I’ve become the rock star of cooking lately.  I blame my awesome lineage for all the awesomeness I create on a daily basis.  Although, Gluten Free cooking can become quite tricky every now & then, I’ve become a perfectionist at creating new and fun things all the time.

Just before I popped these bad boys into the oven.  No, I didn’t eat all four.  I packed the rest away in my freezer, just waiting on me to pop in the oven on a rainy day.

 This is what happens when you’re a college girl.  You cook and cook and then cook some more.  Downside is, you have no one to share your creations with.  Oh well, thank goodness for freezers and the fact that I’ve become the awesome cooking college girl.

I’ve recently found a HUGE love for cooking in my crock pot.  Blame the Facebook Groups and the ease of using this thing.  Plus, I can leave it and forget it….or just study my brains out…or go to school all while dinner is cooking.  I’m getting to be a rock star at using this bad boy and during my late night *ahem* midnight cooking ordeals I can be found in the kitchen throwing ingredients into the pot and then wake up to a yummy meal before I go to school (if it’s done in time).  Oh yes, this college girl is a PRO!  At least I’ve got the mommy hood cooking down without having a kid.

One of the best pots of chili I’ve had in forever.  I took my usual recipe and just threw it in the pot to cook all night.  Turns out, this is even better than cooking in the stock pot, like I was raised to do.  Plus, if you turn it on low and leave it running all night all the flavors blend much better than they would normally.  Thinking I’ll be making this for Superbowl parties in the future.

A new recipe called Cream Cheese Chicken that I found online last week, it’s to die for and Gluten Free!  I’ll post the recipe under my Gluten Free section later on this week, but y’all will not be disappointed when making this.  I think it’s best compared to beef stroganoff, it has the “gravy” type texture and I’ve served it over rice AND pasta.  It’s very versatile and leaves you very filled.

I’m a pro at making some delicious goodies.  Some you wouldn’t have a clue they didn’t contain Gluten.  Just shows you how great of a cook I really am.

As you all know by now I eat only Gluten Free things which can make it sort of hard for anyone else to cook for me and really is the sucky part to this whole Gluten Free lifestyle I’m walking now.  Although, as it turns out, cooking GF isn’t nearly as hard as it looks.

Any guesses what tasty thing I’m cooking up here?  I promise it’s going to be delicious actually I know it will be, the finished product is sitting in front of me and is nearly devoured.  This stuff is soooooo good.

Just another step after cooking rice.  Add a few cans of non-condensed cream of mushroom soup and a can of cream of chicken and you’ve got yourself somewhat of a meal.  Just have to chop some chicken to add to this creation and you’re all set for a hot and yummy meal.

I’m channeling Sponge Bob Square Pants and eating plenty of Salmon patties.  I {love} Salmon and it’s Gluten Free, so it’s the best of both worlds in my world.  Now if I could just find a decent recipe for a bun, then I’d be all set for a Salmon Burger and not just a patty.

*As of now I’m on the look out for a new bun recipe.

I’m such a fan of fried eggs…except they’ve gotta be loaded down with pepper and salt.  Goodness…I’m craving a few eggs right now, they’re quite addicting.

What did you have for Valentines Day?  Mine sucked.  Here’s to next year & hoping things will turn around.  Goodness guys, I’m a typical girl.  Flowers….a card…a simple note…it’ll all make me happy.  I’m simple.

I love gadgets, gizmos, and just about anything that’ll make my life easier.  One thing I grew up with was a Kitchen Aid mixer.  That thing was ahhhhmazing.  I remember Mom & Dad letting us use it growing up.  That thing would mix anything you threw into it and then some.  Bread.  Thanksgiving Desserts.  Enchilada stuffing.  I mean you name it and it’s been tried.  So, it was a no brainer with Roomie & I moved out that we needed one.  Let’s just say the bowl is always dirty.  It’ll stay clean a day or two and then one of us uses it.  I’m thankful we have one, it makes for easy cooking and clean up, not to mention whenever I have company it’s always a hot topic or something someone wants to use when cooking.

I swore off chicken broth after I drank a ton of it after my tonsillectomy a few years ago.  That is, until I get so sick the only thing that even remotely sounds good is chicken broth.  Which this weekend just so happened to be one of those weekends.  So sick you can barely move, so sick where you lay on the couch and watch TV all day.  I’m sure you get the idea.

Ever have one of those days where you want something hot & chocolaty, but don’t want hot chocolate?  Seriously, I contemplate that a lot — especially when I’m cold.  One night while rifiling through my cabinents I found this.   Cook & Serve Chocolate Pudding.  Oh My!  This is the best chocolaty goodness one can cook at midnight, when those chocolate cravings arise.

This by far is the best chocolaty treat I’ve ever had.  Pour it over Bananas and it’s even more amazing.  Trust me on that.  My Dad taught me well.

Boiling.  Just before you pull it from the stove into bowls of sliced Bananas.  Soooo Good!

I wound up really catching the stomach bug.  It started about midnight, first came the bad dreams about the French Toast I had to eat for dinner.  I mean some bad dreams, the dreams you wake up from praying it was just a dream and this isn’t reality and your stomach really isn’t churning.  Those kind of dreams.

I did wake up and my dreams were suddenly a reality.  I didn’t start puking til’ somewhere are 2am.  Puke that started going through my nose not long after I started the porcelain ride.  It was the worst I’ve felt in awhile.  I wound up sending mom a text message around 2ish saying I didn’t think I was going to be able to make our big surprise.  (I was really looking forward to going too, had everything picked out, but now it’s pushed back til’ Tuesday.)  Mom actually replied to my messages around 2am and said there was a bug going around.  I finally put some cream on my arms to stop the porcelain ride around 3am or 4am.  It didn’t kick in til’ somewhere are 5am.

Mom came to check on me this morning.  I feel better than I did last night, but I have yet to eat anything.  I prefer not to test the waters just yet.  I’m currently sitting on the couch watching 3 dogs run around the living room acting crazy.  All while mom is enjoy herself at a place I’ll be on Tuesday.

Cleaning out the cupboards, I’m finding lots of ingredients that I can use with new dishes.  I’m working on dwindling down this huge stash of food that has taken over.  Stockpiling food…I’m a chipmunk…so lets get started in the kitchen.  Flip on over to my Cooking posts to find out exactly what I’ve been cooking.

There are plenty of new recipes I’ll be trying in this cooking adventure.  I’m determined to get myself out of this rut of cooking the same ole’, same ole’.

I was able to get a few things done today.  I made my own dinner this even.  Pasta, Pesto Sauce & some Chicken.  I’m on a healthy food kick.

I even pulled off a smoothie, just don’t ask what the ingredients were because some of them I’m not sure I’d touch if they weren’t mixed in with something else (a lot of something green), it was a really good smoothie too.  Bananas, Fresh Strawberries, Frozen Blueberries, 2tbsp Flax Seed, Orange Juice, Fat Free Low Sugar Strawberry Yogurt & the Green Health Food Monster stuff.  I made another batch of smoothies and froze it so I’ll have something to eat tomorrow.  I’m really starting to love my blender and making smoothies.

My plan is to eat what we have out of the cabinets/freezer/fridge so we can work on dwindling some of this food down.  My hope is to create a stockpile of goodies to freeze this weekend.  School starts on Monday & as much as I wish I could sit out another semester, I’m going even if it kills me.  So, there’s the reason for the stockpile.  Hopefully I can come up with some tasty dishes I can pop in the microwave or oven when I get home from school & have a great healthy meal & no more fast food!  I’ll post what I create this weekend, so stay tuned!

I waited 5hrs to meet one of my favorite bloggers.  On October 28 I stood in line and waited…and waited…and waited some more.  I met some other great bloggers and talked to them while I waited.  We talked about our blogs, recipes we had tried from the PW Cooks blog, and what blog formats we use.  It was a fab time getting to chat with some fellow bloggers.   I had a delightful conversation with the Pioneer Woman about my bra.  It was the very first time I’d worn an actual bra in months & months.  In my world bras are reserved for special occasions, like meeting PW.  Oh yes, leave it up to me to talk bras. Granted, it was the first time I had been out of the house in 6 weeks!!

After it was all said & done, this was the middle of the line.  Crazy I waited  as long as I did just to get PW’s autograph.  It was fantastic.  Although, I’m not quite sure I’d do it again….ahhh who am I kidding.  I’d do it all over again.  5 hour wait & all.

The Punks came out and the women I was around asked them if they’d sign their cookbooks.  The girls were super sweet and talkative and answered all the questions we bombarded them with.  It was great getting to see them and interact with them too.

Turns out our group started something.  These ladies saw the Punks signing our books and asked them if they’d sign theirs too.  The girls signed a few more books and then were rescued by their family.  After that signing, they never came back over to the long line that everyone was waiting in.  Poor Punks.

Oh My!  Look who it is, Marlboro Man!  The rest of the Punks were following in line.  They were on their way to get more cookbooks, since the Bookstore sold out.  Good thing too, cause I needed to buy another one to have signed.  I wound up getting one for Roomie just cause she couldn’t be there.

All the women in the crowd were whooping and hollering and I had no idea what was going on until this man walked by.  Marlboro Man came by helping the boys push the dolly full of books.  I’m starting to wonder if he realized exactly what he was doing or just wasn’t thinking about what he was doing.  Who knows, but at least I have the evidence to prove he was in the perfect photo op position!

Look who decided to join in the fun.  We tracked good ole’ MM down to sign a few books.  Any guesses what I asked him to sign?  I’ll just tell you…his butt.  Oh yes, it was a riot.  I thoroughly enjoy asking him to sign the last page of the cookbook. Tee hee.  We were really helping PW when we asked the boys to sign the cookbooks.  We were helping as in, helping the boys keep up with their penmanship lessons.  Yes, that was our objective….penmanship.

The light at the end of the tunnel.  I thought I was moments away from meeting PW.  Moments which quickly turned into being over a hour and a half!  It was worth the wait in the long run.  I’m glad I went and met the blogging legend.

People played on their iPhones, ate, played games.  They did all sorts of things to pass the time just so they could see PW.  Never thought everyone would be so calm just waiting on one woman.  I enjoyed waiting and talking to those around me.  I even killed my iPod Touch playing games, checking email, tweeting, facebooking, and of course playing Words With Friends.  I am completely in love with that game.

Conversing.  We did this back & forth awhile.  You know, the normal things like the fact my first time wearing a bra in months & months, getting out of the house and even the trouble I had driving to the city.  I never got lost, but I quickly found out I could not back my car up to save my life.  I relied heavily on my mirrors, probably more heavily than I should have.  Signing away.  I had put sticky notes in the books of both my name & Roomie’s name in them.  It was simple after that.  PW went on “auto pilot” for a minute, realized this and then changed her mind and wrote something sweet for both Roome & me.  She’s amazing.  I love what she wrote in both of our books, it’ll be something I cherish for a long time to come.  We did get into deep discussion about my bra.  It was one of those conversations that goes on forever and just doesn’t end.  Ha!  I really enjoyed talking with Ree, but not just about my bra.  She did finally go off “auto pilot” and sign something very very sweet for the Roomie.  Although, Roomie hasn’t said anything about her new cookbook, I’m sure she loooooves it.

*Ellie is entertaining herself. {Papaw would be proud}

*Roomie & Jessica are text messaging back & forth. {annoying beeps are coming from her phone}

*John Tucker Must Die playing on my iPod.

I made a terrific pot of Chicken & Dumplings.  Seriously, they’re just that good.   It may be my new dish to take to Thaksgiving next year.   I have a year to perfect it and make it snazzy that will give rave reviews.   Yes, a 24 y/o will be able to accomplish that and then some.  For those keeping track.  I WILL be making a 3 layer Princess Cake to top off of my Thanksgiving dishes.

I’m also going to post a few new pictures of things around the house.  I’ve redone a coffee table Roomie bought, added some pictures of of Nicole’s kids to our walls & also added a few new storage contraptions to the garage.

Never knew all these household organizers & ordinary furniture would make me so happy.