One night... Two Pizzas

In college, freshmen and sophomore year my friends and I would participate in what we decided to call "LSD" - late sunday dinner. Every Sunday night, we'd sit around Spikes, eating wraps, phat burritos (haha), potato chips and french bread pizza and cracking ourselves up.

[caption id="attachment_587" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Sophomore year: goofing off during a scavenger hunt through campus... and finding my favorite Spike's worker-- BAKITA!"][/caption]

Boy, do I miss those LSD nights :razz:

Usually, I'd always have ham, honey mustard and all the veg wrap. But somedays you just gotta go for the french bread pizza.

French Bread Pizza

1 large french bread loaf
Toppings of your choice
Cheese of your choice
*very individualized!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1. Slice loaf in half, bake in oven for 10 minutes to let the bread get crisp.
2. Take bread out, add toppings.
3. Put back in oven for 10 minutes.
4. Broil for the last minutes so everything crisps up.



helloboyfriend wanted all pepperoni, but I switched things up and did half olive and half pepperoni!



We even used some extra pizza sauce for some side dipping action! Reminded me of Italian Dunkers in high school. Seriously, I love high school lunches. If I had the time/money/know-how, I would totally start a "high school lunches" themed restaurant. C'mon! Chicken patties, tater tots, square pizza, french toast sticks, little milk cartons, sloppy joes... the list could go on and on! Anyone with me?! ... no takers? Oh okay :)

This weekend...

- I'm attending a brunch with a bunch of ladies I won't know... minus one. And that one... I am so excited to see and play catch up with!
- Movie date night. Don't know which one yet but I scored the livingsocial deal for 2 tickets on Fandango.com for $9. Wooppieee. We're in a toss up: Rango, Take Me Home Tonight, Hall Pass... or save it for B. Cooper's baby blue's in Limitless. Choices people!! Choices!
- Cleaning out my basement bedroom at my parents. Somehow, the water pipes burst, which led my parents to re-do the entire basement, all re-done with new carpet, a movie room, excersize room... they went all out! But what use to be my old bedroom got a facelift too so I'm going home to sort through all my high school/college things.
- Working out. Seriously. I have been lazy this week (Tuesday-Friday) so Saturday and Sunday mornings, I'm getting my butt up!
- two words: OIL. CHANGE. 5,000 miles? my dad says "oh its fine" but hbf says "no no no"
- helloboyfriend is going out of town next weekend for almost a whoooollleee week :( so I gotta soak him up as much as I can while he's home.

Happy Friday,

ABCs of hellonatalie

Yesterday I stumbled upon the ABC's of life here, here and here. I also added them to google reader -- it's great to find other 20-something bloggers :) so here goes....



A. Age: 23
B. Bed size: Queen. With little Wiz cuddled under the covers.
C. Chore you hate: taking out the trash. Can't it just... disappear?
D. Dogs: I want a bulldog. So bad. But I do love my little Wiz.
E. Essential start to your day: getting dressed in the dark (usually only M-F though ;) )
F. Favorite color: GREEN. (and maybe pink)
G. Gold or silver: silver (or white gold :D)
H. Height: 5’6″
I. Instruments you play: piano and I use to play the clarinet and guitar
J. Job title: Marketing Intern
K. Kids: :) not yet. there is so much to do before.
L. Live: Minneapolis, MN
M. Mom’s name: Fang (pronounced Fong)
N. Nicknames: no one really calls me Nat, but sometimes I get Minnie
O. Overnight hospital stays: none
P. Pet peeve: when people water their lawns during the middle of the day (i don't know why, but it drives me nuts! Water at night so it doesn't evaporate!)
Q. Quote from a movie: "you cant sit with us" - mean girls
R. Righty or Lefty: Right-handed
S. Siblings: One sister, Jennifer. complete opposites & we get along so well!

T. Time you wake up: 5:15 AM. (yeah, you read that right)
U. Underwear: always remember it!
V. Vegetables you dislike: does ginger root count as a vegetable?
W. What makes you run late: when I think it'll take me less time to get there because I "drive fast"
X. X-rays you’ve had: one for my leg when I tore a ligament when I was in 5th grade
Y. Yummy food you make: I hope I make lots of different yummy food, as seen here :D
Z. Zoo animal favorite: I would love to go with panda (dawww) but I do love giraffes.


Hope that was fun for you as it was for me :D I'm excited to see hellonatalie transform into a more lifestyle blog (so so so excited). I cannot wait.

Cheers,
Natalie

The Pot Roast That Got Left Behind

I realized that I forgot to post about a pot roast I made a while back so I thought I'd share that today (esp since I still have yet to charge my camera :cool: its plugged now, i swear).

I wasn't sure how this meal would go, but helloboyfriend ended up liking it alot (previously, he had told me he didn't like pot roast, but then said he's never had it made the right way). But of course he would like it-- hello, meat and potatoes boy! Growing up, I only recall having pot roast ONCE... at a family friend's house (we never had it in my household since it is a pretty traditional American family meal). So I searched high and low for a good recipe and found one that hit the spot.

Pot Roast

4 lbs chuck roast (trim off fat)
12 baby red potatoes, larger ones cut in half
1 bag (16 oz) baby carrots
4 stalks of celery – cut into long pieces, leaves too
1 container of mushrooms
10-12 shallots, peeled (I used pearl onions instead)
1 packet onion soup mix
2 cans of cream of mushroom soup
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp garlic salt
1 cup of beef broth
Salt and pepper

1. Put shallots and potatoes at bottom of crock pot
2. Divide carrots and celery, place half on top of shallots and potatoes
3. Place chuck roast on top
4. Sprinkle with thyme, salt and pepper and garlic salt
5. Place remaining celery and carrots on top of roast
6. Mix together beef broth and cream of mushroom soup, pour mixture on top
7. Cook on low for 6 hours, high for 3-4
8. Last half hour, add mushrooms, mix around veggies

Pull out veggies and pot roast, set aside. Use juices to make a gravy. Serve!



mmm the veggies were the best part

I ended up actually making a mistake and put the mixture over the first layer of veggies but the pot roast still turned out tasty! Next time, I'll know what to do :)
Crockpot cooking makes life so much easier-- I love being able to prep everything the night before and asking hbf to turn on the crock pot while I'm away at work. Plus, I have discovered the best thing to happen to crock pot since... idk... beef stew! Wanna know my lil discovery? Doya? Okay here it is:

Slow Cooker Liners.
Best thing since sliced bread.
Okay, maybe not but it sure does make cleanup (& life) simpler!

I love that spring is coming, but a little sad soup season will be over. Who am I kidding-- soup in the summer!! and spring of course. Spring is my favorite.

Cheers,
Natalie

New Things

Ok. So I've been doing alot of thinking.... :mrgreen:

Did I ever tell you how much I love Google Reader? I adore it.
I adore it so much that it has me thinking about something.
new things.
I'm thinking that I might start incorporating some new things into my blog!

See-- hellonatalie has basically just started. I use it to chronicle my day to day, and really help me keep track of what I'm doing as I grow up. But growing up means incorporating new things as well! And my blog love for fashion, the marketing industry, cooking, music, traveling... all of it.
MMMmmmmaaaybe minus the Wedding part. You can overlook that, cant you? ;)

Cheers,
Natalie

Ps. YES, i have some serious catching up to do on my google reader. But really, 267 is easy peezy... I've seen it at 948. Neglected google reader.