Another Skinnytaste Recipe... Another Homerun!

I don't really care for looking, touching, really anything related to raw meat. But the mouth watering that this picture brings back. O.M.G. This was sooo good! I got it from the Skinny Taste Cookbook. Seriously, if you don't follow her blog, snapchat, instagram and buy her cookbook.. you are missing out on life. I love everything she does! 

So I went to the store to buy the lamb. I think the recipe called for like 1 pound, maybe 1.5. All they had was 3.8 pounds. So I bought it and thought about how wasteful we would be. I ended up doubling the recipe, boy did we have a lot of lamb skewers! We had leftovers for a few days but it was so good... we didn't care! The dipping sauce was amazing. This is so easy!  

I also made the Quinoa Tabbouleh from the Skinny Taste cookbook. I loved it! Brian didn't because he is unamerican and hates cucumbers. We also did a medley of veggies on skewers which were delicious as well. The best part? 1 skewer is 3 WW smart points AND one serving of the quinoa is also 3 smart points! 6 point dinner... means I can have a glass of wine! 

Please forgive the screen grabs from my snapchat.. I always forget to take pictures. Don't let the quality of the pictures keep you from trying this. It's so good my friend Jennifer (what up I have a follower) requested that I blog this. And gave me a nice little pep talk to blog since I've been MIA for a quick second. So this is for you Jenn-- and I think it's dairy free! WHAT! 

Grilled Lamb Skewers with Harissa Dipping Sauce

Lamb:

1.5 lbs trimmed boneless leg of lamb, cut into 1-inch cubes

1/2 T olive oil

3 garlic cloves, crushed

1 T finely chopped fresh cilantro

2 1/4 t ground cumin

1.2 t sweet paprika

3/4 t kosher salt

12 wooden skewers, soaked in water for at least 30 minutes

1 medium red onion, quartered

Harissa:

1 T olive oil

2 large garlic cloves, peeled

1 (12 ounce) jar roasted peppers in water, drained

1 t fresh lemon juice

1 1/2 t kosher salt

1 t crushed red pepper flakes

1/2 t ground coriander

1/2 t ground cumin

1/2 t sweet paprika

For the lamb:

Place the lamb in a bowl and rub it with the olive oil, garlic, and cilantro. In a small bowl, combine the cumin, paprika, and salt and rub the mixture on the lamb. Marinate for 3 to 4 hours. Thread the lamb onto the skewers, 3 to 4 per skewer, with onion slices in between. (We also added green and red bell peppers)

For the harissa: 

In a small skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, until golden and fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer the garlic to a blender and add the roasted red peppers, lemon juice, salt, pepper flakes, coriander, cumin, and paprika. Blend until smooth. 

Preheat a grill to high (or preheat a grill pan over high heat). 

Grill the skewers 3 to 4 minutes per side. Transfer to a serving plate and serve with harissa on the side. 

 Enjoy! 

I love a good carb!

Who doesn't love carbs? Particularly, pasta.. I LOVE PASTA. I try my very hardest not to eat it, so when I do.. I go all out! Enter- Paul Prudhomme's Shrimp Diane. I actually ordered this at Faded Rose a couple months ago and it was heaven on a plate. SO. MUCH. BUTTER. I mean I dipped bread and ate it and then ate pasta and felt no remorse. We actually took an hour long walk that day AND the day after. So basically I ate nothing, right?

Anyway, Brian tried it, loved it and decided that was our next Paul dish to try! We actually toned down the butter when we made it at home and didn't use as much as he did... it was still so dang delicious! I snap chatted it and grabbed a still. Just try it! I know I say t his about all my recipes... but they are all so good if I take the time to blog them :) 

Shrimp Diane by Paul

1 and 3/4 pounds medium shrimp with shells 

6 tablespoons shrimp stock

1 and 1/2 sticks unsalted butter (we used less!)

1/4 cup finely chopped green onions

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/4 teaspoon white pepper

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon basil

1/4 teaspoon thyme

1/8 teaspoon oregano

1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced into 1/4-inch-thick pieces

3 tablespoons very finely chopped parsley leaves

Pasta, French Bread or hot cooked rice

Rinse and peel the shrimp; refrigerate until needed. Use shells to make shrimp stock by boiling them in a pot of water.

In a large skillet melt 1 stick of butter over high heat. When almost melted, add the green onions, garlic, salt, cayenne, white pepper, black pepper, basil, thyme and oregano; stir well. Add the shrimp and saute just until they turn pink, about 1 minute, shaking the pan (versus stirring) in a back and forth motion.

Add the mushrooms and 4 tablespoons of the stock; then add the remaining 1/2 stick butter in chunks and continue to shake the pan. Before the butter chunks are completely melted, add the parsely, then the remaining 2 tablespoons stock; continue cooking and shaking the pan until all ingredients are mixed thoroughly and butter sauce is the consistency of cream.

Serve immediately. I like it best over pasta, but its also good over rice or french bread.

xoxo 

Love ya, Tom!

There really is nothing better than a beautiful spring Saturday and happy hour at 5! Last Saturday, we worked in the yard, I painted, napped and just enjoyed our day. Brian started cocktail hour around 5 with this delicious Tom Collins. I LOVE these in the spring and summer. So light, crisp and refreshing. Exactly what my weekend needed... so I guess I'll share the fabulousness with you in the form of the recipe. 

Brian's Famous Tom Collins

(Which we really just took from the bar book) 

2 ounces gin

1 ounce fresh lemon juice

.5 ounce simple syrup (make your own!)

3 ounces chilled club soda

Lemon slice

Happy Monday! 

I turned 30!

So I turned 30 almost two weeks ago and it was an absolute blast! It was so. much. fun. I don't know that I've ever had a birthday that was that much fun all day long! Work has been crazy busy but it was nice to step back and relax and have some fun! 

Started my day with breakfast, flowers and a present from my sweet husband... 

My office was covered, literally.. there were things everywhere! Such sweet coworkers and friends! 

The most clever little birthday gift. 

And these sweet friends drove down from Wynne on Tuesday night to take me to dinner. Be still my heart. I had such a great time! Let's see if I can upload this snap from my office :) 

And of course, thank you to all my family, friends and coworkers for making me feel so loved and special. I really can't tell you just how beautiful this birthday was! XOXO. 

Even more NEW Projects

I've been busy working on lots of new, fun custom projects! Like the pictures above and below-- aren't these adorable?? 

And this sweet little newborn canvas is so precious! The ARKANSAS door hanger below is just another take on my super popular one but this time we've added a last name. So cute! And perfect for year round use.  

And I've done this design with red and yellow flowers but how adorable is it with teal and yellow?! So fun! You can find most of these in my ETSY STORE or shoot me an EMAIL. 

NEW, Again....

Here's a roundup of some of my latest door hangers-- I know I posted a ton the other day but I've been BUSY, BUSY!! Find all designs --> HERE! 

new. new. new.

I have been so busy making spring door hangers and I LOVE it! Below are some of the new ones I've made this past month. So many people are contacting me about custom orders. It's so fun! If you are interested in any, EMAIL ME or visit my ETSY SHOP. Local pickup with code IMLOCAL. 

Thai Basil Chicken

I cannot say enough good things about skinnytaste.com. I use this website daily! I pull most every recipe I cook from her insta, snap or blog. They are healthy and unbelievably full of flavor... without packing on unnecessary calories. I've already shared so many SkinnyTaste recipes on my blog and I'm back with another today. And since I love this site SO MUCH, I'm going to link some of my very favorite recipes at the end of this post.

The best idea I ever had was following Gina on snapchat. I love watching along as she tries new recipes and I really can't wait until she posts the step by step for each one.

So I'm obsessed with Chrissy Teigen's new cookbook, some recipes are a little heavy but fabulous! When I found out Gina slimmed one down, I had to try it! The first time, we loved it but agreed that we could use some veggies. So I tried it the second time with red and green bell pepper slices and sliced mushrooms.... SO. GOOD. And so incredibly easy. Please try this!

10 Year Progression of Alex's

There was some app I found the other day where you could take all your facebook pictures and it would put together like a 10 second video of you. So here I am.. 10 years of my face. short hair, long hair, short again and all over the board. This is pretty creppy.. so that's exactly why I'm sharing it with you ;)

New Door Hangers!!

SO many new door hangers over the past couple weeks...but I have to say my very favorite is the one above. It's really so fun to paint pinks for little girls. I love it! 

So I'm off every other Friday as part of our new-ish work schedule. This was almost two Friday's ago during my work day outside. It was beautiful! I got so much done. I can't wait to get home from Houston and spend the whole weekend outside, hopefully working on some fun projects I'm trying to finish :) 

And here are a few of my new spring designs, BUY ANY OF THESE HERE. 

And you might notice my new, adorable watermark.. made by the talented Jennifer Ramsey... I love it! Sadly enough, last week I caught a few people stealing my images. Not just stealing my designs and recreating them as their own, which I have also found, but my actual images.. shown as their own! So I had to do something about it.  I realize I won't fix them all but going forward I will makes sure to include this image on all art photos. It's so super frustrating to see your hard work stolen. 

Anyway, HAPPY WEDNESDAY and Happy (almost) Spring! 

xoxo!