Frugal Bars

I have been embracing the vegan lifestyle and I love it! Years ago I remember reading a magazine and the article was talking about new "energy bars" that were healthy and less calories than those power bars. They had amazing flavors like cookie dough and peanut butter cookie, you know, healthy. I stocked up on them because they were so good. Then I started to notice that on the days that I would eat one, I felt something was not right, (it took me a long time to come to this conclusion because I didn't want to stop eating these bars!!!). My throat would start to swell up! It got so itchy and irritated that I thought that I was going to have to go to the ER! I do not have any food allergies, but obviously something in these bars thought otherwise! So, no more delicious, guiltless energy bars for me.

That was a few years ago, since I knew that the bars were vegan I thought maybe I should give it another try. After all, I wasn't 100% sure the bars were creating a reaction (only 99.999%). And, hey, what else do I have to do, right?

While I was shopping that week I decided to go over to the power bar section of the store and look for the bars. There they were:



Luna Bars. So good! Just as I was about to grab a few to take home with me, I looked over to the box just to the left. There they were! I forgot these bars existed:

LARA BARS!

This is exactly what I wanted. These bars are SO good and they have an ingredient list shorter than my attention span. Dates. Dried Cherries. Almonds (or cashews). That's it. It depends on the flavor (some are better than others), but some contain other dried fruits and different nuts. Simplicity at it's finest. Lara Bars got it right. Fiber and protein all mashed into a bar that tastes like dessert!

The only thing stopping me from filling my cart with a months supply was the price tag. On sale these little bars cost $1.25 each. That is not bad if you want to get one here and there, but I want these ALL THE TIME! So, I bought a couple to hold me over until I could devise a cheap alternative. Even though the ingredient list was short, I wondered how they got perfection in a bar. Thank goodness for Google! A short internet search pulled up a plethora of homemade Lara Bar recipes! Yeah!

It took me longer to pull the food processor out of the pantry then it did to make these things! I took 3 boxes of dates (the .98 cent boxes), half of a small container of cashews, and a couple of handfuls of dried cherries (I don't do measurements!!). A little bit of vanilla (the recipe called for sea salt, but I forgot to put it in) and I processed the mixture until it wouldn't process anymore! I put it in a baking dish to rest in the fridge for a few minutes until I could cut them into bars. The final result was AMAZING! Soooo good. I wanted Mason to try one, but I just knew by the mood he was in (can you say...grouchy?) that even if he did like it, he wouldn't have admitted it. I could have given him a stack of Oreo's and he would have said he hated them (ahhh, pre-teen boys!), but I gave it a shot anyway. I was right. He was being difficult! I "think" he did actually like it because he didn't run to the sink in a dramatic fashion to spit it out, so I call it a success. And, if anyone needs more fiber in their life, it's Mason! I figured out the total cost, I got 8 bars out of this recipe for a total of .74 cents per bar! That sounds much better than $1.25 per bar, it's almost half the cost! The calorie content is about the same. Lara Bars have about 190 calories per bar, mine were about 205. This is not a light snack, but all the fiber and protein makes for a very filling snack. I can cut them in half, too, for a quick 100 calorie snack! Yum!

So, the moral of the story is Lara, not Luna!

Try 'em, I bet you will love them!!

Seconds!

I know one thing about Mason's appetite and that is if he asks for a second helping, it must be good! He has been a real trooper with trying new, vegan foods! My last few attempts at pizza were, lets just say....not so good! The cheese-less pizza has been very bland and dry lately, so I came up with a new idea. I had a bottle of basil-flavored olive oil (that is so delicious!) and I thought that I would try it on a pizza. I put some on the dough and sliced up one of those tomatoes that come on the vine (my favorite!) and some fresh basil leaves. Oh.My.Goodness! So good! When I baked it the leaves got a little crunch, so I also chopped up some more fresh basil and sprinkled more on top before serving. Is there anything better than fresh basil? I love it. I was afraid it was going to burn because olive oil has a tendency to burn faster at higher temperatures, but all was good! I did blot some of the extra oil before we ate it! I gave Mason two slices and he said, "Uhh, tomatoes on the pizza?" About two minutes later he was asking if there was any more pizza left! Tell me this is not restaurant-worthy?!

Yum!

Mind. Blown.

Some of you may or may not know my fascination with Mason jars. No, my one and only child was not named after the jar, my obsession came years after he entered my life. It gets a little more interesting when I found out that the Mason jar was actually patented on November 30. Yep, Mason's birthday! I may have blogged about this before (excuse me if I repeat myself, but I have quite a few things going on in my life right now!), but some Mason jars are actually molded with the words, "Mason's Nov 30", so perhaps you can see why I like Mason jars!

I use these versatile jars for just about everything, except canning!! That will change this summer when I will be taught the proper way to can from my Mom Mom! I can't wait! So, in the mean time I will continue to use them for drinking, storing, leftovers, and of course, my beloved smoothies. Which leads me to the most mind-blowing trick I have ever seen. Perhaps I am the last person on Earth to learn this because after I googled it, page after page came up. So, in case you are not aware, here goes...

First, gather your smoothie-making supplies:

I chose a strawberry-banana smoothie for this experiment

Fill the Mason jar and hold onto your head because your brain is about to explode.....



wait for it....





I am getting so excited to share this I can hardly contain myself! Fit the bottom of the blender with the blades onto the Mason jar!!!

Flip it and blend it!

Stick a straw in it and enjoy...

I have been guilty of making smoothies that are too big, so these are perfectly portioned!

I was a little afraid to try this at first, I thought the blades would hit the glass, so I tried it without anything in the jar at first with a towel covering my eyes in case glass went flying everywhere!

The smoothies are just the tip of the iceberg here. Pretty much anything that can go in a blender can be made into single-serving jars. Chopping nuts, ground coffee, and specialty coffee drinks, OH YEAH! It is already in a storage container, just pop a lid right on! It doesn't take much in this world to make me happy, just hand me a Mason jar and I will come up with something!

I Truly Love Baseball!

Today we had a make-up game because every single event scheduled last week was rained out. It was a great day to play! We arrived knowing that the team that we were playing was undefeated (just like us), so we knew it was going to be a good game. Just how good, I had no idea! It started just like any other game, the parents cheering the kids on and having a good time. By the 4th inning, it was still a scoreless game.  It could be blamed on the hot sun beating down on us and the kids in polyester, but things started to get, for a lack of a better term, heated. The umpires (who were coaches for the OTHER team) started making really bad calls. Really bad calls. One of the Mom's on our team started getting a little (ok, a lot) vocal about it. Of course, the other teams Mom's did not want to be out done, so they started yelling. Mason had an AMAZING play at 3rd base, he tagged the runner and he was....SAFE? Ohhhh, let me tell you, people far and wide could hear all of the Mom's yelling! The field had a score board (a luxury, let me tell you) and two little kids were put in charge of it. They "forgot" to update it, which led to the other team getting more balls, strikes, etc.! They were getting more time at bat than they were supposed to! That is what lead to.....The parent/coach fight! Oh my goodness, yelling back and forth, the other team was going to quit, people were getting thrown out. They were cheating, they were not honest and fair and by the 8th inning we were tied 2-2.  We thought for sure with the bias, that there was no way to come back and win this thing. The second to last time Mason was up to bat, he got beamed with the ball right in the back:

(That is going to hurt tomorrow)

By this time in the game, not only are the kids tired, hot, and hungry, but so are the parents. I got the worst sunburn. I have not had sunburn in years and it hurts! I guess I should not complain, I did not get hit in the back with a pitch! So, this story seems to be as long as the game today, 10 innings!! I do not ever remember playing 10 innings, ever. Mason got up to bat with 2 outs (at this point we are up 1, the score is 3-2), I was so nervous because he has not been on a good hitting streak lately, he got up to bat and cracked the ball to the fence (everyone thought that it was going to go out!!) and he brought in 2 runs!! WE WON!! It was the most exciting game that I have ever seen! We are still undefeated!!

I saw this video circulating Facebook last week and not only is it very timely, it is VERY accurate!!

Oh, and I found spell check :P

I Blinked..

I closed my eyes and it became 2012, I swear, I blinked and it was the end(ish) of May. Where has the time gone? Time needs to slow down, for goodness sake, my "baby" (not to be confused with my "little baby" that has four legs and fur) is going to be a MIDDLE SCHOOLER. Nooooo...But anyway, I am enjoying the time raising my "baby" to be a great person!

Some of you may know that I have chosen to become a Vegan! After 30+ years as a vegetarian, I think it is just a natural progression. To be honest, I do not know what took me so long (cheese, maybe?). I wanted to start this journey after my birthday (the end of this month) because Mason and I started a tradition last year of making a trip to Pittsburgh to celebrate my birthday at The Cheesecake Factory (yummm, cheesecake!). I wanted to take a week and try it out before I went "cold tofurky." I went grocery shopping and loaded up on the usual vegan supplies: fruits and veggies! As long as I wash and cut the fruit, Mason will devour it. Breakfast was not too much of a change. I usually eat a smoothie with whole wheat toast, very rarely would I eat eggs. Lunch was a different story, I would choose cottage cheese or a Chobani (ohhh, chobani, you stole my heart) yogurt. Dinner went either way. So, with a few adjustments, I was ready to tackle that week animal-product free. I started eating a big salad for lunch with any and every veggie (or fruit) that I could find to top it. Sunflower seeds for some crunch and a low-fat dressing, YUM! I started craving and looking forward to building a new (and much different) salad everyday! After a week of creating new, interesting recipes (most off the top of my head), I have to say, I LOVE THIS!! I feel so good! I found a lot of resources online that have been very helpful in making the (not so big) switch.

My dilemma: Friday night pizza night. Every Friday night Mason and I have pizza. Sometimes it is plain cheese, other times it is mushroom and black olive, but my favorite is green-salsa pizza! It is so good and easy! What to do? So, in an effort to try and solve my problem, I looked for Vegan Cheese. Yep, they make that. I found a company on facebook that makes all kinds of dairy-soy-meat alternatives. So, I "liked" them on Facebook and wouldn't you know it, they had a contest to win full-size packages of their Vegan Cheese! It was a timed contest, the first 75 people (they have almost 35,000 fans, so my chances were not that great) that filled out the form on their page won a bag of their mozzarella or mexican shreds. I WON!! I chose mozzarella but they sent me BOTH flavors!

How exciting! It arrived UPS on Tuesday and I had it sitting in the fridge until this afternoon, when I planned on making the pizza early (Mason has to be somewhere tonight). Ok, I put on the green salsa and opened the bag of mozzarella. Yep. My enthusiasm stopped there. It was odd and crumbly and smelled a little "off." But, I gave it a shot anyway. I baked the pizza as usual and when I opened the oven, I was a bit disappointed, this is what the pizza looked like:

Uh.Yeah.

Now, looks are not everything (I'm not that shallow), so I decided to cut a slice and give 'er a try.

The truth is, it did not taste *horrible*, but after the first few bites, I was done with it. Oh well. I think pizza night will resume with pizzas made with lots of extra veggies, sans cheese. I like pizza like that anyway, so no biggie!

After all that I have been reading about dairy and the dairy industry, the less I miss it. I really think that, as a nation, it has been forced on us how dairy is so good for our bodies. I'm not so sure about that, and after this week and a half without it, I cannot see a point in my life where I will want to have it again. But, with foods like this:


Whole grain toast with vegan cream cheese (that is good!), fresh dill, ice cold sliced cucumbers topped with sprouts:

Homemade Tropical Oatmeal with creamy almond milk:

Who needs dairy? Yum!

~Apparently Blogger removed spell-check. This isn't good...

You Know...

I leave for a few weeks and Blogger has changed everything!! I just want everyone to know that my life is back to normal (whatever "normal" is) and I will be back to blogging this week. That is, if I can figure out all these new settings!! Ahhh, sometimes change really depresses me. I'll be back soon, keep your eyes peeled for some great new pictures!! ~And...I'll leave you with this funny picture:

Happy [Belated] Easter!

How could the EB possibly forget the Jelly Belly's? No other jelly bean is acceptable and he (or she) didn't even leave a pack in Mason's Easter basket, whooops! Perhaps a visit to Gardner's candy store will have to make up for it, at some point! Here is the only Easter picture I was able to get before my camera died:



By the looks of it, I don't think Mason missed the sugar from the jelly belly's! We had a very nice Easter weekend. The weather was amazing and Easter dinner was equally as delicious! I have to say, I may be particial, but the roasted carrots and parsnips that I made we SO good! Ratatouille, sweet potatoes, desserts, yum...! Then later, Mason and I had to time lounge and catch up on our new favorite show: North Woods Law!

This semester of school is almost over! I cannot believe how fast it has gone by! I am excited to finish up with these courses and get my finals done.

I posted on Facebook the other day that by the fourth time your SON is called your DAUGHTER, it is time for a haircut! We went to get a haircut on Friday and the wait times at multiple locations were upwards of 2 hours. I.Don't.Think.So. We finally got in to a place that, thankfully, was only about a 15 minute wait. So.....here's the new do:



It took some getting used to because I was so used to his long hair, but it is growing on me! Now we have to deal with the eyebrows. He randomly yelled down the steps that he has a 'uni-brow', it sounded oddly like he was bragging, weird. I told him he had to "man-scape" and he didn't get it!

I hope everyone had a fantastic Easter! We certainly did, Mason is as happy as can be!

No Tricks, Just April Treats!

Happy April! I cannot believe we are already into the 4th month of the year! (Dear Time, PLEASE slow down, thanks). A lot has been happening! Games, games, games! The weekends have been full of stuff! I am not complaining, I am so glad Mason is so involved with sports! He actually said the other day that he wants to start working out. He had a doctor appointment and we asked if it was ok for him to start out using the 10 pound dumbbells that we have. He wants to get in shape and be able to run faster in baseball and football. Since baseball has started I have noticed such a difference in his speed! I am thankful that he was able to get on a basketball team, it has helped him stay active all winter and make a smooth transition into baseball (translated: he's not huffing and puffing running from second to third base!).

Bring on baseball season (and all the mud that goes with it):


The shoes are last years spikes, I thought we would get another season, but no. He went to the first practice and could hardly run in them, so I got him a new pair. He also needed a new bat bag, new baseball pants, batting gloves and a helmet! Oh, this sweet child of mine is expensive!

Here is my new favorite and quick lunch:



When I get home from school or have a break during the school day, I like to come home and eat something quick and delicious! Due to the abundance of cucumbers in the summer, I imagine I will be eating this on a daily basis. This is two slices of whole grain (Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted) bread, toasted. I put a thin layer of reduced fat cream cheese, and sliced cucumbers on top. Then I top it with sea salt and fresh ground pepper! It is sooooo good! My latest obsession (although not new to me) is Chia Seeds. I have eaten them for years in my yogurt(by the way, this weeks homemade yogurt cups are lemon with chia seeds, it tastes just like lemon-poppyseed pound cake!), oatmeal, even homemade chia pudding, but recently I saw them taken to a whole new level! Chia drinks! Apparently this is an old Aztec energy recipe, but I have been experimenting with my own twist. I have made chia iced tea (that is still chilling in the fridge), chia fresca, and chia juice! It is so good. Of course, Mason rolls his eyes. I had a breakfast-on-the-go the other day of toast (the bread above), with sunflower butter (you have to try this!) and sprinkled with chia seeds. Mason could not tell me enough how disgusting it looked. I always encourage him to try new things, if he doesn't like it, that is fine, but at least he tried it. So with that, I asked him to please try it. His face was scrunched up as he took a bite of the toast, then I saw his face "not-so-scrunched", then he took a second bite (I knew at this point he REALLY liked it)! I asked him what he thought. Feeling a bit defeated, he said, "It's really good"! Score one for Mom! That is now one of his breakfast options! Chia seeds are a power/super food that has amazing health benefits.

I am not one that tends to be an impulse buyer (ok, I am but my current situation does not allow for much of it), however, when I saw this, I HAD to have it:



It's the CUPPOW! It is, hands down, the best invention, EVER. I like to drink out of Mason jars, but the concept of turning it into a travel mug? Genius. I love travel mugs (my cabinets can attest to that), but I can never get "THE perfect travel mug". Too big, not big enough, too bulky, BPA plastic-laced, ugly, pretty, whatever. I can never find the right one. That is until CUPPOW! It turns a wide mouth jar into a travel mug, I LOVE THIS!! It took weeks and weeks for this thing to arrive, so I was well prepared. I got one for Mason, too. It is just like the coffee lids at Sheetz. He seems to drink more water when it is in a fun mug and has a lid, so...Score two for Mom! Anyway, I am in love with this invention. It is a grass-roots company here in the USA, environmentally-friendly, and simply awesome. Then I ran into a problem. Coffee and tea are HOT (duh). I needed a Koozi. I cannot, for the life of me, crochet. I have seen them made for Mason jars, but I didn't want to spend a lot more money (or wait another few weeks to get it), so...this was born:



The semi-homemade koozi! I went to Walmart and found clearance socks for $2. These were perfect (maybe purrrfect?) except one little detail:

Creepy Cat Heads


No problem, I just cut them off (hahaha, evil laugh), fit them to size, sewed the tops to prevent unraveling, topped it off with a button and enjoyed a steaming cup of coffee!

Finally, most of you know that Tuesday is a big day for me! I am so excited and nervous. I keep reminding myself that if I wasn't meant to be there, I would not have this opportunity, so, bring on the day! I went shopping last week to pick up a new outfit:



I don't know if you can see the bright colors, but it is layered with different shades of coral, it is so pretty! I got this outfit at Kohl's.

Close-up of the necklace:



I found that at Target.

Last, but not least, THE SHOES



Oh, I love them! The color ties in perfectly with the top. I have black dress pants that I will wear. Please wish me luck, this is an amazing opportunity for Mason and I. I will be sure to let everyone know how it goes!

Spring Seedlings

I have been fighting the urge to move! Of course, I am not going to right now, but there is just something about moving that I love. It sure isn't the packing and actual MOVING part! It is the feeling of starting fresh. The feeling that everything can be new (even if it isn't). Maybe it is because Spring is around the corner and that always makes me want to clean and organize. I like change (for the most part). I like something different when I am bored with routine (which happens more than it should). I like to re-arrange, I do it often. Right now I want to get new furniture, change my curtains, buy new rugs, and paint! I can guarantee none of the above will happen any time soon! So....to curb the urge, I decided to buy seeds (you can see the connection, right? Right??). Every year at this time, I wish that my black thumb will turn green. Here they are:



I planted lavender, cilantro, rosemary, spearmint, sage (I think), cat grass (I will be sorry), basil, and some more lavender (did I mention that I LOVE lavender!!). I usually get so excited about the prospect of flavorful and wonderful-smelling herbs that I plant them way too soon, and then they die (enter black thumb). Hopefully that will not happen this year! I also got a few vegetable seeds, however I will wait to plant them in a few weeks. So, I hope all goes well and it curbs my desire to redecorate (or move!) and I can have a beautiful patio garden shortly!

[My Superstar]

Another weekend flying by! Mason had basketball today, the game was to finish up the tournament from last weekend (and before we start another one next weekend!), then regular scheduled games tomorrow! However.....



Mason's team won the tournament!! Yay! This is the first basketball trophy Mason has ever gotten. It will fit nicely with all his baseball and football ones :) WAY TO GO, MASON!! (I wish his hair wasn't so sloppy!!)

In between flea marketing and spray painting a project today, I found time to make my homemade yogurt cups:



Every morning I eat toast and a yogurt cup. Chobani yogurt is, by far, the world's best yogurt! I love their unique flavors and the thick, creamy, greek yogurt is hard to beat. It puts all other yogurts to shame (they really should be embarrassed of themselves). But (and it's a BIG but), the cost of such indulgence is adding up. At $1.29 a cup, I can easily spend $10-15 a week on yogurt!! I compromised, since I know I won't go without Chobani yogurt. I bought a large container of the plain (still $5.24 ON SALE) and made my own. I can stretch it out to get about 7 cups of yogurt and that equals out to, roughly, .75 cents a cup. I did not include the toppings, though. This week it is homemade canned plums and peaches made from someone that I hope will teach me how to can!! I love the peaches, but the plums are to die for delicious!! It is a perfect mix of sweet, melt-in-your-mouth plums with tangy yogurt. YUM! I mixed in some Chia seeds and sliced almonds. The Chia seeds will soak up all the extra juices and make it extra creamy. I almost can't wait until morning! Of course, I have to counter the healthy food. I made chocolate covered strawberries today and Mason and I can't stop eating them!!

Kale. Kale. Kale. I was on a kick early this year, drinking Kale smoothies everyday. Then it went to every other day. Then it stopped. I had an entire (huge) bag of kale in my fridge that I didn't want to go bad, so I decided to add kale to every single dish that I made. Then I made a smoothie that, well, was a little "kale-chunky." That made me not want another one FOR A LONG TIME. I am going to be honest, I was Kaled-out. I stopped eating it for a couple of weeks and then I broke down and bought another (smaller) bunch. It sat in my fridge for a couple of days just begging to be eaten in some form. So, here is what I did:



Kale Crisps!!! OMGosh, run to the nearest kale-selling store and grab a bunch! It is soooo good, you will NOT be sorry!! Slice it off the rib(?), toss it with some olive oil, salt, and pepper and place on a baking sheet. Let it bask in a 425 degree oven for about 5-10 minutes (until the edges are brown-black). Pull it out of the oven and crunch away. It takes on an entirely different taste, I couldn't believe it! You have to try it!

I will leave you today with the stunning beauty of my child on his way to take Baileigh outside:



Can you imagine what the neighbors think??

File This: Saturday

Hello on this beautiful and very windy Saturday afternoon! It is very quiet right now, but that wasn't the case about 12 hours ago! Mason had a couple of friends over and one spent the night. One would think it would only be 11 year old little girls who giggle and carry on, but not so! We had some things to do today, so I woke them up to Cinnamon Roll pancakes! I saw this recipe posted the other day online and thought it sounded delish! The smell alone was enough to make you want to eat the entire recipe! I am not too big on pancakes, so I didn't plan to eat any, just make them for Mason and his friend. I try to avoid eating white flour whenever possible because we all know that white flour is the devil



and very unhealthy. However, I could NOT resist one (or two) of these pancakes! I ended up burning myself but it was all worth it when I heard, "Thanks, these were really good, I should stay here more often" from Mason's friend!! Just take a look:



I didn't get a chance to get an "after" photo because they were all gobbled up! This will definitely be a keeper!

Since Mason had friends over, he requests "party food". Pizza, chips, etc. I usually don't keep potato chips in the house because, well, I love potato chips! As Mason was snoozing on the couch this afternoon due to lack of sleep, I decided to grab a few handfuls of chips and check Facebook. This is what I found:

And this one I like to file under the, "Awww" category:



A potato chip heart!
Now this one, I like to file under the, "I swear I didn't alter this potato chip" category:



HOW COOL IS THIS!! A perfect "M":



Since I am apparently "filing" everything today, this goes under the, "REALLY??, REALLLLLY??" file:



It is a state-of-the-art ice cube maker. Info, in case you are interested. Apparently ice is a problem when drinking fine alcohol. Priced at $800, yep....$800. I have a better solution. If your party guests complain that their Scotch is a bit diluted, perhaps you could tell them, kindly, to drink it a little faster (or just pour in more alcohol!). Wow, I guess some people really have it rough...

Finally, have you seen the prices of frozen Blackberries?? Unreal. $4.50 for the generic, 3 serving bag? Blackberries are the foundation for my smoothies and oatmeal breakfasts, but not at that price. I was so bummed when I went shopping and saw that price tag, no thank you.

Sunday Squash

On Sunday I was really craving some spaghetti squash. I had to pick up a few things at the store, so I picked up a few more veggies to go with it. As I looked for the spaghetti squash, I found an entire produce end-cap full of them, I was thrilled because usually there are only a few squash to pick through. I carefully examined a few to see which one I wanted to take home and ultimately devour. I found the perfect one, but it didn't have a sticker with the produce code on it (have you ever been at the checkout without a produce code? Then you know WHY I wanted one with a code). So, I found one that looked better anyway AND it had a code. Except the code said, "Golden Honeydew." Ahhhh, I had just wasted all that time on something that I, apparently didn't even know what it was! It looked just like a spaghetti squash. Believe me, I have had my fair share of squash and honeydew to know the difference, but they oddly looked so similar. But...I digress, I went to search for the squash. I looked and looked and then I looked some more, but couldn't find them. I saw a worker and was about to ask but then I remembered when I asked a question to a produce worker before, asking for a rutabaga, they brought me a bag of radishes, sooo....Then out of the corner of my eye, I spot ONE very lonely spaghetti squash all ready to go home with me. When I got home I put the squash in the microwave and sliced some zucchini and yellow squash. I grilled it on my cast iron grill pan:





Yum, it was really starting to smell good in here! I had some cherry tomatoes and mushrooms that I wanted to use up, so I roasted them:



There is just something about roasted tomatoes. The smell. The sweetness. So good! When everything was done, it came together nicely:



I drizzled some olive oil on top and enjoyed! It was a great meal!

Finally Friday

Even though it was a short week for Mason and I, I am still glad it is FRIDAY!

Here is my latest culinary project:




I am making my own vanilla extract. I have done a lot of reading on how to do this and once I finally broke down and paid the outrageous price for Madagascar Vanilla Beans, here we are. This is not a good project for a patient person (why am *I* doing it then?). At the very least, this will be ready to use in August:



I have read some articles from people that make their own that say they don't open this for FIVE years! C'mon, who can wait that long! Apparently it gets better with age (don't we all). I am anxious to try this. It is simple enough. Vodka, vanilla beans and time. Even though it called for regular vodka, I already had vanilla flavored on hand, so I just used that. I hope it won't make a difference. If all goes well, I may keep this up (and maybe even have a batch sit around for 5 years). I am tired of the cheap, imitation vanilla. It's time to get REAL!

Speaking of REAL, this is REALLY cool (like that segue?)
(hahaha!) SEGWAY!


Anyway, I am getting a little goofy now. I think this is a really cool cake (let me finish) for a creepy horror wedding (I am sure they exist!):



It is a Freddy Krueger cake! Oh, does it get any better than Freddy Krueger??

This and That

I WANT this!! Somehow I signed up for emails from a company that finds the best of the best products on the market and wraps them all into one email. Everyday. The latest products included kitchenware. I love this, maybe because it has two of my favorite things engraved in it (and I mean Johnny CASH!!):



It is a terracotta cooking dish. I have never cooked in terracotta and to be honest never even knew that one could! As I researched it further, I found out the terracotta has to be food-grade, a good old trip to the Home Depot won't work. I am looking forward to experimenting with cooking in terracotta even if it does not say "Mason" or "Cash" on it!


Snapple has always been a favorite drink of mine. I love to open an ice-cold diet raspberry tea Snapple and read the "Snapple Real Fact" printed on the inside of the cap. Recently, an all new series of facts have come out! I always liked little known, useless facts! Some of my favorite ones include:

#50 Mosquitoes have 47 teeth.
#73 The average person spends 2 weeks of its life waiting for a traffic light to change. (I think mine is double now that I have to wait for the traffic light at school...SO long...)
#98 When the moon is directly over you, you weigh less. (I really need to moon to be out at all times!)
#123 Beavers were once the size of bears. (WHAT??)
# 846 An average of three billion cups of tea are consumed daily worldwide. (I know someone who contributes to this number!)

For a more extensive list of facts to blow your mind, check out this blog



Well, Snapple is a good option (or iced tea in general) to drink because after I read this article, Mason and I WILL.NEVER.DRINK.SODA.AGAIN (or at least very, very rarely). I could not believe some of those studies. Gross. I used to be a diet Mt. Dew drinker and I used to love Diet Dr. Pepper, but no more, it is not worth it. Thankfully, water has always been my drink of choice.

I got so much accomplished today! On non-school days it is so tempting to go back to bed for a few extra minutes (ok, hours) of sleep, but today I brewed some Gevalia Expresso Roast. Within minutes of finishing my last cup (I won't tell you how many!) I was ready to start the day off with a bang! After I was done cleaning I lit my Mistletoe scented Yankee Candle and now the entire place smells like fresh pine trees! Not that I am ready for Christmas (it will be here before we know it, though), but I love the smell of Christmas trees, all year long!

Enjoy the rest of your day!

[Creepy Klowns]

What is wrong with me? Sometimes I ask myself that on a daily basis! A friend of mine was cleaning out her aunts house a few days ago. She casually brought up the creepy clowns that her aunt had as decoration. The next words out of my mouth still baffle me: "I LOVE creepy clowns!!". I don't love creepy clowns. Perhaps for a scary Halloween decoration, but I don't make it a habit to display creepy clowns throughout my house (that would just be weird). I suppose she took me seriously because the next night these were mine! Let me tell you the look on Mason's face was priceless. He kept repeating, "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, please tell me you are not keeping these." I can not express how much I love spooky, scary, cheesy horror and such, but I have to admit, even these clowns give ME the creeps! That is not going to stop me from keeping them around (in the basement).

For added terror, I decided to edit the photo to look like it's been around for awhile, enjoy...




Now I feel like watching "It"

SWEET DREAMS...