Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Recipe Round Up

Hey friends! I am sharing with you today two recipes that I have recently shared on my IG stories that have been majorly requested. I figured having them typed out would be easiest for everyone. I'm sorry I don't have any photos to go along..blogger fail. But I promise they are both super yummy and worth making. They also happen to be very easy!

Both of these recipes come from a recipe book that my Mimi gave us years and years ago. Back when computers were few and far between. I remember my mom sitting there typing every hand written recipe and trying to figure out formatting them. My aunt illustrated the sections and then they printed them all and gave them to us grandchildren as gifts. It is truly something I will cherish forever. My mimi hand wrote a note inside each of our books.

First up: Alice's Cabbage Chicken Salad (no clue who Alice is haha)

Buy:
2 diced cooked chicken breasts (I use rotisserie to make it extra simple)
2/3 head of cabbage thinly sliced (I use a bag of store bought cole slaw..again simple!)
4 T toasted sesame seeds
1 package ramen noodles (uncooked and broken up)
4T toasted almonds (optional)

Dressing:
3T sugar
1/2 cup oil
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
3T Vinegar (I use apple cider)
season mix from ramen packet

Directions:
-In a large bowl combine your chicken, cabbage, sesame seeds, almonds and ramen noodles
- Mix together the dressing and pour over salad.
- You can eat it right away or I like to put it in the fridge and let it marinate and eat later. I will eat this for lunch for several days. It just gets better with each day I think.

Notes: I use less than 3T sugar and have not noticed a difference in the flavor.

Next I'm sharing Apple Sauce Muffins (my mom has been making these since I was a little girl and now all of the grandchildren are obsessed with them)

Buy:
2 sticks butter
2 cups sugar (can use less, or even a sugar substitute)
2 eggs
16 oz apple sauce
4 cups flour
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp. cloves
2. tsp. allspice
3 tsp. cinnamon
3 tsp. baking soda
1 cup chopped nuts (optional..i leave out)

Directions:
-cream butter and sugar
-add eggs and vanilla
-In separate bowl sift together dry ingredients (leaving out baking soda)
- add the baking soda to the apple sauce and mix up
-alternate adding apple sauce and dry ingredients to butter mix
-pour into cupcake tin
-bake at 400 for 15 minutes
- will keep for several weeks in the fridge once cooked
-makes about 3 1/2 dozen muffins

There you have 2 easy recipes. My boys love the muffins and Patrick enjoyed the salad as well. I hope you enjoy! Let me know if you have any questions!



Friday, January 26, 2018

Five Things Bringing Me Joy


Happy Friday! We have a low key weekend ahead of us and I am excited about it. Hopefully the weather will be nice and we can get outside and play!

Changing up my Friday Favorites this week and sharing what is is currently bringing me joy.

O N E | Organizing all. the. things. - I have been on a kick of trying to simplify and get rid of. I have almost hit every room in our house. Yesterday I did the bonus room and the storage closet in there. Two trash bags full and about 3 bags to donate and I'm back being organized. I am also going to create a little work space for me up there. I got a small desk and plan to give myself a little bit of an "office".

T W O | Hearing the laughter from the boys coming from the other room. They may be wild and crazy but they love to play together and are always making up silly games, most of which make me hold my breath that one of them doesn't knock the other out! But that laughter brings me such joy.

T H R E E | I.G. Stories - If you follow me on IG you know that I recently upped my stories game. I had been super nervous to talk on stories/share things other than photos and with the encouragement of a lot of my favorite blogger friends and real life friends I did it. And it has been so much fun! I love all the sweet messages people keep sending me saying that they are enjoying it too. So, fear over come!

F O U R | Get aways with Patrick. I blogged about our trip to Savannah yesterday. Getting away with him no matter where we go always brings me such joy!

F I V E | Getting up and getting a workout in. I am not a morning person but I have tried hard a few mornings a week to get up and ride my peloton bike before anyone is up. It's so nice to be done for the day by 6:30. It truly brings me joy and starts off my day on the right foot!


*linking up with April, Katie, andrea and Beth

Thursday, January 25, 2018

Our Trip To Savannah

Last weekend Patrick and I headed south for a weekend away to celebrate our 6 year anniversary. The boys stayed with my FIL while we were gone. We packed up early Friday and left for the 5ish hour drive there.


We arrived about 2:00 and checked into our Inn. We stayed at The Presidents Quarters Inn. I had never stayed at a Bed&Breakfast but this one had come recommend to us from a friend. We had a great corner room. I loved the decor and the king bed was super comfy. The bathroom was spacious and very nice. Overall I was very pleased with the Inn and would stay there again and recommend it!




Once we settled into our room we decided to walk to down to the river and check out our surroundings. we were only about 5 minutes from the river so it was a short walk. We went in a few shops, got a piece of fudge from the cutest candy store and then headed back to our room to get ready for dinner.






We took a rickshaw to city market and had a drink at an outdoor bar before heading to dinner at Garibaldi. We both thought that the meal was so so. Patrick got the flounder which he didn't care for. I had lasagna which was good. The goat cheese balls on my salad were the best part! The atmosphere at the restaurant was great and Patrick really enjoyed his Old Fashioned before dinner. We had a great waiter who was a local and gave us some great ideas of places we needed to go.


After dinner we walked to a really cool bar called Alley Cat. They had an unbelievable selection of liquor.




We left there and walked over to LuLus chocolate bar for dessert. Patrick had a mocha brownie and I had a warm chocolate chip cookie with ice cream and a latte. We were both pretty full from dinner so we didn't eat much.


Saturday we woke up and had breakfast at the Inn. We had scheduled a trolley tour for that day so after breakfast we headed to do that. It was very informative and cool to get an overview of the historic district of Savannah. We got off and walked around Forsyth Park and then caught another trolley to finish the tour.











We had lunch at Treylor Park and I thought it was fabulous. It puts a crazy spin on traditional meals, like PB&J wings. I had an apple pie sandwich. It was fried chicken with baked apples, bacon and cheddar. Super yummy! I could tell at lunchtime Patrick really wasn't feeling well, he hardly touched his lunch so I suggested we go back to our room for a bit.




Patrick got a nap in and I did some reading. He seemed to perk up some after a rest so we walked down to Leopolds for an ice cream cone and then to walk around a bit. We walked through an old old cemetery and then to see St. Johns Cathedral. After this we called our awesome rickshaw driver from the night before and he came and gave us another tour. It was fun to get his perspective on things versus the Trolley Drivers.























We had dinner reservations at Vic's on the River that night. I thought Patrick had perked up but I knew as soon as we got to dinner that he wasn't feeling well again. As soon as our meal came he went pale and I knew it was time to go back to the room. I rushed to try and eat some of the yummy steak I had ordered and we got the check. Patrick was in bed asleep by 8:00.

We had reservations to do a ghost tour that night but cancelled it. I did some reading before also going to bed pretty early.

Thankfully he woke up Sunday morning feeling much better and we grabbed breakfast before hitting the road back to our babies!

Despite Patrick being hit with a little tummy bug we had a great time. It's always so nice to get away and relax and hit the reset button.

*linking up with Owen

Monday, January 22, 2018

Six Years Married

Hey ya'll! Patrick and I got back yesterday from a fun little anniversary getaway to Savannah to celebrate being married for six years. I plan to save all about our weekend later this week. But for today I thought I'd share a fun photos from our wedding.

We got married before digital images were all the rage so while I have every photo from our wedding actually printed out, I don't have them in digital form.

These are just a few of my favorite photos from that day. Six years later and I would marry him all over again every day. Life with Patrick isn't always rainbows and butterflies, we have our fair share of struggles but when you wake up every day happy to be married and happy to be next to that person who completes you, you know life is good! I can't believe all that we have done in six short years and I can't wait to see what we do in the next six!












*linking up with Biana and Lindsay