Best Friend Shenanigans & Some Faves

This week I got to spend some quality time with my BFF from Monday night to Thursday. I still went to work while she got errands and shopping done during the day but we hung out in the evenings, cooked healthy dinners and drank wine. On Wednesday which was her last night, we went out for some happy hour drinks and sushi at our favorite sushi spot downtown. After dinner we went home and, in true form, killed a large bottle of wine while chatting on the patio and cracking up over old memories. Let's just say, Thursday morning was a rough one heading out for work. lol I also blame that on the super strong martinis they served us at dinner.

I was also really sad to tell her goodbye on Thursday morning since we may not get to see each other for another year. On a brighter note another girl friend and her boyfriend arrived late last night from Trinidad and we're going to spend the weekend entertaining them so I'm really looking forward to that!

Now on to some of my favorites for the week and joining the lovely Amanda for her weekly linkup.

Favorite Recipe:

Biana's Naan Pizzas look beyond amazing and the perfect way get your pizza fix without the major guilt factor. 

Favorite Shopping Finds:

Clearly I have a thing for bows...

Floral Bow Back Dress

Black & Mint Bow Bikini set

Favorite Quote: 

More Finds:

Trader Joe's Triple Cream Brie with Wild Mushrooms is to die for!

I've been on a serious salad kick over the past week and my BFF picked up Marzetti's Light Balsamic Vinaigrette (which is gluten free) to make dinner on Monday night. So good! 

Favorite Funnies:

Every. Single. Time. We end up having scrambled omelets. lol

Happy weekend lovelies!!

Central Florida's Best Festivals

I'm sure you can find almost any type of festival in Central Florida to appease your cultural, music, food, and entertainment interests but the following happen to be my favorite annual festivals and events in and around the Orlando area.

Disney's Flower & Garden Festival

I've been to Epcot twice for the International Flower & Garden Festival which usually takes place from March to May every year. Gorgeous topiary displays of Disney characters are scattered throughout the park along with several flower and garden displays, a butterfly garden and a few extra outdoor kitchens with seasonal food. This is a really pretty time of year to visit Epcot and there's no additional fee during the Flower & Garden Festival apart from the regular entrance fee to enter the park.

Florida Music Festival

Taking place annually in April and lasting for 3 nights from 7pm to 2am, more than 50 bands perform at over a dozen bars and stages in downtown Orlando. The music ranges from rock, pop, country, hip hop and bluegrass and the best part is that admission is free! This is a great local event for the music lovers out there and supposedly many undiscovered artists (like Taylor Swift back in 2002) have performed at the FMF in the past.


Image Credit

Crawfish Festival

This was probably my favorite event of the year and unfortunately it has been put on hold (possibly cancelled?) due to location issues. The original location was a huge lakefront party with live music, draft beer flowing and thousands of pounds of boiled crawfish for sale. Live music played throughout the day and it was fun to be on the water. The most recent event was at Heritage Square which wasn't on the water so less appealing location but nevertheless still a great line up of bands and overall fun time. I'm hoping they can bring the Crawfish Festival back soon!

Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival

This is a fun family-friendly day event with lots of great food stands and beautiful art from local artists in Central Florida. The festival takes place in March and is very close to my office so I love walking over with coworkers every year to grab some lunch and then walk around to browse all the different arts and craft exhibits.

Orlando Chili Cookoff

Orlando Chili Cookoff takes place annually at Festival Park which is located downtown Orlando. Presale tickets are $10 and guests can enjoy free chili samples from over 75 different chili booths, live music all day, cold drinks for purchase, and The World Chili Eating Challenge. Unfortunately the year I attended got rained out but we didn't let that stop us. We showed up equipped with umbrellas and went from booth to booth tasting all the yummy chili, including deer chili,which was the most interesting sample I tried.

Florida Strawberry Festival

Strawberry festival takes place annually for a couple weeks in March in Plant City, Florida which is about an hour outside of Orlando. Ticket prices range from $50-10 and guests can enjoy a variety of entertainment, rides, art exhibits, music, and food stands.

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Epcot International Food & Wine Festival

Disney's Food & Wine festival takes place in the Fall usually from late September to mid November. This is probably one of the most popular festivals that people attend every year in Orlando. Funny enough, I've never actually been before but not that I'm a season passholder I plan to go this year and will do a full review of my experience.

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Jalapeno & Swiss Stuffed Chicken

Ingredients:

2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1/2 cup Lite Balsamic salad dressing

4 slices swiss cheese

2 jalapeno peppers, deseeded and sliced

plastic wrap

toothpicks

What To Do:

1. Cover individual chicken breasts in plastic wrap and pound to 1/4 inch thickness. Place chicken in a shallow bowl with Balsamic dressing and marinate in the fridge for approximately 30 minutes.

2.  Place marinated chicken on a clean piece of plastic wrap and top with swiss cheese and jalapeno slices. Tightly roll the chicken using plastic wrap to secure. Remove plastic wrap and use 4-6 toothpicks to hold the chicken in place.

3. Preheat the grill and lower to medium heat. Place chicken on grill and cook for 20 minutes rotating with tongs every 3-4 minutes.

4. Remove toothpicks and serve with your favorite side.

Enjoy!

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Weekend: Happy Hour & Productivity

Hi everyone! Hope the weekend treated you well and you're feeling recharged on this Monday. 

I don't have many exciting things to share from the weekend because it was spent being productive around the house in preparation for my guests this week. I did manage to fit some relaxation and girl time in there.

On Friday evening after work, I met up with a girl friend downtown for some happy hour drinks. We had a drink at World of Beer and then hopped over to a cute Hawaiian bar for a delicious lavender cocktail. 

On Saturday morning K and I watched the movie Blue Jasmine which was pretty interesting but I don't particularly like abrupt endings. I then went to a much-needed facial appointment and I have to say my face feels amazing! It's always great to get pampered and give your face a good clean especially for people like me that wear makeup on a regular basis.

The rest of the Saturday was spent Spring/Summer cleaning followed by grilling some steaks for dinner and finally settling down late night to watch Taken 3.

*Some random scenes from the weekend*

Sunday consisted of more cleaning, weekly food prep, and blogging. I made pesto shrimp alfredo with whole wheat fettuccine for lunch and then headed out to get some quick home shopping done since we desperately need to upgrade some of our mats and throw pillows.

I have to say it was great to get some downtime from my typically busy schedule.

** Our Recipe Swap will be back tomorrow so feel free to linkup your latest recipes **

Joining the lovely Biana for her Weekending linkup.

Friday Favorites

Well this week just zipped by didn't it? I'm definitely happy about that and thankful to have nothing special planned for the weekend except a whole lot of cleaning before some guests arrive next week.

My best friend arrives Monday and leaves Thursday and then some more friends arrive Thursday night and leave the following Monday. Funny it worked out that way but needless to say I'm going to be busy and not sure how much time I will have to focus on blogging. I am looking forward to catching up with some of my favorite girlies from home.

Other than that, I'm happy to finally be the new owner of a tiny Macbook Air after the incident earlier this year with my other computer. Thankfully I have a laptop from work that held me over for almost 3 months but I really needed to get my own for personal use. Let the fun begin!

I'm going to keep this post short and sweet like this week and hopefully today decides to do the same for us so we can get the weekend started!

Joining the lovely Amanda for her Friday Favorites linkup. 

Favorite Recipe:

Slow Cooker Thai Chicken Soup

Favorite Accessory Find:

Kendra Scott stackable rings

Favorite Funny:

I'll leave you on this note...

 

Have a fabulous weekend loves!

Summer Rompers

I stumbled upon Sheinside's website randomly last week (from a Facebook ad) and clicked over to find a page full of rompers that I immediately fell in love with. Almost every single one of them were unique and gorgeous and they're all in the $14 to $20 price range. The have a great variety of styles but these are probably my six favorite rompers for summer days and well now in Florida (it's currently in the 90s during the day).

 

one / two / three/ four / five / six

I'm really trying not to shop at the moment but I do need outfits for our upcoming trip to Vegas in July. Needless to say it's going to be hot so I'm in need of some light outfits and coverups to tour the strip and go to the pool. Their buy one, get one 50% off and free shipping makes it even more tempting to purchase all of them.

And some dressier options for nighttime wear (not from Sheinside).

one / two /  three / four / five / six

Memorial Weekend 2015

Sometimes sleeping in on a Monday is all you need to feel refreshed for the new week. That and knowing this will be a short work week makes it that much sweeter.

After work on Friday we headed two hours west to Sarasota to visit my in-laws for a couple nights. We all went out to dinner to celebrate my MIL's birthday at Texas Roadhouse. It was good to spend some quality time with them. After dinner we met up with some friends downtown for some beverages and catching up. I didn't manage to snap any photos from this night.

On Saturday morning, K and I headed to Siesta Key beach and luckily got perfect weather.

 We lounged in the sun for several hours and then we went to Siesta Key Oyster Bar in the village for some lunch.

On Sunday morning we started our short road trip home. Lola also came with us for the weekend and stayed with my in-laws while we went to the beach and out and about.

Sunday afternoon was a friend's baby shower which was fun catching up with friends and seeing some new babies in the group.

Monday was pure relaxation. I binge watched Kendra On Top while blogging and then got some stuff done around the house. Late in the evening K and I did some grilling for dinner to cap off Memorial Day.

Joining the lovely Biana for her Weekending linkup.

Long Weekend Excitement

Happy Friday!
I feel so relieved the long weekend is here. What a difference one extra day of relaxation can make especially since we (in the US) get to skip over that dreaded Monday.

This week consisted of me going back and forth via email with Bloglovin's a-hole support staff who tried to place the blame on me for my feed not working. I would have possibly believed them if there wasn't several other bloggers complaining about the same issue. It's fixed. For now. Only took a week.

Other than that BS, the orange sunset from my backyard wasn't too shabby on Wednesday night.

So let's get right into some weekly faves and joining the newly turned Mrs. Amanda for her Friday Favorites linkup. Hoping she's enjoying her honeymoon in European paradise!

Favorite Fashion Finds:
Some Memorial Day-themed outfit ideas. Keeping it casual of course. I especially like the Marilyn Monroe top and the sunnies.

Favorite Hair Inspiration:

This Relaxed Half-up Braid looks pretty and easy to recreate.

Favorite Recipe
Skinny Buffalo Chicken Meatballs
Skinnytaste.com seriously has the best recipes. I would post their recipes every week if it wasn't for other great recipes on Pinterest and, of course, from other bloggers I follow.

Favorite Funnies:

I think this is my first thought almost every morning when the alarm goes off...

Cheers to the weekend!

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