Tasty Tuesday

Grilled zucchini topped with parmesan. Yummy!
Here's what ya need: 2-3 medium zucchinis depending on how many you're serving. About a tbsp of olive oil. Fresh ground black pepper. 1/2 of a lemon. Around a 1/4 of a cup of Parmesan cheese shredded.
Get your grill heated up while you prepare the zucchini, you want the temp to be 375 degrees.
Wash and dry the zucchinis, cut long ways in half. Rub the olive oil onto the zucchinis, ground the fresh pepper on each zucchini.
Grill zucchini on each side for 6 minutes. Squeeze lemon juice on zucchini fresh off the grill. Then sprinkle the parmesan cheese on each zucchini. Enjoy!

Good happenings

New car....Check

I got a brand new 2012 Honda Accord!!!! Yippee. I love it, sooo pretty. Rides so smooth. I'm thinking Betsy for her name?!?

Venue for reception....Check  Deposit made!! So excited to have this out of the way and love the place we picked!

Checklist for nursing school complete....Check They make you do an obnoxious checklist every year. Drug test, tb skin test, etc. Just a bunch of running around!

Took Heather's senior pics....Check She looks so pretty in all of them. Thanks so much to Kirbi for letting us use her nice camera. Heather is such a sweetheart, she bought me a thank you gift for doing her pictures. It is a Scout bag, perfect for my upcoming trip to the beach. 

 She wrapped it so pretty!

 I love yellow. 

Tick tock tick tock

It's near the end of summer and I have a few things coming up that I have been counting down. I'm excited for everything, but the going back to school part. August is going to be a busy month, and I am going to spend every moment with my family and friends until school starts. 

 On August 1st it will be mine and Tim's 4 year anniversary! 6 days and counting :). I love this guy and can't wait to marry him! I have the cutest dressed picked out for our date. p.s. this is my favorite on the countdown.

A few weekends from now I get to go to Nashville to see my friend Chelsey! I am soooo excited. 15 days until I leave. 

 I have been wanting to go to the beach all year and it is finally happening. I'm hoping all the hurricanes stay away! Tim and I get to go with a group of our dear friends. It's going to be a blast! 24 days until I'm beach bound.

This is last on my countdown because a. it's the farthest away and b. it's the last thing I'm looking forward too. 32 days left of freedom!!!

An itch to craft

Here lately I have been in a crafty mood, tonight I had to scratch my itch. I have been wanting to DIY everything. This weekend I have the opportunity to take some senior pictures of Heather and wanted to make something with her year on it. So I decided to make a banner out of scrapbook paper that we can tie around a tree or maybe even an old fence. This cost less than 2bucks, if that. 

 First I cut the scrapbook paper into triangles.

 I had Heather print off some numbers in a font of her choice for us to cut out and trace.

 I traced them upside down on the back of the scrapbook paper, it is much easier to see pencil on white than this background.

After I finished with the tracing and cutting the numbers out, I used Modpodge to glue them to the paper. I used my hole puncher to place a hole in the right and left upper corners of each triangle. Then, I used twine rope to hang it on. I can't wait to see how this turns out in her pictures! Check back next week to see this banner in action :)

Tasty Tuesday

I know it's a day late, but I was way too tired to post it last night. Last night Amanda and I had girls night, we cooked our dinner/dessert and painted our nails. For the main course, I made White Chicken Herb Pizza. I found this on Myrecipes.com, they always have good recipes. Amanda made a Strawberry Lemonade cake, if you want the recipe I will be more than happy to get it for you.

 Here are the ingredients needs for the White Chicken Herb Pizza: 

• 1 pound refrigerated fresh pizza dough
• Cooking spray
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 3/4 cup 2% reduced-fat milk
• 1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated fresh pecorino Romano cheese
• 1 tablespoon yellow cornmeal
• 1 1/2 cups shredded rotisserie chicken breast
• 1/4 cup diced red onion
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
• - I left out the red onions because I'm not a huge fan of onions. I used dried oregano instead of fresh, due to the lack of at Kroger. I used the Kroger brand pizza cheese, I could not find the kind the recipe calls for.
• 
  
• The steps to deliciousness:
• 1. Preheat oven to 450°.
• 2. Place dough in a bowl coated with cooking spray; let dough stand, covered, for 15 minutes.

3. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic; cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly.

  Add flour and pepper; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly with a whisk. Gradually add milk, stirring constantly with a whisk. Cook 3 minutes or until thick and bubbly, stirring constantly with a whisk. Remove from heat; add cheese, stirring until cheese melts.

 4. Sprinkle a baking sheet with cornmeal; roll dough into a 12-inch circle on prepared baking sheet. Spread white sauce over dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border. Top with chicken and onion.

 Bake at 450° on bottom oven rack for 9-10 minutes or until crust is golden. I followed the time of the pizza crust can.

1.  Sprinkle with herbs and enjoy. It was so good!

 Amanda making the awesome cake.

 

 It turned out so pretty.

 Strawberries are my favorite

I know you're wanting some right about now.

Craft night

Here's what boredom and Hobby Lobby does when combined together. Heather and I were left by everyone so we decided a trip to Hobby Lobby would take care of our boredom. We picked out crosses for us to paint. I painted mine to match my room at school and Heather made hers for her bathroom. They turned out so cute.

 My Cross

 Picking out my paint

 Without the bow

 And wallah

Heather's cross

Random late night post

It is already the end of July! Summer seems to fly by while winter feels like it will never end. Only a month left of summer break before its time to start school for the fall. In a way I am excited just because I love the experience I get from clinicals, but I do miss my people from home when I'm away. I have a week planned of work with added bits of excitement. Amanda will be helping me this week with my Tasty Tuesday entry, girls night :) Friday I go look at some bridesmaid dresses so hopefully we will find the perfect ones. Sometime in the middle I have to get my drug test for school done, and that thing is around 75bucks! Crazy! Well here's to a happy filled week, happy reading.

Happy birthday!

Today is my brother's birthday, he turned 19. We came to my grandma's house for the weekend to pick up our ski boat and to spend time with her, a mini road trip. I always make everyone a cake for their birthday so this year i decided to do his with a big Alabama A since we are Alabama fans. Roll tide :) It has been a good day. We are finishing the day with a few games of bowling.

Who needs a wedding planner?

I have spent the entire last two weeks putting together our save the dates, composing our wedding guest list, and trying to find a wedding reception. What were we thinking picking the first Saturday in June? First off the added cost for a Saturday and picking the highest peak of wedding season, but every thing seems to be coming together. I have picked out a few places that fit my budget and that are actually still available :) I have completely finished picking out the pictures for our save the dates and will be placing our order tomorrow, so everyone be checking your mail soon. Composing a guest list with everyone's address is just the right ingredients for a headache! Although it can be a handful I love every minute and every detail going into it, I would never pay anyone to do that for me. I have a shelf at home that I keep all of my wedding magazines stuff on and thanks to my friends it keeps growing :) About a month ago Things Remembered were giving free keychains to brides to be, I love mine. Well I think that is all of the updates I have for now.

Behind closed doors

I'm a bit excited about this post because it is wedding related :) Yesterday I picked up my wedding dressed and tried it on. It is even prettier than when I put it on the first time! Everyone in the store kept complimenting me, it made me feel so good inside. We had to clean out a closet to hide this baby, so now I have a closet which is dedicated to nothing but wedding stuff. Getting my dress makes it seem that much more real :) Next step is booking a venue for our reception.

Tasty Tuesday

So I've decided to dedicate Tuesday's as Tasty Tuesday's by adding a new recipe every week. Tonight I made my first ever homemade cheesecake. I even added chocolate chips!

Here Is what you will need: 2/3c crushed chocolate graham crackers, 2tbsp melted butter, 3 8oz packages of cream cheese, 3 large egg whites, 1can 14oz of sweetened condensed milk, 2tbsp vanilla extract, and 1/2c of semi-sweet chocolate chips. Preheat oven to 350. I used a springform pan, it makes it so easy to serve.

First mix your crushed graham crackers with the melted butter to form the crust, pat it down to cover the entire bottom of the pan.

Next, blend together the cream cheese, egg whites, milk, and vanilla until very smooth.

Then, stir in the chocolate chips and transfer to the pan. 

Now it's time to bake. Bake at 350 for about 30mins or until only the center jiggles.

After it is done cooking, take a knife around the edge to loosen the cake from the pan. Then, put in the refrigerator to cool in the pan uncovered for 2 1/2 hrs or longer. If you are going to serve it the next day, I would cover it so it doesn't dry out. 

Before serving I sprinkled a few chocolate chips on top to make it a bit prettier :)

It was good to the last bite. Everyone loved it! 

Monday's aren't so bad

Monday has come and gone and now we have the rest of the week to look forward to. It seems like we are always waiting for the next best thing to happen in our life such as waiting on Friday to get here, or wishing cooler weather would come our way and in winter time wishing for summer. Do you ever just live in the current moment and enjoy it? I don't know about you, but my Monday was good. First off, I woke up, got ready, and ate breakfast. Then, I drove to work...there are tons of people without jobs. Later throughout the evening I enjoyed time with my church family and my fiancé. I saw the prettiest color cloud in the sky tonight while at my church's softball game. Little things like that make me constantly thankful and help me enjoy the moments of life. When you find yourself wrapped up in the speedway of life take a moment and breathe and enjoy what's around in the present and don't think of what tomorrow brings.

Sunday funday

I love Sunday's! I wake up and start off the day by going to church to worship my God, it makes my day so much better. After church, I look forward to just being able to hang out whether that be nap or get together with friends or maybe even do a little shopping. There's something about Sunday's that just let me go with the flow. Tonight Tim and I are having friends over for dinner :) I wonder what we will cook, whatever it is I know we will all enjoy it...if not we will have the company of each other to enjoy haha. Off to Kroger we go to put together dinner. What will you do with your Sunday?

Letting go is good for the soul

I have spent my entire Saturday in the house due to the yucky weather outside. I started out the morning being lazy, then decided "Hey its a good day to tackle those clothes I don't wear anymore". So I got up and headed to my closet with a laundry basket and started going through my dresser drawers and throwing things out, before I knew it the basket was full. Next, I went to the hanging things and decided I needed another basket. I looked up at my purse racked and saw plenty of items collecting dust, so why not make room for new ones :). After the cleaning of my closet, I took a much needed lunch break. While I was eating lunch, I was thinking why not just go through my whole room, so that's just what I did. I have cleaned my closet, my room and under my bed. Next, I am going to go through my winter tote. I feel so good uncluttering my drawers and my closet. I found things with the tags still on them and things I forgot I had, looks like I can make some new outfits out of old ones :).I think I need to have a yard sale now with all of the things that I don't need. 

What's in your closet that you haven't worn in a while?

Rain rain, it can be a good thing

Rain can only be good for one thing....refreshing! I love napping on rainy days, cleaning things that I have put off, and catching up on my tv shows. The grass and flowers have desperately needed this rain. Rain always gets me in the mood to organize. Speaking of organize, my wedding dress is ready to be picked up :D, one problem, I have to organize the hall closet to have a place to put it. What better day to do it than a rainy one?! What are you going to do with your rainy day?