Friday night dinner...

KFC mashed potato bowl remakes & Publix sweet tea!

(don't judge us the size of the bowls)

Homemade mashed potatoes
Gravy from a jar :)
Corn
Publix chicken tenders cut up
Cheese

I just put then all in a bowl & threw them in the oven to melt the cheese & heat the gravy! They were so good.

Thank you

Thank you for saving me, homemade frapp.



Recipe on this one? A bunch of random stuff in my Magic Bullet.

-Cold coffee I never drank bc I fell asleep
-caramel syrup
-chocolate carnation breakfast powder
-ice
-sanity


:)

Random Acts of Kindness

I recently read a blog post where a woman spent her 38th birthday doing 38 random acts of kindness.... Handing strangers gift cards, handing strangers balloons, helping people load their groceries in their cars... So sweet!

Well today I was driving in the parking lot of a grocery store when I saw a man driving with his keys still hanging out of the trunk of his car (no idea how he was driving without his keys! Ha) Anyway, I drove up behind him and honked my horn like a crazy lady until he let me pull up next to him to tell him... He may have acted like I was a little crazy too, but he was appreciative. I do have to say I drove away happy... Proud that I did a random act of kindness... When I got to thinking.... It wasn't at all! It's common decency!

It just gave me a new perspective... I feel like maybe common decency is not all that common!

I would hope someone would do the same for me...

Halloween! & other recent stuff

My Hannah Banana <3

We had a Halloween party & Hannah was NOT a fan of her costume! Oh well... Pictures don't show it! :) atta girl!

Here are a few more recent pictures from my phone of what's been going on! Recently, she's starting pulling herself across the floor & she does it FAST!! I know she'll be "crawling" soon! This thing she does is so funny... She just drags herself now!

We are still dealing with her skin issues.. Eczema & possibly some underlying issues... Asthma/allergies type issues... In addition to the doctors' suggestions, I am also trying a hazel wood necklace. I have friends who swear by them.. They are suppose to alleviate skin issues by absorbing acidity... We'll see! :)

On to the pictures, shall we?

Sunday Funday <3

Sean was is Georgia this weekend to help his dad with getting the house ready to be moved out of....

Saturday night I had a photo shoot with a beautiful family, and Hannah stayed with someone other than Daddy for the first time!

Hannah and I had a good weekend here, despite daddy leaving us! Today was BEAUTIFUL! It finally feels like fall. It was a gorgeous 66 degrees, so we went to the park! I am loving this weather.. I hope it stays for a while! HJ loves being outside, and loved her first time on the swing!

Subs and cream soda for lunch.. Yum!


Ps... She is totally Sean's mini-me in the stroller picture!!

Tuesday Night Dinner & a Craft

Dinner in the Malmo house last night:
Caesar salad with light dressing
Red potatoes:
Tossed in olive oil, s&p, red pepper flakes and ranch seasoning baked at 425° for about 40 minutes. Sprinkled with shaved parmesan & broiled until brown
Baked honey BBQ chicken:
Chicken breasts cut into strips, seasoned with s&p & covered in honey & Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce. Baked on 425° for about 10 minutes, flipped & brushed with more honey & sauce. Cooked for about another 5 minutes
Half a deli roll:
Toasted in the oven until butter is melted & browned

Yum!

So I have been obsessed with Pinterest lately, and I have seen these popping up everywhere! I have been dying to do one, so I picked up a wooden letter from Wal-Mart & used yarn & embellishments I already had. It's SO simple, you really don't need a tutorial. It takes all of about 10 minutes maybe?? Just hot glue to hold your starting piece of yarn with, wrap wrap wrap, and hot glue your last piece down when you like your finished product! If you don't like the way it looks, re-wrap! It's easy to take the yarn off and start over. I googled different methods, and found that you need to wrap in two directions to cover the tops as well as the sides.

 I love the final result! I want to do our family monogram next! :)

Taco Soup!

I have been dying to make this for a few weeks now, it is probably one of my favorite meals... FINALLY it is cooling off (a tiny bit) and starting to feel more like fall.... Time for Taco Soup!

Taco soup!!

I really really really love my crock pot. I love smelling the yummy-ness ALL DAY, it makes dinner taste that much better... plus, I can have the kitchen cleaned up before we even eat!

Anyway, here is how I made it this time:
Throw in (in this order.. I'm not sure why, just do it, okay?)
2 chicken breasts
3 tbsp(ish) Ranch seasoning (that's about one packet)
1/4 c taco seasoning (I added more later, it needed more kick!)
Two cans Rotel (I used one, but it could have used two.)
One can corn
One can black beans
One can white beans
One can kidney beans
(Don't drain those cans, you need the juice!)

That's it. Let it cook. I cooked mine for about 4 hours on low, my Crock Pot seems to cook on the fast side. Take the chicken out, shred it & throw it back in.

I top mine with fat free sour cream, fat free cheddar and crushed up baked Tostitos! Yes, please!

YAY FALLLLL!!! Enjoy!


Megan

Tex-Mex Chicken Salad & Spicy Sweet Potato Fries

Please forgive the iPhone picture.. Pshhh & I call myself a photographer.

 Yesterday while I was in Wal-Mart, I saw an idea for Tex-Mex chicken salad in the dressing aisle. There was a combo pack of dressings- one was a BBQ ranch and one was a marinade for chicken. No way I am spending money on that.. But I totally stole the idea!

Now... I don't measure hardly anything.
Unless I'm baking.
Soooo forgive my vague recipes.

Tex-Mex Chicken Salad

Ingredients:
iceberg lettuce
tomato
avocado
one can of corn
one can of black beans
salsa
chicken breasts
BBQ sauce (I use Sweet Baby Ray's)
Ranch (I use Kraft light three cheese ranch. I could go on and on about this delicious light dressing.. But I will save it for another day)
olive oil
taco seasoning
s & p

The base is :
iceberg lettuce
tomato
avocado (Would be DELICIOUS on this but I didn't have any.. Wal-Mart's selection was yuck)

Then I added a black bean and corn mixture...
For this I just heated up the black beans and corn with some taco seasoning & a little bit of salsa on the stove.

Then the chicken:
I cut up chicken, seasoned it with taco seasoning, a tiny bit of salt (taco seasoning is pretty salty) and pepper
I sauteed the pieces in a pan with olive oil.. Once it was finished cooking, I added BBQ sauce & let it hang out on low until my sweet potato fries were done!

The dressing:
2/3 ranch
1/3 BBQ sauce
Oh my HEAVENS.. I wish I would have thought of this sooner. It is amazing, especially on this salad!

This salad would have been good with some low fat cheddar cheese on top, but I totally forgot to add it!




Spicy Sweet Potato Fries

sweet potato cut into strips (I make one per person.. We would eat more if I made it!)
taco seasoning
olive oil

Preheat oven to 450º

Peel & cut sweet potato
Pat dry with paper towels (VERY important! If they have any moisture, they won't brown... like the ones in my picture lol)
Drizzle with olive oil & add seasoning. Use enough olive oil so they are shiny & covered, but not so much that they are in a pool of it. Add a good amount of taco seasoning. You want them to have a bite! The sweet/ spicy combo is amazing!
Mix well.
Spread out onto a pan, make sure they aren't touching or they will be soggy.

Bake at 450º for 15 minutes. Be sure not to open the oven before this! :)
Flip the fries & put in for an additional 10 minutes.
I like to then broil them for just a minute to get them nice and brown. The fries in this picture are nowhere near brown enough for me, but we were STARVING & got impatient! I make these all the time, we really love them!
Sean dips his in ranch, but I like mine just the way they are!

ENJOY! Have a really yummy day.

Green Monster

So after all the hype I've seen online about the "Green Monster" smoothie.... I decided it was time to give one a try.

The recipes I looked up vary a lot, but most recipes I have seen include spinach, milk, some kind of seed (Chia or Flax) and some frozen fruit.

This is my version.

Green Monster:

2 c baby spinach
1 T flax seed
1 c milk
1 frozen banana
1 T honey
1/2 c frozen blueberries & strawberries

This is everything in he blender, all ready to go! Apparently it is important to put them in this order. The spinach and seed first, so the other ingredients weight them down & they don't go flying & stick to the sides...

Warn the baby that there is going to be a loud noise!

Now, blend the crap out of the thing.... I know I don't want chunks of spinach coming up through my straw!

I blended for about a minute... Threw in a couple ice cubes & blended again until smooth. My first Green Monster!!! I enjoyed mine for breakfast with a piece of Wasa crispbread & light Swiss Laughing Cow. (I have an obsession with Laughing Cow... Don't ya know? Ask my sister... When I was pregnant I used this stuff on everything!)

I can't believe how good it was! I was fully prepared to taste the spinach... (Hence why I added the honey) But you honestly can't taste it!

Sounds scary, looks weird.. Tastes delicious!
Make one! Tell me how you like yours!

Have a healthy day.

Onsie Modification & Headband

Isn't she the sweetest thing ever?

Recently I found this cute onesie modification tutorial. I am a novice sewer... But this seemed simple enough for me to try. Plus, I am obsessed with my sweet baby & making things for her.. =) I am pleased with the way the front looks for sure. Close up, it's a little messy, but I learned from my mistakes & my next ones should be better. I think my biggest sewing problem is that I get too excited and I don't take my time to make sure I do it right. (I will have to work on that!) I made the onesie maybe a week ago, but I have been waiting to put it on Hannah until I made a matching headband.. which I finally got around to doing this morning! :) I will most likely post a tutorial on that soon when I make my next one.

Also coming up... Pictures of my craft nook! I am so so so in love with it. Ever since Sean & I got married, I have been dreaming of a craft area. I started buying the cube-y things from Michael's whenever I had a 40% off coupon in hopes of building a sweet craft area. Andrea at Inkadink has an AMAZING scrapbooking corner. When I saw hers, I KNEW I had to have one of my own. My dream has finally become a reality, now that we are in a house rather than an apartment!!

Have a happy night!

From Scratch.

Because that’s the best way to start things, right? =)

When Sean and I first got married, I started a blog that was intended to document the trials and tribulations of our first years of marriage including, but not limited to our new home, my crafting and my recipes, pictures, updates…. Well. That didn’t last long. True to form, I started this new project wholeheartedly. Aaaaand true to form, it didn’t last long.

So here I am with a resolution. It’s not January, it’s the middle of August… But I am taking a vow to stick to it this time. I want our friends and family to watch this beautiful baby grow (in a more intimate setting than Facebook). I want a place to share the other endeavors in my life.... Cooking, crafting, photographing.

But this time will be different. Right? Right???? Right.

So I will leave you with a two photos of this past weekend- Me & my little Hannah Bug at the beach.




I hope you have a happy night! :)