I cooked!! When the hubby is gone and I'm working all week... I really don't feel like cooking when I get home. I know I'm not the only one that feels that way, but I don't have any other mouths in the house to feed so if I don't feel like cooking then I just don't! :D

But, I need to be taking a lunch to work this week so I don't keep spending money or wasting time having to drive somewhere to get food. Plus, with my current way of eating, my options are quite limited. I'm already vegetarian with no problems, but trying to glide into being vegan is proving to be much more difficult. I don't eat/drink dairy products in general but it's harder to get rid of all the foods that have eggs and milk cook or baked in.... bread, pudding, etc :) Last week we had a potluck at work and someone brought the yummiest banana pudding!!! Oh man I indulged on that for a while, and loved it!

So, this week I am changing! I've been exercising more, which is helping, but if I can get my eating in check then the lbs will just fall off.... right?? Well, let's hope so at least! Today I did one of my favorite kind of recipes - take a bunch of stuff I have in the fridge and pantry and just throw it all together!!

I am growing to love these noodles!

I have started using this brand of brown rice noodles. The texture is not exactly the same but they are a great substitute for when cutting out gluten. 

Grab what's in the fridge!!

 My basic ingredients: a variety of peppers, red onion, broccoli medley (broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots), some sliced olives, and a vegan mustard dressing that I found at a local store.

Recent find :) smells yummy, can't wait to try it!

Chopped up the onions nice and small with my Pampered Chef chopper.

These onions made my eyes burn a lot! but that just means they're nice and flavorful!! 

Also used my Pampered Chef chopper to cut the veggies up a little more than they already were. I wanted nice, small pieces to mix in with everything else.

To the veggies and onions, I added the chopped up peppers. I like a lot of color so I used yellow, orange, red and green peppers in this one. They all have different vitamins and good stuff in them so I like to just throw them all in!! :)

Add some of the dressing on top, mix it all together, and let it sit in order for all the flavors to combine and get all good and yummy together.

 By now the noodles should be done, they only need to cook for about 15 minutes in boiling water. I put all the veggies in to a bigger bowl and then put the hot  noodles on top (after draining of course) so that the heat would steam the veggies just a little bit. I still wanted them nice and crunchy but not super hard. Then I added a little more dressing on top and a drizzle of oil to help the noodles not clump.

Add the olives and mix it all up!!! It turned out pretty yummy. As is, it's not super flavorful actually but I think that's just something I need to play with - adding spices, garlic, etc. to taste. Next time!

As I said in my last post, I love social events! One type of event that is always particularly close to my heart is baby showers. A friend of mine here in EP had a baby last month, and before she popped I really wanted her to have a fun baby shower so I just went ahead and hosted!! It was right after the other event I had at my house, which was nice on one hand because everything was clean already :) but, on the other hand, I didn't want to make all that food again! So, to save time and my sanity, I had a friend of mine do some of the catering for the event. She's just started up her business here in EP so I wanted to kind of help her out and she was also helping me out a lot in return.

I did the decorations :)

She had a girl so the colors for the room, and therefore the shower, 

were bright pink and green.

This was the catering!! An assortment of sandwiches and also chicken skewers.

The amazing cupcakes that were catered.

Cute decorations the caterer added to the table to match the colors and to be more festive.

The full display of the catered food, cupcakes, chocolate strawberries, and drinks :)

Any chance to spoil a momma-to-be and get a bunch of ladies together - I'm all for it!! It was a good time with great people and yummy food.

I know I have not posted in a very long time and that is about to change!! My goal for this week is to try at least three new recipes and blog about them. Starting tomorrow!!

Today, I'd like to post a few pics from events I've done lately. I love being crafty and creative with social events. Anything from the invitations, to name tags, to food labels - I love it! Two months ago I hosted a social event at my house for a bunch of other officers' wives. I love playing board games, so I decided that the night would have a 'game night' theme. Once that was decided, I really ran with it!

When people arrived, the first thing they saw was the wreath
 :) This was particularly fun!

Then as they walked in the door this was straight ahead! 

I found the metal cards at Hobby Lobby. Best store ever!!

Random cards strung up together along the stairs, just for something extra :)

The food display!! Following are a few close ups...

I had a game name for everything. The veggies are The Wheel of Fortune and Good Health. On both sides are Jenga Veggie Sticks. Also, Phase 10 Ingredient Pasta Salad and Hit Me Again Chex Mix.

Everyone left with at least $100,000 ;)

Dominoes Brownies!! Saw these on pinterest and just had to try it! I was not going to go through and do each one so I just did the ones on top of the plate. They're also G-Free :)

Colonel Mustard Honey Mustard Chicken Skewers.

Miss Scarlet Red Hot Salsa and Mr Green's Guacamole. I loved these pieces from Clue Jr and they worked perfectly for the food labels!! Also really inspired me with naming the items.

Checkers Sandwiches! Another pinterest inspiration! 

I also had Boggle Your Mind Punch, which was actually wine (hence the boggling of the mind), sprite, and fruit mixture. A variety of other drinks were also available but they weren't so creative, just sodas and water, so they didn't warrant a photo :D Overall, the night was a huge success!! I was really happy with everything and was glad that everyone had a good time!