anniversary trip

sooooo, ben and i and our two best friends are headed on an anniversary trip!!  we have been planning this for a while now and it is happening so very soon, i am about to jump out of my skin!

it will be both mine and ben's and kristin and jim's five year anniversary, so we decided we should celebrate.

first we are headed to

chicago!

and then we are going to

sonoma !

 and napa!

and last but not least, we are finishing our trip off in

san fran!!

woohoo!  now, i better get packing.  oooh i and i to fly again.  ugh.

happy memorial day friends!

xoxo

blueberry oat crumble bars

what's a girl to do with 8 pounds of blueberries?  make blueberry oat crumble bars of course! the recipe is from jessica at how sweet eats.  these things are good.  really good. and simple!

what you'll need:

1 1/2 cups rolled oats

3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour

3/4 cups brown sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup butter + 2 tbs, melted 

1 cup blueberries

preheat oven to 350. in a large bowl combine the oats, flour, sugar, salt and cinnamon. mix until well combined. melt the 1/2 cup of butter and add it to the mixture along with the vanilla. stir until well moistened.  this may take a minute or two.  then fold in the blueberries.

butter and flour an 8x8 baking pan. press mixture into pan. melt the remaining 2 tbs butter and drizzle all over the top of the mixture.bake for 20 minutes and then let cool completely.

these can be kept in the fridge or on the counter at room temp in a sealed container.

enjoy!

(via)

weekend eats

yall, i am fairly certain that i ate my way through the entire weekend.  so much good food and so much fun!

friday night i had a girls dinner at fish on king street.  i can't believe i have not eaten there before.  the food was delicious.

saturday morning i went for a run and then ben and i headed to our local farm to pick blueberries.  we love blueberries and ended up picking 8 pounds.  ridic.  i froze most of them but i can't wait to make some recipes with all of these fresh blueberries!

saturday night we had a going away party for some of our neighbors and i made my s'mores pops and little caprese bites. sooo good!

sunday we meet our besties at blossom for brunch.  we sat in their courtyard, which was gorgeous...but i have to say that i was really disappointed with our food.  the apps were great but all of our main courses were just so-so.

after brunch the boys went home and kristin and i had a fun filled day of shopping for our upcoming trip that starts next weekend!  i can't wait to tell yall about it, we have been planning this trip for about a year and a half....i can't wait!!

and we ended our girls shopping day with strawberry thai basil martini's and crab spring rolls from CO and king street.  that place is fabulous if you haven't tried it yet.

and a beautiful sunset on my way home from shopping.  a perfect ending to a perfect weekend. 

i hope yall had a great weekend too!

xoxo

spicy chicken sandwiches with cilantro lime mayo

this is a cooking light recipe from 2008 that i have had stashed in my recipe box and finally decided to make them last night.  these sandwiches are so yummy!  i hope you make them soon!

mayo:

1/4 cup mayo

2 tbs chopped cilantro

1 tsp fresh lime juice

1 garlic clove, minced

chicken:

1/4 cup egg substitute or 2 egg whites

3 tbs hot sauce

1 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp salt

2 (6 oz) chicken breasts- cut in half and pounded thin

4 1/2 oz tortilla chips

2 tbs olive oil

remaining ingredients:

kaiser rolls

red onion slices

romaine lettuce

to prepare mayo, combine all ingredients in small bowl and mix until well blended.

to prepare chicken, combine egg substitute, hot sauce, oregano and salt in a large ziploc bag. add chicken to bag and seal. marinate in refrigerator 2 hours up to 8 hours.

place tortilla chips in food processor and pulse until chips are ground. place chips in a shallow bowl.

working one chicken piece at a time, remove from bag, let excess marinade drip off and coat chicken completely in chips. set aside.  repeat procedure with remaining chicken.

heat a large skillet over medium heat and add olive oil. add chicken to pan and cook 3 minutes on each side or until brown and cooked through.

add chicken, mayo, onions and lettuce to kaiser roll and enjoy!

week endings photo dump

hi!

i hope yall had a great weekend!  ours was fabulous and extremely low key....which was much needed after being so busy the past few weekends.

hubs and i at a riverdogs baseball game

 dinner at our friends house

 gah, i love their backyard!

 elizabeth and me

 sweet carson

 i love hydrangea season! 

 csa stirfry- yum!

 and ben brought me my fav red velvet cupcakes from cupcake

happy tuesday yall!

xoxo

i did it.

i read all three books of shades of grey in less than a week.  holy moly!  i could not put them down!  yes, they are incredibly incredibly sexual for those of you who have not read any of the books...but i just fell in love with the story and with christian grey. whoa. so for those of you who haven't read the books- do it!  and for those of you who did read them, what did you think??  i think you either love it or hate it.  i am a lover. obviously. 

happy humpday!

reelin' for research

hey yall!  so sorry for my lack of postings lately.  i was in myrtle beach for the good part of last week for work and then we headed to morehead city nc for a fishing tournament this past weekend. we had SO much fun!  our great friends from greensboro have put together this tournament for the past four years.  it is in honor of our friend richard's dad who passed away from cancer several years ago.  all of the money raised goes to children's cancer research.  the first year they raised close to $30,000 and this year (3 years later) we raised $140,000! over 50 boats fished in the tournament this year. 

i fished on the all girls boat with my friends from greensboro.  we had an awesome time!  no one got sick and the water was rooooouuuggghh. and we caught more fish than most of the boys, so we were thrilled!  it was most definitely a long day.  we were up at 4:00 am and didn't go to bed until almost 2:00 am....whew. 

i hope yall have been doing well and i can't wait to catch up on your blogs!

happy monday!

xoxo