Spicy Island Shrimp

Island Shrimp with Rice. This makes for a quick week night dinner. The sauce is spicy and a little smokey from the bacon. Serve this with some french bread to dunk in the sauce!

Ingredients

4 slices of bacon, optional but I think it adds flavor

reserve 3 T. of bacon drippings or use olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1.5 cups of chicken broth

14.5 oz canned diced tomatoes with the juice

2 tsp. lemon juice

1.5 tsp. Worcestershire/woozy sauce

1 tsp. salt

.5 tsp ground nutmeg

.5 tsp. (more or less) ground cayenne pepper

.25 tsp. black pepper

1 pound peeled and cleaned shrimp

one handful of fresh cilantro, chopped to garnish

long grain white rice and water

First cook your rice according to the package. I always use my rice cooker to get perfectly fluffy rice.

Cook bacon in a large and deep skillet over med-high heat until browned. Put bacon aside to drain on paper towels.

Then cook the chopped onion in the bacon pan until they start to soften. Then add tomatoes, broth, lemon juice, woozy sauce and all the dried spices. Bring to a boil. Give it a stir and let simmer on low heat.

When your rice is just about done. Add the shrimp and crumbled bacon to the sauce and let simmer until the shrimp is done. Optional - make a cornstarch slurry to thicken the sauce. Sprinkle cilantro on top! If you want to add more heat, use Rotel tomatoes. We thought the cayenne made it spicy enough.

recipe adapted from AR

Victoria Secret Model Makeup

The lovely Victoria Secret girls were my inspiration for this look. I loosely curled my hair with my flat iron to mimic their bouncy locks.

To get the Look-
- soft & smokey eye with hints of plum. (all shadows used were from a FLIRT eyeshadow kit from Kohls)
- lots of black liner and lashes
- Make your skin glow with foundation, bronzer and pinky peach blush
- fill in Brows
- nudey pink lip color with gloss on top and lightly line the edges to make your lips look more pouty. I used a Loreal liner in Natural, MAC Gaga lipstick and a beige sparkly gloss.
- curl your hair with a big curling iron or flat iron

I really needed some false lashes! But I went to put them on and couldn't find my glue.

Now work those bedroom eyes and take your picture! :)

E.L.F sale

Just wanted to share with you that E.L.F is doing 30 percent off their Studio Line until midnight today. That's a really good deal and I got a lot of new products I have been wanting to try! The website has such a huge variety of products compared with what I have seen in local stores.

E.L.F website- click here to shop!

Homemade Face and Hair Mask

I'm just gonna warn you guys, I look a bit ridiculous with the face mask on! It kinda looks like...something gross I won't mention for people with a weak stomach. Moving ON!

I thought it would be fun to do some homemade beauty treatments. I used to do stuff like this all the time in high school.

This hair mask consist of one Egg and a few tablespoons of Olive Oil. The egg is full of Protein. Protein will strengthen the hair follicle and that will prevent split ends. Olive Oil is used to apply moisture and shine.

Massage into dry hair and let sit for at least 10 minutes before washing out.

Egg and Olive Oil Mask
Face Mask- You will need 6 T. of brown sugar, 4 T. quick cooking oats and 2 T. milk. The brown sugar and oats are a natural way to exfoliate and the milk will add moisture. Stir it all up to make a paste and apply to face. Leave on for 10 minutes then rub in circular motions while rinsing off.

Brown Sugar Face Mask- smells good and taste good too!
Got my hair and face mask on and working. My daughter thought I looked hilarious and dirty. She told me to "wash those beans off"! haha.

My bare skin after the treatment. My skin felt very plump and supple. I always look a little rosy after exfoliating.

Now use a moisturizer with SPF since your skin is more sensitive to the sun after exfoliating.

Do you have any homemade beauty secrets?

Meet my sister Jaley

Here's Miss Jaley. My youngest sis. She's 8 years younger than me and the baby of the fam. We look the most alike out of us 4 girls. She came for a visit and I decided to use her to try out my newest lip gloss-Revlon Coral Reef.

Y'all are never gonna believe how much it cost me! 3 dollars and twenty cents, crazyness. Albertson's had marked it down and I had a Revlon coupon on top of that.

I decided to play up her lovely skin and let her lips do the talkin. So, I gave her a sheer coat of foundation, concealer, bronzer and blush. I love that blush! It's Bobbi Brown Apricot, pretty sure it has been discontinued. I used MAC in Shell to highlight her face. She's glowing huh?
Revlon Coral Reef without the Flash.

The lip color really plays up her blue eyes and red hair.

Your a beauty Jaley Beth!

HOT PINK

Brand-Heaven, Shade- Cherubic

Modeling this polish is Violet, age 3 years old. Geez, she's too cute! Her hands on the nail polish bottle just cracks me up. I asked her to hold it for a picture and she said OK MAMA! She's always up for anything. Well, I guess she's like me. Loves to get dolled up.

I found this polish at Albertson's of all places. This line had a lot of electric looking colors. I got the pink to wear around before this summer is over. Makes me feel so girly!

On a side note. I'm 25.5 weeks pregnant and looking swollen. I attempted to photograph the polish on me but my fingers look so stumpy today. I decided to spare y'all. :)

Runway Inspired Makeup For Fall

Fall Makeup on a Diane Von Furstenberg Model-

It's a very heavy eye with very little color on the rest of the face.

For the eyes- I layered taupe,black, navy, grey, silver and ivory. Then used a chubby pearl white liner on the inner corners. Black liner on the top and bottom was smudged. Lined the lower water line as well.

Face- Foundation and bronzer to contour. No blush.

Lips- concealer, Revlon Nude Attitude with Mac Creme de Nude on top.

I like the lip combo! This eye look takes some time and a lot of blending. But it would look nice for a date or night time event.

NOTW, OPI Sheer your toys

Nails of the Week, Sheer your Toys.

I think this is from the 2009 Holiday Collection. There is a beauty store at my mall that has decided to stop selling OPI so they were running a deal "buy 3 OPI for 11 dollars". I bought 6 at the time.



I really like this grey polish! I seem to wear it when I can't decide on a color. It's a very neutral shade.



It's been a while since I did a makeup look. I'm brainstorming that right now! I want to do something fun. Maybe from a different era.

Meal Plan for this week

I spent about 80 dollars on groceries for the week. The extras were sesame oil and freezer bags.

Wish I had remembered the coupons I clipped! We just got back in town from our trip yesterday so I was feeling a little scatterbrained. I'm glad I went ahead and planned out meals for the week. It will help me to get back to my routine. I'm actually happy to get back to cooking. We were eating out every meal on vacation! You know how that goes.

What's on our menu?

1. Chicken Parmesan with Pasta and Green Beans.

2. Chinese Chicken Salad

3. My Dad's Mexican Cornbread with slow-cooked Pinto Beans.

4. Spicy Polynesian Wrap with Apple Slaw.

5. Island Shrimp & Rice.

Some days are meant to be natural

This is how I went to my early Dr. visit today. Just a swipe of concealer under my eyes, blush and lip gloss. And it felt good to be lazy! See ladies? My eyelashes are invisible without mascara. Oh well. I'm glad that mascara was invented. Our baby boy is getting so big! It was a good visit. He's almost 2 pounds and I'm not ready for him to come out any time soon.

I tried to include my belly in the photo. You can kinda see it. My favorite maternity shirts are comfy ones like this that are fitted under the chest. So, the ribbon is giving me some sort of waist line.

Were taking a roadtrip tomorrow. Just me, hubby and our daughter. It will be nice to get away and chill out. I was told to drink lots of water and keep my legs moving in the car to stay well. Can't wait... Shopping, eating good food, site seeing and hopefully a prenatal massage are in store for me!

Nails of the Week, NYC Cashmere Creme

Spotted this color at Walmart recently. I love blues! It's very sheer. I did 4 coats to get a more opaque finish. Giving NYC a try. It's says Long Wearing. Wonder how many days I can go chip free..I topped off with Seche Vite.

My cuticles have been so dry! I wash my hands a lot and naturally have dry skin. Also, my nails start to tear on the sides the longer they get. So, I have to keep them on the short side. Any tips girls?

10 Things

Thanks Kat for tagging me! This was a fun little post. I tag whoever reads this and feels like doing it themselves. I'd love to see your 10 things I like list!

10 Things I like

10. Sephora

2. Twilight Saga

3. Lacoste cologne on my husband.

4. Cooking.

5. Sophie Kinsella books.

6. The Beach.

7. Doing Makeup.

8. Home Decor.

9. Chocolate.

10. My Family.

My Weekend

This past weekend my sister Justine graduated from college. So, we were busy all weekend! She was a Spanish major so we had a Fiesta themed dinner & party afterwards.

Me and my little girl. She was tired and ready to leave the school at this point.

She's ready for the party!
Me, Justine & Jaley. Jordan had to work. For some reason I thought I needed to rest my hand on my belly to show I was pregnant. Like people can't tell??

Jus with our happy parents!

Yay Jussy! Were proud of you.

-Jill

ps. I got my brows threaded on Friday. I'm in a happy place with them right now.

i love brownies

Can you tell?!

This week I made Brownies with homemade peanut butter frosting.

Last week I made Coconut Dream Bars.

I absolutely loved these! They tasted like shortbread with a soft chocolate cookie on top. My brother in law dislikes dessert but said these were great.

Coconut Dream Bars-

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour, divided

1 cup quick cooking oats

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar, divided

1/2 cup cold butter, sliced

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup flaked coconut

1 tsp. baking powder

2 cups milk chocolate chips

In a bowl combine 3/4 cup flour, oats and half cup brown sugar. Cut in butter until crumbly. If too dry add 2 more T. butter. Press into greased 13x9 baking pan. Bake at 375 until golden brown.

In a mixing bowl beat eggs, vanilla and remaining brown sugar. Combine coconut, salt, baking powder and the rest of the flour. Gradually add in the eggs. Stir in the chocolate chips. Then pour over crust. Bake for 18-20 min. until the top is crackled and golden.

adapted from allrecipes.

Cargo Lash Activator Mascara Comparison

I have Cargo on my right eye and Rimmel Volume Flash on my left.

Here's the cargo brush. It's hard like a lot of trendy mascaras out right now.
My current mascara-Rimmel Volume Flash. Very fat, soft brush. I usually have to blot the excess off with a tissue.

I think my lashes look shorter on the right eye which is Cargo. I like the length I get with the Rimmel. I'm going to attempt to use the Cargo until it's gone to see if I get longer lashes. It says to use for 30 days. (Look at those brows! I'm trying to let them grow in thicker before getting them threaded)

My face of the day- Very light purple with white highlight, liquid liner. Then a pop of bold purple liner on the bottom. I'm wearing a peachy blush and lip gloss.

Loving the purple! I got inspired after seeing Lydia do a touch of navy on her eyes. I'm about 6 months pregnant. Hence my very full cheeks! Guess their only gonna get fuller.