Busy week and school hasn’t even started yet!

I just finished watching Julie and Julia on HBO while eating my favorite snack, apple with crunchy peanut butter.  I saw that movie in theaters with Amber, who had asked me to go with her.  Shortly after, I started reading her blog and soon I became little miss “wants to cook all the time.”  🙂  (Thank you Amber!)  Julie and Julia is such a cute movie.

I was telling my co-workers the other day about how cooking relaxes me (I wouldn’t have realized that if it weren’t for Tyler).  They proceeded to tell me that that is how all the famous cooks feel.  “Oh, I am NOT going to be a famous cook!” was my response.  Hee hee.  But oh how I LOVE to cook!

This week was so busy for me!  I’ve never felt so exhausted!  We moved yoga night to Monday because once school starts I will be interning with the Kansas City Children’s Chorale on Tuesdays.  This Monday was one of the most relaxing nights of yoga I’ve had.  I felt amazing afterward.  On Tuesday, Tyler and I went to dinner at Carrabba’s for our 6-month anniversary.  I had a glass of wine that hit the spot.  It was a red wine (my favorite) and it was perfect for the long day I had at work.  It was called Copper Ridge Cabernet.  I don’t care much for wine with meals, unless it’s a light meal of hummus or a snack of some sort.  But it was a great start before our meal came.  It wasn’t bitter and it was very flavorful with a little bite.  My salad came a little while after my wine and it was just tasty.  After ordering it without tomatoes, I found myself picking off all of the onions, of course, but I almost started digging into before I had a chance to take a picture!

I apologize that it is dark.  I’m not quite used to taking pictures of my food in public yet, but Tyler reassures me that I will get used to it.  🙂  I did not have any dressing, one, because I am trying to stay away from Ranch, and two, because they didn’t even have Ranch dressing.  The best part of the salad were the croutons!  Usually croutons are too large and crunchy, almost like they just don’t belong with the greens.  But these croutons were quite garlic-y, nice and soft, like actual bread crumbs.  Mmmm.  Shortly after I scarfed down my salad, our entrees arrived.  Tyler and I ordered the same thing, one of the specials that evening.  Neither of us could repeat the name of the special, but it was like Fettuccine Alfredo with Chicken (we both told the server to hold the mushrooms), only the sauce was more like a garlic cheese sauce with pepper.  There were also very sweet red peppers in the dish.  This meal was so amazing!  I cannot remember the last time I ate Fettuccine Alfredo!  (I used to work in a fast food Italian restaurant and always called that entree “heart attack on a plate.”)

We contemplated dessert, but decided we were both so full, as I ended up taking half of my meal home.  It was a wonderful Tuesday evening.

On Wednesday, I decided I wanted to cook my very first slow cooker meal, which is the recipe of my previous post.  Slow cooker Hoisin Beef Stew.  I started cooking it before I left for work Wednesday morning and had my mother keep an eye on it while I was at work.  After work, I met up with Amber for a Zumba class.  It was a lot of fun!  …but much more of a work out than I had anticipated!  For an hour, you dance non-stop (salsa, hip-hop, etc.) with a 3 minute break.  It was fast and fun, even though a little difficult to keep up with.  There was no instruction, so you just had to watch and learn.  It was only $8 for one class and I would definitely go again!  When I got home that night, I was definitely ready to try my stew.  I lifted the lid and it just smelled so tasty, I’m pretty sure I almost started drooling.  It was actually so rich, that I could only have one bowl!  But believe me, I had everyone else try it.  😀

On Thursday, after another long day of work, I went to see one of my friends who lives a little ways away.  She has a daughter who is almost 1-year-old and growing so fast!  She’s already walking and saying words like “Thank you” and “All Better.”  Oh I just adore her!

Finally Friday!  Fridays are my favorite right now.  Tyler, his roommate Henry, and I meet at Old Chicago after work for “happy hour.”  Occasionally some other friends join us.  I love me some pizza and beer!  😛  I am doing the World Beer Tour there right now, so I’m trying as many beers as I can to see what I really like.  I try to keep it to 3 or 4 beers each week, as I am not made of money.  I am going to try and cut back on my pizza once I get into the swing of things again, but Friday it was a personal cheese pizza with Chicago-style crust.  Yuuummmyyy!  Later that evening, I headed down to downtown Kansas City to see one of my friend’s bands play, but it got rained out, so instead I called it an early night.  I’m sure you understand that after hearing about my week.  And lovely Saturday turned into my lazy day of sitting around, watching movies, and accomplishing almost nothing.  Now that is what I call a day of relaxation.  🙂  And look what I found on sale this past week!

Kellog’s cereals were on sale 50% off!  I have tried the Special K with Strawberries before, which I really like, but I had not tried the Blueberry or Vanilla almond.  I have already finished up the Special K with Blueberries.  🙂  It was pretty good, but almost a little too sweet.  The Vanilla Almond was pretty good, too, but I think I still like the Special K with Strawberries the best.  And of course I always have my cereal with Light Vanilla Soymilk.  🙂  8th Continent is my favorite.  I like Silk brand also, but I would NOT recommend Best Choice.  Something about their Vanilla Soymilk is a little funky and it does not taste right to me.

A few things about last weekend that I don’t want to leave out!  I talked about how my friend Brittany and I went shopping at Bath and Bodyworks…well, I did not leave empty-handed!  Hee hee.  Every time I walk into Bath and Bodyworks now, this is what I look for:

Warm Vanilla Sugar Body Lotion.  Like it used to be when it was in this packaging.  The “new” Warm Vanilla Sugar smells NOTHING like it used to!  Ever since they have been selling it in a new packaging, it smells like a perfumed lotion.  It’s not that sweet, melt-in-your-mouth smell anymore.  I spoke with one of the employees and they told me the company SWEARS the scent did not change with the new packaging.  Are you KIDDING me?!  Of course it has!  Anyhow, they attempted to get me to purchase their new Twilight smell after dowsing me in the scent, but I was not swayed.  I had almost forgotten my new favorite scent they have.  It is in the Aromatherapy section.  It is called Black Vanilla Current and it’s therapeutic for  “sensual.”  😉  This lotion IS more of a perfumed lotion, but one I like.  I have only tried the hand lotion, so this time I purchased the body lotion AND their oil.  I did not purchase an oil burner there, however, because I had seen one somewhere else that I like.

The following day, I went to a store called Enchanted and purchased an oil burner.  I could not decide between the green plug-in burner and the Chinese candle burner, so I purchased both.  And it just happened to be my lucky day!  Everything was buy one, get one half off!  AND each burner came with a free bottle of oil!  Talk about good timing!  By the end of the weekend, this is what I ended up with and I was very happy!

From Left to Right:  Black Vanilla Current Sensual Body Lotion, Black Vanilla Current Sensual Fragrance Oil, Green Plug-in Oil Burner, Kamasutra Fragrance Oil, Chinese Candle Oil Burner, and Lavender Dreams Fragrance Oil.

I have only tried the Black Vanilla Current Fragrance Oil in the green burner so far and it works so well!  I put it in the same room as the litter box and you could not smell a thing coming from that litter box!  I could only smell the Fragrance oil!

Hopefully this coming week before school starts will not be as busy and I can collect my thoughts about school.