30 Day Photo Challenge

I'm finally going to take the 30 day photo challenge! Feel free to do it with me! I'm starting tomorrow July 1!

xoxo

My Oh My!

I can't wait to finish out this summer in the South. August 1 can't come soon enough! Only 30 more days till we are in Virginia!

So at work the other day I was talking to some co-workers about my upcoming move and I was asked why I disliked Rexburg so much, and it got me to thinking about why I love the South so much. Where I was raised in Palm Beach, Florida is more tropical than Southern, so its not like I was raised eating tabasco on everything! I think its the idea of the South that is so intriguing to me. And maybe also the food haha!

Honestly I think its the idea of life at a simpler time when everyone had wrap around porches and little kids caught lightning bugs. Its the idea of being in the heart of our nation surrounded by culture and diversity. Being able to go to a huge city but still have gorgeous countryside within driving distance. Rolling hills and TONS of trees. I miss forests and trees so much being out here in the west. Everything is a dessert here. And while the mountains can be majestic they are also made out of rocks and covered in snow 90% of the year. I long for lush green forests, beautiful autumn tones covering the hillsides and magical winter snows that don't freeze your nose hairs! I know I will only find that in a place as diverse as the South. I am so fortunate to be able to get exactly what I want. So many people dream of living a certain place or doing a certain thing or marrying a certain person. And not only do I get to spend eternity with the person I love, but we also together are getting to move to the one place I've always wanted to live. I'm so grateful for our good fortune and blessings and just can't wait to start our new life back east!

xoxo

Life Could Be a Dream...

This weekend Rexburg was actually a happening place to be! It was the Rexburg Car Show, Air Show, and they had a bunch of Rodeo events goin on out at the fairgrounds. John and I only went to the car show but it was so much fun! They had some really cool old cars, and some awesome new ones!

Say hello to my ideal Mom car, the Cadillac CTSV.

A four-door sedan with a Corvette engine.

Momma never looked so good!

Don't worry it only costs $63,000

Loved the interior on this 1950's beauty.

I mean really you can't go wrong with teal blue and white. Classic.

My name is Royce, Rolls Royce. This had to be the most old money ballin' car there. Made me feel like I was back in Palm Beach.

XOXO

Virginia here we come!

John got a job in VA, we are moving. YAY! FINALLY! HOORAY!!!! I can't use enough screaming words haha! Last week when he was gone (remember I said I'd post later about why) he was in Washington DC with the school on an Internship expedition. While the other kids were going to foundations and information sessions MY man was going to interviews. He had a few, and then went to some of the info sessions. One particularly went EXTREMELY well and we have been waiting with baited breath since last Thursday to hear back. TODAY John got an email offering him a job from SAIC! WOOO!! SO exciting! We are officially moving to Virginia at the end of July! For those of you who know me know how excited I am because Allejuiah put me back in the south where I belong!! YES! So proud of John. This is a really awesome career opportunity that is going to jumpstart the rest of our lives. We are so blessed and I can't wait for the big move!

XOXO

The Spotted Umbrella

Well being me, I'm a sucker for umbrellas. LOVE THEM. My great friend Gentri Lee is doing a blog giveaway from some very talented girls over at: The Spotted Umbrella Go check out her blog and their etsy shop! They have great stuff!!

xoxo

Left Over Delights!

Ever have leftovers in your fridge? And they sit there till they smell funny or you go out of town or there fuzzy? Well we have leftovers ALL the time. And unfortunately we rarely use them! I'm trying to buy less and cook less to avoid the problem but sometimes I just can't eat everything I make!

So these two recipes are absolutely awesome and you can take the first ones leftovers and make it into the second with just a few more ingredients! Some of you might recognize this first recipe. It was so good and we just are enjoying the summer so much that we had to make it again! (I know I'm redundant. But hey it was delicious)

The First recipe is BBQ chicken, Grilled Corn (mexican style) and Hawaiian sweet rolls. The best part of this recipe is the marinade that John and I picked up from Costco. Its called Jamaica me Sweet Hot n Crazy. We seriously put it on everything! So we grilled up some chicken and corn and had a delicious meal (again) on Sunday. The chicken breast was huge though and I couldn't finish the whole thing. Leftovers. BLAH! or NOT! Take a look at part two:

BBQ Chicken Pizza. HOMEMADE. YUM! Could life get any better?? I think NOT! So we just chopped the leftover chicken and used some leftover flatbread from Gyros and then VOILA PIZZA!

I'm going to let you on a little secret to the best homemade pizza.

DON'T USE SAUCE!

I know, I know your like what? HUH!? What I think tastes better than sauce is a high quality olive oil drizzled over your dough and then a little tomato paste on top, spread it around and then add all the herbs you want! I unfortunately don't have access to fresh herbs so I used dried basil and oregano as well as Penzeys (SO GOOD!) Pizza Seasoning.

Seriously you have got to try it this way! Pizza will never be the same for you again! The flavor is super intense cause of the paste concentrate but it isn't super sauce gush and you get more of the taste of the cheese and toppings. It was the best leftovers I've had in a long time!

OH and another must for homemade pizza. DITCH that shredded kraft crap. Use a fresh ball of mozzarella from the cheese counter! Just tear it up into chunks and put it on top. Or I like a mix of mozzarella chunks and finely grated parmesan (Buy a block and grate it yourself, pre-grated cheese tastes fake). I know I'm a food snob ok. But seriously try it this way. SO GOOD and it will literally cost you like 10 bucks or less for both meals.

XOXO

It was my birthday week ok?

SO this last week I was a major blog slacker! Sorry! But in my defense, it was my birthday week, and John was out of town so I was sad(I'll post on that later) . HOWEVER, here I am now, and I have a full report on the wonderful week that happened!

Thursday I drove down to Alpine, UT and spent the night with my great friend Gentri Lee. Friday Gentri and I treated ourselves to some EXCELLENT birthday shopping. Ever have one of those trips where you just find EVERYTHING? Ya, it was one of those days! We were literally at the mall from 10am-5pm! WHEW! Then I went and picked John up from the airport! YAY!!!!!! Sweet Reunion! Him being gone as horrible! but again, more on that later! Here are some fun pictures of me and Gentri and a delicious treat my Sister-Inlaw made me for my birthday treat! It is layer upon layer of brownies, cool whip, chocolate pudding and andes mints. OHHH YEAAHHH!!

So on Saturday John and I had a very relaxing day! We hung out with his family in the morning and then went to lunch at California Pizza Kitchen. YUM! I of course got the BBQ chicken salad! After lunch we went to a super fun surf shop down in Provo that made me a little homesick for Florida. I got some super cute shorts for summer and then we headed back to his sisters house to get ready for our friends Ben and Heathers wedding reception. They got married Saturday Afternoon, and had an awesome reception at the Le Jardin greenhouses in Sandy. It was so beautiful and so fun to meet everyone that John sold with over the summers. It was an evening of good food, good friends, and lots of love! Sorry the pictures so small I don't know how to make it bigger :/

Anyway so that was the first part of my Birthday weekend. It was so much fun and I had the best friends that were calling and texting me all day! I truly am so blessed with good friends and great family!

XOXO

Gentri Lee's Blogger of the Week

Hey guys! So I am being Honored this week by my good friend Gentri Lee! Go check out my Guest Post over on her blog!

xoxo

We got a Grill!

Whelp John and I finally got a grill! Todays weather was just too good to pass up an opportunity to break it in! It reached a scorching 85! It was soo awesome! So we decided to use some awesome new marinade we got at Costco last week and make grilled chicken and grilled corn!

In the process of lighting the grill John managed to completely singe the front of his hair, his eyelashes and all the hair on his right harm... teehee! Its funny, but sad cause he has job interviews this week and so I hope no one notices the smell of burnt hair...!

However the food turned out AWESOME! So it was worth the hazard in my opinion! For the corn we grilled it and then spread an awesome mixture of sour cream, mayonnaise, chili powder, salt, pepper, and lime juice on it. It tasted SOO good! If you wanna try the recipe go here: Grilled Corn

Anyway hope everyone else was able to enjoy their weekend and that everyone had as nice of weather as we did here! Happy Summer. FINALLY!

xoxo

Homemade never sounded so good...

So as some of you might have read, I gave up fast food over a month ago. It has been almost 2 months since the last time I ate anything from a fast food restaurant. On April 12, 2011 I watched the first episode of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. He went step by step through meat processing that is used for fast food and frozen food. EW. You can probably Youtube it or I know its on HULU. Its definitely worth the watch because it will change your opinion on Food forever. So don't watch it if your not willing to rock your world.

Anyway, last night I watched another episode where he talked about what goes into candies and ice cream sundaes. Let me tell you. HOME MADE never SOUNDED SO GOOD! The producers of ABC made him cut parts of it out but, Jamie had an appearance on the David Letterman show where he could talk a little more freely. Anyway. Bottom line is I'm adding to the list of things I won't be buying processed the following: Candy of any kind, syrups, pre-packaged cookie dough, vanilla ice cream.

I love learning about eating healthy. And I can't even tell you how much better I feel all the time not having any processed or fast food running through me! Its great! I encourage everyone to learn more about what your putting into your mouth! Our bodies have to last us a lifetime and the last thing I want is to fill mine with beetle secretion, Beaver anal gland, and human hair. Thats right. EWE. Get informed people.

xoxo

Nom Nom Salad!

So my sister-inlaw besides being a fabulous mother and an outstanding individual is an AWESOME cook! She made this recipe a few weeks ago when we were down visiting them in UT and I seriously have had dreams about it! She was kind enough to share it with me and you can best believe I'm making it this week! NOM NOM!!!!

Chinese Napa Cabbage Salad Recipe

from allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

1 (3 ounce) package chicken flavored ramen noodles

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup sesame seeds, toasted

1/2 cup blanched slivered almonds

1 large head napa cabbage, shredded

6 green onions, chopped

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1/8 cup white sugar

Directions:

Crush noodles, place them in a medium skillet and brown in butter over medium heat. Add almonds and sesame seeds. Stir often to prevent burning. Add seasoning mix from noodles and cool. Toss in a large bowl with cabbage and onions.

Prepare the dressing by whisking together the vegetable oil, rice vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil and sugar. Pour over salad, toss and serve.

My sister-inlaw adds shredded chicken to it which makes it even better!

Hope you guys like the recipe! Let me know if you guys try it and what you think!

XOXO

FuFu Berry

Have you ever had these? If not you are missing out! They have SO many different flavors and they are all (for the most part) delicious! Today I got a Jones Soda from our local sandwich shop with my lunch. My flavor of choice was Fufu Berry. YUM! Under the cap they always give little fortunes. Mine today said: "You will be honored"

Funny story.

My good friend Gentri Lee invited me to be her blogger of the week next week! Which is totally an honor cause her blog is adorable and super popular! Jones Soda you are amazing!

XOXO