Recipes | Lemon Shrimp Bake

This recipe is perfect for a party or for salads and it is quick and easy! The best thing is you can flavor it up how ever you like it :)

What You'll Need:

• 3 Lemons (two for slices and one for juice)
• Raw Shrimp (detailed or with tail according to your preference)
• Stick of butter (cut into pieces)
• Seasoning of choice (I gave oregano a try on this one)
• Aluminum foil
• Baking pan

What to do:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line baking pan with aluminum foil.
2. Slice up two lemons and put on pan along with raw shrimp and butter (cut into pieces.)
3. Squirt with lemon juice and season all over.
4. Place in the oven for 10-15 minutes.
5. Enjoy!

Calling All Sponsors

So I thought it over and though I'm still going to offer my sponsorship for free I'm thinking of asking for sponsors monthly. This way I can do a page featuring the sponsors of the month and more. I'll post later in the month asking for July sponsors. Anyway what I'm calling all sponsors right now is for anyone that would love to guest post some time this month. Feel free to email me at amberupbeat[at]aol[dot]com if you're interested.

Recipes | Lemon Pepper Salmon

Can't you tell I love peas?

Like many of you I love Pinterest and it's infinite amount of recipe pins so of course I couldn't resist trying out this easy salmon recipe. I wanted to test out this recipe on my day off to see how "easy" it really was and I have to say it was right on!

What you'll need:

Directions:

1. Thaw out your salmon; I bought them individually wrapped so they're easy to toss a few in a bowl on the bottom shelf of the fridge to thaw out while you're at work or during the day.
2. While you're prepping preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
3. Slice a couple of lemon "wheels" (if you like lemon with your fish cut few wedges for later.)
4. On sheet of aluminum foil place enough lemon slices to cover the bottom of the salmon (it only took five.)
5. Place a few pieces of butter on top of the salmon.
6. Sprinkle pepper on top plus any other seasonings of choice.
7. Create a pocket with the aluminum foil by pulling two sides together, fold over, then close the sides in with the center fold.
8. Bake for 25 minutes until salmon flacks easily with a fork (internal temperature should be 145 F; place thermometer in the thickest part of salmon when checking)

It tasted great and clean up (including prep) was a breeze because everything was contained in the aluminum foil pocket. Next time though I might use a bit more pepper and another spice to give it additional flavor. Overall it's an easy tasty dinner perfect for two that you won't break a sweat over! 

New New Design

I finally figured out what I was looking for and decided to change out the design again. I really missed the old layout so it'll be staying longer than the former. I still have to fix some minor things with codes but I'll work on that tomorrow. After working on this design all day I am rather tired and heading to bed!

Former Design:

New Design:

I really need to take an updated picture of myself, not that I look completely different but still. I really can't wait for my hair to finally even out after cutting it short. I loved it but couldn't maintain keeping it short so I'm growing it back out. Anyway hope you guys like this design too and I promise to layoff changing it again for at 6 months or something. Goodnight!

So Indecisive

I can be so indecisive some times (or actually most of the time) there is always those things that bug me because I can't make up my mind on what I want. From changing up the blog design again (I miss having post in the middle) to getting a second job. I have all this energy to finally change it then I get too many ideas and they turn into one massive snowball (bad reference for the summer) sandball and I get caught up in it! I'm not stressed but it's just an annoyance to say the least. Also did I mention I'm stubborn? That might account to 40% of my indecisiveness because if I can do it then why not! Oh well...today has been kind of a bust. I went to the antique show but things didn't start off right (the coffee place I was going to grab breakfast was shut down) I started my first roundbut there wasn't much there and with my head hurting from the lack of food I decided I should  go inside and get a bite to eat. As soon as I sat down to eat it started pouring down rain. By the time it stopped raining outside  most of the booths were covered with plastic or had everything crammed into the pop-up tents. I just decided to go home because I wasn't having any luck. I'm still debating about going again tomorrow morning since they're calling for sunny skies. If I do decide to go again I'll remember to take pictures of this place; it's huge! Well one positive thing about today is I have the day off. I'm trying to talk Dustin into getting a bite to eat somewhere so we don't have to dirty up dishes.

Recipes | Easy Poached Egg

When I was in labs at school I had a class that for the first few days all we did was cook breakfast foods and poached eggs were on the list. They're rather easy once you get the hang of it but it's not a quick process. So I found this amazing recipe at The Kitchn on how to make one in the microwave! Perfect for in the morning or when you only have a microwave to cook with (i.e college dorms.)

What You'll Need:

• 1 Egg
• 1/3 Cup Water
• 1/2 tsp vinegar (helps egg to coalesce better)
• Microwavable cup (I used an extra large soup style mug)
• Slotted Spoon

1. Crack Egg into cup and pour water/vinegar mixture over top
2. Set microwave power at 80% and cook for 60 seconds*
3. Since microwaves are different keep cooking at 80% in intervals of 10-20 seconds 
4. Once finished take remove the egg with the slotted spoon; the white will be a little wiggly but that's okay since the yoke will cook faster than the whites.
5. Now pair it on top of lightly buttered toast with some fresh fruit (or in my case frozen yogurt covered fruit since le boyfriend ate the rest of the fresh) and enjoy!

*I like my egg a little runny so I did it for the 60 seconds at 80% with additional 10 seconds at 70% power. It cooks the yoke a little but there is still some runny goodness. For a more solid yoke try at full power at 60 seconds.

For Your Late Night Enjoyment

I keep seeing these adorable commercials encouraging others to adapt a shelter pet and this one has to be the funniest of them all! I wish we could have a cat or dog at the apartment I'd go adopt all the pets.

It's The Simple Things

I wasn't born when the original movies came out but when the trilogy vhs box set was re-released back in 1997 my Poppy got me hooked on Star Wars. I remember rooting for the ewoks, hiding my face when Luke got his hand cut off and being deathly afraid of the wampa creature in the cave (basically The Empire Strikes Back scared me.) I had such a great time watching the movies with the family and wishing for Jedi powers. 

So of course I'd be a little bit excited when I finally bought a reproduction poster of the iconic movie on ebay. I guess I'm just a big kid (I still catch myself waving my hand in front of the automatic doors at the right time before walking in) but whatever I'm fine with that :) Now I just need to find a raglan shirt and I'll be complete! 

How Does Your Garden Grow?

I still need to get all the pictures together from graduation and will make one mega post with it all. Until then I wanted to share with you all my little garden that Dustin and I have been working on.

One thing this summer that we want to do is fix up our back patio area so we can actually enjoy the summer. We have a grill already and Dustin can get pallets for $1 at his work so we're going to make furniture and we just need a few more little touches to make it perfect. I'm also going to start looking for an affordable fire pit so we can go out during the Fall too.

Top Left to Right: A blossom on one of our strawberry plants, a hanging plant our neighbor gave us
Bottom Left to Right: One of the hydrangea's we salvaged from the sale rack, the golden eunoymus plants we got two years ago.

I got in!

Something that has been bothering me for a while was not knowing if I was accepted into additional classes for a Baking and Pastry Associate Degree. If I didn't get in I would need to apply for a full time job and just start working at my career with my current degree. I was not too worried but when I put in for those extra classes the lady told me that there was a chance that I might not get them due to incoming freshman and others who applied too. Of course that little bit was stressing me out so much. It's such a relief knowing now that I got in and what to do with all the financial stuff. I'm so excited and slightly nervous but I cannot wait to see how it all turns out!