Quick and Easy Recipes....Please Share!!

So I'm trying to plan our meals for a little bit and I'm wondering if anyone has recipes out there that only require like 3-5 ingredients and are really quick... please share!!!

Tara- I'm really excited to try your chicken pillows!

Adorable Danny

+ = LOVE

Some might think I'm bossy or demanding because I typically get what I want. I KNOW some of you think I'm spoiled. But I can't help it if people (Danny) indulge me in my every whim. Case in point...

Story 1
Last night Danny and I met our friend Tony for dinner at Costco (we're high class). While Danny and Tony where deep in discussion over the current financial crisis on Wall Street I quietly said to myself,"I feel like a cookie." After saying goodbye to Tony and throwing out our trash Danny asked me if I wanted to get a cookie. Surprised that he had even heard my statement I reminded him that the Costco food stand didn't sell cookies. Once in the car he asked if I wanted to stop somewhere to get a cookie. I said, "Its not that big of a deal. I just felt like one cookie." Danny insisted it was no problem to make a stop and I agreed we could stop if we happened to pass a cookie place on our way home.

Well Danny decided to take a detour on our way home so we would pass Safeway so we stopped. Turns out this Safeway didn't have a bakery and didn't sell smaller quantities of cookies (qty 1) and I didn't really feel like paying $5 for a box of cookies when I only wanted one. So we got in the car and headed home..or so I thought. We soon passed a Subway and Danny stopped and I ran inside to see if they had any cookies. Negative. Danny said to me," I don't think God wants you to have a cookie tonight." Danny then decided to stop again at McDonald's. No cookies.

I began to wonder why Danny was doing all of this. I mean we had Coco Krispies at home...those would calm my sugar craving. Perhaps Danny wanted a cookie too? Why weren't any cookies being baked fresh past 7pm?!?!

Danny then started driving back towards Mountain View (we had almost come full circle back to Costco) and stopped at another Subway where...alas..cookies! So five stores later I finally got my cookie for $.34. Danny didn't even want one!

*************************************************************************************

Story 2
One of the highlights of the year for me is going to the Galt Market near Sacramento with my Aunt and Mom. There is a booth there that sells purses for pretty cheap and I go crazy. The first year I went I took Danny with me and he ended up carrying 20 purses around for me all day. He has never gone with again. Anyways, for Labor Day my parents came into town and my mom and I decided to go to the market. Danny's discussion with me about self control went something like this...

Danny: "How many purses are you going to buy this year?"
Liz: " I don't know. It just depends how many I like."
Danny: (serious face) "Well before you go I think you should get rid of some of your purses."
Liz: (blank face)
Danny:(thoughtful expression) "Well. Ok. I guess I can see if you wanted to wait until after you go to the market to decide which purses to get rid of."
Liz: (blank face)
Danny: (frustrated expression) "Ahhh. I don't care. Buy whatever you want."
Liz: (laughing)

And to think I didn't even buy a single purse when I went. Of course, that doesn't mean I left empty handed. ;0)

*************************************************************************************

So thanks Danny for always doing everything you can to make sure my dreams come true! LOVE YOU!!

AWESOME but expensive

Danny and I have been trying to figure out what to hang on the wall above our sofa. We decided a picture frame collage would be really cool and we recently saw an episode of Divine Design (love it!) in which Candice Olson used this company's kit to do a collage. It was super cool. So Danny suggested I find this kit. Well after an hour and half of searching online I finally found the company http://www.thepicturewallcompany.com. One set of frames is the PERFECT size for above our sofa but its too expensive. I am sad. Maybe in a couple years when $400 doesn't phase me (if that day ever comes). But for those of you who are ok with $400 this is an awesome product!

Labor Day and etc

My family drove from Washington to come visit us for Labor Day. We stayed at my Aunt Shirley and Uncle Bob's house in Sacramento and enjoyed good food, swimming and shopping. My cousins were there as well and it was fun hanging out with them. It took Danny and I forever to get there because of all the traffic and he had to leave early on Monday to avoid it all again. Danny also decided to volunteer for a work trip to Utah so it turned 4-5 days of cali family time into 1.5 days. Since Danny wasn't going to be in town and there wasn't a whole lot to see in Palo Alto for the remainder of the week, we decided to go to Disneyland! It was a lot of fun and it wasn't crowded at all. We were able to do all our favorite things. Stayed at our fav hotel, ate at Rainforest Cafe, got Monte Cristo's, and went to a Character dinner. Thanks family for the fun trip!

Becca and Fox patiently waiting for the rest of us to get ready.

Liz, Becca, and Amy sue (the doll) meeting Pooh

Helping Bobby practice shaking hands for meeting Mickey


Soaking wet after Splash Mountain

Princess Jasmine and Amy sue

Bobby and Princess Minnie at Cafe Orleans waiting for their Monte Cristo


Liz, Bobby, and Becca watching the fireworks

Love you guys! Come visit me again soon!

GO International: Richard Chai @ TARGET

Target has some GREAT clothes right now. I only wish I had a decent Target nearby. Take advantage Provo peeps!

We HEART booking.com Spain Day 8

We woke up early of course to catch our early train to Cordoba. We were excited because we knew our hotel was going to be pretty nice. Once in Cordoba we got a taxi to take us to our hotel (we gave up on trying to find hotels on our own AND we were never able to use the internet to print off more maps). We were so excited when the taxi pulled up RIGHT NEXT to the Mezquita and our hotel was on the other side of the street. We were even MORE EXCITED when we got to our room and it was a SUITE!!! When we got to the room and saw the regular nightly rate we couldn't believe it. The room regularly went for 380 euros and we got it for 40 euors! What a steal!

Wall of Mezquita on the right. Hotel on the left

The suite. It doesn't look that nice in this picture but I promise you it was VERY NICE even for American standards.

Once we checked in we decided to grab an early lunch. We headed to a nice cafe where (I believe) we both had potato omelet sandwiches. A bit weird but good none the less. Next we headed to the Mezquita.

Danny inside the Mezquita

Cordoba's big attraction is the Mezquita which is a Islamic Mosque (AD 784) turned Christian Church. It maintains much of its mosque architecture. The catholic church's guide was really interesting. It contained all sorts of statements such as ,"The Mezquita is only in its current condition because of the Catholic church so don't feel sympathy for the Moors who were conquered and lost their church." It was all kinda strange and a bit funny.

The Mihrab aka Islamic high altar

The Christian high altar

The bell tower

The wall

Next we crossed the street to tour the Alcazar where to my horror we discovered it was closing (closed at 2:30 and it was 2:25 so they weren't going to let us in). I was very upset. This fortress castle had been given to the church by the Catholic Monarchs as a headquarter for the Spanish Inquisition...coolio. I was very sad. We now had nothing else to do in Cordoba.

The Alcazar

Me and the dirty Guadalquivir river

We decided to walk around and try to find this modern day Arabic bath place which we did finally find but it was really expensive. I still wish we would have done it. It looked pretty cool. So we just walked around forever. We got Danny some more eye drops. We walked through the Jewish quarter. I can't even remember where we had dinner. I know we have some ice cream at some point. Finally we began to walk back to our hotel and about 30 feet from the door of our hotel a man tried to steal a girl's camera. It was all very exciting. A kind tourist ran the thief down and got the camera. It was the second time we had witnessed a mugging in Spain.

We went to bed a little nervous because our train the next day was one that required advanced reservations and we didn't have reservations. We were hoping to just show up and buy tickets. I felt a little stupid about Cordoba because although our hotel was totally awesome and a great deal, we spent a lot of money to make the stop for basically one site. Oh well. It was still fun.

Disappointed

Something many of you may not know about me....

Most Mormon girls ages 12-17 spend all year in anticipation for girls camp, I spent all year in anticipation for our Stake Valentine's Young Women activity....cake decorating. I love cake decorating although I have not done any in about 10 years. My freshman year at BYU I took a student development class which was supposed to help you find your major...at the end of the class when the teacher ask what I wanted to do I said "Isn't there a Martha Stewart major or something?". The teacher said "yeah...at Rick's". So I ended up doing finance.

I was really excited to move to Palo Alto because our apartment is 5 minutes away from Foothill college and classes there are super cheap (like $13). I was really hoping to take a cake decorating class so you can imagine how excited I was when the Foothill College Fall Class Schedule came in the mail. But to my dismay there were no cake decorating classes or sewing or interior design or floral arranging or anything I might have interest in. I am so bummed! Guess I'll have to get a job at Sprinkles and learn how to decorate gourmet cupcakes!