Recipe: Mac & Cheese Burritos

Yes, you read that title right. And yes, it's just as amazing as it sounds. You HAVE to try this recipe.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups of prepared macaroni and cheese (your favorite kind)
• 4 flour tortillas
• 1 cup peeled / chopped roasted green chile
• oil for frying

DIRECTIONS

1. In a bowl, mix the macaroni and cheese with the roasted green chile.
2. Place macaroni down the center of tortillas.
3. Roll the tortilla up.
4. In a shallow frying pan, fry each burrito in 2" of oil.
5. Fry seam side down first. Fry until golden all around.
6. Cool burritos off on a paper towel until serving.

• Do you love mac & cheese as much as I do?
• Will you be trying these delicious burritos?
• What's your favorite 'weird' recipe?

Veterans' Day Transformation Tuesday

On this Veterans' Day, I share with you a Transformation Tuesday. On the left, you see 17 year old Dan when he first enlisted in the Army 8+ years ago in 2006. On the right, you see 25 year old Dan, a newly commissioned officer in the Air Force. How times have changed! Thank you to ALL who serve this great nation of ours and keep us safe!

I thoroughly enjoyed looking back on his high school baby-face! We didn't know each other then, so it's always fun finding old photos. 

Honeymoon Series: Venice, Italy

Over the summer, my husband and I went on our honeymoon shortly after our wedding. We visited many cool places, and you can read about all of that in this post. I'm going to be chronicling each stop on our amazing trip. Today's post will feature our favorite photos from our second stop: Venice, Italy.

(I will update the links below once all posts have been written and published.)

STOP 1 | STOP 2 | STOP 3 | STOP 4 | STOP 5 | STOP 6 | STOP 7 | STOP 8 | STOP 9

Venice was unbelievably beautiful. The canal was gorgeous, and all the boats seemed so whimsical to me. It was a great city to be in to practice taking photos for sure. Venice is SUPER expensive, though. It definitely wasn't somewhere we could do a lot of things we wanted to do because of how high the prices were there. We had a blast walking around together and exploring the main area, though. We even took a water taxi once!

I also got what I call 'slut-shamed' at St. Mark's Cathedral. I know you're supposed to cover your shoulders and your knees, but it was just downright TOO hot for that. I saw so many people going inside without those things covered, so I thought I'd try as well. They didn't let me. I had to purchase two cover-ups for a Euro each. Blah. I had to wrap them around me, and an entire tour group was pointing and laughing at me at point. THAT was not cool, and Dan insisted on taking my picture... so I glared (see photo below).

I did have THE BEST frozen drink ever, which I bought from a vendor on the street. It was a mint flavored slushie, and it was the best flavor I could have imagine. Mmm.

Overall, we were only in Venice for two days, which I suppose is a good thing because it was my LEAST favorite city of our entire trip! It would be more fun if we had a lot of money, but since we were seeing so many cool places, we couldn't shall out the cash for a gondola ride or any fancy-schmancy restaurants here. Little did I know we ACTUALLY weren't spending a lot of money because the SURPRISE CRUISE was next! Yep, Venice is where that left from, and I had no idea we were going on one until we got off the train next to a giant ship. 

• Have you ever been to Venice?
• What did you enjoy most about it?

Book Review: Between the Lines

I currently have several book reviews on my old blog. I want to get rid of completely (since it's been nearly two years since I've used it), but many of my links are still to that blog. To transition completely away, I am going to be re-sharing some of my book reviews here once or twice a week. If you love reading, this is for you! If not... I'm sorry, and I promise to keep the words "book review" in all of the titles so you know!

Today's review features Between the Lines by Jodi Picout.

A couple years ago, I heard that my favorite author, Jodi Picoult, would be writing a book with her teenage daughter, Samantha. When I read about it, I was ecstatic. In true Janelle fashion, I bought the book (the actual book, not the e-book, as I have all of Picoult's books in hardcover, taking up nearly an entire shelf in one of my bookcases). I was nervous because this book was said to be unlike any other she'd written to date. Well, I was nervous for no reason because Between the Lines is a fantastic piece of literature, and I couldn't put it down.

Between the Lines tells the story of Delilah, a high school girl, who is obsessed with a children's fairy tale. She doesn't have many friends, and she loves reading by herself. The story she becomes smitten with is about a prince named Oliver. He is brave and strong and everything she feels like she isn't. One day, Prince Oliver begins talking to her. Yes, a character in a story is talking to the girl who is reading it. Maybe Prince Oliver isn't just a character after all... maybe he is trapped inside the book. 

Delilah desperately wants to help him, but along the way, her mom and one best friend think she has gone crazy. In an attempt not to ruin the book for anyone who wants to read it (and this one comes HIGHLY recommended, guys!), I will just say that I found the concept of the novel to be brilliantly creative and that I haven't looked at the characters in any given book the same way since finishing this one. If I could give this book 20 stars out of 5, I would. THAT is how much I loved Between the Lines. Jodi Picoult strikes again, this time with her daughter as co-author. 

To read more about the author, check out Picoult's website here! 

Halloween Costumes and NaNoWriMo

If you're here to see our Halloween decorations, you'll want to check this post. However, if you're here to see our favorite costumes to date, you're in the right place!

My husband is in grad school right now. He's getting his Master's degree in Physics. He's a scientist nerd. We decided to play off of that and be scientists for Halloween! But not just any scientists...

Miss Frizzle (from the Magic School Bus) and Bill Nye the Science Guy!

I had planets, astronauts, and rockets all over the back side of my dress as well. I loved it! 

Also, for the month of November, I have decided to participate in NaNoWriMo. That stands for National Novel Writing Month, and you can find out more here. 

Basically, the goal is to write a 50,000 word novel in just 30 days. I'm off to a pretty good start so far, and I'm super excited about my idea! The last (and only) time I did NaNoWriMo was way back in 2010, and it went well. I never did anything with my novel, though. I kind of got sick of it and realized that it was beginner's garbage... so it's just sitting on my computer taunting me. Let's hope this one is better! 

• Have you ever participated in NaNoWriMo?
• Have you ever written a novel?
• Are you published? (that's my ultimate goal!)