Veggie Bake

I decided to throw together a little veggie bake when I had a few different kinds of vegetables on hand and a jar of pasta sauce open.

Veggie Bake

Ingredients:
- Roasted eggplant
- Sliced tomato
- Sliced zucchini
- Spices like basil, oregano, crushed red pepper, smoked paprika
- Pasta sauce
- Nutritional yeast

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly oil a casserole dish - I used a small one since I wasn't using that many vegetables.  First add the eggplant.

Then the tomatoes.

Then the zucchini.

Woops, blurry picture.

Then sprinkle on each of the spices.

And then pour pasta sauce over the top.

Followed by a very liberal topping of nutritional yeast.  You could definitely use cheese here instead, if you prefer.

Bake for about 30 minutes, until the sauce looks set around the edges and the vegetables are tender.

I enjoyed a portion with some delicious figs on the side.

I think it would also be great served with some noodles or rice, or with some crusty bread to soak up any extra sauce!

It reheats well, too.  This recipe is extremely adaptable - just use whatever vegetables you have on hand and as many or as few spices as you prefer.

I hope you're having a good weekend!  Here's some pictures from mine.

On Friday I had a rare day with no set obligations, so I decided to spend some time at the mall.  I had a coupon for free underwear (gotta love Victoria's Secret) and a coupon for a free tea from Teavana.  Other than that I just browsed and got in some mall cardio.  Oh and I treated myself to my favorite lunch - a chicken pesto crepe and some Perrier!  So good.

Last night I went out to dinner with some friends to a great place called Happy Dog.  It's pretty incredible - you choose whether you want a beef or vegan hot dog, and then you can choose AS MANY toppings as you want, and it all costs $5.  And you can also get French fries or tater tots with unlimited sauces for $3.  Um, yes please.  I got a beef hot dog with marinated cremini mushrooms, caramelized onions, sun dried tomato tapenade, and applewood smoked bacon.  I also got an order of delicious tots with homemade ketchup.  And an extremely delicious beer per my friend Laura's enthusiastic recommendation - Willoughby Brewing Co. peanut butter cup coffee porter.  Yes, you read that right - peanut butter cup coffee!!  Tasty.

In addition to delicious and affordable food, Happy Dog has live music, so it's basically my idea of a perfect hangout spot.

I got to hang out with some great friends, too - pretty good weekend in my book.

And here's a sunset picture because I can't resist.  Especially these days when anything other than a gray sky is a rarity!

Song of the day:

"Heartbeat" by Kopecky Family Band.  I'm going to see their concert next week and I'm so excited!

Belated Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone!  Wait, it's November already?  Oops.

My grandma spoils me.  Look at this amazing care package she gave me.  She even included a pumpkin, and a kit to decorate it!

And basically all of my favorite things - homemade sour cream cookies (so.good.), Reese's, peanut butter crackers, Milky Way bars, a HUGE Hershey's bar, hot chocolate, Goldfish, a super cute owl card, awesome socks, and some festive napkins!  So amazing.

I had some friends over in early October, so of course it was the perfect excuse to get some of my favorite Halloween candy.  Luckily not much was left at the end of the night, because I just can't resist it!

I love decorating for any holiday.

Ooh, scary!

I made this when I was really little, and my mom sent it to me in a care package when I was in undergrad.  He manages to still make an appearance once in awhile.

After not dressing up the past 2 years, last weekend I got to dress up in a couple of different costumes.  On Friday I was a "Southern belle" - I wore a dress that my mom wore as a bridesmaid in the 70s :)  I didn't wear the huge crinoline petticoat that would make it even poofier, though.

My friend Josh was a super scary vampire.  Seriously, he was creeping me out!  Pardon my red eyes - I tried to get rid of them in Photoshop but, 1) I don't know how to use Photoshop, and 2) I have perpetual red eyes that seem to just turn gray when they're "corrected."  Josh's glowing eyes work well with his costume, though!

Saturday I went down to Columbus with a group of friends.  I dressed up as "Bad Sandy" from Grease, and my friend Chris was Danny Zuko.  I stayed up pretty late after the party on Friday night to put curlers in my hair in an attempt to make it super curly for an authentic Bad Sandy look.

And I got to sleep in them.  Lucky me!

Buuuut my hair didn't dry by the time I had to take the curlers out the next day, so I was a less authentic Sandy.  Ohhh well.  (Check out my super cool "Academic" high school letter pinned on "Danny's" sweater, haha.)

I'm terrible at taking pictures - this is my attempt at capturing High Ball (a street festival we went to).

I snapped a picture of this scary monster thing.  And that was the extent of my picture-taking!

I also got to eat at one of my favorite places while we were down in Columbus - Northstar Cafe!  I got the Buddha Bowl with roasted chicken, brown rice, peanut sauce, and veggies.  It was really, really delicious.  I failed at using my chopsticks, though :/  Maybe I should try to develop that skill...

Although this pumpkin made a cute decoration, it was even better after it was roasted :)  Stay tuned for my next post, which will be totally pumpkin themed!  (Very original, I know.)

Song of the day:

"Tightrope" by Walk the Moon.  Very upbeat and fun!

DIY Personalized Coasters

Hello friends.  Well, this semester is crazy-busy and I don't see it getting calmer anytime soon, so my posts will be sporadic.  I still want to share fun things as I can, though, so I'm taking pictures and keeping notes for the rare moments when I can squeeze in a post!

In August, I went to visit my best friend right after she moved into a new (gorgeous!) apartment in DC.  I wanted to bring her a little housewarming gift, so I turned to my oft-admired and rarely-used Pinterest boards.  I decided to try making some custom coasters for her.  The link to the original website doesn't work anymore, but I was able to gather enough information from the picture and caption to get started.

Materials needed:  4 x 4 plain tiles from a home improvement store (I got mine at Lowe's super cheap, like $0.15 or something), pictures/ scrapbook paper/ whatever you want to use to decorate, a permanent marker, a straight edge (i.e. a ruler), a utility knife, Mod Podge, a paint brush, clear spray paint, scrap paper.

First, gather your supplies and lay out the scrap paper to protect your work surface.

I wanted to color the edges of the tiles to make them look more polished, and I initially tried painting them.  The paint wasn't going on well, so I switched to a permanent marker which worked much better.  Bonus - no drying time!  It really wore down the marker, though, so use an old one or mourn the loss of the nice, crisp tip of the marker.  (Or maybe that's just me... I have a strong attachment to Sharpies.)

I used a black marker to stick with my black and white theme, but you could color coordinate your edges with your pictures/ designs.

I previously chose some digital pictures that I wanted to use to decorate the coasters, made them black and white on my computer, cropped them so that they were square and slightly smaller than 4 x 4 inches, and printed them out on resume-type paper so that they were a little sturdier than regular office paper, but not so thick that they would be raised up on top of the coasters.

Then I used a ruler and utility knife to cut them out - you want your edges to be as straight and clean as possible.

I printed out a few extra pictures so that I could see what looked best on the tiles.

After you've chosen and cut out your pictures/ scrapbook paper, use a paint brush and Mod Podge to adhere the pictures to the tiles.  My ink bled a little bit when I did this, so I kept a rag nearby to wipe off any discoloration.

After the Mod Podge dries, you can put on a coat of clear spray paint.  This is important:  go outside!!!  I'm speaking from experience here... it's not pleasant to spray this in the house, and you might feel like you're going to die from the fumes for the rest of the night.  Oh, and your family/ roommates/ pets will really not appreciate it.  (My dad: "You care about everyone's environment except for mine!!"  Woops.)  Yeah, I know, who uses spray paint inside?  But it was clear...  clear = harmless, right?  Not quite.  Definitely a blonde moment.  Don't be like me!

After the spray paint has dried, stick four protectors on the bottom of each tile.

You could use felt protectors, or little plastic ones like I chose.  Or you could even use a hot glue gun and make little dots (but I tend to burn myself with hot glue guns so I didn't attempt that method).

And there you have it - personalized, homemade coasters.  They're not very expensive to make, and I think they make great housewarming gifts, or even gifts for birthdays and other holidays.  And it was really fun to choose pictures specifically for my best friend!

I wrapped them up with a pretty bow,

and added a container of homemade red velvet macaroons to go with them.

If any of you read The Fitnessista, you know that Gina has a famous and secret macaroon recipe.  She recently shared her red velvet variety, and I was so excited to try them out for myself!  My grandma let me borrow her old-school dehydrator - doesn't it look like a space ship?

They smelled gooooood.

Yummy.

And they're the perfect little sweet treat to go with a cup of tea!

By the way, my favorite tea right now is Lady Grey - like Earl Grey, but more refined :)  It's decaffeinated, and I think it has a lighter, smoother flavor than Earl Grey.

Even though I'm not usually a big fan of coconut, I did enjoy these a lot.

And they got good reviews from my best friend, a neighbor, and my grandma - so I think they were a success!

Okay, that's all for now - hopefully I'll be back soon with some more fun updates.

Song of the day:

"Blown Away" by Carrie Underwood.  Loving this song right now.