california: part 1

Yesterday my sister and I spent the day exploring Balboa Island!

It's probably the cutest place I've ever been to. We spent a good 4 hours just going through all the shops on one street!

If you ever visit Balboa Island (which you should), make sure to get a Balboa Bar from Dad's Donuts! So good. It's basically just ice cream dipped in chocolate, and then dipped in any topping. I got sprinkles!

Cute quote I saw on wall art in a shop yesterday: "You are the sprinkles on my ice cream."

Going vegetarian for a week!

This week I've decided to go vegetarian!

I started today, and made my first vegetarian lunch.

Here's a photo:

It was pretty delicious, not going to lie.

It's orzo pasta, green beans, fennel, garlic, and olive oil.

It was so simple too! It only took about 20 minutes to cook. And I think it would be good cold too, so I can take it to lunch at school.

The reason why I'm only going vegetarian for a week though, is to see what it is like. I hate eating food that I know has preservatives and chemicals in it, so I'm considering making this be my new year's resolution: to go vegetarian. This is just a trial period to see what it entails and see if I can do it. :)

Would you ever go vegetarian?

I heart cooking.

Tonight for dinner I cooked:

*My take* on Ina Garten's Chicken Stew with Biscuits.

First, I roast 3 chicken breasts in the oven.

Then I chop up celery, onion and carrots.

Then, I blanch the carrots for a few minutes just to take the edge of them.

Then chop the chicken when it cools.

Then I heat some chicken broth.

And melt one and a half sticks of butter. (Yikes!!)

Then add the onions and celery to it.

Once the onions are soft, I add the chicken broth, carrots, heavy cream and a few other things.

Pour it into a baking dish.

Make biscuits.

And viola!

Doesn't it look good? Yeah? I wish I would have made one more biscuit for the top . . .

Would you guys ever eat this?

Do you like pasta? Chicken? Broccoli? Me too.

If you follow me on Twitter, you might have noticed how lately I've been tweeting quite a lot about Food Network. In all honesty, it's kind of like a drug. Once you're hooked, it's hard to stop!

The last three days I have made dinner, and I thought that I would start to document once a week, a dish that I have cooked.

Tonight I cooked my take on Ina Garten's Broccoli and Bow Ties.

First, cut up your broccoli and put it into boiling water for 3 minutes.

Then, start pan frying your chicken.

I kept the seasoning simple for the chicken: Extra Light Olive Oil, sea salt, and freshly cracked black pepper. Because it must be fresh. Must.

It's okay to do your homework for driver's training while cooking the chicken.

Once the chicken is done, slice it into about 1/4-1/2 inch thick pieces.

Now, add the broccoli into the pan you cooked the chicken in. Add some more olive oil, salt, and pepper. Let it cook for about 10-15 minutes. Let it get some good color.

Make sure that you're listening to some of your favorite music while you're cooking as well.

Next, start cooking some pasta in the water you cooked the broccoli in. (Your water will probably be slightly green, I, on accident, dumped it out....)

Once the pasta is cooked, and the broccoli has some color, add it all to a BIG bowl. (This one ended up being too small!)

And... viola. Sprinkle in some more oil, salt, pepper, lemon juice, zest, and garlic.

It was so good! 3 hours later I'm still full.

Let me know if you decide to try it. You won't regret it!