Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Over the weekend my boyfriend and I went to Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge.  We spent about 4 hours hiking and driving through the refuge.  It was the perfect day for it.  75 degrees and sunny.  There were many different kinds of birds to be seen.  I'm not great at identifying them but we did see blue herons, egrets and red winged blackbirds. We saw a frog and 2 snakes.  I'm pretty sure the snake wasn't happy about our presence.  It was hissing and rattling its tail so we snapped a few pictures and got away from it.  I was hoping to see turtles or foxes but I guess we made too much noise and scared them off.  We came close to an encounter with a fox.  We heard it rustling around in the bushes and saw a flash of color and then nothing.  It realized there were people around and stopped moving or found a good hiding place.  Maybe next time I'll get to see them.

The frog we found along our path.

The snake that didn't want to play nice.

A random lighthouse we passed on our scenic drive home.

After we left the park we were pretty hungry so we went home and made lunch.  We didn't have many supplies around so I did my best with what we had and actually came up with a pretty good recipe.  I made pasta with a cheesy garlic sauce.  Below is the recipe. 

Pasta and Broccoli with Cheesy Garlic Sauce

Ingredients:
1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 tbsp minced garlic
2 tbsp Nutritional Yeast (Nooch)
1 tsp Crushed Red Pepper
2 tsp Salt
16 oz Bag of Frozen Broccoli
1/2 Bag Brown Rice Fusilli

Start by boiling water for the pasta, once the water is boiling throw in pasta.  Bring water to a boil again and then turn down the heat to a low setting.  Simmer until the pasta is tender.  While the pasta is cooking, heat the oil in a large pan.  Once oil is warm, toss in garlic on a low heat and let garlic cook for about 2 minutes. Next add the nutritional yeast, crushed red pepper, salt and broccoli to the pan.  Cook for about 5 minutes stirring occasionally.  When the broccoli is tender and the pasta is ready toss it all together, mix and serve.

This is a super easy, quick meal that takes very few ingredients.  All the items are things I keep stocked in my pantry daily.