I am always looking for great new ways to cook chicken in the crockpot that are healthy or clean and taste good reheated so that I can easily prepare lunches for the work week.  When I found this recipe I figured I would give it a

After reading 3 of the 5 books on my summer reading list (plus a few extras) I kind of hit a hurdle and had no idea what to read!

I still have Steve Jobs to read and The Singles to finish off my summer reading list but I am totally intimidated by Steve Jobs because it is so long and I have so many other books on my Kindle right now that I don’t want to pay for The Singles just yet.

Despite being really intimidated, I did start Steve Jobs and I’m really enjoying it, however I’m not enjoying how little progress I seem to make when I do sit down and read it.  I feel like I’m turning page after page after page and the % on my Kindle barely seems to move any if at all.  Walter Isaacson is a great story teller so the book really does flow and is simple to read, it’s just so long!  Hopefully I will have it finished in the next couple of weeks!

While reading that book on my list I also started Girl Unmoored by Jennifer Gooch Hummer.  This is the debut novel for the author and it was a freebie a week or so ago on Amazon so I decided to snag Girl Unmoored.  So far it is an interesting and quirky read.  I’m barely into it but it’s definitely peaked my interest and I am intrigued with where the story will go!

Let’s just say I’m making way more progress in Girl Unmoored then in Steve Jobs.  So look for a real review of Girl Unmoored by Jennifer Gooch Hummer next week!

In the mean time, let’s get to the more important item at hand; the final winner of July’s Blog Giveaway!  This week’s winner is Erica!  I hope you enjoy Creative Chaos!

Don’t forget, you can buy a paperback copy of my book right here on my website or you can download Creative Chaos to your Kindle for only $2.99 here.

How is your summer reading going?  Are you sailing through books or have drowning in not enough time to read?

This week’s Instagram, photo a day challenge:

July 21st – Day 203

Day 21 – 9 o’clock

At 9 o’clock I was still working on getting this handwriting from Beth wedding invitation ready!

July 22nd – Day 204

Day 22 – upside down

After the weekend one of these flowers got a bit droopy and upside down.

Photo borrowed from www.skinnygirlcocktails.com

Up until this past weekend I had yet to try out any of the SkinnyGirl Cocktails.  In fact I thought there were only two options: margarita or sangria.  But while I was at CVS I saw that there are now SkinnyGirl Wines.  Way to go on the product placement CVS!

Naturally while I was waiting for a prescription to be filled I was perusing the wine aisle…how else was I going to kill time?  On the end cap of the wine aisle was the SkinnyGirl wines, like I said I had no idea those existed.  I’ve heard good things about the Sangria, but have yet to actually try it.  I believe my CVS only had the California Red or the California White but according to the SkinnyGirl website there is also a Rose.

Now, if you’ve ever looked into the calorie count of a glass of red wine there is a little wiggle room.  Depends on the size of the glass and the type of wine that you have selected.  But generally the calorie range is 105 calories to 125 calories in a 5 oz serving. The SkinnyGirl wines claim to have only a 100 calories per glass.  So as you can see, it doesn’t really beat your favorite glass of red wine by a whole lot.

I am really impressed with this little empire Bethenny Frankel has built and really wanted to like this wine…but to be honest it wasn’t a wine I enjoyed or really want to have again and I was really bummed about that!  This wine tasted watery to me…almost like to keep the calorie count down they watered down the wine.  But, this hasn’t deterred me, I will still try some of the Ready to Serve Cocktails and even possibly the vodkas.  I might even give the White blend a try just to see how it compares to other whites.

The price point on this wine really wasn’t all that bad.  I picked it up for $10.99.   Have you tried any of the SkinnyGirl Cocktails?  What did you think?

I don’t think Rainshadow Road by Lisa Kleypas is technically a chicklit but it’s definitely a romance.  I had never heard of this book or this author before finding it on the She Knows Book Club website.  This was the June book of the month, so as you can see I’m way behind!

According to Goodreads and Amazon Rainshadow Road is book #2 in a series but I never read the first one and I didn’t feel like I was lost or behind.  As I started reading, the first chapter didn’t really do anything for me; I was disappointed and thought about switching to a different book to read next.  But I kept trucking along and I have really enjoyed this book.  Now I realize the first chapter was just to build a little background and help you understand the relationship between the main character Lucy and her sister Alice.

In Rainshadow Road, Lucy is a glass artist living in the Pacific Northwest.  Not long after you meet Lucy as an adult, she is abruptly dumped by her boyfriend Kevin.  She is completely blindsided and thought things were going really good.  As if being dumped by Kevin wasn’t heart wrenching enough, he also tells her that he has meet someone else and is in love, it’s Alice, Lucy’s sister.

This week’s Instagram, photo a day challenge:

July 14th – Day 196

Day 7 – building

This was the Saturday of Beth’s Bachelorette party.  We spent the weekend staying at the Belmont Hotel and it was fabulous!

July 15th – Day 197

Day 15 – finger

While my sis-in-law Tiffany played hockey the boys came over to hang.  I love E’s tiny little fingers!

This past weekend while we were celebrating Beth’s Bachelorette Party I finally got to try a place I’ve been dying to try, Tillman’s Roadhouse.  Because we were staying at the Belmont Hotel, we went to the Bishop Arts location.

I have been in search of a great white wine sangria recipe, so when I found this recipe on Pinterest I HAD to try it!  This recipe calls for a lot, A LOT of fruit!

I decided to customize this recipe a little because of my own tastes.  Also because this recipe calls for so much fruit I cut it in half.

Recipe calls for:

1 small carton of raspberries

1 small carton of strawberries

1 granny smith apple

1 braeburn apple

1 lime

1 serrano pepper

1 can of soda

1/2 c white grape juice

1 bottle of Viognier

1/4 c sugar

Here is what I used to make it:

I started by washing the raspberries.  I didn’t use the whole package, I used maybe half of the raspberries.  Placed them in the bottom of my pitcher.  Then instead of sugar I used Agave Nectar and squeezed a small amount over the raspberries.  Then I cut up the Granny Smith apple.  However I decided to only use half of it.  Because I didn’t want so much fruit I ended up not using the braeburn apple.  Once I’d cut up the apple I added it to the pitcher and then added a few squeezes of Agave Nectar.  Next up were the strawberries.  With these I just cut as many as I thought I needed to make a decent layer of them in the pitcher and then added a few more squeezes of Agave Nectar.  For color I decided to throw in a few Blackberries.  Then I added large slices of the lime.  Then I cut the serranno pepper into thick slices and tossed about half in to the pitcher.  Llet the fruit sit in the pitcher for about 10 minutes.

Last I added a little more agave nectar since the recipe called for 1/4 c of sugar.  Add the bottle of wine, then the 1/2 c of white grape fruit juice.  Last but not least add the can of soda.  Only I added a can of Sprite Zero instead because I am not a fan of soda.

Put it in the fridge to all chill for about an hour, you could leave it longer, though the longer you leave the pepper slices in the hotter it will get.

I would definitely recommend spooning out some of the fruit, then pouring the sangria into your glass.  Keep an eye out for the serrano peppers, you may want to fish them out of your glass before drinking, unless you are really really brave!

Aside from cutting  up all the fruit this is actually a really easy recipe and it tastes really good! I think you could swap out some of the fruits and add in peaches, my favorite summer fruit. In fact I may do just that next time!

With all this fruit the glass looks really pretty, I think.  (Just disregard all of the random stuff in the background!)

Sadly I have not gotten through Gone Girl as quickly as I had hoped which is part of the reason this post is a day late.  I have heard so much talk about Gone Girl that I had some pretty high expectations.  As I began reading I felt like I was forcing my way through the book until I got to about the halfway point.  Then the book takes quite an interesting turn and I was hooked!

At first Gone Girl just seems like a rather uneventful, almost boring story about a wife who goes missing and her lackadaisical husband.  The couple moved from New York City to “Middle America” Missouri a few years ago because Nick’s (the husband) mom gets sick plus both Nick and Amy are unemployed writers.

Once in Missouri they settle into an unhappy place in their marriage and struggle to just get by in their day to day lives.  Nick borrows money from his wife who has been given a large some of money from her parents throughout the years.  But the money Nick borrows to open his bar with his twin sister is the last of her money.  So not only are they unhappy but for the first time ever Amy is experiencing being poor.

It is on their fifth wedding anniversary that Amy disappears and as the investigation deepens more and more signs point to Nick who claims he is innocent.

In my opinion Gone Girl would make a fabulous movie!  Wondering if something along those lines is already in the works.

Now onto the Give Away! This is the third week of the July Blog Give Away.

Here is how to enter to win a paperback copy of Creative Chaos:

1. Comment on today’s post!  Have you read this book, what did you think?  If not, what are you reading?

2. Once you’ve commented on the post, if you haven’t liked me on Facebook yet, head over there and like the page! That will give you another entry to win a free copy. If you’ve already liked me on Facebook you’ll still get a second entry, it doesn’t have to be a new like. But you do have to comment on the post to be entered and get your name in the pot twice which will be done through a random number generator.

3. If you don’t win keep coming back on Mondays and comment, your entries will carry over to the following weeks.

Last week’s winner is Becky!

This week’s Instagram, photo a day challenge:

July 7th – Day 189

Day 7 – garden

Since this was Easton’s 1st Birthday and I don’t have a garden, I opted for photos of Easton’s Birthday celebration.

July 8th – Day 190

Day 8 – lunch

I’ve had this whole chicken for a few days that I need to cook, so I threw it in the crock pot today to make lunch for this week.

Have you been to Snack Dallas? I’d never heard of it until I was at Veritas Dallas a few weeks ago and noticed that Horne & Decker was gone.  Which I was bummed about because I’d never made it there.  At night Thursday – Saturday you can get the street tacos Snack Dallas sells while hanging out at Veritas.  The group I was with ended up trying the tacos and they were pretty good.  So, when a group of friends was talking about getting together, I suggested Snack.

I was the first one to arrive and got to choose the table.  While I waited for the other ladies to arrive, I decided to start with the “Day Drinking” drink.  It was delicious made with Pinot Grigio, Herradura Silver, Cointreau, sparkling cran & lime.  I only had one but this deliciousness is available by the carafe if you think you might want to share.

As the ladies arrived one by one we realized that there were way too many items on the menu we wanted to try, we weren’t going to be able to pick just one!  Luckily the majority of their plates are small plates, perfect for sharing.

We started with the Queso Fundido.  It is basically just queso but it was topped with short ribs.  It was amazing!

I loved how they served everything on the wooden boards.  Though we ordered so much that I was afraid we were hogging them!

Next up we ordered the Char Tomato Flatbread.  This wasn’t your ordinary flatbread.  Everything on it tasted so fresh and the crust was really nice.  This was an all around table favorite.

The next item we ordered, I don’t remember the name of it and unfortunately their online menu doesn’t seem to have any of these first few items we ordered listed on it for me to get the official name.  But it was basically Snack Dallas’ take on Fried Mozarella.  It also came with slices of seasoned ham that were very good.

As you can see these portions were perfect for sharing and being able to try a little bit of a lot of things! So try we did. We just kept ordering…

We all thought the Short Rib Tacos with the  pineapple habanero & cilantro cream sounded good so we got two orders of those.  These tacos come 2 to an order and you can’t exactly cut a taco in half.  Or maybe we didn’t want to?  Either way we each ended up with a taco.  Unfortunately I do not have a picture of these tacos but the pineapple habanero topping really made these tacos I thought.

About this time my glass was empty so I decided to try one of their special cocktails they had up on the board.  I think it was call the Eiffel Tower, or maybe it was the Arc de Triumph….either way I wished I had just ordered another “Day Drinking.”  This drink was just okay and not one I’d want to have again.

The next item we ordered was some sort of cheese croquette.  In all fairness the waiter tried to talk us into ordering something else and we should have listened to him.  This was everyone’s least favorite dish of the night.  By this time I was having so much fun with my girlfriends catching up that I’d stopped taking notes and again this item is not on the Snack Dallas online menu.

I can’t remember if it was before or after this item arrived, but we were visited by the Palm Beer rep that was in the restaurant.  She sent us over a sample and then came to ask us what we thought.

I am not particularly a Belgian beer fan but this was pretty good.  It was light and not heavy but if I recall correctly, was still packed full of alcohol.  She even suggested the calorie range of this beer was similar to that of a light beer.

Last but not least, we ordered the Lamb Burgers.  One of my girlfriends had been wanting to try these all night and they were really good.  I believe this was my first lamb burger.  It was a great way to end the meal, this was another table favorite.  

Needless to say after ordering ALL of that, no one had room for dessert, and trust me they’ve got some desserts that sound amazing. But I it is definitely a place all four of us would head back to. And if your at Veritas over the weekend be sure to try the street tacos from Snack Dallas, they will deliver them right to your table and even let you pay them with a credit card.

Have you been to Snack Dallas yet? What’d you think of it?

I got this wine from my friend Josh at a dinner party.  We didn’t end up drinking it that night so he gave it to me to try saying he thought it was a good Pinot Noir.  He found it on Lot18, which is a nifty wine site that has great deals and often free shipping for limited time windows. I actually haven’t ordered from Lot18 but I’ve thought about.

After trying it, I have to agree with Josh, the Hangtime Pinot Noir really is a great bottle of wine and according to my friend was about $10, which to me makes it even better!  Needless to say I was glad we didn’t drink it at our dinner so it was all mine!

I know this is a California Pinot Noir but there is just something about it that reminded me of an Oregon Pinot Noir.  It was full of flavor and to me really embodied the true essence of a Piont Noir.  After being refrigerated for a day or so this wine was perfect for a hot Texas day.

I’ve never seen a bottle of Hangtime  in stores but I’ll be on the look out now.  It come from the Michael Mondavi Family of wines.  Michael is the son of famed winemaker Robert Mondavi.  The Piont Noir grapes are grown in cool regions across California.

According to the website it looks like they also make a few other varietals including a Syrah and Chardonnay.