Spinach & Beef Stuffed Sweet Potatoes!

Good afternoon friends :) How's everybody's Monday going? Good I hope :) We have been super crazy busy over here, I've been meaning to post this recipe for about a week now but life just got the best of me! It's GOOD crazy busy though! My husband found out last week that he passed his promotion test and I am now a proud wife of a Staff Sergeant in the United States Air Force!

My hubby (on the right) accepting his promotion! Whoo!

How cute is he?! Proud wifey over here! Plus I've been super busy painting pretty little things for my shop, you can keep up with those things over at Brittany's Beachy Chic Creations!

So I've decided to set myself a little blogging schedule to keep me on track here and with my other projects as well! Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays will bring new blog posts. Mondays will be "New Meal Mondays" - a new recipe, Wednesdays will be "What I'm Working on Wednesday" and I'll share the details of my latest DIY projects, and Friday will just be whatever I feel like sharing. I've even set little reminders on my phone, it's gonna ring at noon Mon, Wed, & Fri and tell me to get my butt blogging. Done & Done. 

Alright so I swear this blog post is actually about a stuffed sweet potato. 

If you know anything about my husband and I at all you know that we are OBSESSED with sweet potatoes. We probably eat them with dinner at least 4 times a week. Excessive? Maybe. But they taste great, they're super good for you, and they're so simple to cook! The brilliance of this whole meal is that it comes together lickety split and the flavors just taste good together. And it's REALLY SUPER GOOD FOR YOU! I love this meal post workout because I can just throw the sweet potatoes in the oven to bake while I'm in the shower and then cook up the beef and spinach when I get out and throw them together quickly. Done. Delicious. :)

Ingredients:
2 Large Sweet Potatoes 
2 Tbsp. Olive Oil (divided)
1 LB. Lean Ground Beef
2 tsp. Seasoned Salt
1 tsp. Garlic Powder
1 tsp. Onion Powder
1/2 tsp. Ground Black Pepper
3 Cups Baby Spinach
1 tsp. Garlic Powder
Salt & Pepper to taste

Step 1: Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake your sweet potatoes about 45 minutes or until they're cooked through, this will depend on the size your potatoes! You can also microwave first to speed up the process:) 

Step 2: In a large skillet heat 1 Tbsp olive oil, add ground beef and cook through. Add seasoned salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and pepper and mix well. Drain beef and set aside.

Step 3: In same skillet heat 1 more Tbsp olive oil and add spinach. Season with garlic powder, salt, & pepper and cook until wilted.

Step 4: Set up a little mixing station with your spinach, beef, and potatoes.

Step 5: Cut open sweet potato and flatten with a fork to make lot of space for stuffing. 

Step 6: Top sweet potato with half of the spinach mixture.

Step 7: Top with ground beef mixture.

Step 8: Use your fork to mix the sweet potato, spinach, and beef all together so you get a little bit of everything in every bite!

ENJOY :)

3 Ingredient Amazingly Easy Chicken

Good afternoon friends! Sorry I've been so M.I.A lately, I've been busy like a bee! Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Busy is good though so I'm not gonna complain. I've showed y'all a few of my fun furniture projects in the past, and I was finally encouraged to turn those projects into a little business! I started "Brittany's Beachy Chic Creations" and you can check them out here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Brittanys-Beachy-Chic-Creations/131417927037113. I've had so much fun doing this and it's really exciting when people love something that's so personal to you. AND I even have a new chicken recipe for ya today. WHOOP WHOOP! This chicken is awesome. And it might be the easiest thing you've ever made. Like, ever. Here's what's involved: 

And a little salt & pepper. Yep, that's it. No marinating, no real prep just a little sauce and bake those chickens up. This is perfect for after a workout when I get home and I'm exhausted and starving, I don't want to exert any real effort but I want to stuff my face with clean protein. Wham bam thank you ma'am. Don't believe the deliciousness I'm promising? I got the recipe here: http://rachelschultz.com/2012/07/11/worlds-best-chicken/ and she calls it the "WORLD'S BEST CHICKEN". I don't know if I think it's totally the "world's best", but it's DEFINITELY the best thing that's ever happened in so little time. 

Oh and one more note, I've tried this recipe with 3 different versions of mustard. The BEST one is with Gulden's Spicy Brown Mustard. I don't know why but when I used yellow mustard and sweet- hot mustard the chicken just wasn't that good. So make sure it's Gulden's or something exactly like it... 

Ingredients:
1 Package Chicken Breasts (I use the "sliced thin" kind because they cook faster) 
1/2 Cup Spicy Brown Mustard
1/4 Cup 100% Maple Syrup
1 Tbsp. Red Wine Vinegar
Salt & Pepper

Step 1: Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a pan with aluminum foil. In a small bowl whisk together mustard, syrup, and vinegar. 

Step 2: Salt & pepper you chicken breasts liberally.

Step 3: Place your chicken in a ziploc bag and pour your sauce over to coat completely. I let my chicken hang out in the sauce while I'm prepping the side dish, but you can skip and go ahead and bake them if you want- I just like to let them soak up all the flavor they can.

Step 4: Place your chicken in an even row on a baking sheet and pour any excess sauce over top. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until chicken is cooked through (this will depend on the thickness of your chicken!)

Enjoy!

Paleo Cinnamon Roll Pancakes!

Today, we're talking pancakes. I LOVE pancakes. They're quick, easy, and delicious. I love these pancakes because they taste like a cinnamon roll, minus the sugar crash and guilty feeling afterward. Also they make your whole house smell like cinammon-y heaven. Score.

I added some chopped walnuts to this batch because I like nutty pancakes, but you can totally skip those and achieve the same cinnamon roll goodness. Make sure to top with 100% maple syrup (none of that fake high fructose stuff!) and some protein on the side. Perfect Saturday morning breakfast for the whole family! 

Ingredients:
4 Eggs
1 Cup Almond Milk
2 tsp. Vanilla Extract
1 Tbsp Honey
1/2 Cup Coconut Flour
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Ground Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/4 Cup Chopped Walnuts (optional)
2 Tbsp. Butter or Coconut Oil

Step 1: Whisk your eggs together for a couple of minutes until bright yellow and frothy. We wanna incorporate air to keep the pancakes light & fluffy!

Step 2: Add almond milk, vanilla, honey, coconut flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt to your eggs and whisk together until combined.

Step 3: If you're adding nuts fold them into your batter now.

Step 4: Warm a non-stick skillet or griddle on medium-high heat and melt butter or coconut oil on the skillet.

I used fresh grass-fed butter for super cinnamon roll-y taste!

Step 5: Ladle batter by about 1/4 cup onto skillet to form pancakes. Let cook 1-2 minutes until browned around the edges and bubbling, then flip and cook through.

Stack high, pour on some maple syrup & enjoy! Yum!

A Beachy Striped Coffee Table & An Almost Awkward Situation

Happy Monday! I hope you're not lagging because it's the first day of the week! Here to perk you up: a picture of this beautiful table I painted!

Isn't she pretty?! She didn't start out that way. In fact, she was a rescue!  Here's where the almost awkward situation comes in...

A couple of weeks ago a fellow Air Force wife on base posted on Facebook that she was tossing a coffee table and some end tables out on her curb and they were up for grabs. I headed out to check the tables out because we were currently looking to put a coffee table in the guest room to create a "man cave" and we needed side tables for our bedroom. What I found when I arrived were 3 tables in very good shape, just in need of a little facelift!

The Tables

The Coffee Table "Before"

I scrubbed the tables up really good and cleaned out all of the little crevices then gave them a quick sanding. Then I primed them all, I love Kilz spray on primer the original kind. It is so easy, dries quickly, and covers every little thing. I use it on everything. Then I gave the tables about 2 coats of an antique white color I got from Home Depot and let them dry overnight. The next day I distressed them all and the side tables were finished!

I used painter's tape on the top of the coffee table to tape off some stripes and painted them a turquoise-y color I got a little sample pot of from Ace Hardware. After the stripes dried I sprayed on a coat of MinWax to seal in the paint job and also for easy clean-up. Coffee tables are a high traffic area and need to be easily cleanable! I was super happy with the end product.

Oh wait, are you asking yourself where the awkward part comes in? Right, here goes. So after the paint dried and I had obsessed over the tables enough (I was really, really in love with them!) I came to the realization that we really didn't need them. I'm already seeing that a "man cave" isn't going to happen, we have enough guests coming this month and planning to come in the future that we are going to need 2 full-time guest rooms. Unfortunately you only need 1 coffee table per house pretty much and ours is only 2 months old, so replacing that wasn't really an option. So I decided to put the table set up for sale. I calculated my time spent on the tables along with the cost of products used and came up with a reasonable price. Even though the tables were Free, my time and the paint are not! I listed them on Craigslist and on a few local "for sale" Facebook pages. The tables garnered interested buyers almost immediately and I felt so proud that people really liked my tables!! One very interested buyer's name stood out to me, and I couldn't figure out why. I thought about it and realized... she was the same person who threw the tables out originally! ...Awkward. I sent her a text to let her know that she was more than welcome to purchase the tables from me but she should be aware that they are her old tables, just painted bright and pretty! I was nervous, was she going to be mad?! Would she think I just took the tables to paint and make a profit?! Did I look like a total jerk?! I waited anxiously for her to reply. Her response? "WOW! You are amazing!! I would never have thought to do that!" Siiiiiiigh of relief. Turns out she STILL wanted to buy the tables and came by the next day to pick them up. She was so gracious and complimentary of my work and I realized I didn't have anything to be nervous about in the first place. Now the tables have a new (old) home and very happy owners and I feel kinda crazy good about my artistry! Whoo! And in case you didn't get enough stripe-y table goodness here's a couple more pictures:

Have a good week everybody!
 

The Salty Chihuahua!

Happy March Everybody! I love March because it means Spring is coming! I am so, so ready for my first Florida Panhandle Spring. Lounging in the sunshine, reading a good book, drinking a sweet cocktail... umm yes I'm ready. I was browsing Pinterest aimlessly the other day like I do and I came across the prettiest pink drink- attention captured immediately, and then the title- "The Salty Chihuahua". EXCUSE ME?! Anyone who knows me, knows that I have a tiny chihuahua named Bo who runs my house. He is evil and wonderful all the same time. 2.5 pounds of furry love. So I knew I would be making this drink, regardless of ingredients, it was going to happen. I followed the link to the recipe and lo and behold it was a fitness magazine (http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/recipes/recipecomdetail.jsp?recipeId=25124278) and a low calorie drink! I'm always looking for those. 

Not only is this drink beautiful, sweet, yummy, and named after a chihuahua it is ALSO under 200 calories. I think I've officially found my summer drink. Don't be scared off by the tequila, this drink is delicious. It tastes like something they bring you with a little umbrella in it :) And because of the name I had to do this...

That's my chihuahua and The Salty Chihuahua. Bo was less than thrilled about posing... 

Ingredients: (for 1 drink)
3 oz. Tequila
1.5 oz. Orange Liqueur
7.5 oz. Grapefruit Juice

If desired salt the edge of your rim with kosher salt (that's where the Salty part comes in...) Fill your cup with ice, pour all ingredients over top and mix well. Garnish with lemon, lime, or grapefruit slices!

I thought my Margaritaville cup was very fitting...

I had a lot of fun taking pictures of these drinks... can you tell?!

 And because it's his namesake, here's some gratuitous pictures of my little man: 

Posing in the leaves in Little Rock

Lounging on the beach!

Keeping warm in my hubby's hoodie

We were feeling the love on Valentine's Day!

They make the most handsome pair, don't they?! And yes that's a polo doggie shirt, and he popped his collar. He's a diva.

Cheers! Enjoy your weekend :)