Simply Samantha

Rosemary Garlic Baked Chicken

Badia 12:00 AM

I have found the most amazing chicken recipe the other day. It's probably the BEST chicken recipe I have made since being married.
It is so simple yet so yummy and moist and delicious. I can just go on and on.

I remembered to take pictures this time!

*Yay for Samantha*

Well, I actually didn't take the pictures. Steve did. I just remembered to ask him to take the pictures ;)

Rosemary Garlic Baked Chicken Breast

(original recipe found here)

Calories: 168.1

Protein: 16.5g

1 small onion, chopped finely

1/4 c. red wine vinegar

1 tbsp. good quality olive oil

1 tbsp. Dijon mustard

1 tsp dried rosemary, chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1/2 tsp. ground sea salt

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut in half for 4 svgs.

(btw, as you can see. I am quite a fan of Badia spices ;) )

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Then spray, with any type of non-stick spray (I used a organic olive oil spray), a pan to fit the size of your chicken and set aside.

Chop up your onion.

Then in a bowl, mix in your onion with the red vinegar, olive oil, mustard, rosemary,garlic, and sea salt.

Place the chicken in your pan that you had set aside and pour the mixture over the chicken.

Bake in the oven on 400 degrees for 40 minuets. During that time make some yummy side dishes for your chicken. I chose my "go to'd", organic rice and veggies.

Tada. So simple right?

This is a VERY husband approved recipe. Its super healthy while full of flavor!

Enjoy readers!!

Homemade Salsa

fresh ingredients 8:00 AM

Last week I picked off what was left of our tomatoes in our little garden. The Florida heat finally got a hold of the plants and they are now dead. We still got a lot of tomatoes from our 6 plants we planted. My favorites were the La Roma tomatoes. They are so meaty and tasty. You can throw them on anything. Or in my case, make salsa out of them. My husband is a salsa connoisseur. He loves himself some salsa.

The above jar in the photo is my 3rd and apparently best batch I have made so far, according to my husband.

What I love about salsa is that you can make it any way you want. Salsa is almost always gluten free, low in calories, and full of fresh ingredients.
I didnt measure anything when I made mine. I just threw as much as I wanted in the food processor.

Here is what is in my salsa.

La Roma Tomatoes

Half a Red Onion chopped

A small handful of fresh Cilantro (fresh is best)

Minced Garlic

Sliced Jalapenos

Cumin

Lime Juice

If you let it sit for 24 hours it makes the salsa taste even better because all the ingredients blend together.

Yummm.

What do you like in your salsa readers?? Let me know in the comments!??

Why I said no

IUD 8:00 AM

I really don't know if I will post this. I try to stay away from too much personal stuff here on my blog. But I also like to use this blog to let out my thoughts, tell my stories, and maybe help other young women out there.
So, here we go.

About two weeks ago, my "lady parts" doctor suggested I get an IUD. I've been on the pill for about a year and have not had any issues with it but he said an IUD would be a good idea because the pill can sometimes hurt your eggs and other things.
It was a pretty quick visit so I was ok walking out of there knowing I would be getting this IUD.
Flash forward to this past weekend. Since the visit two weeks ago, I have been having "pros and cons" thoughts growing in my head. I kept praying and asking God for a straight answer but wasn't really getting one.

I usually have this "feeling" when I believe God is telling me not to do something and I hadn't had it yet. Everything was going fine, the IUD was ordered and I was able to get an appointment.
The day came that I was supposed to get the IUD. I had a horrible nightmare that something went wrong with my IUD. I woke up, did some errands, then headed to my appointment. However, during this entire time I had this "weird feeling" in my stomach and body. I pushed that feeling aside calling it nerves and sat in the doctors office and waited.
AND waited.
Finally they called me back. And told me they weren't sure if I could get it put in that day because I wasn't on my cycle. So I waited some more, talked to the nurses about my options and if it was ok to ask the doctor some more questions.
At this point im an emotional wreck because I'm tired and that "weird feeling" is raging in my body. I sat in the room looking at the IUD sitting on the table, tears in my eye's, this thought pop'd in my head.
"If I want you to have children, you will have children regardless of some t-shaped thing inside of you."
and I was like "REALLY God, now you say something as I sit here in tears".

My doctor came in, saw I was fully upset ( I figured he was used to it since all he see's is women everyday and we tend to cry... a lot..). He reassured me if I didn't feel comfortable with it, I didn't have to have it. I wasn't having anything to serious going on down there for him to advise me that I HAD to have the IUD. He wasn't going to put something in my body that might made me feel worse. He fully understood and told me not to worry. I was stressing out about something that I didn't need to be.

Granted, I do run the risk of continuing to take the pill and it hurting my egg's. But everything in life has a risk, and furthermore any form of birth control has that risk, nothing is 100%. If I don't need something in my body I would rather not have it. If my doctor was like "Samantha you need this, your birth control is making it 10x worse and if you dont get this you are not going to have babies in a couple years", then yes I would have sucked it up and gotten it. But since he told me I didn't have too, I would be ok. I didn't worry about it.

I kept wanting to trust God throughout this whole thing. However, I kept wanting to trust Him on the decision to have the IUD rather then seeing what He really wanted me to trust Him on, which was that regardless of what is in or what I am putting in my body, In 2-3 years when we start thinking about children. If it is HIS will, I need to trust Him that He will bless us and take care of us and let us have kids. He is the true physician, if he wants us to have children we will. Regardless of what form of birth control I use. Goodness, if he can make Sarah pregnant beyond child baring years, I think he is more than capable of blessing my husband and I down the road with a child of our own.

So readers, I guess the bottom line is sometimes God puts you through things and sometimes He'll wait to the very last minuet to give you an answer. Regardless, learn from it, and more importantly don't trust Him on just one thing. Trust Him on all the things.

P.S I am not saying the pill is better than and IUD or that if you chose to get an IUD that your are crazy or making a mistake. I think if you have one and it works for you that that is great. This is just a situation I went through and I dont by any means means want to offend anyone.
I am also not a medical physician. This post is merely just my thoughts and experiences.

Quinoa Burgers

bloggers 2:30 PM

I saw this recipe the other day and it had all the things I like. Quinoa, spinach, and feta.
AND it's gluten free. Made by the lovely lady over at Gluten Free in Orlando.

Below is the recipe (all credits go to Alexis). You can find the recipe on her site here too!
: http://www.gfinorlando.com/2013/10/spinach-feta-quinoa-burgers.html

photo 10514047_260587787468706_336368998_n_zpsc4997dd1.jpg

Spinach and Feta Quinoa burgers:

Ingredients

1 C of uncooked quinoa

1 tsp olive oil + more for frying the burgers

1 C of sweet onion -- chopped

2 cloves of garlic -- minced

2 C of fresh baby spinach -- chopped

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp coarse ground black pepper

1/2 tsp Herbamare seasoning

4 large eggs -- beaten

1 C gluten free breadcrumbs

1/3 C grated Parmesan or Romano cheese

1/3 C feta crumbles

Directions

Rinse the quinoa in a strainer and cook it according to package directions. Put it in a large bowl to cool.

Cook the onion in 1 tsp of olive oil in a stainless steel frying pan on medium heat. When the onion has begun to soften and brown, take the pan off the heat and add the garlic and spinach. Stir until the spinach begins to wilt, then add your vegetable mixture to the quinoa bowl. Allow the quinoa mixture to cool to room temperature before adding the salt, pepper, Herbamare, eggs, bread crumbs, Parmesan/Romano, and feta. Stir well to combine, then form 8 patties.

Clean your frying pan, add enough oil to coat the bottom, and turn your burner to medium heat. When your pan has heated up, add 4 quinoa burgers, cooking them for about 4 minutes on each side until nicely browned. Add more oil to your pan and cook the remaining 4 burgers.

The burgers were amazing. Totally husband approved. The only thing I did differently is I didn't have Herbamare seasoning so I just added some seasonings of my own (garlic powder,onion powder, parsley, rosemary, oregano, salt and pepper).

I also didnt use GF bread crumbs, i used some crushed corn tortilla chips that I sometimes use to substitue for GF bread crumbs.

Its a fairly easy recipe especially if you make the quinoa a head of time.

Thanks for the great recipe Alexis!

Better than a Tripod

daily outfit 8:00 AM

Dress:Target // Shoes: Urban Outfitters // Purse: Target // Necklace: H&M // Rings: Him ;) //

My husband has been a real encourager of my blogging. He's always telling me to keep writing even if it's just about my life as long as I enjoy doing it.

SO, the other day we were getting ready to leave and I told him if he wants me to keep blogging/writing he's going to have to help out some days and be my camera man.

He is truly better than an tripod. His 6'5'' hight also helps get good angles ;)

BTW I swear my flats in this picture are tan, not white.

Stupid Florida and its bright sunlight.

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