Who Needs Restaurants

My husband and I often go home to Michigan to visit my family, and when we do, we spend far too much on food and gas. So, when we're home in Pittsburgh, we try to keep our food costs low by avoiding eating out, packing a lunch and what not. A lot of times this results in us eating delicious meals that are much healthier and cheaper than eating out.

The following are some of the dinners that we've had the past few nights:

1.) Taco Salad (Lettuce topped with taco meat, cheese, salsa, red pepper, and whatever else you happen to have on hand)

2.) Chicken Tortilla Soup (recipes taken from Allrecipes.com: Chicken Tortilla Soup V, with added black beans and leftover taco shells)

3.) Pan-Fried Tilapia, Rice, and Spinach (Tilapia was prepared according to recipe on Allrecipes.com: Ranch Tilapia ) Next time I might avoid using a ranch mix, as I believe it contains a lot of sodium, but pan-frying the fish was so delicious. It has to be healthier than that battered fried stuff at restaurants? Right? Well, maybe...  We added lemon on top of the fish too.

4.) Chicken Parmesean with whole wheat pasta and salad. I found the recipe for the chicken parmesean on Pinterest. Post a comment if you would like me to direct you to it.

5.) Slow Cooker Roast (Shoulder roast with some Steak seasoning, onion soup packet, garlic, water, on low for 8 hours) with mashed red potatoes (with most of the skins left on) and peas

My husband probably thinks I'm insane because I've been taking pictures of our food everyday, but he loves me anyway :)

Stuffed Shell Lasagna

So my dad and step mom came to visit a few weeks ago, and I was trying to figure out what to make. I had left over pasta shells and know that my dad really likes lasgna, so I figured I would combine the two. So below is the recipe for what we ended up eating:

Final product was loaded with another layer of meat sauce and then covered with mozarella cheese...

Stuffed Shell Lasagna
Adapted from Food.com's recipe: Baked Stuffed Pasta Shells

Ingredients:

• 1/2 box of jumbo pasta shells, roughly 22 shells
• 1 cup of shredded mozarella cheese
• 1 cup grated parmesean cheese
• 15 oz. ricotta cheese (I used low-fat)
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper
• 1/2 Tbs. dried parsley
• 45 oz. Tomato-based pasta sauce (I used Hunt's three cheese which I had on hand)
• 1 lb. ground sirloin or ground turkey
• A few cloves of garlic

Directions:

1. In a large skillet brown the meat with garlic. At the same time, prepare pasta shells according to directions on box (don't overcook, should be to the baking directions). Next, drain the grease from the meat and add the pasta sauce. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Drain the pasta shells and place on paper towel to dry, open side facing down.
3. In a large bowl, combine 1/2 cup of the mozarella cheese, parmesean, ricotta, eggs, pepper and parsley. Put this combination into a large ziploc bag and place in fridge for roughly 10 minutes.
4. Pull out a 9x13 pan (I'm a huge fan of my corning ware one with a nice top so I can prepare ahead of time and just stick into the fridge until ready to bake) and put half of the meat sauce into the bottom of the pan.
5. Take the pasta shells and face them open side up on top of the layer of sauce.
6. Pull the ziploc bag out of the fridge, cut off one of the corners, and pipe the cheese mixture into the shells.
7. Top the shells with the remaining sauce, and the cover with rest of mozarella cheese.
8. Loosely cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes.
9. Remove foil and then bake another 5 minutes.

Austrian Travels - En Route to Salzburg

Last year, I received a text message from my college roommate containing one simple sentence "How do you feel about Vienna in the spring?" A few months later, I was getting my first stamp in my passport - on a trip to Vienna, Austria.

Although I loved every minute spent in Vienna, one of my favorite parts of my trip was a day trip to Salzburg. On the way to Salzburg, we stopped twice. The first was at a 'rest stop'. This was definitely not an American rest stop. The building was a large log one, and inside was a large cafeteria style room where you could order anything from coffee or Gelato or even muffins or fruit. In addition, the rest stop offered spectacular views of the Austrian countryside.

The second stop was a small lakeside town in the Alps, St. Gilgen. We spent a short time in this area, but this quaint area was full of charm and natural beauty.

There were cable cars going up the moutain (which we didn't have a chance to ride), leading to what I can only imagine is a breathtaking experience.

If the whole engineering thing stops working for me, I'm thinking owning a bed and breakfast in this little town might be a dream come true...

For the Love of Nature

After I finished college, an engineering job led me to move myself and everything I owned to start a new life in Western Pennsylvania. Although this was not the easiest thing I've ever done, it gave me the opportunity to explore a new area. Below are some of the places that I've come to love in my new home.
1.) McConnells Mill State Park

This is a beautiful state park will an old mill, some waterfalls, and miles of hiking trails. Below are some pictures I've taken from the park. I don't have a fancy camera or anything, but hope to get one some day...

Hells Hollow Waterfall

2.) Ohio Pyle State Park - This area is well known for white water rafting, but there are also hiking trails and many beautiful sights to see in this area.

A small bridge off of one of the trails

Cucumber Falls

Natural waterslides - you can actually ride them if the flow isn't too strong

Love Comes In Many Forms

Two years ago, on this day, a new man came into my life. No, not my husband. Two years ago, on Valentine's Day, I adopted a 20 pound lilac point Siamese cat. Petsmart was having an adoption day, and when my mom and I walked him, and saw him in his little cage, for some reason set off from the other cats, we fell in love. He was a 3 year old, and although I had planned on picking out a kitten, things went a bit differently.

After I had explained to the lady that I was interested in Smokey, she asked if I wanted to hold him. She handed him over to me, and my first impression was "Wow, he's a whole lotta cat". And he was. It turns out they had put his cage apart from the other cats, so you couldn't see how large he was in comparison.

So I stuck my large, but loving new friend into a probably too small cat carrier, and drove the four hours from Detroit (my home town) to Pittsburgh. Four hours of constant meowing. But I brought my Smokes home, and now he is the sweetest, most loving, most personable cat. He might have had a rough past, but now he is an important part of our loving family :)

Wedding Details

This past October, my husband and I got married on my father's horse farm in Michigan. It ended up being freezing and very windy, but it was still a beautiful day for us. I just wanted to post a few of the details pictures.

The wedding was in a tent on a peninsula in a 5 acre pond. We had a bit of trouble keeping the tent up and keeping anything in the tent from blowing away, but here was the end result:

The decorations were mostly hand made by my husband and I or my stepmom and aunt, like the ones below:

The wedding favors were jars of 'country soup' that my husband, some of my bridesmaids, my mom, and I assembled one afternoon.

Our table centerpieces included mason jars with glass beads and floating candles:

The wedding colors were primarily green and white with touches of brown, but we also added some peach roses in the bridesmaid's bouquets to add a little extra color.

Here my bouquet is shown. In addition, we have a small lyric sheet. Every morning on our missions trip to the Dominican (see other post), we would sing 'I love you, Lord' before breakfast, so instead of saying grace before our meal, the pastor led everyone in this song.

Dinner Experiments - Tender Parmesean Coated Pork Loin Chops

About a month ago, my husband and I looked outside and saw that we were pretty much snowed in. We turned on the news and received confirmation that that was indeed the case. So with our new found 'can't leave the house to do anything' attitude, we decided to watch some Saturday morning tv. We happened upon a cooking show which was boasting the benefits of soaking chicken in buttermilk before baking to make delicious mock-fried chicken.

There happened to be a sale on boneless pork loin chops, and memories of delicious Austrian meals from the previous year's trip to Vienna (shown in picture) left me thinking maybe there was something to this buttermilk idea, and maybe I could apply it to the pork loins I had on hand and make my own schnitzel-like dish.


After searching many different recipes and combining and altering as I saw fit, my husband and I made the following recipe for dinner this evening:

Ingredients:

• 4 boneless pork loin chops (if you buy them in a value pack, sometimes you can get a great deal)
• Buttermilk to soak the chops in (I bought a quart container of 1% milkfat)
• 3/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/3 cup parmesean cheese
• Olive oil (enough to lightly coat the bottom of a skillet)
• 2 large eggs

Directions:

1.) Soak pork loin chops in buttermilk. Recipes I saw recommended at least 2 hours; however, I didn't make them until after work, and only ended soaking them about 45 minutes. Warning: buttermilk does not have a pleasant smell. Prepare to control your gag reflexes.

2.) Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

3.) Combine bread crumbs, flour, and parmesean cheese in shallow dish (I used a glass pie plate) and take the egg mixture and beat them together in a separate shallow bowl.

4.) Take each pork loin out of the buttermilk, rinse it off, and then dip in the eggs and then dredge through the pie plate mixture. Place on a plate until you've finished all four.

5.) Put the olive oil into a skillet and at medium heat. Once the oil has heated up a bit, put each of the pork loins into the pan and heat on roughly 2-3 minutes per side.

6.) Next, take the four pork loins and put them in an oven safe pan (I just used the pie plate after I washed it out), cover with foil, and bake 20 minutes. Then, remove the foil, flip the loins, and then return to oven uncovered. Bake for another 15-20 minutes or until the pork has reached the appropriate temperature, I believe 160 degrees Fahrenheit.

Below is our final product, served with a Knorr pasta side that we got for $0.50 with a coupon, and some left over salad.

 

Dominican Trip

Last summer I had a unique opportunity offered to me: to go on a short term missions trip to the Dominican Republic. Being a relatively introverted person, my first response to this was fear. But as I thought about this during the following weeks, I realized that I would be losing a chance to learn about another culture, meet new people, see a new place, and maybe even be able to help others. So, despite my initial hesistation, during July of 2011, I flew down to the Domican Republic.

Before I went on the trip, my assumptions were that I'd be able to help others. I left the trip wondering if perhaps I had been more changed than those we encountered. This is not because we had an unsuccessful trip. We spent our mornings on the upper floor of the compound with a beautiful view of surrounding country and the rising sun doing devotionals, worshipping, and at least for me, just feeling at perfect peace. We spent our days going to different villages, doing light construction, bringing food and clothing, doing sports clinics, doing Vacation Bible school, and just getting to know the families in the area. We spent our evenings attending church services at different churches in the area, one on a mountaintop, one somewhere on the outskirts of Hato Mayor, and some help on the upper floor of the compound.

For me, this trip removed me from my biggest stress - my job, it took away all communication/distraction devices, and really made me focus on what was important. It is amazing the perspective you gain, when you spend a week with children who don't necessarily have shoes or food at every meal, but when someone gives them a granola bar, before even taking a bite themselves, they offer you one. Also, the way that the people worshipped was life-changing to experience. They were very serious about praying and singing. They prayed with everything they had, with more emotion than most of us ever express to anyone but our closest family or friends, and you could tell that they did not spend the service thinking about work or material items. They just focused on God. The first church we went to ended in a Conga line.

It was a truly unique experience, and something I would recommend. Following is the link to the place we stayed: http://www.meetinggodinmissions.com/

Welcome!

In the past year, I have gotten engaged, traveled with a friend to Vienna, gone on a Missions trip to the Dominican Republic, gotten married, and gone on a honeymoon. My name is Kristin, and with all of the excitement that has been going on, I decided I would start a blog.

Almost three years ago, I graduated from college with an engineering degree, and a few months after that I moved out to western PA to begin my first engineering job. The move to PA completely changed my life. I no longer had all of my family and friends and familiarity to depend upon. This change helped me better understand myself, and brought me closer to God. It led to meeting the love of my life, buying my first home, and gaining many new friends.

My interests include traveling, some home improvement, cooking, gardening, taking pictures, reading, and many other things, so though I don't have a plan for my blog already established in my head, I feel like it will primarily focus on my adventures in all of those arenas. I'm still learning in all of those areas, and maybe I can help others who could use some 'lessons learned'.

I hope you enjoy.

Picture above was taken on trip to Salzburg