dishing up creative goodness
This past week I hosted a fun Root Beer Float Party with my family and in celebration I decided to bake some root beer float cupcakes to go with our floats.
These cupcakes are simple and taste great! Plus they’re half the fat than if you made them from the box. Now that’s pretty awesome.
The whipped cream topping does start to melt pretty quickly so try to hold off on topping the cupcakes until just before serving.
One thing I love about barbecues is the food. Having the opportunity to bring out our favorite summer flavors into the recipes we create is something I love. And this watermelon feta salad does just that.
Not only is it easy (um… 3 ingredients that you simply chop and mix together) but it’s a great recipe to help cool us down. With all of the heavy, fat ladened pasta salad choices, this salad leaves a refreshing choice that your guests are bound to love.
I made this recipe back when I hosted our lego party and created more of an appetizer with the presentation so having it in salad form made it much easier for me to create and serve.
This is a sponsored post by me on behalf of The Home Depot.
As self-proclaimed weekend warriors, my husband and I find ourselves at The Home Depot quite a bit.
So much so that our kids know the layout of the store about as well as they do Target (yeah… we’re bad about that one too!).
When my husband and I head out for an afternoon alone without the kids the one thing we’re looking for is easy. And we get just that with the ArcLight UTC.
We purchased our tickets online in advance and chose the seats we preferred, then we headed to the mall for a little shopping pre-movie. As we got closer to movie time we made our way over to the Arclight and settled in to their cafe.
This summer our family is on the move. From big family vacations, to trips to the beach, to days at the fair, we have a lot on our summer bucket list. Since retiring our double stroller for the past few months we were not looking forward to getting it back out for the events we have coming up.
So we decided to research and find a great lightweight umbrella stroller that the kids could take turns using when we go out on our adventures. When the Joovy Groove arrived at our door for review we knew that we had found “the one” for our summer traveling needs.
Not only did our Groove come in a snazzy Orangie tangerine color perfect for summertime, it also had all of the features we needed in a lightweight umbrella stroller: large shade cover, large basket for storage, drink holder for the kids. Plus this stroller folds up compactly and has plenty of other great features to talk about!
When my husband and I first started dating one of our go-to spots for dinner or lunch was Islands Restaurant. Not only did we love it for their great food and fabulous service, but we knew what we were getting every time we walked in the door. I don’t think we have ever been disappointed by a meal at Islands.
After having kids, Islands continues to be a great place to grab a bite to eat. And the kids love it just as much as we do. So when I was invited to head on over to the Mira Mesa location to try out a few items from their new happy hour menu I could not say yes fast enough!
We are always looking for a great happy hour spot for girls afternoons as well as our own frequent date night in the afternoons. And boy will we be heading to Islands more often for happy hour! With a great selection of appetizers and drinks for under $5, we can enjoy our favorite burger joint without breaking the bank.
I think I’m in trouble. My daughter is obsessed with all things beauty. And I really need to up my game if I’m gonna be able to impress her with my mad nail painting skills. So I’ve searched high and low for the easiest, failrpoof DIY nail art so I can start practicing now.
After seeing a few blog posts from my friend Staci of 7 on a Shoestring (a self-proclaimed tomboy), including this graffiti nail art how-to, I knew there was light at the end of the tunnel. If she could make fun and pretty nail art for her girls, I could totally pull it off for my two year old.
So when I was perusing the shelves at CVS waiting for my prescription for Vicodin to be filled (ugh… had my wisdom teeth pulled last week and OMG I’m in pain!) I found the display for Sally Hansen nail art pens and couldn’t say no. It just sounded so easy!
I left the store with my daughter’s favorite color, purple, in Sally Hansen’s Tough As Nails Xtreme Wear polish and a white Sally Hansen nail art pen.
This recipe and post is sponsored by Unilever.
A few weeks ago I posted about my shopping trip to Walmart and the I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!® light spread I picked up. I was able to use an awesome website called It’s Good To Know and found some great recipes that used I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!® in them.
Since then I’ve made a few dishes and have incorporated our secret ingredient -I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!® – without any fuss from my husband. His favorite recipe so far has been a simple panini I made for him and the kids for lunch one day. And we don’t have a panini press.
Being able to use the I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!® spread instead of butter has made these paninis even easier to make! No crumbs everywhere or hard, cold butter stuck to one corner and not budging. Just smooth, easy spreading! If you’re interested in finding out how you can make a panini without a panini press check out my YouTube video tutorial below.
The kids like to call them “fancy sandwiches” and love that I can switch up the ingredients inside to make different combinations. Served with a tasty side of veggies or a nice garden salad and it’s the perfect healthy meal! Plus it takes less than 10 minutes to prepare!
Father’s Day is this weekend and we cannot wait to celebrate! Why? Because we have some pretty awesome fathers in our lives.
My kids are busy finishing their gifts at preschool and I’m planning a fun root beer float barbecue for our families. But we’ve also scouted out great things to do with my husband and the kids around San Diego.
If you’re looking for a great way to get out and enjoy this gorgeous city of ours while celebrating Dad then look no further!
So this morning I was pulling out all of the veggies in our raised bed to make room for new plants. Our swiss chard and parsley were taking over one side of the bed and a weird plant I couldn’t identify was taking over the other.
I had pulled out the swiss chard and parsley and was just getting ready to pull out the weird plant when I found something… a sweet potato!
Now that was pretty weird because we hadn’t planted sweet potatoes in like 2 years. Somehow this little guy was buried under there and the unidentifiable plant was indeed a sweet potato plant!
So I did what any good gardener would do and thought of the perfect way to consume this awesome find. Sweet potato zucchini latkes! These ones are pretty healthy and I made them fit into my Nutrisystem plan. How awesome is that?
She enjoys sharing her family life in San Diego and features everything from delectable recipes to sharing DIY tips around the home and garden, what she's crafting and more.
