Nacho Grande

I think it’s time for me to expand my blog, I’m thinking of adding more post about recent recipes I’ve made and maybe even adding some post on fashion.   

Even though I’m not the best cook/baker, I do get told by people that I’m a good “housewife.” (Housewife used loosely here, since I do work a 40 hour work week).

But I guess it’s safe to say that I have mastered some good domestic skills throughout my years.

 I think sharing some of my quick dinner recipes and unique fashion/decorating designs might be fun, since those who read my blog seem to be in the same stage of their life as I am. (newlyweds, 1^st time homeowners, on a budget, 20somethings).

So I’ve decided to attempt to do my first recipe post.

Matt and I both work very long days, so I usually don’t even get to start dinner till around 6:30ish. Most of my dinners are fast and easy! (Less is more, in this house, hon.)

Nacho Grande is a classic Mexican dish in our household, which I will never get sick of.

My sister literally learned how to make this in her 7^th grade food class and I forbid giving it up! Ha!

It’s so easy, fast and tasty.

You will need:

1 pound of ground beef

1 can of refried beans

1 jar of Salsa

1 bag of Tortilla Chips

1 bag of shredded cheese

Taco Seasoning

Sour Cream

Cookie Sheet

Foil

Optional:

Onion

Green Pepper

(onion and green pepper can be cut up and added to your ground beef, if you like)

1.)    Put oven on 350 degrees

2.)    Cook ground beef until brown. (If you like, add onion and green pepper to ground beef)

3.)    Once ground beef is brown, drain grease and add your taco seasoning and 1 cup of water

(if you don’t like taco seasoning/spicy food you do not need to add it to the beef)

4.)    Put refried beans in the microwave for 2 minutes or until hot

5.)    Put foil on your cookie sheet and then put a layer of tortilla chips down

6.)    On top of tortilla chips add refried beans

7.)    Add your jar of salsa

8.)    Add your cooked ground beef

9.)    Top is off with cheese

10.) Put in oven for about 10minutes or until cheese is melted

11.) Serve with sour cream on top and extra chips

Step 5

                                                                                   Step 6

                                                                                    Step 7

                                                                                 Step 8

                                                                                   Step 9

 Add some sour cream and enjoy!

This is such a great dish to make on a weekday night after a long day at the office.

Let me know if anyone attempts this! :-)

I’m a total pain in my husband’s...

I told Matt that I keep having nightmares about someone trying to break into our house.

I don’t know why I keep dreaming and thinking these horrible thoughts- I’m sure American Horror Story isn’t helping.

Plus, let’s be honest, the nicest thing we own is our Crate & Barrel wine rack and that is still only $250.

Nevertheless, I kept begging Matt to put a motion detector spotlight on the side of our house.

For when I walk Chase and take out the trash.

We are next to the woods, y’all. It’s pretty in the daylight but spooky at night.

Man, I didn’t realize the amount of electrical work and TIME that goes into hanging a spotlight. (Obviously).

The running of wires across the attic and down the walls plus the husband having to use all his upper body strength to climb up and down our attic that has no stairs; and not to forget the climbing of the ladder outside in the cold.

His whole weekend was spent hanging this damn spotlight.

Pulling up to the house after a shopping trip on Sunday and seeing my poor husband 20 feet up a ladder on a 30 degree day, I realized- Damn, I am a pain in my husband’s ass.

The husband assured me that “no” he enjoys doing things like this and fixing up our little home.

I owe this guy a 30 pack or something.

The payoff is seriously…..bright. I love the side motion detector light!

Thinking I might be a little over kill on the lighting of the house. Ha!

 Don't mind the phone picture- I took no pictures this weekend. What's wrong with me?

Oh and we he still has to put up the new motion detector porch light in the back of the house. 

Baby Fever

Lately I’ve totally had baby fever.

It’s to the point where all I think about and see are baby related things.

Some of my girlfriends are starting to have babies and lately Matt and I have been having “baby talks.”

Me, “Can we now?!?!”

Matt, “Mandy, not yet.”

Me, “Pleeese” (lower-lip pushed out)

Matt, “If you wait, it will be worth it and you can stay home if you decide too.”

Me- point well taken my brother, point well taken.

But this, of course, hasn’t stopped me from visiting baby websites and learning about all things baby.

I’ve started the whole- “I think I’m going to start to prepare my body for a baby” process.

I read about what you should do to “prepare” yourself on this baby website.

You can also figure out when your ovulating- how gnarly? (Is it odd that I just used the word gnarly to describe the ovulation process? Hmmm, oh well).

Anyway, I‘ve basically learned that I need to cut back on my caffeine intake, Girrrrl- I got me a Diet Coke problem.

This pretty-much sounds like the worst idea ever for me, it’s like I’m some sort of soda drug addict. I really haven’t even tried yet because the headaches I’m going to endure, oy vy!

I also started to take prenatal vitamins and, let me tell you, my hair looks awesome!

Other than that I’m just keeping up with my weekly exercise routine (4-5 days at the gym- I’m lucky bc I can go to the gym at lunchtime at work).

Last Friday I went to visit my girlfriend, Brittany, who just had her second baby. (She’s got two sweet little babies at 25- go girl!)

While I was at Brittany’s house helping her, I was all, “Look at me! This is what it would be like if I had two babies.”

Brittany, “Yeaaah”

I think it’s a lot easier to pretend. Haha!

Brittany’s babies are so beautiful and sweet. They literally melt my heart.

While I was over there I even attempted to take some photos of them… “attempted” being the key word here….I'm still learning how to use my new camera. I told Brittany I would have to come back over to get more practice!

Carter and Baby Victoria Grace

The Conrad Wedding...

Saturday we woke up to snow and ice in Baltimore.

Us “Baldmore” folks have been spoiled, Saturday was our first snowfall of the winter. And, of course, it was my dear friend Jackie’s wedding day.

Luckily the snow/ice mix stopped mid-morning so we were able to get to the 2:00 wedding. (It was only about an inch of snow, but the ground was covered with a thin layer of ice. Walking Chase Saturday was interesting to say the least. Thank god, for my Walmart snow boots).  

We rode to the wedding with our neighbors Jess and Dan. (Jess is a high school girlfriend who lives across the street from us, how lucky am I?)

Dan drove Jess’ SUV because the roads were still slick and he had already removed the snow off the car earlier in the day.

And then it happened, something so typical that would happen to us…

As we were driving on the highway a state trooper pulls up behind us…

And then, yup, the snow/ice that was still on the roof of the car flies off and hits the state trooper’s windshield.

Son of a…

And we get pulled over.

Jess screams out, “Sir, I’m in labor!”

Even though she is only 20 weeks pregnant and has the smallest belly.

No such luck.

 The state trooper insists that we probably cracked his windshield with the ice that flew off of our car.

And we are pulled over for about 15 minutes, until the state trooper comes back to inform us that he is only giving us a warning…

For the love of god, the wedding starts in 2 minutes!!

We finally pull up to the church with the ice covered parking lot and sidewalk, with pregnant Jess and have to very quickly and carefully race to the church before the wedding ceremony starts.

We arrive to the church as the mother of the bride is being escorted down the aisle and the whole wedding party, including the bride, is lined up in the corner.

I’m almost positive us four are in the background of the pictures awkwardly trying to hurry in and find a seat.

 At least we made it for the wedding.

It was beautiful service and the bride looked totally gorg.

The reception was so amazing and started with cocktail hour.

The food was unbelievable. They had everything from mini cheeseburgers to a mashed potatoes bar! (Topping included- sour cream, bacon, salsa, jalapenos, cheese, gravy, you name it- it was there)

They also had a sweets table and a candy bar. Those candies were a real treat after the wedding when we were all feeling good and wanted to stuff our faces with gummy bears and sour patch kids!

We drank plenty of wine and danced our little booty’s off.

I was totally disappointed in myself because I had my good “professional” camera all charged and ready to go and I forgot it. :-/ But I tried to get some good pictures.

Overall, an excellent wedding with a lot of amazing friends!

 The Conrads!

 Beautiful Table Settings

 Dessert Bar. This was entirely too close to our table. Me and my sweet tooth didn't do well with this...

 All us girls with the bride, we love you Jack!

 The hubs and I. Total Matching Perfection. That's how I roll. Wait till we have a baby, matching madness up in the Bogdan household!

                                        Jess and Dan- Two bellies, one baby- Hahah! Love them!

                                                                Can I just have this chair?

                                                                             His Cake...

                                                             Her cake....I love them both!

What a beautiful, perfect wedding!!

Xoxox

High School Girlfriends, All Grown Up...

This weekend one of my high school girlfriends, Jackie, is getting married.

I’m thrilled to not only watch one of my oldest friends walk down the aisle but also to see all my high school girlfriends and most importantly, to stuff my face with some amazing food and wine.

Let me just mention, Jackie’s dad owns a catering company. So you know for damn sure, we will be eaten well!

I remember meeting Jackie in my 9^th grade gym class.

She was the overly sweet girl who sounded exactly like Fran Drescher from The Nanny. I, of course, had to be friends with her.

Her heart was as big as her voice and we clicked instantly.

In high school it ended up being seven of us girls who started hanging out together. It was an emotional blast and we had waaay too much fun for our own good.

I was especially close to Jackie. Our favorite thing to do, of all time, was to drive around in her green mustang and smoke about a pack of cigarettes in a four hour period, it was absolutely amazing. We would jam out to OAR and talk about the most important thing in a 16-year-old girl’s life, boys.

All of us girls were so close that we fought and treated each other like sisters.

I was the oldest of the group, with my March birthday, so I was the first to get my learners permit.

I remember “Big Bill” (my dad) was picking me up from a slumber party to take me up to the MVA to take my learners test for the fourth time (I hated studying).

Jackie and I were fighting about god knows what and remember her yelling to me, “I hope you fail your test, Mandy!!”

In Jackie’s eyes this was the meanest thing she could have ever said to me. She cried and told me she didn’t mean it. To this day she will tell you how sorry she is for yelling at me.

Shoot, I needed that. That day I finally passed my learners test.

Jackie’s wedding provides an opportunity to reflect back on our younger days (not that 25 is that old) and to make more amazing memories!  

I love my “pasta!*”

And I love all my high school girlfriends and can’t wait to catch up and laugh our ass’ off!   

*Pasta is Jackie’s nickname. (Most of us girls have odd food nicknames. Pretty-much whatever your favorite food is, that becomes your nickname. “Taco,” over here and guilty as charged. I love me some Mexican food)!

                                                Emily, Me and Jackie- Ocean City, MD 2009?

                                           Just some 21-year-olds a little excited to be at a bar together, Ha!

My 22nd Birthday, I think..

I can't wait to see these ladies!

Weekend In Review:

This weekend I learned so much about life and myself.

When I started this blog I knew it would be a good outlet for me to express myself (through writing, of course). Since I clearly don’t work at a newspaper or magazine company (in my dreams), my blog gives me an opportunity to write. (I was the girl in college who never minded sitting in front of the computer for five hours writing a 20-page paper, it sounded a lot better than taking some sort of test).  Writing gave me a way to express myself and really shine. (My feature writing professor loved me and would always pick me to read my feature stories out loud to the class. Hello, hells yes. I was never the “shy” girl). Now, I know for damn sure I’m not the best writer but I just try to keep my blog light, funny and interesting. But I also value the blogs where bloggers are so brutally honest that you cry, get mad and laugh out loud. I want my blog to be a reflection of my life; the good, the bad and the ugly. And boy, do some parts of life get ugly. Matt tells me, “You can’t control or change people.” I’m always thinking I can fix things or change things for the better, to make life easier. But this weekend made me realize I can’t change people’s behavior, they are going to do what they want and some people don’t care who they hurt while doing it. This made me sad and mad. I also realized some people really won’t ever grow up and the only thing you can do is try your best not to feed into it. Therefore, I need to distance myself from the bad and try my hardest to still support the “good” or should I say, innocent.

I also learned that my husband is truly one of the nicest people I have ever met and really goes out of his way to make me happy.

Like telling me we don’t have to watch the Ravens playoff game if I don’t want to. Now, in Baltimore standards, that’s true love.

So we called my parents and asked if they wanted to head to Ellicott City, Maryland. This way the guys (my dad and Matt) could watch the game at a bar there and my mom and I could check out the antique shops.

Ellicott City’s Main Street, has an Irish feel. Not that I have ever been to Ireland, but my parents have and my mom said it made her feel as though she was in a town in Ireland. 

My mom said these pictures were boring, Ha! Sorry, I didn't have the "nice" camera.

Oddly enough, the inside of the antique shops had a French feel with light pink, green and blue decor. The light colors and unique decorating made me want to redecorate my house!

Some of the older antique shops just smelt like fart and pretty-much sold old expensive junk. At one point, my mom and I got the giggles because someone was clearly crop-dusting* and it was terrible. I couldn’t even breathe. I had to hide my nose in my scarf. What the hell? Take it into the bathroom, people.

                            I think my dad was just a "little" excited that the Ravens won! Go Ravens!!

It was nice to get out of our little town and clear my head.

Matt and I came home to a nice relaxing evening, we made chili and watched “The Change Up” Have you seen? A lot of boobs, but funny!

*Crop-dusting= walking farts.



Cocktails are in order...

This week I have been in a major funk.

Work has been super annoying and the fact that I never get home from work earlier then 6:00p.m. (thanks Baltimore traffic) makes life Monday-Friday super depressing.

 I think the fact that it’s pitch black outside on my way to work and pitch black when I get out, makes it even harder.

You know it’s bad when coworkers start to ask you, “What’s wrong?” “Do you need to talk?”

Haha. “Nope, just ready for Friday”

And let me tell you, Friday you couldn’t have came sooner.

I am in love with you, Friday!

I’m beyond excited to get the hells up on outta here and treat myself to nice tasty cocktail tonight.

The hubs band is playing at a local bar, about two blocks away from our house and Girl, I’m going to dance my a$$ off tonight.

I can only pray the night looks something like this…

 

Really? No one else does this in front of a fan, weird.

Why do we look super stiff dancing? Classic.

You know, just showing a best friend some love…Why not have a double chin about it?

Needless to say, I’m in major need of some fun tonight/ this weekend!