Monday, September 30, 2013

31 Days - Encouraging Thoughts

Welcome to my first attempt at 31 Days - Encouraging Thoughts! This is my first year of linking up with The Nester for her 31 Day blogging challenge, I'm so glad you stopped by!

I chose Encouraging Thoughts as my topic for a number of reasons. The first being that I thought it could be a good way to easily get involved in the 31 Day Challenge, without needing to spend massive amounts of time writing. Secondly, it's the time of year when I usually get into a rut...physically, emotionally, spiritually, so encouraging thoughts are deeply valued and something that I think we all need.

Simple images, an explanation here and there, or just merely a quote is what I'll be posting here for the 31 Day Challenge. I hope to meet many new bloggers and friends, and push myself to meet this goal. Will you join me?


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Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Tried and Tested - Pinterest Recipe Successes: A 3 Part Series. Part 1.

Most of you know that I'm not much of a cook.... Sam would argue that I can physically cook...I just don't enjoy it and pass it off as not being good at it. But in the past two weeks I've been scouring Pinterest, because of course, and I have a few tried and tested, successes that I think are worth sharing. If I can do it, you can do it too. Promise.

The first and most recent is taken from HERE. But here is my rendition of it.

Photo taken from Tastefoodblog.com

The original recipe calls for leftover roasted chicken...and the homemade chicken stock that came from that...but in real life, I've never cooked a whole chicken, therefore no homemade chicken stock was used in this recipe.

You will need:

A splash of olive oil.
1 yellow onion – diced.
1 pepper – I used half a jalapeño – seeded and diced finely.
1 bell pepper – I used yellow, green or red would be good too – diced.
2 cloves of garlic – pressed
1 zucchini – diced
4 cups of chicken stock – I used reduced sodium
1 can of diced fire roasted tomatoes
¼ cup tomato paste – I used tomato sauce cause I forgot to buy paste, turned out fine.  
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander – I used dill (coriander is too expensive)
¼ tsp cloves
¾ lb shredded chicken
1 cup frozen corn (didn’t have this and turned out fine)
1 cup cooked and drained black beans – I used canned reduced sodium and used a little more than ½ the can, probably could use the whole thing though.
Salt/Pepper to taste
¼ cup cilantro
Tortilla chips.



If you're a busy working person like me, I would start your chicken in the crock pot before work. When you come home, shred it up and set it aside. (Until just a few months ago, I didn't even know this was a possibility...I guess I thought shredded meat came from a restaurant. For real.)

Then, in a soup pot, add your olive oil, onions, and bell pepper – sauté 2 min. Add your jalapeño, zucchini, and garlic – sauté another 2 min. Add your chicken stock, fire roasted tomatoes, tomato paste, cumin, coriander, and cloves. Bring to boil, then simmer for 15 min. Add corn, chicken, beans, and ½ of the cilantro – simmer until all is hot. Serve with some shredded cheese, cilantro as garnish, and tortilla chips.





















Friday, September 13, 2013

Just Because



Finally, a non-skanky, clever music video. Motivational, funny, and good for most ages....from a pop-star....who'd of thunk!? Props to Katy Perry for not succumbing to trash that other stars have become.

Happy Friday!

Thursday, September 12, 2013

TGI...Thursday?

In efforts to be more active on the blog, I thought I'd put together my own version of a daily post, you know, like "What I Wore Wednesday" or "Insta Friday"....This definitely isn't much of a fashion blog, so I'll spare you the details of my outfits, and Insta Friday is already something I like to participate in with Life Rearranged. That left me with Monday (let's face it, I'm hardly ever going to blog on a Monday) Tuesday, or Thursday. I chose Thursdays because it's already on the downhill slide to the weekend, and sometimes I just need a little bit extra OOMPH to get me through the next 16 hours of work to Friday night. So I'd like to introduce you to the latest addition of Floral + Ivory -------------- TGI...Thursday?

I hope that you'll find the post simple, encouraging, and motivating. A place to turn when you feel like you're treading water to get to the weekend (if you're a 8-5er like me). So without further ado, here we go!



Sunday, September 8, 2013

Our 1 year anniversay

Sam and I celebrated our first anniversary on August 11, 2013.... let's just do a CRAZY dance real fast, because holy cow, where did that whole year go!? It went by so fast!  We met up with our wedding photographer and took some pictures to celebrate.

If you're in the neighbor hood of the central coast on CA, and looking for a photographer for your next occasion, I would totally recommend Yellow House Studios!

So here's a large smattering of photos for you!















PS - table runners are selling like hotcakes on Etsy, so come by and see what's for sale - also, follow me on Instagram to see all the latest happenings in the Heffelfinger Household! Click the photo below to head on over!



Tuesday, September 3, 2013

A weekend with the ladies


This weekend was spent celebrating the birthday of a great friend, Shawnacy. We snatched a hotel room for a steal of a price in Scottsdale and spent the weekend frolicking through the big city like the girls from Sex and the City...or something like that.

Scottsdale is a great place to "staycation" in the summer time, because it's pushing well past 100 degrees, the hotel and resort prices drop, providing us with a cool pool all to ourselves. It's become a bit of tradition for us gals, and a great way to celebrate birthdays, bachelorette parties and just a quick getaway.

This time we stayed at the Zona Hotel, we shopped til we almost dropped at the Scottsdale Fashion Square, and then met up with the hubbies for a Diamondback's baseball game.

We rounded out the holiday weekend by spending Monday installing new windows on our house, but more about than on a another day. For now, here's a sneak peak into our birthday celebration!






And just for kicks, check this out: