Hello! Anybody there?... Sorry I've been MIA from this blog once again. I always sigh when I go on here & see how old my last post is lol! So I guess I decided to go on a break for a good month on this blog. For no reason really. Life has been busy. Summer is coming upon us & I have a lot going on in the next couple months. & I'm also moving. I went to NY lady month with my girlfriends, which was SO much fun!.. It's good to get away from my married, routine life & take in different sights, foods & relax a little. It was nice to be in the rush of city but also in the beautiful silence of nature. Sometimes it's important to take a break to be with yourself as well. To really be in the moment & enjoy life. So when you come back to the reality of life & all it's wonderful responsibilities & goals...you come back refreshed and ready to go again. & im ready!.. I have so many post ideas & recipes I still want to share! I'm still meal prepping and keeping it all easy, fast & affordable for you guys too 😊 So don't worry guys... More coming soon!❤️ All pics from my recent trip to NY 😊 XOXO-Mrs.Beltran
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Last July (2014), my parents and I went on a last minute trip to Colorado! I mean LAST, LAST minute! Like my dad called me at work Thursday afternoon and we left THAT night! We have never done that before, we are planners. I asked my husband thinking he would say: "No way! It's too last minute. Think about the cost." lol! Not to mention we had just gone to our honeymoon in June. But nope! He was like "Ok, sure! Why not!" My dad just REALLY wanted to go and get out. Eduardo had also always wanted to go, so I think that's why he was more willing. Also, we had it in our list of places to go together. But we NEVER thought THIS soon! lol So we quickly packed our things after work & drove to Colorado that night! It actually turned out to be a REALLY awesome trip! Definitely made me realize that with the right people and the right place, there is no need to plan to have a GREAT time! :)
Colorado is gorgeous! The mountains, green trees, warm days but cool nights, and all the wildlife! You definitely can't go wrong going to a place like that! Here are few picuteres of our last minute but wonderful trip to Colorado!... Oh California! What a beauty! We fell in love! We went to San Francisco this past weekend. It was a 4 day trip with our good friends Denisse & Omar who are also married & it was our first time going on vacation with another couple :) we had such a blast with them! Countless laughs & silly moments! We all enjoyed this trip very much :) & it's only the first of many trips we are sure to take with each other!❤️ Here are some pictures of this trip! Here we are Thursday morning on a shuttle to the airport! We had to wake up at like 4am! So yeah, I look crazy! I wanted to take this picture of me & my husband because we have so many dreams & goals to travel all over the world together & he definitely is & always will be my travel buddy❤️✈️:)! This is Eduardo & Omar playing around in the SkyLink at the airport. We already knew that we were gonna have lots of laughs with these 2 together:P We got The San Francisco Aiport & needed a bite to eat...so when in California... You get In-N-Out :) duh!... We drove around that first day and I fell in love with these neighborhoods that were on hills & so close together. It reminded me of Europe. I've never been but I imagine it be something like this ;) We also went to Millers East Coast Deli, which we had seen on Diners, Drive-Ins, & Dines on Food Network! It looked delicious so we had to try! We got a chicken noodle soup with Matza balls & The Luna; which was such a delicious sandwich!! This was definitely one of my favorite places we ate at! We also went to the Beach! The water was freezing!! But it was so nice to feel the sand & the cool misty air :) & take fun pictures! There was also a lot of murals all over San Fran! This is where we stayed during San Francisco. I found this place on AirBnb! It was very cozy. There was 2 bedrooms, a nice sized living room & kitchen/eating area:) we wanted to stay there forever! We went grocery shopping to make breakfast in the morning :) On Friday, our 2nd day there, we went to Armstrong Redwoods Natural Reserve where they had the most beautiful & huge redwood trees! I was obsessed with the natural, woody & fresh scent! & really got to appreciate how Jehovah's creation can live to be thousands of years old & stand strong beautiful, & tall...something he wants for us too :) We got to drive through the Golden Gate Bridge as well while we on our way to the Redwoods. We saw lots of beautiful sights on our way as well since the drive was like over an hour :) here are some pics of our drive there & Redwoods... After that we went to Goat Rock Beach! We had packed some lunch to have a picnic but it was actually very chilly & foggy so we had to eat in the car. But this beach was gorgeous!!! The next day, Saturday, our 3rd day, was all about being in the city, exploring Fishermans Wharf, all the peirs, we hit up SO many places in one day! I think because we took it easy for the first 2 days that we realized we had just 1 more full day to really explore & go to all the touristy places! We jammed packed Saturday & ran all over the place! :) We got to Peir 39 & saw Sea Lions! They were so funny & would either be sleeping or fighting with other Sea Lions lol! We also went to this yummy seafood place & I had their famous clam chowder in their freshly baked sourdough bread bowl topped with fresh crab!! My husband got crab & it was all so delicious!! :) We then went to Coit Tower where we saw some gorgeous views of San Francisco! :) We also went to China Town! Where we tried on funny hats, drank boba tea, ate dumplings & even saw some brothers who were doing cart witnessing! :) We also went to Union Square where there was a lot of fancy stores! But the traffic & parking was crazy! So we just drove by & I didn't get to take pics :( lol we ended the night having yummy crepes & had to drop off the car we rented. We took the Bart Train back home & the next day it was our last day there...we had to check out by 12pm so we made breakfast at home & watched a movie till check out time & packed up took off on the Bart Train to the airport. So we all were flying Standby & well...we didn't make the first 2 flights :( the last one being at 1AM!! So we basically waited the whole day at the airport haha! The airport food wasn't that bad actually!.. This was my favorite restaurant they had at the aiport lol!.. Napa Farms Market! They had these yummy macaroons & Fire roasted pizza! Yum! We made the best of it while we were there at the airport & thankfully made it on the last flight out & made it home safe & sound :)
Things don't always go as planned & sometimes you gotta cram everything in one day haha! But it's about the good times, laughs, beautiful & unplanned fun moments, & great friends to share it all with that really matter:) XOXO-Mrs. Beltran Hello guys! So we just came back from our trip to San Francisco. We had to run to the grocery store since we didn't go last week due to us getting ready for our trip. Any who, as I was in the breakfast bar section I noticed how expensive they were... I had made granola bars in the past, so I decided to make my own! Sprouts Farmers Market is where we shop & they have an AWESOME selection of raw nuts, dried fruit, etc. that you can buy in bulk. You can make these however you like! Add any dried fruit or nuts that you like & make it your own creation :) Here is what I used/how I made mine: •Dried Cranberries •Raw Almonds •Granola •Oatmeal •Chocolate Chips •Peanut Butter •Agave Nectar (or honey) First you want to melt the peanut butter. I melted it in 15 second increments, taking out & stirring. For a total of 1 Minute. Then mix in agave (I used about 3/4 of my 11.75 oz bottle) oatmeal & granola. Mix until everything is coated in the agave & peanut butter. This is important since this is the binder of everything. Then add your choice of toppings per say lol. Mix it all in :) Add more agave after you mixed everything as well. Again, making sure everything is fully coated & sticky. I added the raw almonds whole, but you can crush them in a ziplock bag for more peices. Once you've mixed everything well, dump to a pan or any mold of your choice. OR you can even roll these into balls and make energy bites :) Put on some gloves or with clean hands press down hard so that everything sticks firmly together. Then I melted some chocolate chips and drizzled as cutely as possible (you can see there are some globs lol) & then pop in the fridge over night :) The chocolate chips I melted in increments of 15 seconds for about 1 minute & 30 seconds total. Every microwave is different just keep stirring so it does not burn :) & BOOM! All done :) again, leave in the fridge over night so it can settle & cut into whatever shape your heart desires. I cut mine into traditional rectangle bar shapes:) grab in the mornings to go & when they ask you where you bought that delicious looking bar you can say "oh this, I made it! Duh!".. & saved money too!😉
XOXO-Mrs. Beltran Hello there! Another "Healthy Eats" recipe for you! Healthy, because I swapped out ground beef to ground chicken, used wheat lasagna pasta, and added LOTS of spinach :) I have made this several times and it's always a big hit! My husband actually requested I make it for our Family Study night since we were having several families over and this was enough for the 7 of us! & some people got to serve themselves twice :) I served it with a salad as well. Any who, on to what you will need and how to make this delicious lasagna. What You Will Need...
First, you want to preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Then start cooking your ground chicken & boiling your pasta. You can go ahead and season the ground chicken as well with all your spices:) Once you have your ground chicken and pasta cooked and ready you can start assembling and layering your lasagna, the fun part in my opinion :) Get your tomato sauce, cottage cheese, shredded mozzarella and spinach out and ready to add to your layers as well :) I laid down 3 strips of lasagna to start, then added cottage cheese. Yo can be pretty generous! & also feel free to add another kind of cheese, whatever you prefer. Then I added the tomato sauce next. Next, I added the ground chicken (you can also do ground turkey-it's healthier than ground beef as well), I added spinach and then lastly, the mozzarella. then REPEAT. Here it is ALL layered up! I added LOTS of cheese at the end. I believe I did 3 layers of everything. So you will need to cook about 9 strips of lasagna just for reference :) you won't use the whole box of pasta for sure, unless you make 2 ;) Then you put in the oven and cook/melt cheese for about 20 minutes :) 10 minutes covered up with foil and 10 minutes uncovered. *TIP/FACT: When you cover something you are baking, it cooks from inside out; When you bake something uncovered it will cook from the outside in.* Once things start bubbling and your cheese is all melted and a little brown it's ready! Let it cool a little OR don't haha! ;) cut, serve & enjoy! This is delicious! Let me know if you guys try this!
XOXO-Mrs. Beltran For this week's meal prep, I made Cobb Salad in a Mason Jar. I had been using grilled chicken as the protein for our salads but I decided to change it up and use ham and turkey bacon. It turned out pretty delicious if I may say so myself! ;) here is how I made it! In case you want to give this a try! It's super easy! :) Ingredients you will need:
First, you want to cook your turkey bacon. I used about 9 strips, that's about a strip for each jar :) then you cut into little squares. You can buy sliced ham which is easier to slice cuz you don't have to work around the bone, but I got the with bone since it was a little cheaper hehe! Anyway, you want to dice this as well :) You want to also dice your cucumber. Rinse and chop your romaine lettuce. Rinse them good guys! I have found poor little dead bugs in my lettuce! EWW! Any who! Once you have everything chopped up, you are ready to assemble! Here is the dressing that I used! I love this brand because it is CALORIE FREE. Well EVERYTHING free if you can read the label! lol This one is perfect for cob salad since it has that bacon flavor to it :) I omitted boiled eggs & onions since those are smelly and we are packing this for our lunch lol. And the avocados I bought were not ready yet:( but you guys feel free to add those if you want! WHEN ASSEMBLING: Start with your dressing, then cucumbers, then tomatoes, then ham and bacon, and then the romaine lettuce. & then you're all done! :) & then you get to enjoy this delicious salad all week long! :) Let know if you guys try it! & post on your IGs! I love knowing when you guys read and try my recipes! :)
XOXO-Mrs. Beltran Hello! :) Long time no see! I want to start out by saying... I feel like I always have to apologize for not posting much! :( But I hope you guys know (those who read my little hobby blog lol) that I would LOVE to be able to post like everyday, haha! I read so many blogs & I always appreciate those that have fresh content on the daily! But I am just NOT one of those blogs... They do it FULL time & well i have a Full Time Job that is not blogging (I wish), I am also a wife & JW...and well that takes up the rest of time. SO when I get a chance I BLOG! I love it, it's fun. I love posting ideas for you guys! I love to cook, to DIY, to just share my life!... I have so many ideas, pictures, recipes that I want to share! But I also don't want to just throw something together and hope it comes out good! I like to take my time & make sure what I do post, is worth reading & looking at. :) Sooo...with all that being said, I HOPE you guys understand and aren't dissapointed when you do come on here and see an old post...and no new post lol. BUT I shall not stop!... The other day I was like maybe I should just STOP. Like no one reads it anyway...haha just negative self-pitty thoughts. BUT WHO CARES! I love doing this and even if I am the only who reads it (which I know, I am not, I have some friends who read it, thank you guys♥) I still want to post AS MUCH AS I CAN. Maybe not everyday, or even every week...but here and there is enough FOR ME. & I hope it's okay with you guys too :) ANYWHOO... On to some tips I wanted to share on Photo Editing :) BEFORE & AFTERI posted this picture on my instagram...& I was quite impressed with myself lol JK! I just really could see the difference a few things I did to this picture really made! & I do this to a lot of my pictures. First, I did some Adjusting... I titled the picture so that it would look straight. In the "Before" picture in the left, I didn't do a great job of making sure the horizon (line of the grass) looked straight when I took the picture that day. I then played with the color! I brightened, added some warmth, contrast and turned up the Saturation/Color of the pictire WAY up! Like as far as it could go! lol It's not always ok to saturate picture too much, but I ove doing that with landscape pictures. It really makes everything pop and look lovely! :)
Back to ADJUSTING...I love to make sure my pictures are straight. You can do this with any picture really. When i WARMed up this picture it gave a nice yellow or tan look to the sun versus the one on the left looks too white and harsh. SATURATION: the grass and bluebonnets just came ALIVE when i boosted up the color. As well as the trees in the background that looked too dark to almost not notice. I BRIGHTENed up things just a little since the original picture was a little too dark for my taste. I like bright natural light! The car in the background also seemed to be less noticeable when I brightened it, which I liked because I wanted NATURE to be the star of this show :) OTHER things to look out for when taking a picture is making sure that there is a center focus, although I agree that an off focus picutre when done right can be just as powerful. When you have a center focus everything is more cohesive and you eye will gravitate to the object/person that you wanted to show off. For this picture the sun was my center object...I LOVE how the rays came down and created an almost dancing light in the middle of the blue bonnet field. Which you couldn't have appreciated if it wasn't for some brighteness, contrast, warmth and saturation :) so it all just contributed to make this picure being the best it could be. & that's what I try to do with ALL my pictures. Hope that helped you guys a little! I am no expert on picutres but you dont HAVE to be! There are so many great apps, and Instagram has great filters and tools to make your lack-luster, crooked picture (like my original picture) look vibrant and magical! Thanks for reading! ♥ XOXO-Mrs. Beltran This week I made a new mason jar salad recipe! A Taco Salad in a Jar! I also made a easy homemade creamy avocado lime cilantro dressing for this salad! This salad in the mason jar is going well so far. But one thing I did learn last week is that spinach isn't probably the best green to use for the a mason jar salad because the leaves welt pretty fast, it was only some of it but I decided to try Romaine Lettuce this time. So we shall see how that goes! If anything, the best thing to do is probably pat dry the leaves. Anyway, here is how I made this week's salad :) For the Dressing:
*this made enough for 9 mason jars* I used a small food processor to puree the dressing to perfection :) Here is the finished sauce :) I then chopped up the romaine lettuce :) Then I grilled the chicken breast and shredded it. Well I shredded some and diced some :) I put the dressing at the bottom, then corn, then the black beans, then the grape tomatoes, the chicken breast and then the romaine lettuce :) & bam! There is the completed salad! Yummy, healthy and SUPER easy. ;) Taco Salad Mason Jar! Give it a try! Let me know if you guys do! :) This is a perfect way to make sure you don't over eat since it's all portioned out and you won't feel guilty or hungry because you are eating a healthy & filling salad! Yay!
XOXO-Mrs. Beltran Hey guys! Long time no post! Sorry about that :) Like i mentioned a few posts back, recently we have been meal prepping & now we are trying something new :) Mason Jar Salads! I had heard about this and have always thought it was such a great idea. Since me & my husband have the goal to lose some weight (lol, it's like an automatic thing that happens when you get married) so the only way we thought we could that, apart from working out and staying active, was to eat less carbs, rice, pasta, bread etc... & eat more greens:) I know that salads aren't that filling but they can be! & maybe they aren't satisfying but if you add a little protein like chicken, you'll be surprised :) I made grilled chicken caesar salad. The concept is the same for every recipe, liquids first and then veggies, protein and then the greens. So they don't soggy:) Here is how I made it, what ingredients I used and some cool pictures my husband took, because these are also very fun to take pictures of cuz of all the different layers:) lol Some Ingredients I used: I also grilled chicken breast in my George Foreman Grill. & then cut them in slices:) I also bought "Wide Mouth" mason jars. It's easier to fill up and eat out of as well. You can see that in the picture above. So with any salad, you want to start with dressing :) that's about how much I put for each salad. My husband took this cool picture. Which actually displays well how you want the majority of your salad mason jar to mostly greens & be generous with it. I put caesar salad dressing first, then cucumbers, tomatoes, avocado, shaved parmesan, grilled chicken, and mixed greens, and at the end I put a little croutons. That's it! It took me no time at all! :) Hope you guys can try it! Aren't they so pretty?! lol Thanks hubby for taking such awesome pictures! :)
XOXO-Mrs. Beltran My talented Cousin, Crystal, took our engagement pictures :) I stumbled upon them recently & wanted to share a few of my favorites! We had a picnic themed scene, with my pink cruiser bikes, cupcakes, heart on strings that I made & of course some glass Coca-Cola's with cute straws :) i really LOVED how they came out! Enjoy!... I love how happy we look here... & I am glad to say that we are STILL so very happy together and we tell each other all the time. When we pray together, we thank Jehovah for one another and I feel so blessed to have found someone like Eduardo to be my husband♥:)
XOXO-Mrs. Beltran |
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