Just another day...

Tomorrow is the big day.
Yes, I've left my baby girl a few times, but only for an hour or two at a time.
But tomorrow...
I start back to work.
I know it will be nice to get out of the house more.
And I'm definitely grateful to have a job,
but it's going to be so hard to leave this beautiful face every day.
Okay...
I realize I may be overreacting a little bit.

Put some SPICE in your life

All during my pregnancy, I craved anything & everything spicy.
I couldn't get enough.
While most of my cravings subsided since I had the baby, this one did not.

The newest way to get my fix?
Jalapeno Popper Dip.

Ingredients:
8 oz pkg cream cheese, room temp
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
1/4 tsp garlic powder
4 bacon strips, cooked & chopped [OR you could use bacon bits!]
1/4 cup canned green chiles
2 fresh jalapenos, chopped & w/o seeds
Fresh Parmesan Cheese to top [optional]
Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:
Mix all ingredients together thoroughly [make sure there is NO lumps in cream cheese!] in large bowl. Spray baking dish, scoop all ingredients into dish, top with parm. cheese, & bake at 375 for 30 minutes. Serve with crackers or tortilla chips.

*I used chicken flavored crackers & it was AMAZING! It's cheap & very easy to make. Seriously, try it & let me know what you think.

Taco Tuesday...sort of.

Often times, when I want to make something but am not sure how, I'll look up a recipe.
The first time, I will try the recipe exactly as it is written.
If I give it a chance and love it, I'll keep it the same. If I just like it, I improvise the next time.
That's what happened with this recipe. I've made it several times going by the recipe, but today I decided to change things up.

Here is my version of
Fiesta Chicken Enchiladas

Ingredients
2 green onions, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 lb. cooked boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed
1 pkg taco seasoning [hot or mild]
1/4 cup water
4 oz. (1/2 of 8-oz. pkg.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, cubed
1 cup KRAFT Shredded Cheddar & Monterey Jack Cheeses, divided
3 cooked bacon strips, chopped
1/2 of an avocado, cubed
4 large flour tortillas

Directions
HEAT oven to 350°F.

HEAT large skillet spayed with cooking spray on medium heat. Add onions and garlic; cook and stir 2 min. Add chicken, cream cheese, taco seasoning & 1/4 cup water; mix well. Cook 5 min. or until heated through, stirring occasionally.

SPOON about 1/4 of the chicken mixture down center of each tortilla, add avocado, green onions, & bacon pieces; roll up. Place, seam-sides down, in 13x9-inch baking dish sprayed with cooking spray; top with shredded cheese.

BAKE 15 to 20 min. or until heated through.

Add toppings such as sour cream, guacamole, tomatoes, lettuce, & onions.

If you like ridiculousness...

...you will like this.
If you have no sense of humor,
hit the X at the top right of your screen now.

Lesson Learned

I love my husband, but...
I hate it when he goes with me to the grocery store.
& he's probably the only man in the world that likes to go grocery shopping.

Every week I make a meal plan. I write a grocery list & it contains ONLY things that we need for THAT week. This is how I save us money. It generally has things for breakfast, lunch, dinner, & snacks.
Most of the time, if I buy breakfast items one week, it will last for two. Same goes with lunch. But dinner & snacks need to be bought every week.
When I walk in, I grab a cart & am armed with my list, coupons, & have planned everything out mentally. As I am shopping I will keep a running tab in my head so I know I'm not spending too much.
When Aaron comes with me? He grabs things. Things that are NOT on my list. Things that we do not need. This bothers me because a] we end up spending more money than I have planned. b] we have limited storage so there will probably not be any room to put these extra items.
We've talked about this a few times in the past, but it never 'stuck' with him, I guess. But today...I almost lost it in the store.
When I saw him reach for cottage cheese, knowing it wasn't on my list I snapped my fingers at him & said 'get back here'....I didn't even realize what I did until after it happened. & I laughed about it. I was calling him back to me like a dog. OOPS.
I explained to him that we could only get things I put on the list. So from now on, if he wanted anything from the grocery store, he has to write it on the list. [I can't tell you how many times we've had this convo] He agreed, & on we went. Where he promptly picked up bagels...that weren't on the list. I just stared at him with an 'are you freaking kidding me right now' look on my face. I asked him if he had just heard what I said and he replied 'Yes Jamie, but these are the items that are on the list in my head.'
HAHA

Happy Birthday to Me :)

Today is the day! This is the year that I quit pretending to be 21, and actually admit that I'm the big 24. Scary.
I had big plans [in my head] that this birthday would be spent at the beach...lounging, shopping, eating. Until we found out that Aaron was supposed to be scheduled for drill. So instead we decided to 'celebrate' yesterday by taking advantage of the whole tax free weekend. We went shopping at the local mall and then Aaron took me out to lunch at TGI Friday's.
Here were a few of my gifts:
Unicorn Wallet!

Reebok Easytones
TrueBlood Tshirt!

After a long day of walking around in & out of the sweltering heat, we came home exhausted. ONLY to find out that Aaron's drill weekend has been rescheduled. Awesome.
I think we're just going to spend the rest of the weekend catching up on shows/movies & relaxing!

But don't worry, I didn't forget about you guys!
The winner of my birthday give away is
Erika @ chambanachik! Leave me your email address on this post :)
Anyway, I'm off to enjoy the rest of MY day! Hope ya'll have a great weekend.

Birthday Giveaway

This year, in honor of my birthday, I am having a give away.
That's right, I'll be giving one of you lucky readers a gift on MY birthday.
So sweet, I know.
So, what's up for grabs?
A sassy homemade headband, a really cute/inspiring set of note pads, and a very sexy smelling body spray.

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post [be sure to leave me your email in case you win!].

Extra entries will be given to those who:

• become a NEW follower
• mention this give away in a blog entry [link back in comment]
• mention this give away in a tweet [link back in comment]

Give away will end on August 6th, 2011! So be sure to check back to see if YOU are the winner!

*only for U.S. residents.