Recipe: The Easiest Breakfast Sandwich Ever

I love breakfast. Seriously. I have all these posts in mind where all I do is talk about my favorite breakfast foods, namely, eggs. But what about when I really want to eat eggs, but I don't want to go through the trouble of heating a pan and cooking eggs and washing the pan later (i.e. almost every morning)? That's when this little recipe comes in handy:



This sandwich takes fewer than 5 minutes to make and only gets two dishes dirty (only one dish if you want to wrap the sandwich in a paper towel to go!).

I am not a food blogger. This is why.

Last Saturday, Jonathan and I had a lovely picnic at a local park. His mom had given me an adorable picnic basket for my birthday (pictured top right), complete with forks, spoons, knives, plates, wine glasses and a bottle opener. The little zippered pouch in the middle is actually an insulated cooler, which I filled with a bottle of wine, green grapes, pretzel crisps, Hershey's chocolate and almonds for dessert, and a big Tupperware of "Patriot Salad," which I'm going to share to the recipe to below.

Weekend minutia.

I attempted to take more of my own photos today, but unfortunately my life isn't very exciting. So I mostly photographed books and food. Here's a quick recap of my Saturday:

Breakfast: A homemade breakfast burrito and Texas Turtle coffee on the deck finishing The Catcher in the Rye. I even wore a strapless top in an attempt to get some color, but my skin only knows two colors: white and red. 
 

Lunch: A venti Java chip frappuccino at Starbucks and Beasts, which I started and finished while I was there. The purse was a gift from my boyfriend after he went to Ghana last summer.

Working off all that food: This bike path runs along the riverbed and gives me a very convenient route to pretty much all my regular places: libraries, coffee shops, grocery stores, etc.

Dinner: Whole Foods had beef patties on sale for $1 yesterday, so I picked up two for guacamole burgers! I don't really measure when I cook, but here's a basic approximation of my recipe:

Guacamole
1 avocado, mashed
1 jalapeno
1/2 small tomato
1/8 onion
Cilantro
Cayenne pepper
Salt
Pepper
Lime juice

I lightly toasted a piece of bread, spread 1/4 of the guacamole on it (the recipe above makes one small Tupperware worth—sorry, I told you I don't measure!), then added a cooked burger and 1/8 cup of shredded mozzarella. I put the whole thing in the toaster oven to melt the cheese, and voila! Easy guacamole burger. And if I can make it, you know it's easy. :)

What did you do this weekend? If you did any reading this week, be sure to check back in tomorrow (Sunday) at 2 p.m. EST for the third Semi-Charmed Book Challenge check-in!

Advice needed!

Hi friends. Welcome back to another combined edition of What I'm Loving Wednesday and Oh How Pinteresting Wednesday. I love Wednesdays because these link-ups give me the chance to throw a bunch of random, positive and/or pretty things out there. First, though, I've decided to host my own summer book challenge on this blog, so please check it out if you like to read! :) And here goes....

First, I am loving so many things about this week!! On Saturday, my dad came through Albuquerque on a road trip, so I got to spend Saturday evening and Sunday morning with him. We had dinner, checked out an Irish pub, played some blackjack (I kicked his butt!) and had Dunkin' Donuts the next morning. (As a Southern transplant to California, my dad drinks Dunkin' Donuts as often as he gets the chance. Fun fact: There are no Dunkin' Donut shops in California. Until this military base gets one, that is.)

As if seeing my dad wasn't great enough, I'm leaving for Columbia tomorrow, which means I'll get to see this girl and this girl and this girl and so many more of my Mizzou friends! #lovelovelove

Back to Albuquerque, though.... I decided to stop by the mall and see if I could find something to match my awesome yellow skirt I bought last week. (Y'all remember how excited I was about that find, right?) I didn't end up getting anything to go with the skirt, but I did buy a really cute navy blazer at Forever 21 to add to my ever-growing "young professional" wardrobe. Also, thanks for all your comments and fashion advice last week! I've decided I want to get a charcoal gray pencil skirt suit this summer; let me know if you see a cute one anywhere! Now that that's decided, I have two more fashion questions for you:

1. What other color blazer should I get (in addition to my navy one)? I'm thinking something pastel or bright, just to be fun, but I still want to be able to wear it with a lot of different pieces.
2. What the heck should I wear with my yellow skirt? I'm thinking light blue and/or white, inspired by this fabulous outfit, but I can't think of anything else that would look good. Help! This is it:

Image via The Limited, but product no longer available

If I were fashionable, this is what I would wear.

Happy Wednesday, everyone! I hope your weeks have been good so far. I'm sticking with my usual Wednesday link-ups for now, but please take my survey if you have a few minutes to give me some feedback on my blog. It's only ten questions and all questions are optional. Now, on to what I'm loving this week....

First, please indulge me for a minute while I tell a roundabout story: I've been wanting a yellow pencil skirt for a while now (remember this?), and I thought I struck gold when The Limited had a 50% off sale on its website last week. I had put a yellow pencil skirt in my cart a while ago but was putting off buying it. Of course, when I went to buy it at the reduced price, it was no longer available! Luckily, I had to pick someone up in Albuquerque on Thursday night, so I went down early to stop by the mall. There were only about three yellow skirts left, and only one was close to my size, but alas, not close enough. Then, a saleswoman found my size on a mannequin and I was able to buy the skirt! It was 40% off in the store and I didn't have to pay shipping, so it ended up being a better deal than if I had bought the skirt online! Score.

Warm weather wishings.

Happy Hump Day! As usual, I'm linking up with The Vintage Apple and This Kind of Love. This is one of my favorite blogging days because I look forward to scouring my pins each week and thinking about all the good things that have happened in my life recently.

First, a little synopsis of what I'm loving:

• I'm headed back to Columbia next month! Y'all know how much I've been missing my college friends, and I can't wait to see their beautiful faces and enjoy some really cheap college-town drink specials!
• I put the new biography Catherine the Great on hold at the local library weeks ago, and my spot in line finally came up this weekend! Whoop! Now I'm just counting down the days until it's my turn to hold Lone Wolf in my hands.... (Edited to add: I checked my library account this morning, and it's my turn for Lone Wolf! Going to pick it up on my lunch break today!)
• And, of course, I'm loving this gorgeous weather Santa Fe's been having! In fact, that's what inspired my pin theme this week: How I want to spend my days now that the thermometers are regularly hitting 70 degrees.

Source: cntraveler.com via Megan on Pinterest

A pleasant bike ride to the coffee shop.

Spring has sprung!

It's time for my usual Wednesday link-ups:

First, I am loving one thing in particular this week: Yesterday, I got two pretty sweet online gift card deals: a $15 iTunes card from Best Buy for only $12, and a $10 Amazon card (for new Kindle books, of course) for only $5. That's $25 worth of merchandise for only $17, or 32 percent off!

#savvyshopper #moneyinthebank

In honor of the first day of spring yesterday, here are some spring-inspired pins to warm you up! (The first image is what I like to imagine I'll dress like as an LC next year. But let's be real ... I'm just not that fashionable.)

Source: theandrewsupdate.blogspot.com via Megan on Pinterest

Date Night: (Long Distance) Valentine's Day

Our dinner and a movie!

I'm aware this post is a little behind the times, but hey! Maybe that means it won't get lost in all the other Valentine's Day posts out there. So, as you might know, I am dating my high school sweetheart. Because we attended different colleges and have different graduation dates, we've been long-distance for a few years. This year for Valentine's Day, we decided to have a regular dinner-and-a-movie date from 800 miles apart. It was fabulous!

Monday Munchies

I've been on a roll with trying new recipes lately, so I thought instead of posting every time I make something (because I'm sure you don't care that much), I'm starting a new series to recap my recipes of the week. And it has an alliterative title, too: "Monday Munchies." Pretty clever, right? Here goes....

I tried a new pasta last week for Valentine's Day, but you'll get a separate post on that later this week. Then I was out of town all weekend, so I only have one recipe to share with you this week, but man is it yummy! Today I made jambalaya in my crockpot.

I picked jambalaya because (1) it's delicious and (2) I'm running a little tight on my budget this month so I wanted to use up ingredients I already had. For the latter reason, I didn't really follow any recipe but made up my own as I went. I used this recipe as a guideline (found on Pinterest, of course), but my recipe ended up being as follows:

Things that make me go "hmm."

Happy weekend, everyone! I was pretty busy at work this week (making cool stuff like this), so I don't have as many fun links from the week as I usually do, but I hope you enjoy what I've found!

Source: adayinthelifeofblakey.tumblr.com via Megan on Pinterest

Random picture of the week: Did you ever play airplane with your parents when you were little? I think this is such a cute reminder of that (but not with your parents, obviously).

The world's first ski-in/ski-out Starbucks opened at Squaw Valley last week! (You have to scroll down the page a little to find the story.)

A sweet love letter from my new favorite website.

Robots riding camels? Yes, it's true. And has been since 2005.

Introducing: The best (and easiest!) egg sandwich you'll ever have.

Is sportsmanship dead?

Man has heart attack at Heart Attack Grill. You can't make this stuff up.

The new, environmentally friendly slogan for Mardi Gras beads? "Catch and release."

Recipe: Pesto Grilled Cheese

Remember when I posted about this delicious-looking sandwich a few weeks ago? Well, I finally got around to making a version of it last week using the leftover pesto from my Pesto Pasta with Sausage recipe.

Source: closetcooking.com via Megan on Pinterest

The simple sandwich I made was inspired by this recipe found on Pinterest (pictured above). I didn't use the asparagus simply because I was too lazy (and cheap) to go buy some, but it was still delicious! I lightly toasted and buttered two slices of whole wheat bread, spread some pesto on the inside of both slices and laid a couple slices of Monterey Jack in between. Yum! I highly recommend this for a quick lunch or dinner any day.

Recipe: Quinoa with Nuts and Cilantro

Tonight I tried my second recipe from Pinterest (and finally got a chance to try quinoa again!): Quinoa with Pine Nuts Slivered Almonds and Cilantro.

Source: kalynskitchen.com via Megan on Pinterest

Unlike last time, I stayed pretty close to the original recipe (from Kalyn's Kitchen). I traded out the pine nuts for slivered almonds, but even that was a recommendation from Kalyn. I also made chicken and mushrooms on the stove while the quinoa was simmering, and threw it all together in a bowl at the end. Yum! Definite repeat recipe. (And so easy! Not many ingredients.)

Recipe: Pesto Pasta with Sausage (Round 2)

I'm either stubborn or stupid, but I took another shot at the recipe I so miserably ruined last night. It might not look as pretty as it does on Pinterest, but this time it worked! Luckily, I only cooked half the amount of extra ingredients necessary for the pasta last night and stored the leftovers separately. I had only defrosted two links of sausage before I went to work, so I only cooked enough extra ingredients (sausage, garlic and green beans) to go with half the pasta I had made. That turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because that meant after I finished those leftovers at lunch today, I could heat up the remaining pasta and start over again tonight!

I made a few changes to my already modified recipe. I switched the green beans out for mushrooms and forgot about the slivered almonds until I was halfway through my dish, so I guess I'm saving them for another recipe. And I remembered to slice the sausage this time! That really helped. This is the final recipe (amounts adjusted so you can make one big dish at once and not split it up like I did):

Recipe: Pesto Pasta with Sausage

I attempted my first (slightly modified) Pinterest recipe tonight: Pesto Pasta with Chicken Sausage & Roasted Brussels Sprouts Green Beans.

Photo via Gimme Some Oven

I was developing the typical cooking blog post in my head while I was preparing my ingredients: Introduce with lovely photograph of what I'm attempting to make (above), list the ingredients and document each step of the recipe with photos and explanations. Well, if you want a photo, this is the only one you're getting:

On My Own: Eat

It's been so long since I've posted in my "On My Own" series that you've probably either forgotten I moved into a new apartment or just don't care anymore. I've been a little distracted by some other blogging projects (mostly about books), but I haven't forgotten my promise to detail my new apartment for you! Today's focus is eat.

1. My "kitchen" is actually a bunch of cabinets and appliances against one wall of my studio. I don't have an oven, but I do have a four-burner cooktop and I bought a slow cooker, so I can still make pretty much anything except baked goods. I hung my study abroad photo contest prize on the wall, one of only two pieces of artwork I've actually hung so far. (The other is a zebra canvas, also from Rwanda.)
2. The mini-fridge makes storing a gallon of milk difficult, but other than that it is perfectly adequate for only one person. The apartment came with all the appliances shown here, including the microwave, toaster oven and coffeemaker (yay!). The only kitchen things I had to buy when I arrived were a kettle and a slow cooker. The cabinets were even fully stocked with dishes!
3. I keep my food organized with a cheap storage unit I got at Target a few summers ago on sale for about $15. The top left cube is for breakfast/beverages, the top right is for snacks, and the bottom cubes are for more substantial food items, including pasta, soup and canned vegetables.
4. I do have a large table that I can eat at, but I prefer to use this adorable little TV table that came with the studio. It folds up easily against the wall when I'm not using it, and it's the perfect size for my meal plus a book, laptop or TV remote. I also got an "energizing" three-wick candle at Bath and Body Works (limited-time only 2 for $20 promotion!) that I've been burning through pretty quickly. Being able to burn candles hasn't lost its novelty yet!

Stay tuned for the final three installments in this series: Sleep, Work and Play.

I found quinoa!

Last week, I posted a couple quinoa recipes that I really wanted to try after I tasted the grain for the first time in Albuquerque. Alas, on my next grocery trip, I couldn't find any. Boo. So today I stopped by Sunflower Farmers Market on a tip from my fellow intern, and I was able to buy a pound! Woo! Look for a post on the success (or failure) of my very first quinoa dish later this week.

 

Sunflower Market also had surprisingly cheap spices, which I had been avoiding buying because of their ridiculous price tags. I bought cilantro, garlic, olive oil and pesto (which I plan to use for this and this), so I can do some real cooking now! The market is pretty close to where I work, so I think that will be my go-to store from now on when I need to pick up just one or two ingredients for an intriguing recipe. The staff was also really helpful. (I had no idea where to look for the pesto, what it was sold in, etc.)

Note: I apologize for the image quality. These pictures were taken on my phone.

Newest discovery: Quinoa

Up until now, my "Newest Discovery" posts have all been centered around websites (Etsy, Polyvore & Goodreads). But today, I want to take a different tack. I discovered a new food item on Friday night, and I absolutely love it. In fact, I've spent the last hour looking for recipes including this item on Pinterest.

If you can read, you already know what this food is: quinoa. According to Epicurious: "Quinoa, whose name means 'mother grain,' is indigenous to Peru and dates from the time of the Inca civilization. Compared with other grains, quinoa is very high in protein and relatively low in carbohydrates." (Apparently, Epicurious likes to personify its food. Who knew?)

Source: kalynskitchen.com via Megan on Pinterest

How many of you have heard of this delicious grain?

Am I the only one who was in the dark?

Last weekend, my dad was driving through Albuquerque for work, so I made the quick drive south to have dinner with him. We went to the Standard Diner, a quirky little restaurant near the University of New Mexico. I think the restaurant itself warrants its own post, so I'll just continue with the quinoa for now. I had seen this strange word several times over the past week, as I had been reading several environmental blogs and news sites and quinoa is a popular vegetarian dish. I decided to give it a try and ordered the Quinoa Stuffed Acorn Squash. Boy, was I not disappointed! Yum yum!

Recipe: Asparagus Pesto Grilled Cheese

Some people like to cook their way through cookbooks. This year, I want to cook my way through my friend Amanda's Pinterest board titled: "Simple Dinners #postgradlife."

But seriously, her pinned dishes look delicious. Tonight I stumbled upon this particular recipe, which I am dying to try. Unfortunately, I've used up most of my grocery budget for this month (hopefully the food can last two more weeks!), but look out for a review of this dish in February. :)

Source: closetcooking.com via Amanda on Pinterest

Recipe below is copied from here: