The Time Has Come for Colds and Overcoats

This is the Father's Day Card Boyfriend sent to my Dad, saying it reminded him of me!

It probably feels that way, but this blog isn't turning in to a recipe blog, I promise. It's just for now, while the weather sways between sunny and kindof warmish and freezing and overcast/rainy there aren't a whole lot of adventures going on in my life. Plus, I'm really trying to focus on finding on job so that doesn't make for very exciting days, either.

Boyfriend's name has been resolved, sortof. I'd prefer to call him Beau because it means both handsome and someone's sweetheart which Boyfriend is and it's also a guy's name so it'd be easy just to start referring to him as that, but after reading everyone's suggestions in the comments he would like to be called MOTH Dude, like some sort of super hero! He has been thinking up a MOTH Dude theme song, contemplating what sort of outfit MOTH Dude should wear, and even referring to himself (in public!) as MOTH Dude to drive me crazy!

Friday night MOTH Dude and I headed out to an uncelebratory dinner for me not getting the job. There is a SsS BBQ Barn not far from us and we've been wanting to try it because they serve ribs. It wasn't that great and we won't be going back. I ordered a margarita and it tasted like a frozen lemonade, I don't think there was any tequila in it at all. The ribs fell of the bone, but there was less than you'd get at Tony Roma's in Sydney and they needed more sauce. MOTH Dude was starving so he ordered a damper roll that was $5 and the size of a bread roll! We were full when we left, but not satisfied and for $87 you want to leave a place satisfied!

After that, we went over to the Soccer Player and the Hairdresser's place and hung out with them and the baby and it was just a fun, relaxed night sitting around talking and watching the football game on in the background.

Saturday morning we got up and went to the Farmer's Market at The Entrance with MOTH's parents. It was a beautiful day and although the market was super crowded and more expensive and had less produce than I am used to, it was nice that after we were done shopping that we could sit on the walkway with our feet hanging over the water and look for schools of fish swimming by. Saturday night, we went over to the Farmer and Tinkerbell's house and it was another fun, relaxed night of sitting around and talking with friends.

Sunday morning, I slept in super later, while MOTH actually got up early and was productive. He went out for a dive at one of the local beaches and it was so cute to see him when he got home because he was bursting with excitement and happiness over all that he had seen. He told me all about it then proceeded to pass out for 3 hours, while I baked up a storm for our weekly dinner at his grandparents' house.

And that was our weekend! Now it's Monday, nearly noon my time and I'm waiting for my family to get back from dinner so I can call my Dad for Father's Day. I'm also working on finishing up my contracting job for the University my Mom is working for and I've got soup started in the Crocpot. So yeah, it's not a recipe blog, but I do have another recipe for you all today. Now a) I claim to not eat pork, but I ate ribs the other day and there is ham in this soup, so I guess I go through phases and b) Yes, I know ham and lentil soup sounds kind of yuck/boring, but it's actually really, really good! One of our family friends threw this together with stuff she found in our fridge the day after Easter and I was skeptical at first, but after having a taste I was hooked and had been craving it ever since! It's really cheap and easy to make, which is a bonus, too! MOTH and I both agreed that the soup kind of tastes like smokey Mexican beans.

You Will Need

1. Crocpot

2. 2 Tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

3. 1 Medium Brown Onion

4. 1 Heading Tablespoon of Minced Garlic

5. 1 Large or 2 Medium Ham Hocks

6. 1.5 Liters of Chicken Broth (I use a brand called Massel)

7. 1 Bag of Green Lentils, I think the bag is about 300 grams? or maybe 1.5 cups worth, dried

8. Blender

What To Do

1. Turn your Crocpot on to high and add Olive Oil.

2. Chop up the Onion and add that and the Garlic to the Oil. Let sit for a few minutes, I don't know if this really sautes them or not since Crocpots cook at such a low heat, but I like to pretend it does anyway.

3. Throw in your Ham Hock(s).

4. Add .5-1 Liter of the Chicken Broth.

5. Let the Ham Hock(s) simmer away on low for 6 hours. Meanwhile, soak your Lentils in water for 6-7 hours (can also be done before hand and soaked the night before).

6. Add Lentils to Broth and turn up to high for 2-3 hours, until Lentils are soft and all meat is falling off the bones.

7. Fish out the bone and fat.

8. Scoop half of the Lentils, Ham, and Broth out and into a blender and blend on a medium setting for about 15 seconds.

9. Pour the blended stuff back in with the Broth and other Lentils and mix the two batches together.

10. Serve with hot bread.

We got 6 HUGE servings out of this.

There is Nothing to Keep Me from Coming Back to You

Source

(Yes, I'm singing a love song to my food in the title there like only a fat kid could!)

Tonight I made Avocado Chicken Cakes, Cous Cous, and Mom pitched in and made an Organic Spinach Salad with Oranges and Trader Joe's Soy Sesame Dressing. It was so delish! Oh man, I'd go back and have seconds if I wasn't so full from my first mega serving. I don't think I've ever had cous cous before, is that weird? I've certainly never made it, but it was super simple and really tasty. Here are the recipes for the Avocado Chicken Cakes from the blog Cake, Batter, and Bowl and the Sauteed Garlic and Onion Cous Cous from Hot Off the Garlic Press. In case you've forgotten how I do this, my changes to their recipes will be in parenthesis as we go.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil (Like I really measure this stuff, I just poured some in to my fry pan)
1/2 cup chopped red onions (I used white)
2 garlic cloves, minced (I used a big heaping tablespoon of the crushed stuff in a jar)
2 cups cooked shredded chicken (I used 3 medium sized chicken breasts since this recipe says it serves 2)
1/2 avocado, mashed (mine was a little less than 1/2 cup) (I used 2 medium avocados)
1 cup panko (I poured out 2 cups but ended up with about 1/3-1/2 panko crumbs left over at the end)
1/4 teaspoon cumin (didn't measure, I just sprinkled some in)
1/4 teaspoon paprika (didn't have so I used some chili powder)
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano (no measuring, just sprinkling)
1/2 teaspoon salt (probably used a bit less than that)
1 egg, beaten (used 2 eggs since I was doubling the recipe)
5 tablespoons of your favorite salsa

Directions:

(Cook chicken if you haven't already)

Heat 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat and sauté onions for 5-7 minutes, or until soft. Add garlic and sauté one additional minute.

In medium bowl, mix together the shredded chicken, onion mixture, avocado, 1/3 cup panko, cumin, paprika, oregano, salt, and egg. Shape mixture into 5 cakes that are 1/2-inch thick; lightly coat all sides of each cake in the remaining 2/3 cup panko.

Heat 1/2 tablespoon olive oil over medium high heat in a nonstick skillet. Add 2 chicken cakes and cook until golden brown, about 2-3 minutes per side. Repeat with remaining 1/2 tablespoon olive oil and 3 chicken cakes. Drizzle 1 tablespoon of salsa over each chicken cake. (Maybe because I had my heat on high, but there is no way that 1/2 tablespoon was enough for 2 of the cakes, just pour some oil in, fry these guys off and if you need more, add more) Makes 2 servings.

Nutrition: 468 calories, 13.9g fat, 1.8g fiber, 45.3g protein per serving

Source

Sautéed Garlic and Onion Couscous:

2 drizzles of Olive oil, divided

1 clove garlic

1/3 of an onion, sliced into 1/2 rings

chicken stock or bouillon (I used Trader Joe's Organic Free Range Chicken Broth)

couscous (I used Trader Joe's Whole Wheat Cous Cous)


Add a drizzle of olive oil to small saucepan and in the onion. Saute over low heat until onions turn translucent, being careful not to burn the onion {this will probably take about 10 minutes}. Add a clove off finely minced garlic.

Make chicken stock out of the bouillon according to package directions, for mine it is 1 c. water to 1 tsp granules. Then add the stock to the onions and garlic and use as you would water according to package directions on your cous cous. (I had to add about another 1/2-3/4 cup of stock then what was called for on the recipe because my cous cous was looking dry half way through)

Sorry, this may be confusing. Each of the couscous brands has a different water to couscous ratio they use, so make up however much stock you need and then add however much couscous your package calls for, my current is 1 1/2 c. stock to 1 c. cous cous, plus the garlic and onions we added. The package will tell you the rest, which will likely be something like 'after combining the water {stock} and cous cous, remove from heat and leave it to absorb for 5 minutes before fluffing with a fork and serving'.

Drizzle with another light drizzle of Olive Oil and serve. (I also added a tiny bit of salt and some cracked pepper to this)

All-in-all this was a fairly simple dinner to make. I did get the stove pretty messy with spilled cous cous and some oil splatters, but the taste made up for all of that. Hope you enjoy it!

Oh, Mexico....Baby's Hungry and the Money's All Gone

We've been eating very healthily around here for the past week and Dad and I have been trying to get our 10,000 steps in a day (he's been doing better than I have, sometimes getting as much as 16,000 a day, but I am at least doing 30 minutes of working out each day) and since I do the cooking around here, I also do the menu planning. One night I made fish tacos, another night I made lettuce wraps, and one night I did Mexican chicken and rice, which I had never made before and that turned out amazingly! Since I thought it turned out so well I wanted to share what I threw in to the pot with you in case you want something delicious, healthy and super cheap some night. (Skip to the bottom of the post if you could care less about the recipe because there is more news from me down there.)

Mexican Chicken and Rice

You will need:

4 Chicken Breasts

White Rice, I used what we had which was basmati...probably about 2 cups (I just dumped part of the bag in to the pot)

1.5 tablespoons of minced garlic

2 Large Chicken Stock Cubes...I used the Knorr brand which are bigger than stock cubes I've seen in Aus, so might need 3 if you don't have access to Knorr

3 Tablespoons of Olive Oil (this is approximate, I just dumped some in to the pan that I thought was right for the amount of garlic and onion I had)

3/4 of a brown or yellow onion

1/2 red bell pepper

A couple of shakes from No salt Mrs. Dash or whatever multipurpose seasoning you use for cooking

A couple of dashes of cracked black pepper

A 28 oz (794 g) can of tomatoes

Water, about half of the empty tomato can's worth

1/2 Can of Diced Green Chiles (I used Ortega Fire Roasted Chiles, these are mild), you could probably use fresh green chiles, just a lot less

Instructions:

1. Dice up your onion and red bell pepper fairly small.

2. Pour olive oil in to a large pot and start heating it up. Add garlic and onion and saute for about 2 minutes, you just want to sweat the onions, not get them brown.

3. Add the red bell pepper to the pot and saute them for a minute, before adding the green chiles and sauteing them for another minute.

4. Add the can of tomatoes, water, the stock cubes, and the spices and let cook to boiling for 5 minutes. Make sure you keep stirring the sauce so it doesn't burn on the bottom.

5. Add the chicken breasts whole to the sauce and turn down to simmer. Cook for approximately an hour and then try to shred the chicken breast with two forks in the pot. Let the sauce and chicken cook for another 30 minutes and then shred it further if you couldn't get the chicken to shred in to small pieces before.

6. At this point, you should have a lot of sauce in the pot still. Mine looked pretty watery. I was going to originally serve this as a stew over rice, but when I noticed how runny the sauce looked, I decided to pour the rice directly in to the pot and let it simmer for another 20 minutes.

7. After 20 minutes all the liquid should be absorbed and you should have a delicious pot of Mexican Chicken and Rice.

I was surprised how good this turned out. My Mom ate it for lunch and dinner the next day in San Francisco and called me raving about how good it was. I'm already craving it again so it's a good thing that I have all the ingredients in the cupboard still because we will be having this for dinner again this week at some point!

Still no ETA for when I'll be back in Australia, but Boyfriend and I have both been working on my visa stuff this week. Hopefully his stuff will arrive by Thursday next week and then I can send off all the paperwork to the Washington office on Friday and then fingers crossed that I have a quick turn around time for my visa being granted and can be back in Australia by April.

Tonight Boyfriend is headed down to Sydney with Bob Marley, the Miner, Croc, the Teacher, Tinkerbell, and the Farmer to see ACDC. I'm bummed that I am missing out because I think it would've been a really fun night with everyone, but I'm glad that my ticket could go to Bob Marley in my place.

Also, GREAT news: Boyfriend went in for an interview this week and he got the job!!! Woohoo! He is really excited about it and the company seems pretty cool: they are an engineering company who focus on building sustainably. I'm so happy for him and can't wait to hear all about his first days there.

Who Says You Can't Go Back, Been All Around the World and As a Matter of Fact There's Only One Place Left I Want To Go, Who Says You Can't Go Home

Friday, Mom and I spent the day hitting the shops on Market St. in San Francisco. I got a new shirt at Old Navy and a really cute beanie for $7 at H&M, it's one of those beret beanies that sit on the back of your head and I've been wanting one for about 3 years now. We also hit some expensive market and got supplies so that I could make the "Nicole Richie Chicken" for my parents. They both thought it was really good, too.

Saturday morning we got up and cleaned the apartment before making our way down south in to Santa Cruz. My Dad drives the 17 (a really winding highway that goes up over a mountain from San Jose in to Santa Cruz) like a maniac now that he has his fancy TT. We met up with Nae at Costco and ate a quick and ridiculously cheap lunch there. Nae then dragged me all over downtown Santa Cruz looking for pieces for her Old Greg Halloween costume. They had closed off the street and all these little kids were out trick-or-treating at the shops and there were some super cute costumes, like this one little boy who could barely walk who was dressed as a little chick and he toddled around and had the perfect body proportions so that he really did look like a 2 foot tall chick walking down the street!

If you haven't seen Old Greg and have no idea what I'm talking about, here is the video. It is a little rude and quite bizarre!

After we had all the pieces, we went back to her place where her roommate, the Camp Counselor, was out back drinking her favorite beverage of all time, Coors Light, and who gave me a big welcome back hug. I'm still trying to get her to come out and meet and marry Boyfriend's brother Bob because I think they are made for each other. We then headed out to Mom and Dad's house. It was as beautiful as I had remembered it and there were some new additions to the place that made it even nicer. The parents and Nae all had Halloween plans so I stayed in and had a mellow night of watching the World Series Game and Tool Academy 2.

Yesterday, Mom woke me up way too early and we went down to the beach with Dad and I made them do some bootcamp workout moves on the park benches. Mom wanted us to go down because she had seen a sick sealion on the shore and wanted to see if the rescue service she had called had come down to pick it up yet. As we walked up to it, there were these two tourist ladies circling it and taking its picture and nearly touching it. The poor thing was really agitated so Mom yelled at them to back off and finally they did. (Mom and Dad just got back from another walk down to the beach and said that the sea lion was gone so it either swam away or was picked up by the service, which is good because lots of times they just come up on shore and aren't rescued and die there.) After that, Mom was nice enough to take me to Target, where we got lots of bathroom/beauty supplies for me and some tacky Christmas earrings and brooches from the $1 section for all my friends back home for our Christmas in July party next year. Then we went to Trader Joe's and did the grocery shopping for the week. I was in heaven, but I tried not to go too overboard and kept in mind that I'm still on a diet until Boyfriend gets here. When we got home, Dad was gearing up to paint one of their patios and as it was gorgeous weather, I offered to help him.

Today I spent my morning applying to jobs in the area and figuring out how I get on to substitute teaching lists. I was told by one office that the list of subs is pretty long right now and it's near impossible to get work unless you know teachers who can recommend you. When I phoned another school district's offices they told me I might be able to get some work, but first I'd need to go get a TB test so I spent part of my afternoon down at the County Health Office getting the test done and I have to go back on Wednesday so they can look at it and tell me whether or not I am in the clear.

Tomorrow is supposed to be another gorgeous day around here- sunny and temps of about 80 so I think I will do my online job applications out by the pool and help Dad put another coat of paint on the patio. Life is good!

Ikea: Selling Furniture for College Kids and Divorced Men

Yesterday was a really fun day. I had the best gnocchi for lunch and the restaurant we ate at was nice because they had an outside patio area overlooking the Paramatta River. It was so gross there at times, though, because apparently you are still allowed to smoke in outside dining areas in Australia. So I enjoyed my gnocchi and some nasty second hand smoke for lunch. Yuck!

Boyfriend's Mom seemed to enjoy her surprise birthday trip down to Ikea and she, Boyfriend and Boyfriend's Dad walked through every display set up in the store playing with stuff. She ended up buying some baking dishes and Boyfriend and I came home with two new pillows for the couch ($10 for the pillow and case a piece), a teeny tiny vase for my bedside table that I can pick freesia to put in for $1.50, a pack of tea light candles Boyfriend liked that smelled like apples and cinnamon and some cute, plain tea light holders (4/$2.50). Man, I love a bargain! We also had to stop in the food shop on the way out and we bought these yummy oat chocolate cookies and split the box with Boyfriend's parents, two bottles of the blueberry syrup, lingonberry jam and white sauce to go with our meatballs we bought last time (Bun told me you have to do them this way as this is the traditional and best way to have them), and blueberry soup (which kind of looks like runny blueberry yogurt). Oh, and blueberry jam. If it had the word blueberry on it, Boyfriend bought it; he went kind of nuts in the food store area!

kea ended up taking all day and we didn't get home til about 6 and we wanted something to do for the night so I messaged LC and Croc to see if there were any plans on and LC called me back and we made plans for dinner. We went to the Soccer Club the next street over from our house and had Chinese for dinner. (Sidenote: I've never seen so many "clubs" before in my life since I've lived here and they are not clubs like "let's go out to the club and dance" type places but think like mini casinos in a sense and they have them for football teams, the local soccer team, there are workers clubs, bowling clubs, golf clubs, returned servicemen clubs, etc, etc...And each seems to be successful and bring in tons of money...I live in a fairly small area and within a 5 mile radius I probably have about 5 of these different types of clubs near me!) It was crowded and smokey at the Soccer Club and LC didn't want to keep baby Lo out in it for too long so we decided after Boyfriend and I stopped at home to pick him up some beer to head over to there house to hang out for awhile. We all just talked and watched tv and it was a fun and mellow night. Boyfriend and Bob Marley planned their debaucherous bachelor party weekend coming up in two weeks time and LC and I gave them dirty looks and told them "Fine, we'll get drunk and spend your money on dresses for the wedding that day then!" I got to drive us home and you'd think I was a kid with a learner's permit because driving doesn't feel like a chore when you don't do it all the time and I was excited to drive the 10 minutes home!

Today I'm home alone as Boyfriend is at church and then going to lunch at a church person's house. It's also Father's Day here (our Mother's Days are on the same days, but for some reason Father's Days are at different times) so we are having dinner at Nan and Pop's with everyone later tonight. We got Boyfriend's Dad tons of organic seeds for his garden because he planted a big, amazing veggie garden last year and we're hoping he'll do it again this year and we even got him some artichoke seeds in the hopes that he would grow us some because artichokes are fairly hard to come by and fairly small and really expensive to buy when they are available here! I'm off to bake a bunch of cupcakes for dinner tonight and do laundry that has been piling up for the last week and a half. Happy Aussie Father's Day to my Dad, I love you! (I'm not sure my Dad even knows I have a blog and if he does, he's probably never checked it out, but minor details, just in case someday he stops by, I'm thinking about you Big Guy!) Hope you guys are having a great weekend where ever you are and if you are in the States that you are enjoying your nice long weekend.

Spice It Up

(I hope Stephanie over at http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/ doesn't mind that I copied her ingredient picture idea!)

Another cold night here north of Sydney. Boyfriend had said last week that he would like soup again this week so I agreed to make some tonight. (Shoot, I should totally post my recipe for Homemade Tomato Basil Soup, too!) I had tried this soup one night back home with Mom and Dad. I found it on a blog about Trader Joe's recipes and it is super simple to make and tastes really good. I've already been having sips out of the pot waiting for Boyfriend to get home and this version, although different from the one I made for Mom and Dad, is really tastey, too. I hope he likes it!

Chicken Albondigas Soup...aka White Girl Mexican Chicken Meatball Soup

The Trader Joe's recipe is basically a box of their organic chicken broth, a jar of fresh salsa, and a pack of their precooked frozen chicken meatballs. All you do is throw everything in a pot together and let it simmer. It is that easy!

To bad we don't have Trader Joe's here but this recipe is pretty much just as easy:

-Premade meatballs

(or I made my own using 500g of chicken mince, some bread crumbs, onion powder, minced garlic, salt, pepper, and one egg and mixed together and formed in to balls).

-Cook the meatballs/chicken balls if they are not precooked.

-In a large pot, add one box (I think these are equivalent to 4 cups) of chicken stock.

-Add one jar of salsa (I used Aldi's organic Medium salsa, the fresh stuff is better, but I don't think I've ever seen fresh salsa here and I'm too lazy to make my own).

-Add your meatballs/chicken balls and let simmer.

-I added a little bit of celery salt, more pepper, some chili powder to give it more spice, and some water as I thought it was pretty salty. Keep adding water and spices until you get your desired taste.

-I didn't have any, but this would be even better with some cilantro (aka coriander for those in Aus) and you could probably also throw some rice or corn. I'm running low on tortillas from the great Sydney Mexican take away place and on those I brought from CA so we aren't having tortillas with this, but it would be really nice and make it feel even more like a full on Mexican dinner.

Hope you enjoy! I can't wait to have this in a few and then again for breakfast/lunch tomorrow!

Funky Chicken

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/05/crockpot-cream-cheese-chicken-recipe.html

Check out the above link to make a very easy and very yummy chicken dish in your crockpot. The picture is not mine, but comes from the site, as mine looked a bit like throw up, but believe me the taste is the opposite of that. Haha, I'm not sure I'm selling this right but it's really, really good. It's called cream cheese chicken and we're having it for dinner tonight. I'm serving it over mashed potatoes. You can see the original author of the recipe did it over pasta and I think it would make a tastey dip with chips or crackers. Another person commented on the crockpot blog that they use this chicken dish as their filling for enchiladas and then just add the salsa and cheese. Boyfriend isn't home from work yet (it's nearly 9pm and he leaves at 5:30a.m. to give you a picture of how long his day is) but this dish smells so good so I've had to do a few taste tests along the way ;) I'll give you the recipe below that I did and be sure to check out the crockpot blog for this recipe and many other awesome and easy recipes.

Cream Cheese Crockpot Chicken

2 Chicken Breasts

1 Can of Cream of Mushroom Soup

2 Tablespoons of Minced Garlic

1 Tablespoon of Sugar (yep, sugar)

Couple of cracks of pepper (you know, just chk-chk the thing a few times)

Couple of cracks of sea salt

1 Teaspoon of Celery Seed

1 Tablespoon of Onion Powder

2 Tablespoons of Italian Herbs

Half of a round container of Phili Cream Cheese, the regular, not large size, or about half a stick of Phili, the regular size

Throw the chicken breasts in to the crockpot frozen. Cover with all the dry ingredients and then dump the can of soup over it. Cook on low for 5-8 hours until you can pull the chicken apart with two forks. A half an hour before you want to serve this dish, dump in the cream cheese and make sure it melts and mixes in with the rest of the sauce. Serve it over whatever you feel like! Depending on what you like/where you live, this might be a little too hearty to eat right now in summer weather, but here in Aus it is perfect on a cold night like tonight!

Coffee, Mate?

Never ever in my life have I bought CoffeeMate back home, though some of the holiday flavors they have always tempted me to. Well, last week I really started craving iced coffee, being poor and not having a Starbucks near by (or really any cafe for that matter) I looked in to whether or not CoffeeMate was sold in Australia so that I could add it to my own iced coffee at home. It is, in fact, but only in the powdered form or in those a 10 pack of those little cap sized containers and at like $4 for a pack I figured I could make my own at home with "real" ingredients rather than chemicals and stuff and maybe for cheaper so I did some googling and here is the recipe I came up with, modified from ones I found online. I have been having an iced coffee with breakfast and lunch for the past two days and they are so delicious (and doing it this way with the skim milk products, not too bad for me, either)!

Vanilla "CoffeeMate"

2 cans of skim sweetened condensed milk

3-3.5 cups of skim milk (depending on how thick and sweet you want it to be)

2 tablespoons of vanilla extract*

*if you wanted to make an almond flavored one, you could add 2 tablespoons of almond extract instead, or 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder to make a chocolate flavored one, or 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder and a tablespoon of either mint or raspberry to end up with chocolate mint or chocolate raspberry flavor, the possibilities are pretty endless

I poured all these ingredients in to a washed out milk container and then just shook it vigorously (cap on obviously) until all the ingredients were combined. If you don't do that, the condensed milk won't mix in and will just sit on the bottom of the container.

This stuff will supposedly keep for 2 weeks. I only made half the recipe and I will be out of it before the week is up I'm sure so I won't be able to test whether or not it really does have that long of a shelf life yet.

Working It Out

How is it possible that I still don't have a job? I've put in my resume at a bunch of stores (grocery, clothing, discount) and emailed out resumes to schools for admin positions and I don't hear back about any of them. It's been two months since I went to all the local schools and put in my substitute teaching resumes and I still haven't gotten any calls to substitute teach. I think I should call them back and remind them of my existence and the fact that I live super close to the schools so they can call me late in the morning and I can still be there on time.

Anyway, because of not working, sometimes I get a little restless. It doesn't help the fact that it is freezing and raining outside. We all also know by now that I've got a bit of a sweet tooth. So what does one do on a boring, cold and rainy day when they are poor? They think about what they've got in the cupboard and how they can bake something fabulous out of those ingredients.

Today I bring you Microwave Chocolate Cake! (I know it doesn't look lovely in my picture, make fun of it all you want, but it's good and it only took 5 minutes to cook and you can't beat that can you?)

Mine wasn't as chocolatey as I like it so I will tweek the recipe down below and hopefully that will help you when you try and make it. I also added some Betty Crocker Vanilla frosting to mine and that could be why the cake didn't taste so sweet because that stuff is super sweet.

3/4 cup of flour

1/2 cup of sugar (I used brown cause it's what I had and it worked fine)

1/4 cup of oil

2 teaspoons of cocoa powder (I used this fairly unsugary italian style hot chocolate powder I had)

1 teaspoon of vanilla or vanilla essence

2 eggs

1/4 cup of water

1.5 Tablespoons of baking powder

(pinch of salt....that's what the recipe I based this off of said but I didn't use any salt and it was fine)

(2 big squirts of chocolate syrup or another tablespoon of hot chocolate to get that bigger chocolate cake--I didn't do this, but I will next time)

So mix your flour, sugar and baking powder together. Sift it if you want to be fancy, but I don't think it's necessary.

In another bowl, mix the cocoa, vanilla, water, and oil together til well blended.

Add the eggs to the flour mixture and combined well.

Pour in the liquid mixture and mix the wet and dry together til all of the liquid blends in to the dry stuff and it looks like a regular cake mix (my liquid sat on top for awhile, I really had to mix it through for it all to combine).

In a separate, large microwave safe bowl or dish, coat with oil or butter and pour the cake batter in. (Make sure the bowl is pretty big, as my cake started to spill over the sides a tiny bit when it rose.)

Put in microwave on high power for 5 minutes.

And that's it, after 5 minutes the top of the cake should feel spongey and that's how you'll know it's done.

Eat it as is or throw some frosting on it to make it even more cake like.

You can make Aussie frosting (actually icing) by mixing together some milk and powdered (aka confectioners) sugar together til you get a thin icing consistancy....I think it takes lots of sugar to make.

If anyone wants to send me money or offer me a job, that'd be awesome!!