Chicken Gyros

Chicken Gyros

May 26, 2011

Playing around on Pinterest the other day I saw a recipe for chicken gyros and realized how long it's been since I've made them...plus I've never blogged it!

Chicken Gyros:


Ingredients:
1.5 lbs chicken
half onion-sliced
tomato-sliced
cucumber sliced & 1/4 cup set aside and minced
feta
Joseph's Flax, Oat Bran & Whole Wheat Pita
1 container Dannon Plain Greek Yogurt
Parsley
Cavender's Greek Seasoning
Salt & Pepper
Cayenne Pepper
Paprika
2 tbsp minced garlic
1 can of black olives-or better if you can find it


Cucumber yogurt sauce-
mix yogurt, minced cucumber, 2 tbsp chopped parsley, 1 tbsp garlic in a bowl and let sit in the fridge for at least one hour for the flavors to mix.


Olive tapenade-
chop olives, mix in 1 tbsp of garlic, and 3 tbsp of chopped parsley.


Chicken-
season with cayenne, salt, pepper, paprika, and Cavender's to taste. Grill until done and slice. 

How do you like those fancy plates and server ware? Jeremy has literally packed up everything except for what I am wearing this week, hence the paper plates and lame containers haha!


To assemble-
Cut pita in half, stuff with chicken, tomato, cucumber, and onion. Top with olives and yogurt sauce and feta.

**when I did the nutrition info I totally forgot the feta, I also ate halfway through my gyro before I realized I never put feta on it. 
Nutrition Info:
serves 6
Calories 217, fat 10g, carbs 13.3g, fiber 4.4g, sugar 2.4, protein 30g
**Joseph's brand pita is a big factor in the calories for this recipe, one pita is only 60cal. If another brand is used adjust calories accordingly. 

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WIWW

WIWW

May 25, 2011

Head on over to thepleatedpoppy.com to link up.

Now for this week's outfits...

top-espress

black tank-charolette russ

white crop pants-khols

Can you tell I teach 5th grade?

Dare shirt

Brown Cargo pants-target

graduation day:)

cap & gown-ulm

Master's in Ed hood-ulm

cords-KDP

:) 

I wish you could actually see the detail on this top:(

gray ruffle top-old navy

white jeans-khols

dress-target

flip flops-walmart

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graduation

graduation

I'm late putting this up, but my sister took forever getting me the pics. Sadly they didn't all come out. Oh well.

{me and jeremy}

{me and pop}

 {with mom}

 {dad, me, and the monster that kept yelling truck}

{me and Joshua the littlest of the crazy Cater's}

I wish I would have taken a pic without the motor board, no one looks good in those lame hats. Especially with my current hair situation ha! 

In case your looking at this and have no clue what I graduated in...I got my Master's of Arts in Teaching(hence the blue hood). My purple and blue cords are from Kappa Delta Pi, which is an educational honor society. Sadly my GPA was awesome(for the first time ever) and they don't announce graduate gpa's, or give up cords from the school. Sad face. We also didn't get hooded like I thought we would be. The Pharm D students got hooded...but ULM doesn't love us enough haha! 

Oddly enough watching the people in front of me get hooded (specialist, doctorate, and pharm d) made me want to go back to school. If I do though it won't be for any classroom teacher mess...I'd like to go back towards Psychology and maybe do Educational Diagnostician. Since doing that in psychology is so hard, education is the way to go. Same lovely schedule minus the classroom. But it will be a few years. I do need a slight break considering I have literally been in a classroom since I was 3 with no summer breaks through half of college. Seriously, 3 yr old preK to high school-then straight to college-the I graduated May 16, 2009 and started grad school June 7. This lady needs a slight break. 

What is your dream career?

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Honestly

Honestly

May 18, 2011

-The last few days of school are pointless. The kids are insane. Grades are done. So why are we even here?

-Graduation is Saturday. But ULM doesn't put up grades until Friday. Makes no sense. I'll just wait until Friday to find out my GPA. Lord help me!

-This whole flood deal is just nuts. Our school cancelled a trip to New Orleans due to the flood. Do these people not know that the zoo is not under water? 

-The crest was lowered to 62ft. Good news. But why are people still leaving town?

- I need to lose weight before it catches up with me and I have to lose more. It is so funny to me how bad my weight fluctuates. Mainly on the up and up now that I am in my 20's. The fact that I am constantly hungry this week isn't helping the situation. I could eat a whole cow and still be hungry.

-Jeremy has agreed to let me toss out current couch. PTL!

-The dogs seriously need a bath. But I am waiting until we are moving so they leave and arrive clean.

-I don't like to drink my calories, but when Jeremy is around I tend to drink out of his tea pitcher when he isn't looking. I know gross right...but what isn't seen doesn't happen. Pop use to say the calories Nanny didn't see him consume didn't count haha!

-I need 4 more work free hours in a day, 2 for sleep and 2 for just hanging out without thinking about the fact that I should be asleep to get 8 hours of sleep.

-When is someone going to invent a calorie free Icee! 

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2am arguments

2am arguments

May 15, 2011

This sinus infection is about to be the death of me. I have yet to sleep worth a darn in days, and last night was no exception. Since it was Saturday I thought I could get away with not taking anything to knock myself out. Big ole bad idea. At 3 am I was still up an ready to go. Dang you steroids! Get out of my body!

So around 2am I was bored and hungry. I was out of cheese sticks and cereal, and only had one pickle...so my usual midnight snacks we a no go. So I decided to venture into the kitchen and snatch up Jeremy's chips and dip. If I had only known I would be fussing with a dead asleep little kid version of the guy that fell asleep hours ago.

So I popped myself in bed with a big bag of chips, turned on History Channel and started munching away. Next thing I knew Jeremy was having a fit about me eating his chips. He kept telling me to put them and up stop eating them, but in a very whiney voice. I told him I'd but him more chips, he said "I don't want more chips I want those chips!" I finally got sick of his fit and put the chips up, came back to bed, and self medicated with benadryl in hopes of getting enough sleep and feeling well enough to go to church. Which didn't happen, I feel like crud today!

Anyway, I asked Jeremy today about why he threw such a fit about the chips. He doesn't know, he was asleep.

Since I am the type to talk in my sleep I can't judge, but I sure can laugh.

I do remember once when Jeremy was working nights that he came into the room late at night to give me a kiss. When he got up close to me I was apparently talking and woke myself up saying "I wasn't talking to you!"

I just hope I don't have sleep walking & talking kids. My poor Mom had many scares with me wandering around at night, I remember waking up on the kitchen table once. Shortly after that she put a child proof lock on the door.

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River update-How's this effecting the cajuns?

River update-How's this effecting the cajuns?

May 14, 2011

As you have been able to tell my main focus all along has been Vidalia. It is my hometown. My family is there. And heck, I go there quite a lot. But once graduation is over and I pack up my car full of all my teacher junk we are heading south. Jeremy starts summer classes at Nicholls in June, we have a new apartment in Thibodaux, and I am teaching in Houma starting in August. so with the recent twitter updates from all the south Louisiana folks I follow Morganza has been a cause for concern. Maybe not for our specific apartment, but for all of the people down there who are being evacuated to save areas of Louisiana around the river.

Evacuation is not a "you maybe should pack up a few important papers" in St. Mary parish like it is in Concordia. Gov. Jindal (according to the Daily Comet in Thibodaux) has told these people to evacuate because the water IS coming. Recent reports have said Morganza will not open more then 22%, which is much less than the initial 50%. But regardless, people will lose their homes and be forced into shelters untill the water receeds. In addition to the 2,500 people who will be affected in the spillway, there are also 22,500 people and 11,000 structures that will be hit by the backwater. With that being said. These lower parishes are about to be hit HARD. Terrebonne parish and the Morgan City areas expected to receive the deepest water, 5-25 feet. Pray for these people. 

Now for a bit of a Vidalia update. As of 7am the river is currently at 60.26 feet, only a few feet short of hte predicted 64 feet that will hit by the 21st. It is absolutely amazing to me how you can basically watch the river rise. Now you see the riverfront, now you don't.

According to reports the Hesco instant levee containers are holding up well and water is able to be pumped out of the area before it becomes an issue. The evacuation level has also not been moved above a level 2. That is great news for many Vidalia residents, at least the ones who aren't panicking just for the sake of panicking. If it were up to my sister, my family would be gone. My Dad is only concerned his TV will be sacrificed to a gator...and his goldfish, can't forget those backyard goldfish haha! My mother on the other hand is taking this in a stride only true to a honest to goodness New Orleans born person. That is me and my sister's theory anyway. She doesn't see the need to move until they see the water rushing in. Got to love those south Louisiana folks, they don't leave home even when imminent danger like Katrina is coming. The 3 evacuation opinions floating around my parents house are quite comical. 

More comical is the fact that two days ago Laura (my sister) expressed her concern for Pop, our grandfather who lives right on the other side of the levee. Laura said she was concerned that Pop was more stubborn that Mom. To which I replied "Who do you think she got it from, these New Orleans people don't just jump ship." Now I personally don't think there is anything to really worry about, the Corp is doing everything they can and I trust our levee system. But the forty different kids of panic circulating around town is just plain funny. 

Until Jindal says get out, there is nothing you can do. Yes, water is high. But it will not spill over the levee, unless these people have totally miscalculated the river. Instead of focusing on yourself today, think about the thousands of cajuns who are losing their homes, crops, and are just plain being effected in some way by the flood waters. 

Now lets end with a map of just who will be seeing those lovely waters spilling from the Morganza ordeal.

If you look real close you will see that where we are moving is surrounded by water, but supposedly not going to be hit. Let's hope it stays that way Louisiana.

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Mississippi River Update-Vidalia

Mississippi River Update-Vidalia

May 10, 2011

To start here is a pic of the river that I took the day before Christmas 2010. Notice where the river normally is in regard to the trees. In the first video link you will see those same trees pretty early in the video.

Now here are the links. They are to Facebook videos, let me know if you can't see them.
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=173014176085641&comments
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=172978259422566&comments
Both videos were taken today.


Now here a video from the Natchez, MS side.



As of 8:00 the river is currently at 57.76 feet and is excepted to crest at 64 ft. around the 22nd. 
Just so you know Silver St. usually sees some flooding when the river gets past 55, this happens every few years. The problem is that Vidalia never gets any big water issues. It is still amazing to me how people are freaking out about this when they have zero control over it. 

Now for some recent pictures form the Natchez Democrat.

This was taken at Old River on Monday. Again, keep in mind Old River floods yearly and 98% of the houses out there are on stilts. 

This is the grain elevator in town that is close to the river...and close to my grandfather's house.

Deer Park, this camp ground is owned by a good friend's family. Needless to say it is not protected by the levee and floods almost yearly.

Finally this is a big cause for concern. There are several farmers in our area and flood water is expected to stay on the farmland for quiet some time. As expected this is going to cause a lot of problems with this years crops. It is one thing to lose a home that is covered by insurance that can be replaced. But I imagine loosing your source of income as a farmer to flooding is a huge worry. 

Please pray for the Concordia Parish and Adams Country area. It is expected to get lots of damage even if the levee doesn't break. As you can see areas not protected by the levee are already being flooded.

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WIWW

WIWW

join along at thepleatedpoppy.com

 here are my weeks outfits...I have been sick, so they are few and far between:)

up close

flowy coral theme top-thrifted

skinny jeans-old navy

necklace-old navy

ruffle flip flops-target

up close

embroidered top-old navy

necklace-old navy

cargo pants-target

ruffle flip flops-target{and i wear them constantly}

blue sleeveless ruffle top-old navy

khakies-old navy

and the ruffle flip flops again:)

i feel like i need a sponsorship from old navy. someone needs to pull me into a new store, home girl is stuck in the same 3 stores gap, old navy, and target. and now that gap as left i am going into gap withdrawals.

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{while the river rises}

{while the river rises}

May 7, 2011

5pm update-
According to Sherriff Maxell and the Natchez Democrat:
-The 5th District Levee Board has ordered that the levee be shut down to all vehicular traffic as of 6pm Sunday. This is all unpaved parts through Concordia Parish.
-The river is now standing at 54.73ft.
-Finally it is estimated that Silver Street is now crossed over by 6ft of water.
Below is a video of the Mississippi River flood of 1927. The song in the video is by Randy Newman and it's called "Louisiana 1927". Some of the picture in the video are from Vidalia.


..............................
I don't know how many Vidalia residents have checked out the online Natchez Democrat lately, but I noticed today that they were posting videos. The video is of Gov. Jindal speaking to some of the town leaders on the riverfront the other day.


The most current noon report from the Democrat is that water has crossed Silver Street. For those of you who don't know where Silver St. is, it is the absolute lowest point of Natchez, or Vidalia for that matter, that has businesses. If I manage to find a picture I will post it. Here is a link to a panoramic picture of Silver Street from a few days ago.

The river is currently at 54.53ft as of noon today. It is expected to crest at 64.

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Vlog:)

Vlog:)

May 6, 2011

Okay so today I am participating in a vlog link up that Whitney @ prettywhitty.com . Sorry if I scare you with how deathly I look. I came home dressed all school cute and realized after moving on to workout chic I had to vlog tonight, so excuse the lack of makeup. It probably doesn't help that I am sick, but oh well.

Head on over to Whitney's blog if you want to see some of the other blogger's videos. 

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Cure-all

Cure-all

May 5, 2011

I have an evil sore throat right now. When I got home from work today I remembered a cure I saw on the internet some time back that I tried, and it worked. Here is the gargle recipe:


8oz warm water
1tsp salt
cayenne- as much as you can stand


Mix this little concoction together and gargle the complete 8oz every hour {not all at once but in manageable sips}. I swear to you this numbs the mess out of my throat and clears my nose. I am about to go do it again and up my 3 dashes of pepper to 4. 


Hope y'all are having a good week!

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the great flood freak out of 2011

the great flood freak out of 2011

May 4, 2011

I don't know how many of you heard about the levee in Illinois being blown up to save Cairo. Yes, that is where we stand with the Mississippi River this Spring. Usually the river just floods the Old River area in Vidalia, but this year it is going full scale and it threatening to hit 65 feet by May 22. Holy moly! It got to 57 in 2009 and people were nuts...but this year is full blown crazy. 


We have not experienced this high of a river since the Great Flood of 1927.

{source}

So you can see how this is slightly upsetting people. Yesterday there was a city council meeting about the matter and today they are meeting at my home church of FBC Vidalia to have a Q&A session with the mayor. People are moving out of the town and heading for higher ground in Natchez. But there is only one problem with that...all of the rent houses in Natchez are taken and so is every storage unit from Natchez to Brookhaven. Bummer. 

I've heard of a few people heading to Monroe, but for my family that just won't work. My grandfather, mother, father, sister, and nephew live in Vidalia and we have no one to stay with in Natchez. My mother said today that they were told at school that if an evacuation is called during school they will have all students, teachers, and administrators board buses and go to Natchez. No one will be able to take their cars. 

My plan of action is for my family to pack up everything and come to Monroe, or we will get our apartment early and they can go to Thibodaux. I just wish there was someway for them to get their belongings out before the last minute...but with my Mom being a administrator at a junior high in our area she can't leave until school is cancelled. So what do we do? Move like most of Vidalia? Sand bag out selves silly?

{source}

Here is a picture of the river at 57 feet in 2008. Keep in mind the Isle of Capri Casino is in the river usually...but that is it, the whole ramp is on land...as well as Silver Street.

{source}

Essentially there is no way to prepare for this. My family could move there things to my house...but what if the levee holds and it was a total waste of time. Or what is the levee holds and we get back water? There is no way to know what will happen, so all we can do it pray nothing happens. 

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{what i wore wednesday}

{what i wore wednesday}

Here's yet another week of WIWW. If you want to link up you can at thepleatedpoppy.com! 

Field Trip Day

rolled up skinny jeans-old navy

burlap Toms

field trip shirt-LSU Ag Center/4H

Scarf Love

the best scarf ever!-old navy

cargo pants-target

white shirt-old navy

Sailor Girl

blue striped scoop neck-old navy

rolled white skinny crop jeans-Kohls

brown bow wedges-gap

Time for a Spray Tan

black lace & ruffle dress-target

black ruffle heals-target

headband-beehive

heart necklace-tiffany

gold & onyx ring-my granny's

Today I bought these great shoes from Target on sale:)

On sale for 7.95 at Target. Love them, I honestly thought of Kate Middleton's day after outfit when I saw these. Except her's were black and had a cork heal.

Not the best picture, but I needed something to wear to graduation. I also saw a lot of women wearing taupe heals while watching the royal wedding Friday. 

So if you didn't already know taupe shoes were in...now you really do. I saw several guests in taupe pumps...hence I bought some to wear for graduation. Now I almost bought some of the platform ones...but after trying them on I realized how much they suck to walk in and how stripperish they look. So therefore I went with the fore mentioned shoes. Oh and I know you can't see Princess Ann's feet, lets just pretend they are in taupe pumps, okay. 

Hey not only are they in style, they make your legs look longer. And the good Lord know my short legs need all the help they can get. 

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cause sometimes you just need a hot dog

cause sometimes you just need a hot dog

May 3, 2011

I like hot dogs. I can't help it. I have been wanting a hot dog so bad it is not even funny. But at the same time my waist line has been expanding due to the amount of time I have spent at my parents in the past month. 


So this hot dog craving had to be stopped. But how?


My solution---

Only one problem. Day one of soy hot dog was nasty. It didn't taste bad, but the texture was not like a hot dog at all. Plus I put canned sauerkraut on it, what on earth got into me...nasty!

Now today when I ate my vegan dog I decided to cover it in ketchup and mustard...and it was actually good. Plus they are only 50 calories. Which ain't so bad when you are sucking up 2 of them on whole wheat hot dogs buns when baked sweet potato fries. 

Total calories for this monster vegan meal

2 hot dogs= 100 calories

2 hot dog buns= 220 calories

mustard= 3 cal

ketchup=45 calories

sweet potato fries= about 100 cal

total= 468 calories

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For the Love of Hats.

For the Love of Hats.

May 2, 2011

Unlike the majority of Twitter, I was not the most "in love" with Kate Middleton's wedding dress. Yes, I know I am days late blogging about this, but I have been BUSY. 

I really wanted to love this dress. I wanted to so bad I turned on the TV as soon as I woke up at 5:30am to see what it looked like. Now I like the dress, I wanted more poof. It just needed more fullness to me. But considering the pretty train I can get past the lack of poof. {not even a lot of poof...just a little more} I know the queen loaned the tiara to her, but it wasn't the prettiest of the tiaras I have seen over the years. Seriously, where was the Spencer family tiara when this was all happening?

I love this tiara, it was absolutely beautiful every time Diana wore it. I get that Kate is more understated...but ugh the modesty was killing me. I wanted poof and bling! 

Now lets get away from the negative and my unmet poof needs. How did y'all like the hats? The British are absolutely amazing when it comes to fashion. I have been royally obsessed since the early 90's, my mother has dubbed me an anglophile. I actually wore a big flower fascinator in my hair for my wedding, but really wanted to go huge feathers...sadly I was talked out of it by Nanny and Mom. 

Oh how I love a hair piece! With that being said I found out Philip Treacy was who designed many of the fascinators you probably saw while watching the wedding. I know for sure he designed Victoria Beckham's, it is in his Spring line if you look through his website. Here are a few of my favorite fascinators.

This is easily my all time favorite on Kate. Yes I know it is not wedding...but I love it.

Very interesting, but looks like she is being attacked.

I know you all have seen these, the blue one I can handle...but someone stop Beatrice! Is it a bow? It honestly reminds me of a mountain goat.

Here are two from the Treacy line. Love that color blue.

I am almost positive the blue is the Treacy Spring line, but it is too much for me. I really like the flower one behind though.

Like like:)

This is how the mother of the bride should look, lovely.

Finally, as much as I would love to hate on Camilla she actually looked very nice. I love her hate, and actually on one of the royal shows this past week I heard they intentionally wear hats the curve up so that you can see their {royalty} faces better. 

Seriously though, all MIL's, mother's of the bride, and step mothers of the whoever should take note of how these women dressed. The colors were perfect, understated, and yet still nice enough that you wouldn't cringe and whisper when they walked in. The whole wedding was lovely, traditional, and classic. Yes I was disappointed in the dress, but I still liked it. 

Now I am going to go do yoga {cause home girl has got to get in shape} and try yet again to convince Jeremy to move to England. 

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