NAPA!

Ok, I will get my act together and write about our awesome trip to Napa. I think I have been holding out on this post because we did so much, and I don't know where to start. I think I will just give you the lo-down on how to do Napa with a student budget, aka the cheapest way possible. I guess that's what this blog is becoming --Cheap Germs. But you all knew that would happen, didn't you?

With that said, don't go to Napa if you aren't willing to spend some (a lot of) money.



1st Vineyard. I want to go back (one day) when everything is blooming.

We got in late on a weekday and stayed for 2 nights. We got a hotel last minute and decided to forego the more fancy shindigs (ther are so many awesome resorts and bed and breakfasts) for a cheaper but reliable hotel (bonus: we got free breakfast each morning!). We were still really close to Napa and cab rides are super cheap if you need to get anywhere.

Views from the wineries. So Peaceful.

The first night we met one of my best friends and her mom who were coincidentally vacationing in Napa/Sonoma at the same time! We had an amazing dinner in Sonoma and then headed to a winery that had a store downtown.  Rather than have wine tastings at their vineyards, a lot of them choose to have tastings/sell their wines in downtown Napa in a store setting. While we were there, we met a couple and the guy had graduated from UTMB a few years ago. Such a small world!



Wine tasting set up at winery #2

 In order to "see" Napa, we knew we had to take some sort of tour. I tried to do my due diligence and research all possible options but everything was just so upscale and expensive. My lawyer and real doctor friends gave me great advice but we just couldn't cough up that much. I found this thing called 'Platypus Tours' which took you around on a party bus with other people. They guaranteed a great time so we signed up the night before. The best part: they picked us up and dropped us off at our hotel so no driving was necessary. 

The tour took us to 4 different vineyards. Most of them 'boutique' vineyards, meaning they were a lot smaller and you wouldn't see their wines anywhere else. I liked these better because we got to meet the owners and learn a lot about the winemaking process. In my opinion, signing up for the Platypus tours was a great idea. We had a blast with one of the other couples on the bus (the girl had just graduated from a med school in TX and was an intern in DC). In fact, everyone was super friendly (and got even more friendly as the tour went on). After the vineyard tours, we ate dinner at Oxbo Market, aka "the fanciest food court ever". If you go to Napa, you HAVE to go there. We were told by numerous people to go and we're glad we did!

peaceloveandwine,
Germs

Planning ahead

Who else is like me in that you don't plan your meals ahead of time for the week so every time you want to cook something you have to go to the store? I am usually just missing something like chicken or ground turkey (aka the main ingredient) so it is quite annoying. No one else does this? Sweet, I'm jealous of you.  But if there are any of you out there that are reading this and are just as stupid as me, read on!

I have been saying I will plan meals ahead of time for a looooong time. I am finally doing it. Yesterday I planned four dinners for this upcoming week. I braved Wal-Mart (eeek, I know) to be even cheaper than usual. If you don't look at any of the mullets in the eye, you'll be fine. I found that buying the meat ahead of time in bulk is a) way cheaper and b) saves me multiple trips to the grocery store. Score times two. Next, I bought a bunch of fresh veggies that I will be able to use in multiple recipes.

I thought it would be fun to share my meal plan for this upcoming week. If the recipes turn out well, I will share pics and tips from them later.


Last night I made Veggie Lasagna. With a vegetarian roommate (cough --who eats meat when inebriated-- cough), I thought I would appease her just this once. Jk, I actually like vegetarian stuff and didn't mind making this healthier version at all. I added a few more veggies to the recipe. I also made this broccoli recipe found on my friend's blog, "J Lipp's Hip Tips". Both of these recipes turned out to be amazing so I suggest you make them! They were also super easy to make.

Note: This is what it should look like.

Ingredients:

3 medium zucchini, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced

1 (8-oz.) package sliced fresh mushrooms

2 garlic cloves, minced (I buy the minced stuff in a jar -- your hands will never smell like garlic again!)

1 medium-size red bell pepper, chopped

1 medium-size yellow bell pepper, chopped

1 cup chopped carrots

1 yellow onion, chopped

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups fat-free ricotta cheese

1 large egg

2 cups (8 oz.) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese, divided

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, divided

1 jar marinara sauce of your choosing (I used a chunky veggie one)

1 (8-oz.) package no-boil lasagna noodles

Directions:

1. Preheat oven temperature to 350°. Chop up all veggies (I sliced the zucchini pretty thin) and put them in a deep pot with some olive oil. Add the minced garlic to the pot. Cook all the veggies with the top on (stirring frequently) until they are almost tender but still a little crisp. Add the salt to the veggies when they are done.

2. Stir together ricotta, egg, 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, and 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese.

3. Spread 1 cup Basic Marinara Sauce in a 13- x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Top with 3 noodles, 1 cup sauce, one-third of ricotta mixture, and one-third of vegetable mixture; repeat layers twice, beginning with 3 noodles. Top with remaining noodles and 1 cup sauce. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella and 1/4 cup grated Parmesan.

4. Bake, covered, at 350° for 45 minutes. Uncover and bake 10 to 15 more minutes or until cheese is melted and golden. Let stand 10 minutes.

*Recipe adapted from myrecipes.com

Before the oven. Sorry, I always forget to take pics during the cooking process.

Healthy Veggie Lasagna!

For the rest of the week I have planned: healthy chicken enchiladas and rice, pad thai, quinoa with peas and honey mustard chicken with brussel sprouts. I think this planning meals ahead of time thing will really help during intern year when I don't have to take any extra trips to the store or even think about what to make for dinner that night. I hope this inspires you to plan ahead too!

Happy meals!
-Germs

First Guest Post!

I want to welcome Katharine Miller to my blog for her first guest post! Since it is her wedding week (aaaaahhhh!!! yaaaaaay!!! ) I thought it would be a great time to showcase one of her many talents. She is always cooking up such healthy stuff and I am alllllways like 'hey girrrrrl, give me that recipe!'. I am sure we will see her on my blog a lot in the future.


Happy Wedding week, Drew and Katharine!
Love, Germs

Incredible and Healthy Pasta and Meatballs

I have been promising to share a recipe with Megan for a long time, and this is definitely an awesome one! This is one of my “go to” recipes and is really easy to make. A lot of the spices that I use come from a hidden Galveston gem, Maceo’s Spice Import. The spices are super cheap compared to grocery stores. If you get the chance to go by Maceo’s, don’t leave without eating a muffalata and purchasing their pepper medley. Both are INCREDIBLE.

 You can find Maceo’s in Galveston on Market Street between 27^th and 28^th St. (2706 Market Street Galveston, TX 77550) http://www.maceospice.com/

Ingredients

     1/2 Cup plain dried breadcrumbs

     1/4 Cup chopped Italian parsley

     1 Tbsp Italian seasoning

     2 Large eggs, lightly beaten

     2 Tbsp whole milk

     3/4 Cup grated Romano or Parmesan cheese

     3/4 tsp salt

     3/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

     1 lb ground turkey

     1 lb Ground pork

     1/4 Cup extra virgin olive oil

     5 Cups Marinara Sauce (see above)

     1 Tbsp chopped fresh basil or 1 tsp. dried basil leaves

   1 Shallot minced garlic

   Wheat angel hair pasta

In a large bowl, stir together breadcrumbs, parsley, Italian seasoning, eggs, milk, 1/2 cup of the cheese, and 3/4 teaspoon of each salt and pepper. Add the turkey and pork and gently stir to combine, being careful not to overwork the meat. It is best to mix it by hand! 

Shape the meat mixture into bite-size balls.

In a large skillet, heat the oil over a medium-high flame, an iron skillet works really well. Add the meatballs in batches, and cook until the meatballs brown on the bottom (3-4 minutes). Turn the meatballs over and brown the other side. Don’t worry about the meatballs being thoroughly cooked at this step. Remove meatballs and place on a plate. Start another batch. Once all of the meatballs have been browned on both sides, add all of the meatballs back into the skillet. Add marinara sauce and bring to a boil. (This step cooks the meatballs through) Reduce the heat and simmer until the flavors blend, about 5 minutes.

Serve on top of thin angel hair wheat pasta. Top with feta or parmesan cheese.

 

DIY: Take 1

This is my first finished DIY project. I actually have a few that I have started but either don't have the necessary materials or the energy to finish them. I will though...I will. Before I give you my expert advice, let it be known that I have never painted anything before other than a friend's bedroom walls (and I think they might have had to repaint them after I left). So, even though I have zero experience with painting (let alone DIY projects), I feel like I have some good tips to give you afterall.

First off, don't paint anything you care about. I bought this bedside table at a Goodwill-type store 4 years ago for 6 bucks. I swear, the price tag is still on the back of it. I figured it was time to give it a little update. I was planning on painting and distressing it but just ended up painting it (for now).

Boring.

For those of you who know me well, you know what my favorite color is. So the decision was easy as to what color to paint it.

TURQUOISE!

Duh. Picking the color was the most fun. I recently bought some new bedding so I brought one of the pillow cases into Home Depot to help with choosing the color. The paint dude actually took my pillow case and put it into some fancy man machine and matched one of the colors perfectly! It was amazing. I suggest you goto Home Depot and try this out just for fun. They give you the little paint sample jar thingy for $3. The paint guy told me I would need more than that so I bought 2 of the jars but I ended up only needing 1. So I have a lot of paint left over. Anyone need anything painted turquoise? If so, I'm your girl.

 
 The picture on the left shows you what it looks like with one coat of paint while the one on the right is with 2. I debated whether to add a second coat (vs leaving the woodgrain showing) and I am glad I did because it looks waaay better.





I wanted to find a new drawer pull as well and stumbled upon this little coral one at a garden store in Galveston. It was the most expensive part of the project but I think drawer pulls can really add something to the finished product. Anthropologie has awesome ones for less than $10 and when you only need 1, it is way worth it.

Drum roll please.....

Isn't it pretty? Now I'll share with you some tips I learned along the way. Splurge (like $6, if you call that a splurge) on the paint brush. If you buy a cheap one, the bristles will come out in the paint and that's gross. Also, buy enough paint. It's cheap, and you would rather have extra than not enough. If you are smart enough to read my blog then you are smart enough to know that already.

This whole project cost me about $33. That includes blue tape for edging, a paint brush, paint, and the drawer pull. Pretty good if you ask me. A new bedside table would have cost me around $150 so I think I win.

I am still debating on whether to distress it or not. For now, I kind of like the solid-paint look....not sure if I want to ruin my beautiful artwork just yet.

DIYlove,
Germs

Summer, shorts and sales!

With ridiculous heat waves, blaring sun and rain with no end, I would like to declare this summer in Texas. If you are like me, every time summer comes, you open your closet and feel like you don't have any summer clothes. I am here to help you save a little cash on clothes so you can spend it on last minute trips to the lake/river/etc.

There are a ton of cute shorts in stores right now and there are also a ton of sales going on! Since I have the GAPCARD, I get about a gazillion emails a day telling me this. First off, check out Gap: 25 % off TODAY only if you enter GAPSAVE at online checkout (also valid in stores). I got these guys and they fit really well -- not tooshort and not too long.


These look great with summer brights like orange and turquoise.

Gap also has these in white, black and fun prints. Get them fast before they are gone!

Other sales going on right now to consider amping up your summer wardrobe: Anthropologie and J. Crew -- who is giving an extra 30% off all sale items (until Friday) with the code MUSTHAVE. The outlet stores also have great low prices but I haven't gotten to check these out just yet.

More shorts: Now, I have not tried these on yet but I have seen them in a magazine and I thought they were super cute. I really like this scallop trend for the summer. Personally, J.Crew never fits my big German family butt, but if they fit you, let me know so I can live vicariously through you. They are also pretty pricey at over $100, and since I am saving for a really fun trip to NYC in less than a month I will not be purchasing a piece of cotton for anywhere near that price anytime soon.

summerlove,
germs

ps. look forward to my FIRST ever guest post this Friday!

Things that are stupid

I am usually in the car when I think of something that either makes me mad or I just plain don't understand. I have been compiling these things that annoy me for a while now and I would like to share them with the world. Please feel free to agree, disagree or add to the list.

1. Dirty people at whole foods. I mean, sometimes I can't tell if you're homeless or really just a rich hippie. I realized this pretty much covers about everyone living in the city of San Francisco. Give it a break. You smell like old cheese mixed with dirt, and that's just gross. Try the seaweed butter soap on aisle 3. Pleeeease.

2. Whyyyyy are there always 50 gazillion people dressed in blue working at the Apple store but you still have to make an appointment with a "Genius" for more than 4 hours later.

3. Another way Apple annoys me (can you tell I'm a PC user with an iPhone?) When you restore your phone but your apps don't come back so you have to sit there downloading every.single.app again. That's just rude.

4.When your credit card company a) cancels your card without telling you because your account has been "compromised" so that you get denied in front of 15 people at Starbucks of all places and b) they wont tell you who compromised your card so that you don't purchase things from them online anymore. Annoying, no?
5. If any of you are from where I went to high school and have been home recently, you have noticed the absurdity that is the Memorial police force (or patrollers or whatever you want to call them). They drive around in gas-guzzling TAHOES!!!! (which I would gladly take as a graduation gift). Seriously?! I thought cop cars were supposed to be ugly and fast. Is this just Memorial or are your neighborhoods wasting their money in the same ways?

Ok, that's all the ranting I have for now. It's just been a little stressful around here lately but I'm good now. Thanks for listening.

-stressfreegerms

S'mores Cookies

I promise I'll talk about Napa soon. Right now, I am being overloaded with forms to sign, contracts to go over and drug tests to pee for. So, I am going to take a break from my heavy duty blog writing until all of these are done. For now, I thought I'd share with you a recipe I made a long time ago. I remember it being a pretty big hit when I made it for the Super Bowl this year. Note: I did make it for a bunch of med school frat boys so that's probably unlike most of your audiences.

I have to admit, these were pretty good.

 Since Lent is over, I am sure most of you can eat sweets again like me. So, preheat your oven and make these! I made the actual cookie part from scratch like the recipe told me to, but to cut out A LOT of time and effort, I think you could just get pre-made cookie dough and add marshmallows to it. Your choice.

Also, I obviously got this recipe from Pinterest, so look there if you want better pictures/more recipes.

Ingredients:
11 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, packed
½ cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 ½ cups flour
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup mini marshmallows

3 regular sized Hershey’s bars, broken into pieces
1-2 packages graham crackers, broken into squares

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line baking pans with parchment paper. You'll need a couple of pans because this recipe makes a lot of cookies.

Lay out graham crackers side by side on the pans as close as possible (they should be touching).

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, sea salt and cinnamon to combine. Set aside.
In another bowl, cream butter with white and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until combined.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixer and combine on low speed.

Fold in the chocolate chips and marshmallows. You may chill this batter overnight or get crackin' right away.

Place tablespoons of dough on graham crackers about 1 – 1 ½ inches apart. Press down slightly with fingertips.

Bake for 5 minutes then remove from oven to press Hershey’s bar pieces on to the top.

Bake for 5 – 7 more minutes or until dough is beginning to turn golden brown at the edges. Enjoy!

-summerloveandgerms

Cruisn' USA

Who else had Nintendo 64? This was the only game console I grew up with because my parents would not allow us to play video games until whenever the 64 version came out. Therefore, I was deprived from the classic mario and donkey kong games but I did have this:

Cruisin'

If you didn't play this game, I don't know what your parents problems were, because its the greatest. You can probably just go to the nearest movie theatre and play it in their videogame section. So go now.

I was particularly fond of the route in that youtube video for some reason. So, when we were planning our trip to San Francisco/Napa, I desperately wanted to go up north to see the Redwood Forest. And it looked EXACTLY the same as I pictured it would. Nintendo, you are amazing. Behold:

Our trip up to the Redwoods was actually a bit of a trek. We flew into SF, rented a car (an intense Chrysler  300) and drove (what should have been) about 5 hours up north. Last minute, we decided to take a more scenic route up the pacific highway. This gave us some breathtaking views. With its ridiculously windy course up the mountains it probably added on about 2.5 hours but we both agreed it was well worth it.

Hugging the tree.

Inside of a huge tree.

We drove all the way up to Eureka because our plan was to drive even farther north in the morning to go to the actual Redwood National Park. Note: don't go to Eureka unless you'd like to feel like you've traveling about 20 years into the past. Weird weird place. By that time, we were exhausted with driving and had seen so much of the forest already we didn't feel it was necessary to go to the actual park. We drove through the "Avenue of the Giants" park on the way back and even drove our car through one of the oldest and biggest trees!

These trees are amazing and you should really go see them for yourself if you're ever in northern California. Pictures cannot do them justice.

Next up, Napa!
--peacelovetreesgerms

Arugula and Anchovies

I recently found out how much I despise these 2 things at my cooking class adventure with Monica Pope. I have been talking about these classes for a while now. We went about 2 weeks ago and it was so much fun!!

As far as I know, there are two options for her classes at Tafia in Houston. There is a sauce class and a sides class. We went to the sides class. Now, if you think you are going to learn recipes from this adventure, think again. While we did have an awesome time, the only teaching point I got from this night was how to properly cut herbs and onions. Although, since I haven't cooked a thing in over 3 weeks, I probably forgot this already.

The class is above her restaurant and starts around dinner time. The class is full of couples, groups, families and even some singles -- so anyone feels welcome. You split up into 4 groups and each group will make a side dish. I chose to make some sort of vegetable mixture that included artichokes because I wanted to learn how to cook them. We ended up soaking the veggies in anchovies and needless to say, I was not a fan. But honestly everything else was sooo good. I even tried beet salad for the first time. It was mixed with goat cheese (I think) and strawberries.

Murdering the beets.

Beet Salad. Yum.

Learning/trying to chop properly.

With Monica Pope!

Our recipe. Sorry if it's blurry but there's probably no way you could make it anyway.

Other selling points of the class? Free flowing wine all night. She had her assistants bringing us up appetizers like the bacon wrapped dates (if you've been to tafia you know how good these are) and cheeses up to us while we were cooking. Also, Monica's big thing is farm to table. So everything she cooks with is very fresh, organic and bought at a farmer's market. I was surprised to know there's literally a farmer's market every day of the week in Houston. I definitely did not think of Houston as the type of city you could get fresh farmer's market veggies and fruits ever, let alone on any day!

 It was just an all over good time and I suggest everyone go. Monica is also really funny. She just walks around telling you gossip and different stuff she learned on Top Chef Masters. She doesn't really teach you much unless you are doing something waaaay wrong. Then she shows you whats up. Hence how I learned to chop herbs. BTW, I am not sure on the pricing because I received this class as a gift.

--FreshGerms