Preserving fresh herbs longer!

Storing fresh herbs in tin foil.

I saw this tip on Pinterest (here) a while ago and I ALWAYS have fresh herbs in my fridge but hate how fast they go bad soooo, we put it to the test. 

I absolutely works!! I bought cilantro and parsley specifically for this test THREE weeks ago. I've been using them along the way and today while cleaning out my fridge I am happy to announce they are still going strong!! Seriously!!??  That's awesome!! 

Roasted Garlic Chicken Pesto Pizza

MAKE THIS!! 

Everyone needs to try this pizza!!

 However, when I finally talked myself into getting up and making dinner I didn't realize that the garlic needed to roast before I could get my pizza ready. LAME! That delayed our dinner about 45 minutes so be prepared!!

Also, it calls for 1 bulb garlic which sounds like a lot but I would do more. I felt like I couldn't smear it all over my crust. 

Connected to this recipe was "The perfect pizza crust". I didn't use that recipe so I don't know if it's good or not. I also used canned chicken because I didn't feel like thawing and cooking chicken today and it worked perfectly!! 

One more thing, we added thin slices of tomato on our pizza and O.M.G. it was delish!!  

Happy Cooking!!

You can get the recipe for this A-MAZING pizza here!

Peanut Butter Granola Bars

I made these bad boys tonight and I'm in love with knowing exactly what's in our "healthy snacks".  

These are so easy and I think it's fun that you can add what ever mix-ins you want!! Next time I think I'm gonna add coconut! 

Find the recipe here!

Old-Fashioned Butter Mints

Tonight after dinner I made 'after dinner mints'

They were very quick and so easy that my 2 year old helped with every step!

 I was really upset with myself after coloring the mints that I didn't color them red, white and blue considering July 4th is around the corner. Boo!!  Anyway, I though these were quite fun to make and tasty too. I will most likely make them again in the future :)

Follow the steps here!

*TIP*
After cutting the rolled out strips I placed them on a cookie sheet making sure they weren't touching each other because they were trying to stick all together. I left them in there for about 5 minutes and then poured them into a bowl. It worked perfectly :)

Another Waste Of My Time...

This is what my nails were supposed to look like....(photo and idea from here)

I poured all my different nail polishes in a bowl of water and when I tried to stir it all just clumped together and stuck to my toothpick. Also, I'll admit I don't have really expensive, nice nail polish but some of them were just spreading out and turning really watery...

My nail basically had a clump of crappy polish on it- I tried to fix it and make it work with the clumpy toothpick... Yeah. 

I'm really sad I couldn't get this to work. If anyone can or has please give me any tips!! :)

Frosted Strawberry Lemonade

This is the perfect addition to a hot, muggy day!! 

Make them right as your ready to drink them because if they sit out for too long liquid starts to gather on the bottom. Soooooo yummy!! And you obviously have to add the lemon garnish - it's just so pretty!!

Get it here!

BYU Mint Brownies

This post is to make up for the slackery of yesterday!! I suck!!! Ha.

However, these brownies DO NOT SUCK! These are our new found favorites! I was a little bothered that I had to spend like 5 bucks on peppermint extract. For some reason if I have to spend more than a dollar or two on a single ingredient I get really annoyed! However, I would by 100 peppermint extracts for this mint chocolaty goodness!! 

The deliciousness can be found here!

****

Don't change a single thing!! These are perfectly delicious just the way they are!! 

Crispy Baked Sweet Potato Fries

So yummy!!! We made these tonight and they were a perfect side dish to our turkey burgers!!! 

We chose to season them with Garlic salt and fresh chopped Basil and we were not disappointed! 

In the recipe off of Pinterest they had a dipping sauce attached. We chose not to make it since it is mayo based, but the fries alone were very tasty!!

Recipe here!

*TIP*

I would allow more cooking time in the future. Following the instructions off here our fries weren't as soft as we would have liked. 

I also cooked mine on a cooling rack placed inside a cookie sheet so they were evenly cooked all around and didn't get soggy on any of the sides.

ANYWAY- I will definitely be making these bad boys again!

Reese’s Pieces Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

Ok, even though there is still a cup of sugar I feel a little bit less guilty eating these cookies since there is ZERO flour :) These are awesomely delicious and so fast!! 

I love that they took me about 5 minutes to prepare and I got about 18 cookies (I know the recipe yields about 3 dozen, those must be teeny cookies!!) which I think is a good amount for a batch of cookies for 2 reasons. 

1-less to eat   

 2- only 2 batches of baking and your done.

A little tip- don't start your second batch of cookies right before your 2 year old gashes her forehead open... they may turn out like this...

Good luck...get it here!

ENJOY :)

This. Is. Awesome.

Best tip ever!

Put a wooden spoon over a pot of boiling water and it will never boil over!! I have put this to the test and it works!! Am I a huge nerd that I was EXTREMELY excited to find that out?! I hate when my water boils over and now it never will again!! :)

The Pin led here!

Quinoa Salad

LOVE THIS SALAD!! 

I would recommend this salad to anyone!! We made it as a meal and we both left a little hungry so I would make it as a side in the future and there will DEFINITELY be a future with this!

Here is the recipe...

For those of you that aren't familiar with quinoa, get familiar!! Click HERE to read about quinoa and why it should be in your kitchen :) 

Simply Genius!!

So, we just moved across the country and while unpacking and hanging things up my husband was often at work sooooo, to get all my pictures straight and where I wanted them I used this little tactic I learned on Pinterest!!

Toothpaste!! 

On all my pictures that have 2 spots for nails I always have the hardest time getting them straight without making millions of holes in my walls. So this time I put toothpaste on it, held my pics on the wall where I wanted them and the toothpaste marked where the nails should go. I know, GENIUS!! 

Oh how Pinterest has changed my life :)
Here is the link!

Alphabet Puzzle

Such a good project for working on the ABC's in a fun and different way!!

I saw this idea on Pinterest awhile ago and found the alphabet puzzle thing at our $1 store, so we put it to the test. I poured a bunch of dried beans in a bowl and put all the alphabet letters in there and let my 2 year old have at it! 

She loved digging through the beans finding letters and I loved it because it kept her entertained longer than 5 minutes...

HOWEVER- 

Next time we do this little activity we will be doing it on a blanket or something because, eventually, the beans were EVERYWHERE!!  So, I will warn you that this does have potential to be a messy little activity...but kids need to be kids, right?!?!

The inspiration came from here...this lady has some great ideas!

Molten Lava Cake

For our Father's Day dessert we tried out a molten lave cake recipe. 

Let's just say mine didn't turn out like this...

(Isn't that beautiful??!! Below picture and recipe are from here.)

Here is my masterpiece.... 

 Don't worry, we salvaged it...

So, I'm not quite sure why I can never get my molten lava cakes to work. I've tried the boxed ones in the past and they are never full of 'lava' so I decided to try from scratch when I saw the recipe on Pinterest and STILL no 'lava'!! I even took them out early at 20 minutes. 

So, even though it was still good (Hello?!! It's chocolate!) I won't be making these again.. Next time we want molten lava cake we'll go to Chilis :)

Happy Father's Day!

So, for Father's Day I let my husband choose what ever meal he wanted off his Pinterest boards. After much deliberation he came up with...

Spicy Roasted Cauliflower (recipe here)

and

Creamy Dijon Chicken (recipe here)

Both were quite yummy and if you have kids that are picky with vegetables I HIGHLY recommend cooking your cauliflower this way! My 2 year old kept asking for more!! How do you say no to that?! 

So, in the chicken recipe it calls for whole grain mustard and cream. I might just be 'cooking challenged' but for those of you that are like me by cream they DO mean the cream that you would make whipping cream with... I thought that was weird. Also, the whole grain mustard took me FOREVER to figure out what it was and where it would be. I ended up using Google in the grocery store isle to figure out what it looks like and how it's packaged soooo, just to let those of you know- it's by the mustard. I know, how obvious. I'm retarded. Aaaanyway...

*TIPS*

I thought it was easier to chop up the cauliflower and drizzle olive oil on top inside a bowl so I could shake it and then I added the seasonings in the same bowl and did another little shake. Wah-lah- It's evenly coated.

We served the chicken on top of a cooked potato and it was delicious! :)

Cilantro Lime Shrimp

TWO thumbs up!

We made this today and it was delicious. However, I thought when I made this that it would be a whole meal by itself  and we were both hungry afterwards. Some of you might be thinking, "You were still hungry after TWO pounds of shrimp??!!"   Yes... Lay off me, I'm starving!!

So, the only *TIP* I would leave for this one is serving either as a side, an appetizer, or on top of some rice or a salad. 

I would seriously recommend this to anyone!! It took me maybe 15 minutes from starting up of the stove to sitting at the table.

Get the goodness here!

Here we go!!

Alright, it's time that I put my hundreds of pins to the test. I spend hours drooling over meals and desserts and see so many tips to make life easier and I am ready to test it all!! So, here we go!!!

I have been a proud Pinterest beneficiary since July of 2011 and the first thing that I put to the test was... Drum roll please...(because these really do deserve a drum roll!!!)  

HOME MADE SAMOA COOKIES!!

These are, in one word, A-mazing!! 

A couple things...they took me, by myself, FOUR hours!! However, I definitely ate four hours worth of cookies... not sure if that's good or bad??!  I actually told my husband, who LOVED them, that I would only make these once a year for a special seasonal tradition because they were so time consuming. But, after about 4 months went by, I had thought so much about them that I HAD to make them again sooooo, we made them today

*TIPS*

-I would probably consider making the shortbread cookie part the day/night before so they can cool and split up the prep time so it's not a whole day project.

-Watch your caramel carefully while cooking because today when I made these I think I over cooked it and it made the cookies more crunchy and a little less than par.

Anyway, if you want to have a small taste of Heaven, just click HERE for the recipe. You won't regret it!!