Awkward and Awesome Thursday

Picture from our recent engagement photo shoot

Awkward:

-There is a famous view in Austin that looks down South Congress Ave and you can see the Capitol in the background. We wanted to take pictures with this view in our background...so we waited until the light turned red and ran out into the middle of the street with the photographer to take a few shots before running back to the sidewalk when the light turned green again. It was interesting taking kissing pictures while traffic watched.

-The other day I was in the Central Market parking lot walking to my car when a lady in an SUV decided to not only back out of her parking spot, but to back all the way out of her aisle back to the main road. I happened to be in her path but I guess she wasn't looking (?!?!?!) and I had to literally jump out of the way. Boy was she surprised to see me yelling at her when she was done backing up.
-My hair at this exact moment.

Awesome:

-We got our engagement pictures back from our photographer and they came out great!

-My ring, I catch myself staring at it all the time.

-I recently completed the Couch to 5K iPhone app, and now I can run for 25 minutes straight. Never been able to do that before.

Ok so on an unrelated note, doesn't Jim's hair look black in this picture? He swears his hair is brown...but I say his hair is black. What do you think?

Lexi

Orange Chicken

So sorry for the lack of posts lately, other things have taken the spotlight and I've put this blog on the back burner. But not to worry, I am going to make a conscious effort to make this blog a top priority, so enjoy this awesome recipe post.

I love ordering Chinese food but it's also so unhealthy I feel horrible immediately after eating it. I decided to try to make a healthy version at home and this came out great. For the orange sauce, I used this recipe, but I didn't want to fry the chicken so I used this recipe for the chicken. 

Ingredients: soy sauce, orange juice, rice vinegar, panko, olive oil spray, green onions, corn starch, oranges, ginger, garlic, crushed red pepper flakes, chicken, and brown rice.

For the sauce combine a little soy sauce, rice vinegar, orange juice, orange zest, ginger, garlic and crushed red pepper flakes. Hint: instead of grating the ginger, I just threw a chunk of ginger in the pot and took it out when the sauce was done cooking.

Cube the chicken, then dip in the following order: corn starch, egg, and lastly panko.

Place the breaded chicken on a cooking sheet, spray with cooking spray and put in the oven. 

While the chicken and sauce are cooking, make the brown rice according to the package directions. I threw a green onion in the mix for some flavor.

After the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has thickened, mix the 2 together along with chopped green onions in a large bowl.

Put some brown rice in a bowl, then pour the orange chicken on top.

Also, this is my last post using my crappy iPhone camera, the next post will include pictures taken from my new fancy camera I got for my birthday.

Lexi

What you don't have, you don't need

Ok ladies, it might be kind of hard to tell from the pics (please ignore the sub par quality, new camera coming soon!) but this tank top is mint green with a little lace detail on one side. I absolutely love it, but it's too short so I never wear it. Awkward length tank top, meet the high waisted skirt.

Lace detail

Lace detail

One of my favorite things to do is to find new ways to use old wardrobe pieces that I thought had something wrong with them (see here, here, and here). I'm not sure how I would feel if I had an unlimited clothing budget, but for now I like to work with what I have. Before I started reading fashion blogs, I always felt like my closet was lacking. It didn't matter how many new pieces I bought or how much money I spent, I never had enough. 

Getting into the fashion blog scene has really opened my eyes to all the great pieces I already have, and made me realize that I don't need to add anything to make my closet complete. Work with what you've got.

Lexi

No trash in this trailer park

Austin is seriously the coolest place. One of the newest trends popping up are trailer park eateries. Of course there's one on the East Side (so hipster) and one downtown, but one just popped up in my neck of the woods, South Austin! This may make me sound like an old lady, but the biggest perk of this eatery is the large parking lot next to it. Seriously, I hate having to search for a parking spot for 15 minutes just to find one a frickin' mile away from where you're going.

Fresh squeezed cherry lemonade

Get it? Try my Thai!

I ended up deciding on a croque monsieur from Boxcar Bistro, absolutely delish. Jimbo got fried rice from Trai Mai Thai and loved it. Next time I am going for a Chicago dog from Honky Tonk Hot Dogs. Stay tuned for post featuring the outfit I'm wearing in these pics.

Lexi

Office

This outfit makes it look like it must be cool outside...it's not. It seems like the hotter it gets outside, the colder my office gets. It's the most annoying thing to walk outside into 100 degree heat and then spend 8 hours in a 65 degree office.

I probably should have ironed this shirt before I wore it to work, oh well.

Lexi

Best tomato sauce ever!

Ok everyone, get ready.....because I made the best homemade tomato sauce ever!!! It all started when I went to the farmer's market on Saturday morning with Jim's step mom, Debbi and bought some heirloom tomatoes. I didn't really know what I was going to do with them, but I knew I had to do something! I'm not a huge fan of raw tomatoes, so I decided to try to make a sauce out of them. Here's how I did it.

Step 1: You are going to want to peel the skin of the tomatoes first, to do so put them in a pot of boiling water for about 2 minutes. Next scoop them out of the boiling water and into an ice bath to cool. From what I've read online, the ice bath is crucial.

Step 2: Remove the skin. Once you cut the tomato in half, the skin should peel right off.

 Step 3: Chop the skinned tomatoes into little chunks. This gets a little messy.

 Step 4: Put the tomatoes in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. The tomatoes have alot of liquid so the sauce will need to thicken for a little while.

 Step 5: Add the flavors! I added 3 garlic cloves that I minced, about a tablespoon of tomato paste, a teaspoon or so of crushed red pepper flakes, and lots of salt and pepper.

 Step 6: I let the sauce cook down and thicken for probably 10 or 15 minutes.

 Step 7: Ok, this is kinda a secret, but at the very end I added maybe 1/2 a teaspoon of sugar. That's right, sugar. It helps cut the acidity of the tomato.

Step 8: Serve with your favorite pasta! I served it with some fresh ravioli.

Lexi

JCrew knockoff

 Ok so if you're big in the blogger world, you know everyone is going crazy over the JCrew Bubble Necklace. It's a great statement necklace, which is something every girl should have. Well, it retails at $150, that's an insane amount to pay for a necklace. I found a very similar statement necklace on the Very Jane website. This necklace was only $25, much better.

 I actually wore this outfit to take engagement photos this past weekend, I think the necklace really adds something to the outfit. I can't wait to see the pictures!

Lexi

From the bottom up

 I feel like this outfit makes me look like I should be on a sail boat. A fancy sail boat.

Sometimes in the morning when I can't decide what to wear, I pick out my shoes first and build the outfit from the bottom up. Usually shoes are the last thing I pick out, so it's a nice change when you start at the end.

Also, I am definitely asking for a new camera for my birthday. I've been using my iPhone to take pictures and honestly... it sucks. Sorry Apple.

Lexi