First you will need to grate the soap into your storage container. I just used a regular old cheese grater.
Dump all the other ingredients into the storage container. Pour slowly or else you will inhale baking soda - just a tip. Once all the ingredients are in the container, mix it up with your hands until it is well mixed.

You will need 1 Tablespoon of detergent for a regular sized load and 2 for a large load. The Sun Oxygen soap came with a Tablespoon sized scooper, so I just threw that in the box with the detergent.


And, since we are on the topic of being thrifty, I'll go ahead and post these pictures of how I made a magazine holder out of an empty Cheerios box.