It's just been one of those months where I haven't been in the mood to take outfit photos or the weather has been pure garbage. So today I'm continuing with my How I Wore It Then to Now for Throwback Thursday! I may do another next wee. Perhaps with blazers.



Free People 'Jax' Patchwork Jeans
I liked this pair of jeans because they were a darker wash and more of a statement piece than regular jeans because of the patchwork and different colored denim. I got them in February 2016 so not the oldest piece in the post, but still going strong! I've worn them in a lot of different ways as you'll see below.



Saint Laurent Patchwork Blouse
Another early 2016 purchase was this Saint Laurent patchwork blouse. It is one of my favorite pieces in my closet because it will never go out of style, in my opinion, because it;s such a statement piece. With something like this you'd think there aren't many ways to wear it, but I've found quite a few.



b chyll cashmere cape
I enjoy a nice comfy cape. This is the only one I have in my closet but it's so good. It's cashmere so it feels like I'm wrapped in a blanket. I didn't get around to wearing it this Fall for some reason so maybe I'll try to wear it in the next couple of weeks on a warmer day!



Burberry Brit Flared Hem Merino Wool Cardigan
This is one of my best Net-a-Porter sale buys. I got it in 2013 and have worn it constantly since. It is nice and heavy so sometimes I can wear it in lieu of a coat which I always enjoy. The flared bottom gives it a bit more interest as well. This is actually a size bigger than I should have gotten but due to that I can wear thicker sweaters under it to stay SUPER warm.


Current/Elliott leopard print jeans
It was a pretty big deal when I bought these back in 2012. They were an item that I had been trying to find for a good price for months and finally got them on a sample sale website. They were one of the big things in that year and I loved that they were one of my favorite colors. I don't wear them as much as I used to but I still find time to wear them now.




DKNY Oversized Striped Cardigan
I love this cardigan. When I first got it in 2015 I wore it on literally every plane ride while I traveled for the first 2 years. It's so comfortable and I used it like a blanket while flying. Not only is it comfortable it has most of my staple closet colors. All that's missing is purple.

Since moving in together last May, Christian and I have been trying to be a little adventurous with what we cook. We do still have days where all we have is hot dogs or burgers or frozen pizza but cooking together is something we enjoy doing. Here are some of the meals we've cooked and the recipes if we used one.

One of the first weeks in our new house we did a free week of Blue Apron so we made 3 delicious meals! The rest of the time we've either looked up past Blue Apron recipes to make, checked out food blogs, like Budget Bytes, or experimented with what we had in the house. I have a pinterest board that I load up with recipes and I save recipes on the Blue Apron app that I want to try. We eat a LOT of chicken so we try to do it different ways.

P.S. Would you want to see actual cooking posts on the blog in the future? I'm trying to expand my blog content and it seems to do well on my Instagram stories.

Blackened Chicken with Zucchini Rice, Corn & Cherry Tomatoes

This was one of the first Blue Apron meals I made years ago and remains one of my favorites so we remade it over the Summer. I'm not normally a tomato person but this side dish is amazing! This meal also gets me to eat zucchini, another vegetable I'm not horribly fond of. Blackened chicken, however, is always a Megan pleaser.

 

Greek Chicken & Quinoa Salad with Sweet Peppers

One of our "real" Blue Apron meals and it was great. I'm a notoriously picky eater but they continually get me to try new things. Peppers are on my "don't like" list yet they were delicious in this meal so now I'm more open to eating peppers in food.

 

Pan Fried Chicken

Separating this from the regular chicken and rice meals below because it's extra special! It took us -meaning Christian - a few tries to perfect frying chicken in a pan but we found the perfect method. It takes patience and an infrared thermometer. Temperature control is the key here, and using an IR thermometer is especially handy when working with Pan Fried chicken. The goal was to stay between 300° - 325° until both sides were browned and cooked through (165°). This was the best homemade fried chicken I've ever had and now I'm craving it again. We got a casserole/dutch oven for Christmas so maybe we'll attempt some deep frying next week!

 

Roasted Pork with Apple and Garlic Breadcrumbs

Another Blue Apron recipe we looked up when we had some random ingredients to use up. The garlic breadcrumbs, apple and pork were the perfect combination!Finishing it off with our staple vegetable made for a really simple, tasty meal!

 

Crunchy Garlic Shrimp and Couscous

Made when my friend Hayley came to see our house.  I had seen this garlic shrimp recipe in one of those Facebook foodie videos and immediately made a note to try it some time. You can't fully see the breadcrumbs here but let me tell you, they add the perfect amount of crunch. We devoured this whole thing of shrimp in minutes. The couscous is just Near East brand garlic & herb.

 

Chicken and Broccoli Pesto Pizza

In the Summer and Fall the next town over (where I grew up) has a weekly farmers market. Every once in a while we'll treat ourselves to a DELICIOUS pesto from one of the stands. It's $8 but oh so worth it! We actually have one in the freezer for when crave it during the Winter. One of my favorite things to do with pesto is put it on pizza. More specifically chicken and brocolli pizza! Soooo good! It's also amazing on its own with bread.

 

Chicken and Rice-a-Roni

One of our staples is chicken and rice-a-roni, usually with roasted broccoli as a side. It's what we cook when we want something "real" but don't want to think too much about it. We grab a spice blend or make one of our own and cook the chicken in a skillet.  Then we cut up some garlic (or use garlic powder if we don't have garlic) and roast broccoli until it starts to get blackened. SO GOOD.

Next comes the Rice-a-Roni. Most people just cook up the rice-a-roni using the box instructions. I add something a bit more special when we make regular chicken rice-a-roni. But it wasn't something I figured out on my own. Whenever I go to my Aunt & Uncles my Uncle makes my favorite meal - chicken and rice-a-roni. He has a magical way of spicing up chicken that I have yet to recreate and he does the same thing with the rice. We brown the rice in the pan with butter first (as the box says) then when adding in the water and flavor packet we add something extra. MORE SPICES! I'm not sure what my uncle uses exactly but his rice is always superior to mine. Usually I add cajun seasoning, chilli powder, garlic powder, and any other spices I'm in the mood for.

Chicken, Garlic Roasted Potatoes and Rice-a-Roni

Orange Glazed Chicken and Wild Rice

Panko Crusted Chicken and Cilantro Lime Rice-a-Roni

Budget Bytes Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Bowl

My brother's girlfriend got us an Instant Pot for our wedding and my brother suggested we make this as our first meal. It is a "throw everything in" and set it to go recipe which I love! All it is is chicken, corn, black beans, salsa and rice! We made this again last week and it was just as good. This week we're going to try the Slow Cooker Carnitas!

 

Pepperoni and Caramelized Onion Stromboli

Christian and I love to make stromboli because it's like a personal pizza but more fun! I'm not a huge cheese fan so I only add enough cheese to help my rolls stick together but Christian gets to load his up with a lot of cheese! We had some extra onion lying around when we made this particular stromboli so we caramelized it and added it in! I also add poppy seeds to the top of mine where Christian likes garlic salt and Italian seasoning. Customizable, quick and easy!

 

Roasted Pork with Apple, Walnut & Farro Salad

We made this last week with some pork that we had in the freezer (yay buy 1 get 2 free sales!) I wanted us to have something other than regular rice so I looked for a Blue Apron recipe with a different grain. I had had farro in a few other BA meals so I knew I liked it and how can you go wrong adding apple and kale? It was really good the first day thanks to the crispy bark on the seared pork but when we had it again the next day for lunch the pork wasn't as delicious. The salad was still good though. So if you ever make this, don't save the pork! (Or find a different use for it to add some more flavor and texture.)

 

Rice Bowl

Rice bowls are another easy meal when you just have things to use up. For this bowl we had brown rice added some soy and other ingredients for a sauce (can't remember exactly what) and topped with broccoli, carrots, cucumber and a fried egg.

 

Seared Chicken & Pan Sauce with Apple, Kale & Potato Hash

A Blue Apron recreation we made when we had some leftover potatoes and an apple in the house. We did have to go out and get the mustard, almonds, red onion and kale though, ha ha.

 

Blackened Shrimp Pasta

A thrown together meal when we weren't sure what to have. I found a cajun spice blend recipe and we added it to shrimp, cooked them up and served over whole wheat spaghetti.

 

Freekeh & Vegetable Fried Rice with Honey-Sesame Carrots

A second real Blue Apron meal, simple but still tasty. We may make this again in the future but would probably use it as a side dish for chicken or something.

Budget Bytes Slow Cooker Jambalaya

Another slow cooker meal from budget bytes! We had some sausage that we got on sale (buy 1 get 2 free) so we looked for a recipe we could make with it. We had some difficulty with this one when the rice didn't cook all the way so it took us WAY longer to make than the site says. If we make it again we might par-cook the rice before adding it to the slow cooker.