Goooooo CATS! Kale receipe and Work OOTD

Yes, we are such loyal UK fans that I'll have Lallie wear a smocked UK cheerleader dress (can't see them but they're embroidered on) to church DURING football season IN Gator country!  :-)

The sun was in her eyes and this is a picture of a picture but isn't she sweet?  Her Sunday school teacher took this picture and gave me the hard copy (thus the horrible quality) but I didn't get any pictures of my own, so I'm happy!  She was NOT thrilled her dress was blue rather than pink so it took some coaxing to get it on!  She does love her CATS though (she's loving the pink on the football field for Breast Cancer Awareness month though she is clearly too young to understand why). 

She's also refusing to wear anything in her hair anymore *sigh*.  My baby is growing up! 

Here's a FABULOUS kale recipe my friend shared with me (I don't think she'll mind, thanks R!).  She and her husband are huge kale fans and have turned Husband and I onto the fun veggie as well.  Even Lallie tried it (but she didn't like the red wine vinegar flavoring).  I'm just thrilled she tried it because that means she's not afraid to try anything, even limpy, curly and weirdly colored veggies!  

And here is my work OOTD.  Black House White Market yet again!  I love their clothes and their fit on my particular body type.  They are my go-to place for anything work or cocktail related.  I should become a sales rep, think I'd get any fun perks?  Hmmm.....

(I need to get a better mirror if I'm going to continue with these.  Do you like me posting work OOTD's?)  

Happy Tuesday Y'all!

Misc: OOTD, Nails, Recipe, Martha, Eyebrows, Kenra

1.  My new, new favorite nail color.  Essie's Skirtin' the Issue.  I love it's shiny deep burgundy wine red (don't let the bottle color fool you), a great accessory to my OOTD of black and white (below #7).  Gives a little extra zing.

2.  Speaking of nails, Lallie would LOVE this glow-in-the-dark nail polish.  Might put some in her stocking for Christmas for a little extra fun!

3.  Last night we tried a new chicken recipe, Lemon Chicken (think Chinese lemon chicken, but healthier) and it turned out SO yummy!  I found it on Disney Family (20 ways to make chicken) and served it with Basmati rice and organic squash and zucchini.  It was a hit with the whole family.

Cut up three chicken breasts (1 lb.) into bite size pieces and marinate in 1 tsp. of soy sauce for 30 minutes.  In another bowl, mix one egg yolk with 1.5 tbsp corn starch and make a thick batter.  Add to the chicken to coat.  Add chicken to pan with 2-3 tbsp. canola oil (I used canola/olive oil mix) and cook on each side 3-4 minutes until brown and done.  In the meantime, in another pan, combine one lemon zest and juice (1/4 cup) to 1/4 cup water, 1 tsp. cornstarch and 2 tbsp. sugar.  Cook down until you have a thick(ish) sauce.  Pour chicken chunks over white rice, top with a little lemon sauce and mix together and top with scallions.  Yummy!

4.  There is a new show on PBS called Martha Stewart's Cooking School.  Totally needed in my house as I am not the best cook.   There are a few things I cook well but I could really brush up on technique.  I'm still not a fan of cooking, but Martha makes it look so easy!  Her first show was on how to cook eggs (scrambled, fried, omelet, frittata, hard/soft cooked).  Husband and I are absolutely making the Frittata with Fingerling Potatoes on Saturday morning.

 

5.  You know when you're sitting at a traffic light and you look to see another woman plucking her eyebrows right there in the car?  I always thought that was strange. Until I started waxing and plucking my own brows a few months ago.  I totally get it now!  For some reason (maybe the small confined mirror and daylight), I can completely see my brows and that one left over hair that I missed but couldn't see in my bathroom mirror.  So yes, I'm going to become that woman (though I will likely do in the comfort of a parking lot where no one is looking and not at traffic light where I'm distracted).  

6.  Thank you Hannah over at Sweet Tea and Stilettos for recommending a Kenra hair product.  She recommended the Platinum Hot Spray 20, but I went with the Thermal Hot Spray 19 for my needs.  I had been looking for a good thermal spray to use with my Chi flat iron but was not happy with the Chi thermal spray (left a funky residue in my hair).  So I picked up some Kenra and tried it out this morning.  So far so good!  I'll let you know the results after a few uses.

 

7.  And, last but not least, two work OOTD's for you!

Shirt (TJ Maxx find $5); Pinstripe pants (old, Tahari); Heels (Nine West, similar HERE); Jewelry (necklace, tear drop earrings, bangles, all Stella and Dot).  Nails: Essie Smokin' Hot

Shirt (elastic belted): Forever 21 (old); Cropped Pants: Ann Taylor similar HERE , Shoes: Tory Burch Reva HERE; Jewelry: Stella and Dot Necklace HERE and pearl stud earrings; Nails: Essie Skirting the Issue

Happy Wednesday Y'all!

Y'all, Meet Country Bumpkin

I'd like to introduce y'all to my brother-in-law's wife (though we just cut straight to the chase and call each other sisters-in-law).  Her name is Jessy LIT (or Jess to us) and you can find her over at Country Bumpkin!  Jess and her Husband live back home in the great state of Kentucky, right near my in-laws and they love country living!  You might remember their wedding.  I've known Jess for as long as I've known Husband.  She and Patrick were best friends even in middle school so, in my mind, Husband's family has always included Jess.

Jess now works full-time and her Husband is an attorney.  Until they're ready to have kids (hint, hint), they spend their time cooking, shopping, crafting, decorating, hunting, building, traveling, gardening, Kentucky basketball....you name it!  And Jess blogs about it all, including fashion (my favorite subject)!  One thing about the two of us....we both love to craft, decorate and shop while the men love to build, hunt and fish. 

The only real difference between us is that she cooks....and actually enjoys it! Me...not so much.

If you recall, a while back I posted about my MASSIVE recipe collection.  No, I do not enjoy cooking, but I do LOVE to read and collect recipes.  It's an obsession really.  I have cooked a few of them.  After all, I do enjoy eating and feeding my family (actually, it's kindof a technicality). 

For Christmas, I copied the entire recipe book of over 600 recipes and then left it at home.  Woops!  I FINALLY mailed it out to her a couple weeks ago and being the super crafter and even more organized than I, she went right to work putting her collections into a neat little binder.  Hers is much prettier than mine.

I think Jess has given me a little direction and inspiration on how to spice up my collection.  Now, where do I get a laminating machine?  Hmmm....

Please hop on over and check out Country Bumpkin.

Happy Thursday Y'all!

Derby Day 2012 - Let's Party!

 Husband and I threw a Kentucky Derby party this past Saturday. We've lived in Florida for 11 years now and have never had a party. We're usually traveling or at a wedding or something has usually had us preoccupied. But we've never missed watching the Run for the Roses (I remember watching it from an airport one year). This year, about ten days before, we realized that we didn't have anything going on for Derby Day 2012. So we threw together a last minute party, complete with Kentucky foods and tons of roses!

We had prizes for the best hat (two men were chosen from a pool to be the judges) and we had a free horse draw pool with the top three winners winning a Starbucks gift card. We also had a betting station with Husband as the bookie, that way any of our party-goers could place a real bet. We had two Derby winners in our group!

Here are the pictures from the event!

It was a casual event, but I dressed up a tad in my Lilly Derby skirt from last season, a Lilly tee shirt, Stephen Bonanno sandals and my monogrammed hat from Marley Lilly all decked out with a ribbon on pin-on flower. The judges chose my hat to win because it was monogrammed (despite my telling them NOT to choose me as I was the host! We ended up doing a draw from a bowl since they refused to choose another winner. They kept saying "But your hat is monogrammed!!" How can you blame them though, one of the judges was wearing seersucker pants and a pink polo....so yes, he's a sucker for a monogram. His lovely wife, Tori, won the draw...a $25 gift card to one of our local preppy boutiques).

The entrance was decorated with our Kentucky folk art horse by Minnie Adkins. We also have a larger version of the horse up on our pass-through to the kitchen (which is where he stayed as he's not cheap to say the least and quite fragile). I also had my Coton Colors cookie jar out which was used for the horse pool. Each guest drew a horse and if their horse won the Derby, they received a prize.

The bar area was ready with wine, Mint Juleps, water, sodas and juice boxes. I also had picture frames placed throughout the house giving little tidbits on Derby history. We had to "school" these Floridians!

Yes, I printed out the words to My Old Kentucky Home, which everyone proudly sang right before the running of the Derby.

The betting station where Husband and the men crowded most of the time.

Like I said, roses were everywhere. This arrangement was for the food table and had a history of the garland of roses displayed.

Enjoying a Mint Julep. An acquired taste, I was surprised that so many party-goers enjoyed this refreshing drink.

The kids weren't allowed to have the Bourbon Balls, so out of the leftover chocolate, we made "Furlongs." That was Husband's idea for a name. Isn't that cute?

Here are the Bourbon Balls made by Husband. It takes him three days to make these delactable bites.

I made two Kentucky Derby pies infused with Bourbon. They were SO yummy!

I also made mini Kentucky Hot Browns. I used the recipe found in the Kentucky Derby Museum cookbook I've had for years and was genuinely surprised how authentic these tasted. They were a hit!

Derby Day in Florida was very hot. We have a TV on our porch so Husband often watched the undercard races from this position right here.

Some of the ladies who sported hats! We had around 30 adults and 20 kids at the party. It was a zoo, but fun nonetheless!

These are the horse draw cards I made for the free pool.

Fun was had by all and I'm already getting requests to throw the same party again next year!

Happy Wednesday Y'all!

Pre-Made FRESH Veggie & Fruit Smoothies

You  might remember one of my fellow Lilly-loving friends, Lindsey (on the left in the photo below).  This picture was taken at my Lilly Pulitzer themed Stella and Dot party a few weeks ago.  They are both wearing vintage Lilly!  How fun!

Anyways, Lindsey is also a fresh fruit and veggie lover but often can't find time to prepare and fit them in her own diet...much like my family.  On facebook the other day, she posted an ingenious way of getting all your fruits in veggies in your diet and in a VERY easy way!  Smoothies! 

Basically, you make pre-made frozen smoothies bags.  Then in the morning, you pull one out, add some orange juice and blend....that's it!  Here's how it works.

Buy all your fruits and veggies.  Cut, slice and dice and then separate into bags (I made 12 bags, each bag containing two smoothies).  My shopping list included:

• 1 bunch of kale, 1 bunch of spinach, 2 apples, 2 mangoes, 3 bananas
• 1 bag each of frozen raspberries, peaches, blueberries and pineapple
• grapes, carrots and a bunch of strawberries

Lindsey likes to add cucumber and celery, but I left those out of mine.  It's all about your preference.  I also added a clump of wheat grass to each bag  (not pictured) from Lallie's wheat grass crop.

Here are pictures showing how much I added to each bag....basically a little of each but again, your preference.

That should say "2 slices of mango" - I messed up and deleted the picture before I could edit!


Here are my smoothie bags all finished and put together (it took about 30 minutes to combine everything).

Lindsey also likes to add two ice-tray cubes of plain frozen yogurt to each bag.  I just added a couple spoonfuls of yogurt in the morning rather than freezing.  It's whatever suits you!  

Dump it all in, add a little orange juice (maybe 1/4 to 1/2 cup) and blend!

And here's my finished smoothie this morning!  It's not very pleasant to look at but it was tasty!  Like a combination of orange juice and berries.

And here I am enjoying my smoothie, in my newest Lilly dress thanks to Hopsy!  :-)  I didn't have anyone to take my picture, so I had to improvise!  Ha!  I'm not even wearing lipstick yet!

In other news, I shaved off an entire 2 minutes of my 1/2 mile running time at Body Back last night!  16 weeks ago, I was running it in 7 minutes.  I'm so happy!  Two years ago I would have never dreamed I would be able to run and my heart would be able to handle it but I am doing it and I'm thrilled!  Watch out 5K, here I come!!  (My goal is to run my Junior League's 5K in December). 


I also had my blood work run the other day and I'm fit as a fiddle! Yay!!


Here's my other Body Back stats.
35 push ups in one minutes
18 sit ups in one minutes
2 minute 15 second plank
1 minute side plank
55 squats in one minute
I can't remember how many bicep curls with 10 lb. weights - I want to say 34, maybe 24.


PS - Lallie is at $225 of her $800 goal!  Thank you to all my fellow blog friends who have donated to her St. Jude's Trike-A-Thon quest!  She is so excited to ride in the Trike-A-Thon in 10 days!


Happy Friday Y'all!