A Little Bit Of This And A Little Bit Of That.

Awww, Sunday. I like Sunday's a lot. Unfortunately, this Sunday is the anniversary of the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. My heart still aches for all of those lives lost. I seriously couldn't watch much of the coverage because even though it's been 10 years, it's still tragic to me. May the Lord continue to heal everyone affected.

I got a lot more accomplished this weekend than I thought I would! Friday, I invested in a new pair of Silver jeans, finally--it makes me feel a little bit better too.
School is still going pretty good too. Amazingly, or by the grace of God, I have not fallen behind in my 21 hours...whew.

Tonight, I made a really good, vegetarian lo-mein dish. I got the original recipe from allrecipes.com, however, I had to make several adjustments to it. You can add in meat or different vegetables if you want. I served this with a side of plain white rice and opted to put soy sauce over the entire plate.

Ingredients Needed: (a 3-4 person serving)

•  8 ounces uncooked spaghetti
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups of fresh sliced mushrooms
• fresh veggies of carrots, bell peppers, chopped onion, minced garlic, green onions or frozen veggies. I chose frozen veggies tonight of asparagus, carrots, peas, red pepper.
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 cup vegetartian vegetable broth or chicken broth. (I am a vegetarian so I used vegetable broth)
• 1/4 cup hoisin sauce
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• The original recipe also called for 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger, 2 tablespoons honey (most reviewers chose to leave out the honey because it made the taste too sweet), 1.4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, 1/4 teaspoon curry powder. I didn't use any of these items for a number of different reasons and was very pleased with the taste.

Directions:

• Bring large pot of water to boil. Add pasta. Boil until cooked all the way through.
• Heat oil in large pan. Stir fry mushrooms and vegetables. If using frozen, you obviously need to cook all the way through in this step.
• In a separte bowl, mix in hoisin sauce, cornstarch, and broth. (if using the other ingredients listed above, add those at this time)
• Cook veggies all the way through and add the sauce mixture. Bring to a boil. Mix in soy sauce.
• When veggies and sauce begin to boil, remove from heat. Add to pasta & toss.  
• Enjoy :)

I also made Ghirardelli brownies for dessert. However, I forgot that I threw out my brownie pan. So, I ended up with brownie 'cupcakes'!

The weather has gotten a little cooler, which I don't like one bit. Fall is my favorite season, however, since living in Kansas I have seriously come to loathe the winter. I don't like being cold. That is all. I have been trying to get into the fall mood, even though it still feels pretty early to go all out. Last weekend I picked up some fall mums. I would like to get more, but if you've read my last couple of posts you know that I'm not too keen on buying too much right now in case I have a long move come next May.

Yellow Mums in the front walkway

Red Mums on patio

The only thing Fall-ish inside right now. I'm secretly trying to fend off cooler weather :)

When I went to Oklahoma last month, I stopped by my brothers new apartment and fell in love with some of the decor he had. One of those items being a vintage record player. Now, a few years back I was the girl in love with my currently broken  red acoustic guitar, riding a bicycle, sipping sangria everyday, and rarely showering. Living in Lawrence empowered me somewhat...<----that's another post coming very soon :) Somehow I lost that, and I desperately want, no I NEED, to be that girl again. Carefree! I just can't imagine anything making my well-being more complete than if I had one of these fancy little record players that I could listen to Sufjan (be still my heart!!!), Louis Armstrong, Michael Jackson, and Ella Fitzgerald. Yes!

I ran into this pretty little one at Target on Friday, price: only $119.

 

Speaking of Sufjan, we had a date pretty much all day long. Wind blowing my hair while driving and sitting outside in the perfect weather. Winter...STAY AWAY!