A Fairy Special Birthday!

  

Taylor had the best time at her birthday party this year!  We kept it (fairly) simple and just invited a few of her friends and school friends over to the Club House pool and splash pad.  This year, her dad and I decided to throw a joint party and just invite all the people that are closest to Tay.  I am grateful to have a functional co-parenting relationship with her dad.  We are to a point where we can all be in the same room together and just celebrate Taylor.  I want to provide that to Taylor, and I’m glad we can.  At the end of the day, we have one thing in common and that is our love for our beautiful Taylor, so that is all that matters.

The theme was an easy choice – why, Abby Cadabby of course!  Abby has been Taylor’s favorite since she was one.  Here are a few of the details that I put together that made her party fit for a little fairy princess…

I had a round cake and cupcakes made at Publix, and decorated them with these Abby cake toppers that I found on Etsy.

I think Taylor approved of the cake!

The decor and favor boxes where  found at the Oriental Trading Company.  I wanted to keep things simple.  I’m not a big fan of the over the top character-themed birthdays, so just some subtle hits of Abby worked for us.

Taylor wore the perfect outfit for a fairy pool party!  I came across this most precious tutu on Etsy and I just HAD to have it!! 

Once I had the tutu, I then stressed over what she’d wear under it, until I came across this sweet little baiting suit from good ole Target!  Oh, and by the way – I bought this suit from the GIRLS section :(  Baiting suits always seem to run small for babies, so the extra small in girls (which I think equates to a 4T) fit Tay Tay just fine. 

I think it turned out perfectly, don’t you? :)  She’s working that tude!

 

Thank God for little girls!!!

Her invites also came from Etsy.  I found the file I liked, the seller customized it with the words and picture, then sent me the digital file.  I just had them printed at Kinkos on cardstock.  I was a pretty cost effective way to make custom invites.  There was a little problem with getting the invites printed however; many places will refuse to print anything with a “character” on it, like Abby, so the way around that was to print them in the do-it-yourself area of Kinkos.  Also, when deciding what to have the invites say – I may have forgotten to mention that it was a POOL PARTY – oops!  It all worked out, as I just mentioned this to everyone when they RSVP’d. :)

My bestie, Allison was nice enough to whip up some special “Abby Snacks” as a snack for the party.  She claims that they didn’t turn out the way the recipe pictured it, but it was delicious!!  The kids (and adults) munched it up!!  You can find the recipe here.

  The kids and adults swam for hours and enjoyed the water slide and splash pad. 

    

Easy Turkey Chili

I came up with a super easy, super yummy, easy, Turkey Chili recipe that I thought I’d share with you!  I took it camping this weekend and it was a hit!  I prepared it a day ahead of time and then just re-heated it in the crock pot a few hours before dinner.  

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Here’s what you need (for 4-6 servings):

• 1.3 lbs. ground turkey
• Medium white onion
• green pepper
• Chili seasoning packet
• Chili powder
• minced garlic
• 16. oz tomato sauce
• 1 can original Rotel
• small palm-full Red Pepper Flake
• 1 can Black Beans (drained)

Brown the turkey on medium-high heat, add chopped onion and green pepper and minced garlic.  Add salt and pepper.  Once the meat is cooked though and the veggies are tender, add in the chili seasoning packet, add a small palmful of extra chili powder and red pepper flake to make it nice and spicy!  Add in the canned tomato sauce, Rotel, and black beans.  Bring to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes.

I serve it over whole wheat penne pasta, but that is just what I prefer.  You can serve over rice or use more as a dip and use tortilla chips too.  Top with shredded cheddar and a dollop of sour cream.  Corn bread with fresh honey butter makes for a great side to this too!  Enjoy!

Check out my other recipes here.

Homemade Pizza and Virgin Martinis!

This Valentine’s Day, Josh and I made dinner together and had a nice relaxing evening at home.  Instead of putting in all the time and effort to make a complete steak dinner, Josh suggested we just make a pizza instead. 

 

We made this pizza completely from scratch!  The day before, we made the pizza dough – literally from flour, water, and yeast.  To my surprise, it turned out perfectly!  On Monday, we rolled it out and started assembling the pizza.

We stuck with the basics and made a classic pepperoni, cheese, and veggie pizza.

It doesn’t look all that beautiful, but trust me – it was de-lish!

For all you pregos out there, I made up a great virgin drink recipe to sip on while the pizza was cooking:

• 1 part Blueberry Pomegranate juice
• 1 part Club Soda
• Splash of lime juice

Add some blueberries on a stirrer as a garnish and ENJOY!

 

Hope you all had a great Valentine’s Day with the ones you love!

Greek Pasta Salad

Greek.  Pasta.  Salad. 

Need I say more? 

 

Allison first introduced me to this when she brought it over for New Years.  It just randomly popped into my head recently, so I asked her for the recipe.  She told me there was no real recipe for it; she made it up.  It’s just Orzo pasta with other Greek ingredients. 

Sounds easy enough, right? 

Well, it was!  Josh and I whipped this up in a manner of 15 minutes.  It’s just so delicious, I had to share the “recipe” with you.

• Cook Orzo pasta al dente (I used a box and a half to make a large serving)
• While the pasta is cooking, chop up all the veggies.
• 1 diced English cucumber
• halved grape tomatoes
• 1 can of sliced black olives
• 1/2  red onion diced
• Greek dressing of your choice. 

I used my favorite dressing – Farmer Boy Restaurant Greek Dressing.

 

 

Lastly, don’t forget to top with crumbled feta. 

Everything is betta with feta!

 

 

New Cookbook

Do you want to cook healthy for you and your family?  Hate how cook-books usually don’t tell you the nutrition facts in the meal you’re about to prepare? 

Well, I do!  I recently came across an awesome and simple diabetic cookbook.  Josh and I aren’t diabetic, but it doesn’t mean I can’t cook from a Diabetic cookbook.  It’s full of delicious recipes that are healthy, well-balanced meals. 

The nutrition facts are listed with each recipe, so you know exactly what you are putting into your mouth.  Back when I was being very strict with my calorie counting with LoseIt, dinner was the hardest meal for me to calculate.  If I wasn’t eating a Lean Cuisine or some other pre-packaged meal that listed the nutrition facts, I didn’t really know what I was eating; I could only estimate.  Plus, cooking fresh meals is so much better for you.

From the second I started flipping through the cookbook, my stomach started growling.  There are so many good recipes!  Chances are if you come to my house for dinner, you’ll probably be trying one of my new creations from this cookbook!

Couch 2 5k – Week 8 Update

This morning I started Week 8 of Couch 2 5k.  Week 8 is a 5 minute warm up walk, 28 minuets of running, and then a 5 minute cool-down.  Back when I first started trying to run, the thought of running 28 straight minuets was inconceivable!  Flash forward to today, and I am able to do it with not too much difficulty.  I am really proud of how far I’ve come!

I’ve been running about 4 days a week, and try to do it first thing in the morning.  If I get out of bed early enough, I run down trail that winds through my neighborhood.  Couch 2 5k tells me when I am at my halfway point.  When I hear that halfway point bell go off, I usually jump up and down and do a quick cheer because I made it that far and I know I can make it back!  I probably look like a big dork doing it, but I don’t care! 

I really enjoy running on the trail.  The scenery is so nice and I always see some type of wild animals.  To occupy myself on my run, I’ve named all the different areas of the trail.  There’s Alligator Pond (where I see Mr. Alligator chillin’ most times), Scary Bridge (the catwalk that takes you over a swampy-forest area), Sunshine Trail (a long stretch where the sun is always beating down on me), and Deer Valley (sometimes I see some deer prancing through there).  There are more named areas on the trail, but I won’t bore you with all the little details.

It was super humid and hot this morning.  85 degrees at 7:45am to be exact.  I’ve never been so sweaty and tired before in my life.  The best part about completing a run like this morning is, 1.) that I did it – I feel better about my whole day if I start out with a run, and 2.) I get to go home and make myself breakfast!  Breakfast is by far my favorite meal of the day, so this morning I whipped up a delicious breakfast sandwich.

• 1 Whole Wheat Bagel Thin     (110 cals)
• 1 Tbsp. Greek Olive Hummus   (35 cals)
• 2 scrambled eggs                  (140 cals)
• 1/8 c. shredded cheese           (35 cals)

 

Let me tell you – It was sooo good adding that hummus to the sandwich.  It really beats adding mayo, butter, or ketchup and it’s so much healthier!

Next week, I’ll be graduating from Couch 2 5k and then I’ll be starting on a new app that will bridge me from running a 5k to a 10k.  Eek… that sounds hard, but I look forward to starting the next challenge!

S’mores Dessert!

Do you love s’mores?  Do you love chocolate moose?  AND, Do you love guilt-free desserts?

Well, if you said yes to any or all of these questions, then you must try this recipe I came up with!  I created a no-bake, s’mores inspired, chocolate moose.  Is your mouth watering yet??

The crust:

Smash up cinnamon graham crackers and add in a little melted butter.  Pack in the crust to the bottom of the glass to create the first layer of goodness.

The chocolate moose:

The chocolate moose is just a no-bake mix that I got at the grocery store.  I just followed the package instructions and then refrigerated it.  Once it was done, I added a dollop to each glass for the second layer.

The S’mores:

To really make it taste like a light and fluffy s’mores dessert, I topped the dessert with Marshmallow Fluff. 

 

 

The Garnish:

To finish off the dessert and to make it look extra special, I shaved some dark chocolate on the top, added an extra graham cracker, and a mint leaf (straight from my little herb garden).

And, voila!  You have yourself and easy, no-bake, awesome dessert!

Dinner Idea

Last week some friends and I went to Dinner Done.  If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a place you go to prepare your meals, package them up, and take them home to your freezer.  Dinner Done is really fun to do, and it gives you a jump start on meal planning and preparation.  I enjoy cooking, so I just supplement my Dinner Done meals in with other meals that I make from scratch.

Most of the Dinner Done’s are a complete meal, but others are just the main dish, so they still require some preparation.  The meals give you recommendations on what to serve with the main entre, so that helps with the ideas.

The dinner Done I made the other night was Pork Tenderloin with a Maple Glaze.  The side suggestion was Corn Mashed Potatoes.  I had never had that before, but it sounded good.  Mash potatoes and corn is also right up Josh’s alley, so I decided to try it. 

It turned out so delicious, so I wanted to share the recipe with you that I came up with…

Chop up your potatoes and boil (15 – 20 minuets, or until your can easily stick a fork in them)

Drain the potatoes, and then add in some sour cream, milk, salt and pepper, then mash all together.

In a separate pan, sauté olive oil and minced garlic

Add a can of corn to the olive oil and garlic mixture and heat through.

Mix the corn with the potatoes.

Serve and enjoy!

Valentine’s Day

 This year for Valentine’s Day, we planned on going to Charley’s Steakhouse for dinner.  To make a long story short, we made the reservation for the wrong night and didn’t end up going.  Regardless, I was still craving steak, so for Valentine’s Day we made our own delicious steak dinner and dinned in!

(Oh, and by the way I’m a brunette now!  What do ya think?  I’m just trying it out for awhile, and liking it so far.)

On the menu – We had parmesan crusted filet mignon, loaded baked potatoes, caesar salad, veggies, rolls, and cheesecake with fresh raspberries for desert!

I got the idea to make a crust for our filets from Ally.  I wanted to do something different than just the usual steak and make it a little more like a steak you’d order from a restaurant.  Instead of trying out a recipe, I just decided to wing it.

I mixed together a 1/2 cup of bread crumbs, and a 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese.  Mixed in 1 egg, some salt and pepper, onion powder, and basil. 

Once the filets were gilled to perfection, Josh brought them in and I topped them with the parmesan crust mixture.  Then we broiled them for about 5 minutes, until the crust started browning.

Overall, it was a nice Valentine’s Day.  The food was delicious and the company was great; Josh and I sat around the dinner table for hours just chatting and sipping champagne. 

Thank you for the Green Bean Valentine, Jennifer!  I love it!

Dining In Tonight

Josh and I experimented with making a Greek Pizza tonight.  We’ve had a similar pizza before with The Pernecky’s, but this was a first for us actually making it.  I originally got the idea from a Rachael Ray recipe, but we tweaked it a little.  It turned out so great, so I wanted to share the recipe with you...

You’ll Need:

• Pre-made pizza dough
• 1 medium onion - chopped
• 3-4 cloves of garlic
• fresh spinach
• nutmeg, salt and pepper
• 1/2 lb. cooked gyro meat (we got ours from a local Greek restaurant, – you can also sub chicken if you like)
• 1 pint grape tomatoes
• feta cheese crumbles
• mozzarella cheese - shredded

Roll out pre-made pizza dough (we got ours from the Publix bakery) and bake at 450 degrees until golden brown.

While the crust is browning, sauté an onion and a few cloves of grated garlic and season with nutmeg, salt and pepper.  Then add in a few handfuls of fresh spinach until it wilts. 

When the crust is ready, pull it out of the oven and top it with Tzatziki Sauce.  Add the sliced grape tomatoes and the sautéed onion mixture.  Top with cooked gyro meat, and finish off with feta crumbles and mozzarella cheese.

Pop the pizza back into the oven until the cheese is melted.  (about 15 min.)

Here is the finished product! 

I made a side salad to go with our dinner, but the pizza was so good that we didn’t even touch the salad!  I guess I’ll have it for leftovers tomorrow.

Let me know if you try this recipe.   I know you will love it!

Enjoy!