Greek Tilapia

This is a SUPER easy way to make tilapia with any seasoning.

Greek Tilapia
Ingredients:
Tilapia filets
Cavender's All Purpose Greek Seasoning
Lemon slices
Parchment paper

Parchment paper looks similar to wax paper, but please don't confuse the two! Parchment paper is great for cooking and baking.

Directions:
Thaw Tilapia if frozen. Season both sides of tilapia with Cavender's All Purpose Greek Seasoning. It can be found with the spices in most grocery stores. It's excellent on all meats, fish, and vegetables!

 Place Lemon slice on top and wrap fish like a sandwich. 

Bake on 350 for 12 minutes. You may need to flip "fish package" over. Unwrap package and see if fish flakes with fork, if not re-wrap and bake a little longer. 

I paired the tilapia with grilled asparagus and greek roasted potatoes. It was a delicious meal!

Grilled Asparagus: drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper. Grill on stove top pan.

Roasted Potatoes: Quarter cut red potatoes, drizzle in olive oil season with Cavender's Greek Seasoning, Salt, Pepper and Garlic. Spread evenly on rimmed baking sheet and bake 20-30 Minutes on 450 degrees. See similar recipe here.


NOTE- You can use a variety of spices to change this Tilapia recipe. I occasionally add lemon pepper or even shredded carrot.

Bridal party cards

I saw this idea on Etsy and knew it would be pretty simple to make. I bought plain white cards, which we are also using for Thank You notes and used the material I had left over from the flower girl dresses.

Etsy Version

Ashley version

I used rhinestones to make the dresses look like the actual bridesmaids dresses with their brooch. 

It doesn't look like it, but the fabric is actually plum like the bridal party dresses.  My camera couldn't capture the color correctly.

Flower Girl Gifts

As gifts to our flower girls, I made the older girls tank tops with "Flower Girl" iron on rhinestones. For Alex who is much younger I used the iron on rhinestones on her bloomers for under her dress. So cute!

Wearing their tank tops at the rehearsal. 

Baby bloomers! 

New to Me

While grocery shopping yesterday I came across some new items, that I had never seen before!

Remember last year when I got on a Whoopie pie kick and made every kind imaginable?!? This looks easier. But if you want the real kind check out these posts... Pumpkin Whoopie Pies and Red Velvet Whoopie Pies. 

Dan LOVES pretzels. And Auntie Anne's are the best! I checked the price 5 bucks and the calories (ouch) and decided maybe we will hold off for a special occasion. 

Vintage Patterns

Someone gave me a box of vintage patterns. So cool! Lots of fun old styles!

Shrimp Salad Pitas

Shrimp Salad Pitas 

Ingredients:
Pita bread or flat bread
1-1.5lbs of shrimp peeled and deveined.
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp hot paprika
salt and pepper to taste

Cucumber Sauce
1/2 cup of greek yogurt
1 seeded cucumber chopped
1/4 c chopped onion
1/2 lemon juiced
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 Tbsp dill
Shredded carrot 

Directions:
Preheat broiler. Toss shrimp in olive oil, paprika, salt and pepper. Spread evenly on a rimmed baking sheet. Broil until opaque, about 4 minutes.

Transfer shrimp to bowl and let cool.

Heat pitas or flat bread on pan under broiler or on stove top with olive oil brushed on both sides.

In separate bowl mix together cucumber sauce ingredients.

Layer sauce, shrimp and shredded lettuce on pita!

Enjoy! 

Three Alarm Fire Chicken

File Under: I don't know what I was thinking!

I got this recipe out of a magazine with the article titled 50 ways to make chicken or something like that. Naturally, I circled the hottest one I could find. Let me first tell you that I have made this chicken probably a couple other times before this past Friday night and it is a fabulous easy recipe.

On Friday night, I centered our meal around fresh corn on the cob and really didn't know what else to make with it. So I went to my torn out magazine article and thought, oh spicy chicken would be easy!

Not only did I not follow the directions, but I literally set the alarm off. The smoke alarm. I must have thought we were tough enough to handle 3 times the amount this recipe called for and extra Sriracha sauce on top of that. I also made this on a grill pan instead of baking it as called for.

Have you ever made something so spicy that you just inhale it and cough for 20 minutes? Yeah, that's what I did. And you think that's bad, my husband got a wiff from the living room and was coughing and sneezing as well.

After all the coughing and fanning the smoke alarm to get it to stop beeping we ate that damn chicken! We had to dip it in ranch dressing and honestly it wasn't that good. Needless to say I will follow the recipe again from now on. Sometimes when it comes to spiciness there CAN be too much of a good thing!

Don't be afraid, try it! You'll like it. Just stick to the recipe!

Three Alarm Fire Chicken
Rub mixture over each raw chicken breast

1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp hot sauce

Coat with cooking spray and bake on 350 for 20-25 minutes. Or grill.


Recipe from Women's Health Magazine June 2008.

Flower Girl Dresses

From the beginning I knew I wanted to make the flower girl's dresses.  I fell in love with the purple tulle dress from this post. My mom and I made the girls dresses together, and honestly she did a lot of the work since I was busy with other things. I LOVE the way they turned out. Weren't they just so adorable?!?!

I also made the ring bearer pillow. 

We're Married!!!!!

Photo courtesy of Amanda Fales 

July 30, 2011 was the happiest day of my life! I have never smiled so much in one day. I cannot put into words how wonderful the day was. Dan and I both were on a wedding high for the whole week after the wedding. Everything turned out perfect for our wedding day. The ceremony was beautiful, the reception as stylish as I had planned and everyone had a blast. We both had so much fun! Thank you to all who celebrated with us and made our day as special as it was. It feels great to be Mr. and Mrs!

I can finally blog all of the details I have been working on the last year. I put a lot of thought and effort into the wedding and I can't wait to share it with you all! I hope you don't mind, but my blog will be wedding central for a few days (posts). I'll try to blog about other things as well, but I am just still so thrilled and excited about our wedding and new marriage!