Enter weird news- gets me every time!

What caught my eye was the headline:

“Swiss designer creates dinosaur dung watch“

Ummm, exxxcuse me??

Did you say dino dung?

I must read more!

GENEVA – A Swiss watchmaker is hoping to raise a stink with an expensive timepiece that eschews the trade’s standard gold, diamond or titanium fittings for a more earthy substance — dinosaur dung.

Vesenaz, Switzerland-based company Artya says the watch set in fossilized feces will sell for $11,290 and comes with a strap made with skin from an American cane toad.

Designer Yvan Arpa said Monday the coprolite came from a plant-eater that died about 100 million years ago in what is now the U.S.

What I really wanted to find out was how exactly this company acquired the dino defecation.

Sadly, the article did not divulge that information, but something that did peak my interest was the fact that the origin of the dung was none other than the USA.

I will be taking a closer look at rocks now, since they may be dinosaur shit.

I will however, be wearing gloves while examining potential “watch material”

What really shocked me was the people are going to be paying out the ass (pun intended) for this chronometer,

$11,290 to be exact!!!

]]> http://lizseverydaylife.wordpress.com/2010/03/15/shitty-gift-literally/feed/ 0 lizseverydaylife shitty_watch http://lizseverydaylife.wordpress.com/2010/03/13/the-easiest-test-you-will-ever-take/ http://lizseverydaylife.wordpress.com/2010/03/13/the-easiest-test-you-will-ever-take/#comments Sat, 13 Mar 2010 15:59:07 +0000 lizseverydaylife http://lizseverydaylife.wordpress.com/?p=271 ]]>

Earlier this week I stumbled upon this test, it intrigued me because all you have to do is click on colors from your favorite to least favorite.

My kind of test!

(Why couldn’t physics tests have been like this??)

The Color Career Counselor

After doing a few sets of color selections it gives you results on what type of career you are suited for.

You don’t have to put in any info prior to starting the test!

I was shocked to find that the test was completely right!

The results suggested that I would be best suited for conducting reseasrch which is

EXACTLY what I do for a living!!

Give it a try, its super easy.

Let me know what your results are, I’m very curious to see if this is right for others.

HAPPY SATURDAY!

I knew that I was making chicken breasts for dinner but I didn’t exactly know what to make, then I took a gander in the fridge and saw a container of spinach dip and found inspiration!

Really easy and really good too!

All you need to do is gather your desired amount of chicken breasts and butterfly them open lengthwise.

(Butterflying is also great if you want to stretch your chicken buck)

Put 1-2 tablespoons of the dip on one side of the butterfly and fold the other flap on top.

Put on a baking sheet and top each piece with about a tablespoon more dip.

Bake @ 350 for about 30 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink.

Enjoy!

]]> http://lizseverydaylife.wordpress.com/2010/03/12/spinach-dip-stuffed-chicken/feed/ 0 lizseverydaylife blog_food 002 blog_food 003 blog_food 004 http://lizseverydaylife.wordpress.com/2010/03/11/mexican-potato-sasage-casserole/ http://lizseverydaylife.wordpress.com/2010/03/11/mexican-potato-sasage-casserole/#comments Fri, 12 Mar 2010 01:05:36 +0000 lizseverydaylife http://lizseverydaylife.wordpress.com/?p=253 ]]>

I will not tell a lie, I did not come up with this recipe but it is SO DELICIOUS  I had to share!

One day I was perusing the packaged meat section and this cute green bag of potatos caught my eye and the rest is history.

On the back of the bag was a recipe that sounded quite intriguing which  included potatoes (DUH), sausage and cheese. You can’t go wrong with that trifecta!

Ingredients:

• 12 ounces ground chorizo or Italian sausage
• 1 package Simply Potatoes® Southwest Style Hash Browns
• 2 cups (8 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack or Cheddar cheese
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 medium tomato, seeded, chopped

How To Make It:

1. Pre-Heat oven to 350 and spray a 8 inch casserole with cooking spray

2. In a skillet cook sausage until it is browned and cooked through

3. Put half the potatoes in the bottom of the casserole dish, top with half the sausage and 3/4 cup of cheese. Repeat.

4. Combine milk + eggs (beaten) and pour over mixture.

5. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes

6. Uncover, top with diced tomato and 1/2 cup of cheese

7. Bake 10-15 more minutes

**Let it sit once you remove it from the over for 10ish minutes to make it easier to serve**

I hope you love this as much as I do!!!

]]> http://lizseverydaylife.wordpress.com/2010/03/11/mexican-potato-sasage-casserole/feed/ 0 lizseverydaylife potatos blog_food 005 blog_food 011 blog_food 010 blog_food 012 blog_food 016 http://lizseverydaylife.wordpress.com/2010/03/04/healthified-shepards-pie/ http://lizseverydaylife.wordpress.com/2010/03/04/healthified-shepards-pie/#comments Fri, 05 Mar 2010 01:52:16 +0000 lizseverydaylife http://lizseverydaylife.wordpress.com/?p=239 ]]>

So, after making 5 pounds of mashed potatoes this weekend I was faced with a decision…

A. Eat the remaining 3-4ish pounds of potatoes at every meal until they are used up. (Definite possibility)

B. Freeze some. (I was a bit worried about consistency after re-heating)

C. Conjure up a recipe that use the  yummy yukon’s to their highest potential (winner!)

I set out to make a Shepard’s pie that probably should have been named kitchen sink pie I used this as a “use up” meal.

Fortunatly, I had a lot of odds and ends that turned out quite well together with a blanket of mashed taters on top!

Healthified Shepard’s Pie

(It’s healthified because I used shredded chicken rather than the normal ground beef, though if you were using a ground turkey or chicken it could probably be equally as healthy, plus its just chicken and veggies!)

Ingredients:

• Shredded Chicken (2+ cups – a normal shepard’s pie recipe calls for about a pound of meat)
• Chicken Stock
• Veggies of your choice I used Carrots, Corn, Green beans and tomatoes
• Mashed Potatoes (I didn’t measure, but I’d say 3ish cups
• Parmesan Cheese (optional)
• Parsley
• Paprika

1. Put shredded chicken in a saute pan over medium heat, pour about a half cup of chicken stock in with it (Just enough to keep it moist while your heating it through)

2. Cut up carrots into small bite size slices and put in saute pan, use chicken stock to let them soften, once their soft toss a few tablespoons of parsley in the pan. Love the carrot+parsley combo!

3. Once the carrots are soft put in your desired amount of corn (mine was frozen) and let it warm up for a minute or so

4. Add green beans and tomatoes (these were a leftover side item from a previous dinner about half a can of each were used)

5. Get out a deep casserole dish, so you can maximize the potato content and put the chicken mixture evenly in the dish

6. Pour the veggie mixture over the chicken

7. Last but not least, layer potatoes (if your not making them fresh, nuke ‘em for a minute or two since everything else in the dish is warm)

(make sure the potatoes are not in a smooth layer so the peaks can get extra brown and delicious!)

8. I sprinkled some paprika and parmesan cheese on top

Bake @ 400 for 30 minutes

Enjoy!

]]> http://lizseverydaylife.wordpress.com/2010/03/04/healthified-shepards-pie/feed/ 3 lizseverydaylife shepards pie 008 shepards pie 012 shepards pie 015 shepards pie 017 shepards pie 018 shepards pie 020 shepards pie 022 shepards pie 025 shepards pie 030 http://lizseverydaylife.wordpress.com/2010/02/24/i-love-olympics/ http://lizseverydaylife.wordpress.com/2010/02/24/i-love-olympics/#comments Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:19:25 +0000 lizseverydaylife http://lizseverydaylife.wordpress.com/?p=229 ]]>

I don’t know what it is but every two years I get bit by the Olympic bug, HARD.

Summer, winter… doesn’t matter- love ‘em all!

Of course I have a few fav events, but seriously it’s so cool how you get to see sports that you would normally never see on TV.

Another pastime of mine is becoming and insta-expert on the sport de jour.

I mean, half the time the commentators don’t know what their talking about, or the things they say are completely unnecessary.

Example, curling.  WTF   This is the strangest sport, but it sucks me in EVERY TIME!

Still not exactly sure how it works… seems like shuffle board on ice. Objective: get the tea-kettle-looking thing onto the bulls eye while

“sweeping” the ice, yelling OK OK, HARD  HARD HARDDDD

I am still trying to figure out if they are wearing ice skates or some kind of special shoe, seems like magic?

Quite amusing!

Moguls. Now this shit is crazy, going down a double black diamond while going over snow humps all the while keeping your knee’s bent and core tight.  I’m not a snow sport kinda gal, but even if I was, helllllllll no.

Mucho respect for those athletes!!

I’m also enjoying watching the US of A kicking other country ass right now in preeeety much everything.

As of now, we are leading the medal race with 26 medals, Germany is trailing with 24… still a lot of Olympics left but I think we will be good to go.

One thing though, that is driving me nuts are those freaking commercials that say “this is what dreamworks thinks the olymipics would have looked like if they were 1000 years ago”

Seriously dreamworks, step it up a bit, those commericals are so stupid, but you did produce Kung Fu Panda- so I guess I shouldn’t set the bar too high.

Getting off soapbox now and turning on some Olympics.

GO USA!!!!!

]]> http://lizseverydaylife.wordpress.com/2010/02/24/i-love-olympics/feed/ 0 lizseverydaylife http://lizseverydaylife.wordpress.com/2010/02/22/maple-ham-and-hashbrown-casserole/ http://lizseverydaylife.wordpress.com/2010/02/22/maple-ham-and-hashbrown-casserole/#comments Tue, 23 Feb 2010 01:57:21 +0000 lizseverydaylife http://lizseverydaylife.wordpress.com/?p=215 ]]> This is the experimental breakfast casserole that was in the works during the cooking extravaganza on Sunday.

Since I was trying to jam-pack the freezer, I had to do a bit of reorganizing and I noticed a package of hash browns and a package of two ham steaks that needed to be used.

D makes his dislike for ham no secret, but I didn’t want this to go to waste, so I figured if I cooked it in a maple syrup glaze and surrounded it with potatoes and cheese, it will be well received.

Ingredients:

• 8 Hash brown patties
• 2 Ham Steaks
• 4 Eggs
• 1 Cup of Milk
• 1.5 Cups of Shredded Cheddar Cheese
• 2 Roma tomatoes

1. Microwave hash browns for about 1 minute, just enough to break up  and put 4 broken up hash browns on bottom of an

8 inch square casserole dish

2. In a skillet brown ham, 2 minutes on each side during the browning process put a squirt (~1tbsp) of maple syrup in the pan

3. Once the ham is browned dice and sprinkle half on top of the hash browns

4. Sprinkle 3/4 cup of shredde cheese on top

5. Layer the rest of the hash browns, ham and cheese

6. In a measuring cup mix 1 cup of milk and 4 eggs and pour over dish

7. Cover and put in refrigerator overnight

8. Bake, covered with foil for 45 minutes at 350

9. Uncover and top with diced tomato and bake for 10 more minutes

10. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

]]> http://lizseverydaylife.wordpress.com/2010/02/22/maple-ham-and-hashbrown-casserole/feed/ 0 lizseverydaylife cooking_extravanga 027 cooking_extravanga 029 cooking_extravanga 030 cooking_extravanga 031 cooking_extravanga 032 cooking_extravanga 034 cooking_extravanga 003 cooking_extravanga 009 http://lizseverydaylife.wordpress.com/2010/02/22/sunday-cooking-extravaganza/ http://lizseverydaylife.wordpress.com/2010/02/22/sunday-cooking-extravaganza/#comments Tue, 23 Feb 2010 00:41:56 +0000 lizseverydaylife http://lizseverydaylife.wordpress.com/?p=188 ]]> So Sunday I woke up at the ass crack of dawn, coffee in hand and decided to start cooking up a storm!

My goal was to jam pack my freezer with a few basics so make my life easier during the week.

What I made:

-Spaghetti Sauce

-Black Beans

-Brown Rice

-Shortcake (wasn’t for freezer, but I got some massive strawberries at the store on Saturday so I couldn’t resist)

-An experimental breakfast casserole (Details to come, still working)

What I did…

Spaghetti Sauce

• 3 large cans of 26ish oz Crushed Tomato’s
• 1 small jar 15ish oz of Tomato Paste
• LOTS of Italian seasoning (I just kept putting it in- probably close to 3-4Tbsp.)
• Garlic to your taste, I forgot to get fresh so I used a few tsp. of garlic powder (I would have used 3-4 cloves, if I had fresh)
• 2-3 tsp. Sugar
• 1 pound ground turkey, browned
• Ground pepper, to taste

1. Brown turkey (or any ground meat of choice)

2. Pour all tomato products into large pot and put over medium heat, throw in some italian seasoning, stir and let it start to warm through

3. Once the turkey is browned, drain and add to the tomato products

4. Add seasonings to taste

5. Turn up the heat and let it come up to a bubble, then cover and drop down the heat and let it simmer about 2 hours, stirring occasionally

6. Let the sauce cool down and put in freezer bags for later!

TIP: Once you fill your freezer bags put them flat on a cookie sheet and put in the freezer, they will take up way less space that way.

Black Beans

*I got these instructions from the 5dollar dinners cooking tutorials*

All you need is a bag of dried beans, a large bowl of hot water and a large pot for simmering!  Plus freezer bags, this makes A LOT!

P.S. I got number 1 grade… not sure about number 2 grade…

1. Put beans in a large bowl and cover with about 2 inches of hot water, let it sit on the counter for at least 2 hours (that’s what I did), but overnight is ideal

2. Remove any beans that float to the top

3. Drain and rinse with cold water

4. Put beans in large pot and cover with about 2 inches of water, bring to a boil, then drop the heat down to medium, cover and let simmer about 1.5 hours (until the beans are soft)

5. Drain and let the beans cool down before putting in freezer bags

Brown Rice

Simple, just follow package instructions!

Bring 10 cups of water to a boil, add rice, cover and drop the heat to low, stir periodically.   Takes about 45 minutes.

TIP: Let rice cool completely before freezing to avoid weird-textured-rice-syndrome

Strawberry Shortcake

I love making this, so simple, yet so delicious!

This is the good ‘ole recipe from the bisquick box

• 2.5 Cups Bisquick
• .5 Cup Milk
• 3 Tbsp Sugar
• 3 Tbsp butter (melted)

Mix the ingredients together and put in a greased 9 inch pie pan. I usually dust the top with a little bit of extra sugar

Bake at 425 for about 12 minutes

We usually eat this with  a little bit of  milk poured over the shortcake, a little more sugar and of course strawberries!

THE AFTERMATH…

Keurig Coffee Maker

I have had this particular machine since I was a Freshman in College, I start almost every morning with it and it has got me through many early mornings, exams and Ahem, hangovers.

So why is this coffee machine so great?  Glad you asked!  It uses individual “K” cups to brew the coffee, so  you get a fresh cup every time and it literally takes seconds- instant caffeine gratification! There’s hundred of flavors plus, tea’s and hot chocolates Mmmm so good! I’ve never met a flavor I didn’t like and for the quality/taste its defiantly worth the (small) investment!  Also, I know some of you “green” people are thinking, that’s a lot of waste with all those K cups.  They have that covered too, there is a reuseable K cup that you can refill with grounds of your choice.

The Keurig!

The K cup stash

Misto Olive Oil Sprayer

I love this thing! Rather than purchasing a can of cooking spray with all sorts of additives you can just fill this baby up with olive oil (or any oil of your choice) give it a few pumps and your on you way to an even application of EVOO! Not only does it work great, it’s also quite handsom and has a prized piece of real estate on my kitchen counter.

Crossroads Candles Buttered Maple Syrup Scent

Good gracious these candles are possibly the best smelling things my olfactory system has had the pleasure of smelling.  Once lit your entire house will instantly smell like breakfast- no joke. I first time I lit one D actually asked me what I was cooking because the house smells so good.  I plan to test other scents, but for now this is the winner in my book!

I didn’t realize this at first but I mentioned having these items with me on a desert island, I just pictured what that would look like…. I will be drinking coffee, greasing muffin tins and sending out smoke singnals with my candle.

These of course are only a few things that I can’t live without, more to come!

What’s on your desert island list??

]]> http://lizseverydaylife.wordpress.com/2010/02/20/things-i-cant-live-without-or-wouldnt-want-to/feed/ 3 lizseverydaylife keurig1 caffiene stash misto crossroads_candles http://lizseverydaylife.wordpress.com/2010/02/17/mustersoyduckney-sauce-nothats-not-a-typo/ http://lizseverydaylife.wordpress.com/2010/02/17/mustersoyduckney-sauce-nothats-not-a-typo/#comments Thu, 18 Feb 2010 02:07:17 +0000 lizseverydaylife http://lizseverydaylife.wordpress.com/?p=167 ]]> Mustersoyduckney Sauce

-Noun

1.  Sauce composed of mustard,soy sauce, duck sauce and honey.

2. The easiest sauce, ever.

3. A great way to use up the packets that you get with Chinese food.

So the plan for this evenings dinner was chicken breast tenderloins, but I wasn’t sure what type of sauce to use.

I opened the fridge for inspiration and it was sitting right there in the door of my fridge!

A few weeks ago we got Chinese take out and they were very generous with their sauce packets, so I saved them- I knew they would go to use somehow.

So I decide to combine the packets of soy sauce, duck sauce and mustard (after doing a taste test I decided to add some honey for sweetness)

Just stir the ingredients to your preference pour over chicken

(I definitely recommend taste testing as you go, soy has quite a bit of salt which can be overwhelming)

I poured said sauce over the chicken and baked in the oven @ 350 for about 30 minutes.

Sadly my camera fell ill in the midst of dinner prep, so I don’t have any pics of the sauce on the chicken, but I think this one is pretty self explanatory.

And yes, it did turn out quite tasty, not to mention fun to say!

]]> http://lizseverydaylife.wordpress.com/2010/02/17/mustersoyduckney-sauce-nothats-not-a-typo/feed/ 0 lizseverydaylife feb_09 035 feb_09 037