Moving...

Dear loyal readers i am not "leaving" per say... but i am switching to a new host. This one was too limited in the ways of customizing so you can find me at: (don't worry its still veg head and friends)

New Site :)

Hope to see you soon!

Life changes

So i have no new recipe to post sadly, i have been sick for about 3 weeks! I missed 2 weeks of school and failed one of my exams because i could not concentrate and my ADD medicine was not working! That aside i registered last week and sat through a 3 hour orientation/epi-pen training plus got fingerprinted and i am now a substitute teacher. I should be starting in about a week. They are going to email me once i can start working but it should be exciting, challenging and a new experience everyday! I hope i don't like it too much otherwise i may have to reconsider my graduate degree for a teaching degree :D

Let see... i had to buy a new automatic litter box because ours died, it was a Littermaid and only lasted 6 months and i sadly did not have the receipt anymore to prove that we bought it within the warrantee period so byebye box. Its okay though i desipised that machine it worked until it got stuck. The one we replaced it with is twice the litter maids cost but so much cooler and already has worked so much better than the previous. It looks like a strange space ship or a robot. So can you guess what it is called?? "The Litter Robot" comes in 3 colors and is pretty bad-ass. :) There are videos of how it works at the link, and no i don't work for the company :) I just like to tell people about things i think are cool.

Speaking of cool/awesome J and i saw Coraline the Neil Gaiman(he wrote it) movie (guy who did stardust& mirromask), and it was WONDERFUL. Quirky, fun, immersive and so many things for kids, adults and anything in between. If you have any reservations about this movie throw it out and go see it now you will love it. Dakota Fanning voices Coraline, and Teri Hatcher is the other mother. Oh and Henry Selick wrote the script for the movie and i believe directed it too.

Wedding things are moving slowly mostly because J and i don't know where to move from here we just secured our bartender a friend of mine from a few classes Lyle. Other than that we don't really know what we want to do with the hall, so.. any suggestions on the cheap would be appreciated the cake we are thinking is going to be chocolate cake with buttercream frosting and raspberry coolee. (J is texture senstive)

But i just realized that it is 1 and i have to be to class at 2 and i am still in my Pjs!

Bye! Go see Coraline! :)

strawberries are delicious!

So i apologize to my readers i am MAJORLY on a salad kick, i believe its mostly because a year ago i was told i had to limit/regulate my Vitamin K intake and i was terrified of salads, asparagus, broccoli and those sorts of things mostly green stuff. But now i am more of in a whatever mode and i feel healthier when i eat those sort of things, so i am. This salad no lie is the most delicious salad i have ever eaten in my life, it is sweet, salty, savory, nutty, and awesome:) As you may know i live in Lower east Michigan, and there is a foot of snow on the ground and more keeps falling, and rather then soup i turn to salad.

Strawberry, Kalamata & more!
*note i did not measure i just tossed on the amounts, i have a small-medium sized hand so maybe 1/2 a cup for handfuls.

1 plate full of lettuce(per person or use a bowl for a big group and triple the amounts)- for my lettuce i used a trio i can't remember the type but dole sells it in a box.
1 handful of dried cranberries
1 handful of pine nuts
4-6 pitted kalamata olives
2-5 pitted cherries ( i used bing)
2-3 sliced strawberries
1 pinch of sprouts
2-4 grape tomatoes
1-2 tbsp of strawberry balsamic dressing, or regular balsamic. (i included a photo of my favorite dressing.)
*note- the dressing has very little calories, no fat, low sodium, low carbs, it is amazing and the best balsamic dressing i have EVER had.

On another note, i went and saw 'bride wars' with Kate Hudson & Anne Hathaway, it was surprisingly good, not great mind you, but good quirky & funny. The wierd thing was the theater was full of chicks(no surprise), but behind me was a group of 5 guys just hanging out and they were not making fun of the movie, they seemed to be enjoying it. :D It was fun though and i recommend seeing it if you can.

That's all hopefully next post won't be a salad :D

Pineapple, Avocado, Black bean, Pine nut, Summer in the winter salad.

Wow life gets crazy and before you know it... Its January. Many exciting things are happening for me in the coming months... In April i graduate with my bachelors of psychology (yay!) i NEVER thought i would actually finish when i started, so go me! Now as i am nearing the end of my impossible task, i am thinking of all the things i can do. I am planning in about a year and a half to go to graduate school somewhere, so that alone is a huge accomplishment for me, let alone my family who not a single one went to graduate school, and most did not get their bachelors. Letsee in May is my bridal shower, June 19th is my 23rd birthday, June 22nd is my fiancee's 25th birthday, and June 27th i am getting married to my sweetie of 4 years ( anniversary a few days before the wedding:)) After that who knows what life holds, but i am definately excited to experience it:) Moving on..... I actually have a recipe finally! Its VERY simple, and can be made vegan or vegetarian. It is the salad above, oh and it is VERY customizeable.
My version is Vegetarian, but i am going to post in parenthesis next to it a suggestion for customizing. Now also note that this is being made in January, by a VERY broke college student who has not gone grocery shopping in a long time and picked up and avocado on a whim.

PineAvoBBPNSumWin- Great for the winter,and canned goods

1 stalk or whatever of romaine Lettuce/ any lettuce
1 handful of pinenuts= about 1/4 cup for my tiny hands
1 handful of dried cranberries= about 1/4 cup
1 morningstar farms black bean burger= substitute- (black beans/ vegan black bean burger)
2 slices of pineapple from a can= substitute- (fresh pineapple)
1/2 of an avocado
a drisle of your favorite dressing mine is a strawberry balsamic vinigarette that is fat free and low calorie. (i can look in my fridge if you really want, otherwise there are recipes all over the web for it)

Again you can add and subtract, i find that the fruity notes, compliment the savory pine nuts, and the creaminess of the avocado- delicious! :)

life....

Life comes at you in the best and worst of ways......

My life just a short 6 months ago....
I was approaching my senior year of college
Working at a wonderful five and dime
money was tight but i could enjoy myself when we went out with friends
i could buy the items i wanted
I was 5-6 months away from applying for grad school, in art therapy
i was with a great guy
and life was great.....

Jump ahead 6 months to now.....
No job, it went out of business
I am a week away from my semester being over and 2 weeks from my new and final one starting.
Money is worst then tight i am scraping pennies and begging for money from my family to pay the bills.
I am still with that great guy, but while he was gone in Tennessee he became a slob :/
Grad school has been pushed so far away it isn't even on the plate.... This decision was made today it just is not feasible with moving.
On a brighter side that great guy and i are engaged, which my previous post mentioned.
But other then that i am..... blank...

Don't take what you have for granted, even the little things can make the darkest room seem bright.
Today i went to get my paycheck from a job i only had for a month before they let go of all of their new employees (they hired 6) but could not generate the business they had anticipated. I was really bummed out because the woman who owned the place was not nice to me, and was very COLD. As if it were my fault that business was so bad... Uhh hello lady you just moved to a new location 2 weeks ago and it is not exactly a metropolis it is a little podunk city with two other coffee shops in the city while you are on the outskirts.. Seriously. Anyway... My old boss Katherine was across the street from my house when i got home visiting a friend of ours so i went over and got the warmest hug, that took away every bad feeling i had just to be there with her. In that moment i realized why i asked her to be my maid of honor. I love her just like a sister, i am so glad that i got to work for her for 2 1/2 years and would not take away a single second of it.

So look on the brightside...... and on that note... a change of pace..... due to the impending holiday that is coming... Chrismahanukwanza! (sorry if one of these are not in this season.. :D) I am doing budget gifts.....

For myself i was in two art classes so i am handing out paintings i did ( i have 8-9), then for ceramics i have 6 tiles (some are better then others), a lovely vase that i hate because of how much work went into it, a bust of myself(not yet fired), a wonderful platter that i love and may not give away, and 6 stoneware mugs... But if you are not in an art class there are alternatives.....

One of my favorite ideas for a gift for someone you don't really know or who you know loves to bake is to take a mason jar, fill it with your favorite recipe (minus the liquids) and toss on a bow and the recipe of how to finish it. Last year my neighbor gave me a recipe for a granola nut chocolate bar, it was great! Really fun too because i did not have to measure the ingredients they already were done. You can also do this with soup mixes, or really anything you want. (image above)

Quick idea list:
1. crochet or knit pot holders, hand towels, scarfs, mittens, slippers, whatever you want depending on what you can do!
2.) Sew a blanket, or scarfs, mittens, slippers,hats, etc.
3.) If you are artsy make then something like tiles, paintings, etc.
4.) Even if you are not in an art class you can go to an art store and buy paint, and other stuff to create whatever you want, sometimes there are even kits to teach you to do something and your family will be none the wiser... Also you can buy sculpty clay in a big box for about ten bucks but if you hollow out and fill with aluminum foil, the clay can stretch along way.. and then you can make a bunch of cool things with it like figurines... the sky is the limit.
5.) baking for family members, just no fruit cake... This should be BANNED!!!

To be frugal for a hugely commercialized holiday you just have to think creatively... The sky is the limit! If you have any ideas feel free to comment.

Take care! and Happy Holidays!!!!
-A

Favorite Song of the Day- Snow Patrol "crack the shutters"

Sleep Art

Seriously, i am taking ceramics and painting... Doing ceramics while terribly tired= iffy, Doing oil painting while so tired you don't want to move= awesome. Though i am pretty sure my A.d.d had something to do with it. While tired my mind is wore out and so it allows my ADD to take the back burner and my creativity jump forward. Or something, its sad to say but i hope i am sleepy on Thursday so i can finish my painting. =)

In very cool news, "J" and i went to a bridal show Thursday at Macy's and entered a few contests, i have never won a single thing in my life, so i figured it was like everything else that i entered pointless and a waste of time, but hey why not. The next day when i was at a Bridal Expo with my mom and grandma i got a call saying that J and i had won 2 Toasting flutes valued at $150, seriously. So i planned on going in today. Monday i got a call from the salon saying i had won a thermal hair package. Awesome! So i went in to pick up my prizes:D Then the fiancee took me out for a lovely dinner to olive garden, since he is leaving in about 2 weeks for his 5 week teaching gig in Tennessee. :( I'll miss him but they are paying well and it is his first time teaching, and he's Teaching comics... Awesome:D

Toodles-
I swear i will have a recipe soon!

Internship/Volunteer

So as i said in my yesterday posts, i am a senior about to apply for graduate school. The big problem that i am having is no volunteer experiences. I have tried to get into the local suicide helpline but they make you take off 2 consecutive weekends and 2 Wednesdays to do training. Me not living at home and those being my only work days creates a HUGE problem.
2 weeks no pay=homeless.
So i did not do it. The local homeless help place has a counseling position, but you have to also do 3 weeks of training and they always seem to fall on school/work even entire shifts, and 3 weeks no school & no pay= not graduating and again homeless.
So last night in my panic i emailed a local nursing home for Alzheimer patients. I had done this before but no one had responded. Today i get a call while over at my mom's that they want/need me will happily write me a letter of recommendation and work around my schedule 100% the only thing that would make this better would be pay! But i wont be greedy. So Monday i start my first day and get to do a range of stuff from talking, playing cards, doing art, whatever.

So yeah awesome:)

I also may have found an officiant to do the ceremony for free!! He's a friend of mine, who apparently is certified. Go figure?

This weekend in wedding news- The fiancee and i are going on Saturday to scout out a location that we think would be perfect for the reception. Then we are going to Macy's because they have a wedding extravaganza with free cake from vendors to try, photographers, makeup artists and more, maybe a few other things like trying a new breakfast place. I'll let you know how it goes!

Recipe i found but have not tried(yet!)
http://eatair.blogspot.com/2006/05/general-tsos-seitan.html

Toodles~!
-Amber