Move Day

"When people say, 'She's got everything', I've got one answer - I haven't had tomorrow." -Elizabeth Taylor

Today our offices at GKV are moving! Which means all employees gets the day off. No connection to email, servers, or the new building! Which means I can replace my morning smoothie with a glass of white wine right? Chris woke me up and took me to breakfast. Two egg whites, turkey bacon and whole wheat pancakes. The best part about this was I didn't have to make a single thing! I love cooking and adore my time in the kitchen, but I could easily get used to days off like this!

So what's on my schedule for today? Catching up with all of you, cleaning the house, taking the dogs for a walk, a five mile run, napping and meeting up with friends tonight to celebrate my friend Rachel's 24th birthday.

Since I have been lacking in the recipes section, I decided to share with you all my roasted chicken recipe. I think this is going to become a bi-weekly staple in our house. It was so moist, easy and the dogs love when dinner is over they get to snack on the treats when I am putting away the leftovers!

Rosemary-Baked Chicken:

5 pound whole chicken
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon paprika
1/2  lemon cut into forths
1.5 teaspoons dried rosemary
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
3/4 cup chicken stock

Directions:

Set your whole chicken in a baking dish and rub the olive oil all over the chicken. Give him a good massage. Combine all other ingredients (minus the lemon slices) and sprinkle all over the chicken and inside. Give him another healthy massage. Place the lemon slices inside of the chicken. Pour the chicken stock in the bottom of the baking dish. Preheat oven to 375 and cook for about an hour and a half uncovered. It is important to baste the chicken every 20 minutes or so, this will help keep your chicken extra moist and juicy. Your whole kitchen will smell wonderful!

I used the leftovers on salads and in quesadillas/burritos with some black beans, corn, jalapeno and tomatoes. You could also use it to make practically any other dishes that require shredded chicken.

Sometimes a girl just craves some toast and laughing cow cheese wedge for breakfast. It doesn't get much easier than that.

Recently Chris and I have been discussing buying our first house. Did you know the average age a person buys a home is between 28 and 32? We are on the early bloomers side of things, but we both have steady jobs and everyone has been telling us now is the time to buy. So combined with the stress of work, talking to a realtor, spending every free minute looking at houses online and talking to a mortgage broker we have been exhausted. It is going to be a long, but exciting process!

I always get excited when I am the first to tag the lobby's flowers to take home at the end of the week. I love fresh flowers in the kitchen.

Lately I have been mixing in canned pumpkin with the dogs dinner. Not only is it a healthy staple for us, but is a common ingredient to help manage a dogs weight, help upset stomachs and used in many homemade dog treats. It has a high content of vitamin A that keeps your dogs healthy and resistant to infections, helps ward off cancerous cells and improves their night vision.The potassium helps their iron levels and keeps their blood healthy.

Hope you all have a great Friday! It is surprisingly gorgeous out in Maryland after the past two days filled with rain!

xoxo,
Cara