Super Bowl Food

The Super Bowl is on Sunday and as of last night we had some change of plans and are now hosting our group of friends over for the game. So, the first thing I have to do is determine what kinds of appetizers I want to make... enter Pinterest. Here are a few things that I have been wanting to try. I think we are going to do a Low Country Boil and then everyone will bring an appetizer to share so I don't need to make too much - the hardest part may be narrowing down these choices! Let me know if you have a favorite!

Slow Cooker Mini Meatball Sliders: Perfect for a football game, right?

Jalapeno Popper Dip: I'm not a huge spicy foods person but I do love this combination of flavors (bacon, cheese, done).

Dill Pickle Dip: This is a wild card for me but I've been eyeing it for some time now. I just want to try it out and see what it's like!

Salami, Cream Cheese, and Pepperoncini Roll-Ups: These look so easy and delish!

And for the desserts:

Mini Fruit Pizzas: I grew up with my mom making fruit pizza so this little bite-sized version looks perfect for a party like this!

Blueberry Cheesecakes: Anything in phyllo dough is good for me and add cheesecake and "no bake" to that and we are all set!

Not sure what to call these but they look tasty: Crescent Rolls, Nutella, Cinnamon, Sugar. DONE!

Things I never thought I'd say.

"Gah, I wish I could just be a stay-at-home-wife forever. This working thing just isn't for me."

To my coworkers: "Can we seriously just make this happy hour a happy HOUR, not happy hourS?"

"All I want for my birthday is to sleep in and stay in my pajamas all day."

While at a rehearsal dinner as everyone heads to the floor to do some new dance to some new rap song: "You know you're old when you're dance moves end at the Cupid Shuffle."

Before Christmas dinner: "Where's the Gaviscon?"

"Where DID the time go??" (seriously... such an old person saying!)

When talking to a friend about some MTV show: "Seriously, I don't think I've turned on MTV in 5 years. I think my TV is permanently stuck on HGTV."

Anybody to me: "What did you do this weekend?" ME: "Nothing and it was absolutley fabulous."

And my personal favorite.....

Almost weekly to Brett: "Guess who else I found out in pregnant today??"

Weekly Menu: 1/28/13

Happy Monday!! I seriously can't believe we are almost into February! February is a BIG month for us because we celebrate our 1-year anniversay and get to escape this cold weather and head to Puerto Rico for a week!

We had another wonderfly relaxing weekend. It's amazing how refreshed you feel on Monday morning after a realxing weekend at home!

In an effort to save some $$$ and time we have been trying over the last few weeks to do our weekly meal planning early so we can just do 1 trip to the store on Sundays. So far it has really been helpful and definitely saves time and energy during the week! Here is how it's looking for this week:

Last Night: We went to Fresh Market and got some of their stuffed chicken breasts and some asparagus. They were really good and fairly resonably priced.
Monday: Chicken and Sausage Creole using Carolina Creole sauce. This is made down in Charleston and one of my friends actually designed the lable and packaging for this so we had to try it out! :)
Tuesday: Grilled Hawaiian Pizza (it's supposed to be in the 70s on Tuesday so we figured we had to embrace the warm weather!)
Wednesday: Spaghetti with leftover ground turkey from Saturday's Stuffed Peppers (which were a pain to make but soooo worth it!)
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: OUT
Saturday: Still TBD
Sunday: Superbowl Party with friends

Hope everyone has a great week!

The Friday Five: 1/25/13

I'm really trying to get back on a more regular blogging schedule so hopefully these posts won't be as sporadic as they have been! We've got another relaxing weekend ahead at home; date night tonight, house cleaning, laundry, lunch with a good friend tomorrow and church. Nothing too exciting which suits me just fine! :)

So... 5 random thoughts I'm having on this very cold Friday:

1) I just read a great book called "Before I Go To Sleep". It was one of those books that you literally can't put down. A few weeks ago we drove to my grandma's house after work for the weekend and I read that whole way down there and when we got to her house I was only a few pages until the end and had to sit in the car until I was done before going inside... that good, people! Must read!

2) "Prayers for Izzy": This is a Facebook group started by a couple from SC (I was at USC at the same time as the mom but didn't know her personally) who had twins a few months back and one of them, Izzy, became very sick and has been having special treatments up in Cincinnati since her birth. Her parents have been so brave and strong in their faith through this entire journey but the next 24 hours are very critical for Izzy and while I do not know these people personally I can't help but pray for little Izzy today.

3) New shoes never hurt anybody, right? I got these for Christmas but they were too small so we had to order a new pair and they came in this week! While it is 30 degrees outside my feet are definitely ready for our trip to Puerto Rico in a few weeks (4 weeks and counting!!). (Just need to update that grey polish to a bright red and we will be all set!)

4) A coworker has at her desk a sign that says "Cube Sweet Cube" which is so true. I work in a grey cube farm and thought it was bad until they decided to add even more cubes to our floor this week... yall, talk about some close quarters!!

5) Stuffed Peppers: I have been dying to make this recipe for weeks now and it just hasn't happened. Last Saturday we planned on making them but drug our feet and didn't decide to start cooking until about 7:30 and then looked at the recipe and realized it took 2 1/2 hours to cook them so that was scratched and we made grilled cheese sandwiches instead. Hopefully this weekend we will finally try this recipe out! Don't they look awesome???

So there ya have it! Hope everyone has an awesome weekend! Stay warm!!

Tasty Tuesday: Baked Spaghetti

So last week I posted about our weekly menu. For the most part we stuck to it but due to an unexpected work trip a few things fell off the menu. However, one thing that did not also happens to be one of my favorite recipes so wanted to share it! This is one of the first recipes I really tried to cook. I can't remember the very first time I made it but I'm sure it was a disaster turned out great!

I do remember the first time I made this for Brett though. When we first started dating Brett did ALL the cooking. Seriously, I think the first thing he ever bought for me was a little grill for my house. I am so thankful to have a man who loves to cook and is happy to cook however, after awhile I figured it was time I step it up and cook the man a meal. Enter: Baked Spaghetti.

It's definitely one of those meals that dirties almost every bowl in your house but it is seriously so easy to make. It also makes a HUGE amount of food so what I typically do if I'm just cooking for the 2 of us is split the original recipe in half (the original is actually a double) then split that into 2 small square pans so that you can put one in the freezer for another time. It freezes really well but just takes forever to thaw so plan ahead when you pull it out to cook.

Baked Spaghetti
Serves - A lot! (this is a double recipe so I typically split this in half)
16oz of spaghetti
2 jars of cabernet marinara sauce
2 jars of alfredo sauce
2 packs of 6 cheese Italian shredded cheese
1 pack of shredded cheddar cheese
1 onion (chopped)
2 lbs of ground beef

Cook ground beef and drain then add in the chopped onion and cabernet marinara sauce. Cook spaghetti and drain (I keep a little water on it to keep it from sticking together while you are layering everything in the pan).
Layer in Pan:
Beef Mixture
Noodles
Alfredo
Cheese
Repeat
Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes or until cheese on top is melted and bubbly.

Southern Girl Meets Snow

Last week I had an unexpected work trip pop up where I would have to travel to Greensboro, NC on Thursday and Friday. I didn't even think much of it and wasn't even all that thrilled until I saw this weather forecast...

Considering I live in the south, we very rarely see snow. In fact the last time I saw snow was 2 years ago!!

On Thursday night when I arrived in Greensboro, I had to go to dinner with a group of our managing agents (I work for an insurance company so this trip was to visit with some of our field). During dinner we looked out the window and saw this:

I was SO excited I couldn't hardly concentrate. I know everyone around me was thinking to themselves, "who is this ridiculous child - has she never seen snow before??" But I didn't care, it was so much fun and so incredibly beautiful the next day! We did have to sit in an 8 hour meeting the next day but at least we had these views to look at!

 

 A few more pics of the snow:



We may have had a small snowball fight post-dinner.

My Month via Instagram: December

It is so sad to say that December is over. We have to wait a whole year for more Christmas music, egg nog, celebrating, birthdays, and so on. But, it was yet again another wonderful month - let's take a look back shall we?

UPDATE: Just so everyone knows, I had this post done for the last 2 weeks but my Blogger wouldn't let me upload pictures which is why this is so late. I apologize!

Clearly, the month of sweets started off with a bang with this goodness. Go straight to the store and pick some up. You won't regret it.

But it clearly didn't end there... this is what a meeting requires at work on a Friday.

Brett and I celebrated the resigning of the lease on my house in Greenville. So glad to have great tenants in the house until 2014!

We welcomed to the world Roy Westbrook on December 7th. Such a precious new addition to our group of friends.

Speaking of precious, we took this little one to see the lights at Riverbanks Zoo. It's so much fun to see these things through a child's eye!

I was really worried about leaving my old company bc of how much fun we had together. At least the new company doesn't disappoint in that department!

As Christmas approached - my productivity at work declined. Whoops.

We also got to spend an evening with this fella who we love so much!

Brinkley was SO ready for the Christmas festivities to begin!!

And they finally could as soon as my big bro arrived in Columbia!!

Christmas Eve Eve is always a night our friends in Greenville get together.

More Christmas Eve Eve fun.... celebrating with this birthday girl, Stephanie who was born on Christmas Eve!

Speaking of birthdays - we celebrated mine on December 29th!

And closed out the year with the Barbers in Charlotte. Hope 2013 is a great as 2012!

So there is another month gone. Can't believe it is 2013 and already halfway through January!

I'm Here... and alive!

Yes, yes, I am in fact still here! Between Christmas, New Years, Birthdays, illnesses and a wedding, the last month has been insanely hectic but I promise to get back to a more regular blogging schedule here shortly!

In the meantime, here are a few random updates...

Brett and I are in the 5 1/2 week countdown to our anniversary trip to Puerto Rico which means budget-friendly meals and a bit of "conservation-mode" until after our trip. Here is the menu we put together for this week:

Sunday Night: It was almost 80 degrees here in South Carolina on Sunday so we were forced to grill outside. We made Bacon-Chicken Kabobs with a fall salad. It really made me crave summer-time!
Monday: We used the leftover chicken and peppers/onions from the kabobs and made fajitas! See... conservation/budget-friendly meals!
Tuesday: We plan to make these Stuffed Peppers from the Food Network Magazine but may put them on hold until this weekend so I can go to dinner with 2 of my new-mommy friends who need a night out of the house... the sacrifices I have to make sometimes. :)
Wednesday: Baked Spaghetti - this is one of my favorite meals to make (and the first thing I ever cooked for Brett when we were dating). It makes a huge recipe so we always freeze half of it for another night! I can share the recipe next week.
Thursday: Left-overs
Friday: Eat Out!

Starting this weekend something will happen that has never happened before since Brett and I were married... we are home for 5 consecutive weekends in a row. We are so excited to be able to have some time to get things done around the house, relax and most importantly start going to a Sunday School Class at the church we have been visiting!

I've been wanting to share pictures of the holidays but for some reason my blogger site won't let me upload any... bummer. Hopefully it starts working soon so I can share some pictures! (Any other bloggers have the same problem??)

Hope everyone has a great week and I promise to be back more often now that things are slowing down a bit! :)

Tasty Tuesday: Lemon Garlic Chicken, Creamed Corn, Pecan Broccoli

I'm here and alive... just been a long, busy week! But I'm back with an amazing meal to share!

 

It had been a long time since Brett and I have had a chance to get into the kitchen together and cook a full meal so we wanted to put our rusty cooking skills to work last weekend! We spent the afternoon searching for some new recipes that we hadn't tried before and love what we found! This was such a light yet flavorful meal, I can't recommend it enough!

 

The first two recipes are from a Food Network Magazine we had at home and the third is one I found on Pinterest but adjusted it slightly.

 

Lemon Garlic Chicken with Creamed Corn

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 4 skin-on chicken drumsticks (about 1 pound) and 4 skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs (about 1 1/2 pounds) (We just used boneless chicken breasts and it still tasted great)
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 12 cloves garlic (about 1 head)
• 2 lemons (finely grated zest of one, juice of both)
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 pound frozen corn, thawed
• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives

Directions

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Heat the olive oil in a large nonstick ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle the chicken with 1/2 teaspoon each salt and pepper, and 2 tablespoons flour. Add to the skillet and cook, turning, until slightly golden on all sides, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, lemon zest and lemon juice and turn the chicken to coat. Transfer the skillet to the oven; roast until the chicken is golden brown and cooked through, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the corn and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper; cook, stirring occasionally, until the corn softens, about 5 minutes. Stir in the remaining 1 tablespoon flour, then add the milk and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer, stirring, until thickened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the chives and season with salt and pepper.

Divide the chicken among plates and drizzle with the pan juices. Serve with the creamed corn.

 

Walnut Pecan Broccoli

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 heads broccoli (or 1 large), cut into florets
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 garlic clove, sliced
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts - We had pecans on hand so used those instead.
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan

Cook broccoli in oil over medium-high heat until it begins to soften, season with salt and pepper. Add garlic and walnuts pecans; cook until broccoli is crisp tender and walnuts are toasted. Toss with lemon juice, red pepper flakes and parmesan to serve.