Pinned and Tried

Ok, so I have been seriously slacking about posting what we have been doing with Pinterest. I have been cooking something that I have found on there almost daily, we have really been slacking with the crafting though. We haven't been home enough to do any crafting. But here are some things that we have tried...and our reviews.

Balsamic Glazed Pork (no photo of my own, sorry) : This was amazing! Kyley didn't eat it because she is not eating much meat and when she does she is only eating chicken or turkey. Those of us that ate it really liked it. I didn't tweak anything at all with this recipe. It was great as it stands.

Baked Gnocchi (again no photo...such the slacker) : This was an ok meal. It was very filling, as gnocchi typically is. I bought store bought gnocchis and cheated by used DelGrosso Three Cheese Sauce. Everybody (including Kyley's friends) enjoyed the meal, but I am sure my children would have enjoyed it more had I made my own sauce. This will be revisited I am sure.

Orange Push-Up Smoothie : The first time we made this it as WAY too sweet. I cut out ALL of the sugar and it was so much better, still sweet because I used the concentrate but better. I think the next time that we revisit this it will be with fresh OJ and/or oranges. The kids really like the concept, as do I, but next time we will stick with fresh.

Quinoa Burgers (Today's dinner..but again no photo) : I tweaked this a bit, I used Ricotta rather than Cottage cheese, skipped the Splenda and sugar, used all purpose GF flour. I also added minced garlic rather than green onions and garlic powder. These were LOVED by all and I am sure they will be revisited as we attempt to lessen our meat intake even more.

Healthy Mozzarella Sticks (Today's dinner as well...again no photo) : I used won ton wrappers and cut mozzarella cheese from a ball rather than using string cheese. They were good, but would have been better had the cheese stayed put. The kids still liked them, but I didn't have any.

No Bake Energy Bites : We made these today but we have yet to try them. The "batter" tasted pretty good though. :)





 
The next few things that I made were found on foodgawker. I actually use this site quite often for new recipes. I made these S'mores Granola Bars this morning for snacks for the week, however I am not sure how long they will last. The kids are gobbling these right up. I guess that means they are well liked. I tweaked this a bit, using GF oats and rice krispies and subbing honey and a bit of molasses for the corn syrup.

Pumpkin Spice Granola Bars : We made these as well today, however they have not been tasted either. I added more cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice but kept everything else the same. I also made them thinner so that they would be crunchy.

I know there are things that I am forgetting that we have tried out but....oh well. I will try to post more regularly.

I am struggling with  getting back into the swing of things, so thankfully I have Pinterest (and Kyley) to keep me on track. Today I made Honey Chicken and it was a hit, though this is one that I have pinned and tried before. The kids LOVE this meal. I put it over quinoa rather than white rice and that is the only thing that I tweak for this recipe. Today I tripled the recipe with chicken and quadrupled the sauce because we like to have extra sauce for over our quinoa.

The craft we tried was kind of a bust and the kids weren't big fans. I figured that because the kids love oobleck so much that Cloud Dough would be a hit. We couldn't seem to blend it well enough for it to be able to be formed and just mixing it wasn't nearly as cool as I thought it would be. No photos of this one today either. Sorry.

Keeping it PINTERESTing

Ok, it's day 2 for our month long challenge. Today because we were having leftovers I opted to make a snack, that we found on Pinterest. Our snack for the day was Apple Nachos. They were a HUGE hit with everybody. I tweaked the recipe a bit (I will with most I am sure) by skipping the chocolate chips and coconut (we have one who doesn't like choc. or coconut)  and substituted homemade caramel for the peanut butter. I also sprinkled cinnamon on the apples prior to adding the nuts and caramel. The kids were BEGGING for more. The caramel took a bit of time to make, but now we have some on hand and the kids like this better than any store bought brand, but the apple nachos the kids could have made on their own. Here is a picture of ours:

Dawson is already asking for more tomorrow with lunch. :) And from a mommy point of view I have to say that it is a simple snack that I don't mind them munching on. 

Our To-Do activity today was actually a repurposing project similar to the one seen HERE, but we haven't completed it so no photo. We are going to use the lot of tea tins that we found at the local Goodwill for Dawson to store some of his smaller Lego pieces. We are getting ready to do a room revamp for him so this worked perfectly. 

It's going to be a PINTERESTing Month

After seeing a friend doing a challenge for the 12 Days of Christmas, I thought that I would jump on the bandwagon and utilize Pinterest to spark some motivation and creativity. I am going to attempt to make one meal from something that I found on Pinterest, as well as do one activity, daily for this entire month. I am also hoping to take on one organizational task per week.

We actually waited until yesterday to start because we have a typical New Year's Day meal that we eat every year, so I didn't want to start by trying something new. Yesterday we made Lasagna Soup (meatless though) and it was loved by all. This is a soup that we will be revisiting often, as it was simple to make, yet tasted great.

We tried our hand at some Melted Crayon Art and this is something that we are going to have to redo as well. There are so many different opportunities to be creative with this.

My camera didn't make an appearance yesterday so I have no photos of our meal or activity, but I promise to remember for today.

Musical Monday

"Beautiful Boy" has been a long time favorite song of mine for quite some time and this evening it has such an emotional connection for me. Tonight I had a few people remind me of just how beautiful (inside and out) my boy is. 

SOOC Sunday

An overexposed faery in the woods

July 17-23 Week in Review

The week started out with a family function, my niece's baptism party, where my brother and mother were going to be in attendance. I was unsure of how things would play out but it ended up being ok, a little awkward but ok. The party was small as many people who were invited and said they would be attending did not show. It was nice to be able to cuddle the sweet baby for a bit though.

Monday we had our Freeminds Meet-Up and then Dawson had a karate class.

Tuesday Kyley had volunteer time at the library and Dawson had a karate class. We met up with some friends at McD's after karate for some playtime and then it was time to get Kyley. I finally got the affidavit notarized and dropped it, along with the objectives and medical exemptions off at the admin office of the school district. We spent a bit of time at the library with friends while Kyley was finishing up a poster that she had to make, then headed back home with friends. The weather was pretty hot so the kids were in and out most of the day. I had intended to prepare everything for the curriculum sale but fun with friends took precedence.

Wednesday we picked up a friend's daughter for her 4 year old photo shoot and drove to WV to meet up with another photographer friend of mind to shoot. We ventured to Bear Creek State Park in OH where the weather was insanely hot. I don't think we could have chosen a worse day to shoot. The kids were a little crazy and hot...and miserable as well, so we cut out shooting short, which was a little disappointing but it HAD to be done. We then took all 5 kids to lunch and then headed back home. It was a nice trip, despite the heat, but we won't be doing it again until after the heat breaks. Here are just a few photos from the trip:

Faery in the woods

My Sweet Girl Growing Up

I broke the latch handle on the van (damned plastic) when I was putting the camera back and of course I had a desk that I picked up from a fellow freecycler in the back when this happened. After we got home I took apart the back door and finally managed to get the hatch open and get the desk out. The handle is still broken, but I will fix it soon enough. I managed to get Dawson to karate on time despite messing with the van. 

Thursday was the curriculum sale. OMG it was so HOT. The church was without a/c and it was 94* We ended up cutting out a bit early because I couldn't take it anymore. It was a semi-successful day. We made $50 and I found some curriculum for $22.50 that I will be using this coming year. I still have a lot of stuff left that needs to find a new home...soon I hope. After the sale we went to lunch and then headed to Wal-Mart where the kids picked out some new folders and such. Then another evening of karate.

Friday the heat had gotten to us all so we made the decision to purchase passed to the local pool, which were half off regular pricing...BONUS! As we were getting ready I received a phone call from the fraud department of my bank only to find out that I was once again hacked. This makes the 2nd time in 6 weeks. I picked up passed and dropped the kids at the pool and went to the local bank branch to get things sorted out yet again. I honestly think this is coming from a breach in PayPal security because I updated my information on PayPal Wednesday evening after making a purchase from Etsy and by Friday I had fraudulent activity coming from the UK. I managed to get things sorted out but I am left yet again without a debit card for a week to 10 days. *sigh* I was able to relax at the pool after for a bit with the kids, so that was nice. Later in the evening Kyley and I went to pick up a sewing machine from my cousin and got caught in a severe thunderstorm so we waited it out over a dessert. :) We then ventured to the grocery store and managed to remain dry for the most part. 

Saturday morning we had a long day at karate, then back home while Matt fixed the central air (though it is still not working so tonight we will be spending the  night in the camper yet again) then headed off to drop Kyley off at Pappy's house for a sleepover while we went to the pool for a bit. 

All in all a busy week but we had fun.