Monday, March 28, 2011

settling in

SUITE

Ever wondered what 100 pounds of luggage looks like?

I need packing lessons
Yeah... the good people at American Airlines had to put that awful sticker on my behemoth bag. If I hadn't been zombied out (it was about 5:30 A.M. when I checked the suitcase), I might have been embarrassed. In my defense, I'm accustomed to driving whenever I go to Oklahoma- a car has a lot more square footage than my suitcases. But since this trip was a relatively short one, I decided to fly... and my packing skills proved to be a bit ridiculous. Aside from trying to wrestle the bags into/out of my car, the trip home was great. Next stop: Dallas, TX in a week and a half, and not for work- I'm going to see my favorite band (Coheed and Cambria) with my good friend Colin! And then, off to Pittsburgh to see my best friend for Easter! I won't be traveling for work again until early May; I'm looking forward to a month of seeing people I love.

PLAY

Jeremy and I have been really lucky since he left the country, and have been able to talk on the phone at least once a day. We were able to have a 20 minute conversation as soon as I landed in Alabama, and that put me in a fantastic mood. This led me to make the best decision of my life and, rather than go to the office for a few hours, went straight home to see my puppy (and by puppy, I mean 84 in dog years). Bookee has been a little stressed this week- it's been raining for the past week in Huntsville and she's never been a fan of stormy weather. I'm used to being gone for long periods of time, but I never quite get used to being away from my dog. So we played for a little while (she's still spry!), went for a short walk, and are currently taking advantage of the Secret Life marathon on ABC family. And don't worry, I'm judging myself too.

Contemplating what will happen between Ben and Adrian tonight!
GRUB

I have been craving macaroni and cheese for weeks now, but there was no place in Lawton that sold the brand I like, and most recipes seemed a little too complicated for my hotel kitchen. I found a recipe on Vegan YumYum (yeah, the name makes me cringe) that looked good, so I decided to give  it a try. It had a lot of ingredients I haven't experimented with, like miso and nutritional yeast, so my expectations weren't super high. I did tweak a couple things in the recipe- I used almond milk instead of soy, quinoa pasta instead of whole-wheat, and I added fake mozzarella shreds to the pan when I popped it in the oven. It looked super pretty, was extremely rich (not low-cal in the slightest- which was fine with me!) and it tasted good... but nothing like the real thing. All in all it was a decent substitute, and it got rid of my mac and cheese craving. I paired it with a spinach, cucumber and clover sprout salad, and I've been absolutely STUFFED for over an hour.

It's no Velveeta... but still delicious!



So tell me...

  1. What are your best packing tips? Anything you just can't travel without?
  2. There's two types of people- Blue Box fans and Shells and Cheese fans. Which are you? (I'm a Shells girl myself...)

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