My Week's Discoveries

Okay y'all. I swear I'm going to get better at this blogging thing! Sheesh I guess I have a pretty busy life so you understand, right?! Well let's see, this week I discovered...
- that my cooking skills are a little better than I thought. You'll find out more about that this week when I post my ingenious recipe that I came up with all on my own.
- that the month of May is going to be really busy and I have something going on every weekend. Weddings, graduations, etc...
- that I like to bake, but I'm not great at baking healthy things. More about that later as well.
- that I hate laundry...okay I already knew that but I realized I sorted clothes at least twice and still have yet to get any of it washed/put away.
- that we have a lot of clothes.
- that even though I want to like sushi, I just can't. I got some from Reasor's that had crab in it (I can normally handle some crab) but after 3 bites I just couldn't do it anymore...ugh it's so frustrating!
- that even if your backup plan, homemade fries are covered in oil....still spray the pan or they'll come out looking like this...

Ha ha! Yes, that was my mess up of the week! But it's okay because I like to learn from my mistakes, and they still taste good. (I discovered this after I yelled at the pan of course!) Brad says I need to chill out more...yes I know I do! I chilled so much outside yesterday afternoon I ended up with a sunburn yay!

It really was a great week and weekend though. The pastor of our church (Brad's grandpa) retired and now Brad's dad is taking over. I'm excited to see the new things he has planned and to see where our church goes. Yesterday we had a retirement lunch with everyone, delicious of course! Aaannnddd, I'm training to be the new treasurer! I'm very excited to get to use my degree there as well!

Here's a picture from yesterday of me, my cute husband and my lovely sister(in law, but I really just consider her one of my sisters because I love her soooo much!) That's his "I don't really want to take a picture with you guys" face....

Until next time ~ Jen

Cream Cheese Chicken Enchiladas

Howdy friends!! Hope your day was fantastic! Today I'm featuring one our all time favorite meals that is super easy to make and easily adjustable to your own taste: cream cheese chicken enchiladas. My mom made these all the time when I was growing up, I introduced Brad to them, and now we just can't ever get enough of them. I probably make them about every other week for dinner and end up having leftovers for lunch. Yay for not having to eat a frozen meal for lunch! (At work we call them "frozen goodness", in a lovingly sarcastic way of course!) In fact, I just made them last night and had one for lunch today. YUMMM!!

First, I will post the original recipe (this is all from memory so bear with me, I don't know that there is actually a "real" recipe) and then I will post adjustments I have made or experimented with.

Original(ish) Cream Cheese Chicken Enchiladas
1 whole rotisserie chicken from your local grocery store's deli (I get mine from Wal-Mart or Reasor's)
1 8oz package of cream cheese
1 4oz can of diced green chilies
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1 package of about 12 corn tortillas (or flour if you prefer)
1 16oz package of shredded cheese (I use Kraft's Taco Blend or just regular cheddar, but you can use whatever you like)

1. Pull all the meat off the rotisserie chicken, discarding all the skin, bones, grit, etc..., and shred the chicken to your liking.
2. Combine the whole block of cream cheese, whole can of chilies, and shredded chicken in a large bowl until mixed well.
3. Warm up your tortillas so that they are warm and soft, basically easier to work with :)
4. Fill the tortillas with a decent amount of the chicken mixture and roll into an enchilada shape, placing them into a 9x13 glass baking dish as you go.
5. When you're done making enchilada, or have filled up your pan, pour whole can of cream of chicken soup over the top of the enchiladas and sprinkle with as much or as little cheese as you would like. Cook at 350degrees for about 30 minutes (give or take a few minutes depending on your oven).
6. Once the cheese is melted, bubbly, and a little crunchy around the edges you are ready to eat!

Jen's Adjustments

• Because it is just Brad and I, we don't need a whole 13x9 pan of chicken enchiladas (although they would get eaten, but I like variety in my life), SO I usually halve the recipe. How in the world do you use only half a rotisserie chicken and not waste, you ask?? Well, I found one of the most amazing things EVER...roasted chicken legs. At Reasor's (my new found love, we just got one across the highway from us last summer and I am obsessed) they offer a variety of wonderful, delicious items in their deli. One of those wonderful items is roasted chicken legs, technically it is the leg and the thigh still attached. They are already cooked, just like the full rotisserie chicken, but about half of the meat that you would get from the rotisserie! I was so excited when I made this discovery; as I mentioned before I am NOT a cook and I really don't enjoy it so for me, this was awesome and gave me that extra boost of confidence that I CAN DO THIS! So, if you are looking for a way to halve the recipe because you don't want to make a dozen enchiladas, check to see if your local grocery store/deli has these available.
• Another adjustment I make is using the remaining chilies and cream cheese at part of the topping with the cream of chicken soup. Since you can't halve a can of chilies or block of cream cheese (I guess you could but the store might get mad, ha!), I combine a little of the cream cheese and the remaining chilies with the soup and then pour over the enchiladas. You don't have to, it's just my way of wasting as little as possible :)
• If you are halving the recipe, you will want to halve the time as well. Temp stays the same, just cook for about 15-20 minutes--until you see that melt-y, bubbly, crunchy goodness I talked about in the original directions.

NOTE: If you can't find a readied rotisserie chicken, I believe boiling whole, boneless chicken breasts until they are done all the way through and then shredding them should do the trick. And you may not want the flavor that a rotisserie chicken has since it's already been cooked, so cooking your own chicken may be right for you! :)

Unfortunately, before I remembered to take a picture of the ones I made last night, we had devoured almost the whole pan and it didn't look pretty anymore sooo...you'll just have to trust me on this one, and I'll try to take a picture next time.

Enjoy! ~ Jen

Color Run & Concrete

Hello Hello!! Sooooo I've been M.I.A. for a few days...yeah, I haven't quite gotten the hang of this blog thing yet. But I'm still working on it, and of course new ideas for daily posts! No worries, I'll get there eventually :)

Saturday, I did my first Color Run with my mom and sister. It was so much fun!! It's a 5k that you run (or walk) and along the route, there are 4 "color stations". At each color station, volunteers squirt you with dyed cornstarch that sticks to you and at the end you come out looking like a rainbow threw up on you. Then at the end they have a "color party" every 15 minutes where you throw the contents of the color packet, that comes in your packet with a shirt, up in the air with the whole crowd of people all around dancing and singing and having a great time. We met up with my cousin's wife, Brittney, afterwards! Always so good to see her! (check out her awesome blog here, she's definitely a blogging pro) It was so great I can't wait until next year!

Basically you start out looking like this... (my baby sister and I)

And end up looking like this...(me, my mom, and sister)

I highly encourage anyone who is able to find one near you to do it. It really is true what they say about the Color Run, "It's the happiest 5k on the planet!"

Brittney, Candace (my sister), Anita (my mom), and Me!

In other news, looks like we will be doing our first big "house project" here in a couple weeks--concrete pouring! As it is right now, our driveway is gravel and we don't have a back patio. I can't wait to have somewhere to sit in the back and chill with friends! Plus, when you have wood floors and it rains, it is not fun having to sweep the floors every time someone comes in the house dragging in loose gravel and dirt. Aaaaannd we are widening the driveway at the end so two cars can sit side by side. This makes me very happy!! Fortunately for us...and for the sake of all things beautiful and perfect, also my sanity...we are NOT doing it ourselves :)  I'm looking forward to the landscaping we're going to do around the edges when it's done...I say that now but I may change my mind after the fact.

Sunday was a beautiful day! After church and a birthday party, I sat outside in my new lawn chair (a banana chair...??) and read for almost two hours. It was lovely! Then I tried to paint my nails outside....bad idea. The wind started to pick up and now my nails look all bubbly, yuck! So I'm about to go remove the bad polish job and choose another day to paint my nails, inside this time.

Tonight I made my mom's famous chicken enchiladas (with a few of my own tweaks here and there). Stay tuned for the recipe that I will post tomorrow. It's fairly simple and doesn't take long at all! For now, I'm going to enjoy some delicious Otis Spunkmeyer cookies and a little TV with my husband and puppy. Ok, he's not a puppy anymore but he'll always be MY puppy :)

Peace out ~ Jen

Cooper (Coo-man) says "Have a great evening!"

 

Whatcha Wearin' Wednesday: LOFT Modern Straight Leg Jeans

Helloooo and Happy Wednesday! Hope everyone's week is going well! And look, we're halfway through! :)

Alongside Makeup Mondays, I have decided to do a Whatcha Wearin' Wednesday every once in awhile. I LOOOOVE to shop, especially when I get great deals! I shop A LOT at Name Brand Clothing (aka Half of Half) which is basically an overstock store which receives the extras, returns, imperfect clothes, etc...from clothing stores or donations from individuals and prices them, for the most part, way down from their original price. You definitely have to be in the mood to shop, be willing to dig around, and watch for imperfections (whether fixable or not worth trying to fix) but it can be really rewarding. I get a lot of my LOFT/Ann Taylor stuff there because otherwise I would not be able to afford it. My favorite pair of jeans came from NBC, they are LOFT Petite Modern Straight Leg Jeans in Rinse Wash (see picture below, and no that is not me). To be honest, I'm not really sure how I got my rather large bum (otherwise known around our house as "Big Bootie Jootie" haha, don't ask!) into these petite jeans but it was magical when I put them on. Kind of like the movie "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" where the same pair of jeans fits every girl in a close knit group of friends. I wanted to jump up and down and wear them every day, but I didn't...and I don't because that would be gross. But, they are super comfy and cute! I love them because I can dress them up for work or special occasions and then dress them down for the evenings or hanging out on the weekends. It's just another one of those deals that you just can't pass up when you see them hanging there on the rack for waaaaaay less than in the actual name brand store. Shopping at NBC is like a really big treasure hunt and I love looking for the next new piece to add to my already exploding closets (yes, I said "closets", I told you I have bad habits!)

I hope you find my ramblings a little helpful or at least some entertainment for the day. Don't forget to share it with your friends and find me on Instagram (@jenstecker) where you can get a little taste of my life. Alas, it's another Zumba day which gets me pumped up and ready for the day. Now it's off to work; looking forward to another productive day in the accounting world!

Stay sassy but classy! ~ Jen

A.D.D., Packages, Instagram OH MY!!

First of all, I want to stop and send my prayers out to all those in Boston who were involved or knew someone in the bombings yesterday. There were a couple people from my work there supporting a family member who was running but word is they were unharmed, just shaken up. I just cannot imagine how scary it must have been.


Today's post is going to be a bit A.D.D. with a little overflow from Makeup Monday. Work was a bit crazy yesterday and I have a feeling today will be too. So here we go...I seriously love getting mail! Well, as long as it's good mail, not bills or junk, duh! :) Yesterday I received another package from e.l.f. and even thought I already knew what was in it, I felt like a kid at Christmas!! It's just so rewarding to get amazing products for so little $$$. Eek! I just want to wear it all!!

Have I ever mentioned that I love nail polish, too?! The four that I received in my package yesterday are all glitter polishes that I can't wait to use on accent nails! You know, like, you paint four fingers one color and one finger with a pattern or glitter, etc...making it the accent nail. I'm sure you've seen it on Pinterest or Instagram. Speaking of, I'm officially on Instagram now! (You can follow me: @jenstecker) I tried hard to stay away but it seems like fun so I'm giving it a try!

Thanks for baring with my A.D.D. today!~Jen

In case you're interested, below are the items I received in my latest order, linked, so you can check them out for yourself! Don't be surprised if you see them featured during a Makeup Monday :)

Glitter Nail Polishes
     Gold Star
     Chic Confetti
     Love Me
     Dream Maker
Lipstick in "Captivating"
Jumbo Lip Gloss Stick in "Pink Umbrellas"
Super Glossy Lip Shine
     "Pretty Peach"
     "Goddess"
Eyeshadow "C" Brush
Eyeshadow Applicators
Stipple Brush
Baked Eyeshadow Palette in "California"

Makeup Monday: Essential 12-piece Eyeshadow Beauty Book

Happy Monday! I know, I know...it's the beginning of a work week for some of us, but I'm happy because it's a Zumba day! I love Zumba! It's the only workout that I've actually stuck to for longer than a week, and that is saying a lot! But that topic is for another day :)

Anyways, I've decided to dedicate a few Mondays here and there to my new obsession: makeup. I especially love e.l.f.'s line because it is very affordable and great quality! I should also be getting another package from e.l.f. in the mail today with some new items, I'm so excited!!

So this week I'm going to talk about my eyes. I have really defined eyes and I always get compliments on them (my family likes to tell me their just really big, ha!), so I'm loving the Essential 12-piece Eyeshadow Beauty Book in "Classic" that I bought for just $5.00. It has 12 different colors lined up in 3 rows that go from light to dark of a certain color palette. This morning I used the second row, light pink to a plum-ish color. Some days I will mix and match the rows depending on how I feel or what I'm wearing that day.

I will try to get a picture up of how it looks on my eyes, but for now it's off to work for me! Hope everyone has a great day and remember...

Stay sassy but classy! ~ Jen

UPDATE: See picture below of my eye makeup today. It's not great but until I figure out a better way, this is it :)

Mississippi Mud Cake

Last Thursday when I was at work, I left my desk for no more than 2 minutes and when I came back a recipe card out of a Southern Living magazine for a delicious looking dessert was just laying there. I asked around to see if anyone had put it there and no one knew where it came from. I was already planning on shopping for some other baking items that evening so I just thought Alright recipe fairy, you win! and decided to make my coworkers a Happy Friday treat. Man, was I in for a treat. It was fairly easy to make and I had most of the ingredients at home! The only thing I did differently was used a different size pan. I don't have a "jelly roll" pan (15x10x1) nor could I find one at the store so I used an 16x11x1 pan that I already had. Everyone at work had nothing but wonderful things to say about it, well except for getting onto me for bringing such a thing when we're all trying to watch what we eat.

 Follow the recipe just as it says and you will have what I like to call a "dangerous dessert". Make sure to follow up with a 5 mile run and you'll never be able to tell you ate a piece, or two :)

Recipe for Mississippi Mud Cake

~ Jen

What To Expect

Well, here I am...blogging?! What?! I have been contemplating this for awhile because I've been into trying out home organizing tips, new recipes, and makeup tutorials that I find on Pinterest. It's definitely been a recent love of mine because I am newly married (almost 5 months, woo!) and we purchased our first home at the end of last year. I was seriously amazed at all the stuff we had accumulated, individually, over our short 23 years. I was fairly confident in my organized, clean-freak ways growing up so when I moved all my stuff from my parents' home I was shocked to find that it took up our entire living room and then some...it was a perfectionist's nightmare. I had to buckle down and just sit for hours going through box after box of things that I had collected. I am proud to say that we are pretty much settled into our house now and although there are a few boxes, we are on our way to total organization. My recent venture has been cleaning up and organizing the office. It became the room that collected the extra wedding gifts, unopened boxes, and lots of paper. I'm still working on it but it's definitely a lot better.

And then there is the whole cooking thing. Let me just say, I am NOT a cook. I could bake a thousand cakes, cookies, etc...all day long and love every minute of it, but when it comes to deciding what to make for dinner and figuring out how long to cook the meat, blah blah blah, it just blows my mind and stresses me out, not to mention that I really hate handling raw meat. My husband loves to cook and is excellent at it! Unfortunately he is still in school (finishing up his Bachelor's in December!) and is gone most nights of the week so that leaves me to do all the cooking....yay... But, thanks to Pinterest and all the lovely "pinners" out there who share delicious, semi-easy recipes my cooking skills have expanded and my baking skills have sky rocketed! I think it's the accountant in me that prefers baking over cooking. When you bake you have an exact measurement of every ingredient; when you cook, it can be experimental and you can add a little of this or that depending on your taste. No way, I want straight forward measurements and the order that they must make their appearance. I have been getting some new ideas from Pinterest so be watching for delicious dessert recipes to show up at least once or twice a week here!

My latest obsession is makeup. I LOVE MAKEUP. I will admit I've been stuck in a rut for awhile with the same makeup application day after day. But for some reason it has become something that has just overwhelmed me. Especially when I discovered e.l.f. Make Up & Cosmetics, aka Eyes Lips Face. Now I have about every color of eye shadow you can imagine and more on it's way to me right now. My husband just looks at me funny every time I get another box from them, but he can't complain because it's cheap. I don't mean the makeup itself is crappy, it is literally cheap. So go check it out!!

Wow, (looks up) that is some serious bloggage. Can I say that? Is that a word? Well, it is now. I don't think my future blogs will be as detailed as this one but I wanted to give ya'll an overview of what you can expect to see me write about on here. I'm not perfect and I plan to share those mistakes with you because I think it's important to know that if you try a new recipe, it may not look the same as the picture you see in the magazine, or if you try a new makeup tutorial you may end up looking more like a clown than a sexy, photoshopped model. I'm a real person who is learning right along with everyone else. And my house is always a mess. I have learned that it's okay to let it go for a day; enjoy life, makes messes, and try new things.

Until next time ~ Jen