Bites of My Life

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February is a funny month. The fewest days, but often the longest feeling. February has gone by pretty fast this year, but yet incredible slow. February always has me in a funk. It's freezing, not much  happens, it's the countdown to spring break and needs to just hurry up. I think I've made the most of the month, but I'm ready for warmer temps, an upcoming trip, spring food and clothes and to get the year going. 
I know that was a lot of counter-acting statements, but do you not feel the same? Anyway, here is a look at my rather boring week but surprisingly fun weekend!
-Crawfish and Mai Tai's for the perfect Fat Tuesday celebration. 
-Kept the cajun soul food going with homemade shrimp and grits.
-Spotted: baby containers of Jeni's! I love things in tiny form.
-Platter-o-sushi. Brought one of my sidekicks home with me for the weekend for some quality mom and pops time and more importantly a free dinner!
-Barre3 and a healthy salad got Saturday started right. 
-A cheese plate, Moscow Mules and a Mexican dinner counteracted our healthy morning. 
-A fun Saturday night finding out I'm actually horrible at bowling.
-Smoothie bowl and a study guide filled my Sunday afternoon. 
-Finally, my Oscar predictions and the traditional Sunday night dinner.
I successfully watched over 6 hours of Oscar footage last night. From the beginning of the red carpet to Birdman's acceptance speech. My best dressed goes to Naomi Watts. I'd wear that dress in a second, I also wouldn't mind if my hair looked as good in a short wavy bob like hers. I also now have a huge crush on cutie and Best Actor winner, Eddie Redmayne. 
Annie 

And the Oscar Goes to...

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First things first, print off your Oscar ballot.
Take a look at past "Best Actress" winners gown's with this infographic. I'll always remember Hilary Swanks navy backless dress in 2005 and Halle Berry's brown mesh and adorned dress from 2002.
Pop the champagne or pour your self a glass of wine. Use this drinking game to know when to take a sip.
Now for the food. With the Grammys, Super Bowl and Miss Universe pageants all happening recently, it seems like my friends and I have just used this as an excuse to make a feast of snacks to eat while we watch. The Oscars are no excuse, so here is a list of themed foods to binge eat while watching.
For some fancier fare, here is a list of more gourmet Oscar party snacks. 
And last, I stole this from Kathleen's link list on Friday, but I love these fun movie party hacks. I'm sort of obsessed with those chocolate dipped potato chips!
Shamefully, Boyhood was the only Best Picture nominee I saw. But it wins the award in my book! Happy Oscar Sunday!
Annie

Guest Post: Things I Love

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Hey all! Kathleen here, taking over Annie's blog for the day! I always love the opportunity to guest blog for Annie and today I am giving you one of my favorite series from my blog, "Things I Love". "Things I Love" is a great way for me to share all the things - posts, outfits, recipes, etc.- from around the world wide web that I am currently reading and swooning over. Enjoy all these links on this Friday and let them be a distraction from all the things you don't want to do!

 Movie Viewing Hacks - also great ideas for an Oscar Watching Party!
 Seeing lilac
 Would love to throw a chocolate & wine tasting party


image via

13 Make-Ahead Breakfasts, shocking that this recipe for Cranberry Orange Granola stood out to me (just call me granola-obsessed)
 10 Dinner Ideas (one of my absolute favorite food blogs)
 For all the working girls

image via
How To: Make A Killer Cheese Plate (important life lesson!)
 Perfect way to please the chocolate and fruit lovers for dessert
 and on a more serious note

Have a great weekend! I will be doing some of my favorite weekend activities- sleeping in, taking a Barre3 class, eating great food, drinking wine, spending time with those that make me happy!
Until next time,
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Single-Serving Shrimp and Grits

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shrimp-and-grits.jpg

I've had the idea for this dish for a while, but just got around to making it. I don't know why it took me so long because the actual recipe cooks up in less than 15 minutes. 

This single girl/poor college kid/quick dinner dish totally elevates all the scenarios I just mentioned. It's gourmet, cheap but super easy and definitely fits the bill for a satisfying dinner. Or brunch if you want to get fancy on a lazy Sunday morning. 

I recently discovered you can buy a box of instant grits just like instant oatmeal. Microwave oatmeal is a regular part of my daily routine, but now grits, oooooh man! Growing up I remember mom always asking, grits or oatmeal? It was always the decision between sweet or savory? Really because I would either douse my grits with a pound of butter or my oatmeal with a cup of brown sugar. The only problem was that I had to wait near 20 minutes for my breakfast to be ready. I don't have that kind of patience anymore, so hello to instant grits! 

Microwave grits, a little cheese and some frozen corn and shrimp make for an ulti single girl meal! The recipe is clearly for a single serving, but it would be super easy to double or triple.

Single Serving Shrimp and Grits
serves one..obviously 

Ingredients:
1 package of instant grits
some type of cheese-Parmesan, Gouda, cheddar etc.
1 Tbsp. olive oil or butter
6 frozen or fresh shrimp
1/4 cup frozen corn
fresh minced garlic
cayenne pepper
salt and pepper
juice of 1/4 lemon
fresh cilantro 

Directions:
If using frozen, make sure to first thaw your shrimp. I do this by running them under luke warm water until thawed. 

Heat your olive oil or butter in a small pan over medium heat. Add your corn and shrimp to the pan, throw in some garlic and a little bit of cayenne. Don't go to crazy on the cayenne, unless you like things spicy spicy! While your shrimp is cooking, microwave the grits according to package directions. It's probably something like add 1/2 cup of water and microwave for 1 minute. 

Stir in the cheese and season your grits with salt and pepper to taste. (I like mine really salty!) By now your shrimp should be cooked though. Take off the heat and squeeze lemon juice over the shrimp.

Pile the shrimp and corn over your cheese grits and garnish with chopped cilantro!

Annie

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Everything's Coming Up Roses

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I hate online shopping. I'm bad at it, there are too many choices and more times than not I end up spending more money having to mail something back.  I like the satisfaction of going into a store, trying something on, seeing how it fits, then purchasing something you know was worth your money.  Now that I've gone on a rant of online shopping, I have something to admit. 
I've recently been addicted to online shopping. For some reason my to-do list keeps getting overruled with sifting through Zara, Asos, Piperlime and Shopbop's newest arrivals. I blame my online classes for this. I'm always on my computer and the dumb target marketing has the cutest little dresses popping up in all my sidebars and banners. As an advertising major you would think I wouldn't fall for these tricks, but I do. I've made a few purchases here and there and now I'm on every department store's email list making it even harder to avoid online shopping when EVERYTHING IS 75% OFF is screaming at me in my emails. I can't delete the email before I see if there are any good sales, right?
Through my new hobby of online shopping, I've found some pretty cute things. Asos has been my biggest weakness because of their pages on pages of adorable and reasonably priced things. I've really been sucked in by all of the adorable floral dresses. I'm going to go ahead and make a guess that floral is big for spring, it's everywhere. Below are some of my favorites, but if you want to waste about an hour of your life, here are even more foral dresses.
clockwise from top left corner:
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8
I've ordered a few, but now starts another down side to online shopping. The wait. I'll let you know the outcome of my purchases, cross your fingers "everything comes up roses!"
Annie