Crock Pot Chili

Classes started this week, and with them comes a new schedule. Unfortunately I have class until 7 or 7:30 pm Monday-Thursday. "When am I going to eat????" was my first question. This week Edwin stayed at school until I was done and then picked me up. Which means that we both arrive home at 8 pm hungry and tired. What to do?

Yesterday I had the brilliant idea of becoming best friends with our crock pot. It's a perfect solution. I will be at home studying during the day, for the most part. It will be super easy and convenient to put together a crock pot dish before I leave for class. Yesterday was the first attempt. It was perfection. Chili went into the crock pot at 12:30. We got home at 7:50, with just enough time to dish it up and turn on the tv for Expedition Impossible. The only problem is that now I need more crock pot recipes! Leave a recipe in a comment if you have a good one, please!

As I mentioned, yesterday I made Chili. I found the recipe on skinnytaste.com (great website).

Crock Pot 3 Bean Turkey Chili
Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes
Servings: 12 • Serving Size: 10.8 oz • Old Points: 3 pts • Points+: 5 pts
Calories: 206.3 • Fat: 1.4 g • Protein: 16.8 g • Carb: 31.8 g • Fiber: 9.0 g

• 1.3 lb (20 oz) fat free ground turkey breast
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes
• 1 (16 oz) can tomato sauce
• 1 (4.5 oz) can chopped chilies, drained
• 1 (15 oz) can chickpeas, undrained
• 1 (15.5 oz) can black beans, undrained
• 1 (15.5 oz) can small red beans, undrained
• 2 tbsp chili powder

Topping:

• 1/2 cup chopped red onion
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro for topping
• shredded cheddar to top (extra pts)

Brown turkey and onion in a medium skillet over medium high heat until cooked through.
Drain any fat remaining and transfer to crock pot. Add the beans, chilies, chickpeas tomatoes, tomato sauce and chili powder mixing well.
Cook on high 6-8 hours.
Garnish with onions, cilantro and cheese and enjoy!

I made a few changes. I left out the turkey to make it vegetarian. I'm not sure what "small red beans" are, but I used kidney beans. They are big, but red, so I figured they would work. I added some canned jalapenos instead of chilies. Also, we skipped the onion and cilantro on top. And finally, I made cavatappi noodles (curly tubed noodles) and added them at the end.

It turned out delicious!! Happy Friday everyone!

Quarter of a Century Old!

Ok, so apparently no one liked the dog picture. In other news, yesterday was my 25th birthday!!! I think turning 24 caused me more anxiety than 25, which is a little weird. I'm a quarter of a century old!!! Two and a half decades old. I had an awesome weekend. I'm thrilled to be 25. Lower car rental rates! I'm getting married this year! What more could you want.

On Friday, we went to a potluck/grill-out at one of Edwin's co-workers houses. Leigh and I stopped at a gas station to pick up some drinks to contribute... The cashier took one look at my ID and said, "You old." Uh, thanks lady. For the record, she was definitely older than I am. After the potluck Ted and Leigh came over and we all played Boggle. Leigh made me this beautiful cake! It's great to have such good friends!

On Sunday (my actual birthday, for the uninformed), Edwin and I had brunch with Ted, Leigh and Chris (another teacher at their school) at a great restaurant that I would definitely go back to. The migas were delicioso. The rest of my birthday included a trip to Whole Foods, going to see The Help (4 stars), and a home-cooked steak dinner.

I got to Skype with the fam, heard from tons of friends, and even got a slideshow (thanks, Mom) of past birthdays!! Edwin made the day so special for me and I had a blast spending the day with him. I kinda like the guy :) Thanks for making my day so special everyone!

Perfect Halloween Costume

This made me laugh out loud, thought you might like it too :)

Source: tumblr.com via Jamie on Pinterest

More aparment design!

Good Morning readers!! It is 6:30 am, Edwin has already left for school and I have my first day of graduate school orientation today. My new goal is to wake up at the same time as Edwin in hopes of having productive mornings, and hopefully decreasing the amount of work I am still doing when he gets home at night and/or when I get back from class at night.

Anywho- we had a wonderful weekend!!! On Saturday night we had a wonderful dinner at North by Northwest (not to be confused with the music festival South by Southwest) and then went to see Crazy, Stupid, Love. We both loved it! Four stars. Go see it! Throughout the weekend we squeezed in a few games of Boggle (Chelsea 1-Edwin 1) and even made a trip to IKEA! The fruits of which you are about to see. This should be the last craft/DIY/design post for awhile, as my summer has officially ended. After this post we will resume our regularly scheduled broadcasting. (WHAT?! You say? Only one post every 2 months?!) We'll see about that.

We have been dealing with the combined challenges of a tiny kitchen and lots of gifts from my bridal shower. Not that we're complaining!! We decided that we need some new kitchen storage to display our wares (the ones that won't fit in the cupboards, anyway). Off to IKEA we went. With my birthday money, we found this awesome sideboard! Happy Birthday to me!!!

We love it. I put it together in no time at all which is a bonus. We now have storage for our cookbooks, big bowls, wok and food processor. We also picked up 2 glass racks which will allow us to hang our glasses upside down to save space. (We only have one installed right now and you can see the glasses hanging on the left.)

We also picked up a big canvas to hang over the sideboard. We think it depicts a pretty generic city, which we like. It could be anywhere!

We think that the new stuff adds a lot to the apartment and maximizes our space.

Here are the two pieces

Here is the wider view so you can see how it all fits in. We moved the table over a bit to give the sideboard some breathing room. (Sideboards need to breathe, just like feet!!)

On Saturday I put up our pictures about the couch. We like the color the frames and pictures add to the room.

Last but not least, we moved the art (by Tim!!) that was above the couch to the fireplace.

Our apartment has so much color now, which is so much fun!! Our apartment tends to be kind of dark since it is a basement unit, so having color on the walls helps it to feel bright.

Happy Monday!!

Happy Birthday Brady!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Brady!!! Last Saturday Adam and Andrea hosted a super fun bday party for the B man. I was very happy to be in town for the party!

I am in love with these Cookie Monster cupcakes!!! They turned out so so cute!

Andrea made super cute decorations for the fiesta.

The Bray-man went nude for his cupcake eating adventure

Going for it!

Quite pleased with himself!

Love you Brady!!

DIY Art + Organization

I am celebrating my last week of summer with lots of projects around our apartment. I am in the middle of creating a wall of frames above our couch. Today I created two easy canvas pieces to add to the mix!

This is Costa Rica- the heart is where Edwin proposed :) I made this by printing out an outline map of Costa Rica and tracing it on a blank canvas. Then I painted the background and filled in the map. I'm really happy with how it turned out!

I'm really excited about this one. I've seen this quote in a few places and always thought it was really special. Especially since my new hobby is decorating and improving our apartment! I think it's a nice reminder of what is really important, and why I am so happy in this little space. To make it, I used letter stamps and stamped them on a piece of scrapbook paper from Michael's. Super easy!

My other recent projects involve kitchen organization. Our kitchen is tiny, and the cabinets are kind of gross. The wood is warped and so the bottoms are concave. Not quite conducive to maximizing storage space. Not to fear!! Yesterday I discovered these sweet little racks at Bed Bath & Beyond. They have made an enormous difference!

So much better!

Today I got this drawer organizer at Target. I love the results and may or may not have opened the drawer for the rest of the day to see the fruits of my labor.

Stay tuned to see how the wall of frames turns out!

Sweet as Apple Pie

Well (that's a deep subject), hello!!!!! We're back! Or rather, I'm back to Austin. I spent the past 2 1/2 weeks in Wisconsin with my wonderful family and friends. Over the next few days I will post pictures and stories from my trip! It was so fun, relaxing and rejuvenating. Let's get started! During Sibs Weekend, we made Grandma's apple pie. It tasted uh-may-zing.

Adam peeling apples- a job which, of course, he tried to delegate to someone else :)

the crust-master (Andrea) and her apprentice (me)

the boys

A thing of beauty

The finished product!