Merry Mantles

The mantle is my favorite part about Christmas decorating! Maybe because it's such a focal point for most houses. Or because it frames the fireplace, which is where you want to be during the winter time, and especially Christmas. Here are some mantles that have caught my eye this year:

Love the greenery on this mantle with the pops of red, and the lanterns are perfection!

These silver hanging glittery stars are so fun! I really like the white stockings against the lit fireplace.

The logs in this fireplace are amazing, and i love the peace garland!

The simplicity of this one works very well with the awesome Santa portrait!

 

I love decorating with pine cones, so i was naturally drawn to this one! The natural colors are awesome, and with just subtle hints of Christmas, this could stay up all winter long.

These bright red wreaths really pop on this mantle, and I really like the spacing of the hanging stockings.

This one is a little overkill, but kind of fun! I wonder how long that took to make, and how the heck do you store that??

Images via Pinterest

 Here are a couple pics of our mantle. Brooke made the burlap stockings from the burlap we used for our Friendsgiving dinner! (tutorial to come soon!)

The PEACE stocking hangers we got last year from Hobby Lobby, of course! And the pre-lit garland is from Target.

What's your mantle style??

-Whitney & Megan

Garlic Scallion Noodles

This week has been crazy busy for us Pretty Penny girls, half of us are jetting off for a fun girls weekend, we all went to the Jay-Z and Kayne concert and we have been trying to get our house Christma-fied.  We have a couple festive crafts to share with you next week.  Needless to say we have been busy so this meal was a perfect choice for our busy schedules.  Its so simple and quick, but trust us when we say that its one of the most flavor-packed noodle dishes we have made in a while. 

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Ingredients

Half a box of spaghetti noodles

4 tablespoons of butter (we used about 3 1/2 and it was still a bit buttery)

5 cloves of minced garlic

2 scallions finely chopped

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 1/2 tablespoons of brown sugar (up to 2 tablespoons can be added if you want it sweeter but we found this to be the perfect balance of sweet and salty)

Directions

1. Cook pasta according to package directions and then drain.

2. In a heavy skillet over medium heat, melt butter.  Add scallions and garlic, cook until you can smell the garlic usually about 5 mins. 

3. Add sugar and soy sauce and cook for another min.

4. Increase heat and toss the noodles in and coat with the butter mixture.

5. Garnish with addition scallions and serve. 

Enjoy!

-Megan and Whitney 



White Chili with Chicken

 This chili is a great recipe that is easy and tasty!! It's a perfect alternative to your normal beef chili.

Ingredients

half of a large onion (yellow or white)

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 can chicken broth

1 can beef broth

1 can black beans

1 can pinto beans

1 can white northern beans

1 can southwest corn/mexicorn 

1 can diced tomatoes with chilies

1/2 c salsa

1 lb cooked chicken diced or shredded (we just boiled frozen chicken tenders, and shredded them)

Chop onion and saute in olive oil in a large dutch oven, until translucent, about 5- 10 minutes.

Add all of the remaining ingredients and simmer for about 10-15 minutes, until the chili is hot.

It's great topped with sour cream, cheddar cheese, oyster crackers and/or corn bread. We went with all of the above!

Serve and Enjoy!

efunny

I have always loved the witty, and brutally honest ecards from someecards.com! They have come up a lot on pinterest lately, so we collected some of our favorites.  Some are way too accurate, and some I would love to actually send to a friend! 

  

Mashup Monday

Happy Monday! Cyber Monday, that is. Hope you had a great, relaxing holiday weekend and are hitting up all of the online sales today. Hope these mashups help get you back in the swing of things after the long break, because I am sure having trouble!

DJ AbSRD & BRUNEAUX- Bromance on a Moonlit Beach

LeeDM 101- Feeling Good, Getting Nowhere (Magnetic Man vs Nina Simone vs Imogen Heap vs The Ting Tings

DJRUDY- Every Teardrop Without You (Usher & David Guetta vs Coldplay)

RYSON- Danza Rabiosa Kuduro (Don Omar vs Shakira vs Pitbull)

MUSICMATICIAN- Not Romantic (Afrojack vs Deadmau5 vs Chromeo vs Enrique feat Ludacris)

-Whitney

Black Friday Tunes

Hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving.  I know that all of us here at Pretty Penny have tons to be thankful for this year.  I leave you with a cover of one of my fave songs of all time. 

Pixie Lott makes this song even more romantic

Good luck to the brave souls who faced the crowds and stocked up on great deals. Way to go.

-Megan 

Crunch-Wrap Supreme

I came across a homemade Taco Bell recipe on Hungry Girl and I just had to try it.  We made some tweaks to her recipe and the results were delicious. 

Ingredients

1 Home-style Tortilla

1 Tostada Shell

1/3 cup Ground Turkey Breast

1/4 cup Shredded Cheddar Cheese

1/4 cup shredded lettuce

1/3 tomato diced

1/4 cup re fried beans

1 tsp sour cream

1/2 tsp taco seasoning

Directions

1. Brown turkey meat adding taco seasoning at the end, the taco seasoning is packed with flavor so add as much or as little as you would like.

2. Set meat aside and have all ingredients ready to start building your crunch-wrap

3. First I laid my tortilla flat on a plate spreading a layer of re fried beans the size of the toastada and covering the beans with the taco turkey.  (The beans act like glue so keep this in mind for construction purposes)

4. Next came the toastada which i covered in sour cream and shredded lettuce placing in the center of the crunch-wrap

5. Lastly I placed diced tomatoes and cheese, I started folding the flour tortilla up, this is where I used a little extra re fried beans to keep the crunch-wrap wrapped up

6. Finally I placed the wrap in a hot greased frying pan seam side down

7. Once browned on one side flip (carefully) it takes about 5-7 mins per side

8. Once crunch-wrap is warm throughout top with salsa and enjoy!

No more need to "Think outside the bun" because you can make Taco Bell at home.  Enjoy!

-Megan