Dirty Rice {A Recipe}

Hey there, all you cool cats and kittens!

Sorry, I literally could not help myself.

Life in quarantine has me (or Andy) cooking a whole lot more than usual. Kind of? I guess we normally eat out 1-2x per week. We just aren't really leaving the house so it seems like we're cooking a lot more than usual. Probably more during school/cheer/tumbling season. I'd imagine you're all in the same boat, since everything is closed down to curbside pickup/to go only.

When we do get take out, we make sure we're frequenting locally owned businesses only. Mostly, the Dairy Dip. Our very close family friends own it and it is our go-to for dinner even when we aren't in quarantine!

Today I'm sharing a recipe for dirty rice. Which, my sister calls company rice, and maybe my mom does, too... but I think they're the same thing. It had been years since I had even thought of this dish until about two months ago. And I know my mom made it but I don't think she put peppers in it... because my mom doesn't do vegetables. Like, at all.

Anyway, this rice is delicious and dirty rice might or might not be the same as company rice. For all intents and purposes, I'm calling it dirty rice for this blog post!

Ingredients:
1 red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
1 white onion
1 tube breakfast sausage (I use the spicy one)
2 cups dry jasmine rice
Tony Chachere's creole seasoning

Start your jasmine rice according to package directions.
De-seed and dice both bell peppers, and onion. Begin cooking the breakfast sausage, I make sure to use my spatula and chop the sausage up into tiny crumbles. This is personal preference, I don't really love the texture of any kind of meat unless it is chopped fine/thin/very well done. Add peppers and onions to sausage, sautéing them in the sausage grease. When sausage has browned, add creole seasoning (to taste-- we like spicy foods so I am generous with the sprinkling). Once the sausage and peppers have simmered with the seasoning for a few minutes, drain the grease off them. I put them in a small strainer and also use a paper towel or two to soak up any remaining grease. Add sausage and veggie mix to rice and stir well. Easy Peasy dinner is done!

Five On Friday // 3.27.20

Happy Friday!

Y'all. This has been the most surreal time of my entire life (and yours too, I'm sure!). We are wrapping up our week of spring break here... possibly the most chill spring break we have ever had. I hope you've been able to rest and relax while working from home, and that you're keeping your mental health a top priority during this time!

Five On Friday

1. Well, let me just start with what is probably the most exciting part of anyone's spring break, quarantine life, life in general, at all, ever, this week. The Tiger King. If you don't have Netflix, get it. JUST so you can watch this hilarious, incredible... very real account of a man in Oklahoma and his Tiger rivals. OMG. That is all I can say. You'll appreciate the memes coming out of it possibly even more than the show. LOL

2. My elbow. I don't have a picture to go with this one, but I got to go get follow up x-rays on my elbow Wednesday, and I am so excited to be able to say... I have the go ahead to start lifting again! My elbow is still "about 4 weeks from being totally normal," but I can begin using my arm in a normal capacity again. I have never been so happy to talk to a doctor in my entire life! It has been 5 weeks since I fell in the gym and broke it. Yesterday I did a small shoulder workout (and I mean, SMALL). I am sore today and it feels so good! My elbow and wrist are also slightly sore/tender, so I am glad I kept the workout light and quick.

3. The weather has been perfect (although pollen-y) for outdoor activities. It has been very hard on Sophia being in 'social distancing' mode because unfortunately, many parents on our street do not feel that their kids need to stay in their own yards/homes. Kids ring our doorbell a few times a day to see if Sophia can go out to play. We keep telling them, she is not going to be able to go out to play with a group until everyone goes back to school. It is so sad for her but it is necessary. I wish other parents would follow social distancing rules. We have gone on two really great hikes over the last week. Yesterday we did 4 miles at the top of Mt. Magazine, and the trail was practically deserted. Score! The views were great, the weather was amazing, and it was an all around great day.

4. I am spending my days in quarantine honing my youtube video editing skills (they are terrible, admittedly). Sophia has been on me for like two years to make more youtube videos for her. So this week, she baked cookies with her favorite stuffed animal Pusheen. She video'd herself. I strung the videos together and now she's awaiting her pending youtube fame. If you're reading this, please go "like" her video. It would just make her day!

5. Writing. With this whole 'work from home' thing (starting Monday, I'll be teaching kindergarten via Zoom conferences), I seriously cannot find one excuse not to write. I have a list of things that Andy and I came up with for book chapters... our planned book about our off the wall family travels and adventures and methods of parenting. I feel slightly silly... like I cannot even blog consistently how on earth will I write a book? The thing is, I love to write. I have always, always wanted to write a book. Andy has been encouraging me to write a book since like 2010. Here we are. I think I am out of excuses! I would like to try out some of our ideas as blog posts and gauge feedback. If we get any....... because this little corner of the internet has been dormant for so long. :) We will see where life takes us, I guess!

5 on Friday | 1.24.20

Hello and Happy Friday!

I love 5 on Friday!

Here it goes:

1. Poor sweet Sophie got the flu and we were stuck at home Monday thru Wednesday. Luckily, it snowed (about a quarter inch) on Wednesday morning and it was a "snow day," so we were both only absent from work and school on Tuesday!

2. Before Soph got sick, were were able to go eat dinner at our friends' (like family) new diner! It is so cute and delicious. I love the decor and the old fashioned ice cream counter! My niece was our waitress and she did such a great job.

3. My mom took us to see Wicked for our Christmas gift. It was so fun! Mom and I had already seen it a few years ago, but the kids hadn't. Both of them loved it! 

4. I have the sweetest friends. Literally, my friend who goes by Sweetie, is the sweetest (go figure). I was teaching last week and there was a knock on my classroom door. It was one of our amazing front office girls, and she handed me a box. Y'all. I cried. Of course I did! I always cry. HAHA. 

5. Speaking of the Sweetest friend, she owns a boutique and I finally got to make a purchase! I've been eyeballing these pants since she opened! I got the shirt, too. My friend is a master seamstress, so she's going to hem the bottom of the pants for me before I wear them. I'll be the cutest teacher on the block in this outfit! :) *image from the dressing room 

Femme Fetale Boutique

Well friends, there you have it. First 5 on Friday of 2020. Let's see how this year goes.

3 Years Later

It has been three years since I last posted on this blog! Time has flown by and while life has been so busy and full of moments I have shared over facebook or instagram, I haven't had the motivation to post here. I tried to write another blog using wordpress but I eventually quit writing there, too. Honestly I was writing #sponsored posts there and after a few it felt very inauthentic, but there was so much going on in life and I was working full time in insurance and just so miserable!

I'm here today just to begin the process of sharing our lives again, Andy, the kids, and me. Over the last three years we have grown and changed so much as a family. We sold our house in Fort Smith and moved to a smaller town outside the city limits. We are only renting right now, our house hunting adventure so far has been not much of an adventure-- we are trying to take our time and find something with everything on our wish list in the school district we like. Olivia is entering her Sophomore year and Sophia is going in to 3rd grade. Olivia has a drivers permit and that is kind of scary! I got my NASM CPT, entered in to a non-traditional teaching licensure program for the state of Arkansas to become an elementary teacher (still job hunting!). Andy is recruiting for the Army National Guard full time now, and things are just moving right along!

That's the TL:DR of the last three years!

I'd like to use this space going forward for bento posts, family updates, fitness, crafts, trips/vacation planning, etc.! School starts next week so I'm pre-planning some bento themes right now and I'm going to purchase some sprinkles and edible glitter later today! SO EXCITING!

Five On Friday!!

ahhhh FRIDAY.
All the friYAY snaps, y'all. I love seeing my friends' pretty faces!! :)

This has been a crazy busy, but super fun week! I feel like I say that every week now. AND look at me, blogging multiple times in one week!

Fridays are my days off and I have been loving them. Coffee, catching up on my favorite blog posts.... I'll leave out the part about catching up on homework.

Five On Friday...

//ONE// Junior League has officially started up for the year and I am so so glad that I decided to stay in League! I am on the Project GEM committee and this week we had our first session. I failed so hard at finding someone to come speak but another girl on the committee came through and saved me. Her speaker was fabulous and I'm actually kind of glad I couldn't find someone since the man she brought in was so good. He taught the little girls about self defense and the dangers of abduction, and how to try to run away. SUCH GOOD info! We also had to officers from the FSPD come in and teach about internet safety, which was also SO GOOD. I was so proud to be a part of that even if I didn't get the speaker I intended. The women on my committee are super nice and I'm glad to get to know them better and make friends. Just another reason I love Fort Smith.

//TWO// Bible Journaling kicked off on Monday. At my church, St. John's Episcopal Church, we have "small groups ministries" (I actually think I call the small group something different every time, but there are so many KINDS of groups....). This year my Vino League is going on its 3rd year, and I'm starting a Bible journaling group. The turn out was small (me, Sophia, and one lady from church), but it will grow. I had a blast and so did Sophia and Mariko. It is a fun way to grow our relationships with each other and also grow our connection to Christ.

//THREE// I did really well sticking to "clean" eating and smaller portions. Well, with the exception of last night. I took my lunch every day to work and ate really well for all other meals. Today while the kids are in school I'm going to hit up the local health food store for some ACV and a couple bottles of booch. I'm torn between trying new flavors that I may not like OR going to Squash Blossom because they're the only place that consistently carry my fave... GT's strawberry serenity. If I go to 3 different stores I can get all 3 of my favorite flavors... they're all over town though and I just doubt that will happen!

//FOUR// My 2017 Erin Condren Life Planner came in yesterday!! I am SO excited! I won't elaborate much on this because I added photos to my story on both insta & snap. Just know its pink with flamingos and my name looks adorable and I got the rose gold coil. L O V E

//FIVE// Music on the lawn at the Clayton House was so nice last night! The Sara Lyons Band played and they were so good! My friends from work came out and I saw some other friends around too. I brought the wine and April brought the cheese plate and we had a nice time. The weather was amazing and the Clayton House was, as always, perfect. I credit that to Julie, if you ever go there ask for her! She is such a special lady.

You can link up with me at these places::

  

 

SaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSave

Five On Friday

ahhhhh, the weekend! I love love love Fridays right now because I'm off on Fridays! It is so awesome to have an extra day in my weekend.. a day where the kids are at school and Andy's at work and I just kind of get to re-charge. Or do homework... which is what I will be doing today after I decide I've had enough coffee!

Linking up for Five on Friday with April & Christina

//ONE// Getting Involved. I've been so busy lately and I love it. Now that both girls are in school all day, and Olivia is old enough to do some babysitting, I've been able to get a little more involved in my community. I love our city, and there are so many incredible things happening here! I want to be a part of everything. I want to show my daughters that you can have it all. Home, career, community involvement, and fun. This stage of life has me floating!

//TWO// This B L O G. So stale. I kind of wish I was at wordpress. I just finished "designing" (I put that in quotes because it is the most basic of basic looking little blogs) a wordpress site for a class I was taking... and I just really like WP more than blogger at this time. I've made that hop before and ended up back here though, so who knows.

//THREE// Earlier this week I went to a ribbon cutting for a friend's new business, and got to spend some time with a few girls I really like but haven't had time to really get to know better. I had so much fun! After the ribbon cutting it was sushi and martinis, a huge group, and some incredibly kind gentleman at the bar paid for all of our food and drinks! Talk about a huge blessing. Every time someone comes here, they say "the people here are so friendly!" -- well, they're right. I LOVE MY CITY!

//FOUR// fall fashion. Oh man. I can't wait to go shopping. I can't wait for the weather to chill out (get it, chill!?)... I'm ready for long sleeves and scarves and boots and pink rosy cheeks. Seriously. Bye, summer! See you next year.

//FIVE// Rose Gold. Its almost time to tame the blonde mane and go for a warmer autumn hue. I can't really remember my natural color (JK, its brown. Brown brown brown). I'm going for a dark blonde with a rose gold ballyage for fall... unless I change my mind before my hair appointment. :) Whatever I end up doing, I know it will be gorgeous because my hair goddess Lisa hasn't failed me.. ever. I love her so much! When I count my blessings here in the Fort, she's in my top 5... she treats me like family and I'm so grateful to her for that.

Link up for Five on Friday HERE