Crack Potatoes

Hello Darlings!

We had an “End of Summer” potluck last night and it was a great night!! We had about 15 or so of our dearest and closest here to celebrate the beginning of fall.

As per usual we had some seriously great food. Let me tell you my boys and girls can COOK! There was ribs, chili, deviled eggs, a few different pasta salads, cheese cakes, chocolate cake, bean salad and I made something called Crack Potatoes.

These potatoes are fantastic and ridiculously easy. I found the recipe on Pinterest – of course.

Here is what you need:

2 bags of shredded potatoes. I got mine at Walmart in the salad section

2 tubs of sour cream

2 bags of real bacon bits or you can cook your own bacon

2 packets of dry ranch dressing

½ a block of old cheddar cheese (grated)

Preheat your oven to 400° F. Mix all of the ingredients together excluding the potatoes. Once mixed, add the potatoes and spoon into a glass baking dish. Bake at 400° F for 40 minutes.

Happy Sunday!

A Night Out

Hello My Lovelies!

Tonight was FAB! Busy, but great!

My girl Alyssa turned 30 so a huge group of us went out for dinner and drinks, then Terrill and I went to a Stag ‘n Doe for my girlie Mel. We had such a good time at both. I wish they had been on separate nights so we could have spent more time at both events.

I curled my hair with a 1 ½ inches curling iron, wrapping each section around the barrel away from my face. This is my favorite way to curl my hair. The results are always great. This picture is a little Farrah Fawcett – which I love!

I kept my make up simple. I usually have basic eye make up and a bold lip. I wore a basic black t-shirt, black cord leggings, a jean jacket and my leopard wedges.

Happy Friday!

Eh Ombré

Just a quick post to show everyone my new ombré hair!

What do you guys think?!

Back to the Diet

The last two weeks I have messed up my diet :( I ate whatever, whenever -le sigh. I undid the good work. Its sad but, I wont let it get me down! All I can do is start again :)

I started school last week (as I mentioned here) and its actually taken up quite a bit of my week. I know its only Tuesdays and Wednesdays but there is a lot of practice that goes along with it. Part of my kit came two mannequin heads for practice and my instructor gives me home work. I've been super busy, tired and lazy.

Anyways, I'm done with my excuses lol!My food today wasn't great, but it could have been worse.

Here is what I ate yesterday (Monday)

Breakfast - Coffee with cream and Splenda, home made breakfast sandwich (here)

Snack - Water, home made banana/bran muffin

Lunch - Half a whole wheat wrap with shaved ham and mustard, raw carrots, cucumber and peppers with about 1 Tbsp of ranch dressing

Snack - Liberte Black Cherry yogurt with fruit salad

Dinner - Chicken Paprikash  and noodles

Too many carbs as far as I'm concerned, but I'll get back into the swing of things.

Have a great day!

Friday Hair

Hello Dolls!

Just a quick pic of my hair that I wore to work on Friday. Its basically a Dutch braid that is rolled at the end and pinned.

Happy Styling! 

Bridal Hair

Hello My Lovelies!

I’ve decided to make a life change. Well a sort of life change. I decided to go to hair school. Not full on hair school, just some courses here and there. The first course that I’m taking is Up Do’s. It covers everything from bridal to casual. I just finished my first week and I love it!

I have always loved doing hair. I usually play around with my hair while I’m watching TV. I try to do something fun with my hair a few days a week as well. I get a lot of compliments on my hair so I feel this is a good fit for me. My plan is to basically do bridal hair on the weekends. I have done a bridal hair for a couple of my girlfriends in the past and I was asked again to help out a friend of mine last weekend as well.

She got married in Halliburton, ON which is Muskoka area. It’s a gorgeous place. It’s very woodsy and picturesque. We had done a trial a few weeks before the wedding. She decided to have her hair down and curly. I wanted her hair to look very natural and organic, like she just woke up with it like that. Not too coiffed and controlled, more wild and free. I think it fit the venue.

Here is a couple of pics right after I was done.

Frozen Breakfast Sandwiches

Hello my lovelies!

I found this idea on Pinterest and I thought I would give it a try. I wanted to have something ready in the mornings for Terrill. He goes to work around 6:30am everyday so his breakfast routine has to be quick or he won’t eat anything.

Today I made 10 sandwiches, 6 sausage and 4 bacon.

Here is what you will need:

English muffins

Sausage patties or bacon

Eggs

Butter

Cheese slices

Tinfoil

Preheat your oven to 350° F. I cooked the eggs first. I used a muffin top pan but a muffin pan will also work. I like the muffin top pan because the eggs end up the same size as the English muffin and they are not too thick. Butter your pan and crack the eggs into it. Break the yokes and bake until they are cooked through. Remove from the oven and let them cool down completely.

Cook your bacon/sausage. I did both in the oven. Once they are cooked let them cool down completely as well.

Cut your tinfoil into sheets and place the open English muffin on a sheet. Add you cheese, an egg and your meat. Once the sandwich is built, wrap them up. I mark the outside with either a “B” or an “S” so I know which is which. Then I put them all in a Ziploc back and throw them in the freezer.

The night before, I take one out of the freezer and let it thaw in the fridge overnight. In the morning Terrill puts it in the toaster oven at 400° F for about 20 minutes. The English muffin gets toasty and the cheese gets melty. They are perfect :)

Long Weekend Love

Happy Labor Day!!

I’m fortunate enough to love on an amazing street with fantastic neighbors. These are some seriously cool people. I’m so lucky to live where I do and to have these people in my life.

We had a street party on Sunday to celebrate the long weekend. We closed the street down with city signs and set up lots of games for the kiddos. There was a bouncy castle, bean bag toss, hoola hoops, face painting, mini golf and a sprinkler. We also had a huge bbq set up and everyone from the street brought food to share with everyone. Once it got dark we had fire works in the park behind out street.

Once the kiddos went to bed things that is when the party got started and things got a bit rowdy. There was a Beer Pong Tournament set up in one of the garages.  I was partners with my long term buddy Aaron. We actually made it to the semi finals!

Slow start to today but it was totally worth it.

A few of the neighbors had t-shirts made up with our nicknames and house numbers on them. In true Courtney style I cut up my shirt because I can’t just wear a normal shirt lol.

Here is a few pics of the evening.

Happy Holiday Monday!

The Incredible Shrinking Me – Week 4 Results

Down 2.6lbs!! Woohoo!! I’m actually kind of surprised. I drank on Saturday and Sunday night which we all know is super bad for a diet. But I lost anyways so I’m happy. I guess the extra walks and workouts have been paying off :)

Cauliflower Broccoli Cheese Soup

Hello Everyone!

I hope you are enjoying your long weekend as much as I am:)

Cooking is one of my favorite things to do. On the weekends I usually cook a meal or two and freeze them for during the week. That way there is no temptation to order pizza or Wings Up! (my personal demon lol).
This weekend I have big cooking plans and I’m off to a good start. This is one of the meals I made yesterday. I got the base of this recipe from Pinterest (where else). You can get the original recipe here. I, of course measure nothing and add other spices and whatever I think could work. I also left out the flour because we just don’t need it!
It actually turned out great! Not that I had any doubts lol!

What you will need:

1 large onion, chopped
1/4-1/2  cup melted butter
1 cup half-and-half
1 cup table cream
2 cups chicken stock or chicken cubes and water I used 3 cubes)
1/2 pound fresh broccoli ( I used a bag of frozen broccoli and cauliflower mix)
1 cup carrots, grated
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 table spoon of italian seasoning
1 table spoon of curry powder
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1table spoon paprika
8 ounces grated cheddar cheese (or more hehe)
 
Cook the onions in a bit of water. This is something I learned from my mum. It makes the onions softer and easier to brown. Once the water has cooked away, add some butter and sautee until they are delicious and golden looking.
 

While the onions are cooking, grate your carrots. Next time I don’t think I’ll bother grating them. You end up running the soup through the blender anyways so I think this is just a wasted effort.

In a large pot, add the cream, butter, water and chicken cubes. Add your onions and all of the spices. 

Add the carrots, frozen cauliflower and broccoli. Bring to a boil. The veggies will cook right in the pot and soak up all the lovely flavors.Let it simmer for about 10-15 minutes

Once the veggies are cooked, add your cheese. I used mozzarella, old cheddar and a slice of jalapeno havarti. You can grate the cheese if you want, I just cut it up into small cubes. As far as I’m concerned you can never have enough cheese so you can go a little crazy here.

Once the cheese has melted, run the soup through the blender. I did this is 3 batches. I used a ladle and then once it was blended, I put it into the pan I cooked the onions in.

*Be careful when you are blending hot liquid. I found this out the hard way. The steam will potentially make the lid blow off your blender even if you are holding it. The hot soup exploded all over my arm, face and shirt. I have a few small burns L Lesson learned. Let the hot soup sit in the blender for a few minutes to let it cool down a bit.

I added some more pepper, salt, curry powder and paprika after it was blended. I brought it up to a boil again, then turned off the stove and let the soup cool all the way down.

I heated the soup up again for dinner and it was really good! I still had a lot left over so I split it into two Ziplock bags and froze them for later. 

A sneak peak at some of the other yummies to come. Butter Chicken, Freezer Breakfast Sandwiches, Chicken Paprikash and Sheppard’s Pie. 

Happy Sunday!!