Delayed Recipe Wednesday!

Recipe Thursday this week sorry everyone! I started a new job this week so its been a little bit hectic trying to get all adjusted to the new schedule! On a side note though, I LOVE my new job, like alot!! The people are wonderful, the office is beautiful, I couldn’t be happier. So that’s very exciting for us! The boyfriend and I get to carpool which is soo nice! What is not nice however is the traffic in downtown Seattle! I mean 20 minutes to go 2 blocks, its craziness!! Annndd who are these people that want to cut

you off after you have been patiently, and man patiently, okay, well while screaming at people through the windshield, waiting for 10 minutes in the same spot!!! Like, really you have got to be kidding me!! Whoa, okay sorry just needed to do a little ranting there :)

Anyways, recipe for this week was a bit of a shocker for me. It was a recipe that I was a little skeptical about for what reason I am not entirely sure but, I was. I more was making it as a filler because we had all the ingredients, but it actually turned out to be fantastic!

I found on the lovely Pinterest and was linked back to a site that I have grown to REALLY love, I have posted a majority of Recipe Wednesdays from there actually, but never even looked at this one! So from Skinnytaste.com I present.....

Stuffed Pepper Soup
Skinnytaste.com
Servings: 6 • Size: 1 1/3 cups soup, 1/2 cup rice • Old Points: 5 pts • Points+: 7 pts
Calories: 261.2 • Fat: 4.8 g • Carb: 37.5 g • Fiber: 4.7 g • Protein: 17.6 g • Sugar: 6 g
Sodium: 606.3 g (without salt)


Ingredients:

· 3 cups cooked brown rice

· 1 lb 95% lean ground beef

· 1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper

· 1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper

· 1 cup finely diced onion

· 3 cloves garlic, chopped

· 2 cans (14.5 oz each) cans petite diced tomatoes

· 1 3/4 cups tomato sauce

· 2 cups reduced sodium, fat-free chicken broth

· 1/2 tsp dried marjoram

· salt and fresh pepper to taste

Directions:

In a large pot or dutch oven, brown ground meat on high heat and season with salt. Drain fat if any, reduce heat to medium-low, then add peppers, onions and garlic. Cook about 5 minutes on low heat.

Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, chicken broth, marjoram and season with salt and pepper to taste. Cover and simmer on low heat for 30 minutes. Serve about 1 1/3 cups of soup in each bowl and top with 1/2 cup cooked brown rice.

Soo just a few substitutions I made, we don’t eat regular ground beef so I used ground turkey instead. And then as I was getting the canned tomatoes out, I realized I forgot to grab tomato sauce, soo I just used marinara sauce, perhaps not AS healthy but it worked!! And this soup was amazing!! Topped with brown rice...mmm mmm!! Next time though I think I am just going to cook the brown rice in the soup itself, they have to cook for the same amount of time so I think it would be okay, we'll see, I will keep you posted when I try it! I seriously love brown rice, in fact I couldn’t even tell you the last time I had white rice, and it’s just not the same! Highly recommend, annd aton of leftovers for lunch :)

How is everyone’s week going?? Any recipes I should try for the weekend?! I am on the search for an award winning appetizer recipe and a shot recipe for an upcoming party, suggestions would sooo help!! :)

xoxoxo Heidi

Recipe Wednesday: Roasted Tomatoes with Shrimp and Feta !!

Time again for the Recipe of the week!! I knew this one Hands Down this week, it was fabulous!! Something a little different than I have ever made before, which I don't know why because it was incredibly simple!! Soo without further ado-

Roasted Tomatoes with Shrimp and Feta

From www.realsimple.com

Serves 6| Hands-On Time: 15m | Total Time: 40m

Ingredients

• 5 large tomatoes, cut into eighths
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• kosher salt and black pepper
• 1 1/2 pounds medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 cup Feta, crumbled
• crusty bread, for serving

Directions

1. Heat oven to 450° F. Place the tomatoes in a large baking dish and spoon the olive oil and garlic over them.
2. Sprinkle with ¾ teaspoon each salt and pepper and toss. Roast on top rack of oven for 20 minutes.
3. Remove baking dish from oven and stir in the shrimp, parsley, and lemon juice. Sprinkle with the Feta.
4. Return the dish to oven until the shrimp are cooked through, 10 to 15 minutes. Serve warm with the bread.

So we are dieting so I opted out for the bread, even though I REALLY REALLY wanted some!! We just had a side salad along with it and it was fantastic!! Very, very simple, just roast the tomatoes and add everything else afterwards! Def one of my new favs!! :)

Let me know if you all try it out?!

XOXOX Heidi

Master Bedroom Re-Do Part 2

Okay!! So after spending ALL weekend trying to finish up stenciling the wall in our bedroom, I am finally done!! Finally have all the tape removed, all the plastic out, the extra paint in the garage and our wonderful new bedding on our bed!!! Ahhhh!! I really could not be any happier!! It looks amazing, I am so pleased with how it came out!!

We obviously need some more throw pillows, some lamps and some art but hey I said this was part 2 not part final (I have no idea how many parts there will be yet!) soo anyway I am in love with it!! Its beautiful, at least I very much think so! :) However! I will say that if you are thinking about doing one of these stencils, again they have ATON of them at http://www.cuttingedgestencils.com/ you must not begin unless you are feeling very very patient because it takes alot of patience and focus to be able to do it. Its extremely tedious! Another tip would be use spray adhesive on the back of the stencil you will get much cleaner lines, you will have to re apply it every so often but its so worth it!! What do you guys think!?! :)

Also, as you can see we went with a slight strip on it, I love the bedding it is soooo stinkin cozy!! Then we also got just white curtains with a  detailed gromet, I should have taken a closer pic of them, they are beautiful and just paired them with a printed sheer similar in pattern to the stencil. I love it!! Thinking of dooing some large black and white canvas prints above our bed... whatcha think?!

So there you go!! Thats phase 2! :)

On another note, I would just like to share these adorable little cupcakes that I made for St. Patricks Day! Found them on Pinterest and just could not resist!!

They are the freakin' cutest things!!!

XOXO Heidi

Recipe Wednesday: Cilantro Lime Shrimp Salad

Welcome to Recipe Wednesday!!

We have made some fabulous dishes over the last week and it was a tough choice for Recipe Wednesday, however I choose a salad that I made based off of the Cilantro Lime Shrimp Recipe from Skinny Taste.com. This was the most fabulous salad that I have ever made, honestly!! It was super simple and super healthy!

Cilantro Lime Shrimp

Servings: 4 • Serving Size: 6 oz • Points: 4 pts
Calories: 197.3 • Fat: 4.1g • Protein: 35.9 g • Carb: 2.4 g • Fiber: 0.1 g

• 2 tsp olive oil
• 2 lb shrimp, shelled and deviened
• 6 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 lime
• salt and pepper

Heat a large frying pan on medium-high heat. Add oil to the pan, when hot add shrimp. Season with salt and pepper. When the shrimp is cooked on one side, about 2 minutes, turn over and add garlic. Sauté another minute or two until shrimp is cooked, careful not to overcook. Remove from heat. Squeeze lime all over shrimp and toss with cilantro.

 I paired this delicious shrimp with some romaine lettuce, diced red pepper, diced green pepper, yellow onion, roma tomatoes, and some roasted almonds.

I choose a honey lime dressing to balance out the lime and it turned out fabulous! 

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and coarsely chopped

1 clove garlic

1/4 cup lime juice

1/3 cup honey

1/4 cup packed cilantro leaves

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Pour over and ENJOY!!! This was the most amazing salad ever!! Trust me :)

On another note, I was not patient enough yesterday to start stenciling our bedroom, so that will be tonight endeavor, will keep you all posted :)

XOXO Heidi

Master Bedroom Re-Do Part 1

I literally could not be anymore excited about this post!!!!!

After going back and forth and back and forth we finally decided what we wanted for our master bedroom!!! It was really very boring, tan walls, tan ceiling, brown and red bedding, nothing exciting at all! And the room has soo much potential, huge beautiful white fireplace, white moldings, soo much potential just waiting to be utilized!

Soo I decided grey, a beautiful grey color, mostly because I saw this beautiful picture on Pinterest, I fell in LOVE! I, i mean we ;) choose a beautiful grey color, it took a few samples to find the perfect one but I think we got it!

Soo Sunday afternoon we got to work, painted the ceiling white, and honestly I cannot stress enough how much I HATE painting ceilings, my neck is still sore, I had paint speckled all over me, it's just not my fav. However it now looks fabulous and contrasts so well with the grey!

 Now, for the grey! I actually found a beautiful cement grey at home depot and got a sample if it but it turned out being waayy too dark and the guy at home depot wasn't too convincing on being able to cut it in half! So, off the Sherwin Williams we went! They did the beautiful color 50% and painted two walls that darker color and then got 50% of that in a gloss for the other two walls that we are doing a stencil on, a stencil I say!! I am so excited I cannot even begin to tell you!! I ordered it from cuttingedgestencils.com and they have ATON, Aton of stencils!! I can't begin to tell you how much I love it, in fact I might stencil our whole house!! ;)

'

Hopefully it will look similar to this!!

Anyway, I got it in the mail yesterday (it came in like 4 days, super fast) and we are doing that part tonight!! I will def let you all know tomorrow how it goes!! :) gahhhh!!

So let me all know what you are feeling about the grey?! Loving it, hating it, let me know!! :)

XOXOX Heidi

Recipe Wednesday

Hello hello !!

First of I want to give you a quick update on where the heck I have been since Vegas! You may have thought that I was left there ;) I was not, but we did have a fabulous time. However if you are planning to make a trip there I do NOT recommend staying at the Luxor, I actually will never probably step my foot in there again, just an FYI :) But it was great to get away and celebrate with our friends!

Since coming back to reality I feel like it has been a whirlwind of craziness, we have literally had something to do everyday it feels like....so now that I feel like maybe things are toning down (knock on wood), I NEED to blog!! Honestly!

Soo I have also been trying to do this lovely thing for my boyfriend every night called homemade dinners! I know, honestly what is that?! Buut I have come to the conclusion that I actually LOVE LOVE LOVE to cook and bake, especially when the fam likes it :) Soo in light if that I will be starting Recipe Wednesday! I will post my favorite recipe from the past week, I usually get them from aton of different blogs soo you will be able to find some other yummies! I dont know about you but I am ALWAYS on the hunt for new recipes, especially healthy ones. So for the first Recipe Wednesday I present....dun dun dun....

Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps
Courtesy of Delish.com

Servings
4-6
Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 lb. ground chicken breast
2 tablespoons all natural or low-fat peanut butter
2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons low sodium teriyaki sauce
1 small can drained water chestnuts
1/2 chopped onion
Handful of cashew nuts
4-6 leaves romaine lettuce

 
Prep
1. In a pan, heat olive oil. Add ground chicken and brown; stir occasionally to separate the meat.
2. Add peanut butter, soy sauce; and teriyaki sauce to the chicken until well mixed.
3. Add water chestnuts, onion; and cashews.
4. After chicken is completely brown, let simmer for about five minutes; stirring every couple of minutes. Uncover and cook until a thick consistency.
5. Cool and serve on large lettuce leaves.

These literally are heaven, honestly, soooo yummy!! Sounds a little different with the ingredients but I promise, so very yummy and easy! Perfect for a weeknight! Let me know what you think!

xoxo Heidi