3rd Wedding Anniversary!!!

Bryan and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary on January 2nd! I can't believe it's been three years already - the time has flown by! I am more in love with him every day and I am so excited to continue this life journey together. We celebrated by going to dinner at Lolita, a Michael Symon restaurant here in Cleveland that we'd been wanting to try for a while! It was delicious!

Shown above is one of our first minutes as a married couple! At this very moment, we were listening to a choir of our closest friends, conducted by a great friend, sing This Marriage by Erik Whitacre. Following that piece, another great friend played the Sarabande from the 6th Bach Suite on cello. Bryan and I both play the cello, and we met each other in the orchestra at St. Olaf College, so it was only fitting to have a cello piece be a big part of the ceremony. 

Our wedding was simply amazing. Which is exactly how I would describe my wonderful relationship with Bryan!

Turkey and Bean Chili

Bryan has this week off from work, and I'm on break from school, so it's been pretty lazy around here. I've been trying to put in a lot of work hours, and Bryan has been doing small house projects. In order to fuel our productive laziness, I had a craving for some chili! I don't have a go-to chili recipe and I like to try new types of chili when I have the opportunity. This recipe is simple and delicious, and I would definitely make it again!! I served the chili with cornbread muffins, which were a perfect match!

Turkey and Bean Chili

Adapted from My Recipes

Ingredients

1 cup chopped red onion

1/3 cup chopped and seeded poblano pepper (about 1)

1 tsp minced garlic

1 1/4 pounds ground turkey

1 tbsp chili powder

1 tbsp tomato paste

2 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 can (19 oz) cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained

1 can (14 oz) fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth

Directions

Heat a large saucepan over medium heat. Add first 4 ingredients. Cook for 6 minutes or until turkey is done, stirring frequently to crumble.Stir in chili powder and the rest of the ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer at least 10 minutes. Serve when ready. Enjoy!

Panini's!

One of the presents I got Bryan for Christmas was a panini press! He is known as the "sandwich man" in our house. He makes any sandwich an incredible sandwich! I wanted to give him something new for him to play with to create wonderful creations. We tried it out over the weekend, and it was a major success!

If you don't have a panini press, you can make hot sandwiches on the stove top (like you would for a grilled cheese) with a flat pan. We used to use our flat pancake pan and flip the sandwich halfway in between it's cooking. But as we wanted to start adding more ingredients, it became harder to flip the sandwiches. Hence, my idea for a panini press!

There is no specific recipe to this post. For our first try at our own panini, we kept it simple. We layered cooked chicken, bacon, avocado, onion, tomato, and mixed greens on top of delicious bakery bread. We put the sandwich on the press, and voila, the bread was toasted and the sandwich was warm and melty! It was a perfect simple dinner that took no time at all!

I'm sure we'll be doing more panini experiments in the near future and I'll keep you updated!