Life according to my phone

This past weekend my family celebrated my Aunt's 50th birthday up at her new lake house and since Barrett was still in town we took a little road trip up to the hill country to celebrate with her and as a bonus he could finally meet the rest of the family...ha ha...4 and a half years later.

This is the view from her backyard. The lake is still down a lot, but one day it will be back to normal. We spent a good amount of time outside playing bocce ball. Since we were first timers, we may or may not have made up our own rules. Then my little cousins (ages 1 through 4) wanted to play so it turned into just rolling the balls back and forth and trying to not let them eat the dirt...yep...still not ready for kids...ha ha.

We also have made it to the movies twice. Figured we should try to go to some we really wanted to see before he leaves for work. The first movie we saw was Lone Survivor. Great movie! If you haven't seen this yet...go see it now. Or don't know if you want to see this movie, just go see it. I don't think I've heard anything bad about it so far. We also saw Ride Along. Pretty funny...Kevin Hart opposite Ice Cube is hilarious. And the way they ended it could be a set up for a sequel.

I also took the dialect quiz that was going around from the NY Times. That's some pretty interesting and accurate stuff. I even took it a second time and made the boyfriend take it as well. Pretty much if I didn't think you would see it from a different blog I told you go to take it...ha ha.

Lastly, I took a Friends Character quiz (I love a good quiz) and some how came out with the character Gunther. I promise I'm not a creep...well not all the time he he.

What have y'all been up to lately? Do you have a fun quiz I should take?!? Let me know!!

January Meal: Turkey and Zucchini Noodle Soup

This is a total "what do I have on hand" makeshift recipe...ha ha. Luckily it turned out pretty good!! On the day I made this, I knew three things...I wanted soup, I had fried turkey that needed to be eaten and I had zucchini that was going to have to be thrown out soon. I looked in my pantry and found one can of chicken broth and thought I can make this work.

What I used...

1 regular sized can of Chicken Broth
1 1/2 cups water
3 small to medium sized zucchinis shredded long ways into noodles
1 T garlic powder
6 oz fried white meat turkey no skin
black pepper to taste

What I did...

Combine the can of chicken broth and the water into a medium sized pot and bring to a boil. While the liquid is heating start shredding the zucchini. Carefully add zucchini, garlic powder and however much black pepper you like to the pot. While zucchini is cooking cut up your turkey into small chunks. Add turkey to the pot. Continue cooking until zucchini is tender.

This was pretty good using what I could find, but when I make this again I will definitely be using more chicken broth. :)

New Year's Black Eyed Pea Casserole

Well it's officially 2014!! Seriously how did that happen?!?! While I'm still debating if I want to create a list of 14 goals to complete in 2014, I thought I would go ahead and share my version of my family's Black Eyed Pea Casserole.

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef
1 can (15 -16 oz) black eyed peas with jalapeno
2 cups cooked rice
1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
Lantana or Tony Chacheres to taste

Directions

Brown ground beef in a large skillet with garlic and Lantana. Mix in the rest of the ingredients in the order given. Bake in a 13x9 casserole dish at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes.

 
This dish almost completely hides the taste of the black eyed peas for non fans. I also like to top mine with some hot sauce. This year I used Rod Ryan Show Hot Sauce #ghostpepper and it was delicious!!

For those out there that aren't as picky as I am, here is the original recipe...

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef
2 cans (15 -16 oz) black eyed peas with jalapeno
2 cups cooked rice
1 can canned tomatoes (2 cups), drained
1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup minced onions
1 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper

Directions

Brown ground beef in a large skillet with garlic. Mix in the rest of the ingredients in the order given. Bake in a 13x9 casserole dish at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes.

Really I should have used 2 cans in my version, but I was in a hurry at the store and didn't read the recipe right...ha ha. Other than that, I don't care for onions or chunks of tomatoes so I omitted those.

December Meal: Salsa Chicken

It's the last day of the year and time for my very last recipe post of 2013!! Where did the time go?!?! 

I know I say this quite a bit, but this was probably the easiest thing I've made. 2 ingredients!! That's it!

You need chicken and a jar of hot sauce! I used 3 chicken breasts and a jar of Hot Pace that I blended ( no me gusta chunky bits). All you do is put your chicken in the crockpot and pour the entire jar of hot sauce over it and let it cook. I cooked mine on low for about 9 hours.

I separated it into 3 containers since there were 3 chicken breasts, but turns out that is way too much for one serving. I'm not even sure how many meals I got out of this since I ended up having to toss some out, but that's what happens when there is only one person eating it. 

I ate it with black bean quinoa chips, sweet potato chips and corn tortillas...it even tasted good on its own. I will definitely be making this again!

Hope every one has a happy and safe New Year's Eve tonight! See ya in 2014!! 

Christmas Crafts 2013: Candle Stick Jars Edition

The last of the gifts I made were inspired by Pinterest...candle stick jars.

When showing Barrett's mom my Pinterest boards a while back she commented that she really liked these jars and would want to make them, but would probably never get around to it. A little light bulb went off in my head...Christmas present!!!!

I showed a sneak peek of this process a few weeks ago with this picture...

I'm missing a few things in this picture...like the letters and the jars...but all of that turned into...

I went with red polka ribbon for the bows since red is in most holidays, but they can be easily taken off. The wooden letters are stuck on using glue dots so they can also be easily changed out. I painted all the wood pieces and the jar lids black and then put a layer of mod podge over them to help keep the paint from being scratched. I glued all parts together using E6000 glue. Between all the crafts I did this Christmas, I used an entire tube of that stuff!

The other letter combos I included in the gift were...LUV (Valentine's Day), BOO (Halloween) and THX (Thanksgiving). Now that I think about it I could have also included 4TH for the 4th of July. Eh...next time.

I also made a single candle stick jar for another Aunt.

I put her initial on the jar using shelf paper I cut with my cricut. Still haven't used real vinyl yet, but one day it will happen. I decided to just make her a single jar since she moved into a smaller house this year and I haven't seen what kind of counter space she has. Oh and you can pretty much put anything you want in these jars which is awesome. I know it looks like there is a candle in the jar right now, but really it's just green paper. It was hard to see the 'L' with a neutral background so that's why I stuck the paper in there.

I think that officially wraps up my crafts for 2013. I already have a craft I need to work on for 2014 that needs to be done by Jan. 18!! Ahhhhh!

Cran-Apricot Cinnamon Quinoa Breakfast Bake

I've been looking for new hot breakfast recipes (since I've been told to stop eating my oatmeal with peanut butter in the mornings) and came across a quinoa bake from Fitsugar and decided to try out my own version since I'm not a huge fan of hot apples, raisins in anything or syrup.

Ingredients...

1 cup uncooked quinoa (rinsed)
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/3 cup Craisins
1/3 cup chopped dried apricots 
2 eggs
2 cups unsweetened almond milk
1/4 cup honey
1/3 cup slivered almonds
splash of vanilla

Mix together the quinoa, cinnamon, nutmeg and ground cloves in a small bowl and pour into a greased 8x8 baking dish.

Sprinkle the craisins and apricots on top of the quinoa

In the same bowl the quinoa was mixed in, whisk together the milk, honey, eggs and vanilla. Pour the mixture on top of the quinoa and fruit. Sprinkle the almonds on top of everything and bake it for an hour at 350 degrees F. 

Let cool a few minutes then serve. If you make it at night and want it the next day, heat it up in the microwave for a minute. This should make 4-6 servings (depending on how hungry you are and if you are adding anything on the side).  Enjoy!

**check out the FitSugar link at the top for the original version made with apples and raisins**

Christmas Crafts 2013: Wreath Edition

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas yesterday!! I meant to post this picture yesterday, but time just got away from me...

Since all presents have been opened now, I can finally share the crafts I've been working on since Thanksgiving!!!

I made two new wreaths and re-made one from two years back that kept falling apart.

First up, a Fall-ish wreath...

My Aunt, who went with me to the ZTA casino night back in October, really liked the wreath I made for the auction and kept saying how she needed a Fall wreath. Of course, by the time I went to get the supplies to make a Fall wreath, all the Christmas stuff was on display. With the help of Elizabeth, I ended up getting this maroon-ish ribbon (I know it looks pink in the picture) and an orange flower and decided it looked Fall enough...ha ha.

Next up, an everyday wreath...

Another Aunt of mine, told me at Thanksgiving that she wanted an everyday wreath to hang on the front door of her new house. Again, with the help of Elizabeth, I decided on this gorgeous black and cream ribbon and cream colored flower. The bow and the flower can be easily removed from this wreath in case my aunt ever feels the urge to seasonalize it (yeah I just made up a word).

And now for the remake wreath...

Two years ago, I made my Mom an ornament wreath by just stringing the ornaments on a wire hanger. It held for about two days before the ornaments started to pop off. So this year she asked if I could work some magic and make the ornaments stay. Well the only way I know of to make the ornaments stay, is to actually glue them. So I took the old "wreath" home with me and decided to make it like the one I made for Barrett's mom last Christmas. I needed a few more ornaments to fill in the wholes, so my Mom chose the colored ones with gold glitter since Hobby Lobby didn't have any regular gold ornaments with a design on them. I actually really like the way it turned out. Now if only she hadn't picked such glittery ribbon, I wouldn't still be getting glitter out of my hair...ha ha.