Sweet Sticky Rice With Mango

 I have had sweet sticky rice with mango at many Thai restaurants and I have always enjoyed it. I never thought to make it myself until tonight and I am glad I did because it was so simple to make and still very enjoyable. 

 

Oh and Happy Father's Day! We got to spend the day with my father and mother and my Pop Pop, my mother's father.

Stuffed Bell Peppers

 Red bell peppers were on sale 3 for $1. I bought tons of them and then decided later what to make. I decided to make stuffed red bell peppers and they were delicious! I used Giada's recipe as a guide, but  definitely did my own thing. They were awesome, definitely worth a try. They can be simplified by using a plain marinara sauce and without adding all the extras to add flavor.

Zucchini Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

I found this recipe in Rachel Ray Magazine, I knew I had to make them and I am so happy I did, they were so incredibly tasty and the perfect texture. It's also the first batch of cookies I have made that didn't call for vanilla extract and they still tasted great! This is an awesome recipe that provides some vegetable nutrition without the actual taste.

Sweet Pineapple Ham

For some reason I really wanted some ham and so I bought a ham steak. It was very easy to cook with and this pineapple sauce was very good, it reminded me a lot of sweet and sour pork but in ham steak form.

Our "Last" Beach Day

So we have about 6 weeks left in California. It is really crazy to think about, but we are both very excited and anxious for the move to Indiana. Lately I have been struggling with the idea of leaving family and friends behind but mainly realizing that it is an end of an era of sorts for certain things in my life. I am very pleased with my life right now, we have a great routine of sorts, I like my job and the people I work with, I love our apartment and our awesome neighbors, I love my weekly girls' nights and I know Nick loves his guys' nights,  I enjoy spending our weekends with our friends and/or family, and I enjoy living in So Cal where we have access to everything we could ever want in a location (beaches, hiking spots, bike trails, pools, desert, forest, sun, etc. ). Therefore, it is hard to think that we will be leaving all of this for something completely new and different. We will be going from having very busy planned out weeks to having a completely open schedule. Of course I know we will make friends with new people and we will have new plans and new grounds to discover, but I know I will still miss this place where I have lived my whole life. In the same regards, I was really excited to have a very So Cal kind of day this past weekend. This was pretty much our last free Saturday until we arrive in Indiana and so we decided to make it a beach day since we don't know when our next one will be. We started off by going to our most favorite breakfast burrito restaurant in Laguna Niguel called Teds, where we enjoyed some gigantic egg burritos. After that, we drove to The Rainbow Outlet so that we could stock up on some new Rainbow sandals since we won't be able to just drive and get new one's anytime we need too. The we drove up PCH aka Highway 1 to enjoy the coast and to head over to our most favorite beach spot in front of The Montage in Laguna Beach, which is the same location where Nick proposed.  Once at the beach, we enjoyed a couple of hours lying in the sand and soaking up the sun. It was quite the perfect So Cal day that I will greatly miss when we move Back East.

We're Moving To Indiana...

We are going to be Hoosiers!

So I guess now that everything is official and we are less than 2 months away from our next big adventure, it is now safe to blog about it. For those of you who do not already know, Nick was accepted to Purdue University for his Masters and after weighing his options he accepted their offer.  Because of this, we are officially quitting our jobs and moving to Indiana come July/August. Nick will be furthering his studies in Mechanical Engineering with an emphasis in Acoustics and I will be working. I have been applying for jobs and I am hoping to get a job on campus. I am trusting in God right now and I know it will all work out because so far He has guided us this whole way. We are both so grateful and pleased to be moving somewhere new and to start our next big adventure. Of course it will be different, I mean I was born and raised in California while Nick was born in Illinois, but raised since age 6 in California. I have never lived nor visited the Mid West (I call it the Mid East since it is part of the Eastern Time Zone) until recently when we visited the campus about two months ago. I am anxious to experience Fall and the other 3 seasons. Although we will both greatly miss our family and friends, we know that it is merely temporary and we are hoping to move back to Cali or the West Coast if Nick is able to find a job here after he graduates. But starting in August we will be living on campus in the Grad Married Housing, which is a 5 minute walk from Nick's research lab, which is great! The campus of Purdue is gorgeous with brick buildings and tons of greenery, plus it isn't as flat as the rest of Indiana. So that is the big news, we officially leave California late July and then we will embark on a 3 week trek across the country with stops in Vegas, The Grand Canyon, Salt Lake City, Yellowstone, The Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, Sioux Falls, Illinois, and ending in West Lafayette. 

 So please excuse me as I have not been blogging a lot, pretty much all of this has been in the works since our trip to Australia, New Zealand, and Tahiti. We basically planned that trip because we knew we wouldn't be traveling out of the country for a couple of years. I will continue blogging and once we are settled in Indiana I will probably end up blogging more about life than food, but don't worry I will never stop blogging about food. So yes please bear with me and pray for us too as we plan our new lives.

Sesame Tilapia

Nick was in charge of dinner the other night and he found this recipe for Tilapia. It was quite delicious, I highly recommend it. It was perfectly paired with some sauteed veggies with a dash of the remaining sauce and some rice.

Beer-Battered Avocado Tacos

 Last summer when we went to the OC Fair we got a chance to try out some amazing beer batter avocado tacos from the Seabirds Food Truck. They were so good that I haven't stopped thinking about them since last summer but have never thought to make them myself...well until now that is. Our neighbors kindly shared some fresh picked avocados with us and I wanted to do something other than guacamole and so I searched online for a beer battered avocado taco recipe and what did I find, none other than the actual Seabirds recipe as posted on Good Morning America. I knew I had to give it a try and they were absolutely amazing. I highly reccommend that everyone try some fried avocado tacos sometime in their lifetime, it is a must. 

Ding Dong Cake

It was my fathers birthday last week and so I decided I wanted to bake a special cake for him. I found this awesome recipe for a giant ding dong cake and I knew I had to make it. It turned out absolutely delicious and the cake tasted just like the official Hostess Ding Dongs. Seriously it was so good, I was sad we didn't have much leftover.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Jalapeno Ranch Burgers

I decided to make some burgers the other night and I thought creating some spicy ranch burgers would be great and they were.

Zucchini Banana Bread

I had some leftover zucchini and some applesauce so I used AllRecipes.com to search for a bread that would use those two ingredients and I found this recipe. This recipe was great because not only did it utilize the ingredients I wanted but it also included bananas, which is great. This bread was quite tasty and although I opted for no coconut or walnuts, it was quite delicious and easy to make. 

Pork Chops w/ Shallot Apple Cider Sauce

 

My grandpa bought me some pork chops because they were on sale, so I decided I would make some apple pork chops for girls night. I found this awesome recipe online and it turned out just as delicious as expected. Of course I edited the recipe to my liking, I wanted there to be some apple chunks and so I cooked the pork chops with chopped up apple, I really enjoyed having some roasted apple to accompany the pork. 

S'mores Brownies

 I found this recipe and I immediately knew I would have to make them. Nothing is better than a bonfire and some s'mores by the fireside. This recipe allows you to enjoy the same flavors but in the comfort of your own home. My girlfriends made them for girls' night and they were just as good as expected.

Adult Gummies

The best 21 or over party snack ever! Soak some gummies in your most favorite hard liqueur for 48 hours. Then enjoy! We used some Malibu Coconut Rum, sooooo delicious! What is great is that the soaked gummies are not overly strong and so you may enjoy plenty without overdoing it. Also, the leftover liquid can be used as a nice fruity shot.

Recipe adapted from Mixthatdrink.com

Basil Pesto

 

Nick and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary over the weekend and to celebrate we decided to make one of our fave meals. Making this meal is a little nostalgic for us since we made this for the first time together over 7 years ago and we have made it numerous times together since, it is both of our faves and nothing really beats homemade pesto.  

Cappuccino Cookies

 

I made these cookies awhile ago, the recipe was from a magazine I had but I lost the magazine before I was able to post it here and so I have no recipe to follow these cookies. I can however mention that the ingredients consisted of instant coffee granules, cinnamon, and yogurt. These were pretty delicious and I would probably make them again if I could, lol. 

 

Hot Chocolate 15K

Today I ran in the first ever Hot Chocolate 15K in San Diego, which is basically the best idea for a run ever! The run was 15K, which is about 9.5 miles, which is great since it didn't require as much training as needed for a half marathon plus the run was proceeded with a chocolate feast. We were given a tray that included a cup of hot chocolate, some fondue chocolate and many dipping items. We were also able to gather many Ghirardelli chocolate squares. It as basically the most awesome run ever! My friends and I had a great time and although the path was quite hilly, we did a great job at finishing with a great pace.

Double Chocolate Potato Chip Cookies

Have you ever thought to yourself, I would like something chocolatey but I would also like some potato chips and you can't decide which to eat, well with this cookie recipe you get both tastes in one. These were extremely tasty and not awkward at all. The chips are like salt, therefore making the combination taste like chocolate covered pretzels. My cookies didn't flatten out like the original recipe and I think it is because I failed to follow the recipe precisely and I used a whole egg rather than just the egg white, so please follow the ingredients and directions precisely if you would like some flatter cookies. No worries though, they still tasted great.

Italian Sausage Tortellini Soup

 I had some zucchini and bell peppers that I wanted to use and so I searched allrecipes and found this delicious looking soup recipe with tortellini in it. I have never had a soup with tortellini in it and it sounded like a great idea. Since this recipe was rated high, I decided to give it a try. This was a delicious soup and it was nice that I could prepare most of it in my slow cooker. 

Meatball Sandwiches

After our return from our trip, we had our families over to show them our pictures and to go over our trip with them. Since it was a large group, I decided to make something simple yet bountiful. I also like this recipe because besides the marinara sauce if you make it from scratch, it is relatively easily made in a crock pot.