With a Side of Hope

Hi there!  Happy Friday to you!  I hope you had a great week and are looking forward to this long weekend.  I am looking forward to catching up on some sleep for sure.  What are you doing this weekend?  I really want to lay out and extend my tan and get more of a tan because mine is going to start fading away soon.  I want to prolong it for as much as I can because I am in my friend’s wedding next month.  I don’t want to get spray tanned again so I’m trying to be tan naturally.  We shall see what happens with that.

I wanted to take a brief break from wedding recaps and wedding chatter to just update you on my life and to share a new recipe that Mike and I tried the other night.  I’ll first talk about the recipe and then I’ll update you on life things.  So I have always been intrigued by Mrs. Dash seasonings but I have never tried them before.  I finally had a coupon for it and it just so happened to be on sale at the supermarket.  So this was my chance to finally try it!

Mike and I decided to purchase the Mrs. Dash Lemon Pepper Seasoning.  This seasoning blend contains: salt-free mix of lemon peel, cracked black pepper, coriander, oregano and some other spices.

Lemon Pepper Seasoning

We decided to make the recipe that was included with the coupon that I found.

Mrs. Dash’s Chicken Primavera

Ingredients:

4 Tbsp. Mrs. Dash Lemon Pepper Seasoning Blend
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
8 oz. frozen mixed spring vegetable medley
2 Tbsp. olive oil

Directions:

Place chicken breasts and vegetable medley in 2 separate bowls. Toss each with 1 Tbsp. olive oil and 2 Tbsp. Mrs. Das® Lemon Pepper Seasoning Blend.

Lay chicken on a 9 x 9 inch roasting pan. Place vegetables in an ovenproof casserole dish.

Place both in 375°F preheated oven and cook 30 – 45 minutes, turning each after 10 minutes.

Plate to 4 plates, spooning vegetables over chicken breasts.

Chicken Primavera

My dinner plate with some white rice and extra roasted veggies

I thought the seasoning tasted great but I think next time we will use a LOT less!  It was way too spicy for my liking and my stomach was not a happy camper after I ate this.  I would use the seasoning again but I would use it in moderation next time.  I think the recipe tells you to use entirely too much.  So if you are going to make this recipe, definitely use a lot less seasoning.  Have you ever used Mrs. Dash seasoning?  Which blend is your favorite?

Moving on to something else,  I wanted to give a brief update on my stomach and my Crohn’s Disease.  It is in full force and has no plan of stopping right now.  It was extremely hard on our honeymoon trying to figure out what I could and couldn’t eat.  I was very careful for the most part but sometimes I saw things that I just wanted to try or I needed to eat so I ate it.  I had a lot of stomach pain and discomfort, among other things.  I tried to keep it under control as best as I could.

Ever since I’ve been home, I really haven’t been feeling well.  My ears were bothering me leading up to our wedding and I ignored it.  So I think I might have an ear infection.  I feel really exhausted and I keep feeling a lump in my throat.  My stomach has been feeling a million times worse lately.  I think I am going to stay away from vegetables for a while.  I think that might be making things worse for me.  Luckily, I have my gastrointestinal doctors appointment today.  This is a big appointment.  This is the one I have been waiting for, for months now.

I am finally going to start intense treatments for my Crohn’s Disease.  I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared but I have been walking around in severe pain and dealing with other issues from this disease since I was diagnosed in December.  It’s time for me to start feeling better.  I put treatments and everything off until after our wedding and honeymoon were over.  Now that we are back, it’s time to start taking care of my stomach.  I’m looking forward to seeing what he says and what we are going to do.  I am willing to do anything that will make me feel better and get back to how I used to be before all of this happened.

So that is my update for now.  I promise I will be recapping more things with our wedding.  I believe the next thing I will recap, is our rehearsal dinner.  I am still anxiously awaiting pictures from our photographer.  I haven’t seen anything that he has done yet.  Once I have those pictures I will do full recaps of our wedding.  I’m thinking I’ll probably recap our honeymoon first since I already have those pictures.  I can’t wait to share everything with you guys.  I’ve officially been married 2 weeks today!  It’s crazy that it’s been 2 weeks already.

Alright, well have a lovely Friday and enjoy your weekend!  I might be back sometime this weekend for an update.

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