Noelle likes Good Food

Photo Credit I started fall semester today. I am taking Biology 1108 with lab, Chemistry 1212 with lab, Calculus, and a Yoga PE class for good measure :). I must confess, I have been really stressed leading up to this semester. I have been afraid the classes are going to be too hard and I am not going to be able to handle the workload on top of my non-college responsibilities. This morning after my first two classes I felt very overwhelmed. This will be my toughest semester yet and will require discipline and motivation to stay caught up with the large amounts of new material. It won't be easy and I already tend to put a lot of pressure on myself to get A's in all my classes. I know it isn't healthy to be so worried and stressed all the time.  I was feeling down, but through a series of circumstances and well timed conversations today, I realized that I don't have to prove myself anymore. I already have. I have successfully completed 3 full semesters + one s...

I started making my own homemade vanilla last year. I made it in August and let it sit until December and gave it away as Christmas presents. For months I have been meaning to start another batch, and finally got around to doing it yesterday. I have read that you can reuse beans. So, for my original jar of beans I just added more vodka.With leftover beans that I haven't used since last year, I started another jar.  The supplies.  A big jar, vodka, and vanilla beans. I purchased my beans off ebay. I forget exactly how much they were last year, but I just checked on ebay and it looks like you can get a pound for around $30. The 1/2 gallon bottles of vodka were 11.99 a piece.   This is what is left from last years batch that I strained out. After siting for a year, this stuff is pure gold! It tastes so delicious. To prepare the beans, cut a slit down the middle of the bean to expose the seeds inside. This is optional, but then I cut the beans in h...

So, these are what tomatoes look like when you have a July drought and you don't water your tomatoes. Very Sad. However, there is a silver lining. I purchased seeds recently to plant a fall garden, and since my tomatoes are dried to a crisp I figured I might as well rip them out today to make room.  This is a disaster. Early on in the season my three cherry tomato plants fell over and the cages weren't sturdy enough to straighten them, so I left it to become this tangled mess. I NEED to find a better tomato support system. The cages have not worked well for me the past two years. Anyone have any suggestions?? I went to harvest all the tomatoes I could, and the cherry tomato plants had lots of ripe tomatoes! However, they also were covered in creepy looking bugs. I hope you can se them in the picture. I was afraid to get any closer with the camera! I wasn't about to put my hands anywhere near the buggers, tomatoes or not. So, it all went into th...

Well, I was planning on cooking one more recipe yesterday. But as you can see in the picture, the freezer is full! I am not fitting anything else in there. We will have to start eating out of the freezer before I can add anything else. I guess this is a good problem :). I also finally got my kitchen back in order. Life is good! I promised you I would give you the recipes for everything I made this week, so I made a list. Most of them came from blogs, so I have a link to each recipe and to the home page of the blog.  I got the recipe for Green Chili Chicken Chili  from the blog The Whole Kitchen .  Bolognese from The Pioneer Woman .  Red Enchilada sauce from Alosha's Kitchen . I didn't have a recipe for the filling of the enchiladas. I just guessed on amounts for the beef, black beans, veggie filling, and cheese.  Chicken, broccoli, and brown rice casserole from Freeze Your Way Fit . I modified this recipe quite a bit and added car...

Yesterday I cooked ALL day. 8AM to 10:30PM. It was a long day, but I definitely feel like I accomplished a lot. I will show you pictures :). Lots and lots of pictures.  The first thing I made was Bolognese sauce. This is a recipe I have made before and it is delicious!  I didn't want it too soupy so I left out some of the tomatoes. When we cook the sauce in the future we will need to add a 28oz. can of whole tomatoes.  Chopping jalapeno, grating carrots and blanching broccoli. I was always running out of bowls and containers. Note to self, for future freezer cooking, either purchase or borrow more big bowls that can hold large quantities of food.  Cooked Brown Rice. I found a great way to make brown rice! Whenever I have made it in the past it turns out mushy or crunchy. I read about a technique on Pinch My Salt  that says to cook rice like pasta. You boil your water first (at least 4 cups for every 1 cup of rice) and then add the ...

So, you know when I said yesterday that I was excited about cooking? Well, after today, I take that back. I am just now sitting down after finishing in the kitchen and taking a shower, and I am wiped! I didn't get as much done as I wanted to today as I had to wait a long time for beans to cook. But, I definitely made progress and I am thankful for that! Beans were started first thing and I had these three pots plus our crock-pot going with them. On the left is the ground beef I am defrosting for chili. I get our beef from a local farm and it is truly delicious. I stocked up recently so I would have enough for all my freezer cooking. Cooked beans were transferred to any available container and more beans were put in pots to cook.  Bean latte anyone?? The funny thing is that it boiled over after taking the picture, when I went to put the camera away. Oops. I guess I should have seen that one coming. For the chili, I made 8 recipes. I sauteed the onions, ...