Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Hello, Lover!

We had a busy weekend full of cleaning, household projects, grocery shopping, and we had company Saturday into Sunday...then, I got sick.  Sunday afternoon and evening were no fun and Monday was not much better.  I still wasn't feeling the greatest yesterday either, but I think today I can finally say I'm over it.  I missed food so, so much.  So that's where I've been and the reason for the lack of posts, if anyone out there is wondering...

The title of this post is a nod to Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City - which I'm super, duper excited that the SATC 2 movie will be out in less than a month, May 27th, woot!  She'd often use this phrase while gazing at a pair of shoes with that "where have you been all my life" tone in her voice.  I used this phrase yesterday while using my new "toy" for the first time... and NO, not that kind of toy, get your mind out of the gutter!

Here she is, my new friend "Mia"...




Seriously, where have you been all my life Clarisonic? It was delivered on Monday and it took all I had not to rip into the package and use it immediately.  Unfortunately, I was sick, so standing for long periods of time was not possible, plus it had to charge for a full 24 hours before the first use.  But yesterday morning I used it in the shower for the first time (it's completely waterproof!) and oh.my.word. it is the neatest feeling ever!  My face felt so clean and smooth, I was instantly in love.  But then my moisturizer felt like it absorbed better and my makeup went on like butter...I was even MORE in love.  Then I used it last night after removing my makeup*, and my face actually looked better...already?  YES!  I have oily/combo skin, so I have large pores on my nose and cheeks.  My pores already look smaller.  I have the start of crows feet around my eyes and a horrid crease between my eyebrows.  Those wrinkles already seem firmer and not as deep.  I am amazed!  I am, however, waiting for the "purge", meaning the breakouts bound to happen from the Clarisonic pulling out the dirt and grime from my face.  So far so good though.

Here are just some of the benefits:
6X more makeup removal
Soft, smooth skin
Cleanses so well that products absorb better
Reduces appearance of oily areas, dry skin patches and blemishes
Reduces the appearance of visible pores

I chose the Mia for a few reasons after going back a forth between that and the Classic: it's smaller, therefore easier to handle, and it works just as well as the bigger, more expensive models.  The Mia only has one speed (where the Classic has two), but now that I have it I don't see the big deal.  I really can't imagine it having a higher speed, whoa!  It still automatically shuts off after one minute of cleansing and it even takes the same brush heads as the Classic.  Speaking of brush heads, the Mia comes with the sensitive while the Classic gives you a choice between the normal and sensitive (they also offer a gentle brush head as well).  Again, no big deal because the sensitive is probably as far as I'll go, I'd be afraid the normal would be too much for my skin. 

Overall, I'm very happy I went with the Mia, although I do wish I could have gotten the yellow but I didn't have a choice unfortunately.  And...drumroll please...it didn't cost me a cent!  It was free!  My dear, sweet husband had a bunch of frequent flyer miles that he actually forgot about.  He got an email a few weeks ago in regards to the miles program he used when he traveled a lot for work, figured out the amount he had really wouldn't benefit us much as far as future travel goes, so he thought he'd buy something fun with them.  Fortunately for me, there wasn't anything he needed/wanted in the range of points he had to shop with so he let me use them!  Nice, huh?  I am, however, going to buy him his own brush head as a thank you.  After all, he just HAS to try this thing out.  I know he'll be just as amazed as I am.

If you already own a Clarisonic, I know you probably sing it's praises to anyone that will listen.  If you don't own one but are thinking about it even just a teeny, tiny bit - buy it!  You won't be sorry!

* ETA: the Clarisonic can be used to remove your makeup as well, but there is a chance it could stain the brush head or gunk it up, therefore having to replace it sooner.  I usually wash my face twice anyway, once to remove makeup and the second time to actually cleanse my skin, so continuing a two step routine at night is what I plan to do to keep my brush heads nice and last as long as possible :)

Thursday, April 22, 2010

An Act of Desperation

Remember, a little less than a month ago, I blogged about my love for True Lemon?  Well, I was nearing the end of my stash and was in a desperate search for more.  According to their website I was supposed to be able to find it at two grocery stores local to me...neither of which I shop at normally.  So off we went, making a special trip to buy some more...but alas, no True Lemon to be found.  We checked a few more stores along our travels throughout the past few weeks, still nothing.  I was starting to go through withdrawls (lol, not really) and was ready to throw in the towel...how would I go on?

I checked a few places online: eBay, Amazon, and the True Lemon site itself.  After doing some math, figuring out what was going to get me the best deal, I placed my order directly through the True Lemon site because they were offering $2.95 shipping on any orders over $10 - plus! you'd get a FREE 32 count box of either the True Lemon, True Lime, or True Orange (codes are available on their site).  I placed the order Saturday night and looky what was on my doorstep yesterday afternoon:


Let's zoom in a bit, shall we:


That's right, I ordered 500 packets.  532 if you count the free box!  Let's take a peek inside:


I'd say I'm good to go for a while, ya think?

Desperate times call for desperate measures, but definitely worth it since I know they won't go to waste, and it'll save me some time/gas/frustration from trying to find it in an actual brick and mortar store.  If you're lucky enough to find this in your grocery store, first - thank God, second - buy up a few boxes and sell them on eBay, you're bound to make some nice coin!

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

*EASY RECIPE* Creamy Chicken & Herbs

I usually have a few cans of Campbell's condensed soups on hand for crock-pot cooking during the cooler months.  Nothing easier than tossing your meat of choice and a can of soup into the crock-pot and letting it go for a few hours.  During the warmer months I retire the crock-pot and opt to use the grill most nights.  But one night last week it was cold, too cold to grill in my opinion, and I was in a hurry to get dinner on the table.  I noticed we still had some cans of condensed soups and I felt like I needed to use them up so they weren't sitting on the shelf for months until it was crock-pot time again.  I happened to grab a can of cream of chicken & herbs and saw it had a recipe on the label for Creamy Broccoli Chicken & Herbs.  Sounded pretty good, but just one thing, I hate broccoli.  I thought it was a worth a shot to try it out anyway, sans broccoli, and just see what happened.  It was a quick meal too, probably 15 mins. from start to finish, just the way I like 'em!  My interpretation of the recipe:

Creamy Chicken & Herbs

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) Campbell's® Condensed Cream of Chicken with Herbs Soup
1/3 cup water
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
2 handfuls of whole wheat egg noodles

Heat the oil in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook until it's well browned on both sides.  Stir the soup, water, parmesan cheese, and garlic powder together in a seperate bowl.  Add soup mixture to skillet.  Heat to a boil.  Reduce the heat to low.  Cover and cook for 5 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.  Serve over cooked egg noodles.


This recipe was meant to made with 4 chicken breasts, but obviously since it's just the two of us, I only made 2 but still followed the full recipe for the soup mixture.  I used the additional soup/sauce to top off the egg noodles and then steamed some sugar snap peas for our veggie.  It was sooooo good!  We both loved it.  I'll definitely make this again.


Can you tell I love my sugar snap peas?!



Friday, April 16, 2010

Relief

As of 8am, April 26th, my husband will once again be employed.  He officially accepted a job offer today!  He's excited about the job, and when he spoke with the VP on the phone this morning, he seemed genuinely excited about him coming onboard too. 

We are soooo relieved.  It's amazing that it took him a year to even get one job offer (the one that ended up not working out...still too raw to talk about), but then was able to get a second a little less than a month later.  This job is a much better fit for him too...divine intervention that the first job didn't work out?  I think so. 




    

Thursday, April 15, 2010

No-Bakes Rock My World

My mom used to make these all.the.time while I was growing up.  We'd fight over who got to lick the spoon.  We'd be checking them every 5 minuntes until they were finally cool enough to eat.  We'd literally eat them all up in the matter of a few hours unless my mom threatened us to save some for another day.  I love no-bakes because they remind me of all those times, it's comfort food to the max.

My husband never experienced no-bakes until our first Valentine's Day together.  We were only dating a short time and I came up with the brilliant idea to trade "homemade" gifts instead of spending lots of money on each other.  He made me a heart shaped cake and a card.  I made him no-bakes.  Maybe that had something to do with him sticking around?  Hmm...

They're incredibly simple to make and require nothing more than a few staple ingredients.  The cast of characters:


No-bake Oatmeal Cookies
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup butter
4 tsp. cocoa
1/2 cup milk

Mix above ingredients in medium to large sized sauce pan.  Heat to a boil, stirring frequently to prevent scorching.  Remove from heat.

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
3 cups quick oats

Immediately add peanut butter to hot liquid mixture, mix well.  Add oats and gently stir to coat completely.  Spread mixture into a greased 8x8 or 9x9 pan.  Allow to cool completely before cutting into squares.  Enjoy!






Monday, April 12, 2010

Got Ham?

Easter was one week ago as of yesterday, yet we still have enough leftover ham to potentially hold an Easter dinner do-over.  Why my mother-in-law insists on buying such a big ham is beyond me, but we're always stuck bringing some home.  I honestly don't mind having leftovers to nosh on over the days following a holiday, it's the sheer amount of leftovers that bothers me.  It's just the two of us.  If we ate this ham at lunch and dinner for a week straight, I think we'd STILL have a lot left.  Let's not even mention the fact that I still have a pretty good sized chunk of ham in my freezer from Christmas.  We're hammed out!

In an attempt to use some up, we tried out a new recipe for Individual Scalloped Potatoes with Ham from the Tasty Kitchen/Pioneer Woman.  We kind of improvised a bit because we used an 8 cup muffin tin, vs. the 12 cup muffin tin she used.  Overall it was easy, and the ingredients are simple.  However, they didn't turn out as muffin-like as I had hoped...mine kind of fell apart while removing them from the pan.  I think it was either from too much butter (although I felt I used less than what the recipe called for, weird) or moisture from the ham that made things too watery...perhaps it was a combo of the two?  I was kind of assuming the cheese would melt down better and help the layers stick together more, but I was wrong.  With a bit of tweaking, these could be amazing.  The flavors are all there for sure.

Some pics to share...but certainly not as nice as Ree's! 

(Please ignore my dirty oven...it's on the list for Spring cleaning!)





I think I'll file this recipe away in my arsenal and pull it out the next time I have some ham I need to use up ;)  It definitely has potential.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Beauty and Skin-Care Raves

My husband always calls me high maintenance.  I'm not offended by it in the least because I fully admit that I am.  I'm very particular when it comes to my hair and make-up.  I'll change my outfit ten times before I walk out the door and not think twice about it.  Now, I'm not as nuts every day, believe me.  There are days I leave the house not looking as nice as I'd like or wearing something that doesn't quite fit or feel right, but oh well.  I'm far from perfect.  But when it matters, I try to present the best me I can.

I'm always on the search for my "holy grail" products and my bathroom is proof of that - I have "stuff" stashed everywhere.  I recently went through ALL my make-up and purged items that were either too old or were things I could never really see myself using.  It felt good to toss all that stuff, but honestly, I still have too much.  Now I'm trying to work with what I have and actually finish products rather than buy new stuff that I really don't need, just because...which is what I was doing before the great purge.  I was reading a lot of beauty blogs, watching a lot of beauty videos on youtube, reading endless reviews on MakeupAlley and became influenced!  Some products were a bust, but some I really loved.  Those are the ones I want to share with you...

Korres Lip Butter in Jasmine : I love a good lip product.  I have very dry lips and try to have something on them at all times.  This lip butter feels awesome, smells lovely, doesn't taste nasty and has a nice natural pink tint to it.  It also gets the Sephora "natural seal". 
Stila Illuminating Finishing Powder : I use these powders every day as my blush/bronzer/highlighting combo.  I feel like they are going to last forever considering how little product is required to get color...at least on my skin, since I'm super fair.  I found these on Sephora before Christmas at $10 for the pair, a great value.  And while I LOVE them, I'm really not sure I'd pay the regular price of $32 each.  I guess we'll see once I finally use up the ones I have!
Clinique Even Better Makeup : Before this foundation I was loving my Clinique Superfit but I wasn't completely happy with the color match.  When "bonus time" came around I took it as an opportunity to try out a new foundation and I'm really loving the Even Better.  The color match is pretty good and the coverage is excellent, blends effortlessly and it's buildable.  Over time it's supposed to improve clarity and help even out your skin one.  I've been using it about two months now and can see a difference when I'm not wearing makeup.  I'm definitely not as red and it certainly hasn't caused any (more than usual) breakouts.  The true test will come when the weather gets (and stays) warm, but so far I'm really pleased with it's staying power.

Clinique Lash Doubling Mascara : In an effort to again, work with what I have, I started using a sample tube of this mascara when my regular Maybelline Full & Soft ran out.  I've used F&S for years!  It was really, really hard to not run out an buy a replacement tube.  To my surprise, I'm liking the Lash Doubling a lot.  In fact I may like it more than the F&S.  *gasp*  It applys so nice, not too wet, doesn't clump, and gives great volume.  It removes easily too.  The only thing is I wish it came in a waterproof formula :(

Clinique Acne Solutions Spot Healing Gel : Ugh!  Yes, I'm 30, and I still get breakouts.  Thankfully, in the past 3 years that I've been using the Clinique 3-Step system, my skin has gotten so much better.  I really only breakout around that magical time of the month and even then my face recovers a lot more quickly.  I bought this spot gel to try out about a month ago and I'm very pleased with it so far.  My skin reacts well to salicylic acid, which this product contains.  Most of the Clinique Acne Solutions line contains benzoyl peroxide, which I try to stay away from since it irritates my skin more so than helps.  So when my consultant suggested the spot gel I snapped it up and I'm happy I did.  It's not a overnight miracle worker, but it significantly helps my breakouts heal faster and they're much easier to conceal.

Clinique Moisture Surge : can you tell I love Clinique?  I got a sample of this during bonus time and as soon as I run out I'm getting a full sized jar!  I have combo/oily skin, but I also have a few areas that just need extra moisture.  This works awesome on those dry patches!  A little goes a long way with this too, so while it may be a bit pricey, it's worth the investment since it'll last a long time.
 
Lacura Q10 Anti-Wrinkle Night Cream : before I tell you where I bought this, or even better, tell you how much it costs, just hear me out.  I have an ugly, deep wrinkle between my eyebrows that drives me insane...too much squinting and scrunching my face when I'm deep in thought or mad.  The past few years I've been using Avon Anew Clinical Deep Crease Concentrate.  It's a wonderful serum, but they've recently discontinued it.  Story of my life.  But beyond that it wasn't easy on the wallet and ordering through an Avon rep was not very convienient.  I think I first heard of the Lacura brand on a blog and then read all the awesome reviews on MakeupAlley (if you've never used this site, I recommend it!).  It honestly almost seems too good to be true.  I've only been using it for about two weeks now, but I am really, really pleased with it.  It works just as well as the Avon serum if not better and it's helped with the redness in my skin too.  It's a thick cream but melts into the skin, a little goes a long way.  I'm using it around my eyes as well.  Where did I find this wonderful night cream???  Am I breaking the bank???  The answers: Aldi, and no, it was $4.00!!!  Now, Aldi would be the LAST place I'd ever imagine myself buying skin care products, but read the reviews, they don't lie.

Those are my beauty and skin care raves for the first quarter of the year.  I hope to make this a regular thing, providing I have new products to rave about.  If you use any of these products already or if you decide to try them out based off my review, be sure to let me know your thoughts!

Thursday, April 8, 2010

*EASY RECIPE* New Red Potato Salad

Let me just preface this by saying that I'm not usually a fan of potato salad.  I typically prefer Amish macaroni salad if I have a choice, or pasta salad, I do like a good pasta salad.  But we bought a 5 lb. bag of red potatoes a little over a week ago and wanted to try something new.  The hubster decided that homemade potato salad was going to be it!  I came home from work one afternoon to find him puttering around in the kitchen, which made me nervous, but he asked me to just let him be and I obliged.  Later that night we grilled some turkey burgers for dinner and had the potato salad as a side.  It was delish!  He was so proud of himself and I must admit, I was pretty impressed that he pulled it off.  Let's just say there's been a few kitchen catastrophes lately...I had the right to be a bit scared ;)

New Red Potato Salad (recipe yields 12 servings, he cut the recipe in half to make 6 servings)

Ingredients:

3 pounds unpeeled red potatoes
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups mayonnaise
2 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
1/2 cup sliced green onions
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 cup sliced celery

Directions:

1.Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add red potatoes, and cook until tender but still firm, about 15 minutes. Drain, cool and chop into 1 inch cubes. Place in a medium bowl.

2.Place eggs in a medium saucepan, and cover with cold water. Bring water to a boil, and immediately remove from heat. Cover, and let eggs stand in hot water for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from hot water, cool, peel and dice.

3.In a small bowl, whisk together mayonnaise, milk, distilled white vinegar, green onions, salt and pepper. Pour the mixture over the potatoes, and mix together with the eggs and celery. Cover, and chill in the refrigerator approximately 2 hours before serving.


Some things he did differently:
...He decided to forgo boiling the potatoes and just semi-cooked them in the microwave...it was just easier and less time consuming.
...He subbed Miracle Whip for the mayo...we much prefer the tangy zip!
...He did not add the green onions because at the time we did not have them on hand...honestly didn't miss them at all.
...After reading some of the reviews, he followed a suggestion and added crumbled bacon pieces...bacon just makes everything better, but it is totally optional.


I think this may be our go-to salad for the Spring and Summer grilling season!

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Farmer's Market Wednesdays

We have a decent sized Farmer's Market nearby that is open on Wednesdays only, year round, from 8am-8pm.  Of course we tend to only go when the weather is tolerable (not raining, super windy, freezing, or snowing) and we made our first trip of the season today!  It was so stinkin' hot (I think my car was reading 88 degrees), but we were really looking forward to it and couldn't wait to check out all the fresh produce.  Our goal is to get as much as we can with $20, that's our limit.  Most days we spend less and still come home with a ton of stuff.  Today we spent $19 and brought home: two containers of strawberries, a huge container of blueberries, a big bunch of bananas, a small bushel of grapefruit, grapes, a small bushel of baby white potatoes, a container of grape tomatoes, two bunches of green onions, and lastly, my FAVORITE - green beans!  We had a nice time walking around checking everything out and we even ran into my baby sister :)


Occasionally we'll switch it up and head about 40 mins. south to a different Farmer's Market which is also open Wednesdays only, year round, from 7am-7pm ...but this one also has another one of my favorite things, a flea market!  I love walking around and looking at all the "stuff", you never know if you'll stumble upon a treasure or two.

My trusty side-kick (besides my husband usually), is my market basket, which was a birthday gift from my friend Jen a few years ago.  Best, and most-used, birthday gift ever!  And soooo pretty :)


I always get a lot of compliments and questions about it. It holds a ton and makes me feel good that I can forgo all the plastic bags from the vendors and just toss everything right into the basket. 

We didn't waste any time sampling our buys... for dinner, I steamed some green beans as a side to our grilled BBQ chicken and homemade potato salad, and then we had some strawberries for dessert.  So good :)  Can't wait 'til next week!

Monday, April 5, 2010

Appliance Love

We're not big into kitchen gadgets or having a bunch of small appliances that hardly get used.  Frankly, we just don't have the room to store these things and I'm not really one to go above and beyond when it comes to cooking or baking.  A lot of our small kitchen appliances were given to as gifts and all those are pretty cool and might be considered to have some "bells and whistles", but honestly, if we're buying it ourselves, as long as it does the job, it's fine.  We had the same $20 toaster and $30 coffee maker for 7 years until we remodeled our kitchen two years ago, and actually we sold the pair for $20 at a yard sale so they really served us well! 

One appliance we "splurged" on after the remodel was our Cuisinart Brew Central...not super duper fancy, but definitely better than our prior coffee maker, and it had a timer!  Movin' on up!  Then this past November I got sucked into QVC.  The new and improved Keurig Platinum was the Today's Special Value.  I made the hubster sit through an hour long presentation.  We ooohed and awwwed as they talked about what it did and how it worked and then we went about our business.  A few hours later on that night we both kind of looked at each other like "we NEED to order that"!  So we did.  In a pretty cinnamon color and on easy-pay :)  The poor Cuisinart now sits on a shelf in the basement awaiting it's fate.

I have never loved an appliance like this.  It is fabulous!  Plus it's so pretty, it steals the show in my kitchen.  We were always coffee drinkers, this just took it up a notch...actually, a couple notches, it's that awesome.

Here she is:


We've recently started ordering our K-cups from CoffeeWiz.com.  Their prices and selection can't be beat, and bonus, free shipping on orders over $50.  When we're in a bind we can always pick up a box at our local grocery store or use the My K-cup (which came with our fab deal from QVC) with our own preferred ground coffee, easy peasy.

We store our selection of K-cups in a cute little tin "lunch box" on our counter (we replenish when needed from the seperate big boxes which are stored on a high shelf not easily accessible to my midget self).  It's cute and holds the K-cups perfectly!


My favorite K-cups:


We have ours programmed to turn on/off at certain times of the day, and by "on" I mean that the water is heated and ready to brew at the push of a button. If the machine is in "off" mode, it generally takes about 3-4 minutes for the water to heat up to the right temp.

 Here's how she works... first you choose your K-cup and put it in the brewer.  Today's choice was Butter Toffee, yum!


Then place your mug below...


Make fun of my coffee mug if you must.  I own probably six different mugs with my name on them, mostly from theme park gift shops, but I have a compulsion about buying things with my name on them since they're typically hard to find.  This one is from the Arabian Nights dinner show in Orlando, circa 2006 :)

Next you choose your mug size...


  I use the 10 oz. size, second from the right, while the hubster prefers the 8 oz. size in the middle (he likes a stronger brew).  Notice the selection all the way on the left of the little screen.  That's for iced coffee, neat-o!

Then you just hit the "brew" button and you're good to go. 

 

In less than a minute you have a perfect cup of coffee!  Add a bit of sugar and a splash of creamer (huge rave for the new Bailey's creamer, I love the caramel) and I'm in heaven.


Hmm...I think I may have a cup of decaf after dinner tonight!




Saturday, April 3, 2010

Easter Weekend

We're having such gorgeous weather these past few days. It definitely feels like Spring, finally, and what better time than Easter weekend! Wherever you're going, whatever you're doing, whomever you're with, I hope you have a glorious and blessed holiday.




Thursday, April 1, 2010

Addicted!

Easter is just a few days away and it is officially Spring now (wish Mother Nature would get the hint!), so this past weekend I picked up a few bags of seasonally appropriate candy all in pretty Spring colors - pinks, blues, greens, yellows - a pastel explosion!  I got one bag of Reese's Peanut Butter cup miniatures, one bag of Almond Hershey's Kisses, and one bag of tiny little pieces of heaven, also known as Coconut Cream Hershey's Kisses.  Now, I'm a coconut fan.  I love Mounds and Almond Joys, occasionally I'll enjoy a slice of coconut cake or the like, but these things, these blow my mind!  If you like coconut, pick up a bag.  If you LOVE coconut, RUN to your nearest store and buy as many bags as you can get your hands on.  They are that good!  I promise.

Yumm-o!