forgotten recipe

While looking through my iPhoto library, I came across a recipe that I meant to post a few weeks ago but never did. This salad was YUMMY! Rob loved it, too, so it's man-approved.

Coconut Chicken Salad

For the coconut chicken:

1 package (about 1-1.5 lbs) chicken tenders

1 egg + 1 tsp water, beaten together in shallow dish

1-1.5 c. shredded, sweetened coconut + 1/4 c. corn flake crumbs, combined in a dish

Season the chicken tenders with S&P, then place them in the egg wash. Next, coat them in the coconut mixture, and place them on a cookie sheet. I used a baking rack over my foil-lined cookie sheet to make sure the tenders were crunchy on all sides!

Bake them in a 375 degree oven until cooked through...about 10-15 minutes.

If you're coconut starts to brown too quickly, turn the oven down to about 350.

Let the tenders cool slightly, then chop them up into bite-sized pieces and arrange on a garden salad. I think I used mixed greens, tomatoes, avocado, and mushrooms...

it's been awhile though, so don't hold me to that ;)

For the dressing:

3/4 c. mayo

3/4 c. agave nectar (or honey)

2 tbs. yellow mustard

1 tsp. worcestershire

1 tbs. poppy seeds (optional)

Whisk all the ingredients together, and drizzle over your salad. This dressing is so tasty! I left the poppy seeds out because I didn't have any on hand, and it was just as good.

This recipe was loosely based off of this one seen on Tasty Kitchen.

I just changed up a few ingredients and skipped the frying of the chicken.

house things

I promise I will (at some point) give y'all a tour of our new house...

But for now, some tid-bits here and there will hold ya over, right?

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you probably know that one of my biggest home decor struggles has been pillows. I realize it's ridiculous, but I could just never find the right ones. I was wanting some with a linen feel to lighten up our chocolate brown couches, and I had pretty much resolved to making my own.

Then I found them! With the help of Lexi, that is.

Here they are in all their glory, our new throw pillows:

Poor picture quality, sorry folks.

And another thing I've been on the hunt for: the perfect basket. I searched everywhere...Marshall's, TJ Maxx, Target, Ikea, HobLob, Tuesday Morning, Big Lots. Yeah, everywhere. Normally I'm not so particular with my baskets, but I was wanting to copy THIS. As seen on Pinterest, of course. I found those the same day I found the pillows, brought them home, and hung them up immediately!

I used shower rings to attach them to the towel rack...

I love it! Freed up some space in my cabinets for more storage, and I just think it looks a lot nicer than a towel hanging over the tub. Why do builders put towel bars in the most peculiar places anyway? One of life's great mysteries. Oh well, at least we have a solution!

an angel among us

On Sunday, one of the sweetest souls I have had the pleasure of knowing went to be with our Father. While everyone that knew her will miss her, we all know that she is having the best time in heaven! She's probably laughing and gabbing with all the angels, hugging her sweet mama (or MoMo as we all called her :)), and smiling down on all of her loved ones left on this earth.

Losing someone you love is never easy, and my prayer for this sweet family is that they would find peace and comfort in the Lord...and I know they will. You see, this family (along with a couple others) was among the most influential people on ours. They helped my parents find their faith and a church home which meant my brother and I were able to grow up in the church. I'm so thankful for that. We have so many great memories with the Whitehead family, and we laugh the whole time we're with them. Thankfully, in between the tears, we've been able to do a lot of laughing as well. And I think Donnice would want it that way. She loved to laugh, and she loved life. Her life was rich and full; she was loved by everyone that knew her. Her memory will live on forever.

"For I am already being poured out as an offering, and the time for me to depart is at hand. I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith!

Finally the crown of righteousness is reserved for me.

The Lord, the righteous judge will award it to me in that day - and not to me only, but also to all who have set their affection on his appearing."

2 Timothy 4:6-8

"Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live even if he dies, and the one who lives and believes in me will never die.

Do you believe this?""

John 11:25-26

"But our citizenship is in heaven, and we also await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform these humble bodies of ours into the likeness of his glorious body by means of that power by which he is able to subject all things to himself."

Philippians 3:20-21

"If we live, we live for the Lord; if we die, we die for the Lord.

Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's."

Romans 14:8

DIY graphic art

While surfing Pinterest one day, I found a couple (1 & 2) of little art projects that looked easy enough for even ME to do. So I set out to get 'em done.

The chevron one was done on shoe box lids, which is a great idea, but I wanted something a little more 'permanent', so I found 4 canvases at Big Lots...

A whopping $7 for the larges ones and $3 for the small ones! My kinda prices!

A little side-note...the original canvases I had in my cart were $8 & $4, then I stumbled across the EXACT same ones in another area of the store for less.

Strange...and I was overly happy about saving $4.

So I brought them home, dug out my masking tape and got busy. I used 2 different width tapes for these. Just start slapping tape on there...no real pattern to it. I did use the same amount of each strip on the canvases though...just for some continuity.

Also, before you start painting, make sure there are no bubbles in the tape.

You want it to be really smooth so paint won't bleed underneath the tape. I'm sure that's a "duh" for most, but not for unartistic types like myself!

For the chevron pattern, I just kind of eye-balled my pattern. Even though I would consider myself OCD, I never have the patience for templates or measuring when it comes to stuff like this. I ended up using the corner pieces that were on the canvases when I bought them and roughly traced with those.

Then tape off the pattern just inside the pencil lines. I would then recommend erasing the pencil marks...unless you're using a dark paint, then it won't matter!

Then start painting! Spray painting would probably be the easiest way to go, but I used those spongey brushes (technical term) for a couple reasons:

1. I'm terrible at spray-painting.

2. It makes me feel more artistic to use an actual brush ;-)

Then, the hardest part: waiting. I let the paint dry over night to be sure it was completely dry. Once they're dry, pull of the tape, and you're left with masterpieces!

I really, really love the way they turned out!

I think this 'modern' touch is perfect with the more traditional quilt I have in this bedroom.

What do you think? :-)

If you like my paint colors, they're Americana acrylics from HobLob:

Spa Blue, Baby Blue, Sea Glass & Hauser Light Green

Cruise-Days 3 & 4

Day 3 of the cruise was our Cozumel stop. We weren't docking until the afternoon, so we spent the morning eating breakfast together and playing miniature golf!

After lunchtime, we were in Mexico! Gorgeous blue waters...

Carnival Imagination

(or Immigration as Kathy originally thought! haha!)

Nanny's favorite cocktail is a margarita, so she wanted to have one in Mexico. When in Rome, right? We ordered them up, and the guy came out with these foot-long margs...my goodness!

The grandparents went back to the ship, and the 'kids' went to this beach called Playa Mia. They had all kinds of beach activities there...kayaking, paddle boats, snorkeling, a water trampoline, volleyball, etc. We decided to kayak and paddle boat first; the boys went in a kayak and the girls went in a paddle boat. We had been out in the water for no more than 5 minutes, and we had a minor emergency occur. Will was trying to splash us, his ore drug a bit, and he smacked Rob right on the noggin with his paddle. Whoops. I was pretty panicked because his forehead was SO swollen in like 2 seconds, and blood was streaming down his face.

We paddled right back to the beach, got some first aid care and everything was fine. Luckily the cut wasn't deep at all, Rob just had a little bit of a headache and a big fat goose-egg! We were all laughing about it for the rest of the trip. Brothers! They're just kids forever :)

We steered clear of the water trampoline and inflatable rock climbing wall for fear of injury for the rest of the day, so we just floated in the ocean and played volleyball! Pretty safe choices ;)

Johnny was our waiter for the day...he was great!

Day 4 was a "fun day at sea" as they call it, so we didn't do a whole lot. Mostly just laid by the pool and hung out. We had a fun 'farewell' dinner that night, and hit the sack pretty early.

We had an early morning and a day full of travel ahead.

One last twin pic...

I love this picture Kathy took of us...thanks cous!! :)

All in all, the cruise was a lot of fun! We are so grateful to Nanny and Popo for taking us all on a family vaycay...we spent tons of quality time together and laughed A LOT, and that's what it's all about, right? We are blessed.

Cruise-Days 1 & 2

The first day of the cruise was spent checking in and lounging around by the pool! Oh, and eating, of course, because that's what you do on a cruise, we learned.

Here's the family boarding the ship...aren't the g-pas adorable? We love 'em.

Once we got access to our rooms, we hit up the bar for a pina colada...

nothing says vacay like an umbrella drink, right?

We then walked around to check out the ship and see what it had to offer...

And finally, it was pool time! That's where we spent the remainder of the day...

by the pool with umbrella drinks and french fries. Awesome.

After several hours of that, we fixed ourselves up and headed to our first dinner!

The dinners each night were so awesome! There was a hostess that was so catering to my g-free diet, and she came to me each night to get my order for the next night. It made eating dinner so much easier and worry free. Thanks Selma! You rock! The waiters were also so much fun...they love to interact with the cruisers, and you feel like you know them by the end of the week. We were sad to say goodbye to our friend, Alex!

Day 2 was spent at our first port, Key West.

We got off the ship pretty early and went into town. We ended up forgoing the cruise-line excursions and decided to do our own thing. If you ever go on a cruise, that is the way to go! We saved so much by doing things this way...I'm talking 50+% per person. In Key West, we rented mopeds for the day and did our own little town tour. It was a blast!

Here we are at the Southernmost point of the USA! Pretty crazy to think that we were closer to Cuba than the nearest Wal-Mart...

Just scootin' around town...

The picture is a little hard to make out since we were in motion, but this is US Highway Mile Marker One. It's the most stolen sign in Key West.

Kathy & Will on their scooter...hard core bikers right there!

Obviously I had to put my toes in the water in Key West...

With my 'bodyguards' at the beach...

All the houses in Key West (and I'm sure most beaches in FL) are so cute!

Another in-motion pic, sorry.

And the brothers on their bikes...this pic is just funny.

We had to make a pit-stop at Margarittaville per Will's request!

Yummy margs...Nanny would have loved them if she had joined us.

We had another fun dinner that night complete with Nanny & Popo dancin' a little jig.

So precious!

Just had to take pics of the cute towel animals we had each night...

An elephant!

I had a hard time narrowing down pictures, so hopefully this post isn't too sporadic!

Next up: days 3&4...

are you on the edge of your seat with anticipation?? ;-)