{Recipe Files}: Buffalo Chicken Quinoa

I'm back with another tasty, and overall pretty healthy recipe for you!

We are big buffalo sauce fans in my house and after I made this, my husband didn't stop talking about how delicious this recipe was!

Originally found on Pinterest over at Half Baked Harvest, it was called Buffalo Chicken Quinoa Salad, but it doesn't really feel like a salad to me.

What You Need:

-1 cup uncooked quinoa

chicken not pictured because the husband was already
grilling it

-2 cups water

-3/4 lb uncooked chicken breast, cut into pieces

-1 cup broccoli florets (fresh or frozen is fine)

-3/4 Cup shredded carrots

-3/4 Cup shredded cabbage

-1/2 C blue cheese crumbles (and some for garnish)

*Optional: 4 green onions, sliced (we left these out)

For the sauce:

-1/3 Cup olive oil

-1/2 Cup hot sauce

-1 tsp salt

What You Do:

1. Cook the quinoa according to package directions in a medium sized pot. Cook until all of the water is gone, about 15-20 minutes (follow your package directions).

2. While the quinoa is cooking, mix the ingredients for the buffalo sauce. Use a whisk to combine it all together (it will look similar to how buffalo sauce looks when combined properly).

3. If using fresh broccoli, add a tablespoon of olive oil to a skillet, heat over medium heat and add in the broccoli for about 5 minutes until it is cooked but still a bit crisp.

If using frozen, cook it (on the stove or microwave) and set aside.

4. Cook the chicken in the same skillet you used for the broccoli. (My husband grilled our chicken on our grill because he loves using the grill, and then cut it into small pieces). Use about 1/4 Cup of the buffalo sauce you made and cook the chicken in the skillet, with the sauce until cooked through.

5. Mix the quinoa, chicken, broccoli, carrots, cabbage and as much of the dressing as desired (we used the whole thing). Toss well to combine. 

6. Add the blue cheese and half of the green onions (if you're using them--I don't think they are necessary). Mix well again.

Serve it up and top each bowl with extra blue cheese crumbles and the remaining green onions, if desired.

It may not look like much, but the flavors in this are bangin'!

It was great that night and tasted even better the next day as the flavors mixed together.

I'll certainly be making this again in the near future!

Check out some more of my recipes on my Recipes Page

Weekend Highlights

Happy Monday chickadees!

Notice anything different around these parts?

I got inspired on Friday to revamp my blog and this is the outcome of several hours of work. I still have a few kinks to work out and some things to update, but I'm pretty pumped about it!

Let's get to some weekend highlights!

My highlights included:

~Updating my blog design

~Learning a little bit of html coding (although I realized just how inept I am in general at it haha)

~Friday double date with a couple friend: 2 bottles of wine for the table, calamari, margherita pizza, and tiramisu. Perfect way to end the week if you ask me!

~Baby shower on Saturday afternoon for my friend from work--loved celebrating her little guy and her journey into motherhood! And I won one of the baby shower games, too :)

~Driving with the sunroof open and the windows down as we hit one of our first 80 degree days!

~Visiting my parents

~Finally got to wear my new lace eyelet shorts

it's hard to see the eyelet part, but they're only $19.99 at Target

~Celebrated a friend's birthday at her and her husband's house around the fire pit

~being sickened by the way some of the people acted at the Lilly sale at Target--was in the store for no more than 5 minutes and turned around and left because of how ridiculous people were. I swear I'll never go to something like that again. 

~Sunday errands

~Took advantage of Loft's Friends and Family sale

~installed a new light in our downstairs guest room (and made plans for the rest of the room's update)

~Spring cleaning--took a HUGE load to Goodwill

~Chipotle for dinner

~Watched Shawshank Redemption with MG and Cooper

~Discovered that Fraggle Rock (the first season) is on Amazon Prime! Throwback to my childhood!

~Finished up the night watching Game of Thrones and then headed to bed.

How was your weekend? Get into anything fun?

Linking up with these pretties today:

Friday Faves

Hap-hap-happy Friday!!! Today's a teacher workday so I'm student-free today, getting progress reports done for the end of the quarter, along with some reports and other things on my seemingly never-ending to-do list! At least today will be a productive one, and no horrible parent meetings to mar my day!

Let's get to some favorites, shall we?

Friday Favorites // Friday Favorites // Oh Hey Friday// 5 on Friday

This is a mix of Pinterest finds and other stuff I've stumbled upon!

{1} Favorite Show

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I was so excited when I realized that Million Dollar Listing came back this week! I love watching all of the guys on the show and drooling/rolling my eyes at the insanely expensive NY real estate scene. Plus, it's one of the very few shows on Bravo that MG actually enjoys and watches with me. Bravo for the win! :)

{2} Favorite Link

This Buzzfeed about the emoji's all 30-something wish existed.

This one is called "Friday Night Emoji"....looks vaguely similar to my Friday night plans ;)

Is it sad that I can relate to almost every one of them?? 

{3} Favorite New Game

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You guys have played Words with Friends and Trivia Crack (as have I), but this week MG discovered Yahtzee with Buddies and I've been playing it ever since. I had totally forgotten how to play, so MG had to re-teach me but I'm loving it! Perfect time-waster :)
Find me on there if you want to play (username: Jamiffer)

{4} Favorite Funnies (someecards are the best)

{via}

{via}

{via}

{5} Favorite Dresses for a Shower

My friend's baby shower is this weekend so I've been figuring out a cute outfit to wear for the shower. If I had access to Pinterest, I'd probably pick one of these:

{via}

{via} I'm OBSESSED with this dress!

{via}

What's some of your favorite stuff to wear to a shower? I have an idea of what I want to wear, but might change my mind once I go through my closet and do my own little fashion show for myself ;)

I hope you have some fun plans or a restful weekend ahead!

Catch ya on Monday, lovies!

Dominican Republic Vacay Recap {Part 2}

Part 2 of our Dominican Republic anniversary trip today!

(If you missed part 1, just click here to get caught up).

This one is full of a bunch of pictures, so you've been warned!

On Thursday, we were up early to meet our bus at 8am in our lobby. We'd booked an excursion to a place called Isla Saona (if you ever go to the D.R. you HAVE to go!)

We took about a 45 minute bus ride to get to the place where we then got on a speed boat!

We got on the speed boat and sped off for about 20 minutes or so until we got to a natural sand bar in the middle of the ocean.

 We stopped, jumped off the boat, and walked around in waist deep water while the tour guides came around and poured rum and cokes for us! 
If you're thinking "that sounds like Heaven" yes...yes it was!

Just hanging out in the middle of the ocean, taking selfies :)

We even got to take some pictures with starfish before we got back on the boat and sped off to Isla Saona.

The island was beautiful! Everywhere you turned lent itself to a post card-worthy (or Insta-worthy) photo!

We swam around in the ocean and made friends with a couple from Peru whose English was MUCH better than our Spanish and spent pretty much the rest of the day with them. 
Lunch was prepared for us, so we ate our lunch at picnic tables with our feet in the sand and then walked along the beach to take everything in! 

Seriously, doesnt this look like it belongs on a post card?

The rest of our time was spent relaxing, lounging on the lounge chairs and soaking up the sun before it was time to hop onto a catamaran for the ride back home.

We've been on catamarans before and they are a favorite! There's music playing, drinks flowing and a really calm and smooth ride back to shore!

By the end of the day we were beat from being in the sun and having so much fun during the day. We said good bye to our new friends when we got dropped off at the hotel (and exchanged Instagram information :)

We had a delicious dinner at the gourmet restaurant that night. I ordered the triple seafood dish and I was overwhelmed by the size of my meal!

Shrimp, a full lobster tail (that was massive!) and crab, plus risotto...I was so full!

The next day we spent relaxing on the beach, reading, taking walks along the beach, playing in the water, and maybe a cocktail or two on the beach ;). After showering, it was not uncommon to see me lounging in the sunshine on our deck, looking at the amazing view before getting ready for dinners

That night we had dinner at the Mexican restaurant and the food was SO good--this was probably our favorite meal of the trip! 

MG ordered tequila shots to go with our margaritas. I had one sip--that was good enough for me! 

We watched the "circus" act that night which included all kinds of body acrobatics. It was insane how good they were! (I would try and explain but it wouldn't make sense or do it justice, but it was one of the most impressive shows I've seen.) I was too busy with my jaw hanging open at what they were doing and clapping to take pictures. 

(I found this one on-line just to give you a taste of what it looked like--in addition to a bunch of other super impressive stuff)

The next day, Saturday, was our last full day, and we spent the day saying things like "this will be the last time that we _____", soaking in all of the beautiful stuff around us, and not wanting it to end.

My last drink on the beach

We had dinner reservations that night at the hibachi restaurant. The view on our walk to dinner never disappointed:

Our food was super delicious again and we left dinner completely stuffed. 

MG spent a little bit of time in the casino that night, winning us some money, and then we watched part of the entertainment for the night before doing our last nightly walk back to our side of the resort, along the beach under the moonlight.

The next day we packed up, did a quick final walk along the beach, and made our way to the airport. 

Checking our bags was an insanely long process for some reason, so when we got to the plane, we were ready to leave and get back home. The guy who ended up sitting next to us was an airline steward, just flying back home after working another flight. We got to talking with him until he got upgraded to first class. 

He came back part way through the flight and offered us complimentary drinks....two rounds of drinks in fact. He said "your vacation isn't over yet!"

He was so nice and really made the last part of our vacation really nice with that kind gesture.

these are the leftovers of what he gave us--a ton! 

As you can tell, (and you've probably heard me rave about it enough), we had an amazing time. It ended up being a great vacation and the perfect way for us to celebrate our anniversary!

So, if anyone wants to pay for my ticket to go back, I'll gladly accept! ;)