Foodie Friday

Happy Friday and Happy day before New Year's Eve!!  In honor of this party day, I have a great recipe that I tried out this Christmas that is a great appetizer for your NYE party.  Its Brie en Croute...fancy name for Brie in a puff pastry.  I love brie, I love pastry and I love this appetizer.  Its creamy and delicious so try it out and let me know how much you love it!

Holiday Brie en Croute

(A Campbells Kitchen recipe)

Servings: 12    Prep Time: 15min  Cook Time: 20min    Stand: 1hr   Thaw: 45min   Difficulty: Moderate

Ingredients

·         1 egg                                     •1/3c dried cranberries

·         1 tablespoon water              • ¼ c toasted sliced almonds

·         All-purpose flour                  •1 (13-16oz) Brie cheese round (I used an 8oz block and left the rind on, tasted great to me, the larger block will just feed more people)

·         ½ of a 17.3-ounce package Pepperidge Farm® Puff Pastry Sheets (1 sheet), thawed

·         ½ cup apricot preserves or seedless raspberry jam

Instructions

Heat the oven to 400°F. Beat the egg and water in a small bowl with a fork.

Sprinkle the flour on the work surface.  Unfold the pastry sheet on the work surface. Roll the pastry sheet into a 14-inch square. Spread the preserves on the pastry to within 2 inches of the edge. Sprinkle with the cranberries and almonds. Place the cheese in the center of the pastry. Fold the pastry up over the cheese to cover. Trim the excess pastry and press to seal. Brush the seam with the egg mixture. Place seam-side down onto a baking sheet. Decorate with the pastry scraps, if desired. Brush with the egg mixture.

Bake for 20 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown. Let stand for 45 minutes. Serve with crackers.

**I dont do the fancy top, it tastes the same with or without it :) **

Nutrition

Calories: 393, Fat: 21g, Fiber: 1g, Protein: 13g, Sodium: 544mg

DId you love it?!  Tell me what you thought of this recipe.

Project Housewife Out!!

Thankful Thursday

On this foggy Thankful Thursday I am thankful for Texas Collie Rescue, they gave me my beautiful baby Oreo.

Oreo is a Border Collie, but they mainly rescue Collies.  The founders of Texas Collie rescue are such wonderful people, they love these animals and actually built a ranch just for all these dogs.  Its pretty amazing really, the awesome barn they have for these dogs, huge backyard to run in and plenty of love to go around.  Like most Rescue organizations they are in need of help, mainly adopting their precious dogs.  If you love animals as much as I do then go and adopt!!  There are plenty of homeless dogs out there who need your love, I know puppies are totally cute, but look at this face

How could you not love this face!!  Ok, well you cant have Oreo he is my baby, but Texas Collie Rescue has plenty of furry friends for you to love on.  Go check them out, donate, or adopt a furry friend of your own.  I love dogs they add so much love to your life and honestly are stress relivers.  I cant tell you how many times I've come home upset or frustrated and that little face melts my heart and makes me feel so much better.

Get out there an help, adopt a pet today!  Enough of my soap box, but Texas Collie Rescue is really who I am thankful for today, because without them Oreo could still be on the street and we never would have found him.

What are you thankful for today?  With the holiday season around Im sure there is something and I would love to hear from you!!

Project Housewife Out!!

Quick Curtains

As you know from yesterday, I love my bathroom...finally.  I love the fresh green and white colors and the accents I added to the room.  One of those accents is the curtain.

Originally this window had blinds on them and I just dont think blinds belong in a bathroom.  So we frosted the window (frost film you can buy at lowes and slap on the window, takes 30minutes, seriously you should do this) and then I KNEW I needed to add a curtain or SOMETHING on this window, it was just so bare.  I found an article in "Decorating Shortcuts" (2011) on how to make this curtain and tried my hand at it.  So without further ado, here is how to make this lovely curtain.

Supplies:

• Fabric (I used outdoor fabric because its thick and heavy, but you can use whatever you love most)
• Fusible Hem tape ( I made the mistake of getting the ribbon hem tape not the kind that goes inbetween the seams, it works but is not as nice to look at)
• Ribbon
• Tension Rod
• Embelishments (you cant really see them but I have crystal tassles hanging from the ribbon)

Instructions:

1. Measure the inside of your window frame and add two inches to the width and three inches to the length.  I bought extra just in case I messed up a cut, but I always buy more fabric than I need, which is sometimes a good thing, I have used this fabric twice more from this curtain.
2. Cut fabric to your measurements
3. Fold each long side over 1/2 inch, then fold again another 1/2 inch (see why you need the extra inches, this makes for a much nicer hem in the back if you do it this way).  Press with an iron, insert hem tape in the fold and iron over again.
4. Follow the same method for the bottom side but on the top side fold over 1/2 inch then 1 1/2 inches to make the flap for the tension rod.  Insert hem tape and iron.
5. Insert the tension rod into the pcoket and hang.
6. Cut two equal pieces of ribbon, about 1 1/2 times the length of your window.
7. Accordian fold the bottom of the curtain to the desired length and tie the ribbons into a bow.  Note here, you will probably want help with this, I had a really hard time holding the curtain and tying the bow at the same time.  You may be more skillful than I, but holding the according fold just right and trying to tie a bow was frustrating the heck out of me.
8. If you have embelishments you can add them now, I always like to wait until the end and add them, you can do whatever order you like but I prefer the end.

(Here is the side view of the curtain and a better view of the bathroom, more to come later on that)

Well that was easy right?!  I hope you had fun making a curtain, I cant wait to make more for my media room and laundry room!  Share yours here, I would love to see the awesome fabrics you find.


Im Linking Up!  at addapinch.com, come check me out



Project Housewife Out!

Easy Custom Mirror

I have a confession...I LOVE my bathroom.  Ok so there are things I want to change but that requires construction, but the bathroom as it is right now, I love my bathroom.  This is the 2nd attempt at my bathroom though, the first try just wasnt my style and I decided to change it.  My husband was none to happy (he hates painting) but the new result I love so much.  Ok enough with the love fest, Im going to tell you how to make these awesome mirrors.  I hate the builder standard mirrors, they are so boring and plain I needed something more original.  Before I tell you how to make this, here is a list of supplies that I used, but feel free to make this project your own:

• Mirrors
• Frame to fit mirrors (color of your choice)
• hardware to hang mirror
• mosaic tiles (color of your choice)
• super glue

I have to say I was really lucky, my old town home had these two great pieces of glass in one of the closets and I knew I had a great use for them.  I did have to get the class cut a little to make the pieces even and it fit in the frame but that cost a whole of $10, compared to who knows how much a mirror costs I know I did great on that.  The frames I used are 24x36 white wood frames from Michaels at 50% off there were a great deal for $30 total.  The tiles in the corner are mosaic tiles from Michaels at $6 each they spice up the corners and really make the mirrors look custom.  To set the tiles on the mirror, we put them where we wanted them first then set them with super glue (you know the kind that will glue your fingers together).  We let that dry overnight then added the hardware to the back of the frame.  For some reason these frames didnt come with anything to hang them with (silly Michaels) so we had to go to Home Depot to get hanging materials.  We bought the heavy duty hangers that interlock so they are very sturdy and wont fall off.  Each frame is probably around 25pounds so make sure you get hardware that can support the weight you have.  Once you get your hardware up, hang the mirror and you are good to go. 

(sorry for the elbow shot :)  )

On a side note, if you do have the big builder standard mirro you can always frame that or you can take it to a glass shop and they can cut it for you.  I was going to repurpose mine in the dining room, but unfortunatley my dog knocked it over and broke it into a lot of little pieces so that was a total waste (let me tell you I was pissed when I saw all the glass on the carpet, what a mess to clean up!)

Have fun spicing up your bathroom, I would love to see how it turns out, post a picture or comment of your bathroom change-up!

Project Housewife Out!

Merry Christmas to You

I know Im a day late, but cooking for my family takes a long time!  So today I am wishing you a Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year.  I hope you had a fabulous holiday with your family and friends and that you will be blessed in 2012.  I always love Christmas, all the hard work and thought I put into the differnet gifts for people, finally seeing their faces when they open your gift and they are so excited about it, I love seeing that it makes my Christmas. 

What holiday traditions do you have that you love and make your day?  This year was the first year we had Christmas Day and my house and I cant wait to continue that tradition for years to come.  Of course I am the only one in the family that goes all out with the decorations but still, I love Christmas and I love hosting Christmas at my house.

I promise a house tour will come, but for right now here is our pretty christmas tree with our hodge podge or ornaments. 

Merry Chrismas and Happy New Year!!

Project Housewife Out!

Foodie Friday

Christmas is upon up!  Are you ready?  I hope none of you have to go out in the crazy hectic traffic for any last minute gifts...but Im sure some of you will have to.  I have to admit I have been done since Black Friday, but Im crazy like that and am a lover of all things amazon.com so dont hate me too much :)

Today I am going to share with you a chicken recipe that ROCKED MY WORLD.  I made this for my husband (minus the almonds because I hate nuts on my food) and oh man we scarfed it up.  So withouth further ado, I lovingly present

Strawberry Balsamic Chicken

(this picture does not do the tastiness justice)

(A Taste of Home recipe)

Servings: 4               Prep Time: 5min             Cook Time: 15min                    Difficulty: Moderate

Ingredients

·         3-4 tbsp olive oil

·         4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves

·         ½ tsp salt

·         ¼ tsp pepper

·         1/3c finely chopped almonds ( I dont use this)

·         ¼ c minced shallots or green onions

·         1/3c chicken broth

·         1/3c strawberry preserves

·         3tbsp balsamic vinegar

·         1tbsp chopped fresh rosemary or 1tsp dried rosemary

·         1 pkg (10oz) frozen spinach, cooked

Instructions

In a large nonstick skillet, heat olive oil over medium high heat.  Season chicken with salt and pepper; dredge in almonds.  Place chicken in oil; cook for 4min on each side or until no longer pink.  Remove chicken from pan and keep warm.

Reduce heat to medium.  Saute shallots 1min.  Add chicken broth, preserves, vinegar, and rosemary.  Simmer, uncovered, until slightly thickened, about 3min.  Place warm spinach on serving platter; top with chicken and pour balsamic sauce over all.  Sprinkle with parsley.

If you love it, or hate it let me know I would love to know what you think!

Project Housewife Out!

Thankful Thursday

Today is Thankful Thursday!  This Thursday I am thankful for Shape's line of workout videos.

This is one of the videos I use and I love it!  Great arms, legs and abs.  Here is the link so you can get an awesome body too!  I use this one and the abs video and they are a great workout in the morning.  In a few weeks Im going to start training for my 2 half marathons in 2013 but until then this keeps me in a good routine.  I know its kind of a silly thing to be thankful for but I know some women, me included, have a hard time finding workouts that work for them.  This one works for me and hopefully it will work for you to.

Have any great workout, or videos you use and love?  Share them, I would love to hear what keeps you fit and motivated!

Project Housewife Out!

Christmas Ornaments

Its almost Christmas!!  Is everyone as excited as I am?!  In honor of it being Christmas I am going to share with you my favorite Christmas ornament decoration.  I have been doing this for years and love them.  Hopefully you will too!!  The top picture is one I made last year and here are a few others.

This one didnt turn out so good because of the crappy paint

Now to tell you how to do it...its really easy but is a major waste of paint.  I love them though so I say its worth it.  As you can see from the white ornament though it does matter what kind of paint  you get, not all paint is created equal and you can tell from that pic for sure.  I buy Folk Art metallic pain and it seems to work the best

I use all colors, usually more red/green/white because those are classic Christmas colors, but I love using fun colors too like pink and blue.  I did black and pink once too so the possibilities are endless!  The supplies you need are:

• Glass ornaments
• acrylic paint assorted colors
• ribbon
• ornament tray (keep the packaging the ornaments come in you are going to need it)
• embelishments (optional)

First step is to take the top off of the ornaments, the top being the silver part where you hook the ornament to the tree.  Once you have the top off you can start pouring in your paint.  I do one color at a time but you can do whatever you want.  In the picture below you can kind of see an example of that.  I usually do 5 stripes of paint.  After you get the paint in, start swiriling it around.  The more stripes you have the easier I find it to be to get paint coverage. 

This is also why I said this is wasteful of paint, because after you have the ornament covered in the marble pattern you love, dump the ornament over and have all the paint drip out.  I use the plastic ornament try to do this, but I have seen people use plactic cups and that looks like a good idea too.  I usually let these sit like that overnight to let the paint dry and get all the excess paint out.  When you think yours are ready put the top back on, add your embelishments and top with a ribbon.  Pretty easy right!

I would love to see your awesome ornament creations, share if you have some awesome ones!!

Project Housewife Out!

Custom Nightstand

Oh how I miss cable for 1 reason only...HGTV.  David Bromstad and Color Splash I miss you dearly.  You provided me with countless inspiration for so many rooms in my house, but I would love a homemake over from you for free if you can make that happen that woud be great :)

So today's project was a direct inspiration from a Color Splash episode where honestly I didnt really like the room but I LOVED the nightstands he did.  Mine are a modified version of what he did but still I love them.  Here is a picture to give you an idea of what is in store.

Yes I know I need to work on my photography, but I just got a camera and am still learning with it so bear with me.  Ok so this night stand is SUPER easy, its just a four-sided box with a top.  The bottom I left open because I really didnt need a bottom.  What you need for this project is:

• 1 sheet of plywood 1/2 inch thick
• white glossy paint
• wood primer paint
• sander/sand paper (medium and fine)
• table saw
• jig saw
• wood putty
• caulk
• pattern for your choice.
• nail gun

Ok once you have all your supplies you are ready to cut.  The sides are 24 1/2 inches tall and 15 1/2 inches wide.  Cut 4 pieces of plywood to that measurement.  For the top piece it needs to  be 15 1/2 x 15 1/2.  My night stand is a perfect box but my husband wanted a lip on his so you can make some modifications to the top to make what you want of it.  Personally I like the box look but he likes his better so whatever you like works. 

Once you have all your pieces together now comes the fun part...tracing your pattern onto the wood.  I put my pattern on the front and top of the night stand but you can do as little or as much as you want.  David Bromstad's version had an open front (so no plywood piece there) and the carving was on both sides but not the top.  I think having it on the top shows more of the design when its lit up, but thats just my opinion.  My design you see there is a freehand design so I dont have a pattern to share with you but Im sure you can find some great ones on google.  This is the top.

Now that the pattern is on the wood you are ready to cut, thats what you need the jig saw for, since its not a straight line.  Be patient with this it does take some time but it is well worth the time it takes.  If you have never used a jig saw before, you may want to practice on a scrap piece of wood to get the hang of it first.

After you have cut the pattern out of all the pieces you want you can now nail all the pieces together.  Start by nailing all the sides together then once those are all together nail the top down.  After you have nailed everything down you need to caulk where the pieces of wood meet to make a smooth edge.  You dont have to do this step but it does look better if you do.  After caulking use the wood putty to fill all the holes in the wood, for example using a nail gun makes holes so putty where that hole is.  After you have caulked and puttied you are ready to sand.


Sanding is a very important step to make your nightstand smooth.  Also since you used a jig saw that can make rough edges and need to be sanded to have a nice finished look.  Use the medium sand paper for the first round of sanding then move to the fine for the next sanding steps.  You will want to sand at least twice before priming.  After you sand you can prime.  Let the primer dry and sand the night stand again.  You may  want to do this step a few times.  Priming brings all the pulp out of the wood and the more you sand the smoother it gets so use your judgement on how many times you should do this.  I recommend at least twice.  After you are happy with your priming and sanding you are ready to paint with glossy paint.  Really you can do any kind of paint but I love glossy for furniture it just looks better.  After you apply your coat of paint you are DONE!!

My finishing touches were the glass top so things dont fall thought the top of the nightstand and a light at the bottom so I can see my awesome designs on the walls at night.  Here is the light, I found this one at Lowes and it works great.

I love my nightstand, what do you think?!?

Project Housewife Out!

I linked up with While He was Napping come check it out!

I linked up with A Bowl Full of Lemons come check it out!

Foodie Friday

YAY for Friday!!  Today is Foodie Friday and Im going to share with you one of the recipes I make for Christmas Cookies.  I love christmas cookies, making the dough, cutting them out, but I HATE decorating them.  I dont know why, I just hate decorating cookies, but se la vie we all have to do things in life we dont really like.  So lets get to the recipe shall we?!  Today is Eggnog Cutout Cookies.  I love these because the spice is subtle and the decorating is a snap!  I divide the icing recipe into 4 bowls and dye them different colors to make fun solid color cookies.  Here is the recipe:

Eggnog Cutout Cookies

(A Taste of Home recipe)

Servings: 4dozen         Prep Time: 25min           Chill: 1hr            Bake: 10min        Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon eggnog
• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Icing

• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg, optional
• 4 to 5 tablespoons eggnog (the better quality eggnog the better the icing, thick is good)
• Liquid or paste food coloring, optional

Instructions

• In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs. Stir in eggnog. Combine the flour, salt, baking soda and nutmeg; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or until easy to handle.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/8-in. thickness. Cut with floured 2-1/2-in. cookie cutters. Place 2 in. apart on greased baking sheets.
• Bake at 375° for 8-10 minutes or until edges begin to brown. Remove to wire racks to cool.
• In a small bowl, beat the confectioners' sugar, nutmeg if desired and enough eggnog to achieve icing consistency. Add food coloring if desired. Spread over cooled cookies; let stand until set. 

A note from me...when you roll them out you need  ALOT of flour, they can be kinda sticky and the first batch will not un-stick from the surface, but once you get to the second, third, fourth batch they turn out great.  Just be prepared to use a lot of flour.

I love these cookies and hope you do too!  Make sure and share :)  If you have any interesting variations to share let me know I would love to hear how you made this recipe your own!

Project Housewife Out!

Thankful Thursday

Today is Thankful Thursday and Im glad of it because I need to be reminded what I am thankful for today.  It has been a long week back from vacation, because lets be honest no one would come back from vacation if they didnt need the money!  Which leads me to what I am thankful for today.  I am thankful for great friends who keep you going through the week.  Sometimes you need a boost of happy and good friends are more than happy to give that to you, or a boost of reality if you need that too :)  So along with being thankful for good friends, Im going to give a shout out to Lauren with Ellanesque, and awesome Wedding Planner who does really classy, fun weddings.  If you are looking to get married and want some help (be honest you know you need help) then check her out here.  I leave you with another picture from our Disney Vacation...this time one to feed my Harry Potter obsession.

Of couse you cannot compare this castle to Cinderella's castle they are vastly different styles and represent vastly different things, but I love this castle too, and the ride is SPECTACULAR! 

Now I want to hear from you, what are you thankful on this Thursday morning?

Project Housewife Out!

Family Tree

I have this blank wall in my bedroom that I wanted to do something with but couldnt figure out what.  We toyed with shelved that we put pictures on, but the door would hit it so that was thrown out.  Then I saw an article in a home design magazine (I cant remember which one it was a while ago) that had a girl sitting in a chair and a tree wall decal was next to her.  Well I started thinking it would be cool to have  BIG tree on the wall that I would hang pictures from (hense the title family tree).  So I was on the hunt for the best tree I could find.  I went to a bunch of websites with no great success until I went to Etsy.com and of course I had countless pages of great trees to choose from.  Here is a link to the tree I bought.  Great price, awesome product.  I wish they had a few more colors to choose from but oh well, the tree was worth it.  So I get the tree in the mail, and since I ordered different colors it came in seperate pieces.  Like, the leaves all had to be put on individually...wow that took 6 hours.  No joke it was a chore.  Below is a picture of the finished product and I think it was well worth the 8 total hours it took to do this.

I havent added the pictures yet because I want to just enjoy the tree right now.  Although I have a confession, I want to change my wall color to a slate gray, like the leaves in this picture.  Dont know how Im going to do that since I dont want to get rid of the tree, sounds like a project for late 2012 :)  Anyway, this tree, the seller was great they sent instructions and a video link showing you how to do it.  Putting up the base was pretty easy, you just have to go slow and be careful not to rip it.  Patience is a key with this since it does take a long time.  I love my tree, but what do you think?!  Should I add pictures to it or leave it alone?  If you had a big empty wall what would you put on it?  I want to hear from you!!

Project Housewife Out!

Sharing My Failures

Up until today I have shared with you all my success stories.  Today, I am sad to say I have a failure to share with you.  A few weeks ago I tried my hand at crayon art and have to say it turned out pretty well.  You can see it here.  Since those turned out so well I decided I would try one for either side of my TV.  So here is what I started with.

Thats 2 15x30 canvasas, painted with the red "basic" paint covered in glitter.  Here is another view of the canvases.

You can kinda see the glitter better here.  So in my infinite wisdom, I thought this shade of red would be a good backdrop for my crayon art idea.  The bottom 1/2 would be the grass and the top 1/2 would be the sky.  I would add flowers and butterflies to make it 3-dimensional and it would be fabulous next to the tv.  Well I started with the hair dryer and here is what happened.

I wanted to melt the crayons down so you didnt really see them but didnt think that when they melted you would see the canvas behind it anymore.  I tried to put embellishments on it to make it look better but that didnt really work out, you can see that here.

I think the major problem is the red background.  Im going to try and paint over it with possibly yellow, but right now I just put it to the side because Im mad at it!  So there you have it...not everything I make looks amazing or even that good.  This is my cautionary tale that crayon art is NOT as easy as it looks.

What craft failues have you had?  I would love to hear from you!!

Project Housewife Out!

Gingerbread Mess

As you may know I made an Advent Calendar that has Christmas experiences for us to do every day.  Over the weekend was "Make a House so sweet" otherwise known as make a gingerbread house.  On Black Friday my husband and I bought the gingerbread village set from Target (I would give a link but its not on their website).  Oh what a clever idea, instead of making one house we will make a little village.  How quickly I forget that the simple tasks become my arch nemisis.  Here is the project and supplies all laid out for you to see just how "easy" this is going to be.

Oh now nice, they give you the icing in a nice bag and the houses are all in pre cut squares...oh you are so wrong my friends!!  First off, of the the houses is already cracked.  You can see a better view here.

The icing bag was a piece of crap and burst open after the first house.  The green and red icing bags didnt even have the nice tip on them so you could draw nice straight lines so they were all messy and crappy.  And when my husband tried to bread apart the already broked house he broke it even more.  Good thing icing is like cement because it can hid many sins.  I tried to do the construction of the houses but once the icing bag broke I was done with that.  I tried to decorate them and realized how evil the red and green icing bags were so I resorted to putting the icing on my fingers and using my fingers.  Im sorry if that grosses you out, but hey you arent eating it so dont worry about it :)  I think the houses turned out ok, but man next year I will do 1 house not a village, no matter how cute that village looks.  And I will NOT do the santa sleigh or train gingerbread...I know I will end up throwing those out the window, no sir I wont even think about those!

So here is my little message patched together village.  Its kinda cute but next year I will be doing one house and one house only.  Merry Christmas from my little Christmas village.

Project Housewife Out!

Holiday Spirit

Well we're back from our Disney Christmas vacation and missing the holiday spirit that only Disney can create.  For those of you who have never been to Walt Disney World during the holidays you are really missing out.  The main reason we got (other than the beautiful Castle decked in lights) is for the Osborne Family Spectale of Dancing Lights at Hollywood Studios.  These lights are truly spectacular!  The Imagineers at Hollywood Stuidos start putting these lights up in August and it is well worth all the blood, sweat and tears Im sure they put into it.  I would post a video of the show, but Im not sure I can because of the music they use and licensing and all that, but here is a link to the Wikepedia page for some info (I know Wikepedia sucks but its helpful when the family doesnt have their own website.) Click Here for the link.
The Osborne family, well Jennings really always inspires me.  He was a simple man that just had the spirit of Christmas and a love for his daughter.  What started out as a simple request for Christmas lights on their house, turned into buying the houses on either side of their house to add more Christmas lights.  Eventually complains were made to the city and Jennings had to take them down, but fortunately for the world Disney stepped in and gave them permenant residence in Hollywood Studios.  What inspires me most about Jennings is that he was so giving, not only did he had the light show, but he also helped feed the hungry with annual barbeques and generous donations.  This man inspires me to be better and do better.  Maybe one day I will have so many lights my neighbors will have a ceist and decist order aginst me.  Maybe one day my display will go down in infamy and not just because of the display but because of all the good I did in life.  That day isnt here yet, but maybe one day  :)


Here is a picture of the lights, and this is just a taste, when the show is going you dont move because you cant, the lights mezmorize you can root you to the ground.  I stood and watched these lights for an hour and still felt like it wasnt enough.  Ok so I have an obsession with Christmas and Christmas lights, but can you blame me they are awesome!

This is just one shot of the street, but I think it gives a good idea of how cool the lights are.  And because I know you need to see it, here is the beautiful castle that I just cant get enough of.

Project Housewife Out!!

Bows A'Bound

Bows A'Bound by rbsaldana featuring mary jane shoes

Paprika top
rarefashion.co.uk

KATE HILL slimming pants
$50 - lordandtaylor.com

Mary jane shoes
$35 - modcloth.com

VBH crocodile handbag
£8,989 - farfetch.com

Monica Vinader sterling silver studs earrings
£135 - harrods.com

Olive jewelry
oliverbonas.com

Rimmel London Quad Eyeshadow
$8.09 - asos.com

Dior New Dior Vernis Nail Lacquer
$22 - lordandtaylor.com

Foodie Friday!

HAPPY FRIDAY!  Im especially happy about this Friday because tomorrow we leave for Walt Disney World and the Christmas madness that only Disney can do!  So next week my posts will be about the fabulous expolits of our time in Disney.  We are going to be visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter also so prepare for the amazingness of that too.  In case you didnt know, I am obsessed with Harry Potter and Disney...I wish the Wizarding World of Harry Potter would have been bigger but Universal (which I loath) wasnt as smart as Disney and doesnt have acers of land that they can expand on.  Oh well, thats why Walt Disney World will always be the best!  Ok enough of that tangent, on to bigger and better things...FOOD!!!  Today I am going to share with you a Weight Watchers recipe that I happen to love.  Actually I love all the recipes that I have made from Weight Watchers, but this one is amazing.  This recipe calls for pork, but I dont love pork so we use chicken, but thats easy enough to figure out so here is the recipe.

Sweet and Sour Pork

(A Weight Watchers Recipe)

Points: 7               Servings: 6          Prep Time: 20min             Cook Time: 45min         Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

• cooking spray (1 spray)
• 1 1/2 lbs lean pork tenderloins, cut into thin strips
• 15 ounces canned unsweetened pineapple chunks
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon table salt
• 1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce
• 2 medium green peppers, sliced
• 1 small onion, sliced
• 3 cups cooked brown rice, kept warm

Instructions

Heat a nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat.

Add pork and cook until golden brown, about 8 to 10 minutes; remove from skillet and set aside. Drain any remaining fat from skillet.

Drain pineapple chunks, reserving juice; set aside.

Combine water, vinegar, sugar, cornstarch, salt, soy sauce and reserved pineapple juice in a small bowl; add to skillet and cook until sauce is slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. Add pork; cook covered over low heat until meat is tender, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes.

Add peppers, onion and pineapple chunks; cook 5 minutes. Serve over rice. Yields about 1 cup of pork and 1/2 cup of rice per serving.

Nutrition

Calories 343.4,Calories from Fat 44,13%,Total Fat 4.9 g,7%,Saturated Fat 1.5 g,7%,Cholesterol 73.7 mg,24%,Sodium 348.4 mg,14%,Total Carbohydrate 47.7 g,15%,Dietary Fiber 3.7 g,15%

Sugars 18.1 g72%, Protein 26.7 g 53%

I love this recipe and you can have so much fun with this.  When Im feeling lazy, I get the frozen 3 bell pepper mix from kroger and use that rather than the fresh stuff, or you can get the asian stir-fry blend and use that...with veggies you have so many options!  Like I said earlier I also sub chicken for pork, but you could also do beef if you wanted to, the basic principles of the recipe stay the same, the only big change is the nutrition/points value.

Have fun making this, and if you have some awesomely great variation share, I would love to hear what you did!

Project Housewife Out!