New Orleans Bowl!

Man it has for sure been a crazy busy couple of weeks. Right before Christmas I went to New Orleans with some friends for ECU's bowl game. This was the first big game I have been to without my parents or as a part of the Marching Pirates. Even though everyone I went with except one was in the band with me haha. Band nerds unite! Even though ECU did not win the game we still had a great trip and alot of fun. The car rides were kind of long but it was worth it to hang out with some friends I hadn't seen some of them in years! Here are a few of our pictures! 

These first two are from Natalie and I's pre road trip dinner with her family. We went to look at Christmas lights. 

My favorite haha

Group shot before the game!

We got photo bombed but it was kind of a cute picture still! 

We were right behind the cannon at first! 

PeeDee!

Did I mention that we were on row 2? And right next to the band which was ok by us since we are all band nerds!

Group shot! Aaaarrrggghh!

Post game but before dinner and fun!

Group shot in the hotel lobby before dinner.

We had an awesome waiter so we needed a picture with him!

Yet another photo bomb! That was awesome!

We found the perfect blues bar for Pirate fans!

Cheese! 

Christmas Crafts

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Now that Christmas has past I can finally post pictures of the crafting I have done before the holidays. All of my crafting was presents so it was a little hard to post pictures before the holidays. I have gotten really into the whole mesh wreath making. To buy one of these wreaths in the stores is like a good $50 or so, but it looked easy enough to make so I thought I would give it a try. There were also tons of diy instructions on Pinterest. If you want to learn how to make your own you can google it or if you are as addicted to Pinterest you can check out links on there. With it being so long ago when I started them I do not remember what links I watched first. 

This is the ECU wreath I made for my Mom. She already had a Christmas one so I went with ECU instead. Go Pirates!

This is the one I made for my Site Super Visor at my practicum site. I had shown her pictures of the others I had made and she tried making her own. So I made one for her :)

This one looks kind of crazy. I made this for my oldest sister Jennifer. I need to get a picture of it hanging either on her door or in her house. Then I don't think it will look so crazy. But this one took forever to make! I took it apart like 3 times!

I made this one for my middle sister Erin. She also had a Christmas wreath so I decided to make her's more winter than Christmas. The ones like this are really easy to make. 

Holiday Favorites!

Hello everyone! I told you I would be back more now that I am not stressed about classes and studying!  And as promised I have been doing alot of baking. One of the wonderful things about Christmas is you can bake a bunch of different things and it is totally ok! The first thing I have made this year is Snicker Doodle cookies (the recipe calls them Santa's SNICKERS Brand Surprises but thats too complicated) and Almond Cookies. I also made a sour cream pound cake but I don't have a great picture of that one... Maybe I will still share it ;)

Snicker Doodles
Ingredients:
- 2 sticks butter (softened)
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 3.5 cups all purpose flour (shifted)
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 package (13 oz) SNICKERS Brand Miniatures

Directions:
1. Combine the butter, peanut butter, and sugars using a mixer on a medium to low speed until light and fluffy.
2. Slowly add eggs and vanilla until throughly combined. Then mix in flour, salt, and baking soda.
3. Cover and chill dough for 2-3 hours.
4. Un-warp all the SNICKERS.
5. Remove dough from refrigerator. Divide into 1 tbls. pieces and flatten.
6. Place a SNICKERS in the center of each piece of dough.
7. Form the dough into a ball around each SNICKERS.
8. Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 300 degree for 10-12 minutes.
9. Let cookies cool on baking rack or wax paper.
*Makes about 2 dozen cookies

Almond Glazed Sugar Cookies:
Ingredients for Cookies:                               Ingredients for Glaze:
- 1 cup butter (softened)                               - 1.5 cups powered sugar
- 3/4 cup sugar                                             - 1 tsp. almond extract
- 1 tsp. almond extract                                 - 4 to 5 tsp. water
- 2 cups all purpose four                              - Sliced almonds
- 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/4 tsp. salt

Directions:
1. Combine butter, sugar, and almond extract in large mixing bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy. (1 to 2 minutes).
2. Reduce speed to low; add all remaining cookie ingredients. beat until well mixed (1 to 2 minutes).
3. Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Place 2 inches apart on cookie sheet.
4. Flatten balls into 1/4 inch thickness with the bottom of buttered glass dipped in sugar.
5. Bake at 400 degree for 7 to 9 minutes or until edges are very lightly browned.
6. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets. Cool Completely
7. Stir together all glaze ingredients in small bowl, with wire whisk.
8. Decorate cooled cookies with glaze and sliced almonds. Glaze sets up quickly so frost and decorate a few at a time.
* Makes 3.5 dozen.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake
Cake Mix:                                                       Topping:
- 1 cup butter                                                  - 1 cup chopped nuts
- 2 cups sugar                                                - 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 2 eggs                                                         - 2 T. brown sugar
- 1 cup Sour Cream                                    
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 cups flour
- 1/4 tsp. salt

Directions:
1. Mix together ingredients for topping and set aside.
2. Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy.
3. Add one egg at a time and mix until smooth.
4. Mix together sour cream and vanilla and fold into butter mixture.
5. Sift together baking powder, flour, and salt and fold into mixture.
6. Grease flour tube pan. Pur 1/2 batter, 1/2 topping, 1/2 batter and rest of topping.
7. Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour. Make sure it is done.
8. Cool completely and remove from pan.

I Passed!!!!!

Well I have officially heard gotten my test scores back from my comps exam and the NCE and the good news is I PASSED!!! I have never studied for anything so hard in my life. It just goes to show how some hard core studying can really pay off. For those of you who don't know my crazy study method.... I made about 1000 note cards... no I'm not joking. I turned the Encyclopedia of Counseling into note cards. I am very much a visual learner so writing the questions out helped me alot. I seriously thought about burning the note cards after the exam but they took me months to make so I couldn't do it. In stead I have passed them along to another girl in the program and told her to just keep passing them along. Hopefully they help other ASU counseling students as well.

Man it has been a crazy month or so! I thought the beginning of the semester was crazy with studying so much but the end was way crazier! Between finishing up classes, finishing my practicum, Christmas, and trying to pack to move it has been nuts. And for a little while I didn't know if I was going to be moving to another place in Wilkesboro or if I was moving back home. Well I'm moving back home which is not totally a bad thing, even though a job would have been nice.... one more semester!

So yes I am now back at home and getting ready for the final leg of masters program.... internship. Even though I am a little bummed I didn't get the job I am trying to remind myself that it just means God has something else planned for me and maybe I will get lucky and get a job in one of the school systems I really want. I will be doing my internship at Fuquay-Varina Middle School. I am pretty excited about it because the counselor that will be my supervisor really wanted an intern and is working on a plan to help me learn as much as possible in one semester. I doubt I will get to be as creative as I was at my practicum site in the elementary school but I am really wanting to do an expressive arts group so who knows. I am trying my best to live one day at a time and not stress too much about the future. Maybe that should be an early new years resolution...

Be on the look out for some Christmas cookie recipes as I will be starting to bake probably later today!

THINK before you speak!

Hello all! I am sitting at work and I should be doing homework since I don't have any work to do for the department but I can't because the website I need to do anything is down. Like majorly down. Code red down... well that is what the university email said. Something about it is down due to a code red error. I have spent most of the day on Pinterest. I have even deleted stuff off my computer from undergrad that I no longer need. I'm not sure why I am just now thinking about up dating my blog!

The counselor that I work with for my practicum is pretty freaking awesome! I have learned so much working with her and she is loving how much I love crafts! She found a picture of a poster that she could order but she wasn't crazy about it. It was black and white and very boring but had a GREAT message. There are so many ways to pull it into classroom guidance! She had me make three posters. One for the girls bathroom on the fourth and fifth grade hall and one for the boys bathroom on the same hall. And then another for outside her classroom door. Here are a few pictures:

Bruschetta Chicken

Hello Everyone! This will be a short sweet and to the point post. I will fill you in on the craziness that has been the past few weeks in some other posts that will probably come within the next day or so. A few weeks ago I had to take the National Counselors Exam (NCE). Well I came back to Boone early over my fall break to take this exam. As well as like 30 other people. We were suppose to be at the exam room by 8:30. I got there a little after 8 and there were a few other people there but no test administrator. I was thinking well we are really early. 8:30 comes and goes and everyone who is suppose to take the exam is there and still no test administrator. 9:00 comes and goes when the exam is suppose to start and still no test administrator. So finally someone calls the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC). Thankfully we had their number on a letter we had to bring with us. Well we still aren't sure what really happened but for some reason NBCC thought no one at Appalachian was taking the exam. So we were told sorry for the inconvenience but to go home and they would have to reschedule the exam.

Well thankfully they rescheduled the exam for the next weekend. I wasn't crazy about it because I had plans for that weekend but nonetheless I was glad to get it over with. Because I was now going to be stuck in the mountains on a Friday night that I wasn't planning on, I decided to make a really yummy dinner! Of course I found the recipe on Pinterest! I think you guys should know that most recipes I make come from my Mom or Pinterest haha! I made Bruschetta Chicken and I think it might be my favorite chicken dish ever!

Bruschetta Chicken
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup flour
- 2 eggs
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup crushed garlic croutons
- 1Tablespoon butter, melted
- 2 large tomatoes
- 3 Tablespoons minced fresh basil
- 2 garlic cloves, minced (approx. 1 teaspoon)
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease 9x13 baking dish.
2. Place flour and beaten eggs in separate shallow bowls. Dip chicken into flour, then into eggs. Place into baking dish.
3. Combine parmesan cheese, crushed croutons, and melted butter then sprinkle on chicken.
4. Loosely cover with foil. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until top is browned and chicken is cooked through.
5. Chop tomatoes and combine with last ingredients. Spoon mixture over chicken, and return to oven for 5-7 minutes or until tomato mixture is heated through.


* Bruschetta (tomatoes, garlic, basil, olive oil) can also be made in the blender. It depends on how fine you want your tomatoes chopped. I also had leftover bruschetta that I didn't put on the chicken. This could be a great appetizer on some toasted, small pieces of bread.

I made rice and a salad to go with the chicken dish. I really wanted to make asparagus with it but sadly I didn't have any and wasn't going to the store. But it was still good :)

Enjoy!

The Best Shrimp Ever!

Hello all! I am trying to get back into the swing of making new dishes now that I finally have a handle on the semester. I take the NCE this weekend and my Comps exam the next so studying has slowed but not stopped. I am trying to make sure I know the information without over studying. Lets sure hope I pass because I really never want to study like this ever again. I will still have to take the Praxis II but I have heard after taking these other two exams its not too bad. I will hopefully take that at some point this semester or next. I am starting to get things figured out for my internship next semester. I am hoping to land a job so I can get a paid internship but I am also making plans for a normal unpaid internship so I am not screwed come January. I will keep you all posted on that as I get it more figured out.

I am sad to say that I have not been running like I would like. My days have been so crazy and there is not as much free time as I want. I am hoping that next semester when every day is a little closer to the same schedule I can get back into running. My friend Stacy has said that I have inspired her to start running and she is also using a couch to 5K program. They seriously work if you just keep at it!! When I have had free time I have been doing some crafting. But I am making some Christmas presents so you don't get to see pictures until after Christmas!

Oh to what you really care about... The Best Shrimp Ever! Well I found this recipe of course on Pinterest and that is what it was called. When I clicked on the pin to go to the website I could not find the shrimp recipe. Luckily the recipe was in the pin so I was still able to make it. I love seafood! I eat don't eat alot of red meat or pork simply because A. usually more expensive and B. I only know so many ways to make it. I know seafood is usually expensive too but I like it more than red meat so I'm more apt to spend the money on it. This was a simple and easy recipe that I will totally be making alot I'm sure come lent. I made the shrimp with mashed potatoes and broccoli. You could also turn the juice that is in the bottom into a sauce and put it all over pasta.

The Best Shrimp Ever
Ingredients: 
- 1 pound fresh shrimp
- 1 stick of butter
- 1 lemon
- 1 packet of dried Italian seasoning

Directions:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degree.
2. Melt stick of butter on cookie sheet.
3. Slice the lemon and layer on top of the butter.
4. Layer shrimp on top of the lemon.
5. Sprinkle with Italian seasoning.
6. Bake for 15 minutes.






* I told you it was easy! I used frozen shrimp that I defrosted in some cold water. I also left the shells on while baking but I am sure you could do it the same way without the shells. For the Italian seasoning I just sprinkled it on there because I had it in a bottle versus the packet. I just eyeballed the amount making sure it got all over.

Crockpot Baked Ziti, BlackBean and Corn Salsa, and blanket up date!

Hello world! I am soooooooooo beyond ready for the National Counselors Exam, Comps, and the Praxis II to be over!!!I miss my life! I miss cooking and crafting. Ugh I have so much crafting I want to do. But the NCE is this coming Saturday and Comps a few weeks after that and I still haven't registered for the Praxis but it will happen this semester. I hope I pass all these exams because I never want to study like this ever again! Ugh! 

Well I have still be cooking. Not a whole lot of new things sadly. I have been making alot of things that I can make quickly so its usually stuff I know like the back of my hand. And alot of it is on the blog.... or frozen pizza. I did make a few new things lately. My friends and I were tailgating for an App football game and we all decided to bring food. I wasn't sure what to make for a while. I knew that I wanted to do something big and filling because I figured everyone else would bring sides. And I really wanted more than just sides. So I went to my trusty Pinterest boards! I came across crockpot baked ziti! It was so simple and so yummy! I will be making this again! 

Ingredients: 

1 pound ground beef

1 medium onion, chopped

2 teaspoons dried italian seasoning

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 (25 oz) jars pasta sauce

1 (15 oz) container ricotta cheese

1 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 (16 oz) boxes ziti pasta

Directions: 

1. Cook ground beef and onion in a large skillet over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until beef is no longer pink. Stir in seasonings to evenly coat meat; stir in pasta sauce. Set aside. 

2. Mix 1 cup mozzarella, the ricotta and parmesan in a medium bowl. Spoon 2 cups of meat sauce into the slow cooker; top with 2 cups ziti. Drop half of the cheese mixture, by rounded tablespoons, over ziti; carefully spread over ziti using back of spoon. Layer with 2 cups meat sauce, the remaining ziti and remaining cheese. Add remaining meat sauce, completely covering all the ziti and cheese. Place lid on slow cooker. 

3. Cook on low for 6 to 7 hours or high for 4 to 5 hours or until noodles are tender. 

4. Carefully remove lid to allow steam to escape. Sprinkle food with the remaining 1 cup mozzarella; let stand 10 minutes until melted. Serve directly from the slow cooker. 

*Use a crock pot liner! Reviews I read said otherwise you will hate your life when it comes time to clean the crockpot. I cooked mine on high for 4 hours and already the sides were starting to turn black. It still tasted fine I would just cook it on low and really keep an eye on it if you can. Also the cool thing is that you don't need to precook the pasta! Just dump it on in there. Some reviews said to rinse it in water before you use it so that is what I did. I'm not sure if it made the pasta any more moist or not but I figured it wouldn't hurt anything. 

The following Monday after that football game I was going to my practicum site. I usually go on Wednesdays but this Monday there were going to be some important meetings that I really wanted to observe. Woah baby did I get to see some great stuff that day! That Monday the ENCORE team (guidance, art, music and PE teachers) were all having lunch together. Something they try and do the first Monday of every month. What a great way to build community! I'm going to remember this! Well since I was going to be there I wanted to bring something too. My mom makes this salsa alot and it is always a huge hit! 

Black bean and corn salsa 

Ingredients: 

1 can black beans rinsed and drained

1 cup frozen corn that has been thawed 

1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper

1/2 cup fresh cilantro

8 green onions sliced

3 Tablespoons Lime juice or 1 Lime juiced

3 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar 

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions: 

1. Mix together in a dish and let sit in fridge until ready to serve. 

2. Serve with tortilla chips

*I used a green bell pepper because it is what I had. The color bell pepper doesn't matter. Use what you have. 

*Sorry I forgot to get a picture of the salsa. You just have to take my word for it that it looked and tasted yummy! 

The only crafting I have really had any time for is occasionally doing a row on my blanket before bed. It is really starting to look like a blanket! I am pretty proud of it so far! :)

Personal Space Camp and Superflex Game

Man on man this has been a crazy semester! I can't believe how fast the time is going. I know I haven't posted about a new recipe for a while but I sadly haven't been making too many new things. I have been making things I know how to make because by the time I get home I am too tired or in a hurry to do something new.

But I have been doing some awesome things at my practicum site! I have made a lesson plan for a second grade guidance lesson on personal space. It is actually two lessons because there is just so much you can do! My supervisor gave me the book Personal Space Camp to use with the class.  The plan is to read the book and then do a few activities with it.  One of the activities is a coloring sheet that I made myself and am very proud of.  I am also having the students role play ways to have personal space and ways to not have personal space. They are also going to be making space suits out of boxes and paper bags! That is part of why it is taking so long because I want to give them time to decorate their space suits. We are also going to talk about what to do if someone is in your personal space. If you are interested in my lesson plans let me know and I will gladly share.

I am also going to be doing a group for second grade boys on social skills. My supervisor had bought the Superflex Curriculum a few years ago and had not really liked it.  She had offered it to a practicum student a few years ago who was able to pick and choose a few things to use.  She also offered me the program to use. It is not really great for a school setting because it is 12 sessions that are kind of long. I will only get to work with my group for maybe 20 minutes at a time.  So I too just picked some things I thought I could use with the time I have. I also wanted to plan an activity that would keep them entertained and really engaged in what they are learning. So this weekend I made a board game! I based it around the Superflex characters and used strategies that they came up with. They have to roll the dice to see how far to move but in order to stay there they have to answer a card correctly. Here are a few pictures of the game.

* FYI- If you look at my board game it is a rather long game board. Because I only had my group (4 students in the group) for about 30 min we didn't come close to getting through the whole board. You might want to make it smaller or have a way to remember who is at what spot to pick the game back up next time. This worked great with my boys and this was the most engaged groups session I had with them. They also kept asking when they would get to play again!

Each card either has a "Unthinkable" character on it or a strategy. If it has an Unthinkable then they student has to name a strategy to defeat that Unthinkable. If it is a strategy card they have to name the Unthinkable they could use it against. 

This is the back side of the cards. 

My game board.

I printed out 6 Superflex pictures and glued them on different color paper to be our pieces. 

Cake Pops

I decided for the ECU vs. SCU game that I would make ECU cake pops. This was an away game for us so I knew we would at least have some down time at the hotel and would want something to munch on. I made a them out of lemon cake with purple white chocolate on the outside :)

Ingredients:

My finished product!

- 1 box cake mix (use any flavor you want)
- Things you need to make the cake according to the box
- 1 container of frosting that goes with the cake
- 3ish bags of candy melt (you can get it at craft stores. I used 2 bags of purple and not even half a bag of yellow for decoration.)
- candy sticks if you want

Directions:
1. Bake the cake in a 13x9 pan according to the box and let cool.
2. Crumble the cake and mix with all the frosting.
3. Form in to 1 or 2 bite size balls (Mine were way to big haha). Place on a cookie sheet with wax paper and put in the freezer about 10 or so minutes until not squishy.
4. Melt candy according to directions on package. Dip the balls in the candy and let cool.
5. Decorate as desired. Keep in fridge.

*There are several suggests on line on how best to dip and then dry the cake balls. I still have not mastered that part yet.

This was our view at the South Carolina game. I didn't take any more pictures because we lost so badly :-/ They did have a really awesome atmosphere. It was hard not to get pumped during their pre-game show! 

My first 5k!

Ok so I have needed to do this post for several weeks now. Can I just say this has been the craziest, busiest, and most stressful semester I have had in grad school. I think it is because I am taking my comprehensive exam and the National Counselors Exam (NCE). And my practicum class is really front loaded. So I think once I can get through October I will be ok.

So back to my first 5K. I ran in the MacNair Farms first annual 5K. My brother in law Jeff is actually the one who put it together has a fund raiser for the Athens Drive track team. (he is the head coach.) The race was an awesome trail run through the MacNair farms property. Parts of the race were in open fields, through the woods, along small farm roads. It was pretty cool. I really enjoyed the run. I ran the race in 38:36 which my Jeff said was really good for my first race. My friend Noah also ran the race. He got second in his age group! If you want to run a race let me know!!!I need to find another race to run so I don't loose motivation.

My Momma and I before the race!

Coming into the finish! I didn't feel like I was going to die so that is good!

Lemon Chicken

Hello everyone! I feel like I have been so bad about posting on my blog lately! It seems like every time I say I'm going to do it that night I end up doing something else! Well I have this lovely hour break between class and work so I might start working on my blog from campus haha!

Well speaking of campus it is my last semester of graduate classes! After this semester all I will have left is my internship! eek! I can't believe I am almost done. It is kind of overwhelming the thought of having to look for a job in a matter of months. Right now I am trying to focus on the three major tests I have to pass and then I will worry a little bit more about looking for a job. I don't know about any of you but I seriously HATE applying for jobs. So much anxiety. Even working on my resume makes me nervous because there are so many ways to do a resume! Ugh! At least this semester isn't looking like it will be too terrible class wise. I am talking research methods, gestalt therapy and my practicum class. Not to mention I will be in an elementary school one day a week observing and actually teaching/counseling students. Ok now I'm more nervous about the semester... Maybe I should just think about the delicious Lemon Chicken I made the other night for dinner.

I made this one night last week when my friend Elizabeth came over for dinner. I found the recipe of course on Pinterest. The website it actually came from is DisneyFamily.com. I have started looking at Pinterest to see what I want to make before I make my grocery list. Keeps me trying new recipes and helps me save money by not buying things I don't actually need. One of the reasons I loved this recipe so much is because of how light it is. When I saw that in called for frying the chicken I was a little nervous... but you don't really deep fry it so it is ok. It also reheats really well!

Lemon Chicken
Ingredients: 
- 2 large chicken breast fillets cut into bite size pieces
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch
- 2-3 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil
- 4 thinly sliced scallions, to serve
- 1 large lemon, zest and juice (1/4 cup)
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions 
1. Put the chicken in a bowl with the soy sauce. Leave to marinate for 30 minutes.
2. To make the sauce, whisk together the lemon zest and juice with the sugar, water and cornstarch in a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil, whisking constantly until thickened, then keep warm.
3. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large heavy-based saucepan. Whisk together the egg yolk and cornstarch in a small bowl to make a batter. Toss the chicken in the batter and fry for three to four minutes on each side until golden and cooking through.
     * I had issues at this step. When I mixed the egg yolk and the cornstarch it just made a gooey mess not really a batter. After talking to some people they suggested having them separate. Like dipping the chicken in the egg yolk and then the cornstarch. If you try it this way let me know which works best.
4. Transfer to a plate and spoon the warm lemon sauce over the chicken. Scatter the scallions over the dish before serving.

* I chose to serve the chicken over some angle hair pasta. The lemon from the chicken added a nice light lemon sauce also to the pasta. I also did not add the scallions because being on a tight budget I don't worry to much about garnish.

PS- I am running in my first 5K on Saturday!!! eeekkk I'm so excited and also very nervous. I am sure that I will be able to finish the race I just hope I don't trip.