Noelle likes Good Food

It is that time of year again. Summer is drawing to a close, and another school year is beginning. I thought I would sit down and write an update about what is going on in the school department for me. For starters, it is going really well! This spring I graduated from community college with an Associates in Science! I have successfully transferred and will be starting classes at the University of Georgia this fall. I have two years left and will graduate in Spring 2015. Classes start next Tuesday! I am a little nervous about my class load. I am taking 16 credit hours with only Tuesday/Thursday classes which means I will leave my house at 6:40AM, my first class starts at 8AM then I will have 6 classes back to back with only 15 minutes in between until 4:45PM. I know those days will feel like marathons, but I am excited to start this new challenge. It is completely worth it to have only 2 days of classes each week, which means I can keep working on the days I am not at school....

Normally my husband does not have a lot of input when it comes to menu planning. He is not picky and will eat most everything that I make. Because of that, when he does ask for something specific I do my best to make it happen. It just so happens that he recently asked for sloppy joes, so I made it for dinner the next day. Fortunately, I had everything I needed in the pantry so I didn't even have to go to the store!  Dinner consisted of sloppy joes on homemade sourdough english muffins, sautéed zucchini, and green beans topped with nutritional yeast. It was a great meal that both of us really enjoyed! Homemade Sloppy Joes 1 lb. ground beef, browned 1 T olive oil 1 large onion, finely chopped 1 jalapeño, finely chopped 1 tsp dried garlic powder (or about 3 cloves fresh garlic) 14.5 oz can of crushed tomatoes 1 T tomato paste 2 T brown sugar (I have also used honey) 1 T Apple Cider Vinegar 2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce Cook ground beef and set aside. Hea...

The freezers are full and I am done! I did the grocery shopping on Wednesday last week and finally finished today ( Tuesday ). I thought it was a good idea to spread out the cooking with having work/church/etc. But I have to admit that I got really sick of being in the kitchen. I am glad this ordeal is over. Though it was totally worth it, and I know we will enjoy the results in the busy nights that are coming.  Here are the pictures!  Chili is Chris' favorite food, so I made sure to make plenty of it! I got 7 bags each with 8 cups of chili.  I cooked the rice with chicken broth. For the beans I cooked them with beef broth, sliced jalapenos, garlic and onions. I kept some of the beans by themselves, and the rest I added to a bowl with fresh corn, mushrooms, onions and peppers as filling for enchiladas or quesadillas.  It is hard to make a picture of beans to look good. haha Though it did taste really good and will make some delici...

It is that time of year again for freezer cooking! I start school back in two weeks and I wanted to have a few stand-by meals in the freezer for when things get crazy this fall. I will be working part-time and taking a 16 credit hour load at school and Chris will be assisting with the high school marching band. That means lots of late nights at class for me and late night rehearsals after school for Chris.  I am switching things up this year and the only full meals I am making are chili and chicken and rice bake. For the rest I am making more separate items like sauces, blanched veggies, and pre-cooked meats so it will still be a breeze to put dinner together but we have more variety and more options. I am also spacing it out a little more this year. Last year I did everything in 3 days and my poor freezers took forever to catch up. Also, because I packed everything into the freezer without it freezing right away, all the bags got stuck together and trying to get the...

In May, Chris bought me 2 aloe plants from the local high school FFA! I have been wanting aloe plants for a long time but I have never gone out to buy them. It was a wonderful surprise! The best part was that one of the plants had a ton of pups (new growth from the mother plant).  I took the whole plant out of the pot, I knocked off some of the dirt so I could see the roots and separated out each pup with as much root growth as possible for each one. I was able to separate out around 14 little pups!  The four biggest pups were planted in clay pots with leaf mulch, and the rest were planted throughout the garden. Aloe is apparently very easy to care for. I keep my aloe inside, and only water when the leaves feel squishy instead of firm (I give them a good soak once every 3-4 weeks). It can't get any easier than that! The photos above were taken in early May when I got the plants. Today, 3 months later, I took a few more. The transplant is already pr...