Stuffed Chicken Diablo and Roasted Green Beans

During the last two weeks my sales team had a potluck, and I had made these little critters consisting of Buffalo Chicken Bites (which I found on Pinterest), Garlic Chicken Puffs (also found on Pinterest), and little Diablo Croissants that I made on my own. 

They were a huge hit and were gone in about 5 minutes! 


Anyway,


I had a lot of cream cheese, bacon, jalapenos, and chives left over, so I put my taste buds to work and put together a fabulously delicious recipe!

Stuffed Chicken Diablos

Ingredients:
3 or 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (depending on how many ppl)
4 oz cream cheese
handful of chives
about 2 diced up jalapenos
4 slices of low sodium bacon 
1 pinch seasoning of your choice (i use the no-salt tony's seasoning for a cajun kick!)


Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350* and then bake your chicken breasts for about 40 minutes.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine the chopped jalps (no seeds!!), chives, and cream cheese (you'll want to heat the cream cheese for about 10 seconds in the microwave so you can mix it well).
3. After chicken is cooked, let it cool for about 5 minutes, and then slice it almost all the way in half on the side so you can fill it with the stuffing.
4. At this point, you'll cook the 4 slices of bacon, and after cooled wrap around the chicken breasts. (If I did anything different with this recipe, I probably would have cooked the bacon and diced it, and add it to the mixture so there'd be more in every bite! So good!)

If you have a particular veggie of choice, go ahead and get that out! Scott's and my favorite way to eat veggies is ROASTED which I first started doing after reading Julie's blog over at Peanut Butter Fingers. 


The oven is already preheated from the chicken, so lightly oil the pan and sprinkle some seasoning on the veggies and stick em in. It usually takes about 25 minutes. You can probably place the veggies in on the top rack of the oven halfway through your chicken baking. 

Roasted green beans are soooo delicious! My other favorites are broccoli and cauliflower! As you can see the last part of the dish was a little bit of cheesy shells from leftovers another night.


This meal is so amazing and we just about licked our plates. :) 


Today I'm in my second day of training, and also Huxley's second day of being the center of attention... hehe. Here's a little pic of my little cutie before I head back to work from lunch!

King Of the House :-) 

Our Amazing Weekend Getaway - Introducing Huxley!

I've been away this past weekend finally spending some QT with my Scottie. We went down to Colmesneil, TX which is around the Lufkin, Beaumont area. Originally he was going to go for a fantasy football draft with some old buddies, but we took this as our little vacation before we start working a bunch for the holidays. We also went to see his sister Helen who lives there with her husband and their expecting a baby girl, Raelyn, in 4 short months! We had a blast, I was out of signal most of the time so I wasn't able to do any posts or updates. Here are some of the pictures (it was ridiculously hot and with no a/c we decided to hold off on pics of ourselves, your welcome lol)

The whole drive was beautiful, we passed by many lakes and rivers, this one was Lake Livingston, which was beautiful! Not to mention I was dying for some water!

On the road to Hwy 69, where Scott lived throughout the last two years of high school, and where his sister has a house now.


When we got in town we mostly just spent time with Helen and Jonas, her husband (who made us all steaks and twice baked potatos! He is an uh-maaazing cook!)


The next day we attended Scott's fantasy football draft which was so much fun! One of Scott's best friends came in town and they got to hang out, and I met a lot of people he grew up with. It was fun being the new girl in town :)

This is pretty dark, but we went night fishing on Lake Tejas in Colmesneil later that evening... well I'll admit, we brought all our fishing gear - but you could not see ANYTHING! Annnnnd we may have forgot our flashlights... :( 


What we DID do was lay on this big pier that stretched into the middle of the lake (it wasn't that big) and we looked at the stars... cheesy, I know - but in Austin you can't get a sky like we saw. It was so crazy and big and you could see every star in the sky. It was a perfect night... I had so much fun with my man and we realized we definitely have to go on little getaways much more often!


We left the next day and headed home, and made great timing even with this crazy little pitstop we went to... 

The food was so good!

The atmosphere...

A little... too much??? Lol


Anywho, we made a pitstop a little south of Bastrop, TX to meet this little cutie...

This is Huxley! 

A little 10 week old Boston. We had seen him in the pictures the lady sent but when we went, it was a done deal. He was the most independent playful pup outta the bunch, and introduced himself to Scottie by nippin' his toe. It was love at first sight :) He's the funniest thing, and can't wait to start postin' pictures and videos left and right! 

It was the most amazing little getaway weekend and we're so excited about this new addition to our little family. I know I promised that stuffed Chicken recipe to you Mrs. Ruthie, it's coming love!


Hope everyone is having a great start to their week!

Healthified Grilled Chicken Nachos

As I have been doing absolutely nothing all day but relaxing and playing on our new family toy the Streak 7 that Scott brought home from work the other day, I pulled up you tube and played this song I've been obsessed with for months, and I swear it will never get old. "Crazy Girl" by Eli Young Band, I'm posting the video because I know you'll be hooked. 


(If you read below, the comments people have left will make you cry its so sweet, this song is like the perfect words said after a bad fight... Scott actually has learned how to play it and I swear I'm a emotional basketcase for sweet love songs haha i love it!)

We're Texas Country lovers at heart... I love cowgirl boots and guitars, my baby plays and sings, and I am in love with Brady Black from Randy Rogers band... We made eye contact at their concert at the famous Hills Cafe on SoCo (South Congress)


Anyway, :)


My week has been crazy! From trainings, working in my current position still until Monday, cleaning the house as we are going out of town this weekend (to Southeast Texas for my boyfriends hometown to see his sister and do a fantasy football draft woohoo! lol), and cooking up some amazing recipes to post - I have decided to get back on the grind with my blog, and I feel bad for slacking! 


Here is one of my favorite recipes I made this week! 

Healthified Grilled Chicken Nachos

I actually stole this recipe from believe it or not the Biggest Loser recipes, and my boy and I fell in looove.


Ingredients:
baked tortilla chips
1 can low sodium black beans
low fat shredded cheese
4 ounces baked skinless boneless extra lean chicken breasts
3 diced up tomatoes (I cheated and got HEB freshly made pico de gallo with onions, cilantro, tomatoes, and jalapenos hehe)
2 tablespoons cheese or salsa con queso (all natural or low fat)
2 ounces jalapeno slices (i didn't use fresh i used nacho jalaps)


Directions:
1. Heat oven to 400* and set chicken breasts in there for about 30 minutes. When finished cooking, dice up the chicken into half inch pieces and set aside.

*I may or may not have ate a 1/5 of the chicken bites during cooking* 

2. On a non stick pan, layout tortilla chips and start loading on the goodies! I put a tiny layer of cheese first so everything sticks to the chip once baked.

I love guac if you can't tell! Made a quick n easy guac for a snack while I cooked!

It was sooooo good! I highly recommend this for a fun and easy meal! Stay tuned for my recipe post tomorrow on Stuffed Chicken Diablo and Roasted Green beans..... be sure to have a snack around as this will make you very hungry :) Have a good day! 

Back to Business

Alright blog friends I am back, and ready to start posting my heart out! 


From the last post, you know I've been away working my butt off cramming 6 months of mentoring and training into ONE WEEK, and had an interview last Friday for Small Business at Dell.


Instead of talking to random people all over the US selling computers, I'll be receiving calls from small businesses around the US that need total solutions for their company, and helping them! SO EXCITED! 


Well obviously from my rambling about what I'm going to be doing at this job... you must know...


I GOT THE JOB!!!!!!!!!


I'm so unbelievably excited and cannot wait to start this new role on Monday! I also have some recipes up my sleeve I've been dying to share with y'all too so stay tuned! xoxo 

Oreo Balls

I am so sorry I've been away a few days, but I'd be more than happy to explain why! lol Monday I was just chit-chattin' with my manager and also friend, Katrina, about my career path and what I'd like to do... (for those that don't know I work at Dell in Consumer Sales) And we were talking about business and making the next move. I had attempted to move into a more social media role, and when I didn't get it due to a technicality, my mom (gotta love moms!) kept saying, "Everything happens for a reason"... maybe God has something better lined up for you. 


So I was bummed but I moved on and have been doing extremely well in what my tasks are, and I came back from lunch Monday and she had already set up a one on one in a department called Small Business (where we handle accounts for small start-up businesses and manage small churches and non-profit org sales). I was kind of shocked finding out that there was an immediate opening and my interview was on Friday. 


What!?!


So... I've been taking some business server product training classes daily at 7am, then mentoring any free time I have in my workday, and preparing for a one week transition and interviewing (so excited!) so.... sorry I've been a little distant in blog world but.... WISH ME LUCK! hehe my mom was so right!


Anywho, I still have so many things to tell you guys! My best friend Justin's birthday was on Sunday, so we got together Saturday for a little surprise birthday get together. Nothing huge, but the oreo balls I made - were definitely huge lol. Oreo is his favorite cookie so I thought it'd be a perfect idea and something to whip up in only about an hour-two. AND - they were soooo good!

Oreo Balls

Technically the recipe called it: White Chocolate Oreo Cream Cheese Balls. - I think mine sums it up better ;) 


Ingredients:
12oz  baker's white chocolate baking squares (you can also use small white chocolate chips-or any other melting chocolate) 
1 package of oreos
8oz of cream cheese


Directions:
1. Crush oreos with blender until powder like
2. Then hand blend the oreo powder with cream cheese

This mixer is SO amazing! It has attachments for proccessing, blending, mixing. LOVE

3. Roll the oreos and cream cheese into balls (smaller than mine for higher yeild lol) and place them on a baking sheet and put in freezer until solid - 20-30 min is fine


4. Melt the white chocolate over stove or microwave and dip the balls into it as evenly as you can, then chill until set

5. Draw or decorate if you want to - but get better utensils than I had. I thought I had the bright decorating but it was the gel - The taste is what mattered! lol!

Alright.. let's just say I was never good at art. Ever. I still blame it on the gel!! :)

This was a fun and quick recipe to make on his birthday night! Did I mention they are heavenly? So delish! Make them :)


I'll leave you all with a few fun little highlights from his birthday.

The Homemade Banana and Pecan ice cream my best friend Ashley and Jenny made for the Austin Ice Cream Festival - so so good!

See? I AM good at writing! LOL - Jenny baked him a delicious cake!

My boo and Ashley lighting the candles!

Everyone laughing because Justin blew all the wax off the candles and onto poor Ashley's arm LOL

Ashley and Justin are having a baby, so a cowboy's #1 dad jersey was perfect :) Aww

Us ladies just hoverin' around the cute birthday boy! Even Dottee came hehe!

In my defense~ I had worked all day and hadn't showered and been drinkin' BUT I was ready for the cam! lol :P

A Day at the Gun Range

Last Thursday, I got a call from one of my girl friends who also had the day off and asked me if I wanted to go to a gun range with her and then pluckers, well - I love wings, and I'd never shot a gun before so of course- I was in!!

So we met up with one of her best friends who works there and everything was covered (so appreciative - especially when i started shooting off the rods that hold up the targets LOL oops!) 

I was pretty nervous at first but when I got there I was so ready to start shootin' targets! It was definitely an adrenaline rush.. and it was soooo loud!

You can't see well, but we both hit bulls-eye multiple times! Great for first-timers! Erica did awesome!!

Justin had brought his own guns with him so we shot the target shooter first, then moved onto a Glock 19 special zero fail edition, and then a 357 Magnum revolver. The Glock was the most fun but scariest to me cause the shells came back at you! And lucky enough, one hit my neck and rolled into my shirt! Check out my little battle burns....

I'm hardcore. :P

After running out of ammo for the other guns, we decided to switch over to the rifle range that was 100 yards, and Justin got his AK47 ready. Woah is right. I was really nervous! It was so loud!! I probably looked so funny because every time I shot it, I jumped a foot high from the noise and feeling. BUT it was so fun! 

By the end of this we were so ready for a drink! A lot of nerves but I would have to say this would be a perfect way to relieve a lot of stress on a bad day or something. Monday night is ladies night - and I am so down to come back in the future!

Yay I hit the target!

It's hard to tell in the pic you may have to click on it, but the top right is blown off by the AK while I was shooting down the range, and it knocked the rod and clothespin holding up the target right off! Ooopsies! 

We headed to Pluckers afterwards to unwind and grub on some delish wings! Come to find out it was Wingo night! (Bingo hehe)

I actually WON! Well, I actually tied with someone so we had to do a sing-off... good thing I'm a rockstar in disguise, they played JOURNEY's "Don't stop Believin"... You best believe I rocked it! Won $15 Giftcard to Pluckers and it went straight toward my tab!! 

It was a great day off! Will definitely be hitting up Wingo again too so I can win some free wings!!

Egg and Toast Muffins

There is no better way to start your weekend than with a yummy breakfast! I found this recipe on Pinterest a while back and decided to make this Martha Stewart recipe this morning. 

source

I didn't have bacon to put in these cups, so I made them just egg and toast, but with a side of hashbrowns :)


Egg & Toast Muffins

Ingredients: (yields for two)

• 1 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 2 slices white or whole-wheat sandwich bread
• 2 large eggs
• Coarse salt and ground pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375*. Lightly butter two muffin cups (or as many as your filling). With a rolling pin (or a big glass for those like me who don't have one hehe) flatten the bread slightly, and then use a 4 1/2 in cookie cutter to cut the bread into round pieces. I used my glass which was a little short of the inches but worked fine. Cut rounds in half and place in the muffin cup slightly overlapping each other but make sure it reaches the edge of the cup. Use the rest of the butter to brush over the bread. 

If you cooked meat like bacon or sausage, now you will add that to the cup. After that, crack an egg into each cup. Season with salt and pepper, and bake in oven for 25 minutes, or until egg whites are just set.  Run a knife around the cups when taking them out, and enjoy! 

Using my handy dandy football pint glass! ;)

Before

I also bake the hash browns for the same amount of time, so I put those in along with the "egg-muffins".

Delicious hash browns seasoned in a no-salt tony's seasoning! 

The Final Product

I am definitely glad I tried this recipe from pinterest, as I've started making more and more recipes from my pin-boards. Since I had my side of hash browns I didn't really need any meat, but I bet it would taste even better! Great light breakfast :) 

My bible study is starting today so I'm off to start reading this amazing book! I also have a fantasy football draft today at 2pm, hopefully I will get first pick! :) Hope everyone is having a safe and fun weekend!!

Week in Collage

Since I've been away for two days, and have soooo much to talk about...(too much for one post!) I decided for now to just let you see my weekend for yourself.... in collage!

I will go into more detail of these amazing events in posts this week!


Anyone doing anything fun this weekend???


xoxoxo

Pinterest Wednesday: Foodie Edition

Yesterday we went to a lunch and learn for the Data Safe Online Vendor that works to secure online backup space for Dell Computers. After that, he gave all of us on the sales floor free movie tickets for Captain America last night at 7pm and could take a date and free food (although they bought the WRONG vendor gift cards for food - Regal. We went to Cinemark lol!). Since my man was sadly working late (we work completely opposite shifts it sucks!), I took my girl friend Jenny and headed out for some 3D action after work! 

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It was a pretty cool action movie and had some good 3D animations. A fun break during the work week :) I definitely enjoyed it. 

So... as I'm sitting here eating a little tuna sandwich wrap from another lunch and learn hosted by Monster Cables, I decided my Pinterest Wednesday was going to be foodie style today!! From sweet treats to delish apps and entrees. Let's get pinning!!

(If you don't have Pinterest, comment me your email addy and I'll send you an invite! If you do, follow me here!!)

Oh, How Pinteresting: Foodie Edition

via on pinterest 

Baked Parmesan Tomatoes

these look so amazing! great for appetizers!! 

via on pinterest

Greek Nachos

(I don't know about you, but these sound AMAZING! Definitely goign to try them)

via on pinterest

Black Bean Salad with Corn, Red Peppers, 

Avocado, and Lime-Cilantro Vinaigrette... 

Some may see this in my upcoming recipes - as I have to make it!!! :) 

And Some Desserts....

via on pinterest

Pumpkin and Cream Cheese Muffins

umm... mix favorite with favorite and you get obsession! yummm!

via on pinterest

Cookie Bowls!!!!!!!! So fun :)

via on pinterest

Peanut Butter Pretzel Brownies

via on pinterest 

Nutella Stuffed Breakfast Muffins 

aka the most perfect chocolaty yummy breakfast you could ever eat! :)

via on pinterest

Cheesecake filled Strawberries

Super easy no-bake recipe, and irresistibly delicious!

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These are all recipes I am going to make within the next few weeks!! Can't wait to catch up on the other blogs for Pinterest Wednesdays and get even more ideas! :-) Be sure to check out Michelle's link up on her blog, The Vintage Apple to see!!