ANNNNDD......

WE ARE PREGNANT!!!!!!!!

Baby Frankhouser is due July 16 2016

  My love of cooking and posting delicious meals has quickly been replaced with constant nausea and food aversions!! So...since I have had a few comments as to why I have not been posting any yummy food pics...this is why! :) I have been bursting at the seams to spill the beans... I am currently about to be 11 weeks ( on Thursday) and already have a cute little belly poppin'! Seeing the baby moving around on the sonogram screen is utterly and completely surreal to me. Everytime I go in and see my sweet baby I am quickly reminded of how BIG our God is. We prayed for this baby and God answered our prayers in beautiful timing. I lost my best friend on October 27th 2015 and found out I was pregnant 6 days later. Tremendous joy has been replaced by such a huge sadness and I like to think she is in heaven smiling down on us. Brandon and I feel incredibly blessed by the amount of love, prayers, and well wishes. We truly are just basking in God's goodness and are going to soak up every moment. 

Bumpies ( bump selfies :)) Soon to come!!!

xoxoxo

White Chicken chili

It finally turned crisp and cool here in San Antonio!!! I was so excited that I busted out the christmas decor. No really I did.. but I will save that for another post. I checked the weather app on my phone and saw that the low was going to be 50 degrees so I pulled out my crockpot and that was that :) My white chicken chili is perfect for a crisp fall evening.. the crockpot does all the work during the day so that when dinner time comes you can pull on your cozy sweats and grab a bowl of steamy hot chili. Sounds perfect!!!

Ingredients:

• Three cans of white beans: I normally choose Cannelini, Northern Beans, and Butter beans
• One small can of hatch green chills
• chicken broth
• one half chopped yellow onion
• Three cooked chicken breasts ( or a deboned rotisserie chicken works nicely too)
• one small poblano pepper diced 
• cumin, cayenne, salt, pepper, paprika, chilli powder
• fresh cilantro chopped rough
• sour cream
• avocado
• monterey jack cheese

Procedure:

-If you are using a rotisserie chicken make sure and get all of the meat off of the bones then throw it in the crockpot using a full box of chicken broth ( I use low sodium organic chicken broth or stock and use 3/4 of the box) If you are using chicken breasts that are raw I suggest cooking the chicken breasts first and then shredding them later after everything is cooked before dumping the rest of the ingredients in the pot.

• place cooked chicken, broth, yellow onion, poblano, green chillies, and all of the white beans in the crockpot. Season generously and cook on low for about eight hours. If you did not use rotisserie chicken now you can shred the chicken breasts. Add the fresh cilantro thirty minutes before the soup is done. Serve with shredded Monterrrey Jack cheese, sour cream, and chopped avocado. Enjoy!!!

This would be fabulous over my Cornbread Casserole. The recipe for Callie's Cornbread Casserole can be found HERE

Lindie

Lately I haven't blogged much because I have had a lot going on...

some of which I will share now..and some I will share later...

On October 27th I learned that my best friend in the world had passed away. Respectfully, for her family I am not going to give any details. She will be so incredibly missed...words cannot explain the depth of how much she was loved. 

 I met Lin in 7th grade during PRIDE. She thought I was weird because I always had my nose buried in a book and I thought she was weird because she was always writing notes to boys. Regardless a friendship started and we were pretty much inseparable. Writing notes to boys and reading books turned into slumber parties and tormenting our mothers. We went on tons of trips, cheered and made fun of the girls our boyfriends broke up with us for...the list is endless. We went to all of our dances together, spent many sleepless nights staying up talking and laughing, took selfies...visited each other during college.  She was there when I needed someone to talk to, vent to, cry to...she was always there and now she isn't. There are SO many things I want to tell her and now I cannot. I wanted to share a few memories on here because she was so special to me...

The heart will always remember <3 

Lindie Elizabeth Deblase

April 6th 1989- October 26th 2015

I will miss talking to you, I will miss hearing your laugh, I will miss sharing special events with you,I will miss your texts of funny e-cards that remind you of us,  I will miss sharing Netflix favorites with you but mostly I will just miss the vivacious person that you were. I will always miss you my friend. 

p h o t o d u m p

Life,

This is the way I ended my Sunday night. #winwin

A favorite book I am reading right now!! I absolutely LOVE Liane Moriarty, she is such a fun easy light read...she reminds me of a cross between Sophie Kinsella ( shopoholic series) and Emily Giffen. All great chic lit authors :) 

Playing around with pillow in my living room.. sort of a dark picture but my new pottery barn glimmer pillows are the gold looking ones in the center. they are so cute!!!!

You can shop these pillows HERE

Going to meet some friends for dinner on this night!!!

Favorite scarf ever here

Sunday afternoon I whipped up my very own hummus. I have a serious hummus addiction. it is so bad that I will go to Zoe's kitchen twice a week to buy tubs of hummus...it was time I started making my own! 

Basically:

two cans garbanzo beans

4 tablespoons olive oil

Juice of two lemons

one garlic glove minced

1/2 cup tahini sauce ( found on the international aisle of grocery store)

cumin, salt, and pepper

water to add texture

put this in a food processor and blend until the consisitincey is how you like it. I added Paprika for color and presentation on top :)

My monday OOTD...I am obsessed with all of Apricot Lane's new outfits for fall !!!!

I have sold my soul to the toasted graham latte at Starbucks. I am over the pumpkin. So sad.

Wohoo!!! Happy Anniversary TO US!! My hubby surprised me with a GORGEOUS estate piece that I had picked out over six months ago never thinking I would get it. He was watching very closely and gave it to me on our Anniversary. 

It has started...the struggle is real #OCD #ObsessiveChristmasDisorder

ya'll...

im.done.christmas shopping. 

I know... I'm crazy...

Dinner with friends!

Tuscan Bean Soup

#vibes

Today was fabulous!! We had our pumpkin patch day at St. Thomas which meant a longggg day on my feet running around after excited three year olds. I knew I was going to be tired and would not feel like cooking so I got my crock pot out of course!!!! I found this recipe on Pinterest and tweaked it to make it my own.  This is such a yummy fall comfort food..I made ours meatless but this soup would be fabulous with some keilbasa or chicken thrown into the mix. I woke up and literally dumped all of my ingredients into the crockpot...done. Just the way I like it! 

Shopping List:

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 2 medium carrots, diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 1 medium zucchini, diced
• 1 yellow summer squash, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, pressed
• ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
• ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
• ½ teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1 quart vegetable (or chicken) broth
• 2 (14 ounce) cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed ( I added an extra can of butter beans)
• 1 (14 ounce) can no-salt-added diced tomatoes with juices
• 3 cups chopped kale, ribs removed
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• One to two cans of cream of celery soup for texture ( cream of mushroom or chicken would work great too)

Procedure:

Literally dump everything in the crockpot and leave!

In all seriousness though..
Place all of the ingredients inside of the crockpot and cook it.. for 8 hours...season as needed!!

Enjoy!!!

Life Lately

My alarm went off today at 7 AM ..yes it's Saturday but I wanted to wake up..brew coffee, and go for a walk. I woke up Brandon, threw on my gym clothes and ran downstairs to start our morning. When I stepped outside to let Mr. Colt do his business I was greeted with a nice gust of cool air! Finally!!! My pumpkin stuff is being put to good use-it doesn't just feel like summer with a bunch of pumpkins hanging around :)! Walking this morning in our beautiful neighborhood felt so good because I know my favorite season is here ...the season where I got married two years ago, and the season where I get to bake nonstop and blaze my pumpkin candles...the season before all of the holiday bustle. I love it! It was such a great day.

This was after our walk this morning..Brandon and I have a thing..every weekend ( unless something is going on) we try and go to one restaurant that has been on the DDD list. ( Food Network's Diners, Drive ins, and Dives) San Antonio is FULL of hidden gems. Today we went to Magnolia Pancake Haus, I have been dying to go here for TWO years. UM two years...yes that is how long I have lived in San A and I have not gotten to eat here yet. Unless you come here during the wee hours of the  morning you will be waiting for 2 plus hours..because the pancakes are that good..

So because we started our morning chipper and bright ( Brandon would hate that I said that :)) We were able to make the crack of dawn service ..ANDDDD it was worth it!!!

I had the blueberry pancakes:)

Onto last week....

Fall Makeover!!! 

I am the girl who has spring/summer makeup and fall/winter makeup

all you makeup junkies know what I am sayin'! I scavenged the Nars section of Sephora last week and found my all-time favorite fall lipstick it is called "Damage" and it is such a pretty little berry stain on your pout ..it just looks great for fall~

you can shop the lipstick HERE

Because I am part time this year my days off are glorious :) ( JK) I have a lot going on actually BUT I find lots of time to get all of my chores done.. my house was never this clean last year..laundry and coffee are what get me going on Tuesday and Thursday morning!

Pottery barn Monogrammed mugs and ON SALE :)

CLICK HERE

A few things I love about living in SA...1. The hill country 2. My friends and preschool St. Thomas and 3. My parents live down the road!!! I feel like the worlds luckiest girl sometimes that I have parents who live so close. They are here for everything...mom is absolutely in love with her home and is attempting to style it exactly the way she envisioned so we met at Starbucks this day to talk about her new ideas and paint colors for the walls. 

ps. The graham latte or whatever it is called is taking place of my beloved pumpkin spice. Yep!

We celebrated these two and their now third year of marriage! HA! Want the back story on this..wait for another post :)  I feel beyond blessed everyday to have my parents back together again! 

A fall mani done by me!! Piazza cake by OPI

In case you need a yummy fall supper try my Mexican Lasagna

It will not disappoint. I make this all the time during football season when we are hosting friends over to watch football and they love it!

I love my husband for a billion reasons but one of the main reasons is that this Texas girl loves a steak... he spoils me ROTTEN with his grilling skills and I am so proud of the Texan that this California boy has become :) Perfection on a Saturday night:)

then we went to see Martian...eh. Not the greatest but not bad either

Life lately!

Fall Home Tour!!!

I feel like this is so me...

I typically start decorating my home for fall around September first. The reason I decorate so early is because I start decorating for Christmas mid November and I like to leave up my hard work long enough to enjoy... 

I know that It may seem so bizarre that I choose to decorate so early for each season but here's the deal- I have a TON of decorations.. and it is a PAIN to put them all up.. once they are up I love to sit back and enjoy them for a while. I am new to the "hosting of the holidays" so my given holiday is Easter..Since I don't host Thanksgiving or Christmas at my house it really doesn't matter if I have my tree up during turkey time now does it?? Nope. So I decorate...it makes me happy :)

This is our kitchen table.. this table is old.. and I don't really think it is very cute but when I think of how many memories this little table has held it makes me love it SO much. At this table some of the best bottles of wine have been shared, I served my husband ( boyfriend at the time) his first meal on this table, I cried to my best friend when something sad happened to me at this table, we hosted our first dinner with our new neighbors at this table, serious discussions and decisions have been made on this table..and if this table can stick around for just a teeny bit longer I think we will share some amazing first family memories on this table. So here is my decor for fall on this very old.. sorta ugly little table that I love :)

because pumpkins duh...!

This year our front door is painted!!! I think it makes such a difference with all of the Fall colors surrounding it :)

My little scarecrow girl... her brother didn't make it this year.. he was decapitated after halloween... 

#kids

My super cute fall pillow I found at Kirklands!!! 

we all know it is a good day in Texas when the Southern Living magazine arrives.. it is like the first taste of fall... even though it's a roaring 98 degrees! 

On my outside patio I found the cutest pillows ( once again at Kirklands) and bought them right up!!! I love how cute the saying is!

My fall cookbook quickly replaced my summer one.. This is such a great easy cookbook.. in fact I collect all of Gooseberry Patch cookbooks!!!!

Here is my coffee station.. pumpkins and more pumpkins... those are salt and pepper pumpkin shakers and my napkin holder.. OH and if you look closely enough I have some pumpkin spice K cups...because clearly I do not have enough pumpkin decor!

This was the other day... my coffee table is now complete with my fall edition of magazines.. 

This printable was one I found off of pinterest.. it was free!!! You can pick the size and then simply print it off!!! There were so many to choose from! The link is Here

See how cute it is on my dining room buffet?? I love it!

My dining room table... this centerpiece was made to match a portrait I have hanging in my dining room. A super talented and close friend of ours mimicked the portrait and made the arrangement for us.. I love using it every fall

We all know it is fall when casseroles and bundt cakes are sitting on the counter to cool..

this was a dark chocolate pumpkin nutella bundt cake.. and friends if you are pumpkin skeptics.. trust me it was SO good!

My favorite candle to burn this fall is "sweater weather" from bath and body.. surprisingly not pumpkin? It literally smells like cold weather.. Im obsessed

a pumpkin :)

another few pumpkins :) with candy corn

and because I have a problem..

more pumpkins!

my kitchen window..

part of my bakers rack!!! This is my Gooseberry Patch collection thus far.. I love these cookbooks for the simplicity of the recipes!!! Easy for weeknight cooking thats for sure!!! These little pumpkins were at Hobby Lobby this year!

A few fall leaves

My comfy kitty snuggled in the blanket... 

My favorite snack right now is fresh figs with goat cheese drizzled in honey... it's to die!!!

and because it is Fall...

THESE!!!!!!!

I have major plans for these babies.. I think they will be starring in our Christmas card this year... along with many other events. They are just so cute and comfy! I waited all year for the cheetah Toms to be back in stock.. and now they are :)

I think I posted enough about fall... 

just wait until Christmas!!!

Happy Decorating!