Tasty Thursday: Breakfast!

Today's Tasty Thursday is all about breakfast! 

Who doesn't love breakfast? No one you say? WRONG. I don't really love breakfast, I like breakfast and actually I usually have to force myself to eat something that is considered a breakfast item. I would much rather eat a bag of chips or a cold piece of pizza for breakfast but, when your trying to get bikini ready those are not wise choices. 

So today I have not one, but two breakfast ideas and recipes for you! Both are tasty and low in fat! 

First we have an omelet! 

Spicy Turkey Spinach and Cheese Omelet to be exact. 

I like eggs but they need to be savory, I used to love scrambled eggs as a kid and now I can hardly eat them without feeling like I want to gag. Lovely I know... Anyway. Moral of the story iswhen I add other items to the eggs I'm good. 

This  is what you'll need...

I forgot to take a picture of the milk...

3 Eggs, cheese, fresh spinach, hot sauce, milk, salt and pepper.

Beat the eggs, milk and hot sauce together in bowl, pour the mixture into a hot, lightly oiled pan. 

Small pan for small omelet

Salt and pepper, now, to your liking. 
After you add the salt and pepper add as much spinach and turkey as you like. 

Yumyum!

Turn your heat down to like medium low and cover, don't go anywhere because this won't take long.
See how the omelet in the picture has turned a light yellow vs. the dark yellow from the first picture, it means your egg is cooking... good job! That is why you want your heat on low, you don't want to burn the bottom of your omelet.

Cheese me.

See how the omelet has now become a little fluffy, it may look very undone on top but it'll be okay, I promise. Add your cheese, any kind, I only had American so that is what I used. 

Now you fold your omelet. You can fold it with a spatula or flip it like I did! Too bad I wasn't running video, it was pretty damn Food Network worthy.

Food Network Worthy...boom.

You can now turn your heat off and cover the omelet again for a few minuets and you'll be ready to eat!

Yum. This omelet with have your creepy annoying dog salivating by your feet.

Spicy Turkey Spinach and Cheese Omelet
313 Calories
1 or 2 servings 

Ingredients
3 Eggs

1 Tbsp milk

1-2 Tbsp hot sauce

1/4 cup fresh spinach 

2 Tbsp chopped turkey lunch meat

1 piece of cheese (any kind)

salt and pepper

Beat eggs, milk and hot sauce together. Add mixture to a hot, slightly oiled pan. Salt and pepper to taste, add turkey and spinach. Cover until it looks slightly cooked. Add cheese to half of the omelet and fold omelet in half. Cover again and finish cooking. 


Now the special second recipe for those who prefer something on the sweeter side!

Whole Wheat Waffles 

These were surprisingly good, I was a little worried they were going to be dry and grainy because the whole wheat flour can really do that to some baked goods. 

First you'll need...

Milk, eggs, coconut oil, ground flax seed, whole wheat flour, baking powder and salt. Yes that is all. Easy peasy.

In a large mixing bowl add your flour (2 cups), flax seed (2 heaping tsp), baking powder (2 tsp), and salt (1/2 tsp). 

Add all the stuff to da bowl.

Mix the dry ingredients together.

Now set aside and get ready for the dry ingredients. 

Separate your egg whites and yolks. Whites should go into a glass bowl because it is easier to fluff them in a glass bowl. Add your egg yolks (2), milk (1 1/2 cup), and coconut oil (1/3 cup). If you don't have coconut oil any will work but it give the waffle a good flavor and it is good for you. Mix up your yolk, milk and oil mix and quickly stir into the dry ingredients. I say quickly because coconut oil hardens quickly! If you get it mixed in it won't do that. 

Now fluff your egg whites. Beat them like you'd beat your husband for playing video games instead of folding laundry like you asked him to...

They should sit on our whisk like so.

Now fold your egg whites into the rest of the waffle batter.

Do not over mix or all your hard work will be gone and your waffles will be very dense and chewy. 

Once you've mixed your batter let it set for about 10 minuets, this is perfect time to clean up your mess because I know you have flour everywhere. And a good time to heat your waffle iron.

I didn't clean the kitchen, I watched Supernatural for 10 minuets...

10 minuets has passed, you cleaned or like me stared at Dean Winchester from Supernatural now you can make your waffles!! Yeahhh buddy!

I have this round iron so I put a little bit in each corner and made myself baby waffles. They are filling!

Once you have them all made up you can stick them in bags or containers and save them for next week by freezing them or for tomorrow by sticking them in the fridge! 

I didn't even have to put syrup on mine I made a sweet mixed berry compote! 

NOM!

 Whole Wheat Waffles

Makes approx. 6 servings

303 Calories per serving

2 cups whole wheat flour

2 teaspoons ground flax seed (optional)

2 teapoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cup milk

1/3 cup coconut oil

2 egg yolks

2 egg whites (beaten until fluffy)

**You could add a little cinnamon as well, like a tsp. I just thought of that.

Heat your waffle iron.

Beat your egg whites until white peaks form and set aside.

In a bowl mix together flour, flax seed, baking powder, and salt.

In a separate bowl mix together milk, oil and egg yolks. Combine wet mixture with dry mixture and mix just until combined.

Fold in egg whites.

Let sit for about 10 minutes before you start making them. (Good time to clean up)

Bake in waffel iron until done.

Add some mixed berry compote to the top and you don't even need syrup! :)

Enjoy!

<3 Brittni

Comments are appreciated! I'd love to know if you tried the recipes and if you added your own spin to them!

Spring Has Arrived!

Well it is spring in PA! It was a wonderful 56-60 degrees all weekend, it was pretty nice yesterday but a little cloudy, now today we have more rain then we need for one day, and this week we are supposed to dip back down into the 30's. Oh yes, PA weather... how I loath thee.

Lovely rain day.

My poor flowers are probably getting drowned out today! I took the pictures below yesterday, these bright signs of Spring flowers are known as Crocus. I love these little flowers! They mean that the warm weather will soon be here, and as soon as it gets too hot they are going to die. They are especially neat when they pop up before the last snow and as long as they have sun they will bloom. You can buy bulbs anywhere offline!

 I would now like to direct your attention to my husband. He is kind of goofy but that is why I love him <3 He has been so good to me these past 5 years and even better these past 5 months. He has been so supportive with me quitting my job in October, getting into a pickle and now starting my own business. I am so blessed to have this crazy man in my life. :-)

 Also this little baby! I was going picture happy yesterday :)

No I did not take the picture of Phill that would mean I was up in the air also... not happening Jack.

Walk Down Memory Lane...

'No one ever injured their eyesight by looking on the bright side of things'

(I originally found the picture on http://piccsy.com/2012/05/picc-snv3zvbm/)

This is so me right now. Despite things not being ideal currently I feel like this says it all!

I am a realist, it has its ups and downs. I think the best part of being a realist is that I see things in two different lights, I'm not a pessimist so I don't always think the worst and I'm not an optimist, I don't always think the best. So I guess if you really think about it being a realist is pretty damn good. Ha. Amazing what writing a thought down does!

So tomorrow starts my trek of biking, that is how I came about this image I was Googling biking stuff.

I am challenging myself to ride close to 10 miles a day and I haven't sat on a bike and rode more than 10 minuets since before I was 16. See back in the day the "Shady Crew" (we weren't shady we actually lived in a development called Shady Cabins, we're original.) and myself would ride our bikes from my grandmothers in 'Shady' to my new place of residence in a town 3.5 miles away! We would do that multiple times a day if I do recall correctly!

Biking map

That is the route we'd take, keep in mind that was the easy way if you wanted to ride up the huge ass hill! We'd typically take the long way around which was an extra 10 minuets so we wouldn't have to work to hard! 

Oh the days when we were young! Riding our Haro's and Mongoose's, chasing boys around, walking down "the road" at 11 p.m. because we could and it was safe where we lived. The most danger we faced was going in the cow fields with the bulls, climbing trees that were rotten, starting fires in the dead of summer and almost burning down an entire circle of trees (a.k.a. The Tree), falling on ice I can only think of one person that fell on ice every single year! Haha Oh my gosh. 

We used to make towns out of leaves, there was never a shortage.

Every summer we'd have sleep overs anywhere and everywhere but mostly end up on my grandmothers porch or at one persons house in particular, she had a pool. I always ended up being the one going in the water at 1 a.m. wearing my ducky pajamas! Along with being thrown in the pool I think we watched Bring It On, Coyote Ugly and Fast and Furious oh I don't know... 1,000 times? Just the summer they came out?!

Oh and who could forget tubing down the crick?! Ugh, every day we'd be out by like 10 a.m. blowing up the tubes and walking down the road to get to a good spot, float down to the swimming hole and either get out and do it all again or start looking for sea shells! One year I ended up with my back so sun burnt from probably 2 hours of sea shell hunting. 

This is how we roll.

Oh I miss those days. <3

I know to most people who read this they won't get it but I know a few that will and it was such good times at Shady, I loved my childhood, 

I... have a stick.

One thing that makes me sad is that we've all grown up and grown apart, not far apart but still apart. Also the state in which our beloved Shady now resides, fields are over grown, the crick has become more of a stream, and most of all I no longer have any ties to the place. My grandmothers place is for sale and the twenty-four years of memories I have are now just that, memories. 

I can only hope that my kids get to know and love a place like Shady.

(If anyone has any pictures from our days in Shady could you please let me know? I'd like some.)

Thanks for reading!

Comment with your favorite childhood memory or a place that you thought was just as amazing as I always thought Shady was!

<3 Brittni

Blurb.

Small little post I'd like to write. 

The Bible: Good show.

First PR party: AWESOME! Thank you everyone who came :)

Last week: I bought a mountain bike.... 

Tonight: My husband will hate me for trying to make a new recipe, without following a recipe.

This week: Possible snow storm!? Not holding my breath.

New: Ink... within the next month. YES! So excited.

What's good: Grape salad. I wasn't so sure at first but then I had a second bowl and I was like yeah, its delicious.

Last but not least...

Cutie Patutie Dilly being a morning grumpy pants. 

I love my dogs. (Dilly is my favorite!)

<3

What is done is done... (Featuring Blake's Mac n Cheese Recipe)

I know I know I know. I haven't been writing and it is supposed to be Tasty Thursday. Well I might leave you with a recipe but I have no photos to go with it today!

I'm trying really I am. When I sit down I never know what to write about and tonight I'm making boxed pancakes for dinner!

I have had some things going on in my life that could have been avoided if I'd been more responsible  maybe one day I will get more in detail, but they have been making me crazy. I'm stressed some days, sad others, angry at times and all in all it puts me down in the dumps. Being in the dumps makes me not want to do much of anything. Slowly but surly I am getting there and I feel good tonight because I just jumped one of the heralds and now I hope its slightly smooth sailing from here on out!

One thing I would like to discuss is how awesome Pure Romance is. So I haven't been doing this for long, I haven't even had my first party yet (its this Saturday 3/2), but I already feel like I'm going to do good! I already gave my business card out a few times and I wasn't even trying to I was just doing normal every day things! I love it! I can't wait for my first party I'm so nervous but I'm so excited!

On top of that I got an interview for a company I worked for last year but in a different department, reservations to be exact. So I get to sit all day and book hotel rooms and dinner reservations for people at the Sweetest Place on Earth! I shouldn't have left in the first place but that is either here nor there anymore.

What is done is done and it has to be dealt with accordingly. I highlight that because it is true. We can't control what happens even if its something we could have avoided! One decision can change everything for better or worse and we just have to take it, embrace it and deal with it. If you don't like the decision don't complain about it do something about it! Complaining is not going to get your anywhere doing something on the other hand that will get you where ever you want to go. Another thing is don't blame anyone else for it, you made the decision again you have to get on with it and fix it or improve it.

Moral is despite the things you've done you are the only one who has the ability to change the direction in which your life is going. So challenge yourself this week. Do something you've been putting on whether it be something small like organizing your storage room, which we all know used to be a bedroom haha, or something major like enrolling for school! Just do it! I promise you will feel better about everything and things just have a way of working themselves out. We can thank the man with the plan for that.

Have a great night and seriously no excuses!

Brittni<3

P.S. Remember that recipe I said I might leave you with? Here it is!

Blake's Mac n Cheese (aka my dad's mac and cheese)

1 box of elbow noodles
1lb of extra sharp cheddar cheese
5-10 saltine crackers, crushed (bread crumbs can work)
4 table spoons butter
1/4 cup milk

Boil the noodles according to package. Shred your cheese. Grease a casserole dish with butter.
Once your noodles are cooked and cooled add a layer of noodles, then a layer of cheese, layer of noodles layer of cheese... etc. Your last layer should be cheese then you put the crackers on top and 4 slabs of butter. Pour milk along the sides of the casserole. (Milk is just to insure the mac n cheese won't dry out) Bake uncovered in a 375 degree oven for 45 mins. Serve with sweetened stewed tomatoes for classic PA Dutch FLAVA!

DIY Back Tab Curtains (Way over due!)

Since we bought our house in 2010 I'm always on the hunt for ideas to make the house ours, there were curtains, rugs and other random items left over when we moved in. One thing that has been driving me insane for the last two years is the curtains. They are the original curtains were from when the house was built in 1962 and if anyone has been in a 60s house then you know that all of the curtains are draw string or track curtains, and they are like fourty inches thick! Okay not fourty inches, but like seriously thick! Now the curtains were not an ugly color they were a nice creamy white so they could stay for just a little while.

Soo sixties... gag.

Do you know how expensive curtains are AND how ugly they are?! Neither did I, so a little while ended up being over two years, oh mind you this is only the living room we're talking about here! All the curtains are ugly.

So anyway, thanks to Pinterest and its amazing collection of blogs I found a tutorial for curtains that made sense to someone who only used a sewing machine to sew little pillows when my mom-mom ( means grandmother) had extra fabric and fluff! The blog View Along the Way is where I found the best turorial for the curtains! She did a fabulous job explaining each step with great pictures so if mine isn't doing the job check out her blog! And scroll on down if you'd like to see mine :-)

First things first, lay out your fabric and cut it to your desired length, always cut extra for your hems in this case I cut an extra 8". My desired length was 75" so I cut 83". Width shouldn't matter, if you are doing a large bay window like I did your going to need more than two panels, unless you want to pay out the wazoo for custom curtains. I did a total of four panels.

Lay on a flat large area, hard floors work best!

Once you have your fabric the size you want it then its time to hem the fabric starting with what will be the bottom of your curtain. I hemed my curtains 3 inches at the bottom. So fold your fabric 3 inches, press, fold another 3 inches, press and pin!

**STOP! If you don't have your iron on you better go plug that sucker in, a hem is not a hem unless it is pressed!**

See hardwood floor = no need for an ironing board!

Trusty pumpkin pin cushion!

Ok now you've hopfully sewn a perfectly straight line... just kidding! Mine was far from straight but seriously who is going to inspect the hem? No one.

Onto the lining! For the length: Add 2 1/2 inches to your finished length, ie. If your finished curtain is going to be 76 inches you want to cut your lining to 78.5". For the width: Subtract 6 inces from the width of your curtain fabric. I didn't make any cuts to the fabric for the width so my lining would be 49" most fabric will be 55" wide.

I was folding mine in half to cut the width, it was just easier with the space I had.

 *View Along the Way says it best, I strongly urge you to jump over there and just glance over her diagram on sizes!*

Once your lining is cut you want to hem the bottom of your lining. I hemed my lining at 1.5" Which is half the size of my curtain hem. You want to fold 1.5" and press. Fold another 1.5" and press again. Then again you pin and sew!

Pin you lining good! I used regular lining I did not want black out.

Once your lining is hemmed your next step is sewing the lining to the panel. Which is much easier than you'd think!

Lay your fabric flat with your pattern facing up and lay the lining face down. Line up one of the sides of completely and pin, sew along that line.

Now you've sew one side of your curtain. Lay the curtain back out and line up the other side. Your fabric will look a little bunched up but don't panic it will look good once your turn it inside out!

Lining up the second side.

Once you've sewn both sides of your curtain you can turn the curtain right side out.

Now give yourself a round of applause and a glass of wine or a piece of chocolate for making two pieces of fabric turn into a curtain! YAY!!!

Last step is creating the tabs!

Lay the curtain flat so there is an even amount of patterned fabric on  each side.

Lay your curtain down so that the lining is facing you and flatten the curtain out so you have an even amount of patterned fabric on each side of the curtain. Then fold the top of your curtain down 1" and iron. (Now if you want it to be super pretty you can fold another inch and iron again then pin but I didn't) So instead of folding twice to make the back look pretty I only folded it once then I added the tabs. I used Bias Tape but you can use ribbon too.

Start at the end and work your way down as evenly as possible 

 Pin.

Pin the tabs

Sew a line across the top, this will close the top seam and sew the tabs to the top of the curtain. After the top line is sewn your going to go to each tab and sew the bottom. Sew, reverse, sew for each tab.

Sew the bottom of the tabs. 

Guess what... YOUR DONE!

Pat yourself on the back, go hang those sexy curtains up, grab a cocktail, a snack and lay back and take a look at your handy work! Go you!!

 Snazzy ehh!? I love them and I can't wait until the paneling in this house is GONE!

Well that's all for now, I hope everyone enjoyed this extremely long tutorial and I would love to see your curtains if you tried to make any! Comment if you have any questions :)

Brittni

p.s. I will try to keep up as best I can, I've already slacked :-/

Gibberish and a DIY tutorial!

Good evening everyone! I've been working on my post for my curtains for over an hour and I've realized that I haven't taken all the necessary pictures! Go me. So I just really wanted to give a little check in and let y'all know I'm still alive and I haven't given up!


I do apologize that I don't have more to say about this post but why make something sound difficult when its not! haha
I promise I will have my curtain post up by the end of the week, I've been surprisingly busy for someone who doesn't have a job!

I did tell you all I signed up for Pure Romance Well I finally received my starter kit and I think I am going to really like it. I do have a lot to learn though so any consultants out there with some tips that would be great!

Now onto the tutorial!!

So since my living room curtains are not done yet I thought I'd share my bathroom shade with you!

My bathroom is so out dated it is pink and black with a blue tub and toilet! YAY me! So we've slowly been updating our bathroom starting with small things like the pull down shade and other accessories.

This is a tutorial on how to cover your bathroom shade with fabric!

Pretty shade. Ugly bathroom.

First  you'll need, a Wal-mart shade, fabric, a glue gun and glue sticks.

Open your shade completely and measure the width of the shade so you know how wide to cut your fabric. Make sure you cut about a half inch extra on each side so you have enough to fold over and glue.

Lazy measuring....

Once you have you fabric cut line it up and start gluing. Start with the bottom of the shade so you can make a nice fold on each corner.

That's it! Simple!  It is best to glue small sections at a time that way you aren't racing your glue! This is great to do if you don't feel like buying curtains or don't have the time to make curtains. I also got sheer white curtains to go with this, just so the window doesn't look as naked. Unfortunately those will not be going up until the bathroom is finished!


I hope everyone enjoyed this tutorial, feel free to leave me some feed back or ask any questions :)

Brittni

Tasty Thursday: Patty Melts

Post number two! Yay! Well along with my recipe tonight I have some other news... I decided to start a little business and yesterday I signed up for Pure Romance! Pure Romance is a company that sells adult novelties like lotions, oils, linger and of course bedroom accessories. :) I am really hoping that I get good at selling this product, I would love to be able to be part of the success some of the women say they have. Only time will tell I guess. Now who wants to host a party!? :-)

Anyway after trying to figure out how I would lay out my blog I decided I would try and do Tasty Thursday! Every Thursday I will try to have a new recipe to post along with pictures and instructions!

Tonight I made patty melts the idea came from the lovely Carla Hall, from Top Chef and also The Chew.

When I saw Carla Hall's Turkey Melt on The Chew on Tuesday I knew I wanted to make something like it. I knew right away I had to cut the onions for me and it couldn't be turkey, hubs doesn't really go for the ground turkey. So I had to do some improvising, which luckily is the way my dad taught me how to cook!

I used a pound each of venison and hamburger, its what I had in the freezer. I also mixed in some onion soup mix which isn't necessary but not only will it give the burger a good flavor without a lot of work but it will also cover some of the gamey flavor of the venison. *Tip: Don't use just venison if you are making burgers you need something with a little more fat so always mix it with beef or pork*

Mix onion soup into the meat mixture

Make sure you mix it up really good!


Mixy mixy

Once you have the everything good and mixed its time to make your patties. Patty making is  a pretty simple activity (even though hubs has one hell of a time making a patty! haha). For my patties I make a ball about the size of a baseball maybe a bit smaller, roll it and smash it. Make sure you make your patty larger than your bread because it WILL shrink and you don't want a odd bun to burger ratio, thats never good!

Baseball size meat wad.

Now it is time to get ready to fry! This is the fun part... not. I really do hate frying meat on the stove, I hate getting splashed and it really messes up my clean stove. Ugh.

Anyway. Get out your skillet (I used my new heavy duty pan I just got from TJ Maxx, I love this thing! Who needs to buy thousand dollar pans when you have the best non stick pans ever for 20$ at TJ Maxx?!) Put a little oil in the bottom, just a little, lay in the burgers and cover with a tight lid.

 



Cover like so.

 

While your burgers are cooking away get your bread ready. I don't personally like hamburger buns because I end up ripping off half the bun and wasting it so I use bread, plus bread works better with this recipe. You also need mayo and  butter to spread on your bread. I mixed the mayo and butter together and put it on the bread I like the flavor is gave vs. just butter.

 

Bread, butter,mayo... got it?



 

Once you smeared your mayo mixture on both sides of your bread throw it on the griddle and toast it up!

 

My brother decided he wanted to put a biscut on the griddle...



 

After your bread is toasted and your burgers are done throw some cheese on them and cover them back up just until the cheese is melted, throw the patty on the bread and smother it in crap like my brother in the picture below!! Then enjoy!!! :)

 

 

 

Patty Melt Recipe

 

Recipe yields 6 patties

 

Ingredients

2lb ground meat (I used 1lb hamburger and 1lb venison)

1 package onion soup mix

12 slices of bread

2tbsp mayo

2tbsp butter

1 tbsp oil

6 slices cheese

 

Directions

Patties:

Mix together the ground meat and onion soup mix. Make six even sized patties. Heat your pan and add the tbsp of oil. Once the pan and oil are hot add the patties and cover. Cook patties for about 4-5 mins each side keeping the patties covered. Once the patties are cooked all the way through top with cheese and cover again until the cheese is melted.

Bread:

Mix together your mayo and butter and spread on both sides of each slice of bread, put on griddle and toast them until golden brown and crispy.

 

Put together your bread and pattie with what ever condiments you like and gobble it up!