Recipe Review

I found this recipe the other day and just had to try it. I improvised a little, and came up with something I thought was spectacular, still healthy and appeals to different taste buds.

Now the original recipe is a quinoa salad, I couldn't track down any in my town so I improvised and made a Cous-Cous salad, and it was delicious!

Ingredients

Main salad

• CousCous
• Red onion
• Mixed (red, orange, yellow, green) peppers
• Any other veggies you'd like to add (beans, mushrooms, broccolli)

Salad "Dressing"

• Lemon
• Olive oil
• Salt/Pepper
• Cumin

Meat (Optional!)

• Shredded/Ground chicken
• Taco mix

1. Start with the chicken, which will probably take more time to cook than any of the other stuff. While it's cooking feel free to prep your veggies (peppers/onions)

2. Once the chicken has browned up follow directions on the cous-cous box, and also start the taco seasoning with the meat

3. Take the onions and peppers and in a different sauce pan feel free to fry them up, and add spices if you wish

4. When the cous-cous is finished mix it in with the vegetables and start prepping your "dressing".

•  I honestly didn't measure and the original recipe says lime juice but I improvised once again, and just did it to taste. Only getting the salad coated enough so that it wasn't so dry. 

• Another idea is to get the taco chicken and instead of letting it cook out all the taco seasoning, you can coat and mix the cous-cous together (I ended up doing this afterwards and it was amazing!)

All in all I believe the whole thing from prep to eating, took less than an hour! Easy, quick, delicious, and healthy. Four words I love to hear when it comes to making dinner. The best part is it's just as amazing the day after for lunch at school/work!

Cous-Cous with peppers, onion and taco chicken!

Thoughtful Tuesday

Just a collection of quotes and verses to remember! 

“ Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. ”
— Proverbs 4:23

Keep your heart free from hate, your mind free from worry. Live simply, expect little, give much. Fill your life with love. Scatter sunshine. Forget self, think of others. Do as you would be done by. It’s the way to happiness. Try this for a week and you will be surprised.
— H.C. Mattern

"It takes as much time to wish, as it does to plan."
— Eleanor Roosevelt

“If you ask God for help, it means you trust his ability. If He doesn’t help you, it means he trust yours."

Do what makes you happy.

Remember these as you're going about your daily activities! Do you have any favourite quotes you like to remember, and live by on the daily?

Personal Post!

This week was the first week of school and I started a brand new adventure as a Social Service Worker major! I've been thinking about social work for sometime and finally decided to plunge myself into the deep end. My schedule isn't too hectic, which I'm thankful about, but it's just hectic enough for me to allow this crazy post of iPhone pictures.

It's hard getting back into the school routine, 6 am wake ups really suck. But it's worth it! Second day and I'm already in love with it. My campus is super small, so my program only has 20 students in it, which I love! Smaller class sizes! 

I'm hoping to figure out what exactly I want to do with my major, but I still have time :) 

What's been going on in your life? Anything exciting? Leave me a comment! 

Recipe: BBQ Pork chops

Cooking is such a fun area to experiment with, if you know what tastes good there is no telling what can be made. Tonight for dinner I made BBQ grilled pork chops, salad and grilled peppered zucchini. I hardly follow recipes, so when I make things I kind of just go for it.

Step 1: Meat Marinade 

I make my marinade using whatever is in the fridge at the time honestly. BBQ sauce, hot sauce, salad dressings, and spices are the normal ingredients.

Mix it all up and slather it on nice and thick! Don't be shy! 

What I Used: 1. Heinz BBQ Sauce (Garlic and Regular) 2. Sun Dried Tomato & Oregano salad dressing 3. Pepper 4. Basil 5. Oregano 6. "Tony Chacheries" Cajun spices 7. A couple dashes of Tabasco sauce

 Step 2: Grilling/Salad 

While the pork chops are grilling you can make the salad (I cheated and used a bagged salad) and set the table!

Step 3: Peppered zucchini marinade

For the zucchini I cut them into spears, mixed pepper and balsamic vinegar, drizzled it over before rubbing it in and putting more pepper on top. 

Step 4: Enjoy!

After grilling the chops and spears, we sat down and had a great meal! What a good way to celebrate the end of summer vacation! 

End result of the pork chops!

Not one of my most complicated creations but its definitely a start with good down to earth comfort food. 

What are some of your favourite comfort food meals?

Bon Appétit! 

xo Lousy

Beauty review: D.I.Y. Hair mask

Sometimes you just need to breathe life into your hair, and Pinterest is the place to find that breath. Searching hair masks comes up with all sorts of different things, I found a simple recipe that can be done at home using ingredients I had at hand and decided to give it a try. 

Recipe:

2 tbsp honey

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1. Mix ingredients in a small bowl so that they are well combined.

2. On dry, unwashed hair, apply the mixture starting at the roots and combing  through hair to distribute evenly.

3. Clip your hair up and wait 30-60 minutes before rinsing the mixture out of your hair.

3. Shampoo well.

Thoughts:

1. The smell is interesting, to say the least. Next time I would decrease the amount of apple cider vinegar I was using.

2. I had to tripple all of the ingredients because of how thick and bushy my hair is. Also the honey I was using is organic, and crystallizes easier than a store bought kind which made for application problems.

3. The application was MESSY, I would recommend you use a set up the way you would set up your bathroom for a hair dye. The mixture will probably get everywhere.

End Results:

My hair is 100x softer than when I started! I could feel it as soon as I got out of the shower. As someone who hardly conditions this is amazing! I can see myself doing these kind of hair masks every month to deep condition my hair! 

Do you have any hair secrets you swear by? What about anythings you'd like to try out but have been chicken too? Feel free and send me a comment!

xo Lousy

Words of Wisdom

Note: this post contains personal opinions over touchy subject: Religion. 

I'm a skeptical believer, but a believer nonetheless. I believe the message behind the scripture is the main part, do I know if I believe all the stories? No. But that's okay because I know god loves me for just trying to believe. 

I have recently been replenishing my spiritual relationship with god by studying and wondering what his word means to me. I've been through tough and rough times that have tested my faith, I'm a sinner, and I've also been in a position to shy away because it wasn't "cool".

When you realize to start doing things for yourself, and only to better yourself you learn that it's okay to be who you are. This is when I found my way back to god. 

Some of the verses I'm going to share are my favourites, they have meaning and depth behind the words. There are a few that help me when I'm sad, dealing with anxiety and just need some sort of direction.

“ Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. ”

"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. " - 1 Corinthians 13:13 

And out if weakness he shall be made strong 

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear. 1 John 4:18

Introduction!

Hi there!

Welcome to The Adventures of Lousy, a blog dedicated to my crazy/foodie/adventurous life. I love adventures, cooking, my dog, friends, and sharing it all with you! Join me on this wild journey! 

You may or may not know who I am, well no worries; I'm a 22 year old self proclaimed snuggle enthusiast with good taste in good food. I like lemonade, wine and wild flowers. Feel free to look around, follow along and ask questions :)

Dedicated to being a healthy, inspirational, crazy, fun, dog loving blogger. 

xo lousy