5 Picture Challenge!

Hello everyone!!! So I finally caved in and decided to do the 5 picture challenge, essentially someone challenges you to pick 5 pictures in which you feel beautiful in! It was actually really fun picking out the pictures, as I took it to mean 5 pictures that I felt beautiful in both inside and out. It was fun looking back at some of my favorite memories. Picking just 5 was pretty hard, it’s been an incredible last few years and there were so many happy times to choose from.  The moments captured were some of my happiest and I’m excited to share them with you!

First up:

One of the days that changed our lives forever, the day we brought Miss Lily home! I’ll never forget seeing her little face at the adoption fair and knowing that she was ours. Bringing her home was so exciting and she brings joy to our lives every single day. This was one of the first pictures we took together and I was feeling so much love for her even though we’d only had her for a few hours!

Of course our wedding day goes on here!! I chose one of the pictures we did during our “first look” because I remember at the time I felt so relaxed and excited. I wasn’t nervous, or anxious I was just so happy, I felt like I was walking on the clouds. We spent about 30 minutes taking pictures with just us two and it was great to get this quiet, alone time before all of the actual wedding activities began to take place. The perfect weather and soft sand also made for a perfect moment <3

Next up one of the most fun evenings we had early in our relationship! We had only been dating for about a month and half and attended a party at our good friends house. We just had the absolute best time hanging out with everyone and and each other. I loved seeing Mr Tan Lines interact with all of my friends and get along with them so great, it made me so happy. This was also shortly after we were head over heels in love so it was fun get to share our happiness with others!

This one is from my 27th birthday. Mr Tan Lines planned the entire weekend and it was so perfect! This picture was taken on Friday night before our delicious dinner at The Melting Pot. It was both of our first times there so we were so excited to try the food! I felt so loved that Mr Tan Lines had planned so many fun things for our weekend; it was one of my favorite birthdays!

Lastly, one of my favorite pictures from our honeymoon in Antigua! As I mentioned when I first told ya’ll about our trip it was the most perfect 10 days. The weather and island were beautiful. We were so happy to be married and on this amazing vacation. Every morning we had breakfast by the beach and lounged by the pool all day. It was the most relaxing time and everyday took my breath away. I can’t imagine a honeymoon not being filled with love and happiness and ours was just that! It was tough to pick just one; I went with us doing our “classic” pose that we try to do on every beach trip! Ah just look at that water!  

I hope you enjoyed this little trip down memory lane with me! Laudie, I challenge you to do this too!!!

My Family Came To Visit!

Happy Monday everyone!!! What an incredible weekend we had!! My wonderful parents and M&M came down to visit! Yay! We had the best time hanging out with them and it was so nice to see them all!! We started off Friday by taking them around downtown Columbia and exploring the local scenery. We took them to see the Statehouse and we ate lunch at a yummy spot called The Thirsty Fellow. We followed that we some light shopping and a stop at a cute little coffee shop called Drip. We were all SO happy to see they had Honduran coffee there! I had a small cup and it was so delicious. For dinner we took them to our favorite little spot Arko’s where we sat on the rooftop and enjoyed the live acoustic music. Here we are at dinner :)

On Saturday we took the boat out and boy did we have fun! We went tubing and beached it at our favorite little cove. The weather was outstanding and my family loved the atmosphere. Here are some pictures from our boating fun!

On Sunday we braved the 100 degree weather and headed to the local zoo. It was actually a pretty good size with lots of different animals. Here are some pictures of the animals!

The flamingos were so cute to see in person!

Here I am very timidly petting the goat, I was nervous he was going to bite my hand!!

They had a spot around back where you could actually feed them so Mr Tan Lines and I did just that!

Here are Mr Tan Lines and I with the elephants!

The bird exhibit was great, the penguins were definitely the highlight!

Isn’t he the cutest!! :)

I also got to cross something off of my bucket list, feeding a giraffe! As you can tell I was very, very nervous! It was such a weird feeling but it was so much fun!

On Sunday night we went to our favorite sushi spot, my family all really loved it! Here is a picture of my and me mom and then one of my wonderful parents!

Monday morning I woke up to the usual puppy snuggles which were so nice to have! All in all it was a fabulous weekend and I miss my family already! Can’t wait to see them again soon!

Weekend Fun With Clam!

Happy hump day!!! I can’t believe it’s been so long since my last post!! I’ve just been busy with other things the last few days and we had our friends in town this past weekend! We were so excited to see Clam and so thankful they came down to visit us from Virginia! Friday night we took them to two of our favorite restaurants, that’s right two!! We had to take them to this wonderful little place that serves the most amazing bacon appetizer that I have ever tasted. It’s called The Oak Table and is located right in the heart of downtown Columbia. The bacon is seasoned with Thai spices, maple syrup sugar and a special cayenne. It is to die for and everyone thoroughly enjoyed it!

The Oak Table is also located directly across from the statehouse so of course we had to take a picture!

After dinner we went to a rooftop bar and had another drink, the weather was perfect and there was even a fireworks show that we were able to see! All in all it was the perfect evening!

Saturday we took Clam out on the boat, the weather didn’t want to cooperate but we were all troopers about it! There happened to be a large music festival going on which was so great, there must have been over 100 boats out there! Of course that didn’t stop anyone, it was still very warm out and the music was great!

 

I made the most delicious sangria to drink out on the boat as well. I just googled various recipes and ended up using what I had at home! Here’s what I included:

2 bottles of pinot noir

1 cup brandy

1/2 cup triple sec

2 cups lemon lime soda

2 oranges sliced

2 limes sliced

2 lemons sliced

1.5 cups frozen raspberries and strawberries

It turned out so yummy and good! I should also mention that I let it sit overnight so the wine really soaked in the tangy lemon, lime and orange flavor!

We ended the weekend doing what we all love best, brunchin'!! We took Clam to our favorite spot Arko’s where we feasted on shrimp & grits, eggs, bacon, breakfast burritos and bottomless mimosas of course!

We had so much fun with them and they really loved Columbia and what it had to offer! We cannot wait to see them in October for a friends wedding!

“Love, it never dies. It never goes away, it never fades, so long as you hang on to it. Love can make you immortal”

Happy Tuesday!!!

First things first, let’s chat about last nights’ episode of The Bachelorette, in case you missed it stop reading…spoilers ahead!!

Well, well, well! I’m not sure how many of you watched last night but I can start off by saying that we were so happy to be taken back to the beautiful Dominican Republic! It brought back all of the wonderful memories we shared on our visit in May 2012. It really is such a gorgeous place, it gave us the itch of wanting to return! Ahh the beach life :)

Needless to say I was pretty surprised last night! Mr Tan Lines and I were almost certain she was going to pick farmer Chris! Or at least we were hoping it would be farmer Chris and baseball Josh in the end. I cannot stand Nick and his awful face, every time he opens his mouth it makes me cringe. But alas, Andi let poor Chris go because she just wasn’t feeling it, which sucks but at least she didn’t drag him along. I saw some Tweets this morning from #BachelorNation, who knows Chris could very well be the new bachelor and I would be so happy with that!

Last night I made this amazing casserole I found on Pinterest, you guys, it was SO good; I think I could have eaten the entire thing.  It came from the blogger DamnDelicious, and man was it ever! Here is a link to the recipe http://damndelicious.net/2014/07/07/quinoa-enchilada-casserole/

I followed her recipe almost perfectly, except instead of regular corn I used mexicorn and I used different brands of sauces and chili’s! You really couldn’t even tell there wasn’t any meat in it, however next time I think I would probably add some shredded chicken or ground turkey in there for a little extra bite! I would highly recommend trying this one out; I know I will be making it again and again!

I also paired the delicious casserole with one of my favorite Cabernet Sauvignon, Ghost Pines. It’s a little pricier, depends where you buy it but I usually find it for $19-$22 at my local food stores. I chilled it for 20 minutes then poured myself a nice tall glass. It was the perfect way to enjoy my Monday night!

“Love, it never dies. It never goes away, it never fades, so long as you hang on to it. Love can make you immortal.” 

So remember a few months back I mentioned I was going to read If I Stay by Gayle Forman? Well, I (kind of) finished it last night. Again, if you’re planning on reading the book or seeing the movie stop right there, spoilers ahead!

So I didn’t actually read the whole thing, I got to around page 60 and gave up. The book starts off with the big accident and of course Mia being in a coma and wondering around the hospital. She then begins to go through memories of her family, friends and boyfriend, which is what the entire rest of the book is. She finally realizes that it’s up to her to decide whether she lives or dies and suddenly she’s not sure—this is where I stopped reading. I just thought this was so dumb, yes her family has died and she might need a crap ton of physical therapy but she’s only 17 years old! She has friends, family, a boyfriend she loves and is a gifted musician, so pretty much her entire life is ahead of her and she’s just willing to throw in the towel.  I just couldn’t read on after that, I wasn’t going to put myself through 200 pages of “should I?” or “shouldn’t I?” I wasn’t even intrigued enough in the “love” story, it was so predictable; popular, punk rocker falls for weird quirky, girl. Yawn. I skipped to the last page and low and behold, she chooses to live. At least there’s that haha then there is another section that talks about Mia’s life years later, all I needed to read was that the super powerful, world ending love (that she was never sure about) that saved her life has now ended and she no longer speaks to her ex. The end. I was so excited about this book and am definitely disappointed. The trailer looks really good however; it actually made me even more disappointed in the book! Oh well, I think I’m going to head to the library during lunch to get some new reading materials! 

Have a great day everyone! 

More Recipes & Fun!

Hey ya’ll! Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great weekend! Mr Tan Lines and I had a very, very low key weekend! We have been so busy the last few months and have a lot coming up the next few weekends that we decided to take it extremely easy and not do much of anything this past weekend! We even went to date night on Thursday so as to keep the weekend free and clear! We went to our favorite place Arko’s and took advantage of their $5 martini night and enjoyed some delicious food!

I started out with the avocado martini, yes you read that right…avocado! It was actually really good! It had a light flavor to it; almost as if there was some cucumber in it, it was sweet and delicious and paired great with my chimichurri steak!

Last week I cooked another really delicious and healthy meal that I wanted to share with you! It’s my own take on shredded chicken stuffed zucchini boats; I made these once and Mr Tan Lines has been requesting them ever since, I wasn’t too big of a fan so I put my own spin on them and they came out fab! The first time I made them was with ground turkey meat, which was also very good, I just happened to have extra chicken on hand so I decided to try it out. The best part is that it’s one of those one-bowl beauties where you just dump everything into one big bowl; mix, bake and enjoy! Here’s what you’ll need for two people:

2 zucchinis

2 tbsp parmesan cheese

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 shallots, diced

1 egg

2 tbsp Italian bread crumbs

¼ cup carrots, finely chopped

2 tbsp feta cheese

2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

6 oz cooked, shredded chicken breast

1 small can tomato paste

1 can diced, un-salted tomatoes

Salt & pepper

1/2 tbsp oregano

1/2 basil

And here’s what I did:

First I sliced my zucchinis in half and placed them in small baking dish with 4 tbsp of water. I baked them at 325 degrees for 35 minutes, took them out of the oven and let them completely cool. I then took a spoon and scooped out the inside seeds, leaving a “boat” inside of each zucchini wedge.

In a bowl I combined the shredded chicken, parmesan cheese, shallots, carrots, worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, can of diced tomatoes, egg, bread crumbs, salt & pepper, oregano and basil. I mixed everything well and set aside. I then placed about a cup or so of the mixture in each “boat”; I found it best to use a small spoon as the mixture is a bit creamy and falls off the sides! I piled it high and then placed them into my baby oven at 350 for 25 minutes. I had some extra chicken so I made some "meatballs" out of them and baked them on the side for extras!

Right when I pulled them out I sprinkled them with the feta cheese and a little more parmesan, serve warm and enjoy! I also paired it with a new Merlot I tried out; it ended up being very tasty for $9 a bottle. It had a very sweet flavor that went fabulous with the red sauce flavors.

The second recipe I have to share I made last night, I had been dying to make it and I was really excited. Again, my own little spin on ground chicken burgers with a chipotle-mayo-dill sauce! I did some research and found a general consensus for the burgers, I then added my own little flare and voila! Here’s what you’ll need:

For the meat patties:

1/2 pound ground chicken

1/4 cup plan non-fat greek yogurt

1/2 tsp fresh, finely chopped dill

1/2 tsp fresh, finely chopped chives

1/2 tbsp fresh, finely chopped parsley

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 tbsp Italian bread crumbs

Salt & pepper

For the chipotle-mayo-dill sauce:

1/2 cup mayo

2 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice

Salt & pepper

1/2 tsp fresh, finely chopped dill

1/2 tsp fresh, finely chopped chives

1/2 tbsp fresh, finely chopped parsley

1/2 tsp chipotle chili pepper

Here’s what I did:

I combined all of the ingredients for the meat patties in a bowl and let them marinate for 30 minutes. I then formed my patties and placed them on a hot, flat griddle surface. In a separate bowl I combined all of the ingredients for the mayo sauce and let it cool in the fridge. I buttered my rolls and toasted them on the flat griddle pan alongside my patties; I used whole grain Kaiser rolls, but you can use whatever kind of bread you have on hand.

To build my burgers I spread 2-3 tbsp of the mayo on one side of the bread and topped with lettuce and fresh basil. I then added raw red onion and tomatoes. I served them with freshly baked corn on the cob, I simply placed them into the oven, husk and all and bake at 325 for 40 minutes, they come out just perfect and delicious! Serve and get ready to enjoy!

I should note that this is a very, very rich dish. Dill is a particularly strong herb, if you aren’t sure about it I would suggest leaving out the dill from the mayo sauce, just that little bit will make a difference! I might also suggest using arugula instead of lettuce, the bitter taste would have been a great addition in my opinion, I just didn’t have any on hand! I hope you enjoyed today’s recipes!