Random updates.

Lieutenant just switched our insurance over to USAA. I was paying $155 on my own for full coverage and now for TWO cars on full coverage we pay a combined $145 per month. Um, thank you!

There is a fly that's been pestering us since last night and he is sitting right in front of me knowing that I will never catch him. I've been chasing him around yelling "Where are you, ya little bastard!" Not quite ladylike but still...

Oh and we went to Borders today and my husband bought me my third John Green book An Abundance of Katherines. For those of you who don't know, I'm a huge John Green fan. Ever since I read Looking For Alaska and bawled my eyes out, I've been hooked. Its technically a young adult novel but hell, I'm technically a young adult!

The cookies were baked today by the way and I....I hated them. The recipe called for way too much flour and they wouldn't flatten. That just doesnt occur in this house!! Our cookies-come hell or high water-will be flat. They were also very cake-like.

Anyway, just disappointing. If any of you know a good cookie recipe, such as the epic Subway cookie, email me! This cookie apocalypse can no longer occur!

Home-made "slice and bake" cookies.

It is no secret that I'd choose baking over cooking any day. I don't have the patience for all the utensils, it gets too hot in the kitchen and by the end of cooking dinner I am ready to kick the bucket! I don't just like baking..I love baking.

We all love store bought slice and bake cookies, so I thought I would change it up a little and make them from home. My husband is a chocolate chip cookie freak fanatic so when I told him these were slice and bake's for later, he jokingly said it was a slap in the face! He won't be saying that tomorrow when I bake him up warm and gooey cookies with a cold glass of milk! The best part is that because they are home-made, I was able to use Splenda instead of sugar. I know all the jib-jab about how Splenda is bad for you, blah blah blah, but honestly- I love baking, cookies attract like magnets to my husband, and the Air Force doesn't think too kindly of a low PT score! So in this recipe, if you like using real sugar then be my guest :)

Step 1: Gather your arsenal

1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter - room temperature
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup Splenda (or sugar)
1 large egg
2/3 cup chocolate chips

Step 2: Mix up dry ingredients (except the sugars)

Step 3: In a separate bowl, mix the sugars, the butter and the egg. My butter wasn't room temperature because I don't prepare... Incorporate your dry ingredients.

Step 4: Pile on the chocolate chips. The recipe calls for 2/3 cup but there is never. enough. chocolate.  Incorporate the chocolate chips in until its smoooooth like a smoothie. Not really, I just love that saying. But get them in there nice and mixed. I don't have the patience to use a spoon so I used my hands. Place the dough on parchment paper and give it a little shape.

Step 5: Roll and shape that baby up girlfriend because you are DONE.

The last step is to try really really hard to keep your husbands sticky fingers out of it until tomorrow because these cookies need to freeze 2-3 hours to overnight for best cookie-cutting results.

For baking: 

Preheat your oven to 350F. Slice up your gorgeous home-made cookies into 1/4-inch thick slices and place on parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until lightly browned. Serve with a cold glass of milk. Mmmmm.

Oh and as a side note, these cookies are meant to be a little crispier on the outside and soft in the middle. They are NOT drop cookies so refrain from rolling them into balls because they don't flatten out.

That's it, you're done. Om nom nom nom. <3

Free tickets!

Do any of you live in Dallas? Do you like food? Do you like free samples!? I know you do! I have free passes to Taste of Dallas that I am giving away. Well they weren't free, I actually "paid" for them with referral bucks. But anyways, Dallas is TOO FAR and I'm not willing to drive 4 hours to get there.

Soo...comment if you want them and I will choose at random. If nobody takes them its going to be a huge waste so HELLO, jump on this deal!

Sparrows.

I've blogged before about the sparrow's nest on our balcony and I am pretty sure that the babies are going to hatch any day now. There's been a lot more activity around as of late and they're also more aggressive.

These three are around 24/7. They only leave to get food and when they leave, others arrive. 

All day long they sit and watch and wait for their beautiful little ones to arrive.

The council, as I call them, are always watching.

I've been spotted! By the look on her face you can see that she is less than thrilled.

For those of you who don't know, I have tattoos and one of them is a sparrow. I got the sparrow tattoo because it represented freedom, true love, happiness and military life. It also represents my grandparents, as they are the inspiration for why I believe in love. They were married nearly 60 years before my grandfather passed away.

Sparrows will go where they will go but they will always return home. No matter where the Air Force takes us, Las Vegas will always be my home. It is where I fell in love, where I graduated high school and attended college, it is where my nieces and nephews were all born.

This was supposed to be a blog about the sparrows outside of my home but it turned out to be so much more. Thanks for being a reader and sharing a part of my life with me.

I like free!

Don't we all? A couple of years ago I found a great website called Swagbucks. Basically you search as you normally would, earn "swagbucks" for searching and you can earn great prizes for free!

I recently redeemed an Amazon gift card that did not cost me a dime! Especially in this economy, being able to actually USE a website like this to your advantage is great! Other websites will trick you, but I'm seriously hooked on the swag! Click the link below to sign up and start earning great FREE swag!





Disclaimer: I was not paid for any portion of this blog post in any way. I simply LOVE this website.

Inside-Out Strawberry Cheesecake Bites

An angel just got her wings...that's how these cheesecake bites make me feel! And they are, true to their name, inside out.

I'll be honest, I ate two..or three...alright I had four but that's because I made them and I'm Queen of the Kitchen.

The ingredients are simple, strawberries, cream cheese, vanilla, powdered sugar, graham cracker and chocolate. I'm serious, THAT'S IT. My cream cheese was camera shy...

 Ingredients

1 lb medium to large strawberries

8oz. (one block) of cream cheese – room temperature

3 tablespoons powdered sugar (depends on how sweet you want the filling)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Graham cracker crumbs

Melted chocolate or dipping chocolate

Directions

Rinse your strawberries but be delicate because they do get soft. Take a paring knife and remove the tops and inside. You might get lucky and have strawberries that are mostly hollow - I was not so lucky. In fact, they were a pain in the ass. But I digress...put them aside once you're finished tearing out the middle. 

For the cheesecake filling, mix together your cream cheese, vanilla and powdered sugar. Make sure that your cream cheese is soft because if you do not own a stand mixer (Ahem...me..) then your arm will hate you later. Place your cheesecake filling in a piping bag or a zip-lock bag. 

Melt your chocolate and beat the crap out of crush your graham crackers. I used Hershey's for my dipping chocolate but it starting thickening too quickly so next time I will just use dipping chocolate.

Pipe your filling inside of the strawberries. Pop them into the graham cracker crumbles, and dip them into the chocolate. Wa-la! Inside-out strawberry cheesecake bites! 

Try not to eat them all at once!

Dot com!

This mamacita over here just purchased her first domain!

You can now bookmark www.inlovewithanairman.com

Love you all :)

I'm bored, here's a dinner post

Baked macaroni and cheese, sloppy joes and rosemary roasted potatoes. Hubby had seconds! I was so freaking excited!

The first meal of the married life.

Tonight's meal is meatloaf, mashed potatoes and corn. Mmm a homestyle staple that I used to cook with my dad when I was a little girl - so I saw it fitting to make it on Father's Day.

I didn't take a picture of all the ingredients together because I rushed through the door realizing it was 7PM.  Oh and cell phone photography once again!

First up - mixing the ingredients. (Ya'll know I'm new at this whole housewife gig so forgive me for using a pre-spiced meatloaf packet.) I blurred it because nobody needs to see that!

And of course, since we just moved in and we forgot to buy a measuring cup - an empty waterbottle sufficed thanks to Google doing the conversion for us.

Then prepping the potatoes:

Then I went on making the mold!...sort of. This part was always my favorite growing up. As I was waiting for the oven to heat up...FFFFUUUU I forgot to add bread crumbs! So the first thing I did was call my dad who reassured me that everything would turn out okay.

In the end the mashed potatoes turned out perfect! Generations of potato lovers passed this trait down to me.

So here is dinner:

Not perfect, but I'm not perfect. The first official meal of the married life's mission = complete!

Oh and no dinner would be complete without an injury:

A quick post.

I have forgotten about blogging lately. After moving into our apartments and trying to get settled while Lieutenant went on a 2 day medical trip and TMO bringing all of our stuff (and I mean ALL of our stuff..its ALL over the apartment) everything has been kind of exhausting. I also unpacked the 35mm camera and fell in love with it all over again, though I have no idea how to use it.

Basically we've been eating our way through Texas and I've been working out to make sure I don't end up the pants size of Texas. Lieutenant loves barbecue so much, God help me.

I am super excited to start cooking though. Being married is definitely an adventure.

Anyway to cap off this blog, here is my dad and I twenty years ago...GAH, 2 decades...hard to believe. Also one of me, my dad, and my little sister last year.