Trying new meals

I will be talking about how I made nacho's with homemade cheese sauce and instead of tortilla chips I made Kale chips (I know weird huh lol )

Kale Chips

you need kale, olive oil and salt

Wash the kale and try to get as much water off of the kale (shake it or blot it with paper towel or something.. I shook it). Then  take your olive oil and  rub it into the leaves evenly and put it into a oven at 375 degrees

I have no clue how long it was in the oven but just check every 5 min for crispy-ness

If you didnt get all of the water off then you will have some limp looking kale chips (as you see below)

If you did get most of the water out it will be crispy and erect (below)

I used 2 bunches of Kale because it shrink A LOT in the oven

Homemade cheese sauce

you need milk, butter, flour and shredded cheese I followed this recipe that is on youtube

I melted the butter

I bought a new type of flour called rice flour and I used it in this recipe

I added it to the melted butter to make the rue ( did I spell that right)

Then I added my shredded cheese

I then grounded my beef and I made some homemade guacamole

I combined it all and we had nachos

LOL it does NOT look tasty but it was really yummy lol

Chicken w/ the head cut off

SOOO much to do and I am a planner (just ask my babycakes, it gets on his nerves that I over think and plan so much because sometime I change my mind A LOT when I over think).... ugh and its not little things unfortunately. I have to find a place to stay in a whole different state Alaska which is our current duty station

and I still havent bought any plane tickets because since I am a military spouse I can catch a hop (which is a military flight that flies from one military base to another) the only problem with hops is you cant schedule them and they can cancel them at anytime so you have to be flexible :-/ but my paperwork to catch a hop expired and now I have to get new paperwork and last time my husband did it but now he is in Afghanistan so now I am trying to figure out what the heck im supposed to do.

I want to leave in august and I need the paperwork ASAP because its june 27th!!! THEN on top of that I have applied for a job at our new duty station (Washington) and I have to wait 6 weeks to know even if I been selected for the interviewing process. If I do get selected and I get an interview and I actually get the job then AWESOME!!  BUT if I dont get the job then I wanted to go to a community college around our new duty station and get a associates degree in sign language interpreting

BUT GUESS WHAT YALL the dang community college decided that, that program is going to be cut from the curriculum THIS year and I wont get there until NEXT year and this is a 2 yr program..... WHY ME im like dang for real!!
Remember this is my backup plan for if I don't get that job I applied for so now I am screwed. Now I have a half-ass backup plan because I CAN do an online program I have to pay more because I won't live in that state. Maybe I can find a military waiver or something (fingers crossed).

On top of all that my husband and I are discussing adoption of a older girl once we move in 2013 and I have had to do LOTS and LOTS of research on what we need to do and if we can train in one state and get our training transferred to another state...well the answer to that question was a big fat no.. so we cant start any kind of adoption training until 2013 when we get to the new duty station. The only thing we can do to prepare is to take the CPR/First Aid  and Blood borne Pathogens classes

Chopped up and screwed up!

So my babycakes birthday is coming up soon so I decided to cook him up one of his favorite desserts Brownies :-)

Any way I decided to follow a recipe I saw on another website the ingredients called for:  

12 tablespoons Kerrygold Salted Butter

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

2/3 cup cocoa powder

1/2 - 1 teaspoon pure vanilla, orange, or peppermint extract, optional

3 large eggs

1 cup flour

A heaping 1/2 cup chocolate chunks, optional

So I didnt have any granulated sugar or cocoa powder or salted butter or vanilla, orange, or peppermint extract LOL. So I TOTALLY just winged it lol

I used brown sugar, 2 packs of swiss miss hot cocoa powder (with marshmallows lol) and almond extract and I think I used too much sweet cream butter :-/

I followed this recipe and melted the butter and mixed in the sugar THE PROBLEM WAS my moms cup measure's words and numbers have rubbed off so all I saw was 8 oz and I thought 8 oz was half a cup so I accidently added a extra cup of sugar I didnt need OOPS

also I filled up a soup cup with chocolate chips and melted it and mixed it in

I later measured and realized the unmelted chocolate made 2 and a half cups but melted it was like 1 and 1/4 cups of melted chocolate and finally I added 1 cup of flour and 3 eggs

My NEW PROBLEM was that my mom didnt have any round muffin pans and I was using cupcakes papers ( i have no idea what you call the papers you put cupcakes in lol) so i had to use a square pan lol

And my brownies came out looking like I stomped on them lol

But they are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good and hopefully my husband isnt reading this right now because they are suppose to be a surprise but I swear its soooooo  yummy its not even a dang brownie it crunchie and chewy and not brownie like AT ALL... but it has soooo much sugar its messing me up and im sooo glad I sent babycakes 12 of them and I only kept 6 because these things taste like they have crack in them... YOU WILL BE HOOKED lol we only have one left for my mom EVERYONE in the house loves my screw-up brownies my son loves it and so do I.. check out our faces lol

my sons milk mouth

the diet killer

Im going to have to fast again tomorrow (by the way its SUPER easy as long as you graze on nuts and drink a glass of milk :) )

 Ok im going to do some zumba to help myself burn some of this chocolate evil off lol maybe after today i can get my stuff together smh

Natural Roots

In high school I wore my hair natural... it has come to my attention YEARS later that people called me the girl with the fro lol I had no clue that was my nickname for people who didn't know my name

Then once I got to college I was sick of taking FOREVER doing my hair so I got a relaxer and my hair was doing fine but it was thinner.

So I over the course of some years I got married and moved and had a kid. So I wanted to try something new so I cut my hair short

As you see this is an un-even type hair cut with HIGH maintenance which I did NOT realize so I after my hubby deployed I said forget it and I went online and saw how to make my own wig and I made one. After that I cut my hair down to 2-3 inches and let it start growing out.

 I wore my wig/hair (I have like 1 inch of hair out on this picture) like this for about four months. Then my hubby said im sick of curly hair how about some straight hair styles so i said FINE!!! send me the $$$ and i will get a straight full lace wig. So I went on aliexpress.com web site and bought a wig from a dude in China.

This is what I do now.... I dont used too many products I wash my hair with baby shampoo because I KNOW it is gentle. Afterwards I put a bunch of Le Kair Conditioner on it and condition the crap out of it and I dont wash it out because the ingredients dont have alcohols in it so I dont have to worry about excessive drying. My hair SUCKS up moisture like a vampire.

Here is what it looks like with the conditioner on it

my ends still have a little relaxer

length when stretched

Okay so anyway then I do some Color Purple Ceile looking braids all over DONT LAUGH AT MY HEAD LOL

yes I DO have grays but they are more like WHITES

Then my scalp colored wig cap

Then when my hair has been under the wig I take it off and moisturize my scalp and hair with this conditioning cream

2 in 1 blog

My post tonight will be on my experience at the Sacramento zoo's annual King of Feast and my primal/paleo diet.

King of Feast
         So when I was preparing to go to the feast I heard lots of hoopla about it ( like how fun it was and how the food is SO good. When I actually got there it was talked up WAY more than what it was. Yes they have some people singing Hawaiian style music and yes the have a band playing (every now and then) but the entertainment is not that entertaining. Its not like the luau's you see on TV in Hawaii and it didn't really draw me into it to sit down and watch it they were just moving their arms and hips very slowly to calm music.

               The food was good but I expected WAY more out of the places that actually offer FOOD and not desserts only 2-3 booths (out of like 15-20) had more than one type of food to sample and of course as soon as the ran out (about an hr and a half after the event started then they pack up and leave) I was expecting each booth to at least have two different samples. For example one restaurant had a giant bucket on the table and several small tasting cups.. it was some kind of soup and while it was good I thought that it really wasnt enough to have me say "Dang I really want to go to the restaurant to get that soup" uhhh no.
               As far as beer and wine that was the WHOLE feast it was a TON of beer and wine stations that I stopped sampling after 5 tables. Im not a big drinker but I did taste a yummy yummy peachy wine and a yummy moscato that I might buy later on. Another table that I liked but I thought it was kind of weird to have was the  grow your own food table. They had samples of the fruit that the sell (they sell the seeds of course) but those fruits were ridiculous combinations (but very tasty) like a peach mixed with a plum and apricot ( i forgot the name they called it)... but it really wasnt a "food" table but I was interested in it because I would like to have my own mini garden one day once I move. Overall it was ok, Iwent alone because my buddy bailed on me last minute (which i figured would happen) but I believe even if I had someone with me it would have improved the experience only by 20%. It started at 6pm and I was full and tipsy around 7:30pm but I stayed and sobered up by sipping water and left at 8:30pm (it was over by 9)

My diet portion of this post is how I broke it. When eating the Paleo/Primal diet you cant eat processed foods or really consume alcohol (although I have seen may small debates over it). I had lots of no no's today for example cupcakes, sandwiches, ice cream, chocolate and alcohol lol so tomorrow I will be doing the intermittent fasting I read about on Mark's Daily Apple. I will blog tomorrow

Impatient

So I have been doing this Paleo/Primal eating thing for 2 days and im VERY impatient when it comes to weight loss so I have been looking at my scale A LOT but in 2 days I have gone down 2lbs I was 181 on june 20th and now im 179 (which is nothing but water weight or a giant poop lol ) but that's pretty good. So I am vowing that I will NOT get on the scale until the end of the month June 30th. I know that if I blog about it i'm more likely do it so that I dont look like a liar lol (im weird like that lol)

I dont own this picture

$$ My own money $$

So I am married and currently unemployed blah! I have been in college for the last few years while my husband was the bread winner but man o man I am so ready to have my own money!! I cant even buy my husband a gift or surprise him without him questioning what I need it for or him just looking at the bank statement lol so no surprises for you Mister lol im just soooooooo done and I just am ready for someone to hire me!! I dont have this degree for nothing people!!
just my late night rant :D

i dont own this picture