Tuesday Shmuesday

Top: LuLus | Jeggings: Forever21 | Booties: ShopMCE

This was one of my casual looks from last week, 

I wore pajamas all day yesterday so unfortunately my outfit was totally not post worthy.

How was everyones Monday?!

Gosh, I LOVE my Mondays off.

Even though it's my day to do laundry, clean & grocery shop--

it's still nice to have a day to myself.

Charley and I had a nice little 30 minute sun bathing sesh.

Then it was time for all my wifely duties.

On a positive note I cooked some damn good lasagna last night

AND made some homemade chicken salad that Kyle & I both loved.

Both are pretty simple recipes...let me know if you'd like me to share!! 

Have a good Tuesday babes!

Shredded Chicken Nachos and Hair Product Advice.

Pinterest never seems to fail me y'all. 

Of course I've personally had some pinterest fails, but Tuesday night I totally nailed it.

Around noon I realized I had nothing in the house for dinner,

so of course I went to pinterest to find out if I could make something with the things I already had.

Then I stumbled across the EASIEST recipe ever 

[and later found out that it was freaking delicious as well]

This recipe can make tacos, nachos, really whatever your heart desires,

and mine was really desiring nachos!

For the original recipe click here.

Or just keep reading to see the step by step instructions by yours truly!

Shredded Chick Nachos

What you'll need:

Frozen Chicken Breasts (I used 3 and we still had plenty left over)

Jar of Salsa (I just used a traditional mild salsa)

1 Can of Rotel

1 packet of taco seasoning

1 can refried beans 

Shredded cheese

Your favorite tortilla chips (we LOVE on the border tortilla chips)

And any other additional toppings you might want!!

What you'll do:

1. Place frozen chicken breasts, jar of salsa, can of rotel, & taco seasoning in crock pot.

2. Cook on high for about 4-5 hours, then cook on low until chicken looks ready and shreds easily.

3. Heat up your refried beans

4. Then start putting your nachos together!!

AND VOILA! 

I was a little nervous that Kyle wouldn't love this recipe because he is more of a beef person,

WRONG. We both had 2 full plates and then shared another plate!

These are SO good and SO addicting. 

If you're on a diet I don't recommend them because

 it's kind of impossible to stop yourself from eating them lol

But seriously y'all this is one of the easiest recipes I have ever made.

This would be REALLY great if you have company over to watch a game or something! 

Let me know if you decide to try out the recipe!!

On a completely different note...

I need a little hair help!

As you all can clearly see I'm a HUGE fan of the wand, and my hair is almost always curled.

However, my hair is naturally board straight and I have a hard time getting it to hold

the curl for a long amount of time.

I use Garnier Fructis hair spray every now and then but don't feel like it does much..

So, do any of you have some magic product you've found that really helps to hold your curls?!

I hate most hair sprays because I can't stand when my hair feels stiff, so keep that in mind!

I am just desperateeeeee for something to help hold me waves/curls longer!

SuperBowl Sunday Shenanigans

Tank: WindsorStore

Camo Button Down: Forever21 (similar)

Leather Leggings: WindsorStore

Converse: Nordstrom

Bralette: LuLus

For the game we all went to Kyle's aunts house!

Kyles uncle used to play for the Patriots so everyone went all out.

I wish I would have taken more pictures but I may or may not have been

suffering from the night before...lol whoopsie!

We set up a projector in the garage and bought WAY too much food,

made about 100 different dips and snacks and hung out outside 

until the game started!

By the way the dip I made was a HIT, whoop whoop!

It's literally the easiest and yummiest dip you will EVER make.

I didn't take any pictures but all you do is this....

Buy 2 tubs of sour cream, 2 packets of the powder ranch dressing, 

bacon bits, and shredded cheese.

mix it alllllll together and you've got yourself some crack in a bowl!

Theres no specific amount of bacon bits or cheese, I kind of just add a little, stir,

then keep adding and stirring until I think it looks good! 

The weather was perfect and sunny until it started pouring down rain out of nowhere.

Buttttttt that didnt prevent us from having a good time.

I'm not a huge professional sports watcher but that game was definitely a good one!

It was definitely nice to be surrounded by a bunch of happy campers.

Here are all the boys celebrating after the win!!

I spent most of my time watching the game inside with some of the other girls,

because it got COLD outside.

I'm not going to lie though,

 it was nice being able to mix in a little girl talk and baby holding during the game!

I am SO SO exhausted today, 

hoping I can function long enough to get my dog walking/nannying duties done!

Happy Monday y'all!

xoxo, Monica

A Giveaway and a Recipe.

Happy Hump Day Ladies!

If you don't follow @ShopMCE on instagram you MUST go do that NOW!

And enter for your chance to win this beautiful Black Faux Fur Vest.

Make sure you follow @ShopMCE, Like the photo, Regram the photo, and #ShopMCE!

Pretty simple.

Now, GO!

Last night I made Baked Potato Soup in the crock pot.

Holy YUM!

I was a little nervous about it but it turned out super good.

Thanks mom for hooking me up with this recipe! <3

It's honestly the easiest recipe ever.

So here it is...

[how good does that look?]

Ingredients: 
1 30oz. bag of frozen diced hash browns
1 32 oz box of chicken broth
1 can of cream of chicken soup (10 oz)
1 pkg. cream cheese (8 oz, not fat free)
3 oz bacon bits
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Put the potatoes in the crockpot. Add in the chicken broth, cream of chicken soup and half of the bacon bits. Add a pinch of salt and pepper.
Cook on low for 8 hours or until potatoes are tender.
An hour before serving, cut the cream cheese into small cubes. Place the cubes in the crock pot. Mix a few times throughout the hour before serving.
Once the cream cheese is completely mixed in, it's ready to serve.
Top with cheddar cheese and some additional bacon bits

Y'all, this stuff was GOOD.

I made some garlic bread to go along with it and it was perfect.

Husband approved, puppy approved, and I definitely approved.

Make this tonight for your family and tell me what you think!

The week is almost over!

Have a wonderful Wednesday pretty girls.

xoxo, Monica

Oh Honey Butter, How I Love You.

Top: ShopMCE.com (similar)

Scarf: thrifted 

Jeans: Kohls

Boots: Forever21.com (similar)

Beanie: Nordstrom.com

On Saturday, after spending all morning in our PJ's watching Sons of Anarchy...

 I decided to make Kyle take me on a little lunch date!

I'll give you one guess where we went....

This picture should be a dead giveaway.

I ate probably 7 rolls...like no joke, the honey butter addiction is real.
Did I ever tell y'all that I bought large amounts of this butter freshman year of college?
I literally put it on everything...15 lbs later I realized I should probably stop, haha.
Ya live and ya learn.

So, Charley got spayed about 2 weeks ago and we've had to kind of limit her activity.
Which has been a PAIN for me because her energy is ridiculous.
I haven't been able to take her on our every day walk/jogs and
we haven't taken her to the dog park in what seems like forever...

But TODAY we are finally taking her to the dog park!
She should be fully healed and I am so happy it's sunny out and we can take her.
We are going to freeze our buns off but I am beyond excited for her to get all of her energy out.
She is seriously a handful...like I've never felt more prepared for parenthood...

Okay, maybe I wouldn't go that far...but still, she is a lot to handle.

I'm making baked potato soup in the crock pot for dinner tonight
and I'm SO excited to see how it turns out!!
I'll be sure to share the recipe if it's as good as I think it's going to be.

Happy Tuesday y'all!

I'm going to be hosting a Giveaway on the blog tomorrow so make sure you stop by!!

xoxo, Monica

Another Successful Pinterest Recipe.

Top: ShopMCE.com

Jeans: ShopMCE.com

Booties: ShopMCE.com

How adorable is this sweater/top?!

It just arrived in the shop yesterday and it is so freaking comfortable!

It is finally starting to cool down here in Houston, and I am SO excited about it!

In honor of the somewhat "cooler" weather I decided to make a Fall meal last night!

I found this UH-MAZING recipe on pinterest, of course.

and I'm so excited to share it with y'all!! 

It's called Slow Cooker Quinoa Chicken Chili!

I've never eaten or made quinoa before but I've heard great things about it so I 

was super excited to finally try it out!

I also will never turn down a recipe that just asks you to throw everything in a crock pot.

Honestly ladies, this is the simplest and most delicious recipe ever!

You can click here for the full recipe!

I only used 1 can of 14.5 oz tomatoes...because I felt like 28oz was a little much.

 I also added a little extra cumin, because that stuff is the bomb.

This is how mine turned out!

yuummmm

I threw some cheese on top!

You can eat this by itself OR heat up some tortillas and eat it like a taco!

I also recommend buying some scoop chips, 

It was so yummy grabbing a chip and scooping a big chunk of chili in there!

I HIGHLY recommend this recipe,

it does make A LOT though, so if you're cooking for 2 like me

 be prepared for a lot of left overs! 

Happy Hump Day Y'all!

xoxo, Monica

Black on Black on Black and a Recipe.

I decided to rock the all black look for a double date night on Friday!

and I have to admit, I'm kind of obsessed with this look.

Top: LuLus.com

Jeans: Cotton On (scored them for $10)

Heels: LuLus.com (similar)

Necklace: Kendra Scott

Clutch: ShopMCE.com

This girl is quite the handful, but gosh she's purity. 

Main squeeze.

Last week I made a new [healthy] recipe and it turned out SO yummy!

One of our favorite recipes is black bean enchiladas! 

One of my sweet friends gave me that recipe [and my own personal cook book binder] when Kyle and I got married!

Well this is very similar to black bean enchiladas but with more ingredients!

If you want to be even healthier and skip the tortillas and half the cheese 

you can totally just eat the mixture that goes inside the tortillas!

I may or may not have eaten ALL of the "left overs" before I even finished cooking.

So here we go...

This actually makes A LOT, I had a lot of the "insides" left over,

but I didnt mind because I loved it so much I ate it the rest of the week! 

What you'll need:

15 oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained

15 oz. can of corn
6 oz. fresh baby spinach (I didnt have baby spinach so I used regular)
1 cup of fat free cottage cheese
1/3 cup cilantro
2 teaspoon cumin [I added more, because I love this stuff]
2 cups shredded 3 cheese blend (or your favoite cheese)
1 can of enchilada sauce
flour tortillas

What you'll do: 

In a large bowl, combine beans, 1 cup cheese, spinach, corn, cottage cheese,  2 tsp. cumin, and cilantro.

This is what mine looked like

Then, Preheat oven to 375. Lightly spray a 9x13 inch baking dish, and pour a small amount of the Enchilada sauce to coat the bottom.

Generously fill tortillas with the bean mixture. Roll up tightly with ends tucked in, and place seam side down in dish.

Pour remaining sauce over the enchiladas, coating evenly. Sprinkle with the other 1 cup of cheese on top.

Bake about 20 minutes, and garnish with cilantro and/or green onions (optional).

Click HERE for the original recipe. 

I decided to make some Guac for a side!

I'm weird and don't like onions, tomatoes, etc in my guacamole.

I like it plain and super creamy!

So I mashed up 2 avocados with a fork, added some salt, garlic and lime and VOILA!

Dinner is served. 

Let me know if you try this recipe out,

Kyle and I both loved it.

xoxo, Monica

A few of my "Go To" Recipes!

If you know me at all…you will know that I HATE cooking.

It literally gives me anxiety, and I have no common sense when it comes to cooking, whatsoever.

I NEED a detailed, specific recipe to go by, 

and even if I follow it step by step something always goes wrong.

ALWAYS.

But guess what?!

I'm kind of getting the hang of things!

[kind of]

So for all of my fellow clueless cooking ladies, I bring you my favorite go to recipes!
Most of these recipes are from pinterest, but it's always nice to know
that someone (with little cooking skill) has actually cooked them,
and they turned out great!

First: Chicken Avocado salad

This is the EASIEST thing you will ever "make" in your entire life.

I am an avocado ADDICT. like for real.

I stumbled across this recipe on pinterest but I actually left out some ingredients.

Go to the store and buy yourself one of those delicious rotisserie chickens,

a few avocados and some limes.

The recipe also calls for cilantro and chopped green onions but I didn't have those

at the house so I skipped them.

Here's what you do:

Cut up your rotisserie chicken into small pieces until you have about 2 cups full 

then take 2 avocados and slice those babies.

Mix the chicken and avocado together in a bowl and throw some salt on there,

and cut up a lime and squeeze the juice into the bowl.

and voila…SO easy and SO delicious and SO simple!

Kyle and I have eaten it 3 times this past week.

If you love avocados this might become your new favorite meal,

because I crave it every day now…no joke ladies.

Second: Lemon Baked Salmon

Okay, y'all this is GOOD and your husband WILL be impressed.

promise.

This recipe was also found on pinterest [duh, where else?!]

Ingredients:
4 tsp minced garlic
3/4 cup light olive oil
2 tsp dried basil
2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground black pepper
2 T lemon juice
2 T fresh parsley, chopped
4 fillets salmon

Directions:
1. in a medium bowl, mix garlic, olive oil, basil, salt, pepper, lemon, & parsley
2. line a glass baking dish w/ foil & place fillets on top
(i like to spray butter on them before drizzling the marinade)
3. drizzle marinade on salmon, cover with foil
4. preheat oven to 375, cook for 25-30 minutes!

Third: Black Bean Enchiladas 

[I may have overdone it on the cheese…Just kidding you can  never have too much cheese]

My sweet friend Anna gave me this recipe and it is now one
of me and Kyles absolute favorites!
and it is SO easy!

Ingredients:
1 can black beans, washed
1 can refrained black beans
2 T cumin (more or less, whichever you prefer)
2 T Chili powder (more or less whichever you prefer)
Mix together

Take 1 cup tomato sauce
1 T cumin
1 T chili powder
and pour into skillet
Individually soak tortillas in sauce mixture then set aside on paper towels.
Fill each tortilla w/ black bean mixture and sprinkle some cheddar cheese inside.
preheat oven to 325
place enchiladas in baking dish and sprinkle cheddar cheese over all.
cook for 30 minutes!

Hobo Hats and one heck of a recipe.

Cold fronts always mean I pull out my favorite beanie.

Simple, goes with everything, and keeps me warm!

Top: ShopMCE.com

Scarf: Thrifted

Jeans: Kohls

Leg Warmers: Forever 21 (super old)

Boots: Forever21.com

Beanie: ShopMCE.com

Kyle and I have been busy working on our new home!

(well our home for the next year at least)

I can't wait to show y'all pictures! 

It's hard because there are SO many things we want to do, 

but we can't because we are renting it and it's not actually ours.

But hey, that's okay because we are getting a lot of ideas for when we do buy our first home.

As most of you know Kyle and I really enjoy eating, and eating a lot.

We ended up making this DELICIOUS recipe yesterday and I'm SO excited to share it!

I actually found the recipe on "light cooking" which is extremely surprising when you look at the title..

"Chicken, Bacon, Ranch Mac & Cheese"

I don't know about you, but "light" isn't exactly what comes to mind when I read that.

and then I read the recipe and realized that they only put teeny amounts of all the good stuff!

Well, we changed that REAL quick.

Here is the recipe that I copied, but we used 4 pieces of bacon, and way more cheese.

(you can never have too much bacon, or too much cheese)

Ingredients:

•  ounces uncooked elbow macaroni
• 1 slice applewood-smoked bacon (we used 4 pieces)
• 8 ounces skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into 1/2-inch pieces 
• 1 tablespoon canola oil 
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups fat-free milk (we used whole milk)
• 1/3 cup condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
• 3/4 cup (3 ounces) shredded six-cheese Italian blend (such as Sargento) (we used more than 3/4)
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh dill
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• Cooking spray
• 1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded colby-Jack cheese

Directions:

1. 1. Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat; drain.
2. 2. Cook bacon in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan, reserving drippings in pan. Finely chop bacon; set aside. Increase heat to medium-high. Add chicken to drippings in pan; sauté 6 minutes or until done.
3. 3. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat; sprinkle flour evenly into pan. Cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly with a whisk. Combine milk and soup, stirring with a whisk; gradually add milk mixture to saucepan, stirring with a whisk. Bring to a boil; cook 2 minutes or until thick. Remove from heat; let stand 4 minutes or until sauce cools to 155°. Add Italian cheese blend, onion powder, garlic powder, dill, and salt, stirring until cheese melts. Stir in pasta and chicken.
4. 4. Preheat broiler.
5. 5. Spoon mixture into an 8-inch square baking dish coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle evenly with reserved bacon and colby-Jack cheese. Broil 3 minutes or until cheese melts.

We were a little worried it wasn't going to turn out good,
but holy crap it was AMAZING!