A Bit Fallish But Who Cares!

*I liked to take a moment and express my deepest sympathies to those victims in yesterdays horrific Boston Marathon events! Prayers are continuous and I hope that they can all find peace and comfort during this time! Boston, you will prevail and evil... evil will never win!*

A few weeks ago one of my favorite local go to lunch spots {Gourmet Gang} had this to-die-for salad as a special! Anything with pumpkin and goat cheese is a win in my book so I had to give it a try! Who knew I could fall deeply in love with a salad?! After devouring this goodness I knew I would have to recreate it at home and of course add a little meatiness {the shrimp} to it for the hubby!

What You Will Need:

1 pound of shrimp {I use frozen but you can use fresh if you'd like}
1 bag of Ready to Eat Leaf Spinach or Baby Spinach
Goat Cheese
Sunflower Seeds
Dried Cranberries
Roasted Sweet Potatoes

For the Dressing:
Pumpkin Butter
Apple Cider Vinegar
Extra Virgin Olive Oil

{If you noticed I don't have any measurements so just eyeball how much you would prefer}

Pumpkin Butter-Shrimp-Goat Cheese-Sweet Potatoes- Spinach- Sunflower Seeds-Dried Cranberries

Directions:

Peel, Cut and Cube Sweet Potatoes {One Sweet Potato should be PLENTY}. Toss in Extra Virgin Olive Oil until fully coated.

Spread out evenly on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven at 375 degrees for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

While roasting sweet potatoes sauté shrimp until cooked thoroughly.

After shrimp and sweet potatoes are finished cooking, fill bowls with spinach, sunflower seeds, and dried cranberries. Then top with goat cheese, shrimp and sweet potatoes.

To make your dressing combine equal parts pumpkin butter, apple cider vinegar, and extra virgin olive oil in a small bowl and mix together until blended. 

Drizzle over salad and ENJOY!!!

XoXo,

I Could be a Vegetarian, Just Not a Vegan, I Like Cheese Too Much!

Here is another Pinterest worthy recipe, first appearing in Fitness Magazine, to add to your recipe boxes!!! It's a Vegetarian dish and even though I'm not a Vegetarian I really enjoyed it! The goat cheese was my favorite part and this was the first time I made caramelized onions! Yuummmmy!

What You Will Need:

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups thinly sliced onion
1 teaspoon sugar {I used Splenda}
1/4 teaspoon salt
9 ounces baby spinach {I used ready-to-eat Leaf Spinach}
4 8 inches whole-wheat flour tortillas
4 ounces semi soft goat cheese
2 medium tomatoes, thinly sliced

Whole Wheat Tortillas-Splenda-Onion-Tomato-Spinach-Goat Cheese-Olive Oil

Directions:

Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, sugar and salt; cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is dark golden brown.

Remove from pan.

Add the spinach and 1 tablespoon water to the skillet; cook 2 minutes, or until spinach is just wilted. Remove from skillet and turn off heat.

Spread a quarter of the goat cheese on each tortilla and top with spinach, tomato and onion.

Fold closed and press lightly. Heat the skillet and place two folded quesadillas in it; cook two minutes per side, or until golden brown and lightly crisp. Repeat.

Enjoy!!!

I hope y'all are having a fantastic start to the week! The weather here in Southern VA has been beautiful which makes the beginning of a work week so much more bearable!! XoXo!!!

Arugula, Spugula! Gnocchi, Ganache!

I found this AMAZING recipe while gallivanting through the land of Pinterest not too long ago! Who is the gal behind the recipe you ask? Mandy from Baking with Blondie! After finding her blog through my wee little pin, I am really excited to try some more of her recipes!

I gave this recipe my own added twist - shrimp. If you've been following me for some time you know my hubby has to have some sort of manliness in his dinner! I seriously think I could be a vegetarian! The hubby? Not so much!

What You Will Need:

3 medium-sized fresh sweet corn on the cob
3 cups fresh arugula {I used a mixture of fresh arugula and spinach as Mandy did}
3/4 cup fresh mushrooms, chopped {this was optional but I did include them}
1 pound potato gnocchi
3/4 cup half and half, half heavy cream, or half whole milk/skim {I used whipping cream that I had in the fridge}
3 oz light cream cheese {I used fat free}
1 teaspoon salt {see next ingredient}
1 teaspoon garlic powder {I used garlic salt in place of the garlic powder and the salt}
1 teaspoon fresh basil, julienne {I used dried basil in my spice cabinet}
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Pinch of crushed red pepper
Parmesan cheese for sprinkling
And my little added ingredient:
1 lb frozen or fresh tail off deveined shrimp

garlic salt-whipping cream-gnocchi-spinach-crushed red pepper-dried basil-frozen cooked shrimp-arugula-mushrooms-corn on the cob

Directions:

In large pot, boil water and cook gnocchi according to package directions, adding in the corn on the cob in the last five minutes. Remove corn, transfer to cutting board. Drain gnocchi, but make sure to reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water. Don't rinse your gnocchi. 

{My gnocchi packaging stated to cook until gnocchi rose to the top and that the cook time was only two minutes. I wasn't able to add the corn to it, so I drained the gnocchi using a slotted spoon and just added the corn to the pot after I removed the gnocchi.}

Sauté shrimp in a sauce pan {I used the same pan for the cream sauce and combining all the ingredients at the end} Once the shrimp is cooked/heated thoroughly, remove from pan and set aside. 

For the cream sauce, combine half and half, cream cheese, salt, garlic powder, fresh basil, and pepper in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat for about ten minutes, stirring until cream cheese has evenly dispersed throughout sauce. Stir in reserved pasta water. 

Remove corn from pot and let cool before slicing corn off the cob. 

In a medium bowl combine your shrimp, pasta sauce, corn, mushrooms, gnocchi, spinach and arugula. Sprinkle with additional salt, pepper basil and crushed red pepper if desired. 

{I combined all the ingredients in the sauce pan to help wilt the spinach and arugula}

Once fully mixed and coated, plate and top with Parmesan cheese! Enjoy!!!

From start of preparing to plating to eat, this recipe took 30 minutes! Y'all know I'm all for that!!! Be sure to add this to your recipe box! It's really yummy and I love that it's packed with loads of veggies! I may or may not have added a ton of spinach to it!! Thanks to Pinterest for bringing another yummy recipe to my kitchen and for introducing me to another blogger to add to my reading list! 

XoXo,

It's an Easy Peasy Kind of Side!

Today I'm forgoing the main dish recipe post and sharing a really quick side dish to add to your favorite dinner meal {and because I forgot to take photos of a main dish last week}. Hopefully you can find these cutie patootie potatoes at your local market. If not, you can no doubt use small redskin potatoes or gold yukon potatoes cut into quarters!

What You Will Need:
2 cups Gold Creamer Potatoes or Red Creamer Potatoes
1/4 cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Teaspoon of Rosemary {fresh or dry}
Teaspoon of Parsley {fresh or dry}
Salt and Pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Add olive oil and salt and pepper to a bowl.

Toss potatoes in bowl of olive oil until they are fully coated.

Spread potatoes out evenly on a non-stick cookie sheet or you can cover a cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Sprinkle potatoes with rosemary and parsley. 

Bake for 30 minutes or until light brown and crispy on the outside!

Pair with your choice of protein and fresh veggies for a scrumptious evening meal!

Couldn't be any easier for ya!

Enjoy your Tuesday my darlings!!! XoXo!

Don't forget... The Give Away Contest ends Friday! Enter here!!! 

Whoopie! There's the Faith, Whoopie! There's Maddie!

I have no idea how this sweet gal and I became blogging buddies but I am beyond glad we did!!! She reigns from VA but currently lives in NC {and not that far so we really need work out a blate}! My favorite quality about her is her openness and honesty! This girl doesnt hide a thing! After I wrote about a very debilitating fear I have she sent me the sweetest most heart wrenching e-mail! I cried when I read it, I cried after I read it, and I cry now just thinking about it, but it made me love this girl so much more as a new friend! She shared a part of her with me that people rarely ever see in others and I appreciated it more than she may every truly know! Her raw honesty is why I'm one of her biggest fans, well that, and of course because she hails from VA! Two up, Two down, baby! Enjoy Mrs. Maddie!!! 

Hey, Y'all! I am Maddie from A Tinge of Whimsy

 I am really excited to be visiting over here with Lauran today. We are both Virginia girls and so I always get extra giddy for my "local" ladies...

Although...for the last 10 years I have called North Carolina 'home'. I live with the hubs, Wiki, in the Raleigh area. I work part time in sports and he is an engineer for a construction management firm.. And yes, that is his nickname b/c he is entirely too smart for his own good. He knows just a little bit more than even wikipedia about everything. Which for the most part is awesome...unless you're playing trivia and he happens to be on the opposite team. and then you think it's the antithesis of cool. 

This is what 5'3 looks like next to 6'5, even wearing heels;)

This June we will be celebrating 10 years of being hitched. I am a country girl from the boondocks and he is a city boy from Boston...but somehow we are perfectly matched.(other than our baseball teams, I am all pinstripes and he loves his dirty water) We love to try new foods and meander our way through small towns off the beaten path...especially if there is a winery off of said paths. Hoping we get to explore some new jaunts this year, perhaps finding food to devour along the way via Diners Drive Ins and Dives or Man VS Food.

For the most part, I blog about a smorgasbord of topics; traveling, fashion, sports, tasty cocktails and simple, but tasty food. I do a weekly post on varying whoopie pies. They are my favorite, basically an inside out cupcake...less mess. I have made the 'from scratch' variety...but mainly I enjoy the taste of mixing up cake mix flavors.

Here is my pineapple and malibu

and my favorite, maple spice.

Since Easter is coming up...these would be really easy to swap out the spice cake for carrot cake mix. yum!

and lately, I have forayed into discussing some more personal issues and am in the process of doing "the infertility prayer project" as a way to pray for women who are or have struggled with infertility/miscarriages/adoption process.

You can read more about that here in this post

I will be having my first success guest post in 2 weeks and please, if you would like to be added to the prayer list or know anyone who would need and appreciate prayers as well, feel free to contact me!

 Please stop by and visit, would love to make new friends...bloggy style.

Thanks for having me over here today, Lauran! 

See, I told you she was honest! I adore what Maddie is doing in working to bring other bloggers together and offer support and strength to one another! Healing from your issues {whatever they may be} comes from being honest and facing it dead on annnnd relying on your faith! Maddie is a prime example of that! She is also the prime reason of why I now have a severe craving for something sweet! I'm going to have to give these whoopie pies a shot! Make sure you pay Maddie a visit over on her side of the blogging world! I have no doubt she'd love to have you! And Please Please Please make sure you add yourself to her prayer list if you are struggling from some of the issues near and dear to her heart! There really is something amazing in the Power of Prayer! 


If you are interested in Sponsoring The Real Young Housewife of Southern VA for FREE. Please e-mail me at Lauran.Huffman@gmail.com or comment below! I am now booking for April and May!! 

Beef or Turkey?! It's Still a Meaty Loaf!

I can't stress enough how much I LOVE easy recipes! I enjoy cooking and I enjoy having home cooked meals during the work week, but I refuse to slave away in a kitchen all evening! It just doesn't work with my schedule! I get home from work at 6 pm. If it's a gym night I come home, change and head back out the door for my 6:30 class and I don't get back home till about 7:45. It does not help that the hubby usually heads to bed at 9 p.m. {he has to wake up at 3 in the morning for work!}. That gives me, on average, only an hour to prepare, cook, and eat a meal. I also like to change meals up during the week and offer a variety! Meat and potatoes one evening, a casserole dish of some sort another, a pasta dish at least one night is a must, and for the past several weeks I've been incorporating more fish into our dinners!

One of my little secrets?! I utilize Kraft Recipes A LOT {which is where this recipe came from}!! They have easy and quick recipes for all kinds of dishes and the great thing I've found is that you don't have to use the exact ingredients! Just substitute your favorite brands and/or healthier/low-fat/nonfat choices!

This recipe is my hubby's favorite meal! I've been making it for several years and I try to cook it for him at least once a month! I love when he asks "what's for dinner?" and when I tell him "meatloaf!" he lights up like a Christmas Tree! His reaction always makes me feel good!

What You Will Need:

Stove Top {Chicken} - Ground Meat - Barbecue Sauce - Eggs 

 {I normally cut this whole recipe in half for the two of us}

2 lb. Lean Ground Beef {I used 1 lb. of Lean Ground Turkey}
1 package Stove Top Chicken Stuffing Mix {I use 1/2 of a package}
1 cup of Water {I use 1/2 a cup of water}
2 Eggs Beaten {I use 1 Egg}
1/2 cup Barbecue Sauce, divided {I usually just eyeball this}

Directions:

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Place meat, stuffing mix, water, eggs, and 1/4 cup barbecue sauce in bowl.

Mix just until blended.

Shape into loaf in a greased 13x9-inch backing dish {I use a loaf pan}.

Top with remaining barbecue sauce.

Bake 1 hour or until done. {I usually heat the oven to 400 degrees and cook for 45 minutes}.

Serve with your choice of sides! This particular evening I opted for fresh green beans and roasted creamer potatoes!

I post a lot of dinner photo's on Instagram and I get many comments about my cooking skills! I promise you it's not hard to make hearty and delicious meals even on a work night! I meal plan each week which keeps me organized! When meal planning, I look for recipes that don't include crazy preparations or a billion ingredients! By doing this alone it helps in cutting down my time spent in the kitchen! Because I've received so many sweet comments I'm thinking that Tuesday's will now feature a weekly post {as I've kind of already started} showcasing an easy main dish that you can whip up any time! I'm not a chef or cooking guru by any means nor am I trying to become a food blogger. I just want to help make your life a tab bit easier in whatever way I can!

Have a fantastic Tuesday my darlings! XoXo!

Weekend Recap!

Here we are, staring Monday straight in the face, again! Have you noticed how we all seem to live for the weekends?! Counting down the days starting on Monday, complaining how the week is so long and then moaning and groaning about the weekend flying by?! It's sad that we seem to live our lives for the weekend! Buuut why wouldn't we?! It's two days that we have off to jam in all kinds of "to-dos" "must-dos" and fun stuff! I want to try harder at not wishing my weeks away just to get to my weekend! Wishing it away is wishing time away and quite frankly I would like it to slow down just a bit! It's already the mid to latter part of March! Didn't we just celebrate New Years?! Anywho, enough of the serious philosophical thoughts... what kind of St. Paddy's Day shenanigans did y'all get into this weekend? Me?! Buying Bailey's Irish Cream flavored Irish colored French Macarons were about as crazy as I got for St. Paddy's Day!

Friday evenings for us, are usually relaxing nights in! We eat dinner at home, sip wine {for me} and beer {for the hubs} and chill out from our hectic weeks with the pup in front of the TV! This Friday was no exception, though I did grow a wild hair up my rear and decided it was time to tackle the daunting task of cleaning off our office desk. I kid you not, when I say, that there were bills {that have been paid, just needed to be filed} piled up on the desk since before Christmas! Ugh please don't judge! I've been procrastinating on buying a file cabinet and instead of putting everything in their designated folders, I've been piling it up on the desk! Well, I decided to pull out the folders and file it all away. While doing so, Baby Reef decided it would be a grand idea to nap... right in the middle of all my files. He even was brazen enough to move some folders and papers out of his way so he could make room for his napping spot! Silly Silly boy!

Baby Reef in the midst of all my organizing and filing! 

Saturday we slept in which was glorious since we had a morning rain shower come through and it was incredibly grey out. When we woke up, the sun was trying to peak through and the hubby headed off to baseball practice! Meanwhile I decided to accomplish a few things outside of the house since it was turning into a beautiful day! I packed up the car with stuff that has been taking over our dining room to donate to Goodwill and I grabbed my Tory Burch's and a pair of hard worn heels to take to the cobbler for some sprucing up and repairs. Mind you, I've never been to this cobbler, or any cobbler for that matter, and I wasn't sure if they would be able to fix the heels or my TB's. When I walked in the man at the counter stared at me intently, making me feel really uncomfortable. I explained to him that I had never been to a cobbler before and I wasn't sure if my shoes were fixable. He didn't say anything, just kept staring. At this point, even with how uncomfortable I was feeling, I felt I couldn't just turn around and leave. I pulled the heels out first and he paused and looked at them and said they weren't fixable; fine I'll just buy another pair. I then pulled out my TB's and explained that they were very special to me, and I just really needed them spruced up if that was possible. Meanwhile he is STILL staring and looking at me as if I am ET, himself. He took the shoe and said "I can polish them". At that point I was so eager to get out of there, I said OKAY, gave him needed information, took my ticket and ran! Once I got in the car all I kept thinking was I hope he doesn't hold my shoes hostage or something... I should've never left them with this dude! I mean he was just creepy. Thank goodness Baby Reef was tagging along in the car to help with my anxiety attack I was having! I will give the guy some credit! They did a nice job polishing them and they look very much to being almost brand new!!! I plan on taking them to another cobbler the next time they need some attention as to avoid the creepy guy, though. I'd rather not deal with the unsettling feeling again!

Once I dropped my shoes off, I headed to the grocery store to pick up some bread for the appetizer I was making for my best friend, Tatiana's birthday celebration later that night! Then with the windows down, music up, and a doggy hanging out the window, we headed to Goodwill! We dropped off quite a few things and I was immediately relieved to see it go! It was causing too much clutter in the house and needed to go months ago! I'm still purging and organizing so this will not be the last trip but knowing this batch is gone helps relieve some of the purging stress I have right now!

After dropping off the donations, Baby Reef and I headed into Old Towne Portsmouth to visit a local bakery, Artisans Bakery! I had inquired on their Facebook page last week if they sold French Macarons and they informed me that they would have St. Paddy's Day themed ones this weekend! They then commented to me Friday saying they were available for purchase during the weekend! I'd never been there before so I was really excited! Seriously.... cutest place ever! It's a full service bakery/cafe in a historically built home! Absolutely adorable and I can't wait to go back and grab lunch sometime, coffee, and more macaroons! I bought a dozen of them to take to the birthday party later that night! They were green, orange, and cream colored and Irish Bailey's flavored! Annnd they were tasty to boot!

Bailey's Irish Cream Flavored St. Paddy's Day inspired French Macarons! 

When we left there with the goodies we headed to Starbucks so I could use my gift card towards a Chai Tea Latte {my favorite!}. Once Baby Reef said his hello's to the Drive Thru girls we headed to an older neighborhood in the area to check out homes for sale! I love love love the Old Towne area with it's historic 18th century homes and gorgeous architectural buildings! I would love nothing more than to buy a home {renovated or we renovate ourselves} from the early 1900's! They have such character and charm and contain so much history! It's just difficult to find these houses in safer areas and in good school districts. Nonetheless it was really nice to just cruise with the pup and look at the beautiful homes!

Later, once we were all spiffy and ready to go, the hubby and I headed out to Tat and Kevin's house! Tat decided she wanted to have a "wine/cheese tasting" birthday celebration and she did not disappoint with the spread! Lots and lots of artisan cheeses, salami, nuts, olives, fruit, french breads, and even dark chocolate and of course more than a few of yummy wines for us to try! After all the girls caught up with their girl talk in the kitchen, we joined the the guys for a game of LCR. If you don't know what that is, check this out! I had NEVER heard of it but -oh my lanta- how fun! I'm not much of a gambler so it's not something I think would play ALL the time but it was definitely a good way to add some innocent fun to a party!

The Birthday Girl!

The amazing spread! 

Some of the delicious wine!

Tat and Kevin's sweet puppies Bosley and Kenya! They just so happen to be brothers and are the sweetest little souls! 

LCR

Tat and I have an appreciation for some of the finer things in life and we share an obsession for Louis Vuitton and Christian Louboutins! We also share an unhealthy obsession with Paris too! Neither of us have a pair of Louby's but we often chat about buying our first pair one day! Because we share this love, I haaaaad to buy her this wine bottle holder {this isn't the exact one but very similar}! She loved it and I told her that was the closest I could get to giving her the real deal!! I hope when we both can buy our first pair, it's an experience we can have together! And yes, it is that serious when it comes to Louby's and LV!

I had to but the polka dot gift wrap paper! 

Yesterday we did absolutely nothing! And when I say nothing, I really mean nothing! The weather was grey and damp all day which made if difficult to get motivated! I did manage to watch Why Did I Get Married? and Why Did I Get Married, Too? on TBS! I have to give Tyler Perry credit... he makes some movies that really pull at your heart strings! I haven't seen all of his work, but the ones that I have seen always move me, usually to tears, but they do make me laugh too! I did give myself my weekly manicure as well, but other than that and watching the movies, we literally did nothing!

My manicure - Essie Pink Lemonade 

How was all of your weekends?!?! It felt good to be somewhat productive on Saturday! The winter weather has a way of making me want to stay in bed under the covers so it was great to get out in the warm sunshine and accomplish some things! Hope everyone is having a stellar Monday so far! XoXo!

Divan, Divine, It's Really All the Same!

Remember last week when I told you here, that I finally decided to crack open the recipe box I received at one of my bridal showers {nearly 2 years ago} and give some of the recipes a go?! While meal planning last week and picking out the Honey Chili Salmon recipe in the box, I decided to try another one in the box as well! Sharon, who has been like a big sister to me practically my whole life, gave me this recipe for Asparagus Chicken Divan, in which now I am crazy excited over it, because it was a huge hit! While she mentioned that the leftovers weren't that great, I thought they tasted just as well for my work lunch the next day! None-the-less the recipe was easy and perfect, yet again, for a quick and easy week night dinner {y'all know I'm all for that}! You should definitely give this one a shot!

The Recipe Card

What You Will Need:

Nutmeg-Whipping Cream-Mayonaise-Asparagus-Chicken- Parmesan Cheese-Cream of Chicken Soup-Worcestershire Sauce

1 pound Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts 

2 pounds fresh asparagus, trimmed {I only used a pound}

1 can (10-3/4 ounces) condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream, whipped

3/4 cup mayonnaise

Directions:

 

Broil chicken 4-6 inches from the heat for 6-8 minutes on both sides or until juices run clear. 

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, bring 1/2 inches of water to a boil. 

Add asparagus. 

Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 3-5 minutes or until crisp-tender.

 Drain and place in a greased shallow 2-1/2 qt. baking dish. 

Cut chicken into thin slices. 

In a small bowl, combine soup, Worcestershire sauce and nutmeg.

Spread half over asparagus. Sprinkle with 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese. 

Top with chicken. 

Spread remaining soup mixture over chicken; sprinkle with 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese. 

Bake, uncovered, at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. 

Fold whipped cream into mayonnaise; spread over top. Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese. 

Broil 4-6 inches. from the heat for about 2 minute or until golden brown. 

Serve alone or over brown rice {as I did}!

I really do enjoy cooking and finding recipes that work with our schedule and tastes! I know I sound like a broken record but I love recipes that don't require a lot of prep time or cook time for our work week! I also enjoy using our slow cooker, especially on gym nights! Are any of you fans of Chicken Divan?! This was the first time I had ever had it and had no idea it was actually a pretty popular "casserole" dish that is normally made with broccoli! Learn something new everyday right?! 

Have a glorious Monday my darlings!!! The weather seems to be improving this week and I am loving the warm temperatures and the shining sun! It's good for the soul! 

XoXo!