Diva Dinner...Times Two!!!!

Good evening all!

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We sure did in the Russ home. We didn't get to go to my hometown like we originally wanted, so I cooked.

I also made pecan pie!

It was good! Everyone loved it.

Three of my gifts I'm most thankful for! <3

I tell you guys! I had no intentions of going out shopping on Black Friday. Even less plans to go shopping on Thanksgiving! In fact, I was all like, "Who does that?!"

But my hubby wanted a man chair and Big Lots was having a sale on recliners that could not be passed up so I said to him, "Let's go get your man chair!"

We ended up buying an entire new living room set! And curtains! And wall art! Oh and new area rugs!

Yes, that's my bull doggy Brutus running around on the new rugs! He loves them!

That large old clunky monitor (that's like over ten years old, don't judge) and desk will soon be replaced with a small chair and side table to become a nice little reading nook area.

I've been enjoying decorating the house!

Today, I'm sharing two meals with you all! Try to contain your excitement!

Every year when it gets cold, I make homemade chili. Alex was asking about it on Monday so I promised him I'd make some when the weekend came around. I use to make it from recipe I found online. But as the years have gone by, I've made changes to make it my own. This year, I completely made my own recipe! So here it is!

Té's Homemade Angry Chili

Ingredients:
2 lbs. of stew meat (most chili recipes call for ground beef, I prefer to use stew meat)
3 slices of bacon
Chopped onions (I like to use the pre-chopped onions from the veggie section at the grocery store, because I absolutely despise chopping onions)
2 jalapenos, finely chopped
2 cans of kidney beans, slightly drained
2 cans of diced tomatoes
1-1 1/2 generous tbs. of cumin
1-1 1/2 generous tbs. of chili powder
1 tsp. of garlic powder
1 tsp. of paprika
My special "secret" ingredient, which is totally optional:  1 bottle of Angry Orchard Hard Cider!

Optional toppings:
Shredded cheese
Sour cream
Green onions
Whatever you like to put on top of your chili

Cook bacon in skillet until crispy then remove and set aside. Pour onions into skillet and saute in bacon drippings. Add stew meat and let brown. Transfer into a large pot. Add the rest of the ingredients, including the cooked bacon from earlier and pour in entire bottle of Angry Orchard.

Bring to a boil then cover and let simmer for several hours. The longer the better!

It smelled so good!

That's it! Not too hard! My hubby likes cheese and sour cream on top of his so I top it off for him.

I also served them with Ritz Garlic Butter crackers!!

Beware! These can become very addicting!

Now on to my next recipe, which was my dinner for the evening. No I did not partake of the chili lol...

I've been working out lately, trying to get by sexy back, haha! My husband has been aware of this and of course is super supportive and cheering me on all the way! He recently made me a wager. If I get a six pack of abs, he'll give me $1,000! That's right! Can you say shopping spree!?!?

So of course I've upped my workout regimen. Going to more classes at 24, including Zumba taught by a girl I like to call the Euro-Train Zumba Chick!

If you've never heard of "Euro-Train", Google "Terry Crews, My Wife and Kids"!

When I tell you guys we work hard in her class......

...Yes, what you see is right! We sweat so much we fogged up the mirrors!

Of course, one of the most important things to a healthier lifestyle is a better diet.

It's no secret, I love food!! I love cooking, baking and no doubt eating! But I've been working on doing better, incorporating more healthy choices food wise.

I've tried making it a habit to add a salad to every meal I get when we go out. So yes, I'm still enjoying foods I love, but I always make sure to eat the salad first, which fills me up quite a bit, so I'm eating less of the maybe-not-so-great foods lol...I'm a work in progress...

Yesterday we took the kids to Dave & Buster's and I ordered a Sweet Apple Pecan Salad.

OMG, it was so delicious. I ordered it with no blue cheese crumbles, because the night before I had the Greek Goddess salad at Applebee's and discovered I do not like blue cheese lol...I digress though....

It was so good, that I went to the grocery store first thing this morning and bought stuff to recreate the salad!

So here's that recipe!

Té's Apple Pecan Salad

Ingredients:
Spring mix salad

Pecans- I used these, but the D&B pecans were candied (which I do have a recipe for and they are delicious!)

Apple slices-I used pre-sliced packaged apples
Raspberry vinaigrette-I used this one from Tom Thumb, it's in the refrigerated section by the salads

Blue cheese (Optional-most other recipes online have it)
Grilled chicken-The one I got from D&B was just a side salad, so it didn't have chicken in it, but they do have a full one with chicken in it as well.


Simply mix all of the ingredients together!

It was very delicious! I'll admit, I snuck in a few of those Ritz crackers on the side. They were too good to pass up!

And there you guys have it! I hope you have a great holiday season!!


Speaking of holidays! Our Elf on the Shelf, Simon, will be returning soon! And he's bring something big with him!!!

Talk to you all later!!!