DIY Starbucks Inspired Passion Tea Lemonade!

Hellllllo!

If you love Starbucks Passion Tea Lemonade, then you are going to love this take on it that you can do in the comfort of your home! 

Start by boiling your water for your tea, I like to fill up my tea kettle all of the way and let it boil. Once it is ready to go, steep a packet of Tazo's Passion Tea. 

Let that steep for a couple minutes, stirring every so often.

Once the tea has steeped a bit you are going to add the juice of half of a lemon! Make sure not to get any of the seeds! 

Then, just fill up the rest of your jug with water and refrigerate! Pour it in a cup over some ice and you will have your very own Passion Tea Lemonade at home! 

Now this version is sugar free! I prefer unsweet tea! If you like sweet tea, add sugar/sweeteners to your liking! 

Bottoms up! 

XO.

Baked Apricot Chicken

Hi everyone! 

So a couple years ago, my mom and I took a day trip to Ft. Myers and discovered their Seminole Gulf Murder Mystery Dinner train. It's a really fun concept and is so different than anything we had ever experienced before. Aside from the awesome entertainment, the food was incredible! They usually have three dinner entree options to pick from, and I was fortunate enough to choose their Baked Apricot Chicken. The BEST chicken I have ever had! Now I am not saying this is an exact replica of theirs but I did my best to put my own spin on it! 

This is Philip's favorite dish of mine! 

For starters, you will need:

• Chicken Drumsticks 
• 1 Lemon
• Olive Oil
• Salt & Pepper (I use Mrs. Dash Table Blend for the Pepper!)
• Apricot Preserve 
• Worcestire Sauce

First things first, I start by slicing up the lemon and arranging the slices on my baking dish. Then I place the drumsticks right on top of them. I bought this pack of chicken at Target for around $7.00 and this is only half of the meat! I saved the other half in the freezer to make this again because Philip literally begs for them! 

Next I just season the chicken with salt and Mrs. Dash Table Blend and some olive oil. 

Then it's time to baste your chicken! I bought the Smuckers Simply Fruit Apricot Preserve. Honestly, because it was all that Target had in the flavor. I might look further in the future for something a little more natural and less sugar but this is still delicious!

Just brush this onto your chicken so that it has a nice glaze. Lastly, I sprinkle some Worcestire Sauce all over as well. 

Now pop your chicken into the oven at 400 degrees for about 50 minutes. 

When you are done, voila! You will have a delicious meal! Pair this with your choice of sides, I typically go with a starch and a veggie and you are good to go! 

Bon Appetite! 

XO. 

Grilled Beef Skewers

Like most adults nowadays, Philip and I both work full time jobs. We both spend 40+ hours at work a week. We both work 8 to 5. Now like most, we come home pretty tired from the daily grind. While we could easily pick up food on the way home, order take out, or just go out to eat, we started cooking, pretty much every single night, as soon as we moved in together. Now don't get me wrong, we still go out to eat probably once or twice a week but we leave those times for the weekend when we can splurge and really enjoy ourselves.

I do my best to plan out meals that don't require a ton of ingredients, a ton of prep time, and a ton of cook time, so we can eat delicious healthy, fresh food, not to long after getting home, on a budget! 

I thought I would share some of our meals going forward to show you it's not too hard to cook at night even if you work all day. 

On the menu tonight...

Grilled Steak Skewers! 

Total Time: About 30 minutes including prep and cooking

You will need the following:

• Beef Tips - I bought this at Target on sale for $4.99! There was so much meat! It's the Angus Beef Stew Meat - Philip seasoned this with some all purpose Mrs. Dash seasoning 
• 1 Pineapple
• 1 Red Onion
• Bell Peppers - We used 1 red and 1 yellow and saved the orange for another day
• Wood Skewers - Got these at Target for $2.99

First things first, prep your skewers! We just chopped the fruit and veggies into bite size pieces and assembled them on the skewers. We tried to go Onion, Pepper, Beef, Pineapple, Repeat...

Then we popped them right onto an indoor grill.

We let them cook, and just turned them occasionally until the meat had cooked about medium rare. 

We paired this with some Cilantro Lime Poblano Rice that they sell in the freezer section at Target, and you are ready to chow down! 

After food had settled, I popped some Gluten-Free, Dairy Free (pre-packaged) cookies into the oven and am about to indulge!!!

XO.