Healthy Meal of the Week

Hey all!  It’s back, the “Healthy Meal of the Week”!  Last week and the week before the meals didn’t turn out so well so I didn’t post about them but this week was much better.  This week’s meal was “Shrimp Florentine Pasta” with a cherry tomato Caprese salad on the side from the June 2012 issue of Cooking Light. 

I thought it was very yummy and Scarlett liked it too.  I will say it was a bit on the hotter side, the next time I make it I may use about only half what the recipe calls for when it comes to the crushed red pepper.  That’s what I would suggest to those who don’t like spicier things; for those that do just follow the recipe below as it is written.  I hope everyone who tries this enjoys it!

For the Shrimp Florentine Pasta

Ingredients:

8 ounces uncooked fettuccine

2 tablespoons butter

1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 tablespoon chopped fresh garlic

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

½ teaspoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

 1 (6-ounce) package fresh baby spinach

Directions:

1.  Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat.  Drain well; set aside and keep warm.

2.  Melt butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat.  Add shrimp, garlic and crushed red pepper; cook 4 minutes or until shrimp are done, stirring occasionally.  Add cooked pasta, lemon juice, salt, black pepper and spinach; cook for 3 minutes or until spinach starts to wilt, stirring to combine.  Serve immediately.

Serves 4 (serving size 1 ¾ cups)

Nutritional information:  402 calories; 8.6g total fat (4.3g saturated fat; 1.8g mono.; 1g poly); 32.1g protein; 49.3g carbohydrates; 4g fiber; 188mg cholesterol; 6mg iron; 520mg sodium; 107mg calcium

For the Cherry Tomato Caprese Salad

Combine 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar, 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, ¼ teaspoon kosher salt and ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper in a medium bowl, stirring well with a whisk.  Add 1 pint halved heirloom cherry tomatoes, ¼ cup fresh basil leaves and ¼ cup halved miniature mozzarella balls.  Toss to coat.

Serves 4 (serving size:  about ½ cup)

Nutritional information:  84 calories; 6.8g total fat (2.5g saturated fat); 132mg sodium

Weekly Wrap-Up

Hi all!  I hope everyone’s weekend went well.  It was pretty good here.  Today is my and Aaron’s 6^th anniversary.  Hard to believe we’ve been married this long, seems like it’s only been about half that time.  Here’s what he got me:

Black and white diamond heart necklace--Helzberg Diamonds

He’s horrible to shop for so when we go to Kansas City in a few weeks he’s gonna pick something out at the outlets.

Moving on to weight loss, it’s not going so well.  I’m up almost a pound from the last weigh in.  It’s my entire fault, I admit.  I’ve been eating crap and not working out at all.  This changes tomorrow, definitely.  Back on the elliptical!

As for beauty purchases this week, my “Blizzard” palette from Crown Brush arrived this week!  I’m so excited; the colors in it are so pretty.  Check out a few pictures:

Front packaging

With flash

Without flash

I also stopped by Ulta yesterday and grabbed 2 new nail Sally Hansen nail polishes from the HD Hi-Definition collection, “Spectrum” is a blue-to-green-to-purple changing color and “Byte” is a pink-to-purple changing color.  I also picked up a new lipgloss from NYX.  It’s one of their new “Pump It Up” lip plumpers.  I got the “Lindsay” color which is a light sparkly pink.  It doesn’t really plump, at least not on me, but the color is cute.

Finishing up tonight are my few fashion purchases.  I made a quick stop at TJ Maxx because I was looking for a new pair of sandals.  I did find a cute pair for only $14.99 that are black with sparkles.  If I”d only had an extra $60 I’d have a pair of silver Michael Kors ones but I was good and didn’t spend that much.

I did, however, find a new pair of Coach sunglasses in glittery purple for more than half off what they are in the boutique.  This is the first time I’ve actually found anything Coach at TJ Maxx so I was very excited and snatched it up as soon as I saw it, lol.

Well, that’s it for tonight.  I hope everyone has a great week ahead!  Talk to ya’ll later! J

Outfit of the Week

Once, again, I’m a few days late with this but I did get it done, lol.  Here’s this week’s “Outfit of the Week”.

Demin capris:  Almost Famous (Sears)

Crocheted top in purple:  Pretty Rebellious (JC Penney)

Tank top in black:  Mossimo (Target)

Sandals in purple:  MAX rave (Wal-mart)

Signature strap watch:  Coach

Bangles on left arm:  Coach

Clover necklace:  Leila

An Award?! For Me?!

Wow, I’ve gotten my very 1^st blogging award!  A big thanks to my mom, Roxann Delaney, at Diary of a Mad Romance Writer for awarding me the Liebster Blog Award.

What is the Liebster Blog Award you may ask?  Well, this is what information I found on it.  The origin isn’t fully known but it appears it started in Germany (Liebster means “dearest” in German) as a way to recognize bloggers with less than 200 followers.

The rules of the Liebster Blog Award are as follows:

1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog.

2.  Link back to the blogger who presented the award to you

3.  Copy and paste the blog award on your blog

4.  Present the Liebster Blog Award to up to 5 blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserve to be noticed

5.  Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment at their blog.

So here is my nominee for the Liebster Blog Award (only have 1, all the other blogs I follow have way more than 200 followers):

•             88 Diamonds is the blog of my friend Kim.  She’s a wonderful musician who’s just as into makeup and fashion as I am and I love her to pieces J.

Well, that’s it for my nominees for the Liebster Award.  I hope you check her out, she’s fabulous!

Weekly Wrap-Up

Hi everyone!  Well, it’s Sunday again, the weekend just goes too fast.  I hope everyone had a good one.  I guess it’s time for the weekly wrap-up.

First, I just want to wish all the mom’s out there a Happy Mother’s Day!  I hope you all had a great day and got to spend it with the children who love you.  Scarlett gave me a sweet hand-made card and a pen with silk flowers at the top that she made in school. 

Aaron got me the Roped Pave Heart Key Ring from Coach.  I've already attached it to my handbag; I have more key rings then keys so I use a dog leash clip to hang the key rings from my bag.  They also end up with less wear and tear that way.

Moving on to weight loss, I’m still pretty much maintaining, which is good since I have no motivation to actually do anything.  I really need to get back into it though or I’ll be gaining soon instead.  Anyone have any energy they’re willing to give me, lol?  Hopefully this week will be better.

Lastly are my beauty purchases this week.  They were actually purchased last week but delivered just this week so I saved them until today to talk about.

From MAC I got the “’Shop & Drop quad from the Shop/Cook collection.  I know I’m a few months behind on this collection but I didn’t think I wanted anything from it until just now.  The quad has four colors (obviously):  Sugar Snack, a light pink matte; Hypnotizing, a frosted greyed mauve; Power Boosted, a violet veluxe pearl; and Shop & Drop, a deep blue satin.  I’m not going to do a full swatch post on this since I’m so late getting it.  I will say that I do love it, as I do pretty much all MAC eye shadow I get.  The colors are very pigmented, there’s not much fall out if any at all and the colors are gorgeous.  I’m still trying out new looks from it and hoping to come up with something original to show everyone.

Also from MAC I picked up the “Angel” lipglass from the new Fashion Sets.  I already had “Angel” in lipstick form and was quite excited when they released it as a lipglass, below are some swatches the shade, both by itself and also layered over the lipstick.  There’s also a nail polish in the same color that I did not get as I’m not that fond of MAC polishes, you can usually find the same shades at better prices and quality in my opinion.

MAC "Angel" lipglass

MAC "Angel" lipglass

MAC "Angel" lipglass over "Angel" lipstick

My last purchase this week was from Sephora and is the new Tarina Tarantino “Emerald Pretty” palette.  This is my first ever Tarina Tarantino purchase and I am absolutely loving it.  It has 6 full size eye shadows in it with colors named after The Wizard of Oz.  I will have a full swatch and review post on this one very soon so I’m not going to go into much about this other than the colors are beautiful and the formula of the product is so nice and smooth.  Check back soon for my full review on this palette.

 I’ll end this evening as I always do, with this week’s manicure.  This one is with “DVD” from Sally Hansen HD Hi-Definition.  This one is a bit hard to describe, the best way I can is to say it’s a very glittery “chrome-illusion” (for those that don’t know from car paint jobs, it changes color as the light hits it from different angles) look with purples and blues.  I’ve had this polish for a while and have never used it because it’s actually very sheer but my girls at work chose this color when I asked them what I should do this week.  I only had two coats put on at the nail salon which gave pretty good coverage.   When I did my toes at home I used three coats and it came out much more like it looks in the bottle.  I like it both ways though and think it’s a really pretty color.

Well, that’s it for this week.  I hope everyone has a great week ahead and I’ll talk to ya’ll later! J

Outfit of the Week

It’s finally Friday!!  Is everyone as excited about that as I am?  What are everyone’s plans for the weekend?  We’ve got our annual “Art & Book Fair” this weekend.  I try to go every year because it’s a great place to get books.  The “Book Fair” part of it is put on by the local “Friends of the Library” to raise money and has tons of used books for sale.  This is how I’ve gotten most of my classics like my small collection of Shakespeare so I’m hoping to get some good ones tomorrow.  And now, on to this week’s outfit.

Crops in coral denim:  Mossimo (Target)

Peasant top in white:  Mossimo (Target)

Sandals in coral:  Mossimo (Target)

Lightweight cotton scarf in turquoise:  Mossimo (Target)

Signature strap watch:  Coach

Silver star bracelet:  Michael C. Fina

Parker Hippie handbag in Violet:  Coach

NYX "Crimson Amulet" Palette--Inspired by "Dark Shadows"

Hey everyone!  Tonight I have the swatches from the new NYX “Crimson Amulet” palette.  The colors in this are inspired by the new “Dark Shadows” movie with Johnny Depp.  It features 24 eye shadows colors, 4 lip gloss colors, 5 blush colors, 1 illuminator, a travel HD eye shadow base and a travel liquid eyeliner. 

I’ve had a chance to try wear some of the eye shadows and am mostly please.  Like my other NYX eye shadows the colors are very pigmented and last as long as any other eye shadows I use.  The only thing I’d really have to complain about would be the fall out which seems to be a consistent problem with NYX.  Other than that I do find this to be money well spent. 

Check out the pictures below and if anyone is interested in purchasing one for themselves it can be found at both NYX Cosmetics and Ulta.

Packaging

Inside front cover

24 Eye Shadow Shades

Top 12 Eye Shadow Shades

Top 12 Eye Shadow Swatches (with primer)

Bottom 12 Eye Shadow Shades

Bottom 12 Eye Shadow Shades (with primer)

Inside back cover

5 Blush Shades

Illuminator

5 Blush Shades and Illuminator Swatches
(L to R:  bottom blush, top 2 shades, middle 2 shades, illuminator) 

4 Lip Gloss Shades

4 Lip Gloss Shades Swatches

Thanks for stopping by I’ll talk to everyone soon! J