30 Day Photography Challenge: Day 4

Day 4: Something green

Love is Louder Project

Do you ever get inspired by something simple? I am a big supporter of To Write Love On Her Arms, a non-profit organization that exists to provide support for people who suffer from depression, suicidal thoughts, cutting, addiction, etc. I think their message is really simple and beautiful. Today they introduced me to an even simpler concept, Love is Louder. It is the one year anniversary of this powerful movement, http://loveislouder.com/ They are encouraging their supporters to tweet using the hash tag #loveislouder as well as share art on their Facebook page. I'm really inspired by this concept, so much so that I decided to take advantage of their $18 deal on a Love is Louder shirt to help support the movement. While purchasing the shirt I noticed they had sharpies, notebooks, stickers and temporary tattoos as well. This gave me a great idea for a new project. Stay tuned...

30 Day Photography Challenge: Day 3

Day 3: Clouds

30 Day Photography Challenge: Day 2

Day 2: What you wore today

30 Day Photography Challenge: Day 1

Day 1: Self-portrait

30 Day Photography Challenge

I'm always looking for fun new ideas for my blog. I love discovering new places, products, recipes and crafts and sharing them on here. I'm hoping I'll have more time to discover new things since my work schedule is a little less hectic in the fall and winter. I found this 30 Day Photography Challenge online today. I think it will be a fun 30 Day Blog Series to share with everyone. I did a 30 Day Picture Challenge on Facebook one time but it was a lot of silly things like your favorite band where you just find random pictures online. This one is cool because you actually get to take the pictures each day. I wish I had a fancy digital camera to take super artistic photos but alas I do not. My handy dandy iPhone will have to do. I'm excited to get my creative juices flowing on this project. I will take the first picture tonight to officially begin my 30 Day Challenge. Stay tuned...

Grilled Ginger-Lime Tuna Steaks

If you know me, you know I love BettyCrocker.com and their array of delicious yet simple recipes for drinks, baked goods and dinner ideas. I recently bought some tuna steaks and wanted to find a simple yet delicious twist on how to make them. I came across a recipe for Grilled Ginger-Lime Tuna Steaks, I already had most of the ingredients in my apartment (all I needed to buy was ginger root) so I decided to give it a whirl.

Grilled Ginger-Lime Tuna Steaks

1/4 cup lime juice

2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil

2 teaspoons finely chopped gingerroot

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne)

2 cloves garlic, crushed (I used garlic powder instead)

Lime wedges, if desired 

Step 1: In shallow glass or plastic dish or resealable food-storage plastic bag, mix remaining ingredients except lime wedges. Add fish; turn to coat. Cover dish or seal bag and refrigerate, turning fish once, at least 1 hour but no longer than 24 hours.

Step 2: Heat coals or gas grill for direct heat. Remove fish from marinade; reserve marinade. Cover and grill fish about 4 inches from medium heat 11 to 15 minutes, brushing 2 or 3 times with marinade and turning once, until fish flakes easily with fork. Discard any remaining marinade. Serve fish with lime wedges.

For Step 2, I have a George Foreman grill so I looked up the cook time for tuna steaks on there and used that cook time {which is 2-3 minutes per half inch thickness} while still brushing the marinade on 2-3 times while cooking. No need to turn on a Foreman since it has cooking plates on both sides.

I served mine with red skin mashed potatoes and a steamer bag of healthy colors vegetables which included cauliflower, snap peas, carrots and cranberries. The tuna steaks were so delicious, this is definitely a recipe I plan to make again!      

Not So "Hard" Lemonade

I love trying new food and drink recipes, especially when they're not so hard to make. That's why I love BettyCrocker.com. They always have fun, unique ideas and they're recipes usually aren't too complicated. A new favorite drink recipe I discovered recently was their Not So "Hard" Lemonade. It's a play on words because it uses alcoholic or "hard" lemonade but it's a super simple recipe!

Ingrediants:
3 orange slices, each cut in half
3 lemon slices, each cut in half
3 small strawberries, each cut lengthwise in half
6 green grapes
A 6-pack of lemon malt beverage, chilled
1/3 cup grenadine syrup

 Step 1: Slice up the fruit and remove any seeds from the lemon and orange slices

Step 2: In ungreased 15x10x1-inch pan, place orange slices, lemon slices, strawberry halves and grapes in single layer. Freeze at least 2 hours until fruit is frozen.

Step 3:  When ready to serve, pour malt beverage into each of 6 tall glasses. Drizzle 1 tablespoon grenadine syrup into each glass. Place orange slice, lemon slice, strawberry half and grape in each glass.

This drink is so refreshing! I'm not a big fan of Mike's Hard Lemonade by itself, but adding the grenadine and fresh fruit makes a world of difference! I just discovered this at the end of the summer but I look forward to sipping this while soaking up the sun in the future! I'm sure you can test out different kinds of fruit to slice up and freeze for variety and for a non-alcoholic version, just use regular lemonade!

Texts from Darrell: Marilyn Monroe in Paris

So this morning I woke up and started my daily morning routine. I looked at my phone right before taking my dog out which is usually my last step before leaving for work. This is what I saw:

Sep 15, 2011 8:17 AM

I pulled a marlyn monroe today, i walked over an air duct wearing a white skirt in paris. Not even joking, fucking epic

Stay tuned more more Texts from Darrell...

Texts from Darrell: Make It Rain Marshmellows

So I have a friend. He howls at the moon, he moos at cows and gives imaginary delivery men good tips. "No, no, keep the change." He also has made my day on more than one occasion by sending me the best text messages ever. It happened once, then this morning it happened again. The second awesome text made me think of a new series for my blog, Texts from Darrell. We will start out with two entries right away, the first will be the original text from Darrell followed by the most recent one. Enjoy.

So I'm at work one night, I don't keep my phone on me during games but I decided to stop by my desk just to check my messages. I see this.

July 30, 2011 8:56 PM

I need to find some firebreathing strippers so i can tip them with marshmellows and make s'mores and it'll be the shiit. Do you know where i can find this so i can make it rain marshmellows?

My response:

Best text message ever.