crockpot chicken & stuffing

happy the-week-is-halfway-over wednesday! as soon as summer rolls around and i know it's warm and sunny outside, my work week countdown goes into serious mode.

today i'm sharing a not-so-summery meal, but it's SO good. i mean, i could probably eat an entire crockpot full of it.

crockpot meals don't scream "summer", but they're really convenient all year round. they don't make your house hotter like an oven tends to do sometimes, and i enjoy the smell of food cooking all day regardless of the time of year. this meal in particular is especially fall-ish due to the stuffing, but i personally think stuffing is under-used and should be eaten way more often than just at thanksgiving!

as usual, i found this recipe on pinterest. it's originally from i save a 2 z. 

crockpot chicken & stuffing

• 4 chicken breasts (recipe calls for defrosted but you can really use frozen chicken too. we did, and we just accounted for the water that would come from the frozen chicken when the recipe calls for extra water in step 6)
• 2 small cans cream of chicken soup (lite if you can find it!)
• 2 boxes of stuffing mix
• 1 cup sour cream (again, lite if possible)
• 1 small package frozen green beans

1. spray your crockpot with cooking spray.

2. put chicken breasts in the bottom of the crockpot.

3. pour the dry stuffing mix over the chicken.

4. in a separate bowl, mix together the soup and sour cream. put this mixture over the dry stuffing.

5. add the frozen green beans as the last layer. (my smart hubby, who is the one who actually made this meal, waited until everything was about halfway cooked to add the green beans. that way they didn't get soggy.)

6. add about 1 cup of water to the top of the mixture. (this is where we accounted for a little extra water that might come from our frozen chicken. we only added about 3/4 cup)

7. cook on high for 4 hours or low for 7-8 hours.

here's a picture of the finished product courtesy of i save a 2 z:

this meal smells amazing, tastes even better, is super easy, and is pretty cost-conscious. win-win-win-win.

enjoy!

highlights (and a few lowlights) from our euro trip

we made it back! our trip to europe was wonderful...so much fun, full of adventures, and lots of quality time with my man. as always though, it's so nice to be home and back with our puppies.

here are my favorite (and a few least favorite) things from our trip:

paris

paris was cool! i really think i set myself up for disappointment in paris because i had such high expectations. i just thought it would be a romantic wonderland of beautiful sparkly things (i know...i know). needless to say, it wasn't, but we did have a really good time there!

our hotel in paris was the smallest of the trip, but it was in a good, walkable location in a safe neighborhood. 

we decided to use subways as much as possible during the trip to save on cab fares, and i'm so glad we did! we ended up using the subways in paris, london, and rome, and they were all good experiences. SO much cheaper than taking cabs everywhere, and it's so fun to ride along with locals and listen to them talk.

one of my least favorite things about paris was the amount of homeless people (and dogs). there were homeless people everyyyywhere, and 80% of them had dogs with them. while i'm glad they take care of the dogs and all the dogs we saw had food and beds, it still made me so sad!

we took a hop-on, hop-off bus tour in paris and i recommend it! we used l'open tour, and it took us to all of the major sights (the louvre, notre dame, the champs-elysees, arc de triomphe, eiffel tower, etc.). we did the tour the first day we were in town, because we landed at 7 am and couldn't check into our hotel room until about 3. we dropped off our luggage then went on the tour in an attempt to stay awake. we almost made it all day before finally succumbing to naptime.

my single favorite moment in paris was having dinner in the eiffel tower. there's a restaurant on the first floor of the tower that serves 3-course meals and is so romantic and beautiful! our dinner reservation was at 9, so we were inside the tower when it started lighting up and twinkling. the food was good, and it was such a memorable moment for us that i'm glad we were able to do.

notre dame..so beautiful, inside and out

laduree for macarons...such a beautiful store,
and amazing sweet treats

celebrated both 20 and 21 weeks while gone...you
have no idea how long it took us to find a 20 that i liked!

favorite moment in paris...dinner in the eiffel tower

london

london used to be my favorite city in the world (so far), and after our trip, it's still my favorite city in the world (so far). i realize i may visit somewhere in the future that trumps it, but as of now it's at the top of my list! it's just so clean (for a major city), i love british accents, and i'm a sucker for the monarchy. i love seeing crowns, royal parks, etc. everywhere..just so different and fun.

we did another bus tour in london since there's SO much to see and it's fairly spread out. we used the original london sightseeing tour and loved it! we made a huge loop of the city and saw all of the sights we wanted to. the bus tour also included free tickets for a thames river boat tour, so we took advantage of that halfway through our main sightseeing day. it was nice to sit and cruise down the river while still seeing some cool sights.

our hotel in london was fabulous! we stayed at the kensington hotel, and, while the room was a little smaller than we're used to, it was beautiful. the staff was awesome, and it was in a great location. we were only about a 5 minute walk from the nearest subway station, which took us everywhere we wanted to go in less than 15 minutes.

we also can say we (sort of) saw the queen! when we visited buckingham palace, we were out front by the queen victoria memorial statue and saw some commotion over by the road. the queen was leaving in her motorcade! we didn't really see her (or much of anything really), but it's fun to say we were there!

ellie's gift from the trip-the cutest onesie
covered in pink crowns!

my handsome husband in front of big ben

a police officer stopped us from walking down this one particular
sidewalk and when we asked, he said there was a parade coming!
trooping the colour was a few days away, and the parade was part of the
festivities kicking off the event. so fun!

venice

i'm so glad we went to venice on this trip! we didn't really know for sure what the 4th city we visited should be, and venice was sort of a random choice, but it was the perfect 3rd stop! 

i know it's sort of obvious that you have to take boats to get around in venice, but for some reason i was still so surprised when we got off the plane at the airport and had to book a boat instead of a taxi to our hotel. it was so fun though! pulling up to venice and starting to navigate the canals on the way to our hotel is one of my favorite memories from the trip.

our hotel in venice was awesome! we stayed at the aqua palace, which was in a great location, about a 5 minute walk from st. mark's basilica. it was right on a canal, and we had a first-floor room with windows opening out over the canal. it was so nice to sit in our room with the windows open and watch the gondolas go by.

we didn't do a gondola ride ourselves while in venice, for a few reasons. one, the whole gondola deal looked a lot cheaper and more touristy in person than i thought it would. i had grand ideas of secluded, romantic gondola rides with singing italian men in striped shirts, but really the only accurate thing about that dream was the italian man in the striped shirt. i only heard a couple sing, and there were so many gondola stands trying to get you to pay them for a ride. it was also pretty expensive for a ride at/after sunset, which is when we would've wanted to do it, so we opted out. i don't feel like i missed anything!

the pizza in venice was awesome, and we had a really good time just sitting at the outdoor cafes talking to people and watching crowds walk by. there's not a whole lot to see in venice like there is in the other places we visited, so it was nice to take some time to just sit, relax, and binge eat gelato. :)

pizza! 

boating

michael hates this picture of himself but i love it. this is a little
stoop at our hotel where they had stools and tables for you to just
sit and watch what was going on in the canal. so nice!

rome

rome was the most difficult city to navigate for me. first of all, it was about 95 degrees both days we were there, and more than half of the establishments in rome don't have air conditioning. secondly, all of the sights we wanted to see were fairly spread out, and not necessarily on a subway line, so it was harder to figure out whether to walk or take a cab to each. finally, being 21 weeks pregnant, i needed pretty frequent bathroom breaks. rome was the least convenient place to find a bathroom on the whole trip. not a huge deal normally, but to pregnant me trying to stay hydrated, it was annoying.

all that being said, the history nerd in me LOVED the sights in rome! it is amazing to see things that were built in 100 a.d. it's hard to even wrap my head around dates like that.

visiting the vatican and doing the guided tour of the vatican museums and st. peter's basilica was probably the highlight of the rome leg of the trip. we reserved the tour in advance through dark rome tours, and they were great! we had a group of about 15 people, and each of us had headsets so we could hear our tour guide talking. she was really knowledgeable about all of the art and history of the vatican museums, so we learned a lot from her.

since we had advance tickets, we were able to skip the mile-long line of hot, tired, and somewhat angry people that were already lined up at 9:30 am. if you go to the vatican, get your tickets in advance! it would be crazy to wait til the day of and waste time in that line.

st. peter's basilica was huge and beautiful, pretty similar to what i expected. we toured the underground grottos too, to see some tombs of past popes. we saw st. peter's tomb and the pieta, which was beautiful. 

i'm not a big fan of art in general, but the art i saw at the vatican was just overwhelming! to see paintings, sculptures, and architecture by raphael, da vinci, and michelangelo all in one place was pretty amazing. unfortunately you can't take pictures in the sistine chapel, but seeing the humongous last judgment painting by michelangelo in person was incredible.

inside the colosseum

outside of st. peter's

pieta

overall, we had a fabulous time and are so happy that we decided to do this trip! we saw a lot of people struggling with kids, strollers, etc., and we're really glad we did this trip before we have kids to either haul with us or leave behind. it was a perfect babymoon, and we are all adventured-out for quite awhile. i have a feeling our next few vacations will be of the all-inclusive beach variety. :) courtney-here's looking at you and harris for a joint vacay!

also, by way of baby ellie updates, she is now moving and kicking like crazy! my belly grew noticeably while we were gone, and i got several comments from strangers while on our trip. i also got offered a subway seat which was a fun, stereotypically pregnant experience :) it's so nice to be able to feel her move-it makes things seem so much more real!

now that the trip is over, we're in full-time nesting mode. nursery updates and a diy or 2 coming soon!

on vacation time

we FINALLY leave for our european vacation tomorrow!

we've been planning this trip for quite awhile now, and i'm thankful that it worked out to be pretty perfect timing for a babymoon. i still can't believe it's really happening, so it will be a shock when we actually get on the plane to paris tomorrow.

our plans:

• fly to paris tomorrow! arrive early saturday morning
• while in paris, my main goal is to both eat and walk a lot. hoping they will balance each other out :)
• our first day there, we're going to take advantage of a pre-reserved hop-on/off bus tour that will take us to all of the major sights (and tell us what they are in english via headsets)
• on our 2nd night, we're having dinner at the eiffel tower. can't wait!
• take a train from paris to london
• we reserved another hop-on/off bus for london that will show us all of the sights without traipsing all over town on foot
• i'm sure we'll try to find some sort of soccer (excuse me, football) activity for michael to see while in town
• obviously we'll have some fish n chips and work on our accents
• fly from london to venice
• while in venice, i just want to watch the water, take a gondola ride, and have some gelato. 
• take a train from venice to rome
• we have a pre-reserved "skip the line" pass to see the vatican, sistine chapel, raphael's rooms, etc. which will be SO cool. i have to remember to not wear a tank top that day so i don't have to wear one of those weird disposable capes.
• i'm sure we'll try to get over to see the coliseum and the pantheon
• i'd like to find some awesome pizza, and of course, more gelato

our beautiful hotels that i've heard so much about and can't wait to see! 

we planned this trip using american express travel, which was wonderful! they plan all of my work trips and are so helpful with everything. i highly recommend them if you're an american express member!

also, big shout-out to my parents for keeping our puppy babies the whole time we're gone. they got haircuts yesterday in preparation for their trip to the grandparents' house and they look SO CUTE! i'm going to miss them so much!

needless to say, there won't be much activity on the blog for the next 10-11 days, but i will be sure to post a big update when we get back. ellie has already been to japan, taiwan, and korea, and now she's making the trip to europe! busy lady. :)

baby segura/nursery updates

happy tuesday everyone!

i hope you all had a nice long memorial day weekend. ours went by too fast, as usual, but we got to spend time with good friends and family.

we've done a little work in the nursery so far, and we're starting to get some fun stuff for baby segura, so i figured it's about time for an update!

first of all, for those of you who follow me on any sort of social media, you already know that baby segura is a girl!! we had our 18-week ultrasound on the 21st, and it was SO fun! our ultrasound tech is awesome and always takes her time, making sure to show us all of the fun stuff and letting us linger for as long as we want to.  baby girl was not shy with showing off the important parts, so it was pretty easy for us to see from various angles that she's a girl. i was amazed by how big she is already! there's such a huge difference between the 12-week and 18-week ultrasounds that it's kind of hard to believe.

in related news, baby girl also officially has a name: ellie charlotte segura. michael and i have always loved and agreed on ellie as our first baby girl name, so i think we were a little relieved when we found out she's a girl! we didn't really have any boy options so far, so it's been fun to call her by her name since the ultrasound. charlotte is my mom's name, and we like that it's traditional and feminine. we want both of our kids to have family names as middle names, and thankfully this name choice came pretty easily to us!

since we found out we're having a girl, my planning and nursery dreaming has gone into overdrive. we now have 2 decent-sized registries, which have been so fun to work on. we're really only missing the big things now (strollers, furniture, etc.), which we're going to go shopping for in person when we get back from our big vacation (that start this friday--yay!)

we also got the sweetest baby memory book from my brother-in-law who lives in costa rica and was visiting family here in north carolina last week. i can't wait to start putting things in it!

a few more fun  baby-related things that have happened recently:

 this weekend was the first time we've seen my family since we found out we're having a girl, so we got lots of fun girly gifts to start filling up ellie's closet! my parents, brother and brother's girlfriend all loaded us up with the sweetest clothes i've ever seen. seriously, not much is sweeter than baby clothes on baby hangers.

uncle zack is a shoe fanatic, so it's fitting that ellie's first pairs of shoes came from him! so precious.

the diaper stockpile is growing, thanks to ellie's grandparents and our couponing skills. seriously, future moms-if you buy diapers at full price you are crazy. i routinely check the huggies and pampers websites and coupons.com for diaper coupons. the target cartwheel coupon program also pretty much always has the target brand diapers on sale. we haven't bought any diapers or wipes so far that weren't either on sale or we had a coupon for. i should've kept track of how much we've saved-it's been a lot!

the dresser in the nursery has sort of scratchy wood in the drawers, so this weekend i picked up some shelf liner and started putting a few things in there. the first drawer is currently holding bibs and ellie's first jewelry! my parents got her the sweetest bracelet and ring that are beyond-belief tiny.

i ordered this print from etsylast week (obviously with ellie instead of emma) to hang in the nursery. i want to do mostly soft pink decor, so i thought this print would be a really pretty start to the wall decorations!

since ellie will have the same first initial as her mama, i'm happy we get to keep our little shelf in that room with the big metal "e" from our wedding. we'll have to relocate michael's "m" for now :) the paint color we went with (which i am SO in love with) is "shaken not stirred" by allen + roth for valspar.

as for me, i'm happy as a clam and feeling great these days! ready for our euro trip to begin so we can take a few days away from the craziness of life and be together, just the 2 of us, before baby comes! i'm 19 weeks, 3 days today and can't believe that on saturday i'll officially be halfway there! time is flying. my belly has really grown a lot in the past couple of weeks-it's pretty undeniable now that i'm pregnant! i'm very thankful for my maternity wardrobe at this point. i've gained about 9-10 pounds so far (that's an estimate based on my last doctor's visit and how i've grown since then-i dont' weigh myself at home) and i'm still wanting sweets 24/7. i could exist solely on candy and cinnamon rolls if i let myself. i wouldn't really call them cravings most of the time though-i can live without them! i'm still doing the tracy anderson workouts. i'm currently on month 5 of the pregnancy project and loving it!

thanks to everyone who has been so sweet and supportive to us through this whole process. we are getting so excited to meet ellie and are so thankful that we have such wonderful people in our lives to be happy right along with us!

churro cheesecake

dessert recipe time!

i made this churro cheesecake for a segura family get together this past weekend, and i liked it! the original recipe came from the recipe critic, and based on her pictures vs. mine, i think mine came out a little differently.

the main difference i think is how the crescent rolls baked. in her pictures, the bread layers look thin and fairly crispy, like a crust, while mine baked up really fluffy and more cake-like. i'm sure either way is good, but i think next time i will use less crescent rolls, or maybe just one layer instead of two.

anywho, the cheesecake filling is to die for, and i love cinnamon, so this is right up my alley!

you will need:

• 2 cans crescent dinner rolls
• 2 8-oz packages of cream cheese, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 1 cup sugar, divided
• 2 tbsp ground cinnamon

1. preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. using a stand mixer, beat together the cream cheese, vanilla, egg, and 1/2 cup sugar until smooth. 

2. mix together the rest of the sugar (1/2 cup) and cinnamon. spray the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray and sprinkle half of the cinnamon sugar mixture evenly on the bottom.

3. on a piece of parchment paper, roll out your crescent roll dough into a big square and press the seams together. (i used a floured rolling pin to make this a little smoother)

4. place the dough in the bottom of the baking dish on top of the cinnamon sugar and spread the cheesecake filling evenly on top of the dough.

5. unroll the other can of dough and place on top of the cheesecake.

6. sprinkle the top with the remaining 1/4 cup of cinnamon sugar.

6. bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.

enjoy!

2 years

 today marks 2 years of marriage for me & my sweet husband! it's been an eventful 2 years full of ups and downs, but i wouldn't want to go through life with anyone else. i'm so thankful for where we are in our lives and what God has blessed us with. i can't wait to see michael become a daddy!

i also love to think back on our wedding and the great time we had with all of our friends and family. i love those memories so much!

happy anniversary baby! here's to many more.

the seguras are happy it's may!

it's MAY!

we've been looking forward to this month for a long time!

here's why...

• michael is officially done with his first semester at uncc this wednesday. so proud of him and his awesome grades so far! (he is seriously making me feel bad about my first semester college grades)
  
  
• i have my next doctor's appointment this week (also on wednesday), where i'll get my usual check-up and schedule our anatomy scan ultrasound! can't wait to find out if our little peanut is a boy or girl! i'll also hit the halfway point of my pregnancy in may-it's going by so fast already!
  
  
• i am heading to the isle of palms on thursday to celebrate my frand's dirty 30! it's not going to be too dirty since 1) i'm pregnant and 2) we're going with her mom, but it's going to be awesome! can't wait for a couple of days of relaxing in the sun.
  
  
• after the mini-beach trip, i'm heading home to spend mother's day with my mom. it's a special year and i'm glad i can spend mother's day with her!
  
  
• i'll celebrate 2 years of being married to my best friend on the 19th!
  
  
• loki turns the big 3 on may 27th (judge away)
  
  
• on may 30th, our euro trip will finally begin! we've been planning it for awhile, and i still can't really believe it's happening later this month. so ready to spend some quality time with michael in some fun new places!

thanks for showing up, may! we're happy you're here :)