Apr 27 2013

“What’s For Dinner” Fridays: Margarita Chicken Taco Salad

Posted on April 27, 2013 by Lauren

So it’s Saturday, not Friday, and this dinner was made this evening, but it doesn’t really matter, right? You won’t hold it against me for too long, will you? This has got to be one of my absolute favorite meals that I have ever made (aside from my Bacon Chicken Dumpling Soup which is to friggin’ die for!) and will totally make it again! I found the backbone for this recipe from a user at AllRecipes.com here and decided that I was going to shnazz this sucker up and awesomeize it! The calories are a little higher than I would like for them to be, but it is still mostly healthy and can easily be made healthier by dumping the cheese and ranch dressing (those were the real calorie kickers… jerks). Did I mention that this is super simple to make?! No? Well it is, and here is how!

Step one – Get yo crap together.

Step two – Combine your three cheese ranch dressing, nonfat Greek yogurt, parsley, poultry seasoning, cumin, celery salt, crushed red pepper, picante sauce, and lemon juice in a small bowl completely. Cover and put in the fridge until you’re ready to use it.

Step three – In a frying pan coated with spray butter (or EVOO) cook your shredded chicken, green onions, half of the chopped onions, minced garlic, and some salt and pepper if you so desire until thoroughly cooked. It took me about ten minutes maybe. Just stir it occasionally and everything will be alright.

Step four – While your chicken is cooking, plate your lime flavored tortilla chips in a circle with a hole in the center.

Step five – Put lettuce in the center of the chips.

Step six – Put some raw onions on the lettuce.

Step seven – Then some teeermaters.

Step eight – AVOCADO!

Step nine – Top with some cooked chicken mixture!

Step ten - Top with some of your yummy dressing from the fridge and viola! Margarita chicken taco salad! *muuuah*

Margarita Chicken Taco Salad

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Yield: 4 servings

Serving Size: 1 serving

Calories per serving: 639

Fat per serving: 39g

Margarita Chicken Taco Salad

Wonderful source of vitamins A and B6!

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups cooked chicken (shredded)
2 1/2 cups lettuce (shredded)
1 cup green onions (chopped)
3/4 cup tomatoes (chopped)
1 avocado (cubed)
1 1/2 cups onion (chopped)
1 garlic clove (minced)
1/4 cup non-fat Greek yogurt (plain)
1/2 cup three cheese Ranch dressing
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp picante sauce
1 tbsp dried parsley
1/2 tbsp poultry seasoning
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp celery salt
1/4 tsp ground red pepper
1 cup marble jack cheese
32 lime flavored tortilla chips

Instructions

Combine Greek yogurt, ranch dressing, lemon juice, picante sauce, dried parsley, poultry seasoning, cumin, celery salt, and ground red pepper in a small bowl, cover, put in fridge.
Coat large frying pan with spray butter (or EVOO) and cook your chicken, green onions, minced garlic, and half of your raw onions (about ten minutes).
While chicken is cooking plate your chips, lettuce, raw onions, tomatoes, and avocado .
After chicken is complete place it on top of the plated lettuce.
Top chicken with ranch dressing mixture and then top that with cheese. Enjoy!!

Notes

Eliminate cheese and ranch dressing to cut back on fat and calories. Consider replacing with vegan cheese and more Greek yogurt instead.

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Did you make this? Tell me about it! I want to see!!

Apr 27 2013

What I’m Listening To: “Baby I’m A Fool” – Melody Gardot

Posted on April 27, 2013 by Lauren

There is so much left out of music today with popular music and what the media tells us is talented. The real musicians of the world have to fight, struggle, battle, and convince them to let us have just a split second to hear them sing for us while Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, and the Pussycat Dolls get to strip off their clothes and pretend to have talent everywhere. Don’t get me wrong, I am part of the problem because I myself will occasionally turn up the radio and jam out to some Britney, but nothing compares to the fluid, smooth sounds of real musicians that are overlooked everyday because, for whatever reason, they aren’t as marketable to the masses. Or maybe it is just because they refuse to sell themselves short and actually want to have control of their talent instead of singing to young girls about how important it is to hate school, dress trampy, and sleep with as many boys as you can because, “Hey! We’re women, we can roar… in bed if that will make you like us a little more!” Way to kick the stomachs of real women’s right activists, huh?

Melody Gardot is someone that I just happened to stumble upon, much to my delight, while letting Spotify do its thing and tell me about what the radio doesn’t think I should be allowed to listen to. Melody is not only gorgeous, but she is young, and her voice is one of the smoothest, jazziest sounds that I have come across since the great were famous back in the day. This song makes me want to put on a ball gown and slowly spin in circles around a large ballroom marble floor and forget about my every day happenings.

Don’t believe me? Listen to her yourself! You will thank me.

Apr 27 2013

Upcycled: End Tables to Cat Condos!

Posted on April 27, 2013 by Lauren

Last month I posted this sneak peek about a bright neon green and a bright neon orange object in my garage and what it may be turning in to. Tada! CAT CONDOS!

This is how they looked when I started. Eeww, right? I have had these bedroom end tables for many years now and even though the wood in the picture doesn’t look that bad, it is actually terribly crappy laminate gar-baaage and was in need of being something else. Soo, with some cleaning, sanding, cover stain priming, painting with bright neon colors, and then clear coating with some MixWax Polycrylic gloss top coat made these awesome cat condos for my wonderful Stewie (Stewbert – pronounced Stew-bear, it’s French and maybe a combination of John Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s last names ) and Willa (Willabean, Beans, or Beaner)!

See? Ms. Beans is very comfy on her bright orange fabric pillow that I made. I was so lucky to run across neon green and neon orange fabric at WalMart that matched the paint! I was going to show you a picture of Stewie enjoying the condos, but apparently he was being anti-social that day. Poopy cat.

Apr 27 2013

Art: Capturing a Memory

Posted on April 27, 2013 by Lauren

Some of you may remember this from about a million years ago. :) If not then here is a little recap – I started this project in February and have finally finished it two months later! What a way to procrastinate, right?! Especially since it’s such an easy little project that probably could have been completed in a day or two. Who cares though, right? It isn’t about how long it takes to capture a memory, it’s about making it what you want it to be!

I took some canvas, glued on pretty card stock, taped off and glued on a thick layer of glitter to create a 3D border, stained some wood numbers and letters, and then painted some pop out wood and poster board letters for our names. I’m proud of it! I know it doesn’t mean anything to you guys, but it is a constant reminder of my wonderful life with John! :)

What is your favorite art that you’ve created to capture a memory?

Apr 23 2013

A Rainy Day Tour At The Tulsa Zoo

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Lauren

I start my new job on Thursday and John said we should go to the Zoo before I start just to check out the new exhibit, or rather the updated exhibit, and obviously I thought he was friggin’ brilliant and jumped at the chance. The Zoo… I mean… come on! So of course the day we choose to go it’s misting outside from the aftermath of our recent spring rainstorm. Boo! Regardless we decided that maybe if we suckered it through the storm we’d get to see the exhibits minus thousands of little kids and a bunch of parents which apparently have no clue what personal boundaries mean. Holy crap, you guys. People who do not acknowledge anyone else around them need to calm down a bit and realize there is more to life than what is happening to them.

No such luck really, unless we were outside in which case it was almost dead, so onward through the rain we went. I love little kids, we want little kids, but other people’s little kids make us crazy… most of them… not all of them. The sweet little ones that are polite and ask questions out of curiosity are amazing. The little spastic ones that run around screaming while their parents ignore them and everyone’s day gets ruined because of it make us crazy.

So, yeah, I took pictures because I love photography and can not wait until money falls into the right places and I can upgrade to a nicer camera. :) I thought I’d share some rainy day shots with you all to see what the Tulsa Zoo is like here in ole Tulsey Town.

There is something so wonderful about Dorsey & Briney and their wonderful Sea Lion show they put on. Even in the cold, rainy weather!

Sweet, Mr. Dorsey. He’s 19 and as handsome as ever! <3

The lovely, Ms. Briney. She’s 22, so she’s a little more sophisticated. They both can do great tricks and their show was super cute!

To see more photos of mine head over to my DeviantART page and check them out. What are your favorite exhibits at your zoo?

Apr 20 2013

What I’m Listening To: Bastille

Posted on April 20, 2013 by Lauren

I frequent Heather Armstrong’s blog Dooce a lot because I love her personality, her sense of humor is awesome, she is very down to earth, and her daughters and dogs are flippin’ adorable and I love reading what’s happening with her life. She loves to tell people about music that she is listening to and that is how I came upon Bastille. This song, Pompeii, is so beautiful and the video is really interesting to watch, so I figured it would be fun for the first post ever that I’m releasing about music that I love to listen to.

There is something soothing about Bastille to me and this song has such amazing harmonies and beautiful lyrics that I couldn’t help but share it with you all!

What are you all listening to currently?! Who should I pay attention to next?

Apr 20 2013

“What’s For Dinner” Fridays: Pineapple Mango Chicken & Rice

Posted on April 20, 2013 by Lauren

I created my own recipe for Friday night dinner, everyone! I usually like to try other people’s recipes and then tweak them to our liking, but last night I figured what the hell and created my own recipe! It was a pretty crazy evening trying to make this and listening to the news about Boston and the capture of the younger kid involved with this mess, but I pressed on and made this recipe super tasty and am really proud of it! I wanted to come up with a filling, but nutritious and healthy meal for us and this absolutely did the job! So, without further ado, here is my recipe for Pineapple Mango Chicken & Rice.

Step one: Sounds redundant of me, buuuut… gather all of your ingredients! Look at how beautiful those colors are. Not so much our orange laminate counter tops, but the rest of it is beautiful!

Step two: I used spray butter, but you can use a little bit of EVOO if desired to start cooking your thawed chicken. These pieces of chicken were bigger than I thought so we had more chicken than we probably needed.

Step three: While the chicken is cooking over medium high heat, throw the onions, green onions, mushrooms, and minced garlic in large frying pan and let them start to caramelize and become tender. Probably about five or so minutes, stirring occasionally.

Step four: Squeeze some lemon juice in with the veggies and let flavors blend.

Step five: I usually butterfly out my chicken pieces that are large and flip them over to help them cook faster. Once both sides of the chicken are cooked, slice down the center of them and flip them belly side (pink side) down to cook the center faster.

Step six: Once the chicken is cooking again throw the kale and green bell peppers in with the already cooking veggies on medium heat.

Step seven: Lower the heat to low and throw in your mango. My mango was still kind of frozen from the freezer so I did this one first for awhile before I added my pineapple. You can do them both at the same time if you’d like but mango is a thicker fruit so I wanted it to have a bit more time to heat through thoroughly.

Step eight: After five or so minutes throw your pineapple pieces in and stir it all up continuing to let slowly warm and simmer over low heat.

Step nine: Pull the chicken out of the pan and cut into rough cubes and throw them back in the frying pan over medium heat to cook thoroughly.

Step ten: Put the non fat Greek Yogurt in the fruit mixture and stir completely until well combined. Let simmer while you start the rice and let the chicken keep cooking.

Step eleven: Cook rice according to package directions. I used the two serving option but we probably could have used more rice in our meal.

Step twelve: Season the fruit with some salt and pepper and stir until well combined.

Step thirteen: Plate and eat! Viola!

Pineapple Mango Chicken & Rice

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Yield: 4 servings

Serving Size: 1 serving

Calories per serving: 491

Fat per serving: 5.6g

Pineapple Mango Chicken & Rice

A rating on caloriecount.com - low saturated fat, high manganese, high niacin, high phosphorus, high selenium, high vitamin B6, B12, and C.

Ingredients

3 chicken breast (cooked and cubed)
1 cup brown rice
1/2 cup green onions
1/2 kale leaf (cut into small pieces)
2 tsp lemon juice
20 oz pineapple
16 oz mango
1 green bell pepper (chopped)
1 cup mushrooms (chopped)
1 cup onions (chopped)
1 large garlic clove (minced)
1 1/2 cup non-fat Greek Yogurt

Instructions

Cook your chicken over medium high heat until it's thoroughly cooked. Once cook, cut into rough cubes.
In a large frying pan tenderize your onions, green onions, mushrooms, and garlic over medium high heat. Squeeze a little bit of lemon juice all over the mixture to blend flavors.
After about five minutes add the kale and green bell pepper pieces. Continue to cook.
Add mango pieces and stir into mixture for a few minutes.
Add pineapple and stir thoroughly.
After about five minutes add the non-fat Greek Yogurt and season with salt and pepper. Stir until combined and warmed through. While the fruit is warming cook rice according to package directions.
Plate the rice on plate, surround with chicken and fruit mixture, and eat!

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Apr 19 2013

Exploring Tulsa: Rain Bay Cafe

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Lauren

Last night I went to River Spirit Casino here in the town I live in (Tulsa, Oklahoma) with John and my friend Annie to catch up on what’s been happening in our lives (moreso between Annie and myself) and to celebrate my last day working as a Lead Decorative Product Specialist for the Sherwin-Williams Paint Company. As we were dining I starting thinking about how much fun it would be to start exploring Tulsa from the viewpoint of someone who doesn’t live here and start writing blog posts for my lovely readers of things in the area and the changes that are happening all around us here! So here it is! My first exploration of Tulsa, the Rain Bay Cafe located in the blinky, sparkly, loud, and exciting River Spirit Casino on Riverside! Side note: I borrowed the graphic from the River Spirit Casino website, I wasn’t fancy enough to make my own.

So as I was saying, yesterday was the mark of the end of a five and a half year experience as an employee at the Sherwin-Williams Paint Company. I am almost finished with my art major and have a minor in Interior Design, so I felt it was finally time to start my own Interior Design business and enjoy that aspect of my life! I have accepted a position with Riverbrook Animal Hospital as a receptionist to keep making money while I’m making Lauren’s Concepts my life! Yesterday and last night was an interesting experience for me because I had been working for Sherwin-Williams for so long yet somehow I wasn’t experiencing emotional roller coasters about my departure. I couldn’t decide if I was just really ready for this next chapter in my life or if it hadn’t really hit me yet that I was leaving, but none the less I decided that it would be fun to go out and grab a burger and a beer and people watch the slot machine craze of this casino for awhile.

John and I got to River Spirit Casino around seven and browsed the slots for a little bit until we found a couple to play on for a bit. Afterwards we got a beer and walked around until Annie showed up around eight-ish. The Rain Bay Cafe is a little 24 hour restaurant inside the casino that has uncomfortable wooden chairs to sit in to encourage minimal time sitting there and more time sitting in the more cushiony chairs at the slot machines… standard. :) The decor was basic and standard for a small cafe – nothing over the top and not a dump either, just standard and basic. Faux wood ceramic tiles on the floor, oddly stained moss colored green wooden, uncomfortable chairs around standard wooden tables with a laminate marbleized top, and pale paint on the walls. The temperature of the room was chillier than most restaurants would considered normal, also standard for a casino wanting to keep your attention of spending money and winning nothing. The menu at this restaurant was actually pretty nice though! The prices didn’t really go above $10 a meal and the portions were pretty impressive. I ordered “The Works Burger” for $8.99 which came with a side of fries and drinks are free. The burger, in my opinion, was perfectly cooked and came loaded with fresh, large cut veggies, on an oversized hamburger bun (nothing like getting “a burger” at McDonalds). The onions and mushrooms were nicely caramelized, the bacon was crispy, the big pieces of lettuce, onion, and tomato, and then wonderfully melted American cheese all over the big mess. Part of my wishes I had actually taken a picture of the burger, but I forgot to bring my camera with me! Drat!

John got the New England Fish & Chips for $8.99 and Annie got the Chicago Ruben ($7.99) because she’s Annie and if there is a Ruben on the menu, there is a Ruben on her plate. Both of their black plastic food trays were filled as well with very tasty and well cooked food! The only complaints any of us had were that we ate too much of it and were too full later… and John also had oil in his breaded fish that was too hot and burned his lip. All in all I would totally recommend people go visit this cafe, but go for the food and not for the environment. If you want a fancy experience, try something else, but if you’re friggin’ hungry and want a cheaper meal that will fill you up before you run out to play for slots… Rain Bay Cafe is up, baby!

Where have you gone lately in your town that you really enjoyed?

Apr 13 2013

“What’s for Dinner” Fridays: Mushroom Avocado Edamame Burgers

Posted on April 13, 2013 by Lauren

I was a vegetarian for over eleven years. Eleven whole years! The reason why I started eating meat again was because I felt as though I wasn’t able to, on my limited budget, eat in a healthy way correctly. I was partially right and partially wrong. It is extremely expensive to eat healthy food these days when you take into consideration chemicals and unnecessary additives in cheaper food. With Monsanto having free rein to alter our seeds that grow healthy crop into modified seeds that grow big pieces of food that lack all of the healthy nutrients we need, researching and shopping for proper ingredients to bring home can be really time consuming and expensive. I’m a stubborn person though so it is becoming a little easier, but in the process it is also infuriating me how it is almost impossible to create a healthy meal for me and John on a tight budget! Frustrated rant aside, I was scrolling around the interwebs the other day and ran across this recipe from Emma at A Beautiful Mess and thought to myself, “I can do that!”

I am not a fan of spicy food and it tends to give John heartburn, so I decided to alter Emma’s recipe to be a little more friendly to our taste buds. My altered version was very tasty, and very filling, but there are a couple of things I will do next time that I feel as though may have been lacking!

Next time I make this I will add more bread crumbs, make the patties a little thinner and smaller, and… ahem… actually cook the edamame first. Apparently my brain didn’t read that part of Emma’s directions and did this all with freezing cold edamame beans and damn near froze my hands off of my body in the process. Silly, silly me. Regardless… the burger still turned out really dang good and I would totally recommend it to anyone! Especially vegetarians!! Here are some after shots for drooling purposes and all…

It was so rich and flavorful and was very thrilling. If you weren’t paying attention you didn’t really realize that it wasn’t meat (aside from the lack of grease and fat you’d feel with beef – that’s why I always used ground turkey).

Mushroom Avocado Edamame Burgers

Rating: 31

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

Yield: 6 burgers

Serving Size: 1 burger

Calories per serving: 259

Fat per serving: 9

Mushroom Avocado Edamame Burgers

Ingredients

1/3 cup onion (chopped)
4 garlic cloves (minced)
30oz cooked edamame
1/4 cup cilantro (fresh)
2/3 cup bread crumbs
1 egg white
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Instructions

In food processor blend 2/3 of the edamame beans, all of the onion, garlic, cilantro, 1/2 of the bread crumbs, egg white, salt, and pepper until thick paste forms.
In the same bowl with the edamame mix, fold in remaining edamame (after giving it a rough chop to break it up a bit) and the rest of the bread crumbs until thoroughly combined.
Make patties, lightly dip in flour, and then cook until lightly browned and warmed all the way through. Top with whatever burger ingredients you'd like (avocado, mushroom, ketchup, mayonnaise, etc) and serve!

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Apr 6 2013

“What’s For Dinner” Fridays: Black Bean & Mushroom Rice (Part Two)

Posted on April 6, 2013 by Lauren

Part two of dinner last night was equally awesome. This is one of John’s favorite rice dishes that I’ve made so far. I got the inspiration for this rice from Tina at AllRecipes.com that posted this recipe. My recipe is quite a bit different than Tina’s but she gave me the inspiration ultimately.

Step one: This meal is really easy to make as well and takes about 20 minutes total to put together. Get your ingredients together. It’s getting ready to smell amazing in your kitchen!

Step two: Tenderize your onions in a frying pan with some butter for about a minute or two.

Step three: While the onions are tenderizing put three chicken bouillon cubes in two cups of water and pop it in the microwave for about three minutes.

Step four: Throw the mushrooms in with the onions and let them cook for a few minutes as well. I usually wait until the bouillon cubes are dissolved.

Step five: Pour the chicken bouillon water in with the mushrooms and onions and stir thoroughly.

Step six: Add the rest of the ingredients into the mix, stir until completely combine, and then let cook for about five to eight minutes until most of the liquid in the recipe is cooked out. Serve and enjoy!

Black Bean & Mushroom Rice

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

Yield: 4 servings

Serving Size: 1 serving

Calories per serving: 229

Fat per serving: 4.5g

Black Bean & Mushroom Rice

Ingredients

1/4 cup chopped onion
2 tbsp butter
3 chicken bouillon cubes
2 cups water
2 cups instant rice
1 can black beans
1 cup mushrooms
2 tbsp dried parsley flakes
1/2 tsp rubbed sage
1/4 tsp celery salt

Instructions

In skillet saute onion and mushrooms in butter until tender.
Dissolve bouillon cubes in boiling water; add to skillet.
Stir in rice, black beans, parsley, sage, and celery salt. Bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer for about five to eight minutes or until tender.

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Lauren's Concepts

Livin' life DIY style…

“What’s For Dinner” Fridays: Margarita Chicken Taco Salad

What I’m Listening To: “Baby I’m A Fool” – Melody Gardot

Upcycled: End Tables to Cat Condos!

Art: Capturing a Memory

A Rainy Day Tour At The Tulsa Zoo

What I’m Listening To: Bastille

“What’s For Dinner” Fridays: Pineapple Mango Chicken & Rice

Exploring Tulsa: Rain Bay Cafe

“What’s for Dinner” Fridays: Mushroom Avocado Edamame Burgers

“What’s For Dinner” Fridays: Black Bean & Mushroom Rice (Part Two)