Thursday, July 30, 2009

Chicken Pesto Pizza

This is one of my favorite meals to make when I don't have much time. Its yummy and fast and healthy to boot! It is based off of this recipe on Allrecipes.com, except I added sliced tomatoes, Italian seasoning, and mozzarella.


What I like to do is buy the family packs of chicken breast while they are on sale. I bake half for dinner that night and the other half I bake so that I can shred it up to use throughout the week.

Ingredients:
pizza dough; pre-made or not its up to you
package of Pesto mix
Italian Seasoning (optional)
shredded cheese of your choice
1 large tomato (sliced)
1 jar of artichoke hearts (drained)
2-3 boneless chicken breast shredded
1/4 cup of water

First prepare the pesto sauce. You won't need the whole package, not even half the package. I use about 1/4 the amount of mix and use the rest for *veggie dip. Combine with water and a dab of olive oil...about 1 tbsp in a saucepan until heated through.

Next, arrange pizza dough on parchment paper on a baking sheet. Once the pesto is mixed and heated through, brush on pizza dough, make sure the pesto mixture is not too watery. Next layer on shredded chicken, artichoke hearts, and sliced tomatoes. (In my pic my artichokes are pictured on top, thats only bc I forgot to add them sooner hah. Make sure you layer them under everything, they are less likely to fall off the pizza that way.) Sprinkle with Italian Seasoning. Top of with shredded cheese. I used mozzarella. Since the chicken is already cooked you are just popping it into the oven to bake the dough and melt the cheese. Follow the directions on the dough packaging for cook time. If using a premade dough, bake until cheese has melted. Also, make sure not to overcook the chicken or it will dry out. And that's it! Happy eating!


*Veggie Dip recipe:
combine remaining pesto mix with 1 cup mayo and 1 cup sour cream, mix and refrigerate.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Starbucks: the obsession continues

I have another reason to love Starbucks. And coffee. And my city. Behold my newest purchase from Starbucks. A one of a kind, Va Beach locally made coffee tumbler! Featuring the lovely city I was born and raised in and have come to love.


I picked this up at none other than the Starbucks at Town Center in Va Beach. It features images of King Neptune @ 31st on the beach and the Tower @ Town Center...which I like best bc I live right across the street from it :) One of the barista's there took the pictures and designed the tumbler himself. He explained it was part of a employee promotion that the company was doing. Apparently there are other cities that feature their own coffee tumblers too.

It was the only one on display that day and I'm glad I snatched it up bc the lady behind me was also very impressed that "Bobby" (I think that's his name, forgive me if its not buddy) made it and that they were very limited in quantity. I also needed a new tumbler since my other one recently went out of commission and decided it wanted to start leaking on me the other day in the office. I have high hopes that this one will last me much longer :P

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Wedding: Ring sizing

So wedding planning has all but consumed my life. Its all I can think about. I love planning events, parties, etc. My brother-in-law can't believe my sister and I are related since she is more of a go with the flow type and I like everything to be pretty precise. We are planning for August of next summer, but we have to finalize it with the church and see if we can get a reception venue with a matching date. And that's were we are with planning right now.

As for my ring, that has been a slight bump in the road. I went to get it sized a few weeks ago. I needed it sized from a sz. 7 to a sz. 4.5 (yes I have small fingers.) The first jeweler I had look at it said he wouldn't feel comfortable taking it down to a size so small bc it would jeopardize the integrity of the ring. As you can see from the picture I have two small rows of diamonds cascading down either side of my ring in a prong setting. He said stretching it would open up the prongs etc., etc. So it was either that or find a new ring. So we went back to the original jeweler where my fiance got the ring from and they said they would gladly re-size the ring. Which we were happy about. Until I got the ring back after having it sized and was totally bummed as to how my "new" ring turned out. There is a very prominent "bend" where you can see the ring was sized down and the middle part of the ring seems paper thin. I'm bummed bc I gave it to them with confidence that they'd do a good job. They were much more helpful and accomodating than the first jeweler we went to but like I said I can't help but feel like I should have heeded the first jeweler's warnings.

Luckily, the jeweler who did resize my ring also explained to me the option of having it taken in to get it recast in my size altogether. Granted that will take 4-6 weeks, which is why I went for the resizing option first. Either way I will most likely have it taken in to have my ring recast in my size. I wish I would have done that option first. Ahh well live and learn. So if there are any of you other ladies with small fingers that needs their ring resized, I highly recommend you just have the ring you want made in the size you need, versus having a larger ring sized down.

I don't want to seem picky, but it is my engagement ring...something I'll have and cherish forever...so I want it done right. Is that so wrong?

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Grocery Tote

Man have I been a terrible blogger. Almost 2 weeks since my last post. Well this is one of the things that has been occupying my time. I finished a grocery tote for the July stitch-along with the HR Burda Style Sewing Group I'm a part of. I'm not one for patterns. They are quite confusing for me. I usually just wing it or use tutes but I have really been wanting to learn how to read patterns so I can start doing some more exciting things, like clothes. Sewing patterns are just difficult to read by nature, luckily I've been told once you learn, it just gets easier...like riding a bike. I hope so. Either way this is the Grocer Tote from Butterick pattern 5338, Bag C. It came out quite nice. I had extra bias tape left over so I decided to make it into a nice little rosette that I applied to the front of the bag. I think it really adds to it :)

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Now go have a new adventure...


OMG OMG! When I saw this I nearly peed my pants! (TMI) I absolutely adored Disney's Up and if you did too then you'll totally understand the significance of this adorable bottlecap pin at Justbe Jewelry's Etsy shop. It is basically a pin that the main character's wife gave him when they were little. I know I said it several times before...but I LOVE ETSY.

I do miss the elaborate musical numbers that were riddled all throughout the orginial Disney classics, but I am loving the thought provoking, emotional story plots with the new Disney Pixar movies. I loved Meet the Robinsons, Wall-E, and now Up all because they left me with that feel good feeling in the end. Sigh...I must have this pin.

Friday, July 10, 2009

A very SPECIAL 4th of July!

I know the 4th of July weekend is long gone and we are approaching a new weekend but I have had a lot on my brain this past week because I GOT ENGAGED last Friday! The now fiance, surprised me in front of my family during a 4th of July BBQ dinner. He knew 4th of July is my fave holiday so he succeeded at making it extra special for me :)

I will admit I already have an idea of how I want our wedding to be. Can't help it, its every little girls dream right...so I've been planning things in my head ever since we started seriously talking about getting married in the near future. He totally surprised me because when we would discuss it he would always tell me 2010, we'll do it 2010. So I figured, okay don't expect anything until 2010. Which explains my especially surprised reaction in the pictures below!

So naturally you'll probably see a lot of wedding posts from now until the actual day. Luckily I never really planned my blog to be about any one subject in particular, just "anything that gets me through the day" so it works. I'll still be posting my scarce sewing projects but I've been trying to shy away from Etsy lately, as to not tempt myself since I do have a wedding to save up for now :P Also, I don't know if I've mentioned it here before, but I was in the process of building inventory to start an Etsy store myself, and so that will most definitely be put on hold as well. But ack...soo many temptations, like this great fabric sale mentioned at mmmcrafts! I still desperately want to build my fabric stash...sacrifices, sacrifices. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend...I'll be taking in my ring to get sized, oh how I'll miss it so :P

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Currently obsessing over: Forest Bound Totes

I don't know what it is about tote bags. But I adore them. Currently coveting these beauties by Forest Bound. I love that she uses recycled material. I am also liking the rustic feel her totes have while still being feminine. Love!