“he said, if you allow yourself to be enchanted by the beauty to be seen in even ordinary things,...

...then all things prove to be extraordinary.”

~ dean koontz

blueberries may not be as amazing as blackberries, but i love eating bowls of them at lunch.

it was nice to have a change of scenery and hang out with alisha and angie while playing trivia. if only i didnt suck at the trivia part! the only answer i knew was the name of the indian girl in peter pan: tiger lily. alisha was a great asset though!

i got a new oil burner that im super excited about. its electric! now i dont have to constantly make sure the candle is still burning!

and here is the happiest image of the week. (i had to save it for last). the lovely mark my dads glass left on the table at picasso cafe. such a great sign of good things to come! that or the table loved the food as much as we did. you cant not smile back at it!

i may be stressed, but lovely things can still be found everywhere!

love.

the perfect meal

here is a photo journal of the lovely dinner i had with alisha at the wedge earlier this week. it was perfect. and yes, we ate every last bite! a food coma shortly followed. (but not for too long because studying got in the way!)

the appetizer.

the main course. (i almost forgot to take a picture! gah!)

alisha has an unhealthy obsession with marinara sauce.

the surprise dessert! melt in your mouth amazing!

i could not have asked for a better study break. thanks alisha!

at this point, im hoping laura immediately goes out and eats! haha

love.

weekly lovelies

my weekend involved lots of frozen yogurt. delicious! i love berries.

maybe it doesnt look all that appetizing, but it was amazing! the store was out of asparagus so baby broccoli was the replacement for it in my goat cheese pasta. i made it essentially half noodles half broccoli and it was perfect! it also made for lovely lunches throughout the week.

 

maybe this next week will involve something besides food. probably not though. i just love it too much! haha

love.

it's my own garden now. my own secret garden.

~the secret garden

i have decided to begin a weekly post about things i enjoyed during the week that was inspired by many other blogs i read. part of me wishes that i could have finished my 365, but it became something i didnt enjoy doing once school became absolutely horrible. so instead, each week i will post a few pictures of things i loved/enjoyed. i am not stressing myself out by having to meet a specific quota so some weeks may have one picture while others may have ten. i hope you enjoy it!

even though i am really frugal about purchasing unnecessary things, i chose to buy the cheapest bouquet of flowers at target. (i did try to find wildflowers, but i never found any!) i must say, i may begin to put flowers on the necessity list. i find myself looking at them constantly and they give a lovely feel to the apartment. so far they have lasted an entire week with no wilting! and one bouquet filled three vases! they are perfect. perfectly beautiful.

apparently i have never tried blackberries before. WHAT WAS I THINKING?!?! they may have surpassed blueberries as being the best fruit ever. and they tasted awesome on my chocolate soy milk french toast. yum yumm!!!

lets just say that i ate waaayyy too many cookies this week. but they were so delicious!

the weekend was filled with a great amount of time by the pool with people i love. it was so enjoyable and relaxing that i even forgot that i dont have a summer! these chairs were super comfortable and so bright and cheery. all my time was spent floating in the water though because it was so hot that i could hardly breathe!

love.

monthly macaroni 4 and 5

i ran out of time in may to make a macaroni so i made up for it by making two in june. unfortunately, both seemed to land in failure town. at least in respect to all the others i have made.

the first one i attempted was baked caprese that used fresh mozzarella. i am not quite sure what happened (i am going to blame it on the fact that i used kraft shredded cheese for the first time instead of market pantry), but when i made the sauce the cheese immediately turned into a goopy ball! goopy really is the wrong word though because it was more elastic or rubber band like. it was the strangest thing i have ever encountered! the only things that were different when making this particular macaroni was that the stove was different and i used kraft cheese. i did everything else exactly the same! never again will i use kraft cheese!

(look, you can even see the rubber band of cheese in the picture!)

nevertheless, i chose to try and stretch the cheese over the noodles in hopes that the cheese rubber band would melt in the oven. once again, i was wrong! it stayed like a rubber band and was even difficult to cut and especially eat. but despite all of these drawbacks, this macaroni had an absolutely amazing flavor! dare i even say perfect flavor. ill just say it, i loved it! im not sure if it was the basil, the oils from the cooked tomatoes, or the melted fresh mozzarella, but it was amazing. i am going to make it again in hopes that the cheese will respond normally and melt. it deserves another try. and i would like to taste the deliciousness in the way it was supposed to be enjoyed!

the second one i made was broccoli and squash and used monterey jack as the main cheese. i was unable to find frozen squash so i bought a fresh organic one and pureed it myself in the magic bullet.

i was happy to discover that the first disaster was not caused by my stove because the cheese melted beautifully this time! i also chose to freeze half of it so that i wouldnt have to eat the same macaroni and cheese for at least 12 meals in a row. it also made for a super quick meal a week or so later.

this macaroni and cheese smelled very delicious and looked super delicious since the sauce wasnt a rubber cheese ball, but the taste just didnt live up to the smell, or the work i put into it. i think it may have partially been due to the fact that i didnt have enough parmesan. the monterey jack had a plain taste to it and i feel like if i used more parmesan it would have had more flavor. if i didnt have many other macaronis to make, i would probably try it again using a good amount of pecorino romano. it has such strong flavor and tastes amazing when mixed in a dish (thank you kelly for that discovery!) so i think it would kick this one up a lot and get rid of the bland taste.

well, i hope that my next one is more of a success! i may take this month off, i havent fully decided yet. and in the words of hosty, eat your mac and cheese! ah! ah! ah!

love.

lovely things

i hope everyone had a very lovely holiday weekend and got to participate in some exciting patriotic celebrations (i will share mine soonish). i seriously cant believe that july is already here! i have finished up my first rotation and am in the midst of the first week of my second one. i am really enjoying them so far, but am also missing my relaxation time at the pool with a frozen margarita that was so prominent in all of my past summers. i guess the good news is that i will soon be paid for this work i am doing instead of ending up in the negatives! and with that, here are a few lovely things.

even though this summer does not get to hold the same activities as the last, i cant get away from eating my most favorite summer meal: chocolate soy milk french toast topped with blueberries! such a perfect summer taste.

these little guys gave me the hardest of times while making the IVs at the hospital one day (i even had to take breaks to rest my hands). i was frustrated by them and then noticed how pretty they were and that they matched my nails perfectly. this little discovery made everything better!

 

i was attempting to be productive by getting some studying done for my hospital exam, but then tulip was being super cute in her new resting spot under/on the table. i just couldnt stop looking at her!

 

i am still planning on showing some pictures of my new apartment, but there are a few things that i am still missing and i would really like to have everything in place before i do. hopefully i will find them soon. if not, i guess i will share without them!

love.

“the real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes”

-marcel proust

this is exactly what i have been trying to do in my food choices lately. i have a problem with eating at the same places i love all the time even though i would love to try someplace new because i get a craving that i feel must be satisfied. i am even worse at going somewhere and just ordering the same thing every time i go instead of branching out and seeing if there is something else i love more. since moving to okc i have enjoyed my ability to easily try many new and delicious places to eat. when i return to a restaurant i try to not order what i loved the time previous so that i can try something different. so far, i have loved everything!

naturally, this "event" was kicked off when karen came and helped me move! here are some very delicious things we ate while she was here and when i went down to fort worth for a few days.

we finally ate at the earth natural cafe and deli. i had been meaning to go for forever and for some reason always forgot. i am really upset i missed out on this place while i lived in norman, but hope to enjoy it when i go visit.

lets just say the hummus sandwich was absolutely amazing! as was the smoothie i had! seriously, best. smoothie. ever!!! and most satisfying sandwich i have had in a long while. (im sorry to cheat on you pink elephant)

karen always utilizes her artistic skills. dont worry, we didnt waste the rest of the carrots. we took them home and tulip enjoyed them very much!

we also went to native roots to get my sister her first reusable grocery bag(!!!) and picked up some expensive locally grown strawberries and a box of annies noodles for dinner (i think it was broccoli and alfredo). the local strawberries were the best strawberries i have ever eaten and worth every dollar they cost! they were extremely juicy and more full of flavor than i can even explain! all i have to say is, go local.

the following afternoon i took karen to the absolute best burger places ever, nic's. i was introduced to it by one of my friends during finals week and i was completely impressed and immediately fell in love. it is a very tiny place and only open from 7-2 monday-friday which makes it very difficult to go to, but if you get a chance you must try it! karen couldnt even deny the amazingness since she felt the same love at first bite that i did! 

here is what you see if you get to sit at the bar (he usually isnt blurry, but does move pretty quickly)

this is what my first burger looked like. amazingness, i know!

i opted out of getting fries at my first visit because the burger is ginormous and i made the right choice. when i went with karen, we split an order of fries and it felt perfect.

later that night, karen and i headed to dinner with our dad at the lovely spiral diner in fort worth. my dad got vegan macaroni and cheese as a side and it was strangely good. i would really like to try it again the next time i go. i got a sandwich called the simpleton and karen got a wrap of some sort. we finished with a very yummy dessert, but i forgot to take a picture of it! yummm

there are so many more places on my list to eat and i am so excited to try all of them! my mouth is watering just thinking about them! sorry about the length of this post. i just couldnt help it!

love.