To the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge!!!

Many Congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge!!!

 

I'm in love with love.  Yes, I did in fact get up this morning to watch the Royal Wedding…and it was absolutely beautiful.  I don’t regret it one tiny bit.  I will probably hate myself later in the day, but hey, I did it for the Royals.  Haha.  Here are some of my favorite pictures of the ceremony.

MEN OF HONOR

DRIVING MISS KATE

TRAIN-ING DAY

JUST BETWEEN US

I THEE WED

SIDEWAYS GLANCES

ROYAL DEBUT

REGAL RIDE

OBSERVING PROTOCOL

HELPING HAND

THE KISS

HEADS UP

WAITING LINE

JUST WED!

May your hearts be full of love and truly blessed.  Did any of you get up to watch it?

RGL

Thirsty Thursday: Raspberry Beer Cocktail

 Now that it's spring time, I thought I'd go with a fun, yummy raspberry cocktail this week for Thirsty Thursday.  I found this one from Southern Living.

Raspberry Beer Cocktail

You can use fresh raspberries, but frozen taste just as good.

YIELD: Makes 6 servings

PREP TIME: 5 MINUTES

COURSE: Beverages, Beverages, Alcoholic 

    Ingredients

3/4 cup frozen raspberries*
3 1/2 (12-oz.) bottles beer, chilled
1 (12-oz.) container frozen raspberry lemonade concentrate, thawed
1/2 cup vodka
Garnish: lemon and lime slices 

    Preparation

Stir together first 4 ingredients. Serve over ice. Garnish, if desired.

Note: To make ahead, stir together lemonade concentrate and vodka in a large container. Chill up to 3 days. Stir in raspberries and beer just before serving. Garnish, if desired.

 RGL

Royal Wedding Tick-Tock

GET EXCITED!!!!!!  The Royal Wedding will take place in LESS THAN 24 HOURS!!!  As we all get ready for this big day, I thought I would pass on the timeline for the wedding. This will hopefully help everyone in their planning and party throwing! I have adjusted all the times to CST (Central Standard Time) so you might need to readjust accordingly.

Wedding Day Schedule:

2:15am: General congregation to arrive at Westminster Abbey.

3:50am: Diplomatic Corps and distinguished guests arrive.

4:15am: Prince William and Prince Harry arrive at Westminster Abbey.

4:27am: Mrs. Middleton arrives Westminster Abbey.

4:30am: Several members of the Royal family arrives at Westminster Abbey.

4:40am: The Duke of York, Princess Beatrice of York, Princess Eugenie or York, The Earl and Countess of Wessex, The Princess Royal and Vice Admiral Timothy Laurence arrive at Westminster Abbey.

4:42am: The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall arrive at Westminster Abbey

4:45am: The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh arrive at Westminster Abbey.

4:48am: Bridesmaids and Pages leave the Goring Hotel enroute Westminster Abbey.

4:51am: Kate Middleton and her father leave the Goring Hotel en Rolls Royce.

4:55: Bridesmaids and Pages arrive at Westminster Abbey.

4:57am: Kate Middleton and her father arrive at Westminster Abbey.

5:00am: The marriage ceremony begins at Westminster Abbey.

6:15am: Prince William and his new wife leave Westminster Abbey enroute Buckingham Palace.

6:30am: Carriage procession arrives at Buckingham Palace.

7:25am: Buckingham Palace balcony appearance!

7:30am: Royal Air Force fly over.

YAY!!!  I'm so excited.  Does anyone have Royal Wedding Day plans???

RGL

Honey Chicken Kabobs

This is a recipe me and the roommates made last week that I forgot to blog about.  You know it's spring time when you pull out the skewers and make kabobs!!!  And these had LESS than 200 calories in them....well, the kabobs did anyway....I'm not counting the Sweet Potato Fries that we added w/ them....but we baked them so they weren't THAT BAD...right?  Haha, regardless, this meal was oh so YUMMY!!!!!!!  

 Ingredients

3 large yellow peppers
1 large onion
10 medium mushrooms
2 chicken breasts, bone and skin removed
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp honey
Juice of 1/2 a lemon

pack of skewers

Directions

Mix olive oil, honey, and lemon juice well.
Cut up the chicken breasts into 3 inch slices and mix with the olive oil mixture. Let set for 3-4 hours.
Meanwhile, soak the shish kabob skewers in water.
Cut up the red onions into strips.
Place two pieces of bell pepper and two mushrooms with two pieces of the chicken in any order on the shish kabobs. Place onion strips throughout on the skewers.

Place on grill until cooked thouroughly (around 15 minutes) or you can broil them in your oven for around the same time.

Make sure that you rotate them as they are cooking.

Then, your done!!!!!  Now, put them on a plate with your sweet potato fries (or whatever you choose to go along with them)...and CHOW DOWN!!!

Number of Servings: 5

Recipe submitted by SparkPeople

Number of Servings: 5

View full nutritional breakdown of Honey Chicken Kabobs calories by ingredient

RGL

My desktop wallpaper...week 2

As I told you last week, I'm going to start creating new wallpaper for my desktop computer at work every week with motivational/inspirational quotes...that way I can see it everyday and it'll help me stay positive and motivated throughout the week. This is the quote I've chosen for this week.  Growing up, my Daddy would always tell me this and it is so true...you never do get a 2nd chance to make a 1st impression, so always have your "game face" on and be ready to go.  I hope you all have a great week.  Let me know if any quote or saying sticks out to you this week.

RGL

Easter Recap :)

I hope everyone had a happy and healthy Easter Sunday yesterday.  I spent the weekend at Garrett’s (the boyfriend) parents.  When I got there on Friday night, we went to dinner and when I got back to my car, I found these pretty little flowers sitting the drivers seat of my car with a card from my Meme and Aunt Marcia.  Apparently they had gotten in touch with Garrett and wanted to surprise me with these flowers for Easter.  How sweet!!!  It's always hard to be so far away from my family, but especially around the Holidays, so this def. made my day.

On Sunday, we surprised Garrett’s folks by going to the early service at their church.  This was the first time I had been to their church.  It was just lovely and his parents were really glad we came.  I’ve wanted to go for a while so it was good to finally meet some of the people I hear Garrett’s mom talk about.  Later in the afternoon we took a drive into Huntsville, AL and went to a precious little place called Bennett Nurseries.  

I’ve never been to a nursery this big before.  It was absolutely beautiful and so pleasant.  There was a large selection of plants, displayed in a landscaped setting, much like a park.  It was a perfect day too (weather wise).  The sun was out, but not too hot and had a bit of a breeze.  Classical music played softly as we strolled around at our own pace. We could have sat our there for hours and listened to them. 

They also served Coca-Cola’s in glass bottles and ice cold water in case you got thirsty.  Yumm!

Here are some more pictures from the nursery that I found online….just to give you an idea of how pretty it was.

 After that we went home and Garrett’s mom put together a DELICIOUS Easter Dinner. 

Pork Roast, Asparagus, Mac&Cheese, Deviled Eggs, Potatoes and Carrots and yummy dinner rolls....oh, and the random green onion that his dad made me try.  I could seriously eat her Mac&Cheese every day of my life…it’s the best thing EVER!

Well, that wraps it up…I’m not going to pay for all of the food I ate this weekend, but hey, it was worth every single bite.  Do any of yall have good Easter stories?

 RGL

Happy Good Friday!!!

Wishing you all a very Happy Good Friday! 

May today start your Easter weekend off on the right hippity-hop!  Does anyone have special Easter plans???

RGL

Color-Coded Bread Bag Ties: Who Knew?

So, I was on g-chat talking with one of my fabulous best friends and she sent me a link to this article about color-coded bread bag ties.  Did you know there's a way to help figure out how fresh store-bought bread is?  I didn’t!!!!  This is unbelievable to me.  All you have to do is look at the twist-tie or plastic tab that keeps the bag closed.  Turns out, it's color-coded to reflect the day that the bread is baked.  HOW AWESOME IS THAT?  It seems unlikely but Snopes.com dug into it and found that it became an almost-universal practice among commercial bakeries as a way to help grocery store restockers recognize which loaves to replace on their shelves.

To remember which color is which day, put the colors in alphabetical order. Here's the breakdown:

• Blue: Monday
• Green: Tuesday
• Red: Thursday
• White: Friday
• Yellow: Saturday

This whole system was set up to help the supermarkets and grocers identify which bread was new, which was getting old (so it can be put on sale), and which was out of date and needed to be removed from the shelves. As a general rule of thumb, you should only see two colors of tags on the shelves at any one time, or three maximum for those days when bread wasn't delivered. But that doesn’t stop the old bread from sneaking in though.  Do a check next time and see for yourself.

There are certainly some exceptions to this practice so they don’t recommend relying on it exclusively to determine freshness. Some bakeries will use their own color-coding systems or only one color altogether, and always remember that the date on the tag is the date the bread needs to be sold by, not the date it was baked on.

Now…..we just want to know why bread isn't baked on Wednesdays.

Do you know of any other food packaging color-codes?

Read more: http://www.kitchendaily.com/2011/04/07/color-coded-bread-bag-ties/?commentspage=2#ixzz1KBkxPtRG

RGL

10 Strawberry Desserts Under 300 Calories

Now that strawberries are in season, I thought I'd look up healthy strawberry recipes.  There is more to strawberries than meets the eye. This delectable fruit is packed with nutrients and vitamins, including fiber, potassium and powerful antioxidants.

As I was searching, I found this website that has 10 Strawberry Desserts under 300 Calories….YES, PLEASE!  Below I’ve listed pictures with the link to the recipes of all of the yummy desserts.  

Whether you follow a low-calorie diet or not, I’m sure you will find something you’ll love on this list….unless you don’t like strawberries of course.  From the layered decadence of the Mixed Berry Parfaits to the Strawberry Cannoli, a fun twist on a classic Italian dessert, these treats will have you and your family and friends raving about how berry delicious your desserts are.

Strawberry Dessert Recipes:

1. Mixed Berry Parfaits

2. Individual Summer Puddings

3. Frozen Yogurt Pops

4. Strawberry Peach Butterflies

5. Frozen Strawberry Margarita Pie

6. Strawberry Cannoli

7. Sorbet with Strawberry Sauce

8. Strawberry Shortcake

9. No Bake Strawberry Cheesecake

10. Tutti-Frutti Gelatin Mold

RGL