Easy Super Bowl Appetizers

Hosting a Super Bowl party at your house can be quite exhausting if you don't have a plan! We wanted to keep this year's Super Bowl on a budget and make some simple appetizers to fill everyone up while we down our beers, shots, play beer pong, and watch the Broncos lose Bruno Mars' amazing half time show and funny super bowl commercials...  :)

We kept it simple. We had 5 people total, so I made three appetizers, and we still had plenty left over for later!

Recipes are below. Enjoy and pin for next year's Super Bowl party!

Hot Spinach Queso: Crockpot Recipe

Ingredients: 

-10oz Frozen spinach, thawed and drained

-1lb Velveeta cheese (2% reduced fat)

-8oz Cream cheese (lite)

-1 Jar salsa (I used medium salsa for a kick, about 3/4 of a 18oz jar)

-Handful of chopped cilantro (optional, but so good!)

Directions:

-Cube the Velveeta cheese and place all ingredients in crockpot and heat until cheese has melted. You will want to continue to stir occasionally to combine the ingredients. Keep on low setting, it should take around an hour to be melted (but some crockpots may vary). This method is great so you can keep the dip warm for a few hours during the game.

If you are not doing Crockpot:

If you prefer, you can always place all ingredients in an oven safe dish, and bake until the dip is heated through. Set oven to 350 degrees and bake for about 15-20 minutes, or until hot and bubbly! 

Buffalo Chicken Taquitos

These are a staple in my household. I'm a HUGE wing lover and these are always a huge hit. They can be pretty spicy, so I always have bleu cheese and ranch dressing on the side for dipping. 

Ingredients: 

-3 or 4 Boneless skinless chicken breasts

-3/4 jar of Louisiana Hot Wing Sauce (Or Red's if you prefer)

-8 Wheat Tortillas

-Bleu Cheese Crumbles

-Dry Ranch Seasoning Packet

Directions:

-Place frozen chicken breasts in boiling pot of water for about 20-30 minutes until cooked

-Place cooked chicken in a bowl and let sit for about 5 minutes to cool

-Shred chicken, set oven to 400 degrees 

-Mix chicken with the buffalo sauce and ranch seasoning packet

-Roll into tortillas and top with bleu cheese crumbles

-Place in oven for 15 minutes

-Cut taquitos in half once taken out of oven.

-Enjoy!

Burger Sliders

These are pretty much a no-brainer. They are just so delicious, though! And so easy. 

Ingredients:

-1pkg King Hawaiian Wheat Rolls (12)

-2lb Lean Ground Beef

-3 Slices American Cheese, cut into fours

-Burger fixings (1 tomato sliced, few pickles, 1 small white onion sliced, small pieces of lettuce)

Directions:

-Divide ground beef into small slider sized patties and season to your liking. We used a small bit of Tony's seasoning and McCormick Steak Seasoning. 

-Set skillet to Medium-High heat. Cook burgers about 2-3 minutes per side. 

-Place cheese on burgers while on skillet to melt

-Slice buns in half and place cooked burgers on the slider buns

-Top with whatever you like

-Enjoy!

What are your favorite appetizers to make for the big day?!

Life Lately via Instagram/IPhone

Anyone else feel like this week has flown by!? Maybe it's because I've been so busy work-wise this week going to trainings off site and meetings, but I am lovin' it! Happy Friday to you all!

Thank you all for your comments yesterday about the Cupcakes I should make for my office. Now, my office only consists of about 5 people (including myself - our other 4 employees work remotely from home in 4 different states!) but thank you, I can't wait to post about my baking experience since I have never really gotten into it before too much besides cookies.

Same thing with crafting, I'm itching to buy a cheap dresser and re do it, and I found one on craigslist this morning for only $20! Might go pick it up :-) Now those that know me know I am not a good crafter, but I also have never really tried to craft. With over 120 something pins about DIY projects, I'm thinking I should give it a shot.

I have some fun random instagrams throughout this week so I thought I'd share!

1. Dinner date with my love Krista, who is the newest ATX Blogger, so I can call it a "blate". :-)

2. Kona Grill California Roll... Yummm

 

 

 Company Lunch @ Mama Fu's

1. Calamari

2. Crab Rangoons

3. Deeeeelicious Iced Tea for me

4. My brown rice, veggies, and beef

 

 

 

 

What a lame fortune cookie!! Although, it was pretty funny. One of my coworkers made a comment along the lines of... "Maybe it means you were once "cramped" at Dell, but now you're free!"

Hahha

 

 

 

 

I love volunteering every Thursday for Meals on Wheels

OOTD on Tuesday when I went to Kona. Love love love this dress.

Rue 21 has some cuuuute summer dresses for only $15-20 right now!

 

 

 

 

1. 90 day mark on 8/1! Yay for having Insurance/Benefits again!!

2. Soo funny catching one of the IT guys snoozin on the job yesterday afternoon! I printed it out and taped it to my boss' door for a good laugh. He snores loud.

 

 

1. My little Bananalee in the Pool (bff's daughter) gosh she is so so cute

2. Cute texts from the boyfrannnnnn <3 love him

3. Funny how Huxley sleeps sitting up against the couch pillows.

 

Are you following me on Instagram!?

Happy, happy Friday!

What are your plans this weekend!?!?

Weekend Shenanigans

Shenanigans it was, my friends. This weekend just about had a little bit of everything. For some reason I have felt like everything was wrong with me this weekend! Let's start from the beginning, haha.

So Friday, I am at work towards the end of the day, planning out what appetizer I'm going to make for the House Hunters party, and my middle finger on my left hand starts feeling irritated. Now before you start thinking anything gross or weird, NO irritation showed what so ever. Just felt like it was on fire, itched, whatever. So I put a bandaid on it and forgot about it as I was getting ready to leave and make my way through 45 min of traffic getting home.

We are supposed to be AT the party around 8, well guess who shows up 10 minutes before 8 a little tipsy from an after work happy hour? The boyfriend... I am the kind of person who HATES being late, yes hates... so I'm a little chaotic getting things together, showering, cooking, etc. and as I'm unloading the dishes, our hefty sized plate falls edge first and lands smack right on my knuckle on my big toe.... yep couldn't breathe for a good 9.6 seconds. UghhH! Leaving the picture out though to save you from the grody-ness. You're welcome.

Still can't really bend it much either. It is nasty looking haha! But we got everything together and at least made it to the party in time for House Hunters to come on! I made Southwestern Egg Rolls (recipe to come!) and they. were. so. good!

These were a huge hit, and I also made a Spicy Avocado Ranch sauce for dipping. Will post recipes this week!

The House Hunter's party was so, so fun. Ruthie & Jon are the cutest and hope you all tuned into their episode! Who came name all the bloggers in these photos!? We were all there to support our girl!

Scott has really become good friends with the blogger hubbies, and played Corn Hole with Jon for hours straight. We didn't leave until about a little after 1am... fun night!

Saturday we were zombies! We had all these fun plans for Scott to hang out with Dave (Mallorie's hubby!), see Batman all together, etc.  well we laid on our couch being lazy until nearly 3pm! Wasted day, but Chris, Scottie and I still went to see Batman around 7pm... I have to say that after Friday's Colorado thing, I was definitely feeling a little weary of being in a theater, but the movie was INCREDIBLE. I love Christian Bale Batman!! hehe

Saturday was rough with my finger having some weird allergic reaction (with no visual! so weird!) that was bothering me, and my toe that I couldn't bend, I was definitely being dramatic about it but it hurt, ok!? I ended up picking up a thing of benadryl on the way home from batman. I straight up passed out less than 30 minutes later, I guess it still has the same effect on me as it did when I was a kid haha.

When I woke up Sunday morning to start getting ready for Church, now my throat was all hurting! Am I fallin apart or what? I immediately took some airborne, tylenol, and laid back down and streamed online - no way am I going to get sick! When I got back up, cleaned up around the house, did some laundry, and Scott was really wanting me to go with him to this new restaurant so I got ready and off we went to Lupe Tortilla! He's a fajita fanatic, and we've heard nothing but great things, so I was pretty excited. I love little day dates with my man.

This place was a little more expensive than say Chuy's or La Margarita, but I can see why. Not only was management constantly stopping my tables giving samples of their famous fajitas, but always making sure we were having a great experience, margaritas came with another glass full and were strong (yay!), and chips and salsa were great. Scott has named this place our new go-to. If they had Creamy Jalapeno like Chuy's does, I would have been SET!

Yummmmmm. We had lots leftover too. Rest of the day was spent finishing laundry, we got a Red Box movie, and chillaxed. I'm still feeling a little rough today, but now I can bend my toe again, yay! My finger is 100% better too. I swear - so weird. Anyway, while we had our family snugglefest, I snapped cute pictures of Huxley so that is what I'll end my post with.

Homemade(ish) Sloppy Joes

How is everyone doing this morning? I have been better. I got a rough wake up call at 3am from the back of my left calf muscle in a charlie horse - OWW :-( I know people say you need to eat more bananas or something, but anyone have recommendations? - it's so sore! I have been working out a LOT lately doing a twice-a-day almost every weekday, could that be the reason?

Anyway, I go to check my inbox of my email last night and this is what I see....

Ughhhh... wth!? If anyone knows how to avoid this ^^, please let me know. Just been moving them to the spam folder.

I finally got to go grocery shopping yesterday after clipping some coupons from our mail, and ended up scoring HUGE with spending only $100 and getting at least 2 full weeks of food! No joke! We are usually spending close to $200 per 2 weeks, so I am super pleased.

Scott had a craving for Sloppy Joes, and I have never really made those before, and also haven't had them since I was really young, but after this past weekend, I had to make the man happy :-). Good thing he told me BEFORE I left for the store.

I would say they're completely homemade, but then I'd be lying. After a 9 hour day downtown and being in traffic, going to fedex in time for a pickup, I didn't want to go too crazy in the kitchen, so I got a little sloppy joe seasoning packet.... BUT I halfed the recipe so it'd only be for two, and I spruced it up with lots of veggies. So I'd like to say homemade(ish).

Servings: 2

Ingredients:
1/2 lb. Ground Beef or Ground Turkey
1 Packet Sloppy Joe Seasoning
1/2 Cup Chopped Celery
1/2 Cup Chopped Chives
1/2 Cup Chopped White Onion
3 oz. Can Tomato Paste
3/4 Cup Water
2 Slices of Meunster Cheese
2 Wheat Buns

Directions:
1. Brown Meat in Skillet over Medium High Heat
2. While meat is cooking, chop up the vegetables and place to the side
3. Once meat is cooked, add in the water, vegetables, tomato paste, and seasoning and bring to a boil while stirring occasionally.
4. Reduce to low and simmer for 10 minutes while stirring occasionally. Preheat oven to BROIL.
5. Put two bottom buns on a pan and your serving of the meat on each bun. Place the other two tops of bread on the pan for toasting. Top with a slice of meunster cheese, and put in oven for 2-3 minutes.
6. Let cool for a minute, then serve with a side of vegetables, chips, etc. Enjoy!

It was a huge win for my first experience cooking it! Next time, I want to try without the seasoning packet. But it really just replaces the ketchup/brownsugar/redwinevinegar/etc. so we will see - this was really good! Super easy 30 mintute or less meal! Great man-meal!!

Happy Tuesday!

Ziplining over Lake Travis

As most of you know, this weekend was crazy eventful as I really wanted to make my little sister, Maddie (14 - who has been staying in Austin w/ me for 3wks from Louisiana), and Scott (28- the BF), feel really special as they both celebrated birthdays on Friday and Saturday.

Friday night we had Scott's Birthday Bash, which I posted about yesterday, and today, I've got all the awesome pictures we took while out in the blistering heat beautiful sun and lake!

Saturday morning started early for me as the "event-coordinator", and I got some extra extra strength head-ache medicine and water ready next to our bed for Scottie (yay for curin' the hangover quickly before it starts!) and whipped up the breakfast of champions with some waffles, fried eggs over easy, bacon, with syrup and nutella out for the spreadin'. They were happy campers :-). I made sure to schedule the zip-lining around 3pm so that we could all feel like "sleepin in"/lying around the house during the day being lazy! Also woke up Maddie with some balloons and a card from Huxley. Although Huxley seemed a bit more interested in the balloons than Maddie. It was too funny!

 

We got there about 30 minutes early to get all prepared, and thank goodness we had been drinking water all day because we were in for a huge surprise with allllll the hiking it really was to get to these zip lines!

We did a total of 5 zip lines, all getting longer and faster each time. It was an experience to remember! The last zip line, you got up to 65mph and it stretches over a 1/2 mile directly over the lake (we had many watchers from their boats on the lake - so fun!)

The tour-guides were absolutely fantastic - fun and energetic. Very motivating while you're hiking, and water was provided at every stop/zip line. Overall it was an incredible experience and very worth the $89 per person (although I was bummed I missed the groupon back on OCT that would have made it only $50 but oh well!)

Best part is - after all the zip lining - you have access to a private beach where you are provided tubes, floaties, everything you need to have a great time - the water was perfect and we hung out and unwinded with a cold beer after ziplining. A perfect afternoon. Scott and Maddie had a great time, and that makes it all worth it for me.

Scott is holding up his shoe because we bought those before zip-lining. He LOVES them - they ar the new Apidure (Toe-shoes?) that are perfect for hiking, swimming, etc. They were only 39.99 at Academy which is NOT bad for the comfort and support he had. He said he felt like he was barefoot! I just can't bring myself to wear these toe-shoe things. Looks so weird! lol!

Once we noticed the sun slowly starting to set, we decided to take off and grab a good table ealy at The Oasis on Lake Travis in Austin. It was about 11 minutes away so it wasn't a far drive at all. Scott got Fajitas, Maddie got Fried Shrimp, and me - Shrimp Tacos w/ Baja Sauce. Oh and a cold magarita too. JUST what we needed after a day of workin' out/swimmin!

Look how breath taking the sunset and skyline was...

It was the perfect dinner, we were feelin pretty tired though and headed home for some Huxley time... he was soooooo happy to see us :-) Cuddled up with daddy right away and we watched a movie and I'm pretty sure we were all in bed by 11pm!

*******************************************************************

Father's day has been rough on me as this will be the second one I've spent missing my daddy who passed away in October of 2010. His story is here. For some reason, I couldn't bring myself to go to Church where I knew the whole sermon was going to be on dads... I am making it up by attending Church Wednesday evening, but it was definitely hard - and I know it is much harder on Maddie who was only 12 when she lost him so we had an easy morning in the house. Sunday evening I grilled some Steaks, Corn on the cob, Asperagus, with loaded mashed potatos, and we had Scott's dad over to watch the game (for all you Heat fans- OKC will come back strong don't you worrryyy!) and we had a great time. Since Scott's dad had to work on Scottie's bday - I made some homemade brownies and had candles so he felt like he got to celebrate w/ us too.

Ruthie, notice a delicious batch of onion dip half gone? :)
That dip is amaaaazing and was half devoured in 3.2 seconds. Credits to Ruthie Hart for the recipe!

Shrimp Diablo Appetizers (Bacon Jalapeno & Cream Cheese wrapped over Shrimp and grilled)

Huxley made a #1 Fur-Daddy TShirt with paw-prints for Scott for Father's day. He looooooved it!

Well, that was my weekend! Sorry for the abundance of pictures - but I KNOW you enjoyed them! We are still unwinding from all the fun activities and great food. Also a lot of amazing things happening in our little family right now, so stay tuned! God is SO good :-) We are blessed.

Doc's Motorworks Bar & Grill

Yesterday Maddie and I decided to walk down South Congress again for lunch, but most of the trailors were closed! So we walked back right next to my office to another Austin staple called Doc's Motorworks Bar and Grill, and I'm glad we did because it was 1/2 price burgers! They were delicious, but it was so hot outside (thank goodness for those misting fans!) and I could barely finish my burger OR fries.

When we got home we headed to the gym and did a 30 minute tough interval workout on the elliptical before doing some arm workouts, then got some tanning done before dinner.

I had a really hard time sleeping last night! I don't know why, but I was up until about 1:30am completely zoned out on Pinterest, lol, does that happen to anyone else!? So needless to say I'm draggin' this morning with my big ole cup of coffee, but it's gonna be a great day! Oh and guess what!??

1 follower away from hosting my big giveaway! I'm going to plan on it being the first week of July!! I'm so pumped and so thankful to have met and become close with so many of you! Thank you for your readership & I can't wait to give back! xo

Here are our fabulous pictures from lunch yesterday! If you are an Austinite or visiting Austin soon - definitely check em out, they are great! Oh, and amazing Happy Hour specials too!

My two favorite shirts at this little T-Shirt Boutique! hehe

Thought it was pretty comical to see the sign, "BYOF" (Bring Your Own Furniture) on an apartment building... very clever! Lol!

Today has been hectic so far went to go grab coffee this morning and couldn't find my debit card, so had to rush home and rummage through everything to find it - only to realize it got stuck in my Mary Kay brush kit thing, ughhhh I hate that feeling! Let's hope the rest of the day goes better! Happy Tuesday y'all!