Saturday, September 29, 2012

Deal Date

Have I ever mentioned how much I love Groupon, KSL Deals, and Living Social?

Oh yeah, like a million times.

Tonight, Jer and I had a deal date. I think sometimes I embarrass him with how cheap I am, but hey, they don't offer these deals for nothin!

Color Me Mine: Groupon
 We decided to choose one thing to paint and then each paint half and not show each other what we did until we were finished.
This was in the early stages and as you can see, we were both having the same idea with the blue. Of course, our two sides came out very different from each other but we will leave you in suspense until we pick up our vase on Thursday!

We finished the evening with a KSL deal we bought. $6.20 for $16 worth of food at Los Hermanos. One of our favorites. (*Note: this deal is usually 8 for 16 but that particular day they had a DEAL on top of a DEAL! 20% off any KSL deal, pretty redundant (I just used the word deal 5 times) but please, you just can't pass that up.)

We had a psychic waiter. Here's how the conversation went.

Jer: I'll double your tip if you can guess what I'm going to order.

Waiter: I'm going to go with the chimichanga.

Jer: With what meat?

Waiter: Chicken.

Jer: How did you do that?!

Later.....

Jer: Can you break this $20 for me?

Waiter: How would you like me to break it?

Jer: Just however you want.

Jer: (To Katie and I while the waiter is gone.) What would be really awesome is if he read my mind and gave me a 10, 5 and five ones.

Waiter brings back a 10, 5 and five ones.

Jer: Dude, I think you and I are long lost twins separated at birth.

Katie came down this afternoon to shop at SexyModest and to watch the Relief Society broadcast so she joined Jer and I for dinner and then ended up paying for us. What a sweetie!

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Little Man

I love this little guy, oh, and the people he belongs to, too.
 This is Beck Eric Bready. Jer and I got to visit him and his parents (our BFF's Eric and Court) today at the hospital. This is baby number two for them.
Love him!

Check out these pics of little Harper, (their first) taken just over a year ago.
 
 Don't they look alike?
 Now she's a big sis!

 I love being able to visit all these sweet little angels. So fun! Congrats to our besties the Breadys!


Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Breakfast of Champions

This is my favorite breakfast combo as of late.
My dad used to always eat the big Shredded Wheat blocks broken up in a bowl with milk and strawberry jam (made by mom.)

This is my version of dad's breakfast with my own twist.

Mini shredded wheat (unsweetened)
sliced bananas
homemade strawberry jam drizzled on top
milk

Love it, and it keeps me full for hours. When you're halfway through, you have strawberry milk. :o)

Here's a great deal I discovered:

I've been coveting a certain swimsuit from Hapari ever since the summer but it has been full price. Today I decided to see if it had been put on sale what with the rain and fall-ness and such.

Everything is 30% off on their site with the code FALL30 at checkout. Here is the link.

You can thank me later.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Dance Party

Remember the name of our blog?

Jer and I went to a dance party last night.

Yes. A dance party, south of campus, with a DJ and everything.

And we rocked it. Like it was 2006.

Who says married people are boring??

We're not.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Wednesday/Thursday Winners

 Just as a precursor, those of you who are Utahans: There is a deal today on KSL deals where you can get an extra 20% off all of their deals. Just use the promo code 20extra a checkout. Totally awesome. We definitely got one for Los Hermanos. Here is the link to the site.


Dessert first!
Cooking Light Caramelized Banana Bread with Brown Butter Icing
Ingredients:
4 tablespoons butter, divided
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
3 medium ripe bananas
1/2 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons canola oil
2 tablepsoons rum (optional; can be replaced with 1-2 teaspoons rum extract or 1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract)
2 large eggs
9 ounces (about 2 cups) all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons milk or half and half
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 9×5″ loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
Slice the bananas. Set aside.
Over medium-high heat, melt 3 tablespoons butter. Add the bananas and brown sugar and saute for 4 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and cool for 10 minutes.
Place the banana mixture in a large bowl or the bowl of an electric stand mixer. Beat on medium speed until smooth.
Combine the buttermilk, oil, rum or extracts, and eggs in a large liquid measuring cup. Set aside. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Beginning and ending with the flour mixture, alternately add it to the banana mixture, mixing on low speed until just combined.
Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan. Bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes or until golden brown on top and a pick inserted into the center comes out with moist crumbs clinging to it. Cool for 10 minutes and then remove the bread from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack.
To prepare the glaze, melt the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter in a small saucepan or skillet over medium-high heat for 2-3 minutes or until it begins to get brown and fragrant (careful…things can go south REALLY quickly. Be sure to remove from heat as soon as it starts to get brown.) Whisk in the powdered sugar and milk or half and half and drizzle over the cooled banana bread and allow the glaze to set before slicing. Supposedly makes 16 slices (ha).

*I totally burned my loaf on the outside, I like to blame my oven :o). After cutting the outside off, this bread was super delish!

Lunch:
Avocado Egg Salad
  • 4 hard-boiled eggs
  • 1 large avocado, cubed as you see above
  • 2 tablespoons mayonnaise or Vegenaise (we used it b/c we don't love mayo)
  • 1 teaspoon curry or fenugreek powder
  • Pinch of salt and pepper

*This was such a fun spin on regular old egg salad. The curry made it really yummy. I added some dill relish to mine and it gave it just the right zing that I like.

Dinner:
Crockpot Tortilla Soup
I adapted a recipe from my Crock Pot Best Loved Slow Cooker Recipes cookbook.

Here's what I threw in my Crock Pot:
-3 large chicken breasts
-2 cans undrained diced tomatoes
-fresh chopped green chiles (about 1/2 cup)
-1 yellow onion diced
-2 cloves minced garlic
-1/2 can of chicken broth (to start)
- 1 tsp cumin
-about 1 cup frozen corn
-1 can black beans drained
salt and pepper to taste
Cook this on low in your crock pot for about 6 hours.

Remove chicken from pot and shred with two forks, return to crock pot.

Add:
4 corn tortillas sliced into thin strips
2 tb fresh chopped cilantro
Remaining chicken broth if needed
Mix in and let warm through (just a few minutes is great)

Serve with sour cream, cheese, avocado, and tortilla chips.

*YUM! Leftovers were just as good.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Little Shop

Little Shop of Horrors!
Jer and I went to see this pretty lady play Ronnette in the trio of Little Shop of Horrors at the Scera Indoor Theater.

It was such a fun show, even Jer was entertained! And we got an awesome Daily Herald deal, two for one!

I would totally recommend seeing this show, it is the perfect length and you can find tons of deals for tickets everywhere!

Here is a link to one of the deals.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Couples Retreat

While we were in Nauvoo, we had some awesome roommates, the Thornocks! Way back then, we decided to plan a fun getaway for the fall, so we put it on our calendars.

Jer's Nanny and Papa live in beautiful Cache Valley and have some amazing property with a fully furnished log home that they often rent out. They were so sweet to let us come up and have some fun with our friends.

I bet Car got some awesome pictures of our fun campfire dinner when we first got there, we had tin foil dinners and yummy banana boats!

 Saturday morning we all slept in and then Chase made us some SCD omlettes. (Jer and I weren't quite all the way SCD :o))
Such a fresh, yummy meal.
 Then we took an easy little hike and enjoyed the changing leaves.

 Jer found a sweet walking stick.
 Chase, checkin out the fishing.
 Mountain man.
The girls in the great outdoors. (Notice our BYU pride shirts?)
 A yummy kebab lunch to fuel us for...
 A little bit of archery.
Yes, I did shoot that fake deer right in the eyeball. It only took me like 20 tries.
An artsy silhouette picture of the sunset, aka we couldn't get the flash to work. :o)

And then....we watched the game. We won't talk about that.


We spent a lovely Sunday morning sleeping in and going to church and then we took off back to reality, but it sure was fun and relaxing while it lasted! Such a fun weekend, can't wait to do it again!



Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Wednesday Winners

Here are a few greats for ya.

No dessert this week :o(.

Chicken and Cornmeal Dumplings
Click here for the recipe.

Cheesy Zucchini Rice
Click here for the recipe.

YUM.

Zucchini Yogurt Muffins
Click here for the recipe.

Monday, September 10, 2012

Sisters, Sisters...

There were never such devoted sisters!

Happy Birthday to my big sis Katie!

"God knew I loved you too much to just be your friend, so He let me be your sister."

Hope you've had a great day!



Sunday, September 9, 2012

Brussels Sprouts

First of all, my husband just informed me last night that the ABC's are sung to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Um, how did I get through my almost 25 years of life not realizing this?!

I feel stupid, but whatever. :o)

Secondly, did you all know that today was our ward's primary program? Neither did we. Whoops. There we sat minding our own business when the bishopric member invites the primary children up to the stand for their program.

Jer and I are in the primary.

We had about 10 seconds to figure out what was going on and get our butts up onto the stand with the other teachers (who, by the way had been sitting on the stand the entire time, unbeknownst to us.)

But it turned out great! No thanks to us. ;o)

And finally, I'm proud to announce that I have finally found a brussels sprouts recipe that both Jer and I really like. Last time I made them we both proclaimed that we no longer liked them.

Thanks to Bountiful Baskets, I was forced to try again.

Here's the recipe, pinned from my dear friend Courtney.
http://whatsgabycooking.com/lemon-garlic-brussel-sprouts/

Lemon Garlic Brussels Sprouts. YUM.
And just a P.S.
Guess what season it is?
 That's right. FALL! My favorite season. I don't remember why, but my mom always made these in the fall, so now I will almost never make them unless it is fall. I love this season and everything about it. I don't care that it has been 85 degrees here and I got a sunburn yesterday. It IS fall. :o)

P.P.S.
We had a garage/yard sale yesterday with a couple of our friends and it was a success. Chels was modeling her dollar store Christmas stockings to try and lure in more customers, I don't think she sold those....but I bet you could buy them from her! ;o)


Saturday, September 8, 2012

To My Dear Old Dad...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!
 You wear your many hats oh so very well. Our dad is the most fun.
 The best Papa.
 Biggest support.
 Stake president/busiest man I know.
Best daddy to this daddy's girl.

I love you dad! Hope you have a great day TOMORROW when stake conference is over! :o)

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

A Labor of Love

Surprise! I went home with my sis and her boyfriend Dave this weekend to surprise my parents and little sis. Jer went on a business trip to Jackson Hole and I was going to be alone all weekend so I decided to be the 3rd wheel. :o) For a full (and better) review of our trip see my sister's blog post here.
 My lovely home. My mom has done such a great job with her gardening.
 Sisters lounging on my parents' beautiful new patio furniture after an awesome dutch oven party. Yum!
 Sunday dinner after math. In and out of a food coma.
 Going through mom's closet. Loved finding these treasures. We would get rid of them but what about Anna's ugly Christmas sweater parties?! :o)
 Breakfast on the beach at Summerland Inn Cafe. One of our faves. Always been a daddy's girl.
 The group without dad.
 Group with dad, Dave's the camera man.

We had so much fun but as always, the weekend went by way too fast and we drove a lot, but it was totally worth it. I love my family and can't wait to see them again!

And.....its official! My name and "office hours" are now posted outside the ballroom office. Of course it was official a few months ago but it was fun to see my name there as an official part-time faculty member! I love my job!!!

In other news, I just accepted another job at a boutique in Orem called SexyModest. Kind of an oxy moron I know but it is a super cute store and all their stuff is under $50! You should come check it out! :o)