Current Loves

I love this time of year, it's beautiful outside (not too hot, not too cold) and the holidays are right around the corner. So much to love love love!

~ I'm loving The Voice... I never watched until this season and am hooked! Such a breath of fresh air from all the other played out singing competition shows. My fav is when Blake gets all fired up and starts yelling "NOOOOO!"

Chair sabotage!

~ I'm loving Essie's 2013 fall collection

~ I'm loving part 2 of JT's 20/20 Experience.... True Blood is my new jam!

~ I'm loving this fall decor idea, may have to incorporate this into my Thanksgiving spread:

Bobbing apples and floating candles... LOVE

~ I'm loving Starburst Candy Corn... can't.stop.eating.it!

~ I'm loving my fall candles, the whole house smells amazing!

~ I'm loving Juicy Joe and Rosie... they totally steal the show on RHONJ. I'm sure everyone is beyond over the spliced and diced made up drama on that show, so the hilariousness that is Juicy and Rosie is hands down the best part and they always have me laughing.

Great comic relief!

~ I'm loving that my girl Lauren Conrad is ENGAGED! I usually could give two flying craps about celebrities day-to-day but I have loved Lauren since her Laguna Beach/The Hills days and am so happy for her. She's done an amazing job of creating a successful brand for herself while keeping her personal life private (as it should be) and exuding nothing but class class class. 

~ I'm loving that Catching Fire is finally hitting theaters soon! Bring on Katniss and Peeta!

What are you loving today?

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Buffalo Quinoa Mac& Cheese

You asked for it.... and you got it! :)

A few weeks ago, Lauren inspired me to make Buffalo Quinoa Mac and Cheese. So, the next time I was at the grocery store, I picked up everything I needed to make this yummy dish using a recipe from Pinterest.

I posted this pic on Instagram and had requests to post the recipe, so here she is in all of her wonderfulness:

Ingredients-ses:

~ 1 and 1/4 cups of quinoa, rinsed and drained

~ Salt & Pepper (I just used pepper, no salt)

~ 2 tbsp. of flour

~ 1 and 1/2 cups of skim milk, divided

~ 2 green onions, sliced

~ 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp. of Frank's Red Hot Buffalo Wing Sauce

~ 1 and 1/2 cups of reduced fat sharp cheddar cheese

~ 1/4 cups of blue cheese crumbles

Instructions:

Preheat oven broiler

Cook quinoa according to package directions

Whisk together flour and 1/2 cup of milk in a sauce pan over medium heat.

Pour in remaining milk and green onions.

Switch to a spatula and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly.

Cook for 1 minute while boiling.

Remove the pan from heat and add in buffalo sauce and cheddar cheese. Season with a few dashes of pepper. Stir until the cheese is completely melted and then add in cooked quinoa and stir to combine.

Pour into a non-stick sprayed casserole dish and top with blue cheese crumbles. You can also use individual ramekins as I did pictured above.

Broil for 5-7 minutes until cheese is golden brown and sauce is bubbly.

Enjoy!

Joining Jessica and Ashley for Taste of Tuesday, hop on over and share a recipe with us :)

Recipe

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Fall Weekend Shenanigans

Thankfully it's not too chilly around here, but I am loving all the fall activities.

Friday, we went to happy hour downtown at a new tequila bar and then bar hopped a little before heading home.

Saturday, we went to a corn maze with some of our neighbors. Afterwards, we came back and grilled sausages and enjoyed the pool. Some more of our neighbors stopped by and we had a great time catching up over drinks on the patio. We also lit the fire pit for the first time this fall :)

Sunday, I worked out and lounged in the pool before spending the rest of the day watching football. My Saints are no longer undefeated but who would have thought that H's Chiefs would be 1 of 2 teams left this season with a flawless record?! Craziness!

~ Yummy 2 for 1 blood orange margaritas at happy hour

~ 2 for 1 beers were enjoyed by the rowdy boys

~ Neat bar downtown completely decked out for Halloween

~ Always a photo bomb...

~ Me and H on Friday night

~ Feeding beer to a mechanical horse is normal right?

~ Riding side-saddle... what any classy lady would do while wearing a skirt

~ Best.jersey.ever! Never thought I'd feel that way here.

~ Group shot before we headed home Friday

 ~ About to get lost in the corn maze

~ All 4 of us at the pumpkin farm/corn maze

~ Coming down the slide to enter the corn maze

~ H and I in the corn maze

~ Riding my 1st tractor

~ Boys in the pool by the fire pit

~ After effects of our impromptu neighborhood gathering... good for the soul :)

Linkin' up with Sami for Weekend Shenanigans, hop on over and share your weekend with us.

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Pass Me a Margarita Please

Oh sweet beautiful Friday you are finally here :)

Tonight, we're meeting some friends downtown for happy hour at a new tequila bar. I can already taste the margaritas....

Tomorrow, we're going to a pumpkin patch for a hayride and the corn maze with some of our neighbor-friends armed with "adult apple cider" (psssst it's apple cider with caramel vodka and cinnamon). We're bringing all things fall together in one fell swoop! Can't wait to cross off some items from my fall bucket list.

Sunday, I plan on making apple butter and lazing away in the pool. 

Backin' that azzzzzz up with Whitney hop on over and back that thang up with us.

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You'll Never Truly Be Ready...

I haven't gotten personal on this little blog in a while.... so here it goes...

Thankfully, we haven't felt any pressure from either side of our family to have a baby which is really surprising since we've been married for almost 3 and 1/2 years. At first our plan was to wait a year after the wedding to start trying... then we wanted to be in our house for a year... and then it was I want to wait until after this vacation and that vacation. I've heard it over and over again... you will never really feel ready and there will always be excuses and no one is getting any younger over here.

Something HUGE hit me the other day... the longer WE wait the less time our kids will have with their grandparents and that breaks my heart. My grandparents were such a huge part of my life and I can't imagine it any other way.

..... but what if I never get my body back after working so hard to get to my ideal healthy weight?

......but what will I do when my friends are still out having a good time and I'm too exhausted/nauseous from being pregnant to even think about tagging along even though I can no longer drink?

..... how will traveling be while pregnant?

..... will I really never be able to sleep in again?

..... is it really going to put the kibosh on our sex life?

..... will I really have to give up caffeine? Girlfriend lives for her cup of yummy goodness in the morning!

..... how will Roxy react to a new baby and no longer being the princess of the house?

But you know what will trump all of that?! 

..... the unconditional love we'll both feel for our little bundle of joy

..... seeing H holding our baby for the 1st time

..... seeing the joy on our parent's faces when they see their grandchild for the 1st time

..... raising and helping to mold that beautiful baby into an amazing person

..... a little itty bitty adorable mini-version of H and I combined

..... decorating the nursery!

..... dinners out without a huge bar bill. It'll be nice to not be paying more for booze than for food on date nights

..... knowing that the baby was part of God's perfect plan for our lives

I guess the moral of the story is no one is ever truly ready and there will always be what if's but the what will be's totally outweigh them. 

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Benefit Loves

As I mentioned in my review for Stay Flawless there isn't a Benefit product that I've tried that I haven't totally loved. I love a lot of makeup lines, but have had some hits and misses and the only line that I've had only hits with is Benefit. No doozies here!

Benefit products I've tried and loved:

1. Stay Flawless loving this new primer. My make up is staying put much longer than ever before.

2. Erase Paste the only product that has ever worked for my hereditary under eye circles.

3. They're Real! is mascara like whoa! 

4. POREfessional minimizes my monstrous pores

5. Watt's Up! Beautiful highlighter that glides right on

6. Eye Bright great for the inner corners of my eyes that helps me actually look awake on Monday mornings

What Benefit products have you tried and loved?

Benefit

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Stuffed Peppers

I don't think I could love Pinterest anymore... aside from style inspirations, DIY projects, and home decor ideas I find the best recipes! My latest experiment was with stuffed peppers. My mom used to make them all the time, and yet I had never tried to make them myself.

I made these even healthier by swapping out ground beef with ground turkey ;-)

Ingredients:

~ Ground turkey

~ Can of no salt added corn (drained)

~ Can of reduced sodium black beans (drained)

~ 2 cups of cooked brown rice

~ 4 peppers (de-seeded)

~ 2 tbsp. of reduced sodium taco seasoning

~ Chopped scallions

~ Reduced fat cheddar cheese

~ Fat free sour cream

~ Extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

Brown the turkey in a pan and set aside

Cook the rice according to directions and set aside

Mix rice, turkey, taco seasoning, corn, beans, scallions, and cheese together in a large bowl. 

Cut the tops off the peppers and remove seeds

Drizzle extra virgin olive oil on the inside and cook peppers at 400 degrees for 20 minutes without anything inside. Remove from oven and wait until they are cool enough to touch. Once they're cool enough, fill with "stuffing" and place back in oven for another 20 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle cheese on top of the peppers and place back in the oven for a few minutes until cheese melts. Then dollop sour cream on top and enjoy.

Yummy, filling, and guilt free!

Joining Jessica and Ashley for the 1st time for Taste of Tuesday :)

Recipe

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Weekend Shenanigans

Oh weekend why must you be so short? Another fabulous weekend bites the dust....

This past weekend was the perfect combination of fun and relaxation which is what I love.

Friday, I wore my new Mariano Rivera tee I got for my birthday to go out for dinner and drinks.

~ Representing my fav baseball player of all time

~ Painted my nails with Essie's Fiji

~ Tall beers at dinner

~ Girls pic

~ Bucket o' beers out on the patio at an Irish pub

~ Group shot on the patio

Saturday, I got up and made breakfast which we enjoyed on the patio (my fav weekend morning tradition). H mowed the lawn and I worked on cleaning the house and then our friends we were with on Friday let us know that one of them left their phone in my car so they needed to come by later and pick it up. So, we told them to bring their bathing suits to enjoy the pool. H grilled some steaks and hot dogs and we swam for a bit before they went home.

Saturday night, H and I enjoyed a relaxing night in which included Netflix, my fav blanket on the couch, and my duggy. Perfect night!

Sunday, H went golfing with his dad and I worked out and lounged by the pool before making stuffed peppers for dinner. So yummy! I love ending my weekends on a relaxed note it helps me prepare for the week ahead. Oy... Mun-day.

Linkin' up with Sami for Weekend Shenanigans, hop on over and share your weekend with us :)

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SkinnyMini Friday

Oh sweet Friday you're here! I could really go for some SkinnyMinis... but ya know what? Yep they're not sold around here...

I was so excited when these came out considering how much I love the big bottle. Mini bottles that can fit in my purse and be smuggled into the movies, sporting events, the corn maze... etc.. genius! But I've searched long and hard for these cute little bottles and can't find them anywhere. So I took to twitter:

@GreenFashonista Hi Kate! You can try our product finder http://t.co/uUG66nCXay it should be able to help you. Cheers!
— Skinnygirl Cocktails (@Skinnygirl) September 27, 2013

Sadly the search didn't bring up any stores that carried it in Florida... craziness! I would have loved to have floated around in the pool this weekend with one of those cute little bottles. Wish I could just go back to Margaritafest so many yummy tequilas and margs. 

Looking forward to a relaxing weekend.... dinner and drinks tonight and lounging in the pool the rest of the weekend while H goes golfing with his papa-dukes. They're finally cashing in our Fathers Day gift of H taking him golfing now that they live down here too.

Backin' that azzzzz up with Whitney come shake it with us

Skinny Girl Margarita

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My love of sequins and wine combined

I'm a total sucker for all things sparkly and my closet is full of fun sequined beautifulness... but who knew that my love for sequins would be combined with my love for wine? Not this girl!

*Grainy iPhone Pic*

I was in the wine aisle at my happy place (Target) and noticed this pretty bottle and knew I just had to have it. Plus it was on sale... win-win. And it definitely was... absolutely delish! It was sweet, but not too sweet and my favorite part was how it's delicately bubbled. It's not quite champagne but not quite regular wine. Perfect amount of bubbles :)

Have you tried this deliciousness yet?

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Fall Bucket List

Since I never officially finished my summer bucket list, it's time to move on to my fall bucket list which will carry some things over from my summer list.

1. Pick my own pumpkin

I want to go to a pumpkin patch and actually pick my pumpkin not just pick one up at the grocery store or at a stand on the side of the road :-P

2. Decorate for fall not just Halloween

I want my fall decor to carry right through to Thanksgiving not just Halloween 

3. Lots of nights by the fire pit

4. Get lost in a corn maze

5. Carve a pumpkin

2011 Jack-o-lantern

2010 Jack-o-lantern

6. Go to a football game

Chiefs at Jets ~ 2008

Chiefs at Buccs game ~ 2012

7. Haunted Hayride

Last year during our trip to CT... they did an amazing job!

8.  Make pumpkin cheesecake and/or pumpkin spice cupcakes... pretty much getting my bake on again! Oooh and make apple butter for the first time.

9. Wine tasting

My bff and I at one of the wineries on the Connecticut Wine Trail

10. Indulge in s'mores and apple cider donuts

11. Watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Couldn't keep an even number on the list when we all know my love for all the holiday Charlie Brown specials :)

What's on your fall bucket list?

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Benefit Stay Flawless

I have yet to try out a Benefit product that I don't love. And their new primer Stay Flawless does not disappoint!

I have always been on the hunt for a great primer as I have oily skin and the humidity around here is no joke in the summer. Even with primer and makeup setting spray my face is a hot mess by lunch time usually *oy*

But I was intrigued by the promise of the 15 hour lasting power of this primer. I will say it definitely doesn't last 15 hours, but it does last MUCH longer than any other primer I've ever tried. It's like UD Primer Potion but for your face. It's THAT good!

Definitely a new staple in my makeup case

Benefit

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