Olive Garden at home

I love Olive Garden. I don't love paying a lot or waiting for a table. Why is Olive Garden so busy? Andrew and I had a discussion about it, never mind. So I made Olive Garden copy cat recipes!

First. Pasta E Fagioli (the recipe). I used small shell pasta instead. Really good!! It's a pretty filling soup. It works fine as a main dish.

Next Olive Garden's Salad Dressing (the recipe). Think about it. It's such a cheap salad but Man! It is delicious! So easy to make really. Pour this over chopped romaine, sliced red onions, sliced tomatoes, olives, croutons, pepperoncinis, etc. Boom. The easiest salad everyone loves.

And last but not least....Olive Garden breadsticks (the recipe). I've made a copy cat recipe on this blog before. I must say this recipe is better. I did use about 1/3 c less flour than it called for. I kneaded it for 10-15 mins (more than what the recipe says). And! I let it rise in a bowl until doubled before I rolled it out into the sticks and rise. The result was altogether better than before.


FUN!!! My house wreaks of garlic but hey. It's a small price to pay. Literally....get it? ahahahahaa

Shrimp scampi

I was on pinterest and I saw a number of shrimp pasta recipes that all made me crave shrimp but not the actual dish. So I threw some stuff together.

-1/2 stick of butter
-olive oil
-15 or so shrimp
-lemon juice
-Italian seasoning
-thyme
-salt and pepper
-little dash of garlic powder
-angel hair pasta

It's hard to mess up. You can eyeball it and customize it to your own taste. I heated up the butter, oil, and spices first and then cooked the shrimp. I boiled the pasta separate and added it underdone (since it would cook more with the shrimp). Andrew loves shrimp and I love Andrew! Therefore, this was a good meal :)

Halloween for the Blaylocks

I love Halloween.

Not as much as Christmas! But I do love it.

Bats can be cute when they're not real :)

Andrew and I made Halloween costumes out of our real life personas jk. We were a prince and princess. I found the dress at Saver's for $7.99 (score) and I found a funny shirt for him for $3.99 (double score). I bought the crowns at Zurcher's (a party supply store) for $1.30 each. That gives a whopping total of $14.58. It's hard to imagine people spending hundreds on their costumes lol. 

Oh, and I found this snake. Just kidding. We went to Andrew's brother's work party (that's a mouthful). While we were waiting in line, a guy with a snake walked by. What can you do but throw it around your shoulders? I'm like a Britney Spears snake princess!!  

Red Thai Soup/Curry/I don't know?

I found some red thai paste at my grocery store. It said to add a can of coconut milk to make the curry. Same as the coconut korma, it was good, but not as good as a restaurant.

I added:
-a can of coconut soup
-green pepper
-chicken
-bamboo shoots
-some chopped onion and garlic
-a bag of noodles (pictured below), cooked without the seasoning

Serve with some rice and boom. Dinner. We just finished the leftovers and I'm relieved ahahah

Bananas Foster

I don't know if it's the Honey Boo Boo Child I've been watching recently or what, but I'm on a bit of a southern kick! And I need me some bananas foster!!

Here is the recipe.

Ohhhhh goodness. good golly goodness. gooooood stuff!

Awesome pumpkin bread

I found this recipe: Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread. Wheeeeeeeewwwie! Honey child. This is good :)

I decided to add a streusel topping, I know, I don't know what came over me. But I'm glad it did! It was a nice addition.

This is the recipe for the streusel topping I used:
1/2 c flour
4 tbsp butter
4 tbsp sugar
2 tsp cinnamon

I made the pumpkin bread the same, I just topped it with the streusel right before throwing it in the oven. DElishhh

Chicken Korma

If you like curry and you haven't tried Chicken Coconut Korma then YOU DON'T KNOW CURRY!!! Remedy this immediately and go to an Indian restaurant, repent, and get yourself some chicken coconut korma.

I had to make some because, as college students, we can't afford to eat out :(      ...(and it's not as good in my opinion)

But if you would like to try making it, there are several recipes on the internet which involve a lot of spices and ingredients and steps, bleh. So I did the same thing as the butter chicken curry. I bought a jar of the curry and added some coconut milk and some extra spices (chili powder, ginger, coriander, etc).

One day we will be debt-free non-students and we will be able to afford the real deal. Until then! I'll get my fix from jarred curry. :)