I celebrated my Birthday this past Tuesday and it was filled with lots of love, food and drinks (just they way I like it). I thought I would share some fun birthday celebrating that went down so you can get a little glimpse into my life and the things I love and that make me most happy. Mikey always jokes that July is my birthday month…and I think he may be right. I kicked off the celebration last weekend with my family and friends and it has continued on since then! Mikey and I both did a sprint triathlon last weekend (his 4th, my first!) and we had a big party afterward. My Mom made an amazing birthday cake and we laughed and played games all night! The links below will give you a bit of an idea of how I have been celebrating and feeling overwhelmed by love this week! Check out this AMAZING yoga mat Mikey got me from Yoga Design Lab! I tried it out yesterday and it was great for a super sweaty hot yoga class! 
Mikey and I had a wonderful birthday dinner at a new restaurant here in Chicago called Cicchetti. We sipped Lemoncello to finish off our dinner and It was such a refreshing digestif! Then (I’m spoiled!) my girlfriends took me out to an amazing bday dinner at a place we love called Nightwood where we laughed over bottles of wine and Prosecco. Since we are all a little obsessed with Prosecco and Mikey and I rediscovered our love for Limoncello… I thought I would share this Raspberry Limoncello Prosecco drink recipe! 
I also died of laughter when I opened this hilarious gift from my friend Kara. Not only is it an apron…but it has the lyrics to one of my favorite songs. When Mikey and I were first dating we listened to this song and it has become a joke in our family…such an amazing gift! I love how well my friends love me! 
What would a birthday be without dessert? I had my fair share of desserts over this past week (time for a detox!) but one stood out above the others! It was a Banana-Bread Bread Pudding (this is not the recipe but it was as close as I could find). I had a hard time finding a recipe that used actual banana bread, but this one seems close. I now know I need to make a version of it and share it with the world because it was so ooey gooey and out of this world! It was laced with chocolate chips and had toasted marshmallow fluff and vanilla malt ice cream…are you drooling yet? I promise to add this to my recipe list and share it with you as soon as I formulate something delicious! 
Mikey and I will soon be in the market for a new dining table and I received a gift card from my in-laws to West Elm. I am leaning towards something like this beautiful geometric base table. 
Mikey and I are headed up to a friends lake house in South Haven, Michigan for a wine tasting weekend. I am so excited to try some new wine and relax with great friends! Thank you all so much for all the birthday love!
Author: mikeysinmykitchen
Key Lime Pie In A Jar
After making these little key lime pie’s in a jar…I want to make literally everything in Mason jars.
We spent a weekend up at Mikey’s family’s cabin to celebrate his oldest brother’s birthday.
I was in charge of dessert and I knew I wanted to do something involving Key Lime Pie. Mikey’s whole family has a deep rooted love for key lime from all their time spent at the family condo in Marco Island, FL.
I found this recipe and knew right away it was the dessert for the occasion.
These pies are super easy to make and come together quickly!
They were a complete hit and I plan to make them for many parties in the future! I also can’t wait to try some other types of pie and dessert ideas in a Mason Jar!
I have never been a big fan of key lime pie but these little gems changed my attitude. I am now a member of the key lime fan club! These are especially delicious on a hot summer day because you can serve them from the refrigerator and the tart lime is super refreshing.
Although the pies are a little big…the light flavor makes them disappear quickly!
I recommend you make these for your next party. Not only because everyone will love how delicious they are…but because they are the cutest pies in the world!
tlrThis is my adorable nephew, Grady.
We were all cracking up because he wouldn’t stop scraping out the jars to try and get every last bite of sweetness.
See, even the littlest member of the family loved them!
Lately
Lately…
I have been dying to try these White Chocolate Blueberry Coconut Oatmeal Cookies from the Ambitious Kitchen blog.
They are made with coconut oil plus shredded coconut. Not to mention blueberries, oatmeal and white chocolate. That is a long list of things I love all rolled into one cookie. YUM!
This is just hilarious. I love how hipsters are spray painting plastic dinosaurs and finding new uses for them.
I just discovered the blog, Home Decore and I am completely obsessed with it!
Almond Lavender Bourbon Milk Punch…
I don’t necessarily know if I would put milk in a cocktail…but I would be willing to try it. Who knows? It may be the best drink in the whole world.
These pictures from the Kitchy Kitchen were so beautiful I just had to share. And I think that anything that looks this pretty must taste good.
I like how simple this Flinders Lane Apartment from Dee Zeen Magazine is.
I want to fall asleep and wake up in this room every day. This is the most magical wallpaper I have ever seen. Plus that bed looks so comfortable!
This wallpaper is from Bloom Papers and I found this picture on the beautiful blog, Decorology.
I am seriously looking in to putting something like this in my home someday. Breathtaking.
Lightened Up Broccoli Crunch Salad
Summer = Salad.
Picnics, parties and heat make for quick and healthy recipes you can throw together on the fly.
This salad is great to take to a party with friends or make for dinner on a night when you don’t want to turn your oven on because it’s a million degrees outside.
Mikey and I both LOVE Broccoli Crunch Salad with a strong passion. It is unfortunately, like most delicious things, full of sugar and fat…so I made up a lighter version that tastes pretty close to the original.
The longer you let the broccoli sit in the dressing the better it will taste. I used honey to sweeten mine but you could add brown sugar and Mayo (I used greek yogurt) if you want to make it a bit more like the original recipe.
I hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend! Mikey and I stayed in Chicago for the first half of the weekend and then went camping with friends about an hour north of the city. It was a nice relaxing weekend filled with lots of food and drink! This salad is a great way to start a detox after a weekend of gluttony!
This is his “I’ll pretend I’m sleeping/not interested in your food and then pounce the second you look away” move. He tries it every time, but I’m on to him now.
Lucky Charm Marshmallow Treats
They’re Magically Delicious!
I will admit I didn’t love lucky charms as a kid.
That’s probably not a surprise to you since I always talk about how I hated most foods until the age of 20…but I will stick up for myself and say that it was my Mom’s fault…kind of…
My Mom was very strict about what we ate when we were little, especially things that had sugar (ironic since she was an amazing baker even then…and maybe why I love sweets so much now??).
We had specific rules about the breakfast foods we were allowed to eat. During the week we were only allowed to have Chex cereal…yes, plain Chex. And sometimes Kix. And on a good day my brother and I would sprinkle Equal packets that we stole from the cabinet onto our cereal to sweeten it a bit.
Then on Saturdays we had “junk food cereal day”. And I only liked Honey-Comb Cereal, so that’s all I ate.
Sundays were our “donut day” and I only ever ate a cake donut with chocolate frosting, if I at anything at all because I was not a morning person and was always shoved out the door for church which meant I never had time to eat breakfast. Which was fine with me because I made a strong point as a child to hate breakfast. My how times have changed! Now I live for breakfast foods.
Let’s get back to cereal…
My brother was a big fan of Cocoa Puffs and Count Chocula…I stuck to the basic Honey-Comb until about the age of 14…at which time I became OBSESSED with cereal. It was literally the only food I wanted to eat. Day and night. I would go through boxes a week (just ask my Mom).
My favorites were, in no particular order, Trix, Reeses Puffs, Honey Bunches of Oats, Oh’s, Oreo O’s, and on rare occasions I would have Fruity Pebbles…but they got too mushy too fast so I stuck with Trix.
In college I lived on a weekly diet of microwave popcorn and Honey Bunches of Oats…super healthy.
I am so sad that cereal is so loaded with sugar (even the healthy cereal) because I would still have it for every meal if I could! I now have it for dinner or sometimes a late night snack on special occasions.
My Dad has a bowl of Frosted Mini Wheats every night before bed. It is his ritual and I’m pretty sure it is where I get my passion for cereal…although Frosted Mini Wheats are at the bottom of my cereal list (and the top of Mikey’s).
So with all that being said…I had a box of Lucky Charms (which I now love and could devour an entire box of) and they were burning a hole in my cabinet. Meaning, I wanted to fill our largest bowl with the entire box and a gallon of milk and eat it all while I watched The Bachelorette.
But I didn’t. Instead, I made these marshmallow Lucky Charm treats…and they were amazing. They are basically Lucky Charms on crack. Ten times the marshmallow goodness and so sweet from the white chocolate glaze. One is enough…but 5 are better.
They are super quick and easy to make and you could cut them into any fun shape you like. If I was a craftier person I would have cut them into the shapes of the marshmallows (rainbows, pots of gold, 4 leaf clovers, red ballons, etc) and then dipped the bottoms in the same color chocolate. If you have more time/patience you should do that and then send me some pictures!
Orrrrrrr you can stay on my level and just make them as quickly as possible so you can shove them into your mouth at maximum speed!
Mikey's In My Kitchen 