Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Vinyl Wednesday: love the edges!

I absolutely love when the look of a sign when the edges are a different color then the paint!!! So for this sign I painted the wood red, then once that dried did a couple coats of blue over it. So when I sanded the edges the red showed up! I'll lost a better close up of the edges tomorrow. But to see the end result you have this beauty!

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Recipe Monday (a day late): homemade pizza

A favorite meal for the kiddos is making there own pizza! They love being able to decorate it! Plus it takes about 20-30 minutes to put together then 20-25 minutes to cook, so it's a great quick meal! 

Pizza Dough Recipe (old Betty Crocker recipe)
1 Tablespoon active dry Yeast
1 cup warm water
1 teaspoon Sugar
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil (I use canola or olive, whichever of the two I have on hand)
2 1/2 cups Flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Stir in remaining ingredients; beat vigorously 20 strokes. Let rest 5 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

I then broke the dough into 4 pieces and pressed them into 4 good sized personal pizzas.

I topped them with spaghetti sauce, then let the kids put on some mozzarella, pepperoni, black olives and a little Colby jack cheese. Then I sprinkled on some Italian seasoning and a little parmesan. 


Pop the pizzas in the oven for 20-30 minutes depending on how done you like your pizzas and voila! You have delectable homemade pizza!


Saturday, August 24, 2013

Produce Galore!

If you have never tried Bountiful Baskets you really should!!! I love ordering a basket every month, sometimes multiple times a month!!! Plus they have amazing bread choices that are absolutely delicious! I try to order twice a month so that I can get a basket of yummy produce every other week. Today's spread featured:
a large head of romaine lettuce
2 bunches of spinach
2 (1 lb) bags of carrots (I gave one to a friend since I bought a huge bag at costco last week)
4 yummy looking yellow peaches
4 tasty looking asian pears
9 bananas
5 ears of bi color corn (white & yellow - my fav!)
3 bell peppers
3 roma tomatoes
6 small avocados
1 Italian squash (i think it's zucchini)
9 hatch green chili's

Can you say YUM! I am so excited for that yummy foods I'll get to make with these!!!
A few examples:
Pumpkin Zucchini Bread to use up the zucchini
Banana Muffins (my kids love these in the morning before school)
Fajita's with the bell peppers (I have onions from 2 weeks ago I can use with it)
Green smoothies with the spinach, avocado, peach, pear and bananas (plus I'll throw in some frozen grapes and berries I have)
Deli Sandwiches with the tomatoes and lettuce, plus some salad!
And I'll probably grill up some chicken with the corn (my kids LOVE corn on the cob)

In case you've never ordered Bountiful Baskets before, you go online to Bountiful Baskets.org sometime between Monday after 12 noon and Tuesday before 10 pm to pay for your basket, it's 15$ plus a 1.50$ handling fee (for me it costs 1.50$ or more just to drive to the store to grab some produce), if it's your first time ordering you'll also pay a small fee of 3$ or $4 (can't remember the exact amount), but that's only the first time you order! So normally it's 16.50$ and you get a basket of veggies:
and a basket of fruit (today was very veggie heavy, sometimes it's more fruit heavy, and sometimes it's about even). I love that you never know what you'll get so you can have fun trying new recipes! I'm not gonna lie, every once in a while you'll get some produce that isn't so great, but 95% of the time the produce is wonderful, it's definitely worth the cost!

So back to how you order, you'll order online, then you get to go pick up your baskets on Saturday, normally in the morning. You'll have to check bountiful baskets online to find out times and locations for your area. Since it's a food coop it's all done by Volunteers. So if you arrive 45-60 minutes early at your site you'll get to help distribute the boxes of produce into the above baskets for everyone. If you volunteer you also get to pick an extra item or two (if it's a small item you'll get two, if it's a large item you'll get to pick 1) just for helping. Each basket has a set number of each item, then whatever is left in the cases of produce after that number is distributed, the volunteers distribute as evenly as possible. So some baskets might have an extra bag of carrots, some might have extra lettuce or pears or chilies etc. I ended up with an extra bag of carrots and an extra bunch of spinach. Then I got an extra peach and avocado for volunteering. LOVE it!!! And my kids know that every other week I go to Bountiful Baskets (yes they even know that's what it's called and they're only 3 and 5). 

If you have any questions ask away, I've been going for 3 or 4 years now and absolutely love it! 

Oh and here's there facebook page that is always filled with fun new recipes!

 

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Vinyl Wednesday! - here comes the bride

I had the pleasure of making a fun wedding sign last week for a gal! She wanted it heart shaped with a ribbon so that a little boy could walk down the isle carrying it.

My hubby wasn't to keen on the idea of cutting a heart shaped sign, so I found these heart shaped wood pieces on etsy!


I painted it with 3 coats of white craft paint and made sure to let it dry over night to make sure it was completely dry! I then had my hubby drill two holes in it, I tried to make them somewhat even by measuring the distance from the middle on each side. 


After the holes were drilled I sanded the edges and lightly sanded the front and back so that it was smooth over the whole thing as well as to smooth the area where the holes were drilled.


I love the sanded edge effect!!! Anyways? After doing that I grabbed some ribbon and used a little pick thing to help press it through the holes and tied some knots on the ends to help hold the ribbon in place. I double knotted it twice in hopes it wouldn't slip or come undone.


Then I applied the vinyl! It took 3 tries to get the desired spacing right, but I was super happy with the outcome!!! Totally worth the time!!! Voila! A cute wedding sign!!!
(look forward to more vinyl goodies next Wednesday)

Monday, August 19, 2013

Recipe Monday: Sweet & Sour Chicken & fried rice

Can I just say YUM! We all loved it!
 (I have some pretty picky kiddos too)
I found this recipe on Pinterest several months ago and have thoroughly enjoyed making it every so often, definitely a favorite of ours! Well today, I didn't have time to cut up and lightly fry the meat before baking it so I used Tyson's Jumbo Popcorn Chicken that I bought at costco last month! It made it super quick to whip up! The rice takes very little time since you can make the white rice ahead of time, then turn it into "fried" rice when you're ready. If you're looking for a quick, easy and delicious meal, you should try making this Sweet and Sour Chicken recipe!!!

 Oh and from now on I'll be posting a recipe that i've tried or make every Monday, so look forward to some tasty recipes in the future!!!

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Winner Winner!!!

After going through my Facebook page and counting up all the entries between that and the blog, I added up a total of 73 entries! Woohoo! Last giveaway there was only 29 entries, so that's really exciting!!!

 The winner is Tonya S!!!!
(I e-mailed you)

Number 63 - because of how the comments went i wrote down all the names and number of entries on a piece of paper based on the day and time that they commented to make it fair. Thank you to all that entered and for all the LOVE you showed my page and blog!!!


if I don't hear back within 48 hours I"ll "draw" a new winner

Monday, August 5, 2013

GIVEAWAY TIME!!! You get to pick!!!

Hooray!!! My facebook page has reached 250 likes!!! How exciting is that!!!

I took all of your comments to heart on what giveaway prize you would like to see so YOU get to pick your prize!!! How great is that! 

Options:
~ 2 Personalized Tumblers & 1 Stache Jar
~ Family Rules Sign (brown with cream vinyl)
~ Mr. & Mrs. Sign (cream with black vinyl)
~ Perfect Marriage (black with white vinyl)

The winner will get to pick one of the 4 options listed above, see pics below:






Giveaway Rules:

now the important part...how to enter

Mandatory entry: tell me what option you would pick if you won!
(be sure to leave your e-mail address so I have a way to contact you)
Additional Entries:

~ Like my Facebook Page, leave a comment that you did, or if you already do just let me know.

~ share my Facebook page with your friends and then leave a comment that you did.

~ Follow my blog, leave a comment if you do.

You can have up to 4 entries per person! Thanks so much for checking out my page and good luck on the giveaway!!! Giveaway ends Midnight next Wednesday, August 14th!!!

Giveaway open to all U.S. Residents. Winner will have 48 hours to respond once contacted.