A Recent Hello Fresh Favorite + Discount Link.

We're still on the Hello Fresh / Home Chef train (we switch back a forth depending on the meals available), which is one reason that the recipe posts have subsided for a while. Not having to meal plan (other than going on a website and picking out meals that look most appetizing to me) is just one less thing one my to-do list, which is huge! 

I wanted to share a recipe that we recently received from Hello Fresh that we made and loved!

To see a full blog post reviewing the different boxed meals, you can go here. 

And if you'd like to try a Hello Fresh box of your own, click this link to receive $40 off of your first order! 

Chopped Chicken Salad with Charred Veggies and Avocado-Lime Dressing

Ingredients for 2 People

Chicken Breasts (12oz)  

Head of Romaine Lettuce

Red Bell Pepper

Red Onion

Lime

Avocado

Cilantro (1/4 oz)

Sour Cream (1 T)

Roma Tomato

Southwest Spice Blend (1 t)

Cumin (1 t)

Oregano (1 t)

Olive Oil (1 T)

Wash and dry all produce. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Halve, peel, and slice the onion into wedges. Core, seed, and thinly slice the bell pepper. Toss the peppers and the onions on a baking sheet with a large drizzle of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place in the oven for 20 minutes, tossing halfway through cooking. 

Season the chicken on all sides with the Southwest spice blend, cumin, and oregano. Heat a drizzle of olive oil in a large pan over high heat. Sear the chicken for 2-3 minutes per side, then transfer to the baking sheet in the oven for 8-10 minutes, until cooked through. 

Core and dice the tomato. Pick the cilantro leaves, then finely chop the stems. Zest and halve the lime. Slice the romaine lettuce into ½-inch pieces and place in a large bowl.  

Halve, pit, and cube the avocado. Place half in a medium bowl with the lime zest, cilantro stems, and the juice of half a lime. Mash together with a fork until completely smooth. Mix in 1 Tablespoon sour cream. Season with salt, pepper, and additional lime juice, if needed.  

Heat the broiler to high or the oven to 500 degrees. Cook the chicken and veggies for an additional 2-3 minutes, until they are slightly charred. Toss the charred veggies into the romaine lettuce along with the tomatoes, cilantro leaves, and cubed avocado. Stir the avocado-lime dressing into the salad and toss until evenly coated. Thinly slice the chicken. 

Serve the chopped salad topped with the sliced chicken and enjoy!

Screened Porch Face Lift!

The screened porch face lift project that I briefly mentioned about a month ago is complete! It was actually complete by our goal date of Mother's Day, but I just got around to taking a picture of it and posting it. 

The picture below is from the day that Cameron closed on the house 5 and a half years ago! Other than replacing the screened door, installing a fan, and adding some hand-me-down furniture, not much had been done to it until recently. 

AFTER

We painted all of the wood and replaced the screens, then Cameron laid the tile down over the old concrete floor. Following that, we added all new furniture. We love how much brighter and more comfortable it is, and find ourselves eating outside more often than inside! 

Sources:

7 Piece Dining Set - Target // 5 Piece Chat Set - Target

Outdoor Pillows - Target // Rug - Old // Tile - Palmetto Tile

#mdw

Well, Tropical Storm Bonnie decided to rain on everyone's parade (literally) during the long holiday weekend, so any plans of soaking up some sun were canceled. But we still managed to spend time with a lot of friends and take advantage of rainy day laziness.

-Saturday was spent day drinking at Home Team BBQ, followed by a cat nap. Once refreshed we went to the Rifle Club for a few rounds of bowling and unlimited popcorn (my favorite part). 

-Sunday we took advantage of the nasty weather and were couch potatoes most of the day. Those days are just needed every now and then. We did make it out of the house and over to Cameron's parents' for dinner that night! 

-Monday we dropped Cameron's parents off at the cruise terminal for their 10 day cruise, and we hit up the outlets for some sales! Cameron goes shopping once, maybe twice a year, so this was the perfect time for him to add some staples to his wardrobe. More clothes for Cameron = more time in between loads of laundry for me! I picked up these shorts (third pair..love them!), t-shirt dress, and a maxi dress. 


Also, hi to my new friend from Raleigh who came up to me on Kiawah Friday! I definitely don't consider myself to be a "big time blogger" so it meant a lot that you told me you missed my blog! Definitely motivates me to post more! :) 

Thursday's [Quick] Thoughts.

-Saturday we had our first official Sandbar Sunday of 2016! Not quite warm enough to take those cover ups off, but sunny enough to need 30 SPF! This was Gus' second time on the boat, but first full day and he did great! Loving the pic below that my friend Caroline took. 

-Somehow I rallied Sunday night and stayed up way past my bedtime to see Will Hoge at the Pour House. This show was different than the other shows I've seen of his. This one was an all acoustic show! While I prefer to see him with his full band, this was a nice change. 

-This weekend we'll spend cleaning the house and getting the yard ready for our 4th annual Mother's Day brunch! 

-Also around the house, Cameron is determined to give our screened porch a face lift prior to Mother's Day. We've ordered new patio furniture, and he is in the process of re-screening and painting the porch. After that, he wants to put outdoor tile down over the concrete floor. He's got a lot of work to do!

-This post was pretty lame and short, but that's all I've got for now!

Tasty Tuesday - Loaded Peanut Butter Cookies

Tasty Tuesday is back! To be honest, I haven't been cooking that much other than my Hello Fresh and Home Chef meals. But I made these cookie's for Lane's second birthday, his mom's birthday, and for my Dad & Uncle Jay's birthday. That's how good they are! The edges are crispy and the insides are gooey and fluffy. Perfection!

Loaded Peanut Butter Cookies

Recipe and Photo by Sugar & Charm

1/2 cup soft, creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened (room temp)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 large egg

1 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk chocolate chunks

1 cup dark chocolate chunks

1 cup peanut butter chips

1 1/2 cup Heath Bar chips

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In an electric mixer, beat the butter, peanut butter and both sugars on high, until smooth.

Add the egg, vanilla, salt and baking soda. Continue to beat on medium.

With the mixer speed on low, add in the flour and beat just until incorporated.

Fold in the chocolate chunks, peanut butter chips and Heath Bar chips.

Lay a large sheet of parchment paper on a cooking pan and scoop ice cream size cookie balls onto the sheet. You can use this cookie scooper, but it’s 2 scoops per cookie. That’s what makes them thick and gooey!

Bake for 7-10 minutes until the tops are just golden brown. Do NOT over bake them!!

*You may not think they are done when you pull them out of the oven, but as long as you allow them to set, they will be perfect!

Renovated Guest Bathroom.

Cameron and I are always looking around to see if there are any houses on the market that we love and unfortunately, there aren't any out there in the area that we want to be in. We debated on building, but decided to hold off on that for now, as we couldn't find any lots that we loved either. So plan C was to renovate more of our house since we plan to be there for another 4-5 years. The first stop was the bathroom. We originally got a bid from a contractor, but decided we could save a lot of money by doing most of the work ourselves. I'm very lucky to have a handy husband! The only person we had to hire was a plumber because we were adding an additional sink. 

Some photos that I used for inspiration...

The first picture stood out to me because the wall color was very similar to what was already in the bathroom, it had a glass front linen cabinet

The second picture I just loved the glass front linen cabinet that seems to have been re-purposed from a china cabinet or a similar type of furniture. 

Before
(see the real before here)

During

Cameron tearing out the old cabinets

Cabinets and old (huge) mirror gone)

Drywall removed for new plumbing and electrical to be installed. New tile and toilet installed. 

After

Sources:
Floor tile - Paletto Tile Distributors // Vanity - Wayfair// Faucets - Overstock // 
Mirrors - Target // Lighting - One Kings Lane // Runner - World Market //
Paint color - Sherwin Williams Sea Salt lightened by 25% // Cabinet - Nadeau

I still need to order art for the walls, decide if I want to hang anything on the window, and eventually change out the hardware on the vanity. 

I'm so happy with how it turned out though! Big shoutout to Cameron for installing all of the electrical, replacing the toilet, and laying the tile! And also dealing with my indecisiveness. 

On to the next project! 

Some Life Updates..

Well, hello! It's me, your long lost friend. I'm still alive. A lot has happened in the past 7+ months, so let's play a quick game of catch up. Actually, it's a pretty long post. Sorry about that. 

You may or may not know, but Cameron and I had to say goodbye unexpectedly to our sweet, sweet Brady back in July. Hence the super long blog break. It hit me like a tornado and I was in a serious funk for quite a while. The blog got put on the back burner as I had nothing to talk about and didn't want to come on here and be a Debbie downer. I will do a separate post on Brady later, mostly so I can remember that awful day (why?!? I don't know.). 

We had our annual Edisto trip in September. Had to expand to two houses with all of the cute little additions we've been adding. Always such a good time (what vacation isn't?) and we had a sprinkle for Baby Jack while we were there, as well. 

About three very quiet and hair-free months since we said goodbye to Brady, we said hello to a little nugget named Gus! He has brought laughter back into our everyday lives and we tell him about his big brother Brady all the time. I'll also do a separate post on Gus because, as you can imagine, there have been a lot of photos taken and a lot of memories made already in his 8 months. 

South Carolina's football team did not fair so well last season, but that didn't stop me from going to Columbia to cheer them on! Cameron was, of course, happy that Clemson made it to the national championship last year. I was (a little) happy that he was so happy about that...

In October, our family had something very scary happen. Cameron's oldest brother, David, suffered from a major stroke. He spent almost six weeks in the hospital and rehabilitation, and still continues rehab multiple times a week. From day one he made significant progress in a short amount of time, even the nurses and doctors were amazed. Every day we went to visit him we would see progress being made. A funny story that I'm sure we'll never forget - one day while Cameron and I were visiting David, we were asking him questions to help stimulate his memory. I asked him what my name was and he said "bad sandwich" but then immediately knew he was wrong and we all started laughing. My nieces love to call me that now. :) Every time I think back on those weeks that he was in the hospital, and even afterwards, I think about how amazing it was that the family and their friends all came together to support David and his family. I really think it made everyone closer as a result and taught us all to appreciate each other, and every moment spent together. 

The day David came home from the hospital!

My best friend gave birth to her second son, Jack, in December. He is the sweetest little thing and his brother, Lane, loves being a big brother! 

Our good friends, Scott and Jane, got engaged! I also had the pleasure of going wedding dress shopping with her! 

In February we saw Garth Brooks and it was, as you can imagine, AMAZING! Three hours of non-stop singing my heart out. 

We celebrated my 32nd birthday in my most favorite way - good friends and yummy oysters! A few days later my nieces came over and spoiled me with a foot, hand, and back massage!

Our niece, Arden, turned one! 

FOUR of our supper club girls are pregnant and are all due in August! On the way are two boys and two girls. We have had such fun celebrating finding out their genders and can't wait to meet them all! 

We just recently celebrated our three year wedding anniversary! On our actual anniversary we ate dinner at Fat Hen and the following weekend we spent the afternoon riding bikes on Kiawah! Very low key, very perfect. 

I'll be back soon!