Goal #27 Graduate graduate school

Jumping pic with the niblings

Hooray! Graduate school was among the hardest things I've done in my life. A year ago I was home for the summer and did not want to come back. But no one gives you credit for half a masters degree, so I finished. Luckily the last year--despite the nasty thesis--was better than my first year, and overall I feel really good about my experience. Having most of my family there to support me at graduation meant so much to me. And I felt so loved by the friends who came to hear me speak at convocation!

Me and the whole fam!

Isn't she adorable? #niblings

I promise I didn't close my eyes the whole time!

My advisor, Dr. Graham!

Several of the IP&T faculty

Throwing your cap isn't part of any of the celebrations, so we did it on our own!

President Worthen!

My dollar for completing this very significant goal goes to Days for Girls, a charity that provides sanitary supplies to girls in developing countries so that they don't miss days of school and days of work while they are menstruating. I completed my goal of getting an education. I want other girls to have the opportunity.

Goal #72 Try 100 new recipes (37/100): Chicken Italiano

No picture this time. Sorry. But this recipe was awesome! Super easy (crock pot!) and a crowd pleaser. The whole dinner group was comin' back for seconds! 5/5 stars. :)

3 chicken breasts
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 can milk
1 envelope Italian salad dressing mix
8 oz cream cheese

Spray inside of slow cooker with cooking spray. Put chiekn in the bottom. In a small bowl combine soup, milk, and dressing mix. Blend well. Pour over chicken. Top with cream cheese. Cook on Low 8 hours. Halfway through cooking stir to blend in the cream cheese. Shred chicken. Serve over rice or noodles.

Goal #72 Try 100 new recipes (36/100): Sour Dough Whole Wheat Bread

I never thought I would be the person who bakes bread every week. A month ago I had never baked bread before in my life (dinner rolls, yes; bread, never). In a month I have made this bread recipe 3 times! The fact that the starter (your own yeast made from wheat and water that picks up yeasty bacteria from the air) has to be used and fed once a week or it doubles in size gives me motivation.

I recently read Deep Nutrition, which puts forth the idea that plants don't want to be eaten and thus have protective measures. Wheat's protective measure is that it isn't bio-available to humans unless it is soaked for hours. So you can either sprout your grains or use sour dough like in this recipe.

Whether that's true or not, I don't know, but I do know that I like the ingredient list on this puppy (no sugar, no oil), and I like the taste. Especially when it's toasted, with butter and a scrambled egg on top. Mmm! In fact, that's what I'm eating for breakfast right now. :) 

Left: happy, bubbly, ready-to-use starter. Right: "fed" starter, before mixing

Dough ready to go

Left: pre-rise. Right: after rising 10 hours

Finished product!

No knead Sourdough Bread

-makes 2 loaves

1/4 cup fed and bubbly starter

5 cups flour (whole wheat or a blend of wheat and white)

2 teaspoons sea salt

3 cups water

Mix all ingredients together, then place in greased pans and let sit for 6-12 hours, until the dough has doubled in size. 

Bake for 30 min at 425

Notes on starter:

*Dont forget to leave about a tablespoon of starter out when you mix your bread dough so that you can feed it and store it for the next batch.

*You should store your starter in the fridge until you are ready to feed it for baking, at which point you leave it out on the counter

*Never seal off your starter completely, it needs oxygen

If you want to try it, let me know and I'll share starter with you!

Goal #72 Try 100 new recipes (35/100): SWIG cookies!

If you have been to Swig, you know the mouthwatering goodness that is the Swig sugar cookie. They have other cookies too, but none hold a candle to this one. Normally I wouldn't choose a sugar cookie over a chocolate chip, but when it's a Swig sugar cookie? Well that's something different entirely.

We made these babies for a girls night, and lo and behold, this recipe tastes EXACTLY like the real thing! Easy to make, delicious to the taste, and oh-so-desirable: 5/5 stars.

Flatten the dough balls with a cup coated in sugar

Sour cream frosting

Crunchy, crumbly, rough edges and soft center

Perfection

 If your mouth hasn't started watering in the time it's taken to read this post, look at the original recipe--her pictures are even better. And think--in 30 minutes you could be eating these!