birthday week-end

I kicked off the birthday celebrations by treating myself to a manicure. I love getting a gel manicure because the polish lasts forever and I am not very forgiving with my nails. They stand up to laundry, dishes, and working in the yard. I decided on a color changing polish this time because I had a hard time choosing just one. The lighter color pink is the color of the polish when it's "warm" or "hot" and the orangish/coral color is the color the polish becomes when it's "cold". It's pretty cool, especially in a month like March where the temperature can fluctuate 30° in three days. 

I also changed out the St. Patrick's Day chalkboard to make a "Happy Birthday" message to myself for the day! It's the little things sometimes that make you happy and combining crafts with my birthday is one of those things.

I got home from work the day before my birthday and was greeted with a birthday card from the family. My mom knows how much I love getting mail-that isn't a bill- so she sends me cards for all occasions, including my birthday. After I opened that card I realized that it looked quite familiar and pulled out the birthday card they sent me last year. Last year's card is on the left and this year's card is on the right....although you would never know which is which because they are the exact same. Oh mom, you make me laugh without even trying. 

For my actual birthday Cam took me to dinner and I came home and made myself a little cake. It wasn't much, but it was fun to blow out the candles on a cake for my birthday.

We had tickets to the hockey game on Friday evening. These were the last ones for our 2015-2016 flex season passes. A little bummed that it's our last one, but excited knowing that the Capital's already have a playoff spot clenched!

Saturday was spent furniture shopping and grabbing dinner with the entire family. I will say that 26 has already been good to me. I am thankful to have spent the weekend with the family. Now it's all downhill to 30!

spicy garlic lime chicken

I feel like I start every recipe post out the same way...."I didn't follow the recipe exactly and I made some changes", but isn't that what cooking is all about! For this recipe I didn't use the measurements given because I used chicken breast tenderloins instead of an actual chicken breast. I find that I eat smaller portions when I use the tenderloins for dinner. Anyway, I also didn't add thyme to the recipe because I didn't have it in the pantry. Here is the basic outline for you to follow if you want a quick and delicious dinner. 

Ingredients:

¾ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

⅛ teaspoon paprika

¼ teaspoon garlic powder

⅛ teaspoon onion powder

¼ teaspoon dried thyme

¼ teaspoon dried parsley

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts halves

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 teaspoons garlic powder

3 tablespoons lime juice

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, mix together salt, pepper, cayenne, paprika, ¼ teaspoon garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, and parsley. Sprinkle spice mixture generously on both sides of chicken breasts.

2. Heat butter and olive oil in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Sauté chicken until golden brown.

3. Sprinkle with 2 teaspoons garlic powder and lime juice.

4. Cook, stirring frequently to coat evenly with sauce. 

easy breakfast casserole

I will start by saying that this recipe is meant to serve 10 people! So if you aren't feeding an army you could probably half this recipe, like I did. This is super easy and can be made the day before and refrigerated-which makes it an easy dinner for hectic nights. You also don't have to cook the tater tots! You put them in the pan straight out of the freezer-AWESOME!

I did make some substitutions based on what we had in our fridge. Instead of tater tots I used the mini round hash browns, which are basically the same thing, I also used regular breakfast sausage-not hot sausage. That's just a personal preference so you could potentially use the maple flavored sausage if you wanted. 

Ingredients

2 lb. hot breakfast sausage

1 (30-32oz) bad frozen tater tots

1 tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

¼ tsp garlic powder

¼ tsp onion powder

1 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese

½ cup mozzarella cheese

8 eggs

2 cups milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°

2. In a large skillet, cook sausage until no longer pink. Drain fat.

3. In a large bowl, toss together tater tots, cooked sausage and cheeses. Pour into a lightly greased 9x13 inch pan.

4. Whisk together eggs, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and milk. Pour over tater tor mixture.

5. Bake for 35-40 minutes

empties || winter

Quaker oatmeal cups // Cheez-Its // Home Sweet Home by Yankee Candle // No. 7 Beautiful Skin // John Frieda Dream Curls

As you can see this collection of empties is quite random. Some of these items will be repurchased and some will not. I'll give you my thoughts on each item and why it was or was not bought again. 

First we have the Quaker instant oatmeal. This stuff is amazing for the work week. I am terrible about eating breakfast during the week since I'm not a morning person at all and these have been helping me get something to eat. They are super easy to use-which I love. All you need is water! There is a fill line on the inside and you just fill it up with water and you are ready to go. These are repurchased every week in our house and they are a staple in my lunchbox. 

The next item, which is food-don't judge-is the Cheez It brand crackers in the white cheddar flavor. These are delicious and I will sometimes pack them as an afternoon snack. I tend to crave the salty foods in the afternoon as apposed to the sweets, so this snack gets me over the 3 o'clock hump in the work day. 

I purchased the candle after Christmas because I was looking for a scent that wasn't Christmasy but still felt like winter. Home sweet home was the perfect blend. It burned out this week, and I will not be repurchasing this specific candle until next year. I do however have a candle from Yankee Candle that I will burn in the spring and one that I will use in the summer. Stay tuned to see my go to scents for the other seasons. 

I have two items in the beauty category that are empties this month. The first item is the John Frieda Dream Curls styling spray. Let me start off by saying I have loved this product for years,, but I have found a replacement. I have boarded the Living Proof 5-in-1 styling treatment train and I love it. That being said however I still enjoy the John Frieda spray for the summer because it's so lightweight and I live somewhere where the humidity will make you sweat from your house to your car. I am still on the fence about repurchasing this item. I haven't yet, but I may once June/July roll around. 

The final beauty product is the No. 7 Beautiful Skin Day Lotion for Normal/Dry skin. I am more on the normal side when it comes to skin, but this lotion is amazing for both the summer and winter. I used to have to but two different moisturizers for the seasons but this one seems to work year round! I love that it is light weight and it smells amazing. I used this both for my day time moisturizer and my night time moisturizer and have no complaints. I have already repurchased a bottle of this stuff, and you can find it at Target-score! 

hockey week

What a whirlwind of a week filled with lots of hockey games. I had tickets for the Capitals v. Penguins game in January, but it was rescheduled because of the HUGE blizzard that hit the area. It got rescheduled for March 1-which was a Tuesday. I work a normal 9-5 job five days a week so a Tuesday is not the ideal day to make a trip to D.C. and then go to work the next day. Since I had the tickets and this was a big game I wasn't going to miss it just because it was during the week. The Capitals won and it was a great game...but I was dragging on Wednesday morning. 

I had tickets to the Friday evening game against the Rangers as well. These were planned well in advance not knowing I was going to have a Tuesday game as well. 

Unfortunately, the Capitals lost on Friday night against the Rangers, but it was great to see family. My brother and I exchanged birthday gifts as well while we were there. We have one more hockey game before the season ends so stay tuned...

a book review: 19 years in the making

First let me say that I am very much aware that I am wayy late to the party when it comes to Harry Potter. I started reading the first book when it came out 19 years ago and the first chapter couldn't keep me interested so I put off the entire series as I got older. Now that I enjoy reading again I wanted to read all of the Harry Potter before I turned 30 and cross it off my 30X30 list. Now I understand what all the hype was about. These books are amazing!

Once I started reading the books I realized I wanted to watch the coordinating movies after I would finish the book. I finished the first book, then watched the first movie etc. I am going to be one of those people who say "the book was way better than the movie" because it was! I found myself at times reading into the wee hours of the night just to finish another chapter. The books had such vivid detail that I would also have nightmares/dreams about the scenes without seeing the movie as a reference. J.K Rowling is an amazing author and I read her other book The Cuckoo's Calling and it was a great novel so I should have known that Harry Potter would have been written excellently.

Again, I realize this post is about 15 years behind, but I just read all seven Harry Potter books and couldn't be happier with the end results.

parmesan crusted pork chops

I was looking for something to cook that wasn't part of our usual routine of burgers and pasta, and I stumbled upon this one on Pinterest-shocker! We love cheese in our house so I knew this would be a big hit. I paired the pork chops with green beans and a brown rice/quinoa mix. The verdict after dinner was two thumbs up! The full recipe is below. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

4 boneless pork chops

1/3 cup Parmesan cheese

2-3 tbsp. Italian breadcrumbs (dried)

1/8 tsp paprika

1 tsp parsley

½ tsp garlic powder

2 tbsp. olive oil

¼ tsp pepper

Directions:

1. Mix parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, paprika, parsley, and garlic powder and place on plate

2. Dip pork chops in the mixture (making sure mixture sticks) and sear in a pan of olive oil on medium-high heat. Sautee for 5 minutes on each side

3. Place pork chops in a glass baking dish and cook according to thickness. If the pork chops are regular thickness cook at 350° for a half hour. If the pork chops are thicker cook at 300° for one hour. 

currently || march

drinking || Tons of water! My eventual goal is to eliminate soda completely, but that is quite difficult. I have managed to bring my soda drinking habit down to about two sodas a week (usually Friday and Saturday). I couldn't tell you the last time I had something other than water to drink during the week. Here's hoping to stay on track and cut out the soda even more.

watching || Technically I watched this in February, but it was too good not to talk about it! I loved season one of Fuller House and could not get enough. I binged watched the entire season the day it came out-so many memories! I will say that I am looking forward to House of Cards season four coming out in a few days. I need to catch up on season three first, but I will be watching season four some this month as well.

celebrating || My brother and I both have March birthdays so there is usually a lot of family dinners and celebrations to look forward to this month. It also means I need to get on my horse about buying a birthday gift!

reading || I am on halfway through the LAST Harry Potter book. I don't know what I'm going to do when I finish it. I have loved all six of the previous books and I am feeling like I never want the story to end. I will have to start reading another book once I finish Harry Potter, but not sure that anything else will compare at this point.

decorating || We are still on the hunt for perfect dining room chairs that don't break the bank. We currently have just two wooden chairs that came with our table, but are looking to upgrade so we can host parties and have people over.