Easter Sunday

I love Easter!  It is one of my favorite holidays - behind only Thanksgiving!  This holiday was a bit different for me, it was my first Easter away from my family though, so that was an adjustment.  Every year, my family would gather at my parent's home and spend time together.  I guess I was a bit spoiled, as my parent still got my sister and I Easter baskets - but we loved it!  In fact, even though I now live across the country, my Mom sent me a few goodies in the mail. :)

This Easter began as most of my Easter's have: going to Church. This year my boyfriend and I went to the early service so that we would get back to his apartment in time to video chat with my family right after they had finished eating dinner.  It may sound a little cheesy, but I loved it!  Seeing them made me feel like I was not so far away.  It was nice being able to actually SEE everyone.  I was able to show them what a beautiful day it is outside today!

 A Beautiful Easter Sunday Day

Cilantro Lime Chicken

I love easy dinners!  Which makes the crock-pot one of my best friends after a long day of work.  I love preparing something in it one evening, putting it in the crock pot before work the next day and then coming home from work with dinner prepared.  The other day I made a tasty cilantro lime chicken recipe.  At the end, I added a slice of avocado and a dollop of daisy, which added a bit more flavor to the dish - next time I want to add some cheese!

Cilantro Lime Chicken

Cilantro Lime Chicken

1 1/2 pounds of chicken breast, juice from 1 lime, 1 bunch fresh cilantro- chopped, 1 (16 oz) bag frozen corn, 2 minced garlic cloves, 1/2 red onion -chopped, 1 can black beans - drained and rinsed, 1 tsp cumin and salt and pepper to taste

 Cook on LOW for 8 hours (or HIGH for 4 hours) in the crock pot.

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In other news, I got my new Origami Owl locket the other day and have been sporting it since!  Such a cool concept: you can pick the locket, the chain and the charms.  Each are unique because you pick the charms that mean something to you.  I picked my birthstone, the infinity symbol, an Ichthus and the sign language symbol for 'I love you'.  Each symbol means something special to me - making the locket very precious as well.  Plus it came in an adorable box! :)

My Origami Owl Locket

St. Patrick's Day Parade

Being from a small town that didn't really celebrate St. Patrick's day in a formal fashion, now that I have moved into a culturally diversified city, this past St. Patrick's Day weekend (aka last weekend) I went to a parade of all things Irish!  As it would be expected, folks lined the streets wearing all shades of green cheering on the many Irish floats.  There were all sorts of things in this parade: River dancing, Celtic music, uni-cylces, deloreans - which were apparently made in Ireland (Who can tell me what movie made them famous?!) and my favorite group: the Irish dog clubs!  Now my boyfriend's favorite was the Irish Wolfhound, but I think my favorite was the Red & White Irish Setter. 

Pinterest Inspires

Well, through so many hours of surfing the web, specifically Pinterest, a girl tends to get a lot of ideas!  Being inspired, I tried my hand at a recipe that I found - Garlic Brown Sugar Baked Chicken.

I gathered 2 Chicken Breasts, 2 minced garlic cloves, 2 tbsp. brown sugar and 2 tsp. of olive oil (Four 2's! :))  The oven was preheated to 500 F, as the pinterest directions called for.  In a saute pain, I heated the oil and cooked the garlic.  After the garlic was cooked, I removed the pan from the heat and stirred in the brown sugar.  I had the chicken in a casserole dish and covered the chicken with the mixture.  I baked it for about 25 minutes.  When it came out of the oven, the oil had bubbled up and turned black.  I was quite nervous that I had botched the recipe and burnt the whole thing!  Luckily, when I took the chicken out of the pan, it wasn't burnt at all - phew! :)

[caption id="attachment_351" align="aligncenter" width="480"] Brown Sugar Garlic Baked Chicken[/caption]

It turned into a lovely dinner.  In hindsight, I would use a lower heat and let the chicken stay in the oven for a little longer so that it would be a little more moist.  It had a nice flavor though - I love garlic! :)

Snacks for a Busy Day

I've been a busy gal! It’s been a process organizing and decorating my apartment in the great state of Washington.  Being that I wasn't able to bring a lot of my belongings with me, I've been scouring the Goodwill to find treasures, but it’s coming along.

[caption id="attachment_339" align="aligncenter" width="2448"] The apartment is coming together![/caption]