lost in thought

today i am celebrating all of the wonderful blessings in my life.

hope you'll do the same.

xoxo



grilled chicken with corn salsa

Need a dinner idea? Well here's a good one. I made this for Joel last night and after he cleaned his plate he requested that I make it at least once a week - so I think it's safe to say he loved it! :) It's so light and healthy but it fills you up and tastes so good! Strangely enough, the original recipe belongs to Mike "The Situation" from Jersey Shore ... no judgement please. He was on Live! With Kelly the other day and he shared this little gem with the world. I made a few changes to his original recipe but nothing major. It's definitely something I'll be making again. :)

For the Chicken and Marinade:

2 lbs. Boneless Chicken Breasts or Chicken Cutlets
Olive Oil Blended with Minced Garlic or Dried Parsley
Thyme and Basil
Juice of One Lemon
½ Cup Low Sodium Chicken Broth (original recipe called for white wine)
2 T Low Sodium Soy Sauce

(Have fun with the marinade. Feel free to throw in a little extra of something, take something out, or throw something different in!)

Salsa:
2 Ripe Avocados (peeled, seeded, and cut into small cubes)
½ C Fresh Lime Juice
1 Large, Ripe Tomato (diced)

1 Cup fresh corn or frozen corn (avoid using canned veggies)
½ Red Onion (chopped)
¼ Cup Fresh Cilantro (chopped)
½ t. Salt
1 T Sugar
3 T Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Mix olive oil blend with thyme, basil, lemon juice, chicken broth and soy sauce in a bowl. Pour marinade over chicken and refrigerate for 1-2 hours. (This part is so important - the longer you let it marinade the better. I let mine marinade for about an hour and a half and it was delicious!)

Place chicken directly on grill or use grilling pan.

Whisk lime juice, olive oil, sugar and salt in a bowl until blended. Add avocados, tomatoes, corn, red onion and cilantro. Mix all ingredients together until all the veggies are covered in the juices. Pour salsa over chicken and serve.

NOTE: Salsa can be chilled or served at room temperature (I served it at room temperature and thought it was perfect!)

*The key to this recipe is fresh produce. Only use the good stuff! 

*You will have extra salsa, but that's okay. It's a great salsa for chips - as long as they are all natural blue corn tortilla chips. ;)

sweet bubbles

Hello world.

I would like to introduce you to the cutest. store. ever.

Sweet Bubbles Soap Cafe.

At first it looked like a real bakery. 

The whole store is filled with cookies, cakes, pies, cupcakes, and even donuts. 

When I realized that everything I was looking at was soap, I kinda freaked out - but in a good way!

 soap cupcakes. 

 "cookies and milk" 

i picked this out for joel's sister as a birthday gift! 

the soap cupcake i decided to bring home. :)

bathroom redo

For the third time in three years we have repainted and redone our downstairs powder room. We haven't even painted our upstairs bathrooms once. Clearly, we I have a problem. For some reason it's the ONE room in our house that I cannot make up my mind on. I can almost guarantee we will paint it again by the end of the year. For now we went with a very pale pink. This was quite a dramatic change considering it was previously a very dark navy blue. It took a while for the pink to grow on me. I'm not the biggest fan of pink rooms, but I had a vision of what I wanted it to be and I was determined to see it through. It's no where near being finished - but it's getting there. 

My latest addition to the bathroom are these two prints. I spent hours and hours trying to find exactly what I was looking for, and these beauties are a perfect fit. I knew I wanted to incorporate grays and silvers into the room, and I knew I wanted one of the prints to be a little more masculine (since the color is so feminine). I couldn't be happier with my choices!  All that's left to do now is find a few perfect accessories to tie everything together! 

LOVE Print , Deer Head Print

that's a wrap

HAPPY FRIDAY!

This week was a crazy one. It was a very exciting week for me, but also a very long one. I'm just glad it's finally over and time to enjoy another wonderful weekend!

The plans for this weekend include checking out the Saturday Market, possibly taking Joel to the Fantastic Indoor Swapmeet for the first time (he's in for a real treat!), finally hanging all of the awesome prints I've ordered from Etsy, and lots of loungin'.

Have a lovely weekend, everyone.

xo

a little pick me up

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I really messed up my shoulder while either lifting weights or boxing. However it happened, it sucks. I've decided to give it six to eight weeks of rest. Hopefully that's enough time for it to totally heal so I can move on with my life and get back to class! In the mean time, to keep myself active, I will be doing nothing but cardio. This of course, isn't the worst thing in the world, I just stay much more motivated in a class setting and I'm not the biggest fan of working out on a machine for an hour. To lift my spirits a little (since this is such a devastating time for me), I decided to do a little shopping and get some myself new running shoes! I mean, that is all I can do for the next couple of months so it makes perfect sense! When they arrived on my door step I instantly felt better. Thank you, Nike. :)

grillin

Happy Monday, folks! I hope your weekend was fantastic. We spent our weekend relaxing, cleaning, and enjoying a little BBQ. My all time favorite thing to grill is chicken kabobs. Honestly though, I don't do any of the actual grilling. In our home, the lady does the prep work and the man is the grill master, which is more than okay with me. 


I like to keep my kabobs pretty basic, but the best part about kabobs is the freedom one has to get a little crazy! So by all means, let your hair down and use whatever gets your engine going. Oh and I know, that bowl of raw chicken looks so delicious. 


As far as what marinade you should use for the meat, make sure you choose one that isn't loaded with sugar. With most marinades the very first ingredient is high fructose corn syrup. If you're creative or handy in the kitchen, go ahead and make your own marinade. If you're like me, just make sure you read the label. :) Let the meat you're using marinade for at least 30 minutes. 

pineapple, mushrooms, onions, green and red peppers, tomato and chicken.

 leave on the grill for about 20-25 minutes. 

For this grilling sesh, I decided to pair my kabobs with a little quinoa. Quinoa is delicious and so so good for you. A simple trick to adding a ton of flavor to quinoa is cooking it in low sodium chicken broth instead of water. Throw in a dash of garlic powder, salt, and a little pepper and you're ready to go! Another great side option is brown rice. Just avoid white rice, that stuff is no bueno. 


xoxox

munchies

My goal for the last few years has been to cut out most of the crap from my diet. No more soda, very little to no fast food, anything with hydrogenated oil is gone (goodbye, Doritos), and I try really hard to make my snack attacks as healthy as possible. I know for myself and many others, snack time can be the enemy. I mean there is a reason I don't keep potato chips, cookies, ice cream, or any other delicious - but go straight to my ass - treats in my house. They get me every time. 


Luckily, I have stumbled upon (and by stumbled upon, I mean I've searched long and hard for and finally found) some really great and healthy snacks for when I just need a little something to keep me going. 

One of my favorites is Chobani Greek Yogurt. It's freaking delicious. Throw some berries in there and you've got a party in your mouth. However, some greek yogurts can be loaded with sugar, so you might want to be careful if that's something you are being cautious about. 

Hummus is my go to afternoon snack. My favorite is roasted garlic hummus, but all hummus is good hummus (as long as it's all natural!). You don't want hummus that's loaded with a bunch of shit. Also, you probably shouldn't eat roasted garlic hummus if you are on a first date or in a new relationship. You will stink for a couple of days after eating this stuff - but oh my is it worth it. 

The Laughing Cow cheese wedges are low in calories and come in a variety of flavors. I like to spread a little of this magic on some flax seed crackers or some celery.

Lastly, dried fruit. Dried bananas and cranberries are my absolute favorite! I will say this though, always try and go for dried fruit that has no added sugar. The whole point is to snack in a healthy way and most dried fruits are plenty sweet on their own. 

Some of my other favorite snacks are almonds, berries, edamame, apple slices with a little almond butter and flax seed, and of course fruits and veggies. 

My advice? Get creative! You will feel so much better once you put down the potato chips and diet pepsi. I promise. :)

xoxox

heat warning

After a day full of work, deep cleaning the house, and a late dinner, I finally found some time to sit down and write/type/blog/post. Tonight we are awaiting the arrival of Joel's mom, grandma, and aunt! They are spending the next few days with us and since I haven't met this grandma or aunt yet, I am very excited for their visit! Although, I do feel bad that they are going to be in town while we suffer through this horrible, terrible, no good, very bad weather. Yesterday my car was reporting that it was 120 degrees outside. SO GROSS. Today was just as bad and I'm sure tomorrow will be the same. Anyway, besides the soul melting heat, I know we will have a great time while they are here! :)

Monk is also very excited - he loves visitors!

yes, I'm still alive

Hey cuties. I know, it's been a while. Since I last posted life has been nothing short of crazy, and of course by crazy, I mean awesome. I've been traveling a lot, spending a lot of quality time with the boy, hanging out with friends as often as possible, getting ready for the next chapter of school, and soaking up the Summer sun (while wearing SPF 100 and staying in the shade, of course). Needless to say, it has been an amazing Summer so far and there is still so much to look forward to!

Here are some pictures to catch you up on my life a little. Most of them are from our trip to Nebraska for the Hiatt family reunion and my trip to Miami for Katie's bachelorette weekend - with a few random ones thrown in from other memorable adventures! :)