Oh My Gosh! I miss food?

I have finally put away the school books from this spring semester, and sadly, from the previous fall as well.  Can we say I was a little behind?  Being a non-working college kid again sure does have it's disadvantages....  it sure cuts into the eating out budget.  But I can proudly say that school is paid for thanks to all of the budgeting and working I did in the ten years prior (and with some budgeting guidance from the best husband in the world).  Bonus, all of my school loans from my first time through school are all paid off, and I am not taking any out this time around.

With all of that, back to the restaurant part of my challenge.  Eating out has been a challenge.  Yes, I have gone out... but we tend to pick places that we can get discounts.  We have been to some pretty amazing places on occasion.  We met some family up in Baltimore, MD for a birthday celebration at a cute Italian restaurant... sort of reminded me of the restaurant where my wedding reception was held.  You could just feel the Mafia presence.  We did travel over Christmas break to Scotland with family to visit family.  I played it safe there eating things that I was pretty sure I would like.  Learned about Mushy Peas and mushy sausage.  Also learned that an appropriate breakfast consists of baked beans and beer at 7:00 AM.  I did not partake in the beans or the beer.  Made a quick trip to Kenneth Square, PA for a friend's wedding and stopped at a cute bar in the historic downtown area.  The funniest part about that one was when Darryl finished his Buffalo Philly Cheese Steak and was disappointed that it didn't have the same zing as a Buffalo Wing....  not realizing that the meat was buffalo meat (rather than cow). 

I have started to experiment with my cooking a little bit.  Now that school is out, I plan on trying a few new things.  Today I made fruit smoothies and put them in my freezer.  I now will have nice snacks during the day, rather than chips.   The other day I made some creamy orzo with cream cheese, dill, and some Romano cheese for a salty touch.

I plan on doing more with cooking.  I started pinning ideas on Pinterest.  I waited until school finished to start playing on Pinterest.  So far I've seen some great ideas.  I think I'm going to add blog entries about my attempts at creating some of the things I have made from this.

At some point this summer I am taking an exciting trip.  We finally decided to go on a cruise.  It will give me some new meal ideas and hopefully a lot of blogging ideas.  I'm hoping in the next few weeks to start catching up on meals from Scotland, and from the few places we did go to this semester.  It is kinda sad to think I didn't do so hot on my challenge, but I've been busy rocking nursing school. 

For anyone who was following last summer, I hope you will join me again this summer.