Sweet T and a Honey B
Food, Fitness, and the Adventures That Make Life Sweet

Honey B

 

It’s no secret that Bryan and I both share a love of country music and a good glass of whiskey. In fact, our wedding was centered around both. Our guests sat around centerpieces that included empty bottles of Jack Daniel’s filled with wildflowers (Yeah-Bryan and I, as well as our friends, drank quite a bit of whiskey in the year leading up to the big day) and the over arching theme was built around Blake Shelton’s sweet song, Honey Bee’. In addition to the various rustic touches, our signature drink also echoed our belief that both of us should have been born south of the Mason Dixon line. It was the dead of summer so there was no question that our drink should be refreshing, yet include a little of our beloved JD. Bonus – my new name was about to become Bolton. B for Bolton.. Honey B..Sweet T(eresa) and a Honey B(olton)…now you’re catching on.

It’s been nearly three years (holy cow!) since our wedding and I am just now sharing the beverage that partially inspired the name for my blog. And the beverage that we still make regularly.  I think it’s because we spent our entire weekend in the sunshine by our bonfire/grill with a lot of country music and these drinks on re-fill. There’s something about the promise of nice weather and a good fire that makes for the best of weekends. 

If you’re in doubt, I will say that the crew at the country club where we held our reception tell us they had never gone through so much whiskey in one night. We also had friends and family tell us they weren’t previously ‘whiskey people’ before that night – but now they are 😉 I promise that even if you aren’t one of those ‘whiskey people’, this one is worth giving a try.

Ingredients:

  • 2 parts whiskey
  • 1 part triple sec
  • yellow lemonade
  • handful of blueberries

Muddle a few blueberries at the bottom of a drinking glass (I think they taste best out of a mason jar, what else?), add in whiskey, triple sec, and lemonade. Garnish with a few extra bluebs & you’re good to go! 

Below is the sign (made from a tree slab sold at Hobby Lobby, a little chalkboard paint & a chalk marker) that we placed at the bar during the reception.

Aaaand now for a few photos of details from our perfect day.. photography by Gina and Tony of Gina + Tony Photographers If you are looking for wedding or portrait photography, I HIGHLY recommend Gina and Tony. We had decided we would ask them to photograph our wedding about two years before we even got engaged when we met them while they were photographing my cousin’s gorgeous wedding.  Their work is simply stunning and they pretty much kept us laughing the entire day. 🙂 

 

Sweet Barbecue Chicken Tacos

It’s Thursday morning y’all and that means we’re over the hump of this gloomy workweek. Also, holy humidity. Did anyone else feel like they needed a shower immediately upon opening their front door this week? Did anyone else’s hair look as unruly as mine?

I’ll admit, the humidity made me feel pretty lazy this week. This, combined with the amount of time I’ve spent at the hospital with my mom, has made it virtually impossible to stick to a routine or retain enough energy at the end of the evening to cook a healthy meal. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve bought my breakfast and/or lunch on the go in the past month. And let’s talk about my lack of time at the gym or sticking to my training plan for the Chicago Rock and Roll 10K this coming weekend.. urgh, yes. THIS. Weekend. 
 
But Monday always rolls around and it’s always a good opportunity to begin the week off on the right foot. Moms on the up and up and I’m finally feeling like myself again so I was eager to spend some time in my kitchen and make some dinners for the week. Full disclosure, I had a taste for barbecue and Mexican this past weekend. As I’ve expressed many times before, your favorite meals don’t have to require an abundant amount of ingredients or take a ton of time to throw together. My lack of grocery shopping in the past ten days or so led me to dig through what I already had and I’m thrilled I did because we’ve been eating these Sweet Barbecue Chicken Tacos for the past few nights. We wanted enough leftover shredded chicken to have these for 2-3 dinners as well as extra for topping salads and sandwiches this week but you could always use half of the chicken if you don’t want as much. 
 
They’re a little sweet and a little tangy and combines some fresh lime juice, veggies, and blue cheese for a pretty awesome flavor. I’ve been using this Wholesome Organic Coconut Sugar in a few recipes recently and been pretty pleased. The flavor is just as sweet as brown sugar, but coconut sugar contains nutrients like zinc and iron and also contains insulin- which acts as a prebiotic – aka gut health! It’s also easy to replace brown sugar in your recipes because it’s a 1:1 ratio. 1 cup of brown sugar = 1 cup coconut sugar. 
 
We had some fruit with our tacos but would also be pretty tasty to serve with some black beans or rice. 
 
What flavor combos do you enjoy? What else would you add to your barbecue tacos?
 
 
 

Sweet Barbecue Chicken Tacos

2 tacos per serving

  • 1 cup of your favorite barbecue sauce
  • 1/4 cup coconut sugar
  • 4 large chicken breasts
  • 1 cup frozen baby corn
  • 1 small onion – diced
  • 1 roma tomato – diced
  • 1 avocado
  • 2 tbs fresh lime juice
  • Blue cheese crumbles to top
  • Corn tortillas
  1. Whisk barbecue sauce and coconut sugar together until sugar is fully incorporated. 
  2. Place chicken breasts in large crockpot and pour sauce evenly over the chicken. Cook on high for four hours. Once chicken is cooked, shred with a fork and turn crockpot to ‘warm’ until ready to serve.
  3. Combine corn, diced onion, diced tomato, and lime juice in a large bowl. Set aside. 
  4. Warm your corn tortillas. Top each taco with a little shredded chicken, corn ‘salsa’, a couple avocado slices, and 1 tbs of blue cheese crumbles.

Mango Berry Salsa (With Cinnamon Pita Chips!)

Like the masses this past weekend, my husband and I attended a couple of barbecues as the abundant sunshine of Memorial Day weekend kicked off the official start to summer. I consider ourselves lucky that our outings with friends and family were not scheduled until Monday as Hubs arrived home from school on Friday and announced that he thought he was coming down with strep throat (spoiler alert: he thought correctly). We were forced to take it easy for the majority of the weekend but as he started to feel better and our Monday plans approached, I started thinking about a small dish to share with everyone.The weather was hot and I knew there would be a lot of food straight off the grill, so I whipped up something that would cool everyone down. The fruit this time of year is gorgeous and the berries are especially sweet so a fruit salsa was an easy choice. 

Mango Berry Salsa

Ingredients

  • 2 cups strawberries – diced
  • 1 cup raspberries
  • 2 cups mango – diced
  • 2 tbs fresh mint – chopped
  • 1/2 cup green onion – chopped
  • 2 tbs fresh lemon juice

Instructions

  1. Wash and dice strawberries and place in a large bowl. Add raspberries and gently mix with a wooden spoon. The raspberries will soften and mix well with the strawberries. 
  2. Cut mango in to four sections away from the pit. You will have four sections that you can dice in to small squares. Once the fruit is diced, you should be able to peel or gently cut squares away from the skin. Add to the bowl and gently fold in to the berry mixture.
  3. Add chopped mint, green onion, and lemon juice. 

Cinnamon Sugar Pita Chips

Ingredients

  • 6 Pita Rounds
  • 2 tbs coconut oil, melted
  • 2 tbs sugar
  • 2 tbs cinnamon

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a cookie sheet with non-stick spray.
  2. Cut pita rounds into 8 triangles each and scatter on cookie sheet. Brush each triangle with coconut oil.
  3. Mix cinnamon and sugar and evenly sprinkle mixture over the pita triangles. 
  4. Place cookie sheet in the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes. 
  5. Serve pita chips warm or cooled with fruit salsa and enjoy!

 

 

Hubs thought my pineapple shaped serving dish from the Target dollar spot was ridiculous and when I first brought it home, was quick to question what I would ever put in that. Fruit salsa- that’s what. And you can bet I am going to try and find every excuse to use this adorable dish this summer. 😉 

Believe it or not – the Fri-Yay is here again and the forecast is looking good for another weekend of grilling and simply enjoying some Vitamin D. Whatever your plans are, I hope they’re filled with good company and yummy food!