First things first, I love, love, love my new blow dryer. It actually does what it says it's going to do. It cuts down the drying time, and it makes my hair smoother. If you're looking for a fabulous blow dryer, check out the Rusk, Speed Freak. It's awesome.

So, I ended up ordering the outfit that I had posted on here from Eloquii. I was so excited to get it, and then........I got an email confirming the shipment. The email only had 5 of the 7 items that I ordered. It was missing the purple shell and a pair of earrings. There was no mention of them at all. So I called customer service. The earrings were back ordered and the shirt, well tough luck, they don't have any more and they cancelled it! Seriously, it took me calling THEM to find that out. I still haven't got any notice that it was cancelled and it's been a week.

Not very impressed. I realize it's just a stupid shirt, but it was the basis of my outfit. I got the jacket to go over it, and I got jewelry with purple stones to match it. I've looked all over and can't find a purple shirt that I like to take it's place. So I have no idea what I'm wearing to the wedding now.

Griffin had me cracking up yesterday. He's a little boy (just don't tell  him that!) with huge personality. He was in the bathroom brushing his teeth and washing his face, and as he walked out he looked at me  and said "peace out"! I don't even know where he gets this stuff half the time, but I think it's hilarious. 

We had a little birthday celebration at work last night, and the birthday girl requested Mexican for her dinner.Yum! Who doesn't love Mexican?  So all of us pitched in and brought a dish. My contribution was this Guacamole salad. It's an awesome side to Mexican or South West dishes, and actually I think it would make a great lunch. It's a Barefoot Contessa recipe (Oh, how I just love Ina!), but of course I make changes to it. The biggest change is that I buy bottled dressing and doctor it up a bit, but if you can't find the Newmans Own Light Lime, then follow the Barefoot recipe. I also add a can of corn to mine.

Guacamole Salad    Barefoot Contessa

1 pint grape tomatoes, halved

1 yellow pepper, seeded & ½ in diced.

1 (15oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained

½ cup small diced red onion

2 TBSP minced jalapeno peppers, seeded

½ tsp freshly grated lime zest

¼ cup freshly squeezed lime juice (2 limes)

¼ cup olive oil
1 tsp kosher salt
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
½ tsp minced garlic
¼ tsp ground cayenne pepper
2 ripe Haas avocados, seeded, peeled and ½ inch diced

Place the tomatoes, yellow pepper, black beans, red onion, jalapeno, and lime zest in a large bowl. Whish together the lime juice, olive oil, salt, black pepper, garlic, and cayenne pepper and pour over the vegetables. Toss well. Just before you’re ready to serve, fold the avocados into the salad. Check seasonings and serve.

 

Here’s my version:

1 pint grape tomatoes

1 orange or red bell pepper, seeded and ½ in diced (I use orange or red to add more color, because I add the corn) 

1 (15 oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 (15 oz) can corn, drained

½ cup red onion, small diced

2 TBSP jarred pickled jalapeno, diced (can find in Mexican food isle, I usually get Old El Paso)

4 TBSP Newmans Own Lime salad dressing

Juice of 1 lime

½ tsp salt

½ tsp black pepper

½ tsp garlic powder

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

2 Haas avocados, seeded, peeled and ½ in diced

   

Padon the sideways view- I took it from my phone and couldn't turn it. Boo!

I don't really have a bucket list. I'm too ADD to remember anything long enough to put it on a list! However, I have always wanted to learn German. My mother is from Germany, and moved to the US when she was 17. She actually had to teach herself to speak English when she got here! Funny though, she never taught any of us kids to speak German at all. When I was a kid, it would drive me crazy when she'd be on the phone or we'd be visiting one of her friends and the conversation was in German. I just knew she was telling them something important, and I wanted to know!

Recently I came across a deal on Groupon for language lessons, and I thought that I would take the opportunity. It was only $25 for 6 months of online lessons from LiveMocha.com. I've never heard of the website, and I don't know how well it's going to go, but if I walk away with some basics, then it would be worth the $25. So I started it last night, and honestly it took me a little bit to navigate the site. Once I got into my first lesson though, I really enjoyed it.

I was going to surprise my mom, and when I got at least a little bit proficient, I was going to knock out some funny sentence. But, I couldn't wait and told her this morning! I figure that I'll need to practice and who better to do it with?! I'm going to try to get Griffin to work on some of the words with me as well......wish me luck!

So here's a good use for the scraps of beef that you trim from a roast. If you haven't trimmed a roast lately, try asking the butchers at the grocery store for theirs. I've done it before and they were more than happy to bag some up for me.

I honestly don't know what makes it "French" and if there is an authentic way of making French Onion Soup, so I like to call this Sweet Onion Soup. It's another one of my own recipes. I call for a small bottle of wine because I use one of the small bottles that comes in a 4 pack from the grocery store. I don't like most red wines for drinking but love them for cooking. So I buy the 4 pack and that way I don't have to waste most of the large bottle.

Sweet Onion Soup

Trimmings from the beef roast

Olive oil

1 TBSP salt

2 sweet onions, cut in half and then sliced

Small bottle of red wine- I used Cabernet Sauvignon

2 TBSP butter

2 TBSP brown sugar

4 TBSP Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp. Italian seasoning

6 cups of beef broth

1 cup of water

Over med-high heat, use a heavy bottom pot and heat olive oil. Add the beef trimmings and salt, and let brown. Lower heat to medium, and let cook for another 10 minutes. Remove the beef (if there is a lot of grease, drain it off) add the onions, and let them cook down for about 20 minutes. They should be very soft and translucent. Turn heat up to med-high and add the wine. Let the wine reduce to about ½, about 10 minutes. Add the butter, brown sugar, Worcestershire, Italian seasoning, broth and water. Cover and lower temp again to low. Let simmer for 2-3 hours.

To serve, cut chunks of French bread into crouton size and heat in the oven on 400* for 3-5 minutes until crispy. Ladle soup into an oven proof crock, add croutons, and layer cheese over the top. You can use Gruyere, Swiss, provolone or whatever you like. Put under the broiler, and watch closely- until the cheese melts.

What better during a cold wintry week than a bowl of chili? Plus, the Super Bowl is coming up, and it's a perfect time to get the chili making skills down!  This is actually my recipe. I don't particularly like hamburger in my chili, I prefer nice chunks of beef instead. I also don't like it so spicy that you can't actually taste the food. I find that this has a "kick", but doesn't bring tears to your eyes. If you are really sensitive to spice, I'd leave out or just put in half of the cayenne and red pepper flakes. You can always add them towards the end.
I would have posted some pics but I took them all from my phone and of course my phone wasn't cooperating with me. Boo.

Chili

1-1 1/2 lbs stew beef

2 TBSP olive oil

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped (I prefer sweet onions)

5 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tsp. salt

½ tsp. black pepper

1 TBSP chili powder

1 TBSP oregano

1 ½ tsp. cumin

½ tsp. cayenne

1 tsp. red pepper flakes

1 ½ tsp. cocoa powder

1 (28 oz.) can of diced tomatoes, undrained

1 (4oz) can of chopped green chilis

2     (15 oz. each) cans of kidney beans. If you like black beans, substitute one of the cans of kidney beans for the black beans.

1 (6 oz.) can tomato paste

In a large pot, heat the olive oil over med-high heat. While that’s heating, season the beef with the salt & pepper. Add the beef to the pot, and let it brown, approx. 3 minutes. Make sure that you turn it so that all sides get browned. Add the onions and peppers and cook for about 5 minutes, until they begin to soften. Add the garlic and cook for another 1-2 minutes before lowering the temp to medium. Add the chili powder, oregano, cumin, cayenne, red pepper flakes, and cocoa powder. Let it cook for another minute (it will be sort of thick and kind of pasty). Add the diced tomatoes, and bring to a simmer. Turn heat down to low, cover and let simmer for an hour. The beef should be good and tender by now, if not, let it simmer for another 15 minutes. Turn the heat back up to medium and add the chilis, kidney beans, and the tomato paste. Leave uncovered, and bring to a simmer for about 15 minutes. Serve and enjoy!

Makes 4-6 servings. It also freezes really well. So if you’re like me and you’re 4 year old won’t touch it, and you don’t want to eat leftovers for more than a day- go ahead and freeze the leftovers.

Helpful tips: Instead of buying the actual stew beef already chopped up at the grocery store. I bought a chuck shoulder roast, and cut it myself. I bought almost 2 ½ lbs. of beef for the same price that I would have paid for a pound of the stew beef. I froze the other half of the meat to use later for a beef stew. If you need a big batch of chili go ahead and use it all, just double all the other ingredients as well.

 If you buy the roast, you’ll most likely have to trim a little bit of fat from it. Do not throw this away! Use it to make some yummy onion soup- I'll post a recipe for that next. If you’re not ready to make the soup, freeze the scraps for later.  

My nieces wedding is in a couple of weeks and I have been scouring the internet for something to wear. I have this desire to wear a dress. Very odd for me, since I never wear dresses. I think it goes back to being the only girl out of 7 kids, and to prove that she finally had a girl, my mother made me wear dresses ALL THE TIME! That's another story though.

The dilemma is that I hate to spend the money on a dress that I'll probably never wear again, since I never wear dresses! It would be easier if I hadn't found a bunch of really cute ones, but of course I found tons that I love.

Ohhh, if only all of my lifes dilemmas could be this dilemma-ish!

I did find my new favorite plus size clothing website though. Yeah Me! It's from The Limited and it's http://www.eloquii.com   Seriously, finding affordable plus size clothes that aren't made for grammy can be tough. I didn't find any grammy clothes here, so if I don't go the dress route, this is what I'll be getting. Like it?

I'm thinking I like it in the purple color

 

 

 

I'm woman enough to admit that I wear plus size. Haha! "Woman enough" get it? Ok, seriously though, I don't have a lot of weird hang ups about my body. I don't spend my days crying over it or being disgusted by the mirror. I spent way too much time in my teens and twenties worried about how "fat" I was (I totally wasn't fat!) and letting it hold me back. I'm not sure what changed my thinking, but it's changed, and let me tell you that it's liberating to be comfortable in your own skin.

 That being said, I have some weight that needs to come off. It's not about looks, it's about health. I need all the energy that I can get. We're doing another Biggest Loser competition at work starting this week, and I'm pretty excited for it. I lost 16lbs during our last one. Of course it ended right before the holidays, and I gained about 4 of it back. That's ok though, it means that I'm still down 12lbs. My goal is to get under 200 lbs. Yup, I said it! My name is Shannon, and I weigh over 200 lbs. Anyway, I'm generally a healthy eater, but I have definitely been indulging in the sweets since the holidays and I look forward to getting back on track. The sweets taste ohh so good, but boy do they make you feel ohhhh so bad. I don't know about you, but I certainly feel a huge difference in my health when I make sure that I eat a balanced diet and get in all my veggies and fruit.

So what's my point in all of this? Well, since I am getting back on the wagon, that means I'll be making the effort to cook a lot more. I love to cook, but really it's very time consuming for a busy mom. It beats takeout though, and usually my cooking is better anyway. So be prepared for me to post some of my favorite recipes or new recipes that I'll be trying out. I recently got a few new cookbooks, and have spied some yummy stuff in them. Can't wait to get started!

It's a season of trying new things for me. So recently I signed up for Birchbox. For $10 a month, they send you 4-5 deluxe beauty samples every month. I was so excited when I got home from work and saw my first box sitting on the counter. It was like Christmas all over again! Couldn't wait to see what goodies were hiding in there. I can honestly say that I wasn't disappointed. I got some lip gloss, and some nail polish (not sold on the color of the polish though). A small Larabar- love those! A sample of Juicy Couture perfume which I'm considering buying now. I really like it! Then there was a small bottle of eye firming cream. I'm not calling that a sample- I'm calling it a small bottle, since it's going to last me forever. If you love beauty products, and really what girl doesn't, I recommend trying Birchbox. So much fun!

BUT, my big recommendation in the beauty product department is Blinc mascara. Holy crap is this stuff awesome! I spotted it at a spa that I went to for a Thai massage (oh, there's something else that I recommend!), and the massage therapist couldn't stop raving about it. It's on the pricey side, I won't lie, but it's so worth every one of those 25 dollars.

What makes it different from other mascaras is that it forms tubes around each of your lashes. You apply it just like a normal mascara. That being said, it does take a little bit of practice to get it right. The mascara is wetter than other mascaras that I've used, so I have to be careful because the tips of my lashes hit the top of my eye near my eyebrow and leave mascara smudges. The brush also separates the lashes a bit, and I tend to like the fuller look- I have found that if I put the layers on very lightly I can achieve the fullness that I like. So yes, I recommend more than one coat, but each coat also adds length- noticeable length! The instructions are included, but make sure that the lashes don't dry in between each layer.

Once it's dry and the tubes have formed, it doesn't come off. Meaning you can rub your eyes, you can go swimming or work out, and it doesn't flake. It only comes off with the combination of warm water and slight pressure. Then they slide right off! It looks like your lashes coming off, but it's just the tubes. So cool. I'm kind of like a kid and honestly find that taking them off is part of the fun of using the mascara. Well that and the fact that they make my eyelashes look a mile long......

I have to thank my friend Kelly for getting me totally addicted to the Pinterest website. Seriously addicted. Checking my iPhone app multiple times a day kind of addicted! Never heard of it, neither had I until Kelly brought it to my attention. It's basically an online pinboard, a place to collect and organize all the things you love. Come across a cute craft- pin it, an awesome recipe- pin it! The cool thing is that it's not just your pinboards, you get to view everybodys pins. So the website is loaded with awesome ideas, recipes, fashions, crafts, you name it.

Now, a lot of people spend a lot of time just pinning and looking at the site, but I'm proud to say that I've actually made some of the crafts that I pinned. So much fun. I'm feeling newly inspired and very crafty lately. There are also a bunch of very yummy looking recipes that I plan on trying out very soon as well.

Yesterday I went to my nieces bridal shower, and it's the first time that I've ever been excited about my gift. I couldn't wait for her to see it. I copied these ideas, and made them my own. With a little help from a friend, I did the framed picture. I thought it would be nice with a pretty quote, so I added that to mine. With the wedding invite, I put hers in a small glass bottle instead of the ornament. I couldn't find any ornaments at the craft stores and I didn't have time to order them online. The bottle actually worked nicely, and I also tied the matching bow around the top. That is one of the quickest and easiest gifts I've done, but it got a ton of ooohs and ahhhhhhs.




Right now I'm working on Valentines for Griffins class. It's another easy, but very cute craft involving crayons. You could use, the broken loose ones that are just laying all around the house. If you don't have those, it's still cheap enough to buy a new pack. Aren't these adorable? I did ours star shaped instead- more appropriate for my boy.

Happy New Year!!!

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. Ours was great. This is the first year that Griffin REALLY understood the whole thing, and boy was he excited. It just made the whole thing so awesome for us. Of course all 3 of us got totally spoiled. Usually Ryan and I don't get each other gifts, but this year I thought it would be good to get each other a little something. I set a limit (no more than 100-150) and I think that we both got some great goodies! I'm actually kind of sad that the holidays are over. I'm totally dragging my feet taking my tree down. I want to enjoy it for as long a possible.

The holiday eating needs to stop though. The food was just soooo yummy this year. Maybe it was just my imagination, but oh, it was just so good. My favorite was the coconut cream pie that my mother-in-law made for Christmas. I scooped that recipe right up! If I get a chance, I'll post it. I gained back 3 lbs of the 16 that I lost before the holidays. I know it could be worse, but I worked hard for that 16. So, we're starting up our Biggest Loser challenge at work, and I'm getting right back on that wagon!

Speaking of work, this year I'm hitting my 15 year anniversary. That means, I gain another week of vacation, which I chose to take this week. Everyone thinks I'm odd for taking a winter vacation, but I'm really excited for it. I scheduled a facial on Thursday. On Friday, it's an hour long Thai massage, with a 20 minute foot massage. Who wouldn't want to start out their year this way??