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Last night I tested out this Paula Deen recipe for backed chicken with a wonderful and tangy sauce. I had the ingredients on hand and just googled chicken, lime and mustard and this nifty little recipe came up on the search results.
It was so easy to make and tasted restaurant delicious, and best of all it was ready in about 20 minutes! This is a great family meal, or could also make a wonderful at home date meal.
Wonderful baked chicken with lime and dijon sauce
Here’s how you do it.
Ingredients:
2 large skinless boneless chicken breasts
3 Tbs Dijon Mustard
1 Tbs Mayo
1 Garlic Clove, minced
Finely grated zest and freshly squeezed juice of 1/2 Lime
3/4 Tsp pepper
Salt to taste
Chopped parsley to garnish
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400. Rinse the chicken and pat dry. In a bowl, whisk together the mustard, mayo, garlic, lime zest and juice and pepper. Season the chicken generously with salt. Place the chicken in the baking dish and pour the mustard-mayo mixture over the chicken, covering it evenly. Bake until it is cooked through (approx 15 minutes) and then serve with steamed asparagus and mini roasted potatoes. You can also finish the chicken off with parsely if you’d like.
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There are loads of new fun dresses at BCBG now that look absolutely divine!
Now that Spring is here it’s time to put away the dark clothes, the extra layers, and the salty boots and embrace colour and fun prints for Spring.
This gorgeous dress has colours but offers enough coverage so that you can wear it to the office too! For $158 it’s a decent price for a well made dress that can go from work to cocktails sooo easily.
A fun and sassy dress that's office appropriate
This super fun printed dress definitely makes a statement, but the conservative cut tones it down perfectly! At $128 and a body hugging pattern this looks like a great choice for a party, night out with the girls, or a third date!
Colour and a conservative cut make a perfect match!
This tiered one shouldered dress is romantic and sexy at the same time, making it a perfect date dress! It’s $296, so definitely more pricey, but with this style you can get tonnes of use out of it!
A sexy and romatinc dress all in one!
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Last night my fiancé and I went out for our first real date in a long time. Our winter vacation, my condo sale, moving in, and planning a wedding have all added up to us having almost no time. Remember when I wrote about when there’s even too much change for me? Scratch that. Life has thrown us sooooo many balls to toss at the same time and we just have to learn to juggle!
After weeks and weeks of non stop action it was starting to take a bit of a toll.
So we took a step back, set up a date night and finally we had a proper date…and it was wonderful!
We went to Lucien Restaurant in Toronto. Thankfully for us (not for the restaurant) it was an Olympic hockey game yesterday, so the restaurant was empty. It was us and one other table.
We could hear the music, talk quietly, and really enjoy a great date night in peace. The restaurant doesn’t have that many tables, so it feels like a nice intimate dining experience. The decor is gorgeous, the lighting is dimmed, and the music and nice and calm…all the elements are set for you to have a nice, relaxing time with unbelievable food and wine!
For dinner I had a heirloom beet and carrot salad appetizer and roasted chicken main dish. The salad was great but the roasted chicken was outstanding. Almost every time I go out with my fiancé I taste his dinner and always secretly wish I’d chosen his dish. But not last night! I was thrilled with my choice and I think it was better choice than my honey’s beef bourguignon. His was good, but I think the chicken had so much more depth of flavours and the dark meat was presented like a warm terrine which was wonderful.
Of course we had some wine too….a gorgeous Amarone that was one of the best wines we’ve had in a long time!
It was so nice to sit down, spend some quality time, laugh together and forget about all the craziness for a few hours.
Of course, it really helped that we agreed not to talk about work at all, so we could focus on the sweet things in life instead of thinking about mounting to do lists!
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In just under two weeks we’re getting married in Mexico. Eeeeks! Two Weeks!
We’ve got some solid plans laid out, but it’s true, destination weddings are not really for control freaks.
We had to book the wedding package we were interested in at the resort, and select a few other things like the menu and time of our reception…but otherwise it’s a total game time decision!
- We won’t know which restaurant or hotel area we’ll have our reception in until we get to tour the resort.
- We won’t know what the food is going to taste like, or even if we made good choices until we have our party…or if we are extremely lucky we will be allowed to sample some food a few days earlier.
- We aren’t sure if the dj can play our songs or accomodate our requests until we meet him on our wedding night.
But the funny thing out of all of this is that my fiance and I really like to have control of pretty much everything. Or at least he does. I tend to go from one extreme or the other…make me the captain or the servant, but god forbid I have to discuss every detail with many different people to get their approval and spend forever going back and forth. That makes me bananas! Either tell me what to do, and exactly how to do it…or let me do it my way.
So, some funny things have happened because of this. I have spent most of my wedding planning time labouring over things like colour combinations, or how I would like the print work to look like, while my fiance has spent his time emailing friends and family and reconnecting with all the guests, and continously colour coding the rsvp list.
I guess we’ve just transferred our desire to know exactly what is going on and how we want everything to work into other things…and so far it’s been okay! I guess if our guests have cold soup and terrible music we can feel some sort of satisfaction knowing that the colour pallette is pretty and we are up to date on eveyone’s business!
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With the smell of fresh grass filling the air, little flower buds bursting through the moist soil, and the last drops of ice and snow slowly getting smaller and smaller there is something amazing that happens…girls can once again dream of wearing spring shoes outside. And dream away we do! Flats, open toed, heels, peep toes, in so many colors and so many different patterns and fabrics it can almost make a girl dizzy!
And this Spring over at Nine West there are some gorgeous shoes that inspire all sorts of fashion dreams.
strappy spring sandals in metallic finished leathers
This stappy sandal, called Jiles, has a 4″ heel and comes with gorgeous woven leather. It could go with pretty much anything, and at $120 with so much versatility seems to be a great wardrobe staple this Spring/Summer.
These lovely and office appropriate shoes look fun, but can also look conservative based on what you’re wearing. The 3.5″ heels can give you some nice height. This shoe, called Yessa, sells for $120.
These wedge sandals are perfect for going from day to night – they can look more work appropriate for day, and with a fun patterned dress look like the perfect dress to hit the patio with. These shoes are also pretty comfortable, so you can spend most of the day in them, running errands, doing work, or standing at a party and feel good. These shoes retail at $78, and are called Guinevere.
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There are few nights more fun and fabulous than ladies nights. So why not put a theme to it and make it even more memorable?
Recently I came across this ladies lingerie party “Love, Sweet Love” theme from Simple Stunning Wedding Showers by Karen Bussen that mixes everything a girl can love – shoes, lingerie, chocolate and fancy cocktails!
a few of her favourite things make for a great get together
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O Noir Restaurant offers a gourmet experience in the dark
There’s a new concept restaurant that seems like a super fun, and totally different kind of place. The restaurant O Noir offers a dining experience in the dark!
Why would you eat in the dark you ask? According to owner and founder Moe Alameddine… “When you eat food in the dark, your remaining senses are heightened to savour the smell and taste of food. Even simple, everyday dishes like potatoes and yogurt take on a culinary flare.”
But not only is the restaurant a cool new concept, it also helps sighted folks realize what it’s like to live blind. This idea started with Jorge Spielmann, a blind pastor in Zurich who used to blindfold his dinner guests at his home so they could share his eating experience. In 1999, Spielmann opened Blindekuh (German for Blind Cow); a project aimed at teaching the sighted about the sightless world, and provide jobs for blind people.
So to make sure that you get to really experience what it’s like the restaurant doesn’t let you use lighters, cellphone lights, candles or anything. You must spend the whole evening in complete darkness to get the true experience.
I can’t wait to try it out!
Photo Credit: Toronto Star
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If you are design inspired but need to start laying out your furniture and ideas before you pull out your wallet this may be the pefect thing for you…an HGTV Room Planner that lets you create a space, move around the furniture and try out a bunch of ideas before spending a dime!
This is also a great tool to use if you are thinking about buying a house or moving and you don’t know how the current plan fits your lifestyle. After spending a little bit of time you’ll easily be able to gage if the space works for you as is, if you’ll have to do renovations, how extensive they may be, or if there’s so much work to be done that maybe the space doesn’t work for you at all.
The kitchen room planner, complete with dinner guests and a puppy!
The room planner is really easy to use too. I tested out this kitchen concept that I’ve had in mind for a while. I’ve always wanted a kitchen with the stove in the island – that way you can cook and talk to people in the kitchen instead of having your back to them. Also, since the kitchen is such a social part of the house I put some big comfy chairs for people to sit and have a glass of wine while I’m cooking. It’s so fun to design the fantasy life, and after this experience I’m ready to go house shopping again and find my new home!
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Or at least that’s how I feel from sifting through all the spam comments I keep on getting on my site.
I’m not sure where I mentioned that I have
kidney failure
depression
sexual dysfunction
sleeping problems
but I’m actually pretty healthy and happy and I don’t need or want any of those things.
Spammers – leave me alone!
I know, I know…that’s a very bah humbug attitude to have right before the official love-in. So just in case you think I’ve turned sour – Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!
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With Valentine’s Day around the corner it can be hard to come up with great plans when your pockets are light on pennies. But don’t distress!
Here are some great cheap and cheerful Valentines Day Ideas:
- Bake cookies together
- Organize your photos and make a photo album together
- Set up an at home wine tasting just for the two of you
- Find out which charity you would both like to support and ask about volunteering together
- Write out lists of your favourite memories together, things you did together etc, and share them
There are so many great and lovingly sweet things you can do together that require minimal money! The most romantic Valentine’s Day things you can do are things that come from the heart…so don’t worry about spending a bundle, just enjoy each other and remind yourself why you chose that person to be next to you.
