High Five for Friday! (Vol. 4)

As you all know, I have a love affair with Friday and this indeed is my Happy Friday Face!  Here's the run down of my top 5 moments/events of the week!

1. Murder Mystery in NYC!  My parents bought me tickets to this for my 30th birthday, way back on June 6th, and we finally went to a show.  It was a bit corny but it was still awesome to get out in the city, with our best friends, and just enjoy ourselves.  Here's Dave and Lia, and then Jim and me!

2. Football Sunday!  One of the best parts of Fall is getting together with my in laws, ordering delicious food, watching the game, and just kicking back.  Here's Jim in his cousin's party glasses, what a goof ball!  (If you've read my earlier posts from this week, yes this is after our big fight, no it has not been fully resolved, yes I still love him and just have to put on my big girl pants to deal with it sometimes!)

3. Big things are happening at work.  My boss took me out for a bit of Halloween decoration shopping and highlighted where she wants our department to be and where she wants me to be in the department.  I won't go into details, but I will say I'm a very happy girl to finally feel like I have a career!  We also moved around our office a lot this week, which included a move for my desk.  I'm so happy with my new location, I feel really good about where things are headed.  This is a pretty bad picture but I'm now in the corner, and with my little mirror I can always see who's coming in, I love it!

4. Best friend time!  Yes, I write about Lia and Dave a lot.  Yes, we spend a decent amount of time with them.  But, I haven't gotten one on one best friend time in forever!  On Wednesday night, Dave was the best dad/husband/friend he could possibly be and gave Lia and I 2 solid hours on our own to just talk.  We sat in Collin's nursery with the door shut and just talked, while he fed and played with the lil munchkin.  I needed that girl time more than anyone will probably ever know, and I'm so grateful to both of them for making it happen.  I'm even more grateful to Lia for asking me to come over, she knew I needed it without me saying anything.  You can't ask for better friends!  Here we are at a friend's birthday party about a year ago.

5. Finally!  I found these delicious creations at my local 7-eleven.  I had seen them a couple of weeks ago on Shark Tank (I couldn't get the IMDB link to work) but I had seen them in the store earlier this year.  After seeing them on TV, I wanted to get some for Jim to try but couldn't find them, so I thought the sharks may have pulled them from the store and made them move somewhere more "prestigious."  But this morning when I went in for a bagel, there they were, right at the front counter.  I'm so excited and it's killing me to not eat them, but I bought them for Jim, and I have to make sure he gets at least 1!  Have you ever had them?  They're so yummy!! And for $1 it's not even worth it to make them yourself!

That's my week in a nut shelf.  Nothing too fabulous, but it's still helping me to be grounded and remember the good more than the bad.  Now I'm just counting the seconds, minutes, hours to getting out of work and on my way to the monthly poker tournament, I made it in again, hooray!  Have a fantastic week!

You can link up your High Five for Friday here!

Simple and Healthy Baked Tilapia

The past 2 weeks have been busy but I'm still trying to find ways to keep my mind off the idea that we may have gotten pregnant this month, that I'm late, I'm I'm dreading taking a test because I just cannot handle another BFN!  One of the ways that I'm keeping myself busy is cooking.  I try to cook every night during the week but things have gotten a bit mundane.  When I saw that Tilapia was on sale this week at the local Aldi, I thought I had to try to make it, since it had been quite a while since we had fish.

Growing up we always had fish 1 of 2 ways- fried or baked.  While the fried fish is delicious, especially the way my Nonnie make it, it's not very healthy.  Of course it's better to bake it, but I didn't want to just put it on a cooking sheet and bake it without seasoning, where is the fun in that?  So after looking at what I had in my pantry and fridge, this is what I came up with.

Simple, Healthy, and Tasty Baked Tilapia

Ingredients:
4 cuts of Tilapia
3/4 cup of bread crumbs
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 table spoon Italian Seasoning
A pinch of salt

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425
2.  Blend all dry ingredients in a shallow dish

3.  Dredge the fish in the mixture on both sides. 

4. Place all 4 pieces on a lightly greased pan. I topped them with the rest of the breading , to help it get crispy.  Bake for 8 minutes, then flip, and bake for another 4 minutes.  Pieces will be slightly crispy and very flaky.

Here is the finished product.  I don't know the exact calorie count but it's way healthier than fried fish and a nice change from the chicken we've been having so often lately.  Try to ignore that I made mashed potatoes and corn with it and completely killed the healthy aspect of the meal, I was craving some "comfort" food.

Enjoy!

High Five for Friday! (Vol. 3)

It's Friday, again!  Does anyone else get as excited for Friday as I do?  I feel like it's New Years Eve every week.  It's a chance to let go of what's happened in the last week, have some fun, and get a fresh start- every week.  How could that not be exciting?

Well this week was particularly rough for me.  There was a higher than usual posting about pregnancy and birth on my facebook wall, which I love!  I'm so happy for my friends, but I can't help feeling sad for myself.  As I mentioned earlier this week, I was having a rough time, and felt super emotional on and off.  On top of that, a coworker is out with pink eye so my boss and I have been handling our responsibilities, as well as hers.  Let me tell you, I have never appreciated that woman as much as I do now.  I had no idea how much work her job entailed and I never want her to take off ever again!  To say that I was stressed out and in need of a drink (which I won't be having, just in case we get our miracle this month!) would be an understatement.  I'll do my best to look back on this week with a smile and round up my top moments!

1. It's Fall!  My absolute favorite time of year.  I love how it feels, I love how it smells, I love everything about it!  I even blow dried my hair this week!!!  Maybe it's just me, or maybe it's because we don't have central air, but blow drying my hair in the summer just isn't an option for me.  I end up sweating so much while I'm doing it that my hair looks dirty and greasy by the time I'm done.  So yay for finally looking presentable, again!

2. One of my favorite bloggers, Mandy (from Biblical Homemaking,) started following me on Pinterest.  I know I'm a dork but holy cow that's so cool!  She's like a celebrity to me and to know that she's going to see what I'm posting freaks me out, in the best way!  I love her and her family, and I pray I could be half the mom and wife that she is someday! 

3. Although it was for a not so great reason I cleaned the heck out of my apartment last weekend and earlier this week.  There is still a lot to do but I love going into my kitchen and seeing little to no clutter.  My counter used to be covered with junk that I just didn't know what to do with, so I let it pile up there.  I forced myself on Sunday to take everything off, give everything a good scrub, and then either throw stuff out, give it away, or put it away.  Now I have so much space, I don't know what to do with it!  I really want a juicer, maybe I'll find one on ebay or at a garage sale! 

 4. I need to take a minute to brag on my husband a little bit.  I'm really proud of what Jim did this week!  He persevered and because of it he locked up some solid work and made some great connections.  I told him, it's always when you're about to quit when something good happens!  He was so ready to throw in the towel on Monday night, then Tuesday morning he pulled it back together again.  Real Estate is a hard business to be in but I know if he keeps at it, he'll be successful, and I'll get to be a stay at home mom!  Maybe I should quit trying to have a baby, then God will finally answer my prayers!  Oh boy, just writing it, it looks so silly.  1- I know I could never just quit.  2- It's like trying to trick God into giving me what I want, and I think we all know that's never a good idea!

5. Last, but certainly not least, we're having adult time with our best friends tonight.  I realize that sounds a bit bad, but I swear it's not!  My parents bought me tickets to a Murder Mystery dinner in NYC for my 30th birthday and we've ben putting off going.  The tickers are from livingsocial and expire next week, so we finally made a reservation for tonight.  So the 4 of us will be heading into the city, which I haven't been to since last years San Genero Festival and miss very much.  Not only do I get to leave work early for this, but it'll be our first time hanging out without baby Collin in quite some time.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE that little munchkin, but I think it'll be great for the 4 of us to get some adult time and just relax.

How was your week? 

Are you excited for the weekend? 

Are you happy it's fall, or are you a forever summer kind of person? 

Either way I hope you're all having a fantastic day and will have a wonderful weekend!

To link up to more High Five for Fridays, check out The Lauren Elizabeth!

Fall Treats

Today is a coworkers birthday and for her office party she requested anything cinnamon or pumpkin for her dessert.  I was more than happy to oblige, I love a good excuse to try new recipes!  I made 3 desserts- 2 are "semi homemade" (did anyone else love that show?) and 1 from a box, I'm not going to focus on that one.

The first recipe I found here and I tweaked it ever so slightly!  Really I didn't change it, I just added to it!
The second recipe I found here and changed it a lot!

Are you ready?  Here we go!

Recipe 1- Chocolate Pumpkin cupcakes

Ingredient list:
Cupcakes- Devils food cake mix and 1 can of pumpkin puree

Frosting-
3 sticks unsalted butter
1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 pound bag powdered sugar.

Step 1- made the cupcake batter.  It's the most simple cupcake mix EVER.  Blend the cake mix and the pumpkin puree.  Boom!  Done!  It will look thick and yummy, almost like brownie mix!

Step 2- Bake Cupcakes.  I had these adorable cupcake liners that I got at Wal-Mart for a DOLLAR and used an ice cream scoop to fill the baking pan.  Bake for 25-30 minutes on 350, I left mine in for 27 minutes and they were perfection!

Step 3- While they're baking make the frosting!  Melt of 2 of the sticks of butter, once melted continue to heat, swirling it in the pan until it's a golden brown color and has an amazing nutty smell.  Set aside and let cool til room temperature (I'm not gonna lie, I only let it cool about 10 minutes, I'm sorry I don't have time to sit around letting things cool.)  Once cool, blend the other stick of butter until creamy, then add in the melted butter.  After they're combined, add in the brown sugar until smooth.  Next add in the pumpkin puree and cinnamon, I didn't put nutmeg in mine, because I didn't have it and forgot to buy it.  No one missed it, so use at your digression.  Finally add the powdered sugar, slowly.  I didn't use the extra 2 cups that the website recipe calls for, but again, that's at your digression.

Step 4- Top cupcakes- the best part!  When the cupcakes are cool, use an ice cream scooper to top with frosting.  I've never done this before and was afraid it would be too much, but everyone loved it.  This is where I took a little liberty and decided to add to the cupcakes.  Once they were frosted I drizzled caramel over them.  They looked so good and tasted even better, rarely am I this excited about or happy with something that I bake!  (Here is the finished product, side and top view.)

Recipe 2- Chocolate "Chewies"

Ingredients:

Cake/Crust/Base-

1 package yellow cake mix

1/3 cup margarine, softened

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon

3 cups mini marshmallows

Topping-

2/3 cup corn syrup

1/4 cup margarine

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 bag semi sweet chocolate chips

2 cups rice krispie cereal

Step 1- Make cake/crust/base.  Combine 1/3 cup margarine, cinnamon, egg, and cake mix until combined.  It will be very crumbly!

Step 2- Press into a 9 x 13 baking pan and bake on 350 for 12-15 minutes

Step 3- As soon as you take it out the oven, add a layer of mini marshmallow and cook for about 2 minutes.

Step 3.5- Really I'm not sure how to number this because it needs to be started when the cake/crust/base is almost finished but in the middle you'll need to add the marshmallows, you'll figure out the timing as you go.  Now that we have that established, it's time to make the rice krispie mix!  Combine the corn syrup, margarine, vanilla, and chocolate chips in a saucepan and heat/stir until fully blended.  Remove from heat and add in the rice krispies.  If you got the timing down this should be finished when the marshmallows are done.  Carefully spread the mixture over the top of the marsh mellows. 

Step 4- Refrigerate to help set up.  When you're ready to eat, cut into "squares" and enjoy!  They can be served cold or at room temperature.

Hope you enjoy these treats as much as me and my coworkers did, I was even able to make a plate for Jim to bring to his office.  I'm so happy the cool weather is here, it's definitely baking season!  I'll be bringing you a lot more recipes over the next few months, especially since I seem to be using cleaning and baking to get through my baby making trouble blues.

Am I the only one who loves to bake when it's cool out?  I think it's a tradition passed down by my Italian family because there are always pastries and cookies floating around my aunt and Nonnie's house this time of year but never when it's hot out!

Needing to vent...

(This post is possibly too honest and personal, but I really needed to get this out, and really you all know everything so why hold back?)

I'm having a particularly hard time over the past few days.  Cleaning is cathartic for me.  I went on a cleaning spree this weekend (and into last night) that included completely reorganizing my kitchen, scrubbing my bathroom, cleaning out my dressers, and starting to reorganize the closets.  Last night, Jim went out and I was sitting in the bedroom, going through clothes and balling my eyes out. 

I'm trying so hard to follow the path that God has laid out for us.  I believe in His power and His timing (even if I don't agree with His timing.)  I know my baby is coming.  This verse has been particularly helpful-

For I know the plans I have for you,

Declares the Lord,

plans for welfare and not for evil,

to give you a future and hope (Jeremiah 29:11)

But I'm so tired.  I'm tired of always smiling and saying, "it'll happen, my time is coming." 

It doesn't help that Jim is so negative, not about the baby, but just life in general.  As soon as he runs into trouble with work (he's a realtor) or money or almost anything, he just wants to throw in the towel and give up.  I'm left to pick him up and set him straight.  I'm exhausted being positive for the both of us and honestly it takes at toll on me mentally and physically.  I think it's part of why I've been so sad these past few days.  He's working so hard at work, which is fantastic, and I love to see, but I'm constantly having to tell him to stick with it, and keep going.  When is he going to do that for me? 

I feel awful putting him down, especially on here.  I know I make him sound like a bad husband, which he's not.  But sometimes I just need more and it makes me worried for the future.  I have quite the imagination and my mind starts to play tricks on me with thoughts like- maybe we're not supposed to have a baby, or maybe I'm not supposed to have a baby with him.  What if we have a baby and he losses his job or decides he doesn't want to be together anymore (again.)  It's just a scary predicament to be in.  I know anything can happen, even the strongest couple can fall a part without working, and ultimately I need to be having this conversation with him, but I'm at work and my mind is racing and I just needed to get this out!