{It's Family Time}

Welcome to my family! These are my sisters.... 

The two oldest (me and Ellie) are the drama queens of the family. Although I try desperately to overcome this. ;) 

All the kids! As you can see, there's a rather large age gap between us all. Half the time I feel like I'm their mom instead of sister. Haha. Love them to death though. 

We were having a blast trying to get this shot =) 

With mom and dad... It's pretty funny trying to get eight people to jump at the same time! 

My boys. 

Flash mob on the beach - to "Thriller!" 

My turn for a couple pictures :) 

 

Hope you enjoyed meeting my family!

Look who's all grown up!

So, today we found out that our little Miley grew up. {Even though she was engaged on the 31st} She's officially engaged to the Hunger Games star, Liam Hemsworth. In these recent pictures she actually looks like she's ready to get married! She really is pulling off the Marilyn Monroe look-a-like here, and I'm loving it! If you're going to be getting married (at 19 nonetheless) you need to mature up your look a little - and I think she's done it! Lightened the hair, going with classic makeup, and a very classy dress! 

Now take a look at this ring. Wow. Is that not one of the most gorgeous things you've ever seen? I'm floored by it, to be honest. The diamond is a hand cut, 3.5 carat, cushion diamond from the 1800's. (major points in my book) Liam designed the ring himself with jeweler Neil Lane. For being only 22, the boy did a mighty fine job.

They've received a lot of criticism for their young marriage, but hey, they've been together for three years! And who are we to judge?! It's not our life! So I say, Miley and Liam, best of of luck! I wish you only the best :) 

"You're my best friend..."

Hey Guys! So right now I'm on vacation with my family at the beach. Man is it awesome to be together again after not seeing them for so long. It's been a beautiful relaxing trip so far :) 

Yesterday I found out that my best friend from highschool was at the same beach as we were! I hadn't seen her in way too long, so we decided to hit up the beach together. 

I love her to death. She's got the biggest heart, the best smile, and is the best friend anyone could ask for. Oh and not to mention she is THE happiest person I know. :) 

Gotta get my glamour shots in right? ;) 

So there you go! Hope you enjoyed my update from vacation! :) 

ciao bellas! 

Road trip and life's adventures

Oh my word. Life has been SO crazy lately! Since I last wrote I have completed a cross country trip, left behind the land of ever sun, moved into two apartments, and a thousand other things that my brain can't even remember right now. But it's been a blast! Here are a few pictures of our trip, and I PROMISE once life settles down a little I will get back to recipes, fashion, etc. 

Our Sammy Rue is the cutest little puppy ever - in case you didn't come to that conclusion on your own ;) 

2100 miles. Holy Cow. That was the travel time of only one day. Needless to say we were very tired by the end of it. 

Hope you are liking all of the pictures I've been trying to post lately, let me know what you think would make it better or you would like to hear about! :) 

-ciao bella! 

Work, play, work, play.

Hey Guys! Sorry I haven't written in a while, I have tons of things lined up and ready to write about I just have not had one second to sit down and do it! 

Some of my and Aaron's best friends came into town this week and we have been interspersing day trips and pool side chats with the clamor of every day life. :) Here is a little preview of what we've been up to.

We have a mild obsession with sushi so we went out and got some FABULOUS rolls at a new sushi place in town. The one on the top right is called "Booty booty" and it definitely earned its name. It was avocado, crab, cream cheese, shrimp and some delicious sauce on top! Loved it. 

Anyway, just a quick update! I'll post more soon! :) 

Homemade Pizza Night

Well, boo and I just finished dinner a little bit ago and man was it good! We made homemade pizza together and had a blast doing it - I wish I'd gotten a couple pictures of us cooking, but it didn't occur to me until just now. Oh well. Next time! I did, however, get a picture of the beautiful sky today... 

Anyway, tonight's meal wasn't the healthiest thing I've ever cooked, but it wasn't that bad either. If I had made homemade dough and homemade pizza sauce it would've been healthier. But... It sure did taste divine! 

Here's how we did it... 

Instead of homemade I bought some regular ole Pillsbury thin pizza crust. Laid it out on the cookie sheet and baked it for 5 minutes (to harden it up before putting the sauce on). 

Took another shortcut by buying Prego Pizza Sauce - which was delicious btw. Oh! I forgot! My practically Italian boy ;) told me of an 'Italian chef secret.' Apparently Italian Chef's make a garlic and butter or olive oil mixture and spread it on the pizza crust before adding the sauce. We made it with olive oil, minced garlic, and a little garlic salt. 

In this house, we have an obsession with cheese... even though I am pretty much lactose intolerant, I still eat the delicious stuff - can't help myself. Anyway, sprinkle your cheese on top, we used mozzarella. 

We cut up two Roma tomatoes (thinly sliced), and chopped up a couple tablespoons of fresh cilantro (yum!). Now here you could stop, sprinkle some parmesan, and have yourself a delicious, vegetarian, margherita pizza! :) Or you can keep reading and see what we did... 

My boy loves bacon, and we tend to have a habit of just grabbing whatever is in the fridge and adding it to our recipes. So, we did the same thing today! We whipped out that bacon, cooked in the frying pan and added it to the pizza!

 I also made barbecue, lime chicken for a topping. I used about 3 tablespoons of barbecue sauce and about the same of lime juice, mixed it together and then put in my 5 chicken tenderloins. Once they had cooked for about 5 minutes I started shredding them (while they cooked) so that the flavor would get all the way through. :) 

Add the remainder of your ingredients and then sprinkle some parmesan on top! Place it in the oven for 10 minutes at 400 degrees. 

This thing was so good! And there was leftovers! Yay! :) I'm a fan of having food ready for lunch the next day. Especially because we try to eat more than three meals a day for our fitness plan {Usually I eat about 4, he'll eat about 7 but 2-3 of those are meal substitutes/protein shakes}. 

Hope you enjoy making this for yourself or your family and friends! Pizza making nights are always fun and it's nice to be in the kitchen with someone instead of by yourself. :) When I was a kid I loved pizza night because we would lay out a blanket in the living room and have a 'picnic' while watching a movie... And we got sprite, {which I love still - probably because of pizza night} which was a rarity at our house. ;) 

Anyway, enough rambling. Here is your ingredient list to make it simpler for you: 

Ingredients: 

5 chicken tenderloins

3 slices of bacon 

3 tbsp barbecue sauce

3 tbsp lime juice or 1 lime 

1 can of pizza crust 

1 small jar pizza sauce 

2 roma tomatoes 

3 tbsp fresh cilantro 

2 cups mozzarella cheese 

Parmesan Cheese 

2 tbsp olive oil 

1 tsp minced garlic 

Sprinkle of Garlic Salt (if you have it) 

Burrito in a Bowl

Hey Everyone! So this lunch/dinner meal is fantastic and super healthy! It's really easy to double or even triple if you want to have more for lunches (which is what I did). You can serve it in a bowl, or on a wrap, like a burrito, or any other way you can think of! :) There isn't anything bad in it and it's basically 100% natural. 

Here is what you'll need: 

1 avocado. 

2 roma tomatoes. 

1/2 bag frozen corn. 

Fresh cilantro (about 2 tbsp chopped and de-stemmed). 

1-2 chicken breasts. 

Lime juice 

1 can black beans 

1 cup of dried rice

**{extra seasonings if you want them - salsa, and hot sauce}** 

Directions: 

Boil your chicken and then shred. Start your rice, add salt and pepper etc. and also defrost/cook your frozen corn. If you want you can use a can of drained corn which works just as well. 

While the chicken is boiling chop up your vegetables and cilantro. 

**A little trick I use for avocados: Instead of scooping the fruit out with a spoon, peel the avocado with your fingers and it comes out completely clean instead of broken! :)** 

Once your chicken has been shredded as a little extra seasoning I put it back in the empty pot and add a little salsa and hot sauce. Cook that down on low heat for a couple minutes, stirring it often. 

Place all your vegetables in your bowl and add about 3 tbsp of lime juice, or however much you want until you think it looks juicy :) 

Then add your chicken and mix! :) I like eating it 'plain,' without any wrap or anything, but you should experiment and try different ways of fixing it and let me know what you like best! :) 

Hope you enjoy this recipe! :) I'll probably be having it for lunch again tomorrow!