Good Luck!

The MAP test is quickly approaching. By quick, I mean next week! As a little motivator for my little Einsteins, I made two motivational cards for my kiddos. Of course, they'll be paired with a sweet treat the morning of the test.

In 5th grade, our kiddos take the Science test for the first time. What scientist doesn't love a delicious Milky Way? Mars Bars should go ahead and hire me to sell their product A.S.A.P.

If you are giving a science test as well, here's the document to download!


Reach for MilkyWay


I'm a big fan of Smarties, all meanings of the word, so I made another motivator for my kiddos.


Good LuckSmartiePants

Happy Tuesday, friends!

Buffalo Chicken Pasta Salad

Yum. 

Last week, I spent my spring break in St. Louis and Dallas relaxing and taking a true mental vacation. While in Dallas, we all decided to stay in one night and make dinner. I jumped on the chance to test out a new recipe. Pinterest introduced me to this recipe for Buffalo Chicken Pasta Salad, so we went to work. 

What You Need:

• 8 oz uncooked pasta (we went with bowtie!)
• 1/2 cup Frank's hot sauce (my first time cooking with hot sauce!)
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp onion powder
• 1/4 tsp celery salt
• 2 cups precooked chicken
• 1 1/2 cups blue cheese crumbles
• 1 cup carrots
• 1 cup celery

Click here to follow Snappy Gourmet's step by step directions for making the pasta. 

Now, you're probably wondering why that bottle of white wine vinegar is hanging out with garlic salt in the above photo. Maybe you weren't wondering that, but now you are. Well, initially it was thought that lemon juice was M.I.A. After subbing in white wine vinegar for lemon juice, we found a brand new bottle of lemon juice chillin' in the fridge. Literally. 

We also failed to find any garlic powder, onion powder, or celery salt .... so we used garlic salt. Could my taste buds tell anything was missing? Nope. 

What else do you need for a successful pasta? Someone else to chop the veggies. Lucky me, huh? I stuck to the easy stuff. 

Chop & Pour, repeat.

Fit For a King (or 4 friends on a Saturday night)

Promptly after this photo was taken, I was feeling rather confident the pasta dish that was created. I did a fancy little spin move on the rug and wiped out. The fridge happend to catch my fall and, thankfully, the pasta.

Bless You, Fridge.

Roofio! Roofio!

Thanks to a little inspiration from a friend on Facebook, I decided to test out the rainbow cupcake phenomenon for 'ol St. Patrick's Day!

I can't wait to snack on these little gems. Here's the recipe I followed courtesy of Family Fun.

I couldn't help but think of the legendary food fight from Hook while making these. The bright colors piled on top of each other had me shouting, "ROOOOOFIOOOOO" to my KitchenAid mixer.

Happy St. Patrick's Day and SPRING BREAK!

Grandma Knows Best!

Growing up my grandma would always make stuffed green peppers for my family. Each time my dad would bring home a new batch to stuff in the freezer, I would shiver and say.. "Ew! Yuck!" Year after year, my hatred and disgust towards this family tradition grew larger and larger. It was snowballing out of control. 

Why did I hate those peppers so much? I'm not sure. The real question is, why didn't I ever actually try them? (I imagine my sister is shaking her head at me now). Let's just say I was judging this edible book by its cover. Now here I sit at the age of 23 preparing to tell you about my own stuffed pepper experience. 

Does this mean I'm growing up?

Taco Stuffed Peppers from AllRecipes.com

• 2 green bell peppers
• 1/2 pound ground beef or lean ground turkey
• 1 tablespoon chopped onions
• 1 can kidney beans (drained -forgot to do that!)
• 1 can tomato sauce
• 3 tbsp taco seasoning (I definitely used the whole package)
• sour cream
• cheddar cheese

note: I made several changes to this recipe on accident. Peppers still turned out great!

Step 1: Cook the meat (I used lean ground turkey) and chopped onions in your skillet. 

Step 2: Boil the peppers that you've cut in half and de-seeded. (whoops! Forgot to mention that step).

Step 3: After you've drained your meat mixture, add 1 can of tomato sauce, 1 can of kidney beans, and 1 package of taco seasoning. Bring to a boil and let it simmer for ...umm.. however long you feel it should simmer.

Step 4: Simmer down now.

Step 5: Pop in the oven for 10 minutes at 350 degrees and let bake!

Step 6: Take a photograph for your blog.

Step 7: Park your butt on the porch with a good book and enjoy.  Sorry, that was bossy. You may sit and do wherever you would like.

Roaring Peppers - Get it?

Consider this my public apology for never trying my grandma's stuffed peppers.

Don't worry - we're on the phone now. 

Two Truths

This week I've realized two obvious truths about myself: I'm addicted to wreaths and I'm a borderline hoarder. Let me explain. 

I had this great idea to use each night this week to clean out a different room in my house. First, I wanted to start with my kitchen, then move to my room.. blah blah you get the idea. Well, as I was tackling my closet I was picking and choosing what to keep and donate to Goodwill.  I found myself clinging to everything. My poor friend Emily had to listen to me on the phone while I was talking myself in and out of keeping things. After realizing that it's just a t-shirt and not the ticket and/or experience from which I bought the shirt... I started chucking clothes in trash bags like it was nobody's business. Take that hoarding! Just when I thought I was making serious progress, I still had crap (pardon me) everywhere that I just couldn't part with. Don't get me wrong, I'm making quite the donation to Goodwill, but there's a lot more work to do.

 I dare you to come over to my house when I'm 80. Actually, I triple dog dare you because I'm probably going to need help cleaning out my crib.

Now, my second obvious truth. I love wreaths. Since spring is popping up around the corner, I did what any logical wreath addict would do... I made another one. (This also adds to my hoarding issues). I used a basic natural wreath from JoAnn's and hot glued a few fabric rosettes on top. Now, my front door is welcoming spring and the occasional postal worker who comes-a-knockin'. 

Here's a great tutorial for rosettes! Click here. 

The hot glue really glistens in the sun, doesn't it?

Happy It'sAlmostFridayAndICan'tContainMyExcitment Thursday!

Taco Chicken Soup

Happy Monday, friends! I hope the weather is beautiful in your area. Today, I woke up as a frozen popsicle in my bed (because I'm cheap and won't turn up the heat) and this afternoon I was prancing around in flippy flops. I sure do love spring weather! 

While driving home, I remembered I had a few chicken breasts in my fridge waiting to be cooked. I was in the mood for something soupy, stewy, taco-ey, and yummy. I started looking up recipes for a chicken taco soup, but I didn't have all of the ingredients to complete one.. so I combined a few! 

Chicken Taco Soup
Here's What You Need!

• Chicken breasts
• 1 packet of taco seasoning
• Salt
• Chicken broth
• Cream of chicken soup
• 1/2 of velveeta ...stick? What do you call those things?
• 1-2 cups salsa
• 1 can corn
• Tortilla chips
• Sour cream

Directions:

• Boil chicken breasts, taco seasoning, chicken broth and water for roughly 30-45 minutes. Don't quote me on that one! 
• Remove the chicken from the broth and chop up into cubes or shred. I went for the shred/cubed approach.
• Add the remainder of your ingredients (except chips and sour cream) to your broth and let simmer. Don't forget to throw your chicken back in!
• Pour some in a bowl and eat with chips and sour cream. Enjoy!

I enjoyed mine from the comfort of my patio. Now, I'm going to clean the crap (pardon me) out of my house.

My patio is ready for guests. Come one... come all!