Chicken BBQ Burgers

Working full-time and running a household has forced me to manage my time better. Normally I put together dinner before I head into work so that it is ready to be placed on the table when I walk in the door. Last night I did tortilla soup in the crock pot using my favorite Vegetarian recipe from allrecipes.com, although I did throw in some leftover turkey fillets that had been sitting in the freezer. Tonight we are having BBQ Burgers. I improvised a little bit with what we had....

Chicken BBQ Burger

• Tear up two Slices of Bread into small pieces ( I used one of the end slices that always gets thrown away)
• One Egg (beaten)
• 1 cup of your favorite BBQ Sauce
• 1/2 Cup of diced fresh onion
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 1 tsp of minced garlic
• Ground Chicken ( I used Jenny O brand I think it was called)

Defrost chicken in microwave. In the meantime mix all other ingredients in a large bowl. Add chicken. Use a spoon and your hands to form eight patties on plates. Cover and place in fridge. 

When Brian gets home I will have him throw two at a time on the George Foreman for about eight minutes. Then top with a mixture of bbq sauce and a little mayo. You can mix up to half and half of each and even add some brown sugar but I try to stay away from the extra sugar and mayonnaise.  

SIDE: 6 MINUTE Instant Potato Packs from the Produce Section. I threw these red skinned potatoes in the microwave and mixed with milk, butter, salt, pepper and some more minced garlic.

We always do a salad- tonight will be spinach, onion, sweet peppers and tomato. 

If you haven't tried Garlic Expressions Vinaigrette you are seriously missing out.

It can be ordered here:

http://www.amazon.com/Garlic-Expressions-cfuda/dp/B0010CBEY8

ThisIsPowerfulStuff

Amazon Child
Stella went to the doctor for her four month check up yesterday, she already weighs  close to 16 lbs and is  in unchartered territory as far as her height goes. She's off the charts! Our poor little girl is growing up so quick. The doctor literally measured her height twice because she thought she made a mistake but nope, Stella grew three inches last month alone.
I need a vacation and can't wait to head south on Thursday. Miami is calling my name.
This weekend is going to be Daddy and Stella bonding time!

TheThingsThatMatter

I spoke to my talented cousin, Serena last night who makes these fabulous bracelets. I'm in LOVE.  Currently you can buy her bracelets from her blog at Shop Material Therapy. Aside from that I am debating on ordering two new books from Amazon- why buy new these days? The Hundred Year Lie and The Things that Matter both seem like they'd be good reads. We'll see if I can decide! P.S Fish tacos, guac, and tortilla soup last night were the bomb. 

CincoDeMayo

Checking out drinks to serve at the wedding. Now I'm dying to try this!

Lava Flow Recipe

There are numerous variations for making a Lava Flow. This biggest difference is that some recipes use 1 oz. of light rum and 1 oz. of Malibu® coconut rum. When Malibu® coconut rum is unavilable you can use 1 1/2 oz. of light rum and 1/2 oz. of coconut cream.

Ingredients:

* 1 oz. light rum
* 1 oz. Malibu® coconut rum
* 2 oz. fresh or frozen strawberries
* 1 small banana
* 2 oz. unsweetened pineapple juice
* 2 oz. coconut cream

Preparation:
Blend the 2 rums and the strawberries in a blender to form a smooth paste. Pour this mixture into a tall (Collins or Hurricane) glass. Rinse the blender. Blend the banana, the coconut cream, and the pineapple juice in blender with crushed ice until smooth.

IwillBetheOneWhoLovesYoutheMost.

It was a good weekend. Shrimp Fest. House Searching. Dinner with friends. And I think locating the venue for our wedding reception. Yesterday we put in an offer on a condo and we should hear back any day now. Of course, I go crazy with the designing ideas and already had a Powerpoint presentation of half the rooms in our future house put together by the time Brian walked in the door from work. I spent a large part of the day on google searching images of modern living rooms, kitchens, furniture, dinnerware, towels, bedding.... I know what you're thinking, Brian is a brave soul to enter into a lifetime commitment with this lunatic.
Anyways, this morning Stella woke up early. I like when she does because for some reason I feel more productive. I went through Stella's drawers expecting to find a few things that no longer fit. To much dismay, about half of her things have gotten too small. It's really weird as a mother. You're in this limbo of being excited for your child's next milestones and then wanting them to stay just the way they are at the same time. I was actually sad folding her little newborn clothes while I looked over at her drooling and kicking around. She's growing up too fast and she's not even four months yet!
How am I going to handle the rest of her life? Cry at every birthday party? I need to get it together.

WeekendsDon'tCountUnlessYouSpendThemDoingSomethingCompletelyPointless.

POP ART FUN ON FRIDAY! 

Today I've been emailing wedding venues. I want to save the money and have it in the back of Brian's parent's house, which is on the intracoastal, but he would rather have it at a venue with a separate place for the "guys" to hangout before the wedding. I can understand where he's coming from, I guess it might not feel too special to have a wedding in the house you were used to seeing every day of your life but I'm looking at the venues with dollar signs in my eyes. I'm not sure what I want for the wedding, the only thing I'm sure about is the guy that I'm going to marry. I guess that's the most important thing anyways. Everything else can be figured out over time.

The front wheel of Stella's jogging stroller fell off today. Unfortunately I had parked at the beach and walked all the way into downtown to get a sneak peek of the Shrimp Fest activities for this weekend... which means we were pretty far from the car. I also had Piper with me. I can only imagine how lame we looked as I tried to balance the stroller, Piper, Stella and a loose tire. Luckily we hadn't made it too far out of downtown so I backtracked into the local bike shop. They fixed the stroller in no time and also had success scaring Stella and Piper. I can't blame them, I was a little scared myself at the sight of two grown men making animal noises at the baby. 

This weekend we're going to look at a house near the beach. We're fairly new to the search but it's so exciting to think about. Both of us decided that when it came time to buy our own house we would love to acquire an older one that needed some rehab. That's exactly what we're looking into so we can add our personal touch!