Brown Rice with Stir Fry Veggies

Decided to throw some stuff together to take for dinner at work. I just had this stuff around the house and thought it sounded good. I'm really on a veggie crave right now! I've found that I really like brown rice; its got some texture to it compared to white rice but its just as good. Not a huge flavor difference from white rice, which I love and could eat everyday!

Brown Rice with Stir Fry Veggies
I used our rice steamer (a wedding gift!) to steam about 2 cups of brown rice. While that was cooking I put about 2 Tbsp of Olive Oil in a skillet and about 2 cloves of garlic (all I had) and heated it up. I added some fresh Asparagus cut in half, about 6 rods worth, half of a yellow Bell Pepper diced up, and one whole small Zucchini sliced in 1/4 - 1/8 inch thich slices. Sauteed or stir fry, whatever you like to call it, I did this until the Zucchini and Bell Peppers were soft. I should have done it longer and cut the Asparagus up more because they didn't turn out as soft as I'd hoped. Wa-la! You can mix the rice and veggies or eat them separate. I like to use a little Soy Sauce on the rice as well. Dinner in about 15 min!

I've been mixing this Siracha Hot Sauce (the one with the chinese writing & the chicken on it!) with Soy Sauce and it's a wonderful sauce! I really like spicy foods/sauces so this is a way to add some spice but only as much as you want!

Life as Lucy Knows It

Lucy's adventures on a daily basis. Or at least a few of the places she goes & things she does!

Desert Botanical Garden

Josh and I were lucky enough to take a trip to the Desert Botanical Garden earlier this month with a few new friends we've made here. What a day! That place was really cool. It was great to learn about a bunch of different plants around this region. We're trying to learn as much as we can about this area since we are new. Here are some photos. The names of some of these plants may have left me, but I'm sure Josh will know the answer! We also went to the Butterfly Exhibit--that was our main reason for going--which was VERY cool! We got to help release some butterflies too!

Saw a nome!!

This is that plant you ate Jimmy!

Easter in California

We decided to take a road trip out to California for the Easter weekend to visit my brother. It is kinda nice that it's only a 6 hour drive. Not the most exciting drive, but nonetheless it wasn't bad at all! Got to see part of Arizona and California we'd never seen before. Josh had never seen the Pacific Ocean nor been to California before so it was a very much needed trip. We spent Saturday - Monday out in Oceanside and Carlsbad, California. It was great to see my brother, Jimmy. We ate dinner at a little restaurant in Carlsbad (I forget the name now, but I want to say it's something like Ray's) only about 100 feet or so from the Ocean. It is a very small little place but very home-y and home-cooked meals for sure! It was so green everywhere we went down there. On our drive out, we drove through Temecula which is a BEAUTIFUL wine country part of the area. I could definitely live there! Here are some photos of our trip.

The view from Jim's front door. Lucky!

A pretty intense storm moved in while we were on the beach. Looked cool, but we didn't stay for any lightning!

It was a great trip and we were so happy to see family. Been getting a little homesick here and there, but soon enough we will be back to Colorado to visit and our parents will be out here to visit.

Sunday Evening

A week full of work has come to an end and now it's my weekend! This week I got the privilege of creating the Weather Story at work. A Weather Story is a graphic or single slide on power point that conveys the message for short-term weather for 1-2 days in each area. For our area, Phoenix, we aim to update this everyday and it is first come first serve, whoever gets to updating it updates it. So for this Friday I was asked to do this. I really enjoy putting things like this together. It really helps my creative side come out along with my love of weather. So here is the image that I created and put together for the Weather Story for Friday April 09. It was online for about 24 hours before it was updated. 

Other than that, this week has been pretty mellow. Josh and I took a trip to California for the Easter weekend to visit my brother in Oceanside. What a great time. We got to relax, go to the beach, have dinner at a very nice little home-cooked restaurant down the street from the beach and just hang out. It was a very nice weekend. Josh starts his job this week at REI. He is very excited, as I am as well!

Our good friends John and Stephanie had their first baby, a boy Athan Michael on March 22nd, our good friends Jennifer and Jesse had their second child, another boy James Christopher on April 2nd, our good friends John and Rebekah are due to have their first child, a boy on April 22nd, our good friends Steve and Leota are due to have their first child in August and find out if they are having a boy or girl in a day or so. I also know 3 other women friends who are pregnant and will have a child between now and August. It seems like it is baby fever! No worries, I'm not having a baby right now. I wouldn't post it on here for you all to find out first anyway. All in due time :)

Here's to a great week to all you wonderful people!

Fish Creek, Apache Trail & Roosevelt Lake - Arizona

(I realize now that this post is old and didn't get posted! We took this trip March 24th. OOps!)

Josh and I took our first outdoor adventure yesterday and headed out to Roosevelt Lake/Dam. We were originally going to head to Globe/Miami and look into some mining towns but the drive we took was a littler longer than expected. It was well worth the drive! We had a blast. Learned a little bit of history about that region of Arizona. We have definitely found a great area to take our family when they come out!

The trip was beautiful and gorgeous! A day well spent. We are very excited to explore many other parts of Arizona.