This week’s Instagram, photo a day challenge:

August 25th – Day 238

Day 25 – fresh

Today was my birthday and Beth surprised me with some beautiful fresh roses. Lucky me!

August 26th – Day 239

Day 26 – dream

I have wanted a standing Kitchenaid Mixer for years and now I have one!

My sister in law, Tiffany, pinned this a few weeks back and I thought it looked and sounded delicious so naturally I had to give it a try. I have to confess, I tried the Cilantro Lime Crockpot Chicken week before last and messed it up. I

I had put off reading any Emily Giffin books until I saw the preview for Something Borrowed and had to read it before the movie came out.  I busted through Something Borrowed and Something Blue but then stalled on reading any more of her books.

Not too long ago, Giffin’s Baby Proof was marked down for the Kindle so I decided to get it because I loved the first two books of hers that I read.  I haven’t quite finished Baby Proof and I think that is partly because I haven’t been able to as easily connect with this story.  I keep waiting to really understand the main character Claudia, I just haven’t gotten there yet.  If I had I probably would have flown through this book last week while I was home sick.

As the book begins Claudia is happily married to Ben and surrounded by a sister dying to get pregnant and a best friend trying desperately to get pregnant by her married boyfriend.  Claudia on the other hand, doesn’t want a baby.  This was a point she and Ben both agreed on…until Ben decides he does want a baby.

While Claudia wants nothing more than for her relationship with Ben to be Baby Proof, can it really be?  I’m still waiting to find out!

This week’s Instagram, photo a day challenge:

August 18th – Day 231

Day 18 – inside

I drove to Houston and back within last then 24 hours this weekend for Beth’s first wedding shower, so I spent a lot of time inside my car.

August 19th – Day 232

Day 19 – hole

I love this sculpture down at Dee Lincoln’s on the patio; its simple yet amazing.

I made a quick trip to Houston this weekend to go to Beth & Brent’s first wedding shower and decided I wanted to listen to a book on tape to make the drive go by more quickly.  So I looked over my list of books “to read” on Goodreads and then went through those books on Audible to see if any of them were less than 8 hours.  After looking I settled on “On the Island” by Tracey Garvis Graves.

When I read the description of On the Island, I was a little nervous about about this choice because the description starts out with: “When thirty year old Anna Emerson agrees to tutor 16 year old T.J….” I couldn’t help but wonder if this were going to be a really uncomfortable read.  But fortunately I was wrong.

T.J. is a 16 year who has fought cancer and won.  Anna is a 30 year old teacher in Chicago stuck in a relationship that seems to be going no where, so when she was offered the chance to spend a summer on a tropical island tutoring a teenager whose cancer was in remission, she couldn’t say no.

Anna and T.J. take a chartered plane to meet up with T.J.’s family who left a few days ahead of them, only they never make it.  As they are headed to the island their plane crashes.   Anna and T.J. both survive the crash and make it to the deserted island near by.  It doesn’t take them long to figure out that the likelihood of them being found is very small.

As days turn into weeks and the weeks into years, T.J. and Anna discover quite a bit about themselves as they are trapped On the Island and about each other.  This endearing story of survival and love will draw you in and leave you rooting for T.J. and Anna in more ways than one.

I know that I listened to On the Island and didn’t actually read it, but I would still assume this is a pretty quick read and would be a page turner.

This week’s Instagram, photo a day challenge:

August 11th – Day 224

Day 11 – purple

I had every intention of painting my finger nails with this today for my cousin’s baby shower, but I ran out of time!

August 12th – Day 225

Day 12 – spoon

The best kind of spoon is one covered in peanut butter!

I have to confess that to me about 90% of Hungry Girl’s recipes in her emails lately have been desserts so I’ve been barely skimming the emails before deleting them, but for some reason last week I decided to really go through the email and found this recipe for Creamy Salsa Chicken Rollups.

These Creamy Salsa Chicken Rollups were super easy and super delicious! I went ahead and made an extra one to see how it heated up later in the week (that will be lunch tomorrow so I’ll have to update once I’ve tried it).

The Creamy Salsa Chicken Rollups’ ingredients are simple:

Two 5-oz. raw boneless skinless chicken cutlets
2 wedges The Laughing Cow Light Creamy Swiss cheese
1/4 cup thick salsa
Optional: salt and black pepper

Set oven to 350 degrees; total cook time 35 min

After cleaning the chicken and cutting off all the gross stuff (you know that white stuff that I don’t really want to think about what it is!) you have to pound the chicken so that it’s 1/2″ thick.  Now I don’t have a meat cleaver or whatever you are probably supposed to use.   So I got creative.  I wrapped 1 chicken breast at a time in seran wrap and then pulled out my rolling pin and began to pound the chicken.  Then I unwrapped it, laid the flattened chicken breast on a plate and repeated the process with each breast until they were all flattened.  This is probably the most time consuming part of preparing the Creamy Salsa Chicken Rollups.

Once all the chicken breasts are flattened then you take 1 laughing cow wedge per breast and spread it out covering the top of the breast, do this to each breast.  I know the ingredients call for 1/4 cup of salsa, but since I was preparing 3 breasts I actually did 2 Tablespoons of Mateo’s Salsa per chicken breast.  I’m not sure this qualifies as thick salsa, but it’s pretty close.

Here is where I got creative.  I had some of the diced jalapenos left over from the Jalapeno Crescent puffs I mentioned yesterday, so I decided to sprinkle some on top of each breast.  Then, because I had it, I added a little cilantro to each breast.

See, the salsa is thick but it still ran off the breasts a little bit.  Once I had each layer assembled, I rolled the chicken breasts up and used a toothpick to secure them.  Some of the salsa did fall out but I just stuffed it back in.  I placed each rolled up chicken breast into a pan I sprayed so that the chicken wouldn’t stick.

At this point you add pepper and salt to taste, but I decided to add a little onion and garlic powder as well.

Then cover your dish with foil and cook it for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, uncover it and let it cook another 15 minutes.  After that pull it out and it is ready to eat!

Now I know that this chicken really doesn’t look all that pretty because all of the goodness is inside of it, but it tastes really good! And because the Creamy Salsa Chicken Rollups recipe comes from Hungry Girl, you know it is low calorie.  Each breast is approximately 200 calories.

{Warning Long Post – Baby Shower Food Ideas}

I know you’re probably wondering, Pietsch is pronounced “peach,” like the fruit.  Sunny Pietsch married my cousin Ryan about 4 years ago and they are expecting their first baby.  And it’s a girl…I am SO excited!  Not that I don’t love my nephews Wesley and Easton; it’s just that baby girl clothes are so much more fun!  Any way…I got to design the invitation, my cousin Lindsey gave me the idea of the peach in the tummy because at the time we sent out the invite we didn’t know what they were having.

I love designing custom graphics so this was a lot of fun for me.  (One day I’ll update www.kateogroup.com and upload more items like this.)  If you know of anyone looking for custom invitations send them my way!

We decided since Sunny is in Austin and her family and friends are spread out from Dallas all the way down to Corpus Christi and of course out west where she grew up, to throw the shower in Austin.  But since none of us live there we were fortunate enough to be able to borrow my mom’s friend’s house for the shower.  They live up on a hill in Lakeway with a gorgeous view!

Beth, Tiffany and I had all sorts of ideas for the baby shower food thanks to Pinterest!  Here’s all of the food and beverages we had at the shower:

Isn’t it fun and festive!? Not to toot our own horn but I think it turned out awesome!

I thought I’d go over the baby shower food items that I made since I cannot take credit for all of this awesomeness, it was most definitely a team effort!  Mom, Lindsey, Tiffany and Beth!

First I’ll start with Bacon Bundles.

I got this recipe for a coworker many years ago and have altered it quite a bit since then to make it easier to make because they are always so popular they are frequently requested and can be time-consuming to make.  One recipe makes almost 100!  I’ll start with the recipe as it was originally given to me:

A few weeks back, oh wait, maybe it’s been about a month…man where has the summer gone? Anyway, last month we headed to SMOKE Dallas Restaurant at  the Belmont Hotel for brunch during Beth’s Bachelorette Party weekend.  If you haven’t made it to SMOKE Dallas, what are you waiting for?  I have only

Back in March I discovered A Sweethaven Summer by Courtney Walsh (here’s my review) and loved it!  Well, book 2 in the series is out: A Sweethaven Homecoming.

A Sweathaven Homecoming picks up just where A Sweethaven Summer left off with Campbell heading back to Sweathaven to finish out the summer.  I was so glad that she continued the series this way because when I finished A Sweethaven Summer I was dying to know what happened next.  As the story of these friends continues you get to know each of them even better.  Just as A Sweethaven Summer did, A Sweethaven Homecoming really draws you in and makes you feel like these women truly are your friends.

I also enjoyed how throughout A Sweethaven Homecoming the ladies really were able to overcome personal struggles and reconnect like they hadn’t been able to in years.  Even if you are not a scrapbooker you will still enjoy this book.  While the element of scrapbooking does exist, it is most definitely not a main focus and doesn’t take much knowledge on the subject for the story to just flow.  This story of second chances, forgiveness and love is sure to grab you from the beginning and leave you wanting more?

I love Courtney Walsh’s writing style and the way she truly draws the reader into her stories.  If you haven’t read A Sweethaven Summer yet, last I knew it was available on the Kindle for $5, so go download it, you’ll enjoy it.  Then you can read this one.  And don’t worry, the series doesn’t end here! In just a few months A Sweethaven Christmas will be released!

How is your summer reading going? What’s been your favorite book so far?  My next one is Baby Proof by Emily Giffin because I wanted an easy read, but yes, I’m still working on the Steve Jobs book…one day I’ll finish it, I swear!

This week’s Instagram, photo a day challenge:

August 4th – Day 217

Day 4 – somewhere I sat

Today was Meredith & Tate’s wedding day and this was my seat at the head table!

August 5th – Day 218

Day 5 – logo

H.O.P.E. is an organization my sister in law Tiffany is spearheading.  It is a group of vendors that will set up at an event to sell their wares and raise money for a good cause & I designed the logo for her.  To find out more about H.O.P.E. like them on Facebook.

Thanks to Pinterest I stumbled upon this delicious recipe for Easy Roasted Rosemary Crockpot Chicken!  This recipe comes from the Texas Fit Chicks’