crockpot: shrimp, chicken, and sausage jambalaya

no surprise garrett and i spent our sunday working on the house, so i decided to treat ourselves with some homemade jambalaya. so easy, and so good!

i made homemade mini maple bacon cornbread bites (garrett's fav) to serve along with it as well.

oh and it makes enough for 10-12 people, so lunches have been delish at work this week :)

grab a pen, you are going to want this recipe...

ingredients:

- 1 lb smoked sausage

- 1 lb large, peeled, devined shrimp (i used frozen)

- 2 lbs skinless chicken breast chunks

(i found a great little container at HEB of "creole seasoning" in veggie section of chopped onions, bell pepper, garlic, and celery and used that)

- 1 large chopped onion

-1 large chopped green bell pepper

-3 stalks chopped celery

- 3 cloves chopped garlic

- 1 (28 oz) can diced tomatos

-2 cups chicken broth

- 1-2 cups of uncooked rice

- fresh chopped okra

-1 pkg sliced mushrooms

-1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce

(spices use to taste)

- old bay spice

- pepper

-splash of Worcestershire sauce

- splash of Louisiana hot sauce

directions:

dump everything in the crockpot.

slice sausage and okra and add in.

cover and cook on HIGH for 5-6 hours. stir occasionally.

serve with cornbread and voila. the perfect sunday dish!

i promise this wont disappoint! garrett practically begs me to make this.

happy crockpotting!

love, linds

 

weekend update: construction progress report

before

progressing...

yay to a wrap around bar in the kitchen.

and yesterday's labor of love... widening the hallway opening and patching the wood floors :)

now these lovely sliding closet doors (ahem my temporary closet for now) will be going away.

hopefully soonish.

garrett's plan is to add a linen closet inside the bathroom (making the right closet door disappear) and my lovely idea for the other side is a coat closet hidden with a bookshelf.

(stole this amazing idea off of pinterest)

ta da.

oh how thankful i am for my handyman.

the pictures may be deceiving, but i feel like construction is really coming along.

i could not be more excited to see the finished product!

... and back to stripping floors for me.

love, linds

a year full of dates: january

so january's date night included dinner at auntie chang's dumpling house and a night off gray st.

a slight change of plans.

garrett and i decided to have an impromptu dinner at a local mexican restaurant that has AMAZING margaritas the night before, so of course us being us, our 1 margarita each tunrned into about 5 each. oopsies.

needless to say, we were both loving the idea of chinese food, but not so much the night of bar hopping after. so moneyball it was, and 2 little pints of ice cream on the couch. perfect.

of course we had to get the dumplings. delish.

the food was perfection. we got the family dinner with general tso's and shrimp lo mein.

we are definitely going back.

garrett and is bluebell happy tracks. haha.

 i prefer ben and jerry's half baked. i'm a sucker for coookie dough and brownie batter :)

looking forward to february's date.

happy friday!

damn it, it's cookie time

damn it, girl scouts. and why am i such a sucker?

no matter if i'm pretending/attempting to diet or not i ALWAYS do these two things...

1. buy an obscene amount of samoas. yes samoas NOT caramel delights or whatever the hell they are named now.

2. watch troop beverly hills. yes i'm almost 28 and still love that movie. oh shelley long.

3 etsy loves of the day: vol. 1

so between pinterest and etsy i would say my spare time is full.

ridiculous i know. but the good news is is that i'm definitely not alone

here are some new favs on etsy.

some of which i have purchased and some of which are waiting for a reason and my next paycheck :)

1. abe lincoln quote in yellow by Mary Kate McDevitt. love her entire shop.

 just purchased. will be perfect framed in our new living room.

2. these adorable letterpress recipe cards and box by 1canoe2.

love them so much i bought a set with extra cards.

3. the lovely artwork from emmakisstina's adorable shop.

there they are my top 3 favs from etsy for today.

happy browsing!

paper crush



yep pretty much sums up my life :)

have you seen the new designs from curly girl designs?

freaking adorable!!!

here are some of my other favorites...

love.

a year full of dates

with the construction of the house, my best friend's wedding, and let's face it... life,

 dates have been a little hard to come by.

 don't get me worng, i am very grateful for our many nights on the couch with home cooked meals or (ahem) carry-out, and of course the company of my love... but i think we both deserve a night out every now and then with just each other.

so i created a little memory book of pre-planned dates for 2012. i gave it to garrett, hoping he wouldn't think it was too cheesy, but cheesy is exactly what we need right now. i wanted him to know how thankful i truly am for all of the hard work he is doing on the house right now.

the instructions are that at the beginning of each month, he opens the envelope and then has the entire month to decide when to use that date. now of course some (i.e. concerts, classes, etc.) are already pre-planned on a specific date. i have made lots of mental notes of things he has casually mentioned over the last year.

 so january's date (which probably means nothing to anyone but us) was a complete surprise to garrett, because it was something he mentioned a while ago not thinking i was probably even listening.

anywho, date night is this week, and i couldn't be more excited.

oh and garrett is already trying to peek at februrary :)

pics to follow.

happy monday. vacation is officially over. boo.

love, linds



damn you, bhldn

just bought this for my best friend's rehearsal dinner from bhldn.

i have about a 20 dresses in my closet to choose from, and three of those still have tags on.

ok maybe 5. apparently only this one will do.

at least it is on sale...justifies it, right?

and on that note, goodnight :)

crockpot: mushroom and shrimp pasta

ok before you judge, yes, that is my crockpot on our washing machine.

with the kitchen under construction, i had to get creative. we have a makeshift kitchen which i like to refer to as "crockpot cafe" because that is literally all i have to cook with over the next few months. lucky us.

on the bright side, dinner was outstanding last night, so i'm sharing the recipe.

i was playing on pinterest and came across this recipe, it looked fairly easy to convert to an all in one crockpot dish, so i did. and viola. crockpot mushroom and shrimp pasta. super easy too.

ingredients:

- 1 pkg 16oz pasta (fettuccine or linguine work best)

- 1 pkg sliced fresh mushrooms

- 1 pkg peeled and devined shrimp (i actually used frozen and it worked)

- 3 oz of cream cheese

- 1 can of cream of mushroom

- 1 can of chicken broth

- 1 can of cream of chicken and herbs

- salt and pepper to taste

- 1/2 stick of butter

- (and i added a splash of moscato since i had it out and all)

directions:

combine everything except the cream cheese in the crockpot and cook on HIGH for 3-4 hours. i judged it on whether or not the noodles were ready or not. the last 30-45 min add in the cream cheese. stir occasionally and enjoy.

i forgot to take a pic, because we were starving, but it looked just like this picture off of pinterest.

we had this with steaks and it was delicious!

 i have been instructed to make this again VERY soon from the mr.

hope this was helpful. i promise it will NOT disappoint!

love, linds

oh anthropologie, you get me everytime

does anyone else share my obsession with anthropologie?

i swear i could walk into that store, pick something out blind folded and absolutely love it.

it's a problem, a real problem.



and apparently my new obsession with owls (thanks granny)... i need this little guy too.

i know of a really nice kitchen he would accessorize quite nicely.

now that i have mentally just spent half my paycheck "window shopping" i think it's time to shut anthropologie down for the evening.

...and back to cooking.

needed to beach it for the weekend...

hello, hello.

ever have one of those weeks where you just needed to get out of town? don't get me wrong i absolutely LOVE my job, but ever since christmas and then the dreadful inventory...the Jurica Family Vacation weekend was definitely something i needed!

garrett's sweet parents rented a beach house for all of us to spend the weekend in and boy was it a perfect weekend. here's to lots of sunshine, sand, and much needed time off.

absolutely the perfect mini vacay.

happy friday!

crafts, CONSTRUCTION, and the crockpot

need i say more?

the kitchen is FINALLY demoed and i could not be more excited to see pretty white cabinets and granite countertops go in. sigh. i refuse to complain, garrett has been working so hard and i swear he impresses me daily with what he has accomplished. i love my handyman :)

where am i cooking you may ask? answer: out of a crockpot in the garage

it's actually not so bad...between my mom and pinterest i have been trying out quite a few new recipes that i must say have been a hit with my better half.

recipes to come. i promise.

here's to dreaming of this soon...

...dreaming of a white kitchen. :)

love, linds

change of a dress

it's official, i now live with a boy.

ahhhh.

let's be real, i kind have been playing house with garrett for the last year, but my closet now lives here!!! (ahem, thats right my whole closet) no more living out of my trunk and a small make shift drawer. goodbye living like a traveling nomad!

so far so good.

 i've helped him out with construction of the kitchen... and he watched pretty woman with me.

i crockpotted a few good meals and bought him beer... he installed a plug in the bathroom for me.

it's nice to no longer be stying my hair in the dining room :)

(or driving 36 miles to my old bedroom across town because that's where my missing shoe is that i need for work in the morning)

not only did my address change, but i got my dress for my best friend's wedding!

i am in love with it. oh bcbg, you have done it again.

i figure i can just shorten it after the wedding and use it as a fancy black cocktail dress if need be.

thats all for today folks. must organize closet before the boy gets home. :)

xo, linds