Lemon Garlic Chicken Bake

Howdy Friends!

How are you guys doing? I am doing mighty fine, thank you!
So...I kinda forgot that I am a food blogger. My bad.
No worries though, I have a recipe today!
We ate this for dinner last week (see I am always late on posting my recipes) & we really liked it. The nice combo of the lemon and garlic was super tasty. MMM.

Here is what you will need:

• a whole chicken, butchered. OR you can use 4 chicken breasts, or thighs. Pretty much use whatever chicken you want. ;)
• 4 potatoes, cut up into bite size pieces
• 2 onions, chopped
• 5 cloves of garlic (I actually used 4 minced and I put a few extra cloves in whole. BECAUSE I LOVE GARLIC)
• 3 tbsps olive oil
• 5 tbsps lemon juice
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• Assorted veggies. I used some green beans and carrots from a frozen bag. I recommend it.

STEP ONE:

Put the chicken, potatoes,onions and veggies into your baking dish.

Look at how cute this thing is! Dan got me this little owl for Christmas. 

OWL OBSESSED.

STEP TWO:

Mix the oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, pepper and garlic powder together into a little bowl.

Now pour the mixture over the chicken and veggies.

STEP THREE:

Bake at 450F for 50 minutes. When that is done take the chicken out and bake the veggies and potatoes for another 10-15 minutes so they will be nice and soft! 

ENJOY!

Here are some pics of my life as of lately!
We had our youth group over for a fondue dinner & a games night 2 weeks ago! It was so much fun. These kids have a lot of energy ;)

My latest DIY project. Window mirror.

Today I had a lovely day with my friend Marylene. We ate chocolate, drank coffee (of course) and we did pedicures!

#bubbles

I am about to go to a job interview! So wish me luck (or blessings)!
XOXO
Have a great night friends!

-Britt

SAN DIEGO PART DEUX

Hello HELLO!

Well here I am, almost a month after my trip with PART DEUX! I hope you are all doing well on this snowy Thursday afternoon. Well...at least it's snowy in my neck of the woods. I don't know why everyone is complaining so much about the snow. It's not even officially spring yet guys! I personally like it ;) But I guess I also didn't suffer this winter as much as the rest of you because I was in CALIFORNIA! haha

While in San Diego we spent a day at the World Famous San Diego Zoo!
It was pretty much one of my fav things about San Diego! I loved it! I saw so many animals that I had never seen before & animals that I didn't even realize exist!

Me at the petting zoo. I want a goat so bad.

Dan and jumbo turtles! 

Dan wanted to bring a turtle home! He was like "imagine our children riding the giant turtle in the backyard! how fun would that be?" 

hahaha yeah right!

Those pink things in the back are flamingos!

This gorilla was just lounging in the sun! So adorbs.

Mr. Giraffe Man.

LOOK AT THIS LITTLE DUDE!

I don't even know what he is, but he's cute! Like a little chubby deer.

I loved this guy.

Then we went to see a 4D Ice Age movie!

PANDA>

I just wanted to snuggle him. But I am sure he wouldn't have liked that.

Another day, Dan and I went on a tour of the USS Midway Cold War Aircraft carrier.

Dan was so happy that whole entire day. :)

MOI.

Camo F18

Love him.

That concludes the pictures of our trip. I mean.. I have probably 50 selfies that I could share with you, but that would be awkward. ;)

I hope you all have a fab rest of your day!

XO

-Britt

Lentil & Spicy Sausage Soup

Hello, Hello!

Here I am, with an ACTUAL recipe :) It warms my heart to finally be back in my own kitchen getting back to cooking the things I love. It warms my heart even more to be able to finally share recipes with you all again!
This soup was super YUM. Dan has the week off work so we have been in super-productive mode. We have been getting so much done around the house & this soup was so easy. It was nice not to cook for too long so I could get back to our projects!

OH MAN.. before I get started with the recipe I just want to take a second to say that my husband is AH-MAZING. I was having somewhat of a "down" day yesterday and he brightened my day with a present. He is so thoughtful. He bought me this beautiful pearl necklace while we were in Cali, but he has been waiting to give it to me! :) I am so blessed.

Food time!

Here is what you need to make this easy soup!

• 2 small onions, chopped
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 3 spicy Italian sausages, cut into bite sized pieces
• 1/4 cup orange lentils
• 1/4 cup green lentils
• 6 cups of water
• 1/2 can of diced tomatoes (we used 1/2 a mason can of our homemade tomatoes)
• 2 cups of frozen veggies (the bad with the small pieces of carrots, peas, corn, and Lima beans)
• 2 tbsps taco seasoning
• 1 tbsps chicken stock

This recipe serves 4-6 servings. (4 Dan sized portions..6 "normal people" portions haha)

Step one:

In a large pot put your oil, onions and cut up sausage. Fry for a few minutes until your onions start to get clear.

Step two:

Add all of the other ingredients and bring to a boil. I kept my soup on 7/8 for the entire cooking time. So med/high. Cook for 30 minutes. Or until your lentils and sausage are totally cooked, which might take less time than 30 minutes.

&& ENJOY!

Have a wonderful Thursday friends!

xoxo

-Britt

San Diego Part One

Bonjour blogging family!
I have my promised California pictures!
Our trip was even better than what I had expected! AND I high expectations!
Considering that we only paid $45 a night for our hotel, it was really quite nice! It was clean, the workers there were friendly AND it had a pool & hot tub. Not bad at all :)
I had expected that Dan would work a lot down there and I would be alone quite a bit, but in fact he had A LOT of time off. Which meant we could go on more adventures. We went on an adventure every single day that we were down there. We discovered a lot of amazing beaches, gorgeous hiking spots and great places for a delicious nightly treat! Not to mention I shopped a lot!
 I made a friend on my flight from Chicago to San Diego and we went out on a lunch & shopping date. So all in all I expected to be alone often and that was just not the case :)
It was refreshing, relaxing and an adventure. It was exactly what I needed.
Here are some pictures from our two week adventure in San Diego.

Dan and I on our hike at Torrey Pines Reserve.

Our camera died at the very beginning of our 3 hours there. I was SO mad sad when it died because the view was incredible! Here's a pic I found on the google machine of Torrey pines so you can get the idea.

(taken from here)

See what I mean? Gorgeous.

Our next adventure was visiting Lajolla Beach. We went there with the intention of checking out the shopping along the beach but we were met with a pleasant surprise!
We parked our car along the beach and we were like ewwww, it's so stinky here! I said it was probably the sea food restaurant beside where we were parked & then we decided that we for sure did not want to eat there because it smelt way tooooo funky.
THEN we walked closer to the beach and we saw like a hundred seals!
SEALS! Right before my eyes, just chillin on the beach!
Maybe for all of my west coast friends this isn't that exciting, but to me it was like the best thing ever.

The cutest little baby!

Birds!

Dan with a sunbathing seal! How cute.

Big freaky birds. Not a fan. Although I am a big fan of the guy in the picture below.

I love the ocean. There is nothing like it. Whenever I look out over the ocean it just reminds me of how BIG God is. Not only how big He is, but how GOOD He is. I love those moments when I take the time to really revel in who He is.
Amazing.

At the end of our long walk along the beach we stopped in for some hazelnut coffee and bread bowl soup at panera. Oh baby.

Our next adventure was our day trip to Universal Studios in LA. It was such an awesome day! We left San Diego at 6 am and we were there by 8am. Luckily is was a chilly day and there were not that many people at the park. The longest it took to get on a ride was maybe 10 minutes!!
Also the rides were so cool. The 3d rides were the most fun! Although I get motion sick, the rides were totally worth the nauseous feeling I felt. You must go on the transformers ride. You need to go there, like right now.
When we first got to the park we took an hour tour of the studios! It was so neat to see the sets from some of the movies I love. This is Dan and I on the trolley for the tour.

From back to the future!

Whoville from The Grinch!

The Bates Motel from Hitchcock's "Psycho." Classic.

Airplane crash from War of the Worlds

Dan and I hanging out with Frank.

Universal Studios is so fun because it's like you are being entertained all day long. The rides are incredible, the shows are some of the best and your imagination is at work all day long.

We ended our day with Mexican food and a stroll down Hollywood blvd.

Well I still have lots more to tell you guys about our trip but it will have to wait until next time.
I had a great trip with the love of my life and it was exactly what I needed.
Although I am still sad, I am feeling overwhelmingly blessed.
Happy Monday friends!

xoxox
-Britt