Scotland Day 1

Flight:

We got our tickets out of atlanta so we decided to use the park and ride to make it an easier process. We parked and took the shuttle and of course we were there way too early. We ate airport food and watched funny instagram videos til our connecting flight.

After a little delay in New York we made it to Glasgow. 

We already had a car waiting for us. Our flight was late so I didn't get the whole seeing our name on a card experience but I still felt fancy just the same. We got to our hotel room. We stayed at the Glasgow City Hotel. It was so big! I was expecting it to be like European size. Especially since it was in the city. We got a nap in and then headed off for our hop on hop off tour. We had to figure out the bus stops but eventually found it. Those are seriously the best thing ever. I love that we can use it as our transportation all day long to all the different sites and pay a flat rate. We stopped at the Glasgow Cathedral first. I love old cathedrals! I love the intricate architecture. I didn't realize it before but we were later told that the hospital scenes in season two of Outlander were filmed here. 

 Next we went to the Riverside museum. That place was awesome! If you love anything transportation related you would love this place. Even if not there were other exhibits to see as well. They had old trains, buses, subway trains, and cars. Real size not a miniature size. They had a little city set up with shops to go in. My favorite was the photography studio. Outside they had this giant size couch made out of grass. Sounds strange but it was funny so we took our picture on it.

Since it was the end of the tour we decided to just get some food. We stopped at the Giraffe Restaurant and I got this amazing bread. I was so worried I wasn't going to like any of the food there. I'm kind of picky. But it was fabulous! Then we just walked back to our hotel room. It was a stress free first day.

Be on the lookout for the next part of our trip!

*Trip planned by Barbara Oliver of All Together Now Travel

*All photos taken on iphone for Day 1 

 

{Kiss the Cook}

Another new weekly post I wanted to share. I am always trying new recipes out from the internet. Some are awesome, some not so much. Here are a few new recipes we have tried as of late and my reviews on them. 

Baked Chicken Stuffed with pesto and cheese

Recipe from kalynskitchen.com

This one was mainly for the hubby. He loves pesto and so I thought why not. I didn't have the right crumbs for the coating so I just used Italian style bread crumbs instead. I wasn't a huge fan with the end result. But Evan loved it. Not sure I will make it again since we weren't raving about it.

Caprese stuffed turkey burgers

Recipe from brokeandbougie.blogspot.com

I recently searched for clean eating recipes on Pinterest and came across this recipe. I had a ton of ground turkey so I chose this one to try out. 

It was pretty easy to make too. The only thing was cooking it a bit extra to make sure both sides of meat were cooked all the way through. I didn't have the right cheese either so I just substituted the cheese with whatever we had. It didn't really matter. 

I also made this again for my parents and they loved it too. And I figured out that it taste good with ranch dressing to dip in. 

What's your favorite recipe you think I should try? 

Been there...Ate That!

I have been getting adventurous in the Kitchen. I really enjoy cooking now!

It's funny because when I was younger and pretty far into my young mama years! I would constantly look in the pantry or fridge and say the most common phrase of the "lazy people"

"There's nothing to eat!"

I would drive my mom up the wall. Fact was there was nothing easy to make or nothing I wanted.

I wasn't really forced to cook growing up. I knew some basics. How to boil water, how to use a microwave ;) etc. You know important things.

I remember a couple times when we were living in Colorado. I had friends over for dinner on two separate occasions. Two separate friends. I think I made something easy that night. Probably things you just pop into an oven. And you know what?! Those friends made fun of me! They were expecting a real meal. I guess we had different views on a "real meal". I laughed it off but I was secretly bummed. No one likes to be made fun of. I kind of felt like a failure as a wife and a mom. Because I couldn't cook.

Another reason I believe Pinterest is sent from God to help some of us girls out with these stressful areas of our lives! Cooking, decorating, wedding planning, etc.

I had had enough and I started cooking. You know the funny thing was! I did know how to cook! Anyone can cook you just follow a recipe. Then after all it just comes naturally.

I even impress the husband on occasion!

Here are a few recipes I've done recently.

Grilled Flank Steak with Tomatoes

Egg Nog French Toast

Caprese Stuffed Turkey Burgers

{Sweet Tooth}

There are two blogs I follow on for some awesome recipes. One is mainly dinners and trying to stay healthy. The other one is to satisfy my serious sweet tooth! So be warned! You will be drooling after you read this post!

From Sallysbakingaddiction.com

Golden Oreo Cake Batter Blondies

 

When I made these I was trying to please the husband because he has an obsession with cake batter anything. We had friends over so I figured I would try this dessert. While I made them I finally realized {Total "Blonde" Moment...No pun intended} I never knew why they were called blondies. Brownies are brown! Blondies are blonde! A lightbulb lit up in front of me and I felt so stupid. But we had a good laugh about it! That's me! Baking you tasty treats and providing the comedic relief.. :)

DISCLAIMER:

These are soooo sweet/rich so one is plenty with vanilla ice cream.  

I found these bad boys on Pinterest. But my family has been making them for years! 

They are called  Resurrection Rolls on a different site. We always called them snails. I like the idea of it representing something special though and you can do it with kids. They are super easy! Perfect for Easter coming up!

Now for some SkinnyTaste recipes. Low Fat desserts that taste awesome are a great find. I seriously swear by this site. Everything tastes good. One of our favorite desserts is this pie. 

Takes a few minutes to make then its in the fridge for a couple hours and that's it!

Since it's low-fat the ingredients were cut in half. So it doesn't fill the entire pie crust. Just an FYI! Still tastes awesome though!

 

No-Bake Peanut Butter Pie 

I made these back in May for my nephews birthday. Everyone loved them! It's kinda hard to stop at just one!

Mini- red, white, and blueberry Cheesecakes

 

{Favorite SKINNYTASTE recipes}

If you know me you know I don't have a long history of being a "cook". In fact I when I was growing up there were many times where I would go look in the fridge/pantry and yell to my mom that there was nothing to eat. Our first several years of marriage consisted of a lot of pasta, a lot of frozen dinners and maybe burritos. Easy stuff that could just be pulled out, heated up and ready to eat in no time.
Thank God for pinterest. Honestly! It made recipe finding a whole lot easier. You see a picture of a dish it looks good so you click the recipe. Now that we are in our new place for almost a year already. I've been consistently cooking up a storm.

This NEW year I've been trying really hard for this family to eat better. It's hard! Not because of lack of willing to do so. But because of time and budget. Unfortunately it's always been this way that healthier foods cost more where junk food is super cheap. There's really no way around that. Or healthy food doesn't taste good and takes up too much time to make. Since I can't fix the cost factor, I can help with the time and taste. So I have compiled a ton of my favorite recipes from my favorite website. www.Skinnytaste.com It's got a lot of lightened up recipes that taste absolutely yummy. Here are a few our favorites that we have made several times and can't get enough of.

Spaghetti with Sauteed chicken and grape tomatoes

Grilled Flank Steak

Mexican Slow Cooked Pork Carnitas

Baked Chicken Parmesan

Baked Chicken Milanese with Arugula and tomatoes

Puerto Rican style beans

I will post my favorite dessert recipes from Skinnytaste next time. This should occupy for awhile :)

Love a little bit of "Random"

So I decided we could all use just a random post to go along with our awkward and awesome thursday!  I love me some randomness! I had a very interesting week! In my first post I wrote about meeting a friend from my hometown. Well we have girls the same age so we have been hanging out pretty much every day. Exploring, going to park, just chatting. It's been great for a social butterfly like myself!

Last week I decided I wanted a piano! I've always wanted a piano but after starting up voice lessons again I really wanted music in the house again.  So I went searching on Craigslist list like crazy! I found so many that I loved but were out of my price range. My budget was pretty much $0. Kind of hard to find the exact piano I wanted for free. I was looking into a nice upright piano. Preferably black or even white. I really liked the vintage look, old beat up piano ...not too beat up though. To my surprise there were a few, a good handful of upright pianos for free. People are just dying to get rid of their pianos. I emailed like crazy getting measurements, pictures, locations etc. I found this awesome one that was perfect! It was no longer available. I kept searching.....Long story short I now have one waiting for me to pick up. Hopefully won't have too much to do it just tuning, fix one dead key. This piano is already black, measurements are perfect! We might just need to fix it up a little. But it's FREE! Can't beat free! Will be posting pictures as soon as I have it in my house.

I'm so happy my house is finally coming together! It's always rough when you are on a tight budget, and you keep moving. Meaning you always have a new house to fill or decorate. Our old desk didn't make the move so we opted to use this old vintage desk we had. A lot smaller and less storage but it was better than buying a whole new office set. After a few tries of re-painting it ( black of course). It was NOT coming together. Wrong sand paper, wrong paint, etc etc. I will leave the rest of the story for another DIY post. Everything is slowly coming together though which makes me happy!

Now onto the awkward and awesome part of the day/week.

Awkward: Meeting a new girl at a gym and all she can talk about is the other moms. Plastic surgery mom who doesn't watch her kids. Mom who doesn't speak english.....Extremely awkward I thought the gossip started on the second time you meet them.

Awesome:



While Redoing this old desk that belonged to a relative. The husband found a folded up piece of paper behind one of the drawers. Picture below

"Our thoughts are with you sorrow cannot conquer nor grief turn to despair when 
you know that there are others who understand and care
There is so little we can say, so little we can do, but may if help somehow to 
know our hearts go out to you."

Been going to town on all these Pinterest recipes. I love getting into cooking. I have been finding all these healthy recipes that taste great. Thank you Pinterest! ( Recipes for these dinners below)

Baked Chicken Milanese with Arugula

Easy Skillet Lasagna

Grilled Pesto Pizza