P!NK The Truth About Love Tour

I received a surprise invitation from my Aunt last week to go with her to the P!NK concert. Of course I said yes!!! I guess I should also thank her boyfriend for not being able to go :) Here are some pictures...she moves around a lot (it was pretty much like a Cirque du Solei show) so over half the ones I took were blurry...hope you enjoy!

February Meal: Stove Top Beef Stew

Of course I've had beef stew plenty of times over my 20 some odd years of existence, but never have I ever (did anyone else play the game never have I ever???) made it myself. Since I made it all by myself this time, I'm counting it as a new recipe for 2013!

After discussing stew options with Erica, I decided to go with the stove top version since she recommended it. It turned out really good! I somewhat followed the directions on the packet of Stew Seasoning (found by the taco, chili, and spaghetti seasoning packets).

Stove Top Beef Stew

1 seasoning packet
2 pounds stew meat
3 T flour
1 T Lantana (similar to Tony Chachere)
2 T oil
3 cups water
2 cups baby carrots
3 cups chopped red potatoes

Add your carrots and potatoes to a large pot and mix in the seasoning packet and water. Start cooking that pot over a medium heat. In a skillet, pour in your oil and start heating over medium heat. Combine flour and lantana in a small bowl. Coat each cube of stew meat with flour/lantana mixture and place in oil. Brown all sides of the meat and transfer to a plate with a paper towel on top to soak up excess oil while you finish cooking all your meat. Once all your meat is browned, add it to your pot with the carrots and potatoes. Bring to boil. Cover and reduce heat to a simmer for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Stir occasionally.

All-Star Baby Shower

Yesterday, we had an All-Star baby shower at work for our friend Heather. Below is everything we made...check it out!!



The invitation...Created this using Publisher! Love that program and picmonkey for invitations!

 

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I wanted to make the card look like the invitation. I had to free hand the designs onto the cut out circles and then cut one circle into a football...not the easiest thing ha ha, but I think it turned out cute. For the textured paper I used my cuttlebug and the 'B' I cut using my cricut.



Sports banner...the sports balls came from Heather, I hand cut the pennants using 12x12 paper and used my cricut for the letters. We then taped everything together using packing tape and taped baker's twine to the back to string it up



Same sports ball from Heather...I used a regular foam wreath form and wrapped it in red ribbon. We again used packing tape to secure them on. We didn't want to hot glue anything in case she wanted to use them for something else again



We saw the idea for small diaper cakes on google and decided we wanted to create some as well. We used sizes Newborn and 1. There is one size 1 in the middle, then a row of newborns and then a row of 1's. The balls are taped to Popsicle sticks and stuck in the middle diaper.



Yummy cupcakes from Sams...half white, half chocolate and half whipped icing, half buttercream. That way everyone can get exactly what they want



Desserts galore! Erica brought strawberries with the best fruit dip ever and sugar cookies with sprinkles. I made Rolo Pretzel Turtles (boy and girl versions ha ha). And Elizabeth made cookies stuffed with oreos and caramel. Yum!



Edith made these adorable thank you gifts!

I want to give a big shout out to my awesome co-hosts/friends Erica, Elizabeth, Edith and Angela!

p.s. check out these cute coasters and candle Heather made all of us for hosting!

WWU:5

Tuesday, 2/12 - Rest

Wednesday, 2.13 - 2 mile walk (316 calories burned)

Thursday, 2/14 - Rest

Friday, 2/15 - 60 minute Stride Machine resistance 5 (665 calories burned)

Saturday, 2/16 - Rest

Sunday, 2/17 - 5k (627 calories burned)

Monday, 2/18 - Rest

Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've seen quite a few banana oatmeal recipes floating around, but of course this one caught my eye because of the chocolate chips! Luckily for me these only require 2 very ripe bananas and I just so happened to have 2!! Yay! Actually, I some how always have 2 really ripe bananas...weird I know.

I found the recipe for these over at Sweet Tooth Sweet Life. A lot of my new food recipes have been coming from her lately and they have all turned out great! I tried followed her recipe exactly, except that I only had one cup of oats instead of one and a half...but they still turned out really good! I just threw everything in my Kitchen Aid mixer and let it do the hard work...I even let it mash the bananas for me!

These were amazing right out of the oven. The edges were a little crispy while the inside was so soft! By the time they cooled, they became more of a banana bread texture, but still cookieish (if that even makes sense). I just bought some more bananas, so if I don't eat them all I may have to go ahead and make these again!!

Chocolate Flowers? Don't mind if I do...

So we all know what yesterday was...well I got a little story about these delicious beauties I'd like to share...

According to the boyfriend, I once told him that I didn't like flowers. I swear to this day I never said that. However, I do think I've said for the past few years that you don't have to get me any on Valentine's day. Anyways...yesterday I was not expecting a thing to be delivered to work (mainly because we work at the same place) and just went about my day as normal. Well 5 o'clock rolls around and I'm on my way home when the boyfriend calls me to ask if I had gotten anything that day. Confused, I said no was I supposed to? He said yes, "flowers". Hmmm very interesting.

That night he checked his confirmation e-mail to make sure the date and address were right and they were. So today, Friday, he called to say the delivery was not made. I told him to just ask for a refund, but he said they wouldn't give it to him. He was told that the "package" was waiting for him to pick up and that they would refund the delivery charge. He was like "I paid for them to be delivered and they are already a day late!" Then they gave him more excuses as to why they weren't delivered...couldn't get find the building, couldn't get in the building, it was their busiest day of the year, blah, blah blah. Well, the building is not hard to find and if they had showed up before 5 they would have been able to get in.

The lady on the phone finally agreed to have them delivered again and it still took them 3 hours to get here. I thought this was crazy and I was in a bad mood because they wouldn't give him the refund. Then I get the call that they are here and my mood instantly changed when I saw the chocolate. He didn't tell me they were chocolate "flowers"!! I didn't know this was an option! ha ha. Now I'm sitting at my desk happy as a clam trying my hardest not to eat all 17 within the next hour!

However, from this experience with Edible Arrangements, I don't know if I would ever trust them again. But at the same time, I wouldn't turn down chocolate "flowers" any day of the year! 

A Good Day to Die hard and Identity Thief



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This was a fun movie! There is action galore, but what Die Hard isn't that way. Bruce Willis kills it every time. I loved his little one liners about being on vacation...pretty sucky vacation...ha ha. The actor they got to play his son fit in really well. If for some reason BW ever decides to stop making these, I hope they would continue the series with the other guy. My only complaint would be the first scene of the movie had some shaky camera work, or maybe it just bothered me because I was watching it on the XD screen.



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Well there were definitely some mixed reviews about this one. I think Mellisa McCarthy is hilarious and will watch anything she does. I also think Jason Bateman is pretty darn funny in his own way too. The boyfriend would have agreed that both these people were funny before the movie... After the movie, he was contemplating about not even watching Mike and Molly anymore because he hated MM in this movie. There were times when I was laughing and I would look over at him and he looked so bored. I actually felt bad for making him go see it with me. While I laughed at parts, I do think they tried a little too hard for the jokes sometimes. If I'm being totally honest, it was a waste of money (good thing I got gift cards for Christmas). If you like the actors, I would suggest renting it later on. If you don't like them, just skip it.