Tator tot casserole :.: pudding! :.: fruit :)

Ahhhhh! I didn't mean to go awhile without writing in this blog.

Well, I have a couple of things to share here. I made a fruit salad last week. Been eating from it. Brought it over to my parents' place and shared the enjoyment. :)

Remember when I made tator tot casserole several weeks back?

Well, I made it again, but this time, I added spinach and tortilla to it. Yum. Oh, and I don't have a 12x8" inch pan, like what the recipe calls for, but the first time I used an 8x8" pan. This time, it was 9x13".

And, of course, chocolate pudding with Oreo mixed in for dessert! :D

Slacking! :.: coming back into cooking :.: sandwiches, mostly

Hey, everyone!

I know... I have been SLACKING bad on this blog... and my own cooking tutorials that I'm giving to myself. I admit it. I've been getting fast food, going out to eat, or I've just been eating PBJ and simple things lately. But I'm coming back into learning to cook.

Here's what I had for breakfast pretty much every day last week:

Ham (or turkey) and American cheese on an "everything" bagel. Sometimes I put ranch dressing with it, and as you an see, I had leftover from Pizza Hut on this day.


THIS was my breakfast yesterday:

And this morning, I made tuna salad! Yup. ^_^
I cut up the long, leafy celery, and as you can see, I have leftovers of it.

And I used... this brand of tuna. :)

Here it is! Finished with lettuce and Panera Bread potato chips. :D

Tator tot casserole :.: burnt blueberry muffins! :.: chocolate chip banana bread

Well, I am DEFINITELY learning that cooking with these tiny studio apartment ovens is an adventure! Why?

1. They have very limited space.
2. They heat up VERY well.
3. They cook food within a VERY reasonable amount of time.
4. I'm left-handed, and my oven/stove top is on the left side of the kitchen, so that itself is an adventure.

BUT... I am having a lot of fun getting to know my tiny oven. :)

I sure had "Adventures in Cooking" yesterday! First of all, I am not having the best of luck in the muffin department. If you read my previous post in here, or if you saw my picture on Facebook, you saw that I had plans of eating cornbread muffins for breakfast on Wednesday. Yeah. That didn't happen. The muffins didn't even make it to the oven. Hehe. Drop, fly, flip, fall and SPLAT went the batter! Fail.

But I did not let that stop me! Yesterday, I attempted to make blueberry muffins. And although they made it to the oven...

... I BURNT them! And I had to throw them out. :(

Now, I did eventually come to realize that I was using a dark pan, and of course, if the oven gets extra hot, I may need to amend some things when baking.

Well... I still have chocolate chip muffins. Maybe third time's the charm??


As it came time for supper yesterday, I decided not to let my muffins get to me. So, I made tator tot casserole. Now, keep in mind that this is my FIRST casserole. It cooked rather quickly, and I was smart enough to take it out early. Hehe. But here it is:

Yum.

And, finally, around 9:30pm last night, I finally pulled chocolate chip banana bread out of the oven. This recipe called for 2 loaves, so one loaf is freezing, whereas the other one is on my table.

It turned out okay. I could have done a little better job in mixing the ingredients, but at least I didn't burn it.







Oh, by the way, most of the food I've posted in here, I've either put together myself, used box mixes, or found on allrecipes.com.

The spaghetti and grilled turkey & cheese sandwich in this blog were put together with no recipe to follow.
The muffins are boxed mixes.
And the tator tot casserole & chocolate chip banana bread are from allrecipes.com.

Hey! I think it's important to give credit on where you find information. :)

Steak & mac n' cheese :.: ooops... no cornbread muffins!

This was my lunch before I went to work yesterday.

NY Strip steak from Wal-Mart, Kraft mac & cheese, and Vanilla yogurt.

There were actually three steaks, but I ate one and fixed the others for leftovers. Same with the mac & cheese. Yum.

And of course, the Kraft mac & cheese never matches the picture on the box. :P









And this morning for breakfast, I was going to make cornbread muffins. I was exctied when I got to this stage.

And then, this happened.

I guess this is what happpens when you're putting the muffin tin in the oven, and the tin flips over. Ooops.

feeling better! :.: grocery bound soon :.: a look at first week in apartment

Okay... I DO plan to write in here MORE than weekly. Honest. But please know that I have been ill this week. Ick. But I am slowly feeling better each day!

Which means that I am slowly getting my appetite back.

And I am destined to shop at the grocery store SOON!

I am very excited to see what is to come in this blog as I engage more in being a student of cooking.


Well, allow me to rewind to the first week in my apartment (early December 2011!). My first meals in the apartment were tator tots, pizza rolls, Pop-Tarts, cookies, and my choice of either grilled turkey & cheese or ham and cheese. Here's a grilled turkey & cheese and tator tots with ranch dressing supper I captured on one of those first nights.

I'm guessing this was my third or fourth night in the apartment.

I remember just going out to eat and getting fast food the first two nights. Well, I'm glad I captured this moment now. I haven't had turkey and cheese and tator tots since that evening.


Have a wonderful Thursday, everyone.

And I promise... more entries about food are coming! :)

Spaghetti! :.: New Year's meal :.: NEW blog!

Welcome! Welcome, welcome. If you're reading this, this is entry #1 on this blog. I do have my main blog, which I record my life, and the people and events in it. Be sure to check that out. Well, recently, I've decided to start a new blog... on cooking! I... will just come right out and say it. I'm a student of cooking. I have just started learning how to cook, and I am excited to post pictures of my work on here. In this blog will be lunches, suppers, snacks, sweets, salty things, and of course the dishes and utensils I use to work with them. Well, let us get started. My first ever entree, if you will, was this past Monday, January 2, 2012. My New Year's meal was... SPAGHETTI. :)

Now, I have made spaghetti with my parents in times past, but this was my first time doing this by myself.

I can't forget the beef.

Or the onions and green peppers.

Almost there! :D

There's nothing like drinking a Coca-Cola with your spaghetti. Yum. And I have lots of leftovers. And that is my first entree in my apartment that I moved in about a month ago. Looking forward to more entries, pictures, and eating! hehe. I'm not sure what I will experiment next with food, but the possibilities are endless. :)