Jalapeño Pepper Poppers

This was actually from a couple days ago, but this recipe was too good to pass up:

Jalepeno Pepper Poppers

What You'll Need:

• Jalapeños
• 1 package of Cream Cheese
• 1 cup of Mozzarella
• Olive Oil

For Beer Batter:

• 1 Egg
• 1 cup of Beer
• 1 1/8 tsp. of Baking Powder
• 1 cup of Flour
• Dash of Salt & Pepper
• 1. tsp of Garlic Salt
• 1/2 tsp of Onion Salt

To create beer batter: 

Whip eggs until they no longer have a stringy texture. Add the rest of the ingredients except the flour and mix together. Incorporate flour until the mixture has a creamy but not a super thick texture. 

  Step 1: Deseed the jalapeños by cutting the jalapeños in half and taking out the seeded middles- Make sure you wear gloves...and if you don't have gloves, use plastic bags...Seriously. The day before I made salsa without wearing gloves. I wondered that night when I went to bed why my hands and mouth were burning. It was horrible.

1. Combine cream cheese & mozzarella cheese and stuff the peppers with the mixture.
2. Heat oil in a pan {Or use a deep fryer if you have one}- Make sure you have enough in the pan to cover around the pepper when you place it in the oil.
3. Throw in jalapeños & rotate them in hot oil making sure they brown on all sides.
4. Have a fiesta & make sure you have plenty of mac & cheese as well as milk to subdue the jalapeño heat.

Thoughts to Ponder.

                 

Today I realized fashion scarves are just giant bibs for adults.

Roller-Coaster of Emotions

On Friday, I experience so much joy at my friend Kat's wedding.
The wedding was beautiful
We partied up the dance floor & the night full of laughter.
I felt so happy, so content.

On Saturday,
I faced a huge challenge and accomplishment in my life-
I ran my very first 23 mile run ever.
On this day I felt perserverance,
Strength,
Endurance,
I learned another power in the element of commitment.

On Sunday, I was once again reminded how fragile life really is.

My whirlwind of emotions involved pain,
hurt,
anger,
devastation.

On Sunday, I experience the feelings of death & grief.

Jason was one of the most real people I knew-

He was never one to skirt around the issue or be fake.

He might at times harass you to death, but I always knew if something were to happen to me, Jason, Josh, and James would all be there to "take care of things."

If anyone lived by the saying, "live your life to the fullest" it was Jason.

I never knew him to live mundanely or halfheartedly,

Never Jason.

...and now, my heart breaks to lose a friend...

Jason, you were loved by so many people & will be greatly missed.

...We'll see you on the other side.

These are a few of my favorite things...

Tonight I had a fun little post planned,

But I don't have D's computer to upload my pictures,

So now I'm improvising from my original plans.

Meaning, 

You'll just have to wait to see today's post, tomorrow.

So instead,

Here's a list of my favorite things about fall to welcome it's start date {9/23}-

Holla!

1. Pumpkin Spice Lattes- YUM!

2. Changing Leaves


3. Halloween





4. Flannel Shirts


5. Pumpkin Carving


6.  Being able to justify wearing a scarf



7.  Family Time




8. & Finally, The Pumpkin Show

Okay, that's a lie. I don't like the pumpkin show {no offense},
but I do love the pumpkin doughnuts and pumpkin ice cream that the Pumpkin Show brings.

Bring on the fall festivities!

Rainbows and Salsa

I took a little 6 mile run with the pups tonight-

I love it when we get a chance to be out when a lot of people aren't around- 

At the beginning of our run we had to run through a little rainstorm,

but after a while the weather cleared,

The sunset came out & it couldn't be anymore perfect out.

The leaves are starting to slowly fall outside-

Most people wouldn't notice, 

but I feel like it's Mother Nature's way of telling us fall is coming.

The little girl inside of me frowns at the thought of losing my summer,

But the tiny adult inside of me is totally embraces this beautiful autumn weather.

The best part of the run?

The rainbow that came out during the last mile-

It brought to mind my post from yesterday.

Sometimes God has pretty unique ways of sending us little reminders about his promises to us.

Plus,

I have a quick & easy Salsa recipe for you:

What You'll Need:

• A can of diced tomatoes {I used the type that has green peppers & onions in it to make the process a lot quicker} + a fresh tomato or two
• 1  Jalapeño pepper {seeded & finely diced}
• 1 teaspoon of vinegar
• 1 teaspoon of lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon of cumin
• 1 tablespoon of cilantro
• 1 clove of garlic {finely diced}
• Dash of salt

Simply mix together & enjoy-

Eating this with lime tortilla chips produces best results

...& Sometimes It's About The Journey.

This new job scares me a lot.

It's taken me to places I haven't ever had to be before-

I've never been in a place where I've had to do things alone-

I've always had people surrounding me and motivating me,

but now...now I don't.

Now it's about me & what i can do...

It petrifies me at times,

I don't like failure & I don't like letting people down.

Sometimes I start to doubt my capabilities...

But when it comes down to it,

I know this is where I am suppose to be.

And I know God promised me a long time ago,

That He would never give me more than I could handle alone-

That He would take care of me.

& through friends He reminded me tonight that He has great things in store for me,

He'll use me in incredible ways-

But sometimes, it's those small things I have to work on before I'm ready for those big things.

...sometimes it's a journey to reach the beauty that lies in the end.

BBQ Muffins

Shirt - INC

Pants/Shoes/Headband - Target

Today was my first official "Work" day 

{The training segment is coming to an end}

I'd say it was fairly a success-

{Starting it with a Pumpkin Spice Latte & ending it some tunes from Kye Kye definitely helped}

Oh and I made these:

You should make these too:

What you'll need:

• Ground beef- Or in my case, Veggie "beef"
• Onion
• BBQ sauce
• Pillsbury biscuits
• Cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350

Simply brown beef- add in onion & bbq sauce on medium heat{Cook until onions are softened}- Flatten biscuits and place in greased muffin pan {Make sure biscuits reach top of edges}- Scoop in mix- Bake approximately 10 minutes or until biscuit is almost cooked- Take out & add cheese on top- Cook for another 2-3 minutes or until golden brown. 

...believe me,

You'll want these.

DIY Revamped Candles

When D. & I first moved into our house, one thing I loved about our new place was the extra space we had above the cupboards in our kitchen.

Obviously, I went with a coffee/cafe theme since I am a lover of all things coffee related.

When I originally put up some things here and there I knew it was missing something, hence the candles that sat up above.

However, because they were white, they kind of blended in with the back walls.

I debated for a time what to do with the candles- Do I buy new ones? How can I revamp these?

Finally I saw an idea on pinterest, & I ran with it.

Originally I was going to go with this idea:

here

However, I only had one box of crayons,

So here's what I did instead:

1. I melted an assortment of crayons together- Different crayons each time for a little different effect.

 2. Once the crayons melted, I placed the bottom of the candle into the melted crayons:

 3. Then I put some aluminum foil into the sink placed the candle on it, and dripped the crayon wax on to the candle until I reached the desire effect:

I'm totally loving the finishing effect:

Hope you all are having a good weekend,

Right now I'm recovering from a 16 mile run and spending a little downtime with pizza & ice cream.

Yum.

Friday & Saturday

Yesterday was a whirlwind of events-

I started out the day with the last of my training then left work to attempt to find more clothes for work:

Seriously, trying to shop for clothes that are dressy enough for work but at the same time fit on a little girl body are not easy to find. Then add in cost, and keep it reasonable priced- Yeah not happening. Not at all.

In fact,

I've been searching all week and I have hardly anything to show for it.

Anyways, 

After work & shopping adventures,

I raced home to take care of the pups

Then left to meet up with friends for their September Birthday Bash at Big Bang Piano Bar in Columbus.

This place is awesome-

You can request any type of song and they'll play it for you-

Anything from Ke$ha to Journey to Outkast.

Oh I love it.

& to have some of my besties there to enjoy it with?

Spectacular!

But now friends, 

Today on this glorious Saturday I'm Exhausted.

Luckily, I got to spend it watching D's volleyball girls play-

In which they totally swept the competition and came back with two wins.

I call that a good end to a day and D's cookout with me later will be the icing to the cake.

 

Love.

The Shack

Tonight I had one of the most amazing experiences in my life-

I had the opportunity to listen to William Paul Young, the author of The Shack,

speak at Grove City Nazarene.

Friends, if you haven't read this book yet, 

I HIGHLY recommend it-

Especially to anyone who has ever dealt with depression, abuse, death, loss, emptiness, and anger.

It is probably one of the best books I have read in a long time,

And probably one of the few books that has really challenge my personal views of God & the way I think as a Christian.

Plus his own personal story is INCREDIBLE,

But that friends will have to be another post

{A post that I'm pretty sure would last for days}

Paul Young himself is fascinating.

He just gets God.

And I love it because his own walk with God follows so close to my own personal relationship with God-

He was able to put into words things I could never describe when I tried explaining to people how I view God, how I feel Him, how I just know God-

How it can all seem so simply,

& it is...

...but yet it's not.

How God dwells in me, and through me.

How He just IS.

All I can say in a nutshell is, wow,

and on that note,

If you ever get a chance to listen to him speak-

Do it.

& if you can't do that,

READ THE BOOK!

For real.

Buca Di Beppo

Awhile ago, our Starbucks store won an incentive for selling Frappucinos-

So how did we celebrate?

Over food obviously.

Have any of you ever been to Buca Di Beppo?

Oh it's fabulous.

It's a family style Italian restaurant that serves food in abundance.

{& when I said abundance, I mean A LOT}

So we did like 6 huge dishes + dessert & we still took food home

{I'm always okay with leftovers}

So if you haven't check out this shindig yet, go-

But go with a group, 

It will help keep the calories off,

Cause believe me,

You'll want to eat it all.

*On top of the incentive, we also took the time to celebrate the September birthday babies*

{For some reason, our store has a ton!}

Special shout out to those celebrating Septemberish type birthdays,

Especially my new second cousin Jade- 

Welcome to the world!

Overall,

I'd call today a success.

Food + Friends =

One happy little H.

Guacamole Talk

Shirt - TJ Maxx // Pants - Roxy (TJ Maxx) // Shoes.Bracelet - Target

Today was another training type of day-

Long, but I got a chance to start contacting prospects & it made everything start to feel real.

Up till now, I've felt like someone else has been living my life and I've just been watching from a distance.

I won't lie,

Sometimes it's been kind of stressful starting this venture-

Everything has been such a big change.

& with D's hectic schedule I've felt kind of alone.

It's hard.

But deep down I know it's right,

& I know it's where I'm suppose to be.

So I keep going & when it comes down to it,

I think I'm going to be alright.

& for those moments I get kind of lonely,

I make guacamole,

& it makes me smile.

Especially this delicious recipe:

What You'll Need

• 2 Avocados
• 1/2 A Red Onion {Finely chopped}
• 2 Tbsp Cilantro
• 1 Tbsp Lemon Juice
• Dash of Salt & Pepper
• 1/2 Chopped Tomato {I accidentally ate it before I added this, still delish!}

Simply mash avocado and add ingredients while continuing to smash together ingredients with the avocado.

Before eating, add tomatoes.

Also, make sure to keep guacamole in an air tight container or tightly wrapped with plastic wrap to keep guacamole from discoloring. Another helpful thing I learned for keeping guacamole from discoloring is to keep the seed from the avocado in the dip instead of discarding it.

I hope if you are having a stressful day or maybe feeling a little blue that you can make this easy recipe and that it can also bring a little smile to your face.

Enjoy friends.