My past two weeks

Wow! So I haven't blogged in a while! I've thought about it nearly every day, but I haven't had time to just sit down and write without being rude to other people.  I haven't been up to much, just doing a lot of dog sitting and house sitting, working and babysitting.  Sometimes I'm like, "Why am I so tired? I don't do anything!" and then I think about how I actually do have a lot of stuff going on.

This last week, I house/dog sat for my friend Tasha and her husband Jason while they did a whirlwind tour of Italy.  I got the pleasure of taking care of their two dogs, Amy and Penny.  It was nice because she lives close to where I work and I had a house and a kitchen all to myself! I made a bunch of stuff! I did stuffed peppers, mac and cheese with eggplant and caramelized onions, pasta with vegan sausage, seitan and my favorite/easiest recipe that I've changed so much that I don't even remember the original recipe.

Amy and Penny

Roasted Balsamic Green Beans and Mushrooms

1 lb of green beans
8 oz of mushrooms
1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 450 F.  Wash the green beans and trim the ends and place in a gallon Zip-lock bag.  Make sure the mushrooms are clean and free of dirt and then slice those and put in the same bag.

Place all of the remaining ingredients in a small bowl and whisk together,  and then pour into the Zip-lock bag.  Shake it up and let it marinate for a bit, at least 30 mins.  Then dump it on a baking sheet and let it roast for about 30 minutes!

 So easy and so good.  The mushrooms are my favorite part. 

I served that as a side with The Minimalist Baker's Caramelized Onion Mac and Cheese (recipe here) which was phenomenal.  I never realized how much I liked caramelized onions and that you could make a cheese sauce out of eggplants! Like whaaaaaaat? Who came up with that? I added a little white wine when I was caramelizing the onions but other than that I followed the recipe exactly.  I was going to post a picture of it but I didn't get any good ones.  There's one on my Instagram. 

Next, I made a far more photogenic food... quinoa stuffed peppers.  I used THIS recipe.  I seasoned the the vegetables like nobody's business and I added baby spinach to the mix.  I steamed the peppers a little bit too long so they were kind of floppy but it was overall a success.

I accidentally deleted like all of the pictures of them on my phone, so I had to copy this one from my instagram.

One day I'm going to get a nice camera so that my food actually looks appetizing.  The peppers were so good and they didn't take a very long time and they're so darn cute!

In other news, it is my favorite time... World Cup time.  I am not even a huge sports fan, but you know what I am a fan of? Winning.  You know what else I'm a fan of? America.  I'm also an Italy fan because duh I live here and you can't live here and not cheer for Italy, that is just dangerous and irresponsible.  Someone will hit you with their car.

For the Italy vs. England game, Peter, my sister and I and a few other friends went down to the port in Pozzuoli and watched the game in an Irish pub.  There were some Englishmen there too, it was pretty fun.  After every shot on the goal and basically just consistently throughout the game there were horns honking and people yelling.  Thank gawd Italy won or who knows what the atmosphere would have been like.  I was in Rome when Italy lost to Spain for the Confederations Cup and it was just a bad time.

Pozzuoli after the game, I tried to get the fireworks but I just missed them

 However, I am first and foremost a fan of Team USA and I watched them win last night against Ghana!  Tim Howard is a god.  I feel like they kind of played like crap but we got it done when we needed to.  Also I feel terrible for Jozy Altidore but it is what it is. 

Also... I am expecting like eight packages in the mail!  I still haven't gotten my dress for Peter's sister's wedding and I'm kind of freaking out.  I tracked it and it's been in New Jersey for like three weeks.  Get it together New Jersey.  I don't want to get another one because I am already emotionally attached to this one and I know it will look so good on me. 

Woo hooooo mail!

 I did get one package yesterday though and it's from probably my favorite online retailer-- Sephora.  I got the new contour kit form Make Up For Ever and I like it so far, but the highlighting powder isn't light enough for me so that's laaaaaame.  I have another highlighter in my room somewhere but I have no clue where.  I got my favorite mascara ever, Benefit's They're Real.  I get the small tube because I don't use it that often.  And then I got a bunch of samples which is my favorite.  I like the Glamglow eye treatment, this is like the third time I chose it as my sample haha. 

I'm taking two college classes now trying to get my GPA up to make up for the years that I blew off so I'm about to go do a bunch of homework.  Kill me.

Ciao ciao - Katelyn