New Recipe Monday

This week Andrew and I were really craving Italian

So after searching pinterest I found this recipe for crockpot lasagna.

Source: creatingthroughlife.blogspot.com via Brianna on Pinterest

What could sound more perfect :)

I made it last night and it was delicious.

 It made enough for 6 servings so we ate it for lunch today :)

Andrew said it was on of the most filling meals hes ever eaten.

So here's our final project.

It didn't last long on the plate :)

If you try it and love it let me know :)

Sometime you just have to eat dessert first :)

Why is this you may ask...

because dessert is AWESOME!!!

Andrew and I have been craving something sweet so today before dinner we decided to go to GiGi's Cupcakes

Andrew got the Hunka Chunka Banana Love and I got Amaretto Amore

Delicious is the only word to describe GiGi's and if there is one in your area and you've never been

GO NOW!

Also I have been posting about our new recipes each week and why they are all great and delicious Andrew said I was doing a disservice to my cooking because I wasn't posting about our all time favorite dishes that I cook so here you go..

Homemade Beef Enchiladas :)

8-10 large Flour Tortillas

2 10 ounce cans red enchilada sauce

1 pound ground beef

1 package Cheddar Cheese ( aka 2 cups)

So here you go its super easy

Cook your ground beef and drain any fat

Then add 1 1/2 cans of enchilada sauce and 1 1/2 cups of cheese and mix it up

Then spoon about 1/2 cup of mixture into each tortilla 

roll up and place in Pyrex

Once they are all in there top it with the rest of your enchilada sauce and cheese

Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes and serve

Here's our final product with some Mexican rice and sour cream:)

Quick and easy 30 minute meal

Let me know if you try it and what you think!

New Recipe Monday--Chinese New Year Edition

So for those of you that don't know today is Chinese New Year

It's the year of the dragon-- aka all you 1988 babies

So for our New Recipe Monday Andrew and I thought it would be appropriate to try and remake some of our favorite Asian dishes at home

Thanks to pinterest I did some research and we were on our way

First up was Honey Chicken

The recipe has directions for a crock pot or in the oven and since our chicken wasn't defrosted in time, we used the oven. I served it with some gluten free rice pasta and broccoli and it was delish

Next we made our all time favorite... crab ragoons

It was a baked recipe and it was so good. Next time since I know 

they turned out good we will use real 

crab instead of the imitation.

So here is our final product!

I would definitely recommend these recipes . 

What new recipes have you tried lately?

Source: weight-watchers-recipes.net via Brianna on Pinterest

Source: mmmcafe.blogspot.com via Brianna on Pinterest

Weekend Date Nights

As part of our new years resolution Andrew and I decided to make sure we had more planned date nights.

This week we decided that we would go out to dinner

One of my students parents own a resturant called Backyard Bistro in Raleigh right by the RBC center.

Its a super cute resturant that has a nice feel than a typical sports bar.

She always asks me to go try it and there was a groupon for it this week so we were sold.

The food was amazing 

I had the pulled chicken sandwhich and Andrew had the Backyard Burger. 

It was topped with BBQ and slaw and he was in heaven

To end our night they had some awesome dessert selections

We choose the Make your own Smores!

IT WAS AWESOME

If your ever in the Raleigh area I would definetly give it a try!

Also go check out Katie at His Diamond and Mine for her awesome give away from Marley Lilly :)

I gave in... hello first Erin Condren purchase

So I have seen all over the blogging world about these wonderful Erin Condren Life Planners.

Well I just recently purchased a new Lilly Planner and I am a little disappointed in it

I have forever used the wonderful MyAgenda and for some reason decided to switch.

I won a $50 credit over at Just a Carolina Girl

I really thought about purchasing a new Life Planner but I caved.

I am a sucker for not wasting so I will finish using this new Lilly Planner till August when the school year starts over again.

But however, with recently getting married I am still in need of some new stationary.

So here comes my first purchase

Erin Condren Taffy Stationary

Can't wait to see my final product when it comes in next week :)

Friday Favorites---bedroom edition

As you all know we recently purchased our new Tempur-pedic bed and we are in love :)

My Friday Favorites this week all have to do with things we are using to redecorate our new room :)

1. Our wonderful new bedspread!
I can't wait to get it:)

If you have never checked out Wayfair I would recommend it. 











I had such a hard time finding a bed set I loved and then found this website and found millions!











2.  Cindy Crawford Crystal Table Lamp

I found this lamp at JcPenneys and I am in love.

We are getting two.. one for each of our nightstands

3. Monogrammed Pillow

Since we do have a king size bed we need more throw pillows than normal

So of course I went straight to Pottery Barn to find these

4.  For over our bed

(Pinterest)

I am planning to spray paint this all gray to match our new bedding

5. Amazing Ruffled Curtains 

(Pinterest)

Source: aboyagirlandapug.blogspot.com via Brianna on Pinterest

Ever Been Cruising?

So with Norwegian, Carnival, Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, and Princess 

How is a first time Cruise goer supposed to know what to choose??

With Spring Break (Yay for being a teacher), Our first Anniversary, and Graduation all coming up in a few months Andrew and I thought a great way to celebrate was to go on a cruise.

However after looking we got completely overwhelmed!

So fellow bloggers, if you have ever been on a cruise give me some helpful tips!

Where to go, what ship, when, best time to book ( I hear the later you wait the better the deals)

Our summer celebration plans thank you!

New Recipe Monday!

We are loving this three day weekend, Andrew and I are both home and we are doing a lot of nothing and we LOVE it

For about 3 or 4 months before Christmas Andrew was talking about how he wanted deep dish pizza. At first I thought he was just going through a phase ( we are huge pizza eaters but never had deep dish)

So finally for Christmas I bought him this

He was beyond ecstatic!

Then finally last night we used it as our new recipe for the week

In the brochure it gives you recipes for the dough and different pizzas.

Their dough recipe didn't rise properly so we used our bread machine to make the dough

(much better outcome)

We in the end made a classic pepperoni pizza and it was amazing

We had so many leftovers we are eating it for lunch today!

If you are ever thinking about making a deep dish pizza you should purchase this set.

It was well worth it and we are going to make a new pizza next month and invite some friends :)

Were sleeping good tonight :)

So for the past few months Andrew and I have be contemplating the perfect time to buy a new mattress

Well Friday night we were sitting at home and talked about the mattress again.

Mattress Firm was having a sale and we figure they wouldn't be busy on a Friday night so we could really look around.

About an hour later we were sold on this wonderful bed

We loved them but after narrowing it down we bought the model they call the Rhapsody.

I have a bad back so its more on the firm side.

We picked out a king mattress and we are loving it, its such an upgrade from our little full mattress.

If you ever thought of getting one do it!

Now my problem is I can't find a new bedding set I love.

Any suggestions on where some great bedding is??

It has begun

So it has begun and the end of the road is near

I have started my last semester of undgraduate

I am a very luck girl because since its my last semester I am only taking 5 hours

5 hours!!

Idk what I am going to do with myself.

Actually I do I will be studying for the GRE that I will take Feb. 24th

So here is to my last semester

and hopes that next year I will be a graduate student at Meredith College

So come on May 12th

I am waiting for you!

New Recipe Sunday

So yes I know today is Monday but as part of our budget planning for the new year we decided that we needed to make sure we make at least one new meal a week to avoid getting tired of our at home dinners and opting to eat out.

Andrew and I are huge foodies so this happens more often than you think.

For Christmas from two of my teachers at work I got the new Southern Living Crock pot Cookbook.

All I can say is LOVEEE!!!

It has so many good traditional southern recipes that are crock pot style.

The recipe we tried tonight was a Spicy Grits and Sausage

It was delicious and a great play on a typical breakfast grits.

Ingredients:

2 cups uncooked regular grits

28 ounces low sodium chicken broth

2 cups heavy whipping cream

1 can condensed Cheddar cheese soup

2 cups of frozen corn

1.5 teaspoon of salt

3 teaspoons of hot sauce

1 package of hilshire farm smoked sausage

( we used tradition chicken sausage when it called for hot sausage)

1 jalapeno pepper, minced

( we left this part out cause I forgot it at the grocery story )

Here's the best part.

Combine all the ingredients in your crock pot and stir.

Cook for 3 hours on low heat then stir

Continue to cook for 1.5 hours then serve

It was extremely delicious and it made lunch for the next day :)

What a great find!
What new recipes have you tried this week?

New Year Goals

Andrew and I sat down after all the craziness of the new year and set out our goals

We decided to do nothing extravagant but to set three personal goals and three relational goals each

We both felt that since this will be our first full year of marriage this was important.

So here is what we decided.

Goals for Myself

1. Continue to go to the gym and accomplish running a 5K, 10K and half marathon by the end of the year

2. No Soda

 I am pretty good about this now but I want to cut it out completely

I only typically drink them when I am at a fast food restaurant or dinner

but I want them gone for good!

3. Read at least one Book from the Bible each month.

Andrew and I do weekly devotionals together but neither of us have read the Bible completely through so this is where this comes into play

 I would love to do more and I know I want to bump it up during lent

Goals for Andrew

1. Complete his Oral Prelim

Don't know what that is?

No worries I don't really either.

All I know is its something for his Ph.D:)

2. Work on Frustration

Now don't get me wrong Andrew isn't some crazy guy he's just completely opposite of most people. Things that normal people get angry about are nothing to him and things that are nothing to most people drive him nuts. Its funny  :)

3. Read at least one book from the Bible each month

Our Relational Goals

1. 1 night a week where we are technology free

So no texting, Internet, video games, kindles nothing

I feel this will be so great cause we can cook dinner together and try new recipes

Take the dogs to a park

Have a game night or go bowling

Just a little time for us with no distractions :)

2. Attend Church and Sunday School Regularly

We found a great church in Raleigh

Edenton Street United Methodist Church :)

We went to church frequently but life kept getting in the way

We decided that we are going to church unless we are out of town or sick

Becoming part of a great Sunday School is important so we can find friends to help us grow as well

3. 4 Pre-Planned Dates per Month

This does not include the spur of the moment lets go to dinner

This is an I have been debating about what I want to wear for days type of date

It can be simple like going to a sporting event or dinner and a movie or a night out 

But just some time for us to plan things for each other

So what are your goals?

Any good ones you decided on?

Bling Ring Link Up :)

Today I am linking up with the Bling Bling Share Your Ring linkup over at Happiness is....

I love my ring so much.

Andrew did a wonderful job.

 I did however help pick it out but along with a few other options but Andrew picked the final one.

Here it is

With my wedding band it equals 2.25 carats.

I always wanted a three stone emerald cut so this ring is my dream.

The three diamonds equal 2 carats and the diamonds on the two band equal the last .25

Wanna know how he asked.. its super cheasy but that just how we are

So it was Easter weekend (in 2010) and Andrew was nice enough to stay in Raleigh with me since I had to work all weekend. It was Friday night and I had to close the salon ( I was a manger of a corporate tanning salon then) so I didn’t get home till like 11. He always waits for me to get home so we could eat dinner together, so the fact that he had dinner ready when I got home didn’t make me suspicious. So we sat down to eat and then he tells me he has to go to the bathroom, but instead he is in my room rummaging around and then goes into the bathroom and comes back. I am just thinking, hes wierd whatever. So we are sitting down eating and me being the huge Facebook stalker that I am, Andrew changes our relationship on Facebook so that it would get my attention ( since of course I was ignoring his other attempts to get my attention), but that kinda failed because I am also kinda nosey so all of a sudden Andrew had like 7 Facebook chats pop up (they were people saying congrats ) so then I wanted to know what they were saying and Andrew had to distract me to look on my computer. Then I saw it and was confused and he pulled the ring out and asked me, and he says I was in a daze and kept saying, OMG is that my ring, can I have it, can I wear it, but to be honest I can’t remember what I was thinking except I was excited so what he said for once is probably true..

Here is another close up of our rings during the wedding :)

Hello 2012....

Well 2011 was a great year for us.

We got married.

Survived living together for one year.

Added a second pup to our house ( Cooper )

Had the gratest holiday season as a married couple

I dont know how 2012 can get much better but I am looking forward to it!

We spend NYE at First Night Raleigh 

Andrew's sister Amanda and one of his best friends Anthony came up to help us celebrate

 we had so much fun and we went downtown with them and our friends James, Marianne and Laura.

We had planned to hit up a few bars but after we waited forever for drinks and finally found a place to sit at the Big Easy we decide we would just stay put. 

Amanda, me, Laura and Marianne

Anthony and Andrew... not cooperating

The group!

The best guy to bring the new year in with :)

We have had a great relaxing first day of 2011.

Now we finished off our night with a traditional New Years Meal

Black Eyed Peas, Collard Greens and Cornbread

It was my first year making it alone and it wasnt half bad.

Lets just hope we recieve all the money, good luck and fortune that is supposed to come along with it

Happy New Years to all and hope you made some great resolutions

Tomorrow I'll share with you what Andrew and I have decided to do to make this year great!