Category Archives: Friends

Food, Friends, Fun

Green Day

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Must be St. Patrick’s Day!

The green food coloring is out in full force.

Leche verde!

Green Oatmeal & Bananas

(Although it could almost pass as guacamole!)

Holden and I shared the oatmeal while I drank this:

Irish coffee (without the Irish-ness!)

Oh, and I had a moment of weakness last Friday and went thru the McDonald’s drive-thru on the way to Elliott’s dance class for one of these:

{Photo: McDonald’s}

….and, UM, they were not selling them anymore! What? It was only March 12th! How are you NOT going to sell a Shamrock shake AT LEAST until March 17th? How ridiculous is that?

But, I did a little research and, according to livestrong.com, there are 550 calories in a medium Shamrock shake. So, I guess it was a blessing in disguise.

10 years ago today I was in Dublin celebrating with many pints of warm Carlsberg! And just for the record, they do not wear green over there on St. Patty’s Day. I told them that if you don’t wear green that you’ll get pinched….they thought that was ridiculous and had never heard such a thing! So there you have it, if you’re even in Ireland on March 17th, no need to pack any green articles of clothing.

I will dig through my box of old photos today and see if I can’t find a pic from 10 years ago! WOW!

Top o’ the mornin’ to ya!

Food, Friends, Fun

Darlings, Driving, Daydreaming & Dips

Our Sunday was filled with all things {d}ivine…

A sweet shower to welcome Baby Halle.

How {d}arling is this pic of the new peanut and her beautiful mommy, Jennene:

Watching E & H tear up and down the street in the neighbor kids’ Escalade:

{D}riving

Holdy decided to take a break from behind the wheel and {d}aydream:

Finally, I made my first ever French {D}ips:

Like my old school Crock Pot from 1926?

A stainless steel upgrade is on my wish list…..

I did little mini slider-type ‘wiches:

The au jus turned out flavorful enough, but we decided to add a little heat:

This recipe couldn’t be easier…

Slow Cooker French Dips

It was another {d}elicious weekend ~ in more ways than one.

Food, Friends, Fun

Milestones & Munchies

This weekend Elliott was invited to her first official sleepover.

She was so excited.

Disney Princess suitcase on wheels packed with her Christmas pajamas, toothbrush and “Monkey”, her lime green, long-armed, long-legged stuffed primate.

Disney Princess sleeping bag rolled nicely inside the matching DP backpack over both shoulders.

Mermaid pillow under her arm.

We walked two doors down to Emilie’s…..Holden in tow and me with some nibbles for the Mommies to enjoy as we chatted and sipped on margaritas and eventually wine!

The four girlies feasted on mini pb&j’s, chicken nuggets, steamed broccoli, fruit salad and the ever popular nacho cheese Doritos.

Once the girls changed into their jammies, Holden immediately called out, “Jammies on! Jammies on!” So, he and I walked home, suited up in his “doggie jammies”, grabbed his “rocketship pi-woe”, zipped up the Buzz & Woody light up boots and headed back down to the girl fest:

Barbie And The Diamond Castle was playing, but not quite capturing all their attention because a pillow fight broke out:

Even though this picture is blurry, I loved it as I thought it captured her pure happiness throughout the night. Sheer excitement as the much anticipated “sleep over” was being played out in real life. A new milestone that I think she will want to relive again real soon.

I talked her through it and reminded her that I was not going to stay. She insisted that she would be OK.

And she was.

*****

I brought a new appetizer that I’d been dying to try…Warm Blue Cheese and Bacon Dip. (Thanks to this cute blog!)

Super easy and super delish.

Here is the line up (minus half&half/milk):

And here is the final goodness:

Highly recommend this is you love the blue!

I also made BBQ Chicken Pizza:

Normally I am a traditionalist when it comes to pizza. Extra sauce, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes…just a simple vegetarian pizza, but I like to make this creation from time to time…reminds me of my BFF, Denise, down in San Diego.

Here’s what you need:

TJ’s Pizza dough (I use the whole wheat)

Your favorite BBQ sauce

Rotisserie chicken or grilled tenders or breast (I grill with a bit of olive oil and Montreal Steak Seasoning)

Red onion slices

Cheese of choice

Fresh cilantro, chopped

Follow instructions on dough package and roll out to desired shape and size. Poke dough with fork to prevent bubbling. Spread a bit of sauce onto pizza. Arrange red onion slices around the pizza and then cut up chicken in small chunks and toss around in a small amount of bbq sauce and sprinkle across pizza. Add shredded cheese and bake at 450 for about 10-12 minutes. Sprinkle with cilantro confetti, let cool and then cut into small appetizer size squares.

Food, Friends

Tricked Out Tuna

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If you love tuna as much as I do, then you may be looking for some new ways to take it up a notch.

My good friend, Nancy, makes hers with lemon and dill…seriously delish!

I like to do a sweet and spicy version with crushed pineapple, red peppers and wasabi mayo. If you like wasabi and you haven’t discovered TJ’s Wasabi Mayo yet, go check it out.

And finally, the hubby has his own twist on tuna!

Lemon Dill Tuna Salad

1 can albacore tuna in water, drained and flaked

mini dill pickles, finely chopped

mayo (amount to your preference)

Squeeze of lemon

A couple shakes of dill weed (or fresh)

Mix together and serve on sourdough or by itself on a bed of lettuce.

Pineapple Wasabi Tuna Salad

1 can albacore tuna in water, drained and flaked

red pepper, finely chopped

crushed pineapple plus a tad bit of the juice

Wasabi mayo (amount to your preference)

This is great on multigrain bread (I like Milton’s)

Protein Packed Tuna Salad

(Jay’s recipe)

1 can albacore tuna in water, drained and flaked

1 hard-boiled egg, chopped

Red onion, minced

Sweet pickle relish

Celery salt

Fresh groud pepper

Mayo (of course!)

All three are great with a thin slice of Swiss cheese, too.

Today I had the Lemon Dill on a nice big bed of Spring mix & veggies.

Couldn’t post this without mentioning Jessica Simpson…(“is this chicken?”)

Coming up this weekend…Slow cooked French Dip Sliders & “Everything But…” Chopped Salad

Food, Friends, Fun

Egg Salad With An Attitude

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It’s Friday during Lent so I was searching for a way to punch up the ‘ol egg salad recipe.

I decided to marry my newfound infatuation for jarred jalapeños and my ever-lasting love of cilantro with a little mayo, salt, pepper & cayenne pepper (oh, and a few hard boiled eggs!)

“Jalantro” Egg Salad

Chop it all up, add a little mayo, s&p and cayenne then spread on your favorite bread (or not)…

…and you’re ready for a Friday picnic in the park!

I snuck a taste and was pleasantly surprised…to me, eggs sort of have that “vanilla” type flavor that blends well with almost anything. I’m looking forward to my upgraded egg salad today.

Now off we go to enjoy this little bit of sunshine before the rain visits us again!

Hope you’re having a bright & shiny Friday.

Fitness, Food, Friends

The Bachelor, Boot Camp & BBQ

OK, so I’m going to devote 2 minutes of blog time to The Bachelor…

Did I want him to choose Tenley? Yes
Would I be upset if he picked Tenley and then broke things off next week? Yes
Even up to the last minute did I see him picking Vienna? No

I actually thought he was going to opt out all together and walk away still “single”.

After I watched The Final Rose, I had different feelings, though…they both looked so happy. I am a hopeless romantic and whether or not it’s “reality love” or “real love” doesn’t matter…really. I’ll still watch the show and always HOPE that real love comes out of it.

Am I wasting my time? Can I be doing something way more productive? Probably. But I will tune into Jason & Molly’s wedding next Monday and I will be there when Ali begins her journey as the next Bachelorette.

I will always be there hoping for a fairytale ending….

You can judge me if you want ~ I’m OK with it.

Am I OK with Jake choosing Vienna? Yes
Will I be pissed if they break up tomorrow? Yes!!!

‘Nuff said!

*****

I just signed up for boot camp.

I’m really excited.

Starting in late March on Monday and Wednesday evenings I’ll be busting my butt for 75 minutes and hoping for some results in time for Summer.

I’m going to take some “before” and “after” pics so I can track the progress. I think that by incorporating the boot camp into my usual elliptical training and sporadic running that I will see better results and enjoy a little variety in my workouts.

I’m actually looking forward to feeling sore and exhausted until the middle of May!

*****

How good does this salad look?

Thanks to Hollie for suggesting that I put my leftover pulled pork into salad form.

I love, love, love the BBQ Chicken Salad at California Pizza Kitchen so I tried to do a copy cat version of that:

Chopped iceberg lettuce (I know, I know NO nutritional value)

Slightly warmed pulled pork

Diced red pepper

Red onion slices

Chopped cilantro

Chopped jalapeños

Corn kernels

Just a sprinkle of colby jack cheese

…and a drizzle of Ranch dressing

{Y-U-M-!}

May have to make pulled pork more often……….

Family, Feathered Nest, Fiestas & Fetes, Flip Flops On The Rocks, Food, Friends, Fun

100 & 3

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Today is special for a couple of reasons…

We celebrated Holden’s 3rd birthday.

This is my 100th post.

I’ve been at this blog thing for almost 4 months now and already at 100 entries. Wow! I didn’t think I had that much to say!

I’m having a lot of fun with it and am looking forward to the next 100! If I stay at this rate, we will be at 200 around the first day of Summer. Another reason to celebrate.

Speaking of celebrations, today we had a houseful of astronauts, robots, martians and aliens. Hard to believe my little space cadet is already THREE.

This was Holden when the guests started arriving:

Oops!

It was a BLAST! (pun intended)

Thanks again to all our little astronaut friends for coming to our planet for an afternoon of fun!

Below are a few recipes and links to the extra terrestrial eats:

For the “taco bar” I just browned up a couple packages of ground turkey and chopped onion and added 2 envelopes taco seasoning and a little water. I set out crunchy shells and small flour tortillas with all sorts of toppings lined up ~ shredded lettuce, cheese, sour cream, mango peach salsa, sour cream, jalapeño rings, cilantro lime corn salsa & guacamole. Everyone created their own taco masterpieces ~ super easy!

Battlestar Bean Dip

2 cans Campbell’s Bean soup with bacon

1 pint sour cream

1 package taco seasoning mix

1 pound sharp cheddar cheese, grated

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and then transfer to an oven safe dish. Bake @ 350 for 30 minutes or until bubbly. Serve with Fritos Scoops or your fave tortilla chips. (Another yummy recipe from Melanie Corona!)

Pineapple Limeade (AKA Solar System Citrus Punch)

Midori Martian Margaritas

Cosmic Cake

Layered Cupcakes

Alien/Martian Sugar Cookies

1 package Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie mix

McCormick NEON food coloring

1 small container (12 oz.) white/vanilla prepared frosting

Gingerbread man cookie cutter

“Red Hots” candies

Prepare cookies as directed on package for “cutout cookies”. Roll out dough, as directed, and cut out with cookie cutter. Place only about 8 cookies at a time on cookie sheet and bake for 7-9 minutes @ 350. Let cool and then frost with lime green frosting.

Lime green frosting:

I used about 25-30 drops of the green in one small (12 oz.) container of frosting. Frost cookies and then add Red Hots candies for the eyes!

Family, Food, Friends

Enchiladas And Olympics And Wine…Oh My

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Last night we had a nice, relaxing Friday evening with the female half of the Sullivan family ~ our friends who live 2 doors down.

I found these scrumptous looking enchiladas on one of my favorite blogs and decided it was the perfect night to make them. I’m going to rename them “You had me at cilantro” chicken enchiladas, though.

I LOVE me some cilantro. Forget the chicken, cheese, sour cream, tortillas…..I made these for the cilantro! This flavorful herb runs throughout this recipe and I was chompin’ at the bit to try these.

Here is the line up:

Two ingredients are missing from this pic…the ginormous bunch of cilantro is covering up the little sour cream tub and I also used some jarred roasted red peppers which didn’t make the photo shoot.

The meat from one whole rotisserie chicken made eight HUGE enchiladas.

And here is the final product:

They were SUPER DUPER yummy, but I was expecting them to be a little spicier…we added some jalapeño rings and then they were absolute perfection on a plate!

These paired with Gramma K, good friends, a couple bottles of wine and the Olympic Opening Ceremonies was the perfect way to wrap up the week and welcome Valentine’s Day weekend.

So, if you don’t know what to make for your special Valentine, may I suggest these…spicy, creamy, cheesy, cilantro(y)!

Food, Friends

Rise And Shine

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It’s 6:45am and these have already been served this morning:

I’m sipping HOT coffee out of my zebra print latte cup.

FrIdAy is out of the gates and off to a running start!

I feel another great weekend coming on…

Gramma K coming. Dance class. Shopping. Chicken enchiladas tonight. Saturday night mass with Jay. Steak with onion blue cheese sauce and twice-baked potatoes tomorrow night. Just Jay & Me. Valentine’s Day fun on Sunday. Maybe introduce Gramma to Monkey Bread. Etc.

Bring it on.

I hope your Valentine’s weekend is full of conversation hearts, red roses, martinis, chocolates, good food and time spent with that special someone in your life.

** Side note: Speaking of martinis, I was able to meet up with an old friend last night, sip on a pomegranate martini and chit chat. It was a great early start to the weekend and I am so grateful for friendships that I have made over the years. Thank you, Gina! It was LONG overdue! **