Southern Staples and Super Bowl!

Sorry for the lack of blogging over the last couple days, yall. I guess I just haven't really felt up to it and haven't really had anything worthwhile to write about. Don't worry, I have been keeping up on reading everyone else's blogs though :)

I was just going over my grocery shopping list for the rest of the week and was deciding on what to make for Super Bowl. We aren't having a party this year and that is okay with me. I think I would just rather go to someone else's house and not have to worry about the mess! I am however, very excited to make a couple recipes for the big day.

As you may already know, I am a HUGE fan of pimiento cheese. Can you believe that I had never had it until I moved to South Carolina just over two years ago? I quickly learned that pimiento cheese is a Southern staple and I am excited to try making it for the first time!

Southern Pimiento Cheese

 Picture & recipe from addapinch.com

Ingredients:

8-ounce package cream cheese

8-ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

8-ounces mild cheddar cheese, shredded

1/4 cup pimentos

pinch of salt and pepper

2-3 tablespoons mayonnaise (optional)

1/2 c pickled jalapenos + 1 tsp jalapeno liquid from jar (optional)

8-ounces bacon, cooked and crumbled (optional)

Directions:

1. Cream together cheeses.

2. Stir in pimentos and salt and pepper.

3. If you prefer your pimento cheese to be a bit thinner for spreading, add in optional mayonnaise to preference.

I added the optional jalapenos and bacon onto the recipe and will probably make one jalapeno batch and one bacon batch. I'm sure the guys will all go crazy over it.

I am also planning to make Shredded Barbeque Chicken Sliders (using this barbeque sauce recipe, amazing), Paula Deen five-layer bars, and some football cookies or cuppie cakes (haven't decided yet).

Paula Deen's Five Layer Bars

Recipe and photo from pauladeen.com

Ingredients:

1 stick butter, melted
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 cup butterscotch morsels
1 cup sweetened, flaked coconut
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate morsels
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs 

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine graham cracker crumbs and melted butter. Press into bottom of a 9-by-13-by-2 inch baking dish. Sprinkle remaining ingredients of mix over crumb mixture. Pour sweetened condensed milk over the layers. Bake for 30 minutes. Allow to cool and cut into bars.

What is everyone's plans for Super Bowl? Are you making any delicious recipes???


Also, don't forget - Tomorrow is Fitness Friday!!!

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Weekend Update!

I almost didn't post today, but decided to do a quick weekend update post instead. I just realized that I have a lot of pictures on my camera that I need to upload and post soon. I still have some from our Vermont trip over the holidays..

On Friday, I went for a run after work then made one of our favorite dishes, Spicy New Orleans BBQ Shrimp.

Saturday was a very productive day: I went for a run, came home made breakfast, then S and I did some spring cleaning. We brought three bags of clothes and household items to Goodwill and I brought another bag of stuff to a local consignment shop. We then took Gunner to the dog park. 

 

 
We were exhausted by the end of the day and certainly didn't feel like cooking so since S and I were both craving sushi (again), we headed out to one of our fave sushi restos, Bushido (again). We laid low the rest of the night since we were getting up early and heading out to Oyster Fest at Boone Hall Plantation in the morning.

We met up with friends beforehand around 10am then had a blast at the festival, drinking mimosas and eating lots and lots of oysters!

Boone Hall Plantation, in my opinion, is one of the most beautiful places in Charleston. I would love to have engagement pictures taken here one day....... ;)

 

 My sweet sunglasses tan line and bright red nose!

 

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Hope everyone had a great weekend!

 

 

Fitness Friday!

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Welcome back to Fitness Friday everyone!

Hope you all had a healthy, productive week :) The week got off to a slow start for me. I missed my workout on Monday and Tuesday (doctor advised me to lay low, everything is okay though). 
Here we go -

Saturday - 30 minute run

Sunday - off

Monday - off

Tuesday - off

Wednesday - 30 minutes with trainer

Thursday - 30 minute run

For today, Friday, I'm planning a 30 minute run and 20 minutes strength training to make up for earlier in the week.

I've planned out our meals again for the week and they are as follows:

Monday - Spicy Sausage Pasta (that I didn't get to make this week)

Tuesday - Shrimp Stirfry

Wednesday - Grilled Salmon

Thursday - Bourbon St. Chicken (that I didn't get to make last week)

Friday - Grill Pizzas

Not sure if I mentioned it before, but I registered S and I to run the Color Me Rad race here in Charleston March 23. It's a 5k and I'm really looking forward to it! Not only am I anxious to run another race, but it just looks like soooo much fun.

Have you heard of it?

I haven't registered yet, but I also plan on doing the Cooper River Bridge Run in April. Me, S, and a bunch of our friends did it last year and I can't wait to do it again!

Exciting! Hoping for the best times yet this year!

What are your short term goals?

 

Tomorrow is FRIDAY! :)

Happy Thursday, ladies! I just wanted to put up a reminder that tomorrow is Fitness Friday! I've loved reading everyone's posts so far about what you are all doing to be and stay healthy. I know I struggle sometimes to stay on track so this weekly linkup is really helping me hold myself accountable, especially when I know I have to report my week on Friday!

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Until then, I wanted to share this amazing recipe that I tried last night. It's by an incredibly sweet gal named Amanda over at Marshalls Abroad. She always posts the most amazing pictures and her recipes are to die for. I am just so jealous of her ability to create such delicious dishes.

This no-frills barbeque chicken recipes is the perfect combination of sweet, spicy, and tangy. She was inspired to put this recipe together after a recent visit to New Zealand (lucky duck!)

 Source: marshallsabroad.com

Sweet & Saucy BBQ Chicken
 {serves 2-4}
 
2-4 free-range chicken breasts  
2 T. honey  
juice of 1 fresh squeezed lemon  
4 T. organic ketchup about 
3 T. olive oil  
1 T. apple cider vinegar  
2 cloves fresh garlic, minced  
1 T. raw sugar  
1 T.  Worcestershire sauce  
1 teas. red pepper  
1 teas. paprika  
1 teas. cumin  
1 teas. ground mustard  
1 teas. salt
  
 Combine all of the ingredients except the chicken in a bowl. Taste; it should have a kick to it but also very sweet. I don't use exact measurements so feel free to add more of whatever you'd like to according to your taste. Wash and pat dry the chicken and rub in olive oil and some salt and pepper. Place them in a large zip-lock bag. Pour in half of the bbq sauce into the bag and get all sides of the chicken covered. Refrigerate for at least two hours, but overnight is best to let it marinate. Refrigerate the rest of your sauce. Heat up your grill and cook your chicken -- on our old charcoal grill it took about 30 minutes -- basting each side with the sauce as you turn it. Once it's cooked, pour the remaining sauce on top for even more flavor.   



At the end, I added a little more cumin and a little more ground mustard. It is on the spicy side, especially after it cooks down, so if you are not a big fan of spice, I would definitely recommend adding just a little red pepper at a time or eliminating it all together. S and I LOVE spicy foods, so it was just perfect for us.

Amanda also posted a coleslaw recipe to go with the BBQ chicken; however, due to lack of planning and a time crunch, I just went with store-bought shredded cabbage and dressing. I love the sound of her recipe though and will definitely try it sometime :)

How ours came out -

 Not nearly as pretty, but definitely yummy!

 

Random Wednesday!

Does anyone else out there watch Gossip Girl? I just finished watching Season 5 and I can't believe everything that has happened! Haha. I know, I'm behind and the series has ended. I'm trying to get caught up now so I can finish out watching Season 6.

Just an FYI, I read the entire Gossip Girl book series right after I graduated college in 2004. I was working in a bookstore and a woman I worked with at the time recommended the series to me because her daughter, who was around my age, really enjoyed the books. I was immediately hooked and needless to say that when I heard there was going to be a TV series coming out, I was ecstatic.

I've been a little bad about catching every episode the past couple seasons so I've recently been trying to catch up. I just finished watching Season 5 and I think this particular season has had more drama and twists and turns than the whole series combined! It makes me even more said to know that Season 6 is the last. I have high hopes for Chuck and Blair and really don't want to be disappointed. Wow, is this really coming from an (early) 30-something? Haha.

What is everyone else's thoughts? Do you watch???


Also...I saw this dress on Pinterest today and of course when I clicked on it, it just brought me to some random tumblr with no indication at all where it's from or who it's by. Anyone ever see it before or have any idea where it's from???

Weekend Update!

I know it's Tuesday, but I'm still jumping on the Weekend Update bandwagon. S and I both had a long weekend due to MLK's birthday and we loved every minute of it. Before I go into great detail about doing not much of anything, I want to highlight a couple posts that you might want to check out :)
First, I've noticed lately that a lot of my new followers are "no-reply" bloggers. Many of you have commented on posts, but I am unable to respond through email because of the dreaded  <noreply-comment@blogger.com>. You can find a tutorial on how to fix this problem on a post that I did here.

Also, Kelly, over at Sparkles and Shoes, did a post over the weekend with the title, "What's in a Name? Kelly Takeover" Here she blogs about her love for her name (and mine!) and she goes on to highlight several other blogs by ladies with the name, Kelly. You can check that post out here! Thanks for the shoutout, girlfriend!

On to the weekend!

S had mentioned wanting sushi for dinner last week, but since I had already planned out all of our meals for the week (and I was determined to stay on track) I promised him that we would go over the weekend. On Friday night, we headed to Bushido (my fave!!) with a friend of ours and it was bomb, as always.

Saturday, we had orginally planned a day that involved going to the gun range and shooting in the afternoon followed by Snuggie giveaway night at the Stingrays game. Our plans changed at the last minute and we decided to head to Taste of Folly with friends in the afternoon and beach time for the pups then we headed over another friend's house that evening for a beer pong tournament. Playing beer pong in someone's garage was very reminiscent of my college/ early post-college days haha.

Some quality Saturday morning snug-time.

At Folly, where Gunner met one of his cousins.

On Sunday, S decided to go play some bball with the guys then watch some football. This gave me a chance to go spend some of the gift cards that I got for Christmas and take Gunner to the beach again since it was such a nice day.

Snuggin with mom after S left.

Lazy pup.

Toes in the water at Isle of Palms.

Water dog!

We really didn't do much yesterday.. Most of the day was spent having a Mad Men marathon then we decided to go to Red's at Bohicket for oysters with a friend. I love going there and it felt great to finally get out of the house.

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Did anyone do anything fun and exciting over the three-day weekend???



Fitness Friday!

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TGIF and Happy Fitness Friday!

It feels so good to get back into the swing of things in this new year. This week has been great for both workouts and meal-planning. 

Since last Friday, my workouts have been as follows:

Saturday - 40 min. run

Sunday - Off

Monday - 30 min. with trainer

Tuesday - 40 min. run

Wednesday - 30 min. with trainer

Thursday - 40 min. run

Friday - Off

I was really excited to have all of our meals planned out for the week as well as our shopping list. For next week, I have the planned the following:

Pasta Night Monday - Spicy Sausage Pasta (stolen from Megan @ Fried Green Pickles)

Tuesday - BBQ Chicken & Slaw (via Marshalls Abroad)

Wednesday - Breakfast for Dinner (no pic, just winging it)

Thursday - Turkey Taco Lettuce Wraps

Friday - Spicy New Orleans BBQ Shrimp

 I also came across a quote recently that I really liked and thought I would share.

 It gives me a little bit of hope when times are tough.

Have a great weekend everyone!

** Random Wednesday **

Today is such a pretty day here in Charleston, sunny & 80 degrees, so I decided to go for a walk on my lunch break. This is what it looked like :)

 

The cutest couple ever!

Winter blooms.

Old Charleston.

 

 And a little puppy love for good measure :)

When I walk down to the pier, I always, always, always see dolphins and it always just makes my day. They were too far away to really capture them in a picture, but here is a short clip - You can see one at 00:03 and 00:09. It's not the best quality, but I hope you can see something (it was right smack in the middle of the picture)!