In the kitchen with Laura...

I've always wanted to try a recipe by "The Pioneer Woman! She has an incredible blog, TV show, and hilarious personality! So, I decided to try a recipe that Ree Drumond, The Pioneer Woman posted a long time ago. I receive her updates and found the recipe on Pinterest, so I knew I had to try it. I love the idea of monkey bread, but we don't need a big serving and this smaller version was perfect! I know I will make it again and take it to work.

Here is the recipe that she uses: Monkey Muffins. I went along with her recipe, but I know that I will be changing it up on my next attempt at making them.

I took the easy way out and made them with refrigerated dough...it's a no brainer for me. I don't have the patience to wait for dough to rise, unless its a holiday. And using the easier recipe was so fast and is a great treat to make before I head off to work! Here are some before and after photos of the Monkey Muffins.

So here are a few alterations that I would make:

• adding toasted pecans to the top before baking
• mixing my cinnamon and sugar together so that they can evenly disperse during baking
• ....maybe adding raisins to appease to the man in my life!
• dare I say add some chocolate? The would be a palette overload, but so delicious!

Now for my second recipe: Let me warn you...there are no pictures for this recipe. I'm so sorry, but you will be able to visualize it. :) I was craving shrimp last night and the grocery store had a super cheap steal of a price for the shrimp. I snatched it up, along with a bottle of Teriyaki sauce and decided to make up a quick recipe. We bought some bags of frozen veggies and one of them happened to be a stir-fry mix of veggies with greens beans, onion, broccoli, and mushroom. So here is my attempt to create Asian food.

Ingredients:

• Boil-in-a-bag brown rice
• Wok Oil (see below, I love the flavors in this high-heat oil)
• Frozen bag of Asian Stir Fry veggies
• 3/4 pound of medium shrimp (40-45 per lb., cooked, peeled, no tail)
• 2 tablespoons of Teriyaki sauce

Directions:

• Boil rice according to package
• Saute the frozen veggies until heated in a saute pan with the Wok oil
• Once the rice is cooked add it to the veggies, and give it a good amount of soy sauce...totally up to you!
• Then add the shrimp and teriyaki sauce and mix gently, but well!

Enjoy! It's a simple and 15 minute meal that tastes great and is Semi-healthy!

Ummm..P.S.: "The Pioneer Woman makes a really yummy iced coffee recipe. I have it in the fridge now stored in my SunTea pitcher! Here is the Perfect Iced Coffee recipe.

XO from Seattle,
Laura

It's Official...we are out of Texas!

Today was the day that we 100% accepted the offer for our move to Seattle! We are leaving in August!! Whew...what a huge step for us in life! We are going to be selling some of our furniture and want to cleanse ourselves from things that we just don't use or have space for during our temporary housing. Pictures will be coming, but we hope to sell most of it on Craigslist or in an Estate sale.

XO from Texas...for a while!

~Laura