Deep Dish Chicken Pot Pie [Recipe]

It's fall y'all (aka my favorite time of year). And with the cooler temperatures comes comfort food. On Friday night when our desert temps dipped to 60 degrees, I decided to dust off my deep dish chicken pot pie recipe I found several years ago from Kraft. It's simple, looks fancy and I'm pretty positive you'll love it. I always forget how much I enjoy this dish.

I made a few slight variations to the original recipe and here's how.

WHAT YOU NEED

• 1 lb. chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
• 1/4 cup KRAFT Lite Zesty Italian Dressing
• 4 oz. Neufchatel Cheese, cubed
• 2 Tbsp. flour
• 1/2 cup fat-free reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 3 cups frozen mixed vegetables
• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter (optional)
• Salt, pepper & parsley to taste (optional)
• 1 ready-to-use frozen pie crust
• Egg wash (one egg + 2 Tbsp water)

Sautee veges in 2 Tbsp. of butter over medium low heat to soften. In a separate skillet, cook chicken in dressing in large skillet on medium heat 2 min. Add cream cheese; cook and stir until melted. Add flour; mix well. Add broth and vegetables; simmer 5 min. 

After you pour mixture into deep dish 10-inch pie plate, arrange pie crust over filling and flute edges. Cut slits in crust to allow steam to escape. Brush pie with egg wash. Bake 25-30 min. or until crust is golden brown.

The cream cheese is the secret. Enjoy.

My HIIT Cardio Routine

I've had several people ask me on Instagram (@thebargainblonde) what cardio plan I am doing. Just popping in really quickly to post the High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) portion of my workout. This is the very first thing I do during my workout. I'm working on a comprehensive post about my entire routine and weight loss progress so far and will post soon because I get that question a lot.

I found this 35 minute HIIT on Fit Sugar, which has a ton of different cardio routines to fit your needs/wants. If the elliptical isn't your thing, search for something else that is. They have great printable cardio programs on that site. Anyway, more on that in a future post. Here is my elliptical HIIT work out:

I follow this with 25 minutes more of cardio and weight trainng, but I will explain more about that later. If you're looking for a cardio plan that burns a lot of calories in not a lot of time, I highly recommend this one to get you started. Warning: mins 18-23:30 are absolute hell, but you'll feel so good after.

 I've been doing this routine since Memorial Day and it still kicks my butt every day and I have every interval memorized now. I used to bring my printed paper to the gym with me every day. Ha!

OK, let me know if you have any questions. Happy cardio-ing.

Operation Get Hot

Guess who has a birthday coming up? This old hag. And by coming up, I mean I am just two and a half months away from turning 29. That is correct. I am about to embark on my last year in my roaring twenties. I cannot believe I just typed that. I swear it was just yesterday I was getting depressed over turning 22. WHERE DID THE LAST SEVEN YEARS GO? It disturbs me greatly how quickly time passes.

Cousin, bro and I on my 22nd Birthday/College Graduation. Mama is not that size anymore. Can we say goal weight?

Do you want to know what is more disturbing? My cellulite. My arm jiggle. My stomach rolls. I am not even exaggerating. I am the largest I have ever been in my life. No, you are not getting a photo. Just use your imagination.
So with a big birthday on the horizon, I thought now is the perfect time to get super serious about ¨operation get hot.¨
Fat + birthdays = deep, dark depression.
You may have noticed I do not have the amount of free time I used to (Instagram is the new blog, OK?). I am running out the door every single morning to get to work at a decent hour. I do not get home until 7PM or later depending on what errands I have. So I just have to make time.
Last week I had no lunch, didn't get home from work until 8PM and allllllll I had my sights set on was plopping my fat ass on the couch and pressing play on that remote. My head said gym but my heart said Real Housewives. Something in me snapped and you know what I did? I worked out anyway. I put on 4 shades of pink, grabbed a water bottle and I. just. did. it. And you know what else? I felt a hell of a lot better after that work-out.

Guess what else happened after I just did it? I worked out 5 times last week. I'm not saying one week made me hot, but you have to start somewhere. I'm sick of wishing for it. I have to work for it and time is ticking. One only hopes my arm will one day get back to my 24th birthday arm:

So what about you ladies? Have you ever had an argument between YOUR head and heart about losing a few? Tell me in comments! Entries will be pooled between participating blogs and two lucky winners will be picked at random to each win a $1,000 SpaFinder gift card. Nice!

Rules:
No duplicate comments.
You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:
a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
b) Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: "#SweepstakesEntry"; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
c) Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.
This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older.
Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

The Official Rules are available here.

This sweepstakes runs from 6/13/13 – 6/30/13.

Be sure to visit the Slim-Fast brand page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ reviews and find more chances to win! 

Don't forget to check out Slim Fast on Facebook!

Miracle Red Wine Stain Remover

I have slowly but surely been trying to decorate my new apartment. I guess it's not so new anymore, but that's neither here nor there. After I moved in, I searched high and low for a living a room rug. And by high and low, I mean I scoured the internet for months. I finally decided on a rug I wanted from Overstock when low and behold, the one I had my eye on sold out. Your standard first world problems.

Defeated, I put my rug search on the back burner. That was until I stumbled across exactly what I had been looking for the entire time at Target for only $79. Yes, this Maple Fretwork 5X7 rug was only $79. Here she is:

Ignore the atrocious balcony blinds please.

It was love at first sight and exactly what I had my eye on. I'll have to tell y'all about my TV stand purchase and assembly in another post because that is a new too. Naturally, I spilled RED wine on my brand new rug a few weeks later. Would you expect anything less? I tired everything to get it out, but to no avail. I wanted to cry and I almost considered buying a new rug. I mean, who am I?

I can't remember who told me to try Wine Away, but someone did and I need to send them a thank you gift. I bought the 12 oz bottle because it was only a few more dollars than the 2 oz. I sprayed the solution on my several weeks old stain (bescause yes, I'm lazy, and it took me that long to buy it) and the red wine literally started disappearing in no time. I didn't even have to really blot it. I'm telling you, the stuff was magic.
The red wine was on the CREAM pattern and on the beige and you would never know. Do you see a red wine stain? I don't.

I purchased mine at Total Wine, but you can totes buy online. Linked in the paragraph above.

Everybody knows you use Wine Away to get out red wine stains. Duh. Get ya some and thank me later.

[RECIPE] Mock Mashed Potatoes Using Cauliflower

I typically don't get home from my Skyrobics trampoline class until almost 9PM at night. I go straight from work to make it to the 7PM class. Since I am getting home so late these days, I am trying to limit my carb intake so at dinner, which resulted in me finally trying this dupe for mashed potatoes.

I saw Laura from Laura Must Lose Weight vlog her recipe and I was still skeptical when I watched it a few months ago. And if you've never tried this, then I'm sure you're going to still be skeptical after I tell you how great it was. I don't blame you. But I'll also tell you that you are missing out. This stuff is legit. I Instagrammed a photo of the mashed cauliflowers and I had a few requests for the recipe, so here you go. It's super easy to make.

You need:

1. A head of cauliflower, chopped
2. One ziploc steam bag (can be found where the oven bags are)
3. 1/2 C of cottage cheese
4. 1 clove of garlic minced
5. salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Put chopped cauliflower in ziplock steam bag and steam for 5 to 6 minutues or until soft
2. Mix all ingredients in a blender and blend untill smooth
3. Enjoy!

 

I served mine with zesty tilpia and sauteed mushrooms (I use a slight variation of that recipe). I didn't use oil for any of this, just fresh lemon and lime juice, salt, pepper and mrs. dash original seasoning. BAM.

I can't sleep so I'll blog about the time I got lost hiking

So it's Saturday night, well technically it is now Sunday at 12AM, and I cannot sleep. I can't be 100% sure, but it may have something to do with the 3 naps I took today on accident and a Starbucks energy drink I had at 8PM. Never mind the fact I am supposed to be up at 5:45AM for a 5K. Yah, I don't know who I am either. I don't run. Like at all.

Lately I've been obsessed with this workout class called Skyrobics. It's an hour long cardio and toning class at my local trampoline park and as an ex-gymnast, it is right up my ally and actually a workout I look forward to. Not to mention it is super low impact on my joints and we all know I don't have the best ankles. Last I left you guys, I was going to hike Red Rock Canyon here in Vegas.

By the way, if you want more regular updates on my life out here in the Wild, Wild West, then make sure you follow me on Instagram (@thebargainblonde). I certainly update that much more frequently than my blog these days.

Anyway, I survived hiking Red Rock but not without some hiccups. Our 1.5 mile hike turned into 8 miles. Yes, 8 miles. And no, that was not intentional. Trust. The trails aren't marked so somehow, someway, we ended up off course and 4 miles out from our starting point. That meant we had no choice but to hike the 4 miles back to our cars. I have never been so happy to see my car in my life. The views were gorgeous and I can't complain about the exercise, so I chalk it up as a successful outing getting lost and all.

Do you guys ever go hiking? Before moving here, i never realized how gorgeous the mountains are in Las Vegas. I never, ever get tired of looking at them every morning and every night. It's one of my favorite things about this city. See people, there is more to Vegas than The Strip. So there. I miss you guys (as usual).

 

January/February 2013 Recap via Instagram

It's been a long time since I filled you in on what I've been up to. I just realized I have not really done any sort of life update since my Christmas recap. With March (yes, March) upon us already, I thought I'd do a brief January/February recap. Not only for you, but I like to be able to look back on my blog and remember what I did and where I've been. But mainly for you, of course. Is anyone even still out there?? I feel like I completely fell out of the blogging universe.

January began with New Year's Eve. I swear I passed out before midnight. Yes, my first New Year's Eve in Vegas and I was in bed before midnight with Nyquil and Reese's teddy he left behind at Christmas.

If this isn't an attractive NYE look, I don't know what is

I've enjoyed my new owl coffee mugs from West Elm that I got for Christmas.

I've perfected at home soak off of gel nails without ruining your nails. Tutorial anyone?

essie marshmallow topped with sally hansen shall we dance

I think after 6 months of living here, I've officially learned how to navigate my way around the Las Vegas Strip.

stuck in morning traffic

It's been a while, but you may remember that since I moved here, I was using my coffee table as a TV stand, I finally bought a TV stand from Joss & Main a month of so ago and I was very proud of myself for putting the entire thing together all by my lonely.

Do we approve?

Have a few FaceTime sessions with the nephew:

Finally put pictures in picture frames in my room 3 months later.

Saw George Strait in concert at the MGM when an old college roomie was in town.

pre hair trim. Can't even fit my hair in the picture it was so long. #michelleduggarhair

Decided it was finally time to trim my hair. If you know me at all IRL, you know I am psycho when it comes to my hair. I've had several traumatic experiences throughout the years and finally found an amazing hair stylist who I've been going to for the past 6 years in Dallas. Well, I could not wait any longer, so I went to a new person here. I was not traumatized from new hair cut, but let's just say I'll be flying back to Dallas for my next one. No pics, sorry. Maybe soon. Don't love it. Actually, that experience could be it's own post.
I'm in the stages of planning a baby shower for my bestie who lives here. She's due very soon. I just sent invites out a few weeks ago. Here I am watching The Bachelor (don't love any of the girls this season) and addressing the invites:

Have come to the conclusion, no where is off limits for gambling or boozing in Vegas. When I was getting my prescription filled on Valentine's Day, I had to shake my head when I saw this while I waited to check out in line at my neighborhood CVS.

Only in Vegas

And most recently, I spent last weekend relaxing. I made an enormous omlette on accident, went to the grocery store, painted my nails and made my slow cooker beef stroganoff, which I've every night since Sunday except last night because we had a work dinner. (single girls who live alone problems)

Mushroom, onion and bacon omelette with a side of freah Whole Foods salsa

Essie Strawberry Shortcake

As much as I love this recipe, after 4 days in a row of it for dinner ... I'm ready for something else

That about sums up January and February. Like I said, it's not too exciting. I leave you with a pretty picture of the sunset from my balcony this past Sunday night. I love the mountain sunsets here. One thing you cannot get in Texas.

The pictures don't come close to doing justice

TGIF. Everyone have a great weekend! I'm going hiking at one of those gorgeous montains Saturday afternoon for the first time. Wish me luck, and please have the paramedics on standby. Thank you.

I'm sure I'll be the only one blogging about the Oscars

I feel like I just wasted 3 hours of my life watching the Oscars. And to erase that mess from my memory, I am now watching another mess of a show: Mob Wives. But gosh darn it, I love me some Mob Wives. That, and I have no shame when it comes to reality TV trash.

The majority of the Oscars were a total snooze fest, but I do have a few highlights:

1. Jen Lawrence winning then tripping on the stairs (bless her heart). I've been a fan of her since Hunger Games and to be quite honest, Silver Linings Playbook was THE only movie I saw that was nominated. I'm just bummed my boo, B Coop didn't win.
2. Ben Affleck's acceptance speech. I totes teared up when his wife was choking up as he thanked her. Presh.
3. Realizing Adele is the same age as Tay Swift. Let that sink in.
4. K Stew's arm bruise. I just don't understand how she can give so little of a care. No one forced you to be at the Oscars sweetie.

Legit, that's about all I took away from the Oscars. Oh yah, and these ladies, who are my top 5 best dressed:

 

Stacy Keibler giving us a flapper vibe in this Naeem Kahn dress (styled by the fabulous Brad Goreski #major)

J Law in Dior Haute Couture. Even though she tripped in this dress, I still love it. I loved her dainty necklace even more.

Naomi Watts in Armani. That cut out is fierce.

 

Sandy in a fully embroidered Elie Saab. She's fabulous and lives in Texas. Love her.

Jessica Chastain's Old Hollywood glamour Armani beaded gown. Not a color I'd think someone with fair skin could pulll off, but she totes did.

That's all folks. And that's 3 hours of my life I'll never get back. Who were your best (and worst) dressed??

A new favorite: Sonia Kashuk dual ended foundation brush

Happy Tuesday, y'all! Me again. Can you even believe it? Two posts two days in a row ... say it isn't so. You just wait. You're in for a treat this week.

Obviously I've been MIA since I moved to Vegas five months ago. I'd be lying if I told you I haven't thought about shutting the ole blog down more times than I can count. Ultimately, I just couldn't bring myself to do it and I didn't want to. I really do miss you guys and I miss this blogging community. I have definitely felt like something was missing from my life without it. So what I'm saying is I just can't quit you guys, OK? And since we basically have five months of catching up to do and I don't really know where to begin, I'll just start with a beauty review because who doesn't love a beauty review?

And I'll kick off the first of a few upcoming beauty reviews with the Sonia Kashuk Complexion Perfector dual sided foundation brush since it seemed to spark the most interest when I Instagrammed a picture of my bathroom counter after getting read a few weeks ago.

The brush looks like this upclose and I bought mine at Target, my home away from home.

$18.99 online

 

Before this brush, I used to apply foundation with the elf stipple brush which I've reviewed and then I blended with just a plain make up sponge wedge. I still love the elf stipple, but dare I say I love this Sonia Kashuk more? I dare.


If you're looking to switch things up in the foundation application department, I highly recommend giving this brush a whirl. What I do is put about a dime size amount of foundation on the back of my hand. Then, I take the brush end and dab a bit of the foundation and apply to one section of my face at a time until it's applied all over. Then, use the sponge end to blend to a flawless look.

Since I bought this brush, I have not switched back to any of my old foundaton brushes and i literally use it every day. I look creepy here - I manage to do that any time i try to take a "selfie" as I see they're calling it these days - but here is my skin after using the dual ended brush for applcation. Keep in mind I'm in natural light, "#nofilter" and absolutely zero self tanner. I think the brush does a fairly good job of covering imperfections. Because trust, my skin has plenty.

SIde note: That lip gloss sitch is just awful. Please disregard.

 

Has anyone tried this brush? What's your favorite application method for foundation?

 

My Valentine's Day @ Urgent Care

I know I said I'd be back to blogging regularly in the new year, but I'm obviously a liar. I'll believe it when I see it too, so since I've clearly failed at that New Years resolution, I'll just resolve to not make any more promises. How about that?

My Valentine, Mr. Reesey!

I hope y'all had a good Valentine's Day. As if being single isn't annoying enough of Valentine's Day, I spent my Valentines Day morning at Urgent Care which was an experience in itself. Mumbling dude behind me in line hacking? Check. Old grandpa rolling in with pj pants and a robe? Check. 2 month old baby screaming his head off? Check. All you would expect in an urgent care waiting room on Valentine's Day and more.

After not waiting too long in the waiting room, I was relieved to be taken back to a room to wait on a doctor. But it wasn't a doctor who came in to see me, but a medical student. Seemed legit. Sike. Then after she examined me, the real doctor came in who had on a SARS mask, sounded sicker than me and told me, "not to worry because she wouldn't breathe on me." Um ok. What. the. fuzz? There are some professions you should know when to stay home if you are sick. A DOCTOR is one of them.

So that happened. Don't worry, I survived. I just had a virus which you basically can't do anything for except rest, drink lots of fluids and take codeine cough syrup to ease the pain. I already feel a lot better after 2 days glued to my bed and DVR. Happy Valentine's Day to me!

The whole point of this story is that since I've had some down time, I've been able to write some blog posts and scheduled them. YAY! Have a great week friends. I miss y'all.

Coffee, cats, candy, cards and ... body wash? Single girl probs.

 

The Power of Words

What I'd tell ya? I'm back and I'm fo' real this time.  Today's post is really short but it's really moving.

Watch this short video (less than 2 mins) about the power of words.  It gives you something to think about as we kick-off a brand new year.



Yesterday is today. Today is your life. Stop waiting on tomorrow. Happy 2013!

Christmas in Vegas

The people have spoken. After a few tweets begging for my blogging return, your wish is my command. I promised last night on The Twitter that I'd blog and since I'm a girl of my word (sometimes) ... here I am. Today I blog.

One of my New Year's goals is to blog like the old days and that starts today with a recap of Christmas. As you know, my family came to Vegas for Christmas including this little fellow Reesey. We had a great time and I loved being able to spend time with them. Get ready for picture overload courtesy of my one true love, Instagram.

Reese's first night here! When I picked them up from the airport he said to me, "Aunt Lindsey will you come back on the plane with me and never, ever come back here again?" Dagger to my heart!!!

Baby bed head

Ice skating with Daddy

Roasting marshmallows and skating!

"Santa in the shipwreck" @ Mandalay Bay

Petting dem stingrays

That shark scare me!

Up to no good hanging out with me

Christmas Eve dinner with tamales my Grandma brought frozen from San Antonio. So good!

'twas the night before Christmas ....

I showed Reese this picture of him and he told me, "That's me as the Hulk when I got mad. You don't want to see me mad." I cannot handle the stuff that comes out of his mouth. Melt my heart.

Get in my belly.

This is the magical winter wonderland that is Mt. Charleston and only 30 miles from my house. It's a dream. We headed there Christmas Day for lunch at the Lodge.

Like I said, magical. 

The Lodge where we had lunch.

Merry Christmas from 7,650 feet

My favorite gift of all: My Christmas Tree skirt my grandma has spent years working on for me. Some of the appliques my Great Grandma who I never got to meet made.  I love it and cherish it.

And then the day I dread arrived, it was time to put Christmas away.  The only thing that made it slightly enjoyable was this label maker I bought. 

Christmas all packed up.  See ya again in 11 months. I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday season. I already miss it terribly.