Five on Friday, Vol. 19

Happy Friday All!
There is something pretty great about waking up knowing it's Friday. It's even better when you don't have to work on Friday! Linking up with Darci, Natasha,Christina, and April to share a few great things from this past week. 

{O N E}

Thank you for all your sweet words about our exciting news! Y'all are the best!

Today is inspection day! In fact, there is a very good chance we are at the inspection as you read this. Hopefully everything looks good and we get to continue on this journey of becoming home owners!  

{T W O}

In other exciting news, I'm a puppy aunt! 

If you follow along on Instagram you already know this, but I'm a proud aunt so I just had to share again. Sis and the BIL brought this sweet 4-year old poodle home this week, and I can't wait to meet her. Her name is Felicity and I already love her!

In case you were curious, I'm a puppy aunt, but James is a puppy brother. It totally makes sense because I just wanna say puppy brother everyday.

  Video Source

{T H R E E}

The house may not be ours yet, but I'm already in decorating mode. I've mentioned before that my mom is an interior designers and we'll definitely be enlisting her help. I want to be design educated, so I'm trying to learn as much as possible. Plus, James and I are excited to tackle some DIY projects. These two books are perfect for both of these things! Great DIY design tips and ideas.
Young House Love: follow they're blog if you don't already do so. They're the jam!
The Perfectly Imperfect Home

{F O U R}

If we're making fish for dinner chances are it's gonna be salmon. If we're making salmon chances are it's made in this sauce.
Side note: buy salmon from Costco, you'll thank me later.
This sriracha sauce and lime salmon from Gwyneth Paltrow's book is perfect. Not too spicy, a little tangy, and great flavor. Try it, you'll thank me for that too.

Source

Ingredients:

Juice & Zest of 1/2 a lime

1 tablespoon maple syrup

1 1/2 teaspoons sriracha sauce 

1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt

1 1/4 pounds salmon fillet (skin removed)

2 tablespoon chopped cilantro (optional)

I don't do cilantro, so that gets left off. If I was a good wife I would put some on the side for the husband, but I don't do cilantro... at all.

{F I V E}

Have y'all tried these yet?!?
I love my Crock-Pot. I hate cleaning my Crock-Pot. I've been looking for these for a while with no luck. This past week I finally found them. Game. Changing. I'll cook in my Crock-Pot every night if clean up is just remove the liner and wipe down. Life officially changed.

Hope you all have a safe and happy weekend!

Easy Artichoke Dip

You'll notice a theme with the recipes I post, they all tend to be easy! If it's not super easy I'm just not going to make it. I've been working longer hours lately {good thing for the bank account not so much for cooking and cleaning}, so it's more difficult for me to make something that takes a long time and needs a lot of attention. This recipe is the perfect appetizer to make for friends who come over, or to bring to dinners. The prep time is really fast, it had just a few ingredients, and it's really good! It may be so good that sometimes I make it just for James and I to devour ourselves.

I doubled this recipe since I made it for Thanksgiving, but the portion size below serves about 4-6 people as an appetizer and 2 if you eating it for dinner :)

The most important step in this recipe is making sure you get as much liquid as possible out of the artichoke hearts! If you don't the dip will end up liquidy and not good. 

First, drain the can, then squeeze as much liquid out of each heart with your hands, and finally press them between paper towels. Give the artichoke hearts a rough chop once all the liquid is gone.

Then, mix everything together in a big bowl and put everything into a backing dish. It's on my list of things to-do to try making this dip a little healthier by using 1/4 cup mayonnaise and 1/4 greek yogurt, but I haven't yet. I'll let you know how it tastes if I ever get around to it.

All warm, bubbly, and ready to eat! Most of the time I let it get more golden brown, but we had hungry Thanksgiving guests who couldn't wait just for food to get prettier. It tasted good none the less!

Easy Artichoke Dip

1 can Artichoke Hearts (whole or quartered)

1/2 cup Mayonnaise

1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese + extra for sprinkling on top

2-3 minced Garlic Cloves

Salt and Pepper to taste

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
• Drain the artichoke hearts and press them between paper towels to get as much liquid out of them as possible
• Roughly chop the artichoke hearts and mix them in a bowl with the mayonnaise, parmesan cheese, minced garlic, salt and pepper
• Please in a small backing dish and sprinkle the top with extra parmesan cheese
• Bake for 30-45 minutes or until it's golden brown and bubbling
• Serve warm with crackers and/or tortilla chips

Hope y'all enjoy!

Weekend in Pictures

Friday:

We celebrated 5 months of being married at South City Kitchen! 

Really we were celebrating good news about James' job, and it just happened to fall on the same day.

Saturday:

James has been a great sport going to quite a few of my games this year. I figured it was time I repaid the gesture. As much as it pains me to wear navy and gold yellow lime green? {no clue what color that scarf is} it makes the husband happy. I always make sure to get a little red in there :)

I still can't talk about what happened with the UGA game. Happy about a win, but my heart is hurting... 

Sunday:

Celebrated James' mom's birthday at Seed. If you ever are in Marietta, GA you have to try this place.

And just because I love you I'll leave you with chocolate peanut butter perfection:

Super Easy Granola

Just stopping in to share a quick and easy granola.

This recipe is so easy and one of my favorites!

The salt and pepper may seem odd, but they are completely necessary! Trust me!

*Please excuse the phone pictures. I left my camera in {and all wedding pictures} in  Hilton Head :(*

Put all the ingredients in a big bowl. Mix them all together {hands make great mixers!}

Spread out on a baking sheet and bake for 12 minutes. 

Seriously, easy thing ever!

I eat this stuff plan throughout the day, but it's also great on greek yogurt and ice cream.

Salty, sweet, and a bit tangy: perfect combination!

Super Easy Granola

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Old-Fashioned Oats
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 2 Tbsp oil
• 4 Tbsp Agave (honey works too!)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper

Instructions:

• Preheat the over to 350 degrees
• Mix all ingredients together in a bowl
• Bake in the over for 12 minutes