C & C

Gooooood Afternoon Lovelies!!!
(so I know this is a little late for coffee for some, so you can always switch to a cocktail if need be! ;)

It's time for our weekly C & C sesh! (Coffee & Catch up, if you are new here)

Grab that coffee/cocktail and let's see what you need to be updated on since last week:

• Last week I told you that I was planning a super CUTE date. Well it didn't happen. 😢 Not because of anything bad, but there were a couple reasons. 1 - I was NOT feeling great. (TMI for those who don't like too many intimate details) I had HORRIFIC cramps and the thought of doing a date and being in pain when I was sooooooo super duper excited about that date wasn't appealing at ALL. 2 - This reason actually made the whole cancellation WORTH it. So I'm higher risk with the whole COVID-19 and my daughter was back from NAU but was at her dad's and started feeling terrible. She wanted to come see me but knew she couldn't if she did in fact have corona. She ended up getting tested but results would take anywhere from a day to 10 days. Well evidently she found out the next day that she was all good. She reached out to Estrada to plan on surprising me the day I planned our date for. Once I woke up and didn't feel good he was in the clear with the date being done, but then I started coming up with other ideas. LOL Maybe we should do a day picnic etc. I was enjoying a glass of wine on the balcony when all of a sudden in the doorway was HAYLEY!!!! My reaction was priceless! I tried to get her TIKTOK video that she made documenting her arrival to load here, but the service struggle right now is REAL! Anyway, I was soooo surprised and it was a LEGIT amazing surprise.  

• Ok so I finally put my wine drinking skills to a good PRACTICAL use!!! 😉 I started working on a couple wedding crafts with wine bottles to use as possible centerpieces. I had seen some adorable rose gold painted wine bottles with simple flowers in them. What better time than QUARANTINE time to start trying some ideas out. First part of the plan was to get the labels off of the bottles so I soaked them in a mixture of dish detergent, distilled vinegar, & baking soda ALL day. The labels came off pretty easy, all I had to do was take a brillo pad to the bottle lightly after the label was off. I have a couple other shades of paint that I'm waiting on. I'm doing a mix of shades so they aren't all exactly the same. For the first go they turned out pretty good. I'm in LOVE with the clear crystal bottles with twinkle lights!!!

 Soaking the bottles to remove the labels.

My absolute FAVE bottles!!!

All ready to craft.

Sample of one of the painted bottles.

The crystal bottles look AMAZING with twinkle lights in them! I am going to be drinking LOTS of this wine the rest of this year! ;)

• We will be celebrating "PROM" this weekend at our house (virtually of course). Saturday was supposed to be prom for our kiddos, so he blasted it all over social media to dress up and share their "prom" pics to our school social media. Needless to say, um, you know this girl LOVES an excuse to dress up, so our little family is ALL in! Hayley and her boyfriend are even joining in on the FUN!!! Pics to come on this SUPER CUTE event! 

• It's also "Birthday" weekend although my birthday isn't until Tuesday. Having all my loves with me will make it the BEST birthday EVER! I typically start counting down my birthday at the 1st of the MONTH.....but I haven't been that into this year. LOL  I do really LOVE birthdays, maybe quarantine is making it feel weird. 

• On Sunday we went out for a family day by the water to a spot we found when we were out exploring one day. The weather was perfect and it's a super CUTE hidden spot so we were there all alone! (social distancing peeps!) Here are a few of my FAVE pics from the day:

That's all for this week. I will TRY super hard to get this out
in the morning next week so you can for REAL have coffee time!
I feel like I was helping you out with cocktail time though, so you are WELCOME!
Stay healthy and stay home loves!

Easter Brunch (his version of a really cool brunch spot)

Happy Saturday!!

Ok so I told you I would share a couple of my love's home "dates". 

I've definitely inspired him to think outside of the box.

Honestly it was a toss up between Easter Brunch & his LEGIT engagement proposal night. 

I opted for Easter this go around, but I think I will definitely share our engagement because he 

seriously did some WORK on that!!!

Obviously Easter was different for everyone this year so it was up to YOU to make it be something special and memorable.

One of the things he enjoys is brunch at really cool spots.

I'll let it be known, this was ALL him. I had no input and did NOTHING

to make it what it was.

Again it took WORK. We moved a piece of furniture from 

a bedroom to use for the Mimosa Bar. 

He had us go pick wild flowers with him the day before to use for some of the decor.

He added some little personal touches from around our home (pictures, vases etc)

The menu was freaking AMAZING!

Mimosas were BOMB!

The time put into this brunch was well worth it and YASSSSSSS we
did dress for the occasion!! 😊

We had such a great time and will remember it forever!!!

Check it out because he really did do a FABULOUS job!

Flower picking was a SERIOUS thing!

 The name of his brunch spot was "Our Point of View" which is a play off of one of
our FAV spots in Phoenix "A Different Point of View"

 Mimosa Bar

Add ons for the mimosas

 Yep, dressed with heels to sit on our balcony
(Remember you HAVE to PLAY the part)

 NO words for how good this meal was!

 YUM!

 Serving up mimosas!

 Cheers!

Some of his flowers he picked!

A beautiful and unforgettable Easter!!!

Apple & Gouda Stuffed Chicken with Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Hello lovelies!!!

I hope everyone is hanging in there and keeping busy.

I wanted to share this recipe with you that I made last night.

SUPER easy, pretty quick and absolutely YUMMY!
If you love apples and gouda then you will LOVE this meal. As for the brussel sprouts, I
absolutely, positively DETESTED them when I was young.
Fast forward to being OLD mature 😉 and I LOVE them!!!
Ok so here is what you need and how you do it!

INGREDIENTS (FOR CHICKEN):

4 - thin sliced chicken breasts (or butterfly 2 regular size breasts to make 4. you want them to be thin so they fold over and hold the gouda and apple easier)
Gouda Cheese - I usually buy a block of smoked gouda and start slicing it up into thin pieces
Green apple - slice thin pieces
Olive Oil
Rosemary (crushed dry or fresh)
Sea salt
Ground Pepper
Toothpicks

So, here is the deal, I don't really measure any of this stuff so that's why I don't have exact amounts for these items. Just eyeball it....you will be all good! LOL

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 425.

2. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil (just for your own sanity of easy clean up)

3. On one side of your chicken breast lay out 4 to 5 slices of apple, followed by 3 to 4 pieces of gouda (again this will all depend on how thin and long the chicken breast is)

4. Sprinkle with a bit of the crushed rosemary, fold the breast over and I stick a few toothpicks in there to really ensure they stay closed up while they are cooking.

5. After you have the breasts all folded over, drizzle the top with olive oil, season with a little sea salt, ground pepper, and rosemary.

6. Bake in the oven for about 25 - 30 minutes. (This time will depend on the chicken thickness and your oven, so just keep an eye on them while they are cooking)

INGREDIENTS (FOR BRUSSEL SPROUTS):

1 lb of fresh brussel sprouts, cut the ends off and half them
Olive Oil
Lemon
Minced garlic
Kosher salt
Ground pepper

DIRECTIONS:

1. Drizzle a baking sheet with olive oil (again, I don't measure SMH)

2. Spread the brussel sprouts out on the baking sheet.

3. Zest the lemon and juice 1/2 or whole lemon depending (I'm a HUGE lemon fan so I did the whole lemon, but this will be a preference thing)

4. Sprinkle some minced garlic, kosher salt (I like the thick texture of the kosher salt, but you don't have to use that if you don't have any on hand #quarantinelife), and ground pepper

5. I mix all of that around with my hands (yes, that won't be for everyone, but I'm Italian so I just get all in there and mix it up. If you prefer you can do all of this in a bowl and then transfer to the baking sheet. Just get in there, get DIRTY, and embrace it! 😜

I put this pan into the oven the same time as my chicken and just kept turning them. I like my brussel sprouts a little crispier so how long they are in there is completely up to you.

Final Dish!!!! 

That's it!!!!! Go ahead and give it a try! Let me know what you think!!!!

Stay healthy loves. 

Coffee & Catch Up aka C & C

Gooooood Morning loves!!

So Wednesday is going to be our new official Coffee Date day. 

In the past I did Coffee Talk, but just like the rest of my life that too is getting 

refreshed with a new look. 

So without further delay here are my updates on this past week:

• All the new balcony furniture came in and I am in LOVE. We decided to get a high bar top table & chairs because our views are AMAZING and if you are sitting low you don't get to enjoy them as much.  I added the outdoor moroccan gray rug. It's reversible and will definitely hold up in the rain because it's a vinyl type material which makes it really easy to clean. SCORE!  The last piece I added was the super cute white "rattan" chair. I put that in quotes because it's not really rattan material. It looks like it but it is also a vinyl type of material which should hold up to our hot summers and monsoon season, but I will definitely keep you posted on how it does this first summer.  (I'm working on adding the links to each of the pieces in case you are interested in checking them out for your space, but for some reason they aren't working. 😕 Ugh. It's probably a user issue....imagine, but as soon as I get them working I will update this post with them)

• While we are all living the Quarantine Life, I figured this is a good time for me to start crafting for the wedding and do some trial and error projects. ;)  I ordered some greenery, vases and spray paint so I'm super excited for those to get delivered. I have been removing labels from all my empty wine bottles in preparation. I know, I know, you are SHOCKED that I would have A LOT of wine bottles, but hellooooooooo quarantine life is helping my projects get complete even faster! I'll post what projects I work on as I start them. Fingers crossed they turn out good. 

• Speaking of the wedding....this WIND has been a MAJOR issue. So we can't nail down a definite date yet because we are watching what the evenings look like this whole month. Wind up here at our house is a serious thing. Um, no bride or anyone who likes their hair to look good will enjoy a super windy wedding day. Now obvs I can't predict what it will be like next year on any certain day, but we have been watching the patterns. It typically is windy during the late mornings into the afternoon and then by evening it dies down. Now if that's the case, we would be GOLDEN because we are planning an outdoor sunset wedding. We initially wanted March and I guess we could do the very end of March and just hope for the best but now we are thinking possibly April or June. May is out because High School life in May is pure CRAZY MADNESS. Anyone who has lived in Southern AZ for a long period of time and has any advice and/or insight to this windy weather, I would LOVE to hear from you!

• Brooke Burke Body Update:  2 Weeks In! Unless I'm delusional I think I am seeing results!!! ;)  I have NEVER owned a scale because honestly my clothes tell me anything and EVERYTHING I need to know. Last weekend I had a couple outfit choices out and the one in particular I hadn't worn in a while because it just wasn't fitting quite "right". 😏 I put that baby on last weekend and it fit PERFECTLY!!!! I was so excited! I'm definitely trimming up and toning which is all that I wanted so I'm over the moon happy with this new workout program that I decided on a whim to do!

• I'm working on a SUPER cute and FUN date night this weekend!!! It's top secret right now, but I'll definitely let you know all about it next week. I'm in the planning stages as we speak, so hopefully it turns out how I envision. 

I think that about covers all my hot topics for this last week.

 I do need to share 

the LEGIT super creative Easter Brunch my love did for us. 

Maybe that will pop up on here tomorrow. 💖

Stay Healthy and stay home my loves. 

The Weekend Recap!

Hello lovelies!

It has been a few days since my last post. In my last post I told you about my new

workout endeavor....Brooke Burke Body.

Welllllll I am in that work out full throttle and Friday's workout literally KICKED

my A**!!! I am just NOW starting to be able to sit and stand normally.

WTH?!

I don't EVER remember being in this much pain after a workout. SMH

Needless to say I am seeing changes so I know this chick is kicking my booty but man alive, it's 

ROUGH!
(I still LOVE it!)

Anywhooooooo I wanted to start this Monday off with a Weekend Recap!

(yes, I get that we have all been in the same spot that we have been in for the last 3-4 weeks

depending on where you live, but you need to MAKE it FUN in order to survive)

So here's the Dirty on my Quarantine Weekend:

• Completed my workout the WHOLE weekend. I didn't skip one day. 😃  (This is BIG time for me because typically this lady can easily find an EXCUSE to skip at least one of the days)

• Did an AT HOME Cocktail date with my BESTIE and her hubby in NJ (I'll link our "love story" another time, because it's a seriously CRAZY story!)  This was also the first time they were "meeting" my love,so thank goodness for ZOOM bringing peeps together. We had so much fun!!! Got all dressed up, drank, and laughed for a few hours. (more about dressing up in a future post! 😉

• I have been making some new recipes around this place and one of our lunch newbies this weekend was a Chickpea Avocado Salad Sandwich.....DELISH! It was simple, light, and refreshing. 

• On Friday I got to FaceTime with one of my TA's from the school. We had a coffee date and it was soooo freaking nice to see her sweet face and hear her voice. This is a hard time for everyone but especially for our Senior students. Senior year is full of such excitement and it's truly heartbreaking to see this happening. (we are working on still keeping things fun for them so fingers crossed that some of the ideas are able to come to fruition) I miss her so much so Friday was a tremendous treat. She definitely holds a special place in my heart. 

• Sunday was a LAZY day for sure!!! 💟 We binged watched 4 movies!!!! It felt nice to just lay around (and let's be honest after all the wine I drank from the bestie cocktail night I wasn't in the mood to do MUCH! ;)  YOLO

That's a wrap! It was definitely a lovely weekend. Here are a few pics of our virtual cocktail date!

Be back soon loves! Stay Healthy & Stay Home, 💕

At Home Dates!

Happy Mon-Tues YAY!!!
(depending if you were off yesterday)

I know, I know EVERY day feels just like the last, but you need to make it 

feel different, which kinda goes hand in hand with this post!

So we are all in quarantine and peeps are starting to lose their mind and spending WAY too much

time on Tik Tok!!! (myself included, LOL)

You can't go out for the safety of yourself as well as others. You can't just spend the time

enclosed with your "loved" ones and plot their demise from the WAY too much TOGETHERNESS you all are having. ;)

So here's the back story on me. I LOVE, like absolutely ADORE at home date nights.

They are my JAM!

When I say at home date nights, I don't mean a sweatshirt, no bra, no make up, roll up to the table, clear that crap away and go on your merry way.

Nope I mean put some freaking work and EFFORT in to it ladies (or men)

There is something about getting ALL dressed up like you are seriously going out somewhere. I'm talking make up, lashes, cute outfit, HEELS! (yes, yes I realize that's a lot of WORK to just

"sit at home")

It's so worth it. Dinner at home is next level when you do it up like a REAL legit 

going out date.  You take your time eating and have even better conversation.

I've done everything from cooking dinner together dates, bar & casino type dates, picnics

to my ALL TIME FAV date.....EVER, a restaurant date complete with a waiting area. (which coincidentally just took place during this quarantine)
Next to making yourself look DATE night ready you have to set the scene & ambiance at home
to match the date as well.
Play music, have candles, twinkle lights or whatever to help set the mood.
Set the table fancy. Use whatever props you have to go with the Date you are doing.
Here is my Restaurant style date that we did a couple weeks ago.

This was the "Outdoor Patio" wait area for the restaurant. 

The informational restaurant sign

 Cheese board to go with the wine on the "patio"

 Inside the restaurant. The beverage area which included Wine & Water.

 One of the guests waiting for their "reservation"
This guy is my WORLD and obviously a super good sport! ;)

All the extra little details

 This was before "the restaurant" opened. This VIEW is everything!!!

 Waiting for our table. (At this point I said "ohhh, I'm crossing my fingers we get the table with a VIEW!" You have to PLAY the part peeps! ;)

 Evening on the Patio

LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!

 We PLAYED the part.

Table Set

SUCCESS!!!

Okay, so first off, YASSSSSSS this was A LOT of time & effort. You don't have to
start off this BIG. Just make little efforts, like getting dressed up and
having a nice dinner, but you HAVE to make the effort.
Relationships take WORK and in a time where we are all stuck
home and can't go anywhere, this is the TIME to experiment with different ideas.
The beauty of this is I have inspired HIM to come up with some pretty legit DATE nights on his own.
I'll post a few of his in the coming days! In the mean time, start being creative. Share with
me what cute dates you do. Don't EVER care what ANYONE else thinks about
your at home dates, or what you post on FACEBOOK that you are EXCITED about.
Enjoy your life for what it is!!!
Have a fabulous day!
Stay home and stay safe!