Light & Summery

Life has been pretty busy lately for Ben and me. Before last week it had been probably a month or so since I was able to cook and we sat down for a meal together at our own place. It's been killing me, (1) because I get real tired of eating out real quick...even if it's at someone else's house...and (2) because I love cooking and trying new things. I made a new rule with Ben that every time I cook something we need to put it on our "keeper" or "eh" list. The keepers I'll write down so it's easier for me to decide what to cook in the future. And so when we have a family, I can put them together in a family cookbook!

Things are finally starting to settle down, so in an effort to get organized and save money, I made myself sit down on Sunday and put together a menu for the week. This made making a grocery list so much easier and helped me stay on track and not make any (ok I made one...ice cream of course) impulse buys. During my lunch break on Monday I was looking over my list and menu and for some reason nothing was jumping out at me to cook. It was such a hot day and I just wanted something light, healthy and summery. So I started googling and this is what I found....

Chicken & Summer Vegetable Tostadas

Not only did this look delicious, it features lots of vegetables! I immediately started re-working my menu to include this recipe. After becoming besties with my cashier at the store, I couldn't get home fast enough to start! 

HUGE SUCCESS!!! Not only was I in love, but Ben love it too! I was a little nervous about him liking it with all the veggies, one being onion which he is not a fan of at all. I guess it didn't matter because he even went back for seconds!! 

Whoops! Took a bite before I remembered the picture!

This is a KEEPER!!!!

Chicken & Summer Vegetable Tostadas

Source: Cooking Light 

Ingredients: 

• 1 tsp ground cumin 
• 1/4 tsp salt 
• 1/4 tsp black pepper 
• 2 tsp canola oil (vegetable oil also works) 
• 12 oz chicken tender breasts 
• 1 cup chopped red onion (about 1) 
• 1 cup fresh corn kernels (about 2 ears) 
• 1 cup chopped zucchini (about 4 oz) 
• 1/2 cup green salsa 
• 3 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro, divided ( I didn't have this on hand, so I used parsley) 
• 4 fat-free flour tortillas (I used whole wheat) 
• Cooking spray 
• 1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese 

Directions:

Preheat broiler. 

Combine first 3 ingredients, stirring well. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle the spice mix evenly over chicken. Add chicken to pan and saute. Add onion, corn and zucchini to pan and continue to saute until the chicken is done. Stir in the salsa and 2 Tbsp cilantro. Cook until the liquid almost evaporates, stirring frequently. 

Arrange tortillas in a single layer on a baking sheet and lightly coat with cooking spray. Broil 3 minutes or until lightly brown. Spoon about 3/4 cup chicken mixture in the center of each tortilla. Sprinkle with 1/4 of cheese and continue to broil until the cheese melts. (I skipped this) Repeat with remaining tortillas. Sprinkle each serving with about 3/4 tsp of cilantro and serve. 

YUMMMMMM!!!!! :) 

Splish Splash

....I was taken a bath!! Does this song remind anyone else of "You've Got Mail?" Gosh I love that movie!

Anywho - I hope everyone had a fabulous Memorial Day weekend! Quite frankly, I didn't really want to come back after our weekend. We took off for a much needed weekend with college friends and I had a blast!

Ben's roommate, Cale, makin' his move ;)

We (me, Ben, Brenda & Landon) took off after work on Friday to meet 7 of our closest friends at Lake Granbury. Colby, another one of Ben's roommates, has a lake house that we frequently visited while at Baylor and has a special place in my heart. This is where Ben and I really first hung out (not dating) and where we went while we were on our way to dating and then, where we officially started dating. Needless to say, a lot of flirting went down at this lake house!! 

The lake house is somewhere it's pretty hard to get a workout in, but I was determined to stay on track. So after hanging out 'til 2 AM on Friday, I got up around 8 AM and headed out for a run. I didn't really know where I was going and actually got lost at one point, so it wasn't the hardest run I've ever done, but it was a good 30 minute workout and I was shweaty since it was about 101....ok maybe just 85 degrees outside. 

This is what I walked in on when I thought I was going to bed on Friday night. Two hours later my bed was finally ready for me! 

Unfortunately, the lake was super rough and we didn't get to do any tubing (my absolute favorite). We all soaked up plenty of sun and cooked out on Saturday night before the boys got into an intense game of poker. The girls decided to rent a movie, but the sun totally sucked all the energy out of us and we all ended up falling asleep about 1/4 of the way through. 

Ben at the beginning of the game....

Ben in the middle of the game! P-p-p-poker face!

I woke up around 8:30 AM on Saturday for a 45 minute hike filled with lots and lots of hills. I noticed many times while out on the lake how totally ok I am with just laying around. Something I am definitely not ok with at home, so it felt good to get in a good sweat every morning. Here are some fun pics from another day spent soaking up the sun...."I'm gonna soak up the sun. I got my (12) on so I can rock on!"

I love my boo

Ladies - he is single and he's got dance moves!

So she didn't go to Baylor, but I met her while in college and I love her like I love my college friends!

Kappa Sigma true love

And after this, disaster struck....while we were packing up the boat to head back, all the girls piled into the front while the guys got things in order in the back. Because we just love each other so much, we all just stayed in the front for the ride back to the house...bad idea. I was on the edge of the seat and was holding onto the gap in the windshield. Like I said, the water was super rough. We hadn't been driving too long when we hit a bump (aka wave) and with my back to it, the lose flap of the windshield flew shut and found my hand as it landed. OUCH! 

This doesn't really do it justice, but this was the day after. 

I was in a whole lot of pain the rest of the night, but I tried not to let it show because we were heading over to Colby's parents' new house for a wonderful dinner. The homemade ice cream with chocolate sprinkles made it all (for the night) better. 

I took another hike, this time for a little over an hour, on Monday morning before getting back to the lake house to pack up and head home. To add to the exciting weekend, I almost stepped on a snake on my hike. For about the 2 seconds I wasn't paying attention to where I was walking, I missed the fact that a snake was in the road. I literally came inches from it and my body froze before I decided I would just carefully walk about it and hope it didn't follow me. Thank goodness it didn't!

 Although it was a bit of an uncomfortable ride home, my hand kept swelling and falling asleep, it was a FABULOUS weekend! I can't tell you how much I've missed these sweet sweet friends. For some reason there's just nothing like the friends you make in college. I'm not saying that we haven't made wonderful friends after Baylor, we have, but these particular friends just know me like no one else. Definitely a much needed friend love fest for Ben and me!! 

Sic 'em Bears and thank you Baylor for the wonderful friends!!