Chicken Marbella

After Amelia was born a dear friend of mine brought my family a very yummy dinner...Chicken Marbella. Last night I decided to make it myself! I love it because you marinate the chicken ahead and then just pop it in the oven. Makes for an easy weeknight meal.

The full recipe can be found below, but here's a quick summary.

First, I gathered all of the ingredients for the marinade. The recipe calls for 1/2 head of garlic, finely pureed. Well, I went the quick route and used crushed garlic from Trader Joes.

Here's the marinade all ready to go. I probably added more then what was called for for the olives and prunes. Love them both, so why not!

Pretty much whenever I cook with chicken breasts I pound them to be thinner. Personally I just think they are better that way!

All set to pop in the fridge! The recipe says to marinate it the night before, but I didn't get my act together last night. So I whipped it up this morning and I don't think the taste suffered any.

And then later that evening all I had to do was transfer it to a baking dish and add the last couple of ingredients.

Into the oven for about 50 minutes and voila!

I had been planning on serving it with egg noodles, but checked the pantry and ooops! I'm out. So I went with fusilli instead. By the way, I bet that wouldn't happen if I had that organized pantry I'm drooling over. But anyway....fusilli pasta was just fine. Added a simple salad and dinner was served!

Here's the full recipe. Try it out and let me know what you think!

CHICKEN MARBELLA:

4-6 chicken breasts

1/2 head of garlic, peeled and finely pureed

2 T dried oregano

Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1/4 c red wine vinegar

1/4 c olive oil

1/2 c pitted prunes

1/4 c pitted Spanish green olives

1/4 c capers with a bit of juice

3 bay leaves

1/2 c brown sugar

1/2 c white wine

2 T fresh cilantro

In a large bowl combine garlic, oregano, salt and pepper to taste, vinegar, olive oil, prunes, olives, capers with caper juice and bay leaves. Add the chicken breasts and coat completely with marinade. Cover and let marinate, refrigerated, overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Arrange chicken in single layer in shallow baking pan and spoon marinade over evenly. Sprinkle chicken breasts with brown sugar and pour white wine around them.

Bake 50 minutes to 1 hour.

With slotted spoon, transfer chicken, prunes, olives and capers to a serving platter. Add some of the pan juices and sprinkle generously with cilantro.

In love with a pantry...

Yep, that's right, I'm in love with a pantry. Shelley from House of Smiths is the creative genius behind this beautiful pantry...

Now that's a space for storing food. I go into my pantry about 500 hundred times a day...okay, maybe not that many times, but between going in there to get what I actually need, and going in there to take my curious toddler out...I'm in there a lot! I sure would love it to look as pretty as this one.

Shelley began by clearing it all out, painting the shelves and background, and then the best part? Adding the pattern! We all know I love a good pattern, so to have it in the pantry...LOVE.

Shelley used vinyl to create the pattern on the walls. She owns this vinyl shop, so she had good access to it! It can be a bit pricey, but you can contact her to order. She also offered up another more budget friendly option...stenciling! Yes, it's more work, but the same effect can be achieved. Find the stencil here.

I also love the way she used vinyl to label her glass jars.

Vinyl labels can be found in Shelley's shop, and I also found some Etsy shops that sell them...

from Layer Cake Designs

and from decalfarm

chalkboard labels would also work well, I like these. Perfect to tie onto baskets!

And I love how she used vintage crates on the bottom of her pantry. I was at a local antique store the other day and saw a vintage coke crate. Wouldn't that look cool? A sturdy container with an added pop of red. Here are a few soda crates on from this seller. So fun!

And from the same seller, definitely more pricey, but pretty cool...

Check out House of Smiths for the full description of this amazing pantry makeover.

Pretty Smitten is on Facebook!

Well, I just had to do it...Pretty Smitten is now on Facebook! Want to be my friend? Or fan? Or whatever it's called when you 'like' me? Pretty please? I'll do my best to keep it updated and fun :)

We're OPEN! And with a new look....

Yay! Pretty Smitten's shop is OPEN! And not only are we up and running again after the birth of little Miss Amelia, but we have a new look and a few new designs. I've been so indecisive with Pretty Smitten's logo...I think because I love color and pattern so much, that it's hard for me to pick just one style. So I went the other direction...a simple silhouette. Navy and white. A pop of light blue. Classic. Timeless. Or at least I hope so! What do you think?

Last week I gave you a sneak peek of some new patterns, and now they are available as note cards, invitations and party items in my shop! I absolutely LOVE these new patterns. I think my family now has stationery in every pattern and color combo possible, just because I love testing them out so much. The combos are endless, but here are a few...

Petals...shown here in navy, bluebell and kelly green

Clover...shown here in pool and orange

Damask...shown here in black and teal

Zigzag...shown here in sunshine and kelly green

And here is the classic stripe pattern showcasing some of our favorite party items. I just love this color combo and theme...Paris, pink and green! The inspiration? A darling little pillow that can be found on Amelia's nursery rocker. Found at Home Goods of course! I'd take a picture of it, but it's almost 10pm here and my sweet girl is fast asleep. So maybe tomorrow!

And another new pattern, medallions, shown here on some more party items. I love classic blue and red for a boy!

I'll be continuing to add more examples in my shop, so keep checking.

Hope you like...actually hope you love...the new Pretty Smitten!

A sneak peek...new patterns

Pretty Smitten's grand reopening will be here in just one week! 2011 will be a year of some exciting new changes and we're starting things off with a bang. Get ready for a whole new look for the shop and blog and new products will be rolling out throughout the year. As promised I wanted to show you a little sneak peak...so without further ado, here are a few new patterns that will be offered starting January 15th...

What do you think?

Pretty Smitten Grand Re-Opening

The countdown to our grand re-opening has begun....Pretty Smitten's shop will re-open on January 15th! My little girl is two months old now and I'm ready to take on two babies, a husband, a house AND Pretty Smitten. I think I can, I think I can! Actually I KNOW I can...even though I'm sure I'll be quite busy keeping up with everything, I'm also quite sure it will be completely worth the potential craziness. Pretty Smitten is part of who I am now and I'm not myself without the creativity and sense of accomplishment that it brings to me.

Over the next couple of weeks I'll be showing you a sneak preview of what's to come in 2011. A few new designs and products...and a whole new look for Pretty Smitten! Stay tuned!!

Looking ahead...2011

Wow, we are in 2011! Happy New Year everyone! We rang in the New Year with a "carpet picnic"...one of my favorite date nights with Mr. J. Basically we put the babies to bed, order take out and have a little picnic on the floor. This one took place in front of our Christmas tree. A great way to enjoy its last night in our house! And as we close the book on 2010, it's time to make those resolutions again. I tend not to make too many....too much pressure and I'd rather really focus on just a few. So here they are...my personal resolutions for 2011...I have a whole other set for Pretty Smitten, too many to list I think so I'll just stick to these...

1. Enjoy motherhood. Sounds strange I guess, because I definitely already do enjoy it...but I think enjoying your babies and taking the time to have fun with them is a conscious decision. Lets face it, toddlers can be tough! They are turning into little people, testing out the limits, and in my case, trying to climb and jump on everything. There are days when that can make anyone sane woman pull her hair out. But I try to stop and remember, they are only little for a very short time. Take the time to play with them and enjoy them. Owen loves to cook in his play kitchen and build a 'train' on the couch with pillows. And he's talking so much now that we have full conversations. He's adorable and fun and I don't want to miss anything. And little Miss Amelia, already 8 weeks! She's cooing and smiling and such a social little baby. 2011 will bring even more milestones and I plan on enjoying each and every one.

2. This might be on my list every year since owning a house, but here it is again: don't worry about having the house be 'perfect'. Ask my husband or any of my friends and they'll tell you, I'm constantly making project lists for the house. I think now that I'm a stay at home mom and I'm home so much more during the day, I tend to obsess about how things look in the house. I have some lofty goals...add crown moulding and wainscoting, knock out part of my kitchen counter to add a larger island, re-do the master bedroom and add a closet like this one. And while some of these projects might be completed in 2011, I need to realize that my house is great without any of those things. I'm incredibly blessed to have the house we have.

Wow, those first two were a bit deep. But here's one that's probably on most resolution lists...

3. Exercise more! Specifically, I'd like to go to The Dailey Method 3 times a week. It's an hour to myself, good for me and I love it. So it shouldn't be too hard to stick to this one. A bit tougher though is adding cardio to my workouts. I can't stand cardio. I despise running. I seriously run to the end of the block and I'm tired. Okay, so maybe I won't run. How about a fast walk? I can do that pushing our double stroller. So there it is, The Dailey Method and walks with the kiddos. Resolution #3.

What about you? What is on your resolution list for this year? I've decided (positive thinking you know) that 2011 is going to be the best year yet. I think I say that every year. And I think it might always be true.

Happy New Year!