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

Catching Up & Moving On.

Hello, Hello!! Long time, no blog! Im not particularlly sure what happen but I was def. MIA for quite awhile here! So instead of going back to catch up we will start from where we are!!

So first off I have to say that it is only 2 days until my birthday! And only 7 days until I will be in Vegas!! I soo cannot wait for a little vacation! We're staying at the Luxor which none of us have ever stayed in soo we'll see how it goes, I am excited from the things I hear!! I have never been to Vegas so I literally am counting down hours, okay maybe not hours, at least not yet! But I am so so excited!! So if any of you know of anything that I just HAVE to do please tell me!! :)

Secondly, I got a Kitchen Aid Mixer for Christmas, you cannot imagine my excitement, I'm pretty sure I even sqealed when I opened it! SOO I had all of these things I had wanted to make and somehow have not been able to find ANY time for anything!! Finally this week I got some pretty ripe bananas and decided I was going to make Banana Bread. I have to say that I am in absolute love with this mixer, honestly!! I used this recipe Betty Crocker Banana Bread minus the nuts cause my honey doesnt like them, and it turned out fabulous!!



Anyone have any recipes that they love?! I am desperatly needing new recipes!! Also, If any of you know a website that you can type your recipes into and then print out the cards for your recipe box? I have ATON of recipes that I have printed out and such but they obviously are not really fitting in my recipe box and are by no means organized. I have been Pinteresting trying to find something so let me know if any of you know of anything!

Thirdly, How do you people feel about sequin dresses, such as this one?! Tacky or cute?! I bought for Vegas..not sure if I will wear it but stupid Forever 21 wont let me return.. >:/

Thoughts?!

Talk to you all soon, I will let you know how the Birthday Weekend goes! :)

xoxo



Who's ready for some Christmas Decor?!

The time is here!! Are you ready? Are you sure you are ready!? What is it time for you ask? Christmas Decor of coarse!!!! Wahoo!! I couldnt be more giddy about how the house is turning out!! Of coarse I always think there can be just a little bit more glitter or just a few more ornaments but I do have to say that I LOVE coming home to Christmas!!

So here is a little preview...I figured I wouldnt post all pictures in one posting, make ya come back to look ;)
This is how the living room is looking so far! :)

See those cute little reindeer?! I got those afew years ago on clearance at Pier 1, they were a really sparkly gold though, clearly doesnt go with the decor, so a quick coat, okay like 4 coats of spray paint and a gorgeous red they are! LOVE! Obviously still need to get the stocking embroidered (anyone know of a good place or someone who does that) with our names buut they at least match! Ahh I just love it!! Of coarse there is atv right in the middle but hey, it is what it is! :)

Ahhh, our beautiful tree!! I am so in love with this tree this year, I just get ever so giddy thinking about it!! I was NOT ever so giddy when putting the lights on however! I got 4 strands on and then tried to plug it in to see how it was coming along, annnd I am a ding dong, after the second strand I had plugged them in the wrong way, so after an hour of putting them on I got to take another hour of taking them off, sheesh!!! :/

It looks fabulous now though, not to toot my own horn :) We even got a train set to go along the tree, LOVE IT!

The last thing I have to show you all is how I decided to display Christmas Cards, I have no card holder and really had no idea where or how I was going to display them. So, to Pinterest I went and there I saw the most brilliant idea ever...

Ribbon on the door, how incredibly easy! Loving the Christmas Cards coming in!! If you cant tell I am utterly in love with this season! :)

Next I will show you the dining room display and the front porch and the wreaths that I made for the front doors, I have to admit they are gorg! :)

We're heading to Leavenworth this weekend as well, here we come Bavarian Village, cant wait to see that light display!

What kinds of Christmas events/decor have you all been up to? I am dieing to know!!

Christmas tree adventure!

Whew!! That's my feelings today! We were up until 11:30 decorating the Christmas tree last night because of coarse I couldn't sleep until all ornaments were hung! :) pictures of all christmas decor are to come shortly! However!! We took quite the excursion this weekend to go get our tree! I have had a fake tree forever! But Russ is all about having a real pine tree so last year was my first excursion up greenwater into the mountains to go hike and chop down a tree!! And it was ridiculously stormy the kids didn't even make it out of the truck!! This year however!! Weather was gorgeous!! We left around 9 and after 3 hours of driving just to go 8 miles we finally made it!! People were getting stuck everywhere, they didn't plow roads this year so it was a mess! We got theist gorgeous tree and sled and played in the snow and then got to sit in another 3 hours of traffic!!! I mean c'mon people!! The view however was breathtaking! And then we got to come home to our beautifully lit home!!

Ps. Christmas decor to come!! I have been slaving away with my glue gun;)

Thanksgiving and Baptism!

Thanksgiving is officially over!!!! We had an extremely busy 4 day weekend!! Why I think we should cram everything into a few days I do not know!! Buut all well, it was fabulous none the less! Thanksgiving was celebrated with Russ's family at his parents house, thankfully for us all we had to make we're horderves! Which were specially requested! Sausage stars! Recipe to follow :) anyway do that was utterly relaxing!! And his cousin had just had a baby just a few days before so I got my baby fix :)

Sausage stars- any holiday party they will be a hit!!

Ingredients:
Yield:
60 mini wrappers
1 lb cooked crumbled sausage meat, casings removed (2 cups cooked)
1 1/2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1 1/2 cups monterey jack cheese
1 cup hidden valley original ranch salad dressing, prepared from mix
1 (2 1/4 ounce) can sliced black olives
1/2 cup chopped sweet red pepper
1 (60 count) package wonton wrappers
vegetable oil
Directions:
1
Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
2
combine drained cooked sausage meat with the cheeses, salad dressing, olives and red pepper Lightly oil mini muffin tins and press a wrap in each tine so there are 4 wings sticking out Brush with oil bake 5 minutes until golden, remove wraps from pan, place on a baking sheet Fill wraps with the sausage, cheese mixture bake for 5 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly& brown.

yumm!!

As we finished up thanksgiving I was clipping my coupons for my first Black Friday shopping trip!! And wow! We were out from 9pm at night to 6:30 in the morning and I was completely exhausted!! Got everything on my list and saved around $200 though!! So I will say it was a success, however next year I think I will be using amazon as they were price matching and had free shipping!

We then decorated the house for Christmas!! Pictures to come soon as I finish the details!! As well as our family Christmas pictures! :)

Then an exciting time as we got our kids baptized! It was a whole family affair with Russ's neice and his sisters neice as well!! Soo it was a eventful and exciting weekend!!

Christmas updates to come!! :)

Holidays Have Arrived!

I know, I know, been a LONG time!! Soo Sorry!

I am in full holiday swing these days and have even started off with hosting a Holiday Cookie Exchange last weekend! I have never hosted nor been one before so it was all new teritory for me, but I am soo wanting to establish new holidayu traditions for my kids to grow up always remembering, although they were not interested in anything to do with the cookies, other than eating them... :/ maybe next year!

Anywho I tried to research how other people have hosted them and decided to have people do 6 dozen (which happened to be WAY too many for the amount of people who could make it) and then I made 6 dozen sugar cookies just for us to decorate during the party! It seemed to be a hit and everyone had more than enough cookies to take home! I even brought a box to work and so did the boyfriend, there were about 3 dozen cookies gone in about an hour! Cookie Monsters I tell ya!

So i ventured into making Peppermint bark, which again I have never attempted to make beofre and to my surpise it was VERY simple and i will be making much much nore as Christmas comes closer!! I went off of the recipe and instruction that I found on Pinterest, Here is the link! http://pinterest.com/pin/589210891/

They turned out soo cute doing them in cookie templates! I couldnt find a silicone one and just used a metal one and it still worked great! Just be careful when getting them out of the pan so they dont break!
I also decided to take another Pinterest idea and make a holiday cake stand to put my bark on and I have to say for under $2 it looks pretty dang good!! Thank you Goodwill for the candle holder and tray! Just used spray paint I already had and some tacky glue, and BAM! :) Love it!

Soo All in All we had a GREAT first Annual Cookie Exchange!! :)

More Chirstmas Updates soon as I slave away at Black Friday lists, who else is braving the crowds?!

Toy Story on Ice!

Well this weekend we treated the kids to Toy Story on Ice and leading up I really am not sure who was more excited them or me!! I had never been to anything Disney on Ice and was beyond excited! And I have to say that it was amazing!! Loves every second of it as did the kids!! Nevermind their annoyed faces, there were so many toys the last thing they wanted was a picture!

And now I am on to complete Christmas mode, I do realize that Thanksgiving has not come and go w yet however I am already in the Christmas spirit! Doesn't help that the original grinch and elf were on last night!! :)

I will update tomorrow on the spray paint extravaganza I had yesterday, it involves both Christmas and glitter, could it get any better?!