Wednesday Night Date

Chris and I had the funnest date on Wednesday! Since we are leaving Rexburg we wanted to use up all of the free things on our Starving Student Card. (and for those of you who don't know, a Starving Student Card is a card with tons of listings for discounts and buy-one-get-ones for local restaurants, retailers, activities, salons, etc.

Here is what we got for dinner... and yes, it was all absolutely FREE!

• Fries from Dairy Queen
• Fries from Arctic Circle
• Tater-tots from Sonic
• Chips and Salsa from Bajio
• Frozen Yogurt from Mill Hollow
• Frozen Custard from BRC
• A hand-made chocolate from Florence's
• Crazy Bread from Little Caesars
• A Lion House roll from Deseret Book

Yes, it was a little awkward just asking for the free stuff, but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do! :)

100th POST!! and tofu!

This is my 100th post! How exciting is that?! It feels good to know I am documenting our lives, even if it is just to tell everyone that I creamed Chris in Monopoly...

So if you are friends with me on Facebook you may have seen this:

"Tara McBride Andrus does anyone have any good recipes for tofu?" (this is my status, and below are all of the comments)

Christopher Andrus
Take it out of the refrigerator, unwrap it, and then put it in the garbage disposal for 10 seconds on high, add a pinch of salt to flavor.

Jereme Conley
i agree with Chris on that one.

Heather Jewkes Kamer
I'm not sure good and tofu belong in the same sentence.....

Monica McBride
You guys are hilarious!! Tara I'm going to get you some recipes. I have a friend that is vegan! I'll write her and send it your way! I know it basically tastes like what you cook it in. Terryiaki is my favorite. You can make tofu scramble and it's like eggs... I'll let you know! I like tofu if its made right it's just a different texture...

Heather Stecker Andrus
LOL, Chris...are you related to my husband?

Um, excuse me? Why is Monica the only supportive one?? (Thanks Monica, by the way)

Chris had never even TRIED tofu and he just assumes its gross!

Well I have good news to share!

Last night while Chris was in class I made tofu peanut butter pie! (see recipe here)

When Chris got home I told him I made him a special treat! He was super excited to see a yummy dessert in the fridge! We each had a piece of pie after dinner-- and NO, I DIDN'T tell him what was in it.

He said he LOVED it!

WHAT?!

can I hear that again?!

he loved tofu?!

hahahaha... I felt so sneaky.

Well later in the night I did tell him what it was made of, he was shocked. He said there is no way he would admit it publicly, but he liked it!!!

Try it! Its was really good. Plus, tofu is so much better for you than the alternatives! I can't wait to try more tofu!

Home Made Panda Express

Another "Use What I Have Meal":


As some of you may know, Chris and I are obsessed with Panda Express. Its probably what attracted me to Chris the most when we were dating. (TOTALLY kidding, but it was a perk!) The only Panda in Idaho is in Boise and so we pine for it daily until we get our fill.

Let me tell you a little story to convey how much Panda means to me ...in high school I went to Pandas at least once a week. So I went through crazy bad withdrawals when I moved up to Rexburg. Well when Chris and I started dating we took a trip to Utah and stopped in Ogden to get some Panda. I literally cried when we walked in. The sights and the smells just completely overwhelmed me and it just felt like home. I LOVE this stuff.

Anyway, moving on...

Chris's brother Cody and his wife Lyn are so good to us and have bought us a couple bottles of this because they know how much we love the Panda.

Orange Sauce!!! They sell it at Costco now apparently! We have been using it as a marinade and on stir fry (Chris puts in on everything, including burritos! Sick, I know!) Well the other day we got adventurous and made real Panda Express orange chicken.

You start with cut up pieces of boneless skinless chicken breast, dip them in egg and then cover them with a flour/salt and pepper mixture.

Next you fry them up. You are supposed to use a deep fryer or a wok, but we don't have either of those so we just did it the old fashioned way.

Lastly, cover them in the orange goodness and you are good to go!
It wasn't just like the real thing, but it will tide us over until we get to Mesa!

PS.

This is our 2010 calendar hanging in our office:

At the bottom of each month are Panda Coupons! Happy Day!

You can get this calendar for free when you buy a $25 Panda gift card! When we were in Boise for Thanksgiving we bought the gift card, got the calendar for free, and then used the gift card to pay for our $38.05 meal (we were buying for 8) all in one visit! So basically free calendar and $50 worth of coupons! I love working the system! Coupons and Panda Express in one?! Does it get any better people? I don't think so!

Using what I have... TACO SOUP

So I said in an earlier post that I am going to try to make more creative meals using what I already have on hand, here is a good example of that from tonight's dinner...

TACO SOUP!




I didn't use a recipe, I just kinda threw stuff in and hoped it would taste good...

I browned 1 lb. beef with some onion powder (I would have preferred using an actual onion, but didn't have one- again, USING WHAT I HAVE)

I put this in the crock pot with
-1 4 oz. can diced green chili's
-2 14 oz. cans diced tomatoes
-1 15 oz. can kidney beans (drained half the juice)
-1 15 oz. can corn (drained)
-1 spoonful of minced garlic

I sprinkled in a little more onion powder and who knows how much taco seasoning (we have the big shaker from Costco, but I imagine using one packet would do the job)

I set the crock pot on high for 2 hours, once the two hours had passed we topped it with "Mexican blend" cheese. It was SUPER good! I bet it would be good over tortilla chips or Frito's too if you had them!

Let me know if anyone tries this!

Homemade pizza!

We successfully (more or less) made our first homemade pizza without burning the building down!

It didn't turn out quite like we would have liked it to though...

First of all, the dough didn't rise at all (maybe I have bad yeast?)

Then it would not roll out! We tried so hard to make it thin and round but it was just not having it! So we ended up having a heart shaped pizza! It was basically awesome :)

Here is us...looking lovely.

It is nearly impossible to get a serious photo out of Chris! and the heart-shaped pizza in all her glory!
YUM!

PS. Check out my new project @ pretty'n peach!

Recently

Recently...

We discovered Wing Street from Pizza Hut.

Honey BBQ.

DE-Lish.
We will be repeat offenders for sure.

I made and bottled peach jelly for the first time.
I have already eaten 1 jar by myself, enough said.


BEFORE:

and AFTER:

Chris and I are so happy with how this new dresser turned out! It was given to us by a friend to moved out of state and after a few coats of paint and new hardware we are LOVIN it!

THANK YOU CHRIS for all your help!!! (He did most of the dirty work!)

This was a fun 15 min. project I copied from a blog I found.

I would normally link to it, but I can't find it!!

This was just a cereal box I cut and taped paper and a label to.

Perfect for all of those Ensigns and other magazines I will never throw away!

And finally...

My work had a dutch-oven cookout for the students and their spouses (like 2 months ago!)

This is a fun picture I took and never got around to posting!

Thanks for putting it together, Stephanie!!

Green Smoothies and crockpot lasagna

A friend/coworker of mine - Allison - gave me this fantastic recipe for crock pot lasagna and I thought some of you out there would like to try it! It is delicious and SUPER easy!

• 9 lasagna noodles (uncooked!)
• 1 lb. ground turkey (I used beef)
• 2-3 minced garlic cloves
• 28 oz. can diced tomatoes (I used 2 15oz. cans)
• 24 oz. can tomato sauce (I used 2 15oz. cans)
• 1/2 t. basil
• 1/4 t. oregano
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1/2 t. pepper
• 1 c. cottage cheese
• 1 c. ricotta cheese
• mozzarella

Brown the turkey (or beef) with the garlic and mix this in with the cans of tomatoes and sauce. Stir in the salt, pepper, oregano and basil. In another bowl mix the cottage cheese and ricotta. In the crock pot put 2 cups of the tomato/meat mixture. Next break up 3 of the lasagna noodles into 1-2 inch pieces and lay them on top of the sauce. Next place 1/3 of the cottage/ricotta cheese mixture in dollops over the noodles. Layer 2 more times with the tomato/noodles/cheese. Top the last layer with the remaining 2 cups of the tomato mixture. Top with mozzarella cheese!

Cook on high for 3 1/2-4 hours or on low for 6!
This is another fun foody thing I am loving right now. Chris and I make smoothies almost every day which is great and mostly healthy on its own, but I am taking the healthy meter a step up!

I do the basic mix with ice, frozen strawberries, bananas, a couple black berries, milk/water, and vanilla yogurt- and....

a big handful of spinach!

It is so good and good for you! and you can hardly even taste the spinach!

YUM!