Fab Friday Faves 3.27.15

 Happy Friday everyone!  It has been an eventful week!  I had a very sick cat (luckily recovered) and some friends visiting from a far including Josh's friend Leo whom we spent the evening with in Lower Manhattan and had a lot of fun.  This week was pretty quiet with a nice massage on Monday from a Migraine specialist and some wandering and shopping with Nicole before she and Jason headed to there home in the south for a few days.  Alright, thats all the update I am giving today, I am leaving very soon for the New York Botanical Gardens to wander the grounds and view the Orchid Show and I am so excited!  Stay tuned for a blog post about it next week.  Everyone have a great weekend!

1. On Saturday I met up with a friend from high school who now lives in Toronto and was visiting  and attending a concert in NYC for the weekend.  We grabbed brunch at Westville East where we got this amazing veggie bowl with poached eggs and hollandaise.  We then walked around The Village and grabbed a coffee and caught up on each others lives.  The last time we had seen each other was when I was living in Queens 4 years ago and she came down to visit some friends.  So great to reunite with my yearbook staff!  haha

2.  A cat picture....  Taken when Jinx was still not feeling well.  This is as close as these two will get to each other and it makes me happy when they do! Jinx started getting sick on Thursday and by Friday morning I thought that we were going to lose the little goober.  We still don't know what happened but some antibiotics and mommy's love and he seems to be back to normal.

3.  On Sunday, Josh and I went for a walk along the boardwalk from JC through Hoboken to the start of Weehawken.  it was a bit cold but is such a nice walk.  We also stopped at a new restaurant in Hoboken called The Ainsworth.  There are a couple other locations in Manhattan and I have been wanting to go for a while because Michael Strahan goes there to watch sports.  Anyway, we stopped and grabbed some fish tacos and pork tacos and will be going back for sure as the menu looks amazing!

4. On Sunday I bought myself some of these cute paint splattered daisies to get some spring in to the apartment.  Then Tuesday I got some lovely Roses, lilies and peruvian lilies delivered from Josh.  I love flowers!

5.  Walking home from the grocery store yesterday, I noticed some tulips starting to peek up from the ground in front of Target.  Finally a surefire sign of spring!  yay!


Today I'm linking up with:

Jennie @ The Diary of a Real Housewife
Nicole @ Adventures of a Wild Sunflower
Tif @ Bright on a Budget
Lauren @ Style Elixir
Clare @ Fitting It All In
Amy @ The Farmer's Wife
April @ A. Liz Adventures

Beauty Box Update

As most of you know, I am a loyal Birchbox subscriber.  I love trying new things and paying $10 a month to try products that I would never take the plunge to spend a bunch of money on.  I have done Birchbox posts before but I thought I'd do a quick update! 

My February Birchbox was a special "Rent the Runway" box. Every month I get the choice of getting random items that are tailored to me or to get a box that is created by a celebrity or designer or blogger.  I LOVED every item in this box and even though I love the surprise of not knowing what I will be getting, I totally always forget by the time I get it!  Birchbox is also now available in Canada. Another great thing about Birchbox is that you can collect points by reviewing and purchasing items to put toward future purchases.  There are also great deals and month coupons.  

My March box was also fantastic.  I got the random box and actually didn't get anything I have gotten before which I love.

If you want to sign up for a Birchbox, (and I really think you should!)  Be sure to use this: Birchbox link.

I am also subscribed to the Walmart Beauty Box.  it is only 5 dollars and comes quarterly.  This one was jam packed with great coupons for some products I have been wanting to try and some samples of a few other things. To sign up for this one click here.  Way more than $5 worth of goodies in here!

*Recipe* My Meatloaf

I've always been a meatloaf fan, there is no better comfort food that meatloaf and mashed potatoes.  Since it is slowly getting to be spring, but still pretty cold I thought it was the perfect time to make one last batch of meatloaf.  I actually sat down and worked up my own meatloaf recipe for the first time and luckily it turned out really great.  This recipe can be made into an actual loaf, muffins or used as meatballs.  I usually wrap a small chunk of fresh mozzarella in the mixture to make my meatballs and they turn out great.   So enjoy!  I encourage experimenting and adapting all recipes, especially one as versatile as this.

Ingredients

Mixture

-2.5 lbs of a mixture of any of the following: ground beef, ground veal, ground turkey and ground pork

-2 eggs

-2 slices white bread

-1/2 cup quick cooking oats

-1 small onion, chopped

-2 tbsp Worchestershire sauce
-2 tbsp Dijon mustard
-1 tbsp dried basil
-1 tbsp Old Bay seasoning
-1 tbsp ground pepper
-cooking spray for coating the pan

Sauce

-3/4 cup BBQ sauce (I used Sweet Baby Rays)

-2 tbsp steak sauce

-2 tbsp yellow mustard

2 tbsp grated parmesan cheese

2 tsp garlic salt

Directions

-Coat 12 muffin tins or a loaf pan with cooking spray

-Preheat oven to 375F

-mix all ingredients for the meat mixture in a large bowl.  Either half it and freeze one half or use all mixture for a large batch.  Fill muffin tins to very top.  

-Combine all ingredients for the sauce and spoon over top of the muffin mixture or loaf.  I like to use lots.

-Bake for 25 minutes for the muffins, longer for the loaf.  Make sure that a meat thermometer registers at 160F.

-Let sit for 5 minutes and then enjoy with mashed potatoes and peas.  They muffins can actually be topped with the mashed potatoes for different touch.

Fab Friday Faves 3.20.15

Happy Friday Darlings!  This week has flown by and I have almost fully recovered from my cold that I ended up with last week.  This weekend we are going to have some company, and I am also getting together with a friend that I went to high school with tomorrow.  It is also snowing again today.... Happy Spring everyone haha.  I guess it could be worse!  Have a fantastic weekend everyone!  See you soon!

1. Tuesday was St. Patrick's Day and i had a great time in the city checking out the NYC St. Paddy's parade.  Read all about it here.

2. On Sunday Josh and I went into the Village for a walk and brunch.  I had walked by this building many times but always assumed that the restaurant was famous and that's why people were taking pictures.  Finally I glanced up, only to see that it is the exterior of the Friends apartment building!

3. There is no better time to have a Shamrock Shake than St . Patrick's Day!  Yum!

4. My new South Hill Designs that I got in the mail from my mom. This was a March promotion package and I am in love!

5. When Josh and I went into the West Village on Sunday for brunch, we stumbled across the Greenwich Village Bistro where Josh got a delicious breakfast burger and I a got this so amazing Hanger Steak Eggs Benedict.  We also saw Jake Gyllenhaal through the window here if you like celeb watching!

Today I'm Linking Up with:

Jennie @ The Diary of a Real Housewife
Nicole @ Adventures of a Wild Sunflower
Tif @ Bright on a Budget
Amy @ The Farmer's Wife
Clare @ Fitting It All In
Lauren @ Style Elixir
April @ A. Liz Adventures

St. Patrick's Day NYC

I hope everyone had an exciting and fun St. Patrick's Day, wherever in the world you are!  Mine was was pretty quiet (someday I'll day drink green beer again!) but enjoyable none the less!  Before the day really started, I read an article about some interesting (and surprising) St. Paddy's Day facts.  Leave it to the US to turn a relatively calm Irish holiday into the biggest party of the year! haha

I had committed to myself that come rain or shine I would attend the NYC St. Patrick's Day Parade.  It is the largest St. Paddy's Parade in the world, and although don't know the stats from this year's parade, I know that normally there is about 2 million spectators and 150,000 marchers. A large portion of these were definitely drinking beer out of Dunkin' Donuts cups!  haha.  Nicole decided since it wasn't awful weather to join me to check it out, so at 10 we made our way into the city.  I had on my shamrock fedora and got quite a few looks as I was leaving my building with the thousands people from hundreds of different cultures that apparently don't celebrate the day and were just headed to work for a normal day.  I even had a lady take a picture of me on the subway.  Once I walked up into the more accepting Manhattan I felt totally at ease and was one of the more conservatively dressed St. Patrick celebrators.  

If you have ever attended a parade in NYC you know that there are hundreds of extra police on duty to keep everyone safe, and the streets are blocked off in what seems to me to be ridiculous ways.  It really feels like we are rats in a maze.  Nicole and I got stuck at a blocked off street and snuck through a hotel only to come out at the very start of the parade on a street that we probably were not supposed to be on.  We were basically alone except for some marching bands, Bag Pipers and other people partaking in the actual parade.  We took some photos and watched everyone that was lined up on our street head out on to 5th ave to the craziness that is the parade.  

The parade, always led by the 69th Infantry.

Irish Wolfhounds, I love these dogs!

I don't know what these guys really were but had to some sort of Civil War re-creationists.  They looked amazing!

Bag Pipers 

Veterans

 French Canadians

Random Irish guys.

Cute baton twirler girls.

There is one in every group of Bag Pipers haha

The Kerry, Ireland delegation.

Girls on some very patient and beautifully decorated horses.

State mounted police.

 Hip Hop girls.

The crowd.  This stretches for 30 blocks.

Boy Scout marching band.

The cutest majorettes and marching band.

NYPD police dogs.  The were so adorable and festive.

 Very festive kids headed to the parade.

After the Parade Nicole and I made a stop at Joe Fresh (Yes, Canada like the PC brand and one of our favorite stores)  Selfie time and some great sales!

I am not a huge milkshake fan (I'm a little dairy sensitive and they create havoc in my tummy)  But there are 2 that are worth it to me.  The Cadbury Creme Egg McFlurry (heartbreakingly not available in the US) and the McDonald's Shamrock Shake.  I had to miss out on it last year in Peru so I had almost forgot how amazing this thing is.  Nicole feels the same way so we had to stop and get one on St. Patrick's Day!  Not kidding, Manhattan McDonald's must have sold hundreds of thousands of these yesterday, everyone had one!  Sadly, I had taken the time to read this article, about the 54 ingredients and massive amount of calories in these things a few days before.  One can't hurt right?  If you would rather leave out the crap and some of the calories try this Silk Shamrock Shake.

We worked our way home and I laid down for a nap.  I had slept awful the night before and that shake made me sleepy!

Josh and I decided to walk the 2 blocks over to Dorian's Irish Pub for dinner and a beer when he got home from work to have at least a small celebration.  They for some reason didn't have green beer but they had a delicious Irish Coffee and of course a Black and Tan beer.

Josh knew all day what he wanted, their Fish and Chips.  I always get the Steak Frites there because it is amazing but I decided to have a little spirit and have the Corned Beef Reuben, a decision I did not regret.  It had been a while since I had one of these and OMG it was perfect!

It was an early night after that but minus the lack of day drinking and green beer, it turned out pretty well.  I hope you all found your pot of gold and had a magically delicious day ;)