My Wedding Shoes!!!

Those of you who follow me on Twitter may remember my tweets of frustration a month or so ago as I tried, unsuccessfully, to locate this pair of Badgley Mischka pink pumps in my size for my wedding day.

Badgley Mischka Xango Pink Pumps

According to the woman Badgley Mischka referred me to when I emailed the company about the shoes, the pumps I wanted first became available in April and the pink ones sold like crazy.

Great for Badgley Mischka. Bad for me.

I searched all over the internet and in local stores that carry Badgley Mischka shoes without avail. The woman I spoke with encouraged me to call my local Nordstrom and ask for their assistance in locating the shoe.

The gentlemen I spoke with from Nordstrom told me the shoes sold really quickly, but that he would call around other stores and let me know if anything turned up.

Well, it did!

Woohoo!!! My wedding day shoes should arrive in 5 – 8 business days.

(For those of you who are wondering what happened to the shoes I originally wanted… Well, I decided against them because they were more than 5 inches high. Though this would work fine with Ryan’s height (he’s 6’2”) I am already taller than all my bridesmaids and didn’t want to look like Sasquatch on my wedding day. Sooo, I opted for a more modest heeled shoe. Still pink, though. 😉 )

Lunch

I wish my lunch was as exciting as my wedding shoes, but as a serious shoe lover, that’s basically impossible.

Well, unless lunch was an ice cream sundae from Houston’s.

My lunch was still delicious though, and that’s what really matters.

Using leftover taco-seasoned ground chicken from last night’s dinner, I made myself a taco salad that included:

• Spring mix greens
• Broccoli slaw
• Frozen sweet corn (It thawed by lunchtime)
• Grape tomatoes
• Taco-seasoned ground chicken
• Crumbled hard shell taco
• Salsa

Taco Salad

Salsa

Using salsa as salad dressing is one of my favorite ways to enjoy the slightly spicy tomato-based sauce. It adds so much flavor!

Frozen Corn Close Up

Okay, kids. Fun’s over!

Back to work I go! 😀

Keep Calm and Win a Print

Today’s lunch was a no-brainer.

Leftover chicken taco meat  = Chicken taco salad

Chicken Taco Salad

Today’s taco salad included:

• Ground chicken with taco seasoning
• Crumbled hard shell tacos
• Kerry & Loni’s Bean-Tastico Salsa
• Shredded iceberg lettuce
• Cucumbers
• Grape tomatoes
• Cucumber

Thursday Lunch

On the side, I enjoyed a ramekin full of fresh cantaloupe.

"Will you marry me?" "Yes, but we cant-aloupe!"

Quite the colorful and tasty spread!

Amish Friendship Bread Update

I brought about ¾ of a loaf of Amish Friendship bread to work today (the recipe I made last night yields two loaves) and within an hour, this is what remained:

The Remains

The highly addictive nature of this bread has led me to believe one thing, which I tweeted about earlier today:

Tweet, Tweet

I seriously couldn’t stop eating this stuff. Thank goodness it’s G-O-N-E.

I’m pretty sure that consuming more than half of a loaf of this bread within a 15-hour timeframe is not on most soon-to-be brides’ list of “things to do.” 😉

Phenomenal Giveaway!!!

As I hinted about yesterday, I have one heck of an awesome giveaway for you guys today!!!

I fell in love with an adorable print I saw on Tina’s blog back in January that proclaimed “Keep Calm and Love Pugs.” I thought it was so cute and also served as a good reminder to keep calm in life and cherish the little things that bring you joy.

When I saw another “Keep Calm” print show up on Caitlin’s blog last week, I was reminded of the print and immediately headed to the artist’s store (The Lobster Pot) on Etsy.com to browse the prints and purchase one for our apartment.

I contacted Barb, the artist, to see whether or not she could make me specialized print in honor of my slight obsession with Sadie. I requested a “Keep Calm and Love Vizslas” print and was excited when Barb emailed me back saying she could easily make me one!

When Barb saw that I had a blog of my own, I got an email from her saying she’d love to offer a giveaway on the ol’ blog.

Now you guys have a chance to win a Keep Calm print of your choice!

To enter this giveaway, simply comment on this post telling me what you’d want your “Keep Calm” print to say.

I will randomly select a winner tomorrow afternoon.

Good luck! 😀

Amish Friendship Bread

Lots to post about tonight!

Let’s go in chronological order, shall we?

I arrived home to find four packages on our front porch… along with our garbage can. 😀 I think the FedEx guy put our garbage can in front the packages to prevent anyone from seeing our goodies, but it was quite a strange sight to see!

Package number one included our first wedding present!

First Wedding Gift!

The present was from quite the unique gift giver.

Love, Lily

The gift was from Lily, my orthodontist’s dog who some of you may remember I found wandering around the streets near our apartment when she escaped from my orthodontist’s backyard. I had no idea Lily was her dog when I brought her home to call the number on her dog tag and get her back to her owners! It was quite a crazy coincidence.

Lily did a great job selecting our first wedding gift and bought us a cookie jar filled with cookie cutters that we registered for at Williams-Sonoma last weekend.  Thank you Lily! 😉

Sadie’s Package

The next package made Sadie quite happy!

A new frisbee toy!

"New Toys are the BEST!"

Yes, the blue frisbee in the picture above was brand new. Sadie is a toy destroyer!

"THROW IT!"

In my feeble attempt to play with Sadie and throw the frisbee to the farthest point of our backyard, I accidentally threw the frisbee on the roof!

"Uh oh."

She was devastated. We cannot open our bedroom (it’s sealed shut), and we tried stacking chairs and using broomsticks to get it down without luck. A ladder sure would’ve helped. 😉

Dinner

Since playtime was cut short by my frisbee faux paux, dinner was served a bit early this evening!

Before I left for work this morning, I placed a pound of ground chicken in the crock pot with a packet of reduced sodium taco seasoning and 2/3 cup of water. The forethought made assembling slow cooker chicken tacos (one of the first recipes I ever posted on PBF!) a breeze once we were ready for dinner.

I used the chicken to create a big taco salad with shredded lettuce, salsa and two crumbled hardshell tacos.

Taco Salad

Chicken + Taco Shells + Lettuce + Salsa

Fiesta in a Bowl

 This taco salad was cool and crisp… perfect for a summer night!

Dessert

As Tina would say, HOLY YUM.

This evening’s dessert was a long time coming. Seriously.

I’ve been waiting 10 days to make it!

Ten days ago my sister gave me a bag of dough and a piece of paper with instructions. The paper informed me that the dough I received was the “starter dough” I would need to create Amish Friendship Bread.

I absolutely love the concept of Amish Friendship Bread. Once you receive the dough for Amish Friendship Bread from a friend, it becomes your duty to make the bread and pass along your own “starter dough” to three of your friends.

Tonight I finally got to make the yummy bread.

Amish Friendship Bread

Cinnamon Sugar Bready Carby Goodness

As the bread was baking, the smell in our apartment was unbelievable. It smelled like coffee cake and cinnamon!

I enjoyed one small slice fresh outta the oven!

Moist. Sweet. Perfect.

Okay that was a blatant lie. I definitely had three pieces. And the piece pictured above was definitely the smallest of the three. 😉

I am planning on passing along my starter dough to two of my friends but thought it might be neat to pass it along to a blog reader, too! If you live in the Orlando area and would like a bag of starter dough to keep the Amish Friendship Bread chain going, shoot me an email at pbfingers@gmail.com and I’ll pass it along to ya! (First come, first serve, to be fair. 😉 )

If you want to create this bread and pass it along to your friends you may click here for instructions!

Now I’m off to watch the second half of So You Think You Can Dance before hittin’ the hay! (How good was Robert’s dance about Travis’ mother? Eeeeemotional!)

G’night all!

Deconstructed Tacos

…Also known as taco salad! 😀

I always look forward to taco night for two reasons:

1. Tacos are delicious
2. Taco leftovers make for an awesome taco salad for lunch

Right after I licked my plate clean finished dinner last night, I used the remaining lean ground beef taco meat, salsa and shredded lettuce to make today’s taco salad.

Taco Salad + Salsa

I added two large handfuls of frozen corn kernels to the salad to thaw overnight.

Note: Frozen corn is surprisingly delicious straight outta the bag!

Thursday's Lunch

I closed the Tupperware lid on this bad boy and shook it up until the salsa coated every last inch of lettuce.

Tossed Up

Darn good eatin’.

Wanna know what else was darn good eatin’?

My dessert.

Enter, Reese‘s peanut butter cups!

Reese's

A coworker and I split a pack of this chocolate + peanut butter deliciousness and I enjoyed every last bite!

My PB Cup

I’ve been eyin’ Reese’s since I saw the Easter Reese’s eggs on the shelves at the grocery store this week.

I ❤ Easter candy!

What’s your favorite Easter candy?

I can’t get enough of those Cadbury mini eggs. They’re the best!

My mom loves Peeps… but she likes them a little stale and removes them from their packaging for a day before eating them. 🙂

Leftovers for Lunch

Lunch today was leftovers from last night’s turkey taco dinner.

Instead of eating tacos again, I used the turkey taco meat in a big salad with salsa and sweet corn.

Taco Salad

All Shook Up

Morning Snack

For my morning snack I enjoyed a protein bar that I took from my parents’ house.

Atkins Protein Bar

The Atkins Advantage caramel double chocolate crunch bar is my absolute favorite protein bar. I don’t eat them very often and I don’t understand half of the ingredients, but they are rich and delicious.

Attune Chocolate Probiotic Wellness Bar Giveaway

If you haven’t already, be sure to enter my Attune chocolate bar giveaway for a chance to win a 14-day supply of these delicious chocolate bars. Click here to enter!

Free Bottle of Vitamin Water

Click here to become a fan of Vitamin Water on Facebook and receive a free bottle.

Bearpaw Boots for $30

Do you love Uggs, but hate the hefty price tag? Amazon.com has three different Bearpaw boots (which look a lot like Uggs!) on sale for $30! Not a bad deal!

Bearpaw Boots

Click here to check ’em out.

AMA Round Ten

What were your dream jobs when you were a kid?

When I was a kid I really wanted to be a dolphin trainer. In high school I wanted to be a weather girl and then a news anchor. I started college as an education major with the intent to graduate and teach high school English… and now I’m a writer!

Do you drink pop?

I love that you called soda “pop” because I had to train myself to call it soda when I moved to Florida from Illinois. 🙂 I do not drink soda regularly. When I was little we never had it in our house and weren’t allowed to order it at restaurants unless it was a special occasion. I will occasionally drink a diet soda when I’m in the mood for something sweet and carbonated, but I typically stick to water, tea and coffee as my beverages of choice.

Are you allergic to eggs? You never eat them!

No, I am not allergic to eggs. I thought I posted about them a lot, but I guess not! I typically eat eggs several times a week. 🙂 I had eggs on Saturday and have enjoyed them numerous times on this blog. I actually dedicated an entire post to my love of dippy eggs which may be seen here.