Variation on Steamed Vegetables

Well, ANTM (America's Next Top Model) and the overwhelming pins on Pinterest has spoken: healthy and fit is the new skinny. Sure, it's easy enough to click "repin," but what can you do to start eating healthier? Most people that I've talked to simply don't like the taste of most, if not all, vegetables. Also, many don't know what to do once they do buy them.
The recipe I'm about to share was originally suggested by my husband, surprisingly enough. We've slowly managed to collect a decent number of garlic dip cups--that buttery dip that you occasionally get with pizza. We don't eat pizza without getting a new one, so they've been accumulating. We found another use for them.

First, you need a vegetable. Today I used broccoli. Rinse it off, then cut it into bite-sized pieces; they'll cook more evenly if they're about the same size. Put them all into a saucepan.
The broccoli should still have some water on it from the rinse earlier, but if not, add a tablespoon or so now, depending on the quantity.
Now, pour your garlic butter sauce over the broccoli. (If you don't have some pre-made on hand like I do, melt butter, mix in garlic and a little bit of sugar, to taste.)
Place the lid on the pan, turn the heat to medium-low, and watch the magic. The broccoli is done when it's bright green, but only as crisp/crunchy as you prefer. If it's turning brown, it's past being done. Take it out. Now. Broccoli is so pretty when it's cooked properly. :)
After the broccoli is cooked, take a spoon and gently mix it, scooping some of the butter and pouring it over the broccoli.

Serve! It's better when it's hot, so try to cook it right before you're ready to eat--if you leave it on a burner on low, it's going to turn brown. Please don't do that. It doesn't deserve it. (Yes, it's only food and it probably cost you $2. I'll forgive you.)

I ate mine on a bed of rice, using the butter as my sauce. Sooooo good!

Green Tastiness

I wanted a grilled cheese sandwich. The only cheese to be found in the fridge: pepper-jack, feta, and cream cheese. No cheddar.
It was then that I remembered that I had avocado that would soon be going bad. We also had plenty of tortilla shells (the soft, burrito-making kind). This is what I decided to make:


Ingredients


1 Avocado
1 Tortilla shell
1-2 oz. Cream cheese
Garlic powder
Salt
Pepper

First, spread the cream cheese onto the tortilla shell; lightly sprinkle garlic, salt and pepper on cream cheese, to taste.


Microwave the tortilla for 20 seconds. 
Halve the avocado and slice it.


To the best of your abilities with your avocado, spread onto half of the tortilla (I did all of it because I doubled the recipe). 
Fold over, cut (or tear) and enjoy! 


-- If you decide to make one with two tortillas, keep in mind that one avocado is really high in fiber and other nutrients, which basically means that it'll fill you up faster than you might think. Using just one tortilla doesn't seem like much, but it is really filling. You may be able to eat more, but if not, don't say I didn't warn you!

Custom Jones Soda Labels

Well, the wedding is over. I unfortunately didn't get nearly as many pictures as I would have liked (I blame it on being in close quarters with too many people for too long, which resulted in a not-caring attitude on my part). Anyways. 

Here are our wedding favors; they turned out really well, if I do say so myself:

The things tied to them are luggage tags, which we used as the place cards.

Non-Aeromatic Florals

I finally finished my bouquets!! :D The large one could probably be sold for at least $100 on Etsy, and the smaller ones could probably be sold for a decent amount, too. I'm fairly happy with them, though the bridesmaid ones did turn out to be a bit smaller than I had originally planned; alas, I have less than two weeks before the wedding, so the length of time it would take for completion of some tasks needed to be shortened. It is pretty exciting to be able to check off another item on my list of things to do before I leave for Florida. ...which is on Saturday.

The Mouses

I was holding out for something from the President, but so far I haven't received anything. Here's the postcard I received from Mickey and Minnie Mouse though:

Hypoallergenic Flower Bouquets

I decided that live flowers would be too much hassle for what I'd like to pay for them. So, I began making flowers out of fabric. Yes, it's tedious to make each one, but it's rather enjoyable to make them while watching a movie or catching up on TV shows (such as Voyager). The bridesmaids will have white/ivory bouquets, so I purchased some muslin from Jo-Ann's with a coupon for $1.50/yd, some small pearl beads, and floral wire; I will wrap them with some ribbon (50¢ a spool) once I finish. The pictures below are of the flowers I have made so far. I think I could make 1 1/2 bouquets out of them; we shall see. I'll post pictures of them when I'm finished, too, of course.

Bridal Shower Decorations

There will be a kitchen-themed bridal shower in Ohio in a couple weeks. I'm not involved in much of it, but I am making some of the decorations. Mom came up with the idea of making small aprons into a garland; this is what has become of the idea:

I might sell them on Etsy afterwards. ^-^

The Chest

I decided to redecorate the chest I got from a thrift store. I might touch up the edges still, but it's otherwise finished. ^.^ Total cost: $4

Thrift Store Findings

I found this chest at a thrift store the other day. It was only $4! It's not technically within my wedding colors; I'm considering either painting it or covering it. 

Reception Food, Take I

I have decided to start testing out some of the recipes that I will be using for the reception food, mostly because I won't be the only one making food, so I should have recipes for those helping. I tried three of the potential recipes; two survived.

Recipe #1: Cream Cheese Chicken Crescent Bites

(Say that five times fast.)

These turned out delicious, as always. I've made them many times before, but I hadn't written down the actual recipe I use. 

Cream Cheese Chicken Crescent Bites
Ingredients:

12 oz Cream cheese

2 T Butter

14 oz Cooked chicken, cubed

1 T chopped chives, green onion, or parsley

3 t garlic powder

½ t salt

½ t pepper

2 8 oz cans of Crescent dinner rolls (each can should have 8 rolls)

2 T breadcrumbs or crushed croutons

Preparation Directions:
Heat oven to 350°F. In medium bowl, combine cream cheese and softened butter; beat until smooth. Add chicken, chives, salt, pepper and garlic; mix well.


Separate dough into triangles. Press into un-greased muffin tins, molding the dough into cups. Spoon chicken mixture onto center of each cup. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs.


Bake at 350°F. For 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.


Makes 16

Recipe #2: Avocado Deviled Eggs

Avocado Deviled Eggs

Ingredients: 

6 hard boiled eggs

1 medium avocado, diced small

3 tablespoons mayonnaise

2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste

Salt to taste 

Parsley, for garnish 

Preparation Directions: 

Cut boiled eggs in half lengthwise and carefully scoop out yolks. Mash yolks with a fork. Stir in diced avocados, mayonnaise, lemon juice, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, and salt to taste. 

Fill egg whites with yolk mixture and place on a serving plate. Garnish each with parsley. 

Makes 12

Recipe #3: Mini Blue Cheese Wedge Salads

I decided that these would be more work than they're worth. I think I'll stick with my Caesar salad instead.

Centerpieces

I found three framed mirrors at a thrift store the other day. I'm going to paint the frames to go with my wedding colors. I'm too sleepy to be more creative with the writing.

Wedding Cake

Wedding cakes are expensive. I've found that pretty much anything with the word "wedding" included ends up costing much more than it's worth. Why? It's a "once in a lifetime event," and must, therefore, be worth the extra cost.


Nay-nay, says I.


Although the total cost for the wedding may end up being more than I had hoped, I've managed to find reasonable deals on a lot of stuff. My dress, of course, was quite a savings, as were the wedding rings. The wedding venue is my fiance's house. Why can't I save on a cake, too?


And so I will.


I'm planning on getting my cheesecakes through Publix and then decorating them myself with various fruits, chocolates and candies. I've learned through this wedding planning process that I am a bit picky. Well, not just picky, I suppose; I feel like there's a better word to collectively describe all of the adjectives that I see in myself regarding wedding planning. Alas, you probably find this to be fairly un-useful, so I will end my self-discovery discussion now.


More planning pictures will follow--I just found a really cool-looking small rounded trunk at a thrift store. ^-^ I also got a postcard from Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

Invitation Destinations

For most people, sending a wedding invitation to a celebrity is believed to be futile. Finding a reliable mailing address may be quite difficult. It may be presumed, even if one could find the correct mailing address, that it would be tossed to the side by some publicist, never to reach the hands of the celebrity.


From research, some of this is true--all of it, in some cases. The most popular guests to send wedding invitations to are the president and the mouses--yes, those famous animated ones good ol' Walt Disney created. Upon research, people have received well-wishes from the current president and his wife. From Mickey and Minnie they have received an autographed picture with well-wishes. Other people have sent invitation to the Queen of England, the Pope, and various other celebrities. They don't always receive a reply from them, though.


I decided to send one to Kirk Cameron and Chelsea Noble for fun, too.

Invitations

I finished the invitations! =D They're custom-made--my uncle helped touch them up. They turned out really well.

One Hundred Days!

It's hard to believe that I'll be getting married in 100 days (presuming that my countdowns have stayed away from blue phone-booths). I am making progress now.

I found my dress.

I got it from the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, AL*. When it was originally purchased, it would have cost $1,150, plus alterations. I was able to get it for $199 with a bustle (+$20 to $90), a sash with a brooch ($90+), and the bodice has been taken in to pretty much my size (+$60). Basically, I would've ended up paying $1,320 or more if I would've paid full price retail. 


I knew I could find a good deal if I looked hard enough. ^.^


*http://unclaimedbaggage.com

Map Flowers

I've been working on these paper flowers made from maps the past couple of weeks (mostly done while watching Friends or Danny Phantom). I'm pretty impressed with them. 

Tomorrow I'm (finally) going to the Unclaimed Baggage Center! I've been wanting to go there for years, and now I finally will get to go. =] I'm pretty excited about it, in case you couldn't tell. I shall post my findings for all of you who have yet to experience it.

Take a break

One of the best things to do while wedding planning is to take a break and not think about it for a day. Well, I say this, but so far I've yet to fully achieve this.

For the most part, I was able to take a break from wedding stuff today. It was nice. Though I couldn't stay away the whole day. I ended up working on our wedding registry this afternoon (I decided that, as nice as they are, I would rather not have people pay over a hundred dollars for each place setting for my fine china. I might go back and find some cheaper ones. Oh, Vera Wang, why must you cost so much?).

Yesterday, I went to try on dresses at a small formal-wear store near where I live. I still haven't found something I really like for less than a thousand. Bah. I've found a couple dresses here and there that are nice, but I haven't been able to say "this is the one." We shall see. I'm hoping to have a decision made by next week on the dress.

Reception Music

I'm pretty sure that if I were able to actually plan with Michael more than half an hour to an hour per week, I would take half the time to pull together this wedding. Let me elaborate.

• I picked out a design for the invitations a couple months ago. I decided a week ago that I didn't really like them. Now I'm finding a new design that I can use with the envelopes and cards that I already have.
• It took probably twice as long to register as it may have been if it were just the two of us.
• The guest list needs to be narrowed down. A lot. I can't really do that without him.
• Deciding on the day took at least month longer than it would've if he were here.
• Thinking up things for vows and such  is difficult to do if you don't know if you're doing them.
• I want to go to Universal for a day. I haven't had enough time to talk to him in order to talk him into it yet.
• We need to order wedding rings soon, especially if we get the ones that we're looking at (customized). 
• I'm currently picking out music for the reception. I'm pretty sure that I'm going to end up cutting out a lot of it later once I think about it. Maybe less Disney. Maybe I'll keep most of the Disney and cut out some of the other stuff. Maybe I'll just say heck with it and keep it all there, but put it on shuffle

There are various other things that have made me consider this thought, of course, but I won't go into it. It doesn't really matter. It'll all get done eventually. I just need to do what I can with the time that I do have.

Through all of this, I have found it to be really fun to be quizzed, in a way, on how well I know Michael. While registering, I was asked multiple times how Michael would feel about this or that. I replied what I did believe to be true, based on the vague conversations he and I have had in the past. When I spoke to him later about the subject, he told me pretty much what I had told those who had asked. This has happened on other occasions, as well, such as when I tried on dresses at David's Bridal and the consultant asked me what he liked in a dress. It felt like I was getting A's on my quizzes. =]

I HAVE SO MUCH MORE LEFT TO DO! X.x

Mid-planning Crisis

You know how people have a mid-life crisis? I might be having a version of it for my wedding planning. 
Okay, I don't want to overhaul the entire design, but I've recently been changing and rethinking a lot of the basic stuff. I do realize that all of this is just a part of the planning process. I sincerely hope that I can at least stop rethinking the invitations soon. The invitations should be going out no later than March 11th. That day is going to sneak up on me far too quickly. 


Not to mention that I don't have a dress yet. I don't even have an idea of what design I really like at this point. There are a lot of different designs out there. I do have an appointment set up for Wednesday morning at David's Bridal so that I can try on some designs, at least. I likely will not be buying a dress from them, but I do need a better idea of what to look for in the future. There are many websites that I have found that sell wedding dresses at amazing prices; these sites tend to be overwhelming for me when I don't truly know what styles look good on me and what styles don't. At the least, I hope that my appointment on Wednesday will be beneficial to my search.
I will likely post some of my findings for you after this momentous event.


Time to de-stress by doing something crafty. It'll likely involve flowers, a girly movie, and chocolate.

Wedding Guest List

We made a guest list with everyone that we would want to invite to our wedding. There are currently about sixty people too many. It's true that not all of the people we invite can and/or will come, but the list still needs to be narrowed down.

Where do I start?

I can't really narrow down his side without him, so we'll save that part for later.
My problem is that I want to be able to invite "everyone" to our wedding. I don't want to have to exclude anyone. I want to be able to invite everyone that means something to us. I would like to invite whoever I want and not offend anyone. Is it possible? Can I invite only forty people between the two of us and not worry about leaving anyone out?

Maybe I'll try using this: