fill.in.the.____.friday.

1. My favorite color is: At this moment...navy and grey....a little yellow and purples...I just don't really care for pink.

2. My travel destination of choice is: A week at the beach...doing absolutely nothing but laying out all day, going out to eat, grilling out, swimming...you get the idea.

3. My favorite food is: Salsa and salads

4. My happy place is: Anywhere with my husband!! This man really completes me and makes me so happy!!

5. My favorite saying is:

...Very appropriate for me...

:)

6. My dirty little secret is: I doubled a cookie dough recipe and keep it in the freezer so I can have something sweet when I want it! I eat entirely wayyy too much!! I also can't survive without caffiene....I have to have it! I cannot go a week without visiting Target...Ok...Now you know too much!

7. Something friends might say about me is that I am always ready to do something! Once a friend, always a friend! I will always have their backs!! :)

I love my friends and family!

Muffin Monkey Bread

Yes, the pan looks crazy...but believe me it's delicious!!

I have been craving these jokers for a while now, so I decided I'd go ahead and take care of that craving. I did not have a bundt pan so I had to use a muffin pan which reallly worked out great!

Not only are they delicious, they are sooo sooo EASY!!

Ingredients:

1 can (10) buttermilk biscuits

1 cup cinnamon/sugar mix

1/2 stick of butter

1/4 c  brown sugar

1/4 c Crushed pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees.

Melt your butter in microwave, just slightly and add a pinch of brown sugar to melted butter. Let butter cool.

Quarter your uncooked biscuits.

Pour your cinn/sugar mix in sandwich zip lock bag.

Spray muffin pan with non stick cooking spray. Add a pinch of brown sugar to the bottom of each cup.

Dip uncooked biscuits into butter.

Let butter drip off of biscuits.

Throw biscuits (quarters) into Cinn/sugar bag and shake.

Dip.Shake.Repeat.

Arrange biscuits into the muffin pan. (1 biscuit/ 4 pieces to each cup)

Add crushed Pecans on top of each.

Cook for 5-7 minutes and ENJOY!!!

Pair it up with coffee and some bacon and WooHOO. Sooo good!! :)



fill.in.the.____.friday.

1. One of my happiest moments ever was: My wedding day!  June 18. ♥

2. Summer is wedding season and weddings are: AWESOME!! I love weddings! Even tho mine has come and gone, I still LOVE to look at the cute ideas and pictures from other peoples weddings!

3. This summer: Has been GREAT! Even though we are 2,000 miles from our family and friends, we have made the best of it and are having a great time in California!

4. My summer food of choice has been: Salsa!!! I can't seem to get enough! I have it with just about every meal! On my eggs in the morning, with a sandwich for lunch and an appetizer before dinner! Once my buddy Val posted a recipe for homemade salsa, we have kept some in our fridge ever since!

SALSA RECIPE

5. My summer uniform has been: Blue jean shorts, my hat, v-neck tee or tank and flip flops...sometimes a dress.

6. If I could spend the entire summer in one location I would choose: Tennesee or Mississippi! We love it in California but would do anything to be back home!! Even for just a summer!

7. My summer anthem is: anything by Jimmy Buffett!

Whole Wheat Pizza!

Homemade Whole Wheat Pizza

Ingredients for Pizza dough:

1 packet (1/4 oz) active dry yeast

3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 tsp granulated sugar

1 1/2 c warm water

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

*If you haven't tried whole wheat just yet and are not ready to jump in. Try mixing up the whole wheat and all purpose flour to ease into it. Instead of using 3 cups whole wheat flour, use 2 cups Whole Wheat with 1 1/2 cups All purpose flour.

1. In a large bowl, dissolve sugar in warm water. Pour yeast over mix and let sit for 10 minutes. (or until foamy)

2. Stir the olive oil and salt into the yeast mixture, then mix in the whole wheat flour. (You would add the 1 cup of the all-purpose flour now if you choose to do so.)Mix until dough starts to come together. Tip dough out onto a surface floured with the remaining flour, and knead until all of the flour has been absorbed, and the ball of dough becomes smooth, about 10 minutes.

Place dough in an oiled bowl, and turn to coat the surface. Cover loosely with a towel, and let stand in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

                  3. When the dough is doubled, tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and divide into 2 pieces. Form into a tight ball. Let rise for another hour, until doubled. 

4. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Roll a ball of dough with a rolling pin until it will not stretch any further. Then, drape it over both of your fists, and gently pull the edges outward, while rotating the crust. When the circle has reached the desired size, place on a well oiled pizza pan and precook crust for 4-5 minutes.

Then add your sauce and toppings. You can use, fresh spinach, mozzarella, mushrooms, fresh cherry tomatoes, and more mozzarella and you have one DIVINE pizza! 

5. Reduce heat to 425 degrees F and continue to cook pizza for 10-14 minutes depending on thickness of crust.

Cut and ENJOY!!

This was a major hit in the McKay household! We did a create your own pizza night and had a blast! I also made the sauce with 1 can of tomato paste, 1 can of tomato sauce - (tomato and basil is great!), minced garlic, salt, sugar and pepper. The more the merrier! Esp if you have breadsticks! 

        

Thankful.Thursdays.

Today I am thankful for: 

My sweet, sweet husband. He gets sweeter and sweeter everyday! He has always tried to be the tough guy and pretend he doesn't care but man, Oh man! has that changed in the past couple years!
He deals with my moments when I get upset and miss home and have my breakdowns. He is right there comforting me and encouraging me! I have no idea what I would do without this boy!
I love you Shane McKay and I am so thankful for you! I am so happy to call you my best friend and husband! Thank you for dealing with my terrible moments and having patience with me!
I LOVE YOU!

I.love.this.dress!

I hardly ever wear dresses, but I love this!! They also come in solids and those would go GREAT as a bathing suit cover up! And it's only $30!! Check out more here!

what.I'm.loving.wednesday.

If you love coffee and need something quick...

Try this!! It's delicious and soo much cheaper than hitting up starbucks and paying $4 for a 12oz coffee! Plus it only has 80 calories! Soo tasty!

I love beer from the New Belgium Brewery in Colorado. They always have light, tasty beers and they have come out with one of my favorites...a Blonde Ale! (They always have the coolest pictures on the labels too!)

It's called Somersault Ale. It's so good!

So if you are looking for a new beer to try, try this!

I love this lotion!! Everyday after I shower I put this lotion on, I have been since April and my skin is soo much smoother and healthier than it's ever been! It doesn't have to loud of a scent so you can definately wear your perfume along with the lotion! Just a nice clean scent! Love this stuff!  

Today is the opening day of the DEL MAR Race track!! We LOVED going to the track the few times we were able to last year and cannot wait for this year!! As you can see the track is right on the coast! It's just beautiful here!!

(Military is FREE!!)

Every Friday after the race they have concerts in the inner ring. So we are pumped to see Ben Harper, Weezer and Jimmy eat world!

Not only do they have concerts but celebrities from all over come out for the races, so OF COURSE, Mackenzie loves to see the celebrities here!! haha!

I love seeing the photos of past celebrities like Lucille Ball, Desi Arnez,

Bing Crosby, and even the famous Seabiscuit raced here!!

Now I better go and get me a new hat and dress to wear this weekend to the races!!!

(If you ever decide to come to San Diego, come anytime from July to September!)

Let us know and we will take you to the races!!

I hope you are having a great week! What are you loving this Wednesday??

WoWoW What an awesome dinner! :)

While being unemployeed, I have decided to try new recipes for dinner at least three times a week!
As I told you Wednesday, I got the Hungry Girl 300 under 300 cookbook. And I love it! Especially after last nights results!

We hadn't had an Asian meal in a while, so I decided to try one out.
We had Kung Pao Chicken and (Ramen) Lo Mein.

I hate that I didn't take pictures but man OH man, was this good! Shane and I both love Kung Pao chicken and spicy stuff in general!
Not only was is delicious, it was EASY too!!

Kung Pao Chicken






Ingredients you will need:
2 tbsp reduced-sodium/lite soy sauce
1 1/2 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tsp granulated sugar
1/2 tbsp cornstarch OR flour if you don't have cornstarch
1 tsp red chili sauce, or more to taste (i added 1 tbsp and it was GREAT!)
8 oz. raw boneless skinless lean chicken breast, cubed
1/8 tsp salt, or more to taste
1/8 tsp black pepper, or more to taste
3/4 cup roughly chopped mushrooms
3/4 cup roughly chopped bell peppers
1/2 cup celery
1/2 cup onion
1 tsp minced garlic
1/4 canned sliced water chestnuts, drained and halved
1 tbsp chopped dry-roasted unsalted peanuts
I did not add the peanuts, I used sesame seeds instead.
Optional: crushed red pepper

Directions:
To make the sauce, in a small bowl, combine 2 tbsp cold water with soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, cornstarch, and chili sauce. Stir until all ingredients have dissolved. Set aside.
(I did not have cornstarch, instead I used all purpose flour)

Spray a large skillet or wok with nonstick spray, and bring to medium-high heat on the stove. Season chicken with salt and black pepper and add to the skillet or wok. Add mushrooms, bell peppers, celery, onion, garlic, and 2 tbsp water. Stirring occasionally, cook for about 5 minutes, until chicken is fully cooked but still tender.

Add water chestnuts and peanuts to the skillet/wok. Raise heat to high, give sauce a stir, and add it to the skillet/wok as well.

Mix until sauce has thickened and coated chicken-veggie mixture. If you like, season to taste with salt, black pepper, and crushed red pepper. If you add more chili sauce, be sure to taste to see how spicy it already is before you add the crushed red pepper!
This is when I added the sesame seeds. And now ENJOY!
Makes 2 servings. 245 Calories per serving (1 1/2 cups)

Ramen Lo Mein.

(You can make this recipe your own by adding any of your favorite vegetables or even adding chicken, beef or pork!)

2 packages Ramen noodles (any flavor, you won't use the sauce)
1/4 c Peanut oil + 1 tbsp
1/4 c Rice Vinegar
1/4 c Lite Soy Sauce/ Low Sodium + to season to taste
1 c Sugar snap peas (frozen)
1 c shredded cabbage mix (cabbage, carrots...Prepackage mix)

Follow directions on Ramen noodles packet to cook noodles. DO NOT ADD FLAVOR PACKS.
Heat 1 tbsp Peanut oil in skillet/wok to med heat. Once heated cook frozen sugar snap peas for about 2 minutes or until slightly tender.
Add Noodles, vinegar, soy sauce, peanut oil, and cabbage to skillet with sugar snap peas. Mix well.
Let simmer and cook for about 3 minutes. Continue mixing.
Bring temp down to Low for 2 minutes and ENJOY!!

Add a Spring or Egg Roll and you have one tasty Healthy meal!!

I am absolutely loving this store on Etsy.com.

Slippin Southern

They have the cutest handmade signs and Oversized Deco Letters!

I love this and have the perfect spot for it in our apartment! :)

There is a giveaway for this shop on a blog that I follow. Plus this lady has the cutest things too on etsy!!

And she has the coolest name! KIKI Creates! Check out her giveaway and become a follower!!

If you love Smoothies...you will love...

This smoothie is absolutely delicious!!! I love it! And have had 2 this week so far!!

They do have about 220 calories but it is loaded with Vit A, Vit C, Calcium and Iron.

While Shane is at work for his watch shift (30+ hours at work). I do my weekly cleaning and today I tried out a new Scent for my 3 scentsy warmers.

White Tea & Cactus!! It smells so clean and refreshing!

I just love it!! :)

I hope you are having a great week so far!

Only 2 days until the weekend!

Because...I got an awesome package from my mom today!! YAY!!!

Included in the package was our HotShots photobooth coffee book!!

It is awesome! I love it!!

Front cover...

haha! Back cover!

I'm so glad that we have these memories in this book!!

She also sent me this cool cookbook!!

Everything in this book is made with Ramen noodles!

I'm not soo sure about the Smore's on the front cover but it won't hurt to try it! lol.

Amy Nix mentioned this cookbook a little while ago on her blog and I have wanted to get it since...and well I picked this bad boy up today at Target and it was 20% off!!

I cannot wait to get to cooking!!

I really just want Shane and I to become healthier together and I believe this will help us!!

I will def. share recipes from both cookbooks!! So stay tuned!!

I hope you have a marvelous week!!

New.Things.

Ok...I need opinions.

How do you feel about the longer shorts, skinny belt and shirt tucked in?

I'm not quite sure how I feel about it! I haven't worn a belt in years!! Except for a belt around the waste with a dress...

I'm trying to mix it up. I know it's nothing drastic! Just something new!

Your thoughts...please!

I'm about to go pick Shane up and he will def. tell me what he thinks once he sees me! haha!

fill.in.the.____.friday.

1. My plans this summer include: Finding a job...(boo, I know!) Hanging out with my love, finding new things to do in California and waiting for visitors!! :) Shanes parents are coming in August and my mom is coming in September!! YAY!!

2. The best summer I ever had was: This has been the best summer so far...but past summers when the church youth group went to centrifuge or M-fuge was always GREAT!!

3. Summer is: Shorts. flip flops. bathing suits. the smell of coconut and sunscreen. Something I love. Blonde hair getting Blonder! Fruity drinks. cookouts. flowers. being outside.  Weddings. the beach. the sun. the pool.Honeysuckles.frozen pickle juice....i could ramble on!! I love summer!!

4. My favorite summer food is: Anything off the grill!! A big juicy hamburger. Stuffed and wrapped jalapenos. Hotdogs. Grilled corn on the cobb(my favorite!) Fresh salsa!! man I am soo hungry!!!! haha!

 

5. The best way to quench a summer thirst is with: H2O first!! Then an ice cold beer!

 

 

6. My summer uniform consists of: Shorts (blue jean or gray old navy shorts), a tank or my v-neck tees, and flops...

7. The best thing about summer is: being with family :( and being out in the sun and enjoying the outdoors!!

What I'm loving Wednesday!

New golf clubs! Well not new new but new to me! Shane bought them for me as a wedding gift. So now we can play together instead of me just driving the golf cart.

We plan on going this weekend, wish me luck!!!

I'm loving the hot weather in San Diego! Usually it's pretty chilly when you go to the coast, but now, it's pretty awesome and warm! Seriously last week before we left for Vegas it was 60 degrees at the coast and now it's a warm 75!! And that means it's in the 80s inland! I'm loving it!

Pond's cold cream! I know...you are probably thinking that old ladies use that! You wanna know why they use this...because it keeps your skin young and beautiful! It gets all of your makeup off and cleanses the skin! It may not smell the best but dangit, it does a GREAT job! My grandmother uses it and she has such beautiful skin, so I figured that I mightaswell start now!!

Here is a cool ad for Pond's from back in the day!

One more thing...

My American Eagle shorts...Mine are not this torn up but they are similar. I wear these babies at least 4 times a week! I normally cannot wear American Eagle shorts or pants unless I go up about 2 sizes, but these fit perfect! I actually had to go down a size!!

That's what I'm into this week...What about you??

Vegas Vacation!

Shane and I went to Vegas for this 4 day weekend...for a little honeymoon.

We had soo much fun and did a lot in a little time!

I will just share a few pics!

Us in front of the Vegas sign.

Once we got to Vegas we checked in and headed down to Margaritaville for a late dinner.

Dinner at Margaritaville!

The husband at dinner! :)

Instead of getting 2 seperate meals we got appetizers...we do this all the time so we can sit and snack on different things!

Shrimp, crab and mushroom dip, Ahi Tuna (my favorite!) and Lava Lava Shrimp.

After dinner we saw that we could make it to the last showing of the Sirens at TI of the night. It's a very cute show but very loud!

Then we just walked around a little bit more and checked things out! Because duh, we are in the city that never sleeps!

The HOT volcano at the Mirage.

The beautiful ceiling at the Venetian.

I love this place!! Its absolutely beautiful!

Day 2: We woke up pretty early to get ourselves some chairs next to the pool. Then had breakfast in the food court. Then hit up the wave pool and the lazy river! We expected a bigger lazy river but still fun!

Delicious Watermelon Mojito.

Cupcake shop inside of our hotel!! Of course we had to try the Red velvet cupcake and a Strawberry with Cream cheese icing.

Ready to hit the strip after catching some rays!

We went to Caesars Palace first to check out the Forum shops, which takes about 2-3 hours to see everything!

In front of the fountain.

 Inside the forum shops! Soo pretty inside!!

We had a delicious late lunch/ early dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and this is the absolutely best Mojito I have ever had! I love me some fruity drinks and this was great! Passion fruit Mojito!

 I had never eaten here, so I had to text my bud Valerie and see what she recommended and she def. did not disappoint! We usually love the same foods and YEP I def. loved the Santa Fe BBQ chicken salad!!

Enough for 2 people!!

Once we refueled for more walking I noticed a line of people standing outside of a store in the forum shops and ol Dick Butkus was signing autographs and having a meet and greet! Shane is a sports fanatic so of course we had to meet him!

Shane has always heard rumors about a guy from Bruce knowing Dick...and after he asked Shane where he was from, he knew exactly where Bruce, MS was!! It was crazy! And Awesome! Shane was grinning from ear to ear! I loved seeing him that excited!!

Then we got some Gelato which topped off our day at Caesar's Palace!!

Then we went back to New York New York Hotel and Casino to ride the coaster.

And of course I had to take a picture with a showgirl!

Pretty cool coaster that starts out inside then goes outside then goes back inside of the casino!

I'm sure we walked about 3-4 miles!

We went to Paris to see the inside of the casino and hotel and I fell in love with the bathrooms there!!

I could soo see this sink in our guest bathroom/ hall bathroom!

I just love it!!

We had to checkout the MGM.

They had some cute kitties!! lol.

We were soo tired from all of the walking in our flip flops!! Shane's poor feet were so messed up after walking so much!! So we went back to the room to get ready for another day of walking!