Easy Banana Pudding

Picture Compliments of: myrecipes.com

This recipe was a favorite in my household growing up. Actually, this recipe caused a lot of feuds in my house. If you weren't home when the banana pudding was pulled from the refrigerator after being chilled, there was a very high possibility that there wouldn't be any left over for you to eat later (thanks my loving big brother).

Anyways, I was craving some of my mother's infamous banana pudding this past week, so I pulled out the recipe and whipped some up. Delicious. Now I'll only have to feud with the hubby to see if he'll leave me any.

What You Need:

• 1 cup sugar
• 3 tbsp flour (heaping)
• 2 eggs
• 2 1/2 cups milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 bananas (sliced)
• Vanilla Wafers

What To Do:

• Mix the sugar, flour, eggs, and milk into a large microwave safe bowl. 
• Put the bowl into the microwave and cook for 8 minutes, stopping every 2 minutes to whip.
• Once the mixture has cooked for 8 minutes and is nice and thick, add the teaspoon of vanilla and stir it in.
• In another large serving or trifle bowl, layer the following :
• Vanilla Wafers
• Pudding
• Bananas
• Vanilla Wafers
• Bananas
• Pudding
• Vanilla Wafers

Enjoy! I promise that it won't disappoint!

A Touching Video

A good friend of ours tweeted a link to this video. This video is incredibly touching and as someone who tends to cry often (I like to think I have a tender heart), this video makes me tear up each and every time I watch it. It's moving, convicting, and truly a picture of what it means to selflessly love your spouse.

My Anthro Wishlist

I Love, Love, LOVE Anthropologie. If I had a million dollars, I'd go out and buy each of these things today. And probably a lot more.

Scattered Heartsease Blouse: $168

Ampay Necklace: $58

You Are My Sunshine Pillow: $158

Upward Petal Curtains: $208 - $268

Celestial Coasters: $32 

Core Sample Stopper: $58

Dotty Match Pot Holder: $12

Just Picked Recipe Cards: $14

Sedge & Rush Necklace: $58

The Most Delicious Chicken Spaghetti

I mean it when I say it, this is the best Chicken Spaghetti recipe known to man.

A good friend of ours, William, ended up living with Greg in college for a summer while taking some summer classes. After coming back from visiting his mom for the weekend, William's mom sent him back to school with massive serving of this delightful little dish. After graciously sharing his meal with Greg and I, I told him that I HAD to have the recipe because it was scrumptious and unlike any chicken spaghetti I had ever had.

I cooked this spaghetti earlier this week and got rave reviews. Not to mention, when I ate it for leftovers the next day in the office, the girls I ate with were extra jealous of my delicious smelling lunch. They too asked for the recipe which hence spurred my decision to share it with the world.

You can thank me later....

Picture: Compliments of Taste of Home
This is NOT the same recipe, but by the time I realized I could have used a pic of my
own recipe, it was ALLLLL gone.
Oops. :)

Chicken Spaghetti

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

2 ½ cups cooked spaghetti

3-4 medium boneless chicken breasts – cooked & shredded

½ cup diced pimentos (2 oz)

1 small onion – finely chopped

2 cans cream of mushroom soup

2 cups chicken broth

1 dash garlic, salt & pepper

3 ½ cups grated Cheddar Cheese (or Monterey jack, or Velveeta)

            -Save ½ cup for the topping

1 can Rotel (tomatoes and green chiles)

1 package French fried onion rings

Directions:

Mix broth and soup in a large bowl (everything is going to be added to this bowl so make sure it’s a big one!). Mix in everything else. Pour into 9x13 dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Put cheese and French fried onions on top and bake 10 more minutes.

Enjoy!

Dreaming of the Beach

With the recent warming of the weather, Greg and I have been dreaming of the beach. Dreaming of a vacation where we can get away from the J-O-B, spend some good quality time with each other, talk about life, celebrate a year of marriage (what?! already??) and not to mention, spend some time in the sun. Turns out, working 8-5 for five days out of the week doesn't exactly allude to that perfectly golden summer glow.

One of the biggest pieces of advice that I've heard over and over again by those who are both older and wiser and been married for a bit longer is to TRAVEL. Doesn't matter where, just find the money (whether its a little or a lot) and just travel. Get away. Go see the world. A lot of people I know that are married and now have children, wish they would have done this more. They wish they would have prioritized this and made a way for it to happen, because its not that easy to travel once you have little kiddos running around.

Not that Greg and I have kids anywhere in the near future forecast, but we've been dreaming of the places we want prioritize and save for.

Mexico

Europe

St. John

The Bahamas

Seattle (again)

Colorado - for skiing!

Lake Tahoe

Destin
New York City
Washington D.C.

The list could go on and on forever, and its always changing. Well, we've scraped up some money (by going without shopping for new clothes, or spending money on extravagant dates, and really just learning to live simply) and we're ready to go. Since we are newlyweds and the money we've scraped up is pretty meager, we're thinking Mexico. Close enough and relatively cheap in comparison to the other destinations on our list. So, that's what we're going to do! Head to Mexico. Haven't booked anything yet, but we are on the lookout for good deals!

Have you traveled to Mexico recently or are you planning on visiting in the near future? Have any places you could recommend? We'd love any and all insight! Reviews from friends we trust are the best!

I'm Getting Brave

So for about 3 years now, my bestie, Neely, has been trying to convince me to cut off my hair. Well, my friends, I think that time is dawning. My hair is longer than its ever been, its heavy, and I tend to feel like a hippy. Not to mention, since I have oddly wavy hair, it's getting to be a pain to fix every time I want to leave the house. With a hot summer quickly approaching, I think I'm finally going to take the dive. I think I'm chopping my hair off. I think. EEK! I would be lying if I told you I wasn't nervous, because I literally haven't had semi-short hair since 6th grade. I love long hair and think other people's long hair always looks beautiful, and I definitely might regret this upcoming venture, but it grows back, right? Right. It's JUST hair. If I die, it doesn't go with me, so why am I so attached? Because I'm a big weenie. That's why.

So, after perusing Pinterest, here are my new haircut inspirations. Like I said, I'm getting bold!

Love her. Love her hair. 

Who doesn't love Jennifer? And her locks are always gorgeous.

Not sure how I feel about the bangs, mainly because I'm awful at fixing bangs. But I do like the length.

Love the layers in this one. 

Soft and Casual. 

Love this one!

Again, Love her.

Bedroom Facelift: UPDATE!

A while back... and I mean a while back, I shared a plan of a Bedroom Facelift that I had been envisioning. Slowly but surely, we've been trying to make it happen. We are in the interim phases and I'm just so excited about it that I had to share everything Greg and I have accomplished thus far!

First, I really wanted to hang up some curtains, but couldn't find any that I loved that weren't about $200. Womp Womp. Since when are curtains so stinkin' expensive?! So, I took matters into my own hands and enlisted the help of my mom, her sewing machine, and her sewing skills and we crafted some curtains that were long enough and lined. I saved SO much money by making them on my own and couldn't be happier in the way they turned out!

My inspiration: Carouseldesigns.com

The Fabric of Choice.

The outcome. I'm obsessed.

I decided to go ahead an buy enough extra fabric to make two 16x16 inch pillow covers for some throw pillows for our bed. This is on the list of crafts to complete!

The other "big" change that we've made to our room is to the decor above our bed. So this is what we had before:

We made some old decor that I had from college work until we could afford/decide what we really wanted to do. As of last night, this is the newest change to what's above our bed:

It's only in the beginning stages, but I'm so excited about how it turned out! The mantle is actually one that I found on Craigslist for $20! It was in pieces, and we did have to drive to a really sketchy part of the country to get it, but with a little bit of work, it was totally worth it! Not to mention, we found out that it was removed from a historic mansion in Highland Park that was being remodeled. How cool is that?

The decor on the mantle is no where near done or set-in-stone, but I was just so excited about it, I had to share. Plans: add lots of candles, hang and frame the letters on the wall, add some baby's breath to the bottles, and maybe even sneak an owl up there. We shall see!

So appreciative of this man and his hard work figuring out how to hang this thing.