:: Weekend Recap + Instant Pot Obsession + Chili Recipe ::

I hope you all had a great weekend!
Ours was perfect, even with the cold rainy Saturday.
We had happy hour cocktails down the street with the twins Friday, friends and football on Saturday, and got pumpkins and made some chili in my instant pot (that has been sitting in the box for 2 years) on Sunday.

It was perfect out on Friday and Kip got home early so we walked up the street for Happy Hour with the girls.
Turns out the key to witching hour sometimes is cocktails on a pati0. They loved every minute and went down perfectly when we came home for bedtime bottles. PREACH.
prior to this my experience is usually that the worse the “witching” hour is the better they end up sleeping,
but turns out the girls just want to people watch while their parents have a cocktail on a patio! Who knew!?

I offer incredible parenting advice, right?!

// similar sweater //

We’ve been doing very lazy Friday dinners lately (well.. not just Friday….)
and I made us this frozen pizza for dinner. If you like cauliflower crust I think it’s a great one! (I still think I like the Quest cauliflower pizza better? It gets crispier?!) I really do love the RealGood Brand though.

I completed this wild Friday night with carrot cake in bed whilst donning one of my favorite cheapo sheet masks. This mask has EXCESS moisture – I always have stuff that drips off so I rub it all into my neck and chest and even up my arms (theres that much liquid packed into the mask.) I highly recommend for a cheap sheet masks.
(My favorite face mask cream is still the Charlotte Tillbury mask I talk about here– so amazing.)

Saturday was freezing and raining but the perfect day for football and stuffing your face with food and a daytime cocktail or two.
We had friends and their little boy over and I attempted to make a white chicken chili but it turned out more like a chicken tortilla soup? It was still good but definitely not a chili. I googled recipes while I was in the grocery store and just kind of combined a few. (Here is a recipe similar to what I used).
Mine had shredded chicken, chicken stock, sauteed peppers and onions, northern beans, spices (cumin, paprika, chili powder, garlic powder) etc.
Once you top it with cheese, avocado, corn chips, sour cream, you cant go wrong.
Oh – and we almost always just use plain greek yogurt as the sour cream –
when it’s mixed with other things you cannot tell AT ALL.
Easy healthy hack for chili.

Sunday we took the girls to buy some pumpkins for our porch and attempt the necessary pumpkin photo
(which failed, but we tried).

girls outfits are Kissy Kissy

Then we made a trip to Lowe’s ~~because my husband must be at Lowe’s every Sunday or else the world will come to an end~~ because I am attempting to paint a few pumpkins
and do something fun. ATTEMPT being the key word here.
Any guesses what I am making?! Other than an ugly mess?!

Kip’s is a fake pumpkin and perfectly symmetrical,
so I’ll use that as my excuse when his turns out better than mine.
(Fun fact – he’s actually super artistic and can draw and paint anything.)

Then I *finally* broke out our instant pot that I have had for over TWO years and have never used.
It is so big and bulky and just seemed too intimidating to try so I never used it before.
I AM SO HAPPY I FINALLY DID. I LOVED IT.
So many of you said you were afraid of it too and it was still sitting in the box and TRUST ME, if I can use it, you can use it.

Just the clean up aspect of only having to clean ONE pot was amazing.
Kip had wanted me to make a chili recipe our friend sent us so it was an easy thing to start with.
(I used this recipe and we really liked it. Beef AND spicy sausage – you can’t go wrong.)
It sauteed everything so quickly and browned the meat and then I just dumped the rest in and let it go!
after a little facial steaming courtesy of the pot…..

I’m excited to try out cooking other things (and I heard you can even make things straight from frozen?!)
I say this now but I mean….. we’ll see…. I’m content with the laziest of meals but I know my husband would certainly appreciate it.

Comment on my latest instagram post with any favorite sources or recipes for Instant Pot’s – that way we all can see them and use them!

I’ll update you on how this pumpkin project turns out on my instagram stories….
I finished part one last night and have to paint the second part tonight……

I finally started taking these Elderberry Gummies after a month long sickness in September in our house. Hoping they do the trick for Cold + Flu season.

Oh! And a few sales :

Gap is having 40% off sitewide. I shared my maternity jammies that I was painting in last night on instastories and unfortunately they are sold out, but they have a bunch of great maternity pajama options. I loved their tee’s to sleep in.