Holy Smokes I'm Sick

Okay, so this week my blog hours have taken a sick day. I am sick as can be, no voice, stuffy nose, bad cough and no energy. But I did say I would blog every week, so I am blogging and I will be working on my reviews more today so hopefully they will make it up this weekend. Doctor says I should be feeling better by then, but let me just say going from a cold to broncitis really just kills me. Maybe next year I will say I wont get sick, since this happened last year too!

Let me just say how proud I am to be an Oklahoma State University Cowboy! I am so proud of the team for pulling out that win and for all be amazing and remembering the 4. Also, if you have no idea why the referenced the gundy after the win, head over to youtube and search teach me how to gundy. It will put a smile on your face!

Do you have kids in college? Do you think the prices are crazy for a textbook? Do you think that tuition goes up to much every year? Well here are a few tips on how I save money during my college career. Look in to renting textbooks, I dont do this because I love to keep my books and write in them, but renting a textbook can be less then half the price of the book. Buy the books online, great deals at half.com or amazon.com even barns and noble sales textbooks at lower prices then the on campus or near campus stores. I got all four of my books needed for this semester for $180, my books if I had gotten them through the school would have cost me over $450. I got all my books for under the price of just one of my books. All my books came brand new in the package and I of course used ebates to buy the books so I get cash back! Do you have a question on how to save on books? Feel free to leave me a comment and I will help you out! Now for that tuition hike problem, I know OSU offers a tuition lock program, while I do not use this I know a few students who do. The price is slightly higher then what I pay currently, but my price can change and theirs will not. It could save you thousands of dollars if started freshman year. Something else to look in to.

But here we go with our reciepe, this is what I eat every time I am sick since I dont like chicken noodle..I know how unAmerican of me. I eat Pho, an amazing chicken or beef Vietnamese noodle soup.

Ingredients

1. 2 unpeeled yellow onions, quartered
2. Three 1/2-inch-thick slices of fresh ginger, smashed
3. 4 quarts cold water
4. 3 pounds chicken bones or chicken wings
5. One 3 1/2-pound chicken, quartered
6. 1 tablespoon salt
7. 2 teaspoons sugar
8. 1/4 cup Asian fish sauce
9. 1 pound dried rice noodles
10. 1 scallion, thinly sliced
11. 1 pound mung bean sprouts
12. 1/2 cup torn basil leaves
13. 2 limes, cut into wedges
14. 2 jalapeños, thinly sliced
15. Asian chili-garlic sauce and hoisin sauce, for serving

1. Preheat the oven to 400°. Put the onions and ginger on a baking sheet and roast for 30 minutes, or until softened and lightly browned.
2. Fill a large stockpot with the water and bring to a boil. Add the roasted vegetables and the chicken bones, quartered chicken, salt and sugar and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to moderate and simmer until the chicken is cooked, about 30 minutes.
3. Using tongs, transfer the quartered chicken to a plate and let cool slightly. Remove the meat from the bones and refrigerate. Return the skin and bones to the stockpot and simmer for 2 hours longer. Strain the chicken broth into a large soup pot and cook over high heat until reduced to 12 cups, about 15 minutes. Stir in the fish sauce.
4. In a large bowl of warm water, soak the noodles until pliable, about 20 minutes.
5. Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil. Drain the noodles, then add them to the saucepan and boil over high heat until tender, about 3 minutes. Drain well. Transfer the noodles to 6 large bowls and sprinkle with the scallion. Add the reserved chicken to the broth and simmer until heated through. Ladle the broth and chicken over the noodles. Serve with the bean sprouts, basil, lime wedges, jalapeños, chili-garlic sauce and hoisin sauce.

Make Ahead The recipe can be prepared through Step 3 and refrigerated for up to 2 days. 

 

This soup is amazing and perfect with a little hot pepper sauce to clear up you stuffyness. 

What are your favorite things to eat when you are sick? How do you get over the crud? 

Well, I need to go over my class schedule and get my books ready and pull the backpack back out and then take a nap. School starts Monday with 17 hours and a fun hotel lab at the Oklahoma State University Atherton. Have you ever thought to go stay at a hotel run by students? Let me just say the Atherton is a top notch hotel that is just as nice as any other 4 star hotel, located right next to the largest student union in the US!

Okay, now really, I must get ready for class. I cant not be prepared..that will drive me bonkers!

Have a Great Day!

Black Friday Shopping and a new Recipe

Okay, so yes I will admit, I am a crazy black friday shopper. I go every year except for last year since I had knee surgery 2 days prior to it. Let me just say that by far this was my best year yet! I spent under $175 and got a retail value of product of over $450! Heres what I got:
24 Movies (i used coupons on some of them)
3 xbox 360 games
1 xbox wireless controller
1 waffle maker
1 mini chopper
2 liters of shampoo and conditioner 

Cole, his first time ever did great! He spent $260 for about $570ish wroth of product and got the following
xbox 360 with kinect (for me, YAY)
6 or 7 movies (not sure)
1 PS3 game
$50 gift card
6 qt crockpot (for his mommy)
2 bottles of water (should have packed my own, would have saved more $$)

My mom via my sister and I got an awesome one cup coffee maker for about $88ish after tax, but she gets 5% off her bill, PLUS she got a $30 Target gift card, making the coffee maker about $54ish after all savings accounted for!

I feel like I am missing something from his list but not sure. He admits he hates this with a passion but that he got all that stuff for what he would have paid for just my xbox so he is happy. But he is undecided on going next year. Me on the other hand..Im ready to go now!! I LOVE IT!! Not to mention that I got a couple rebates for movies to turn in as well as a couple coupons that I used.

Now after i rested and took a nap and while Cole was at work, I went to CVS and Walgreens to get their great deals! It was a good week for both, I spend $30 and walked away with over $65 in bucks to use later, as well as over $130 in product! I LOVE my coupons and I love Black Friday! I dont know what I would do with out it. Now if only I could get Cole this excited. But we have made progress!

The other day, Cole's mom had him order the stuff he wanted for christmas online. So my little savvy shopper went through ebates, making sure he would get cash back, then he found a coupon, that as he puts it gave me shorts for FREE, plus free shipping! So he will now be getting a new hoodie, shorts and a few bucks back thanks to me! Not sure if he will admit it or not, but it is soo awesome! He has even started getting more into groupons and that type of thing and restaurant.com stuff. I am sooo happy he finally sees how much this can pay off if he sticks with it! Now to get him to do it on a bigger scale..he lives in the basement and theres so much room for a stockpile..now to convince him!

Okay so I promised a recipe and so now I shall spill! Being the holidays and that Eggnog is everywhere I have decided to share with you my favorite breakfast/brunch and Christmas morning meal!

Eggnog Puff Pancake

this is not your normal pancake, its thick like french toast, but has no bread.

6 eggs, beat till frothy
1 1/3 c eggnog
1 c flour
1/3 c butter flavored crisco
1 t nutmeg
toasted almond slivers

Heat over to 425, place the crisco in a 13x9 GLASS pan. Make sure it is HOT HOT, it has to be hot to make the pancake puff.
Forth the eggs, add the egg now, mix on low, add flour and nutmeg, mix on medium till incorporated.
Pull the crisco out of the oven and immediately add the batter
Put back in the oven for 15-20 mins, till puffed and golden brown.
DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN WHILE IT IS COOKING! DONT EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!

you can make this batter ahead of time, just remix it before you put it in the pan. DO NOT USE BUTTER!

Let me know what you eat on Christmas and if its tradition to do something, I would love to know!!

Hope everyone has a great week. I know I will,  it is BEDLAM and as much as i dislike the classless, tacky and down right rude and uncalled for ou guest. I will remain LOYAL and TRUE to the OSU way and be welcomeing and kind to all of them. Now if yu dont believe me in how they treat us, go look at the tweets Brandon Weeden gets, or the disrespectful and rude comments made when we lost after loosing 2 of our coaches in a plane crash. There are somethings in my life that I would never change even if I had the chance and one of the is being a Cowboy! Nothing is better then being here in a community where no matter what the outcome is, we still LOVE our team, we still WEAR ORANGE and we stand proud and strong next to anyone, not to mention we ALWAYS remember those we lost and that is why I am a  LOYAL AND TRUE OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY FAN, I WILL ALWAYS PROUDLY WEAR MY ORANGE AND BLACK AND REMEMBER EVERY PERSON WHO HAD AN IMPACT ON THIS CAMPUS! GO POKES!!!