Meal Plan

Dinners this week:

Winger's Sticky Finger Wraps
Chicken Tostadas
Fettuccine Alfredo
Turkey steak and au gratin potatoes
Hamburgers

Groceries:

strawberries
limes
garlic
shred. lettuce
guacamole
salsa
tostada
bread
Italian cheese
frozen chicken breast
frozen chicken strips
au grautin potatoes
dehydrated onions
beans
chili
milk

Now that school is over, I'm hoping to have more time for this blog!!

Topic: New Technology

One of my favorite things about the Internet is being able to order food online. It means not talking to a person and quickly getting the food I want.

Lately, I've been noticing a lot of friends posting about food cravings, or food pictures, then tagging that company in them. A smart brand would take advantage of those social media shout-outs, send coupons or thank yous of some sort to the person. Not only would that build brand loyalty, but help increase reach and engagement. User generated content (UCG) is extremely important for most brands. It helps to listen to your audience with tools such as Hootsuite, Sprout, and Google alerts, to determine what they need.

But what if this individual who craved a certain restaurant, could tweet at the company, then get a downloadable file, and 3D print their food craving.

This is how I foresee 3D printing changing social media. Not only will our food industry become less personal, but more easily attainable in our homes. People will indulge more, because of how easy it will be to get our food. Social media will become the next phone for take-out.

Just imagine, craving Panda Express orange chicken, tagging them on Instagram, them getting notified of your order, then you printing out a hot, steamy bowl of citrus goodness within 10 minutes. I can only imagine the possibilities.

I know what you're thinking, "Ya right." But "Natural Machines" has already made it happen:

"The "Foodini," as it's called, isn't too different from a regular 3D printer, but instead of printing with plastics, it deploys edible ingredients squeezed out of stainless steel capsules: "It's the same technology," says Lynette Kucsma, co-founder of Natural Machines, "but with plastics there's just one melting point, whereas with food it's different temperatures, consistencies and textures. Also, gravity works a little bit against us, as food doesn't hold the shape as well as plastic."

Check out this video:

If you want to learn more about the future of this technology, check out the 3D Food Printing Conference.  Here you can get updates on the new technology that is emerging around the world.

And because social media has connected us globally, imagine being able to download traditional Swahili or Thai food, through Facebook. Because money exchanging technology is always improving, 3D restaurants will be able to serve people throughout the world.

Instagram will be full of a lot more food now, hope you are ready.

Food bloggers can work on developing their specific codes, rather then recipes.

And engineers will turn into the Julia Childs of the 21st century (or maybe 22nd, who knows)

I can't wait until I can print my own Cafe Sabor burritos at home.

Turkey Burrito Bowls

I love burrito bowls, not only because they are low carb, but because they take hardly any ingredients. You could substitute the turkey for chicken or pork or ground beef, just depending on what you have. Black beans could be changed out for kidney or pinto beans. You get the picture ;)

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup diced onion
• 1/2 lb ground turkey (or any other meat)
• 1 cup uncooked Minute Rice
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 2 cups salsa
• 2 Tsp taco seasoning (I used half of those little packets)
• 1 15 oz can black beans, drained
• 1 15 oz can corn, halfway drained
• 2 cups diced tomatoes
• 1/4 tsp S&P
• 1/2 - 3/4 c. grated cheese 
• Chives, green onions, or cilantro for topping

Over medium heat, in a skillet, cook the onion and ground turkey. The turkey should be cooked until it's no longer pink. Drain off any fat, then push the turkey to one side of the skillet. Add the rice and toast for about 1 minute.

Add the broth, rice, 1 cup salsa, 1 cup diced tomatoes, taco seasoning, corn, and the beans. Bring to a boil then lower the heat and simmer for about 10-15 minutes, or until the rice is tender. Season with salt and pepper. If it starts to dry up, just add a little more broth. Turn off the burner.

Mix in the cheese. It will melt with the heat.

Serve in individual bowls and garnish with the remaining tomatoes, salsa, and chives. You can also garnish it with fresh avocado, and lettuce.

NOTE: If using long grain brown rice, it will need to be cooked in advance. Uncle Ben's 10 minute brown rice was used in this recipe.

So tasty! I do have a confession though, I accidentally added CURRY to my bowl - lesson learned. Don't try and get creative by blending cultures. CURRY + TACO seasoning = no bueno. 

As I was writing this post Con said, "Hey, make sure you put in your blog post, not to add curry." Consider yourself warned! 

I love seeing all the colors of the veggies

Awwww....summer fruit is my fav. 

I always add WAY more cheese than necessary. 

YUM! 

Original from Skinny Ms. 

Topic: Canva - Desktop or Mobile

Let me introduce you to one of my favorite apps in the entire world: Canva. First, however, let me clarify that I am by no means a designer. I have never taken a design course and I have utmost respect for those individuals who understand all of the Adobe Suite. But what I do love being able to do, is quickly put text over an image for social media or personal use. Never would I recommend using Canva for major design projects, unless your budget is very very limited.

That being said, I wanted to dive into the program, both in it's desktop/online usability and the mobile friendly version.

I first discovered Canva when doing a class project my sophomore year in college. I ended up falling in love with its abilities and began using it for other projects. What I love about Canva is how simple it makes design, for those of us just wanting to keep it simple. On the desktop version, it comes with many different templates to start off with including social media posts, resumes, invitations, you name it. I love that you can also make your designs public and other people on the Canva community can see what you're doing. It also comes with the option to change font, edit the pictures, change colors, and is super easy to learn and use. It also allows you to use grid locks to center your art and text, making it as visually appealing as possible. I have used Canva for over a year now and love it for both office and home purposes.

This summer I began wishing that they made it available for iPhones so that it would be easier to upload images and make quick Instagram posts. In the fall Canva launched their mobile app. I was initially excited to begin playing with it and was among the first of it's users to be notified of the changes. If that doesn't show you how much I use it I don't know what will.

The first thing I noticed was how limited the app was. It's hard to navigate a tiny little screen with only your fingers. My designs never look good on it, and the photo editing capabilities are zilch. It takes a lot of skill to pick the aspect of your design that you want to work with. It's also hard to see what the fonts will look like when designing or even choose the right size.

Some apps could maybe get away with both a desktop and mobile version, take Facebook for instance, but Canva is not one of them. Needless to say, I quickly deleted the app.

Salsa Verde Chicken Pasta

Oh. My. Gosh. This pasta from Kevin and Amanda is SO good. It's easy, fast, and doesn't take many ingredients. It has become one of our go-to dinners. 

Ingredients: 

• 3-4 chicken breasts, cut into small pieces (If you are trying to save money, you can exclude this)
• 2 TB olive oil 
• 2 c. chicken broth
• 1 pint heavy whipping cream 
• 2 cups of penne pasta
• S&P to taste
• 2 c. pepper jack cheese 

1. Cut the chicken into bite-size pieces (about 1-inch cubes). Season with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil is very hot, add the chicken in a single layer. Cook for 5 minutes, until golden brown, flipping once halfway through. Remove to a plate and set aside.
2. Add the broth, salsa verde, cream, uncooked pasta, salt, and pepper to the skillet. Stir to combine and bring to a boil. Cover, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes.
3. Turn off the heat, then add the chicken and 1 1/2 cup of cheese to the skillet. Stir until smooth and creamy.
4. Pour into into oven-safe pan. I used a stone-wear 8x8 pan. Top with remaining 1/2 cup cheese and broil in the oven until golden brown and bubbly, about 3 minutes. Serve and enjoy!! :)

Please bear with me as I still am still learning my camera. It was just too tasty of a dinner not to share. 

I know that I have half n half pictured here but I ended up not using it

Just so yummy. I can't help it. *insert heart eye emoji here*

Topic: Viral Videos

Who hasn't seen any of the following videos?








These are just some of my favorite videos that have surfaced on the internet.

But what makes a video viral? According to Techopedia:

A viral video is any clip of animation or film that is spread rapidly through online sharing. Viral videos can receive millions of views as they are shared on social media sites, reposted to blogs, sent in emails and so on

What I liked about this definition is how broad it is. It can be animation or film, clip that is shared via many different routes. What I don't like, is how many view it says it must have to become viral. If we were to rank the most watched YouTube videos by simply numbers, all of them would be music videos. But I wouldn't consider them to be viral. Instead I think what makes a viral video is humor, easy to share, and short.

With Facebook rolling out their video ability a few years ago, the stats have shown that more than 70% of internet videos are being posted directly to the social network. (Fortune). This makes things a lot easier to share through social media.

But why do some videos go viral and others do not? Here's the breakdown from some research that I have done:

1. Psychological response: In order for a video to make it to the big leagues, it has to do one of three things to us psychologically: make us laugh, make us cry, or shock us. These three emotions are the strongest felt by a person and can motivate people to share to see what their friends think of the content. 
2. The right "sharers" see the video - Nearly 18% of internet users share videos at least once a week—and almost 9% share daily. If you can tap into this network of people likely to share things on social media, your video has a better chance of going viral. 
3. Timing: If you share a video on a Friday at 4 pm, chances are NO ONE is going to see it. But instead, time your content to go out on a Wednesday afternoon when everyone is trying to get over hump day. Research has shown that people are more likely to watch things when they are bored than when they are heading out. 
4. Have a message that everyone can relate to: Sarcasm, humor, anger, are all relative emotions. But if you can target your message to be funny, sad, or inspiring to a group of people, you are more likely to see results. 

Obviously the only sure-fire way (if I dare say this) to get your videos shared is just keep filming. You never know what your camera will capture. 

Why Watching TV is Good for Our Marriage

Every marriage is different. That's what I'm learning more and more. I know, it seems like a "duh" thing but it was a major realization for me.

Connor works late...a lot, which has really started to wear on our emotional relationship. I don't understand how women who's husbands are gone for nights on end do it. They are much stronger than me and I applaud them for their strength.

But that doesn't make it easier for me to be alone all the time - wondering if he's ok, getting bored with homework.

I've realized how important it is to spend time together, doing something.

When my parents were first married, they had horses and went horseback riding every night.  They were lucky to have that kind of a hobby to do together.

 We don't have that kind of hobby together that makes it easy to just go. Sure we love camping and having fires and going four-wheeling, but those activities take a little bit more planning than spur-of-the-moment doing.

So what do we do to spend time?

Before I say this, let me preface it with this: "We love doing this activity together and it draws us closer so no judging."

We watch TV.

I know - we sound like lazy college students, but please hear me out.

When we sit down and watch TV, we are cuddling, which is my major love language, and spending time, which is his love languages, our needs are being met. We love watching Lost, The Office, Friends, Designated Survivor, and Chuck. Why does this mean so much to us? I don't know. Maybe because we bond over discussing plot, feeling emotions together, and getting to know the characters.

Some weeks we are crazy busy with homework, work, church activities, and other things that just come as life does. We always try and make sure that we spend one night together, even if it's just watching a TV show together.

How do you spend time together?

Cinnamon Rolls

My sister-in-law is a wonderful cook. She recently graduated from USU with her Master's Degree in Dietetics. I really admire her hard work and talent.

For Conference weekend, she wanted to make cinnamon rolls. I couldn't pass up an opportunity to practice my food photography so I whipped out Charlie (the name of my faithful camera) and snapped away as she kneaded the dough, twisted the rolls, and whipped up some of the tastiest cinnamon rolls ever.

Ingredients:

• 2 TB yeast -- dissolve in 1/2 c. warm water and let froth with sugar
• 1/2 c. oil
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 3 eggs
• 5 1/2 c. flour
• 1 stick butter

Frosting:

• 1/3 c. butter
• 3 c. powdered sugar
•  Add 1-1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 2 TB milk

Instructions:

Mix oil, sugar, eggs, and salt by hand w/yeast. And 1 cup very warm water or milk.
Add 5 1/2 c. flour -- not heaping or level
Mix 4-5 min until smooth and elastic.
Roll approx. 1 rolling pin wide and 3 pins long.
Spread w/melted butter, cinnamon sugar, and brown sugar.
Roll in tight jelly roll and cut into 1-1/2 in thickness. Place on greased cookie sheet.
Let raise, covered until double in size.
Bake 400 for 10-13 min.
Frost while slightly warm.

YUM!

Topic: Search Engine Optimization

Let's talk SEO. At this point, many businesses are understanding the importance of having some form of website or landing page to make it easier to find information. In today's society and business world, it's impossible to get ahead without a website.

Simply put, SEO is search engine optimization. Here's a broken down definition I like from Search Engine Land: 

SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” It is the process of getting traffic from the “free,” “organic,” “editorial” or “natural” search results on search engines.

Organic search traffic does not include AdWords  or PPC marketing, a valuable thing for businesses to do if they have the dough.

In the beginning of the internet, SEO meant packing your website full of keywords to try and build relevance in a search. Now, Google, Bing, and other major search engines can pick out these "fake" websites and block them from rising in ranking.

Most people think that SEO is just doing a lot of random tags, keywords, and coding. This is definitely a major part of doing SEO, but not all of it.

So how does one "do" SEO? There are many different things that people can do to make their website easier for search engines to find that don't necessarily mean knowing how to code:

1. Update content regularly. A blog is a great way to keep your website up-to-date. Occasionally back-linking your blog to other relevant articles can help search engines find your content easier. 
2. Do keyword research when writing a blog post. Tools such as Keyword Discovery and WordTracker help you to understand what kind of words to incorporate in your blog post. Know your market and what will be interesting content to them. 
3. USE SOCIAL MEDIA. I can't emphasize that enough. When you link social media to your website, it help boosts your page. Just do it. 
4. Build an inviting landing page that invites people to stay. If your site is confusing and backwards, nobody will stay very long and your bounce rate will be higher. 

To learn more basics about SEO and how you can improve, check out this article from Moz.com. And good luck! SEO is a crazy world but with practice, you can become a master of Google.

Sources:

http://www.business2community.com/seo/9-reasons-blogging-essential-good-seo-results-0866944#ZfmdxGrhm57SzlJp.97

http://searchengineland.com/21-essential-seo-tips-techniques-11580

Meal Plan April 3 - 9

I am loving #LDSConf. Are you enjoying it? Lots of time to sit, enjoy the Spirit and eat tasty snacks. A bag of Cheetohs has disappeared already today. Crazy...but I feel no guilty.

Meals:

M - Shrimp skewers
T - Chile verde pasta
W - OYO
R - Element's Burger Bash (Gift Card)
F - Kuala Pork -- Practicing for class


Groceries: $45

half & half
cream
egg
salsa verde
bow tie pasta, fettuccine pasta, penne pasta (5/$5)
lunch meat
pepper jack cheese
cheddar cheese
 swiss cheese
banana
carrots
snack peppers
strawberries
limes
oranges

I'm still needing people to let me practice photography on them so PM me on FB!