Cheesecake Topped Brownies

Yesterday was my friend's birthday. To continue my goal of learning to cook/bake, I decided to make him dessert. He likes cheesecake, but there was no way I was going to attempt that yet. I wanted to start off with a dessert that I'd have a chance of actually making well. As fate would have it, when I logged on to allrecipes.com, the featured recipe of the day was Cheesecake Topped Brownies. After browsing through the recipe, I decided it wasn't too difficult to make.


RECIPE

• - 1 (21.5 ounce) package brownie mix (I used Betty Crocker Milk Chocolate Traditional Brownie Mix.)
• - 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened (I used original Philadelphia cream cheese.)
• - 2 tablespoons butter, softened (I used salted butter.)
• - 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• - 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• - 1 egg
• - 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• - 1 (16 ounce) container prepared chocolate frosting (I used Betty Crocker Milk Chocolate.)

Thanks to a lot of moral support and instruction from him and two of our other friends, I completed my first dessert. Even though they helped me with some of the instructions, I mixed everything myself, so I'm counting this as a dessert I made alone haha. It was delicious! I will definitely make this again. Next time I'll make a peanut butter frosting. 

Proof I Made It (Or At Least Served It)

2 1/2 Meals With the Same Veggies

I decided to start with a very simple recipe. Rather than finding a recipe online, I made a staple in my diet. I love couscous because it only takes 5 minutes to cook, which suits me well because I'm not patient when it comes to making food, and I can't mess it up. My go-to recipe is veggies with couscous. I have tried many different veggies and never really liked what I made. This time, however, I was pleasantly surprised with my creation. It was delicious, if I do say so myself.

RECIPE

- Rice Select Couscous, Original (I added salt and butter as directed this time, which made it quite tasty.)

- Cucumbers

- Grape tomatoes

- Half an avocado (I LOVE avocados!)

- Feta cheese

- Raisins

- Dressing: Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar

* The first time I made the meal, I did not include the feta cheese or raisins, and it still tasted delicious. 

The Ingredients, Prior to Mixing and Adding Dressing

Everything Mixed Together

You may be wondering why the title of this post is called 2 1/2 meals with the same veggies. In addition to making the couscous with veggies, I made a dish with all of the same veggies without the couscous. This served as an appetizer, so I consider it 1/2 of a meal.

My second full meal included scrambled eggs. I love eggs and usually make them for lunch. Today I used the left over veggies from the previous dinners to make a delicious meal.

RECIPE

- Cucumbers

- Grape tomatoes

- Avocado

- Cheddar cheese

- 3 eggs

I'm not sure what I'll make next for dinner, but I want to get out of my box and not use my normal ingredients (veggies and couscous). Does anyone have suggestions for easy, inexpensive meals?

My New Blog

For those of you who have been following my blog, I have changed the title and design way too many times and have not posted very much. This is due to my lack of creativity and my serious indecisiveness. I have decided to finally make this blog into something useful for me and anyone who reads it. My resolution for the year is to focus on me. This includes finding a hobby that I am good at and will help tame my stress, eating healthy so I can stay energized for school, and finding an exercise plan. These tasks will be difficult because I seriously lack creativity and motivation. Over the course of writing this blog, I hope to gain creativity and motivation to make crafts, cook delicious meals, and exercise.

My favorite hobby is photography, but I don't have a fancy camera, so I need to find a new hobby. I am turning to Pinterest to help me find easy DIY crafts. I am a terrible cook, I hate spending money on food, and I never know what to make. I usually end up eating the same thing every day for each meal, with a few substitutions here and there. I'm turning to Pinterest and Real Simple (online and magazine) for simple, inexpensive meals. As for exercise, I am using the buddy system. My friend and I (and possibly a few other friends) will be taking fitness classes together. I also plan to seek help from a personal trainer to help me find weight lifting exercises and from Pinterest for quick exercises to do at home.

This blog is for people like me who lack creativity and motivation. I hope to provide readers with simple, inexpensive meals to make, crafts that anyone can do, and workout tips to keep you motivated. There will also be posts about quotes/songs I find inspirational, books I think are great, my journey through grad school, and a few random topics.

Please feel free to leave comments or questions on any and all blogs. I would love for it to be interactive. If you have tips for me about crafting, cooking, exercise, or anything else, I'd love to hear your suggestions. This blog is about finding what works for me, but I hope to help others along the way. Enjoy!

Obsession

I am officially obsessed with Pinterest! I am on it all the time. My top boards are "Quotes I Love!", "Cute Clothes!", "The Perfect Home!", and "Tasty Food!". Although constantly pinning is fun, I've decided to copy some of the things I've pinned. I compiled a list of my favorite smoothies and will pick a few appetizers and dinners that I want to make. I will buy ingredients for everything tomorrow. Stay tuned to see how the cooking goes. I am not a good cook, so I hope everything turns out tasty.

I also want to find a hobby that I can use as an escape when life is overwhelming. I really want to get back into photography, but I do not  have a fancy camera and can't afford one. Taking photos with a point and shoot is not the same. I am not good at painting or drawing, and I often get frustrated with crafts because I lack creativity and am a perfectionist. Does anyone have suggestions for a hobby?

University of North Carolina

I visited UNC Chapel Hill in the middle of September and am finally posting about it. Life has been crazy since then due to school, work, volunteering, grad apps, and hanging out with friends. I enjoyed my trip to UNC so much, and I thought I'd share some pictures with you. The east coast is beautiful, and the people are so nice. I was in awe of how genuine and respectful people were to me. I didn't want to leave UNC because I felt at home in that environment. Here are some of my favorite pictures.

Our tour began here (planetarium).

This well is a popular image for UNC. Each year on the first day of class, students line up to drink from the drinking fountain because it is believed they will get a 4.0. The line is so long that the bookstore sells bottled water that came from the well so students don't have to wait in line. If I attend UNC, I may have to partake in this tradition.

Department of Allied Health Sciences   

Bondurant Hall 

(The picture is a little blurry. It doesn't do this building justice. It is a gorgeous building. I love brick!)

The houses (residential and sorority/fraternity) are amazing! I want to live in one!

University of Washington

This evening I got back from a very short trip to Seattle to visit UW. (I left Portland yesterday morning at 8:15 and got back into town at 5:00.) Although the weather wasn't very nice (it was cloudy yesterday and today and rained on the way home) I had a great time. I stayed with my friend Lauren and her husband and had some much needed catch-up/girl time with her. 

Yesterday afternoon I met with a professor who bought me tea at Starbucks and then gave me a tour of Eagleson Hall (administrative/professors' offices), the Speech and Hearing Clinic, and the Social Work building (where I'll have class). Eagleson Hall and the Social Work building are old, but the Speech and Hearing Clinic looks quite new and sleek. The professors of both speech and audiology have amazing labs and research projects that involve topics of interest to me. 

Early this morning Lauren took me to a Starbucks in Alki. I absolutely loved it. The view of the water from the Starbucks was amazing. I can totally picture myself studying there all the time (if only it were close to UW and where I would live). There are great walking paths and a ton of park benches around the water. It would be so much fun to go for walks and runs along the water. It's a great little "beach" town (I put beach in quotes because some people might not consider it a real beach town since there isn't actually a beach - no sand). I wish I had my camera. I'll be back in a few weeks and will take pictures then.

This morning I took a tour of the campus. It was geared mainly toward freshman and transfer students, but I still learned a bit of helpful information for grad school. The campus wasn't as beautiful as I remember it when I was a senior in high school, and it's not a pretty as the University of Portland (my undergrad), but I still like it. This reading room is amazing. I love the architecture. 

The courtyard looks like a bigger version of UP's, which made me feel at home. I absolutely love UP. 

This fountain is beautiful.

This afternoon I met three third-year grad students for lunch at Shultzy's Sausage, which was delicious. Next time you visit Seattle, you should definitely go there. I asked them a lot of questions about UW and got a pretty good sense of the pros and cons of attending school there. I still have a lot more exploring to do of other schools and will compare each of them once I learn more. As of now a few big pros for UW are proximity to friends in Portland and Seattle and family in California, pediatric focus, nice clinic, and tons of top-ranked hospitals nearby for off-campus clinics (I want to work in a hospital, but am also looking into private practice). There are only a few programs that have a pediatric focus, so the fact that UW has a pediatric focus is a big plus. I also like the size of Seattle. I come from a big town in California, and Seattle is a nice happy medium between my hometown and Portland. A big con is the tuition rate. So far, it's the most expensive grad school I have found that I want to attend, and it will take years to pay off. Despite this major con, I still really enjoyed the experience and am definitely considering attending UW (if I get accepted and can find enough financial aid, work study, and scholarships to make tuition affordable). Next week I'll visit UNC and will visit SDSU/UCSD in November. Perhaps I'll find that I like those schools more.

Sh*t My Dad Says

"Sh*t My Dad Says" by Justin Halpern is hilarious!! I think it's a lot funnier than "Bossypants" by Tina Fey. I like Tina Fey, but for some reason I didn't find her book that funny. I might read it again and see how I feel the second time around. Anyway, back to "Sh*t My Dad Says". It's highly inappropriate due to expletives and certain topics, but it is the funniest book I have ever read. I had to keep myself from laughing while reading it on the bus. It's a quick read and a nice break from the daily stresses of life.