La Sardina

Last week I had my first piano lesson. I was waiting for it to start so I picked up the Architectural Digest in the waiting room. I read about Will and Jada Pinkett Smith’s house which was quite spectacular. Then I flipped to a part about film cameras. It showed several but one really caught my eye- it was a fisheye lomo camera. I wrote down the website and looked it up when I got home.

I was opened to the whole new world of lomography! It’s this whole community that’s devoted to film photography with lomo cameras! What is lomography? Check is out! So I was browsing the website and came across some really cute cameras that takes pretty awesome pictures! I registered for an account so I join the world of lomography and received Piggy Points! Apparently they equal money off for lomo products!

I was thinking that I might want to buy a lomo camera in the future but…impulse and common sense told me otherwise! You know the piggy points I mentioned? Well they gave me $20 off! Also, lomography is running a promo with free shipping! Ahh! So I could either buy this lovely La Sardina camera for $68 later, when I have more money in my bank account and have thought about it more, or I could buy it now, after having thought about it for a day but save $28!

I got this camera for $39! I was so excited! It arrived yesterday and I immediately took pictures of it! Haha. What’s so special about this camera? Well it takes lomo pictures, is small and compact, uses 35mm film, and has a super wide angle lens! It also has the ability to take multiple exposures, meaning that you can take 2 different pictures on the same frame and see what kind of crazy effect happens! Oh it also has a bulb setting and 3 different levels of flash strength!

And check it out! It’s designed to look like a sardine can. Ironic, since I hate seafood. BUT I love the ocean and the nautical colors.

I’m just going to ignore this squid thing on the back. Hehe :) So I’ve been researching film and I’m amazed at this whole world I’m missing out on! I’ve taken film photography before, with my mom’s Nikon, and worked in the dark room at my school, but I haven’t really experimented with types of film! I’ve found a type of color film that I think would be great, I just need to save up to buy some!

So here’s my cute little camera :) Just thought I’d share.

Daniel Fast

Today I am starting something called the Daniel Fast. This is a fast I’ve done twice before and just felt led to do it again. The fast traditionally lasts for 21 days and you eat only things from the earth basically- all fruits and vegetables, nuts, and unprocessed grains. You can have spices but not sugar or any sweeteners like honey. The fast is modeled after the one that Daniel (from the Bible) did. Daniel did this fast when he was taken into the Babylonian king’s palace:

“Daniel determined that he would not defile himself by eating the king’s food or drinking his wine, so he asked the head of the palace staff to exempt him from the royal diet. The head of the place staff, by God’s grace, liked Daniel, but he warned him, ‘I’m afraid of what my master the king would do. He is the one who assigned this diet and if he sees that you are not as healthy as the rest, he’ll have my head!’ But Daniel appealed to the steward…’Try us out for ten days on a simple diet of vegetables and water. Then compare us with the young men who eat from the royal menu. Make your decision on the basis of what you see.’ ” And at the end of the 10 days, they were healthier and better nourished than the other men.

It’s a challenging fast to do because it’s a totally different way of eating and it’s hard to do when you’re eating with people not on the fast. I’m the only one in my family doing it but that’s fine with me :) I’m actually excited to experiment with making Daniel Fast meals. So here are my reasons for doing the fast:

1. Spiritual. Fasting has a way of re-focusing you and you can grow closer and more in tune with God. When you stop focusing on food, you have more time to devote to God and you remember to talk to Him.

2. I have a bad relationship with food. Even though it’s gotten better this past year, I still hate how stressed eating can make me feel. Sometimes I eat way too much because I’m upset or I don’t eat because I feel guilty. I don’t feel guilty when I eat on this fast mainly because it’s healthy. Especially since I’ve been back from Haiti, I hate that I have this horrible relationship with food because I am so blessed to have access to basically as much food as I could want. I hope that this fast will help me relax when it comes to eating.

3. It’s healthy. Eating like this is seriously so good for you. Your body detoxes and gets rid of all the chemicals and crap that’s in the food you usually eat. When I’ve done this fast before, I’ve had a ton of energy and felt really good! So I’m looking forward to that.

4. I’m going to see if it helps my migraines at all. I don’t really think it’s going to…but I might as well try!

Here’s another verse I think of when fasting. “And when you fast, don’t make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, for they try to look miserable and disheveled so people will admire them for their fasting. I tell you the truth, that is the only reward they will ever get.” -Matthew 6:16. I think this verse is so important. Fasting can be a great experience but not if you do it for the wrong reasons. I think to get attention or to be admired are wrong reasons. To fast because other people are doing it is a bad reason. To do it to lose weight is a bad reason. I think your #1 reason for fasting has to be God, to focus on Him and get your strength from Him.

I’ll be updating how the fast is going for the next few weeks :) and posting Daniel fast approved recipes!

Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yesterday was a busy (but good) day! I was really tired because my friend Jessica and I had been to the Hillsong United concert the night before (more on that later :). School was pretty boring..the best part was working on our coil pots in AP Art History. I wish we could just do art projects in there all year! I got home and immediately left to take Celina to her acting lessons and I had my first piano lesson with a new teacher. The lesson went well but it’s going to be strange to have a piano teacher again! On our way home we stopped by Kroger to get a couple of things. When I got home I worked out and showered and then baked cookies as a birthday present for my boyfriend :) He sent me a link to these Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies from Picky Palate a while ago so that’s what I decided to make!

Before I used to really enjoy baking cookies and it was what I made most frequently. Lately I just haven’t been in the mood to bake cookies but these super delicious over-the-top cookies reminded me how fun it is :)

First you have to make a big batch of chocolate chip cookie dough. Any cookie dough would work but I followed the Picky Palate recipe which was pretty basic but used a tablespoon of vanilla. I liked the extra vanilla in the dough- it added a nice flavor.

I think this picture speaks for itself. 2 chocolate chip cookies. 1 Oreo.

It’s hard to tell how big these cookies are (and the picture isn’t that good…) but they are enormous!

Yummy! Oh a miracle happened…the oven stayed on the whole time I was baking! I was so excited!

I was really bummed that we didn’t have milk! We only had almond milk…and it’s really not the same. We’ll have to buy some milk today so I can enjoy these cookies to the fullest!

These were so good! I had dinner at Carrabbas with my boyfriend and his parents. I gave him the cookies afterwards and he said they were really good! My family liked them too. Success all around!

Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe from Picky Palate.

Ingredients:

2 sticks softened butter

3/4 Cup packed brown sugar

1 Cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 Tablespoon vanilla

3 1/2 Cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

10 oz bag chocolate chips

1 package of Oreos…they HAVE to be double stuffed. It’s the law.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (and pray that it will stay heated). Cream together butter and sugars until well combined. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until combined.

In a separate bowl mix the flour, salt and baking soda.  Slowly add to wet ingredients along with chocolate chips until just combined.  Using a cookie scoop (ice cream scoop) take one scoop of cookie dough and place on top of an Oreo.  Take another scoop of dough and place on bottom of the Oreo. Use your fingers to press the dough around the Oreo until you can’t see it anymore. Put the cookies on a baking sheet and bake for 9-10 minutes. I like to keep my chocolate chip cookies a little underbaked :) Take them out of the oven and stare and the amazing thing you’ve just created!

This makes 20-24 extremely large cookies! Make them today for someone you love and eat them with real milk! You know, the kind from the cows :)

365 Photo Challenge

My project for this next year is going to be the 365 photo challenge. Taking a picture every day for a year. That sounds pretty hard to me. But I think it’d be a really good thing. I love photography and this would force me to take pictures every day. To always be thinking about photos. I think it’s going to challenge me to see the world and document my life. Instead of 365 days, though, I think I’m going to do it a little differently. I’m going to start the challenge on the first day of my senior year- August 11, 2011 and finish it on the first day of college. I’m excited to start documenting my life and my world…as it undergoes many changes in this following year. I won’t be posting the pictures I take every day, maybe more like once a week. So yeah! I’m pretty excited about this idea :)

Ok so this paragraph above? I wrote it a couple weeks ago and was going to wait to publish this post until it was the first day of school. Well I forgot all about the post and the 365 challenge…whoops! I just realized today that I had forgotten about the post and the challenge! I was all upset until I realized that I have taken pictures (almost) every day since school started! Whew! So I will start the challenge officially now and I’ll post my daily pictures every week (possibly). I’m excited about this! I’m sure you are too :D Not all of my pictures will be good, I’ll be taking some with my phone I’m sure (ahhh! super envy for everyone who has instagram…)

I’ve been really inspired by some 365s I’ve seen on flickr…I think it’s going to start off rough (especially as I’m getting used to school and stuff) but I’m ready to start challenging myself with photography! Well that’s all for now :) School’s pretty ok…youth group kick off tonight!

Banana Bread…Finally!

The other morning for breakfast (well it was 11am…so late breakfast) I was going to have frosted mini wheats. They are one of my favorite cereals! I had it all poured out in the bowl and then opened the fridge and…no milk. Gah! I hate when this happens! And then after that I didn’t want to eat anything else because I had my mind set on cereal. So I sat and sulked for a while. And then I decided to make banana bread with the 3 very ripe bananas we had on the counter.

I love banana bread so much but whenever I made it, I was never pleased with the results. It was always too dry or not very flavorful. I had a lot of banana recipes saved that I wanted to try out and I finally did! I was so incredibly happy with the results! I will definitely look forward to making this again. Oh it was also super easy to make! And the oven didn’t stop working..I would have to say it was better than frosted mini wheats :)

This recipe is from 4littlefergusons on Tasty Kitchen!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar (not packed)

1 stick butter, softened

1 egg

4 tablespoons sour cream

1 ½ cup flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 whole over-ripe bananas, blended so that they’re liquid

Directions:

Cream together first 5 ingredients. Slowly add the flour and then the baking soda and salt. Add the blended bananas. Put in a greased bread loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes. (How easy was that?!?) Then enjoy the super not-dry and tasty bread! Usually I always put butter on breads and muffins, but this really doesn’t need it! Which is kinda crazy because I love butter!