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.
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.
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.
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| Chicken, Garlic Roasted Potatoes and Rice-a-Roni |
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| Orange Glazed Chicken and Wild Rice |
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| 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.
It's been a while since my last favorite things post but this one is a long time coming! Let's go all the way back to February 2016 and this post. I shared a beautiful pair of sandals I was lusting over fully aware of the fact that I would never be able to afford them. Fast forward to July 2017 when I was shopping the Net-a-Porter End of Season Sale. There they were....in the sale but still over $400. Then they sold out. Cue disappointment. Then, in the last week of the sale, magically my size came back in stock and the shoes were down to $395 with an extra 20% off making them $316. All rational thought went out of my head and I bought them!
Boy am I glad! They became my most worn shoe that Summer and are so comfortable. I stopped wearing them as much this year because I was afraid of ruining them too early. That's the problem with loving something too much, eventually you begin to get scared of losing it and what will happen. Yes, I know they're only shoes, but I love them all the same.
For quite a while I've been searching eBay and online consignment stores to find another pair at a good price to replace these when they die. Most of the time when I found them they weren't my size, the right colors, or were more expensive than what I paid. Then I found a really pretty black version on The RealReal for $75 with 20% of and almost bought them. But in the back of my mind I was thinking "They're great, but they're not my colors" so I didn't buy them. Then someone else did and I had non-buyers remorse.
Cue to a week later and I was searching on The RealReal again and there they were, the Lanvin studded suede City sandals in my colors, and a half size bigger than mine. They were $75 with 20% off so they would only be $60. I added them to my cart and then decided to see if they had any others. I saw the black ones were back in stock so I added those to my cart too! Two pairs of my beloved sandals for $120 and Christmas gift money in my wallet - SOLD!
The black ones had some strings hanging off the ankle strap that wasn't shown on the site so I asked for some money back and got a $15 credit to the site. Not great considering shipping is $12, but oh well. I just had to cut the strings off and they're perfect.
Here are some of my favorite outfits with the sandals! They've been worn 18 times on the blog but FARRRR more in reality. As you can see, they go with absolutely everything. Here's to many more years of wear with these and the new black ones!
Shop them for yourself below:
Boy am I glad! They became my most worn shoe that Summer and are so comfortable. I stopped wearing them as much this year because I was afraid of ruining them too early. That's the problem with loving something too much, eventually you begin to get scared of losing it and what will happen. Yes, I know they're only shoes, but I love them all the same.
For quite a while I've been searching eBay and online consignment stores to find another pair at a good price to replace these when they die. Most of the time when I found them they weren't my size, the right colors, or were more expensive than what I paid. Then I found a really pretty black version on The RealReal for $75 with 20% of and almost bought them. But in the back of my mind I was thinking "They're great, but they're not my colors" so I didn't buy them. Then someone else did and I had non-buyers remorse.
Cue to a week later and I was searching on The RealReal again and there they were, the Lanvin studded suede City sandals in my colors, and a half size bigger than mine. They were $75 with 20% off so they would only be $60. I added them to my cart and then decided to see if they had any others. I saw the black ones were back in stock so I added those to my cart too! Two pairs of my beloved sandals for $120 and Christmas gift money in my wallet - SOLD!
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| My originals on the left, new pairs on the right |
The black ones had some strings hanging off the ankle strap that wasn't shown on the site so I asked for some money back and got a $15 credit to the site. Not great considering shipping is $12, but oh well. I just had to cut the strings off and they're perfect.
Here are some of my favorite outfits with the sandals! They've been worn 18 times on the blog but FARRRR more in reality. As you can see, they go with absolutely everything. Here's to many more years of wear with these and the new black ones!
Shop them for yourself below:
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| How To Wear a Crop Top in Autumn |
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| In A New York Minute |
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| Clinton Crossing Spring Preview Event |
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| The Walking Test |
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| The Six Patterned Saint Laurent Blouse |
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| The Trinket Embellished Sweater |
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| Hot Chocolate Break |
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| Green Zebra Print + Studded Suede Sandals |
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| Down by the Sea Wall |
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| Return of the Lanvin Studded Suede Sandals |
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| Mixed Greens |
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| The Cords are Back in Town |
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| Deep V |
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| Short Skirts and Suede Sandals |
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| Ball at the Wall |
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| Studded Suede Sandals |
To continue with my December Wardrobe Update I thought I would share my favorite purchases on 2018! I only added 14 new pieces (plus 5 gifted jewelry items) to my closet this year so it's slim pickings compared to past years.
I've only worn the dress and shoes for the wedding ceremony and party so far but I will definitely break out the shoes again in the future. I'm sure I'll find another occasion for the dress as well.
Needle & Thread 'Mirage' tiered embellished tulle dress - The Wedding Look
If my wedding dress didn't make my top purchases list, we'd have a problem. I never imagined myself in a white or traditional wedding dress so this sequined lilac dress was perfect for me.Nicholas Kirkwood 'Lola' embellished Lurex sandals - The Wedding Look
The same goes for my wedding shoes! I wanted these to be super special and unique so I splurged quite a bit!I've only worn the dress and shoes for the wedding ceremony and party so far but I will definitely break out the shoes again in the future. I'm sure I'll find another occasion for the dress as well.
Sofia Zakia 'Altair' Ring - The Wedding Rings
Another no-brainer favorite is my wedding band. I love my wedding rings because they're so unique. The shape of the band fits perfectly with the engagement ring - it was designed that way - and I couldn't imagine a better piece of jewelry to wear for the rest of my life.
Franco Sarto "Dolly" mules
You can't beat $20 for a pretty pair of suede mules, can you? I almost didn't buy these because I was trying to "behave" and not buy new clothes. So glad I broke my no spending rule to add these to my closet in January. They're such a great color and go with everything I own.
Dooney & Bourke 2017 Sorcerer Mickey Disney Shopper Tote - First Seen Here
This purchase was a long time coming. I had wanted it in 2017 when I went to Disney and didn't buy it and then spent the next nine months hunting for one on eBay. It may not be worn often but I'm still super happy with the purchase. It's as much a part of my Disney collection as it is in my wardrobe so I'll be happy as a clam to see it sitting with my Disney items until it gets worn again.
Vince Camuto 'Davilla' Ankle Boot
Technically I haven't worn the ones I bought yet, but I bought a replacement pair of boots for when these eventually get too gross to wear. Seeing as I've been looking for a couple years I'd say this is a great buy! You can see these are all nice and scuffed. Can't wait to break out the new clean ones!
