Buffalo Chicken Pasta

Happy Tuesday friends! 

So not to beat a dead horse, but you know I just flat out DON'T enjoy cooking... right? 

I'm not sure if there is just a piece of housewife DNA that I'm missing somewhere in my genome

but I just don't enjoy it! Baking? Obviously. Cleaning? Love it!

DIY & Crafting? Yes, pleasssseee! Cooking? Shoot me. 

However with a husband and, more than likely, kids in the near future

(parents don't make me regret that statement later)

I have forced myself to be in the kitchen more and that doesn't mean standing

over the stove with a box of Hamburger Helper. 

#truestory

I've started to attend a once a month cooking class where we prepare

an appetizer, entree and dessert so I'm getting tons of new, easy recipes to try.

See HERE, HERE and HERE.

THEN, of course, there's Pinterest. I may be the 24938712487612th

woman to ask this question but, where would we be in the world without Pinterest ? 

Enter THIS little gem of a recipe:

Buffalo Chicken Penne Pasta

You Will Need:

2 cups cooked, shredded chicken breasts

8 oz package of cream cheese

1/3 c buffalo sauce (I use Frank's)

1/2 c chicken broth

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp kosher salt

3/4 cup blue cheese OR ranch dressing

12 oz penne pasta

optional toppings:

green onions (chopped)

crushed red pepper flakes

1. Begin making the sauce by melting the buffalo sauce, cream cheese and chicken broth.

2. Next, add in your spices. Also proceed to yell "BAM!" while doing this

because your husband will think you're practically Emeril once he tastes this.

3. Heat the sauce for 5 minutes over medium, until creamy.

4. Add your blue cheese (or ranch) and mix well.

5. Mix in your cooked, shredded chicken until the sauce is well-distributed.

6. Allow to cook to an additional 10 minutes to blend flavors. In the meantime,

boil a large pot of water to cook your penne pasta.

7. Next, combine your pasta with your buffalo chicken sauce.

8. Garnish with your choice of toppings- I used chopped, green onion but

you can also throw a bit of crushed red pepper in there as well!

9. E N J O Y :)

I'm a huge lover of ANYTHING buffalo. And pasta? Sold!

I had a few friends ask me for this recipe so clearly I'm not alone

on the buffalo chicken obsession bus. I literally stock up on

Frank's and after this, I would suggest you do the same. 

Bimini | Part Two

Posting Part II of our Bimini vacation seemed like it was only appropriate 

to do so on a Monday. I mean. Raise your hand if you want to trade in your Monday

mornin' Starbucks for some type of a Rum concoction out of a pineapple. 

MEEE!

If you missed Part I get yo butt caught up to speed and click HERE.

After the most fabulous night of sleep in the history of EVER, we woke

up bright and early and dived right into (pun intended) Day #2! 

Seeeeeriously?! That blue water though.

After catching WAY too much Barracuda (#toomuchcuda) we finally

caught us a nice keeper! Hello, king fish!

 

The Sapona was clearly our favorite spot- I think we went there everyday!

We anchored the boat out and just floated and snorkled around most of the time. There was SO

much life around the wreck- sting rays, angel fish, blow fish, nurse sharks, grouper.

And jutting out of the water at almost 40 feet, it just had "JUMP OFF ME!"

written all over it. 

{{ Enter a big CHECK off of my 30 before 30! }}

Let me tell you though, getting UP this sucker was no easy task.

Had I not had the liquid courage of a few shotgunned beers that day (see earlier photos)

the above events may have never even transpired. 

First of all, the waves were crazy and this thing was CONCRETE. 

All it would have taken was one big wave and, smack, you could have been slammed

right into the ship. Ouch... And as if that wasn't enough, there was rebar sticking

out everywhere. Once we got into the ship, you had to climb about 15 feet of a rope ladder,

then you had to swing (yes, SWING) over to another short ladder.

Again, thank you, liquid courage. BUT! It was fun! Little painful.. but

definitely cool and everyone did it. 

I can just hear my Mom saying, "Corin, if all of your friends jumped off

of a huge concrete ship into unknown waters, would you?" Ugh... yes, Mom. 

That night we grilled up some lobster and fish and just hung around the

house and did a little beer drinking/hammock swinging. S - O relaxing.

Next up, Day #3!

Days 2 and 3 were by FAR my favorite :)

Other than barracuda, king fish and spearing a few other out of season delights,

we really didn't catch anything CRAZY but when you're in the Bahamas, on the gorgeous 

water in a beautiful boat with friends, who the heck cares? 

Thirty Before 30!

Alright folks, the big two-six is right around the corner.
How did this happen? I feel like I was just 22!
...or maybe that was just T-Swift on the radio...
I don't HATE getting older but the younger generation is completely throwing me
through a loop. I don't think we're considered the "cool" generation anymore
which isn't settling well with me. We were out on the boat a few weekends ago and
we got to talking to the boat next to us, Chatty Kathy over here.

Bryan was talking to the group of guys and I was talking with one of the girls.
We were talking about bathing suits and Florida Georgia Line and working out
and blaaah, blah, blah... somehow high school graduation got thrown in there,
as if this was a recent event or something,
and I eventually asked her what year she was born- 1995! WHAT!??
Nineteen Ninety Freaking Five?? Shouldn't you be in diapers??
No. We're just getting old.

With that being said, I've seen "Thirty Before Thirty" on blogs before, but at 24 and
25 I didn't think it would be that urgent to get started on mine.
Wrongggg! Twenty six is only a month away (August 18th if I must be exact-
and I enjoy anything pink or Michael Kors, thanks!)
so I decided it was time to share my thirty before thirty.

Here we gooo! :)

1. Buy a House

2. Run the Color Run

3. Host a Fundraiser

4. Have a Baby

5. Shoot a Buck

6. Visit Italy

7. Go White Water Rafting

8. Do Yoga on the Beach

9. Start a Tradition

10. Write a Family Dessert Book

11. Catch a Huge Fish

12. Surprise Bryan with Something BIG
(Possibly #4. Just kidding)

13. Pay off Credit Cards and Student Loans

14. Attend a Kentucky Derby

15. Jump off of Something

16. Start a Business

17. Host a Dinner Party

18. Go on a Picnic

19. Do a Juice Cleanse

20. See a Broadway Show

21. Donate Blood

22. Go Scuba Diving or Snorkeling Somewhere Exotic

23. Learn to Drive a Stick Shift

24. Go on a Road Trip with Girlfriends 

25. Build a Piece of Furniture

26. Make a Three Course Italian Meal from Scratch 

27. Complete the Jillian Michaels "30 day Shred"

28. Take a DSLR Camera Class

29. Join a Kick Ball Team 

30. Take a Big Family Photo

And just in case you needed a small reminder, Bimini Vaca Part II
will be live on the blog next week!

Bimini | Part One

Let's just cut straight to the chase... I have fallen completely in love with an island.

AND... I firmly believe that, once I share all of these pictures, you will too.

First things first, you'll probably want to know where exactly this 

little slice of paradise is located. I won't lie, I had never even heard of Bimini until

Real Housewives of Miami (and Bryan says those shows have no intellectual content!) 

Mr Fishing-Obsessed, on the other hand, claims he has watched tons of fishing

shows on the island and was fascinated by all of the fish forums and stories.

I remember the plane ride home from our honeymoon; while starting to descend into Miami,

Bryan pointed out a little sliver of an island that had hundreds of boats around it and said

"We are GOING there!" 

Bimini is located in the westernmost district of the Bahamas. 

It's only around 50 miles or so east of Miami, Florida. 

The island is comprised of North and South Bimini and is only about

8 square miles in its entirety. 

Now, how do you get your Pina Colada sippin butt to Bimini you ask? 

You can definitely fly there from Miami- it's only about a 20 minute plane ride

but those private planes will cost you a pretty penny.

There's also the Bimini "Super Fast" which is owned by Resorts World

(one of the largest resorts on the island) that basically looks like a small

cruise ship that charters people from Miami to Bimini for around $100 bucks per person.

OR... you could be completely awesome and adventurous and take your

own boat. We opted for the latter :) 

Six of us loaded up on Tuesday evening to head

South on our friends' beautiful 30' Sail Fish to put in at Pompano Beach

and our first evening went a little something like this.. 

6:30 PM - Everyone loads up the luggage and we hit the road.

6:35 PM - The girls already have to pee. We stop at a gas station.

6:35 - 11:00 PM - The girls talked. And talked. And talked. The boys

eventually whipped out their ear plugs (which Landon so thoughtfully

purchased for all of them) and blocked us out.

11:00 PM - We all hear a loud noise pulling off the interstate and turn around to see one of

the trailer tires flying off and rolling down the road. Great.

11:05 PM - We pull over to find not one, but two trailer tires have been blown.

11:30 PM - The boys call a tow truck driver after relentlessly trying to find

a tire repair shop that is still open. 

11:30 - 1:00 AM - We sit. And wait.

1:30 AM - Someone suggests the brilliant idea that the girls go to Walmart

to grab our groceries for the trip while we wait for the tow truck driver, so we don't

have to go in the morning.

2:00 AM - We discover the Walmart in Palm Beach Gardens is actually

the worst place in the entire world at 2 o'clock in the morning.
But. We get the essentials.

2:30 - 4:00 AM - The tow truck driver tries to repair our tire. The girls sleep.

4:30 AM - Tire is finally fixed!
(All hopes of renting a hotel room where we can comfortably lay down
our heads for the night are out the window at this point)

5:00 AM - We arrive at the bait shop to grab all of the necessities for the trip.

Because waking up to the smell of fresh bait after only 1 1/2 hours of sleep

is something every girl wants to do.

6:00 AM - The boys purchase an obscene amount of Bud Light and all

this girl wants is an extra-frickin-large coffee.

7:00 - 8:00 AM - We gas up the boat. This literally takes an hour.

300-gallon tanks are super fun!

9:00 AM - Boat is FINALLY in the water and we are 

O F F I C I A L L Y 

on our way to Bimini. On 2 hours of sleep. In an Excursion. 

After what felt like the longest night of my entire life, I must say, 

once we hit that turquoise blue water of Bimini... it was all worth it.

After docking at customs and getting all of our passports stamped (by the way, you need a passport!)

we cruised around to South Bimini and docked at our new home for the week-

which was absolutely adorable and RIGHT on the water. 

We snorkled around for a little bit and then we jumped back

on the boat to cruise around and explore the beautiful blue waters.

Photo with Starfish: Checckkkk!

 The Sapona or "Concrete Ship"
Ignore the water spot in the photo- we're still working our way through
taking still pictures on the GoPro. This is an absolute must see when you visit Bimini.
The ship is located off of South Bimini and is prime time for snorkeling
(or jumping! - See Day 2)

We headed back to our little Bohemian villa and everyone showered

and jumped on the golf cart to head to dinner at the Big Game Club on North Bimini.

At this point, most of us had been up for almost 36 hours so pictures weren't happening
and honestly, we almost fell asleep, facedown, in our entrees.
We literally could NOT wait to get into our beds and go to sleep.
(You almost forgot that we were running on practically NO sleep didn't you?)

Next up: Days 2, 3 and 4!