Beautiful La Quinta Cove Hiking

Earlier this week my boyfriend and I decided it'd be nice to get out of the house for a while and go for a hike. Since we both recently took off work we thought we deserved some time out in nature. 

Since we moved to the Palm Springs area earlier this year we have not done much in the fitness department. I guess between moving and working we were both pretty worn out so we were looking forward to an interesting hike. 

We spotted this interesting patch of bright green tree tops among the browns, yellows, oranges and reds of the desert and instantly headed towards it. To our surprise, about a mile and half out on the trail was a very inviting oasis.

Delicious and Crispy, Thin Panko-Crusted Pork Chops

While growing-up my mother would always make us a certain dish for special occasions, like if we did something that made her proud. Well that dish was her delicious home-cooked pork chops slathered in warm, gooey gravy and served with creamy, garlic mashed potatoes with peas or corn on the side. I remember these amazing pork chops vividly! Every delightful detail! Even though my mom hasn’t made them in such a long time I still get the feeling of comforting warmth that these flavorful pieces of pork have engraved in my memory! Recently, after reminiscing about my childhood food experiences, I decided it might be fun to recreate my mom's special dish or to come up with my own version of it...so this is what I ended up doing:

Crispy, Thin Panko-Crusted Pork Chops 

• 1 lb of thin cut, boneless, pork chops
• 1 Large egg
• A splash of milk (approximately 2 tablespoons)
• 1/2 cup- 1 cup of Panko Breadcrumbs (depending on how many pork chops you have)
• 1/2 cup- 1 cup of Whole Wheat Breadcrumbs  (again, depending on how many pork chops you have)
• Seasoning: Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Parsely, Italian Seasoning, Salt and Pepper.
• Flour
• Olive Oil

If your pork chops are thin, flour and breadcrumb all of them before starting to fry them since thin chops only take a second to fry and you may not have enough time to flour and bread the others before you need to be back at the frying pan to take em off!
Also, unless you’re using plastic bags or tongs to coat your chop with breadcrumbs "shake –n- bake" method then be prepared to get messy because this mixture tends to be sticky!

Instructions -

1. Start by rinsing your pork chops with cold water just to clean them up a little bit.  


 2. Dry your pork chops off lightly with a paper towel and lay them flat.


3. While the chops are resting on the paper towel, sprinkle them lightly with Salt and Pepper.


4. Mix together your egg and splash of milk in small bowl big enough to fit 1 or 2 of your chops.


5. Season the egg & milk mixture with garlic salt, parsley or whatever seasoning you desire!


 6. Dump your panko and breadcrumbs onto a plate or into a ziplock bag and mix together (if using the ziplock bag method then shake until coated).



7. On a different plate, dump enough flour to cover a few of the pork chops (approximately 1/2 cup or more)


8. On the stove, heat up your olive oil over medium to high heat


 9. While the olive oil is heating up place your first chop in the flour until it is coated


10. After coating with flour take your chop and dip it in the egg and milk mixture

11. Once coated with egg and milk lay the chop in the panko and breadcrumb mixture until covered


12. Repeat this until all the chops are coated with all 3 of the mixtures.


13. By this time the olive oil should be sufficiently heated and ready for you to place your chops in it.


14. One by one, gently lay each chop in the hot oil and fry it until golden brown  (approximately 4-5 minutes on each side depending on thickness of chop).


15. Once both sides are done, remove from frying pan and repeat with other chops until all are golden brown.


16. Serve over garlic and apple mashed potatoes and with a side of corn on the cob and you have a perfect home-cooked comfort meal in less then 30 minutes!


This recipe has always been a part of my life and was a big hit during my childhood, but I'm curious to know what recipe has been a part of yours since childhood. I'd love to hear all about the meals you loved while growing up or even the ingredients and recipes on how to make them in the comments below! 

Real, Legitimate Ways to Make Money Taking Surveys Online

Money, it's not as hard to earn as you thought it was!

This past couple of weeks I have been trying out different ways to make a quick buck online and because of the increasingly large amount of work-from-home-scams and websites online today I decided it might be helpful if I wrote a post on actual, legitimate websites that pay you to take surveys or to work from home. Here are some of the sites I found:

1. Survey Savvy - Surveys are a fun and interesting way to learn about new products but did you know that you can also make money from home by taking surveys in your free-time? Well, now you do! Survey Savvy is an awesome and legitimate site to start out with. I personally like this website because they not only offer money for filling out surveys but you can also refer your friends and get paid for them too! Another reason why this site is great is because you only need to earn $1 before you can cash it in. Some sites will require you to earn upwards of $5 dollars so this site is definitely worth checking out! Just click the link below and you may get a chance to earn $20*:

https://www.surveysavvy.com/?m=5858631

2. Everyone knows about the website Amazon.com. You might even purchase items from them from time to time. Well, did you know that Amazon also pays people to work from home to perform small tasks for money? It's true! The site is called Mechanical Turk or mTurk and it is a totally legitimate and great way to make some extra dough for anything you may need! Simply sign up HERE and start completing HITs (Human Intelligence Tasks) today to receive money or even amazon gift cards. There are all different kinds of HITs you can perform so you won't get bored answering lame survey questions. The only downside to Mechanical Turk is that each worker is rated based on the percentage of HITs they perform or abandon so if you fall asleep or have technical difficulties in the middle of your task that causes the task to not get completed then your reputation or value on the site would go down and you may not be eligible for another task like until it is back up, so be careful which task you choose!

3. Another one of the top Survey sites online is Vinedale Research, Vinedale research is definitely one of the more reputable survey sites on the internet today. Especially since they pay up to $75 dollars for their members to take just one survey. I haven't found any other site offering that much for a survey yet! I've heard that vinedale doesn't accept applications for members year-round but they were nice enough to send us a link to allow our readers to sign-up anytime they want! So if you are interested in earning up to $75 per survey....THAT'S RIGHT! $75.00! Then CLICK HERE to
sign-up and make some money for your opinion today!

Above: Information from Vinedale.com

4. The fourth legitimate website for making money online is different than the previous sites mentioned. Mindswarms.com is a different kind of survey site. Not only are they asking for your opinion on different products or situations but unlike any of the sites above mindswarms asks that you video record your response with your webcam and upload to their site. When I tried this site out i thought it was such a cool idea! The sign-up and instructions are extremely easy to understand and the design of the site is great for everyone. The only downside to mindswarms is that there was a lack of available surveys or questions to answer (it could have just been my demographic but who knows?) so I quickly lost interest in the site since there was nothing for me to do. It is still worth checking out and who knows....maybe you will be eligible for more surveys than I was. Did I mention you get paid for referring your friends too?

Above: A Screenshot of TrymyUI.com homepage.

5. TrymyUI.com is another great, legitimate survey site. This site is also different from the others because not only does it ask you to fill out survey questions but it also asks that you record your computer screen while you visit and specific website they give you. It is actually pretty fun and it allows you to do more than just answer a, b, c, or d off some test. You don't have to download any special software or anything. All you need to do to become a member is visit their site HERE, sign-up and take a qualification test (which is basically the same thing as actually just completing the task itself).

There are so many different survey sites and sites claiming to pay you for your time that there is no way we could possibly list them all in one post, but there is one thing you must remember, Your time is valuable so don't waste it on some website that is only trying to get your credit card number from you! Make sure you know which sites are legitimate and which ones to avoid and make some money while you can! I hope this post was helpful and informative for everyone! If i forgot any great, legitimate survey or work from home sites that you would like me to try out or that you have tried before, please let us know in the comments below and we will be happy to check them out. Thanks again and have a wonderful day!