Guest Post: Things I Love

Hey all! Kathleen here, taking over Annie's blog for the day! I always love the opportunity to guest blog for Annie and today I am giving you one of my favorite series from my blog, "Things I Love". "Things I Love" is a great way for me to share all the things - posts, outfits, recipes, etc.- from around the world wide web that I am currently reading and swooning over. Enjoy all these links on this Friday and let them be a distraction from all the things you don't want to do!

image via

How To: Not get lipstick on your wine glass

 Movie Viewing Hacks - also great ideas for an Oscar Watching Party!

 Seeing lilac

 Would love to throw a chocolate & wine tasting party

image via

13 Make-Ahead Breakfasts, shocking that this recipe for Cranberry Orange Granola stood out to me (just call me granola-obsessed)

 My goal for my grown-up girl years

 10 Dinner Ideas (one of my absolute favorite food blogs)

 For all the working girls

image via

How To: Make A Killer Cheese Plate (important life lesson!)

 Perfect way to please the chocolate and fruit lovers for dessert

 and on a more serious note

Have a great weekend! I will be doing some of my favorite weekend activities- sleeping in, taking a Barre3 class, eating great food, drinking wine, spending time with those that make me happy!

Until next time,

T.G.I. Fybromyalgia



Single-Serving Shrimp and Grits

I've had the idea for this dish for a while, but just got around to making it. I don't know why it took me so long because the actual recipe cooks up in less than 15 minutes. 

This single girl/poor college kid/quick dinner dish totally elevates all the scenarios I just mentioned. It's gourmet, cheap but super easy and definitely fits the bill for a satisfying dinner. Or brunch if you want to get fancy on a lazy Sunday morning. 

I recently discovered you can buy a box of instant grits just like instant oatmeal. Microwave oatmeal is a regular part of my daily routine, but now grits, oooooh man! Growing up I remember mom always asking, grits or oatmeal? It was always the decision between sweet or savory? Really because I would either douse my grits with a pound of butter or my oatmeal with a cup of brown sugar. The only problem was that I had to wait near 20 minutes for my breakfast to be ready. I don't have that kind of patience anymore, so hello to instant grits! 

Microwave grits, a little cheese and some frozen corn and shrimp make for an ulti single girl meal! The recipe is clearly for a single serving, but it would be super easy to double or triple.

Single Serving Shrimp and Grits
serves one..obviously 

Ingredients:
1 package of instant grits
some type of cheese-Parmesan, Gouda, cheddar etc.
1 Tbsp. olive oil or butter
6 frozen or fresh shrimp
1/4 cup frozen corn
fresh minced garlic
cayenne pepper
salt and pepper
juice of 1/4 lemon
fresh cilantro 

Directions:
If using frozen, make sure to first thaw your shrimp. I do this by running them under luke warm water until thawed. 

Heat your olive oil or butter in a small pan over medium heat. Add your corn and shrimp to the pan, throw in some garlic and a little bit of cayenne. Don't go to crazy on the cayenne, unless you like things spicy spicy! While your shrimp is cooking, microwave the grits according to package directions. It's probably something like add 1/2 cup of water and microwave for 1 minute. 

Stir in the cheese and season your grits with salt and pepper to taste. (I like mine really salty!) By now your shrimp should be cooked though. Take off the heat and squeeze lemon juice over the shrimp.

Pile the shrimp and corn over your cheese grits and garnish with chopped cilantro!

Annie

Everything's Coming Up Roses

I hate online shopping. I'm bad at it, there are too many choices and more times than not I end up spending more money having to mail something back.  I like the satisfaction of going into a store, trying something on, seeing how it fits, then purchasing something you know was worth your money.  Now that I've gone on a rant of online shopping, I have something to admit. 

I've recently been addicted to online shopping. For some reason my to-do list keeps getting overruled with sifting through Zara, Asos, Piperlime and Shopbop's newest arrivals. I blame my online classes for this. I'm always on my computer and the dumb target marketing has the cutest little dresses popping up in all my sidebars and banners. As an advertising major you would think I wouldn't fall for these tricks, but I do. I've made a few purchases here and there and now I'm on every department store's email list making it even harder to avoid online shopping when EVERYTHING IS 75% OFF is screaming at me in my emails. I can't delete the email before I see if there are any good sales, right?

Through my new hobby of online shopping, I've found some pretty cute things. Asos has been my biggest weakness because of their pages on pages of adorable and reasonably priced things. I've really been sucked in by all of the adorable floral dresses. I'm going to go ahead and make a guess that floral is big for spring, it's everywhere. Below are some of my favorites, but if you want to waste about an hour of your life, here are even more foral dresses.

clockwise from top left corner:

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8

I've ordered a few, but now starts another down side to online shopping. The wait. I'll let you know the outcome of my purchases, cross your fingers "everything comes up roses!"

Annie

Bites of My Life

Allergies and a cold may have overtaken my productivity for the week, but it made for a relaxing week as well. Lot's of valentine sweets and indulging food has left me in a food coma. Time to come out of my coma and GSD this week! Before that starts I'm really enjoying my Sunday night on the couch flipping back and forth between The Bachelor and the SNL 40th Anniversary show. Who else was in favor of Miley's version of Paul Simon's "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover."

-Here's the scoop...valentines for my ice cream loving roommates.

-Stopped dead in my tracks when I saw Milk Bar cookie mixes now being sold at Target.

-Homemade Pop Tarts for my galentines!

-Limited edition Green Tea Chobani, seemed up my alley, but I'll pass next time.

-Just one bite of my meal at Scratch, fun review of my favorite Norman restaurant coming soon!

-Loving my oatmeal on Valentine's Eve!

-Cookie Butter Cups. Dark chocolate filled with cookie butter, yes this is a thing.

-A very small part of our Valentine's Day brunch.

-Home cooked filet, blue cheese corn polenta and roasted broccolini, made for a very happy tummy.

-Brunch and booze.

-Farmer's breakfast at Whiskey Cake to keep the holiday weekend eating going. 

-Sunday "phamen," used my recipe but makeshifted with the random items in my fridge.

Annie

DIY Treat Bags

Yesterday I posted the recipe for my little Homemade Pop Tarts I made for all the galentines in my life. Today I'm showing the super simple DIY Treat Bag I put together to deliver them in. 

With just a hole punch and some twine I was able to take regular ole lunch sacks and transform them into cutie little goodie bags! What's inside helped too:)

Supplies: 
brown paper lunch sacks
hole punch
scissors
pink twine
pink cardstock paper

Directions:
To get the decorative edge, punch five holes along the top of your sacks. Fill them with whatever is going inside then fold over the top an inch and a half. Punch two more holes along the top to string your twine through. Cut about a foot long piece of twine and tie a knot through the top two holes you just created. 

To make the tags, I used a small heart cookie cutter to trace it on the cardstock. Cut them out and punch a hole in the corner. String it on the twine, and finish with a bow!

Anyone baking up some Pop Tarts or passing out Valentines today? Happy holiday weekend! 

Annie