Happy 4th!!

Hope you are all having an amazing day celebrating our Independence Day!!  We have so much to be thankful for and are blessed in so many ways.  I'm proud to say that my dad and grandpas served our country and were all veterans of war.  I'm so grateful and thankful for all of the men and women that make sacrifices for us every day and continue to fight for our freedom. 

As this year the 4th fell in the middle of the week, and of course we have to work before and after, we stayed in town and decided to relax at home and grill out. We made shrimp and vegetable kabobs with grilled corn.  For an appetizer, I made a Red, White and Blue cheese and fruit tray with blueberries, watermelon, and goat cheese.

For dessert, we put popsicles in champagne.  Strawberry and lemonade popsicles of course to keep with the theme of red and white!  Oh and I should mention now that Cupcake Prosseco is our absolute fav to drink.  If you haven't tried it, well you should!!  The Cupcake Pinot and Cab are delish too.  Great bottles of wine in the $10 per bottle range.

One more thing....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my beautiful mother!!  Lucky for her she has a wonderful birthday as there are always great parties, days off of work and fireworks to top it all off!!! She's an amazing mother and is one of my best friends too.  Love her very much!!!

XO,

Tara

Scenes from Our Weekend

This past weekend we enjoyed a rare weekend in town with no major plans, which allowed us to meet up with friends, sleep in late, make breakfast, and spend a day at the beach.  It was a wonderful weekend!

This is at a beach close to Galveston.  There's Jeff (yup that blue dot) out wading in the surf trying to fish.  The wind was really strong, so it was not a very successful fishing trip, but I really enjoyed getting to lay in the sun reading and taking in these views.

 

 This was the breakfast I made on Saturday morning.  I used Hungry Girl's Eggs Bene-chick recipe to reduce the calories per serving...which means you can get two servings, right? Yes, why not?!

Eggs Bene-chick

1 half of a light English Muffin

1 slice of lean ham

1 large egg

For the sauce:

1 tbsp. fat free mayonnaise

1 tsp. Dijonnaise (which I couldn't find, so I just mix some Dijon mustard with the ff mayo)

1 tsp. reduced calorie light butter spread

1 tsp. lemon yogurt

Stir all sauce ingredients together and set aside.  Crack egg gently into a small dish.  Fill a pot with two inches of water and heat to a boil.  Then reduce heat to a very slow steady boil.  Gently pour in the egg and cook for 3-5 minutes depending if you prefer a runny or firm yolk.  While cooking the egg, toast your muffin and cook the ham.  Carefully remove egg and dab with a paper towel to remove excess water if you like.  Heat sauce in microwave for about twenty seconds.  Layer the toasted muffin with the cooked ham and poached egg and then drizzle the sauce over the top.  Delish!

{source link to original recipe}

I'm linking up to Tasty Tuesday's over at 33 Shades of Green.  There are always so many great recipes to look at.  You should go check them out!

and I'm also linking up to What I Whipped Up Wednesday at Sugar and Dots.  All kinds of great recipes and DIY's projects!

Tara

Chicken Orzo Salad Recipe + earrings!

This is what we had for dinner on Monday night and ate some leftovers tonight.  Simple and oh so delicious!

Chicken Orzo Salad with Goat Cheese

{sorry for the blurry phone pic}

We used already cooked frozen grilled chicken strips that we heated up in the microwave.  We laid this on a bed of arugula and spinach mix (from a bag), added chopped basil and orgegano,  and then we cut up vegetables including grape tomatoes, red onion and red bell pepper to add in.  We added cooked orzo pasta and crumbled goat cheese.  Then mixed up salt, pepper, red wine vinegar and olive oil to drizzle over the top. Tossed and ate!  

**This is not my own recipe.  I did see this from another website, but honestly couldn't remember which one.**

I'm linking this recipe up to 33 Shades of Green for her Tasty Tuesdays Linky Party!  Click on the button below to go check out all of the amazing recipes shared.

Also, remember these earrings I talked about here??

Well, you can enter for a chance to win them over at The Girl in the Red Shoes! Seriously, she is that amazing and is hosting a great giveaway.  And while you are there, you definitely should check out the rest of her adorable blog!

Good luck!!

Tara